Chapter 8: 7

Chapter 7 – Room 101, Cursed Room – ‘A Strange Family’ (2)

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 2
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 101 (Cursed Room – A Strange Family)
Sage’s Advice: 2]

Today was a very strange day. I was definitely hungry and had nothing since morning, but I just didn’t feel like eating anything. Let alone breakfast, I even skipped the duck meat at lunch!

Considering how mum used to ask whether there was a starving ghost inside me whenever we came to this restaurant, it was really strange that I stopped after a staring contest with the duck today. 

It was free time until dinner, and I couldn’t see my family probably because they were each doing their own thing. Walking alone away from my family, for some reason… I felt my head turning clearer.

I had a feeling there was something I was forgetting, but I couldn’t tell what that was. Will I remember it after a while?

From the blurry… and sedimented memories appeared faces of strange people. A middle-aged man with an astonishing build, a career woman giving off the impression she was rich, a female student resembling a chipmunk that you would call cute at a glance, a rather shy and silent boy;

And – a beautiful lady who made me feel dizzy just by thinking of. 

Who was she? Have I seen a movie with an actor like this? 

But it was too vivid to be called a memory about a movie, and I felt like we also shared a conversation.

Did I really talk to this pretty blonde-haired actress? While I was focusing on the never-ending tails of doubt, I heard footsteps from nearby.

“Hey! Han Kain. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, you’re here. Where’s mum and dad?”

“They went to the aquarium. Apparently there is a shark show.”

“A shark show?”

“Seems to be quite famous in this resort. They say staff wearing swimsuits will be going inside and playing a game of tag with a great white shark. Apparently tourists can also go in after paying a bit of money!”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?”

“So? That’s the thrill! Mum and dad can’t swim so they can’t even go in anyway. I wanted to go too but I couldn’t because I’m underage! This is so unfair.”

*

[Separate yourself from your sister immediately]

*

We had a fancy buffet for dinner. On the ground floor of the hotel was the restaurant, and inside were beautifully crafted plates flying around with food on top of them. 

Oh, so that is the famous ‘throw and eat’! I think I saw celebrities doing it often in a TV show.

Chefs in white uniforms appeared with bright smiles and threw the plates like frisbees. Half of the food ended up on the ground in the middle of the flight, but people joyously licked the food off the ground without hesitation. Some of the sporty people jumped into the air and crunched on the flying plate with their mouths.

The plates immediately shattered and made their entire faces into a bloody mess, but it truly was an enjoyable moment nonetheless. I also tried it a few times but… catching a flying plate with your mouth wasn’t very easy. I kept on crashing into them, so later, I felt urged to skip the meal and tried my hardest to receive a plate.

Only towards the end of the meal did I get lucky and succeed at eating a piece of fruit. It was unlucky that the plate ended up dropping first: only the slice of mango that was on the plate entered my mouth. Ahh… the key was to receive the plate but there was only mango and no plate!

Regardless, the mango was very delicious so that was good.

I was munching on some mangoes in contentment when my sister walked up while eating a seasoned live rabbit. That seasoned live rabbit was squirming even after having its limbs tied up, so how were you even supposed to eat it?

“Oppa. How come you didn’t eat aaany of the expensive stuff all day, and you’re eating some dead mangoes? Is that even nice? There is no garnish either.”

“For some reason, this is the best I’ve had today.”

“Really…? It must be because you didn’t eat anything all day. I’m nice so I’ll give this to you.”

Saying that, my sister handed me a dish. Was it because she only saw me eating mango? There were several pieces of mango on the plate, but it was slightly unfortunate that cow eyeballs were skewered to each of the mango slices with a toothpick. I did hear this was how it was supposed to be eaten but… for some strange reason, I didn’t really like it and ate the mango only after taking the eyeballs off.

It smelled a little bloody, but the mangoes were very delicious.

After a rather numbing meal, I returned to the resort, watched a short episode on Netflix and got on my bed. Maybe because I didn’t have anything proper all day, I was too hungry to really fall asleep, and lying down on the bed away from my family, my head started to hurt again as stray thoughts popped up like last time.

That lady. Her name was… Elena. I suddenly recalled her name. 

