CH-041

Why does it feel like there are only perverts around me?

I flatly refused Ruru's request and opened the restroom door.

"......"

For a moment, the door felt heavy. But that weight soon disappeared as if it had been an illusion. When I opened the door, Yeom Ha-jae was standing right in front of the restroom.

"You took a while."

"You waited, right? Sorry."

Yeom Ha-jae's expression was more relaxed than what I had seen just before entering the restroom.

'This bastard...'

He had definitely been pressing his ear to the door.

'Is he suspicious of us?'

Still, I had spoken as quietly as possible, so he probably wouldn't have heard the content of the conversation. I placed a hand on Ruru's shoulder.

"This friend had a really bad stomachache."

"Hehe, sorry."

Ruru played along, slightly furrowing his brow.

He seemed to have straightened up his appearance somewhat, but the ribbon on his uniform was crooked. I roughly balanced the ribbon with one hand.

"The lobby is this way!"

After walking a bit down the corridor, we soon arrived at the lobby. It was when we were passing in front of the desk in a line. Ruru stopped unnaturally.

As Ruru headed to the desk, Yeom Ha-jae shone the flashlight that way. I deliberately kept an appropriate distance and observed Ruru's actions.

Ruru, who had trotted ahead, bent down.

He had disappeared under the desk, then soon reappeared. Clenching his fist, he approached us triumphantly.

"There was a key?"

At Yeom Ha-jae's question, Ruru raised one hand instead of answering. There was a sparkling key on his palm.

"We don't have to struggle to go up to the 31st floor!"

Ruru winked at me.

"That's great."

Yeom Ha-jae seemed puzzled by the suddenly resolved situation, but when Ruru and I acted naturally, he followed without complaint.

As expected, he was easy to handle. Unlike someone else from the same guild.

Ruru said he would disarm the alarm and went into the room behind the desk. Yeom Ha-jae and I decided to stay outside and watch the situation.

I approached the hotel entrance to see if anything had changed. The door was still surrounded by what looked like a solid iron gate.

Clang!

Just then, perhaps Ruru had operated something inside, as the sound of machinery moving could be heard. We stood in front of the slowly opening iron door and waited.

Watching the heavy iron door rise slowly was brief.

Clunk.

"I wonder if something went wrong..."

The iron door stopped after being pulled up about halfway. At this rate, we couldn't assess the outside situation. Beyond the iron door, the glass hotel entrance was blocking the way.

First, I ducked and crossed over the iron door. Yeom Ha-jae frowned.

"It's kind of, hot."

"Indeed it is."

The air was humid and hot enough to feel on the body.

Outside the glass window, something like fog was thick. Moreover, the glass was steamed up so I couldn't see an inch ahead.

Hesitating, I placed my hand on the glass door. It was warm.

'Ominous.'

There was no fire or light on this side. Maybe this heat was coming from the smoke beyond. I suppressed the instinctively rising anxiety and grabbed the door handle.

"...I'll open it."

"Okay."

Yeom Ha-jae nodded. Seeing him draw his sword, I pushed the door. The heavy glass door opened more smoothly than I expected.

And then.

"Ugh!"

As soon as the door opened, hot air rushed in from outside.

I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve. It felt exactly like entering a fire scene. Turning back, Yeom Ha-jae shook his head as if he was also struggling. The only one unaffected was Whitey, who was stuck to the iron door watching us from inside the building.

'I can't go out.'

The air was too hot. It was probably worse outside. That was when I was about to close the door again.

"Kkieek!"

Whitey, who was inside the building, screamed. As if giving a signal. When I raised my bowed head, I saw a black object quickly approaching from beyond the glass door.

"!"

Instinctively dodging, I tangled with Yeom Ha-jae and fell sideways.

Whoosh!

Something unidentified grazed past us and went inside. The door, receiving the impact, rattled and shook, so I urgently led Yeom Ha-jae back inside the hotel first.

"Hyung?"

Yeom Ha-jae called me quizzically. I swallowed my saliva.

"...Something went in."

"What?"

"Inside, something..."

Ruru came out of the control room, seemingly finished with the operation.

"Sunbae! How's the situation outside?!"

"Again,"

The iron door needs to be lowered again. It was the moment I was about to say that.

Thud!

A dull noise as if something quite large had collided. The conversation stopped. As if we had made a promise, we simultaneously turned our heads.

