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Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 444: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (9)

──────

- Kim A-ri

A dark, cold world.

In the pale, windless silence, the others had fallen quiet too.

We were all dressed in the kind of work clothes miners might wear, with headlamps strapped to our heads.

It felt like we were exploring a dark underground cave.

Cha Jin-cheol occasionally turned up the brightness of his lamp, but it was as pointless as trying to drive away the vast darkness of the deep sea with a candle.

Then Eun-sol, who had been leading us, suddenly stopped.

“Sis?”

“...”

“Can you see something? Even with my night-vision goggles, I can't see a thing...”

I suddenly realized that the sour smell I'd noticed earlier had grown stronger.

“...”

“Sis?”

“Sis? What's wrong?”

Even Seung-yeop asked, but Eun-sol only stared into empty space without answering.

Had she found something like a research lab?

Then Eun-sol spoke.

“Something's moving.”

“What? Is it a monster?”

“A monster... A monster? Is that what it is? It keeps wriggling. What could it be?”

Wriggling?

“I can't see it clearly. I need to look from higher up. Jin-cheol, lift me.”

Cha Jin-cheol tilted his head, then lifted Eun-sol.

Being higher up seemed to help. Eun-sol gave a slight nod and focused.

This was our first mistake.

“Can you see it now?”

“Yeah. I can see it now. It kind of looks like a person?”

“A person? Could it be a survivor?”

A survivor?

In an underground city that had lost contact with the outside world a hundred years ago?

Putting lifespan aside, how could anyone find food or water?

“It looks like a person in white clothes. It could be a researcher who survived through some strange method, but from another perspective, it could justbeawrigglinglarvathatkeepswrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwrigglingwriggling-”

“Aah! S-Sis!”

What the hell was this now?

In only a few seconds, Eun-sol turned deathly pale and began trembling all over!

Grayish foam bubbled from her mouth as if it had been waiting for this, while her eyes jerked from side to side.

Cha Jin-cheol reacted too late, lowering Eun-sol to the floor and trying to calm her down, but she'd already lost her mind in that brief moment.

“Aah! S-Sis! I-I think it's some kind of mental attack! Sis, hurry and play the Flute-”

“You idiot! Sis has collapsed!”

“B-But she still has to play the Flute, Sis!”

At that moment, Eun-sol brought both hands to her eyes-

“Cha Jin-cheol, E-Eun-sol's hands!”

“Aah! Sis, why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

She'd put so much force into it that blood began streaming from around her eyes.

What was she trying to do?

Was she trying to gouge out her own eyes? She'd completely lost it!

Eun-sol was supposed to be the one protecting everyone's minds, yet she'd gone mad herself.

What had she seen?

Could seeing something alone do this to someone?

Did that even make any sen-

“W-Wait!”

“A-ri?”

“Could Eun-sol have seen the Demon King directly?”

“But the Demon King is trapped underground!”

“Still-”

At that exact moment, Cha Jin-cheol's expression hardened, and he raised his hand.

--- Smack!

The sharp sound of a slap.

For a brief instant, Eun-sol's eyes cleared as she groaned.

That brief moment of sanity was enough to summon the Flute!

“T-The Flute is here!”

“It appeared!”

The Flute, our strongest means of mental protection, appeared.

It only appeared.

The person who needed to play it was still rolling around on the floor.

“Sis! Sis! Damn it, if I put it in here-”

Seung-yeop picked up the Flute and shoved it into Eun-sol's mouth.

“Blow! Blow it!”

“Hey, idiot! Do you think it'll make a sound just because you stick it in her mouth?”

“Then what do we do?”

“Y-You need to blow air into it-”

--- Toot!

At that, Seung-yeop held the Flute himself and blew air into it, but nothing happened.

The right Inheritance had appeared, but its owner was out of commission.

Thanks to that absurd situation, we were forced to conduct every kind of experiment with the Flute of Rest.

Shoving the Flute into Eun-sol's mouth did nothing.

Thinking the Flute needed to make a sound, Seung-yeop played it in her place, but that did nothing.

Thinking it needed contact with its owner, we made Eun-sol hold the Flute while Seung-yeop supplied the air, but that did nothing either!

“Aah! Does the owner really have to play it? Why are the conditions so strict?”

“How the hell are we supposed to-”

“Give me the Flute!”

Once again, I shoved the mouthpiece into Eun-sol's mouth and repeatedly pulled and released her cheeks like a hamster's.

I had to make air pass through Eun-sol's mouth and into the Flute somehow!

--- Whoooosh.

“Please! That was close enough to a sound!”

“This won't work! I'll have to pull Sis's cheeks like I'm trying to tear them off-”

“... It's okay.”

“Sis!”

Okay? Did it really work?

It had been closer to air leaking out with a whoosh than an actual flute sound, but Eun-sol's eyes focused again.

She looked exhausted and worn out, but she was clearly back to normal.

--- Riiing, laaa!

Eun-sol played the Flute several times, pulling herself together.

“Whew...”

“Sis, what did you see that made you-”

“I've forgotten it now.”

“What?”

“I only remember seeing a grayish shape. And...”

“And?”

“There was something like a train on the other side.”

“A train? There's no way something like that would still be running now... Ah!”

A train couldn't possibly still operate in a city destroyed at least several decades ago.

But if we followed its route, there would surely be an important facility somewhere.

“Mm...”

“Sis, are you all right?”

“My eyes and cheeks hurt so much. Did I stab my own eyes? What's with my cheeks?”

Seung-yeop and Jin-cheol looked at me at the same time.

* * *

After moving for about fifteen minutes, Eun-sol stopped everyone again.

“Are we already there? There's no train nearby-”

“The train is a little farther ahead. This is because of the monster.”

