### Chapter 152 – Room 201, The Cursed Room – ‘□ □□’ (1)
—
– Kim Ahri
“Team Leader Elizaveta, this mansion is indeed the Hesbet Mansion.”
“Hm. Are you telling me that already a three-digit number of lives have been sacrificed here?”
“At this rate, it’ll probably hit four digits by next year.”
“That’s exactly why we’re here. Let’s go in.”
— Clunk!
“What was that sound?”
“Team Leader Elizaveta! The door is locked!”
“What do you mean it’s locked? Contact the headquarters!”
“What? What? The signal’s cut off!”
— Beep!
After entering the Hesbet Mansion, I regained my senses with the buzzing sound in my head. The others began to look around wide-eyed.
Sure enough, Kain got sealed. I saw the other seven, but not him.
A staggering amount of information flooded into my brain all at once. There were familiar teammates and two unfamiliar faces. As seven people started flailing around, the two NPCs looked at us, bewildered.
“What’s going on? Are you all okay?”
The man’s name came to me… Oliver, an agent.
“Is the mansion’s anomaly already starting? I can’t feel anything yet.”
The woman’s name popped up too… Elizaveta, the team leader. I need to take charge of the situation for now.
“I suddenly heard a strong buzzing sound in my head. It seems to have affected those who were closest to the entrance.”
“Is that so? Are you alright, Agent Ahri?”
“I’m fine, Oliver. Elizaveta! Can we just get a little breather?”
“Okay. There are plenty of chairs, so let’s take a short break.”
Not long after, our teammates began to regain their bearings. With two mysterious NPCs hanging around, we started to use the chat window.
Lee Eunsol: What’s up with my outfit?
Kim Mooksung: Bulletproof and stab-proof suit.
Park Seungyub: Is this a real gun?
Kim Ahri: Yeah. Don’t be scary; lower the muzzle.
Cha Jinchul: Are we supposed to play special forces?
Kim Mooksung: Attention! In this scenario, we’re all agents of the management bureau.
Kim Ahri: This mansion is experiencing anomalies. Multiple casualties. That’s why we’re here.
It seemed our teammates were slowly catching on. Funny enough, we had become the management bureau agents for this scene. The highest rank among us was Team Leader Elizaveta.
The downside? We were already in the mansion. If we had realized it sooner, one of us could have stayed behind to secure an escape route instead of rushing in…
It probably exists as a countermeasure. We woke up only after we entered the mansion and the door locked behind us. As we began to get our wits about us, Elizaveta and Oliver approached us from across the room. Honestly, it’d have been more relaxing with just us. What’re those NPCs even doing here?
There must be some reason. The chat window buzzed again.
Kim Mooksung: Ahri, keep them busy for a bit.
Kim Ahri: Huh?
Kim Mooksung: Look at Seungyub’s antics!
What’s he talking about? I turned to check, and Seungyub had his gun pointed at his own eye, inspecting it with an excited expression. My head started to ache. Mooksung seemed to want to give Seungyub and Songi some basic firearm training.
Why on earth would the hotel arm these confused kids with assault rifles?
This is ominous.
Having experienced the Cursed Room multiple times, the hotel has never provided ridiculous gear like “assault rifles” or “bulletproof suits” before. They wouldn’t hand out such powerful equipment without reason.
I had a strong feeling we were going to face some intense combat in this trial. I suggested to Elizaveta and Oliver that we find a way to contact the outside world while we killed some time.
—
About thirty minutes passed? As we sought an escape route, we also surveyed the mansion’s layout. Though I called it a ‘mansion’, it was more like a fancy rich house. It wasn’t the absurd scale like the ‘horror mansion’ we had before—like wondering if such a mansion really exists in Korea.
The decor was clean, with four rooms inside. The living room and study felt vintage. The exits were the front and back doors, both locked tight. There was nothing more to gain. There was no way to get outside. Even Jinchul’s super strength wouldn’t budge them. The walkie-talkies were dead.
I checked if I could break a window, but this mansion didn’t have any windows. It seemed I, along with seven hotel party members and two NPCs, had to unravel this mansion.
—
Should I stretch this out longer? I glanced over at Mooksung. Obvious guess: don’t point the muzzle at people. He had instructed them just that.
With that knowledge, Seungyub, Songi, and Eunsol couldn’t manipulate the guns normally. Jinchul would do fine since he served in the military, but strangely, Elena seemed to catch on pretty quickly.
Does she have some experience with firearms? Or is there a natural instinct for this? Who knows.
Anyway, I had to buy more time for Seungyub and the other two…
“Ugh!”
“Oliver? What’s going on?”
“T-This! Look!”
Following the ruckus of Oliver, I turned to see a freakishly large mirror hanging on the wall.
A vivid crimson message floated in front of me.
Go down.
The meaning was clear: it’s time to move. Reflecting on past experiences in the hotel, it meant that if we didn’t go down, ‘punishment’ would soon start. Here goes nothing. Mooksung sighed and started moving with everyone.
But wait, why is it saying “down”? Is there a route down somewhere? As if having the same thought, Elizaveta discovered something.
“Everyone over here!”
Elizaveta had opened a door I mistook for the entrance to the third room. Behind the door were stairs leading down.
The chat window blinked.
Kim Mooksung: Following orders feels eerie. Should we go down?
Kim Ahri: Got any other ideas? We’ve got no way to exit the mansion.
Lee Eunsol: Let’s head down for now.
—
We descended the stairs behind the door, and a pathway resembling some kind of tunnel appeared. What could be down in the mansion’s underground? The moment my teammates were still puzzled, a clanking sound echoed.
That sound? The same noise we’d heard when we first entered the mansion! Immediately, Jinchul reacted.
