Chapter 82

The second trial.

I easily overcame the obstacle of escaping the room.

I brushed the dust off my clothes and stepped over the shattered remains of the iron door, making my way into the hallway.

“Huh? Looks like I escaped first.”

No one else was in sight in the hallway. It seemed no one else had escaped yet.

【Yoho】—Gasp.

【Min Ji】—Whew!

【Qkrnfl892】—LOL, of course you’re first, you crazy bastard. You broke the door.

【Min Ji】—Is escape room… supposed to be done with brute force…?

【Jujijoa】—This is a mess.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—What the hell, is this even right? LOL.

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow! The god of destruction!

“It’s not cheating, so what’s the problem? The staff said to escape by any means necessary.”

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Hmm. That’s true. Sex.

【Handsome Licker】—True. Lick.

【Reverse Rape Mania】—The staff must be freaking out right now. They probably thought no one would actually break the door. LOL.

【Qkrnfl892】—LOL, they definitely didn’t expect someone to break it.

【Maehwa Tree】—They’re probably stuttering.

【Jujijoa】—What if they demand compensation?

【Reverse Rape Mania】—Se-hoon’s rich, so it’s fine.

【Yoho】—They can’t demand compensation. They told us to break out.

【Min Ji】—That’s right.

【Yoho】—Min Ji, stop adding comments after my chats. It’s annoying.

【Min Ji】—No.

After checking the viewers’ chats, I walked down the hallway to the elevator and stopped in front of it.

“…Should I take the stairs?”

The elevator was working fine, but I didn’t get on. Because of the phrase written on the wall next to it.

<The elevator is connected to the depths of hell.>

A phrase scrawled in red paint. I hadn’t seen it last night.

【Reverse Rape Mania】—Why aren’t you taking it?

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Probably wants to fart before getting in. The smell won’t go away if you do it inside.

【Yoho】—Don’t compare the room master to Gyeongsaeng. -_-

【Min Ji】—That’s right.

“Ah, seeing this phrase, I think it’s better not to take the elevator.”

I adjusted the camera angle and showed the viewers the phrase on the wall.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Holy shit, I thought it was written in blood.

【Maehwa Tree】—It really looks like blood.

【Min Ji】—It’s probably paint.

【Yoho】—What’s with that phrase?

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow, it doesn’t say not to take the elevator, does it?

【Drifting AI】—I’ll explain. I understand.

Except for Drifting, the viewers didn’t grasp the hidden meaning of the phrase.

“Don’t you guys think? Don’t you remember what the staff said earlier?”

【Handsome Licker】—Don’t remember. Lick.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Did they say sex?

【Qkrnfl892】—What did they say?

“They said one sinner who failed the trial fell into the depths of hell.”

【Qkrnfl892】—Damn, how do you remember that so clearly? Weren’t you a goldfish brain?

【Maehwa Tree】—Sometimes his memory is good.

【Jujijoa】—He only remembers what he wants to remember.

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow! Selective goldfish!

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Wait, so what does that have to do with the phrase? Explain, damn it!

【Min Ji】—That’s right!

“If I’ve explained this much, at least try to think for yourself. Falling into the depths of hell means you’ve been eliminated from the game. So, the depths of hell mean elimination.”

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Oh? So?

“…Are you really that dense? So, if the elevator is connected to the depths of hell, it means taking the elevator will get you eliminated, you idiot.”

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Ah, right? Sex.

【Yoho】—Ah, I see.

【Min Ji】—Now I understand.

【Maehwa Tree】—Sounds plausible.

【Handsome Licker】—Lick.

【Jujijoa】—What’s with Se-hoon’s deduction skills?

【Reverse Rape Mania】—Seriously, why is he so smart?

【Qkrnfl892】—Damn, he’s sharp.

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow! Se-hoon’s a brainiac!

【Maid】—Wow…

【Drifting AI】—I’ll say it. You guys are just stupid.

As Drifting said, it’s not that I’m smart, it’s just that the viewers are dumb. It’s something you could easily figure out with a little thought.

【Yoho】—It’s early, so my brain’s not working. Haha.

【Min Ji】—Stop making excuses.

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow! Yoho’s so lame!

【Maid】—Wow! Min Ji wins!

“Anyway, taking the elevator has a high chance of getting you eliminated, so it’s safer to take the stairs.”

With that, I turned away from the elevator and headed toward the stairs.

***

I went down to the 9th floor using the stairs. I couldn’t go straight to the 8th floor. This hotel has a unique structure, with separate staircases for each floor. So, to get to the 8th floor, I had to take another staircase on the opposite side.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Why is there only one elevator and one door here?