“... That wriggling thing you saw, Sis?”

“Everyone, close your eyes.”

“T-Then how will we know where to go-”

Instead of answering, Eun-sol raised the Flute.

“Let's go.”

“...”

Jin-cheol held Eun-sol's hand, I held Jin-cheol's, and Seung-yeop held mine.

We all held hands, trusting only Eun-sol at the front as we walked.

One step at a time.

--- Laaa!

The Flute's sound tickled our ears as it rang out without pause.

As if it were purifying the air filled with the power of Corruption.

Then something wriggling came closer.

“Mmph!”

“Don't pay attention to it. Keep walking.”

“Y-Yes...”

Wriggle, wriggle.

Wriggle, wriggle.

Wriggle, wriggle.

Something kept squirming.

“...”

I wanted to open my eyes.

I wanted to open them right away and look at whatever was wriggling.

What did it look like?

What kind of being was it?

I was so curious.

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle!

I wanted to wriggle along with it beside me-

--- Laaa!

“...”

It was a strange experience, stranger than anything I'd encountered even at the Management Bureau.

If the human mind was clear water, it felt like black tar was being poured in from one side while the water was constantly purified from the other.

For a moment, two A-ris kept chattering without pause.

One was a wriggling A-ri, while the other screamed for me to get a grip.

“...”

Physically speaking, it couldn't have taken more than five minutes.

Yet those five minutes felt like fifty minutes, or even five hours.

Fortunately, everything came to an end.

“It's over now. Open your eyes.”

Everyone steadied themselves and opened their eyes.

The grayish shape that had seemed to be wriggling right beside us moments ago was gone.

Instead, the headlamps illuminated wreckage that looked like a badly damaged train.

“Oh, this is the train Sis was talking about- Aah! S-Sis!”

Blood. Blood. Blood.

Blood flowed from Eun-sol's eyes like tears, staining her cheeks red.

Seung-yeop turned pale and took the box from his chest.

“Help her!”

Grayish smoke burst out of the Soul Box.

At first, it was smoke. Then it became an opaque shape with features distinct enough to make out.

That was as far as the Soul Box could go.

Then red drops of blood, glistening flesh, and milky-white bones danced through the air as Yumi was ‘created.’

The girl who awakened in the underground city opened her mouth.

“Give me some night-vision goggles too.”

Jin-cheol immediately handed Yumi a spare pair he'd brought.

Instead of wasting time with questions, Yumi went straight to Eun-sol and examined her bleeding eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“... They hurt a little.”

Yumi spent a long time pressing around Eun-sol's eyes with her fingers. It seemed to work, because the bleeding gradually stopped.

After finishing the first aid, Yumi looked around at the surroundings steeped in a gloomy aura and gave a bitter smile.

“This place is almost hell.”

“...”

“I used quite a lot of power just now. Her eyeballs themselves were badly damaged.”

Seung-yeop asked urgently.

“Then how long can you stay?”

“That depends on how much power I use from now on.”

That was exactly why Seung-yeop didn't summon Yumi often.

Inside a Curse Room, a kind of time limit was imposed on beings contained within the Soul Box.

Strangely, that restriction didn't exist outside Curse Rooms.

That meant it wasn't a limitation of the Inheritance itself, but a restriction the Hotel had arbitrarily created.

I could guess why.

The Soul Box originally had two uses. You could contain the soul of an NPC in the Hotel and make them a companion, but you could also contain a participant's own soul and become a pseudo-immortal.

Perhaps the time limit existed because of the latter.

Then Seung-yeop spoke.

“Don't you think there might be something like a route map inside the train?”

It sounded plausible, so everyone entered the train wreckage to investigate.

This was our second mistake.

* * *

--- Hooonk!

「Passengers, the train will soon depart. Please take your seats.」

Before we entered, it had clearly been nothing but rusty metal wreckage. Yet the moment we stepped inside, the train was perfectly intact as if by magic.

There was no electricity. Beyond that, not even a trace of light could be seen outside. Yet the lights inside had come on as though that were only natural!

--- Clatter! Clatter!

The train even began shaking as if it were about to depart.

“What the fuck is this?!”

The moment Cha Jin-cheol realized something absurd was happening, he couldn't hold back his shout.

“Can some monster we can actually fight show up already? Are we supposed to smash the train or what?”

--- Bang!

Cha Jin-cheol shouted and struck the train door, which had somehow already closed, but it didn't budge.

「Passengers, the train will soon depart. Please take your seats.」

Eun-sol muttered in disbelief.

“Please... Stop saying things that make no sense...”

「Our train is a Hell Loop Train-」

Yumi grabbed my arm with an urgent expression.

“Hurry! You're an agent from that organization called the Management Bureau, right?”

“... So?”

“Do something! Don't you have any secret tools?”

“...”

What was she talking about now?

She was a witch.

“You should be the one using secret magic- What is that?”

--- Kwooooh!

A foul stench that stung our noses and a monstrous roar.

The alien air released by something that was clearly not human.

Everyone turned toward the rear car, where something was approaching.

--- Creak!

The door slowly opened, and Cha Jin-cheol snorted as he stepped closer.

“Fine, fuck it, let's fight! Even if we're going to die, let's at least fight once!”

Oddly enough, I understood how Cha Jin-cheol felt right then.

Death wasn't the end in the Hotel anyway, was it?

Wouldn't Ga-in figure out the escape somehow?

If we were going to die, we might as well throw one punch first. At least we'd die looking good!

「The next stop is Sashimi Slicing, Sashimi Slicing Station. Dear passengers, please remove your clothes and expose your bare skin.」

“What are these perverted bastards saying now?”

Footnotes:

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