"It's the first option"
Cale pointed it out to the children looking at the skeleton that they, with sparkling confidence, said it was a ghost.....and a dog.
"It's definitely a Ghost, what else could it be?"
"Yeah, where the hell are you even seeing the bones idiot"
"...."
Cale switched to silence. The teacher behind chuckled and smiled like a devil as she watched Cale, her best student, who knew English the best in class, try to salvage this hopeless situation.
'This doesn't even require studying, yet how can one be so wrong?'
And with confidence at that.
'Just because they got good grades, they start to think they know English than most'
Cale wondered if this was the 'Dunning-Kruger effect' he learnt again from his memories.
"Well, have fun being wrong"
Leaning back, Cale closed his eyes to relax the nonsense that drilled into his brain. His classmates clicked their tongue as the teacher chose the second option.
She chuckled while tapping on the shoulder of Cale, whispering words that stroked his ego.
"Sorry, if I put you in any other team it wouldn't be fair to these children"
The corners of Cale's lips couldn't help but rise at the compliment.....even though a quiz like this was so basic that even a toddler could answer with any level of vocabulary and comprehension.
"...?"
'Wait'
Cale looked at the teacher, she kept smiling at him, his brows furrowed before he looked ahead again.
'Must be my imagination'
The sudden influx of memories must have made him more dull, he thought.
"Ah?"
The screen flickered and howled in bright font the right answer, which, obviously was.
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
「 ✦ Skeleton ✦ 」
➥ Aw! Nice try though! Keep going! ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
"How though?"
"Yeah, it was obviously a ghost..."
Hearing their denial, Cale recalibrated his mindset and views on the language he could speak so well and so effortlessly, starting to genuinely be grateful for the ability to be born to understand it so well despite it not being his home language.
'Well, they are kids'
Kids that have not touched another language in their life aside the one they already know would obviously make answers like these. And technically speaking, Cale was not a kid.
'A teenager'
The words lingered, he thought of how ridiculous everything seemed in his memories.
The memories were so ridiculous that they could be converted into a novel for profit and no one would actually think that it was actually a true story, based on true experiences.
"Now now~ onto the next question!"
Swiftly pressing a button on her laptop, it flickered and showed something else.
A....mathematical question?
"...?!?!"
The sudden complexity of the quiz woke Cale and his sleeping neurons up immediately.
'This!'
——————————————————|_+~+_|——————————————————
Q2. What is the absolute value of -2026?
✦ |2026|
✦ 2026
✦ -|2026|
➥ Tip: If you pay attention during school, you can know all the questions with utter ease!
——————————————————|^`~^|———————————————————
The answer to the question was obvious but—
'It....has nothing to do with English??'
It'd be a stretch to make any excuses about it.
"...?"
Cale's deep cerulean eyes narrowed in even more confusion.
'Isn't this....a trick question?'
He knew it was the first answer that was correct, but he started to doubt.
Doubt that he was right, losing trust in himself.
'No, I am wrong'
He felt conflicted, it felt like some sort of idea was implanted into him.
His eyes shifted at still smiling teacher, lips parted into murmurs. Then into tangible syllables that anyone could hear.
"It's the second one"
A voice involuntarily came out....Cale's voice.
"...!"
His hand latched onto his loose mouth.
Classmates analyzed Cale, who had been right previously in scrutiny this time.
They were silent, and the teacher accepted that silence as confirmation that they agreed.
Tapping on the answer, none of the students voiced an objection.
Soon, the screen flickered.
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
「 ✦ 2026 ✦ 」
➥ Eggcellent Answer! Fabulously Correct!
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
Clearing his throat, Cale erased any evidence that he ever considered the first answer to be the correct one.
Though, he still felt it was also correct.
"Nice one!"
The teacher clapped and the students clapped.
But, even though the teacher was chuckling with a hopeful smile.
The students were not, their eyes were like a desert, completely void of any vitality that should have filled them.
"Onto the next!"
Tap!
Tapping onto the keyboard, the screen flashed, this time more delayed.
And this time. One blink was all it took to make his heart leap into fear's warm embrace.
Thud!
Cale fell....onto old stone?
"...?!"
Bewilderment filled him the moment Gravity latched onto his body to drag it down.
He was in front of the entrance of a Bar, it looked vintage. Something you would commonly see a century ago.
The hard cobblestone waffled his palm and he could feel it.
This wasn't an illusion, he was really here.
"What kind of ass pull did the God of Death pull at the last minute?"
His face contorted, now everything had truly turned chaotic.
The only point of relevance, his school had completely disappeared.
It felt like someone was just throwing random concepts around to make him as confused as possible.
Looking down, he looked at his attire, ready to dust it down.
But instead. Cale stopped.
He donned a neat suit that looked Victorian—styled, it was a dark navy with no special ornaments or accessories.
Just two pairs of black gloves and a suit with black shoes that complimented the attire.
Yet, despite the bewildering situation, Cale only peered his attention toward his grown body.
It looked like an adult's body. But, it didn't seem like it belonged to him
And from behind him.
Sat a translucent wall that reflected a familiar room, the figures inside it were giant compared to Cale.
[Now then, onto the next little game we will play, this time. You need to find the 'Master Key' that is hidden within this area]
The teacher's words were muffled as she spoke with exaggerated gestures.
"....."
Gazing at the teacher absentminded, Cale remembered her clearly from the time he was at primary school.
She always played small games that made her students interact more with the class, like a quiz or just straight up a game like this one.
Cale never knew the reason as to why she taught the class like that, but he always felt relaxed when around her.
He wasn't stressed out when she taught, he felt like he could truly breathe fresh air when in class.
It made him want to try his best even though this class was not in the least important.
A strange feeling he had noted when he was little.
Staring at the small Cale occupying the desk with watchful and sharp eyes.
He realized the moment he had looked at him.
The manners, the drumming of fingers, and the absence of the small scar in his lips revealed it all.
"....."
'No, it doesn't matter'
What would knowing matter?
What mattered was safely resurrecting no matter what.
So what if the current situation didn't make sense?
So what if the envelope said that he failed the test of the God of Death?
None of it mattered, just trying to materialize a miracle out of desperation was enough.
Just trying to survive is enough.
Because who knows?
Lady Luck may smile on your efforts and.
You might even hit the jackpot that leads to your survival.