“I heard that sound earlier, and the door locked!”
Jinchul quickly turned back, trying to return to where we originally started. No, he was trying to go back.
After a moment of straining noises, Jinchul came back to tell everyone.
“The entrance is blocked. We can’t go back now.”
Once we entered the mansion, the door locked behind us, preventing us from leaving. Upon entering the underground tunnel, its entrance locked as well, trapping us in the mansion.
Repeating phenomena. No going back. Only forward. Regardless, we can’t stay in this underground tunnel forever.
We proceeded forward and emerged at an exit. As soon as we stepped out of the tunnel, we were dumbfounded.
—
“What the hell….”
“Did we get lost? Didn’t we just go straight?”
After walking a good distance through the mansion’s underground passage, we returned to the mansion’s front door.
Is that even possible?
But this is the only explanation left. Somehow, we found ourselves back at the Hesbet Mansion, staring around in disbelief.
But since we already glanced around once, there wasn’t much need to examine this place again. Familiar wallpaper, flower pots, a TV, dining table, ceramics zipped past. And the stuffy decor with no windows was just a bonus.
Elizaveta, scanning the area, tilted her head and instructed us.
“Let’s check the living room.”
I moved towards the living room to take another look.
Near the plush carpet by the living room—
?
Had the carpet gotten longer?
Just as I was pondering that, Oliver, who had searched the mansion with me earlier, also sensed something strange.
“Does the design seem a bit different?”
Oliver lightly set his foot on the carpet.
“My observational skills are quite sharp, but it didn’t sink in quite like this before—”
— Slap!
A murky hand shot out from the carpet and grabbed Oliver’s foot!
“Didn’t Granny tell you? Never come up on the carpet with shoes on!”
In an instant, Oliver was pulled ‘under’ the carpet. There’s no way an adult man can fit under a carpet!
It looked like he was disappearing into thin air spliced between spaces. Nobody could react from the sudden disaster.
“Aaaaaaaah! Ugh!”
Screams rang out. Terribly horrifying and agonizing screams.
— Crack! Splart! Hiss!
Sounds of tearing and disassembling a human body echoed throughout the mansion.
Ten minutes, or perhaps longer.
Oliver’s screams continually assaulted our ears.
…
It was an unimaginably awful disaster, and we were left speechless. Only when the surroundings quieted did the chat window flicker again.
—
Yu Songee: What the heck just happened? We went down into the mansion’s underground and returned to the entrance?
Lee Eunsol: Is it some sort of circular structure? Is the underground connected to the entrance of the mansion?
Elena: It’s frustrating not even knowing the name of this room!
—
I felt the same.
It hit me anew, the fact that when we first entered the Cursed Room, Kain was able to check the room title on his status window held more meaning than I realized.
Not knowing even the title of the room.
No understanding of the scenario whatsoever.
No way to ask for advice.
We had truly been thrown into a bizarre murderous mansion without even the most minimal information.
As I contemplated sending a message, I decided instead that Elizaveta should hear this now.
“Everyone, listen up. If we keep sitting still, the mirror will likely tell us to move again, right? If we’re moving, we also need to think about where to go. The mansion has three paths: the front door, the back door, and going down.”
Mooksung voiced his opinion.
“Actually, isn’t that pretty much one left? We went down and ended up back at the front door. Seems like underground and the front door are linked. It’s a meaningless route. The back door is all we have left.”
Elizaveta chimed in too.
“Then let’s go to the back door.”
Judging by the situation, the only path left is the back door. Should we go to the back door?
—
How confusing! If only I had some advice, it could at least give a hint. At this moment, I’m seriously missing that guy who usually acted reckless.
Stay calm. Focus on what exists and not on what doesn’t. The whole point of the second floor trials seems to be targeting a party overly reliant on a specific individual or talent because of the sealing!
With scarce information, it’s hard to say where we should go. If the power of ‘Wisdom’ is meant to help make appropriate judgments based on that available information…
Even without that, I possess the ability to blindly choose the answer.
“Seungyub, where should we go?”
Before I finished my inquiry, Seungyub leaned over and ended up bumping into a nearby chair, falling over.
Instinctively, his outstretched hand pointed toward the entrance we came in through.
“Ah! S-Sorry, sis! The suit is making me feel rather inflated, and I keep bumping into things—”
“No, good job.”
Alright. I think I get it. The lucky choice has already been made. If Seungyub ponders and decides based on my words, then that would be the wrong answer.
“Let’s go through the front door.”
At my command, Mooksung looked puzzled.
“But aren’t we already through the front door? This mansion has the underground connected to the entrance, right?”
Elizaveta appeared nonplussed too.
“Did you forget that the underground entrance was locked? If we go back through the front door, we’ll just end up retracing our steps back to that locked entrance.”
I think I’m starting to figure it out.
“Let’s go back through the front door. After all, doesn’t it feel strange to connect the front and underground? How did we first get into the mansion?”
Certainly through the front door. When we entered, it was the obvious way in. Yet suddenly, after entering the mansion, the front door became linked to the underground.
This mansion’s space is warped.
As Mooksung caught that thought, he hesitated. In the end, everyone agreed to my suggestion to return to the front door. Elizaveta grumbled that it made more sense to go to the back door, but did not resist the group’s decision.
—
We went through the same process again.
Upon opening the front door, yet another underground tunnel appeared, and as we entered that tunnel, the sound of clanking came, blocking our original way back.
As we followed the underground tunnel, the door that was locked earlier was now open.
…
No, that’s not right. According to my thoughts, it’s not that the prior locked door has suddenly opened.
This door is the one we found first.
We entered the ‘third’ mansion.
In this bizarre world, there seem to be countless mansions.
—
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