Escaping the Mystery Hotel-Chapter 239: Room 202, Cursed Room - ’The Little Mermaid’ (17)

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 102

Current Location: Floor 2, Room 202 – Cursed Room ‘The Little Mermaid’

Sage’s Advice: 2

** ****- Han Kain**

The Sea God is furious at the sins of the merfolk, yet the merfolk themselves have no idea why the Sea God is angry.

It’s a truly perplexing situation.

Although Songee’s suggestion that it might be due to environmental destruction was dismissed by Serenade, Ahri pressed for confirmation again, “Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one. Modern civilization can’t sustain itself without causing environmental destruction. Are you 100% sure that’s not it?”

“It’s not. Of course, we considered that first and moved all potentially harmful factories and facilities to the mainland about 20 years ago.”

“…To the mainland?”

“You could say we outsourced environmental destruction to the land.”

Moving all environmentally harmful facilities to the mainland is a clear answer.

While this only relocates the destruction, it’s hard to imagine the Sea God holding the merfolk accountable for global environmental damage.

Perhaps the timing of the Sea God’s anger is key.

“You mentioned sensing the Sea God’s anger starting 20 years ago. Isn’t it likely tied to something that began then and has continued since? What happened around that time?”

“Of course, we’ve considered that. But honestly, we don’t know. It’s not that nothing happened 20 years ago. The island already had a population of over 500,000 merfolk back then, so naturally, various events were occurring daily. We just don’t know which one might have angered the Sea God.”

The discussion was beginning to feel aimless.

If the Sea God’s anger had been studied by its daughters for 20 years without resolution, it was unlikely we could deduce the cause in a few minutes of conversation.

Ahri seemed to have the same thought and interrupted, “Let’s leave this issue for now. The thought processes of gods differ from humans; sometimes they decide to annihilate humanity over what seems trivial to us. We can’t figure this out by talking among ourselves. And besides…”

“Besides?”

“It doesn’t matter. The immediate problem is the unknown ritual that Lee Suho is conducting on this island. You’ve been chasing him for months, haven’t you?”

“Yes. As you seem to already know, Elena made a significant mistake in a moment of emotion. Since then, five or more trained merfolk have been pursuing him at all times.”

“Great. Can you mark the locations you’ve already checked on a map and provide it to us? The Administration drones will soon begin scanning the island, and we need to save time.”

Shortly after, Serenade provided some data.

While Ahri reviewed it, she brought up an important point.

“We’re going to pick up Elena next.”

“You’re quite confident. Judging by your words, you’ve already met her before this supposed time travel?”

“Correct. She’s essential.”

“Then let’s go together. I assume you’re heading there right away? I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

With that, we wrapped up our information exchange with Serenade and prepared to head to the hospital where Elena was located.

“Information about events 800 years ago, the origins of the merfolk, and Rudah’s biology— it’s all fascinating and valuable, but we still don’t have anything concrete about the imminent descent of Kadaru’dah. We haven’t figured out the reason for Kadaru’dah’s anger, nor have we pinpointed Lee Suho’s location. Should we use Advice?”

The most uptodate nove𝙡s are published on frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓.

“Save it. Have you already forgotten that Serenade nearly killed us earlier? We’ll likely face more crises today.”

As soon as we got into the limousine, Songee cautiously asked, “Ahri, didn’t you stop mid-sentence earlier? You were saying something about why Kadaru’dah might be angry.”

“…It’s just my theory.”

“Go on.”

“Maybe it’s already a lost cause.”

“Lost cause?”

“I thought about it from the Sea God’s perspective. The Sea God primarily communicates with its daughters through dreams, right?”

“Right.”

“Then why would it bother saying, ‘I’m angry!’ in its dreams? It could simply signal, ‘You’re doing something that angers me,’ directly.”

I hadn’t considered it that way before.

The “gods” we encountered in the Hotel were more like demons or monsters, incomprehensible entities that didn’t communicate with mortals.

But hearing Ahri’s reasoning, I began to understand.

Kadaru’dah isn’t like the incomprehensible demons we encountered in other Rooms—it communicates clearly, even conveying complex ideas about “cycles” in ways humans can understand.

If it has such a clear method of communication, why hasn’t it explicitly stated the cause of its anger?

Ahri wasn’t done.

“So I thought—maybe there’s no point in telling us.”

“No point?”

“Something irreversible happened 20 years ago. The past 20 years were simply Kadaru’dah gathering power to unleash its fury.”

A grim thought.

If this theory was correct, trying to analyze the cause of its anger was meaningless.

It was already beyond fixing.

Hyung in the driver seat spoke up, “Why overthink it? Whatever the reason, we just need to stop the descent of the Sea God. Finding Lee Suho is the priority. Besides, seeing the sky reassures me.”

The sky?

Curious, Songee and I looked out the window.

The sky was filled with blue grid-like lines stretching across it, forming a lattice-like pattern that appeared to envelop the entire island.

“What is that? The Administration drones?”

