083. Escape from Hell Hotel
083. Escape from Hell Hotel
The center of the floor.
A message neatly written in red paint caught my eye.
<This room has only one normal door.>
That seemed to be the hint.
【Reformed Guburi】─The fuck kind of hint is that?
【Hottie Licker】─lol Seems like a riddle. Lick.
【Yoho】─Now that I'm awake, shall I put my brain to work. ha
【Min-ji】─Let's just fall asleep again.
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Tough one.
【Bubblegum Collector】─Wakyapya! Is that the whole hint, nya?
【Gyejipsa】─Wakyapya! The whole thing, nya!
【Qkrnfl892】─Hmm. Among the three doors in front, is one a bit different?
【Drift AI】─I speak. I say I found the answer.
【Plum Tree】─Don't say anything until Se-hun asks you to tell him.
【Dick Lover】─Yeah, Se-hun probably hates backseat gaming.
"I already figured out the answer too."
This wasn't a riddle or anything like that.
There was no need to strain my brain.
If I just looked at the hint intuitively, I could find the answer right away.
【Reformed Guburi】─Pretending you figured it out. No way.
【Qkrnfl892】─Already? Which door is the right one?
【Yoho】─I figured it out too. The door in front looks a bit different, I think. ha
【Min-ji】─Oh. I was about to say it first. -_-
"Yoho and Min-ji, just get out and drop dead."
【Yoho】─??
【Min-ji】─Huh?
【Dick Lover】─The doors all look the same.
【Hottie Licker】─Huh WTF lol Lick.
The three doors I saw in front of me.
Those were all traps, no doubt.
"Don't overthink it, guys. If you just think about it simply, the answer comes quick."
I turned around without hesitation.
And I grabbed the handle of the door I had just entered through.
At that moment.
The door I chose instantly turned green.
"As expected, this door was the answer."
I was certain of the answer when I saw the other three doors turn red and vanish as if evaporating.
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Whoa?
【Yoho】─Gasp?
【Qkrnfl892】─What the fuck?
【Min-ji】─How did you know?
"What do you mean, how... The door I came in through was a normal door with no problems. So obviously, this door is the answer. Because it said there's only one normal door in the room."
【Yoho】─Ah...
【Bubblegum Collector】─Wakyapya! The three in front were all fakes, nya!
【Gyejipsa】─Wakyapya! A trick!
"And if another door had been the answer, there wouldn't have been any reason to give this kind of hint."
【Yoho】─That's true...
【Qkrnfl892】─So the choices were four, including the door I came in through?
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Oh? Then what I said earlier was right?
【Drift AI】─I speak. I say that sometimes, thinking simply like Reverse-Rape Maniac is more helpful than overcomplicating things.
【Min-ji】─Didn't Drift trash-talk Maniac earlier?
【Drift AI】─I speak. I say I did no such thing.
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─lol You dumb bitches.
【Reformed Guburi】─No, but more than that, the other doors going shashashak! and disappearing, was that all effects?
【Hottie Licker】─Probably effects. Lick.
【Reformed Guburi】─Wow. That's fucking amazing.
【Plum Tree】─It was more like a smooth glide than shashashak.
【Reformed Guburi】─STFU
Once I'd caught the viewers up.
I pushed the door open to finally leave the room.
Then, a room with the exact same layout as the one I had just been in revealed itself.
【Min-ji】─?? I came back out through the door I entered, so why is it a different room and not the place with the elevator?
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Yeah. What happened?
【Yoho】─Oh my.
【Dick Lover】─That Yoho bastard. Writing short messages because she's embarrassed she got it wrong earlier.
"I don't know. Maybe some special device activated while the door was closed, or something."
【Reformed Guburi】─Something?
【Hottie Licker】─Dick. Lick.
【Dick Lover】─Yeah?
"Anyway. I guess the third trial is about escaping like this repeatedly."
I looked away from the chat window and glanced down at the hint written on the floor.
