Chapter 14: Pool (1)

[14. The water quality of the pool is strictly managed. Please take care not to contaminate it.]

The pool looked less like something inside a hotel and more like a large public swimming facility.

Its design emphasized cleanliness rather than elegance.

Plain white square tiles stretched in every direction.

“...How is this possible?”

Du-pal muttered as he looked around.

Despite being a pool, with tiles everywhere and water gently lapping against the edges, there was not a single trace of the water stains or mold one would normally expect.

No matter how well a place was maintained, something this large was bound to show at least some signs of use.

Even if it had only just been built and filled with water for the very first time, there was no way it could be this utterly spotless.

“...Still, being clean is better than being dirty, right?”

The place was unnaturally white, right down to every line of grout.

As though microorganisms, mold, and even insects were incapable of surviving here.

At Ju-hee’s uneasy remark, Su-myeon nodded.

“I suppose so. This seems to be an area particularly sensitive to contamination, so let’s move carefully.”

What mattered was getting through without falling into the water if at all possible.

There were no obvious obstacles to trip over, but every surface was covered in slippery tile.

Ha-min glanced around at the group as though something had just occurred to him.

“It was a good thing you made us change into sneakers beforehand.”

“Nothing bad ever comes from listening to Su-myeon.”

Ju-hee spoke with a mixture of teasing and sincerity as she walked close against the wall.

Su-myeon could only give an awkward smile in response.

Thanks to having changed into fresh sneakers himself, he was able to cross the tiles without slipping.

Fortunately, there was an uninterrupted path they could follow without stepping into any pooled water.

“But the water... it doesn’t seem to be moving at all. How can it be this clear and clean?”

Ju-hee, walking slowly, stared intently into the pool.

The water was so transparent that it was difficult to judge how deep it actually was.

“Be careful.”

Worried that even a single strand of her hair might fall into the water, Su-myeon pulled her back.

Seeing that, Han-su, who was bringing up the rear, added,

“Let’s move carefully. It would be best not to get distracted by our surroundings.”

In the silence, they could not hear so much as a single drop of water falling into the pool.

For a long while afterward, the only sounds were their footsteps.

Then the pool suddenly gave way to a black abyss where no light penetrated, making it impossible to tell how deep the water went, while the tiled walkway abruptly twisted into a winding shape.

Forks appeared without warning, and some paths ended where the tiles had been set vertically, making them impossible to walk across.

The scenery was illogical, more suited to a dream than reality.

And despite the enormous sense of space around them, their voices produced no echo.

“If this is a dream, I feel like it’s about time we woke up.”

No one could disagree with Ha-min’s muttered remark.

Then Su-myeon, who had been walking at the very front, raised a hand and stopped the others.

“Why....”

“Shh!”

At Ha-min’s question, Ju-hee covered his mouth, signaling for him to be quiet.

When they rounded the corner, a sight completely unlike the pristine scenery they had seen until now came into view.

A mass of hair floated on the surface like a jellyfish.

“That....”

“Don’t look too closely.”

At someone’s murmur, Su-myeon spoke firmly.

From a distance, it might have looked like nothing more than hair floating on the water.

But beneath it was a head.

A head swollen from having been submerged for far too long.

Watching the hair writhe by itself and sway through the perfectly still water, Su-myeon turned around.

“Let’s go back. Nothing good will come from touching that thing.”

The place was maze-like, but Su-myeon knew the route.

He knew taking this path would bring them slightly closer to the exit, but going around was clearly the better choice.

The hair jellyfish latched onto anything that came near it.

Then its hair tangled around the victim’s limbs and dragged them beneath the surface.

Worse, the strands contained stingers like the tentacles of a real jellyfish, paralyzing the victim’s entire body.

Of course, if they sacrificed one person as bait, everyone else could pass safely, but....

If I were going to do something like that, I would’ve abandoned everyone a long time ago.

Su-myeon dismissed the option without further consideration.

Even if he escaped this damned hotel afterward, his conscience would never let him live with it.

Concluding that they had no choice but to continue carefully along the water’s edge, Su-myeon sharpened his senses.

Grab.

Just then, Han-su suddenly seized Su-myeon by the arm.

Already on edge, Su-myeon flinched and looked at him.

Han-su pointed.

“Is that a person?”

That?

Following Han-su’s finger, Su-myeon spotted something unfamiliar.

Unlike the hair jellyfish they had just encountered, this time he could see what appeared to be a human head, with only the area above the nose protruding from the water.

“...I don’t think so.”

At Su-myeon’s answer, everyone huddled even closer around him.

Su-myeon swallowed dryly and instinctively grabbed the school uniform of the much larger Ha-min, who was practically clinging to him in an embrace.

That was the most iconic creature found in the pool.

The Flamingo Lifeguard.

“Th-that, th-th-that thing... it’s coming this way....”

Ha-min stammered in a trembling voice.

The lifeguard seemed to have noticed them and was drawing closer.

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary person moving through the water.

But it was called a flamingo for a reason.

“S-should we run?”

At Du-pal’s words, everyone tightened their grip on Su-myeon’s clothes.

The closer it came, the more clearly they could make out the lifeguard’s appearance.

Like a bird without eyelids, its eyes remained stretched wide open without ever blinking.

“Wh-what do we do, Su-myeon!”

Stop relying on me!

He wanted to shout it, but Su-myeon could not deny the obvious truth.

He knew what to do.

