Escaping the Mystery Hotel

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 16

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 (Cursed Room – Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

‘There have been many attempts to define what music is in terms of the specific att…’ Looking at the context of this sentence, we can decipher—–

This was horrible.

A) The equation f(x) – x = 0 has two different roots.

B) The equation f(x)x = 0 has two different roots.

If f(0)…

Please stop

As compensation for supplying the royal family and the government with commodities, (A) received a monopoly on a specific market product. According to Six Exemplar Articles of Law that was published in the middle of the 19th Century—-

I just finished my entrance exam, you fuckers!!

*

Ahh… why was this happening to me?

I already sat my college exam, so why the hell did I have to be imprisoned in this ‘boarding school’ with a ridiculous name like ‘Hotel High School’ to study for another entrance exam?

Room 104 was a terrible hell from the get go.

It seemed that our team had been divided into students and teachers depending on our age. The teachers were preparing the tests while students were tasked with studying for them.

Me, Elena, Yu Songee, Kim Ahri, Park Seungyub -> Students

Kim Mooksung, Cha Jinchul, Lee Eunsol -> Teachers

That was how it went but the craziest part was the thing that had happened to us, the Student Team.

This crazy Hotel ignored our actual ages and modified our bodies to all be that of a senior high school student. In other words… even Seungyub who had just hit his 2nd year of middle school had been forcibly ‘grown’ into a 3rd grader of high school!

Thanks to that, Seungyub who looked very distant from the life of studying was sitting next to me with a bigger body but soulless eyes.

In any case, what exactly was the ‘risk’ in this room? For starters, studying for the entrance exam itself was already detestable but finding it hard to study wouldn’t physically kill us so there was probably a different risk factor.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Find anything?

Han Kain (Student): Studying is hard.

Park Seungyub (Student): Yes

Yu Songee (Student): T.T

Elena (Student): Q.Q

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): There are tests everyday. I am writing language tests.

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Apparently an athletics carnival is in 2 days.

Han Kain (Student): Damn animals.

Kim Mooksung (Teacher): School Rules are strange. Lack of academic ability = punishment at the Old Main Building. 

Han Kain (Student): Old Main Building?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): It’s an abandoned building behind the one we’re in.

Yu Songee (Songee): Why?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): No idea. No explanation. Everyone thinks it’s normal.

Old Main Building.

It definitely was strange. It was common to be scolded and told off for having low grades at a test, but getting sent to a different building was very rare, and I had never heard of any school doing something so tedious*.

In any case, a test everyday… That’s ama~zing. As expected of a selective school!

*

We were all ignoring the lessons and focusing our minds on the conversation going on inside our heads when a sudden roar reached our ears.

— Bamm!

A chalk flew across the sky.

“Uahk! S, sir. What are you–”

“Park Seungyub! Are you not going to focus on the lesson!? I know what you’re thinking about; do you think it’s my first time seeing guys like you? Instead of studying during school time, you waste your life having stupid delusions in your head, don’t you? Come out right now!”

Seungyub who couldn’t control his facial expression the most was immediately summoned to the board. 

What should we do?

Actually, more importantly, what was the teacher going to do? Was he going to send him straight to that ‘Old Main Building’?

“N, no sir. I was listening to the lesson. You saw it wrong.”

“Huh? You dare say that to me! Then how about you answer this question for us! We’ve been talking about Yeongjo [King of Joseon Dynasty in Korea] for a while so you should know if you’ve been focusing on the lesson. When did he start his reign?”

? That wasn’t a historical event or anything. How the hell were we supposed to remember the year a king came to power? What kind of—

“1724,” Seungyub blurted out.

…

The teacher suddenly turned quiet in the middle of his fit.

…Did he get it correct?

The teacher gave another question with a voice that was comparatively softer than before.

“When is the year he killed Sado, the Crown Prince?”

“1762.”

…

The teacher turned silent again.

Did he get that correct as well? How does that even make sense? Did he remember the entire Korean history or something?

“Hmm. So you were listening to the lesson. My bad for that mistake. But still, you should raise your book tall and have your eyes wide open with your soul inside! You’re looking around everywhere with a dull gaze; so of course others are going to mistake you okay? Now! Let’s focus on the lesson again.”

Yu Songee (Student): What was that? 

Han Kain (Student): Are you a genius or something?

Elena (Student): Do Korean students usually remember all the years like that?

Han Kain (Student): Normal people wouldn’t, unless they’re aiming to come first in the country.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Use less words. What happened?

Yu Songee (Student): Seungyub got a history question correct.

Everyone was talking in excitement but Seungyub, the one who was suddenly being considered a genius, stayed silent. 

Kim Ahri (Student): He probably used blessing.

Park Seungyub (Student): Yes…

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): What do you mean

Park Seungyub (Student): When the teacher asked the question, a window popped up saying [100%] and asked me whether I was going to use the Blessing of Fortune or not, so… I thought ‘Yes!’. Nothing changed so I shouted a random number but they were all correct.

