TFBHG — Chapter 1

Fog-like breath bloomed in the cold air. The capricious weather had grown harsh overnight. No matter how many layers I wore, the chill still found its way in through every gap.

But the reason my skin bristled and my senses sharpened wasn’t the cold.

“Haah.”

I sighed, rubbing my hands together for warmth. A fleeting trace of heat flickered, only to vanish as quickly as it came.

“So this is how it ends, huh?”

Honestly, I’d seen it coming the moment I woke up inside a horror game. Still, I’d completed the quests well until now and, more importantly—

“I thought I’d be okay.”

Somewhere along the way, I’d started trusting Caspian. It was only now that I realized how foolish I had been.

I gave a bitter smile and pushed myself upward.

“I need to get out of here.”

Leaving the manor wouldn’t guarantee my life, but staying was the same. If anything, leaving and trying to come up with a plan might give me better odds.

I glanced around and moved, hiding. The empty hallway felt haunted, as if eyes were clinging to my every step.

Stay sharp, Kate. I told myself, picking up my pace.

I kept to the shadows, weaving my way toward the exit until, finally, I spotted the door that led outside. My fingers paused around the iron handle. I drew a deep breath and slowly pushed it open.

“Ah… oh…”

But instead of freedom, what awaited me was Caspian.

Of course. Things were going too smoothly.

“Come here.”

His voice came out sharp. I swallowed dry and blundered forward.

“You thought you could pull this off? How dare you think you could get away from me?”

The same man who used to look at me, beaming, ‌now regarded me like he wanted to devour me whole. Fear—along with a flood of other emotions—clouded my thoughts.

“I was going to give you a chance to explain yourself,” he said. “But you tried to sneak like a rat.”

“Liar! You came at me like you wanted to kill me!”

I yanked up my sleeve, revealing the red mark still etched into my wrist from when he grabbed me.

“So?”

“What?”

“You should be grateful I didn’t kill you right then and there.”

The second I heard that, my heart sank. It wasn’t the threat. It was the disappointment before fear.

As if I were still hoping.

Like a fool.

Tears threatened to come out. Caspian, oblivious to what was going on inside me, stepped forward and gripped my chin.

“Kate. I don’t know what your little plan was from the start…”

His hand slid from my jaw to my throat. Cold fingers wrapped around my skin like a collar. His gaze locked me in place.

“…but what matters is that you won’t‌ get what you want. And you’ll never escape me.”

“Wh—?”

Caspian gave a slow, crooked smile as I stumbled over my words, unable to speak.

“Cheer up.”

An ominous chill crept through me.

“I was assigned as your personal watcher.”

Aah… Where do I start to fix this mess?

I genuinely wanted to cry.

 

❧༻༺❁༻༺☙

 

“I opened my eyes to find myself in an unfamiliar place.” …wasn’t a line meant for me alone.

Everyone had woken up to the same thing—a place they’d never seen.

Tension clung to the air like static. People were skittish, pulled taut with fear.

“Eek! S-something just brushed past my shoulder!”

“Please calm down. That was just the wind.”

“R-really?”

“Still… where are we? This place is beyond creepy.”

“Maybe it’d be better if the flow lifted…”

While the others chattered, I stood silent, staring up at the wooden sign stuck into the dirt road.

[Shadow Riverhill]

A name I knew far too well. It was the central setting of the horror game Dark Village: Hundred Nights.

In the game, Caspian, consumed by greed and corrupted by dark power, became the cursed king. His evil drew the wrath of the gods, and as punishment, he was sealed inside the cursed village of Shadow Riverhill.

To escape that prison, he needed more power, and to get it, he fed on human souls. And since this was a horror game, the method was… gruesome.

He would lure people to the village, torture them, tear them up, devour them slowly… and only when their minds were completely broken, he’d finally let them go.

Letting go meant death.

The most horrifying part was the Hundred Nights, when even the sun refused to rise. During that time, the entire village—except for the manor—drowned in the curse. No living being could survive outside.

That mechanic existed to push players to complete their quests within a time limit.

But now that I was living the game, not playing it… the stakes were very different.

Of all places to be isekai’d into…

Sure, I had thrown the console out of sheer frustration mid-game. And yes, it had smashed straight into the screen, shattering everything, right as the world warped around me like some kind of hallucination.

But seriously? Such a lousy route? And to top it off… Fu—I haven’t even made it near the ending yet!

The game’s difficulty was so brutal that I’d only played it in Story Mode. I felt a wave of dread sink as I recalled my foolish past self.

No, wait. Maybe this is just a dream?

But any hope of that was crushed the moment a status window appeared in front of me.

 

 

Here we go.

The game had officially started, meaning I couldn’t avoid it now.

They say if you can’t avoid it, enjoy it… but I doubted I’d enjoy anything about this. Still, I had to survive.

I’d already tried fiddling with everything I could earlier, testing things out on my own… Nothing worked.

I clenched my fists and took a slow breath.

“Excuse me…”

I turned to face the others, who were still trading theories and panicking. My voice came out soft, but clear.

All their eyes snapped to me.

“…Why don’t we try heading into the village?”

“Huh? Are you serious? Just look at that place! It’s shady as hell.”

It was a perfectly reasonable response. The village looked suspicious. No argument there.

“But we can’t just stay here forever. There’s no way back.”

“Then let’s head the other way instead.”

“It’s no use. I already tried that earlier. It’s like there’s some kind of return spell or barrier in place.”

“Hold on.”

