Chapter 54: Room 106, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Land of Hope’ (1)
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 21
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 106 (Mission Room – Hotel Land of Hope)
Sage’s Advice: 3
1. Real Life Bumper Car
Buuuuuuuuuung!!!
Before I could even collect my thoughts, the monster truck initiated its assault. The target the monster truck aimed for was—
Wait, isn’t that me, that bastard?! I don’t even have a license!
In a panic, I rummaged through my memories and recalled my dad behind the wheel.
I managed to turn the key, right? Did it start? I moved the lever to drive and, in a frenzy, glanced down—
Which one’s the accelerator and which one’s the brake? Why are there two pedals?
[Press the right pedal]
Thank you so much! In a whirlwind, I stepped on the right pedal, and the car lurched forward.
Kugugugung!
Is that really the sound of the car moving? Why does it feel like the whole ground shakes whenever that truck moves? What kind of bumper car is this?
As I continued to drive like a madman, I suddenly realized—maybe it was the last shred of conscience from this hotel, but the monster truck wasn’t that fast.
At that moment, the conversation tab exploded with messages.
Kim Mooksung: Turn the key, start the car, set it to drive, and hit the accelerator!
Park Seungyub: What’s the accelerator? How do I set it to drive?
Lee Eunsol: Move the stick next to you to D, then press the right pedal with your foot!
Yu Songee: Why is the light not turning on?
Lee Eunsol: You have to turn the key all the way! If it still doesn’t work, check if the lever is on N or P!
Cha Jinchul: If you keep this up, we all die! Thankfully, Kain is still being chased!
Han Kain: Fortunately my ass! I’m gonna die!
I felt like I was really going to die. Was the truck insane? Why was it only after me? The immense noise and vibration let me know without turning my head that the truck was right at my heels.
In the middle of this madness, I noticed the truck had shifted its target.
Yu Songee: Aaaaah! It’s coming for me!
Lee Eunsol: Just hit the gas and shut up!
From a distance, the truck began to chase a silver car. It was clear the silver car had no control and started speeding aimlessly.
Cha Jinchul: If you keep going straight, you’ll crash into the wall! Turn the wheel!
Yu Songee: Where to?
Lee Eunsol: Right, right!
The silver car immediately turned ‘left.’
Lee Eunsol: No, crazy! That’s a wall too! Right!
Amidst the chaotic chase, the silver car finally swerved right at the last second, narrowly escaping the truck.
I realized then, despite the craziness of driving, the truck didn’t seem too swift or agile.
Cha Jinchul: Is it going for the nearest car?
Kim Mooksung: I’ll get closer and check!
After about ten seconds, the truck finally switched its target to other cars. Two vehicles that looked like they knew how to drive began circling around the truck, diverting its attention.
Thinking about the truck’s slow speed, those two cars should be able to stall for a while.
While the two were distracting the truck, we had to plan our moves.
Han Kain: If the bad drivers become targets, we’re done for! Move towards the edge of the arena now!
Lee Eunsol: Good idea. Let’s conserve our words from now on. We need strategy.
Han Kain: They call it bumper cars, but the size difference is just too great. If we collide, our cars will be the only ones that get wrecked.
Lee Eunsol: Agreed. Colliding isn’t an option.
Kim Ahri: I think we should try making the truck crash into the wall instead.
Lee Eunsol: Can we actually manage that?
Kim Mooksung: We’re not F1 drivers. It’s not that easy!
What the heck do we do now?
A brilliant plan didn’t exactly spring to mind. No matter how one looked at it, if we crashed into each other, we’d just get wiped out.
It felt impossible to guide the truck into a wall either since none of us was that great at driving.
Besides, would the truck driver be stupid enough to drive into the wall just because we tried to provoke him?
Out of curiosity, I peeked at the driver’s seat and noticed a person in there.
Wait, a person?
Han Kain: There’s someone in the truck’s driver’s seat!
Kim Mooksung: Well, of course, there’s someone in the car!
Han Kain: How about we shoot the driver? Anyone feel confident?
Kim Mooksung: …I hadn’t thought of that.
Thank goodness Grandpa Mooksung had brought his pistol with him before we entered the room, considering he had some shooting experience.
Was he confident in his shot? I wasn’t sure about his past, but I remembered him suggesting he had spent a lifetime on the battlefield.
Kim Mooksung: Jinchul! Get its attention for a moment.
Cha Jinchul: Got it.
The gray sedan soon approached the truck. As the truck turned towards it, it maintained a safe distance while leading the truck elsewhere.
So, Jinchul-hyung was in the gray car.
Kim Mooksung: Ready to shoot. Come to me.
Jinchul-hyung skillfully led the truck toward the black car. The window on the driver’s side of the black car rolled down, and Grandpa Mooksung leaned out.
Is it really going to end like this? Shooting the driver would solve the issue, right?
And as the truck, gliding by, shifted its target to the now-closer black car—
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots echoed consecutively through the air. Finally!
Kim Mooksung: Damn it! Bulletproof glass! That bastard—
The truck ran straight over the black car.
