Escaping the Mystery Hotel

"Team Leader Elizabeth, we’ve arrived at Hestbert Mansion."

"Hmm. Are you telling me that this place has already claimed three-digit casualties?"

"At the current rate, it'll reach four digits by next year."

"That's why we're here—to prevent that. Let's head in."

- Clunk!

"What was that sound?"

"Team Leader Elizabeth! The door is locked!"

"What are you talking about? Contact headquarters!"

"What is this? The signal’s gone!"

After entering the Hestbert Mansion, a buzzing noise echoed in my head, bringing back my consciousness.

The others also began to wake up, looking around in confusion.

I could see the others, except Kain.

As expected, Kain was the first one to be sealed.

A dizzying amount of information started flooding into my brain in real-time.

My teammates were here as usual, but there were two unfamiliar faces.

As the seven of us began flailing around, the two NPCs looked at us in bewilderment.

"What’s wrong with all of you? Are you alright?"

The man’s name is... Oliver, an agent.

"Has the mansion’s strange phenomena already begun? I can't feel anything yet."

The woman’s name is... Elizabeth. She‘s also an agent and the leader of this team.

I should handle the situation first.

"I suddenly heard a loud signal in my head. It seemed to affect those closest to the entrance."

"Is that so? Agent Ahri, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Oliver. Elizabeth! Give us a moment to catch our breath."

"OK. There are plenty of chairs here, so let's rest for a bit."

After a short while, my teammates began regaining their senses. We decided to start using the Chat Window due to the presence of two

Lee Eunsol: What’s with these clothes?

Kim Mooksung: Bulletproof and stab-proof gear.

Park Seungyub: Is this a real gun?

Kim Ahri: Yes. Lower the muzzle; it’s scary.

Cha Jinchul: Are we playing as special forces?

Kim Mooksung: Attention! In this scenario, we are all Administration Agents.

Kim Ahri: This mansion is experiencing strange phenomena. Many casualties have occurred. We’re here to deal with it.

My teammates were catching on.

Amusingly enough, we found ourselves playing the role of Administration Agents in this scenario.

The highest-ranked person among us was Team Leader Elizabeth.

One unfortunate detail was that we were already inside the mansion. If we had regained consciousness earlier, we could have tried to secure an "escape route" by having at least one person stay outside in a car. But perhaps to prevent such tricks, we only woke up after entering the mansion and the door was locked behind us.

Seeing that we were coming to our senses, Elizabeth and Oliver approached. It would have been more comfortable without these NPCs.

Why are they here?

There must be a reason. The chat window buzzed again.

Kim Mooksung: Ahri, stall those guys for a bit.

Kim Ahri: ?

Kim Mooksung: Look at Seungyub’s face!

I turned to look and saw Seungyub inspecting the gun barrel up close with a fascinated expression.

My head started to hurt.

Mooksung seemed intent on giving Seungyub and Songee some basic firearm training.

Why on earth did the hotel give these kids assault rifles?

This is ominous.

From the several Cursed Rooms I had experienced thus far, I knew the hotel never handed out such flashy gear like “assault rifles” and “bulletproof vests” without a reason.

I had a strong feeling that this trial would involve intense combat.

I suggested to Elizabeth and Oliver that we search for a way to contact the outside world, buying us some time.

After about 30 minutes, we explored while trying to look for an escape route. We had also mapped out the mansion’s layout.

Although it was called a “mansion”, it was more like a slightly luxurious rich person’s house. Unlike the absurdly large mansion in the previous “Mansion of Fear” scenario that made one wonder if such a place could even exist in Korea, this one wasn’t that ridiculous.

The interior was neat, with four rooms inside.

The living room, study, and other areas had an old-fashioned charm.

There was a front and back door, but both were locked.

We didn’t find anything else. There was no way out. The doors were completely sealed. Not even Jinchul’s strength could budge them.

The radios were also dead.

