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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 232: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (10)

──────

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 101

Current Location: Level 2, Room 202 - Curse Room ‘The Little Mermaid’

Sage’s Advice: 1]

- Han Ga-in

Rain fell. A torrential downpour, salty and thick with the scent of the sea, poured endlessly from the sky. At the same time, Elena and Riringanor began groaning without end.

“What on earth is happening?”

The Doctor didn't answer. Wearing an urgent expression, he examined Elena and Riringanor’s bodies.

“Scales!”

“What?”

“Strange mutations are occurring in both their bodies. Even skin that was perfectly fine is turning into scales! And that's not all. Something strange is happening to their teeth too-”

“Ghh...”

Elena began to speak slowly.

“The rain... Riringa and I can't get wet in that rain.”

With that, Elena passed out again.

Everyone could tell this was no ordinary rain. Still, we had all been soaked while running to the limousine, and nothing had happened to us. Did it affect only Elena and Riringanor? Was it some strange curse that targeted only the Merfolk?

“Jin-cheol! Let's get moving. The two of them should stay inside the limousine from now on.”

Before the words were even out, the limousine sped down the rain-slick road. A-ri spoke quietly beside me.

“We can't keep them in the car forever.”

“...”

“Especially Elena. Since she woke up from Sealing, she probably has a role to play too. We need to take her to the harbor.”

“Let's put Elena in the Protective Suit. It's waterproof and fireproof, so it should block the rain completely.”

“Let's do that.”

Seung-yeop spoke anxiously beside us.

“What about Riringanor?”

No one answered. There was only one Protective Suit.

─── Screech! Crash!

Something humanlike suddenly leaped into the middle of the road! The limousine swerved sharply, but it couldn't avoid the collision.

“What the hell is that crazy bastard-”

“Jin-cheol! Just drive!”

I didn't know whether what we hit was a person or a monster, but there was no time to care.

“What was that? Did you see it?”

“I did. So keep driving.”

Eun-sol's expression was extremely dark. It didn't take us long to understand what that expression meant.

* * *

As the limousine drove through the dark night and pouring rain, I was grateful it was night. At least we didn't have to see with our own eyes the pain the talking fish sprawled across the ground were suffering!

The first life was conceived in the sea. If you traced humanity's ancestors, and their ancestors before them, back without end, you would eventually find marine life. And the rain falling from the sky was beginning to turn back the history of the planet.

Screams. Screams. Screams.

The entire world was filled with the suffering of the Merfolk. Their arms and legs turned into fins while they were still alive, and their lungs became gills on land!

Every Merfolk who had been outside returned to the primitive forms their ancestors had possessed in ancient times, singing songs of despair.

It was already late, and the road was hard to see. With Merfolk screaming and running around everywhere, driving had become hell itself. Jin-cheol drove as if performing stunts, weaving around the Merfolk, but there was a limit.

In the middle of all this chaos, Elena made things even more confusing. Her body had been ruined by powerful drugs, and she drifted in and out of consciousness, giving us bits of information each time she woke.

“Lee Su-ho. They say he was my lover. I don't really know who Lee Su-ho is, though. He always wanted to share the pain I suffered. He was sad that only I had to spend my entire life suffering from incomprehensible Nightmares.”

...

“One day, Lee Su-ho learned one of the Merfolk's old secrets. Where did he hear it? I still don't know. It was a secret known only to the Daughters of the Sea God.”

...

“The Daughters of the Sea God access the Ancestral Memories and leave records of what they see. According to records left by a Daughter of the Sea God who encountered the earliest memories long ago, the first Merfolk were humans.”

...

“The story that Merfolk living in the sea received human forms through the Sea God's mercy eight hundred years ago and advanced onto land is completely false. In truth, the first Merfolk were fishermen suffering in poverty.”

...

“People who worked at sea for over twelve hours every day until their bodies broke, yet had never eaten their fill even once. One day, salvation came to them. What kind of salvation was it exactly? I don't know. Anyway, they say those fishermen encountered an indescribable being in the deep sea, in that dark abyss.”

...

“The Sea God ‘adopted’ the fishermen. That was how the first Merfolk came to be. Lee Su-ho learned that fact. In other words, he learned that humans could become Merfolk.”

...

“Every day, he begged me. He said he wanted to become a Merfolk too. He wanted to become the Sea God's adopted son too. Surely you had a way.”

...

“Sadly, there really was a way. In the end, I accepted his request. Was it because I couldn't refuse him?”

...

“Ah... That's probably just an excuse. Maybe I wanted Lee Su-ho to be able to understand my pain too. One day, as a Daughter of the Sea God, I bestowed the Ocean's Blessing upon Lee Su-ho and turned him into a Merfolk.”

...

“Lee Su-ho began having Nightmares like us after becoming a Merfolk. At first, he was happy to have his wish granted, and I was happy to have a lover who could understand me. But... something strange happened.”

...