Aren’t they supposed to be small drones searching the island?

Ahri responded casually, “Do you really think drones are flying around with cameras to scan the island? To thoroughly inspect an island the size of Jeju, you’d need at least 2,000 drones. Besides, there are areas drones can’t even enter.”

“Then what are they doing?”

“It’s more like an X-ray for the island. Just like doctors don’t physically insert cameras into the body, the drones scan remotely. I don’t know the exact mechanics, but that’s the gist of it.”

It was a breathtaking sight.

The 22 drones formed a blue lattice in the sky that moved across the island as if scanning it.

Soon, the drones flew out of sight.

Songee murmured, “At this rate, they’ll search the whole island quickly.”

“It’s still tight. Time is incredibly short. Everything ends by tomorrow morning.”

“Luck will play a big role. Let’s hope Lee Suho is in one of the areas they start with.”

Around that time, messages arrived from the others.

“They’ll be arriving on the island soon. Also, there’s been a tsunami in Busan.”

“That disaster Seungyub mentioned?”

“Yes. Busan is in chaos right now. It’s… 2:30 PM. Around 4 PM, we’ll hear strange wailing, and all communication with the outside will cease. They told us to head to the hospital.”

“Good thing they contacted us beforehand.”

When we arrived at the hospital, oddly, Serenade was already there.

Did she have a shortcut exclusive to the Daughters of the Sea God?

“You’re here. Shall we head in?”

Jinchul-hyung stepped forward. “Let’s wait for our team to arrive before going in.”

Elena, after being unsealed, was in a highly vulnerable state until her consciousness stabilized due to Calmness and Tranquility.

It seemed wiser to wait for reinforcements.

But our concerns turned out to be unnecessary.

***

Elena awoke as if from a peaceful nap, without the violent hallucinations or bizarre phenomena that had accompanied her previous awakening.

This time, the flute Serenade brought, and another from Liringanaur suppressed the madness born from the primordial memories of the Daughter of the Sea God.

These flutes were said to have the power to quell such madness.

However, this calm awakening wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Elena woke up without acquiring any additional information.

It seemed the flute’s power temporarily severed the connection between the Daughter of the Sea God and Kadaru’dah.

Elena murmured with disappointment, “Next time—”

Han Kain: Chat Window. Liringanaur nearby. Elena: Next time, wake me up without the flute.

Next time?

…That sounds ominous.

“Director Park just contacted me. The strike team won’t be deployed until 11 PM at the earliest.”

“Can’t they hurry? As you know, by dawn—”

Grandpa sighed.

“I made that point, but to most people, saying the world ends tomorrow at dawn sounds like sheer hysteria.”

Ahri responded, “Let’s count ourselves lucky if the strike team arrives in time. Even if they don’t, the drones are already here.”

It felt like everything we could do was already done. Finding Lee Suho was now out of our hands and left to the drones scanning from above.

Eunsol-noona cautiously suggested, “Should we search as well?”

Ahri shook her head.

“If unqualified people interfere while the expert is working, they’ll just cause more harm than good. Leave it to the drones. And since we all possessed supernatural power, we’d probably just confuse them.”

In the end, we found ourselves in a nearby café, exchanging the information we’d gathered.

Unsurprisingly, the main topic of interest was the reason for Kadaru’dah’s anger, but no one could propose a plausible answer.

4:20 PM – A wailing sound echoed across the island, severing all outside communication. We could no longer contact Director Park.

6:40 PM – The drones identified a location with a 94.3% probability of anomalous activity.

The limousine carrying all of us headed northwest to a “farm.”

Serenade also informed us she was bringing the merfolk to the location.

Eunsol-noona was understandably baffled.

“According to the map, this is a mandarin farm? What kind of ritual could possibly be conducted there?”

“It’s the Saint of the Sea God we’re dealing with. The Daughters of the Sea God all possess supernatural powers; it’s likely the saint concealed the location using similar abilities.”

“And what if we still can’t find him when we get there?”

7:10 PM – We arrived at the farm. As the evening drew near, everyone’s nerves were on edge.

How much time was left?

We only have eight hours until Kadaru’dah’s descent at most.

Upon arriving, a strange drone hovered midair and guided us to a “door.”

“This is…”

The desolate farm had overgrown vegetation and a crumbling small house.

The drone directed us to the door leading to the “living room” of the house.

We all stared at the door in silence.

I was willing to bet everything I had that behind that door lay not a living room, but a mysterious extradimensional space.

Grandpa sighed heavily.

“Why does it have to be like this… If it were just a physical facility, I’d have asked Serenade to blow it up with a bomb. But no, it has to be a bizarre extradimensional space. There’s no doubt it’s hell on the other side.”

Surprisingly, the person who stepped forward confidently was the doctor.

“Sometimes in life, even when you know it’s a trap, you have to go in. I guess now is one of those times. Let’s proceed. Time is of the essence.”

- Creak!

The sound of the door opening was eerily ominous.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken