Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 29: Room 103, Cursed Room – ‘Animal Farm’ (3)

Chapter 29: Room 103, Cursed Room – ‘Animal Farm’ (3)

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 12

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

Sage’s Advice: 3]

That morning, I was eating grass while blankly saying mooo and being scolded for wasting letters as always, when an emergency call was given off.

Wolf Boy (Park Seungyub): Emergency! Wolves risky.

Rat King (Kim Mooksung): What do you mean? Need a longer explanation.

Wolf Boy (Park Seungyub): Other wolves started paying attention to the farm. A pack of wolves are observing the outskirts.

The ruckus yesterday appeared to have gathered the eyes of the pack of wolves. 

I mean honestly, even if I was the wolf, I would have been itching to dive in if there was a farm nearby full of fat geese and cows.

Won’t the farmer deal with it himself?

Like that, I was thinking like an actual cow but suddenly realised how dangerous it was for me. 

It actually wasn’t dangerous at all for the owner of the farm; he would just be losing a few of his belongings!

The ones dying were the cows and geese of the farm, not the famer.

Things were looking bad the more I thought about it. Considering my size, I couldn’t hide myself anywhere and in fact, it was difficult to even shift my body around in this place.

Frankly speaking, the only thing I could do was sit here, hoping that the owner of the farm would do a great job defending this place!

Clever Snake (Lee Eunsol): Number of wolves?

Wolf Boy (Park Seungyub): 3 groups. More than 40.

Things were looking increasingly more rough. There were more than 40 wolves on one hand, and on the other hand, there were only 4 humans in the farm. 2 of those people were the wife and the daughter, so it was practically up to the farmer and the son to stop 40 wolves by themselves.

Would they be able to protect the cows and geese of the farm during that process?

It was the most dire situation we had ever had since we entered Room 103. While mindlessly biting through hay, I tried my hardest to rack my uncooperative cow brain.

Was there seriously no other method?

Pig (Cha Jinchul): Anything I can do?

Rat King (Kim Mooksung): Run away unless you want to add pork.

Clever Snake (Lee Eunsol): I’ll also die if I go.

Everyone gave powerless replies but that was obvious. Three packs of wolves were fighting against a farmer to death, so what could a pig, a snake and a rat even do there?

As they said, it would be simply adding pork to the mix. Closing my eyes, I conveyed my thoughts.

Black Cow (Han Kain): Don’t step up unnecessarily. One death at a time.

One death at a time.

That was the principle of the Hotel that we silently agreed on at one point. Running in as a team with life on the line to save others might seem like a touching thing to do at a glance, but it was an exceptionally stupid thing to do at the Hotel.

There was no need to even do that, and one teammate escaping and surviving till the end would let everyone else survive.

Dumping teammates when the situation called for it, was in fact the best thing you could do for them.

The Hotel always encouraged sacrifice.

This time, I might be the first sacrifice. I inwardly accepted the unavoidable fate.

The day went by with everyone feeling gloomy.

None of us were able to come up with a clear solution, and Elena observed the family of farmers as much as possible but there weren’t any stories about reinforcements. 

The only source of relief was that the people of the farm were also preparing themselves for the attack of the wolves because of the wolf (Seungyub) incident yesterday, and because of 10 wolves openly roaming around the farm today.

Every one of the family was busy placing traps across the farm while diligently preparing hunting guns and bullets which allowed me to ease my mind a little.

A damn cow relying on the owner of the farm that will one day slaughter oneself…

It was laughable but it was also true that the only person to rely on in this situation was the owner of the farm.

Time flew quickly like an arrow.

The tension in the air was incomparable to the past few days I spent in peace while munching through grass and hay.

It was just this morning that we heard about the threat of the wolves and yet everyone was busy observing the surroundings and chattering about ways to save me.

I was zealously observing the family of farmers when the sun started to set in the west.

A howl echoed from afar.

The wolves were starting their attack.

*

– Park Seungyub

I was busy running around the whole day.

There were roughly 40 wolves roaming around the large farm. They were scattered into 3 groups instead of staying in one group, and that made things a lot more tedious.

I had to constantly travel between the 3 groups, observing when they were planning to attack.

The pack that I belong to – according to what the leader of the pack would believe – looked at me while wondering why I was mindlessly running around but they didn’t bother stopping me.

Sometimes, there were times when I found it difficult to understand Kain-hyung’s mindset.

I could understand Songee-noona being quiet considering how the geese were located in a part of the farm that was difficult for wolves to get into, but the cows were near the outskirts of the farm.

So in the end, the ones that were in the most precarious situation were the cows including Kain-hyung.

With the impending death of himself, how could he tell us to look for an escape method without doing anything meaningless…?

Of course, I could understand that everyone dying to save one person would be the worst case scenario and yes, there was the resurrection, but what about the pain that went with the process?

Would wolves tranquilise cows before eating them or something?! Simply imagining that pain made me unbearably scared.

I just couldn’t watch him go through all that pain. 

I would run away if there seriously was nothing I could do, but I decided to try my best to save him.

A sudden thought appeared in my mind, that I might have been on good terms with my parents if I had been as diligent as this before coming to the Hotel.

