Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 396
Only Krnovel
EP.396 Episode 396 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (12)
Episode 396 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream (12)
– Kim Sang-hyun
I often felt this way when talking with colleagues at the hotel.
They all live in Korea, including Ms. Elena, who was born in Russia.
Because of this, there were many differences from my experience living in the United States.
For example, the situation where a monster is built by civilians was perceived completely differently.
Excluding the two agents who rarely engage in this type of conversation, it is surprisingly Songi Yang who has experienced the most brutal environments among her colleagues.
However, even Songi Yang knew that the monsters were naturally dealt with by the soldiers of the Management Bureau.
Setting aside the installation of security devices such as laser turrets in individual homes, they consider it the job of the management bureau to actively hunt monsters.
This is common sense in Korea, not in America.
What kind of country is the United States?
Wasn’t home defense originally something each country did on their own before the police arrived?
There is no need to bring up boring stories about frontier spirit, Puritanism, or the Founding Fathers to analyze these differences.
In many areas of the country, you can’t be sure that the police or the authorities will arrive within an hour.
In this amount of time, the monster will have eaten the entire family and even boiled their bones into soup.
Therefore, the dirty monsters should be able to kill civilians as well.
Anyone who can’t do this has already been eaten.
*
A dark night, a world where even the moon has disappeared.
The nights in Texas were so dark I couldn’t even see my hands.
But something faintly glowing ahead kept catching my attention.
— Clang!
I checked the shotgun situation again.
Although it looks dirty because Sherry Mama doesn’t usually take care of it, there is no problem with its functionality.
“…”
When I stopped and checked my gun, the other person also stopped.
It’s like someone is trying to lure me somewhere.
Is it right to follow?
If I could only use the final flash, I wouldn’t have worried, but this time, I can’t use the flash either.
It looks like Miro used my laser again at the hotel.
Of course I wrote it because I needed to, but it was embarrassing for me.
After about 20 minutes of chasing, a faintly glowing figure entered the woods outside Austin.
“… This isn’t it.”
There’s no forest like this in Austin that I know of.
It is a completely unknown terrain, and it may even have been created by an unidentified entity.
In the end, the first night came without much result.
*
The next day, early in the morning.
Mama nodded and opened her mouth after hearing what I said during the meal.
“Johnny, if you’re talking about the location, it’s probably towards Aster Lake.”
It’s Aster Lake again.
The name of the school that replaced the high school I went to was also Aster Lake High School.
“It’s a place that Austinites often go for a walk. Go there when it’s bright. It’s wide, the water is clean, and the view is great.”
“Isn’t there a chaos body?”
“Chaos? Demon? Well, if what you said is true, it looks like something shining is heading towards the lake… .”
Sherry tilted her head, emphasizing that Aster Lake was a safe place with hundreds of people walking there every day.
When I heard that, I started to get confused too.
“First, let’s report this to the authorities again. That won’t help much. They’re busy fighting the Kraken in New Orleans right now.”
“…”
It was already on the news this morning.
A giant octopus monster with legs over 300 meters long is said to have attacked the Louisiana port city of New Orleans, killing over 120 people in just one hour.
“… This is incredible.”
With guys like that running wild everywhere, who would have time to worry about shiny fake fairies?
The newscaster was talking about how the Kraken regenerated completely in one minute even after a Seahawk attack helicopter crushed its legs with its machine guns.
“How on earth do you catch something like that? Should I drop a nuke on it?”
“Well… I heard that guy that showed up in Mexico a while ago was dealt with by some kind of virus bomb.”
How on earth do people live in this hellish world?
As I was sighing without realizing it, children started flocking to Mama’s house.
“Toby, Josh, Peter, and Tyce too?”
“Mom, how are you today?”
The children were mostly Hispanic and in their mid to late teens, and they seemed to get together often because Sherri gave them food and money.
It was similar to the scenery I remember.
I declined pocket money, but I often got meals in return.
“It’s morning. How’s school going?”
“I’m not going to school today!”
“What? It’s not even Sunday?”
One boy giggled and then suddenly banged his fist on the wall of the house.
“Do you hear that sound? That sound?”
“I can’t hear you.”
“I kept hearing this sound coming from the walls at school. So I ended up tearing the walls off a little bit at school.”
And then the girl next to me suddenly raised both arms.
“Meow!”
“Meow?”
“There’s a really big cat running around, so today the teachers are going to catch it.”
The story goes that a cat monster appears at school and causes trouble.
Even the ones who catch the monster are not the military from the management office, but the school staff.
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at how peaceful the school scene was.
At that moment, a boy looked in my direction.
“Who are you, sir?”
I was speechless for a moment, but Mom simply said.
“Baek Soo-ji.”
“…”
That’s not wrong.
“Wow! My dad hasn’t had a job for 20 years!”
“…”
There was nothing more to say.
In the first place, when a child doesn’t have money, it’s usually the parents’ problem.
Mom soon started boiling the leftover gumbo from yesterday again, adding a few more ingredients, while the children started playing among themselves.
If I ask them, will I get an answer?
“Guys, I have a question for you.”
Late at night, an unidentified entity glows outside the window.
There was one child who understood.
“Oh, by any chance, didn’t it move towards the forest?”
“Aster Lake?”
“yes.”
“That’s right. I went that way. Do you know?”
“My mother once told me that fairies live in Aster Lake! I saw one too.”
“She’s a fairy.”
Then Mama Sherry, carrying a pot of hot soup, answered firmly.
