SWDnovel Chapter 44: Room 104, Cursed Room – ‘Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School’ (4)
Chapter 44: Room 104, Cursed Room – ‘Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School’ (4)
Chapter 44: Room 104, Cursed Room – ‘Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School’ (4)
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 18
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 (Cursed Room Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School)
Sages Advice: 3]
Day 3 at the school.
I looked at the timetable and found PE.
At the start, I didnt really care about it, because I thought we would probably play with a ball or something.
Instead, I was more concerned about the test after the lessons and was relieved after hearing about how there wont be any tests today. The teachers were still skeptical about Eunsol-noona, and it seemed that they would stop the tests until they had a countermeasure for her.
Thus, we were talking about how we should have some break today and focus thinking about how we should escape this place through the conversation tab in our heads.
And that was when the triathlon began.
*
Stamina is everything! You guys, do you think sitting at the table and looking at your books all day will increase your marks? That is wrong. An exam is the same as a battle! And what do you think supports you in the heat of battle? Its stamina, and the best exercises to build stamina are swimming, cycling and marathon for sure!
The fake Cha Jinchul standing on the stage was giving out a heated speech about how important stamina was.
You see guys, if only I can, I would love to do a whole revamp of your awful stamina. I also do understand that you cannot exercise all day, but I still think that you need a full-on workout at least once a week for a long-term benefit to your stamina and college exams. All~ the other excellent teachers agreed with me.
Where exactly were those excellent teachers in this crazy school?
First off, theres only 1 hour of PE so we will warm up with a bit of jogging. Come straight to the field immediately after the lessons are over, okay!? We had a rather scandalous event yesterday. Ive done some wrong myself so let me apologise for that. Because of what happened yesterday, there wont be any tests today and instead of tests, we will be doing a specially prepared mini triathlon to build stamina.
After that, the fake Cha Jinchul didnt say much. All he said was about how he reduced the individual lengths of the courses for the three triathlon activities: swimming, cycling and a marathon, and how we will be doing them ourselves.
A sigh unknowingly left my mouth. Why did they go to such lengths just to bother us? What was going to happen next was also very obvious. The few guys that come at the end would probably be sent to the Old Main Building again.
I calmly thought about the few remaining members we had on the students side.
Me, Songee, Elena and Ahri.
I wasnt into praising myself, but I still didnt consider my physical abilities as something that was below the average mark of senior high school students. Elena was aiming to become an actor so my assumption was that she was one of our few female members with good stamina and I also couldnt imagine Ahri failing from anything.
The problem was, as I expected, Songee. She didnt look fit by any means and even her Inheritance was useless in an unsophisticated stamina battle like this. There would be a hundred of us in the sports field with everything being recorded so tricking one person using the Inheritance wasnt going to help.
Songee appeared to be thinking the same thing.
Yu Songee (Student): Im prepared.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Does it look rough?
Yu Songee (Student): Yes. Ill save my stamina. Not bad. I can gain info from a different perspective to Jinchul-oppa.
Information.
We had to gather more information since one of us was going to be going to the Old Main Building anyway, but I still couldnt help but feel ominous with the reduction of one person. How many would be escaping this time? I really didnt want to be the last one alive like what happened back at the Mansion of Fear.
While thinking about this and that, I was completely ignoring the lesson because there werent going to be tests anyway as the lessons quickly came to an end.
*
The triathlon began.
The entire school turned quiet as soon as we were about to start swimming.
Although they might be NPCs, they still werent any different from normal high schoolers!
I had already seen a bunch of boys shiver whenever they saw Elena and Ahri. There were even some funny kids that blatantly offered Songee coffee from the canteen every recess so we were even wondering when we would have ourselves the first confessor. Songees appearance was something that was still within the common sense of high schoolers, but Elena and Ahri had a completely otherworldly appearance.
They were so otherworldly in fact, that the students parted like the red sea whenever Elena and Ahri were walking through the classroom. Thanks to that, it was very easy for us to hold our strategy meetings. We could go and sit anywhere we liked and there would be a vacant plot of land around us.
But a swimming pool and a swimsuit?
Honestly, this might be too strong of a stimulus for high school kids. I thought I became quite used to their appearances through all the hardships of the Hotel but seeing them in swimsuits was still quite a staggering experience even for me. Let alone the boys, even the girls were all dumbstruck.
