Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Escape Room Cafe #2
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The hint was the letters "eoi" with consonants and vowels separated.
The password to enter was four digits.
Thinking about it simply and straightforwardly, each letter probably represented a number.
Beep beep beep bing.
Beep.
Luckily, it was correct.
I almost embarrassed myself if it had been wrong.
The numbers I pressed were 3739.
"Why 3739?"
Seong Yurin floated a question mark.
"It's nothing special. The letters in the hint just match up with numbers."
'ㅇ' is 3, 'ㅓ' is 7, 'ㅣ' is 9.
It was a keyboard layout puzzle.
You know, there are a lot of those quizzes. Assigning numbers in alphabetical order, or grouping numbers and letters you hit going straight up on the keyboard.
"Aha."
"So the diary dates were hints too, huh."
Hong Yeonseo and Lee Soyun nodded in understanding.
As Lee Soyun said, alternating between the diary dates and the doll names sparked the answer in my mind.
When I opened the teddy bear doll's belly, there was a small key inside, along with a slot for inserting something.
"There's a key and some kind of hole."
"Maybe the key opens that drawer?"
Seong Yurin took the key from me and strode toward the table.
I set the teddy bear doll on the bed and sat on the edge of the bed.
...Ah, I just want to lie down.
With everyone watching, Seong Yurin fitted the key into the first drawer.
Clack. The drawer slid open with a rattle.
Inside, Seong Yurin found a locked box and a note.
She brought both back to the sofa and set them on the table.
At that moment.
Kiririk... kigik.
A chilling mechanical noise rang in our ears from somewhere.
The sudden sound startled everyone, and we all looked around frantically.
Chijijik...
Our eyes converged on the speaker as static hissed from it.
🔊 SPEAKER VOICE 🔊 [Play with me.] [Play with me. Play with me. Play with me.] A creepy voice mixed with mechanical distortion poured from the speaker.
"Eek."
The timid Lee Soyun burrowed into Lee Sea's arms.
Seong Yurin and Hong Yeonseo stiffened, clutching each other's hands.
🔊 DISTORTED SCREAM 🔊 [Playwithmeplaywithmeplaywithmeplaywithmeplaywithmelikeyoulikeyoutoodidntyouplaywithmelikeyouplaylikeyoulikemeaaaa■■■■■■■──] The voice, filled with eeriness, grew more twisted, turning into a scream and finally an unintelligible wail.
Kikikikigik.
The scream from the speaker stopped,
but the mechanical noises continued.
We exchanged only glances, frozen in place.
Time had now passed 45 minutes.
The lighting felt a shade darker, redder.
The girls' eyes glistened from the creepy voice over the speaker.
If we stayed seated like this, I could picture tears flowing and an escape room failure ending.
Ignoring the inner voice screaming that I didn't want to get up from the bed, I mustered all my strength and stood.
Ah. I really just want to lie down.
I dragged my reluctant feet toward the sofa.
"We need to solve this fast. It's getting creepy."
"Jinaa..."
Lee Soyun was half in tears.
I gently stroked her head, those watery eyes looking up at me.
Lee Sea's eyes, holding Lee Soyun, followed my hand.
"It's okay. It's all just effects, so don't be too scared."
I shot Yoon Jiu a sharp glare.
Comfort the kids, you idiot.
Only then did Yoon Jiu snap out of his daze, half-regaining his senses.
"Y-yeah. If anything happens, just trust me!"
Yoon Jiu shouted in a trembling voice.
Based on what he'd shown so far, it wasn't reassuring at all. Jiwoo...
The others seemed to feel the same, eyeing Yoon Jiu with doubt.
"So, what does that note say?"
I pointed to the note Seong Yurin had brought.
Everyone's gazes turned to the note on the table.
<The key is inside. Inside. In. Side.>
"......Inside? Does it mean this box?"
"But the box is locked with a padlock. What are we supposed to do if the key's inside?"
As Yoon Jiu said, the box Seong Yurin brought was secured with a key-locked padlock.
"Probably not. They said no brute force."
Seong Yurin shook her head.
"Let's search again anyway. We might have missed something."
Even now, time was ticking away.
We're already at an escape room cafe—might as well escape.
It's supposed to be easy difficulty too.
"What if it's not actually locked, just stuck?"
Yoon Jiu went to the drawer and rattled the locked one.
As if that would open a locked drawer.
"Jiwoo. What if you break it?"
Lee Sea stopped Yoon Jiu.
Seong Yurin and Hong Yeonseo returned to the bed to search.
"Ah. Look at this."
Then the two started whispering about something.
Hong Yeonseo, fiddling with the girl doll,
suddenly popped off the doll's head with a snap.
"Gasp."
"Ah."
They panicked for a moment, glancing at us.
"Ah, the head..."
Lee Soyun pointed to the head Hong Yeonseo held.
Looking closely, the girl doll's head was shaped like a key, embedded in the body's torso.
"Eww... that's creepy."
Hong Yeonseo set the doll's body on the bed and walked over to me, handing me the head.
