Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 552
Only Krnovel
EP.552 Episode 552 – I’m Alone at School (2)
Episode 552 – I’m Alone at School (2)
– Park Seung-yeop
My first thought was, ‘The hotel tricked me!’
“I told you to take a break for a year….”
You clearly told me to take a year off through the merchant’s mouth, and you said that nothing would happen!
I took a deep breath and calmed down.
Now that the incident has already occurred, there’s no use blaming anyone.
“You are surprisingly calm in a crisis.”
Hearing Sophia’s calm voice, my heart subtly felt at ease.
Whether we’re close or not, I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s been caught up in this strange phenomenon.
“What happened while I was sleeping?”
“I don’t know.”
“… what?”
“I don’t know.”
“No, I wasn’t pointing out your speech. I was asking why you didn’t know.”
“I slept too.”
“…”
When you say this, I am left speechless.
You can sleep inside the soul chamber.
By the way, is it really a coincidence that the accident happened while Sophia and I were both sleeping?
“Could it be that sleeping together is some kind of condition?”
“That could be… Let’s look around.”
*
Looking at the classroom situation, there were quite a few strange things besides the fact that other people had disappeared.
“It’s subtly different from the Bangbae Middle School I know.”
“That’s right.”
For example, there was no air conditioning installed on the ceiling.
Instead, there were a few old, half-worn looking fans hanging there, looking very old-fashioned.
“Look at that! It’s a fan that you operate by pulling a string.”
“…”
“I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“It’s one of the oldest mechanical fans.”
It didn’t take long for the doubts to end.
This is because the desks, chairs, and lockers at the back of the classroom were all made of old wood.
“Sophia, this place seems to be… .”
“…”
“It looks like it’s Bangbae Middle School from at least a few decades ago.”
*
— CLANG!
“It doesn’t open.”
All paths leading out of the school were blocked, including the main gate and the back gate near the teachers’ office on the first floor.
It’s locked?
Looking at it that way, even if I hit my body against the glass door, I didn’t feel any movement.
“Fortuna, can’t you open it with your own strength?”
Sophia is currently trapped in the soul box.
If you use destructive magic too forcefully, the remaining time will decrease quickly.
So what you’re asking me is this.
“It’s not Fortuna anymore! Get out of the way.”
I took a deep breath and felt a warm heat rise from my heart, energizing my entire body.
The stage of drawing out Aksha’s soul!
“Huh!”
“What is it?”
“In the past, the success rate from the first step of drawing out strength was about 20%!”
“…Can you say you’ve mastered that? It’s just an apprenticeship.”
“That’s right.”
Thinking back now, it would be a bit odd to say that I had learned martial arts in the past.
Just like Sophia said, it’s just an apprenticeship.
“Haat!”
The moment when the outstretched hand, like a wall, collides with the glass door.
—Whoosh!
A tremendous amount of force shook the glass door and the place where Sophia and I were standing.
However, not a single crack appeared on the glass door.
“… what?”
It’s unnatural.
Regardless of whether there is a lock or not, the main door is just opaque glass.
It’s not a material that can withstand physical force that can vibrate several meters in radius!
“I guess there’s some kind of magical barrier.”
For a moment, the pupils turned to a corner of the field of vision.
My second wish, which was granted by ‘Dream’.
“awakening”
Just once.
I can become the best swordsman in the world who can cut through the sky!
“Don’t use it.”
“… What the -”
“If you’re told not to use it, then don’t use it. Isn’t it a one-time power? I’m telling you not to waste it on trivial things.”
“Tsk, I didn’t even think about writing.”
“Let’s take a closer look inside the school.”
*
I searched everywhere from the first floor to the third floor.
I looked around from the teachers’ office to the classrooms, and even tried fiddling with my cell phone because it couldn’t find a signal.
In this way, Sophia and I did our best to escape from the strange phenomenon of ‘I woke up in a middle school from decades ago’.
And then, past the third floor, we arrived near the stairs leading to the rooftop on the fourth floor.
“… smell.”
“Ugh! This is so toxic!”
What is that smell?
The secretions produced by the human body were mixed and then fermented?
It was scary to be more specific here.
“I guess there’s something on the roof.”
Sophia with a nervous expression.
I too carefully grabbed the stick I had found during my exploration.
It’s nothing special, but if I add my martial arts skills to this stick, I’m confident I can kill a gorilla.
— Squeak!
The door leading to the rooftop was unlocked.
*
— Rustle!
The first thing I discovered was endless trash.
A mountain of trash mixed with candy bags, empty plastic bottles, and cooking foil.
There are so many of them that it’s hard to count them, enough to fill the entire rooftop.
There were quite a few plastic bottles and plastic bags containing ‘human secretions’, but I didn’t have the courage to look at them any further.
A flimsy tent or shack in the middle of a rooftop.
Here are the facts I have confirmed and realized.
“Guess who lives in that tent.”
“For a very… long time.”
The stench that filled the rooftop was soon the traces of human life.
He cleared the way by tapping the trash with a stick.
“Oh~!”
“what’s the matter?”
“I thought you’d be flailing around in disgust, but you’re surprisingly calm.”
“…”
Sophia, what does she really think of me?
I am the best in the world!
Besides, Sophia, who says such things, looks calm despite being a classic blonde beauty who seems to have jumped out of a movie.
Is that natural, since she’s a witch who’s lasted hundreds of years?
“Hmm. Even if you’re not smart, your ability to take action is okay.”
“Stop your habitual caustic remarks….”
Even Ari-sama isn’t like this!
I tapped the tent with a stick.
“Huhhh… Huhhh… .”
