Escaping the Mystery Hotel

– Yu Songee

I had never been this scared in my life.

Having my feathers plucked to death while alive. 

It would be way better if they would just snap my neck and kill me. In that case, I could die with an easy mind with the belief that the oppas and the unnis would escape this room but…

I gazed around the enclosed geese farm. It was fairly big and there was an astonishingly large number of geese. 

It would be very unlikely for me to be chosen even if I stayed still but just to be sure, I decided to distance myself from the door as much as possible.

While tottering my way to the corner, I bumped against the beaks and butts of other geese as they quacked in irritation but I didn’t bother with them.

I’m sorry but please die for me. A thinking goose should live and see the light of the day right?

Of course, not every goose would die from having their feathers plucked, and in fact most of them would survive but…

Whatever the case, I couldn’t have my feathers stolen. I could feel how soft and fluffy they were even when I touched them with my beak, and I definitely couldn’t get these taken away from me.

El Doggy (Elena): On our way!

Wolf Boy (Park Seungyub): Done with preparation.

I felt increasingly more nervous, but it should be okay. There were a lot of geese here and I was here in the corner, so why would they bother choosing me?

A man with a thick beard walked into the farm. Honestly, I was quite annoyed after seeing him.

Just pluck your own beard out! Why would you take the feathers of these poor geese?! We feel cold in the winter as well!

Pushing my butt into the corner as much as possible, I bit another goose with my beak and made it stand in front of me.

I’m sorry friend. But I’m sure you will protect me.

But that proved to be a mistake.

“QUAAACKKKK!!!!!!!”

A thunderous roar of a goose echoed across as the farmers immediately shifted their gazes over to me.

“What’s going on?”

“I saw it just then. That one over there used its beak to attack the one in front of it.”

“Oh dear. So it’s one of those naughty ones. Peter. It’s like this. If you leave those ones in the farm, they bicker with each other, get hurt by themselves and it becomes a mess. We have to get rid of those as soon as possible. Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll go get it.”

I didn’t hear everything that was being said. But what I did know was that the boy was walking straight with his eyes fixed on me.

It was doomed. I tried to have a mental conversation while feeling the tension rising inside but nothing happened.

Ah! We were at the conversation limit already! There was absolutely nothing left that I could do.

Soon, the tough fingers of the boy grabbed and pulled me up before shoving me into a wooden box. 

My feathers would now be plucked to death. I think I heard them say something about ‘getting rid of me,’ and I seriously might die after losing all my feathers.

So in Room 103, was I going to end up as goose meat?

An indescribable sense of despair was enshrouding me, but that was when salvation came knocking on the door.

Woof! Woof! Grrrrrr woof woof!!!

Awooooooo!!!!!!!! Awooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

What echoed was the barking noise of a dog and the howling sound of a wolf.

It was extremely obvious that something was going wrong and their expressions rapidly changed as they dashed outside with the geese behind their back.

“Peter!!!!! Go back to your room right now! Don’t let Mei come out of the room! Amy! My gun!!!!”

“I’m getting it right now! Be careful honey!”

“Hmph. It looks like a stray wolf or two. I’ll show him what’s up!”

I almost felt like tearing up. It was probably Elena-unni and Seungyub working together.

For now it was okay but… I was still inside the box so would that even change anything? Won’t they come back after chasing out the wolf?

The wolf howled. The dog barked as the sound of several gunshots echoed across the lands. 

The farmer shouted in fury; the girl screamed as the boy gasped in agitation.

Apart from that, the other animals of other barns were also causing a ruckus…

After 30 minutes of chaos filling the farm, another solace of salvation came to me in the midst of all the confusion.

Creak–

The moment I saw the lid of the box opening above me, I realised that I had made it out alive.

A golden dog carefully bit on my neck and carried me outside, and had a fight against another goose that was about the same size as me before just killing it and putting it inside the box.

So that was the friend who had to die in my stead. I’m a bit sorry but please understand. A thinking goose should stay alive.

Actually, when Elena was carrying me by the neck, I heard something snap. Or was it a crack?

In any case, it was the sound of something being cracked.

What was it?

There was nothing on my neck that would give off such a sound… I must have been hearing things.

In any case, everyone worked incredibly hard for me. Especially Seungyub could have gotten shot by the farmer’s gun if things went wrong!

Was he shot or was he okay? I hoped he was fine, while feeling greatly grateful to everyone.

I heard a moo from a distance. Was Kain-oppa showing his concern as well? Or was it just another cow shouting in a fluster?

While holding my breath, I quietly waited on the spot. 

2 more hours (?) went by.

Honestly, my sense of time became very ambiguous after I turned into an animal.

One by one, the family of farmers came back while looking extremely irritated. It sounded like they couldn’t catch the wolf.