We checked to see if we could break a window to get out, but this mansion didn’t have any.

It seemed our party of seven, along with the two NPCs, would have to thoroughly investigate the mansion.

Should I try stalling for more time?

I glanced over at Mooksung.

Naturally, he was only able to teach them the basics like the location of the trigger, and not to point the muzzle at people.

With such limited training, there was no way Seungyub, Songee, or Eunsol could handle a gun properly.

Jinchul, having served in the military, was naturally fine, and surprisingly, Elena seemed to catch on quickly.

Has she handled guns before?

Or is she just naturally adept at such things?

Who knows.

I needed to stall more time to help those who were unfamiliar with firearms—

“Ugh!”

“Oliver? What’s wrong?”

“Look at this!”

Following Oliver’s panicked gaze, I saw a large, unnaturally placed mirror on the wall.

In vivid, bloody letters, a message appeared.

Go down.

The meaning was clear.

We needed to move now.

Based on my past experiences in this hotel, if we didn’t follow the instructions, “punishments” would likely start soon.

We had no choice. Mooksung sighed and began to lead the group forward.

But it didn’t say to go to the front or back doors—just “down”?

Is there a way to go down?

Elizabeth, who was also scanning the area, found something.

“Everyone, over here!”

Elizabeth had opened a door that I had mistaken for the entrance to a third room.

Behind the door was a staircase leading downward.

The chat window flickered.

Kim Mooksung: Following the hotel’s instructions feels ominous. Do we really have to go down?

Kim Ahri: Do you have any other ideas? There’s no way out of the mansion.

Lee Eunsol: Let’s go down for now.

After descending the staircase, we found what seemed to be a passageway.

What could possibly be down here?

My teammates were still confused when we heard a clunking sound.

That sound?

It was the same one we heard when we first entered the mansion!

Jinchul reacted immediately.

“We heard this sound earlier, and then the door locked!”

Jinchul quickly retraced our steps back to the starting point.

Or at least, he tried to.

After a moment of struggling, Jinchul returned and reported to everyone.

“The entrance is blocked. We can’t go back now.”

Just like when we first entered the mansion and the door locked behind us, we were now trapped in the underground passage as well.

The entrance had been sealed behind us.

A recurring pattern.

There’s no turning back. The only way is forward.

Staying in the underground passage wasn’t an option.

Reluctantly, we pushed forward to the exit of the passage until we emerged from the passage—only to find ourselves completely stunned.

***“What the…?”

“Did we somehow get turned around and end up walking back? Didn’t we just go straight?”

After walking through the underground passage for quite some time, we found ourselves back at the mansion’s front entrance.

How is this possible?

But there was no other explanation.

Somehow, we had ended up back at the Hestbert Mansion. Bewildered, we scanned our surroundings.

But there was no need to re-examine the place we had already checked.

The familiar wallpaper, potted plants, TV, dining table, and porcelain passed by in a blur.

The oppressive, windowless interior was still the same.

Elizabeth, who was also scanning the surroundings, instructed us, “Check the living room.”

I moved toward the living room and surveyed the area.

The plush carpet near the living room—

“…?”

Had the carpet fibers grown longer?

As I tilted my head in confusion, Oliver, who had searched the mansion with me earlier, also noticed something odd.

“Doesn’t the design seem a bit different?”

Oliver lightly touched the carpet with his foot.

“I have a pretty sharp eye, but earlier, my foot didn’t sink into—”

- Chop!

A dark, grimy hand shot out from the carpet and grabbed Oliver’s foot!

[Didn’t I tell you, Dearie? Don’t walk on the carpet with your shoes on!]

In an instant, Oliver was dragged “underneath” the carpet as if he was being absorbed into the space below.

His whole body disappeared as if he had melted into it.

Everything happened so quickly that none of us could react.

"Ahhhhh! Ugh!"

Screams echoed.

Horrible, agonizing screams.

