Escaping the Mystery Hotel

- Elena

- Yo-o-o-o! Rei-re-e-e!

A strange melody tickled my ears.

The melody was echoing through the area.

Just moments ago, my “second creation” had devoured the writhing Rudah whole.

The “Conductor”, which had turned every human host into a slime, seemed unable to have any harmful effect on my “second creation”.

The music continued an inexplicable and disjointed melody filling the research facility.

Gradually, the screams subsided.

The unsettling waves that had prickled my skin stopped.

As I surveyed my surroundings in relief—

“Ahh!”

Don’t suddenly shove your head at me like that!

I may have created you, but you’re terrifying!

…

The girl-like moth silently stared at me.

Suddenly, an unknown dust began to scatter around.

“What is this…?”

The girl didn’t answer.

In fact, I wasn’t sure she even could speak.

But the effect of the dust became clear immediately.

I felt all of my strength getting drained from my body….

***

“Achoo!”

I was jolted awake by the sharp sting of cold droplets on my face.

Strangely, the smell of the sea filled my senses—had I been brought near the shore?

Why was I put to sleep in the first place?

My body refused to move.

I was wrapped tightly in a massive cocoon of fur, with only my head poking out.

I quickly grasped that I was trapped in a person-sized cocoon.

“Um… child?”

“…”

“Could you let me out?”

No response.

Can it not speak?

With no other options, I twisted my head around, scanning the surroundings as best I could.

It was bizarre.

This entire room had been filled with surreal, grotesque sights, but the current scene was uniquely strange.

At the head of the procession was my “second creation”, the moth girl, fluttering and writhing slowly through the air.

Behind her, countless “living flutes” were trudging along, moving in an unsteady but uniform line.

It felt like the hellish sequel to the Pied Piper of Hamelin—now the nightmare of the “Pied Moth Girl of Busan.”

Dust swirled through the air.

At first, I thought it was snow, but it was unmistakably dust.

The powder emanating from the moth coated everything, saturating the environment.

Slowly, the entire world began to rot.

It was as if someone had taken a filthy, decayed paintbrush and smeared the world with muddy colors.

The land touched by the powder turned ashen, the grass withered, the water evaporated, and even the sky dimmed.

What kind of monster have I created?

What is this creature thinking?

I had no answers.

All I felt was an overwhelming, all-consuming fear.

In the darkness of a descending night at the beach, amidst the sands of the shoreline, stood a massive wooden pillar.

And before the pillar, I saw someone I recognized.

“Elena-unni! You’re still alive?”

“…Hello.”

“What’s with that furball? Are you cold? Even with a coat made of fur, it wouldn’t help in this weather, would it?”

With those words, the cocoon melted away like it had been dissolved.

Is it some kind of magic?

It seemed like Liringanaur had done it.

The moth took a step forward, and Liringanaur immediately stepped back.

“Ugh… Unni, isn’t this a bit much? What kind of monster did you make?”

“I know.”

“Honestly, I don’t even want to fight it. But it doesn’t matter. It’s already time.”

“Time?”

Liringanaur didn’t answer.

Instead, she lit the pillar on fire.

Perhaps it had been pre-soaked in oil, as it quickly blazed brightly.

Once the fire illuminated the area around her, I finally noticed something shocking.

The girl’s face had no eyes, no ears, no nose.

“Your face—“

“Unni, have you heard of minimalism?”

“What?”

“The secret to happiness isn’t about having more—“

“Wait, stop! Who the hell does minimalism on their face?”

“Me.”

With that, Liringanaur chuckled softly and walked toward the burning pillar.

What on earth is she planning?

It didn’t take long to realize.

She was offering herself as a living sacrifice.

The girl’s body was engulfed in flames.

It seemed like a fitting end to this long, dark night.

From the sea, a deep resonance began to echo.

- GOOOOO!

From the infinite depths of the abyss, a colossal form arose.

I could feel the Sea God, the arbiter of Room 202, awakening.

Ironically, from this point onward, things were out of my hands.

Everything now rested in the hands of the creature I had created.

The moth took flight, soaring into the air.

- ROOOO~!

