### Chapter 156 – Room 201, The Cursed Room – ‘□ □□’
—
– Yu Songee
With a loud smash, I looked over at the sink, and I already knew we were completely done for.
A monstrous girl burst out of the mirror!
Disheveled hair and bizarre eyes writhing with only whites showing.
The girl approached us, having already taken Ahri’s head as a trophy!
“She was pretty, so I let her go~! You guys are going to entertain me for a long, long time,” she chimed.
Before that sentence even finished, Grandpa and Eunsol began pulling the triggers madly!
The girl took the shower of bullets as if she were enjoying a cool spray.
The bullets barely even scratched her skin, falling harmlessly to the ground.
At the same time, I activated my bracelet to block and distort her senses.
The girl faltered momentarily, letting out a voice that sounded like metal scraping.
“What’s that? You have some weird powers?”
— Clap!
With that sound, eyeballs popped out of her hands!
Aaargh! What the heck is that?
Seeing those was already disgusting enough, but when she started gathering information with her new eyes, my bracelet got blocked.
But hey, I’m a bit of a veteran at this now! No high school girl has seen as many monsters as I have!
…Is this a good thing? Anyway, I felt my head getting hotter as I expanded the range of my bracelet.
“Do you think I can block you just because you’ve got four eyes now?”
As soon as I included the newly formed eyeballs in the bracelet’s range, the girl suddenly burst into laughter.
“You! You’re pretty strong, aren’t you?”
At the same time, the mansion itself began to twist as if it were alive.
Eyeballs started popping out from the walls, floor, clock, tables, and chairs—everywhere!
The whole place had effectively turned into her eyes.
Grinding my teeth, I channeled every bit of ‘varied perspectives’ I had since leaving Room 103 as if my life depended on it.
Consciousness began to float into the air.
The power of varied perspectives spread throughout the entire mansion.
—
– Lee Eunsol
I could hardly breathe.
Honestly, I don’t have any beastly instincts, but even a fool could recognize the situation we were in.
That girl is the ruler of this hellish space!
We absolutely need to take her down.
The monster parading around with only Ahri’s head was treating bullets like they were BBs.
I’d used the nightmare on the gorilla, but here, the guns looked like toys.
There’s no hope left.
The only one in our group with any real power, Songi, was engaged in a fight beyond my understanding, but that was another world’s battle.
Even Grandpa Mooksung looked helpless.
…
Now isn’t the time for that!
Just as I was about to dash toward the main entrance while Songi created a distraction—
“Quit being a nuisance and stay still.”
With that statement, a hand burst from the wall and grabbed my leg.
I struggled with all my might to pull it off, but it was hopeless.
This girl is completely toying with us. From the looks of it, even her fight with Songi wasn’t any sort of real struggle.
It seemed she had observed us battling through various mansions and concluded that we couldn’t threaten her with this level of power.
While Grandpa and I flailed about, Songi was bleeding from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
“Songi!”
A chilling voice filled the room.
“Was that your limit? How lame.”
Songi collapsed on the floor as she whispered, “What the hell… is this space?”
The demon-like girl slowly walked towards Songi, her mouth twisted into a malicious grin.
Just before her heart was pulled out, Songi left behind a last cry.
“Window—”
Window? What about the window? Before she could say more, Songi died!
I frantically scanned my surroundings, checking since the first mansion.
There weren’t any windows in this mansion.
With Songi, the only one who could hold that demon at bay, dead, everything felt lost.
A hard object like tree roots erupted from the wall, wrapping even Grandpa Mooksung tightly.
“Don’t you have any fun tricks?”
—
– Park Seungyub
Guess it’s time to pull the trigger.
I peeked through my helmet like a scared mouse hoping to hear some calm.
Ari noona and Songi noona had both gone down, and Eunsol noona and Grandpa were stuck to the wall.
Yet, oddly enough, the monster didn’t seem to regard me as a threat—as if she thought I was already dead or unconscious.
…
I’m not dumb enough to not know something horrible is coming.
That monster was surely planning to treat us harshly.
It felt like I’d have to use the escape button.
Our only hope, the one chance to save ourselves from any crisis!
Although we talked about saving it since it’s a one-off item, this really seems like the last moment.
Just as I reached for the button Grandpa had left with me—
— Thud!
My hand suddenly bumped against the nearby table and made a noise, drawing everyone’s attention.
At the same time, the TV turned on! Static noise jolted through my body like stone.
No way, at this timing? I panicked and regained composure.
This timing for the TV to turn on can’t just be a coincidence.
That girl seems to have control over every monster in this space.
— Ding! Tingling~!
As my body froze at that ambiguous moment, the button slipped from my hand and rolled under the table.
/Vow—/
With that familiar sound of a vow, the TV began spewing nonsense.
Our response was the same as last time; Grandpa Mooksung’s hand was flying as he shot at the TV to shatter it.
“Hey, wait! You did this before. Sorry, I have a terrible memory!”
Instead of answering, Eunsol noona fired her gun.
The target was the hand that had emerged from the floor, trapping her legs.
