Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Chapter 215: Room 104, Cursed Room - Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School Re (9)

- Lee Eunsol

As we were driving toward the old school building in the dimming evening light with Grandpa behind the wheel, I scrolled through my phone and noticed something odd.

“The news has been completely altered. There’s no mention of anything supernatural in the report about the old school building’s collapse. It’s just labeled as the sudden collapse of an old building. Thankfully, no casualties, but they need to review building safety standards or something. It’s absurd.”

“So, they’re treating it like a case of shoddy construction leading to a building collapse.”

“Is this something your cult can even do?”

From the backseat, Aurelia only gave an awkward smile.

It was Grandpa who answered while driving, “Is that even a question? Of course, it’s the Administration’s work!”

I wanted to ask if this world also had an “Administration”, but I held my tongue since Aurelia was with us.

Thankfully, she didn’t seem to react, so it seemed the organization overseeing the supernatural was still called the Administration here.

At last, we had returned to Hotel High School—the place that held all the secrets of Room 104.

- Bang!

The welcoming party had begun.

***

As soon as we arrived, bullets started flying from all directions!

We had already learned from our first attempt that the cult’s forces were heavily armed.

But as the bullets rained down and the car quickly turned into Swiss cheese, it was still jarring.

Wait, isn’t this supposed to be set in 21st-century South Korea?

Fortunately, this was within our calculated risk.

The moment the first bullet shattered the car window, everyone except Grandpa, who was in the Protective Suit, ducked below the vehicle.

At the same time, Elena rose to her feet.

Across the expansive grounds of Hotel High, surrounded by cultists with clear intent to kill, the scales of Justice shimmered into existence in the air.

Elena, glowing golden, looked every bit like a transcendental being announcing her grand entrance.

Naturally, most bullets were now directed at her, giving the rest of us a chance to move.

The golden light rippled outward, illuminating the dark grounds like early evening.

Elena flew swiftly, wielding the scales like a giant’s yo-yo, smashing cultists left and right.

As the scales collided with cultists, they flew through the air like characters in an action movie.

It was a scene of sheer destruction!

Returning to her school as a “traitor”, Aurelia couldn’t bring herself to look at the spectacle, hanging her head.

“Aurelia, pull yourself together. You said you’d guide us to the old school building.”

“…Sorry, I’ll focus.”

We started moving toward the old school building at a relatively slow pace.

Since Elena was “systematically” punishing every cultist within range, she wasn’t moving very fast.

We had to stay close to her, as it was too dangerous to move outside her protection.

Aurelia, who had been watching in silence, seemed to move from pity to genuine awe.

“It’s an incredible power. Is this why Father issued a command to contain her…?”

“Thou art not too shabby thyself.”

Aurelia scoffed and glanced at “God’s Apostle”, Perro Kain, perched in the back.

“But if this woman’s strength is all we have, it feels lacking. Father must have more tricks hidden.”

“It is not something thou needth to worry about.”

Wow, Kain seems more reliable as a parrot!

“…Even if we’re well-prepared—”

Before Aurelia could finish her retort, her expression twisted, and she pulled me down, rolling us both to the ground.

- Boom!

An enormous explosion erupted.

My ears rang, and I struggled to regain my senses.

Before I knew what was happening, Aurelia grabbed me and started leaping away.

When I finally regained my bearings, I realized that five massive craters had formed where we had been standing.

“What… What on earth—”

At the center of the craters, Elena rose from the debris, her clothes only slightly singed as she flew back into the air, seemingly unharmed.

- Ratatatata!

Suddenly, the whirring of heavy machinery filled the air.

More than ten helicopters swooped down, filling the dim night sky that had previously been illuminated only by Elena’s light!

I realized suddenly that Aurelia had disappeared.

Perhaps, as the situation at Hotel High School took an unexpected turn, she decided it was too much to keep protecting me and headed toward the underground city.

“Oh, so it’s time to die, huh?”

Nope. Instead, a large, sturdy glove from Grandpa’s protective suit grabbed me and started sprinting at full speed.

His other hand held a tiny parrot, clutched like a small bird huddling against the wind.

Letting Grandpa handle our escape, I quickly pieced together the situation.

There’s no way a cult disguising itself as a school in the countryside could field this many helicopters and firepower.

We were now being hunted by the Administration of this world.

***

- Kim Sanghyun

I surveyed the chaotic scene at Hotel High School.