An unidentifiable melody filled the sky.

Simultaneously, all the living flutes, which had been singing their strange tune, began to harmonize.

A storm battered the shores of Busan under the pitch-black night, illuminated by the burning pillar and the songs of monsters striving to prevent catastrophe.

Ah…

I’m reaching my limit.

Truly, I’ve had enough.

One way or another, I want this to end.

Have you ever felt yourself unravel, piece by piece?

Like a tightly wound steel wire fraying and scattering?

And as those fragments scatter, they each turn into pulsing bits of flesh?

And yet—

At this moment, I felt like I was ascending to a “higher” place than I’d ever reached before.

I was growing.

My mind, my soul—or something beyond such words—was breaking free of its mortal shell.

The once-blurry form of the Sea God became vivid in my vision.

The strange melody that had been tickling my ears seared itself into my mind like a brand.

It was only now that I understood why the Sea God had given the flute to its followers, a question that had baffled the Administration for so long.

Why had the Sea God bestowed a divine instrument that weakened its own influence?

It was simple.

The interpretation was wrong from the start.

The flute wasn’t a melody that weakened the Sea God’s power—it’s a lullaby to soothed it.

The Sea God, tormented by endless nightmares, had given its followers a song to lull it to sleep.

Just as humans drank to forget their painful memories, the Sea God had offered the flute.

The raging fury of the sea began to calm…

A luminous form stared at me from the center of the darkened abyss.

Strangely, I could tell that its gaze was different from before.

It had found “reason”.

[On ce mo re.]

“…?”

[Al most the re. Wh y ar e yo u still a mer folk?]

“…??”

Did the Sea God just… speak to me?

Once more—why?

Was it because this wasn’t a true resolution but merely a temporary calming of its rage?

Couldn’t it explain things more clearly?

As I stood dumbfounded, the Sea God’s massive form began to sink back into the sea.

At that moment, the dust thickened, clouding my vision.

- Crrrrrk!

A strange sound echoed. From the moth’s body, an elongated stinger emerged.

A visceral sense of revulsion struck me, and I staggered back.

“Uh, hey… What’s going on all of a sudden?”

The writhing stinger, its tip teeming with squirming shapes.

“Ahhhhh! AHHHHH!”

Strands of silk shot out, pinning my body in place as the stinger inched closer.

Watching the writhing shapes at its tip, I swore to myself—I would never create such a monstrosity again!

You have escaped!

The research facility, steeped in the dream of a new humanity, a place that should have been full of hope, turned out to be an astonishing labyrinth of horrors. Through the creation of an even more monstrous demon, you successfully seized the trump card prepared by the Administration.

However, perhaps next time, try summoning a creature that’s a little more… manageable.

You have escaped the curse, but you sense the root cause of the curse still persists.

One of your team has successfully escaped!

Congratulations! The successful escape allows everyone to return safely.

***

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 106

Current Location: Floor 2, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3

- Han Kain

“Ugh!”

I woke up in a familiar corridor.

Honestly, this Administration is way too ruthless.

Shooting and killing my original body?

Fine, I could maybe accept that.

But then, I possessed the body of someone who had been their comrade moments ago, and they didn’t even hesitate to kill it?

Because of that, I’ve now realized a weakness of possession that I had never thought about before.

The process of transferring between bodies—when my consciousness floats away and moves into another—takes a moment.

That process itself creates a kind of “delay”.

In other words, there’s a brief window of time during the transfer, and if I die during that time, it’s game over.

Still, it doesn’t feel like a major weakness.

Unless I’m facing lunatics like the Administration who don’t hesitate for even 0.1 seconds to kill their comrades, I should usually have enough time to switch bodies.

Anyway… Judging by the fact that I’m out here now, someone must have escaped.

Or maybe… solved it?

“Phew! This one was really tough, don’t you think?”

Ahri, wearing a lively expression, stretched out her “fingers” and poked Elena, who was standing nearby.

“Kyaa!”

And then, Elena immediately kicked Ahri and bolted away!

“Gahhhh!”

“Huh?”

Even as Ahri rolled across the floor, she couldn’t comprehend why she had just been kicked.

***

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