Chapter: 57
57 – Room 106, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Land of Hope’ (4)
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 21
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 106 (Mission Room – Hotel Land of Hope)
Sage’s Advice: 0]
…
I was flustered. “Mom.”
I thought this body looked a bit different from Ahri’s, but I never imagined it would actually belong to someone completely different. I assumed this was just Ahri’s original appearance, and that the current look was just her having dyed her hair or something.
When I touched the picture of someone else, I completely transformed into that person, but why is it only when I touched Ahri’s picture that I turned into her mom?
<29:28>
I decided to toss those thoughts aside. These things are usually meant to be pondered later when there’s more time, right?
Besides, the current situation isn’t too bad. Whatever it is, doesn’t it seem like Ahri trusts “my current appearance”?
I suppressed my bewilderment and tried my best to mimic “Ahri’s mom.”
So, I opened my arms wide and smiled as broadly as possible, saying, “Come here, my daughter~” or something like that?
I stood there with that feeling, trying to keep my mouth moving.
Phew…
Ahri let out a big sigh, looking rather disappointed.
Was my acting that awkward?
—Crash!
It didn’t seem like a failure, though. While I was hesitating, Ahri shattered the glass and crossed over.
“I did it! That makes two of us out! Now we just need to get Jincheol-hyung and Elena out. Ahri, you should go rest beside me.”
“…”
Next is Jincheol-hyung. Who should I transform into to get the best result? Should I go for Ahri’s look again with a twist of mysteriousness?
For some reason, I was starting to feel rather amused.
I approached the mirror leading to Jincheol-hyung and turned my hands behind my waist, mimicking an absent expression when—
—Pfft!
A fist came flying at me.
“I don’t act like that.”
“Gah! You scared me! It had that similar vibe, didn’t it?”
“Not at all.”
“Hyung, it was totally not similar.”
“Then how about I twist my lips a bit to make it more mysterious?”
“Are you trying to rescue Jincheol-hyung, or are you trying to make fun of me?”
“…”
Let’s think about this more seriously. How can we rescue Jincheol-hyung?
I tried various dance moves in front of the mirror while mimicking Ahri’s look.
But all I got was Ahri’s deepening sighs in response.
Ahri, while watching this, just pushed me away and tried to do something herself.
However, the mirror wasn’t reflecting Ahri at all.
I went back and tried various lively poses while calling her over.
Jincheol-hyung was just staring with a look that seemed to say, “What’s going on?” but didn’t come closer.
“Try thinking of Jincheol-hyung’s character and act it out.”
“Character?”
“Honestly, I’d like to do whatever I want, but it seems like only the ‘first person who escaped’ can rescue someone. So let me share my thoughts. Transform into Elena and smear fake blood on your lips, acting like you’re half-dead. Jincheol-hyung will definitely come out.”
…
Pretending to be a dying Elena, that’ll definitely hit home with him.
<19:44>
Wow, I spent way too much time thinking.
After touching Elena’s photo, following Ahri’s coaching, I smeared blood from a syringe on my mouth and purposefully gave myself some injuries, pretending to be gravely injured like Elena.
After about a minute of pouring my heart into the acting in front of the mirror—
—Crash!
Jincheol-hyung, who couldn’t bear to see the dying Elena, broke through the mirror.
“…”
He looked exactly like Ahri when he saw me and his expression froze.
“Hyung, you also go over there. We just need to rescue Elena now.”
“D… did you just pretend to be Elena?”
“Go over there for an explanation.”
“… You did well.”
His expression didn’t look grateful; it seemed like he wanted to hit me. But he looked like he was forcing himself to hold it in because of the situation.
I felt like this was strangely unfair.
If you think about it, I was the one who put in the effort and was the first to escape to rescue everyone, yet no one is thankful and everyone seems to be angry!
Finally, I moved to the mirror where Elena’s reflection was and thought.
Which form should I take to persuade Elena easily?
Should I mimic Ahri, who came to rescue her in a mysterious way? Should I impersonate the stalwart Jincheol-hyung? Or transform into Seungyub to play the pitiful card?
Somehow, nothing seemed just right.
Elena, who is always beautiful, kind, and sweet, yet reveals almost nothing about her inner feelings, doesn’t she? When you think about it, everyone hides their inner selves, but with her, it feels like there’s an extra wall in her heart.
I didn’t know.
For now, I transformed into Ahri and tried various movements to get her to come over.
She didn’t budge. She seemed to regard me as no different from the monsters reflected in other mirrors, showing no response whatsoever.
Next, I transformed into Seungyub and tried something—
But Elena completely moved out of my reflection’s line of sight. Did she think the mirror was the most dangerous?
As she turned away in apparent refusal to communicate, my methods vanished.
…
While I was panicking and unsure of what to do, others began to gather around me to brainstorm.
“Is there any way to call her? Have you tried yelling?”
“Voices don’t pass through the mirror.”
“How about transforming into herself?”
“Regardless of what you turn into, she’s completely gone from the mirror’s view. She’s not visible at all.”
<9:23>
Less than 10 minutes remained.
There’s no plan.
After moving beyond the mirror’s view, Elena completely ignored my reflection. I could occasionally catch glimpses of her passing by, but no matter how much I looked, she seemed to be wandering aimlessly through a maze.
<5:17>
When there were 5 minutes left, Elena discovered a mirror that didn’t reflect her.
