Escaping the Mystery Hotel

- Kim Ahri

Amid the chaotic atmosphere, Seungyub spoke hesitantly, "Should I pick the next route again? I messed up last time... Should I use my active skill? It's ready to use."

"From now on, let's call that active skill ‘Heaven’s Luck’. And don't use it. The cooldown is really long."

Mooksung shared the same opinion, "Heaven’s Luck? What a name... Anyway, Seungyub, your Heaven’s Luck might be called an active skill, but isn’t it more like an automatic skill? It activates on its own when it's really needed, right? Like during the Strange Family, it activated by itself, and during the Hotel High School, you got a notification asking if you wanted to use it. Just wait. It’ll activate when necessary."

Now that he mentioned it, that's really true.

The active skill, which we’ve decided to call “Heaven’s Luck” from now on, isn’t really an active skill.

It activates on its own when there's a crisis, and even suggests to its user when it might be useful. It’s a strange skill.

The cooldown is also unpredictable. It’s definitely long, but how long exactly?

Even Seungyub himself didn’t know.

From what I had observed, it seemed to vary each time.

Once again, it struck me how mysterious this luck-based Blessing really was.

In the end, Seungyub picked the next route again.

This time, it was the back door.

We called Elizabeth over and headed to the back door to move on to the fourth mansion.

As we walked through the underground passage, Songee sighed and spoke up, "It’s a bit late to bring this up, but where do you think Perro is?"

Mooksung nudged Songee to remind her to use the chat, and she quickly closed her mouth.

...Honestly, I don’t think it matters much.

As long as Elizabeth wasn’t an idiot, she must have noticed that we were hiding something and had our own way of communicating by now.

Even in the short time we’ve been here, she saw Mooksung’s gloves and Jinchul’s Star in action.

It would seem strange from the outside to see us acting in sync without saying anything.

Yet, Elizabeth hasn’t questioned us once.

“…”

Should I shoot her from behind?

Just like us, she’s wearing a full-body bulletproof suit and helmet, so she wouldn’t die instantly.

She was a combat-trained agent, so she would resist.

But we had Jinchul on our side.

I seriously considered killing her right here and now.

I subtly shifted the gun’s muzzle towards Elizabeth—

Lee Eunsol: Ahri, stop.

Kim Ahri: Suspicious.

Lee Eunsol: What do you mean?

Kim Mooksung: Calm down!

We should observe her a bit more.

The Cursed Room usually requires multiple attempts to clear, doesn’t it?

Instead of eliminating her right away just because she seems dangerous, we need to keep an eye on her to uncover what secrets she has hidden.

Another concern came to mind.

We have all these diverse abilities as part of our “setup”, but is she really just a normal human?

As an Administration agent myself, I couldn’t underestimate her combat abilities.

I eased up a bit. The topic Songee had brought up earlier started to come up in the chat.

Kim Mooksung: Perro wasn’t here from the start.

Yu Songee: This has never happened before.

Park Seungyub: Maybe he’s somewhere else like Kain-hyung?

Kim Ahri: Could be a clue?

- Click!

Elizabeth, who was leading the way, opened the door to the fourth mansion.

The tension returned, and the chat fell silent.

Where is Perro right now?

***After experiencing the third mansion, we formulated a hypothesis about this trial.

It seemed like a game of “spot the difference” was in progress.

Each repeating mansion had one difference.

That difference always harbored a monster that would attack after some time.

As soon as we entered the fourth mansion through the front door, we scrutinized every detail with keen eyes.

In the previous three attempts, we were completely unprepared and were rendered powerless, but this time, with a strategy in place, the situation was different.

With Eunsol’s powerful eyesight, we quickly spotted the anomaly.

"Over there! The tree in the living room! The species has changed."

We couldn't afford to repeat the mistake we made when we lost Elena.

Mooksung and Jinchul immediately fired at the tree.

- Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

After four or five shots, something strange happened.

The tree began to bleed like an animal, then slowly seeped into the floor and disappeared.

“…”

After that, no other anomalies occurred in the fourth mansion.

