### 126 – Room 107, The Gate Room – ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship’ (17)
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 45
Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (The Gate Room)
Wise Advice: 1
—
The crew members arrived to kidnap Pero.
Just as everyone was in a panic, Songee quick-wittedly managed to send Pero out through the window.
Ahri, with a curious expression, asked,
“Did you tell him to stay outside?”
“Yep.”
“Impressive reflexes in such a short time. But, how do we meet again?”
“I worry about that too. The situation was urgent, so I just told him to stay out. Pero is smart; he’ll probably come back at the right moment.”
Given he’s no ordinary parrot, I believe he has that level of intelligence.
The chaos that started in the morning finally calmed down.
We ordered room service and settled down for lunch.
Grandpa Mooksung said with a chuckle,
“Do you know one of the fun characteristics of this hotel?”
“What is it?”
“Almost never do they torment you by withholding food. The hotel itself always provides fantastic meals, and even in cursed rooms or this Gate Room, they find various excuses to keep you well-fed. This ship has a strange restriction — ‘don’t cross the line during the day,’ so we can enjoy our meals without trouble.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
“When you eventually start working for the Administration Bureau, you’ll realize how significant it is that they don’t torment you during meal times. When doing rough tasks, there are times when you end up chewing on just a few pieces of hard biscuits for three to four days straight.”
“I don’t plan on working for the Administration Bureau, you know…”
Grandpa just laughed good-naturedly. Ahri joined in the conversation.
“Worry about what comes next later. But hearing what Grandpa said does make me a little concerned.”
“Concerned?”
“We’ve been through all sorts of things in this hotel, but because we ate well as Grandpa said, we’re not too nervous about meals, huh? Turning that around, if they start messing with our food, it feels like we’ll surely be in for a rough time.”
At that, we all fell silent.
…
At least it seems there’s no problem with this meal.
To steer the conversation away from unsettling topics, Grandpa spoke again.
“By the way, not being able to use the inheritance is quite a stress. Did you see earlier? The staff member wielding just a single gun made it so hard to respond.”
“And there are so many armed staff on this ship.”
“Exactly. I still don’t quite know how the fourth trial will unfold, but if it leads to a fight, we’ll be severely outmatched. Just having Pero won’t cut it.”
Songee chimed in optimistically.
“But the crew and passengers are all humans, right? If it comes to it, can’t Elena big-sister take care of them all? I remember her using justice to stop bullets back during the Common Sense Renovating Media.”
Elena’s justice. Sure, if it’s Elena wielding it, I’d think a pistol wouldn’t be too much of a problem.
But could Elena use justice right now?
Looking at Elena, she seemed to catch my train of thought and answered right away.
“We’re in a group situation.”
That makes sense. Whether they are passengers or crew, everyone just gives off an eerie vibe, and we can’t really tell what kind of misdeeds have been done.
At the very least, they need to do something we can perceive as a wrongdoing for Elena to use justice.
Grandpa Mooksung stroked his chin and replied.
“We need to create a situation where Elena can use justice somehow.”
“Then we need evidence that the people on this ship did something wicked?”
“Exactly. Well, while we wait, they might just come at us. But waiting like that is dangerous. If we die before Elena can use justice, it’ll be a massacre.”
After finishing lunch, we decided to explore the facilities of the ship until the dinner party.
—
Only after we started wandering around the ship did we truly feel the massive size of it, as Grandpa had mentioned.
Restaurants and banquet halls were standard, and there were even a pool and a bowling alley, and even smaller-scale places like a botanical garden.
The scale was so enormous that it seemed impossible to thoroughly check everything within the allotted time.
We spent about two hours, casually exploring and just checking out the facilities.
Sitting in a park-like area, gazing at the vast sea and sky, we paused to catch our breath.
Ahri spoke up.
“Something feels odd.”
“What feels odd?”
“It’s so different from other cruises.”
“I’ve never been on a cruise before, so I have no idea what a typical cruise is like.”
“You don’t have to have been on a cruise to know this, you know? How should I say it? The interior and all feel a bit… off.”
What’s she getting at?
I was confused, but Elena understood Ahri’s point.
“The decor doesn’t seem modern, right? If you look closely, even the passengers’ outfits are similar.”
“This ship’s theme must be from a while back, maybe the 1950s?”
Grandpa Mooksung countered.
“I thought that at first, too, but look at this.”
He pulled out an old, yellowing newspaper he had found. The date on the newspaper read August 2003.
“It’s a 2003 newspaper, yet this looks so rotten. The stage’s time must be at least 2004 or 2005. Sure, it’s in the past compared to our time, but it’s not like it’s from the 1950s.”
Songee offered her thought.
“Could it have been drifting at sea for a really long time? Technically, the scenario is titled ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship,’ right? Maybe it’s a ghost ship that’s been floating on the sea for decades?”
“Seems unlikely to be a ghost ship. If it were, it would mean they are showing us some hallucinations, but even with the filter in place, the scenery hasn’t changed at all.”
—
Just then, other passengers passed by, prompting us to stop and think naturally.
The ship’s decor and the passengers’ outfits certainly seemed to show a decades-long time gap with the timeframe on stage. Had the Esper ship been drifting at sea for decades?
Thinking that way, the first story that came to mind was what Songee mentioned — a ghost ship, but it didn’t seem like there were any actual hallucinations.
With just this tidbit of information, the dinner party time started creeping closer.
As the time flowed, everyone began to get more and more anxious. I’d prefer to know nothing at all than to be in this situation. According to the scenario, the next crisis was set to crush down at midnight.
