It was a boring day, as always. Park Jimin thought to himself as he tapped the cart handle in his hand. His hand, clad in a spotless white glove, rhythmically struck the metal.
It had been two years since he started working at this hotel. He’d graduated from a renowned four-year university in Seoul and thought a bright future awaited him, but all he managed was delivering hotel room service.
No time to study, a position with no room for further advancement. And it wasn’t a job he could do forever. It wasn’t a specialized profession—anyone with a decent personality could replace him. There were employment policies in place, so he wouldn’t be tossed out like garbage on a whim, but it was still a workplace where he couldn’t just blindly run his happiness circuits.
Still, maybe because it was a fairly high-end hotel, the pay was good, which was a relief… but whenever he saw his friends landing jobs at corporations, he couldn’t help but grow anxious.
“Haah… maybe I should’ve just gone abroad to study.”
Just as he muttered that, the elevator arrived. Jimin ceased his musings and stepped into the elevator with his cart.
“Let’s see… Room 1503.”
After checking the note attached to the cart, he firmly pressed the button labeled 15th floor.
Rumble!
At that moment, just as the doors began to close, a man and a woman dashed up and pressed the up button. The elevator, about to depart, halted, and the doors slid open again.
It was a mundane occurrence, so Jimin looked at the uninvited guests without much reaction.
“Phew, we’re not late.”
“Don’t rush so much. You’ll get hurt.”
A man draped head to toe in black. And a white-haired woman holding a massive camera. Jimin saw the woman’s face and involuntarily gaped.
‘Holy shit… she’s goddamn beautiful…’
A beauty so stunning it could not only slap the faces of celebrities in the media but could enter the UFC and have everyone nod in understanding. Her long eyelashes swept downward, and her indifferent eyes gave off a cold impression, yet that very coldness became a painting in itself. Her breathtaking figure needed no explanation.
‘Is the tattoo on her belly her boyfriend’s taste? Fuck, I’m so jealous…’
Jimin clicked his tongue inwardly and looked at the man. Annoying as it was, the man also boasted an exceptionally outstanding appearance.
At least, he wasn’t the type of handsome commonly seen in the media. Meaning, his looks weren’t mass-produced in a factory.
Thinking how he’d like to live with looks like that just once, Jimin gave a slight bow to the pair. It was the proper etiquette as an employee.
Then, the man also bowed his head toward him.
“Ah, sorry. We’re in a bit of a hurry. Taking the stairs would’ve been too high to climb…”
“It’s fine. What floor are you headed to? I’ll press it for you.”
“13th floor. Thank you.”
The man bowed his head once more. Jimin put on his business smile and pressed the button for the 13th floor.
No additional passengers boarded, so the elevator doors closed and it began its ascent. Since it wasn’t a high-speed elevator, the climb wasn’t particularly fast.
2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor.
Watching the slowly changing numbers, the woman spoke up.
“It doesn’t stop in between. Are there not many guests using the elevator?”
“Ah, this elevator can only go up from the 1st floor, and on the other floors you can only go down. The one right next to it can do both, up and down.”
Jimin answered. He tried to be as polite as possible, and with a tone he himself thought was cool, he showed a satisfied expression. The woman thanked him for it.
“Thank you. So, this elevator will keep operating until we reach the 13th and 15th floors?”
“Yes, yes. It’s designed so guests can reach their rooms quickly.”
“I see. Thanks for letting me know. Now I don’t have to worry about drawing attention.”
“Excuse me?”
There was no time to ask what she meant. The woman pulled something resembling a remote control from her pocket and pressed a button. The elevator’s lights flickered once, then returned to normal.
But the CCTV didn’t.
Crack.
A white film coated over the CCTV in the corner. From Jimin’s angle, it wasn’t visible, so he just frowned up at the flickering elevator.
“What the hell? Did it suddenly break down?”
No answer came back. Instead, the sound of a lighter, *fwoosh*, spread out. Jimin reflexively turned his head.
Right beside him.
The sight of the man lighting the lantern at his waist was fully caught in Jimin’s gaze.
He freaked out.
“W-Wait a moment, sir! No fire in the elevator! It could set off the fire alarm… and…”
Jimin’s words gradually slurred and then vanished.
His pupils dilated like a drug addict’s, and drool dripped from his mouth, still open from speaking. As if strength had left his spine, his upper body slumped crookedly.