Naturally, it was a different hint from before.
<Move to the north door.>
===
←Shark
===
After reading only the instruction “Move to the north door,”
I couldn't carelessly choose the door directly in front of me.
The additional clue, ‘Shark,’ meant the direction probably wasn't based on the door I had entered through.
The arrow and the shark.
Those two clues clearly indicated how I was supposed to determine north, south, east, and west.
And only one guess came to mind right away.
"Shark in English is... shark."
【Qkrnfl892】─Why are you suddenly turning shark into English?
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Isn't shark in English shaqpin?
【Hottie Licker】─Is Maniac seriously a dumbass? Lick.
【Plum Tree】─Approaching this hint that way seems right. I can't really think of any other approach.
The Korean word for shark was “sangeo,” and the English word was “shark.”
Among north, south, east, and west, the direction sharing its first letter with “shark” was south.
In other words, the conclusion was that the shark meant south.
I explained my whole line of reasoning to the viewers.
【Qkrnfl892】─That sounds pretty plausible.
【Reformed Guburi】─Oh.
【Plum Tree】─I thought the same thing.
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Whoa. Isn't Se-hun seriously smart?
"Then north is the direction opposite that arrow, right?"
【Plum Tree】─Probably.
【Reformed Guburi】─What are you asking for? North is the opposite of south, so obviously, you fucker!
I couldn't be sure.
But I just decided to firmly believe in myself.
If it's wrong, it's wrong.
With that mindset, I moved towards the door opposite the arrow.
And as I placed my hand on the handle, the door's color began to turn green just like before.
【Reformed Guburi】─lol Success!
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─Yeah!
【Plum Tree】─As expected.
【Dick Lover】─Easy.
【Drift AI】─I speak. I offer my congratulations.
【Qkrnfl892】─That Drift bastard shows up late. Weren't you lurking because you couldn't solve the hint?
【Hottie Licker】─For real lol Lick.
【Drift AI】─I speak. I also say that sharks have a supersense that detects the Earth's magnetic field, and possess a natural GPS or biological compass. From this, one recalls the compass related to direction, and since among the EWSN directions of a compass, the only English letter overlapping with Shark is S, one deduces the arrow points south. Meaning, I say it's a baseless nonsense quiz.
【Yoho】─I figured it out the moment I saw it, but I kept quiet because I thought you'd hate backseating. ha
【Min-ji】─Actually, me too. haha
【Bubblegum Collector】─Wakyapya! Se-hun was an escape room genius, nya!
【Gyejipsa】─Wakyapya! A hot genius!
"This much is basic."
【Dick Lover】─What genius? The problem was just fucking easy.
【Reformed Guburi】─Right. You blind fanboys are hilarious, you idiots.
『'Dick Lover' has had their chat restricted. Remaining time 00:05:00』
『'Reformed Guburi' has had their chat restricted. Remaining time 00:05:00』
With that, I cleared the second room without any problems.
My shoulders squared with confidence, I headed straight into the next room.
*
*
*
Repeating the process of solving hints and choosing doors, I soon arrived at the eighth room.
【Reformed Guburi】─Sex sex~
【Hottie Licker】─Just how many rooms do I have to go through for this to end? It's getting boring. Lick.
【Yoho】─If you're bored, don't watch the stream.
【Min-ji】─Yeah.
【Qkrnfl892】─He's doing well on his own even without our help.
【Plum Tree】─If you guys interfere, it's actually more of a hindrance.
【Bubblegum Collector】─Warkyarpya! But why haven't Defense Force and BigGirl been chatting since earlier, nya?
【Gyejipsa】─Warkyarpya! They're oversleeping, nya!
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─This room's hint is hard.
【Drift AI】─I speak. I say it is not hard.
"...Hmm."
Up until now, I hadn't received any help from the viewers.
Because it was a level I could handle well enough on my own.
But no matter how much I racked my brain in this room, the answer wouldn't come out.
