### Chapter 207 – Room 104, Cursed Room – ‘Prestigious Hotel High School’ Re (1)
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[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 97
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 – Cursed Room ‘Prestigious Hotel High School’
Sage’s Advice: X]
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– Han Kain
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What on earth just happened? I staggered back, feeling dizzy as I replayed the recent events in my mind.
The notoriously strict Hotel High, in the middle of class, suddenly saw Seungyub spring up, prompting the English teacher to approach in disbelief, ready to reprimand him. At that moment, Seungyub pulled a hammer from his waist and delivered an uppercut right to the teacher’s chin.
One hit. No second attack needed. The English teacher, caught completely off-guard by a student swinging a hammer at him, crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Aaaah!”
“Ugh! He’s—he’s insane!”
In an instant, the classroom erupted into chaos filled with screams, and I was so flabbergasted I grabbed Seungyub’s shoulder—
—Whoosh!
Suddenly, the hammer came hurtling toward my head!
What the heck, did he get possessed or something? Dodging as I dropped, I could even hear the swoosh of the hammer flying over me.
“What the heck is going on here?”
“Ugh—Aaaah!”
Seungyub himself screamed, stunned by his own action. He quickly apologized.
“I-I’m sorry, bro! I was prepared mentally, but swinging a hammer at someone was just too shocking! And then when someone grabbed my shoulder, I couldn’t help but…”
“So you swung out of reflex? That’s fine, but what was with the sudden attack on the teacher? Was this part of your plan?”
That answer came from behind me.
“Didn’t I say not to be surprised? Both of you need to relax. This was all planned ahead.”
The teacher was out cold, hit by the hammer, while the students were screaming and fleeing in utter disarray. Ahri responded calmly, as if she were from another world.
Elena, on the other hand, was scanning the surroundings with an uncomfortable demeanor.
Thanks to Ahri’s laid-back attitude, I soon put two and two together regarding our predicament.
“So, the plan is to get Seungyub out right from the start?”
“Exactly! Now that he’s hit the teacher with a hammer, cops should be on their way. I can already hear the kids who went outside rushing toward the teacher’s office.”
“Wait, isn’t that a bit too careless? What if they handle it internally instead of calling the police?”
We had already faced this in the first attempt. Hotel High tends to send individuals to the Old Main Building, allowing the Daughter of Heaven to brainwash them. In that sense, they have a tendency to handle ambiguous incidents through internal disciplinary measures.
“That’s why Songee went to investigate.”
Seungyub, Ahri, and Elena were present, but where was Songee? It seems if they tried to sweep this under the rug without involving the police, she would insist on reporting it herself.
“Could you at least give me a brief rundown?”
The three of them exchanged vague glances. Looking at Elena, who seemed to be on my side, she sighed and said,
“Doesn’t it seem like Kain is being controlled? If you don’t give us a brief explanation, we’re just going to end up out of sync.”
In the end, Ahri explained the situation.
“It’s nothing special. Our top priority is to secure an escape! We won’t do anything else until then.”
“So, after confirming that Seungyub gets caught, you plan on doing something?”
“Exactly.”
“That ‘something’ is obviously going to take place in the Old Main Building, right?”
“…You read too easily. The plan is kind of obvious, so it’s tough to hide. Yes, if Seungyub gets taken, we’ll storm the Old Main Building together. After all, those followers there won’t pose a threat to us now, will they?”
Certainly, the cultists from the Old Main Building shouldn’t be an issue for us now. The only real problem would be Aurelia, right? If Elena, with her Justice power, could mark Aurelia while the rest of us—myself, Ahri, and Jinchul—support her, I thought we’d be more than capable of handling it.
“Gaah, whoa, whoa!”
Seungyub was heavily panting. Besides mentally preparing, it seemed delivering a hammer blow had been quite a shock for him. As Ahri lightly patted his shoulder to soothe him, I checked my status window.
Unfortunately, the ‘Scenario Understanding’ was still sealed. I had hoped that while reading the grimoire, the filter function of the status window would activate, but it didn’t seem like it.
—Wiiing! Wiiing!
The sound of sirens filled the air. Thankfully, it looked like our attempt at a cover-up had failed.
Before long, the police arrived, and the teacher lying on the floor was declared dead while they took Seungyub away. Feeling the thought of securing an escape, everyone’s tension eased a bit as the chat window buzzed with various instructions.
Was there really any need to drag this out unnecessarily? We had all agreed to raid the Old Main Building that evening. Fortunately, the chaos caused by Seungyub’s mishap meant that Hotel High’s typical grueling piece-of-cake pop quizzes weren’t a problem.
—
After class and dinner wrapped up, around 7 PM, the signal finally came.
Lee Eunsol: Let’s go!
I left the dorm room and headed downstairs to the first floor to make our way to the Old Main Building. Upon seeing me, the guard sent out a warning immediately.
“Student! It’s already late. You know you need permission from a teacher for evening outings, right?”
