Chapter 29 - Room 103, Room of Curses - 'Animal Farm' (3)
Chapter 29 - Room 103, Room of Curses - 'Animal Farm' (3)
[User: Han Ga-in (Jihye) Date: Day 12
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 103 (Room of Curses – Animal Farm)
Sage's Advice: 3]
As always since arriving at the farm, it was a morning of grazing on grass, staring blankly while mooing, and getting nagged for wasting ink.
Suddenly, an emergency arose.
Wolf Boy (Park Seung-yeop): Emergency! Wolf crisis
Mouse King (Kim Muk-sung): What are you saying? Explain in detail
Wolf Boy (Park Seung-yeop): Other wolves are also keeping an eye on the farm. The entire pack has started observing the vicinity.
It seemed yesterday's commotion had piqued the wolf pack's curiosity as well.
Actually, even if I were a wolf, I'd be drooling if there was a farm filled with fat geese and cattle right next door.
Wouldn't the farm owner take care of it?
I thought like a real cow for a moment, but then I realized that I was the one in crisis.
Come to think of it, what crisis would the farm owner have! It's just a matter of his property decreasing a bit.
The ones dying aren't the farm owner, but the cattle and geese inside.
The more I think about it, the worse the situation gets. With this size, there's nowhere for me to hide, and it's a place where it's hard to even move.
Practically, I'm completely helpless and just have to hope the farm owner blocks them well!
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Number of wolves?
Wolf Boy (Park Seung-yeop): 3 groups, looks like over 40 in total
The situation is getting more and more serious. Over 40 wolves.
On the other hand, there's a family of four on the farm. Even then, two are the wife and daughter, so realistically, the farmer and his son have to block 40 wolves.
Is it possible for the cattle and geese inside the farm not to get hurt in the process?
It was the first time I felt extreme tension since entering Room 103.
Frantically gnawing on hay, I racked my sluggish cow brain.
Is there really no way?
Pig (Cha Jin-cheol): Is there anything I can do?
Mouse King (Kim Muk-sung): Other than adding more pork, just get ready to run
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): I'll die too if I go
My comrades started reacting helplessly. Naturally.
If the wolf pack and the farmer are fighting a bloody battle, what could a pig, a snake, or a mouse do in between?
As they said, it would just be adding more pork. I closed my eyes tight and conveyed my opinion.
Black Bull (Han Ga-in): Don't step forward in vain. Even if someone dies, only one.
Even if someone dies, only one.
That was the ironclad rule of the Hotel that we had implicitly shared since some point.
If someone is in danger and all their comrades risk their lives to rush in and save them, it might seem touching at first glance,
but in the Hotel, it's an extremely foolish act.
There's no need for that; the rule is that if just one comrade escapes and survives to the end, everyone survives.
Therefore, abandoning a comrade when things go wrong is the very way to care for them.
The Hotel always encourages sacrifice.
This time, perhaps I would be the first to be sacrificed.
I inwardly accepted that it was unavoidable.
The daytime passed in a gloomy atmosphere.
The comrades couldn't find any special solution, and Elena also observed the situation around the farmer's family as much as possible, but there was no talk of any great reinforcements coming.
The only fortunate thing was that, right after the wolf (Seung-yeop) commotion yesterday,
today, when more than 10 wolves were openly prowling around, it was felt that the farm people were also preparing in a state of extreme tension.
Seeing the entire farm family frantically setting traps all over the farm and neatly preparing hunting guns and ammunition, I started to feel reassured too.
To think I was relying on the farm owner who would butcher me, despite being a cow.
It was absurd, but ultimately, wasn't it true that the only person I could rely on in this situation was the farm owner?
Time passes as fast as an arrow.
A tension incomparable to the past few days of sitting in the barn chewing grass.
It felt like I had heard about the wolf threat just in the morning, but everyone was frantically discussing ways to save me and exploring the surroundings.
While I was busy observing the farm family, the sun began to set in the west in the blink of an eye.
Howling can be heard.
The wolf pack's attack has begun.
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I ran frantically all day.
A pack of roughly 40 wolves roaming around the huge farm.
They weren't all bunched up together, but scattered into roughly 3 groups, which made it even more exhausting.
Because I had to keep moving between the 3 groups and monitor when they were going to strike.
In the wolf group I belonged to—or more accurately, the leader thought I belonged to—they looked at me as if asking what I was doing as I kept running around frantically, but they didn't particularly intervene.
It occurred to me anew, but there are times I can't understand Ga-in hyung's mentality.
As for Song-i noona, since the goose pen was difficult for wolves to enter due to its location and structure, I could understand her staying silent,
but the place where the cattle were gathered was exposed to the outside.
In the end, it was a crisis for the cattle, including Ga-in hyung.
In this situation, where it wasn't someone else but himself who could die, he told us not to do anything uselessly dangerous and just think of a way to escape...
Of course, if we all died trying to save one person, that would be the worst, so I understand.
But resurrection afterward is resurrection, and what about the pain?
Would a wolf really anesthetize a cow before eating it!
Thinking of that pain, it's so terrifying just imagining it that I can't bear it.
I absolutely cannot let hyung go through such pain.
Even if I have to run away when there's truly no answer, I should at least try to save him as much as I can.
Suddenly, a vague thought crossed my mind: if I had lived this hard before coming to the Hotel, wouldn't I have had a good relationship with my parents? When I go back, I should live like that.
Howling can be heard from all directions. The wolf pack's attack has begun.
