Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Wine Bar (2)

[17. Item 4 is false. At midnight, everyone dances together under the flickering lights!]

Su-myeon tried hard to maintain his composure in the face of what had already happened.

Gaining items by offering companions as sacrifices?

Even in a game where they were nothing but scraps of data, that was something he had never done.

If it had at least been efficient, I might have tried it out of curiosity.

Deliberately reducing the number of hands was an extremely inefficient thing to do.

Even if there were several weapons, a person had only two hands anyway.

There was naturally no need to sacrifice people who could cooperate and fight in your place.

But… to offer up the companions who had been traveling with him…….

Even if it had only been two days, treating a fellow human that way was not easy.

Just how insane was he?

Once again, Su-myeon confirmed that San-hyeok was someone beyond the range of understanding.

Su-myeon, who at least knew that San-hyeok had originally been that kind of bastard, was the first to recover from the shock and continue speaking.

“…If I pay the price instead, can we take those people with us?”

At Su-myeon’s words, the Red Queen smiled brightly.

“No.”

Then she placed four Heartphones, broken in half, on the table.

“Once something is broken, it cannot be returned to its original state. If they cease to be employees, they will become illegal intruders, will they not?”

[2. Please take care not to damage or lose the hotel-issued mobile phone provided to guests. Anyone not carrying one will be considered an illegal intruder and removed by Security.]

Looking at the Heartphones that had been completely split in two, the group recalled the same clause.

“Uuugh…. Uh, ngh….”

“Sa, save… save me. Save me.”

“It… hurts……. It hurts….”

“…….”

The four who had lost their minds—no, the things that had now ceased to be human.

“Uegh….”

Ju-hee could not hold back and retched.

It was not only her.

Ha-min and Du-pal could not move at all, staring only at the ground, and Han-su was also forcing his gaze to stay fixed only on the Red Queen.

After sweeping her gaze over them, the Red Queen let out a small sigh.

“Ah. They are making the guests uncomfortable?”

It was an emotion far too complicated to express with the word uncomfortable, but Su-myeon nodded.

The Red Queen answered with a regretful smile.

“Oh dear, I apologize. Once their training is finished later, I will have them greet you again.”

The Red Queen’s hands clapped again.

Then the four bodies moved in unison as though being controlled and disappeared back into the darkness.

Leaving behind something that could not be undone, Su-myeon rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

What matters on this floor is information.

Information.

Get a grip.

“How many floors does this hotel have in total?”

“It is a building with a total of nine basement floors. At present, you are staying on the fourth floor, the Wine Bar.”

The Red Queen smiled and faithfully answered Su-myeon’s question.

This was information Su-myeon already knew, but he confirmed it again for the group.

“Then we need to go up four more floors to reach the ground, correct?”

“Yes. That is correct.”

“Then, if we reach the ground, can we go outside?”

The Red Queen, who had been answering kindly, stopped speaking.

A gap of several seconds.

After a silence long enough for tension to flow, she answered again.

“Yes.”

It was a somehow unpleasant answer.

Han-su, who had been watching, moved his eyes, approached Su-myeon’s side, and asked directly,

“Why did you hesitate just now before answering?”

At those words, the Red Queen pulled over one of the remaining sandwiches.

Her body was standing in front of them, while her head was placed beside it, so it was a little confusing where they should look.

When they finally fixed their gaze on the sandwich, the Red Queen began to explain kindly.

“I was thinking for a moment about where the outside you mentioned might be.”

The Red Queen placed a small rabbit model that had been on the table on top of the sandwich and looked at Su-myeon.

“Now, shall we say this is the guest?”

Then the Red Queen’s finger brutally pressed down on the rabbit model.

It was completely driven into the sandwich and buried.

The Red Queen continued her kind explanation as she peeled off the bread on top.

“The world is like a sandwich stacked in layers.”

The Red Queen continued to rummage through the sandwich, peeling off the ingredients laid on top one by one.

“If one goes up layer by layer and exits outside, a new world will be visible, but above that, there is always another outside.”

The last piece of the sandwich.

Only one piece of bread, the same as the first, remained.

The crushed and embedded rabbit model sat alone on top of that bread.

Bread like the first.

……No, could this be described as the same?

It had the same ingredients and the same composition, but was it truly the same?

“In any case, outside is outside, so I thought affirming it would be the correct answer.”

Did you understand?

In front of the smiling Red Queen, the entire group wore the same expression.

What the hell is she talking about?

In the end, the group, unable to properly understand, checked each other’s faces, then eventually gathered their gazes on Su-myeon too.

But among them, Su-myeon felt as though he had understood what she was saying.

He had crossed beyond the world he had originally been in and come somewhere else.

And now that he had already experienced this hotel, he could never become the same as before.

Even if he left this hotel and reached the “outside,” perhaps it would be like the ends of a sandwich.

Something the same, but different.

“…….”

At that moment, all their Heartphones suddenly rang at once.

When every device in the group rang simultaneously, everyone was startled and checked their own Heartphones.

[17. Do not trust item 4. Do not trust Ellis.]

A blatant sentence.

In the chilling atmosphere, the Red Queen’s severed head smiled brightly.

“By the way, is it not blackout time in a few hours? Since things have turned out this way, why not rest a little longer before leaving?”

“Ah, no. We are fine.”

Su-myeon answered quickly, then looked back at the group.

The biggest problem in the current situation would be Young-cheol, who had joined late, but.

“I, I am… fine too. I think I can move a little now.”

Before they knew it, Young-cheol had finished tending to his injuries.

After eating something to ease his hunger and disinfecting all his wounds, some vitality had returned to him.