“He began speaking of ancient memories that no Daughter of the Sea God had ever reached. Distant memories that appeared in none of the records I had seen. Memories from not just three or four hundred years ago, but truly from eight hundred years ago, when the first Merfolk were born. He even went beyond that, to the Primordial Memory from thousands of years ago.”

After that, Elena didn't wake again until we reached the harbor. Listening to her explanation, I felt a strange unease.

Just who was explaining all this to us right now? Was it the ‘hotel Elena’ we knew? If not, was it a Daughter of the Sea God? I could've sworn that, when she started explaining, she said she didn't even know who Lee Su-ho was...

Everyone's thoughts became tangled. They were all busy going over Elena's story in their heads.

Through some route, Lee Su-ho learned that the first Merfolk had been human. Realizing that humans could become Merfolk, he asked Elena, his lover and a Daughter of the Sea God, to turn him into one.

The problem came after that. As a Merfolk, Lee Su-ho began to access the Ancestral Memories like the other Merfolk, but those memories were older than even the ones accessed by the Daughters of the Sea God.

Memories from before eight hundred years ago, when the first Merfolk were born. What kind of memories were they?

What memories could have accumulated before the first Merfolk even existed? Did that mean there was something before the Merfolk? What had he seen that drove him mad enough to turn the entire island into hell?

We had learned a lot. Yet there were still too many gaps in our information. Where could we find what we lacked? If the information held by a Daughter of the Sea God wasn't enough...

There was only one being likely to know more of the secrets the Merfolk held.

Serenade, the Saintess of the Deep, chosen once again from among the Daughters of the Sea God.

But for now, we had to go to the harbor. I decided that, on the next run, we would have to recruit Serenade somehow.

“We'll reach the harbor soon. The navigation says about four minutes.”

At Jin-cheol's words, tension slowly filled the limousine. A-ri carefully woke Elena.

“Can you move?”

“... Yeah. Do I keep wearing the Protective Suit?”

“You can't take a single step outside without it. You have to wear it.”

* * *

The humidity was high. Absurdly high. Even when I opened my mouth, I could smell salt in the air. After only a few steps, moisture formed on my skin.

There was no other way to describe the harbor when we arrived except as a hellscape beyond human understanding. The torrential rain, charged with incomprehensible power, didn't fall over the harbor. It didn't need to.

The harbor had already become so damp that it felt as though land and sea had mixed together into one soggy space.

Who were those Merfolk, those fish? Harbor workers? At this hour? There was no way to know. Human-sized fish flopped everywhere.

One thing was fortunate. Having already lost even their vocal cords, the fish could no longer let out loud screams.

In the middle of this chaos, the scenario updated. Fortunately, it wasn't long, so it didn't take much time to read.

/Scenario: Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’

Kadarudah is awakening. The Return to the Primordial Age has begun. Find a way to escape./

“So we're fucked, and we should get ready to run? That's all? If that's the case, at least tell us how to escape!”

No matter how much I complained, the Status Window wasn't about to spoon-feed me a way out. Instead, a bizarre cry rang out across the entire harbor. At the same time, I understood what ‘Return to the Primordial Age’ meant.

The land was collapsing.

The firm foundation that those who stood on two feet trusted and depended on crumbled like a sandcastle. My companions had been panicking, unsure what to do after reaching the harbor, but when even the ground began to collapse, they ran in every direction, desperately climbing onto structures that were still holding.

I wasn't any different. I climbed onto a car, then a truck. Then I clung to a streetlamp before climbing onto a warehouse again.

It was collapsing. Collapsing. The land broke apart and returned to the sea, while the sea swallowed the world.

Did that mean salvation had come for the Merfolk who were turning into fish? What could be more welcome to fish suffering on land than the sea covering it?

But I quickly realized that was too simple a thought. Now that the sea had covered the land, creatures of the sea claimed the land as their territory too.

The descendants of the sea, who had waited for their turn in the darkness of the deep blue ocean, came onto land. They bounced across the earth, sticky as mudflats, and swallowed the weak ones who had only just changed from Merfolk into fish in a single bite.

A massacre unfolded. I had no idea what we were supposed to do in this chaos.

Why had we come to the harbor in the first place? Because Elena, who had discovered the most about the room's secret, led us here. Then why had Elena led us to the harbor?

─── Bwoooooo!

A heavy cry echoed through the entire harbor. The land, which had barely maintained its shape, collapsed like a sandcastle in an instant. My companions, who had barely been holding on atop buildings and cars, began to be swept into the sea.

And at last, with the moon behind him, the Sea God rose.

The time has come. The time of the great cycle has come.

[Advice: 1 -> 0]

[Stretch your right arm as far as you can.]

Half out of my mind, I followed the Advice and stretched out my arm. Something very heavy landed in my grasp. It was swept away by the water rushing in from every direction, and I was carried along with it at great speed. Only after drifting together for a long time did I realize what it was.

The Protective Suit.

If the Protective Suit was here, then what had happened to Elena, who had been wearing it?

Elena: Ga-in, can you hear me?

Footnotes:

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