Chapter 150 |
That was when it happened.
"...Huh?"
Seung-jae, who had been walking amid the massive rose vines at the promenade's center, stopped dead.
The birdsong that had been playing peacefully through speakers began to distort into a grotesque static. Do-heon had the illusion that his entire field of vision was pulsing with ominous red light.
"Uncle? What's wrong? Is that the lighting, or is your face...."
"You don't see that?"
"See what? What are you talking about?"
"Those weirdly stretched tentacles... eyeballs...."
"Eyeballs?"
A few things stood out, sure, but even accounting for those, Seung-jae's words made no sense.
"There's nothing like that here. Uncle, have you lost it? What's this about eyeballs?"
"No, no. Look, it's right there. It's right there. It's right there."
"What...."
Do-heon backed away. Seung-jae's breathing had gone ragged, bestial. His bloodshot eyes locked onto the vibrantly blooming red rose vines with a grotesque fixation.
"Tentacles, rotting eyeballs crawling out of the flower heads. The leaves are human skin. Skin, skin's nice. Human skin's nice. Peel it off and it's warm and damp. Inside there's muscle, tendons, blood...."
"Fuck, what is--"
"No, no, no. Don't come closer. Shoot. I have to shoot. Shoot everything and hit it and burst it all...!!"
"UNCLE!!"
CLICK-!!
Seung-jae lost all reason and drew his revolver at the empty air.
"There's one here too."
"......"
"Human skin."
The gun was aimed directly at Do-heon's head.
> [SYSTEM EMERGENCY] Party member 'Kwon Seung-jae' status abnormal!
> [Madness Stage 3: Visual Hallucinations and Paranoia]
Seung-jae's finger tightened on the trigger.
"Hah,"
Time seemed to slow to a stop.
> Select an action within the time limit!
> [00:00:04:99]
The instant before the bullet would pierce Rawi's forehead.
> [Run]
> [Disarm him]
> [Search your pockets]
His vision flickered scarlet as the timer bar shrank at a frenzied pace.
But Do-heon didn't need to consciously deliberate a single option. No--he wasn't even given time to think. He blinked, and the guide window changed.
> [Search your pockets]
> [Search your pockets]
> [Search your pockets]
There was not a trace of fear or panic on Do-heon's face.
> [Search your pockets]
> [SYSTEM] Before the brain could issue a command, the body moved first.
His hand slid into the pocket. A motion so natural and fluid it looked practiced a thousand times.
> [Item auto-used!]
> Used [Charred sage leaves and worn lighter]!
The click of a lighter striking.
At the precise instant before Seung-jae pulled the trigger, he lit the sage leaf. Then he blew the acrid smoke straight into the nostrils of the man panting like a beast.
"Breathe."
"......!!"
A flat, mechanical voice as though reading from a script.
"--COUGH! Kekh, hack...! Bleurgh...!"
> Seung-jae inhales the smoke and the bloodshot haze in his eyes temporarily subsides. Neural pathways forcibly relax; snapped from the hallucination, he coughs, drops to his knees, and lets the gun clatter to the floor.
"Kkhack, gkh...!!"
"Oh, seriously, again. Why do you keep scaring me like this?"
"Urkh, aaargh... my nose...."
Having inhaled the potent smoke point-blank, Seung-jae wept freely as he hacked. The madness that had been rolling wild in his eyes ebbed like a retreating tide.
Clatter--the revolver slipped from his weakened hand and rolled across the floor.
"I'm confiscating this. No, seriously, I can't trust anyone. What kind of luck is this?"
"Hoo--"
> The [white owl] perched on his shoulder calls out, indicating a direction down the corridor.
Do-heon glanced down at his uncle, retching face-down on the ground, and brushed the remaining sage leaf off his hand. Wearing the face of a man dead on his feet, he hauled Seung-jae up.
"Come on, put some weight into it. We don't have time."
"I'm dying here...."
"You're not, so cut the dramatics."
"Let go, I'll walk. Yeah."
"One more chance. That's all you get."
"My, how gracious...."
"Honestly."
Both Do-heon and Seung-jae reacted as though the incident moments ago were already out of mind. But as the coughing uncle started to follow, Rawi suddenly thought:
"......"
Hadn't he put the lighter and leaf in the bag?
'Why were they in my pocket...?'
He couldn't recall why.
"......"
"I'm really dying here... Nephew, I don't think it's here, though."
"Uh... right? Where should we go?"
"Somewhere less trafficked by guests--you know, not the room floors."
"There are a few places."
Do-heon nodded and continued.
"How about starting with the third floor?"
"Works for me~"
And then Seung-jae blinked.
"......? But where'd our Inspector buddy go?"
"He follows on his own, I told you."
"Why's my nephew gotten so heartless?"
"Heartless about what."
"Uncle's heart is torn to shreds."
The two calmly walked toward the elevator.
***
If the conscience and conviction of Yeon-woo that dwelled within the White Crow ever found out, it would be tearing its hair.
***
The elevator's floor indicator descended smoothly and stopped.
> [SYSTEM] Entering Floor 3, Lifestyle Zone.
With a mechanical chime, the elevator doors opened. Do-heon and Seung-jae walked the silent corridor with heavy steps. The white owl guided them in silence.
> Overview of the 3rd-floor Lifestyle Zone.
> A trendy, refined multi-cultural complex space you'd only expect in a state-of-the-art luxury hotel.