"Y-you do it."
"...Okay."
Even I found it unsettling. The key's metal part was painted red,
looking from afar like a spine pulled out... Hmm, better not think that. It's creepy.
While unlocking the box with the girl head key from Hong Yeonseo, I asked her a question.
"But why'd you think to pull off the head?"
"I looked closely. There was a scar-like mark that made it seem like the neck could come off. And it did."
Oh, right. Probably from the diary—the part about the doll getting damaged and scarred.
I nodded in agreement right away.
"What, you thought I just yanked it off brute force?"
"No, I didn't think that... I've never seen you like that anyway."
Hong Yeonseo smiled, pleased that I didn't see her as brute.
"Good then!"
Inside the box was a black-and-white photo and another key.
How many keys are there, seriously?
I took out the photo and placed it on the table for everyone to see.
It was a photo of a girl hugging the teddy bear doll 'Bear,' her face erased.
"Ugh. No face makes it creepy."
As Lee Sea said, the photo had a bizarre vibe.
Not just because of the missing face—the atmosphere of the photo itself was eerie.
"Not much of a clue? Let's open something with this key first."
Yoon Jiu took the key.
"The drawers don't fit."
"Jewelry box?"
Lee Sea handed Yoon Jiu the jewelry box.
"Oh! It opens."
As Yoon Jiu opened the jewelry box, the eerie music that had been playing nonstop cut off.
Inside was a music box that activated upon opening, along with a red gem.
The melody from the music box... In a different setting, it would have been beautiful,
but echoing here, the mismatch created a strange chill.
Moments later, the music box stopped.
Tick.
"What?"
"The l-lights."
The moment the sound stopped, the room's lights went out.
🔊 DISTORTED SCREAM 🔊 [■■■■■──!] ......And that familiar creepy sound came again.
From somewhere. Closer. Than before.
"......"
A heavy silence enveloped the room as we all froze.
Moments later, the lights came back on.
"Kyaaah─!"
"Waaah!"
A bear suddenly appeared in the center of the room, startling everyone.
"Ugh!"
Hong Yeonseo shoved me in front as a shield and hugged me tight.
Sorry to the staff who prepared this horror effect, but...
Thanks to her, the fear vanished, replaced by a pleasant sensation.
Calmed by Hong Yeonseo, I examined the bear closely.
Clank clank.
🔊 BEAR GROWL 🔊 [■■──! ■■■■■───!] Up close, it was a person in a bear doll costume, bound in iron chains and writhing to escape.
The high-quality costume, splattered with fake blood for a monstrous feel, had real realism.
Anyway, it must have come up from the floor somehow. Neat mechanism.
Unlike me calmly assessing the situation, the others were in full panic.
"Waaah! Seo Ijin! Do something!"
"Kyaa~ Jina!"
Hong Yeonseo and Lee Sea had latched onto me.
"Y-Yu-Yu-Yurinaa!"
"........."
Seong Yurin and Lee Soyun were clinging to each other, collapsed on the floor.
......Seong Yurin’s dazed eyes showed she was really shocked.
"Uh buh buh... Huh. What about me?"
Yoon Jiu, who had been alone when it happened, looked baffled that no one was by him.
...Wait, wasn't Lee Sea next to Yoon Jiu earlier? When did she come here?
"C-cal, calm down. Kids. It can't come over here."
Hong Yeonseo's grip around my waist was getting painful now, so I pried her off with effort.
With Lee Sea's help, I finally separated Hong Yeonseo.
"Ugh, what do we do?"
Hong Yeonseo wiped her teary eyes with her sleeve.
"Phew. For now, ignore it and solve the puzzle. Yoon Jiu! Give me that gem."
The bear was just an effect anyway. Our job was to get out.
"Uh? Oh, okay."
I took the gem from Yoon Jiu, went to the bed, and inserted it into the hole in the bear doll's belly.
This was from the diary too.
True to easy difficulty, the puzzles were intuitive. Only the effects were creepy.
Druruk.
"What?"
As I embedded the gem in the bear, a mechanical noise came from the ceiling.
"W-wait. It's coming down!"
The ceiling's descent sped up.
The ceiling lowered along rails.
The wall timer's display had changed to 5 minutes.
"We have to do something within 5 minutes!"
"I-if we don't get out, it crushes us?"
"Hwaaang! I don't wanna die!"
Lee Sea lunged and tackled me onto the bed.
"No way we're dying. G-get off a bit."
An escape room cafe wouldn't kill people.
I didn't know why these events kept happening to me, but Lee Sea's scent tickled my nose.
Her soft body and cascading hair brushed my face.
"Wh-what are you doing!"
This time, conversely, Hong Yeonseo clung on and pried Lee Sea off.
"Now, what do we do?"
Yeah, what indeed. Jiwoo...
It felt like I was solving everything, but the others were too panicked to care about puzzles.
In times like this, think simply.
There weren't many clues anyway.
Diary, photo, note.
I reviewed the contents of the clues.