Chapter 115
The hot summer garden was filled only with the sound of cicadas crying.
Jung-seok, quick to understand, was the first to speak.
"So we've died twice and this is our third round? Your trait 《Sloppy Clock》 consumed 100P to rewind its spring and turn back time?"
"Yes! Everyone just died! Jung-seok, you jumped from the third floor and got seriously injured!"
"The height of the third floor is 9 to 10 meters. You won't die from jumping, but in the worst case, you might live as a cripple for life. As long as you don't become a vegetable, it's better than dying."
"Right! That's exactly what you said before jumping!"
While Jung-seok nodded as if understanding, Yang Juhee, Kwon Sua, and Yoo Dahee had subtle expressions as if they didn't quite believe me.
They probably felt like I was lying.
How many more times would I have to see this scene if we don't solve this? How many more times would I have to explain everyone's deaths?
"To think you can go back in time. I didn't know people could do that."
Yoo Dahee marveled, poking my arm.
She seemed more amazed by the time reversal than by our deaths. Yang Juhee also clenched her fist and shouted.
"Then can't we get all the lottery numbers right? We're rich now!"
Boom-chik boom-chik-
Yang Juhee danced, shaking her shoulders and hips as if truly happy. It was a bit funny, but maybe because she's pretty, it was still cute to watch.
However... I didn't know much about how this sloppy clock turns back time. What were those words that appeared then?
"《Sloppy Clock》 is rewinding its spring."
"100P consumed."
"424 points remaining"
"Every time we fail, it consumes 100 points to return to this moment. I have 424 points left now."
"It's like returning to a save point! I wonder if the moment we took the photo became the save point? If it consumes 100 points each time, it means we have 4 more chances!"
Kwon Sua, the idol who played lots of games as a hobby, explained the situation by comparing it to a game system. It was exactly as Kwon Sua said.
Our calculator Jung-seok added.
"We need to find out more about 《Sloppy Clock》. Why this particular moment is the save point. What happens when we run out of points. Also..."
"Hey, shouldn't we find out who the culprit is first? You said we all died!"
Yang Juhee, who had been happy thinking about winning the lottery, got angry. She must have realized that finding the 'culprit' who killed us was the urgent task. I agreed with Yang Juhee.
"The first time we were poisoned, we suspected the noonas and ajumma working in this mansion as the culprits. But the second time when the mansion caught fire, I realized there was another presence in this mansion besides us. There's something else in this mansion besides us. That's the culprit."
The culprit wasn't human from the start. Something not human killed and toyed with us.
We burned to death because we couldn't get the right angle on our investigation and exploration.
"There's something in the mansion..."
Yoo Dahee muttered softly. Soon, Yoo Dahee spoke as if remembering something.
"The unnies always said they felt like someone was watching. And things often disappeared, and food from the kitchen fridge would vanish too. And we're not supposed to wander around our house after 10 PM..."
We decided to open up to all possibilities.
If we could connect the suspicious events that had been happening in this mansion with this incident, considering something else besides us, we might see the culprit.
"Guys, let's all survive this time. We're all going to survive together. Now, let's find the culprit. We need to find out everything about the 'suspicious things' happening in this mansion!"
***
"So-mi noona."
"Oh, Young-won. Want to taste-test the galbitang?"
I headed to the kitchen. So-mi noona, who had died from being stabbed, greeted me kindly and warmly.
I felt foolish for suspecting such kind noonas even for a moment. And I couldn't forgive the existence of the culprit who committed such a ruthless murder.
"Noona. I wanted to ask a few things. You said food keeps disappearing from the fridge?"
"That's right. Someone keeps eating the food. At first, I thought it might be Baekseol, but even packaged raw meat was being taken. No matter what, Baekseol couldn't do that."
Food disappearing from the fridge...
I suddenly became curious.
"Have you thought about installing CCTV or cameras?"
"Our Chairman doesn't like putting CCTV inside the house."
"Why? With such a big house, wouldn't CCTV be good for security?"
"I don't know either."
The Chairman doesn't want to install CCTV...
I'm not sure if this will be important information or just a preference.
Rustle-
Just then, I felt a chill. There's only one thing that gives me such a chill.
"Cockroach!"
I spotted a cockroach in the kitchen. Soon, Kim So-mi noona also had a fit.
"Cockroach! We need to catch it! We need to catch it! Baekseol! Baekseol, catch the cockroach! Baekseol!"
Kim So-mi noona called for Baekseol and then brought the poison made from lily of the valley and placed it in the kitchen.
I said to Kim So-mi noona.
"It's dangerous if you eat this, right?"
"Of course it's dangerous! It would be terrible if you eat it! Don't even bring it near your mouth!"
......
I pondered for a while and finally made a decision.
"Oops!"
Splash-
"Hey! Hey hey hey! What are you doing! What are you doing to the galbitang I worked hard to make! You bad boy! You bad boy! What are you doing! Ha Young-won, you bad boy!"
I poured the poison into the galbitang. I made it so that the galbitang couldn't be eaten at all.
By making the food completely unusable, I eliminated the possibility of eating poisoned food.
"I'm sorry. My foot slipped..."
"...Sigh, it can't be helped. Be thankful you didn't hit anything and hurt your head!"
