Chapter 30 - Room 103, The Cursed Room - 'Animal Farm' (4)
[User: Han Ga-in (Ji-hye)
Date: Day 12
Current Location: Layer 1, Room 103 (Cursed Room - Animal Farm)
Sage's Advice: 3]
My chest feels stifled. I can barely breathe.
Something hot surging from deep within my heart rises up, burning from my stomach all the way up my esophagus.
The gunshot that pierced Seung-yeop's heart still echoes in my ears.
Why?
I clearly told him to run. I told him not to push himself, that if things went wrong, it wouldn't matter if I died alone!
But that idiot, instead of running, provoked the farmer in an extremely dangerous manner, and even led the farmer toward the cow shed.
The price was a single bullet.
The price a wolf paid for provoking a human holding a gun was horrific.
I must endure. It's not over yet.
I just need to survive and get out.
Somehow, if I just get out, that fool who died trying to save me will stand up again too.
Then I'll smack him on the head and scold him for not listening to me, and after that...
Should I try to make it so Seung-yeop can meet A-ri more often? Ah, but I should still listen to A-ri's thoughts on this.
I forcibly redirected my thoughts again and again.
Somehow, as I calmed down by thinking about what I'd do once I got out safely, my heart settled a little.
Slowly, slowly, I froze my heart. Anger is completely useless.
The green monster in the movies gets endlessly stronger the angrier it becomes, but that story has nothing to do with me.
Anger only produces foolish judgments.
As my heart froze and my reason revived, it began issuing various warnings.
Broken Leg
Something is wrong with my leg.
While fighting the three wolves, my attention was caught by one lingering in front of me.
In that moment, the wolf behind me bit my leg so fiercely that I could barely even stand up.
Mouse King (Kim Muk-seong): Is everyone... okay?
Smart Mouse (Lee Eun-sol): Situation summary. Everything else fine. Wolf dead, cow injured
Pig (Cha Jin-cheol): How bad is the leg injury?
Black Cow (Han Ga-in): Injury severe.
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Variables increasing. Information collection necessary.
The variables have increased.
My sister is thinking the same thing as me.
She's right.
The farm was clearly in chaos everywhere, and many of the livestock were moaning in pain from their injuries.
The farm family's sorrowful cries could also be heard from all around.
The wolf situation wasn't completely over either. In reality, only about 10 wolves had died.
Over 30 still remained, prowling nearby.
In our situation, things had arguably become even more dangerous.
Because now that Seung-yeop was gone, we had no way to track the wolf pack's movements.
Overall -
It had become even harder to predict what would happen on this farm.
One ominous thought crossed my mind.
Would a farmer keep raising a cow with a shattered leg?
The ominous imagination soon became reality.
Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Family discussing damage recovery
Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Atmosphere not good. Wife insists on closing the farm
Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Husband insists on dealing with livestock first
Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Talk of butchering the injured cow
Ah... as expected.
It's not strange.
From the beginning, I hadn't really done any farm work, and I was probably a beef cow.
And now that beef cow had a serious leg injury.
How many people would call a veterinarian to treat a leg like this?
Even so, I had accepted it now.
It wasn't the time for me to kill others just so I could live. If it came to that, it would only mean ruin for everyone.
Black Cow (Han Ga-in): I'm prepared. No further rescue needed. Awaiting escape.
Yes. This is right.
At this point, I decided to make my peace with it.
It seemed better than being eaten by wolves.
The farmer wouldn't purposely torture me to death.
He'd probably use his tools and end it in one go.
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): No, we're changing strategy now.
Black Cow (Han Ga-in): I'm really fine
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol)
->I'm going to use all the text now so everyone shut up.
Situation is different from the House of Horror, misjudged that
House of Horror: Uncertain what the danger was. Had to discover the danger through sacrifice
Animal Farm: The enemy is clear. Sacrifice is meaningless, just a loss of fighting strength. Need to fight while our forces are intact
Mouse King (Kim Muk-seong): Is the enemy the farm family?
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Farmer killed the wolf (Park Seung-yeop), the goose (Yu Song-i) and cow (Han Ga-in) are threatened.
This much makes the situation clear. The farm family is the enemy in Room 103.
My sister's argument was clear.