But still, we couldn’t figure out what the ship’s secret was, and the most significant powerhouse, Elena, was still unable to wield justice.
Was it the pressure of needing to do something?
Just before we departed for the party, Grandpa Mooksung threw out a radical idea.
“How about we stir things up at the party?”
Everyone turned to Grandpa in surprise.
“Don’t look at me like that. I feel suspicious about the ‘party’ itself. It’s not just a hunch. Kain keeps emphasizing the ‘dinner party’ in the scenario, and right from the first day on the ship, staff came to invite us to the dinner party. I even felt it just today.”
Thinking back to today’s events, when we had lunch and explored the ship, we casually encountered various crew members and passengers.
At every turn, the crew and passengers mentioned dinner party.
It felt as if they were hammering the ‘dinner party’ agenda into our heads.
Songee offered a slightly different take.
“The people on the ship are potential foes, right? If they were trying to push us into that party, wouldn’t it be better to avoid going?”
“I thought that way at first too. But if we don’t go to the party, we won’t learn whatever secret is hidden there. The hotel isn’t going to magically avoid the dangerous parts. Plus, the scenario even explicitly instructed us to gather information at the dinner party.”
As I listened, it stirred my curiosity a bit.
“I understand that the party seems suspicious. I understand that it’s suspicious but we still have to go. But how did you come to the conclusion that we should shake things up there?”
“Let’s just say it’s more of a gut feeling than logic. I feel like the party itself is their weak spot.”
Gut feeling. That’s a vague explanation. Normally, I wouldn’t be persuaded by such a statement.
But given that we’d confirmed a new crisis would hit at midnight, it’s about time we did something.
Eventually, everyone strangely decided to make waves at the party.
—
The dinner party began.
At first, it didn’t differ much from yesterday.
The passengers surrounded us, bombarding us with various gifts and awkward compliments, all the while shooting sharp questions our way.
Is the party’s purpose to gather information about us? Or something more?
For the time being, it seemed they were curious about my age and origin.
…
I had a bizarre experience. The passengers seemed eager about personal details, so I intentionally shared false information.
I had heard that Westerners often find it hard to guess the ages of Asians based just on appearance.
So, I added about 3 years to my age, claiming I was from Hunan, China.
I didn’t feel like they believed my answer. They smiled lightly, turning away only to come back for the same questions again.
It was like they realized the previous answers were lies.
Han Kain: Curious about age and origin. Tried lying, but they seem to know.
Yu Songee: Same experience. Didn’t answer age but said I was born in Japan; they didn’t swallow it.
Elena: Aren’t they all foolish? Leaving aside the detection, we’ve been conversing in Korean from the start.
Ah, that’s true.
Considering it, even though the ship’s staff and passengers had mixed ethnicities, they were definitely speaking Korean since the get-go.
If the conversation doesn’t connect, how would they gather information? It felt like the hotel defaulted to Korean as the language setting.
Anyway, being an Asian speaking Korean while claiming I was Chinese or Japanese wouldn’t be too believable.
Ahri voiced a different opinion.
Kim Ahri: Sure, the nationality could be off, but it’s strange that they can’t be misled about age.
True. While the nationality may be apparent due to the language, they’ve been accurate about age too.
It’s odd if they could discern my age to within plus or minus one or two years just from my appearance.
Eventually, we all gathered around a single table.
Like yesterday, every word I said and every action I took caused a reaction in the surrounding area.
Grandpa Mooksung slowly revved up the situation.
— Clatter~!
He slammed a bottle of alcohol down on the table, making a cacophony.
“Urghhh! I’m so drunk! Kain! Go get me a beer!”
Catching on to the mood, I rushed around, claiming I’d get snacks along with the alcohol.
The crew member, hiding his surprise, rushed towards us anxiously.
“Sir, it seems you’re quite intoxicated. Please—”
— Thud!
Grandpa shoveled the table, knocking over the crew member who was saying something.
Huh? Wait, did he just hit a crew member? Can we really go crazy like this?
— Swish! Thwack!
“Whoa!”
“Ah! What’s wrong with that guy?”
Grandpa smashed three more bottles, then began tossing round bread like frisbees at nearby passengers.
The crew and passengers were thrown into chaos as they approached our table.
Grandpa stood atop the table.
“Ah~ You’re such an unbelievable person~𝅘𝅥𝅮 Ah~ You’re such a careless person~𝅘𝅥𝅮”
I was completely flabbergasted, and the dialogue tabs started popping up.
Elena: Do we really have to go this far?
Yu Songee: When on earth will we get to the singing part?
Kim Ahri: By singer’s standards, it’s a latest hit.
In the midst of the chaos, everyone just gaped at Grandpa.
“Today’s the day of ‘the clear fragrance of the silver flower~𝅘𝅥𝅮 I’m a beauty like no other~𝅘𝅥𝅮”
Now, it was just hilarious. I started laughing just because it was so absurd.
“I’ve been waiting for you, the thistle flower~𝅘𝅥𝅮”
“Thistle flower!”
It was so ridiculous that when I looked back, Ahri was shouting ‘Thistle flower!’
“I’ve been waiting so long… for you, thistle flower~𝅘𝅥𝅮”
“Thistle flower!”
Aye, I don’t know anymore. I’ll join in with “Thistle flower!” too!
If something is bound to happen, it’s better to have some fun first; if nothing happens amidst this chaos, that would be more bizarre.
—
[Advice: 1 -> 0]
The crisis alert triggered.
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