### Chapter 233 – Room 202, Cursed Room – ‘Mermaid Princess’ (11)
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 101
Current Location: 2nd Floor, Room 202 – Cursed Room ‘Mermaid Princess’
Sage’s Advice: 0
— Han Kain
I felt a rush of relief upon seeing the chat window message. At least it meant two people were alive—Elena, who sent the message, and Grandpa Mooksung, who was somehow keeping the chat on.
There was no way I could think straight! I was being tossed around by the raging currents, struggling to hold onto the protective suit that weighed maybe 200 kg! What am I supposed to do?
But then, I remembered I had one trick up my sleeve. It seemed crazy, but there was no time to hesitate. I focused on the feather tattoo on my shoulder. As the sensation of being pulled at my belly hit, I suddenly found clarity and realized I was inside the protective suit.
Han Kain: Success!
Elena: Huh?
Han Kain: Wait, where to?
Elena: Follow the yellow light in the water.
I was trying to keep it cool, but I felt something was off. Usually, Elena’s texts would be shorter, wouldn’t they? But then again, she might be a bit out of it given the circumstances.
Wearing the protective suit, I slowly followed the light. Sadly, the suit didn’t have oxygen production features, so I had to pop up for air periodically. The chaos around me and the bizarre sea creatures made it hard to keep up.
After about 15 minutes of swimming, I finally spotted a strange door. Amid the chaos of water eating away at the land, this door stood unscathed—not an entrance to a building on the surface but a door on the sea floor!
The light led me into an underwater cave, and inside was a kind of air pocket. Miraculously, there was even some sort of ventilation system!
“What on Earth is this…?”
“Glad you could make it. You’re not too late.”
“Elena?”
“Over here!”
Her voice came from deeper in the cave. It was familiar yet had changed a lot.
Thinking back, the only reason we’d put Elena in that protective suit was because of the horrifying effects of the rain that came after Kadarudakh awoke. The suit was now mine.
I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease about her current state. Surely her body wasn’t fine?
…
Another thought hit me. It had to do with the ‘clear mind’ ability. Plenty of people at the hotel had skills to protect against madness.
Songee can use her bracelet to grant us strong mental defense for a limited time. I can provide a weaker defense that lasts indefinitely through my status window. Ahri can temporarily gain similar defenses at the cost of her blood.
But what about Elena?
She was different from all of us. The clear mind ability isn’t just about blocking madness; it’s about healing a shattered mind. In other words, if Songee and I are like shields, the clear mind is more like a cure for a broken psyche.
Elena had already taken that cure early on in the hospital, which had helped her return as the ‘Hotel Elena’ we knew… but what state was she in now?
I couldn’t tell. Anxiety swelled, and I was scared to move. Of all times, I had no advice left to rely on. I had burned through my three chances: once against a shark, once to wake Elena, and once to grab the suit.
…
— Splash!
“Gaiin? We don’t have much time!”
I made a decision. Given that I had made it this far, there was no way back. Going back wouldn’t give me another way out. I just had to hope that ‘that Elena’ was closer to the one I knew.
“I’m coming!”
Each step made the headlamp of the suit shine on horrific sights—it was a graveyard of bones! I could easily tell what creatures they belonged to—they were still intact with flesh in the underwater cave. Why on Earth was there so much human bone down here?
…
“Gaiin, can you hear me? Can you still understand me?”
“Of course.”
Elena’s voice seemed more and more distorted. Was her throat twisting?
“You might find it hard to understand why I led you to the harbor where a demon god awakens, or why I’ve called you into this cave.”
“Yeah, it’s tough to wrap my head around it.”
“Sadly, I realized I had awakened too late. Right before I came to, I heard Kadarudakh’s voice. As a daughter of the sea god, I’ve experienced nightmares for over ten years, but this was something I had never experienced. That’s how I knew his awakening was imminent.”
“… But we barely lasted 24 hours after entering Room 202 before waking Elena up?”
“Didn’t you? It looks like even for the hotel, a day might have been too late…”
“We need to head outside and formulate a thorough plan. We need to act before a day passes.”
“Regardless, Kadarudakh’s awakening couldn’t be prevented. So right now, the question is how can I help you escape while the demon god has already been resurrected? That thought has plagued my mind.”
So there’s a way out! That was a slight relief.
“Let’s cut to the chase: Gaiin, you need to become a merfolk.”
I stepped back two paces.
