Chapter: 43
Chapter 43 – Room 104, Cursed Room – ‘Preparatory Elite Hotel High School’ (3)
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 17
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 (Cursed Room – Preparatory Elite Hotel High School)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
Let’s remain calm. After all, this hotel is crawling with monsters.
Even if another something that mimics humans shows up, it won’t change a thing.
As if nothing had happened, I engaged in chit-chat before checking the message window.
Han Kain (Student): Park Seungyub. Can you hear me?
…
Han Kain (Student): Park Seungyub. If you can hear me, raise your right hand.
…
No response. As expected, the being before us isn’t Seungyub and clearly can’t see the “message window.” Prolonging the conversation would only risk leaking more information than necessary, and besides, Elena couldn’t maintain her poker face anymore, so I decided to wrap things up.
“Well, I’ll go study for the upcoming tests! Let’s all scatter for now.”
“Oh, tests… I feel like I’ll end up in the Old Main Building again…”
“I’ll brush up on my English then~”
Thanks to Ahri’s engagement, we managed to smooth over the situation.
*
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): What’s up?
Han Kain (Student): Park Seungyub’s location: Basement of the Old Main Building. A fake Seungyub has appeared.
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Are you sure it’s a fake?
Yu Songee (Student): Confirmed with the bracelet and status window. Definitely a fake.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): That’s good info. The Old Main Building is locking us in and creating fakes.
Han Kain (Student): Is the cheat sheet ready?
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): I’m ready for Korean History/Language. Other subjects might be a bit tricky.
*
It isn’t easy.
There’s a fundamental issue in our cheating plan. The teacher team isn’t covering all subjects but is only assigned to Korean History/Language. We’ll have to solve the rest ourselves.
Even if I do my best, it’ll still be a challenge. Yesterday’s multiple-choice questions were easy; I solved them and quickly uploaded the answers in the message window for everyone to copy.
But today, it’s all short answers. No matter how fast I solve them, I’ll have less than 10 minutes left. Even if Songee borrows my eyesight, how in the world is she going to copy short answers in that time?
And even if she managed to do that, conveying it to Elena would be another mountain to climb.
From what I felt yesterday, Ahri seems capable of handling this, but I can’t shake the feeling that both Songee and Elena might struggle to pass today’s exam.
After a long deliberation, today’s classes wrapped up, and the inevitable evening exam time approached. My expectations veered off in a completely unexpected direction.
*
The Korean History exam passed without major incidents.
As the test kicked off, Grandpa Mooksung entered as if conducting the exam, casually moving through the classroom until he reached Songee. Just as he got next to her, Songee used her bracelet on him.
From my angle, I couldn’t see the details, but from that moment on, it looked like Grandpa saw the cheat sheet, and Songee was borrowing his vision to look at it…
While I discreetly glanced from a distance, I stretched my back dramatically to keep up appearances, and at that moment, I started receiving bits of information.
Strings of letters floated above my desk like a hologram. It’s not my first experience, but the wonders created by diverse perspectives are truly fascinating every single time. It’s like living in a world infused with advanced augmented reality tech.
With a calm mind, I copied down the answers and finished the Korean History exam.
Ah~ If the college entrance exams were done like this, I’d have been the top scorer in the nation. Such a pity!
*
Language exam time.
Still not too worried. Isn’t this practically the same as the Korean History exam?
I felt the tension ease away.
I could just wait around until it’s my turn. To avoid raising unnecessary suspicions, I need to at least pretend to work through the test. Since I know some answers, should I solve about 1/3 myself?
*
A massive disaster struck.
“Miss Lee, what’s that in your hand?”
“Huh?”
“What is that? Why are you staring at your hand?”
“Eh? I just found a piece of paper in my pocket and was wondering…”
“Stop rambling and hand it over!”
It’s over. Another teacher overseeing the exam found Eunsol-noona’s cheat sheet!
“I—I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“I knew something was off since yesterday! It’s obvious cheating, but you were yapping about how there was no proof! Isn’t that a cheat sheet in your hand? Planning to hand it to a student, were you?”
“No, did you see me giving it to anyone? I just organized the model answers I came up with while preparing yesterday!”
“Let’s skip the nonsense. You wrote your model answers on that little paper, brought it into the exam room, and just happened to have it on you? Think I’m an idiot? Hey, Mr. Cha! Come here!”
Eunsol-noona’s excuses sounded like gibberish to my ears too.
“I put that in there,” Jinchul-hyung said.
“Eh? Jinchul-hyung?”
“What did you say, Mr. Cha?”
“I saw Miss Lee leave a piece of paper on her desk, so I took it thinking she might’ve forgotten something.”
“Do you really believe that makes any sense? Logically?”
“I’m telling you, it’s me who gave it to her! Why don’t you trust me? Mr. Han? Are you looking down on me right now?” Jinchul-hyung said with an unwavering expression.
“N—no! I’m not looking down on you! What I’m trying to say is that a cheat sheet ended up in the exam room, so Miss Lee needs to take responsibility.”
“Since I brought it in, why should Miss Lee be held accountable? Are you stupid, Mr. Han? Always so fond of responsibility! Well, since I brought it in, I guess I should take the fall. I’ll just take the punishment, is that alright?”
“No, um… What I mean is that I’m not saying you were wrong…”
“Forget it. I’m a PE teacher, so I made a small mistake. I’ll take my punishment, so don’t blame Miss Lee for no reason.”
…
What the heck is happening here? Suddenly, Jinchul-hyung took all the blame himself.