The creature looked so grotesque that he felt as though the instant he took his eyes off it, it would suddenly be right °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° behind him.

The pupils of the Flamingo Lifeguard, whose complexion resembled a corpse far more than a mannequin, rolled slowly from side to side.

“H-hold on. Everyone calm down.”

Su-myeon, every bit as tense as the others, grabbed Han-su while the rest of the group clung to him.

For now, as long as they did not attack the Flamingo Lifeguard first, it would not attack them.

Moving slowly, without any obvious malice or aggression, the lifeguard drew nearer and nearer, sending gentle ripples across the water.

Then the body that had been submerged up to its chin gradually began to emerge.

No.

It should have emerged....

“Its neck....”

Its neck should have been followed by its shoulders above the water.

Instead, the neck simply kept rising.

And rising.

It stretched impossibly long above the surface before the lifeguard’s shoulders finally appeared.

Ju-hee nearly screamed, but clamped both hands over her mouth with all her strength.

The lifeguard looked down at them from atop a neck stretched long like that of a flamingo and slowly touched the edge of the water.

Then droplets rose from the surface and arranged themselves into three-dimensional letters.

[Please do not run ^^]

After displaying that kindly worded warning, the lifeguard strode back into the water and disappeared.

Ripples spread across the otherwise motionless surface, tracing its path away.

“Hah... hah....”

Someone must have been holding their breath, because ragged breathing suddenly broke the silence.

Su-myeon wiped his palms, which had grown damp without him noticing, against Han-su’s back.

If even a single drop of sweat fell into the pool, it could become a disaster.

“Let’s hurry away slowly.”

No one objected to Su-myeon’s contradictory instruction.

They had now gained another restriction—not running—but at least this one was manageable.

“It’s a real relief it didn’t say, ‘Please do not walk.’”

Apparently assuming Su-myeon was joking to lighten the mood, Ju-hee let out an awkward laugh.

But Su-myeon had been completely serious.

Every time they encountered the lifeguard, it added another warning.

Naturally, some were easy to obey.

Others were not.

Which meant encountering it as little as possible was important.

“This hotel sure has a lot of rules we have to follow. Do customer complaints mean nothing here?”

Ha-min muttered as he tried to calm his racing heart.

Su-myeon knew every route through the pool, but monsters like the lifeguard and the hair jellyfish were the real problem.

If they detoured around every danger like those, a route that should have taken only thirty minutes could leave them wandering for hours.

“How the hell is this place built...?”

How long had they been wandering?

Exhausted from walking, Du-pal pulled out his Heartphone and checked the time.

They had already been wandering through the pool for six hours.

“Let’s rest for a moment, then keep moving.”

In the end, Han-su brought the group to a halt.

Su-myeon also looked around uneasily.

This was already the fifth time they had passed along this same route.

Between avoiding the clumps of hair scattered around like traps and steering clear of the lifeguard, their path had become hopelessly tangled.

After wandering for so long, even Su-myeon was beginning to lose track of the way.

[No eating or drinking.]

[No going underwater either.]

Worse, because they had been wandering for so long, they had failed to avoid the lifeguard and had encountered it twice more.

At first, Su-myeon had thought the prohibition against running was an incredibly easy rule.

In a situation like this, however, it was becoming a serious problem.

“We need to know what actually counts as running....”

Du-pal muttered.

Controlling the speed of their steps had become another source of anxiety.

In the game, all they had needed to do was refrain from pressing the run button.

Reality was different.

Even if they clearly saw something approaching them, they could not simply sprint away.

They had no choice but to face it, fully aware that it was coming straight toward them.

The one small mercy was that the warnings they had received afterward were also relatively ordinary.

“Isn’t this slowly becoming more difficult?”

Han-su spoke in a heavy voice.

If even one absurd restriction were added, the situation would grow progressively worse.

The prohibition against eating or drinking was particularly dangerous.

At this rate, they had to keep moving without consuming any food or water while also making sure that not even a single strand of hair fell into the pool.

Just how long could they keep this up?

“.......”

Should they have forced their way past the hair jellyfish, even if it meant taking a risk?

Even if someone ended up dying because of it...?

Su-myeon looked over the group once more, then shook his head.

There was no point regretting it now.

“We don’t have any other option. For now, let’s keep moving like this.”

The only method available to Su-myeon was the straightforward one.

As they changed direction to avoid a lifeguard visible in the distance, Ha-min suddenly frowned.

“...Huh? Su-myeon.”

What? What is it?

At this point, Su-myeon’s heart sank every time someone in the group reacted to something unexpected.

When he turned toward Ha-min, the boy extended a hand and pointed.

“That.”

The path ahead split into two branches.

On the left-hand route, in particular, an arrow had been drawn in marker, as though deliberately telling them to go that way.

And on the opposite side, the head of the lifeguard was visible above the water.

...An arrow?

Su-myeon stopped, wiped his glasses, and looked again.

That was something even he had never seen before.

“.......”

In other words, the arrow was not originally part of the hotel.

There was a good chance someone had deliberately drawn it there.

“If we follow that mark, will it lead us to the exit?”

Up until now, the hotel had still been relatively fair.

It had certainly been filled with shitty rules, unpleasant traps, and terrifying monsters.

But it had never once told them an outright lie for the sole purpose of deceiving them.

That was precisely why Su-myeon was certain.

“No. That thing wasn’t there originally. We have to go the other way.”

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