Chapter 225. Seven Rooms (7)
The person who burst through the iron door was none other than Chi-Woo. Airi was startled when Chi-Woo fell as soon as he came in, and he struggled to get up from the floor. His physical condition looked dire as blood flowed down from his forehead, and his shoulder was torn as if a monster had bitten a chunk off.
“M-Ms. Airi…” Chi-Woo mumbled.
“Are you all right?”
“Ms. Airi…”
“What’s wrong? What happened? Was it really a trap?” While she was talking, she heard a loud thud—Chi-Woo had turned around and shut the iron door with all his might. Then his arms suddenly dropped, and his head slanted to one side. His body also slumped back.
Airi, who had been staring at him blankly, was stunned. “Wake up! Wake up!”
“Ms. Airi…”
“Yeah! I’m here! Don’t close your eyes! Don’t fall asleep!”
“Ms. Airi…hide quietly…” Chi-Woo tried to say something, but his body started fluttering like a fish. Airi was shocked; it seemed he was in a state of shock from excessive blood loss. His head kept turning from side to side as if he was electrocuted; both arms shook to the point that they bent in irregular angles, and his body curved into a twisted S-shape. In the meantime, Chi-Woo frantically moved both of his legs to get up, but his attempt to push against the floor proved futile.
“I told you not to go…!” Airi tried to get up somehow, but her body didn’t listen to her. Even when she managed to get up, she immediately fell back three or four times. Nevertheless, Airi didn’t give up and kept trying to stand up before she suddenly faltered. It occurred to her that there was something very strange about Chi-Woo. A person usually felt pain from severe injuries, and it should show on their face. No matter how superhuman one’s endurance was, a person couldn’t help but let their pain show.
Airi might not have been suspicious if he hadn’t expressed any pain at all, since he could have lost consciousness given its sheer intensity. However, as Chi-Woo convulsed on the floor, his face was…calm. He looked extremely serene and at peace. Rather than someone in pain, he looked more like someone watching the quiet sea under the morning sun. It was definitely not a face someone on the verge of death from shock should be making. The contrast between his calm expression and crazily convulsing body was eerie. It was like looking at a person who was acting.
“You…” Airi mumbled. “What…are you…?”
At that moment, Chi-Woo’s movement completely stopped; his limbs came to a sudden halt like a machine with its power cut off. He stayed still for a few moments before his head began shaking again, turning like a rusty cogwheel having difficulty moving. Airi, who had barely managed to stand up while leaning against the wall, inadvertently scrambled back and fell again. Then she moved her legs like bicycle pedals because she instinctively felt that the comrade in front of her was not actually her comrade, and she was right.
Thud. Airi heard the iron door suddenly open again.
“Ah…!” Airi exclaimed as she saw another person walk in; she looked at him as if she was looking at her savior because the person who quickly rushed in and stopped was none other than Chi-Woo. Thus, the Chi-Woo who came first with severe injuries must be a fake. The Chi-Woo who came in later seemed to have realized the situation immediately. He looked down at his doppelganger for a brief moment. When Airi looked at him with a trembling gaze, he quickly walked up to her, hurriedly placing himself between the first Chi-Woo and Airi and carefully raising his club. At the same time, the monster who looked the same as him reached out.
“Be careful…” Airi murmured in a low voice and didn’t lower her guard. Then the first Chi-Woo turned to meet Airi’s eyes. He didn’t do anything but lay on the floor and widen his eyes to a bizarrely large size, lifting the corners of his mouth.
‘He’s smiling?’ At that moment, Airi clearly felt it—something sticky and cool touching her back.
“!” Airi flinched. Her mind, which had become frozen due to the sudden turn of events, began to work again. Then another possibility crossed her mind. Come to think of it, the second Chi-Woo hadn’t spoken a single word since he came in. Airi’s mouth slightly opened. ‘Perhaps… No, it can’t be.’
“…” The back of her neck became cold, and Airi’s breathing grew rough. She tried to look back. She had a strong feeling that she shouldn’t. Before she knew it, she stopped breathing, and fear filled her eyes. Her mouth trembled, and her eyes quickly became teary from an unknown fear. Then the first Chi-Woo, who was smiling widely, opened his mouth. “Ms…”
“…Airi?” Airi heard the second voice from not her front—but behind her.
* * *
The scene that Chi-Woo saw after leaving the room was similar but different from before. It was still a maze, but it was very dark and gloomy. Mysterious red marks appeared intermittently, and the atmosphere was so eerie that it wouldn’t be surprising if a ghost suddenly popped out.
