I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 98: Side Story: Fun Parallel World TV Time

"Alice, I'm bored~"

It was after school.

I was reading a book in the clubroom when Eun-jung, fiddling with her phone, suddenly spoke up, clearly having lost interest.

"Huh? Seriously? It hasn't even been that long since we got rid of Freeman. Try enjoying a normal day once in a while. Someday, you’ll realize how precious this boredom is."

"Don’t say stuff like an old person..."

"Who are you calling old?! Anyway..."

I am a bit conscious about my age, you know.

The kids are all surprisingly mature, so I never really noticed it much before, but there are times when I feel like I can't keep up with them. It’s a little frustrating.

And now she just casually throws that out there.

I’m docking her favorability by one point.

"But seriously, after experiencing all that stuff with Alice, regular games just don’t feel satisfying anymore."

"Oh yeah?"

Though I didn’t show it, the others seemed to be feeling the same.

It wasn’t surprising.

These kids found fear entertaining.

To the point that other people would think they were crazy.

They had come to enjoy the thrill of terror.

After feeling such an intense rush, it made sense that daily life would seem dull.

To be honest, I was partially responsible for that.

"Isn’t there some kind of fun item or something?"

"Do you think I’m some kind of DoraXmon or something?"

I grumbled but still rummaged through the mirror, looking for something interesting.

Introducing them to the mirror world would be fun, but that was for another time.

"I'll show you something fun. Just wait a bit."

Eun-jung, pleased by my response, quickly gathered the others who had been idly playing with their phones.

"Guys! Alice has something fun to show us!"

Without hesitation, they all put down their phones and rushed over.

Just how bored were they?

For the expectant kids, whose eyes were sparkling with anticipation, I pulled something out of the mirror.

"Ta-da! The Midnight 2 A.M. Television!"

Maybe because the original urban legend was old, the TV I pulled out was an extremely outdated model.

Eun-jung frowned at the seemingly ordinary television.

"What exactly is this?"

"You know how there’s that rumor about turning on a TV in the middle of the night and seeing something you shouldn’t? This thing was born from that legend. If used properly, you can see other worlds—their past, or even their future."

The kids were amazed at my explanation.

"Ohh...!"

"That sounds really fun."

"Let’s turn it on right now!"

"But keep this in mind—no matter how similar it looks, events in parallel worlds are separate from ours. Don’t put too much meaning into what you see."

"Like what?"

"Hmm... For example, even if we see Ha-rim slip on a banana peel while walking down the street, it doesn’t mean it will happen in our world. Whether it’s a minor argument or a full-blown war, nothing from that world is guaranteed to happen in ours."

It was healthier to treat parallel worlds as completely separate.

I didn't even want to think about seeing a future where one of us died.

After all, a human could slip, hit their head, and end up brain-dead at any moment.

The possibilities of death were endless.

"Similar events could happen, and there might be some level of causality, but..."

"If we see something weird, we just go ‘Huh, so that’s a thing’ and move on, right?"

"Exactly!"

I gave them the necessary warnings before deciding to turn on the TV.

The kids were staring so intensely that if I made them wait any longer, I might not survive their impatience.

But before that, I quietly whispered to the entity inside the television.

"Filter out anything too inappropriate, okay?"

[...?]

"You know, like... those kinds of things. Stuff that’s too graphic or just really unpleasant. You should be able to tell, right?"

[...]

"Alright, then. Here we go."

Taking its silence as agreement, I pressed the power button.

The first thing that appeared on screen was a group of kids playing soccer—an entirely ordinary scene.

"Soo-ho and Kyung-min are playing soccer."

"Looks pretty normal. Oh wait, Eun-jung’s there too?"

"I see, so this world is different in that way."

Ha-rim sometimes joined in on sports that boys typically played.

But Eun-jung hated moving around, so she never participated in anything physical.

It was just a small difference, but wasn’t it interesting how that could be a key indicator of another world?

However, since this wasn’t quite what they had expected, the kids started losing focus.

Sigh, what high-maintenance brats.

I spoke to the entity again.

"Switch to the next channel."

Bzzzt—

The screen changed.

Now, it showed me, arguing with a humanoid gray slime over a premium pudding.

The slime must have been stronger than expected because I was struggling against it.

Meanwhile, smaller golden slimes—clearly its offspring—were happily playing with the kids.

"Alice is fighting over pudding with some weird thing."

"Eh, just another anomaly, I guess. Next."

