"One of these days, I swear…"
I bit my fist while sitting down on one of the numerous wooden chairs sprawled around the empty classroom. The classroom was quite spacious if all the furniture were taken away, with the windows on the other end of the room completely sealed, while the others displayed the long corridor next to it.
An LED lamp lit up the entire room from above, as the surroundings were entirely engulfed in silence.
'I knew the Section Chief was crazy, but I didn't think he'd be this crazy.'
This place was no normal classroom.
It was an anomaly in itself.
VILE - 303 to be exact. The description of the anomaly was self-explanatory.
This place was a normal place until a certain time hit. The moment it did, the entire area would seal shut, and strange creatures would emerge, hunting down anyone still within the school's grounds.
Tick, Tick—
The clock by the end of the room ticked within the silence, the sound filling the entire classroom as I struggled to concentrate.
Something about the clock felt suffocating.
"No, this isn't actually too bad. Let's not think it this way."
Ruffling my hair, I looked around me. While the idea of being here was crazy, it wasn't like the Section Chief was entirely wrong. This place did contain a lot of space, and the best part of it all was that it was attached to my own office.
The location was extremely handy.
"That's not all."
I sat up and walked out of the classroom, staring at the long corridor that stretched until my eyes could see.
"...Even if I do run out of space, I still have more space. If anything, there's too much space."
If I ran out of space, I could just open up the next classroom. Space was no longer an issue.
"In that sense, the only thing I need to worry about is the time limit, but it shouldn't be too difficult to follow. Everything will go bad if I miss the time, right?"
Then...
"I just have to not miss the deadlines."
Setting up multiple alarm clocks could help. Keeping a constant watch of the time could also help.
Furthermore, I had also been going back to the dorms earlier.
There were no real issues with the arrangement.
"...Yeah, I guess the place isn't too bad."
The more I thought about it, the more advantageous this place appeared to be. There were a few drawbacks, but they weren't that bad.
Well, sort of...
"I'm still going to get back at the Section Chief, though."
Walking back to the classroom, I took out my phone and walked back towards my own office, where I made a phone call.
"Yes, hello? Right.. I need some help moving some stuff. Can you bring it down to my office?"
*
The entire process of moving the items wasn't very difficult.
The main problem was getting the unnecessary items out. That took a little bit of work, but thankfully, the Guild had a moving team, so things were still relatively easy.
By the time everything had been moved out and all the equipment had been moved in, the entire room was different from what it was before.
It was emptier, but it was supposed to be like that.
At the far end of the room, where the whiteboard once stood, was a massive capsule flanked by several monitors. The monitors were turned off, but once they were turned on, they'd display the view of the person playing the game.
It also served to measure their metrics. From heart rate, oxygen level, and so on....
This was meant to help me understand what frightened people and what didn't. It also served as a safety measure in case things went too far. I planned for the capsule to automatically shut down the game if their heart rate spiked too high.
'Of course, I'll only do that for everyone but the Section Chief and the rat.'
Those two...?
They could die.
"Maybe not just the two of them. The Team Leader, too."
She was walking on thin ice.
Aside from the capsule, wires dangled from the middle of the room. On the wires were several helmets. Those were supposedly meant to measure the brain activity of the 'actors' that were supposed to fine-tune the movements of the players in the game, and so on.
"That's at least what it says right here on the booklet."
I tapped the hardcover of the book.
Quite frankly, I wasn't so sure if I was right or not. The booklet said it was, so I could only trust it.
"I really need to hire some people to help me with this."
I could do this by myself. This much was clear to me.
I also didn't really have the time to start a new project. There were more pressing things that I needed to take care of.
Like the Conductor's Trial.
In that regard, I planned on spending some time to better learn the ways of Virtual Reality.
"...Hmm. It's best if I leave now."
I checked the time.
It was actually quite late.
11:31 P.M.
I was just thirty minutes shy of the deadline.
'I was supposed to sleep earlier, but with how everything needed to be set up, I ended up staying later than usual.'
I gave the room one last glance before stepping out and closing the door behind me. At the same time, I locked the door. Instead of leaving right away, I lingered until the clock struck midnight.
At that exact moment, something occurred.
Click—!
A subtle clicking sound echoed from the door.
The sounded like someone was trying to fiddle with the lock.
'Is that it...?'
I continued to stare at the door, hoping for something to happen. But... even as I waited for a couple of minutes, nothing seemed to occur.
"I guess that's—"
My body paused right as I was about to leave.
I glanced back at the door and saw the handle slowly begin to press down.
Clak! Clak!
It jerked twice before coming to a stop.
A stifling silence took over the surroundings, and the door remained still. Whatever had lingered behind the door had left.
Swallowing silently, I looked at the keys in my hands before leaving.
'...Let's not forget to lock the door.'
As I did, I took out a certain compass and looked at it.
I pursed my lips before shaking my head.
'What a pain.'
The compass was currently spinning in all directions. It had been going on for quite some time. I had tried to use it to help me, but the moment I did, it suddenly started spinning like crazy.
Surely...
***
At the same time.
In a different room within the Guild.
Six elites, Clara among them, sat around a large table as the Section Chief entered the room. A large projector hung from above the ceiling, casting a projection over the wall at the end of the room.
"There's good and bad news."
The Section Chief's voice was somber as he spoke.
"...The good news is that so far, the <A> ranked gate hasn't made any strange movements. From the looks of things, the gate will remain dormant until the time when it needs to open up. The scouts that did manage to come out have also confirmed this. But there's also bad news."
Placing the files on his table, the Section Chief sighed as he looked at the top elites of the Guild.
"We'll have to push the date of the <B> ranked gate excursion by quite a bit. Do you think that all of you can do it? If you can't, then that's also alright. We'll just eat up the loss."
While the loss was big, it wasn't going to be any bigger than the loss of losing several top recruits.
The room fell silent shortly after his words.
All the recruits looked at each other, wearing different expressions.
But soon—
"Don't worry. It's possible."
Clara's voice echoed as she stood up from her seat and stared at the title of the gate presented on the projection.
[The Hourglass]