‘Was it this far?’ Chi-Woo couldn’t hide his nervousness as he walked along the hallway. He no longer heard Dalgil’s voice, and even though he had walked quite a bit, he didn’t see any traces of his teammates. He thought Dalgil was close, but he was farther away than he expected. Chi-Woo wondered if he should’ve brought Airi along with him. At that moment, he stopped walking with the end of the hallway in sight; Philip, who was flying ahead as far from him as possible, had suddenly halted and raised his hand—he seemed to be telling Chi-Woo to wait for a moment.
‘What’s wrong?’
Philip didn’t reply; his expression was dark and extremely serious. Then he sighed and tilted his head as if he didn’t know what was going on either. He beckoned Chi-Woo to come closer.
—Be prepared to swap with me immediately just in case.
Philip had told him he was never going to take over his body this time. What the hell did he see? Chi-Woo made a quick turn across the corridor, and the scene that was revealed to him left him speechless. It was a round cavity, like the center of an intersection where several roads converged, including the corridor Chi-Woo had been walking along. He saw three familiar faces there—a stunned, helpless-looking Ru Hiana and a calm Ru Amuh, who had extended his longsword to pierce Dalgil.
Chi-Woo couldn’t believe his eyes. His comrades, who had been fighting together, were now at each other’s throats, and Ru Amuh even severely injured Dalgil. The Ru Amuh he knew would never do such a thing; it was such a shocking sight that Chi-Woo couldn’t easily take it all in.
—Get your act together.
Chi-Woo heard a low voice.
—If we have to fight him, immediately pass control of your body to me. You’re no match to him right now.
It seemed Philip was considering the worst-case scenario. By then, Ru Hiana also noticed Chi-Woo. “Senior…!” She called out to him in a tearful voice. Then Dalgil, who was barely managing to stand up, and Ru Amuh also looked back.
“Teacher! Are you all ri…” Ru Amuh stopped mid-sentence and closed his mouth. He carefully observed Chi-Woo with sharp eyes.
“…Mr. Ru Amuh,” Chi-Woo responded quietly. “Is it because of the reliquia?”
“…Sir, what?”
“If you need it, I could have given it to you.”
At first, Ru Amuh looked completely confused, but his expression soon morphed into a frown, and he shook his head. “No, Teacher. It’s absolutely not because of that.”
“Then why…!”
“Teacher.” When Chi-Woo’s voice was about to rise, Ru Amuh calmly spoke like he was asking Chi-Woo to also remain calm. “I completely understand that this is a situation you might misunderstand. I’ll explain everything to you, so please trust me.”
Chi-Woo would have easily said yes before he witnessed this situation, but there was no turning back now. Ru Amuh’s new sword had already penetrated Dalgil’s stomach and protruded out of his back. Chi-Woo was at a loss. The person in front of him didn’t act like Ru Amuh, but talked like Ru Amuh. Then he heard a pained groan.
“Stay…back…” Dalgil spoke faintly like he was trying to endure the pain. “Run…first..” He sounded weak as he held the sharp blade stuck in his body with his left hand. Dalgil was well aware of Ru Amuh’s skill by now, so he was telling them to escape while he was keeping Ru Amuh here. This made Dalgil more trustworthy than Ru Amuh, but…Chi-Woo felt seriously conflicted and glanced at Ru Hiana for help.
“I-I don’t know,” Ru Hiana stammered in a trembling voice. “I passed through the darkness with Ruahu…then we opened a door and entered a room…and we met the expedition captain here…Ru Amuh suddenly pierced him while we were conversing together.”
‘…Why?’ Chi-Woo’s eyes became cold as he looked at Ru Amuh, and at that moment, Ru Amuh suddenly did something unexpected. He pulled the sword out of Dalgil’s body and dropped it.
Clang! Then he kicked the magic sword so that it spun between them and reached Chi-Woo’s feet. He did this to not only his magic sword, but the ordinary iron sword he had. As if that wasn’t enough, he knelt down with his hands up in surrender.
—…What the fuck?
Philip, who had thought Ru Amuh was a traitor inside his heart, cursed. Chi-Woo felt the same way. No matter how much Ru Amuh wanted to prove his innocence, it was no light matter for a swordsman to hand over his weapon. Of course Ru Amuh was also skilled in martial arts, but he was much stronger with a sword. Most of all, there was no reason for Ru Amuh, who regarded Chi-Woo’s skills extremely highly, to do this if he was the traitor.
“He is not our expedition captain, Dalgil,” Ru Amuh explained with a clear voice. “He is a monster pretending to be Captain Dalgil.”
