### Chapter 308 – Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (30)
—
– Park Seungyub
As I activated the First Human, my consciousness left my body and arrived in an unknown, pure white space.
It was quite a strange place. Unintelligible letters fluttered all around, and in front of me, there appeared a shape resembling a black flame.
‘Where on earth is this?’
I tried to speak, but no words came out. I didn’t have a mouth right now.
…
Strangely, I felt like I knew what to do.
Did my older siblings, who had received their inheritance, experience something similar and discover how to use it? I needed to weave a ‘command’ in this mysterious location. I had to create a revelation that the “other me,” who would awaken soon, would follow like his life depended on it.
「From where?」
‘… From the mansion?’
「Until when?」
‘Until the movie ends?’
「What for?」
This was easy.
‘Survival!’
「How?」
I was momentarily at a loss for words. How do I survive? I used my abilities because I didn’t know that!
As I pondered, the ‘gap’ began to shake. There was no time to think leisurely.
‘Ah, just figure it out! Well!’
My consciousness grew hazy. I felt another me awakening from within my body.
*
– Park Seungyub (First Human)
Suddenly, I regained my senses in this strange place. Where am I? Who am I again?
「Survive until the movie ends in the mansion.」
The revelation struck me. As a heavy voice echoed in my head, my confused mind cleared, and I understood that this sentence was a command I had to follow.
…
Understanding the content of the revelation was difficult.
That didn’t mean I didn’t know the meanings of each word. Interestingly enough, the meanings popped up in my head automatically.
The mansion was this enormous house I was in now.
The movie was a dark wall where many people watched peculiar fantasies unfolding.
But what does it mean ‘until the movie ends’? There’s no dark wall displaying any fantasy around me!
I also didn’t understand what it meant to survive. I was safely fine, right? Is there something threatening me?
At that moment, the pink elephant in front of me opened its mouth.
“Kevin, what are you doing not drinking the tea?”
“… Kevin? Is that my name? Who are you?”
“Me? I’m Dollyphant!”
“Dollyphant? Let me ask you something.”
“A question?”
“Where’s the movie being shown right now?”
Dollyphant looked as puzzled as if trying to comprehend my words.
“A movie? There’s none in this house!”
“But I must survive until the movie ends.”
“What in the world are you talking about? Until it ends?”
“Hmm… Let’s say there is a movie. Does ‘survive’ mean there’s something threatening me around?”
The pink elephant, Dollyphant, tilted its head.
“A threatening being? This place is safe! If you’re talking about Thomas, you don’t need to worry. I already smashed it.”
“Oh! So there was originally a threat here, and you destroyed it already?”
“Maybe? So, Kevin, don’t worry and drink your tea.”
“This water is the tea?”
“Yup.”
“I’ll drink it.”
Feeling relieved, I took a sip of the huge cup filled with water. After a couple of gulps, it tasted a bit bitter. When I looked up, Dollyphant was glaring at me with wide eyes.
“Please tell me you’re not leaving any of the tea I made with great effort!”
“Not at all! I plan to drink more later?”
“Later? But it’s tea time now!”
“What’s tea time?”
Dollyphant looked a bit startled for a moment but quickly retrieved a small book from the side.
“Tea time is the time to drink tea!”
“Alright. But I just drank some.”
“You didn’t finish it!”
“Do I have to drink it all? Is it stated in the tea time rules that a single drop of tea shouldn’t be left?”
Dollyphant looked bewildered and began flipping through the book with its trunk. Interested, I leaned in to read alongside it.
“Do we have to drink it all? Well… there’s no such thing stated…”
“Look! If you’re a fine English gentleman, it says you must always maintain grace and dignity while enjoying a cup of tea!”
“… Indeed.”
“It’s telling me to drink leisurely. I don’t have to down it all at once. I prefer to sip slowly.”
“Is that so? But Kevin, this picture looks a bit strange!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Why does this English gentleman have such a short nose? Mine is much longer!”
“Well, you’re an elephant, and gentlemen are humans, right?”
“Can’t elephants become English gentlemen?”