Honestly, it felt utterly nonsensical, yet when a hulking figure over 190 centimeters tall roared, Mr. Han, who had been picking a fight with Eunsol-noona, found himself swept away.
What’s going on with Jinchul-hyung?
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): What are you doing?
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Feeling moved?
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Stop your nonsense! Why did you do that?
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Long story short. I’ve been thinking since yesterday. We need someone who can fight to go to the Old Main Building. If only the students go there, they’ll end up like Seungyub, defeated with no purpose. I’ll go and find out exactly what’s happening.
*
I understood. It makes logical sense. Through Seungyub, we’ve confirmed that ordinary people would be instantly incapacitated. Given the current circumstances, sending either me or Elena wouldn’t be meaningful.
We needed at least one of the physically strong Jinchul-hyung, mentally tough Songee, or perhaps Ahri who appears strong in both aspects to gather whatever information we could.
However… that made me realize just how incredibly resilient Jinchul-hyung’s mentality was.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Understood. But, there’s no guarantee against physical risks. You can’t withstand mental attacks either.
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): At least we can identify what kind of danger it is.
*
Meanwhile, as I ruminated on this discussion, the situation seemed to unravel somewhat. Although Jinchul-hyung’s logic seemed absurd, both he, the messenger of the cheat sheet, and the receiver were giving the same testimony, so the other teachers found it hard to dispute further.
In the end, Eunsol-noona’s ludicrous claim that she was just trying to check the paper that had been caught in her pocket was validated, and she was cleared of any suspicion.
Eventually, as per Jinchul-hyung’s plan, it was decided that he would head to the Old Main Building for discipline. It may sound strange to ask, but what kind of school gives teachers disciplinary actions at a different building?
Just before Jinchul-hyung’s departure to the Old Main Building, Songee spoke up.
Yu Songee (Student): Jinchul, come to me immediately. I can provide mental protection like back in the Sanctum. It lasts 10 minutes.
Ten minutes. That feels ambiguous. If he uses that here, won’t it mostly end right around when he arrives at the Old Main Building?
In any case, we have to try everything we can. Jinchul-hyung left for the Old Main Building after receiving the mental protection from Songee.
Among the chaos, one fortunate thing emerged: today’s exam was brushed aside amidst the uproar. Thus, everyone returned to their dormitories, and Jinchul-hyung’s reports began.
*
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Running like hell.
…
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Arrived. How much time is left on the mental protection?
Yu Songee (Student): 5 minutes.
…
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Lights, and I hear a weird song. Moving in.
…
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): There’s an extremely beautiful person here. They told me to follow, and I’m going down. My head hurts.
…
Han Kain (Student): Hyung?
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Already?
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): It seems so…
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Kuhuhu. Damn, I just killed about five of them. My arms fell off. It’s horrific. Do not come here. This is not something you can deal with by coming here! Run away. This place is absolutely not it! Get out of this school! Fighting won’t solve anything; my head feels like it’s going to explode.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Stay calm. Please, stay calm. We can meet outside. Give us more details!
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): Seungyub has awakened.
Han Kain (Student): What does that even mean?
Park Seungyub (Student): AHHHH, THE WORLD IS FULL OF PAIN, DESPAIR, AND SORROW! WE SHALL GAIN PEACE THROUGH BECOMING ONE! AHH, THE LORD HAS GIVEN US, PEACE WILL BE WITH US. GATHER, GATHER TOGETHER! AHHH, I LOVE YOU ALL! LET’S SING TOGETHER, THE WORLD COMING TOGETHER IN HAPPINESS!
Cha Jinchul (Teacher): I killed Seungyub. That’s all I could do. This feels like some strange religious cult. Everyone, run away. I’m going to kill myself.
…
No more updates followed.
I opened the status window.
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 17
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 (Cursed Room – Preparatory Elite Hotel High School)
Sage’s Advice: 3
Teammate Location Information (*)
Park Seungyub: Dead
Cha Jinchul: Dead]
Han Kain (Student): Both Park Seungyub and Cha Jinchul are dead.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Everyone, stay composed. We’ll meet outside.
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Conversation limit is almost reached.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Summarizing. Cha mentioned issues with headaches, indicating a mental attack. He also lost an arm, indicating a physical threat. He killed five and mentioned it’s like a religious lunatic group. There seem to be many. Each of you must think for yourselves.
That was where our conversation came to a standstill.
Here’s what we discovered so far.
1. Both mental and physical dangers exist in the Old Main Building.
2. A religious group? Apparently consists of many individuals.
3. Seungyub has lost his marbles, and Jinchul-hyung killed five, then offed Seungyub before taking himself out.
*
Let’s think this through calmly. This is the judgment of the physically strongest person in our group.
Fighting is not an option.
The judgment that even after killing five, it would be impossible to win suggests that those five were an insignificant number compared to the larger group.
Unless we somehow acquired a means of mass destruction,
this location seems impossible to clear at the moment.
So we need to escape.
1. At the Strange Family, they recognized “keeping a distance from the bizarre family” as a means to escape.
2. In the Mansion of Fear, stopping the strange phenomenon that was the old man’s devil revival ceremony constituted an escape. That means “breaking the opponent’s winning condition to create a draw.”
What should we do in this school?
First off, we have no idea what the victory condition is for the group in the Old Main Building (the strange phenomenon in this school), so we can’t use the second option. Should we perhaps first think about how to escape from this school?
*
The next day. PE class.
The triathlon begins.
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