SWDnovel Chapter 154: Room 201, The Cursed Room - ‘□□□ □□□□’ (3)
Chapter 154: Room 201, The Cursed Room - ‘□□□ □□□□’ (3)
Chapter 154: Room 201, The Cursed Room - ‘□□□ □□□□’ (3)- Kim Ahri
Amid the chaotic atmosphere, Seungyub spoke hesitantly, "Should I pick the next route again? I messed up last time... Should I use my active skill? It's ready to use."
"From now on, let's call that active skill ‘Heaven’s Luck’. And don't use it. The cooldown is really long."
Mooksung shared the same opinion, "Heaven’s Luck? What a name... Anyway, Seungyub, your Heaven’s Luck might be called an active skill, but isn’t it more like an automatic skill? It activates on its own when it's really needed, right? Like during the Strange Family, it activated by itself, and during the Hotel High School, you got a notification asking if you wanted to use it. Just wait. It’ll activate when necessary."
Now that he mentioned it, that's really true.
The active skill, which we’ve decided to call “Heaven’s Luck” from now on, isn’t really an active skill.
It activates on its own when there's a crisis, and even suggests to its user when it might be useful. It’s a strange skill.
The cooldown is also unpredictable. It’s definitely long, but how long exactly?
Even Seungyub himself didn’t know.
From what I had observed, it seemed to vary each time.
Once again, it struck me how mysterious this luck-based Blessing really was.
In the end, Seungyub picked the next route again.
This time, it was the back door.
We called Elizabeth over and headed to the back door to move on to the fourth mansion.
As we walked through the underground passage, Songee sighed and spoke up, "It’s a bit late to bring this up, but where do you think Perro is?"
Mooksung nudged Songee to remind her to use the chat, and she quickly closed her mouth.
...Honestly, I don’t think it matters much.
As long as Elizabeth wasn’t an idiot, she must have noticed that we were hiding something and had our own way of communicating by now.
Even in the short time we’ve been here, she saw Mooksung’s gloves and Jinchul’s Star in action.
It would seem strange from the outside to see us acting in sync without saying anything.
Yet, Elizabeth hasn’t questioned us once.
“...”
Should I shoot her from behind?
Just like us, she’s wearing a full-body bulletproof suit and helmet, so she wouldn’t die instantly.
She was a combat-trained agent, so she would resist.
But we had Jinchul on our side.
I seriously considered killing her right here and now.
I subtly shifted the gun’s muzzle towards Elizabeth—
Lee Eunsol: Ahri, stop.
Kim Ahri: Suspicious.
Lee Eunsol: What do you mean?
Kim Mooksung: Calm down!
We should observe her a bit more.
The Cursed Room usually requires multiple attempts to clear, doesn’t it?
Instead of eliminating her right away just because she seems dangerous, we need to keep an eye on her to uncover what secrets she has hidden.
Another concern came to mind.
We have all these diverse abilities as part of our “setup”, but is she really just a normal human?
As an Administration agent myself, I couldn’t underestimate her combat abilities.
I eased up a bit. The topic Songee had brought up earlier started to come up in the chat.
Kim Mooksung: Perro wasn’t here from the start.
Yu Songee: This has never happened before.
Park Seungyub: Maybe he’s somewhere else like Kain-hyung?
Kim Ahri: Could be a clue?
- Click!
Elizabeth, who was leading the way, opened the door to the fourth mansion.
The tension returned, and the chat fell silent.
Where is Perro right now?
***After experiencing the third mansion, we formulated a hypothesis about this trial.
It seemed like a game of “spot the difference” was in progress.
Each repeating mansion had one difference.
That difference always harbored a monster that would attack after some time.
As soon as we entered the fourth mansion through the front door, we scrutinized every detail with keen eyes.
In the previous three attempts, we were completely unprepared and were rendered powerless, but this time, with a strategy in place, the situation was different.
With Eunsol’s powerful eyesight, we quickly spotted the anomaly.
"Over there! The tree in the living room! The species has changed."
We couldn't afford to repeat the mistake we made when we lost Elena.
Mooksung and Jinchul immediately fired at the tree.
- Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
After four or five shots, something strange happened.
The tree began to bleed like an animal, then slowly seeped into the floor and disappeared.
