Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Escape Room Cafe #1
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How long had we been standing there like that?
Before we knew it, the staff member's drowsy voice drifted in from behind us.
"Alright then. Let me explain the rules... You have to follow them without fail, so please concentrate. Listen carefully..."
Gulp.
Her voice carried this hypnotic pull that drew our attention automatically.
In the quiet room, the soft scrape of her footsteps against the floor sounded unusually loud.
"As you saw in the entry notice... you must keep everything you experience at the escape room cafe strictly confidential... Especially if you leak any tricks, quiz solutions, passwords, or the like... you could face legal repercussions..."
"And if you damage any props while trying to solve the puzzles..."
We got an earful of warnings about all the things we shouldn't do.
Escape room cafes are places where you solve puzzles and quizzes with your brain, after all.
Precautions like these are absolutely necessary.
"Alright... Now, everyone, please remove your blindfolds..."
We finally took off our blindfolds and looked around.
For a horror-themed room, it was surprisingly intact—an old-fashioned Western-style interior.
I'd been picturing a room splattered in fake blood.
While we were taking in the room, the staff member returned to stand in front of us and handed out a sheet of paper with the room's backstory written on it.
"This room... used to belong to a cute little girl... She absolutely adored the doll she got as a birthday present..."
The staff member even read it aloud for us, nice and friendly.
Still, there was some kind of power in that soft, languid voice of hers. It really helped things sink in.
"But... the following year, when she received another doll as a gift... she left the old doll gathering dust and only played with the new one..."
It was clichéd, but all the more powerful for it.
The tale of the doll abandoned by the girl, turning against humans.
A story so common you'd swear you'd heard it before.
"But the doll loved the girl so very much... loved her, loved her so..."
"The doll's unrequited feelings..."
"...drove it mad."
⚙ ROOM ANNOUNCEMENT ⚙ Thud. The lights went out, leaving the room in total darkness. Dramatic staging. Even I jumped.
"Kyaaah!"
"Uwaah!"
The sudden loud noise startled us, and whosever scream it was rang in our ears.
Once our eyes adjusted to the dark, a faint red mood lighting came on—completely different from before.
Just the reddish tint was enough to shift the atmosphere entirely.
The staff member had vanished without a trace,
and a 60-minute timer had appeared on the wall.
A voice from the speaker mounted on the ceiling in the corner of the room snapped us out of our daze.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Static crackle. [You are... the six investigators who have come to uncover the truth behind what happened in this room...] [...Time limit: 60 minutes... Have a wonderful time...] Click. As the staff member's guidance broadcast ended, the timer on the wall furiously ticked down toward 59 minutes.
At the same moment, music with a bizarre, unsettling vibe began playing in the room.
The melody sent chills down your spine the more you listened.
Man, for a famous escape room cafe, this was pretty immersive.
I glanced around.
First things first, I peeled Hong Yeonseo off my arm, where she'd latched on at some point.
For an athlete, her body was surprisingly soft and plush. Felt nice... but this wasn't the time.
Ahem. Then I checked on the others.
Lee Sea was steadying her breathing and looked mostly fine, while Seong Yurin and Lee Soyun were clinging to each other, at a total loss.
...And there was Yoon Jiu, sprawled on the floor.
I hauled him to his feet.
"If we'd gone with your first pick, you'd have keeled over from a heart attack."
I gave him a deadpan look, and he cleared his throat awkwardly as he grabbed my hand and stood.
"Ahem."
By the time everyone had calmed down a bit, three minutes had already passed.
"Guys. Check this out—there's an instruction sheet here."
While I'd been soothing everyone, Lee Sea had found something.
A single coated sheet of paper sat on a table in one corner of the Western-style room.
It had hints on the gameplay procedures, how to call the staff in emergencies, and the like.
The hints covered puzzle-solving steps and ways of thinking about them.
"It says we should start by getting a grasp of the room's layout."
We looked around.
A room with worn, antique decor.
A table with drawers in one corner.
A toy jewelry box on top of the table.
A large sofa against the central wall, with a table in front of it.
In the opposite corner, a small single bed—presumably the girl's from the story.
A girl doll and a teddy bear doll on the bed.
The door on the opposite side from the table, which looked like the exit.
And a wall with what seemed like some kind of rail mechanism.
That was the rundown of the room's notable features.
"Hmm. Should we take a look around the room first?"
Yoon Jiu suggested.