Let’s do that after going back.

I could hear howls from all around. The wolves were finally starting to attack.

Wolves were growling all across the farm. Domestic animals were screaming out loud while the men were nervously shouting out words.

The sound of frosty gunshots regularly echoed over every other noise. 

Today was when I finally realised how loud gunshots were.

Goosebumps were popping up as I heard more of those noises, as I slowly approached the barn of cows.

Going there, I saw a few other wolves that were here before me, licking their lips while glaring at the cows.

My plan was simple.

Realistically speaking, there was no way for me to stop that many wolves. 

Stopping the wolves was the farmer’s job.

In other words, I had to become a trolling wolf that brings the owner of the farm over to the barn of cows.

For that…

The most effective method would be to attack the farmer’s most precious target.

*

– Lee Eunsol

Has he gone insane?

While hiding at a corner of the barbed-wire fences, I thought to myself while observing the scene unfolding inside the farm.

Or was I seeing things?

I was certain because we had come across each other a few times while roaming around the outskirts of the farm. That wolf with a small bunch of white fur above the head, was none other than Seungyub.

Right now, Seungyub was next to the residence where Mei – the farmer’s daughter – was, and started howling!

Did he lose his mind? Was he praying to the farmer to please kill him? 

Did he not hear what Kain said yesterday?

We had let everyone know multiple times that sacrificing oneself to save another person at the Hotel was not a touching thing to do but a foolish act, so what in the world was he doing?

There was no ‘father’ in existence that would not react in such a situation.

The farmer, who had been holding back the wolves at a place where he could fight against a lot of them, turned around immediately after hearing the ear-splitting shriek of his daughter and mindlessly sprinted on. 

What was supposed to be done now? My mind was being muddled with different lines of thought.

Originally, I was going to wait and watch everything from the side.

Kain’s death was something we couldn’t do anything about. Like how I accepted my death at the Mansion of Fear, Kain would probably be able to do the same thing.

From what I felt so far, that part of him was similar to my own.

But… What if something happened to Seungyub as well?

It was a matter of efficiency. Our members were currently a dog, cat, cow, goose, boar, snake, rat and a wolf. 

Out of those animals, wasn’t the wolf by far the ‘most capable animal’? They had great physical abilities and were at the top of the food chain so there was little restriction to their actions.

If he ended up dying here in vain…

My thoughts were becoming more and more complicated.

*

– Park Seungyub

I ran and ran and ran. It was extremely refreshing.

Never had I had such an amazing body in my life.

Kicking off the ground, I soared into the air like I was flying! Was this why people exercised a lot? 

Most importantly, right now I was a wolf! Even Usain Bolt would be a lot slower than me. Even humans with the greatest bodies would be weaker than normal wolves!

And besides, I was running to save my teammate. I was unstoppable.

Ahh~! How great am I?

–Bang!

A gunshot. My soaring emotions immediately settled back down.

I was fortunately able to dodge it, but how long could I dodge it for?

As expected, the family created a ruckus as soon as I barked once next to the place where that girl called Mei was at, and the farmer started coming after me.

But it was okay. He might have a gun but he was still slower than me.

When I arrived at the cow barn, things were looking very rough.

A few of the wolves had already crossed over the fences and the cows were busy screaming in fear. 

To be honest, cows were a lot bigger than wolves and they wouldn’t be in that big of a disadvantage if they were to retaliate but… expecting a domestic cow to fight back would be too much.

Meanwhile, a large black bull was pointing its antlers at the wolves and threatening them. 

Ahah! I realised immediately after seeing it. That was the ‘Black Cow’, Kain-hyung.

But things went differently as soon as I arrived at the barn.

Were they relieved by my appearance? The wolves might have been relieved from the appearance of their comrade; the three wolves suddenly started confidently pouncing at the black cow.

While the one at the front was drawing his attention, the other two were sneaking to the sides and I could see Kain-hyung being flustered by it. I had to go in and help immediately.

I felt a little sorry for the pack of wolves, but there was no way around it because I wasn’t a wolf myself.

However, it seemed that there was no reason for me to do anything.

———Bang!

———Bang!

Two gunshots echoed in an instant.

The farmer started pulling his trigger upon arriving in the blink of an eye and the wolves began running away in fright.

This time, it was also quite dangerous for me.

I ran away while trying my best to use the pillars of the barn and the stacks of hay as cover.

———Bang!

Ah…

That was when a boy suddenly appeared in front of me.

Was this boy Peter? The farmer’s son or something…

I wasn’t concerned about anyone else apart from the farmer, but he seemed to have had a gun as well.

There was a scorching pain, like that of my body being seared by the hottest of flames.

My body crumbled in an instant. I couldn’t put any strength into my body.

Ah… Was this the end of my role in Room 103?

Hyungs and noonas will take care of it. I knew this wasn’t the end, and it thus wasn’t as scary.

It was just very painful.

?

My eyes suddenly turned.

In front of me was a white world, and an unimaginably enormous giant.

Where was this place? Was this the afterworld of wolves?

What in the… 

My mind slowly turned fuzzy…

That’s a bit too early for the harvest. What an impatient one.