That mirror was simply a trap hiding a monster. Would Elena be able to comprehend that?
She didn’t understand. Elena, seemingly thrilled to have finally found a safe mirror, smashed it…
Let’s forget the next scene. It shocked everyone quite a bit. Watching a comrade brutally die right in front of me isn’t something one gets used to, no matter how many times it happens.
The only consolation was that the Mirror House wasn’t particularly physically challenging, so after being weakened in the Gyro Drop, both Ahri and Jincheol-hyung seemed to have recovered somewhat.
As of now, the survivors were:
Han Kain, Cha Jincheol, Kim Ahri, Park Seungyub.
*
/Mission 4. Real? Fake? Success in the Mirror Room! Congratulations. Shall we proceed to the next mission?/
*
/Mission 5. The Blue Dragon Train departing from space.
Congratulations to all participants who reached Mission 5! Our train is scheduled to depart from space. In preparation, we will ride a rocket to soar into space, so please take your seats in the correct position.
Starting in 30 seconds!/
What kind of crazy nonsense is this? Departing from space? Amidst that, one phrase suddenly caught my attention.
“Take your seats in the correct position.” Starting in 30 seconds.
Having been through the Gyro Drop once, I understood now. The positioning itself was crucial.
The space began to tremble again.
And at some point, I found myself inside a spaceship.
*
30!
“What’s going on? What’s going on? What are we supposed to do???”
“Can you please be quiet! But seriously, where are we supposed to go?”
27!
A spacious area with four people. Looking outside, it was literally a facility for launching spaceships.
25!
“Should we move somewhere? It doesn’t feel like we should just stay still.”
“There are a few doors over there!”
23!
“There are four doors! Which one do we go through?”
“Let’s split up!”
“Split up??”
“I don’t know which is the right place, so if we all split up, someone might survive. I’m going this way!”
19!
In a moment, everyone rushed into small rooms. There wasn’t even a chance to consider each other.
I… let me think a little more.
16!
This is a spaceship. How does a spaceship fly? In the first place, if you’re just in a spaceship, aren’t you already going to space? Why can’t we be in a specific place?
14!
I realized it.
13!
I rushed into the room next to me and pulled Seungyub out. Without giving him a chance to talk, I tossed him back into the main center area.
“Hyung???”
“Stay there! You have to stay there for sure!”
8!
Next was Ahri, who went into the room across. I tried to pull her out with all my strength, and she followed me willingly.
“What did you figure out?”
“Stay in the middle!”
5!
This is bad. I couldn’t even pull Jincheol-hyung out.
“Hyung, get out for sure! That’s not the right place!”
“What?”
“Just get out already!”
2!
With 2 seconds left, everyone returned to the original place. All of them looked at me with confused expressions.
Launch!
The spaceship took off. At the same time, the doors leading to the small rooms locked shut.
About a minute must have passed after the launch? From the small rooms, there were clattering noises, and then they were all separated from the spaceship.
Of course, that was what happened. Once the spaceship launched, the propulsion units that powered the spaceship would separate.
Thus, we didn’t even need to move. We had been in the correct position from the beginning.
*
“So, we just had to stay where we originally were, huh?”
“That’s right. All those small outer rooms were traps. They were all paths leading to the propulsion system.”
“Then why did they say to find the correct position and gave us 30 seconds?”
“It was obviously a trap.”
“I’m seriously getting more tired as time goes on. I thought we needed to scatter to survive at least a few of us. We were almost all killed.”
“It’s odd, but since we got here, it seems that Kain-hyung’s brain has gotten smarter than usual.”
“Smarter than usual?”
“…”
“No. Kain must have already been smart to begin with.”
“Do you really need to tag on an ‘probably’?”
“In any case, good job. Is this the end?”
“This isn’t even close to the end, right? The mission’s name is ‘Blue Dragon Train Departing from Space,’ and we haven’t even boarded the train yet. We just launched into space.”
“Ha. Let’s take a break. I’m seriously dead tired.”
*
After moving through the vastness of space for quite some time, we arrived at the train station.
“Now, once we board this, does that mean the Blue Dragon Train will start?”
“It was quite the journey just to get here, but what do you think will happen once we board the train?”
“Everyone, let’s keep our wits about us.”
I looked around. Almost everyone had an endlessly tired expression.
At least, the mirror’s room wasn’t particularly physically draining, so I managed to recover some stamina. The problem is the others.
With merely an hour of rest, Ahri had already lost a lot of blood. Jincheol-hyung still trembled with every step.
We were slowly reaching our limits. I had a feeling that today would be more difficult than any other day.
In the innermost part of the station, the Blue Dragon Train was prepared.
“Let’s try to anticipate what might happen before departure. We need to be mentally prepared.”
“I can already see a visible danger.”
“Ahri-unnie? What looks dangerous to you?”
“It’s a Blue Dragon Train that runs through space, but it’s open to the outside. Just thinking about it, I can’t figure out how we’re supposed to breathe.”
“Gah! If we are exposed to space, won’t we explode and die?!”
“How old are you and still bringing up stories from classic movies like Total Recall? You won’t explode if you go into space, and unless you stay for a ridiculously long time, you won’t freeze to death. It’s before that that you’ll die from not being able to breathe.”
“Eh? Why—”
“Okay, okay! Let’s set aside the science talk for now. Seems like how we’ll breathe is going to be the problem. The train has started making noises, so let’s hurry up and board.”
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