His mouth kept twitching as if trying to say something, likely hallucinating. The fact that he wasn’t seizing probably meant the hallucinatory symptoms weren’t that severe.
Ian looked at Jimin, his pupils trembling, and let out a slow breath.
“Hypnosis success. Leaving him like that won’t cause much of a problem. It’ll wear off on its own before any permanent damage sets in.”
“…Impressive. Just lighting a lantern produces such a rapid hypnotic effect…”
Alisa was genuinely amazed.
She’d also fallen into a hallucination just like Jimin, but had been freed in a single second according to Ian’s will. Thanks to that, she could feel the lantern’s power more acutely than anyone else.
“It felt like my head was emptying out completely. And… well, it felt like I was dreaming, I guess. Anyway, a world with no sense of reality unfolded before my eyes… If I’d been even a little slower, I think I would’ve drawn my sword right there.”
“It’s an object that breaks down the boundary between reality and dreams. Are you alright now?”
“Yeah. I’m completely fine.”
“Good then.”
Ian answered indifferently and stared at the CCTV mounted in the elevator.
“More importantly, is that thing completely blocked? It’d be a headache if we get caught.”
“Don’t worry. Right now, the CCTV will only show that man and the two of us just standing there normally. The effective time is short, but it should be more than enough to escape before anyone suspects anything.”
Saying so, Alisa pulled out a black mask from her pocket and put it on. Covering her lower face, she looked down at the silver tray loaded on the cart.
Rattle.
She lifted the lid to reveal a steak, steam rising from it. Beside it sat a grilled lobster with butter and a roasted chicken leg. It seemed quite a lavish room service order had been placed.
But these dishes wouldn’t reach their original owner. Ian popped a French fry that came with the steak into his mouth, pulled out the grimoire, and grinned.
“Room service train, departing though no one ordered it. All aboard.”
[Choo choo!]
Holmes cleverly added a sound effect. Alisa let out a sigh.
*
Shlurk!
A sharp piece of metal pierced Darko’s throat. His face, which had been smiling brightly, was now dyed in crimson, and soon he fell backwards, limp. Irene, wiping the blood from her cheek, proceeded to hack away at his fallen neck. Flesh tore, and blood vessels snapped.
Watching that scene, another Darko sitting on the sofa spoke.
“Ugh, you kill them so brutally. They’re all personalities with egos, you know. You shouldn’t treat them like mannequins.”
“What does it matter, they’re not the main body? There’s no real issue if you kill them all.”
“Haha! Even though you say that, I know you love me. That’s what they call a tsundere, right?”
Bang!
Irene slammed a lead bullet into the forehead of the loudly chattering Darko. His eyes rolled back and he died on the spot, and another Darko who had been cleaning the bloodstains on the floor clicked his tongue.
“I don’t know why he acts up like that when there’s nothing good about provoking you. He should just quietly do his work…”
“Ahem! Darko No. 12! Life is all about stimulation! Without dopamine, people end up with Lou Gehrig’s disease!”
A Darko lying on the bed enjoying internet gambling cut in. Darko No. 12 sighed deeply, scrubbing a wet mop over the floor.
“Too much dopamine is poison, too.”
“Poison gets detoxified when you die anyway! And the estrogen and dopamine that gush out just before dying are a delicacy! You have to enjoy it!”
“It’s not estrogen, it’s adrenaline, you idiot. Who the hell split off and made this ignorant one?”
“Ignorant? Did you just call me ignorant, you piece-of-shit janitor?”
“Then who else here is ignorant besides you—”
Crack!
Darko smashed another Darko’s jaw with his knuckle-clad hand. Teeth flew out, and Darko rained down punches continuously.
“Die! Die, you fucking bastard! The only one in this world who can call me ignorant is me!”
“Tsk.”
Bang.
Irene walked up behind the Darko who was mercilessly hammering with his fists and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew without resistance, entered the back of his head, and burst from his forehead. The limp body crumpled to the floor, piling up.
Irene wiped the sweat from her forehead as she looked at the scene.
“That’s how many I’ve killed so far?”
“A total of 13, Irene. 17 more to go.”
A bespectacled Darko approached her and said. Irene nodded and plunged a dagger into his side. Organs spilled from the torn hole, and Darko twitched before dying.
“Now 16 left. So 16 more… roughly how long will that take?”
