Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 401
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EP.401 Episode 401 – Room 206, The Cursed Room – ‘The Demon King Resurrects in 100 Days’ (3)
Episode 401 – Room 206, The Cursed Room – ‘The Demon King Resurrects After 100 Days’ (3)
[User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 236
Current Location: Room 206, The Cursed Room – ‘The Demon King Resurrects After 100 Days’
Wise Man’s Advice: 3]
There are 24 groups of miners working in the Mirconium mine, each group consisting of one group leader and 20 miners.
That is, there are 24 foremen and 480 miners.
Just because he’s a foreman doesn’t mean he’s higher in rank than a miner.
In the first place, the foreman is just someone who picks a big, ill-tempered miner and gives him orders.
The mine managers give these foul-tempered thugs the right to do whatever they want with the miners.
It’s clear what will happen.
The foreman abuses the miners like a thug, and embezzles their belongings, whether it be money or food.
The miners’ hearts are filled with anger towards the foreman.
If level 4 citizens start fighting each other like this, the level 3 or higher mine managers can just stay away and play nice.
If things continue like this, we will just have to discipline the class president who goes too far once every few months or years.
The miners will be grateful for the mercy of the upper class who punished their corrupt foreman.
There are also harsh laws to control mining.
According to the special law of Paradise, if a foreman dies underground, all miners in that foreman are considered accomplices to murder.
At first glance, it may seem like an absurd law that holds all miners jointly liable, but if you look through history books, you will see that it is a method with quite a long history.
This is the Ogajaktong method that was widely practiced in pre-modern East Asian countries.
Because of this law, the miners cannot dare to go against their foreman and are forced to watch each other in case someone tries to harm them.
*
The beginning of everything was simple.
Early one morning, Captain Peterson, sitting on the mine cart, immediately got up and became indignant.
“Which bastard put a sharp rock in my seat? Who is it!”
The miners were confused, but no one answered.
Of course, if Peterson had been the type to just quietly let it go, he wouldn’t have been elected class president.
“Oh~! Alright. Everyone keep your mouths shut, right? Come out here, I’m going to slap you guys one by one in order!”
This crazy kid is at it again.
That moment when the miners waited with resigned expressions for the pain to come.
A tall, white-skinned young man, unusual for a fourth-class citizen, stood up.
“Peterson, aren’t you being a little too pushy today?”
“What the heck? This little Han Ga-in is really -”
The next moment, something no one could have imagined happened.
Peterson, who was trying to grab Han Ga-in by the collar, suddenly lost his balance and fell!
This was a very dangerous position to be in, as the cart was moving rapidly underground in the mine.
The startled miners stood up and approached Peterson.
반장이 개새끼이긴 했지만, 이렇게 죽기라도 하면 애꿎은 광부들이 단체로 감옥에 끌려갈테니 별수 없었다.
At that very moment.
Peterson lost his balance again and slipped.
“Eww!”
and –
“Ugh, ugh! I lost my hand!”
Peterson slipped out of the mine cart, accompanied by the young man’s panicked cry.
“Kwaaaaah!”
— Kwajik!
At most, just 5 seconds.
Before anyone could catch their breath, Captain Peterson fell to his death.
Naturally, all the people in the cart were shocked.
“Oh, the class president is dead!”
“What the heck is this? Hey, what’s going on?”
“Joe, George!”
“what?”
“Didn’t you cross paths with Captain Peterson?”
“이 개새끼가 어디서 -”
Just as the miners were about to go crazy blaming each other, a calm voice was heard.
“Everyone, calm down. There’s no point in fighting. If Peterson slips off the cart, does the mine manager care if it’s George’s fault or James’s?”
Everyone looked at the young man, dumbfounded.
“This is a big deal.”
“…”
“Now everyone is a murderer, right?”
“…”
“What should we do? If we return like this and report the death of the squad leader… we’ll all be dragged to the dungeon and suffer a pain worse than death.”
“So, what are we going to do about it -”
“Suddenly, this thought occurred to me. If one foreman dies, twenty miners become murderers. Then….”
“… then?”
“What if 20 foremen die? Will the managers still turn the 400 miners into murderers?”
Everyone looked at the young man, dumbfounded.
He answered with an extremely solemn expression.
“Let’s make up our minds. Shouldn’t we all live together?”
*
After the cart reached the basement, the white-skinned young man carefully moved to the right half.
“Captain Lloyd!”
“What? Aren’t you one of the miners on Peterson’s side??”
“As expected, you have a good memory. Captain Peterson has something to say.”
Lloyd went into the place where Peterson’s team was working, smiling, wondering if something had hit them again.
“So, where is Peterson?”
“…”
“Where is Peterson?”
— Kwajik!
Pickaxes flew in from the left and right, striking Lloyd’s shoulders and head repeatedly.
The white youth, who had been looking at Lloyd who had turned into a mashed potato, soon moved to where Lloyd had been.
“Miners!”
The miners from Lloyd’s team, who were swinging their pickaxes frantically, took notice of the young man.
“Mr. Lloyd has a problem!”
