Chapter: 123
### 123 – Room 107, The Gate Room – ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship’ (14)
—
– Han Kain
Only one person can be revived.
Who has the more useful ability between Songee and Seungyub?
“Elena, what do you think?”
“I think you should choose, Kain.”
Hmm. With Elena casually passing the decision to me, Grandpa Mooksung and Ahri also turned their gaze my way.
This is a bit burdensome.
I carefully weighed the pros and cons of both their abilities.
Songee’s biggest strength is the endless utility of her bracelet, her exceptional control over Pero, and the blessing that proves to be extremely effective against monster-type foes.
However, her downside is that she might not be able to use her bracelet in the next trial, and her blessing is practically useless if the enemy isn’t a monster.
When comparing Songee and Seungyub one-on-one, it was tough to pick who’s better. But judging by our remaining survivor team, the choice became pretty clear.
“I think we need Songee more right now.”
Ahri turned her head toward me. I continued explaining.
“Our current survivors are me, Elena, Grandpa Mooksung, and Ahri—four of us. What’s our weakness? With Jinchul out, we lack physical combat strength. The hotel is full of enemies that are hard to tackle with just guns, and my divine descent and Elena’s justice have serious limitations.”
Grandpa Mooksung chimed in with an agreeing remark.
“That airhead can compensate for that weakness pretty well.”
“Exactly! Remember that time Pero went berserk? If Jinchul hadn’t been there to knock that rampaging Pero away, we’d have been in major trouble! The grotesque Pero was quite the monster. Songee’s control over Pero is extremely useful for us.”
Ahri seemed a bit hesitant.
“While it’s true that Songee compensates for the team’s weaknesses, is Pero the only basis for that?”
“There’s one more thing. I think the combination of Elena’s and Songee’s blessings works pretty well.”
Elena, who was listening next to me, nodded.
“That’s right. We talked about this before. Basically, if it’s a human enemy, my blessing is useful; if it’s a monster, then Songee’s blessing kicks in. Of course, there are times when both blessings don’t work… a lot, actually.”
With that, Ahri conceded.
In the end, we decided to revive Songee.
… But I definitely need to let Seungyub know that Ahri argued strongly for him!
*
[User: Han Kain (Former Wisdom)
Date: Day 44
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 107 (The Gate Room)
Sage’s Advice: 0]
– Han Kain
I woke up in the resting area. Songee noticeably revived and looked around with astonished eyes, taking in the situation.
“Did you bring me back?”
Elena stepped closer to Songee.
“Yep! We all thought we really needed you back!”
Ahri twitched a bit.
“Ha ha! Well, it’s not entirely true—”
‘Ahri said Seungyub was probably more needed than you!’
The thought abruptly got interrupted when Ahri kicked my leg.
I checked the status window while my companions started celebrating their joyful reunion.
It was nice to have the blessing and status window back, but naturally, this idiot’s advice count was still at 0.
That owl has wasted all the advice he had to offer with some meaningless guidance.
It’ll take time for the advice to refill, and the Jekyll and Hyde game ended so quickly after all that stress, making it hard to accumulate more.
Can I use the scenario now? There are three hours left until the next trial.
Grandpa Mooksung stepped towards the center of the room.
“Attention for a moment!”
“Do you have something to say?”
“I’ve been holding onto this for a while since the timing wasn’t right, but I think it’s time to think about it now.”
As he opened his hand, a ‘red pill’ appeared.
Elena’s eyes widened as she exclaimed.
“Ah! We had that pill! I completely forgot about it. I didn’t even think about it since I handed it over to Jinchul!”
“The timing hadn’t been right before. When Jinchul collapsed, I kept it with me, and since then, it’s just been awkward to use. I thought about using it in the Jekyll and Hyde game, but I didn’t think this pill would stop Hyde. Isn’t Hyde more of a mental attack?”
“Who should we have carry that pill now?”
“Well, I don’t really know.”
Just as we were pondering over the pill on the table, Songee suddenly reacted strangely.
“Uh? Uh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Something with Pero—”
—Flap!
Before anything could happen, Pero, perched on Songee’s shoulder, took off and swallowed the red pill whole.
…
??????
“AAAHHHH!”
“Kyaaaah!”
“That damn bird! That crazy bird just—”
“Shut up, Mooksung! Elena! Capture that bird! Kain! Open that bird’s beak! If we get it out now—”
The whole team went berserk!
The only one trying to keep everyone’s cool made an effort to calm everyone down.
“Everyone~! Please listen to me for a second!”
“Bring it on! I’m going to pluck every feather from that bird today!”
“Do we have something like tweezers? Kain, you need to shove your finger in its beak and pry it open!”
“Why is this bird clamping its beak so tight? Is it not opening? I’ll possess it with the grimoire and force it to regurgitate! First—”
“SHUT UP, PLEASE!” Songee’s shout echoed through the resting area.
Finally, everyone settled down.
…
“Uh, Songee?”
