Chapter 5: Getting on and off (3)
by fnovelpia
Click!
Creeeeak—
There was a sound from outside, like someone using a key.
The door slowly began to open.
I, from beneath the table, watched something grotesque in shape enter the room.
It was humanoid in form, but it wasn’t human.
Wearing an old uniform, its skin gleamed like a mannequin’s.
Each time it moved, its joints bent at unnatural angles with clicking, cracking sounds.
Through the crack in the door, I could see a cleaning cart in the hallway—but it held horrific “trash” that had no place in any normal hotel.
Unlike the mannequin creature, the “trash” had real human skin.
“It’s coming…!”
The creature slowly entered the room and began to move around.
It casually scanned its surroundings, then extended its strange arms to mimic wiping down the window and tabletop.
My heart nearly stopped when it reached toward the table I was under, but thankfully, it didn’t look underneath.
Then it approached the bed and began straightening the blanket.
With stiff, unnatural hand movements, it gripped the blanket’s edge and smoothed it out methodically.
I was sure it would find us, but the college student hiding under the blanket hadn’t been discovered yet.
Then—
“Hu… huhh…”
A soft whimper escaped from beneath the covers, the fear too much to bear.
The creature, still touching the blanket, heard the sound.
Creak-creak-crack.
Its neck twisted at an unnatural angle as it scanned the room for the source.
Then its gaze fixed on the blanket.
And—
SWOOSH!
The blanket was yanked away.
“Kyaaaaah!”
The screaming face of the college student was revealed.
Realizing what would happen next, I bolted out from under the table.
“R-Run!”
Tap-tap-tap!
With a shout, I threw myself at the mannequin creature, grabbing both of its arms tightly.
It felt hard and cold to the touch.
At my cry, the middle-aged woman burst out of the wardrobe.
She looked between me and the creature, then quickly grabbed the terrified student’s arm.
“I-I’m sorry!”
With a near-crying voice, she pulled the girl and dashed out the door.
As they disappeared, their eyes filled with fear and sorrow, only the creature and I remained in the room.
Creeeak—crack—
The mannequin twisted and struggled in my grip, trying to break free.
Its movements were surprisingly flexible, making it hard to hold on.
“Ugh… d-don’t…!”
Its joints twisted in impossible directions—it was like a horror movie.
Terrified, I clung to it with all my strength.
Then I heard a strange sound from within it—Creak… crack! Snap!
“Don’t… do this…?”
The creature’s waist began to crumple like paper under the pressure.
It suddenly snapped in half, its lower body collapsing lifelessly to the floor.
I was left holding only its upper body in my arms.
It shuddered a few times, then went still.
“Ah… um…”
Awkwardly, I placed the mannequin’s upper half on the table.
Now that I looked at it, it almost resembled some bizarre, expensive ornament.
Silence filled the room.
“Hm? What’s this…”
There was a small name tag on the upper half’s uniform.
The name had been blacked out and was unreadable.
“A check mark?”
It was marked with a green check.
Was this another item that could be placed in the settlement hole for points?
I tore off the name tag and stuffed it into my pocket.
Brushing off the mannequin’s fragments from my clothes,
I headed in the direction the two had run.
***
“Huff… huff…”
The middle-aged woman had dragged the terrified student all the way to the lobby.
While he distracted the mannequin and bought them time, they had sprinted down the hallway and reached the settlement hole.
“Huuuh… huuuh…”
As soon as they entered the dimly lit lobby, they collapsed to the floor.
The student burst into tears she’d been holding back, and the woman stared blankly ahead.
She recalled his cry—his sacrifice as he stayed behind with that grotesque creature.
The young man had chosen to face it to save them.
“…At least this…”
With trembling hands, the woman pulled out the jewel box she had been holding.
It was what they had managed to obtain thanks to his sacrifice.
She staggered and dropped the jewel box into the dark, deep settlement hole.
[500 / 20,000]
The number above the hole changed.
500 points.
That jewel box, retrieved at the risk of their lives, was worth only 500 points.
Escape was still a long way off.
How were the other groups doing?
Had they found items with check marks?
