Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 27: Room 103, Cursed Room – ‘Animal Farm’ (1)

Chapter 27: Room 103, Cursed Room – ‘Animal Farm’ (1)

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 10

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 103 (Cursed Room – Animal Farm)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

– Han Kain

On the first night of our life on the farm, we discovered a few facts after looking into our situations.

1. Living in the farm was a family of four, composed of the couple Brian / Amy, their son Peter and their daughter, Mei.

2. Yu Songee (Goose), Elena (Dog), Kim Ahri (Cat) and I (Black Cow) were either livestock or pets of the farm.

3. Cha Jinchul (Boar), Kim Mooksung (Rat), Park Seungyub (Wolf) and Lee Eunsol (Snake) were wild animals living near the farm.

Of course, the ones who discovered most of that were Elena and Ahri. In fact, I had been stuck in the barn ever since I became a black cow so there was nothing I could do!

Also, because we were using Discord with a severe limit in ‘the amount of letters’, we naturally adapted to dropping unnecessary words and keeping only the essential keywords. 

Rat King (Mooksung): Everyone caution. Danger very soon.

Kim Cat (Ahri): I observe nights.

El Doggy (Elena): I check days.

Black Cow (Kain): Can’t leave.

Song Goose (Songee): Me too.

Stupid Pig (Jinchul): Rat not coming down from my head.

Rat King (Mooksung): Efficient movement. Very necessary.

Stupid Pig (Jinchul): Want to headbutt.

Clever Snake (Eunsol): Stop wasting words.

Wolf Boy (Seungyub): Can I sleep?

Clever Snake (Eunsol): Sleep now, start operation tomorrow.

I was jealous of everyone. They were all energetically talking about supervision at night, day, movement and other stuff. 

And yet the only thing I could do at the barn was moooo.

Heaving a deep sigh, I forced my eyes to a close.

The only good thing after becoming a cow was that the grass had become delicious.

*

– Kim Ahri

It’s high noon.

Actually, it wasn’t.

The sun slowly started to lose light as darkness covered the entire farm. At last, I felt energy filling up my body. 

It’s obvious,

Because I am a cat.

Crawling out of the small basket that appeared to be my bed, I roamed around the farm.

This farm gave off a rather peculiar atmosphere.

There were four humans and a crazy amount of livestock, including 8 animals with intellect. It definitely was bound to be noisy but…

For some reason, the entire farm became mysteriously quiet at night.

I was about to sneak out of the family’s residential area when someone grabbed me by my nape.

“Ohh! Ahri. You can’t leave at night! Don’t you know there are monsters outside?”

Ahh! Even though I was currently in the body of a cat, being lifted by the nape and thrown back into the basket felt disgustingly unpleasant. 

I would have loved to ruthlessly scratch the arms of the daughter of the household, but there would probably be less restrictions about my movement if I acted like a nice cat, so I held it in.

Calmly waiting inside the basket, I scanned around as Mei fell asleep on her bed.

Finally I could go outside.

But, ‘Monsters’? Did she say that just to stop me from going outside at night?

That was something I could only tell by actually going outside.

Carefully, I lifted my feet up and walked outside through the window.

It didn’t seem particularly strange when I was sitting on the windowsill gazing at the farm but…

As I expected, it was uncannily quiet. 

It was then.

I saw vague yet dark figures walking around outside.

It was definitely not a human, and they were certainly not livestock either because humans weren’t that big, and livestock did not walk on two feet.

Although it was too hazy for me to be certain, it looked about 5 to 6 metres tall, and overall was in a humanoid shape.

Was that the ‘monster’? Fortunately, the monsters did not ruin the farm or anything. They simply… scanned across the farm as if they were observing something.

I was openly gazing at them from the windowsill and yet they did not seem conscious of me in the slightest.

That was one more thing to share tomorrow.

Maybe that was more than what I had to do today?

For some reason, I started to crave long sleeps like a cat ever since I turned into one.

I didn’t feel the need to do anything else, so I decided to go to sleep.

*

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 11

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 103 (Cursed Room – Animal Farm)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

– Elena

Rat King (Mooksung): Monsters appear at night?

Kim Cat (Ahri): Yes. Not sure how dangerous.

Clever Snake (Eunsol): Anything else?

Kim Cat (Ahri): X

El Doggy (Elena): Good work. My turn now.

Wolf Boy (Seungyub): There’re many other wolves.

Stupid Pig (Jinchul): Wolves might attack the farm.

Wolf Boy (Seungyub): I’ll observe wolves.

Rat King (Mooksung): Me and Piggy looking for escape route.

Clever Snake (Eunsol): I’m observing the outskirts.