The final opportunity for the party to resolve Room 104 was tonight.

If the Lord regained his strength by tomorrow or the next day, there would be no chance left for them.

The condition to resolve this room was simple: destroy the Saintess and the cult.

The Saintess had already left the cult; all that remained was the remnants of the cult’s forces.

Most of these forces were confined to the area near the old school building, their sanctuary as it was the place where their god descended.

In other words, once the Lord awoke, he could simply devour the cultists like cake, and it would be over.

Knowing this, I passed on the message that they needed to act tonight, and the party had arrived within a few hours.

The remaining cultists posed no threat to Elena wielding the power of Justice.

This situation was certainly a crisis for the Lord.

“…”

Or so I thought.

What I overlooked was that the Lord could read our intentions like an open book.

The first card the Lord played in response was none other than the Administration!

From the old school building rooftop, I watched the unfolding chaos.

Over ten helicopters filled the sky, and eight-legged spider-like robots approached the ground.

As if that wasn’t enough, drones carrying silver boxes swarmed the sky, forming a web-like grid overhead.

How did the Lord manage to get the Administration’s forces here precisely at this moment?

I had no idea, and there was no time to ponder it.

The party was already in danger.

Grandpa, who had been running with Eunsol in his arms, was quickly surrounded by the spider-like robots.

The golden-light-emitting Elena was repeatedly hit by heavy artillery, slamming into the ground multiple times, unable to properly retaliate.

Why couldn’t she counterattack?

If Justice was as powerful as I’d heard, she shouldn’t be so helpless.

The reason wasn’t hard to discern.

It was due to Justice’s nature.

Wasn’t it said that the target had to be an evil human?

The strike team from the Administration consisted of humans, but they couldn’t be considered evil.

After all, their mission was to protect the world.

From the Administration’s perspective, how would they interpret the situation?

Wouldn’t they see a mysterious woman wielding supernatural power and slaughtering civilians on school grounds?

Even though these civilians were actually sinister cultists serving an evil god, there was no way the Administration could know that.

This was the Lord’s strategy: leveraging “the army that protects the world”.

For the first time, I truly understood why my companions felt so uneasy about the Lord.

He’d prepared a counter that could disrupt the principle of “Justice”, one of the most powerful Blessings.

It felt like the Lord had studied and strategized against our team as if he were analyzing the patterns of a boss fight in a game.

If a player who solved problems by analyzing boss patterns suddenly encountered an opponent who analyzed and countered them, this would be the feeling.

A giant cage, seemingly crafted from some special metal, descended and trapped Elena.

Is this some sort of binding device meant to suppress supernatural powers?

I could see Elena’s golden light gradually fading inside the cage.

“…”

Memories from the past surfaced.

Long ago, someone with a Blessing similar to Elena’s had also faced such a cage.

According to Young Lady Ahri, a child-like Miro on the second floor used her Justice wildly, but when Miro was fully aware, she refrained from reckless use.

She had her own standards of good and evil and could only use her Blessing to punish those who defied those standards.@@novelbin@@

Naturally, Miro had also faced this issue at times.

She’d encountered scenarios where she had to defeat an NPC to resolve the room, but Justice’s Blessing failed to activate.

How had she handled those situations?

…I remembered.

Just then, I felt a trace of the power the Lord had given me.

Originally intended to deceive and harm my allies, I could still repurpose it here.

My body rose as if seated in a transparent taxi flying through the sky.

I drifted across the night and toward Elena’s cage.

Inside, she looked up at me with startled eyes.

“Elena, what are you doing? This cage should be easy for you to tear open.”

She said nothing.

“Can’t you talk while using Justice? That’s different from Miro.”

With the remnants of the Lord’s power, I forced my arms to pry open the cage.

Elena’s eyes widened, staring at me like a startled rabbit.

“I’ll have you out in a moment. Just hang on.”

It was nearly time. The moment I had acted, I knew a reaction would come.

- Bang!

A deafening explosion, followed by a piercing pain that almost knocked me out.

A powerful projectile—maybe a bullet, maybe a missile—had struck my upper body.

Thanks to the Lord’s remaining power, I didn’t die instantly, but I probably had only seconds left.

Elena’s eyes blazed as she realized what had happened.

…That was it.

I’ve done my part.

As my consciousness faded, I remembered an old conversation I had.

— My power is meant to punish the bad guys. But…

— But?

— Sometimes, you have to make the bad guy /genesisforsaken