Escaping the Mystery Hotel

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 17

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

Sage’s Advice: 3]

Let’s calm down. This Hotel had always been full of monsters, was it not?

It was just the addition of another one who was pretending to be human. While continuing the conversation on the outside as if nothing was wrong, I accessed the messenger in my head.

Han Kain (Student): Park Seungyub. Can you hear me?

…

Han Kain (Student): Park Seungyub. Raise your right hand if you can hear me.

…

There was no response. As expected, the one in front of us wasn’t Seungyub and it couldn’t look at the messages. A longer conversation would only make us reveal more information than necessary and besides, Elena was already having a hard time controlling her expression so I ended the conversation here.

“Well,” I opened my mouth. “I’m going to study for the upcoming tests! Let’s do our own thing for now.”

“Ah, test… I think I’ll go to the Old Main Building again though…”

“I will get back to English then~.” 

Thanks to Ahri’s help, we somehow ended our conversation without making many mistakes.

*

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): What is it?

Han Kain (Student): Park Seungyub’s location: Basement of Old Main Building. Fake Seungyub appeared.

Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Definitely fake?

Yu Songee (Student): Confirmed with bracelet and system window. Definitely fake.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): That is good info. They lock us at the Old Main Building and make fake versions.

Han Kain (Student): Cheat sheet ready?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher) Ready for Korean History / Language. Others are up to you.

*

It wasn’t easy. 

There was a fundamental problem in our cheating plan. The Teachers Team didn’t have access to all the subjects and the available answers were only for Language and Korean History, meaning that we had to solve the other subjects ourselves.

Even if I somehow solved mine as hard as I could, showing it to everyone else was another challenge. 

Yesterday, the questions were all Multiple Choice so I could solve and upload them on the messenger for them to copy in the blink of an eye but there were going to be short-responses only today. There would be less than 10 minutes left on the clock even if I were to solve the questions as quickly as possible, so even if Songee borrowed my vision after that, how would she copy all the answers in less than 10 minutes?

Even if she did, it was hard to convey that all the way to Elena. 

From what I felt yesterday, Ahri might be able to do it by herself but I had a feeling that it will be difficult for Songee and Elena to pass this test.

The strenuous lessons came to an end, and the inevitable evening test period approached us.

My predictions went wide off the mark in a completely unexpected direction.

*

The Korean History test went by without any problem.

As soon as the test began, Grandpa Mooksung naturally walked inside and roamed around the classroom like a test supervisor before casually approaching Songee. Right when he was next to her, Songee used the bracelet on him. 

Although I couldn’t exactly see it from where I was, it seemed that Grandpa had looked at the prepared cheat sheet while Songee saw the cheat sheet after borrowing his sight.

While glancing at them from a distance, I pulled myself back and gave a big stretch in a ‘timely manner’ and received pieces of information.

Like a hologram, letters were floating on top of the table. This wasn’t my first time having such an experience but the phenomena created by ‘Diverse Perspectives’ was surprising no matter how many times I was exposed to it. It felt like I was living in a world with a highly developed Augmented Reality system.

I copied the answers to the answer sheet with a peace of mind and waited until the end of the Korean History exam.

Man~ I would have come first in the country if I sat my exams like this the whole time!

*

Language test.

I wasn’t that worried. In fact, wasn’t this going to be the same as the Korean History exam?

There was definitely less concern.

I should probably wait around a little until it was my turn. In order to avoid being suspected, I pretended to work on the test. 

Actually, I knew the answers to some of the questions so maybe I should do about 1/3 by myself?

*

A massive disaster befell us.

“Miss Lee. What is that thing in your hand?”

“Sorry?”

“What is that? Why are you constantly staring at your hand?”

“Eh? There was a piece of paper in my back pocket, so I was just wondering what it–”

“Stop saying nonsense and just give it to me!”

It was over. Another teacher that was here to supervise discovered Eunsol-noona’s cheat sheet!

“I, I don’t know what you’re trying to say all of a sudden.”

“I knew you’ve been strange since yesterday! The students were clearly cheating but you were blabbering about how there was no proof and stuff. Isn’t that a cheat sheet in your hand?! You were going to give it to a student, weren’t you?”

“No? Did you see me giving it to someone? This is something I wrote yesterday when I was thinking of the sample answers–”

“Let’s not bullshit here. You wrote your sample answers on that tiny piece of paper, brought it to the test venue and just happened to pick it up, is it? Do you think I’m a fool!? Oi, Mr. Cha! Can you–”

Eunsol-noona’s words sounded like gibberish in my ears as well.

“I put that in,” Jinchul-hyung said.

Umm, Jinchul-hyung…?

“What did you say, Mr. Cha?”

“Miss Lee left a piece of paper behind on her table so I thought she forgot something and brought it to her.”

“Like… Do you think what you are saying makes sense? Logically–”

“I’m telling you I gave it to her. I wonder why you can’t trust me. Mr. Han? Are you looking down on me right now?” Jinchul-hyung said with a straight look on his face.

“N, no. Of course I’m not, Mr. Cha. What I’m saying is that a cheat sheet has ended up coming into the test venue, so Miss Lee needs to take responsibility for her—”

“I took it inside so why should Miss Lee take responsibility? Are you stupid, Mr. Han? And you love responsibility don’t you? Well, I was the one that brought it inside so I guess I should take the burden. I’ll go for punishment, is that okay with you?”

“No. Uhh… I’m not trying to say it’s your fault, Mr. Cha but…”

“Never mind. I’m a PE teacher so I accidentally made this mistake. I’ll go receive my punishment so don’t have a fit at Miss Lee for no reason.”

