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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 44: Room 104, The Cursed Room - ‘Hotel High, the Prestigious Entrance Exam School’ (4)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 18

Current Location: Level 1, Room 104 (Curse Room - Hotel High, the Prestigious Academy)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

Day 3.

PE was on the schedule.

When I first saw it, I hadn't thought much of it. They'd probably just play some ball games, right?

Instead, I had been wondering how to prepare for the test after class. Then the teacher who came in said there would be no test today either, which put me at ease. The teachers still suspected Eun-sol, and it seemed the tests would remain suspended until they came up with a countermeasure.

So, just as we were talking in the chat about taking it easy today and figuring out how to escape...

A triathlon began.

* * *

“Fitness is national strength! Do you brats think your grades will improve if you just sit at a desk and stare at books? You're mistaken. Entrance exams are war! And where do you think the stamina to see a war through comes from? Physical strength. The best exercises for building it are swimming, cycling, and marathon running.”

The ‘fake’ Cha Jin-cheol, standing before the platform, passionately lectured us on the importance of fitness.

“You know, if it were up to me, I'd thoroughly rebuild your pathetic stamina from the ground up. But I understand. You can't exercise all day long. Still, it's my belief that you need a proper workout at least once a week if you want to endure the long haul of entrance exams. All the other wonderful teachers agreed with me too.”

Where in this insane school were these ‘wonderful teachers’ supposed to be?

“First, since PE is only one hour, we'll just warm up with a light run. Gather on the field after class! You all heard that, right? There was a slightly unpleasant incident yesterday. I made a mistake in that matter, so I'll apologize to you first. That's why there will be no test today. Instead, we'll spend the time improving our fitness with a mini triathlon specially prepared by your teacher. That's the plan.”

The rest of the fake Cha Jin-cheol's rambling wasn't anything special.

He was basically saying they would hold a simplified triathlon, swimming, cycling, and marathon running, with shorter courses for each event.

I let out a sigh without meaning to. Why was this place so desperate to torment us in new and creative ways? I could already predict what would happen next. A few people who finished late would be sent to the Old School Building again.

I thought over the members remaining on the student side.

Me, Song-i, Elena, and A-ri.

I wasn't trying to flatter myself, but I didn't think my stamina was below average for a third-year high school student. Elena was an aspiring actress, so she probably had better stamina than most women, and A-ri didn't seem like the sort who would fail at anything.

Song-i was the problem, as expected. She didn't look particularly athletic. Her Inheritance would be useless in such a straightforward contest of physical strength, too. What was the point of deceiving one person with an Inheritance when more than a hundred people would be gathered on the field recording their times?

Song-i seemed to feel the same way.

Yoo Song-i (Student): Mentally preparing myself.

Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Think it'll be hard?

Yoo Song-i (Student): Yeah. I'll conserve my strength and fail. Not bad. I think I can gather information in a different way from Jin-cheol.

Gather information.

Of course, if she had to go to the Old School Building anyway, she should at least collect information. Still, I couldn't shake the ominous feeling as we lost people one by one. How many would manage to escape this time? I really didn't want to end up alone at the end like I had in the House of Horror.

Between one worry and the next, I ignored class completely since there would be no test anyway, and the hour passed in the blink of an eye.

* * *

...

The first stage of the triathlon.

The moment the swimming event began, the schoolyard fell silent.

NPCs or not, weren't they still no different from ordinary high school students?

I had seen male students trembling at the sight of Elena or A-ri more than once. There was even a funny guy who openly brought Song-i coffee from the school store every break, and I had started wondering when someone would finally confess to her. Song-i was at least pretty in a way one might reasonably expect to see at a high school. Elena and A-ri, though, looked like they belonged to another world entirely.

They were so far beyond everyone else that whenever Elena and A-ri walked through the classroom, it was like Moses parting the Red Sea. That made our strategy meetings extremely convenient. We could go anywhere, and people made way for us. We could sit anywhere, and the surrounding seats emptied.

But now we were at a pool. In swimsuits.