Following his lead,
Yoon Jiu and Hong Yeonseo headed to the bed; Lee Sea and I went to the sofa; Seong Yurin and Lee Soyun checked the table.
"Ah. The teddy bear has a spot to input a four-digit code."
"All the table drawers are locked with keys."
Reports came in from the bed and table sides—Hong Yeonseo and Seong Yurin.
While checking under the sofa, I found a small notebook that looked like a little girl's diary.
"This... looks like a diary."
"Guys, come over here."
At Lee Sea's call, we gathered at the sofa, huddling our heads together to peer at the diary I'd found.
📖 GIRL'S DIARY 📖 《XX Year, October 3rd.》 {Dad got me a cute bear doll as a present. I named it Bear! It's common, but cute, right?} 《XX Year, October 7th.》 {I hugged Bear too tightly and hurt it. Dad fixed it, but I feel bad for Bear. I won't squeeze so hard anymore.} 《XX Year, October 13th.》 {I felt something hard inside Bear and took it out—it was a pretty stone. When did that get in there? I showed Dad, and he put it in my jewelry box.} 《XX Year, October 17th.》 {Lately, I've been sleeping without hugging Bear, but I wake up with it in my arms. Weird, huh?} 《XY Year, October 3rd.》 {Dad bought me a new doll! Your name is Evie from now on. Pretty name, right?} 《XY Year, October 9th.》 {I woke up to find Evie nestled in Bear's arms. I'd put Bear up on the bed, though. Weird?} 《XY Year, October 13th.》 {Evie got broken. Dad fixed her, but she has scars now.} ※ Hint: Absurdity
The room's story we'd just learned was written out in the diary.
"Hmm."
Seong Yurin crossed her arms, deep in thought. I deliberately averted my gaze from her generous chest.
"There's even a hint? Hey?"
Yoon Jiu pointed at the end of the diary.
"It's not just 'absurd'—it's broken up separately."
The moment I said that, Seong Yurin, who'd been pondering, headed toward the bed.
"This hint is probably connected to the password on the teddy bear."
Seong Yurin picked up the teddy bear and showed it to us.
A small number pad and an empty four-digit display were visible.
Why on earth would anyone buy a high-tech safe disguised as a teddy bear?
...Seemed like I was the only one questioning the realism of a teddy with that in its belly.
"Yeah, makes sense. That's the only thing we can input a clue into right now."
Like Lee Sea said, everywhere else that looked like it had clues was locked with keys, so the teddy bear was probably the first puzzle.
The hint was likely pointing to a four-digit number.
"What could 'absurdity' mean..."
While everyone was lost in thought,
"Hmm~ Isn't this just absurd?"
"......"
Yoon Jiu's lame impression plunged us into silence.
Hong Yeonseo's glare at him from her dumbfounded expression was no joke.
Fortunately, he seemed to realize it was a stretch and quietly backed off to ponder the puzzle.
"Huh?"
That's when Hong Yeonseo piped up.
"What? Did you figure it out?"
"No. That—over there. The ceiling."
"Ceiling?"
We all looked up in unison.
"What's with the ceiling?"
"It's... the ceiling. It's coming down...?"
"......What?"
We froze at Hong Yeonseo's words.
"The ceiling's coming down? What are you talking about?"
"The rails on the wall. It looks like they're using them to lower the ceiling bit by bit."
"...For real?"
Lee Soyun asked, her face drained of color.
Come to think of it, the walls were suspiciously smooth—no decorations at all, and even the timer was embedded right in the wall.
"...Do escape rooms actually squish their customers flat?"
"I-It’s just staging, right? Haha..."
"Yeah? Hehe."
We let out hollow laughs.
Those laughs couldn't quite hide a hint of bewilderment.
Proof that we were pretty immersed in the situation, even knowing it was all fake.
The quiet, eerie music and lighting bore down on us.
"......Let's solve this fast."
"Y-Yeah."
Time had already crept past 50 minutes.
No matter how easy the difficulty, taking over 10 minutes just to reach the first puzzle could be dangerous.
Most of that time had gone into calming down the freaked-out ones, though...
For a moment, we all fell silent, deep in thought, with only the music filling the room's stillness.
"Ah. I got it."
I'd been staring blankly at the diary with the hint when enlightenment struck. I walked over to Seong Yurin.
All eyes turned to me.
Man, there was something satisfying about being the first to crack it. Was this the real appeal of escape rooms?
Assuming I was right, of course.