“...”
After that, no other anomalies occurred in the fourth mansion.
We had finally found the correct response.
After catching our breath, Eunsol gave instructions via the chat.
Lee Eunsol: Seungyub, next room.
At least the bracelet was effective.
The gorilla, unable to locate us, started to thrash around before—
Wildly swinging its arms in every direction!
Not even three seconds later, the gorilla’s massive fist came crashing down on Songee.
- Bang!
With a loud crash, Seungyub threw himself in the way, taking the blow and being slammed into the wall!
Is he okay?
He should be, with the Protective Suit on, right?
I’ll give him a hug when we get out!
In the chaos, Songee screamed, "S-Seungyub! What do we do? That gorilla is smart. It’s just flailing around–"
- Thud! Thud!
Jinchul charged at the gorilla from behind.
He stomped the ground so hard it sent vibrations all the way to me.
At the same time, a powerful wave radiated from Jinchul’s front, pressing down like a tangible force.
No matter how tough that monster’s skin was, could it withstand the power of the Star?
- ROOOAAAARRR!
It roared again!
In an instant, the Star began twisting the skin on the gorilla’s back.
Rocks sprouted from the monster’s flesh, and the skin started to tear apart!
Seeing that Mooksung and I fired simultaneously.
This time, it was different!
As the skin twisted, the monster’s formidable defense began to crumble.
As the bullets burrowed into its flesh, the gorilla let out a howl of pain.
- Bang!
"Ahh!"
In the next moment, a bullet came out of nowhere, hitting Songee as she fell to the ground with a scream.
"Elizabeth!"
Elizabeth, who had turned invisible and hidden somewhere, had attacked Songee!
Thanks to the full-body bulletproof suit, it didn’t seem fatal, but even with bulletproof protection, a bullet’s impact wasn’t entirely nullified.
It must have felt like getting hit with a sledgehammer.
Songee was writhing in pain on the ground, while the gorilla, now free from the bracelet’s control, immediately redirected its attack toward Jinchul.
- Boom! Boom!
"Kraaah! What is this thing?! King Kong?! FUCKKKK!"
Two seconds? Three seconds?
The gorilla’s punches sent Jinchul flying before he could even properly retaliate.
In just one exchange it was clear...
That monster’s physical strength far surpassed even Jinchul’s.
It really reminded me of that gorilla in the movie, the one fighting dinosaurs.
The gorilla was also smart.
After knocking Jinchul away, it didn’t stop there, immediately jumping into the air—
Is that thing really jumping like that with its size? Is it the Hulk?
I couldn’t bear to watch it any longer.
With a thunderous crash, Jinchul became nothing more than a lump of gore on the ground.
But there were results.
While the gorilla’s massive fist crushed Jinchul, the Star continued to emit otherworldly waves right up until Jinchul’s final moments.
In mere seconds, the gorilla’s once-impenetrable skin was torn to shreds, leaving most of it hanging in tatters.
In this chaos... there was honestly nothing I could do.
What should I do? My Ancient Blood has many abilities, but none that could work on such a brute.
Hypnosis? The gorilla would turn me into jelly faster than I could try to hypnotize it.
Fortunately, after the gorilla regained its senses, Elizabeth’s presence completely disappeared as if she were a mouse.
The gorilla didn’t seem to pay attention to her presence.
As the atmosphere turned even more terrifying, a butterfly appeared out of thin air.
“...”
An ethereal, beautiful blue butterfly, utterly out of place in this blood-soaked, nightmarish scene.
The butterfly slowly fluttered toward the gorilla as if toying with it.
Perhaps even the gorilla was taken aback, pausing momentarily before casually swiping at the butterfly.
The moment the butterfly touched the gorilla’s palm, it sank into it!
Eunsol must be hiding somewhere!
Just like Elizabeth!
For the first time since the fight began, the gorilla started to stumble.
At the same time, the chat window flashed.
Kim Mooksung: Ahri! Now!
I immediately grabbed my gun and dashed toward the gorilla's torn skin.
1. Songee suddenly used broken English here, Kham Daun=Calm down. To elaborate further, she used 캄 다운 (kham daun), which is Konglish (basically english adapted into Korean). We decided it would be funnier if we transcribe it literally.