<11 x 11 = 4>
<22 x 22 = 16>
<33 x 33 = A>
<33 x 33 = B>
<Move to the room that is (A + B).>
==
18 →
36 ↑
54 ←
72 ↓
==
"This one's a bit hard."
Getting eliminated early on would have been fine.
But being eliminated after coming this far felt regrettable.
So I decided to use a viewer lifeline.
"Hey, Drift."
【Drift AI】─I answer.
"I really can't figure out this hint. Can you tell me?"
【Reformed Guburi】─Why are you only asking Drift? You ignoring us?
【Yoho】─Yeah, I know. -_-
【Min-ji】─Honestly, we're pretty ignorable.
【Reverse-Rape Maniac】─So Se-hun is weak at math.
【Dick Lover】─How can you not know this?
【Qkrnfl892】─for real lol It's fucking easy.
【Bubblegum Collector】─Wakyapya! Selectively a dumbass, nya!
【Gyejipsa】─Wakyapya! He's stupid, nya!
【Drift AI】─I speak. I say 54 is the answer.
"Are you sure?"
【Drift AI】─I say I am sure.
【Drift AI】─
(1+1)x(1+1)=4
(2+2)x(2+2)=16
(3+3)x(3+3)=36
A or B = 36
(11x11 = 121) => (1+2+1 = 4)
(22x22 = 484) => (4+8+4 = 16)
(33x33 = 1089)
=>
(1+0+8+9 = 18)
A or B = 18
A + B = 54
【Drift AI】─I speak. I say it is a simple problem a dolphin could have solved.
"...Alright. Thanks, anyway."
【Yoho】─Ah. I was about to tell you first, but I was a step late. ha
【Min-ji】─I was also typing it up. haha
【Hottie Licker】─lol You're full of shit. Lick.
【Bubblegum Collector】─Wakyapya! I thought Se-hun was smart, but he was dumb, nya!
【Gyejipsa】─Wakyapya! His true colors are showing, nya!
I considered hitting them all with chat mutes, but I barely held back.
Because it was an undeniable fact that I couldn't solve it because I was stupid.
I had to admit what I had to admit.
Anyway,
<Escape successful. Third trial passed.>
<Customer No. 20, please proceed to the location of the fourth trial.>
I had finally gotten through the third trial.
***
The situation room of the Escape from Hell Hotel.
One of the staff members staring at the monitors tilted her head and spoke up.
"What's that thing the human male's been holding since earlier?"
At those words,
the other staff members who had been silently watching the monitors began to chime in one by one.
"Isn't that a camera?"
"It's a camera, alright. But why is he holding a camera? There's no way a broadcast could work here."
"Why are you acting so surprised again? Most of the Sinners of Violence are lunatics. Just let it go."
"Just from watching him constantly mutter to himself, it's clear he's not right in the head."
"He seems like he's got a screw loose, but he does seem to be quite smart. Seeing as he's already passed the third trial."
The man receiving the full attention of the staff was none other than Gye Se-hun.
Gye Se-hun, reflected in the monitor.
He had passed the trial on the 9th floor.
In a short time of less than thirty minutes, he had overcome the trials of the 8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th floors and was in the middle of breaking through the 4th floor.
Using nothing but force.
"No, how did he break that one too?"
"Ah... We put so much effort into making that obstacle... It's three times tougher than the iron door on the 10th floor..."
"At this rate, the facilities won't survive! Can't we just drop that human straight into the Abyss of Hell?"
"That's against the rules."
"What about preventing him from using force?"
"That's also against the rules. Probably."
"Ah... I made that one too... He broke it again..."
"What? Even a high-rank demon can't break that one!"
"Is that guy seriously a real human?"
Gye Se-hun was turning the entire trial grounds into a complete mess, heading towards the 1st floor while destroying everything in sight.
"...Can't we just send that monster back?"
The staff members finally realized it.
The fact that they had invited a human they couldn't handle.