Thanks to that guard, the first attempt was a noisy affair as we tried to get outside. Of course, the previous goal was to avoid getting caught, but now it didn’t matter. We were planning to storm the Old Main Building anyway.
“Student? What’s the deal with that book—”
I quickly snatched the guard’s body before extracting his keys to unlock the door. Since there were handcuffs inside the guardhouse, I handcuffed him and then returned to my group.
“What the heck?! Wh-what are you doing?!”
Ignoring the screams of shock behind me, I stepped outside. It felt way too easy compared to last time. I got the sense that so much had changed since our first attempt. Soon, I rejoined my allies. Ahri showed up, saying there was protective gear in her room she needed to pick up.
However, one person was missing.
“Where’s Sister?”
“Hmm?”
“Are we heading out without her?”
“Correct.”
“What about Grandpa?”
Among the gathered group, Grandpa Mooksung wasn’t there.
“Grandpa’s got a different role.”
Earlier, my sister had summoned us using the chat window. It didn’t seem like Grandpa was too far off.
Thinking back, it made sense. Compared to our past selves, we had grown significantly, and the cultists shouldn’t pose an issue. Moreover, Grandpa wouldn’t have much to do in the battle against Aurelia. It seemed he was off doing something on his own. But why was my sister tagging along?
I quickly figured it out. As we neared the Old Main Building, she pulled back a little from us, scanning the area with a vigilant gaze. She seemed to be taking on a scouting role.
Elena suddenly stopped.
“Elena?”
“It’s important. When we confront Aurelia, I think we’ll need to wait for her to make the first move.”
While I was left stunned by her words, the group nodded in understanding. Had this part been included in yesterday’s meeting?
“Is it going to be tough to activate Justice?”
“It feels uncertain. It might be difficult. Although during the first attempt, Aurelia and her cultists committed atrocities against us…”
“Right now, they might not even remember what happened last time. That’s the troubling part.”
It finally clicked in my mind. During the first attempt, we’d tried to escape Hotel High, but the cult’s strike team attacked us. This time, however, the cultists and Aurelia hadn’t done anything to us yet.
“They haven’t done anything yet, but aren’t they already swapping out multiple people?”
Instead of answering my question, Elena awkwardly smiled. It wasn’t completely out of the ordinary. The seven of us, to put it precisely, were practically accomplices in the teacher’s murder. That was a problem in itself.
In truth, I didn’t need to dissect potential complications like this. After all, Elena’s blessings depended on her state of mind. The core issue was that Elena felt some discomfort about the current situation. Would that discomfort manifest as ‘Aurelia’s first attack’? After that, wouldn’t it just be self-defense for us? It seemed like a terribly vague standard.
—Bang!
Jinchul kicked open the door to the Old Main Building.
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“What is the meaning of this?! Who are you guys? Do you even know where this place is—”
“What is it, a big deal or something?”
Clearly caught off guard since they hadn’t received notice of our entrance, only about five cultists were present instead of the Daughter of Heaven. Jinchul immediately knocked them all out without breaking a sweat.
“No one’s dead yet. I’m just controlling my strength.”
While he was making excuses to Elena, I opened the hidden door to the underground.
“Let’s go! Like I mentioned before, if we go down these stairs, you’ll find a vast underground city that’s almost too hard to believe.”
“Wow, crazy. So, the story in the cursed room is just a variation of some real event that happened somewhere, huh?”
“Exactly.”
“So, somewhere in the world, there are crazy cultists who build underground cities beneath schools, huh?”
“Maybe it’s not that the reality we live in today is the only one?”
“Well, that’s true, but it’s still fascinating that there are freaks who can pull this off. How in the world did they do it?”
Ahri interrupted dismissively.
“Just skip it. Remember how they resurrected dozens with a single prayer? They probably just used a prayer and created it! ‘Lord, please provide us with our daily bread, and since we’re in the 21st century, not just bread, but some real estate too!’”
As we descended the stairs, loud noises began to reverberate all around us. The tension in everyone’s expressions was palpable. Ahri, now in her protective gear, stood at the front.
—Bang! Bang! Bang!
Should I call this fortunate? The suggestion from Elena to have the enemy attack first to meet the conditions for ‘self-defense’ seemed to work out perfectly. The moment we stepped in, gunfire echoed through the air!
…
Something seemed off. Not a single bullet was aimed at us. The noise was just coming from blank shots. The strike team of cultists that had come rushing at us only aimed their guns but didn’t fire.
A path formed in the middle of the strike team, directing everyone’s attention to one person who stepped forward. In the somewhat stifled atmosphere of the underground city, a woman with an intensely radiant presence emerged, almost as if the light from the heavens surrounded her.
“Daughter of the newly appointed. Have you come to punish us?”
???
What on earth does that mean?
Ahri, facing the front, appeared taken aback and asked, “Could you tone it down a bit? Who’s this ‘newly appointed’? You’re not talking about me, are you?”
Aurelia didn’t even glance at Ahri, looking only at Elena with an expression of disbelief.
“The words of my father have been spoken…”
And then, the light of heaven began to flow down to the earth.
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