A red-haired woman, who’d been standing with her arms crossed, watching me all this time, stepped forward. I already knew who she was, but the system reminded me, anyway.

 

 

Rose narrowed her eyes and gave me a slow once-over.

“…You. Why are you so calm? You act like you already know where we are.”

Because you’re all NPCs. And I’m the player.

Knowing the game didn’t make any of this less terrifying, though. Just thinking about what was coming…

Ugh. A shiver crept down my spine before I even realized, making my shoulders tremble.

“Now, let’s not be too hard on the young lady. From the looks of it, she’s more frozen with fear than anything else,” said a bespectacled middle-aged man, stepping in to support me with a gentle tone.

Judging by the silence of the system, it seemed the character profiles only activated when I directly interacted with someone.

“In times like these, we’re better off working together. We’re all in the same boat, aren’t we?”

“Ha! And how am I supposed to work together with people I don’t even know?”

Rose let out a sharp scoff, but she didn’t get the chance to follow up.

—SCREEEEEEECH!

A grotesque shriek tore out from behind us.

“W-wh-what was that sound?”

The voice came from a short girl, her face dusted with freckles. She trembled so hard her voice barely held.

‘What sound,’ you say?

“Run!”

That’s the sound of us dying if we don’t get out of the entry zone right now!

Without a second’s hesitation, I sprinted across the line marked on the ground. A chill wrapped around my body the moment I crossed it, and strange whispers curled in my ears like smoke.

Shi—what the hell is this?!

No one else seemed to hear it.

I guess this BGM was playing just for me. Great. Creepy as hell.

 

 

The status window was being unusually helpful, laying out exactly what I needed to do. Maybe because it was the prologue.

Behind me, another shriek tore through the air, longer and bloodcurdling than the last.

“Aaaah!”

Only then did the others seem to get it, panic hitting all at once as they scrambled after me into the village.

“I don’t know what that was, but we need to hide. Now!“

The middle-aged man took the lead, and the rest fell in behind him.

Mist shrouded the village, draped in an eerie stillness, lined with old, silent buildings. But every door was locked tight.

“Damn it! Where are we supposed to go?!”

A broad-shouldered man rattled a doorknob and cursed, frustration spilling over.

“Hurry up and find something! Something’s coming!”

“Be quiet and find one yourself!”

Originally, it was like this: chaos, panic, someone dying… And also, someone surviving.

But that didn’t mean I had to follow the script.

It felt like my memory was clouded—like some penalty had been applied—but I was still determined to get everyone through this.

“This way!”

“Huh? Where?”

“Right there!”

I pointed into the thick fog, to what looked like empty air. Everyone gave me a have-you’ve-lost-it? kind of stare.

“There’s nothing there.”

“What kind of game are you playing now?!”

Rose Valentine. Even in a crisis, you stay true to your character.

 

 

The ominous BGM swelled, louder and more aggressive than before.

There’s no time!

“If you want to die, be my guest and stay!”

“What did you just say?”

I didn’t wait for Rose’s reaction; I turned and bolted toward the hidden shelter.

“W-we s-should follow her.”

“You’re gonna trust her?”

“Do we have a better option?”

There was a beat of hesitation behind me, some argument breaking out, but the Reaper’s third wail drowned them out.

Like it or not, they’d have to follow me—they had no other choice.

I headed straight for an old shack. The only place I knew it’d be unlocked.

 

 

I glanced over my shoulder to check the others.

Something felt off.

Everything had gone silent.

Even the wind.

And in horror games, silence usually means one thing—

You’re already screwed.

“Pick it up, guys! Move faster!”

Panic laced my voice now.

“We’re already running as fast a—”

—SCREEEEEEEEECH!

“Gasp!”

Rose, mid-snark, choked on her scream.

The sound had drawn so close it felt like it scraped right past our ears. And now, we could witness what chased after us.

“What… what the hell is that?!”

It looked just as grotesque as it sounded. Strangely familiar, too.

“Ah.”

Right… it looks like Slenderman.

Unnaturally tall. Emaciated. A blank face without eyes, nose, or mouth. Just… nothing.

As if that wasn’t terrifying enough, it held two massive scythes, one in each hand.

CLANG—CLANG—

The Reaper slammed the scythes together and charged straight at us through the fog.

“Don’t look back, just run!”

I shouted, bolting toward the shelter as if my life depended on it.

At the last second, I wrenched the door open and tumbled inside, rolling across the floor.

“Haa… haa…”

I was the first one to cross the threshold. One by one, five others rushed in after me. While they scrambled to push the door shut behind them, I ran to find a lamp and some matches.

From outside, heavy thuds shook the wood as something slammed against the door. But the moment I struck a flame and lit the lamp, filling the dark, musty cabin with a soft glow, everything outside went eerily still. Like it had never been there at all.

“D-did it leave?”

“Whew… that was close.”

“We made it.”

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief and sank to the floor. Everyone except Rose, who stared daggers at me, her expression twisted in suspicion.

 

 

Good.

The starter pack wasn’t anything extravagant, but it’d be useful. Especially early on.

I started moving toward the bed, trying not to be obvious.

“Hey.”

That’s when Rose stopped me.

“Who are you?”

“That’s random.”

At her words, five pairs of eyes turned to me all at once.

Seriously? I just saved your a***.

Now I felt like the main character in some kind of impromptu inquisition.

 

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Hello! This is Elle, new TL. I decided to pick this series since it seems very interesting! I hope you guys like it as well♥