The tap of Professor Danu's finger against the dusty wooden desk sounded like the ticking of a death clock.

Tap... Tap... Tap...

Each strike echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls of Classroom 3B as the space felt like it was steadily shrinking around them.

Professor Danu slowly opened the black leather-bound book. The yellowed pages released a peculiar, rancid odor—resembling paper stored too long in damp cellar conditions, or freshly disturbed graveyard soil.

"Tonight, I am not taking your physical attendance," Professor Danu's raspy voice shattered the silence, echoing with a haunting double-tone in the corners of the ceiling. "I am calling the roll of your consciences. We shall begin at the very front."

Professor Danu’s unblinking eyes shifted slowly, locking his gaze onto Vanya. The coed instantly straightened her back, attempting a soft chuckle to hide the creeping dread crawling up her chest.

"Vanya Amanda," Professor Danu called out.

"Y-yes, Professor? Present," Vanya answered, her voice trembling slightly.

"This semester, you have attended only three out of sixteen scheduled lectures," Professor Danu stated without a trace of emotion. "On March twelfth, you had a classmate proxy your attendance, claiming you were sick. Yet at two o'clock that afternoon, you were sitting in a mall café with a middle-aged man who bought you that counterfeit handbag."

The color drained instantly from Vanya’s face, beneath her heavy makeup. "P-Professor? How do you know that? Have you been spying on me?!"

"That is not all," Professor Danu cut in coldly. "On April twentieth, in a private group chat I am not privy to, you sent a photo of me walking in the rain. Your caption read: 'Dirt-poor professor—no wonder he walks like a living corpse. stingy with grades, too.' Is that correct, Vanya?"

"Van, are you serious?" Dinda whispered beside her, her eyes widening.

Vanya offered no answer. Her throat went completely bone dry. How could Professor Danu possibly know the contents of a private group chat where she used an anonymous handle?

Before Vanya could muster a defense, Professor Danu’s pale eyes drifted sideways, locking onto Dinda.

"Dinda Clarissa."

Dinda raised her chin immediately, attempting to maintain her aura of wealthy arrogance. "Yes, Professor? If this is regarding my attendance, I believe my father already—"

"Inside your expensive handbag sits a brown envelope containing five million rupiah in cash," Professor Danu interrupted, his words landing like a heavy sledgehammer strike. "You prepared it specifically for tonight, intending to bribe me into turning your failing grade into an 'A'. Did you truly believe your father's corrupt money could purchase my integrity?"

Dinda gasped, her hands instinctively clutching the designer handbag resting on her lap. "P-Professor... How do you know what’s inside my bag?!"

"You view this institution as a mere commodity to bargain over in a marketplace," Professor Danu continued, his voice rising an entire octave, causing the overhead fluorescent light to flicker violently.

Bzzzzt.

"You consistently look down upon elderly men like me who survive on modest salaries. To you, we are nothing more than servants to be bought with paper notes."

Dinda swallowed hard, struggling to catch her breath. Cold sweat beaded along her temples as her bravado evaporated into thin air.

"Now, the middle row," Professor Danu’s voice shifted, his head turning with mechanical stiffness toward Reno and Gani. "Reno Pratama."

Reno, who had been twirling his bike keys, froze mid-motion. He forced himself to maintain a casual posture. "Yes, Professor. I know I skip class a lot for motorcycle group stuff. What’s the punishment?"

"Motorcycle group stuff?" Professor Danu let out a guttural scoff that sounded like a foul gust of night wind. "On May fifth, at ten in the morning, while my lecture was in session, you were street racing along the outer ring road. You struck an elderly street vendor, destroying his merchandise, and sped off to evade the police. You left that old man weeping on the roadside without offering a single cent in compensation."

Reno sat paralyzed. His heart hammered violently, racing against a wave of sheer shock. That hit-and-run... no one knew about it. The road had been deserted, completely devoid of surveillance cameras. How could this old instructor know every granular detail?

"P-Professor... that..." Reno stammered, his smug grin completely wiped away.

"And your belligerent companion," Professor Danu’s eyes locked onto Gani. His gaze hardened into a lethal glare, as if preparing to skin the young man alive. "Gani Baskoro."

Gani, stubborn as ever, slammed his palm onto his desk. "What?! What else do you think you’ve got on me? Yeah, I screamed at you in the hallway yesterday! So what? You deserved it for acting like you own the place!"

"Three days ago, after I called you out in the hallway..." Professor Danu’s voice slowed, dropping into a dark tone that raised the hair on every neck in the room. "...you went into the second-floor restroom. There, you kicked a stall door, spat on the mirror, and screamed, 'Useless old bastard, go die already! You’re just taking up space on campus!' You cursed me to die, Gani."

Gani went dead silent. His jaw clenched, but deep within his eyes, a flicker of sheer horror emerged. Those words... he had uttered them completely alone inside an empty, silent restroom. No one had been there.

"And finally, the two girls in the back who forever linger in the shadows," Professor Danu looked at Arin and Sela, who were clinging tightly to one another in the far corner. "Arin and Sela. You harbor no active hatred, yet you suffer from the same affliction: indifference. You watched your peers insult me, forge medical notes, and cheat their way through, and you merely laughed along. Your silence in the face of malice is a quiet endorsement of wrongdoing."

Sela began to sob softly. "Rin... I'm scared, Rin... Professor Danu isn't human... let's get out of here..."

"Professor, this isn't funny!" Arin forced herself to shout, tears streaming down her face. "How do you know all of this? This is a violation of our privacy!"

Professor Danu slowly shut the black book. The heavy thud echoed through the room like a coffin lid being sealed shut.

SLAM!

"I know everything..." Professor Danu looked at the six of them in turn with pale, unblinking eyes. "Because while you were busy mocking, cursing, and devaluing my life... my spirit remained beside you, logging every sin you brought into this room tonight."

The atmosphere inside the classroom turned bone-chillingly ominous. The air grew thin, and an icy cold seeped into their bones, stiffening their fingers. All six of them began to realize a terrifying truth: the figure sitting behind the desk knew everything—because he was no longer among the living.