Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Pool (1)

[14. The water quality of the pool is strictly managed. Please take care not to contaminate it.]

The pool looked less like something inside a hotel and more like a large swimming pool in a public institution.

Its exterior focused more on cleanliness than sophistication.

Plain white square tiles filled every direction.

“…How is this possible?”

Du-pal muttered as he looked around.

Even though it was a pool with tiles everywhere and water splashing gently, there was not a trace of common water stains or mold anywhere.

No matter how well maintained a place was, if it was large, signs of use were bound to appear.

Even if it had just been constructed and filled with water for the first time, there was no way it would be this free of any traces.

“…It’s better than being dirty, right?”

This place was bizarrely white down to each and every grout line.

As though no microorganisms, mold, or even insects could live here.

At Ju-hee’s words as she looked around with an odd feeling, Su-myeon nodded.

“I suppose so. It seems to be an area sensitive to contamination, so let’s move carefully.”

What mattered was passing through carefully without falling into the water as much as possible.

There were no particular obstacles to trip over, but every surface was slippery tile.

Ha-min looked over the group as if something concerned him and said,

“It was a good thing you had us change into sneakers in advance.”

“Nothing bad ever happens from listening to Su-myeon.”

Ju-hee walked while pressed close to the wall, speaking with a mix of joking and sincerity.

At those words, Su-myeon simply gave an awkward smile.

Thanks to changing into new sneakers as well, Su-myeon was able to avoid slipping on the tiles at all.

Fortunately, the path they could walk without stepping into pooled water continued without interruption.

“But the water… doesn’t seem to be moving at all. How can it be this clear and clean?”

Ju-hee, who was walking slowly, stared intently into the water.

It was so clear that its depth was hard to gauge.

“Be careful.”

Afraid that even a strand of her hair might fall in, Su-myeon pulled her back.

At that sight, Han-su, who was walking at the very rear, added a word as well.

“Let’s move carefully. It would be best not to pay attention to our surroundings as much as possible.”

In the silence, not even the sound of water droplets falling into water could be heard.

For a long while after that, only the group’s footsteps reached their ears.

The pool suddenly changed into a black depth where no light entered, making it impossible to know how deep it was, then the tiles abruptly shifted into a winding shape.

Forked paths appeared out of nowhere, and roads appeared where the tiles were embedded vertically, making them impossible to step on.

Illogical scenery more suited to a dream than reality.

Despite the enormous sense of space, their voices did not echo.

“If this is a dream, I feel like it’s about time we woke up.”

No one could deny Ha-min’s mutter.

Then Su-myeon, who had been walking at the very front, gestured and stopped the group behind him.

“Why….”

“Shh!”

At Ha-min’s question, Ju-hee covered his mouth to tell him to be quiet.

When they turned the corner, a sight completely different from the clean scenery until just now unfolded.

A clump of hair floating like a jellyfish drifted on the surface of the water.

“That….”

“Don’t look too closely.”

At someone’s question, Su-myeon spoke firmly.

From the outside, it might look as though only hair was floating, but beneath it was a head.

A head swollen from being submerged in water for a long time.

Seeing the hair moving on its own and swaying here and there in the motionless water, Su-myeon turned around.

“Let’s just go back. It doesn’t look like anything good will come from touching it.”

It was a maze-like place, but Su-myeon knew the route.

He knew that going this way would bring them a little closer to the exit, but it seemed better to go around.

The hair jellyfish clung to anything that approached it.

Then it tangled itself around the limbs and dragged the target down beneath the water.

The hair even had stingers embedded in it like real jellyfish tentacles, paralyzing the entire body.

Of course, if they threw one person to it as bait, the rest could pass through safely, but….

If I was going to do that, I would’ve abandoned everyone long ago.

Su-myeon decided not to even consider that direction.

If he did something like that, his conscience would be uneasy even if he escaped this damn hotel.

Thinking they had no choice but to keep walking while carefully watching the water’s edge, Su-myeon sharpened his senses.

Grab.

Just then, Han-su suddenly snatched Su-myeon’s arm.

Su-myeon, who had already been tense, was startled and looked at him. Han-su stretched out a finger.

“Is that a person?”

That?

When Su-myeon followed his finger with his gaze, he saw something unfamiliar.

Unlike the hair jellyfish they had just seen, he could see a person’s head with only up to the nose sticking above the water.

“…I don’t think so.”

At Su-myeon’s answer, the group huddled even closer beside him.

Su-myeon, who swallowed dryly, also reflexively grabbed the school uniform of the large Ha-min, who was practically clinging to him as if hugging him.

That was the most representative creature that appeared in the pool, the Flamingo Lifeguard.

“Th-that, th-th-that thing… right now….”

Ha-min muttered in a trembling voice.

The lifeguard seemed to have discovered them and was approaching.

It looked like an ordinary person moving through the water, but it was not called a flamingo for nothing.

“S-should we run?”

At Du-pal’s words, everyone grabbed Su-myeon’s clothes even more tightly.

The closer it came, the clearer the lifeguard’s appearance entered their sight.

Like a bird without eyelids, the lifeguard’s eyes were wide open and did not blink.

“Wh-what do we do, Su-myeon!”