Honestly, wasn't that a little too much stimulation? I thought I had become used to seeing them after being put through hell in the hotel, but seeing them in swimsuits still left me staring blankly. Not only the male students, but the female students too, had collectively lost their minds.

Maybe because she was an aspiring actress, Elena seemed to enjoy the attention. A-ri, meanwhile, was a girl I couldn't even imagine being shy or nervous.

The pool had completely turned into a place where ordinary people had gathered to watch actors pose for a photo shoot.

The funny thing was that the ‘fake’ Cha Jin-cheol, who was supposed to run the triathlon, was staring at Elena with a dazed expression too. Then again, the real Cha Jin-cheol had trembled around Elena as well...

Wouldn't it be more productive if we all just spent the time watching Elena and A-ri, then went back to the dorms?

Wasn't giving our eyes a treat more useful than a triathlon that wouldn't help with entrance exams anyway?

Unfortunately, the fake Cha Jin-cheol came to his senses.

“Ahem. Everyone's getting a little excited again. You all came to the pool and got carried away, but we're not here to have fun. All right! In order, Class 1, into the water!”

The triathlon began.

* * *

Once the pool's excited, cheerful atmosphere and the eye-cleansing time that had been ten times more productive than a pointless triathlon ended, only hell remained.

What kind of world had swimming where falling behind meant being dragged to the Old School Building and killed?

I desperately thrashed both arms through the water.

Why the hell were the third-years at this damned school so fit? The hotel should have done a better job of reflecting reality in things like this. Korean third-years had terrible stamina!

I mindlessly swam two laps back and forth, then looked around as I came out of the pool.

What place was I in?

Holy shit... I wasn't even in the middle.

This was supposed to be a prestigious entrance exam school. Why were these kids so good at swimming too?

Even swearing felt like a waste of energy.

I caught my breath as best I could and ran for a bicycle.

* * *

I had honestly been looking forward to cycling.

What kind of country was Korea? It wasn't exactly a good country for riding bikes. Didn't a fair number of real Korean third-years probably not even know how to ride one properly?

The only problem was that the hotel's third-years were far too different from Korean third-years.

* * *

I was already gasping for breath. The marathon hadn't even started yet. It wasn't like I intended to take first or second place in this meaningless triathlon. My goal had only been to place somewhere around average, but I had never imagined it would be this bad.

I was already on the final lap, but no matter how I looked at it, I was closer to the bottom than the middle.

Were third-years really this fit? Did that make any sense, you hotel bastards?

?

Song-i was ahead of me.

What?

For a moment, I was completely taken aback. Were the hotel's third-years not exceptional after all? Was my own stamina simply so terrible that even a high school girl had better endurance than me?

Ah.

I realized it as I passed her. Her swimsuit was still dripping with water.

She wasn't ahead because she was faster than me.

She was only reaching the bicycles now because she had been so much slower. Considering the girls had started first and the boys had set off a little later, Song-i...

She really had no intention of passing.

Around then, Song-i pushed her bicycle aside and walked out of the stadium.

She was openly saying that she had no intention of continuing, and they could send her to the Old School Building if they wanted.

Even I, who was fairly fit, was gasping for breath. There was no chance Song-i could survive among these unnaturally athletic hotel third-years. If she was going to fail anyway, conserving her strength was the right choice.

* * *

At the end, I was practically walking rather than running as I somehow completed the triathlon. Fortunately, I had been near the bottom until cycling ended, but during the marathon, even though I was practically walking in the latter half, I made up enough ground to finish roughly in the middle. At least I would survive.

The impressive part was A-ri. Even accounting for the men and women being timed separately, she finished near the very front. Elena, an aspiring actress with better stamina than the average person, had barely managed to rank among the top female students. Yet A-ri had taken the lead among Hotel High's third-years, who were absurdly fit in every possible way.

Then again, hadn't Song-i said she thought A-ri might even be able to fly? It would be stranger if a girl like that lost to ordinary people with good stamina in a mere triathlon.

Once the hellish triathlon ended, it was time for Song-i's ‘report.’

* * *

Yoo Song-i (Student): I can protect my mind. So I won't resist and will just observe.

