Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: No Matter What, I'm the Team Leader
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Creak... creak...
Footsteps echoed from upstairs as someone—or something—paced around, and dust sifted down from the ceiling with every groan of the floorboards. The human corpses hanging from hooks swayed along with it.
Each time they did, the hooks clattered against one another, metal scraping metal in a grating screech that made Jojun grimace. That's when Bayu muttered irritably.
"Sounds like someone's up there..."
"Indeed. Must be something pretty hefty."
Nick glanced up at the ceiling with an intrigued expression at Bayu's slightly tense words. Jojun followed suit, focusing on the noise from above for a moment, but soon realized it had stopped. He scanned the room again.
The smell...
The gutted corpses, their bellies split open and innards removed, reeked far worse than any zombie stench—several times more putrid. Blood and pus had oozed from the bodies, pooling into sticky puddles of rot on the floor. Red mushrooms sprouted from those puddles like foul fertilizer, puffing out spores that amplified the disgust.
On top of that, the eerily chill air dragged everyone into a gloom of revulsion. A normal person couldn't stay sane in a place like this. Yet none of them retched or faltered.
As an Apostle of the Evil God, Jojun had witnessed far more gruesome scenes routinely, so this barely fazed him. He'd ascended to the level of playing with humans like putty, after all.
But seeing Bayu and Nick remain just as unflappable amid the horror was intriguing to Jojun.
Guess they've lived lives just as brutal as mine...
Their calm reactions let Jojun easily infer they'd all waded through rivers of blood. Of course, only those tough enough to survive and join this event would make it this far—it was to be expected.
"Hey, check out these corpses. Some aren't human... That's a beastkin? Even a lizardman over here. They didn't just butcher regular humans—they grabbed and killed anything humanoid. Wonder where the guts went, though."
"Shut it, big nose. I don't give a damn about the guts, so pipe down. You're too damn loud."
"Hey, chink. You've been picking fights with me nonstop... Enough already? My patience has limits too."
"How about you lower your voice? With something weird prowling upstairs, yelling like that makes it sound like you're begging it to come here. You trying to get us all killed or what?"
"What a storyteller. Sounds like you'd love to do that yourself. Starting a fight on purpose to stir up trouble, huh?"
Watching the two snarl at each other like they couldn't hold back, Jojun rubbed his face dryly. They looked just like mangy dogs barking across a chain-link fence.
"Both of you, cut it out. You can't even attack each other anyway... What the hell is wrong with you? Save it for outside after we find a way out. Knock off the bullshit."
Bayu clicked his tongue and turned away at Jojun's words, while Nick shrugged like he was innocent and started inspecting the hanging corpses.
Goddamn... Spawned in a shit place, and the teammates are both fearless idiots... Confidence we'll win no matter what comes? Or just plain crazy?
Jojun had no idea. Somehow he was stuck mediating, but even that patience was wearing thin. He had little tolerance for others' antics.
"Tch... Fucking big-nosed prick..."
Bayu grumbled endlessly, dissatisfied that Jojun's intervention had defused his spat with Nick. But as a sane player, he didn't just complain—he groped the walls, searching for an exit from the suffocating room.
There were no obvious doors in sight. That meant one had to be hidden somewhere, and Bayu figured there might be a mechanism on the walls.
Meanwhile, Jojun eyed their backs and reflected on the situation. He picked up his interrupted deductions where he'd left off.
Let's see... Why'd we wake up here? The announcement said we'd be sent somewhere in the mansion... Is this part of it? Did the family head eat people? Nah, doesn't seem right.
From what the jeweler had told him, the Thrill Mansion was just a normal home where their creator—the family head—had lived. As far as he knew, the unnamed patriarch was a doll-obsessed madman, not some cannibal indulging in depraved orgies.
Yet the scene before him looked nothing like a human dwelling. The neatly butchered bodies on hooks, the clusters of creepy mushrooms on walls and floor—it all screamed monster nest.
Don't tell me my shitty luck warped our team here again... Nah, probably not. Come to think of it, the mansion changed hands multiple times... And time here is all twisted up...
Jojun reasoned logically. Per the intel, the mansion had grown increasingly warped with each owner, its timeline a tangled mess. He suspected they'd landed in an era other than the dollmaker patriarch's time.
Yeah, we're in a completely different era of Thrill Mansion, not the patriarch's.
Jojun's inference was close to the truth.
Then... To get the seal ring the jeweler wants, we might need to find the era where it'd be. If so, clearing this place is gonna be a nightmare...
He had no clue how to pinpoint the patriarch's era. Worse, if the key era differed from the exit era, escape could be impossible. Cold sweat trickled down his back.
Figure out time travel first...
Jojun pulled the Phase-Designating Compass and Double Helix Pocket Watch from his bag, clipping them to his belt and neck for easy access. The compass could lock onto a specific spot and point only there. He planned to designate any exit they found.