We had finally found the correct response.

After catching our breath, Eunsol gave instructions via the chat.

Lee Eunsol: Seungyub, next room.

Park Seungyub: Every room I pick ends up having a monster. Can’t someone else choose this time?

Lee Eunsol: Save the typing. No one blames you. Just pick.

That was the truth.

No one among us was foolish enough to blame Seungyub for monsters appearing in the rooms he chose.

Given that we were picking randomly without anything to go off of, it wouldn’t be any better if someone else chose.

But it was clear that Seungyub’s mental state was shaken after seeing monsters appear in the rooms he picked.

"Hey! Everyone, over here!" Elizabeth’s unusually loud voice interrupted us.

We all turned in surprise to see her opening the back door.

Jinchul quickly went over to persuade her, "Team leader, please wait a moment. We should discuss where to go next—"

"Discuss? Have we ever had a discussion? It’s just been that kid picking randomly, right? And each room we enter has a monster in it."

For a moment, everyone was left speechless.

We might have been communicating through the chat, but to Elizabeth, it must have looked like we were silently following the random choices of a child.

If Elizabeth was trustworthy and the situation was calm, we would have listened to her.

Frankly, we didn’t have the luxury to consider that right now.

Kim Ahri: Feels off. Let’s kill Elizabeth here.

Cha Jinchul: Suddenly?

Kim Mooksung: That’s a rash decision, not like you.

Lee Eunsol: Why are you acting like this?

Yu Songee: K H A M  D A U N.

Everyone disagreed.

Songee… you barely even speak English!¹

A small sigh escaped me. I understood why they were against it.

The only reasons I had for suspecting Elizabeth were her independent actions and her lack of reaction to our abilities.

Independent actions could just mean she was doing her own investigation, and not reacting to our abilities wasn’t that strange considering she was an Administration agent.

Logically, it made sense that they found my sudden desire to kill her unreasonable.

The reason I kept suspecting Elizabeth...

It’s just my intuition!

In a devilish event like this, I have more experience than all of you combined!

An experienced cop can sense suspicion from a passerby’s behavior.

In the same way, my intuition has been screaming at me about her since earlier.

Sensing the tense atmosphere among us, Elizabeth offered a compromise, "If anyone thinks another route is better, speak up. Let’s discuss it properly. Don’t just let the kid decide every time."

No one responded.

To be honest, we hadn’t been choosing routes based on logical reasoning, so there wasn’t much to say.

Besides, it was true that monsters had appeared in the rooms Seungyub picked.

It seemed everyone was thinking about trying a different approach.

Something felt odd.

Even though he wasn’t using Heaven’s Luck, wasn’t Seungyub known for pulling off crazy feats like rolling sixes every time?

Of course, it wasn’t every time.

It was still a matter of probability.

But still, he had good luck, so it was strange that he got it wrong twice in a row.

Thinking about it simply, maybe he was too shaken for his Blessing to work properly.

But looking at it from another perspective...

What if Seungyub was actually picking the right rooms?

Just because there were monsters in the rooms he chose doesn’t mean he was wrong, does it?

My head was spinning again.

We walked through the now-familiar underground passage toward the next mansion.

At the end of the passage, as always, was the door to the next mansion.

Elizabeth opened the door—

"You idiots."

Immediately, Elizabeth turned transparent and vanished!

"What the hell?!"

"What do you mean, ‘what the hell’?! I told you we should’ve killed her!"

There was no time to curse any further.

Beyond the door was not another mansion but an enormous white space, with a gigantic gorilla standing in the center.

- RRRROOOAAARRRR!

A roar that shook the heavens and the earth!

This room is a “trap”. Seungyub had been avoiding the “trap” rooms all along!

The gorilla charged toward us at incredible speed.

- Bang! Ratatatatata!

In an instant, everyone scattered and began firing their guns.

Muzzles flashed, and Songee bracelets emitted bursts of light.

Something shocking happened. The bullets bounced off!

"Stop! Hold your fire! The bullets are ricocheting and could hit us!"

