Escaping the Mystery Hotel

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 100

Current Location: Floor 2, Room 202 – Cursed Room ‘The Little Mermaid’

Sage’s Advice: 2

- Han Kain

After the meeting with the Saintess, the scenario was updated, hinting that we should gather rumors about the Saintess on Sea God’s Island.

But this hint was trickier to act on than expected.

The island’s residents would glare at us with intense suspicion whenever we stepped outside.

Fortunately, there was someone among us with the perfect ability for this situation—me.

It felt a bit wrong to say this, but I decided to “borrow” the body of a young merman who had come to the government office for an errand.

A short while later, Grandpa ambushed the young man as he passed by, knocking him out in an instant and dragging him soundlessly into the limousine.

While observing the unconscious merman, the doctor spoke up with a curious expression, “May I take a closer look at him for a moment?”

“Take a look? For what?”

“I’ve been observing the merfolk for a while, and something about them has been bothering me. I’d like to examine their body structure in more detail.”

“Dr. Sanghyun, if this guy disappears for too long, it will cause an uproar. Kain needs to possess his body and gather information right away. We don’t have much time.”

“Ten minutes will be enough. I believe this examination could be useful for solving the mysteries of this room.”

With such a strong argument, none of us could refuse the doctor’s request.

We laid the unconscious merman on the bed provided by the Saintess, or rather, the “Governor”, in the guest room.

Dr. Sanghyun carefully observed the merman’s body.

“Hmm, this is strange.”

“Strange? What is?”

Tilting his head, the doctor replied briefly, “He’s too ‘human-like’.”

“…What?”

“I read through the information about the merfolk that Eunsol provided. According to this world’s lore, the god of the seas raised Sea God’s Island from the depths of the ocean, pulling up an ancient race from the deep sea and placing them on land.”

“Right, and apparently, they boast a longer history as an intelligent species than humans do.”

“Which means they should have evolved in a way completely different from humans. And yet, their bodies are remarkably similar to humans. Doesn’t that seem odd?”

“Well… wasn’t there an explanation for that? The original appearance of the merfolk was different, but the god altered them to resemble humans so they could adapt to life on land. Since the god reshaped them to look like humans, it makes sense that they would resemble us.”

“Even so, that doesn’t explain everything–”

“Stop it, Sanghyun. We’re out of time, remember?”

“…Apologies.”

After Dr. Sanghyun stepped aside, I immediately “borrowed” the body of the merman, who was beginning to wake up.

Once I took control of the merman’s body and stepped into the city, I suddenly realized that I had no idea where to go.

Grandpa and Dr. Sanghyun suggested places like bars or restaurants, but the cultural differences between humans and merfolk made it difficult to say if those locations would yield any useful rumors.

58:17

Two minutes had already passed. It seemed I would have to use another one of my precious resources.

Where should I go to hear rumors?

Sage’s Advice: 2 → 1

Those who drive alone all day tend to chat with every passenger that comes their way. A habit of sorts.

A profession that required someone to drive alone all day, leading them to chat with customers as a natural habit—taxi drivers.

***

I rode one taxi after another, deliberately hopping between them.

I would vaguely mention a random destination and get in.

If the driver didn’t talk much, I’d hop out immediately.

After almost 40 minutes of this process, I finally found a chatty driver.

“Driver, please take me to the bank across from Sea God’s port.”

“Alrighty!”

By now, I knew how to get people talking.

Instead of directly bringing up the Saintess, I needed to introduce a topic that would naturally lead to her.

“Ugh, that renovation project at the port is taking forever. When’s it finally going to end?”

“You’re mistaken, young man.”

“Huh?”

That opened the floodgates.

Like a man scolding an ignorant youngster, the driver launched into a tirade about the evil schemes of the Cheongseong Group and how the Saintess had demonstrated “brilliant judgment” in opposing them.

“…”

09:24

Less than ten minutes left.

I might have picked the wrong guy.

I needed “unsettling rumors” about the Saintess, but this driver was clearly one of her supporters.

I decided to stir the pot a little more.

“Sure, but you gotta admit that the Saintess has been pushing it lately, right?”

“Hey, kid, watch your mouth! What nonsense are you spouting now?”

He’d gone from calling me “young man” to “kid.”

I’m getting under his skin.

Time to dig deeper.

“I mean, isn’t it true she went too far when she just killed the Cheongseong Group’s successor like that—“

- SQUEAKKKK!

The car came to an abrupt stop, then swerved into a side alley and stopped dead.

“…”

“…”

“Kid, let me give you one piece of advice as an elder in life rather than a taxi driver.”

“…Yes?”

“That mouth of yours. That flapping fish mouth of yours. If you don’t learn to keep it shut, you’re going to have a hard time in life. Got it?”

“Uh… did I say something wrong?”

“The Sea God had three daughters. Now, there’s only one left—Serenade. What do you think happened to the other two? The Saintess isn’t as sweet as you seem to think. If you keep babbling without thinking, you’ll end up as fresh sashimi. Understand?”

With that, the driver told me to get out, saying he didn’t want my fare.

But I was so thrilled with the information I’d gained that I gladly paid him.

Not that it was my money, anyway.

The Saintess, Serenade, had eliminated the other two “Daughters of the Sea God” and seized control of the island.

How significant will this revelation be for our scenario?

***

“That’s the info I gathered. I also let go of the merman host’s body before I reached the government office, so there shouldn’t be any issues, right?”

