Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 56: Room 106, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Land of Hope’ (3)

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 21

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 106 (Mission Room – Hotel Land of Hope)

Sage’s Advice: 1]

4. True? False? House of Mirrors.

Seeing the monster pounce at me, I stumbled and fell on my bum as I then realised something.

The monster couldn’t cross the mirror.

As if the mirror was like an uncrossable wall, the monster repeatedly crashed into the glass but the mirror remained firm.

Was it not able to cross the mirror by itself?

Seeing the powerless state of that ridiculous monster, I walked up to the mirror and raised my middle fingers at it.

“Please don’t scare me like that. Why are there so many different monsters in this Hotel?”

While feeling slightly more relaxed, I turned my gaze to the top and found a single place that didn’t have a mirror.

<59:48>

I vacantly watched the number go all the way down until 59 minutes and 30 seconds. This was pretty straight-forward. It meant that we had to escape from this place within that time frame!

Let’s think.

Unless the labyrinth itself shifted the mirrors around, I would definitely come across the exit if I continued down the wall. Besides, the monsters showing on the mirrors could not leave them.

It was a pretty simple problem was it not?

Since the monsters couldn’t leave anyway, all I had to do was look for the correct path while ignoring them.

I placed my hand on the walls of mirrors again, and just in case, I took off my jacket and placed it on the ground.

Ignoring the monster, I walked for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I arrived at the place where I had placed my jacket – I was back to the starting point.

During my walk, I did not feel any shift in the labyrinth structure. Unless it stealthily changed the walls without me noticing them…

It meant that there was no exit to this labyrinth.

The simple way around no exits was to create one myself.

These mirrors. Unless they were some bulletproof mirrors, shouldn’t I be able to crush them with my fist? I had a jacket as well as a dagger. If I wrapped my hand with the jacket and struck down with the handle of the dagger, I should be able to break it without getting hurt, but…

Was it the right idea to leave by breaking the mirrors?

I thought for a bit, but the clock on the ceiling was still ticking, and it was already hitting 47 minutes. There was no point in wasting more time – I had to make a decision.

I still had one more Sage’s Advice left. One of them was used up when telling me which one the accelerator was at the bumper cars, and the second one told me to reach out towards Ahri during the gyro drop. There was only one left.

Even though it sometimes felt useless and worthless, this Advice had still saved my life multiple times, and it should be the same this time around.

A monster was threatening me from the other side of the mirror. It looked similar to me at a glance but its head was divided into ‘4’ different pieces.

As soon as I raised the dagger to strike down at the mirror–

[If you strike down, you will die to the monster.]

I lowered my dagger. I was thinking that the monsters might come over if I smashed the mirrors and… that indeed seemed to be the case.

The monsters on the other side of the mirrors were actual creatures. Even though they couldn’t cross the mirror themselves, they could come over if I were to smash it myself.

What was I supposed to do here?

1. There was no exit in this labyrinth of mirrors.

2. I had to break a mirror to create an exit.

3. Breaking the mirror would allow the monster on the other side to cross over.

It was very confusing. Was this only solvable for people like Jinchul-hyung who could fight and beat those monsters?

I had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case. Looking at all of our experiences thus far, physical strength wasn’t the most important thing when passing the trials of this Hotel.

<42:39>

42 minutes. My heart was thumping faster and faster. Was escaping this labyrinth the only requirement? We might have to do something else after coming out within that time frame, so I had to quickly come up with an idea.

Maybe there was a safe mirror somewhere? One that didn’t have monsters?

Running around, I observed all the mirrors of the maze, and after a while, I discovered a mirror that didn’t reflect anything even when I was standing in front of it.

I knew it! Was this the solution? Finding a mirror that didn’t have a monster and shattering it to create the exit?

It was relieving to finally find the right answer. Once again, I brought the handle of the dagger to smash the mirror but—

In the middle of it, I paused. I no longer had any Sage’s Advice so I had to be even more prudent.

Let’s think logically.

A mirror with a monster showing on the other side was definitely abnormal. But what about a mirror that didn’t reflect anything? This was also just as abnormal.

Calmly, I started observing the mirror that didn’t reflect anything.

?

On the top-right hand corner, I saw something glimmer.

What was this?

Feeling curious, I brought my head closer to the mirror to look at the thing that was up there and—-

These fuckers, can they please stoppppppp!!!

I unconsciously swore in the heat of the moment.

Absurdly enough, the mirror that didn’t reflect anything in fact had itself a ‘hiding’ monster. A monster that was shaped after me was holding a knife while hiding outside the mirror and that glimmer was from its dagger.

I almost fainted seeing that ‘me with five eyes’ stab forward with its knife immediately after seeing me pop my head forward.

There was no time. I was almost about to lose my mind but there was no time for me to shiver in fear. There was only 37 minutes left, and there was no guarantee that this was everything.

I decided to go through all the pieces of information I discovered thus far.