Dozens of rounds were fired in mere seconds, but they didn’t even penetrate the monster’s skin.

At least the bracelet was effective.

The gorilla, unable to locate us, started to thrash around before—

Wildly swinging its arms in every direction!

Not even three seconds later, the gorilla’s massive fist came crashing down on Songee.

- Bang!

With a loud crash, Seungyub threw himself in the way, taking the blow and being slammed into the wall!

Is he okay?

He should be, with the Protective Suit on, right?

I’ll give him a hug when we get out!

In the chaos, Songee screamed, "S-Seungyub! What do we do? That gorilla is smart. It’s just flailing around–"

- Thud! Thud!

Jinchul charged at the gorilla from behind.

He stomped the ground so hard it sent vibrations all the way to me.

At the same time, a powerful wave radiated from Jinchul’s front, pressing down like a tangible force.

No matter how tough that monster’s skin was, could it withstand the power of the Star?

- ROOOAAAARRR!

It roared again!

In an instant, the Star began twisting the skin on the gorilla’s back.

Rocks sprouted from the monster’s flesh, and the skin started to tear apart!

Seeing that Mooksung and I fired simultaneously.

This time, it was different!

As the skin twisted, the monster’s formidable defense began to crumble.

As the bullets burrowed into its flesh, the gorilla let out a howl of pain.

- Bang!

"Ahh!"

In the next moment, a bullet came out of nowhere, hitting Songee as she fell to the ground with a scream.

"Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth, who had turned invisible and hidden somewhere, had attacked Songee!

Thanks to the full-body bulletproof suit, it didn’t seem fatal, but even with bulletproof protection, a bullet’s impact wasn’t entirely nullified.

It must have felt like getting hit with a sledgehammer.

Songee was writhing in pain on the ground, while the gorilla, now free from the bracelet’s control, immediately redirected its attack toward Jinchul.

- Boom! Boom!

"Kraaah! What is this thing?! King Kong?! FUCKKKK!"

Two seconds? Three seconds?

The gorilla’s punches sent Jinchul flying before he could even properly retaliate.

In just one exchange it was clear…

That monster’s physical strength far surpassed even Jinchul’s.

It really reminded me of that gorilla in the movie, the one fighting dinosaurs.

The gorilla was also smart.

After knocking Jinchul away, it didn’t stop there, immediately jumping into the air—

Is that thing really jumping like that with its size? Is it the Hulk?

I couldn’t bear to watch it any longer.

With a thunderous crash, Jinchul became nothing more than a lump of gore on the ground.

But there were results.

While the gorilla’s massive fist crushed Jinchul, the Star continued to emit otherworldly waves right up until Jinchul’s final moments.

In mere seconds, the gorilla’s once-impenetrable skin was torn to shreds, leaving most of it hanging in tatters.

In this chaos… there was honestly nothing I could do.

What should I do? My Ancient Blood has many abilities, but none that could work on such a brute.

Hypnosis? The gorilla would turn me into jelly faster than I could try to hypnotize it.

Fortunately, after the gorilla regained its senses, Elizabeth’s presence completely disappeared as if she were a mouse.

The gorilla didn’t seem to pay attention to her presence.

As the atmosphere turned even more terrifying, a butterfly appeared out of thin air.

“…”

An ethereal, beautiful blue butterfly, utterly out of place in this blood-soaked, nightmarish scene.

The butterfly slowly fluttered toward the gorilla as if toying with it.

Perhaps even the gorilla was taken aback, pausing momentarily before casually swiping at the butterfly.

The moment the butterfly touched the gorilla’s palm, it sank into it!

Eunsol must be hiding somewhere!

Just like Elizabeth!

For the first time since the fight began, the gorilla started to stumble.

At the same time, the chat window flashed.

Kim Mooksung: Ahri! Now!

I immediately grabbed my gun and dashed toward the gorilla's torn skin.

1. Songee suddenly used broken English here, Kham Daun=Calm down. To elaborate further, she used 캄 다운 (kham daun), which is Konglish (basically english adapted into Korean). We decided it would be funnier if we transcribe it literally.