The outside wasn't visible, but faint light and shadows reached inside the hotel lobby. The number seemed quite large, as the shapes were heavily overlapping. Because of that, the only recognizable thing was frog-like feet.

Ruru lowered his posture as if about to dash out immediately, and Yeom Ha-jae readjusted his grip on his sword.

Crash!

The glass broke.

The monsters that had broken the door with their bodies surged toward the iron door. Seeing that, Ruru started running a beat late.

Ruru, who had run like the wind, grabbed the iron door that was about halfway up.

"Hrup!"

Bang!

The iron door came back down by superhuman strength.

"Haa, ha..."

Ruru, who took his hands off the crumpled iron door, smiled weakly.

"We survived."

"Grrrr."

Cold sweat dripped. We didn't say it out loud, but we felt the same. If we had fought while the heat kept coming in, we would have certainly fainted.

"I must have pressed the button wrong, it only went up halfway."

The hotel's safety device, which we had thought of as an obstacle, was protecting us.

"Hunter-nim, what about the detector?"

"...!"

At those words, Yeom Ha-jae hurriedly rummaged through his pocket. Had he even forgotten he had it...?

I massaged the back of my neck, stiff from tension.

Up until now, I had focused on the situation of being isolated. So I had only thought about going outside... Now that I had confirmed an escape route, I needed a plan.

"I hope it's nearby. Ruru hates hot things."

I agreed as well. The outside temperature wasn't so bad that you'd get burned just from going out briefly, but it was too much for a long search.

It was a situation that naturally brought out sighs, so I glared at the desk. It was where the druggie was sprawled out.

'What a mess this is, just to save that one piece of human trash.'

Yeom Ha-jae opened the detector lid. The hexahedron suspended in the center shook from the recoil.

We anxiously waited for the shaking to subside. After a short while...

"......"

"Huh?"

It stopped.

"The direction changed. Until just earlier, it was pointing outside..."

The hexahedron was pointing diagonally upward with a slight tilt.

"No way, the monster that went in earlier..."

"Wow! We're lucky."

Ruru, who had been bouncing around excitedly, grabbed my arm.

"The boss monster is inside here, right?"

"Who knows. Just from this... it could be on the outer wall of the building."

"Eek."

I said that, but if it was that direction, there was a high probability it was on an upper floor.

I was relieved. The core seemed to be inside the building.

I relaxed and leaned my body against the bar table.

.......

For a moment, a brief uneasiness flickered through my mind.

'Up, 31st floor, the druggie's room...?'

No way.

What were the chances of that? If it were real, it was too much of a coincidence.

"Ruru is thirsty."

"Here, water."

Yeom Ha-jae, who was by the water purifier, handed a cup to Ruru. Cups were also placed next to Whitey and me, but Whitey didn't even touch the water with its tongue.

Yeom Ha-jae approached hesitantly and whispered in my ear.

"Thank you for shielding me earlier."

"I have good agility."

I laughed lightly and lifted the cup.

"Ugh."

I took a sip of water, but felt a strange texture on my lips.

Surprised, I looked inside the cup. Small dots were stuck closely to the wall of the cup. Looking more closely, a transparent film seemed to be wrapping the dots. They were so small in size, and the surroundings were so dark, that I hadn't discovered them until now.

But the more I looked, the more the appearance of the foreign substance seemed like...

'Frog eggs?'

The slimy skin I had vaguely witnessed came to mind. My brow furrowed sharply at the disgust.

When I stayed still frowning, Yeom Ha-jae peered over.

"Ah! That seems to have been originally placed here... this is a new one."

Only then did the other cup catch my eye. It seemed I had picked up the cup beside me, not the one Yeom Ha-jae gave me.

Looking inside the cup I had put down, Yeom Ha-jae was horrified.

"Wh-what is this? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, well..."

"Ung? What's going on?"

Even Ruru, with a paper cup in his mouth, joined in. I waved my hand.

'Fuck, I think I swallowed one...'

I felt unnecessarily uneasy. But my pride wouldn't allow me to make a fuss over this.

Who am I? A man who survived by chewing and eating real frog eggs.

'...No way they're real eggs, right.'

Anxiety surged, but I shook my head lightly to shake it off.

Everyone had caught their breath, so it was about time to move.

"Let's go up the stairs floor by floor and figure out the monster's location."

"Nyehng."

"Okay."

***

The place the three had left.

Inside the left-behind paper cup, there was still a black circle surrounded by a transparent film.

Wriggle.

A tail popped out from the black circle.