When Lloyd’s team heard that there was a problem with the squad leader’s body and moved to the next room in shock, all they saw was Lloyd’s body turned into six pieces.
“What the heck, what the heck is this!”
“Why are you doing that?”
“Why, why! Did you guys kill the class president? You crazy kids -”
“This is a big problem.”
“What the heck is this kid -”
“Our Captain Peterson is dead too.”
Lloyd’s team of miners opened their eyes wide in shock.
“Now that the two foremen are dead, 40 miners have become murderers.”
“Oh, how did this happen -”
“What if 20 class leaders die?”
The miners’ eyes were focused on the young man.
He spoke with an extremely solemn expression.
“Let’s make up our minds. Shouldn’t we all live together?”
Soon madness filled the entire mine.
At some point the miners stopped thinking about whether this was really the right choice or not.
Maybe they needed a ‘justification’.
A justification to kill the hateful class president.
*
A quiet afternoon.
Rupert, a third-class citizen and Mirconium mine manager, was leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee.
At that time, a shocking report came to Rupert.
“What, what did you say!”
“One of the foremen escaped covered in blood! According to his report, the miners have gone mad and are beating the foremen to death.”
By the time Rupert arrived at the mine in a panic with his suppression team, the situation was already over.
The miners were sitting somewhere with dazed expressions on their faces, and the corpses of more than twenty foremen were strewn across the floor.
At that moment, the emotion that came to Rupert’s mind was not sympathy for the murder victims or anger at the miners.
‘This is dismissal! My career is over!’
In paradise, the lives of fourth-class citizens and workers are insignificant.
Just because a miner or two die, these ‘minor problems’ don’t affect Rupert’s career.
…
But what if 20 foremen were killed and over 400 miners were taken to prison?
Of course, the headlines in tomorrow’s papers are set, and the miners’ fury will surely engulf Rupert.
At this moment when Rupert’s soul was about to ascend, a calm voice was heard.
“This is a big deal.”
Rupert looked up blankly and stared at the tall, white young man who was unusual for a miner.
“With 20 foremen murdered, nearly 500 miners at the site have become murderers.”
“…”
“Oh my god! 20 murders and 500 murderers? This is going to be on the news tomorrow.”
“…”
“Sir Rupert may be faced with a terrible responsibility.”
“You damn fourth-rate bastard! Put your mouth out right now -”
“Hey, how about this?”
Rupert looked up as if in a trance.
There was definitely something extraordinary about the young man who could so calmly babble madly in a mine full of madness and corpses.
“What about the side where 20 class leaders were involved in a major accident?”
“…”
“There’s no need to reveal that you’re the foreman, right? The mine shaft just collapsed and several Grade 4 workers died?”
“…Are you asking me to cover up the murder?”
That was crazy talk.
But it was also logical.
Two types of news articles came to his mind.
On one side was a news story about 500 men in an underground mine going mad and killing each other.
The whole city will be in an uproar before you know it, and Rupert’s career will end here.
On the other side, there was news that 20 fourth-class citizens had died in a mining accident.
“…”
The young man spoke with an extremely solemn expression.
“Let’s make up our minds. Shouldn’t we all live together?”
As Rupert nodded absentmindedly, the young man added a sentence.
“By the way, didn’t one of the class presidents escape alive?”
“… You seem to have misunderstood something. All the class presidents have had accidents. It’s sad.”
In this way, the incident in which 480 miners killed 23 foremen turned into an incident in which 24 unfortunate workers died in an accident.
*
After the accident was resolved, Rupert reported to his superiors with a relieved heart.
Part of the mine collapsed, killing several Grade 4 workers.
Wouldn’t this be no big deal?
Sure enough, the article about the Mirconium mine in the morning paper was tucked away in a corner of page two.
Because the fact that a 4th class citizen is ‘consumed’ in paradise is a really minor issue.
However, the face of the miner who had been spouting evil words with a calm demeanor in the maddening mine faintly flashed through my mind.
Rupert had his thoughts too.
“George.”
“Rupert?”
“What was the name of the guy who was twitching his nose in front of me yesterday?”
“It must be a 4th class citizen, Han Ga-in.”
“… Don’t you think we should kill that guy?”
“I agree. He’s a guy who’s got his head in a pretty unpleasant direction. I’ll find a chance to deal with him soon.”
“Okay. By the way, there isn’t a new foreman in the mine yet?”
“We will select a new one next week.”
A smile returned to Rupert’s face as he felt that he had somehow overcome a major crisis.
Surely, the mine will return to normal operation.
Two days later, a shocking article appeared in Happy Happy Paradise News.
“Shocking True Story! What on earth happened in the Mirconium Mine in Area 17?
According to Happy Happy Paradise News’ investigation, all previous reports of a ‘passageway collapse’ are false.
So what on earth happened in the mine?
According to the heartbreaking testimony of a 4th class citizen, Mr. Han, a number of 3rd class citizens abused 4th class citizens with violent attitudes –
Rupert, who was reading the article, lost his soul again.
At some point, this incident turned into an incident in which violent third-class citizens murdered twenty innocent fourth-class workers.