A feeble groan comes from inside.
“I don’t know who it is, but I think they’re not in good health.”
“If you were healthy in this environment, you’d be a monster, not a human.”
When I had no choice but to kick away the shabby tent and go inside, I was momentarily speechless.
“…”
An old man with shabby appearance.
His limbs were thin and emaciated, and his skin was covered in black spots.
In addition, one of his eyes seemed to be unable to function due to a cataract.
Even if left alone, it seemed difficult to live long.
“hey?”
“Ugh… .”
The one eye that was still good slowly moved and looked at me.
About 5 seconds of silence.
The old man opened his eyes wide belatedly.
“Finally!”
“…”
“Wow, you came! You came to save me from this, this hell!”
“…”
What should I say?
Wouldn’t you be disappointed if I told you that I wasn’t there to save you, but that I was captured too?
No, I wouldn’t just be disappointed, I’d probably die of shock.
“T, this is not the time! Now, what time is it?”
“If you have time… It’s almost dinner time -”
“Come in! Over here, over here!”
“…”
It’s a small tent that can fit even one person.
I was already inside, but Sophia was leaning against the doorway of a shabby tent-like hut.
“Agent, over there! You, you have to close the door!”
Sophia smiles awkwardly.
Aside from the fact that we weren’t ‘agents’, the old man really did stink.
To the old man, the pile of trash on the rooftop could be called a flower garden compared to the extreme stench.
Because of this, staying in a closed shack with an elderly person required considerable determination.
“When the sun sets! When the sun sets, it’s dangerous! Not only the school, but the whole world -”
– Easy!
As if waiting, a strange breathing sound is heard from somewhere.
Sophia immediately closed the door and came in.
“Is it okay now?”
“From now on, be quiet….”
“…”
I thought in silence.
An old man who appears to have survived in this bizarre world for at least several years.
I’m curious about how he got food, water, and other things, but more importantly, how the old man survived.
“Hmm… The location is on the rooftop, in a shack to prevent direct exposure of the body?”
“Ugh… .”
The old man seemed to have already lost his energy after a brief conversation.
“Hey… Seungyeop.”
“What kind of person are you? You don’t even match. Go back.”
Unable to bear the stench, Sophia returned to her soul box.
It doesn’t seem like they’ll fight right away, so it’s not a big problem.
“Huhhh… Huhhh… .”
It’s just painful to know that only the old man is left dying in this stinking shack.
*
– Kim Ari
“Ariyang! I, I understand what you said! Seungyeop-”
“Okay. You wait at home.”
— Bam!
This is the third time Miro has called.
The content is the same all the time, so it seems like Miro has lost his composure.
Well, originally I wasn’t the type of person who was calm.
“…”
The sudden disappearance of Seungyeop and Sophia.
There’s already chaos at school, and Seungyeop’s parents, who he called out in his ‘dream’, have arrived at school.
It is said that not only the teacher but even Seungyeop’s parents were suspicious that the boy was running away from home out of the blue.
I laughed because I thought he was a guy who couldn’t inspire trust in those around him.
“Pfft! Ah, this is not the time to laugh.”
I don’t know about Seungyeop or Miro, but they are not the first.
First it was Gain and Eunsol.
Next up are Seungyeop and Miro, right, not Miro yet?
Anyway, in just one or two weeks, my colleagues were hit by one chaotic disaster after another.
Could this really be a coincidence?
Because reality is originally like this?
No way!
A chaotic disaster is like a traffic accident.
When viewed on a national scale, it occurs at least in the double digits every day, and from an agent’s perspective, it feels like the whole world is filled with chaos and disaster… .
For each Korean citizen, this is something that may only happen two or three times in their lifetime.
“…”
Is there an invisible hand attacking us?
I don’t know.
Would it be possible to intentionally cause chaos and disaster, rather than poisoning and shooting people with guns?
Besides, if there was such malicious intervention, the hotel wouldn’t have told me to ‘take a year off’…
“Phew… .”
My colleagues complain that I, as an agent of the Administration, try to hide everything, but I also find it very difficult at times like this.
I’m so confused about what’s what.
At that moment.
— Ring!
An emergency alert went off on the management office’s smartphone.
“Escaped entity, ‘Lucky Boy (M – 3274)’ makes contact with the sacrifice!”
“… Seungyeop, have you done something in the meantime?”
It wasn’t surprising because he was so childish.
“There may be a problem with the containment procedures of ‘Pale Breath’, so in the event of an emergency, dispose of the lucky boy -”
Disposal? Disposal!
I contacted him immediately.
The opponent is Park Hyeon-min, the head of the Korean branch of the Management Office.
— Tick!
“Agent Kim Ari, did you check the emergency notification? The strike team will be coming soon -”
“Cancel.”
“what?”
“Cancel the disposal order, and also cancel the order to dispatch the strike force.”
“…if there is a problem with the Pale Breath containment procedures -”
“I’ll go and take care of it, so do as I say.”
“…”
A look of inability to hide discomfort.
The person on the phone, Park Hyun-min, is the head of the Korean branch of the Management Office, so there are very few people who have the authority to ‘nominally’ give him orders.
Of course, as an agent, I do not have that authority.
But, I know this guy well.
Like many in the Bureau, Park Hyun-min dreams of rising to a higher position and gaining more power and secrets.
Therefore, it is characteristic of this man that he cannot do anything to a tall person or a ‘soon-to-be tall person’.
“That’s right. But Agent Kim Ari, please be polite. Even if you’re on the list of candidates for ‘The Silent’!”
It’s time to set out to rescue our comrades.