### Chapter 239 – Room 202, Cursed Room – ‘Mermaid Princess’ (17)
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[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 102
Current Location: Floor 2, Room 202 – Cursed Room ‘Mermaid Princess’
Sage’s Advice: 2
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– Han Kain
The Sea God is furious at the merfolk’s sins, yet the merfolk have no clue why the Sea God is angry. Quite a peculiar situation. Although Songyi’s suggestion about environmental destruction was dismissed by Serenade, Ahri asked for another confirmation.
“Usually, when it comes to these issues, the obvious answer is often right. I mean, it’s pretty tough to maintain modern civilization without harming the environment, isn’t it? Really not the case?”
“Nope. Of course, we thought of that. Since 20 years ago, we’ve moved any factories or equipment that could potentially be problematic onto dry land.”
“… To land?”
“Let’s just say we’ve completed the outsourcing of environmental destruction.”
So they’ve moved all the environmentally hazardous facilities to land. A clear answer! Of course, it just relocates the problem, but I doubt the Sea God would hold the entire planet’s environmental issues against the merfolk.
Isn’t the timing of the anger important?
“You mentioned sensing the Sea God’s rage starting 20 years ago, right? I have the feeling that this issue has been ongoing since then… What happened around that time?”
“Of course that crossed my mind. But honestly, I have no idea. It’s not like nothing happened 20 years ago. The island’s population was over 500,000 back then. Many events occurred daily. Out of those, what triggered the god’s anger, we don’t know.”
Things are starting to feel a bit pointless. What does it mean that they sensed the Sea God’s anger for 20 years? It suggests the Sea God’s daughters have been investigating the cause for 20 years. We can’t solve that just through a 2-3 minute chat.
Ahri, thinking similarly, interjected.
“Let’s wrap this up. The thought processes of gods are different from humans. Sometimes they decide to wipe out humanity over trivial reasons that seem utterly insignificant to us, so it’d be tough for us to figure that out together. And…”
“And?”
“Never mind. Regardless, the immediate issue is that Lee Sooho is conducting some mysterious ritual on this island. We’ve been chasing him for months, right?”
“Yeah. As you might know, Elena got a bit emotional and made a big mistake. Since then, trained merfolk have been pursuing him in numbers of five or more.”
“Great. Can you mark the already confirmed locations on a map? Soon, the Administration Bureau drones will search the island and area, so we need to save time.”
Not long after, Serenade passed a few pieces of data. While Ahri was reviewing the data, she brought up something important.
“From now on, we’re going to pick up Elena.”
“… You’re quite confident about that. As you’d say, it seems you met her before traveling back in time?”
“Exactly. We really need her.”
“Then let’s go together. I assume you’re planning to head out immediately, right? Let’s meet at the hospital.”
With that, we finished the exchange of information with Serenade and began preparing to head to the hospital where Elena was located.
“Everything from the ancient tales of merfolk to the ecology of Rudahr seems fascinating and valuable, yet we still haven’t gathered anything about the current crisis of Kadalu’s descent. We haven’t figured out why Kadalu is angry, and we don’t know where Lee Sooho is either. Should I use some advice?”
“Save it. Haven’t you just almost gotten yourself killed by Serenade earlier? We’re likely to face many crises today.”
As soon as we got into the limousine, Songyi cautiously asked.
“Hey, Ari, weren’t you about to say something earlier? You cut off while talking about why Kadalu is angry.”
“… This is just my thought.”
“Go ahead.”
“I think it might be a problem that can’t be reversed.”
“Huh?”
“I was just considering it from the Sea God’s perspective. The Sea God usually communicates with his daughter through dreams, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Then does he really need to announce ‘I’m angry!’ through a dream? He could just signal directly that ‘Something you’re doing has angered me.'”
I hadn’t thought of it that way. The beings referred to as ‘gods’ I encountered upon entering the hotel were more like devils or monsters. But upon hearing Ari’s words, it clicked.
Kadalu is not some unfathomable devil that doesn’t communicate with mortals like those I’ve dealt with before; he communicates through dreams and, according to Elena, even conveys strange concepts through ‘circulation’ that humans can understand.
Once I reach this realization, naturally, the next thought pops up: with such excellent communication abilities, can’t he just tell them why he’s angry?
Ari continued.
“So I thought, maybe telling them holds no meaning.”
“No meaning?”
“The irreversible incident happened 20 years ago. Those 20 years could very well be the time Kadalu was gathering his strength to unleash his fury.”
That’s a rather ominous thought. If this speculation is correct, analyzing the reason for his anger would be pointless. It’s already beyond repair. My brother, who was driving, chimed in.
“Is it necessary to overthink? Regardless of the reason for the anger, we just need to prevent the descent. We just need to find Lee Sooho. Looking at the sky puts my mind at ease.”
Out of nowhere, the sky?
What is he talking about? Curious, I and Songyi peered out the window. There, blue lines stretched across the sky like a checkerboard, making the entire sky look like it’s transformed into a giant Go board.
“What is that? Administration Bureau drones?”
Aren’t there around 20 drones flying around searching the island? Ari answered nonchalantly.
