Good intentions don’t always lead to great outcomes.
The performance of the Organization that Plays with Oknodie was just like that.
[What’s going on here?][All these guys do is study!]
The upper class students were studying out of fear of Oknodie and the warrior.
Even the lower class was studying while being cautious of Oknodie’s gang.
Those who weren’t careful either received help from Oknodie’s crew or were subdued and ended up studying anyway.
The Dragon Principal Omoshiroi was quite displeased, intending to rain despair upon the first years with two weeks’ worth of piled-up assignments due to their fake festival.
The fact that Oknodie was the main culprit behind the study sessions was even infuriating.
“Isn’t it commendable that the students are voluntarily studying hard?”
The Dragon Principal scoffed at Professor Mahabharata’s rescue attempt.
[Graduating with that kind of goody-two-shoes mentality will only get you used and thrown away in society.][The world will teach you that studying isn’t everything, first years!]
Wasn’t the weekly event meant to imply not to be tempted and to study diligently…?
As always, the principal’s disciplinary measures seemed like an excuse, with the desire to enjoy first. Professor Mahabharata could only pity the first years.
*
The first to notice the changes from the exorcism festival were the seniors, who were hunting down the ghosts they had left behind out of guilt.
“How’s the back alley?”
“It’s hopping! How about in front of the drain?”
“This place is crazy too! They’re suddenly pouring out!”
Weak ghosts tend to hide everywhere to survive.
Just like a hermit crab hides in a seashell, students often found ghosts dwelling in suitable items left behind.
Taking advantage of this, the lower class students set up hidden objects like coins or straw dolls in shady, secluded spots after attending their classes.
Despite placing ten items, it was rare to have even one left after the seniors swept them all. But suddenly, out of ten coins, five clinked, and out of ten dolls, five moved about on their own.
“Seniors must have gone to a group lecture!”
“Wow, isn’t this a once-in-a-lifetime chance?”
“Let’s gather it quickly!”
Students scrambled to pick up the moving coins and straw dolls from the floor and stuffed them into their bags.
“Hmm? Wait a second.”
One lower class student who was gathering the coins noticed something strange.
There definitely weren’t this many coins when they started; they had collected so many that it was making their pockets heavy.
“Whose coins are these?”
“I have mine here! But you shouldn’t leave your coins lying around!”
“What nonsense are you two talking about? I have mine right here!”
None of them had misjudged their places.
All three felt a chill as they looked at their stuffed pockets.
“Then whose coins are these really?”
The sound of coins jingling in their pockets no longer felt pleasant.
“L-Let’s throw them away quickly!”
“Right! I don’t want any creepy coins!”
“I agree. This isn’t the time to be holding onto this bad vibe. We should sneakily take them to where the seniors are exorcising and see if we can score some of that exorcism effect!”
If other students had heard it, they would applaud such a clever idea, but the three didn’t realize how dangerous their situation really was.
“Are you going to throw them away?”
“Of course we are! What kind of nonsense is this after we just decided to throw them away… huh?”
They spotted a scrawny friend walking ahead of them, being loading on top of a chunky friend, and they panicked.
There were three of us.
So who was it that was talking to me right behind?
“Why are you mumbling to yourself… o-oh…?”
“Just hurry and follow me… heh-yahh!”
After looking back, their friends suddenly slumped down and let out a horrid scream.
The lower class student who turned her head was greeted with a ghost towering over her, its neck stretched over three meters long, examining her like a question mark.
“Are you going to throw it away?”
“D-Do it now! Sprinkle holy water!!”
This is dangerous.
This isn’t a joke.
It’s not just some low-level ghost hiding in coins.
Instead, it was an entity capable of producing ghostly coins in its possession.
A ghost that lures people for a purpose, much like someone trying to exorcise a ghost.
Pop.
The cap popped off, making a delightful crack.
As they reached for the holy water blessed at the church, the elongated ghost reached out and grabbed the student’s arm.
Drip, drop, drop.
The low-grade holy water spilled all over the floor.
The last thing that student saw was their friend peeing in terror, as the other two bolted in different directions.
They had to run to escape.
*
Everyone sometimes imagines such scenarios.