“Are you out of your mind? That sounds like crazy talk! I’ve seen countless merfolk suffer and die—”
“They are the descendants of sinners. The first merfolk committed unforgivable sins, and Kadarudakh wants retribution from their descendants. But you? You are not a descendant of a sinner. If you become a merfolk, Kadarudakh will see you as a surrogate child, just like Lee Sooho.”
Something felt off. That was not the Elena I knew. This was definitely the daughter of the sea god, occupying her body.
Unpleasant thoughts flooded my mind. Serenade controlled the failed attempts at awakening as merfolk in the underbelly of the government building. The daughter of the sea god can control the merfolk. Could she be trying to turn me into one to control me?
Outside, a massacre of merfolk was happening while a woman in the cave could control them. And now she was telling me to become a merfolk? Get real! I should get out of this cave immediately—
“Gaiin, remember what happened in the Gate Room?”
“…”
“The first room—the doppelgänger train, right? I still chuckle at the memory.”
“…”
“Right? Just sitting there on the train when suddenly everyone starts coming at me wanting to kill me? My mind went blank—what was I supposed to do? I suddenly thought of my favorite drama scenes.”
“…”
“In dramas, when things get ambiguous or lack impact, BAM! The slap scene appears! If there’s no tension in the script, the mother-in-law slapping the female lead is where it’s at!”
“Wait, you’ve been running away for almost ten years; when did you even see that?”
“Even while running, I had a phone! And TVs were everywhere, of course. I was particularly struck by something when I came to Korea. Most dramas have global standards for face-slapping, but seeing someone slapped with kimchi—”
“Eww! Where on Earth did you see that?”
“I couldn’t believe there was a drama where they slapped each other with cabbage—”
“Stop! Just enough! I’ll believe you, so let’s stop it here!”
“By the way, in this context, Korean dramas even have scenes of slapping with miso and kimbap, and pasta—”
It was an absurd conversation, but I understood why Elena had brought it up. Such a dialogue seemed impossible for the ‘daughter of the sea god.’ Elena was telling me, “I’m the Elena you know from the hotel.”
… And seriously, why are K-dramas so committed to face-slapping?
After trekking through the cave for a good while, a bizarre, white tentacle-like thing loomed closer.
“You don’t need to come any closer.”
I had an inkling. Elena’s current form likely has strayed far from human. Was she avoiding showing it to me?
The approaching tentacle had an even stranger creature at its end. What was that? A giant snail? A slug? The writhing flesh had tentacles? It was a creature I had never seen before, vaguely resembling a snail but definitely not one.
“This is ‘Rudah.’”
“Rudah?”
“The creature that started it all. 800 years ago, the first fishermen turned merfolk discovered the offspring of gods in the deep sea.”
As those words were spoken, the tentacle slowly approached me. I removed the protective suit and waited for ‘something’ to happen.
…
Fear. Disgust. I wanted to stomp that snail into oblivion right now. The approaching tentacle and the unidentified creature were terrifying. What on Earth was about to happen to my body?
I thought I had gotten used to the supernatural after all I’d been through at the hotel, but the physiological disgust I felt was unbearable.
In the end, I closed my eyes.
“It’s going to hurt a bit. Just bear with it.”
That was a lie. The pain was far from ‘a little.’
*
Would my body feel like it was being ground down this way? What the heck was happening? I realized too late that a tentacle had pierced through my torso. Immediately after, I felt something wriggling inside me.
I sensed a mutation. I could feel my body slipping away from its human form. At this moment, the emotion I felt wasn’t pain or anger.
It was disgust!
I was transforming into an incomprehensible being. Overwhelming disgust enveloped my heart. But…
If I could just escape this horrible Room 202, then all this pain would fade away like mist. The end of suffering, freedom from disgust, and the one word that could bring salvation.
‘Escape’
That’s all I yearned for, enduring and enduring.
My hands disappeared. My legs disappeared. My lungs disappeared. No. Nothing was disappearing; merely, it was changing into ‘another form.’ I couldn’t muster the courage to watch my body with my own eyes.
Just before my consciousness faded – I saw a massive, glaring eye.
‘You, the one from outside.’
“…”
‘Bring me the end of pain.’
That was my final memory.
/You have escaped!/
—
+ Unfortunately, the spooky hotel escape story is on break tomorrow for personal reasons (health checkup) 😭
Thinking about health checkups sends a wave of worries my way. Last time I had one, I found out I had reflux esophagitis, and my esophagus and stomach weren’t doing so hot. Hoping things are better this year! Readers, please take care of your health too!
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