With a gunshot, the hand exploded, and the bullet accidentally took out her leg too.
In the chaos, she lunged toward the button.
At the same moment, Grandpa’s glove also flew toward the button.
By this point, the demon girl exclaimed with a curious expression.
“What is that thing that makes you all so crazy?”
Another hand reached out next to the button, grabbing it and descending into the floor.
Despair filled Eunsol noona and Grandpa’s faces as the roots that had risen from the walls engulfed everyone.
— Slap… Slap…
Blood was already everywhere.
The girl walked towards me, now holding the button she had taken from the floor.
My breath quickened.
Her grotesque finger brushed against my helmet.
“Seems like your suit is pretty sturdy, huh?”
“…”
“No answer? That Eunsol noona is still alive. Should I pluck off her fingers one by one?”
“What do you want to know….”
“Just curious. Haven’t you all been taking it easy? Suddenly, you’re pouring out so many psychics. What’s the reason? And what a shame your little informant ended up dead.”
What is she talking about? I couldn’t comprehend it. Taking it easy? Pouring out psychics suddenly?
Are they referring to the Administration Bureau since we’re supposed to be agents?
As I began to feel lost, she read my confusion like a book.
“You don’t know anything, do you? Just a pawn on the board.”
— Grah!
“What a fascinating suit. Even withstands Kong’s punches.”
My entire body went hot in response.
And then I felt resentment. What on earth is ‘fortuity’ doing?
Since that activation, I’ve never had a moment of real luck.
Instead, just when I was about to use the escape button, I hit the table and got caught—
…
What in the world was that?
“Boring, huh?”
“A bit. You’re too weak and predictable.”
“Sorry, I’ll make it more fun this time.”
“Oh! That—”
Finally sensing something off, the girl whipped around.
The blood of Ahri noona, left with just her head, began moving on its own all around the mansion!
The bizarre glow sparkled from Ahri noona’s eyes.
The swirling blood wrapped around the demon-like girl, binding her!
Watching that incomprehensible scene made me almost throw up.
In this moment, I couldn’t tell who the real demon is and who the heroes of the hotel party were!
Aren’t these just two demons fighting?
—
I yanked myself up to my feet, now free.
My mind started racing faster than usual, connecting the dots.
Right now, I was the person granted protection by the ‘energy of the universe’ in the fortuity!
There’s no way anything unlucky can happen to me.
That moment when I bumped my hand against the table while trying to hit the escape button wasn’t bad luck; it was very good luck!
It clearly meant I could escape without using the one-off item, acting as a sign!
Earlier, Songi noona shouted something about a ‘window’ just before she died.
A bizarre mansion that didn’t have a single window.
—
In this mansion, there WAS a window.
One where you could only see outside from the inside and not the inside from the outside—a peculiar type of window.
It was just that it didn’t look like a typical window, so I hadn’t noticed.
I stood in front of the broken mirror where the demon had come out.
I threw my entire body into the mirror.
An overwhelming gaze washed over me.
I could feel the eyes.
From the sky, land, sea, air, mountains, rivers—
I felt the gaze from every corner of the world.
A great eye dwelt within all things.
Though my start was as meager as a little bug—
— Thud!
Falling endlessly, I slammed into a window frame that jutted out somewhere, regaining my senses.
What was that? What did I just see?
Amidst the confusion, my body spun endlessly, slowly descending.
Falling endlessly into a darkness with no floor, I looked back at the mansion I’d just been in—no, the ‘collection of mansions.’
Mansions that moved without rest, with absurd monsters waiting in their rooms.
Falling continuously, I contemplated.
Room 201, the Cursed Room. The identity of this damn place.
The Cube.
That was the last memory of my time in Room 201.
—
/You have successfully escaped!/
—
‘So they escaped with pure luck again?’
‘How much longer will they ride that wave?’
‘If they lack talent, they’ll end in Room 203.’
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 81
Current Location: Floor 2, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
—
– Han Kain
I jolted awake with a deep sigh.
As my consciousness returned, a chill ran through me as if ice knives were piercing my skin!
I quickly gathered the scattered blankets around me to form a makeshift coat.
“Uagh! It’s freezing! What kind of crazy weather is this? Did everyone find out a lot?”
My amazing teammates must have done remarkable stuff without me, right?
Are we close to a solution in the next round? Should I just swoop in for the final hit now?
Wow! If I just swoop in and take the inheritance, that’d be a bit awkward!
But it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.
The atmosphere definitely felt off.
Some folks sat there, staring blankly, as if they couldn’t even feel the cold.
I approached the trembling Elena.
“Are you okay?”
“…”
Could she not hear me over the blizzard? I stepped in closer—
—Whack!
As soon as I peeked in, Elena shoved me hard, and I fell into the snow all around us.
…
Are we not in a place where we could socialize anymore?
Strangely, the moment our eyes met, Elena reacted as if she were about to faint.
Something was definitely wrong with everyone’s situation.
I thought I’d better go down to the first floor and have a serious talk with everyone.
Of course, I felt pretty refreshed after a good sleep.
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