### Chapter 205 – Party Time – Final Meeting (1)
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– Lee Eunsol
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With those words, a sense of tension began to fill the room for the first time in a while. It had been a long time since we stepped into the cursed room. Usually, we were supposed to dive into the next cursed room within 2 to 3 days after solving the previous one, but this time, we had a 3-day rest period overlapping with the hell of a maze, so the break felt particularly long.
“Room 104, Hotel High School. Do you all remember? Me, Grandpa, and Jinchul played the ‘Teacher’ roles, while the rest were students.”
“Sorry, but I don’t really understand what you’re talking about.”
Kim Sanghyun had never experienced Room 104. Everyone reminisced and summarized what happened there for him.
We started as teachers and students in a bizarre system where daily quizzes and physical tests pushed students to their limits, and the ones who failed were sent to the Old Main Building, where they constantly swapped places in fear.
Did he forget or something? Seungyub, who had been listening intently, spoke up, his expression showing disbelief.
“Isn’t the scenario going to change like it did in the Mansion of Horror? We have new characters now.”
Ahri seemed unconvinced.
“Isn’t the situation different this time? Back then, we had both me and Grandpa as NPCs, so a major plot change was inevitable. This time, there’s no narrative link between the hotel doctor and Hotel High School.”
“Is that so?”
“It seems that only Kim Sanghyun’s role will be added to Hotel High School. For example, as the math teacher?”
Kim Sanghyun nodded.
“That seems likely. I suppose I will participate as a teacher.”
Grandpa, wanting to ensure nothing was forgotten, wrote large on the whiteboard.
“Don’t forget this, everyone.”
‘ㅁ teaches ㅁㅁ about the father.’
A hint we got from Room 106. The meaning of it still hadn’t fully revealed itself. As we officially began the meeting, Elena spoke with concern.
“Is it really okay to hold this meeting without Kain? Regardless of giving him the conclusions tomorrow, he hasn’t been playing a small role.”
It seemed Elena didn’t quite understand why I told Kain to take a break. Glancing around, I found Ahri and Grandpa wearing awkward smiles. They indeed picked up on subtleties quickly.
“Cough. Ahem.”
“Grandpa wants to speak.”
“Elena, Kain actually needs to be absent from this meeting. It’s a good time for him to rest since he’s unwell, but even if he were fine, he should take the day off.”
Hearing this, Elena suddenly seemed to realize something.
“Oh! I forgot what the greatest threat in Room 104 was!”
“What? What?”
To help clarify Seungyub’s confusion, Ahri explained.
“The reason we felt uneasy about Room 104 was because of the strange characteristics of the descendent god that caused the drop in value. It’s completely different from the inheritance. When Kain used the descent ability, he felt like a proud angel manifesting through a human body. In other words…”
“It felt like Kain was controlling it. We worry that the same thing might happen in Room 104. So, one of the biggest risks in 104 is Han Kain, and of course, he shouldn’t know our plans.”
“Oh! That’s right… Should we really go into such a room?”
As Seungyub grasped the situation, his expression turned anxious, and he started showing signs of not wanting to go to Room 104. The hotel that works tirelessly to instigate disputes among us, could Room 104 be the ultimate endgame?
Ahri cut through the tension concisely.
“That’s why we’ve avoided Room 104 all this time. However, we now have a penalty from the overuse of Wise One’s advice. We need to enter at least once to push that penalty onto Room 104.”
Ahri’s stance was clear-cut. They weren’t going in to solve Room 104; they planned to offload the penalty onto it as a strategy.
At this point, I weighed in again.
“Alright! Whether we solve Room 104 or use it as a throwaway card, we need to go there and do something. We have three things to think about. First, what’s the meaning of the hint? Second, how do we escape? Third, what’s our strategy regarding Han Kain?”
Songee answered immediately.
“I’ve been thinking: the first letter must be ‘daughter,’ right?”
“I can’t think of another word. By context, the ‘father’ would refer to ‘lord,’ right? There’s someone in Room 104 who could be called father.”
“Aurelia, the guide. If we interpret ‘father’ as the lord, the first letter will definitely refer to the daughter, Aurelia.”
Ahri countered as if to challenge that idea.
“Don’t jump to conclusions with what we currently know about Room 104. Once we go in, there could be other unidentified beings that show up.”
“That makes sense. Let’s just say the first letter is the daughter, and the target likely is Aurelia. Now, what about the second letter, ‘ㅁㅁ 하는 법’? What could it be?”
Everyone wore puzzled expressions. There were too many candidates. From the daughter-father relationship, there could be one or two words.
“Honestly, we have quite a few candidates, right?”
