### Chapter 133 – Room 107, The Gate Room – ‘Secret of the Esper Ship’ (24)
—
Kim Ahri
— Bang!
The floor seemed to spring up like a trampoline, launching Kain toward the wall.
Songee and I both jumped in shock. I immediately pulled the trigger, and Songee shouted orders at Pero to charge at Harrison.
— Bang! Bang!
— Kiieek!
With a loud bang, the grotesque beak the size of a human head tore into the remaining flesh of Harrison.
But it was pointless now. Harrison had already turned into a state where he couldn’t distinguish himself from the ship.
The remaining flesh was nothing but remnants.
Incredibly, Harrison acted like nothing had happened, mixing his remaining flesh on the floor into a hideous shape that vaguely resembled a face.
Should we just blow up the ship itself?
There’s no answer. It’s not like we’re planning to detonate a bomb, and doing it with a pistol is impossible.
Even with Pero’s power, I’d need Cha Jinchul to come back and summon stars for this to be doable.
A moment of quiet settled in.
After Kain was knocked out in one blow, Harrison didn’t make any more direct attacks.
Thinking about the contract, I began to understand why.
“Hey, dear ladies. Don’t you want to listen to what I have to say?”
“Why not sacrifice Kain and let the rest become crew members of the Esper?”
“…”
“Right?”
“Lady, did you say your name was Ahri? You seem to be reading my mind since just now.”
“Please, it’s obvious, right? No matter what power you’ve fused with the ship, it’s definitely the devil’s power, and to maintain that, you need to keep the deal intact. That means offering sacrifices and throwing those parties, right?
Even if we offer Kain as a sacrifice, you can’t throw parties alone, can you? You’ve already turned the other crew members and passengers into ship furniture.”
At least in that state, they can’t dance.
The Esper needs crew members. Someone to endlessly roam the seas, enjoying feasts and offering sacrifices.
“Well, well, you’re too smart for your own good. It’s a bit concerning… I’m not really into intelligent crew members.”
“Still, you’ve got no alternatives. Do you honestly think you could find crew members out of the blue in this endless ocean?”
“A somewhat thrilling tension can be quite fun. So, what do you say to my proposal?”
“Let’s change the terms. I’ll be the sacrifice.”
“Yikes!”
Songee gasped, and the ship itself trembled momentarily. Was that Harrison showing surprise?
“What the hell are you saying? That guy’s dead the moment you leave him like this; why take such a reckless gamble?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Why should I take reckless measures for someone who’s going to die soon anyway?
If I succeed, I’ll end this whole ordeal right away!
I don’t know how Harrison interpreted my laugh, but out of nowhere, he said something absurd.
“Aha! Could this be the pure love I’ve heard of? Certainly, if you become the sacrifice and this young man becomes a crew member, the contract’s powers will revive him even if he dies. Are you really going to save him if you die? How touching.”
I was too dumbfounded and just kept my mouth shut.
Harrison seemed to think about something for a while before making a decision.
“Not a bad idea. It’s not terrible. You’ve been reading my mind, which has been a bit irritating. While it’s unpleasant to save this cocky brat, having him around might make it easier to control the other ladies.”
With that, cables around the ship began to move like living tentacles and lifted me off the ground.
Plan Z, here we go!
I felt uneasy and had hoped to keep it as a last resort, but that moment had finally arrived.
“Don’t worry, my dear. I’m not looking to torture you like those bugs stuck to the floor. I’ll keep it clean. But tell me your age and where you’re from.”
“I don’t know my age. I’m from Hotel Pioneer.”
After hearing my answer, Harrison laughed.
“Don’t tell me that’s your last card? Trying to deceive me?”
“…”
“Are you perhaps not lying and genuinely don’t know your age or origin, only able to claim some hotel? Not knowing your roots is surely painful. How unfortunate. But if your last plan was that you can’t be sacrificed since you don’t know your age or origin… that’s quite disappointing.”
This captain sure talks a lot. Looks like he’s been lonely trapped down here all this time. Also, he seemed quite certain that I would try to deceive him.
“…”
“Haha! If you think I’d compare you to those bugs on the floor, you’re mistaken. Even if you deceive me, I have plenty of ways to find out.”
With that, strange symbols began to appear all over the ship.
Soon, dark hands emerged beneath me. They slowly climbed the cables and wrapped around my body.
Sighing, I looked around.
There was Songee, watching me with a terrified expression.
Elena, who hadn’t woken up yet, and Pero, who was pulling flesh stuck to its beak.
Even Kain was rushing toward death moment by moment.
Suddenly, a huge mirror appeared before me. Was it a means to find out my age and origin?
The mirror reflected me, and countless versions of myself appeared within it.
Somewhere, I was hiding behind a brick wall on a bullet-ridden battlefield, trembling.
Somewhere else, I was fighting unseen enemies on an endless train racing beyond the Milky Way.
Another version of me was running among primordial humans, searching for the first seed while shouting.
In yet another scene, I found myself in a bizarre scenery as a time-lost soul, unable to locate my position.
One version of me was listening to someone’s confession amid the endless fields of barley.
So many moments from my not-so-short life flashed by like a panorama.
As Harrison absorbed that information, he gasped in horror.
“What the heck! What is this? How can it be so bizarre…? Have you somehow time-traveled?”
And that wasn’t the end.
