I Created Urban Legends in Parallel World
[Original – YakuMan]
[TL – MiT7]
[PR – Spades]
Chapter 12: Social Game
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Two days later, Sakuraaki High, Ghost Club.
Since Shinkawa Chie and Uesaki Kaito joined, the Ghost Club had shed its dullness.
Or rather, while Kota and Hideki used to spend their days gaming, gushing over lewd stuff, and chatting about cosplay, anime, Nico Nico, and Twitter, things had shifted.
With Shinkawa Chie—a beautiful girl—in the mix, a lot of their usual topics were off-limits. But having a girl around was like adding a special chemical reagent to the club; it was livelier than ever.
Kamihara Shinji sat at the club's computer. With two new members, they'd rearranged the bookshelf a bit and added two more PCs.
Now it felt like a five-seat internet café.
Kota and Hideki were roping Kaito into a game, while Shinkawa Chie sat in a corner by the wall, browsing online.
Kaito played half-heartedly, seated next to Chie. He couldn't help sneaking glances her way. It wasn't polite, but he couldn't resist.
He noticed she wasn't digging into Hell Girl anymore. Instead, she wore earbuds, listening to something.
Over the past two days, the Hell Girl urban legend had blown up online.
People claimed they'd seen her. Some artsy types even sketched her—swearing it was Hell Girl, though the style leaned heavily into anime vibes.
If folks had suspected a publicity stunt before, the drawings sealed it: most now figured it was an animation studio hyping a new show.
In today's world, with the internet awash in info and marketing tricks, people were used to this kind of thing.
The Ghost Club had buzzed about Hell Girl for the past two days. Chie had been all over it at first, but now she seemed bored?
Kaito got it, though. Having grown up with her, he knew his childhood friend well. Chie loved the thrill of the unknown—exploring mysteries was her thing.
Once something was figured out, she lost interest fast.
With Hell Girl "proven" to be an anime promo, Chie's curiosity had fizzled.
"Kaito, what're you doing? You're just standing there—I got killed!" Kozasa Hideki hammered his keyboard, but his character still bit the dust. He shot Kaito a look. "You perv, sneaking peeks at Chie again? You're making her blush."
"N-No way… don't talk nonsense! I was just wondering what Chie's up to," Kaito stammered.
As soon as he said it, he cringed—way to dig his own grave.
Shinkawa Chie's face turned pink.
Kozasa Hideki rolled his eyes.
Over the past couple of days, everyone in the club—except Kaito and Chie—could see the two were into each other.
They just didn't realize it themselves.
As Shinji put it, when it came to anything involving each other, their IQs dropped to rock bottom.
So yesterday, Hideki and Kota hatched a plan to nudge the lovebirds along. Watching them hem and haw was getting old.
It was teeth-grindingly annoying.
Shinkawa Chie, flustered, stole a glance at Kaito and quickly changed the subject. "I'm playing a game called 'Your Turn.'"
"Your Turn? What's that? Is it fun?" Kozasa Hideki perked up.
"I know that one," Uesaki Kaito jumped in.
Back in the day, he'd scour the web for cool stuff or new urban legends, jotting them down to chat with Chie and bond.
He'd kept the habit up.
"It's a social game that's been picking up steam lately. But with Hell Girl blowing up these past two days, it's flown under the radar."
Kaito had planned to bring it up with Chie over the phone that night. Turns out, she was already on it.
He explained, "No limit on players. You grab folks from a chat group or find strangers online, start a small group, number everyone, and take turns telling your story, starting with number one."
"Your story? What's that mean?" Nakamura Kota asked, still gaming but clearly tuned into the convo.
"Exactly what it sounds like," Kaito said, shutting his game off. He wasn't big on gaming anyway, but blending in meant joining the fun.
Answering Kota, he shrugged. "Society's stressful as hell, people carry pressure from all sides. This game's a way to vent, dump the negativity."
*Your Turn* was basically a bunch of semi-strangers in a group spilling their woes, bad luck, work gripes, daily struggles.
They shared their experiences.
But no one was there to comfort anyone. That's why it worked, people could unload without the hassle of consoling others. Who had the energy for that?
"Should we play it?" Kozasa Hideki's eyes lit up. He nudged Kota under the table, winking. "Sounds fun. We've got nothing going on after school, let's try it tonight."
"You guys stressed out?" Kaito asked, puzzled.
"Not really," Hideki shot him a look. "But we can tweak it. Others dump negativity, we'll spread positivity. Make a group, and at night, we share happy stuff."
"Can't we do that here in the club?"
This idiot… transferred from Kasugaoka High, really?
For once, Hideki and Kota were on the same wavelength.
Kaito and Chie were obviously into each other, they just didn't know it.
Face-to-face in the club, it was awkward to push them. So Hideki figured a group chat was perfect, he and Kota could play wingmen online and get these two together in no time.
Catching their exasperated stares, Kaito clicked. His heart raced, his round face flushed with embarrassment. "Uh, I mean, it sounds cool! A new twist on the game, worth a shot. What do you think, Chie?"
Chie hadn't overthought it. She was hooked on the game and, seeing everyone else was in, wasn't about to say no.