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Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 233: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (11)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 101

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

Sage’s Advice: 0]

- Han Ga-in

The moment I saw the Chat Window message, I felt a flash of relief. It meant at least two people were alive. Elena, who had sent the message, and Grandpa Mook-seong, who was maintaining the Chat Window. Both were still alive.

I was too overwhelmed to think! I was busy clinging to the Protective Suit as the current battered it from every direction. There was no time to respond to Elena's message. What was I supposed to do? The Protective Suit had to weigh well over two hundred kilograms!

I remembered that I still had one option left. I wasn't sure it would work, but this wasn't the time to hesitate. I focused on the Feather Tattoo on my shoulder. My navel seemed to jerk sharply, and when I came to from the dizzy spell, I found myself inside the Protective Suit.

Han Ga-in: Success!

Elena: What?

Han Ga-in: Never mind. Where?

Elena: Follow the yellow light underwater.

I was about to let it pass, but something suddenly felt off. Didn't we usually use an abbreviated style in the Chat Window? Of course, Elena might have been too overwhelmed herself to write as she normally would.

I slowly followed the light in the Protective Suit. Unfortunately, it had no function that produced oxygen, so I had to surface regularly to breathe before continuing. Chaos filled every direction, and bizarre marine creatures swarmed underwater, making it far from easy to follow the light.

After moving for around fifteen minutes, not an especially long time, I found a strange door. Even amid the chaos of the demon god of the sea rising and turning all the land into sea, the door remained intact. That was because it wasn't attached to the entrance of a building on land. The light had led me to an underwater cave, and the door was somehow attached to the cave wall.

An air pocket had formed inside, leaving breathable air. It even seemed to have some kind of ventilation system I couldn't identify.

“What is this place...?”

“You're here. I'm glad you weren't too late.”

“Elena?”

“Come this way.”

A voice came from the far side of the cave. It sounded very different from the Elena I knew.

Come to think of it, we had put Elena in the Protective Suit because the rain that began falling in the aftermath of Kadarudah's rise was horribly damaging the Merfolk's bodies. And the Protective Suit that had prevented that mutation was now on me.

What state was Elena in now? At the very least, I could guess that her body wasn't normal.

...

Another fact came to mind: the nature of Clear Mirror, Still Water. Quite a few members of the Hotel party had abilities that protected their minds from madness.

With the power of her bracelet, Song-i could gain stronger mental defenses than any of us for a limited time. Through the Status Window, I had mental defenses weaker than the bracelet's but without a time limit. A-ri could temporarily gain mental defenses similar to mine by consuming blood.

Then what kind was Elena's?

It was different from all three. Clear Mirror, Still Water wasn't an ability that prevented madness in the first place. It restored a mind that had already been broken by madness. If Song-i's, A-ri's, and my powers were shields that protected the mind, Clear Mirror, Still Water worked like medicine for a shattered mind.

When Elena first regained consciousness in the hospital, she had already taken the medicine called Clear Mirror, Still Water. Thanks to that, she had returned to the ‘hotel Elena’ we knew at the time, but...

What state was she in now?

I didn't know. Anxiety washed over me, and I was afraid to move. Of all times, I had no Advice left to rely on. Once when the shark attacked, once when waking Elena, and once when grabbing the Protective Suit. I had used all three pieces of Advice.

...

--- Splash!

“Ga-in? We don't have much time.”

I made my decision. Since I had come this far, I had no other choice. Turning back wouldn't give me a way to escape. For now, I could only pray that ‘that Elena’ was closer to the Elena I knew.

“I'm coming.”

With every step I took, the Protective Suit's headlamp illuminated horrific sights I didn't want to see. Bones filled the entire cave. It was easy to tell what kind of creatures the cleanly stripped bones had belonged to. Why were there so many human bones in an underwater cave?

...

“Ga-in, you can hear me, right? Can you still understand me?”

“Of course.”

Elena's pronunciation was gradually becoming strange. Were her vocal cords twisting?

“You're probably having trouble understanding why I led you all to the harbor where the Evil God was awakening, and why I called you into this cave.”

“To be honest, I am.”

“Unfortunately, it's because I woke up too late. Just before I awoke, I heard Kadarudah's voice. I had suffered nightmares as a Daughter of the Sea God for more than ten years, but I'd never experienced anything like it. That's how I realized Kadarudah's Awakening was close.”

“... We woke you less than twenty-four hours after entering Room 202.”

“Is that so? Surprisingly, even one day must have been far too late by Hotel standards.”

“We'll have to plan carefully once we're outside. That means we need to settle this before a day passes.”

“Either way, Kadarudah's Awakening could no longer be prevented. So I began wondering how I could get all of you out after the Evil God had revived.”

So there was a way to escape. Without realizing it, I felt a little relieved.

“I'll tell you the conclusion first. Ga-in, you have to become a Merfolk.”