The mirror spun endlessly through my past until it reached some flashy hotel.
In the middle of the endless ocean, a hotel rising from the depths, still unexplored by mankind.
I was born from the sea.
— Clang!
A vibration shook the entire ship—a spine-chilling signal I had felt before!
The clock of the contract turned towards 3.
At that moment, the flesh that formed Harrison’s face twisted with all its might and screamed.
“No! No way! This is nonsense! You… what are you? No age and born from the sea? You’re no mermaid, what kind of human is that!”
“I’ve wondered about my age too.”
— Whooosh!
A massive sound resonated throughout the deep blue sea.
With a furious expression, Harrison tried to pierce us by yanking the ship’s cables like tentacles, but it was already too late.
As the contract was broken, all the evil powers granted to him began to dissolve.
The cables drooped uselessly like an old man’s arms, while the flesh that had mixed with the ship began to separate and fall away.
As soon as they fell, they moved toward the place where Songee, Elena, and the others were.
Before we knew it, everyone, including Pero, had gathered in one place.
Songee immediately addressed me.
“How the heck did you do that?”
“It’s no big deal. I heard Maraquas despises humans of the land, so I figured someone born from the sea might not be a valid sacrifice. I thought my vague age might be a condition too. It worked out perfectly.”
“You thought of that amidst all this—”
— Kboom!
The entire ship shook, and suddenly things began to disassemble everywhere!
“Yaaah! What is happening?”
“Oh! I had a hunch! Since human flesh had seeped into the ship everywhere, when it starts disappearing, the ship is collapsing.”
— Roooar!
A song resonated from the ocean, threatening to cover the world. Is this Maraquas’ song?
Once, fishermen and sailors who made the sea their home feared the sea’s brutality and capriciousness, worshipping it as a cruel goddess.
The cruel demon, embodying the fear of the sea, twisted its body and instantaneously wrecked the Esper.
We clung to Pero in a frenzy. Pero complained, but didn’t return to her parrot form.
Instead, she held the unconscious Kain and Elena with limbs that mixed her wings and tentacles. I clung to Pero’s neck to hold on.
Amazingly, even though she couldn’t fly after transforming, Pero could float in the water.
We looked like a hamster riding on the back of a gigantic duck, barely hanging on above the grotesque.
“Please, please save us!”
… Figures of miserable souls appeared from everywhere.
Harrison, who had completely lost his human form, seemed dead as soon as the contract was broken, while others who awkwardly maintained human shapes swam towards us, now in grotesque forms.
Fortunately, before we could intervene, Pero beaked them all back into the sea.
The crew who had feared death more than anyone else, had reached an agreement with the devil, were returning to the depths of the sea as was destined.
/Congratulations, participants! You’ve passed the fourth trial, ‘Secret of the Esper’!/
The space began to collapse.
*
Kim Ahri
As soon as we entered the familiar resting area, Songee and I hurriedly checked on Kain.
We checked if he was breathing normally, what kind of external and internal injuries he had.
Songee kept staring at my face with a tense expression.
“Are you okay, oppa?”
“I don’t think I’m about to die right now. If I leave it, I’ll definitely die.”
“So, what should we do?”
Instead of answering, I instantly drew blood with a syringe. Understanding my actions, Songee immediately brought Kain’s arm toward me to transfuse.
Twice, three times, I drained my blood and injected it into Kain.
“Will this help Kain oppa recover?”
“This alone isn’t enough. The healing power in my blood only gets strong when I’m close to death, and it’s not that strong otherwise.”
I froze for a moment when I thought of something. I hoped Songee wouldn’t use Pero to make me close to death to draw blood.
… Thankfully, Songee showed no signs of that. It was just my paranoid tendencies kicking in.
Growing up in a hotel had given me this paranoia, and my experience in the Administration Bureau had made it worse. Now it feels like an incurable disease.
“So, what should we do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe if there’s a hospital as the next trial stage, we’ll survive. Otherwise, we have to wake Kain ourselves.”
Next, I checked on Elena.
Unlike Kain, there didn’t seem to be any physical issues with Elena.
Perhaps the crew of the Esper had used some sleeping meds on her? She was just lying there, peacefully asleep.
Next to the near-death Kain and Elena, who was deeply asleep enough not to notice being carried, Songee and I exchanged sighs, waiting for time to pass.
And finally, the last trial of the Gate Room began.
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 46
Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (The Gate Room)
Wise Advice: 0
—
— Clang! Clang!
— Grrr!
I was dazed. I heard sounds of being hurriedly moved on something.
…
Oh, I’m being carried. As I realized it, the sounds outside also faintly reached me.
Is it a hospital? I heard frantic voices of people in white coats moving my stretcher.
The person I could vaguely see next to me… is that Mom? How did she end up in this place?
It looks like I’ve made it to the next trial stage. What the heck is going on here?
Even amidst all this, the hotel was diligently displaying notifications.
Ridiculously, despite my condition being so hazy and the situation disoriented, the hotel’s alert was crystal clear and precise.
—
/Congratulations on reaching the final trial!/
Soon, your legacy and blessings will be sealed.
Don’t worry. You won’t need a legacy or blessings in the final trial.
The final trial, ‘Perfect Life,’ begins now./
—
‘Perfect Life.’
Those words marked the end, and my consciousness faded away.
I will repay with consistent updates.
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