I'm incredibly confused.
Could it be that what's in front of me is a hallucination, like last time? Maybe.
If so, snapping my fingers should get me out of it, right? After all, I have recovery abilities thanks to the Outer God.
But...
"I can't snap them..."
My fingers are unreasonably stiff. Even when I punched the wall with full force, my hand was completely fine, and I felt no pain.
"...So it's not a hallucination?"
I then looked at Baldi, who looked like a pixelated PNG image, smiling.
...I don't know why this character, a creation from our project, is appearing at my school.
Did someone read the thoughts of our entire group?
I walked forward, cautiously looking around.
I saw a board with rules written on it and read through them.
No running, no eating, no blah blah.
In short, very strict.
"Go in here?" I pointed at the classroom door. Baldi remained silent.
Ugh... So useless. But since he's the main antagonist of the game we're making, I have to be careful.
I opened the door and saw a notebook on the desk.
As I approached and grabbed it, the notebook transformed into a strange machine.
"Come to my favorite subject, M A T H!" Baldi appeared in a corner, talking nonstop.
He kept giving instructions while I looked at the numbers.
"...Math for kids?"
Keep in mind, I was only supposed to handle the programming. The story, design, and other stuff were Gwen's responsibility, so I'm not sure what the heck her brain was thinking.
I wrote down the answers and passed everything with ease.
The machine displayed a message: [Wow! You exist!]
...What's that supposed to mean?
"Come here, get your prize! A shiny quarter!" A voice called from outside. I cautiously stepped out and saw a coin floating next to Baldi.
"..."
Yup, physics doesn't apply here. I get it.
"If you can find something to use it with, you can put it in!"
"Umm... Okay?"
I took the coin, and for some reason, I had a feeling I could only pick up a maximum of three items.
It was like someone was feeding information directly into my brain.
[Not me, by the way.]
"You're showing up now? Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
[Just watching what you're up to. I'm kinda lazy when it comes to talking~]
"...So do you know why my school turned into... this?"
[I know, but spoilers would ruin the fun for the readers, so keep going on your own. Don't worry, you won't die!]
"...Fine."
I don't know what it meant by "readers," but whatever.
I opened the door to the second room and went to grab the notebook.
This time, everything went smoothly... until the final question.
"...What the hell is this?"
The third question looked like a jumbled mess of numbers...
There's no way to solve this. It's trolling me!
"Damn it, is this the horror element Gwen was planning?"
Baldi then read the numbers aloud, his voice so piercing it forced me to cover my ears.
"What the hell is that?!"
[Ohoho! The fun's starting now!]
"Help me out here!"
[Nah, you can't solve this one. You're forced to get it wrong.]
"Ugh... 0 then."
As soon as I entered 0 as the answer and hit enter,
Baldi, who had been smiling, suddenly stopped. His face turned angry.
A warning message appeared on the machine:
[I can hear every door you open.]
...Uh oh.
Right after that, the sound of a ruler slapping echoed.
"...Welp, I know that sound."
It's the sound teachers make when they're about to use a wooden ruler to spank a student. I've seen it before, so I know.
I immediately opened the door and saw Baldi slapping the ruler against his hand, approaching from the other door.
But instead of walking normally, he took one step each time he slapped the ruler.
"Hey, is he going to kill me?"
[Oh, yeah!]
"Then what did you mean when you said I wouldn't die??"
[Well, you won't die! Because you've got me!]
...Fair.
I backed away and ran, looking at two doors and choosing the left one.
As soon as I reached the left door, I encountered something coming toward me.
"Let's Play!"
Wait, what?
It grabbed me and told me to play jump rope.
"What?! No time for that!" I tried to shoot webbing, but then I realized something.
My hands... They couldn't shoot webbing.
"Ready, go!"
Playtime started the game, and I reluctantly jumped.
I managed four jumps before Baldi appeared, and that pixelated face staring at me was seriously uncanny.
"Oops! You messed up! Let's try again!"
"No! Let me out!"
"Hihihi, Ready, go!"
"Oh my—please! Let me—"
"Oops! You messed up! Let's try—"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"
I grabbed Playtime's jump rope and pulled it tight, snapping it.
"Oh, that makes me sad."
I kicked Playtime hard toward Baldi, only for Playtime to shatter like glass upon hitting him.
"...Well, at least I tried."
"No bullying in the hall."
A voice behind me startled me, and I turned around.
Ah, it's that the guy Gwen take from the internet—the Principal, I think?
He touched me, and suddenly teleported me into some kind of room.
Confused, I looked around and saw drawings and information about various characters.
"15 seconds detention for you. You should know better," the Principal said before vanishing in a flash.
...So I'm stuck in this room for 15 seconds?
The sound of the ruler slapping echoed again, getting closer.
I tried to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn't budge.
Wow, they really won't let me out. 15 seconds sounds short, but it feels like forever.
I looked at the window and smashed it with my elbow.
Surprisingly, it actually broke. I thought it'd be as tough as the game's programming.
I jumped through the window and saw Baldi approaching me.
"Gotta run now...?"
I spotted a character with a weird design and realized it was Bully.
"Give me something Gr e e e e e e e e a t...."
"..."
I set the coin aside and approached.
"What? No items? No items, no P a s s s s s s..."
"Great."
With Baldi getting closer, I had no choice but to go another way.
First, I grabbed the coin back.