Two days later, after school, Dean and the others were gathered in the art room of the old school building for their club. The club was now official with five members, even though three of them were graduating in about five and a half months. They all sat around a table. Dean, who was leaning back in his chair and holding his smartphone, looked at Claire, who was reading a magazine. Bianca was putting on makeup with her compact mirror, Ruby seemed to be comparing a magazine article to something online, and Lily was busy playing a game on her new smartphone.
"Hey... is this all our club activities are? Just reading mystery magazines?" Dean asked, leaning forward.
"Yep, because now the ghost is a person," Ruby said without looking up, focused on her own thing.
"Just chill, Dean. We don't have anything else to do," Bianca said while doing her makeup.
"Right, besides, reading this stuff is pretty fun," Claire added, flipping through a magazine on the table without looking at him.
"This game is more fun," Lily said in everyone's heads.
"Shouldn't we just go home and open the cafe?" Dean asked.
"It's still club time," they all replied at once, including Lily in Dean's head.
"Ugh," Dean sighed, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair again. He opened his status screen and saw "training room" as a partnership skill. An idea popped into his head, but before he acted on it, he asked a question.
"Hey, NS," Dean called out in his head.
["What's up?"]
"If I activate this training room skill, do we all get pulled into it automatically?" Dean asked.
["Of course. No matter where they are, they'll join. That's why it's a partnership skill."]
"Okay, cool. Can I ask what the dungeon is like?" Dean asked.
["Right now, you're in the old school building, so the dungeon is the old school building. You'll have to walk out from where you are, fight everyone in your way, and finally, beat the gatekeeper to be allowed to leave."]
"Hmm, okay. Thanks for the info," Dean said with a sly smile.
["Hmmm... ah, I know what you're thinking, hohoho."]
"Keep quiet. Don't tell them," Dean said.
Dean was quiet for a moment, then he closed his eyes, pretending to sleep, but in his head, he said "training room." He opened his eyes, and the art room looked completely different. The walls were now made of pulsating red flesh with veins, the floor was soft and squishy like a membrane, the table was a mound of meat, and green slime dripped from the ceiling. It was like they were inside the stomach of some creature.
"Waaaaah! What is this?!" Claire, Bianca, Ruby, and Lily all screamed in their heads, shocked by the sudden change.
They looked over at Dean, who was still sitting calmly but looked different. He was in his Nightmare World clothes—a black suit, tie, and long coat—with his giant scythe resting against him, and he was smiling at them with red eyes. Claire, Bianca, Ruby, and Lily all looked down at themselves and saw that they had also changed into their Nightmare World forms.
"Hey, what's going on? Is this a mission?" Claire asked.
"How... how are we in the Nightmare World?" Bianca asked, looking around.
"What... what does this mean?" Ruby asked, trying to figure out the sudden change.
"Hehehe, this is fun," Lily said in all their heads.
Whoosh! A large screen suddenly appeared in the middle of the meat table. Everyone, including Dean, looked at it.
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Training Room Quest:
Kill 2,000 zombies. (0/2,000)
Defeat the zombie boss. (0/1)
Escape in 15 minutes.
Reward: 1,500,000 exp.
Accept? YES / NO
==============================================
"Training room?" Claire, Bianca, Ruby, and Lily all said telepathically, glaring at Dean with annoyed expressions.
"Yep. We might as well do something in club activities, right?" Dean said, shrugging.
Without waiting for the others, Dean immediately pressed "Yes." The screen instantly changed.
==============================================
Kill 2,000 zombies. (0/2,000)
Defeat the zombie boss. (0/1)
Countdown: 00:14:58.
==============================================
"Okay, let's go," Dean said, standing up and turning around with his scythe.
"Grrrrr... we wanted to relax," Claire, Bianca and Ruby all said angrily.
"Hehehe...this gonna be fun," Lily said in their head.
They all stood up and walked behind Dean as he opened the door. "Graaaah!" As soon as they stepped out, they were attacked by a horde of zombies running at them from the hallway in front and the hallway to the right.
"Ugh," Claire, Bianca, and Ruby groaned.
"No complaining. This is club time. Get ready, here they come," Dean said.
"I'm ready," Lily said in their head.
Without another second to spare, they immediately started taking out the zombies. Dean swung his scythe and shot crescent-shaped moonlight beams from it. Claire slashed her katana and repeatedly stabbed with incredible speed toward the zombies. Bianca continuously fired her comet lasers. Ruby whipped and tangled the zombies with her chain whip, and Lily zipped around at high speed, destroying every zombie in her path with her big claws.
After finishing off the zombies on that floor, they went down the stairs and did the same thing on the next floor without stopping. When they got to the first floor and had killed all the zombies that came at them, a screen popped up again.
==============================================
Kill 2,000 zombies. (2,000/2,000) completed.
Defeat the zombie boss. (0/1)
Countdown: 00:07:20.
==============================================
"Huff... huff... huff," Claire, Bianca, Ruby, and Lily were all out of breath. Dean turned to look at them, then turned back, smiling, with his scythe propped on his shoulder.
"Come on, just one more, and we've only got 7 minutes left," Dean said.
"What's... what's the risk if we fail?" Claire asked, panting.
"Yeah... what's the risk?" Bianca asked, out of breath.
"Hmm... I don't know," Dean said.
"What? You don't know?" Ruby asked, panting.
"Ugh... I'm so tired," Lily groaned in all their heads.
"Come on, that's the only one left, right?" Dean asked, turning around and pointing at a huge three-headed zombie dog (a cerberus zombie) that was guarding the door like a guard dog.
"YAAAAH!" Claire, Bianca, Ruby, and Lily immediately ran past a stunned Dean to attack the zombie cerberus monster. Dean crossed his arms, pinching his scythe with his arm, and smiled.
"They're so full of energy, hehe," Dean said, watching Claire chop off one of the cerberus's heads and attack the others, Ruby tying up the cerberus's legs with her chain whip, Bianca jumping up and shooting lasers at the cerberus from above, and finally, Lily mercilessly shredding the cerberus's body with her big claws.
Dean walked over slowly, his hands in the pockets of his black long coat and spinning his scythe, approaching his friends who were busy and full of energy fighting the cerberus.