They want to see someone better than themselves whining in front of them.
There had been times when Mob had felt envious and jealous of others’ human traits.
“Mob, help us find our missing person! It’s a classmate!”
However, in his imagination, when his peers clung to him, it was only to beg to see his assignment or something; he never envisioned them desperately searching for someone as if they were clinging to a last straw.
“Wait, why are you suddenly asking me to find someone? Did you hide away in the Third Year Zone because you didn’t want to attend lectures?”
In the Organization that Plays with Oknodie, knowledge of the upper class students was naturally passed around.
When a hand suddenly popped out from a wall, it wasn’t shocking news that it was from a third-year student, even within the Oknodie organization.
“It’s the hooked ghost! A ghost with a neck bent like a hook spilled holy water on the floor and took our missing person!”
“What were you doing?”
“We ran! We knew right away. That wasn’t just some low-level ghost. It’s level enough to be dealt with by upperclassmen, yet somehow it has found its way into our first-year zone.”
A pretty strong ghost had entered.
That still didn’t resolve Mob’s doubts.
“Why are you asking me to search for the missing person? I’m not a professor or instructor; I’m just your classmate.”
“Mob, you’re strong.”
Strong? Me?
Experiencing someone openly evaluating you like that never got easier, no matter how many times it happened.
Is that so?
Am I strong?
While he felt pride in diligently following Oknodie’s teachings, recalling the gap between him and Oknodie made him doubt the strength he thought he possessed.
“And the professors and instructors said they couldn’t help because something more urgent came up.”
“Are the board members from the Wahyhiemhai Foundation invading with an army?”
“Not quite; it’s just that the Dragon Principal opened too many dimensional gates, causing the gates to Hell to open up, and now they’re trying to close spatial rifts.”
“…”
What a mess.
“The student council took over security activities, but with the chaos in the upperclassmen’s area, they said there’s no time to help us first years.”
So that led to the hooked ghost’s hostage being abandoned.
“Wait a second. Let me think for a moment.”
Mob went off to find Jezel.
“Jezel.”
“What’s up, Black Knight?”
“Do you have any info on the hooked ghost from the Dark Trading Company?”
“Yes, we’ve had several eyewitness accounts and related info from campus.”
I’m glad I came to find Jezel.
Though her info might not be as reliable as Oknodie’s, it ranked just below in terms of trustworthiness.
“If you’re trying to exorcise the hooked ghost, you should reconsider. It’s quite dangerous.”
“One of our classmates got caught.”
“Pretending you didn’t see it would be the right thing to do. You really put yourself in a tough position.”
“If Oknodie got kidnapped, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. Dangerous ghosts should be dealt with when the chance arises.”
“Haha. Our little lady? Kidnapped? If it were a kidnapper looking to lure her with food, maybe, but how could a ghost possibly kidnap Oknodie?”
Even if such a ghost were possible, they should immediately issue an evacuation order at the academy and escape through the dimensional gate outside the island.
There was no way they could take down a ghost that had already dealt with Oknodie.
“Well, I do appreciate your spirit. I’ll give you this information for free this time.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it just yet. Looking at confirmed information might diminish your enthusiasm.”
Jezel’s kind smile turned sharp as it crossed the Mana Panel.
━━━
Dangerous entity: Hooked Ghost
Physical information: Long hook-shaped neck, exceptionally strong arms.
Characteristic 1: Places a new cursed item beside a cursed item.
Characteristic 2: If someone discovers a cursed item, it repeats “Are you going to throw it away?” three times as they try to give it up. If they don’t answer, say they’re throwing it away, or flee the scene, they are immediately attacked.
Characteristic 3: Four missing persons are presumed to have been captured by the hooked ghost and taken to its unique dimension; their survival status is currently unclear.
━━━
“Weaker ghosts are frantic to hide, but strong ghosts don’t hesitate to reveal themselves. They tend to grow stronger by feeding off fear.”
“This is… extraordinary.”
“It easily ranks up to tier 5 on the monster hierarchy. Do you wish to challenge it?”
Mob realized this was not an entity that could be dealt with by diligent training.
‘I need Oknodie’s help!’
