Clack.

Clack clack.

The padlock didn’t open. To be honest, I hadn’t had much hope anyway.

Just as expected.

If it could open that easily, I wouldn’t have died so miserably a while ago.

‘Then what is this for?’

I stared at the note, deep in thought. What did those scribbled numbers, “0134,” really mean? They only confused me more.

Finding no answer, I let it be. Maybe it would be useful later.

I went back to inspecting the classroom. If I had just found a note, it meant there might still be more hidden items around.

‘How much time is left?’

[7:37]

Only about 7 minutes remained. And the time had flown by without me doing much of anything.

So far, the only thing I’d found was that note.

At this rate, I wouldn’t manage to escape this time either and would end up just like before.

Anxiety kicked in. I frantically searched the classroom from top to bottom, looking for any item.

[It’s full of scattered junk.]

[It’s full of scattered junk.]

[It’s full of scattered junk.]

[It’s full of scattered junk.]

[It’s full of scattered junk.]

I opened every single locker that looked useless.

[Empty.]

[Empty.]

[Empty.]

[Empty.]

[Empty.]

[Empty.]

I also checked all the empty desks. If a place could be interacted with, I didn’t hesitate to inspect it.

In games, sometimes when you press everything at random, something eventually pops up.

A pile of pop-up windows stacked on the side as I kept searching. Even after flipping over more than half the desks, there was no trace of any useful object.

‘Something should’ve shown up by now…’

When I reached the last desk, something shined between the drawer gaps. I leaned in, intrigued.

[There’s something inside.]

“!”

I knew it. I reached under the desk. My fingers touched something.

It felt like a long rod.

[You have obtained a recorder.]

‘A recorder?’

I stared, puzzled by the randomness of the item. I opened the item description window hoping to find a clue.

[Recorder]

【A normal soprano recorder.】

Reading the description only confused me more. It was a typical school recorder, just like any you’d see in a classroom. Nothing more.

‘And what am I supposed to do with this?’

Was I supposed to play “Edelweiss”?

I waved the recorder like a weapon. It didn’t seem threatening at all. I considered using it to defend myself if the guard showed up, but it wasn’t even good for that.

‘If it shows up as an item, it must have a use.’

I checked the remaining desks.

All empty. In this classroom, there were only two items to be found: the note and the recorder.

But no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t find the slightest connection between the two.

‘What if the note has a hidden code?’

I took the note out of my pocket.

At a glance, it looked like garbage, but since it was listed as an item, it was still my only hope. I held it up to the light, checked the back, even tried tracing lines along the folds.

Nothing made sense.

I began to think maybe it really was just trash.

‘…Alright, forget the note.’

I moved on to the second item. By process of elimination, it was all I had left.

[Recorder]

【A normal soprano recorder.】

I was convinced the answer lay in this instrument.

And not just for any reason. I had a good one.

In South Korea, everyone plays the recorder starting in elementary school. It’s practically a childhood friend.

And a friend is always there to help when you’re in trouble, right? In this desperate situation, it was only logical to think it hid some useful clue.

‘Can it be taken apart?’

I grabbed the mouthpiece of the recorder and tried pulling. It didn’t budge. Felt like it was glued on. I kept yanking with all my strength, again and again, until I was exhausted.

I used so much force all at once I got dizzy. This “inseparable friend” was absolutely useless.

‘I need a break…’

I set the recorder aside and slumped into my seat. From there, I had a clear view of the front of the classroom.

The front door was still firmly padlocked. Next to it was the class bulletin board.

[Class Bulletin Board]

It was plastered with papers—schedules, parent notices, school calendars, various announcements.

A total mess.

Logically, the class rep or the person on duty should’ve organized it already, but clearly no one had touched it.

There had to be dozens of sheets. I had no desire to read them.

Then, something shining among all those notices caught my eye.

‘What’s that…?’

Just like the note and the recorder, important items glowed on their own. As if they wanted to be found.

I dug through the mountain of papers and pulled out the glowing one. As soon as I held it, the light faded, as if its purpose had been fulfilled.

[Announcement for Recorder Evaluation]

Next week, during Thursday’s music class, there will be a practical recorder evaluation.

All students are to report to the music room at the designated time.

[Thursday, 4th period – 11:20 a.m.]

Any tardiness will be graded as the lowest score. Punctuality is requested.

A typical musical evaluation notice.

But of course, it just had to be for the recorder. What a strange coincidence.

‘…Is that it?’

I read the notice several times. As an escape clue, it was too ordinary.

Out of desperation, I flipped the paper over. And there I found something new. It was a recorder instruction manual.

Apparently, they’d reused recycled paper, and on the back of the notice was an explanation of the instrument’s basic structure. It not only explained how to hold it, but also described the playing principles and musical notes.