I immediately took two steps back.

“It probably sounds insane. But please calm down and listen. Kadarudah rose with hatred for humans as his driving force. In other words, if you become a Merfolk, you will fall outside his target.”

I took three more steps back before answering.

“What are you talking about? I've watched countless Merfolk die horribly on the way here-”

“That's because they're descendants of sinners. The first Merfolk committed an unforgivable Great Sin, and Kadarudah is making their descendants pay the price. But you aren't a descendant of sinners. If you become a Merfolk, Kadarudah will see you as his adopted son. Like Lee Su-ho.”

Something was wrong. That woman wasn't the Elena I knew. I was sure of it. The Daughter of the Sea God's identity had already taken over that body.

All kinds of sinister thoughts filled my head. Serenade had controlled failed beings who couldn't awaken as Merfolk in the basement of the government building. A Daughter of the Sea God could control Merfolk. Wasn't that woman trying to turn me into a Merfolk so she could control me?

Outside, a tragedy was unfolding as the Merfolk across the island died horribly, while the woman on the other side of the cave possessed the supernatural ability to control Merfolk. And she was telling me to become a Merfolk? That made no sense! This was clearly wrong. I had to get out of the cave right away-

“Ga-in, do you remember what happened in the Gate Room?”

“...”

“The first room, was it the Doppelgänger Train? Even now, thinking about that time makes me laugh without meaning to.”

“...”

“No! I was riding the train peacefully, and suddenly the people around me came at me, saying they were going to kill me! My mind went blank. I thought, what am I supposed to do? Then scenes from dramas I liked came to mind.”

“...”

“In dramas, there's a scene that comes out at exactly the right time whenever things feel vague or lack impact. A slap across the face. The scenario has no tension? Nothing works better than a mother-in-law slapping the heroine across the face.”

“You said you spent nearly ten years running away. When did you find time to watch that stuff?”

“Even while running away, I had a phone. Besides, there were TVs everywhere. Oh, there's a scene I found especially memorable after coming to Korea. Slapping someone with your hand is a universal thing, so I'd seen it in plenty of dramas, but slapping someone with kimchi-”

“Argh! Where did you even see something like that?”

“I never thought there'd be a drama where someone gets slapped with cabbage-”

“Stop! Stooop! I believe you, so let's leave it there.”

“For reference, Korean dramas also slap people with soybean paste, kimbap, seaweed, and pasta.”

It was an absurd conversation, but I understood why Elena had brought it up. It didn't seem like a conversation the ‘Daughter of the Sea God’ could have. Elena was telling me, ‘I am the hotel Elena you know.’

... Still, why were K-dramas so serious about slapping people?

After walking through the cave for a long time, something like a pure white octopus tentacle came toward me, cutting through the space.

“You don't need to come any farther.”

I could guess why. Elena's appearance had probably strayed far from anything human. Maybe she didn't want to show it to me.

At the end of the approaching tentacle was a strange creature I couldn't identify. What was that? A giant snail? A slug? Was that writhing mass of flesh a tentacle? I'd never seen anything like it in my life. It looked vaguely like a snail, but I knew it definitely wasn't one.

“This is Rudah.”

“Rudah?”

“The creature that began everything. The children of God discovered in the deep sea by the fishermen who became the first Merfolk eight hundred years ago.”

As she spoke, the tentacle slowly approached me. I took off the Protective Suit and waited for ‘something.’

...

I was afraid. Disgusted. Even now, I wanted to stomp that snail to death. The approaching tentacle, the unknown creature riding on its end. What was going to happen to my body?

I'd thought I had grown fairly accustomed to supernatural events after experiencing all kinds of things in the Hotel, but I couldn't endure the instinctive revulsion I felt now.

In the end, I shut my eyes.

“This will hurt a little. Endure it.”

That was a lie. The pain was never just ‘a little.’

* * *

Was this what it felt like to be filleted alive? What had happened? I was aware, at least, that the tentacle had pierced through my torso. Immediately afterward, something wriggled inside my body.

I felt the mutation. My body was gradually departing from its human form. At that moment, what I felt wasn't pain or anger.

Disgust!

I was changing into an inhuman being I couldn't understand. An unbearable sense of revulsion overwhelmed me. But...

If this could get me out of this horrible Room 202, all pain would vanish like bubbles. The end of pain, release from disgust. The one word that could give me all that salvation.

‘Escape.’

Longing for nothing but that, I endured and endured.

My hands disappeared. My legs disappeared. My lungs disappeared. No. Nothing had disappeared. They had simply taken ‘another form.’ I didn't have the courage to look at my body with my own eyes.

Just before my consciousness faded, I saw enormous glowing eyes.

‘You who came from outside.’

“...”

‘Give me the end of pain.’

That was my final memory.

/You have escaped!/

Footnotes:

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