The sound of wolves echoing throughout the farm, the screams of animals, the shouts of excited men.
And the frozen gunshots that periodically pierced through all that noise.
It was the first time I realized how loud gunshots were.
Feeling goosebumps every time I heard it, I slowly approached the cattle pen.
Several wolves had already arrived before me and were looking at the cattle, drooling.
My plan is simple.
Realistically, there's no way I can block that many wolves.
Blocking the wolves is the farm owner's role.
Therefore, my plan is to become a troll wolf, so to speak, and lure the farm owner to the cattle pen.
To do that...
As expected, it's right to target the farm owner's most precious person.
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Has he gone crazy right now.
Lee Eun-sol thought as she watched the farm situation from the corner of the wire fence.
Did I see that wrong?
Clearly, I had encountered him once or twice while roaming the farm's outskirts and remembered his features.
A slightly raised clump of white fur on top of his head. That wasn't another wolf, it was Seung-yeop.
Right before my eyes, Seung-yeop had gone near the residential area where the farm owner's daughter, May, was, and started howling!
Is he really crazy? Is he praying for the farm owner to please kill him?
Did he not hear what Ga-in said yesterday?
I had made it clear to everyone multiple times that in the Hotel, dying to save someone isn't a touching act but a foolish one, so what on earth is he doing?
Naturally, there's no 'father' in the world who wouldn't react in that situation.
The farmer, who had been shouting from a position to keep as many wolves in check as possible, let out a gasp the moment he heard his daughter's tearing scream, turned around, and ran frantically.
What on earth should be done? Eun-sol felt her mind getting complicated.
Originally, I was just going to watch.
Even if Ga-in died, it couldn't be helped. Just as I accepted death in the Mansion of Fear, Ga-in could too.
At least, from what I've felt so far, that guy and I share a similar wavelength in our thoughts.
But... what if even Seung-yeop runs into trouble?
It's not an emotional issue. The party consists of a dog, a cat, a cow, a goose, a boar, a snake, a mouse, and a wolf.
Among these, looking at it from all angles, isn't the 'most capable animal' the wolf?
Its physical abilities are excellent, and since it's at the top of the food chain, its actions are free.
But if he were to be taken out vainly here...
Eun-sol's mind started getting complicated.
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I ran and ran. It's so refreshing.
I've never had such an outstanding 'body' in my life.
With one kick off the ground, I soared as if flying! Is this why people exercise?
Of course, I'm a wolf right now! Actually, even Usain Bolt would be much slower than me.
Because even the human with the greatest physique in the world would be weaker than an ordinary wolf!
Besides, I'm running right now to save a comrade.
Ah~ I think I'm getting drunk on myself.
-----Bang!
A gunshot. The feeling of getting drunk vanished in an instant.
I dodged it fortunately, but can I keep dodging until the end?
As expected, the farm family went into an uproar the moment I went to where that kid named May was and barked once,
and the farm owner started chasing me.
It's okay. Just because he's holding a gun doesn't mean the farm owner is faster than me.
Coming over to the cattle pen, the situation had become quite serious in that brief moment.
Several wolves were crossing in and out of the pen's outskirts, and the cattle were utterly frantic, screaming their heads off.
Come to think of it, since cows are actually much bigger than wolves, if they fought, they wouldn't be pushed back this much...
However, if a cow raised by humans knew how to fight like that, that would be even stranger.
Even in the midst of that, one large black bull openly thrust his horns forward and threatened the wolves.
Aha, I knew as soon as I saw him. It's the 'Black Bull', Ga-in hyung.
But when I arrived, the situation changed a bit.
Did he think he was relieved now that a comrade had joined him?
Suddenly, about three wolves confidently attacked the Black Bull.
While the front wolf drew attention, the other two circled to the rear. I could feel that hyung didn't know what to do. I have to go help him right away.
I'm sorry to the wolf pack, but actually I'm not a wolf, so it can't be helped.
There was no need for that.
----------------Bang!----------------Bang!
Two gunshots.
As the farmer, who had appeared at some point, started pulling the trigger, the wolves scattered in terror and began to flee.
Now I'm in real danger too.
I moved, using the pillars of the cattle pen or the sacks piled up here and there as obstacles as much as possible.
---------------Bang!
Ah
A boy suddenly appeared in front of me. Ah, was this kid Peter? He said he was the farm owner's son...
I didn't even pay attention to anyone other than the farm owner, but he brought a gun from somewhere too.
A spark. A sensation as if the hottest spark in the world was searing my body.
My body crumbles. Strength drains from my entire body.
Ah... so this is the end in Room 103.
The hyungs and noonas will take care of it. Knowing it's not the end, it wasn't that scary.
It just hurts too much.
?
My field of view flips upside down.
A pure white landscape. An incomprehensibly huge giant.
What is this? Is this some kind of wolf afterlife?
What on earth... my consciousness fades......
I wasn't planning to harvest already, but what an impatient fellow.
Author's Comment (Author's Afterword)
The contest preliminaries are slowly coming to an end. As I've been running at my own crazy pace, my mind has really been going blank lately.
I even joined late, so I started this ready to write facing a wall, but fortunately, a few people have enjoyed reading along, so thank you.
Writing all this rambling makes it feel like a hiatus notice, which is weird, but that's not it.
The finals will be difficult, but I have a lot of planned episodes, and because I'd hate to waste those plans, I intend to unfold them all. Thank you.