“Thais, there are no such things as fairies in the world. I don’t know about monsters that look like fairies but eat people.”
“But, no one died, right?”
“It hasn’t been that long since you first appeared. I first saw you a month ago, and the second time was last night.”
“I saw Mom three months ago.”
It seems that the unidentified entity appeared recently.
It’s been about half a year at most, so we can’t be at a point where we can feel relieved just because there are no victims yet.
I asked Thais again.
“Why did your mother say you were a fairy?”
“When I looked through binoculars, it looked like a small human.”
“Little human? Do you have any other information?”
The girl shook her head.
“Has anyone seen it during the day?”
“It seems to only appear at night.”
Well then, there is still time.
*
After the kids left, I wandered around the living room and thought.
Last night I ran out with a bit of surprising bravery.
Looking back, it was a pretty risky decision.
It may be a dangerous habit that was developed while breaking through the hotel where one can be resurrected after death.
Isn’t there anyone you can take with you?
“It’s unlikely that the management will be able to help you.”
I also agreed with Mama’s answer.
Because that damn Kraken was still on the news.
“What about the police?”
“… You know. Those guys are afraid of monsters.”
At this point I decided to tell a white lie.
“What if we ask for your cooperation if an agent from the management agency goes with you?”
“If you do that, they’ll come, but they’re not just employees, they’re agents! I heard there aren’t many agents -”
— Tick!
He flicked his hand lightly and created sparks.
Next, my hand went in and out slightly ‘inside’ Mama’s shoulder.
Mama looked at me with her mouth wide open.
“Joe, Johnny! Are you working at the administration office?”
“I retired. There were various circumstances.”
Let’s pretend to be a retired agent.
Since I’ll be returning to the hotel in about 5 days anyway, there’s no need to worry about the aftermath of my lie.
Agent identification? Nothing is more certain than superpowers.
“Do you know any cops, James?”
“then!”
“Instead, please contact me. Oh, and please give me some good equipment.”
*
In the evening, three young and courageous police officers gathered at Mama’s house.
One of them was the person I saw yesterday.
“Ahem, uh, I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t realize you were an agent… .”
“no.”
James, the cop who killed the deer under hypnosis in front of me.
Another man, Rupert, approached cautiously.
“I believe Sherry, but could you show me just this once?”
“Of course.”
When I showed them the abilities I had shown to Mama, their eyes filled with admiration.
Soon they set out for Aster Lake, armed with the clothes and guns they had brought.
“How many years have you been working?”
“…”
“I’ve seen employees and soldiers often, but this is the first time I’ve seen an agent.”
“…”
“I’ve always wondered, how many ‘agents’ are there in this world?”
“…”
I ignored all the questions and soon the questions disappeared.
I don’t know the answer in the first place.
It’s a new experience, but I realized how mysterious Ari and Mukseong, whom I meet every day at the hotel, are to ordinary people.
While regular staff or strike teams from the Bureau are common sights, agents are truly something you only see once in a lifetime.
In the first place, no one knew how to become an agent.
Should I have superpowers?
Usually, many people know that, so when I showed them the power of blessing, they all believed that I was an agent.
In fact, the real agent, Kim Muk-seong, had no superpowers before entering the hotel.
“Whew… That’s fortunate. In fact, we were talking among ourselves about taking a look around the lake.”
“…”
“I feel secure because of you, Agent.”
“…”
I feel sorry for the police officers who believe in me and follow me, but the truth is that my ‘superpowers’ that they believe in so blindly are not normal.
It’s not that the power of sincerity has completely disappeared, but its output has been greatly reduced.
The power to light a cigarette or to slightly penetrate the skin is honestly meaningless.
The AR-15 I’m holding is 100 times more reliable than such vague superpowers.
As the sun was setting, the hazy glow I had seen yesterday appeared again.
“Ugh!”
“Let’s follow.”
*
This time I followed him all the way to the forest without stopping.
and….
“Hey, hey? What are you doing in a place like this?”
What did Thais’ mother say when she observed the glowing figure?
Looks like a little human?
It really was.
Because the identity of the luminous body was a boy with a strange appearance.
However, the condition was not normal.
The skin was as thin as paper, revealing the veins and internal organs beneath.
Instead of black pupils, there was something in the eyes that swirled and glowed like a whirlpool.
In addition, it emitted a soft light from its entire body, and at this point, it was impossible to tell whether it was a human or a ‘fairy’.
At that moment, James muttered in confusion.
“Timothy?”
“Do you know this kid?”
“There’s a church near Riverville, and this is the child of the deacon there. He went missing early this year and the neighborhood was in an uproar.”
The boy who went missing earlier this year?
“Hey, don’t you think we need to treat something first?”
I agree with that statement.
Because, to anyone who saw it, the boy in front of them was not normal.
… and I wasn’t even sure if he was human.
At that moment, James looked at me with worried eyes.
“How about we take a look before you report it to the authorities?”
“…”
I understood the situation by looking into the fearful eyes of the police officers.
They are afraid that I will report this child’s discovery to the authorities.
because.
If it were the Administration I know, they would kill this kid without a second thought.
“Tea, Timothy disappeared and the butler was really distressed. Just a little bit of his feelings -”
“As you may have heard from Sherry, I’m retired. There’s nothing to report or do.”
The police officers’ expressions brightened a little.
“Kick!”
The boy smiled faintly.
Although the sight was quite cute, I couldn’t deny that there was something eerie about it.