Chapter 294: The Secret of The Winged Boots, Meeting For The Final Movie

– Han Kain

After somehow ending the second act amidst confusion, we were finally able to meet the doctor and Jinchul-hyung again. Unlike the doctor, whose pride seemed somewhat hurt but was nonetheless grateful for being saved, Hyung’s reaction was “emptiness” itself.

“Wow… What the hell? I was so immersed that I thought there would never be a more shining moment in my life…”

We, who were watching, also felt that Hyung was incredibly immersed in the movie. But just as his immersion was at its peak and his mind was full of him gassing himself up, suddenly, a hair growth product infomercial ending was sprinkled at the end.

What must he be thinking?

Grandpa chuckled and comforted Hyung, then we decided to go to the first floor to rest.

“Hyung! By the way, what was that transformation during the movie? You suddenly changed into something like Black Panther. Was it a blessing from the empire’s ancestor?”

Jinchul-hyung looked at me with an expression that said, “What on earth are you talking about?”

“What are you saying? What transformation?”

Everyone’s footsteps stopped.

It was a strange thing.

Hyung couldn’t recall the fact that he “transformed” at all, and when we told him that his skin changed into pitch-black scales on top of Kurta’s body, he was more surprised than us.

“Wait, the hair growth product advertisement at the end was because of that? Because my body transformed and my hair disappeared, they had to create hair?”

Noona affirmed, “That’s what we believe.”

“Ah, shit! They ruined the ending for such a reason? No, let’s put aside since what’s done is—but why can’t I remember anything?”

“Even we, who were watching the movie, felt that scenes were edited in the middle, but we didn’t know you would be in a state of not knowing anything.”

In this situation, there was only one useful ability.

Why did Cha Jinchul lose his memory related to the transformation?

“What’s with this answer?”

As gazes gathered around, I relayed the content as it was.

While everyone was tilting their heads for a moment, Ahri showed a cheerful reaction, “Let’s just go eat!”

“…”

“They said there’s no need to pay attention, right? It means it’s not a very important issue in the Patron’s view.”

During the meal, Ahri opened her mouth with an interesting expression, “Listen to me, everyone. All the changes that happened to our bodies inside the Cursed Room are reset when we come out. The change Jinchul experienced also disappeared naturally when he came out of the movie.”

“I guess the Mission Room is similar to the Cursed Room in that aspect.”

“If the hair would grow back anyway when we come out, why did they forcibly insert a hair growth product advertisement?”

That’s… actually a good point.

Listening to it, Ahri’s words were convincing. Let’s say we gained the qualification to obtain the “The Hair of a Warrior Who Endures Even The Force of Lightning” at the point when we defeated Kurta.

If the problem was that the hair disappeared because scales grew on Hyung’s body, they could just give it after we come out. There was no need to forcibly insert a hair growth product advertisement during the movie’s runtime.

“It’s simple. It’s because the principle is to give it during the movie’s progression. Then, why do you think such a principle exists?”

If there was a principle that the Winged Boots reward must be given within the movie, the question was resolved, but another question arose.

Why does such a strange principle exist in the first place?

Hearing up to this point, Eunsol-noona suddenly put down her spoon with a disgusted expression.

“…I just had a terrible thought.”

Ahri immediately replied, “If it’s a terrible thought, that’s probably right. I’m thinking the same thing.”

Grandpa made a tired expression.

“Don’t just keep it between you two, tell me too.”

“Grandpa, the materials for the Winged Boots… could all three be ‘parts of our bodies’?”

Silence suddenly fell around.

Noona continued with a gloomy expression, “The identity of the hair of a warrior who endures even the force of lightning was Jinchul’s hair that endured Kurta’s lightning attacks.”

Songee muttered with her mouth half-open, “The wing feathers of a bird soaring through a typhoon are probably Perro’s feathers?”

I opened my mouth in great bewilderment, “No, hair and feathers are fine because nothing much happens if you pluck them, but what about the eyeball? Are you saying we should pluck out our eyes?”

Noona muttered with an increasingly gloomy expression, “That’s why there’s that principle Ahri realized. The reward must be given within the movie, or more precisely, ‘in a place where injuries disappear as soon as you escape’. We have to pluck out the eyeball inside the movie or inside the Cursed Room. Then it will recover immediately when we go outside.”

I understood. If the reward was given outside the room, feathers and hair might be okay, but eyeballs were impossible. Of course, we had sone means to treat injuries sustained outside the room. Room 105 and the doctor.

But it wasn’t like cutting off a finger, it was an eyeball. Relying solely on Room 105 or the doctor to extract an eyeball was too dangerous.

…Somehow, I felt like I knew whose eye we would have to pluck out.

Among us, there was only one person who owned a “special eye” worthy of being mentioned in such a reward. As everyone hesitated to speak, looking at Noona who had her head bowed low in an ominous premonition, a uniquely energetic voice was heard, “Let’s experiment a bit!”

“Grandpa?”

“We can’t just pluck out an eyeball out of nowhere. Besides, even if Eunsol’s hypothesis is correct, it’s not about plucking it anytime, but ‘observing all things at the peak’ and plucking it, so the condition itself is complicated.”

“Well, that’s…”

“So we need to experiment to see if the hypothesis is correct. That, that arrogant parrot! Throw it into a typhoon!”

– Screech!

The parrot, which had been dozing off throughout the movie screening time, screamed in surprise. Grandpa had the happiest expression he’d ever shown.

