Chapter 71: Room 101, Cursed Room – ‘Common Sense Renovating Media’ (5)
—
Fourth Attempt
—
Cha Jinchul
I was so shocked that I turned around, only to find the entire TV Station had vanished. All I could see were massive cliffs and a single rope connecting them. I precariously balanced on that rope.
On the other side, there was a girl.
…I think I get it. That girl must be the monster behind all this bizarre phenomenon. I just need to take her out!
I kicked off the rope and sprang into the air. About five seconds later, I landed near her.
Up close, she was quite the cute girl. She must be pretty popular in school, right?
Though, her expression was a bit unsettling. She stared at me like a mannequin without any emotion.
But I didn’t care. She was still a monster. One hit would suffice!
I brought my fist down.
…
Once again, the world crumbled around me.
Suddenly, I found myself in a jungle. Monkeys were attacking me from all sides.
With all my might, I flung the monkeys away. I obliterated one’s head with a punch, grabbed another by the leg, and smashed it into the ground. Then I caught two of them in my hands and popped them simultaneously.
After taking out about a dozen monkeys…
…
Everything collapsed again.
This time, the whole world was filled with rocky mountains. Boulders were everywhere, blocking my path in every direction. I swung my arms wildly, trying to clear a way forward.
At this rate, I’ll never be able to win. I’ve surely fallen into a bottomless abyss.
Could it be that girl from before? What on earth gives her all this power?
Bang! Bang!
I lowered my head.
An intense pain shredded through my chest.
…
My consciousness was fading.
In this nightmare, I felt myself vaguely waking up.
What is happening? So, am I…
—
Elena
I wiped the tears from my eyes, looking at the TV Station.
It resembled a war zone.
Over ten staff members lay crushed and torn apart, and Grandpa Mooksung was groaning in pain, his leg shattered.
Bang!
Meanwhile, Songee was going around checking off casualties.
I recalled what had just happened.
Jinchul, who couldn’t snap out of it until the end, had nearly killed Grandpa Mooksung, while I attempted to shoot his mother but failed miserably.
Just when I thought I was gone for good…
Songee arrived late and took over the situation.
With a flick of her wrist, Jinchul suddenly turned and ran in the opposite direction, tripping over himself and crashing into the walls.
Despite the staff and security rushing to stop him, they were all taken down.
At that moment, he was less of a human and more like a gorilla tossing people around. After watching King Kong level everything nearby, Songee approached with her gun and shot Jinchul, putting an end to the chaos.
Jinchul’s mother had long been a casualty amidst the turmoil, but he seemed oblivious to escaping the curse because of all the staff nearby, so Songee had to step in.
After that, Songee started wiping out everyone with her gun.
In my daze, a camera and microphone suddenly approached me.
“Hello! Is this Miss Elena Ivanova? I’m Producer Cha. We just received numerous reports about a rather amusing incident that happened live at the TV Station. Would you mind explaining what—”
Bang! Bang!
Oh! Oh! Oh! In the middle of all that, Songee shot the producer and cameraman dead.
If this were reality, it would be hard to kill everyone like that even with a gun, right?
I mean, people would at least try to escape.
Instead, in this cursed realm, death was treated as an event or show. They didn’t run. Even with someone next to them getting shot, they just smiled and waited for their turn.
…
A thought nagged at me: why was Jinchul-ssi so enraged despite being under the curse?
Killing someone’s mother surely wasn’t that big of a deal in a world this bizarre, right? I figured it’d be something people would chuckle about in line with the world’s so-called common sense, but maybe he just took filial duty too far.
“Be careful, unni.”
“…Ah, th-thank you.”
Songee moved closer to Grandpa Mooksung, who had managed to take care of his wounds somewhat.
“Can you hold on?”
“I patched up one leg, but the other one is completely shot. I need support.”
“Just rest. I’ll deal with the cleanup.”
After that, Songee proceeded to gather blood from the corpses around and kept making sure everyone was dead.
Watching her, Grandpa muttered, “We’ve got a top-notch junior agent here, huh? Is this the norm for young folks today? I guess I worried too much.”
…
Someone entered the TV Station.
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 23
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 101 (Cursed Room – Common Sense Renovating Media)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
Honestly, it feels like I’m the one doing everything in this room! I think I gathered all the information and did most of the exploration myself, right?
Isn’t it time I got an Inheritance or something?
Next time I see that stupid owl at the Sanctuary of Blessings, I’m going to show off my Inheritance and give it a piece of my mind.
I’m already feeling excited. And I discovered a lot of new things in this attempt too!
I might not know what kind of powers the villain possesses, but I have a decent idea of who he is and what the overall scenario looks like.
As I was lost in such delightful thoughts, the dreadful time spent in the taxi flew by.
I have so much information to share with everyone.
Like a breadwinner returning home with pizza or chicken after payday, I arrived at the TV Station with a big smile.
?
??
???
What’s going on? Why does the TV Station look like a battlefield?
My mind went completely blank from shock.
—
What in the world is happening?
After finally arriving at the TV Station and hearing the explanation from my colleagues, I was left speechless.
So…
It appears Jinchul’s mom came with him. He probably planned to visit the TV Station solo when he was sane, but somehow she persuaded him to come along while he was under the curse.