I pondered over that for a moment. Can elephants really not be English gentlemen? Why didn’t the being who delivered the revelation mention this crucial question?
As I flipped through the pages, I found a slightly different line written.
‘An elephant participating in tea time can use its trunk instead of its hands.’
“Dollyphant! Look at this. Elephants can use their trunks as hands!”
“Then why does my hand stick out from my nose?”
“Maybe the position of the hands doesn’t matter. There’s no mention that hands must stick to the torso.”
“Thank goodness!”
“But I found a serious problem.”
The moment I mentioned a serious problem, Dollyphant’s expression darkened. It pointed to a scene in the book showing a woman dressed like a flower drinking tea.
“Look. She tilts her teacup with her hand to drink, right?”
“Yeah.”
“But Dollyphant is sucking up the tea with its trunk!”
“Uh-oh? That’s a revelation!”
“Dollyphant is severely violating tea time etiquette! Now you have to drink by tilting the teacup with your trunk.”
Dollyphant looked serious and started tilting the teacup with its trunk. Perhaps because its trunk couldn’t move as delicately as a hand, the teacup lost its balance, spilling tea all over the floor.
“Ugh! What’s this? Why is it so difficult?”
“It’s a lack of training. Watch me.”
I straightened my back, focused my strength in my arms, and concentrated all my mind. After tilting the gigantic teacup slightly without spilling, I successfully sipped on some tea.
“See! This is how it’s done! Dollyphant, you should do it with your hands or trunk.”
“Can’t you just write it in the book like you did earlier?”
“Write it in the book?”
“Elephants can suck tea with their trunks.”
“No! Rules can’t be broken so casually. I remembered I must strictly adhere to the rules as soon as I snapped back to reality, so you must too.”
When I told Dollyphant to stick to tea time etiquette, it nodded with a sad look. After that, I grabbed its trunk and made it practice tilting the teacup.
*
– Theater
Yu Songee muttered with a dumbfounded expression, her mouth agape.
“… What even is this?”
Han Kain had already begun to laugh uncontrollably.
“What do you think? Someone is teaching an elephant how to drink tea!”
“No, no! I mean! Why did the scene suddenly change like this?”
Gained managed to contain his laughter and said, “I think this happened unexpectedly, but isn’t it somewhat of a classic hotel conquering situation? Dollyphant sets strange rules, and if you break them, it attacks. Seungyub pointed out to the monster that it’s also breaking the rules, sending it spiraling into contradiction.”
As Gained spoke, Lee Eunsol tilted her head. Just then, Kim Sanghyun began to speak.
“Seungyub’s new power, First Human, is quite marvelous. Lost your memory? Perhaps that’s why he seems smarter than usual. Ah, of course, that doesn’t mean he lacked intelligence before.”
Gained nodded in agreement.
“When common sense is obliterated, the spectrum of thinking becomes freer, allowing him to act like that. However….”
“It seems the command word was slightly misphrased.”
“While he understands the word ‘movie,’ he doesn’t grasp the ‘situation’ that he is within a movie. Furthermore, he didn’t include who is threatening him in the revelation, so even when facing a killer doll, he doesn’t understand why it’s dangerous.”
“Ultimately, it’s rather fortunate. He doesn’t realize Dollyphant is scary, so he’s acting like this.”
“To be honest, it’s quite unexpected. I anticipated scenes of him frantically running around living chaotically by sheer luck.”
“That’s a possibility too, and this is also a possibility. By the way, one major advantage of that ability is apparent.”
“Long duration. It’s far beyond what heavenly luck could rival.”
The people in the theater felt tension gradually release. There wasn’t much time left until tea time concluded.
“Haha! I didn’t expect Seungyub would handle it this way!”
Cha Jinchul expressed admiration.
“Oh! Just now, Seungyub pointed out to Dollyphant why it’s not standing on two legs!”
“Is he going to try standing on two legs? Seriously, he’s not!”
Along with Eunsol’s exclamation, a certain elephant started practicing ballet to mimic humans.