> An [art gallery] displaying installations by unknown artists, a [library] curated with select books, and a [boutique] showcasing rare designer goods from home and abroad are seamlessly connected in a maze-like flow.
"What hotel has stuff like this inside?"
"These days, the hotels with real money going in are into this kind of setup."
"A bookshop, gallery, and... what? Total hotspot."
Do-heon murmured in admiration as he looked around, then frowned.
"And also kind of,"
> A glamorous, tasteful interior, but not a single guest to enjoy the space is visible. Only a perfectly arranged silence presses heavily upon it.
"Quiet."
Visually, a flawlessly chic rest space. Yet utterly devoid of human warmth. A space that should sell leisure itself, and yet not even a Monster Guest was to be seen.
"What kind of rest area doesn't have a single ant."
"Well, a hotel this caliber probably shouldn't have ants...."
"That's not what I'm saying, old man."
"The money smell is potent, though, empty as it is. Right?"
As Seung-jae noted, only their own reflections in the display glass greeted them.
"Kkuuuk--"
The white owl flapped its wings and soared.
"It seems to know the way."
"At least more than we do."
"Fair."
The owl headed for the inner part of the lounge. Where a coffee brand or social dining space would normally sit, it alighted before a massive, firmly shut pair of double glass doors.
"Kkugukuk, kkuk."
"Goodness, what's this now."
"A greenhouse...?"
"Do hotels normally have those?"
Do-heon shrugged.
"This isn't a normal hotel."
"Even so, shouldn't it at least stick to a concept?"
"What concept does a monster hotel have...."
> The door to a sealed Greenhouse located in the 3rd-floor Lifestyle Zone.
> A [No Entry -- Authorized Personnel Only] sign hangs above.
> Something like dawn mist seeps faintly through the door gap.
> Enter? [Yes / No]
"...We're going in? Really?"
"Have to, don't we."
"Hah, fuck. Here, take the gun back."
"Am I your meat shield now?"
"I don't want to go in...."
> [Yes]
CREEEAK--.
"Ugh."
When Do-heon carefully pulled the handle, the hinges--rusted despite the smooth exterior--shrieked as the heavy door swung open.
> [SYSTEM] You have entered the sealed Greenhouse.
> The moment you step inside, a sweet yet acrid floral scent stabs deep into the lungs.
> The smell of rotting soil and a fishy blood scent are insidiously blended; a single breath is enough to make the head swim--closer to poison than fragrance.
"Why is the smell this toxic?"
"Almost like air freshener or burnt coffee."
"That's only 'that level' to you? Your stomach must be made of iron."
"A perfectly fine boutique outside and then a flower shop splashed with blood...."
"My thoughts exactly."
Do-heon pinched his nose shut and scowled.
"See anything?"
"Probably the same stuff you're seeing."
The Greenhouse interior was completely unmanaged--a grotesque tangle of vines and plants.
"Hasn't been touched in a while."
Through the cracked glass dome overhead, pallid light crept in, engulfing the tables and casting an eerie glow on the enormous mounds of red flowers that had conquered the floor. In that instant, Do-heon flinched and blocked his uncle's view.
"Hey, don't look. You'll start shooting again."
"I do admit I've got nothing to say about that, but isn't this one shaped a bit differently? Those before were rose bushes, weren't they?"
"Ah."
> [Optional Observation: A Field of Red Flowers in Full Bloom]
"What... what kind of flower is this?"
> A massive cluster of poppies that have swallowed the marble tables and chairs, grown waist-high.
> The petals are unusually deep and dark red, as though they'd gorged on blood.
> On closer approach, sticky mucus can be seen dripping from between the stamens.
"......"
"What is it?"
"It says poppies."
"Isn't that illegal?"
"It is."
But the list of illegal and illicit things happening in this place was endless.
"Hoo."
"Ow, why does it keep pecking just me?"
"Check if your scalp's bleeding."
"Hoo."
The white owl flew without hesitation into the profusely blooming poppies. Red petals scattered into the air in its wake, creating an illusion of blood droplets being flung.
"Wait, don't just leave us...."
"Should we follow? We're lost without it."
"Wow, I really don't want to go in."
But there was no choice. Do-heon and Seung-jae pushed through the dense foliage after the owl, deeper into the Greenhouse. Soon Do-heon spotted something out of place.
"...? Huh?"
"What, find something?"
"A vanity...."
"Vanity? Like burning? Burning what?"
"No, not that."
He'd been too flustered to find the word right away.
"There's a vanity table."
"What a weird combo."
"Hah, fuck. Don't talk about food, I'm hungry."
"Let's find something and ask for a meal."
> At the deepest point of the Greenhouse, an ornate antique vanity table sits half-buried in the red flower mounds.
> The owl circles above the vanity, flapping.
> Would you like to examine the old vanity table? [Yes / No]
"The more I look, the weirder the combination."
"I think it fits, personally."
"What is wrong with your taste."
> [Yes]
"Let's see what's here."
***
Nothing done in the name of love is a sin.
"I consider that nonsense."
"Pardon? Yes."
"I appreciate you conceding every time, even when it must be difficult to agree."
"Coco. Diligent owner."
"Of course. You're doing wonderfully."
He spoke while turning the maiden's Memory Card over in his hands.
"Flashback scenes go a long way in helping users understand the game."
"Coco too. Help."
"Oh, you'd do that for me?"
The General Manager smiled with curved eyes, as he always did.
"Thank you."
[Memory of Deceit: The Silver Comb Stained Red]