Bzzzt—

The screen changed again.

At that moment, Ha-rim brought over some sweet drinks.

For a second, I looked away to pour and pass out the cups.

But the kids, utterly engrossed in the screen, didn’t even glance at their drinks.

Once I was done, I turned back to the screen.

This time, it showed a group of students wearing school uniforms—none of whom looked familiar.

The kids tilted their heads in confusion.

"Who are these people? They look like students..."

Wait.

That person—

That’s me!

"...?!"

"Alice, what’s wrong?!"

I nearly spat out my drink.

The others panicked and backed away.

No. If they realize I used to be a guy, I’ll never be able to show my face again!

Privacy matters in friendships!

"P-Privacy! Skip to the next one!"

I hastily ordered the entity to change the channel.

The next few screens showed various scenarios:

Me playing games with the kids in an ordinary setting.

Me hanging out with a wolf wearing a fedora.

Me teaming up with Peter Pan to create some kind of paradise-themed amusement park.

Me, still trapped in Ella’s form, imprisoned by the Organization.

The kids riding four horses together.

Me pranking Carol alongside a pumpkin-headed creature.

Thankfully, my earlier request to filter things had paid off—nothing too disturbing had appeared.

Some of the content was completely random, but that only added to the charm.

Alright, next!

Bzzzt—

The new screen showed Ha-rim.

But...

"Whoa! Ha-rim’s a boy!"

Ha-rim was a guy in this world.

His—no, his—eyes widened in shock.

"Ohh... Even as a boy, you don’t look much different. Just with shorter hair."

"What’s that supposed to mean...?"

Soo-ho’s comment made Ha-rim pout—a rare sight.

To be fair, Ha-rim had always been a bit of a tomboy.

Before meeting me, she had never worn a skirt, and she mostly hung out with boys, playing soccer and catching bugs.

If it weren’t for Eun-jung, Ha-rim probably wouldn’t have had any female friends at all.

"Whoa! Everyone’s gender-swapped! Soo-ho is still tall, even as a girl."

"And you’re still short, even as a guy."

"What the heck?!"

While Eun-jung and Soo-ho bickered, Kyung-min muttered quietly while looking at himself on the screen.

"This feels weird... And Alice is still a girl, huh?"

That’s right.

Even in that world, I was still female.

Maybe Alice had to be a girl, no matter what.

Tch... Even Pinocchio got to be a girl! Why?!

The scene continued, showing an oddly romantic tension—

Wait.

Was that other-world Ha-rim trying to confess to me?!

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"No way..."

A sudden, horrifying thought sent a chill down my spine.

No, that can’t be.

There’s no way that even as an adult—even as a guy—I would do something like that with little Ha-rim!

Trying to suppress my unease, I carefully read their lips to piece together their conversation.

‘Alice, can you do that thing again, just once?’

‘You’re bringing that up so suddenly... That was only because we were dealing with the Misandry Specter, and it was part of the treatment.’

‘But now, whenever I see your face, I keep thinking about it. I’m asking because I like you. Please?’

‘Haa... Just this once. And absolutely no telling the others. Honestly...’

W-w-w-what?!

"Wow! Alice and male Ha-rim are about to kiss!"

"CHANGE THE CHANNEL IMMEDIATELY!!!"

The channel switched.

But even so, I couldn’t lift my head.

Damn it. I let my guard down.

Apparently, the TV entity didn’t consider ‘kissing’ inappropriate enough to filter out.

I never imagined that in that world, we would have that kind of relationship.

I felt utterly disappointed in myself.

I turned to the kids and Ha-rim, feeling like I needed to explain myself, as if I had committed some kind of crime.

"I-I mean, you know this, right? It’s just a parallel world! It has nothing to do with us, okay?!"

"Yeah, yeah, we got it."

The others answered lazily, clearly enjoying my flustered reaction.

"Ha-rim, you shouldn’t think too much about it either...?"

Normally, Ha-rim wouldn’t care.

She had a pretty free-spirited mindset—if something shocking happened, she’d usually just shrug it off as “Eh, I guess that’s a thing” and move on.

But this time, even Ha-rim’s face was flushed, and she would not meet my eyes.

"U-uh, yeah, of course."

She was thinking about it!

What the hell was I doing in that parallel world?!

And come on, an elementary schooler taking the lead? That’s just embarrassing!

What was supposed to be a fun distraction had now turned into the most awkward moment of my life.