1. On the other side of the mirror was a monster shaped after me.

2. Breaking the mirror would cause the monster to come here and kill me.

3. There were no safe mirrors. Even the one that didn’t reflect me had a hiding monster inside.

Going back to Number 1, ‘A monster shaped after me’, I pondered about something.

Would there be a monster if I wasn’t inside the reflecting angle of the mirror?

It was a similar yet different approach to Number 3.

For Number 3, there were no reflections even when I was standing in front of it. I came to the conclusion that the monster was formed yet hiding itself when it didn’t show up when I was supposed to see myself in the mirror..

If so, then would there be a monster even when I was not supposed to be seen in the mirror?

Moving left from the mirror in front of me, I went to a location where that mirror wouldn’t show any reflection of my body and stared at it.

From the look of things, there weren’t any monsters.

…

<35:28>

I had to do something.

There was no guarantee that thinking on repeat would allow me to come up with a better idea either. Therefore, I placed myself away from the reflection of a specific mirror and pushed the dagger from outside the frame and smacked down at the mirror.

– Clink!

…

Nothing showed up even after some time.

I exited the labyrinth through the empty space formed by the broken mirror.

*

/Ding Dong! Congratulations. You are the first to pass this mission.

However, you still have teammates that have yet to pass this mission and you may help them.

If need be, how about you choose a more trustworthy appearance?/

Solution: Stop the creation of the monster itself by making sure your own reflection does not show up on the mirror, and use a tool to break the mirror to create an exit.

It seemed that I was right. But as I thought, that wasn’t the end – I had to help my teammates leave the labyrinth.

‘Choose a more trustworthy appearance.’

What did this mean?

*

Leaving through the exit, I continued walking forward and arrived at a strange room. On the walls of the room were several full length mirrors and in the middle was a plate with all the identification photos of my teammates.

And along with those was a large clock.

<31:23>

There was about 30 minutes left now.

Walking to the walls, I looked at the full-length mirrors and saw my four teammates that were still alive on the other side of the reflections.

Cha Jinchul, Park Seungyub, Elena, Kim Ahri.

I realised what I had to do.

From now on, I had to make my teammates break through the ‘mirror that they could see me on’ to arrive in this room.

I also noticed what it meant by ‘choose a more trustworthy appearance’. Whenever I touched on the identification photos in the middle of the room, ‘my appearance’ that was being shown in the reflection changed to the person I touched.

*

30 minutes. That was enough time. All I had to do was make them trust me and come out by breaking the mirror they were seeing me in.

But the hardest part was making them trust me. What did I have to do to make them trust me?

I decided to think from their perspective. They were suddenly dropped to a maze full of mirrors and monsters shaped after themselves were endlessly threatening them.

And suddenly, a ‘Han Kain’ appears in one of the mirrors and tells them to come over by gesturing with his fingers.

In a situation like that, would they trust ‘Han Kain’ and do as he suggests?

Wouldn’t they just think of that as another mysterious monster?

What was I supposed to do to make them trust me?

‘The ability to change appearance’.

I had to approach it using this. There was no way they would have given me a useless item – they were telling me to make use of this board.

Which person should I change to, to make them come over?

The person I immediately thought of was Ahri. She was the most mysterious girl in our group, and no-one was aware of the limits of her power.

If it was Ahri…

If it was Ahri, wouldn’t she be able to use some magical means to make herself appear in other people’s mirrors?

The question was not whether she could actually achieve that or not.

The important part was that Ahri, in the perception of our teammates, was the only one who could achieve something supernatural like that.

I immediately laid my hand on Ahri’s portrait.

The mirror started to reflect Ahri instead of me.

Or… was it?

What was this? My current appearance was similar to Ahri – it was almost exactly the same but there was a slight difference. The hair colour was closer to being silver.

Like a character that would come out in cartoons, I had silver hair and red eyes. The impression given off was also slightly different – a little more gentle, I suppose?

Did Ahri dye her hair to black or something?

Whatever the case, I didn’t think it was that important, because it still looked exactly the same as Ahri except for the hair colour.

First off, I headed to where Seungyub was.

*

– Clank!!

The mirror broke as Seungyub jumped out.

It took about 10 seconds. This was seriously easy – so easy to the point it felt strange.

After changing myself to Ahri’s appearance, I flicked my finger once in front of Seungyub’s mirror and he immediately brought himself closer to the mirror, and when I pretended to knock on the mirror, he immediately tackled his way across.

Seungyub would probably run up without any hesitation even if Ahri was standing in front of lava.

“Eh? Hyung? Where’s Ahri-noona?”

“…”

“Hyung?”

“I’m busy taking out everyone else so go over there and be quiet.”

After pushing him over to the side, I looked at the other people.

As for the next person… Let’s go with Ahri. She was very clever so she should be able to immediately tell what was going on.

However, it turned out differently from what I expected.

*

“Mum? Is that you, mum? Why are you there?”

“…”

For the first time after arriving at this Hotel, I saw Ahri show a ‘childish’ expression on her face.