What did he mean? Ru Amuh’s words were so unexpected that Chi-Woo couldn’t process them right away.
“Sir, do you remember when we opened the door to the first room?”
Chi-Woo nodded.
“At that time, Captain Dalgil sacrificed one arm to the tentacle that flew towards him as soon as he opened the door.”
Ru Amuh was correct. After the battle, Bogle said that the tentacle had taken away Dalgil’s muscles, and Dalgil shouted loudly that he could just get them back through training. In fact, Dalgil had been holding the club with only one hand after that.
“It was definitely his left arm.”
Ru Hiana, who had been intently listening, exclaimed in agreement and furiously nodded.
“However, as Ru Hiana first noticed, Dalgil was using both of his arms normally when we saw him here,” Ru Amuh continued. “And when we asked him why, he couldn’t answer properly.” He glared at Dalgil, who was now standing firm, and said, “As far as I know, there’s no way to rebuild muscles so quickly.”
After hearing this, Chi-Woo also stared at Dalgil. Come to think of it, Dalgil had held the sword Ru Amuh thrust through his stomach with his left hand. If this being was not Dalgil, and Ru Amuh hadn’t swung his sword at a fellow comrade but a monster, then there was a good way to check without jumping to conclusions. Chi-Woo immediately activated Spirit Eye. As his brother said, data and statistics did not lie. This ability allowed him to see people’s information, so he would be able to tell if this was the real Dalgil or a monster.
However, Chi-Woo soon became flustered because no matter how he concentrated, his Spirit Eye didn’t work. It wasn’t just Dalgil; he couldn’t use it on Ru Amuh or Ru Hiana either. Just like how his synesthesia and superhuman senses were suppressed in the fourth room, he couldn’t activate his Spirit Eye here.
‘What’s wrong with this?’ While he was confused, Chi-Woo’s gaze moved like lightning when Daligil, who had been quietly looking around, suddenly twisted his body and lunged forward. It was almost at the same time that Dalgil reached for the magic sword, and Chi-Woo struck him down with his ghost-busting club.
Slap! Rather than a dull thud, Chi-Woo felt as if he was hitting water.
“Kyaaaah!” The scream was too cute to have come from Dalgil. Chi-Woo kicked the magic sword to Ru Amuh without hesitation, and Ru Amuh immediately jumped with all his might from his crouching position. He grabbed the magic sword flying towards him and quickly approached Dalgil with great momentum, cutting the being in two. When Ru Amuh passed by, Dalgil was neatly split from the top of his head to his groin.
Ru Hiana gasped when Dalgil’s body turned into liquid and spilled in all directions. Ru Amuh and Chi-Woo also stared at the soaking-wet floor. It really had been a monster all along.
“Teacher.” Ru Amuh smiled with great relief. “I’m very glad you’re safe, and thank you for trusting me.”
“Senior!” Ru Hiana ran towards him to give him a hug. Chi-Woo flinched and looked at Ru Amuh.
“Sir, it’s all right. There was nothing particularly strange about Ru Hiana, and she quickly answered a secret that only we knew,” Ru Hiana said with a smile. Only then did Chi-Woo finally exhale in relief and pat Ru Hiana on the back.
“By the way, I was very surprised. A monster that imitated Mr. Dalgil’s appearance…”
“I was also surprised at first,” Ru Amuh felt very reliable as he calmly replied. Just a few moments ago, Chi-Woo had been extremely anxious, but all of his anxiety disappeared once he reunited with his comrades. However, it was too early to be relieved. There were seven expedition members in total, and he had only found four. It was not the time to dawdle.
“We need to reorganize the expedition and find the other three at once.”
“Huh? Not four, but three… Ah, come to think of it, Ms. Airi didn’t come with you?”
“I left her in the room I came out of. I heard a sound, but just in case it could be a trap, I left her and told her I’d come back after assessing the situation.”
“As expected, Teacher, you thought it might have been a trap. I also thought it was a bit strange.” Ru Amuh nodded at Chi-Woo’s explanation.
Ru Amuh came to this place with Ru Hiana after hearing Dalgil’s shout, but it turned out to be a trap. However, it was almost a coincidence that he noticed the monster was not really Dalgil. What if Chi-Woo had arrived here before Ru Amuh and Ru Hiana? And what if he failed to notice Dalgil was actually a monster like Ru Amuh had? No one knew what would have happened.
“After securing Ms. Airi, let’s look for the others.”
The Ru siblings immediately agreed, and the three turned the corner and quickly crossed the corridor.