Stop relying on me!

He felt like shouting that, but Su-myeon could not deny it either.

He knew the answer.

Its bizarre appearance made him feel that if he took his eyes off it, it would suddenly be pressed right up behind him.

The pupils of the Flamingo Lifeguard, whose complexion was closer to a corpse than a mannequin, rolled around.

“H-hold on. Everyone calm down.”

Su-myeon, also extremely tense, grabbed Han-su in place of the companions clinging to him.

For now, unless they attacked the Flamingo Lifeguard first, it would not attack first.

With slow movements that did not seem to contain malice or aggression, the lifeguard drew closer and closer, sending ripples across the water.

Then the body that had been submerged up to the chin gradually began to appear.

No, it should have appeared….

“Its neck….”

Even though its neck and then its shoulders should have emerged above the water, its neck kept continuing upward as if stretching out.

Only after the neck rose far above the water without end did the lifeguard’s shoulders appear.

Ju-hee, who nearly screamed, covered her own mouth with all her strength.

The lifeguard looked down at them with its neck stretched long like a long-necked flamingo and slowly touched the water’s edge.

Then droplets of water moved, and words appeared like a three-dimensional shape.

[Please do not run ^^]

After showing them that kind warning, the lifeguard strode back into the water and disappeared.

Ripples formed on the silent water and followed his movements.

“Hah… hah….”

Someone must have been holding their breath, because they breathed raggedly.

Su-myeon also wiped his palms, which had grown damp before he knew it, on Han-su’s back.

If even a drop of sweat accidentally entered the pool water, it would be a disaster.

“Let’s slowly hurry away.”

No one objected to Su-myeon’s contradictory statement.

Now the option of not running had been added, but it was at least a relief.

“It’s a real relief that it wasn’t ‘Please do not walk.’”

As if she thought Su-myeon’s words were a joke to change the mood, Ju-hee let out an awkward laugh.

But he was sincere.

Every time they encountered the lifeguard, it added one more warning. Naturally, some were easy, but many were difficult.

So it was important to encounter it as little as possible.

“This hotel sure has a lot of things we have to follow. Do customer complaints not matter at all?”

Ha-min muttered while calming his startled heart.

Su-myeon knew all the paths in the pool, but monsters like that lifeguard and the hair jellyfish were the problem.

If they went around avoiding all kinds of elements like those, a path that should have taken only thirty minutes to break through could force them to wander around for hours.

“How the hell is this place made…?”

How long had they been wandering?

Du-pal, who had been walking, took out his Heartphone in exhaustion and checked the time.

They had already been wandering around this pool for six hours.

“Let’s rest for a moment, then move again.”

In the end, Han-su stopped the group.

Su-myeon also looked around anxiously.

They were already walking this path for the fifth time.

As they avoided the clumps of hair placed like traps here and there and the lifeguard, the route had become completely tangled.

After wandering for so long, even Su-myeon was beginning to get confused about the way.

[No eating or drinking.]

[No going underwater either.]

On top of that, because they had wandered for so long, they had failed to avoid the lifeguard and encountered him twice.

He had thought the warning not to run was extremely easy, but in a situation like this, it was very troublesome.

“We need to know what counts as running….”

As Du-pal muttered, controlling the speed of their steps was the problem.

In the game, they simply had to not press the run button, but reality was different.

Even if they could plainly see something approaching, they could not run away from it and could only face it while knowing it was coming toward them.

The silver lining in their misfortune was that the warnings they received after that were also ordinary.

“Is this not slowly becoming difficult?”

Han-su spoke in a heavy voice.

If even one absurd warning was added, the situation would grow worse and worse.

The no eating or drinking clause was especially fatal.

At this rate, without eating or drinking anything, while being careful not to let even a strand of hair fall into the water.

Just how long could they keep walking like this?

“…….”

Should they have forced their way through the hair jellyfish, even if it was a little reckless?

Even if someone ended up dying as a result…?

After looking over the group once more, Su-myeon shook his head, thinking it was meaningless regret.

“We don’t have any other method. For now, let’s keep moving like this.”

The only method Su-myeon could choose right now was the straightforward one.

As they avoided a lifeguard visible in the distance, Ha-min furrowed his brow.

“…Huh? Su-myeon.”

What? What is it?

At this point, his heart sank whenever someone in the group was surprised by anything.

When Su-myeon turned to look at him, Ha-min stretched out his hand and pointed to one spot.

“That.”

There was a path split into two branches.

In particular, on the left path, there was an arrow drawn with a marker, as though telling them to come that way.

And on the opposite side, they could see the lifeguard’s head.

…An arrow?

Su-myeon stopped for a moment, wiped his glasses, and looked again.

That was an element even Su-myeon was seeing for the first time.

“…….”

In other words, that arrow was not originally a component of the hotel.

There was a high possibility that someone had drawn it deliberately.

“If we follow that mark, will it lead to the exit?”

Until now, the hotel had still been fairly kind.

It had only been full of shitty rules, unpleasant traps, and intimidating monsters.

It had certainly never told an outright lie meant to deceive them.

That was why Su-myeon was certain.

“No, that thing. It wasn’t there originally. We have to go the opposite way.”