- Crunch! Rip! Tear!

The sounds of mutilation and dismemberment echoed throughout the mansion.

For ten minutes, maybe more.

Oliver’s screams never ceased, constantly assaulting our ears.

“…”

The horrifying event left everyone speechless.

It wasn’t until the surroundings finally grew quiet that the chat window flickered.

Yu Songee: What on earth just happened? We went down to the mansion’s basement only to end up back at the entrance.

Lee Eunsol: Is it some kind of loop structure? The basement and the entrance seem connected.

Elena: It’s frustrating that we don’t even know the name of this room!

I completely agree.

Thinking back, it made me realize just how significant it was that Kain always checked the room’s name at the beginning of every Cursed Room.

We didn’t even know the name of this room.

Then there was Scenario Comprehension.

And, of course, there was no way to ask for Advice.

We had been thrown into a bizarre, murderous mansion with zero information to go off of.

I was about to use the Chat Window but then decided against it.

This time, what I had to say needed to be heard by Elizabeth as well.

“Everyone, listen up. If we just stay here, the mirror will probably tell us to move again, right? If we’re going to move, we need to think about where to go. There are three paths in this mansion: the front door, the back door, and the basement.”

Mooksung gave his opinion, “There’s basically only one option left, right? We went down to the basement and ended up right back at the front door. The basement and the front door seem connected. That route is meaningless. The back door is all that’s left.”

Elizabeth also chimed in, “Then let’s head for the back door.”

Given the situation, the only remaining path seemed to be the back door.

Should we go to the back door?

I’m confused!

This is when having Advice would really help.

I actually kind of miss that lousy guy.

Stay calm.

We need to focus on what we have, not on what we don’t.

After all, isn’t the second floor’s concept—seal and liberation—designed to target a party overly reliant on a particular individual or ability?

We’re in a situation where we don’t know where to go due to a lack of information.

The power of “Wisdom” is supposed to help us make the right decisions based on the given information in such situations.

But there’s also a simpler way. We could just guess the right answer.

“Seungyub, where do you think we should go?”

Before I even finished speaking, Seungyub wobbled and bumped into a nearby chair, falling down.

His hand, outstretched instinctively, pointed toward the front door where we had first entered.

“Oh! Sorry, Noona! It’s just that with this Protective Suit, my body suddenly feels so bulky that I keep bumping into—”

“No, you did great.”

That’s it.

Now I get it.

Fortune has spoken.

If Seungyub had thought about my question and made a choice, it would’ve been the wrong one.

“Let’s go to the front door.”

Mooksung looked puzzled.

“We came through the front door originally, didn’t we? This mansion is connected to the basement and the front door, isn’t it?”

Elizabeth also seemed baffled.

“Didn’t the basement entrance lock behind us? If we go back to the front door and retrace our steps through the basement, we’ll just end up at the locked entrance.”

Now, I was beginning to grasp our situation.

“I have a reason. Just follow me back to the front door. Doesn’t it seem odd that the front door and the basement are connected? Where did we enter the mansion in the first place?”

Of course, we entered through the front door.

When we first arrived, the front door was definitely connected to the outside.

But after entering the mansion, the front door suddenly became connected to the basement.

This mansion’s space is distorted.

Mooksung seemed to realize this and hesitated for a moment.

In the end, everyone agreed to follow my suggestion and head back to the front door.

Elizabeth continued to grumble that the back door would be the correct path, but she didn’t override the group’s decision.

***We went through the same process again.

When we opened the front door, we found the basement passage once more, and as soon as we all entered it, we heard the same clunking sound, and the way back was blocked.

As we walked down the basement passage, the door that had been locked earlier was now open.

“…”

No, that’s not right.

If my thinking is correct, this isn’t a case of the previously locked door now being open.

This is the same door we first discovered.

We opened the door and entered the “third” mansion.

There are countless mansions in this bizarre world.