Pinch-
Kim So-mi noona pinched and pulled my cheek.
"This is a big problem. What should we do for dinner? I'm going to get scolded by the housekeeper unnie."
"Should we just order chicken?"
"Should we?"
Even a ghost probably couldn't mess with freshly delivered chicken. Then I spotted another cockroach.
"Come to think of it, didn't you say there were no cockroaches before?"
"Yeah! They suddenly appeared! Remember the earthquake we had? It's been like this since then!"
Cockroaches appearing since the earthquake. I thought about the reasons cockroaches might appear.
The main reason could be that the house wasn't clean.
Even though several noonas cleaned this house all day, it was so big that I thought there might be parts they couldn't reach.
Maybe... it could be related to the events happening now.
"I'm sorry for ruining the galbitang. As an apology, I'll catch the cockroaches for you."
"Really? If you get rid of all the cockroaches, I'll forgive you!"
I decided to search for places where cockroaches might come out.
Naturally, I ended up in the basement boiler room of the mansion, where I heard lots of scurrying sounds of cockroaches.
"So you're asking me to catch cockroaches?"
Yang Juhee frowned.
"Do I look like someone who's good at catching cockroaches to you?"
"You do."
"Actually, you're right."
Hiss-
Yang Juhee put on a mask and started spraying cockroach killer.
Rustle rustle-
It was quite satisfying to see those disgusting bugs disappearing, but there were too many.
"At this rate, isn't it more like humans living in a cockroach house?"
Yang Juhee laughed. She was right.
Buzz-!
"Hey! They're flying! They're flying! Eek!"
I was really startled when the cockroaches suddenly spread their wings and flew towards me.
I hid behind Yang Juhee, but she freaked out too.
"Hey! Where are you touching! Hey! It tickles! Don't touch my side! Ugh!"
I really hated cockroaches.
If I ever complete the conquest of the corridor and get that wish-granting orb or whatever, I thought it might be good to make cockroaches extinct in this world.
Anyway.
As we looked around, we saw a large crack in the basement boiler room. There were cracks on the floor and ceiling.
The sizes varied, but the larger cracks were big enough for a person to squeeze through.
"It doesn't look like an old hole. Must have appeared during the earthquake."
When I unlocked the second floor of the nightmare corridor, a big earthquake hit Gaeryong, cracking buildings and toppling streetlights.
It seems this grand mansion couldn't escape the effects of the earthquake either.
Cockroaches were coming out of those cracks.
Rustle, rustle-
"Ugh, damn. It's like a nest or something."
Yang Juhee, who peeked into the crack, frowned at the unbearable stench even through her mask.
"Ugh, what's this smell? It smells like a rotting corpse."
Swish-
Yang Juhee bravely reached out with her white-gloved hand and pulled out the source of the stench.
It was... unwrapped meat swarming with maggots. There were lots of these in the crack.
"Ugh. I'm really going to throw up. Who put this here? No wonder there are so many cockroaches! Ugh, damn. We can't just burn it all!"
To me, who had directly witnessed friends burning to death, it didn't sound like a joke. Anyway, I felt like I had a big realization about why so many cockroaches were appearing.
Whoosh-
I looked at the large crack again. I thought there might be something besides cockroaches beyond that dark, black space.
Whoosh-
It felt like wind was passing through.
─Squeak squeak.
"Wow, what the hell!"
I noticed a white rat with a stubby tail crouching inside the hole. Rats, cockroaches, it's got everything.
Finally, I couldn't contain my anger.
"Juhee, let's just get cement and cover it all up."
I learned how to mix cement when we caught the water ghost last time.
Yang Juhee and I brought cement, gravel, and sand from the storage, mixed them in the right proportions, and covered all the cracks. Only after filling all the gaps did I feel at ease.
When we returned to the kitchen to tell So-mi noona about our achievements, we ran into Jung-seok, Yoo Dahee, and Kwon Sua's group.
Jung-seok said to me.
"Hey, good timing. You'll be shocked to know what we found in the large bathroom."
The large bathroom?
That's where everyone vomited blood and died. Wondering what they could have found, I followed Jung-seok.
Jung-seok entered the men's bath, and he pointed to a large mirror installed on the wall of the men's bath.
"Hey, look closely at this mirror."
"The mirror?"
"This looks like a mirror, but it's slightly different. It's a glass window with mirror film stuck on it. And the characteristic of this thing is that while you can't see through from this side, you can see this side from the other side."
A two-way mirror.
It's a term for something that looks like a mirror from this side but a window from the other side. I heard it's used in places like police interrogation rooms.
"Wait, Jung-seok, are you saying... someone was peeping into the bathroom?"
"Yeah. Remember how the housekeeper noonas said they felt like someone was always watching them? Especially when they were bathing. We looked around the bathroom on a hunch and found this."
"I found it! I'm sensitive to these things. Sometimes sasaeng fans give gifts with hidden recorders or small cameras, so I'm an expert in this. I kept saying I have good intuition, right?"
Kwon Sua said proudly, puffing out her chest. She had made a big contribution as a new member of our pirate crew.
Yoo Dahee frowned as if very displeased.
"Who would install something like this in the bathroom? Why?"