As everyone sensed the conclusion of the third story drawing near, probably for reasons unknown, Dollyphant’s voice echoed from the screen, its expression looking very satisfied.
“It was a most enlightening experience! Thanks to Kevin, I had a delightful tea time. Now I can be a splendid English elephant! Kevin, you enjoyed it too, right?”
A smile crept onto Han Kain’s face. That elephant was starting to look adorably cute.
“Doesn’t he look cute now? He seems oddly nice too?”
“True. He looks completely adhered to the rules -”
“Nope.”
“Huh?”
“Did I hear correctly?”
“It was boring. Especially the black tea was the worst.”
“Se-Seungyub?”
“Gaaah!”
“That bitter liquid, why are you drinking it? I never want to do tea time again.”
“Eek! He’s gone mad!”
Everyone fell into shock and horror, except for one boy. Even the elephant on the screen wore a shocked expression, its mouth agape.
“Th-This crazy Park Seungyub! He’s too fearless!”
“Dollyphant, teaching you was the most exhausting. Don’t you feel it? An elephant drinking tea? What tea time!”
Gained decided to just laugh it off.
“Hahaha! Well, Seungyub has never experienced anything terrifying, so it’d be weirder for him to be cautious.”
Cha Jinchul was utterly despaired.
“Now he went and ruined everything!”
*
– Park Seungyub (First Human)
“Boohoohoo!”
Dollyphant suddenly stood up and let out a loud noise that made my body tremble. Tears streamed down the pink elephant’s eyes, soaking the floor. It was at that moment, I thought:
“Did I mess up somehow?”
Instead of answering, Dollyphant raised its massive body and lifted its front limb.
— Bam!
With a single strike, the mansion’s floor shattered. At this point, a chilling thought emerged!
Could it be that the being threatening me was Dollyphant itself? If that’s the case, it would have been nice if it had indicated as much during the revelation!
“Roar!”
A colossal roar! I rolled sideways in a daze, bolting toward the door. Instead of coming after me, Dollyphant began raging inside the room.
“Dollyphant! I’m mad! I’m furious! Kevin! I’m going to throw you into the pot and boil you! I’ll flatten you out and turn you into paper!”
“How can a person become paper?”
“Shut up!”
Why is it mad just for asking a question? This elephant has a strange personality!
As Dollyphant bellowed and twisted its body, the mansion began to tremble. During that process, did the house break? With a ticking sound, the mansion suddenly darkened.
As darkness fell, obscuring even my hands, Dollyphant roared louder.
“KEEEEVIN! Where have you hidden away?”
— Bam! Crunch!
I could hear the sound of the elephant rampaging.
Even the sturdy mansion couldn’t withstand the impact from that monster. Tremors roared through the whole house while various decorations from the ceiling began to tumble down.
I couldn’t see well in the darkness, but thankfully, nothing dropped towards me. As I reached out, feeling my way along the wall and staircase, I stumbled upon a soft tuft.
“What—”
I quickly shut my mouth, worried Dollyphant might hear. But a strange sound arose from the fluffy mound.
“I have t-touched Kevin’s back. You w-w-won!”
What is this? Did the fluffy thing just speak? Feeling uneasy, I threw it away.
— Boom!
The mansion shook again. Was it due to the overwhelming impact? This time, ominous sounds began to resonate.
Finally, with a loud rumble, a massive wall crashed down, and light seeped into the mansion from outside. Since light flooded in suddenly from the darkness, Dollyphant instinctively curled its trunk to shield its eyes.
At that moment, I fell into contemplation. The revelation told me, “Survive until the movie ends in the mansion.”
Does that mean I shouldn’t leave the mansion? Or does it mean I succeeded in surviving within the mansion, allowing me the freedom to do as I please once I venture outside?
Let’s think calmly!
Since I don’t understand what ‘until the movie ends’ means, I can disregard it. Then ‘survive within the mansion’ remains. If I go outside, I could be counted as having succeeded at surviving while in the mansion.
Smiling happily, I stepped outside the mansion. I had successfully completed the revelation!
“Hahaha! Success!”
… Slowly, my consciousness returned.
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