In the House of Horror, the ultimately revealed dangers (the corrupted bride, the possessed Song-i, the devil underground, the moving doll, etc.) had been unclear until the latter half.
Therefore, we had to sacrifice one or two people to reveal the nature of the danger.
On the other hand, in Animal Farm, the danger was already clear!
The farm family had already threatened our lives multiple times, and had even killed one of us.
In this situation, sacrifice was no longer meaningful. Rather, we needed to engage as quickly as possible while our fighting strength was still intact!
After hearing the strategy, I slapped my knee in my mind even though I had no hands.
This is it.
I also felt somewhat relieved. With this strategy, there was absolutely no need for me to sacrifice myself or anything like that!
As expected, everyone started making plans under the premise that they would act before I was butchered.
Tomorrow, we would bring down this damn farm.
---------------------------------------------------
Is that the right thing to do?
I fell into various thoughts while arranging the feathers near my wings with my beak.
Farm collapse strategy.
The people had already begun devising detailed strategies on how to collapse the farm more efficiently,
how to crush the farm family more devastatingly.
Something... is off.
But I don't know what.
Somehow this doesn't seem like the right direction, but I'm not confident I can explain why.
I keep thinking that people are acting emotionally.
Because the farm family keeps threatening us, because Seung-yeop died getting shot right before our eyes.
I understand being angry. I wanted to cry at that moment too.
But this direction is really strange somehow.
Goose (Yu Song-i): Is this plan right?
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Do you have an opinion?
Goose (Yu Song-i): It feels like something's off.
I'm stupid. I regretted it as soon as I wrote it.
Everyone is planning a life-or-death war strategy, and the words I used to refute it were
'It feels like something's off.'
Even I look like an idiot saying that...
But I really can't explain it any other way than that expression.
El Doggy (Elena): Song-i, it's hard for you to leave the pen so you can just stay still
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): The wild boar and snake are the core anyway. Don't worry
Ah.
They think I'm saying this because I'm scared.
It hurt my heart to instantly understand what image my older sisters had of me.
A young student who can't get involved in big things because she's too timid. An object of consideration.
I understand. The role I've played so far has only been receiving consideration.
Still... my heart hurts. I didn't want to be a burden.
Even if the older sisters and brothers don't know, I felt inferior being worse than even the younger Seung-yeop and A-ri.
At least A-ri is a trainee at the Disaster Management Bureau, and Seung-yeop was just a middle school student,
but he died after risking his life to save Ga-in oppa.
What am I even doing?
While I was immersed in gloomy thoughts, the operation was finalized.
I... headed to the outer edge of the pen again, thinking I'd just watch the goblin one more time today with nothing to do.
Late at night.
Only after the darkness deepened to the point where I really wouldn't be able to see my own body without the grace of the moon hanging in the clear sky—
A dark form appeared.
Same as yesterday.
The moment the form appeared, silence descended upon the entire world.
As if nothing had happened, the animals grew quiet, and the voices of the farm family who seemed to be having murmuring meetings all night completely disappeared.
The dark form looked around as if observing something...
And then approached 'me'.
It was certain. Even without eyes and with an uncertain form, I could tell.
This existence, just like yesterday, approached me consciously today too.
Was it because it was the second time? It wasn't endlessly terrifying like yesterday.
A long tentacle extended from the approaching form.
As if the pen's wall had become some kind of liquid, it pierced through and patted my head again.
Next, it messed around with the feathers I had arranged with my beak.
What could it be. This attitude was somewhat... familiar.
About 30 minutes passed like that.
The dark form disappeared into thin air, melting away just as it had appeared without any warning, just like when it first showed up.
[User: Han Ga-in (Ji-hye)
Date: Day 13
Current Location: Layer 1, Room 103 (Cursed Room - Animal Farm)
Sage's Advice: 3]
I woke up as soon as the morning sun rose. The leg pain that had kept me awake all night had also subsided a little.
From today on, I'm really busy!
At the very least, the meaningless period of sitting blankly in the stall going 'moo' was over.
Was it the same for the others?
Everyone started the 'morning operation briefing' in earnest.
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Night watch? Gun?
Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Gun ruined
Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Operation commence. Cat, pig, dog start! Cow on standby. I'll take position
Now, it's truly beginning. It's time to return the pain we've suffered.
The terrible 4th day on Animal Farm.
We finally began the farm collapse operation.