Grandpa nodded reassuringly.

“No problem. I knocked him out from behind. He won’t remember anything. He’ll probably think the heat got to him and he passed out. Even if he realizes something supernatural happened, he won’t know it was us.”

After hearing the details, Eunsol-noona tapped her chin.

“Serenade eliminated the other two Daughters of the Sea God and seized control of the island. Is this the secret she’s hiding? How does it connect to the murder of Lee Suho?”

Dr. Sanghyun spoke cautiously, “I have a hypothesis.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Take a look at the situation on this island. If we set aside the supernatural elements and view it from a common-sense perspective, it’s a surprisingly familiar dynamic, isn’t it? It’s similar to modern islands that fear and distrust ‘mainland invaders’ but simultaneously rely on trade and exchanges with the mainland.”

“Relying on exchanges with the mainland, huh…?”

“When you arrived at the island and saw the government office, what did you all think? Didn’t it feel way more modern than you expected?”

“Definitely. It looked just like 21st-century Jeju Island.”

“I believe two factions have formed on this island—one group that seeks to strengthen ties with the mainland and another that wants to isolate the island from it. It’s a common occurrence.”

The scattered fragments of information came together, converging into a single grand hypothesis.

The Cheongseong Group sought to modernize the island and generate enormous profits through the process.

On the island, there were two opposing forces—one that resisted the Cheongseong Group’s intervention and one that wanted to speed up modernization by collaborating with them.

Perhaps the two other Daughters of the Sea God, who had been “purged”, were supporters of modernization through collaboration with mainland forces.

If so, then it’s possible that Serenade eliminated the two other daughters to solidify her stance against mainland interference.

With this line of thought, one of our lingering questions finally had an answer.

“Serenade claimed she had no reason to harm the Cheongseong Group’s heir, right?”

“She argued that even if she killed him, it wouldn’t end the lawsuit over the port’s ownership.”

“Honestly, she has a point. Killing the chairman’s son wouldn’t resolve a lawsuit over the port’s ownership. But perhaps Serenade had an entirely different reason for doing it.”

“Maybe Lee Suho was a link between the island’s reformist faction and the mainland.”

“Then it wasn’t just an attack on the Cheongseong Group. Of course, she may have intended to strike at them too, but the bigger goal would have been to instill fear in the island’s internal resistance.”

“Grandpa, if Serenade killed Lee Suho, was her goal to intimidate the island’s reformist faction?”

“If you think of it that way, all the information we’ve gathered so far fits together rather neatly. Kain, think back to what the taxi driver told you. His attitude was just like someone afraid of a dictator, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it definitely felt like that.”

Even if Serenade killed Lee Suho, it wouldn’t be enough to suppress the Cheongseong Group.

As a private corporation, the Cheongseong Group operates under the protection of the Administration.

As long as the Administration stands behind them, the Cheongseong Group will never back down.

But the island’s internal resistance is a different story.

They don’t have any backing.

Their representative—perhaps one of the Daughters of the Sea God–had disappeared, and the person connecting them to the mainland had been assassinated.

Could they still muster the will to resist Serenade?

Bit by bit, the image of the Saintess as a tyrant began to form in everyone’s minds.

Slowly but surely, Serenade’s grand scheme came into view.

And with that, we began to prepare our arguments for tomorrow’s meeting.

***

- Park Seungyub

In a life-or-death moment, the protagonists in movies often saw their entire lives flash before their eyes like a panorama…

I, too, was consumed by a single thought.

What is everyone else doing right now?!

There’s no way they’re having a harder time than me, right?!

- GROARRRRRR!

The roar of the colossal seaworm shook the heavens and earth.

The innocent citizens, too overwhelmed to even scream, collapsed helplessly, awaiting their final moments.

And now, at this very moment, I was filled with the boundless cosmic energy of the great universe!

“NOWwww!!!”

I launched myself from the roof of the terminal, leaping straight toward the sea worm.

At that moment, my body soared through the air—

At that precise moment, the sea worm “just so happened” to spit out something that looked like either its tongue or a tentacle.

That “coincidentally” brushed right past my feet!

I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, but for now, I’ll just do it!

I stepped on the red, fleshy surface and started running, running, and running again.

- Squirm!

The tentacle jerked violently in midair, and the next moment, my body was flung high into the sky.

I floated weightlessly, suspended in midair. In that frozen moment, I spotted something odd.

A small figure on top of the sea worm’s head.

Who is that?

Is that the evil sorcerer controlling the sea worm?

I don’t know for sure, but I feel like I need to deal with them, right?

But I’m still in midair!

A flood of thoughts raced through my head, but reality remained unchanged.

My body was still floating in the air, and I was still far from the sea worm’s head.

- Fwwoooosh!

A “coincidentally” powerful gust of wind swept through, pushing me forward while I was still airborne.

My body naturally spun 180 degrees, and as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, I landed squarely on the sea worm’s head.

Whoa! This is crazy!

Seriously, this is insane!

Even I have to admit this is ridiculous!

Isn’t this straight out of a movie?

Not even Tom Cruise could pull this off!

For a moment, I was completely absorbed by the whirlwind of my own “coolness”.

And in that moment, I heard a girl from across the way mumbling to herself, “Void Step? Or perhaps Qi Ascent?”

…What the heck is she yapping /genesisforsaken