He stood on his own and returned the bag, now with the remaining medicine and bandages organized, to Su-myeon.

Just what had they used to beat a person to make him look like that?

Young-cheol had quite a few large and small wounds, but fortunately, nothing seemed to be broken for the moment.

“You must be tired. You still have a long way to go, so please take a little more time here.”

The smiling Red Queen spoke in a gentle voice, but everyone’s bodies stiffened with tension.

[17. Donottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrustdonottrust]

The ringing Heartphones and the words that kept changing.

Amid that contradictory situation, tension filled the surroundings.

The longer the unnatural silence stretched, the stiffer the Red Queen’s expression became.

It was a hair-trigger atmosphere.

There was only one person who could break that suffocating silence.

“If it would not be rude, shall we do that?”

Su-myeon gave the Red Queen a favorable answer and discreetly touched Ju-hee beside him.

More precisely, he tapped the weapon he had bought for her.

The crowbar.

“Then this time, I would like one alcoholic drink, please.”

At the same time, as though trying to refresh the atmosphere, Su-myeon ordered a drink from the Red Queen.

Only then did the Red Queen’s body smile brightly again and turn around.

However, Su-myeon did not miss the opening. He immediately grabbed the Red Queen’s head, which had been left alone on the table.

“Ms. Ju-hee!”

The crowbar was a heavy lump of metal, but Ju-hee had more guts than she looked.

Having sensed the signal Su-myeon had given her in advance, Ju-hee had already been gripping it tightly, and she immediately raised the crowbar high.

The solid lump of metal struck the Red Queen’s head without hesitation.

“Kyaaaaaaaagh!”

“Aaagh!”

Unfortunately, the end of the crowbar stabbed into the Red Queen’s eyeball.

At the sight and sensation, which were more brutal than expected, Ju-hee screamed as well.

While Ju-hee frantically pulled out the crowbar, Han-su slammed his shoulder into the Red Queen’s body, which was flailing and moving in search of its head, and shoved it away.

“Ha-min!”

Calling Ha-min, Su-myeon threw the Red Queen’s head toward him.

What he had bought for Ha-min was a solid aluminum baseball bat.

CLANG!

With a dull sound of impact, the Red Queen’s head was smashed into a corner of the Wine Bar.

Ha-min, who had reflexively struck the flying object, turned pale.

“My head! My head! My eye!”

The Red Queen’s screaming head rolled into the gap of a sofa.

As the Red Queen’s body ran off to find its head, the path to the stairs was cleanly opened.

“…….”

Su-myeon did not miss the two Rose Coins placed on the tray where the Red Queen’s head had been and took them as well.

“Let’s go up!”

After confirming that Han-su was supporting the staggering Young-cheol, Su-myeon quickly went up first.

Behind him, Du-pal and the rest of the group busily followed.

“Aaaaaagh! I will not let you get away! You vermin, less than insects, you mortals……!”

The Red Queen’s scream-like shriek rang out as though she would chase them at any moment.

Following Su-myeon, who had hurriedly climbed the stairs, the rest of the group ran in as well.

Excluding himself, there were five people.

After confirming the number of people clearly, Su-myeon quickly slammed the door shut.

“…….”

Beyond the closed door.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

The sound of someone pounding on the door as if trying to break it down rang out.

The frightened group grabbed the door, but Su-myeon instead took his hands off it.

All the monsters in this place could not leave their assigned areas.

……BANG!

After one more violent pound on the door, as though venting her anger, silence returned.

“Wow… shit…….”

Only then did Du-pal take a deep breath and rub his arms, which had broken out in goosebumps.

Ju-hee and Ha-min seemed to be having quite a hard time shaking off the sensation that remained in their hands.

“……This is a new floor.”

Amid that chaos, Han-su quietly made them recognize the situation.

Only then did the group raise their heads and search for a sign, as they had grown used to doing.

[SPA]

The hotel’s spa facility.

Befitting its name, countless mirrors were placed in front of them.

[17. This item has been officially deleted. Item 17 does not exist.]

“The rule… has changed.”

Young-cheol muttered, seeming to have confirmed that the contents on the Heartphone had changed.

“…If the rules work like this, what the hell are we supposed to do? Do they seriously want us all to die here?”

Du-pal also checked the rule again and muttered in despair.

It seemed contradictory, but Su-myeon already knew the loophole in this rule.

“It said employees cannot lie. It never said the rules cannot lie.”

“Employees cannot lie… is also a rule, though.”

When Ju-hee sharply pointed that out, Su-myeon nodded as well.

“That is why, unless there are conflicting items, I think it is best to trust them for now.”

The way the Red Queen had tried to persuade them had been strange from the start.

Especially the suspicious item 17.

Everyone dancing together at midnight?

“We all saw what happens when item 4 is broken. So there was no need to worry.”

They had already seen someone die horribly at midnight.

“It is more rational to assume that something was wrong only with item 17 as an exception.”

Rational.

Truly, it was a word that did not suit this situation.

At Su-myeon’s words, which clearly and briefly defined the situation, Young-cheol nodded as though certain of something.

“As expected, I see.”

Not only Young-cheol, but the rest of the group also admired Su-myeon’s words.

Because Su-myeon’s words set a clear standard, the group gradually regained their composure.

If the rules were fundamentally correct, then there was also clear hope.

That meant the Red Queen’s words that this strange hotel had an end were also true.

“In any case, we have come to a new floor, so we should be all right.”

As if trying to calm the group a little more, Han-su spoke in a reliable voice.

Su-myeon did not want to interfere with Han-su’s words, but in this hotel, there was no floor anywhere that could be considered safe.

As if to prove that, a new rule appeared on the Heartphone.