Securing an escape route was always priority one.
The watch... lets me return to my time—2022. Not sure if this is past or future, but it means I can get back to normal time. And I bet the exit's in our era, 2022—not past or future.
As Jojun thought, the exit existed in his home era: some day in 2022. Having the watch greatly boosted their odds of finding it.
No idea how many timelines are tangled here... But easier to navigate? That's a win.
While Jojun pondered, Nick—who'd been scouting the slaughterhouse—spotted something.
"Well, well... There's a live human here."
"What?"
Bayu, hunting for an exit door, and Jojun, mulling mansion escape strategies, both hurried over to Nick.
"Ugh..."
Nick stood before a man impaled on a hook.
"Pre-butchered stock?"
"Maybe..."
"Let's wake him up."
"Hold on, we don't even know what he is—"
Despite Jojun's protest, Nick yanked the man off the hook without hesitation.
"Grk...!"
As the hook ripped free, the man tried to scream in agony, but Bayu clamped his mouth shut. Regaining consciousness, the man stared up at the three men in terror.
He had a Middle Eastern look, for reference.
"!$^@%#!$#!"
"What the hell's he saying? French?"
"Dunno. Can't understand a word... But not Chinese."
Nick and Bayu couldn't make out his words. Neither could Jojun.
He might have clues. Can't waste this. Time for the potion...
Jojun pulled out the potion he'd gotten from Hellas for exactly this—a fairy dust brew from an suspiciously multilingual pixie. He rationed it strictly, but this guy seemed like their only info source. Jojun drank one and handed another to the man.
Gulp...
They drained the sour potion from the small vials and finally understood each other.
"He's begging for his life."
"Translation item, huh."
"Yeah. And just so you know, I don't have many."
Jojun brushed off Nick and approached the crawling man, pressing a ritual dagger to his throat.
Nick's eyes sharpened at the aggression, but he stayed back. He knew fear worked better than kindness on panicked humans.
"Hey."
"Eek... Y-yes..."
"Tell me everything you know. This mansion, the situation—everything. Fast."
The potion wouldn't last. With limited supply, he needed max info quick. For about ten minutes, the man rambled his story. Jojun jotted notes in his notepad.
"Got it."
"Y-yes... N-now, spare m—"
Slash!!
Once he'd squeezed out all the info, Jojun slit the man's throat and offered him to Kashnax. No offering accepted. Something blocked it—the link to the Evil Gods felt faint.
Nick, who'd watched silently, grabbed Jojun's shoulder in shock at the sudden kill.
"Hey! What the hell? Killing him out of nowhere? Weren't you gonna let him go?"
"Useless weakling anyway. Knew jack shit, and without translation, he'd just be dead weight."
"Wouldn't know till we tried, right? And you had comms items."
"You got 'em? They're mine. Why waste consumables on trash like him? Cut the nonsense."
Nick glared, as if interrogating a criminal.
"What? Gonna make me apologize if you stare? Hilarious."
Jojun wasn't one to fold under threats. He gripped his dagger reverse and taunted Nick.
"We're fighting for our lives, and you're bitching over one moron? Joke's on you. My life comes first. No room for baggage."
Seeing Jojun wouldn't budge, Nick sighed and voiced his thoughts.
"Sigh... Did you have to kill him? Coulda let him run. Might've known a way out."
"Already asked if he knew an exit from this room. Clueless. Didn't even know this space existed in the mansion. If he lied, he was scheming—better off dead. If not, useless baggage—better off dead. Happy? Not random. He served his purpose, sent him off."
"Sigh... Fine. Can't talk sense into you. But don't just kill in front of me... Bad habit."
"Hilarious."
Jojun snorted at Nick's feeble warning. Nick ignored further jabs.
Bayu, who'd watched the spat fizzle, approached Jojun.
"Hey, bun-head. Killing that guy? I'm all for it. But as teammates, shouldn't we share what he said?"
Jojun smirked. Absurd.
"Fuck off, chink. You want free info I paid for with items? Cough up a price."
"A price...?"
"Yeah. Want the info and to escape intact? No backtalk from now on. No pointless fights with that sheep-fucker. One more spat in front of me, I ditch you both and bail solo. I know the way out now."
"You coward—"
"Shut it! Wanna rot here forever? Stay alone then, Bayu! I'm out!!"
"Guh... Lower your voice... Damn it..."
"Heh heh. Shoulda packed items if it bugs you. Beggar."
From the man he'd killed without hesitation, Jojun had gleaned plenty on the mansion: time travel methods, eras involved.
With this intel, I take control. Can't kill or attack these teammates, so I'll dominate another way.
Now holding the key to conquering Thrill Mansion, Jojun decided no more tolerating their crap.
Time to crack the whip on his team. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