Did I see her in a dream? It really was an unforgettable appearance. Her hair glistened brighter than real gold and her eyes appeared like polished gems. Besides, she was also full of a kind and generous heart. 

I wanted to see her again. There were a few other people that also blurrily reappeared in my head, but I couldn’t really remember them properly. 

Somehow everything felt… very distant. With everyone gathered, we were going to do something. A dangerous room; beautiful and amazing treasures – maybe I had a dream about an adventure? 

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And, ‘Hotel Pioneer’. It suddenly popped up in my head, as my mind felt like it was about to wake up from something.

That was when my sister sent me a message.

Ahah, so mum and dad fought about something trivial again. They have been bickering about little things even after coming all the way out on a trip for dozens of years already. Are all married couples like that? 

Sending messages back with a giggle, all the complex thoughts vanished from my head and I soon fell asleep.

*

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 2
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 101 (Cursed Room – A Strange Family)

Sage’s Advice: 1]

I woke up in the morning. For some reason, it only felt like 3 seconds of sleep. Sometimes when you are tired and enter a deep sleep, you do feel like you only lied down for a few seconds, but wasn’t this still too much? I wasn’t even kidding and I seriously didn’t feel like I had any sleep. Yesterday must have been a very tiring day.

Changing my clothes and washing my face, I armed myself for the ski. It was a bit cold when I was outside yesterday so I did not forget the thick duck-feather parka. As always, I reached the peak of the skiing ground in 1 second just by thinking about it, and my family was all waiting there but I found it intriguing because their outfits were quite different from mine.

“Huh? Mum? Heegang? Don’t you feel cold wearing something like that?”

“Ehew… Look at your brother. He’s driving me crazy sometimes!”

“Hey Han Kain! Ehew whatever. Seriously, who wears that many clothes in winter these days?”

“Uh… It’s cold if you don’t wear clothes like this right? That’s why I did it.”

“Kain. Winters are meant to be cold. Springs are warm, summers are hot, autumns are refreshing and winters are cold. That is the providence of nature. Don’t you think taking clothes off because it’s hot, and wearing more because it’s cold is going against the providence?”

Hearing the words of my dad, I pondered deeply to myself and realised he was correct. That’s right; what is the rule of mother nature!? There are four seasons in Korea, so being hot when it’s hot and being cold when it’s cold is how everything is naturally meant to be. Masking something natural with the likes of clothes was a foolish thing to do.

Besides, in this era, it was important to protect the environment. Didn’t protecting the environment mean adapting to nature? It was correct to follow the natural flow of the world.

I quickly took my clothes off and only then did my family ease their expressions, as we then smiled brightly together. It felt incredibly cold but that was nothing to worry about. Winters were meant to be cold, so what was wrong with it?

Brightly I smiled, as something flashed in the corner of my vision.

[ㅁㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁ. ㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁ ㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁㅁ.]

*

[Your temperature is declining. You must wear your clothes immediately.]

*

We had a fun time skiing. It truly was an enjoyable moment. Together with my beloved family, playing at the botanical garden, munching through a delicious duck, enjoying the scenery of the fancy resort at night and skiing together the next day.

Such happiness might not even come again!

Slowly, I felt my head turning dizzy. It was nothing to worry about, however, because winters were supposed to be cold. In the middle of the ski, I fell on the ground. My skin felt like it was sticking to the ground, and I couldn’t get up.

Ahh, actually, was there even a need to bother standing up?

Looking around, I saw other people comfortably lying down on the ground. Ahah, so the trend these days is to lie down naked on a snowy ground, huh! 

My vision gradually turned dark, and at one point, it no longer felt cold. I sensed the happy trip slowly coming to an end…

/You have failed!

A nice son; a good brother. Filled with love towards your family, you were unable to spot the strange change in your family, and after staying with them for too long, you have been tainted in madness and have crossed the line. You were unable to escape the curse, nor were you able to resolve the root cause of the curse. It is very unfortunate.

However, there is still a chance! Wait for your teammates.

…

…

…

…

One of your teammates has successfully escaped! Congratulations! The successful escape allows everyone to return safely./

Han Kain felt his sedimented consciousness slowly floating back up…

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