It seemed that Seungyub was okay. That was great. If he was shot to death while trying to save me, then how tragic would that have been?

While quietly hiding myself in a corner of the farm, I watched the family walking up to the box.

“Hmm? Why is this guy dead? Peter, did you kill it?”

“No? I just grabbed it by the neck and threw it inside the box.”

“Looks like you grabbed a bit too hard. You probably made a mistake because of the sudden wolf.”

“Uhh… That’s strange. But I will be more careful next time.”

“Well, it’s not that big of a problem. We had to kill it anyway considering how naughty it was. Let’s go back now.”

Ahh… Somehow, I managed to stay alive. I felt sorry for the goose in the box that had to die instead of me, but the family couldn’t differentiate me from the other geese.

To be fair, it was impossible to imagine that a dog would swap the geese around, so that was quite natural.

As soon as the Discord channel comes back up tomorrow, I should say thanks to everyone.

Surviving through the hardship drained all the energy out of me in an instant. I blankly raised my head and turned to the sky to see that the sun was long gone, with only the moon enveloping the world and scattering its light.

According to what Ahri said in the morning, there appeared to be monsters at night in this world.

It was about time that I started helping people.

Even though Room 101 – the Strange Family was something Seungyub resolved by himself, I did nothing even after that at the pool, the hotel exploration and Room 102 – the Mansion of Fear.

Instead of helping out, I instead became possessed immediately after entering the mansion and annoyed everyone.

Even in Room 103, it was still the same. Some of the others were gathering pieces of information throughout the day and night, while some were attracting the eyes of the farmers by creating a fuss to save a goose from being plucked and yet…

I was still just a goose inside the farm. Why was I given a role like this where I couldn’t do anything?

No. It wasn’t the time to blame the Hotel. I had to be on the move to see if there was something I could do by myself.

It might be because I was barely able to escape death, but I didn’t feel sleepy either.

Now that it was nighttime, I decided to observe the monster as well. According to Ahri, it seemed uninterested in us so it should be okay.

While carefully tapping other geese with my beak, I moved to the outskirts of the geese farm where the wind was blowing in from the outside. The other geese seemed quite irritated.

Sorry friends but you see, a thinking goose has many things to do.

I slightly poked my head outside but couldn’t see anything.

Everything was literally dark and there was nothing entering my sight. I thought there was moonlight before though… Was it being blocked by the clouds?

Or did geese have a terrible sight?

No matter how much I turned my head, I couldn’t see anytuuaahhhhQUAKKKKKKKK!

Something enormous came down.

I instinctively quacked as I immediately realised what was going on. The moon wasn’t being blocked by the clouds!

Something too large for the eyes of a goose to fathom was standing right in front of the poultry farm!

My body froze on the spot from how surprising and frightening it was.

The black figure and the huge face of a giant came down as it gazed at the farm.

Actually, it wasn’t gazing at the farm.

That thing was looking at ‘me’. Even though I couldn’t see its eyes, I could still tell that it was observing me.

My body shivered. Only now did I realise how small and insignificant of a being I was.

Please don’t kill me. I don’t want to die like this.

That was the thought going down my mind so what happened next was very unexpected.

Something like a tentacle slithered out of the black figure and reached towards the farm, before pushing me back inside by gently tapping on my head.

It even felt like an intimate action, like that of an owner patting its pet and gently shoving them back into the house.

Five minutes went by and I finally came to myself. Even though I was a bird, my body felt like it was drenched in sweat because of all that tension.

The farm was quiet as if nothing happened.

It was strange.

I knew it all too well because I had raised dogs, cats and parrots ever since a young age.

Small animals were frightened very easily.

Parrots would scream from a dropping hanger and cling onto your shoulder; a dog would refuse to move away from your leg from a robot cleaner, and a cat would run away and scream from the mere sound of a shower.

Small animals knew exactly how weak they were even without being told by anyone.

It was embedded in the DNA they received from their ancestors for over millions of years. 

You are tiny specks of sand in this vastly immeasurable world and everything around you is a threat – that was what their DNA told them.

So why was it that this farm was so quiet even though there was something so frightening, that even the goose with the mind of a human couldn’t breathe properly in fear, right in front of the farm pushing its tentacle inside?

Not all of them were sleeping either. A large number of them were still awake and yet… They looked calm as if nothing happened. 

I should try talking to the others tomorrow, but I had the impression that we wouldn’t be able to come to any definite conclusions even with a discussion.

While thinking to myself that there were more and more mysteries that had to be answered, I pushed my beak under my wings.

I was somewhat getting used to the life of a goose. 

But seriously, I really liked how fluffy my feathers were. 

I had to protect them at any cost.