Besides, being someone that was aiming to become an actor, Elena appeared to be enjoying the surrounding gazes while I couldnt possibly imagine Ahri being timid.
Thanks to that, the swimming pool turned into an external photo studio of models that was being watched by passersby.
The funny thing here was that even the fake Cha Jinchul who should be progressing the triathlon was awestruck after seeing Elena. Actually, it might be nothing strange because even the real Cha Jinchul used to shiver in front of Elena
Wouldnt it actually be more productive for us to spend the rest of the time watching Elena and Ahri together until we had to return to the dormitory?
Wouldnt relaxing our eyes be a lot better in fact than something like a triathlon which was useless for the college exam?
Unfortunately, the fake Cha Jinchul ended up waking up.
Hmm, hmm. Looks like everyones gotten a bit too excited. Everyone! I know you guys are at the pool and stuff, but we are not here to play around. Now! Go in order, starting from Class 1!.
The triathlon thus began.
*
The happy and excited atmosphere of the swimming pool was gone. Our eye relaxation time which was 10 times more productive than the meaningless triathlon ended and waiting for us after that was hell.
How could there be something like, Swim faster than others unless you want to be brought to the Old Main Building and die in this world?
Yu Songee (Student): The Guider giving a strange speech.
Yu Songee (Student): The world is full of pain. There is no need to have any feelings for this place. The ascendance is near. Lord is watching over us, and salvation is near. Shed your outer skin your trivial attachment to the world, weak hearts, and evil thoughts. Embed all of that into your outer skin and return to your purity. Lord has prepared a paradise for us.
Yu Songee (Student): Almost reaching my limit.
Yu Songee (Student): Last report. The fakes sent to the school from the Old Main Building are called outer skins at this place. Theyre not there to simply deceive others and its a very important procedure of their religion shedding their outer skin for salvation. Cant handle anymore. Ill try fighting the Guider.
The reports came to an end.
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 18
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 (Cursed Room Preparatory Selective, Hotel High School)
Sages Advice: 3
Teammate Location Information (*)
Yu Songee: Dead]
Even Songee was dead.
Lets organise what we knew. As expected, she was able to gather more useful information than everyone else.
1. The real state of the Old Main Building
-> It really was a building possessed by a strange religious group.
2. The reason why killing five was meaningless.
-> Most of the people inside the school had already been substituted. There were hundreds of students in this school, so that meant there were at least several hundred inside the Old Main Building.
3. The reason for substituting and sending fakes.
-> According to their religious view, it was a procedure of salvation. Before being chosen by the Lord to go to paradise, they had to discard their outer skin as humans. Those outer skins were the fakes that we had been seeing the whole time. What happened to the real body after shedding their outer skin? This was something that was still very unclear. Do they really go to some type of paradise? And would they lose their real body after shedding their outer skin? But for that to be the case, didnt Jinchul-hyung meet the original Seungyub? I had no idea.
4. What exactly was the Guider?
-> No clue. An extremely beautiful existence with supernatural powers.
There were a lot of things we discovered but they werent anything usable for the time being. Our first objective was to escape, and these would come in handy later when we came back to resolve the curse of this room.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Strange. Discarding the worldly desires for enlightenment? Slightly similar to buddhism as well.
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Deal with the analysis outside. Cha with strength and Yu with Inheritance have both died. Resolution is impossible; escape is our goal.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): We should attempt escaping this school.
Han Kain (Student): A lot of securities that are constantly on guard.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Students are the ones being supervised. Teachers can move freely.
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): How about I drive and the students hide inside?
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): Is there a car?
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): I snatched the chiefs key last time.
Lee Eunsol (Teacher): You mustve been living an honest life yourself.
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Thats mean.
Kim Ahri (Student): STOP. Ready when?
Kim Mooksung (Teacher): Strike while iron is hot. Go tonight.
*
We came up with our first escape plan.
Since we stole someone elses car key, the teachers could drive the car to hide from the eyes of the security and the students would be riding at the back of the car.
At a glance, it seemed like a perfect plan. There was no reason for guards to scavenge through a teachers car, right?
However, it was still very worrisome. Most of our teams power level had already gone down.
We no longer had Jinchul-hyungs strength and Songees disappearance as well as her Diverse Perspectives was a detrimental hit.
Maybe we had to rely on Ahris supernatural powers that she still hasnt revealed.
*
That night, we saw the most overwhelming ability that we ever saw after arriving at the Hotel.