And especially, it was absurdly detailed about fingering.

[Recorder Fingering Chart]

Depending on which holes are covered, the recorder produces different sounds. Let’s examine the following chart to understand what notes it can play:

Do 7 ●
Re 6 ●
Mi 5 ●
Fa 4 ●
Sol 3 ●
La 2 ●
Si 1 ●
–––––
Do 0 ●

Open hole: ○
Covered hole: ●

At this point, I didn’t know if I was in a middle school classroom or an elementary one.

It was obvious how little the music teacher trusted their teenage students. It was like teaching a monkey sign language. Or like a mother teaching her child to speak. Everything explained step-by-step with excessive kindness.

After reading it several times, I felt a strange sensation. It didn’t seem like something a real teacher would write.

In fact, it didn’t even feel like it had been written by a person.

‘What if this is part of the game too?’

Game.

That word, so familiar yet foreign at the same time, started spinning around in my head.

From the beginning, this whole thing felt like it came straight out of one of those RPG Maker games I used to play so much.

The pop-up messages upon interaction, the items, even…

…The fact that I revived after dying.

I began to think calmly. In RPG Maker games, the progression is usually quite linear. And if it’s not a true RPG, then it’s typically driven by solving puzzles.

The puzzles in RPG Maker games involve collecting scattered clues within a confined space to deduce the solution.

They’re used, for example, to open locked doors or disable padlocks. Just like the current classroom situation. If this entire classroom was mimicking an RPG Maker game, then the way to escape had to be through a puzzle.

I gathered all the clues I had found so far. There were only three.

The note, the recorder, and the announcement. In puzzles like these, no item works by itself.

It’s the combination of clues that produces results.

You have to combine clues flexibly and creatively. With that in mind, I began to deduce step by step.

‘Let’s start with the note.’

134.

It was a four-digit number with no apparent meaning. As a password, it didn’t work on the back door. Same for the other clues.

The recorder was a common instrument. The announcement was just a sheet of paper with excessively detailed information.

‘But what if I connect them together…?’

I turned over the back of the announcement. There was the manual with the basics of the recorder.

Nothing else mattered. The key was the chart at the end.

[Recorder Fingering Chart]

Depending on which holes are covered, the recorder produces different sounds.

Let’s look at the following chart to understand what notes it can generate.

Do 7 ●
Re 6 ●
Mi 5 ●
Fa 4 ●
Sol 3 ●
La 2 ●
Si 1 ●
–––––
Do 0 ●

Open hole: ○
Covered hole: ●

This announcement was the only thing that had something in common with the note.

134. The numbers matched.

They aligned perfectly with the indicated holes, and directly evoked a musical note on the recorder.

The solution to the puzzle was to cover the corresponding holes based on those numbers and blow into the recorder. It was clear. My years of playing RPG Maker told me this without a doubt.

All that was left was to play the recorder. I got ready to cover the holes in order and bring it to my mouth when I suddenly noticed something on the outside of the instrument.

A small sticker barely visible:

[10319 Jin Dayeon]

…Definitely a girl’s name.

My finger froze mid-air. I immediately looked at the recorder.

A long, hard plastic tube, just like the ones you see in any school. But that one small new detail completely changed how I perceived the object.

Unintentionally, I glanced toward the hallway. It didn’t look dirty or have any spit, but something felt off. I even thought I caught a faint scent.

‘…This makes me feel like a damn pervert.’

A guy, alone in a classroom at night, secretly playing a classmate’s recorder. From a third-party perspective, no doubt about it—this was the behavior of a degenerate.

And once I became aware of that, I couldn’t blow into it so easily. Still, I had to.

‘If I want to live, I have no choice.’

This wasn’t an act of pleasure.

It was a matter of survival, a desperate struggle to stay alive. If all I had to do was act like a pervert to not die, it wasn’t such a bad deal.

After all, it was just borrowing a recorder soaked in a classmate’s saliva. No different than borrowing her gym uniform or a book.

I just had to play it once and put it back. By the next day, it’d be dry and no one would know.

‘Yeah, exactly.’

I nodded to convince myself. With this logic, even a court might consider it a mitigating circumstance.

Even the owner of the instrument, if she heard the whole story, would understand and forgive me.

Even though I had never spoken a word to this “Jin Dayeon” in my life.

Once I completed my self-justification, the unease inside me disappeared. I brought the recorder straight to my mouth.

For a second, an indecent thought crossed my mind—but I immediately shook it off.

With my classmate’s recorder on my lips, I blew gently.

“Fuu~”

Beeeeeep!

A high-pitched, trembling, screeching sound filled the classroom.

And soon after—

Clack.

The back door of the classroom opened.

____

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