【Maehwa Tree】—The 9th floor has a weird layout.

【Reverse Rape Mania】—I’ve never seen a structure like this. Never been here, though.

【Handsome Licker】—Since it’s a hotel focused on escape games, they probably remodeled everything except the guest floors. Lick.

【Qkrnfl892】—So the crappy facilities were part of the concept?

【Yoho】—Probably. They deliberately created a creepy atmosphere.

【Min Ji】—That’s right.

【Yoho】—Stop saying ‘that’s right.’ I’m going to get a neurosis.

【Min Ji】—Thaaaaat’s riiiight!

【Yoho】—-_-

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow! Min Ji beat Yoho!

【Maid】—Wow! Min Ji wins!

The 9th floor was a cramped space with only one door and one elevator.

There were no instructions on where to go, and no other paths were visible, so I carefully opened the door in front of me.

Creak—

The door opened to reveal a small room.

Including the door I came through, there were doors on all four sides of the square-shaped room.

【Yoho】—Looks like a normal room.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—What are we supposed to do here?

【Handsome Licker】—Sex. Lick.

【Gyeongsaeng Guburi】—Oh. LOL.

【Min Ji】—At a glance, it’s a game where you choose one of the three doors to escape.

【Reverse Rape Mania】—Including the door Se-hoon came through, there are four doors.

【Min Ji】—That door should be excluded.

【Qkrnfl892】—Of course, the entrance door should be excluded, idiot.

【Drifting AI】—I’ll say it. Reverse Rape Mania, stop moving your fingers.

【Reverse Rape Mania】—Got it…

【Balloon Gum Collector】—Wow! Reverse Rape Mania getting ganged up on!

【Maid】—Wow! Dumber than Balloon Gum!

【Maid】—Balloon Gum keeps hitting me. T_T

Min Ji’s guess was correct.

As soon as the door I came through closed, an explanation of the game came from the speaker on the ceiling.

<The third trial begins.>

<Find the correct path to proceed. There is no time limit.>

<If you choose the wrong path, the hands of the dead will rise from the depths of hell to drag the sinner down.>

It seemed like brute force wouldn’t work this time.

***

Room 1001.

Like the others, the floor collapsed, and the bed fell with it.

The woman who witnessed this stood there dumbfounded, letting out a hollow laugh.

“Wow, haha… They really made this thrilling…”

But then she felt something was off. Something was strange. The bed had fallen, but there was no sound of it hitting the ground. It was as if the hole was bottomless.

“…What? Didn’t it fall to the 9th floor?”

The woman turned on her phone’s flashlight and shone it into the hole.

Nothing was visible. The light was swallowed by the pitch-black darkness.

“……”

With a sinking feeling, she took out a useless item from her belongings and dropped it into the hole. Then she listened.

Again, there was no sound of the item hitting the ground.

“…Hey! There’s something wrong with the floor down here! Did you set up safety measures?”

She looked up at the camera and speaker on the ceiling and shouted.

“Can you hear me?”

“Hey?”

“Why aren’t you answering? Is it safe or not?”

“If I get hurt, you’ll be responsible, right?”

The speaker remained silent, and she realized something was terribly wrong.

***

If you don’t escape, you’ll really die. This situation isn’t just a game.

The woman instinctively understood this and was desperately trying to solve the hints to escape the room.

But with her brain, she couldn’t figure out the password from the hints alone.

<Time remaining: 30 seconds.>

“Ah, no… Isn’t the time too short?”

<Time remaining: 10 seconds.>

“…Damn it, I don’t know!”

In the end, she tried to escape by entering any random password.

[The password is incorrect. Please try again.]

[The password is incorrect. Please…]

[The password is incorrect…]

Of course, the random password didn’t work.

Finally, the timer reached zero.

Rumble—

With a slight vibration, cracks began to spread across the floor, centered on the hole.

Terrified, the woman looked up at the ceiling and pleaded in a trembling voice.

“Hey, hey? I know I failed, so can you open the door now…?”

As expected, the staff remained silent.

Her pleas grew more desperate.

“You crazy bastards! Stop joking around and open the door!”

As the woman, consumed by fear, pounded on the door and sobbed, the speaker finally came to life.

<Five sinners who failed the trial will fall into the depths of hell.>

“Hey, you bastards! What the hell do you mean by sinners? What did I do wrong? Just open the damn door!”

<Room 1001. Failed.>

<All the guests gathered here are sinners of violence.>

<Repent for your sins at the bottom of hell.>

Buzz.

With those words, the speaker’s connection was mercilessly cut.

And soon after, the entire floor collapsed.

“Ahhh!”

The woman, who had been desperately pounding on the door, screamed as she fell into the depths of hell.