“I’ll throw it as soon as I see something like a typhoon, so don’t worry everyone. We just need to pluck as many feathers as that Perro bastard has plucked from my hair!”

“G-Grandpa! That’s extreme animal abuse!”

“Songee, have you forgotten how that bastard has abused my hair all this time?”

Songee could only sit in silence from such a retort.

In the evening, we had a conversation with everyone about whether to enter the third movie again. This was because the guide had openly warned that the horror movie would be on a different level.

Eunsol-noona offered an opinion, “The guide spoke in a somewhat threatening manner… but actually, it’s just as dangerous if we go to the Cursed Room. Besides, we have a lot of people left, don’t we?”

I immediately answered, “That’s right. There are five of us left: me, Ahri, Seungyub, Noona, and Grandpa.”

“Isn’t ‘Hotel Cinema’ a bit easier in various ways? That’s how I felt. We cleared both the first and second movies with just two attempts.”

Ahri nodded.

“Right. I also feel that Hotel Cinema is a bit on the easier side. I think I know the reason, too.”

“The reason?”

Ahri glanced slightly towards the doctor before opening her mouth, “Because all 9 of us are still alive and well.”

The doctor chuckled.

“I see. That is indeed significant. Imagine if, like previous parties, two people died on the first floor, and then two more died fighting on the second floor, so only 4-5 people entered the cinema. We’d already be down to our last chance.”

I found myself nodding involuntarily.

“There is that aspect. I thought it was solo play where we couldn’t help each other, but in that sense, it’s also team play. If relationships have been good so far, does it become easier because we have more chances?”

Elena brought up another point, “The fact that we can persuade the judges is also significant. Actually, both times were originally failures, right? We passed by pushing through with words. The souvenir girl is surprisingly reasonable, and even the guide seems unable to be too forceful.”

Grandpa sighed.

“In that sense, that merchant bastard was the worst. We should consider him impossible to persuade.”

“Well, we pass if the other two people give a pass, anyway.”

Everyone’s opinion converged on the idea that Hotel Cinema was easier than expected and that we should go in again tomorrow. Since I had some Advice left, I asked once. Of course, I didn’t ask about the content of the movie. They wouldn’t answer such questions.

What are the precautions for the last movie? I’m not asking about the content.

“Huh?”

“What did the owl say?”

“It says to ask in detail why horror movies are difficult.”

“Hmm… What does that mean?”

No matter how much we thought about it, an answer didn’t come easily.

“Since it told us to ask, let’s ask tomorrow. That’s all we can do.”

We decided to ask tomorrow since it wasn’t a problem we could solve by pondering among ourselves. The last topic of the meeting was, “Who will go in first?”

This time, Grandpa showed a gloomy attitude.

“I’ll go in first.”

“…”

“You know by now, don’t you? It’s better for those who can solve it to go later. Someone who can’t solve it anyway should go first, find out some variables, and die.”

Eunsol-noona interjected, “It goes without saying for Kain or Ahri, and even Seungyub’s ‘luck’ is clearly a useful ability in a horror movie, so they should go later. So it’s right for me and Grandpa to go in first… but how about I go first?”

“You have an Inheritance. You’re better than me, so you should go in later.”

“Is there a guarantee that my Inheritance will even help?”

“It’s a horror movie, isn’t it? How could an Inheritance that nullifies mental attacks not be helpful? You’re being too self-deprecating.”

“I-is that so?”

It was decided that Grandpa would go in first tomorrow. With this, today’s meeting ended.

Late at night, as I was looking at the snow field on the second floor, I had a strange thought when I saw a blizzard that blurred my vision, though much less than before. Wasn’t a blizzard also a kind of typhoon?

Conveniently, I had one use of Advice left.

‘About the Winged Boots material, can’t we just throw Perro out there and pluck its feathers?’

Feathers are okay to pluck anyway, right? Isn’t it troublesome to pluck parrot feathers while going through trials in the Cursed Room?

This didn’t seem right.

The next day, we entered Room 204 again to solve the last movie. As per the owl’s advice, when we asked why horror movies were said to be difficult, the guide answered willingly.

“What? Suddenly, at this point?”

“Haha! Eunsol, why are you like that? If you think about it, it’s not such a special change. Don’t you think that you’ve received special privilege until now?”

“Special privilege!”

“It was a privilege. In the previous two acts, you received ‘excessive benefits’ that didn’t exist in the Cursed Room. Now we’re just taking those benefits away.”

“…”

“There’s no need to be too afraid. Rather, aren’t conditions like these more familiar to you? The Cursed Rooms are always like this, after all.”

The last movie, “Scary Stories”, proceeds in “real-time”.

“Until now, you could gauge how far you’ve come based on the movie’s runtime. When scenes that ‘looked’ like normal scenes appeared, you could predict that there might be hidden crises. Now these benefits are gone.”

“…”

“The outside audience, of course, watches the edited movie. But for the person who goes inside, it’s real-time. Five hours, ten hours might pass, or even a week might pass. There’s no scene skipping, so there’s no easy way to know if you’re currently in a crisis situation or not.”

“…”

“However, this is the Mission Room. You still have the option to retreat. Will you back down? Or will you choose another room?”

“I’ll just go in. What’s there to change?”

“Then we’ll begin. Participant Kim Mooksung, please enter.”

As promised, Grandpa stepped forward with a stern expression. The movie, “Scary Stories”, began.