“Considering the risk, probably by tomorrow. Today, I can only create about 7 more at most.”
Darko No. 3. The one who had first followed Irene’s summons into the room said this with a grin. Marianne watched and clicked her tongue.
“Does it not bother you at all, seeing yourself die?”
“Hmm? Yes, it doesn’t bother me at all. Those ones are completely different people from me, to begin with. They just look the same, we share nothing. Rather, the more splits continue, the more intense the emotional torrents, the lower the intelligence, and the more jumbled the memories become, so compared to me, No. 3, they’re practically beasts. And I’m no vegan who mourns the death of animals.”
Darko shrugged his shoulders. Marianne gave up on talking with the madman and leaned back against the sofa. Then, she stared out the window.
‘Master, when will you come…?’
It was the moment she thought that.
Ding!
The doorbell rang once, out of the blue. The movements of the three people stopped abruptly, and Irene fixed the firmly closed door with a cold stare.
“…Did anyone order anything?”
She asked. Darko and Marianne answered immediately.
“I didn’t.”
“Me neither.”
“…Then what is it?”
“Umm… Ah, maybe it’s the person from the next room who came because we were too noisy? We were quite loud, after all.”
Darko flashed a smile as he spoke. Irene considered the plausibility of his statement, then sighed and slumped onto the sofa.
Frankly speaking, they had been quite noisy. No matter how excellent the hotel’s soundproofing was, they had fired guns, sliced people, and even screamed. If someone normal couldn’t stand it and came over, that was understandable.
If this were the U.S., the sound of gunshots would’ve brought the police, but Korea was a country where firearms were prohibited. Most people would just think it was game sound effects with the volume cranked too high.
Irene pulled a small sketchbook from her bosom and muttered curtly at Darko.
“Send them away appropriately. If they saw the bloodstains, kill them.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Darko rose from his seat and approached the entrance. Without even checking the security peephole on the door, he swung it open and spoke to the person standing opposite.
“Oh my, sorry! We were a bit loud, weren’t we? Haha, we’ll quiet down now… huh.”
He stopped speaking and blinked his eyes.
“…It’s not a person?”
In front of the open door. Right below Darko.
Rattle.
A single, unaccompanied room service cart sat there, having lost its owner.
A cart loaded with various wines, champagne, and drinks. At its center, a main dish covered by a silver lid showed off its presence. Darko saw this and burst into a chuckle.
“What’s this? Free room service? Do they do this in Korea, too?”
He downed the champagne from the glass in one go and, staring at the silver lid that was quivering on its own, yelled out to Irene.
“Irene! It was nothing! Just free room service, though the main dish is moving a bit on its own!”
“…Free room service? The main dish is moving?”
Just as Irene tilted her head, picking up on the contradiction in Darko’s words—
Screeech.
The silver lid slid to the side, making a sharp noise. Through the slightly opened gap, a dark red tentacle wriggled, and then it tore the lid off entirely.
The lid, split into two pieces, fell to the floor. The tray, having lost its covering, revealed the food placed upon it in full.
“…….”
A red body. A creature the size of a human head, with razor-sharp spiral teeth densely packed in the center and its entire body covered in hard, sharp tentacles.
[Kiek.]
The seafood, unlike anything Darko had ever seen in his life, let out a bizarre sound and opened its maw. Inside it, a cube made of flesh backwashed out. The fist-sized cube moved the eyeballs on its corners to exactly fix Darko in its sight.
[Ah.]
Grin.
The corners of its mouth twitched. With a crackling sound, the center of the cube began to open.
“Ah, Блять.”
Muttering ‘fuck’ in Russian, he hastily turned his head toward Irene and Marianne and shouted.
“It’s an atta—!”
Crunch!
Before he could even finish, the Messenger moved its tentacle and pierced Darko’s throat. Not satisfied with that, it tore through his lungs and abdomen as well. His body, shredded to tatters in an instant, was devoured by the now enormous cube.
[Ah.]
Grraaakk crunch!
The sound of bones and muscles being chewed alive echoed vividly. The body, its upper half gone, collapsed to the floor without resistance, and the cube shrank back to its original state, letting out a belch. The Messenger licked the blood from the tips of its tentacles and, with the Schemer on its back, leaped off the cart.
Soon, it charged into Room 1306, letting out a shriek.
[Kieeeeeeeeeek!!!]