Kim Mooksung (Teacher): You consumed a blessing with such a long cooldown on something like that? Why did you do that?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): No. This is important.

Noona was right. This wasn’t just Seungyub wasting his blessing – he wasn’t the one that actively looked to turn the blessing on.

He said he had a prompt that went something like, ‘Would you like to use the Blessing of Fortune’, and there was no way a prompt like that would suddenly pop out for no reason.

It only popped up because it was a crisis!

If he got the questions wrong, he probably would have been punished at the Old Main Building.

And that allowed us to confirm one thing – going to the Old Main Building was a risk factor.

*

After that, we pretended like we were reading our books and soon passed the painful lesson time.

During lunch, the entire group of students gathered together.

“Hyung! Noona! What do we do? I looked at the book but I have no idea what any of them mean!”

“It’s strange hearing you call me ‘noona’ with that bulky body… Anyway, what should we do? Do you have any ideas, Kain-oppa?” asked Songee.

“For starters, judging from how the choice popped up immediately after the question, it seems that ‘going to the Old Main Building’ will be dangerous.” I said as Ahri followed up.

“So I guess everyone needs to focus on studying~”

“Hmm.” Songee said. “Sounds like you’re very confident or something, Ahri.” 

“Oh, no~! I’m not confident. I’m just describing the situation.”

Huh? Just then, it felt as if there was a spark between Songee and Ahri. Was I overthinking it?

Elena broke her silence and opened her mouth.

“The ‘tests’ at the end of the lessons are the biggest problem. Honestly speaking, I don’t think I’ll ever make it through the tests. I can’t understand any of the subjects at all. Korean and Korean History is one thing because I’m not Korean, but even Maths and English are way too difficult. Is this how the lessons are usually like in Korean schools?”

“No. Umm… I think I’m the only one here with experience in taking a college exam. In my opinion, the curriculum in this school is even beyond the highly specialised schools, and I bet even the top few students nation-wide would have trouble following these lessons. I assume the tests after the lessons will be an incredible challenge.”

Everyone turned silent.

Even though no-one bothered asking each other about school marks after entering the Hotel, I would imagine Songee and Seungyub weren’t that good at studying while Elena was a foreigner.

Looking at how things were, it looked like everyone in the Students Team except for me would be wiped out in the next test.

Seungyub opened his mouth first.

“How about we run away together? Like how I ran and somehow escaped the Strange Family.”

“In that room, our houses were in a residential district that was connected to the outside but this place is an isolated boarding school. Also, the security is strict around the gates and I don’t think it will be easy to escape from this place.” I raised my thoughts as Seungyub then spoke of another plan.

“Then since my body is also a lot bigger, how about we bash the teachers up and–”

“Wait, wait.” Ahri interjected. “Can you be quiet for now? Didn’t you learn anything at the farm? The teachers here aren’t the ‘strange phenomena’ of this school. They’re just teachers of a ‘selective preparatory school’.”

A single remark from Ahri was enough to make Seungyub lower his head and shrink in dejection. Even after becoming bigger, it seemed that he still couldn’t do anything in front of Ahri.

Of course, now was not the time to worry about that.

And I could also understand where Seungyub was coming from.

At this rate, a large number of us will fail the hopelessly difficult tests and be wiped at the dangerous Old Main Building!

We were silent when Ahri opened her mouth.

“There is no need for us to go from the front.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s cheat.”

Everyone turned quiet again.

“Or what. Were you seriously going to study for college exams at the Hotel?”

“No… but how are we going to cheat?”

“What do you mean ‘how’ – we have a conversation tab in our heads so what’s the concern? The Teacher’s side is making the tests up aren’t they? They can just upload the answers.”

Ah… It seemed that I was under the impression that I had become an actual senior high school student because of the school uniform and the classroom setting.

Ahri was right.

Why did we have to study at a place like this?

We could just cheat.

We were feeling enlightened and Ahri quickly uploaded her idea.

Kim Ahri (Student): Teachers. Attention.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): ?

Kim Ahri (Student): Old Main Building deemed dangerous. Need to pass tests. Please upload answers to your questions.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): OK. But we can’t upload everything.

Han Kain (Student): What do you mean?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): I am Language, Cha is Phys Ed, Kim is Korean History. So we only know the answers to Language and Korean History.

Kim Ahri (Student): Please upload those at least.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): OK.

Thanks to the cooperation of these not-so-good teachers, we had a slightly better situation in our hands. There probably wasn’t going to be a written exam for Physical Education, and we will have answers for Language and Korean History.

However, we still had many serious problems in our hands.

What were we going to do for Maths, English and other subjects? 

I was racking my brain but suddenly found Ahri staring deeply at my face.

“What is it? Is there something you want to tell me?”

“I’m just thinking how everything is now up to you, oppa.”

“What?”

“You are the only college exam veteran in our group – the future college student who passed into K University. You are our hope.”

They all looked at me with hope and dream in their eyes.

I ended up pulling my hair out.