…
Just like that, one more person was eliminated. At the same time, we lost our conversation tab.
What do we do now?
Before we could even think, the truck moved on to choose its next “target.” This time, it was Park Seungyub, still struggling in his awkward position behind the wheel.
—Buuuuung!
A jolt rocked the ground, accompanied by a deafening noise filling the arena.
Just before crashing into the truck, somehow, Seungyub haphazardly moved the car, but avoided a complete collision.
Was it instinct? Seungyub opened his car door and jumped out.
The truck continued right over Seungyub’s car.
Crushing the car and ignoring the human?
That thought struck me like lightning. At the same moment, someone with the same realization yelled out across the arena.
“Everyone, get out of your cars!!!”
We all frantically bolted from our vehicles.
The theme of the first mission was bumper cars. Bumper cars are a game where cars crash into each other—not where you smash humans!
We were spot on.
The truck began demolishing our cars, completely disregarding us as we exited. After gathering together, Songee raised a question.
“If we just wait here, will we break the mission?”
“I don’t think so. We must find a way to stop that truck! We only have four cars left!”
“What happens if all our cars are smashed?”
“We… probably lose.”
…
The situation was crystal clear. If we just stand here without cars, we might avoid death at the hands of the truck, but there was no path to victory.
Bumper cars pit cars against each other. Whether we survived or not, the total annihilation of our vehicles would equate to our defeat.
What would happen if we lost? What about Grandpa Mooksung? Would that be it for him?
Thoughts of his demise began to pale our faces.
“We have to destroy it. We must take down that truck. We can’t let this end with the old man dying.”
“True, but do we have a physical way to destroy it? Songee, can you use your bracelet?”
“I’ve been trying,” she replied. “But the truck is enormous, the driver’s seat is too elevated, and it’s moving way too fast—which makes targeting the driver impossible.”
“Miss Elena. Can you use your Blessing of Justice?” Jinchul-hyung asked.
“I’ve also tried, but it’s impossible. I instinctively know that Grandpa Mooksung shot first. So…”
“The truck driver likely gets self-defense credit, so that isn’t counted as an evil act, huh? And the threat from the truck at the start isn’t seen as evil since it’s part of the bumper car game?”
That blessing seems ridiculous the more I hear about it. Now we’re down to just two cars. If it comes to it, Kain might have to descend and take care of that truck, right?
…
Descent. I recalled the sensation from before.
“Honestly, I’m confident I could take down even a thousand of those trucks.”
“That’s why we shouldn’t use Descent for something like this, it’s like using a dragon-slaying sword to kill a chicken.” A thought crossed my mind. “Let me give it a shot.”
“Hyeong?”
Jinchul-hyung strode forward purposefully without saying another word. Now we had only one car left.
Whatever he was planning to do, it was clear that he had to try something, so no one stopped him.
He headed straight toward the truck without a shred of hesitation. The monster truck had begun to turn towards its final target when—
Jinchul-hyung jumped nearly 5 meters up, clinging onto the driver’s seat!
Then, like a gorilla, he slammed his fist against the door and managed to somehow stumble into the driver’s seat.
“…”
“…”
“So we can break it like that, huh?”
“Wow, he’s really strong. That truck door is like solid steel. How did he crush it with just his fist? He’s definitely stronger than before.”
“Maybe he’s getting more accustomed to his blessing.”
And soon, the original driver of the truck was thrown out like a rag doll, while Jinchul-hyung calmly drove the truck directly into the arena’s outer wall.
/Mission 1. Real Life Bumper Car: Success! Congratulations. Would you like to proceed to the next mission?/
Oh, so you can decide whether to continue with the missions or not, huh? But at this point, we really had no choice.
The message from the beginning came back to my mind.
/If there is a survivor at the end of the attractions, everyone who died beforehand will be revived./
In other words, if we could not make it through all the missions, those who died would remain dead.
“Let’s move on.”
“We have no other options. We need to save Grandpa.”
*
As everyone moved forward in silence, the next alert appeared.
/2. Challenge: Human-eating Merry-go-round!
1! 2! 3! Start!
Human-eating Merry-go-round.
As soon as the dimensions stopped shaking and everything around me cleared, I found myself seated on a bizarre horse with an actual living head attached to its wooden body.
At that moment, the horse turned its head and started thrashing around, trying to eat me!
I felt an immediate urge to leap off the horse, but the ground beneath was even more alarming.
The entire surface was covered in sharp thorns that looked like they would pierce straight through me upon contact, and we were all rotating around atop the “human-eating merry-go-round” on those thorns.
What on earth are we supposed to do here?
While everyone was lost in confusion—
A voice full of excitement rang out from Jinchul-hyung.
“Wait! I can rip these heads off!”
Despite the chaos, I couldn’t help but look over at him after hearing such a wild proclamation. And there he was, actually yanking the head off the wooden horse!
Can we solve this mission through brute force too?
At that moment, a nagging doubt crept in.
“Is fighting and yanking heads off the way to clear a merry-go-round?”
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