"That’s it! TV time is over!"

"Aww, come on! Just a little more!"

Eun-jung protested as I tried to shove the TV entity back into the mirror.

I answered firmly.

"I am not mentally prepared for anything worse than this!"

"Then, just one last time! Let’s check the future of another world. Can’t we? I wanna see what we look like as adults!"

...The kids as adults, huh?

I was a little curious.

"Fine. Just once. But if we don’t like what we see, don’t take it too seriously, alright? The future holds endless possibilities, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) so anything could show up."

"Of course!"

I asked the entity to show us the future of a parallel world.

The TV crackled, flickered, and finally displayed an image.

"...?"

"Something definitely happened."

The first thing we saw—

Collapsed buildings.

Countless monster corpses.

Strangely, there wasn’t a single human in sight.

The entire screen had a translucent quality to it, almost like it wasn’t fully real.

"It looks like the world was destroyed by something..."

"Don’t worry too much. It’s just a parallel world. And if we had lost to Freeman, our world would’ve ended up worse than this, right? But we won."

I reassured the kids, who looked uneasy.

"Don’t be afraid of uncertainty. This is only one possibility.

As long as I’m with you, you’ll be fine."

"Yeah! Got it!"

They were tough kids.

I really had great friends.

Smiling slightly, I turned the channel.

After all, we still hadn’t seen our adult selves.

Bzzt—

"Uh, did it change?"

Something was off.

Even though I had switched channels, the environment looked almost exactly the same.

The location had changed—now, we saw the Statue of Liberty collapsed in ruins.

This must be New York.

"Change it again."

Same result.

"...Again."

Only the setting was different—everything else remained unchanged.

"Next!"

No matter how many times I flipped through the channels, all we saw were variations of the same scenery—

A world in ruins, as if a storm had swept through it.

The remains of scattered monsters.

Not a single person in sight.

As if this was the only possible outcome for every world.

The TV only showed this ending.

Bzzt.

Just as I tried to change the channel one more time—

A humming sound came from the screen.

...That wasn’t supposed to happen.

The TV entity didn’t have sound.

But this voice—

It was clear.

It tickled our ears.

"Hmmm~ hm hm hm..."

A young girl with braided twin-tails appeared on the screen.

She stood alone, gazing out over the ruined world.

Bloodstains covered her body and clothes.

The monster corpses littering the scene—

They were her doing.

...

...

...

"Who’s peeking from over there?"

The kids flinched violently.

They had seen terrifying things before, but this was different.

This was fear on an entirely new level.

Even more than when we faced Freeman.

"Are you shy? But listen. The world has crumbled into nothingness, fading like a dream. Isn't it beautiful?

You won’t understand unless you see it for yourself."

"...."

"So don’t be embarrassed. Let’s admire the view together.

Come down here and play with me."

Who was she?

She looked like a normal girl—yet she was anything but.

Even without seeing our faces, she had somehow sensed us, despite the fact that we were beyond the screen.

Was that why the others felt such overwhelming fear?

"This is bad. We should turn it off."

I ordered the entity to shut down the TV.

But just then, the girl on the screen screamed.

"NO! We’re talking! Don’t go!!!"

CRACK!

A fracture appeared on the TV screen.

The entity inside was interrupted—damaged.

Slowly, it began retreating into the mirror.

"Oh dear... I didn’t mean to do that.

Oh well, I guess we’ll have to say goodbye for now."

The girl smacked her lips, as if disappointed.

Then, as if sending us off, she began to hum again.

**[Someday, we’ll meet again—

And take a journey together—

To where 8.17 billion dreams still breathe.

When the storm arrives,

It’s time for the grand hunt.

I am Dorothy.

Seeking salvation.

But I must not move forward.

Homeward bound—

Riding the storm—]

[See you next time.]

BZZZZZT—!

The entity shattered, vanishing completely into the mirror.

For a brief moment, I thought I saw a faint, angelic shape behind the girl.

Brushing this off as just another parallel world event would be impossible.

"Alice... I... No, we... I think we’ve seen that girl before.

Like a nightmare that lingers even when you try to forget.

That’s why... I couldn’t help but tremble."

"Hmmm..."

...We still couldn’t be sure what she was.

She called herself Dorothy, so she might be another Story’s Demon.

But she felt completely different from the others.

My thoughts were in chaos.

But one thing was clear.

We needed to prepare.

"Alice, what are we going to do? After seeing that?"

"...We get ready."

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