Meanwhile, Nolan was laughing inside his head.
"Heh. Classic," he muttered, slouching in his seat. "Back then, this scared me so much I nearly broke the headset."
He couldn't help but chuckle.
That first jump scare years ago had given him the kind of trauma only horror game veterans knew.
But now? It felt like an inside joke he was playing on them all.
He leaned back, enjoying the scene.
"Look, by seeing an undead creature, you all are spooked easily. Where's your training now, huh?"
He said, kept laughing and laughing at them. But the laughter started to fade when he noticed something… something strange.
The students weren't laughing.
They weren't even confused.
They were horrified.
Eyes wide. Faces pale. Some trembling. Some were crying.
One student had fallen off his seat and was desperately crawling backwards as if expecting the zombie to leap from the screen.
Another was gripping her own arm so tightly her fingers were turning red.
Several students had their eyes shut, rocking themselves in place.
The air was heavy, it was suffocating.
"What the…" Nolan frowned, sitting up straighter.
The screen flickered, then vanished, and the classroom returned to normal.
But the students didn't.
They were still locked in fear, some gasping, others mumbling incoherently. A boy whimpered, "What was that? What was that? It looked… alive."
Another girl hugged her knees, muttering, "Its eyes. It… it was hungry. It saw us. I swear it saw us."
A murmur built through the room like a rising wave of panic.
They didn't look like kids who'd seen a movie.
They looked like survivors of real-life horror. A full-bodied, soul-wrenching fear clung to them.
Even Granfire wasn't spared.
The normally arrogant, sharp-tongued teacher had fallen silent. His mouth hung open as he stared at the empty screen, hands trembling. His usual confident poise was gone.
"G-Guh…" Granfire stammered, then swallowed. "Is… is that really an undead creature?"
Nolan blinked at him. "Yeah?"
He felt a bad premonition about this.
Then, as he widened his eyes, he remembered his two weeks of staying in the library and reading a lot out of boredom.
In this world, the undead were considered super catastrophic monsters.
Even a frog and a mosquito had been strengthened by the unknown mana from the higher plane. What could be said about classic monsters like the undead, goblins, and others?
No one had even seen them, but in the tales, they were monsters that could destroy everyone. Even if all the experts of Silver Blade City came together, they wouldn't stand a chance.
So now, Nolan would understand what their faces mean seeing one.
However, that was a fake zombie, a fake one.
Granfire backed away slowly. His face was pale, drenched in sweat, like someone just told him the world was ending. "T-That was… that was a… a real undead?!"
Nolan was stunned by his reaction. He tried dismissing it.
"Uh, no. I mean… Just a—"
"You summoned it?!"
"What? No, it was just a—"
He tried again.
But Granfire wasn't listening. His legs gave out as he reached the doorframe, and he began crawling, scrambling like a scared animal.
"Y-You're insane! That's… that's a forbidden specter! No, worse… a cursed death eater! Are you out of your mind?! Why would you show that to children?!"
He shrieked and slipped against the door.
Students were frozen in shock, staring at Granfire in disbelief.
Granfire got to his feet, slipping again, then running like the floor was lava. "He's insane! That's not a mana illusion! That was real! That was real! Help! HELP!"
The door slammed open and Granfire tripped on his own robes as he tumbled out, his voice fading down the hallway.
Nolan was left in the deafening silence that followed. The classroom stood still like time had frozen.
A girl whimpered.
A boy burst into tears.
Then—chaos.
It started with a single scream. Then another. And another.
Panic exploded.
"HE'S GONE CRAZY!"
"GET OUT OF HERE!"
"DON'T LOOK AT HIM!"
"I CAN STILL SEE THAT THING'S FACE!"
"He showed us a curse! That was a curse, right?! That was a curse!"
"I'm too young to die—!"
"HE'S POSSESSED!"
"I WANT MY MOM!"
A chorus of voices erupted into a hurricane of shrieks, overlapping, hysterical, shouting over one another like wild animals cornered in a burning barn.
Chairs toppled, desks crashed, bags flew. Someone kicked the window.
Another tried to crawl under the desk.
"I SAW ITS TEETH!"
"IT LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!"
"I FELT IT—IT TOUCHED ME!"
One student tried to open the door and tripped, the rest trampling behind him like a stampede.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"I QUIT SCHOOL! I QUIT! I QUIT!"
"I CAN STILL SMELL IT—THE BLOOD!"
Several tried to cast mana shields or fire spells, but their trembling hands fizzled the incantations.
Nolan could barely process it. It was like an avalanche of hysteria barreled through the room, tearing logic and reason into shreds.
One girl screeched, "I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIM! HE BROUGHT IT HERE! HE'S EVIL!"
"IT'S A DEMON! HE'S A DEMON!"
And just like that, the entire class ran out in a blur of limbs, books, shrieks, and smoke from half-cast spells.
Doors slammed.
The hallway echoed with fleeing footsteps and cries of pure panic.
Nolan sat there.
Alone.
Mouth slightly open.
Still in his chair.
He slowly blinked and looked around the now desolate classroom.
"…Just a zombie," he muttered. "Seriously?"
Desks were overturned. Bags and books were strewn like battlefield remnants. Not a single soul remained.
He looked at the system screen and sighed, closing the Relaxing Car Ride video.
The title felt like a cruel joke now.
"…Relaxing, my ass."
He stood up, then sat back down, rubbing his temple. "Alright… maybe a bit too realistic."
Suddenly, the system screen appeared in front of him again.
Ding!
Mission Completed!
Rewards: Game series of 27 seconds later, 27 hours later, and 27 days later.
Nolan's eyes widened.
"Wait, what? What? What!? What!!??"
Movies?
Don't tell me.
He would remember the games and movies about "27 Seconds Later," "27 Hours Later," and "27 Days Later," featuring running zombi—no, more like infected beings—with strong physiques that can lift cars and burst through doors with all their might.
The so-called-game changer for zombie movies.
Shaking his head, Nolan decided to check it out before thinking about it and then, almost immediately, he clicked one of them.
A loading bar appeared along with a timer:
Checking the player's rank…
Nolan groaned.
What rank?
He was confused.
Suddenly, Nolan saw his profile information on a new screen.
Player: Nolan Flamire
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Occupation: Mana Specialist and Knight.
Mana Specialist Level: Rank-One Novice Mana Specialist.
Mana Knight Level: Rank-Five Novice Mana Knight.
Nolan nodded; it was indeed the level he occupied, but he felt ashamed. He had been here for weeks and still showed no improvement.
Ding!
Suddenly, that system sound jolted him awake.
After conducting a comprehensive system analysis on player Nolan and his Mana Knight stage, it was determined that playing the game "27 seconds or 27 hours later" would yield only minimal benefits.
However, playing "27 days later" would significantly enhance the player's capabilities as a Mana Knight.
Then a grin slowly crept onto his face.
Nolan was considering something. He didn't want to assume and just clicked on "27 days later."
Download? Y/N
"Yes."
It downloaded in seconds.
Then:
Ding!
Please spend 50 Magic Crystals.
Nolan paused.
"…Is this how it works?"
A tooltip appeared.
For Novice Mana Knights (Stage 5-9) only.
This is a classified realistic training program.
"Hmm…"
He didn't waste time.
Click.
Ding!
Determining the level of the player…
Nolan stiffened. "This better not be another horror simulation."
Ding!
Player 'Novice Mana Knight – Nolan' is qualified.
He exhaled and leaned forward.
"Alright, let's see what cheat ability is capable of."
Ding!
Game Begins!
Suddenly, the classroom darkened again..