…

What was going on? Jinchul-hyung suddenly stepped up and took the blame for himself. 

It honestly didn’t even make sense but after being shouted at by a muscular hulk that was taller than 190 centimetres, ‘Mr. Han’ who had been bickering with Eunsol-noona fell back in an instant.

What was Jinchul-hyung thinking about?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): What have you done?

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Any words of thanks?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Stop your nonsense. Why did you do that?

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Let me use some words. I’ve been thinking since yesterday. The person going to the Old Main Building needs to know how to fight. Students like Seungyub will be struck unconscious and it’ll be meaningless. I will go have a look at what the real problem is.

*

I understood where he was coming from. It logically made sense. We had confirmed through Seungyub that normal people would be immediately neutralised upon entering the building. Elena or me going would be meaningless at this stage in time. 

Jinchul-hyung who was physically strong, Songee who was mentally powerful or Ahri who looked capable on both ends – one of those three had to go to get some piece of information.

But… even so, I realised once again how abnormally tough Jinchul-hyung’s mind was.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Understood. BUT, no guarantee it’s a physical threat. You can’t handle mental attacks either.

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): At least we can tell what type of risk it is.

*

We decided on the next plan after sharing a few more sentences in our heads. 

Even though Jinchul-hyung’s argument sounded absurd, both him – the giver of the cheat sheet – and the receiver of the cheat sheet were saying the same thing on repeat, so there was nothing else the other teachers could say.

As a result, Eunsol-noona’s ridiculous argument that she had just been trying to check the content of the memo that was stuck on her pocket was acknowledged and was cleared of suspicion.

In the end, it went as Jinchul-hyung had planned and it was decided that he would go to the Old Main Building for punishment. It might be a bit late to say this, but what kind of school makes their teachers go to another building for punishment?

Before he departed for the Old Main Building, Songee gave her opinion.

Yu Songee (Student): Jinchul. Come to me asap. Can protect your mind like back in the Sanctum. Lasts 10 minutes.

10 minutes was a bit of an obscure number. If we casted that here, wouldn’t it pretty much end by the time he walked to the Old Main Building?

In any case, we had to do everything we could. Jinchul-hyung left for the Old Main Building after receiving the mental protection spell from Songee.

One thing fortunate that came out of that confusion was that they glossed over today’s test because of all the uproar. Thus, we all returned to our dormitory as Jinchul-hyung then began his reports.

* 

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Running as fast as I can.

…

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Arrived. How long until mind protection ends?

Yu Songee (Student): 5 minutes.

…

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Light, and a strange song. I’m going in.

…

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): An extremely pretty person. She told me to follow, so I’m walking down. My head hurts.

…

…

Han Kain (Student): Hyung?

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Already?

Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Looks like—

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Kuhuhu. Fuck, I just bashed up five to death. My arms fell off. It’s horrendous. Do not come here. This is not something you can solve by coming here! Run away. This is definitely not it! Leave. Get away from this school! Fighting is not an option. My head’s gonna explode.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Calm down. Please calm down. We can meet again outside. Better explanation!

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Seungyub woke up.

Han Kain (Student): ? What do you—

Park Seungyub (Student): AHHHHH, ThEWOrLDISFuLLOFPaINDESPaIRSoRROw. WeSHaLLGAInPEACeTHRoUGhBEcOMINgONeE. AhHThELORdHAsGIVeNUS,PEAcEWiLLBEWItHUS.GAThER.GaTHeRTOGETHER.AHHHILoVEYOuaLL.LET’SSInGTOgETHeR.THeWorLDBECOmINGONeTHrOUGHHAPpINEs—

Cha Jinchul (Teacher): I killed Seungyub. That’s all I can do. This looks like a strange religious group. All of you, run away. I’m killing myself.

…

That was all we got from him.

I opened the system window.

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 17

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

Sage’s Advice: 3

Teammate Location Information (*)

Park Seungyub: Dead

Cha Jinchul: Dead]

Han Kain (Student): Both Park Seungyub and Cha Jinchul dead.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Everyone. Get yourself together. We can meet outside.

Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Almost at conversation limit.

Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Conclusion. Cha said headache – a mental attack. His arms fell off – also a physical threat. Cha killed five, and said it’s like a religious group. There must be a lot. Each of you, think on your own.

That was where we reached our conversation limit today.

What we currently knew was this.

1. There is both physical and mental threat at the Old Main Building.

2. It’s a religious group (?) with a lot of people.

3. Seungyub turned weird in the head. Jinchul-hyung killed five, before killing Seungyub and himself.

*

Let’s think this through. It was the judgement of the physically strongest person in our group.

Fighting was not an option.

The fact that he deemed it was impossible to win even after killing five, meant that five was an insignificant number compared to the rest of them.

Unless we somehow had access to a mass-murdering weapon—

This place was impossible to clear with what we currently had.

That meant we had to focus on escape.

1. At the Strange Family, distancing ourselves from the strange family – which was the strange phenomenon back then – was acknowledged as an escape.

2. At the Mansion of Fear, stopping Sir from progressing with the resurrection plan of the devil (the strange phenomenon of that time) was considered an escape. In other words, getting rid of the ‘opponent’s chance to win and making it a draw’ was also another way to escape.

So what should we do in this school?

First off, we had no idea what the ‘win condition’ of the ‘group at the Old Main Building’ (the strange phenomenon of this school) was, so we couldn’t use the second method. So maybe we should focus on escaping from this school for the time being?

*

The next day, during PE.

The Triathlon began.