This led to all this chaos no one saw coming.
Thanks to that, Jinchul is dead; Grandpa Mooksung can hardly move due to an injured leg, and it’s just the three of us left—Elena, Songee, and me.
We gathered in the half-destroyed TV Station.
“…”
“…”
“What do you think we should do now?”
“It seems we have to try again. There’s a massive gap in our firepower since that stupid boar bit the dust.”
Elena expressed her concerns.
“But Grandpa, this is our fourth attempt already. I heard things get tougher from the fifth attempt onwards.”
“Well, what can we do? We have to give it our all.”
“Are you sure you can move, sir?” I asked.
“You need to tell us straight.”
“I can’t move unless someone helps me.”
His answer hung in the air, until Songee bridged the silence.
“Then, Grandpa, how about you just head out of the TV Station and try to escape? The reason it’s still considered a struggle despite none of your family being around is probably because you’re still in the building. I reckon if you step outside and walk for about 10 minutes, it’ll count as a successful escape.”
“Let’s go with that. It’s probably better than me being a hindrance.”
“Wait for us outside, sir. We’ll gather as much info as we can, and if possible, take care of everything.”
“Do well. Right, I know we’ll hear it when we’re outside anyway, but did you dig anything up online?”
Was I the only one who genuinely researched? Everyone’s looks turned my way with curiosity.
“First off, I have no idea how the curse kicked off, but I figured out who and why it happened.
In Shin Dong High School, there was a student named Kim Sangmin. Based on some articles I stumbled across, he went through some severe bullying. Eight students were mostly responsible for his harassment.
After enduring the torment, he sought help outside the school, even suing them, with his parents supporting him fiercely.
Yet, they lost the case. The articles suggest the court ruled that he was imagining nonexistent bullying due to a mental illness, but some sources pointed out that this mental illness might stem from the extreme bullying he faced.
Essentially, it turned into a dispute of whether he developed a mental disorder from bullying or if the bullying was simply a product of his imagination, with the latter being favored in court, resulting in him being sent to a hospital.”
“And how does the TV Station fit into this?”
“The main reason the victim lost his case was the news. An ABS reporter went in and reported that the victim actually had a history of mental illness and was prone to causing chaos at school, meaning other students were actually the victims. His articles were used as evidence in the trial.”
“Sounds like the court might’ve been right, no? Sangmin could’ve genuinely been off his rocker; he may have caused chaos at school and even deluded himself into thinking he was the target of bullying.”
“You have a point. I don’t know what’s true, but in this scenario, the villain looks like Kim Sangmin, so I’m just explaining things from his perspective. The main thing is, we need to find out where he is hiding and what he’s up to.”
“Go on,” Grandpa Mooksung urged. “I follow you about the TV Station bit. How does New World Hospital come into this?”
“After losing in court, Kim Sangmin began therapy at the New World Hospital, which seemed to trigger favorable media coverage for him. You could say he started building alliances.
New World Hospital specialized in psychiatric care, with the head doctor directly treating Kim Sangmin. During treatment, he heard the patient’s side and seemed to have been somewhat persuaded by him.
Thus, the doctor took the victim’s side, claiming ‘the perpetrators’ cruel torment caused the victim’s mental illness.’ Since such claims were made by a renowned hospital director, several pieces of press followed.
Then suddenly, the hospital disappeared, and three days later, the world went to hell.”
“The hospital vanished?”
“Yes. It was a major incident just three days before everything went haywire. The whole building just disappeared.”
“Is that when Kim Sangmin might have gained his supernatural power?”
“Probably?”
After I wrapped up my explanation, everyone began deep in thought.
“So you suspect this incident was caused by that kid named Kim Sangmin?”
“Exactly. That explains the tortured students underneath, and why both the hospital and TV Station ended up getting involved.”
“Alright, assuming he sees the underground students, the TV Station, and this entire world as tools for revenge, why was the hospital the first target? From Sangmin’s view, isn’t the hospital one of his few allies? Why did he turn it strange? From what you said, it seems the nurses and patients have become monsters, right?”
“That one needs more digging. He could have just lost his marbles.”
“That’s a classic story. Figuring out who the villain is seems less significant. The important question is how an ordinary high school kid managed to bring the world to its knees.”
“Do you think there’s someone else who granted him that supernatural power?”
“Who knows? There may be someone else involved, or that kid might have stumbled upon a powerful artifact that he couldn’t control.”
“So, where do we search next, oppa?” Songee asked.
“Probably the upper floors of the TV Station, right?”
“What are we supposed to look for?”
“I’ll tell you exactly what you have to find,” said Grandpa Mooksung. “You only need to concentrate on one thing: find that brat Kim Sangmin, the one suspected to be behind all this nonsense.
He’s likely hiding somewhere in this TV Station or that disappearing hospital accessible through the TV Station. If possible, kill him, and if that feels impossible, we can return with everyone next time and finish him.”
After the talk ended, Grandpa Mooksung sighed before heading out of the TV Station.
Left behind were just the three of us.
Our mission was to scour the upper floors of the TV Station and the vanished hospital accessible through the Station, tracking down the villain behind this incident.
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