Black Cow (Kain): Good luck.

Song Goose (Songee): Thanks.

After a short conversation, I felt my body turning tense.

Everyone was pretty much given a role.

Kim Ahri (Cat): Investigation at night.

Elena (Dog): Investigation during the day.

Cha Jinchul (Boar) – Kim Mooksung (Rat): Looking for an escape route.

Park Seungyub (Wolf): Keeping an eye on the pack of wolves.

Lee Eunsol (Snake): Observing the outskirts of the farm.

Songee and Kain were locked up right now, and they weren’t able to do anything for now.

Ah! So it’s my turn now.

Honestly, I felt so sorry after dying on the first day at Room 102, the Mansion of Fear, without being able to do anything. Even though I didn’t mention it, hearing about the hard work of Kain and Eunsol-noona after my death was heart-aching.

Fortunately, unlike others who couldn’t do much due to becoming livestock and wild animals, I was a golden retriever! 

Cats during the night, but dogs during the day right?

I decided to whole-heartedly focus on acquiring information to help everyone.

What was the first step to that operation then? It was to be loved, right? It was the fundamental principle of the world for people to feel less cautious and more benevolent to their loved ones.

As an adorable golden retriever, I licked the palm of Brian who was busily taking care of the barbed fences of the farm. 

“Aigu. Elena, this place is a bit dangerous. Haha, good girl. Go to mum~.”

Brian caressed my head a few times before gently pushing me away and pointing at Amy.

Everyone would start to like me if I continued doing this for a while.

But… What was I supposed to investigate about?

Ahri said she saw monsters as soon as it became nighttime, but it’s not like I could see monsters right now, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. 

I ran around for 3 hours.

Honestly, it wasn’t that hard. All I had to do was wag my tail and bark and soon, there would be food in front of me and people caressing my head.

The life of a beloved dog was very easy.

Thinking that, I was running around and found Brian and Amy talking about something serious.

“Let’s pluck the feathers of a few of the gooses tonight. It’s about time.”

“I don’t think they’ll sell that well right now… Wouldn’t it be better to wait a little bit more?”

“Waiting is not going to make the price go up. It’s better to pluck a few feathers whenever we can and sell them.”

“Then let’s tell Peter about that.”

That was how their conversation went. It was the conversation of a normal farm.

I was thinking, ‘I see’… but that was when it suddenly hit me.

Wasn’t Songee a goose?

From what I heard, goose feathers were plucked when alive and some geese even died from the process.

What should we do? Firstly, I decided to talk about it with everyone else.

El Doggy (Elena): Emergency!

Rat King (Mooksung): What is it?

El Doggy (Elena): Goose feather plucking tonight.

Song Goose (Songee): Whhaaaaaaaaattttt??????????

Clever Snake (Eunsol): Quiet. Any counterplans?

Kim Cat (Ahri): Hide in a corner when they’re at it?

Rat King (Mooksung): Hide and they’ll choose a different goose.

El Doggy (Elena): I’ll follow just in case.

Song Goose (Songee): Everyone, please help me…

Black Cow (Kain): Moooo.

We had a short discussion.

Firstly, Songee had to hide in a corner away from the farm owners to have them pick other geese.

If Brian still tried to choose Songee then…

I had to do something about it. It was my turn to do something and pay for not doing anything at Room 102.

Clever Snake (Eunsol): Any other info?

Rat King (Mooksung): Forest ridiculously huge.

Stupid Pig (Jinchul): Can’t see the end at all. Please change my name.

Wolf Boy (Seungyub): Wolves hunting nearby deers.

Black Cow (Kain): MOOOOO!

Clever Snake (Eunsol): Cow stop wasting words.

After about 3 hours of everyone nervously sticking to their roles, the night slowly came to us.

Suddenly, I became a little curious.

I was eating the dry food which the married couple were giving me for every meal, but how was everyone else dealing with their meals…? Even if I asked about it, it would lead to a sad story about how they had to eat bugs and small animals. It was better not asked.

More importantly, protecting Songee from the feather-plucking tonight was more important.

In the long run, we had to resolve this situation itself but… honestly, I had no idea how it was supposed to be done so far. 

For now, the only thing we could do was let everyone survive one by one.

While half-heartedly eating the dry food, I was staring at the family when the couple and the son, Peter, stood up together.

They were going to do it now! They might lock me up in the room if I made it too obvious so I carefully sneaked from behind. 

Even if they did notice me, they would probably let me off if I licked their hands or something.

And…

Just to be very sure, I created a small plan with Seungyub and my mind was finally at ease. 

Let’s play an active role in Room 103 and hear thanks from everyone!