Kim Sanghyun, who had been quiet, finally spoke up.
“With the current state, any word thrown in could make sense. You could put ‘trust’ in there to imply breaking that trust, or ‘love’ to suggest using that love. Can I share my thoughts?”
“From now on, just say it. You’re one of us.”
“Thanks! For the second word, let’s not be definitive. We don’t have enough information to finalize that yet.”
Cha Jinchul agreed.
“I share the same sentiment. If we guess a vague word and it turns out wrong, we could end up continuously second-guessing ourselves with incorrect words.”
“Alright then. Let’s drop the discussion about the second word. Moving on to the next topic: escape scenarios. First, could Ahri summarize the experience from the first escape attempt?”
Ahri took a moment to gather her thoughts and recounted the past events. Even listening in again, it was quite the entertaining tale.
Kain had infiltrated as a surrogate teacher and confronted Aurelia, stabbing her to immobilize her. Meanwhile, Ahri had used hypnosis to cause chaos within the school, even starting a massive fire, then reported it herself. When the firefighters and police arrived, they abandoned any thoughts about catching Ahri, and just as her chances of returning to school crumbled, the escape scenario activated.
Once she provided a rough summary, Ahri offered her opinion again.
“I think we can pull off the escape similarly this time. The cult from the Old Main Building is a secretive organization; they can’t handle overwhelming incidents that shock the world.”
Kim Sanghyun, who had been focusing, made a sharp observation.
“That’s an excellent and creative plan! However, is there a way to secure the escape of one person more quickly? You know, if we manage to get one person out immediately, the rest can explore the cursed room safely.”
His reasoning was valid. It was similar to the tactics we had used in the ‘Common Sense Renovating Media’. After Seungyub had escaped right at the start, we explored the broadcasting station and hospital.
If we could apply the same method in Room 104, that would be great… What escape methods could we have ready to use right off the bat?
Seungyub carefully opened his mouth.
“I have a slightly outlandish suggestion.”
“That’s fine. In a crazy place, the crazier the suggestion, the better it often works.”
“Should I just start punching the students around me?”
Kim Sanghyun tilted his head.
“Wouldn’t that just get you caught as a surrogate teacher?”
“It would exceed the level of school discipline. I mean hitting them hard enough to put them on the verge of death.”
“Aha! Cause a scene so big that the police come on the very first day?”
“Exactly.”
“If this were Earth, I’d think Seungyub really needs an honest consultation based on his current conversation, but considering it’s a hotel, it makes me think Seungyub is quite clever.”
“Thank you…”
At this, Cha Jinchul also began to chime in.
“Ah, are you getting at something along those lines? I could also manage something like that if I put my mind to it, but it wouldn’t be advisable for me to do so.”
“Not just you, but it’d be a problem if anyone holding a legacy did that. You should stay behind and dig into the mysteries of the surrogate teachers.”
“Let’s prepare various escape methods. Seungyub will give that first punch, and Grandpa?”
“Should I smack one of the teachers too?”
“Grandpa, if you throw a teacher out of this window with that arm, the police SWAT team will be knocking on the hotel door.”
“Sounds perfect.”
Songee threw in a slightly different opinion.
“Listening to this, I don’t think just bringing in outside forces would be detrimental to our escape. The cult of Hotel High School is quite mindful of public authority in that world.”
“How do you suggest we do that?”
“For instance, I could create the illusion of a pathway out the window, causing the students to collectively jump out of the window.”
Slowly, Kim Sanghyun began to naturally participate in our discussions.
“Can I also give it a shot? For example, I could subtly mess with the muscles of 5 or 6 people passing by, giving them permanent physical impairments, which would surely summon the emergency rescue team.”
…
What would a stranger think if they eavesdropped on our meeting? Probably not great. But, that’s just how this hotel rolls.
“I just thought of a good idea!”
“What is it, Sister?”
“The Vice Principal loves coffee and keeps making me get it. What if we just slip a bit of Ahri’s blood into the coffee?”
Ahri was amazed.
“So you’re suggesting I control the Vice Principal into doing something crazy?”
“That’s the idea.”
This type of meeting continued late into the night as we compiled strategies for escaping and drawing in outside forces to intimidate the Hotel High School cult before moving onto the next topic.
“Finally! Now let’s discuss the most important part. Let’s talk about the ‘Son of Heaven.’”
Now fully immersed in our discussions, Kim Sanghyun jumped right in with a question.
“Let me ask first. Given that I don’t know much about this, please be understanding. How strong is this ‘Son of Heaven’? Depending on whether we can subdue that entity, our approach may need to differ.”
The strength of the Son of Heaven… All memories raced back into our minds as we recalled the past.
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