“Come on, did you actually think the drones would be flying around with cameras searching the island? It would take 2,000 drones to comb through an island the size of Jeju. There are also many places drones can’t even reach.”
“So what’s going on then?”
“It’s similar to taking an X-ray of a human body. You don’t stick a camera inside the body to do that. Well, I don’t know the engineering principles behind it, but still.”
It’s magnificent. Twenty-two drones created a blue line pattern in the sky, moving like a scan across the island. Soon, the drones flew off to places out of sight.
Songyi murmured in awe.
“With this method, won’t they find everything in no time?”
“Still, we’re cutting it close. Time is extremely tight, after all. Everything has to be wrapped up by tomorrow morning.”
“Looks like we’ll need some luck. Lee Sooho should be where they started searching first.”
About that time, a message came in from other colleagues.
“They say they’re about to reach the island. And there’s been a tsunami hitting Busan.”
“That disaster Seungyeob mentioned?”
“Yes. It seems Busan is in chaos. It’s now… 2:30 PM. Around 4 o’clock, a strange crying sound will ring out, and we’ll lose contact with the outside world. We were told to head to the hospital.”
“Good thing we got the message beforehand.”
Arriving at the hospital, oddly enough, we had set off first, yet Serenade was already there waiting for us. Does she have a shortcut that only the daughter of the Sea God knows?
“Welcome. Shall we head in?”
Jinchul stepped forward.
“Our team will arrive soon, let’s go in together.”
Elena, perilously exposed since her seal was broken, needed to regain her senses through clarity. It seemed better to wait for our fellow colleagues rather than head in ourselves.
Flying under the radar, it didn’t seem to matter anyway.
—
Waking up peacefully, like coming out of a nap, Elena woke up calmly. Unlike the previous times, there weren’t any ominous thoughts overwhelming her upon waking.
The presence of Serenade, whom we brought, mixed with the colleagues who just entered, brought in Rilinganor, and both of them played the flute. This flute apparently has the ability to quell madness stemming from ancient memories given to the daughters of the Sea God.
However, this tranquil awakening wasn’t all positive. The second time Elena woke up, she had come back with zero additional information. It appeared the flute’s power was temporarily suppressing the connection between the daughter of the Sea God and Kadalu.
Disappointed, Elena muttered.
“Next time, please wake me up without the flute.”
Already thinking about a ‘next time’… that’s too ominous, right?
“I just got a call from Department Head Park. They say the strike team can only be deployed around 11 PM.”
“Can’t it be faster? As you know, by dawn—”
Grandpa sighed.
“I know that, but it would sound ridiculous to say the world is ending tomorrow morning. Others would just see it as panic.”
Ari answered.
“Let’s think that it’s great if the strike team arrives, but if they can’t make it on time, there’s nothing we can do. The drones are already here.”
It felt like we had done nearly everything we could. Finding Lee Sooho now rested completely with those drones in the sky above.
Sister Eunsol arrived and cautiously suggested.
“Shall we search together too?”
Ari shook her head.
“The doctor is treating. Having an outsider meddle would just be a disturbance. Leave it to the drones. It’s just that since we’re all superhumans, we might confuse them.”
So, we ended up going into a nearby café to exchange the information we had all gathered. Everyone was most curious about the topic: ‘Why Kadalu is angry,’ but nobody could dig up a plausible answer.
—
At 4:20 PM, a sound echoed across the island, stunning the connection with the outside world. We could no longer reach Department Head Park.
At 6:40 PM, the drone informed us with a 94.3% probability of chaos happening in a certain location.
The limousine carrying everyone headed toward the island’s northwest ‘farm’. Serenade also informed us she would be bringing in merfolk. Sister Eunsol looked somewhat incredulous.
“According to the map, this location is an orange farm? What kind of ritual could take place here?”
“She’s practically a saint of the Sea God. If the Sea God’s daughters all possess supernatural powers, the saint likely has some strange ability too. That’s probably how she hid it.”
“So, going there means we won’t be unable to find anything, right?”
At 7:10 PM, we finally arrived at the farm. With dinner time approaching, everyone’s anxiety began to rise. Was there only about 8 hours left until Kadalu’s descent?
Upon arriving at the farm, a strange-looking drone hovering in midair led us to a ‘door’.
“This is….”
An empty, desolate farm. Plants grew wildly, with a small, collapsing house in between. The drone pointed to the door leading to the ‘living room’ inside that house.
Everyone held their breath, staring at the door. Right now, I could bet my entire hand that beyond that door wasn’t some ‘living room,’ but rather an unidentified otherworldly space.
Grandpa sighed.
“Of all ways… If this were a physically dependent being, I would’ve thought about asking if we could blow it to pieces with Serenade. But it’s a bizarre otherworldly space. Isn’t it obvious there’s likely a hellish space hidden behind that door?”
Surprisingly, it was the doctor who confidently took a step forward.
“There are times in life when you need to walk into a trap even if you know it’s one. I suppose this is that time. Let’s go in; time’s running short.”
— Creak!
The sound of the door opening was strangely ominous.
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