“Pero must have used some special power.”
“What does that mean?”
“Just now, Pero didn’t show any reaction. But the moment he saw that red pill…”
Suddenly, Songee became silent. Unable to hold back, Ahri asked.
“At the moment?”
“What happened, what happened?”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘what happened’?”
“A tremendous thought filled Pero’s mind? A massive amount of info poured into Pero? Something strange happened with Pero, and then he suddenly rushed at the pill and swallowed it.”
“What the heck does that even mean?”
“Honestly, I’m not really sure myself.”
So, we all just fell silent.
Anyway, it seems that that bird didn’t just eat the red pill out of boredom or because it was hungry.
Our Pero, who hatched from a golden egg, might still possess some hidden ability?
After a moment of chaos, we were all tired and leaned against the wall to rest.
Pero came up to me and started biting me without mercy.
“Why does it keep biting me?”
“Because it doesn’t like you.”
“Why does it always dislike me?”
“Is that even a question? You keep possessing it for flying practice and injuring it, and just a while ago, you tried to shove your finger in its beak! Isn’t it weirder that it would like you?”
“That finger incident was your idea!”
“But Pero doesn’t know that I told you to do it.”
…
I started feeling oddly uncomfortable.
Only after Songee took Pero away did I manage to rest.
*
[User: Han Kain (Former Wisdom)
Date: Day 44
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 107 (The Gate Room)
Sage’s Advice: 0]
– Han Kain
When I regained my senses, we found ourselves standing in an incredibly lavish room.
Grandpa Mooksung and I were dressed in a very vintage tuxedo style.
Ahri, Songee, Elena, and the others were all in beautiful dresses that made it hard to take my eyes off them, with soft fur shawls draped over their shoulders.
Is this some kind of party vibe?
Ahri reacted weirdly.
“This dress is styled from way back…”
Old style? I don’t get it. Since it’s a western-style suit, I felt completely confused.
I checked the scenario first.
/Scenario: The Gate Room – ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship’
The hotel’s group has awakened on a magnificent luxury passenger ship. Beautiful music can be heard. A staff member entered to announce the dinner party. Let’s collect information by attending the party.
The next content will be confirmed at midnight./
The music around us started to play.
Classical? It seemed like it was being played live, not just a recorded track.
So, it’s a lavish passenger ship? Dinner party? Staff member?
—Ding! Ding! Ding!
I quickly shared the info with my companions.
“This place is a luxury passenger ship. A staff is probably coming soon, telling us to participate in a dinner party.”
“A luxury passenger ship? Are you talking about a cruise?”
“Seems like it. Anyone ever been to a place like this?”
The rest just tilted their heads, while the Administration Bureau team reacted ambiguously.
“I’ve been here during a mission, but I’ve never experienced it normally. I ended up infiltrating to take care of a crazy monster that showed up.”
—Ding Dong!
A bell chimed as a door opened, and a staff member walked in.
According to the scenario’s description, the staff briefed us on the room and the dinner party details.
The staff member repeatedly stressed,
“You may dress comfortably in the room, but please adhere strictly to the dress code for the party. What you’re wearing now is perfectly fine.”
As soon as the staff left, we started discussing.
—Ding! Ding! Ding!
Grandpa Mooksung was the first to speak.
“It’s suspicious that they keep stressing the dress code, isn’t it? Should we wear something different and go? What do you think?”
Ahri replied.
“If it’s a formal party, matching the dress code is standard. There doesn’t always have to be a suspicious reason for that.”
I also had some questions.
“With still three hours until the dinner party, what should we do until then? Explore the ship?”
Elena cautiously suggested.
“Even if we do explore, shouldn’t we stick together? I’m worried something might happen. Kain, does the scenario show any changes?”
“Nope. It just says to attend the dinner party and check the next details at midnight. It seems like the real action starts with the dinner party, but we need to do something before then.”
Ahri chimed in.
“Let’s dig around inside the room a bit before heading outside. Something might come up.”
With those words, we all started to wander around the room.
—Ding! Ding! Ding!
…
“Everything’s fine, but why is Pero sticking to the wall and doing that since earlier?”
Pero had been glued to the wall and was incessantly pecking at it.
Songee replied with a puzzled tone.
“He seems a bit restless. It’s not that small of a space…”
If it were a regular bird, I’d have brushed it off as normal animal behavior, but given that it’s no ordinary bird, I was curious about what could be causing it.
“Is that a music box? It’s a really old style. One that was popular before World War II…”
Ahri’s voice sounded from a distance as she found something.
Hearing Ahri brought back those nagging doubts I’d had earlier about her.
During the time we all shared our feelings, I learned some information about Ahri.
There was one contradiction in her common behaviors that seemed incompatible.
… Should I even ask about that?
Suddenly, my mind felt tangled, and I got tired.
The fourth trial, ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship’…
This ship is packed with secrets. I have a feeling this trial won’t be typical either.
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