* * *

The core of Song-i's plan. Unlike Jin-cheol, she had no intention of resisting from the start. She would periodically use her Inheritance to protect her mind and try to understand what happened in the Old School Building.

It might not be information that would help us escape right away, but information we gathered now would matter when we returned to ‘resolve’ the situation someday.

* * *

Yoo Song-i (Student): Similar to what I heard. Singing, radiance.

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): Strangely beautiful-

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): Almost lost consciousness. Like an angel or fairy. I'll call it the ‘Guide.’

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): Came underground. Tons of people. The ‘Guide’ seems to be worshipped.

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): ...

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): The people here are the school's teachers and students. This side seems to be the ‘Original.’

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): The Guide is giving a strange speech.

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): The secular world is a place of suffering. There is no need to cling to it. Ascension draws near. The Lord watches over us, and salvation approaches. Cast off the Shell. Place your foolish attachments to the world, weak hearts, and wicked thoughts into the Shell, then return to purity. The Lord has prepared paradise for us.

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): Reaching my limit.

...

Yoo Song-i (Student): Final report. These people call the ‘fakes’ sent from the Old School Building to the school ‘Shells.’ This isn't simply to deceive someone. It is an extremely important step in their ‘religious beliefs.’ They cast off their Shells to receive salvation. That's my limit now. I'll try fighting the ‘Guide’ once.

...

...

The report ended.

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 18

Current Location: Level 1, Room 104 (Curse Room - Hotel High, the Prestigious Academy)

Sage’s Advice: 3

Companion Location Information(*)

Yoo Song-i: Dead]

Song-i had died in the end.

Let's sort things out one by one. She had certainly sent much more useful information.

1. The truth of the Old School Building

-> It really was a place occupied by a bizarre religious group.

2. Why there were so many people that killing five of them meant nothing.

-> Most of the people in the school had already been ‘replaced.’ There were hundreds of students in the school alone, so naturally there had to be at least hundreds in the Old School Building too!

3. Why they replaced people and sent fakes to the school.

-> According to their ‘religious beliefs,’ it was part of the process of salvation. Before going to paradise after being chosen by the ‘Lord,’ they cast off their human ‘Shells.’ Those ‘Shells’ were the true nature of the fakes we had met. What happened to the real people after they cast off their Shells? I didn't know that much. Did they really go somewhere called paradise? And if they shed their Shells, did the ‘Original’ lose their bodies? That didn't seem likely, considering Jin-cheol had met the original Seung-yeop. I didn't know.

4. What exactly was the ‘Guide’?

-> I couldn't tell. It was an extraordinarily beautiful being with supernatural powers.

We had learned quite a lot.

Still, I had a vague feeling that none of this information could be used right now.

Our first goal was escape. This was information we could use when we returned later to ‘resolve’ the situation.

Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Strange. Casting off Shells to attain enlightenment. Feels a little Buddhist.

Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): We can analyze it in detail after getting out. Cha, who had strong combat ability, and Yoo, who had an Inheritance, are both dead. We can't resolve this. Escape is the goal.

Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): First, we need to try escaping the school.

Han Ga-in (Student): There are lots of guards, and they're watching closely.

Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): The guards are watching the students. The teachers can move around freely.

Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): What if I drive a car and the students hide inside?

Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): You have a car?

Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): I swiped the department head's car keys earlier.

Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Sounds like you've lived a very diligent life.

Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): That's uncalled for.

Kim A-ri (Student): Stop. When will it be ready?

Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): Strike while the iron is hot. Tonight.

* * *

Our first escape plan was set.

We had stolen someone's car keys. The teacher team would drive the car and avoid the guards' eyes, while the student team hid in the rear of the car to escape the school.

At a glance, there didn't seem to be any gaps in the plan. The guards wouldn't thoroughly search a teacher's car, would they?

I was worried. Much of the party's strength had already been shattered.

Jin-cheol's combat ability was gone, and losing Song-i and Diverse Perspectives hurt badly.

Should I place my hopes on A-ri's mysterious power, which still didn't seem to have shown its limits?

* * *

That night, we witnessed the most overwhelming power we had seen since arriving at the hotel.

Footnotes:

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