Had they, too, encountered the mannequin creature?
And then—
“Did you put the jewel box in?”
A familiar voice startled them both.
They looked up in shock.
A man was walking out from the direction of the lobby.
He looked a little worn out, but otherwise, he seemed completely unharmed.
***
“H-How…?”
“I’m… I’m okay. Are you two alright?”
Two women approached me and started talking.
With widened eyes, they looked me up and down and asked what had happened.
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly and made an excuse.
“Well, I just pushed it and ran away… it was slower than I expected. I got lucky…”
I put on a frightened expression and made it up.
I couldn’t exactly say I had smashed the mannequin by hugging it tightly.
“That’s such a relief… I’m so glad…”
The college student, on the verge of tears, grabbed my arm.
Her genuine concern made me feel even more guilty.
I checked the number above the scoring hole.
500 points.
Still a long way to go.
“…What now?”
“We need to keep searching.”
There was still one more room left in the section we were assigned.
Room 106—where the monster had appeared.
At my words, the two women’s faces stiffened.
“Isn’t that… where the creature showed up?”
“Exactly. Since it came from there, it might actually be empty now. It’s already been cleaned.”
I mixed in a small lie.
“When I was running away earlier, it looked like it went down the opposite hallway.”
The two hesitated for a moment, but with no better options, they decided to trust me.
We returned to the place we had fled from.
Creeeak—Just as I’d checked on the map, there were no more “moving anomalies” in the area.
Only the terrifying janitor cart that the mannequin had used was left there, abandoned.
We forced ourselves to look away from the cart.
“Why is this cart even here…”
The middle-aged woman voiced a small doubt, but seemed to lose interest after seeing the horrifying trash inside.
In Room 106, we found two more marked items.
A silver candlestick and a worn pocket watch.
“Think they’re worth anything?”
“Let’s hope so.”
Though I said that, I didn’t really think so.
In games like this, it’s usually the big, hard-to-get items that are valuable.
A pocket watch that fits neatly in your pocket probably wasn’t worth much.
Still, there was some hope for the candlestick.
“…Oh.”
When we returned to the lobby, the situation had changed quite a bit.
Others had also returned from exploring.
I remembered we had been split into six teams—now, about four groups of people were present.
Some were leaning against walls staring blankly into space. Others were comforting someone who was sobbing.
I overheard that some people had returned alone.
If you’d gone into this hotel in a group of three but came back alone—You didn’t need to ask what had happened.
“There really are monsters…”
“I guess we were really lucky…”
Some groups whispered, having returned unscathed.
They had avoided encountering any of the monsters.
Among them were the man in work clothes who had been leading us, and a rough-looking guy.
Above the scoring hole in the center of the lobby, the numbers read: [6,800 / 20,000]
It seemed other groups had been diligently collecting items.
We approached and dropped the pocket watch and candlestick into the hole.
[8,000 / 20,000]
As the number rose, a few people glanced our way.
“Which area were you in…?”
A man nearby asked cautiously.
He was one of those who had returned alone.
“The rooms on the left hallway.”
“…Did you… happen to see the monster?”
“Yes, we encountered a ‘hotel staff member’ who claimed to be in charge of cleaning.”
“I see… W-we were in the dining area, and there was a ‘guest’ and a ‘chef’ there… Ugh…”
As if recalling something horrific, the man clutched his mouth and collapsed.
His shoulders trembled.
A heavy atmosphere spread around us.
“The two groups that went to the pool and the machine room haven’t returned yet.”
“Could it be… already…”
“Let’s wait a little longer. These people just got back…”
Even as he said that, the man in the work clothes held his head in his hands, as if sensing something bad.
Nearly half the teams hadn’t returned.
At this rate, it seemed everyone would fall victim to the monsters before reaching 20,000 points.
That’s when I remembered the name tag I had in my pocket.
A green-checked item that had been on the mannequin monster’s upper body.
Just in case, I tossed it into the scoring hole.
[10,000 / 20,000]
“Huh?”
“What… What was that?”
Everyone looked shocked as the points jumped up by 2,000 all at once.
Even I was surprised.
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