Chapter 97 – Just Break the Air Conditioner

You go to a warehouse where prime suspects often come and go to cover serial murders. But the suspect has been waiting for you, and stuns him with his blunt weapon. Soon after, he comes to his senses, but is trapped in this closed room. Get out of here before the killer comes!

… Was an escape room setting.

The staff said to us who covered our eyes with eye patches.

“The time limit is 1 hour, 3 hints for the walkie-talkie and 1 time for the skill hint. I’ll give you a total of 4 hints. Good luck, then.”

After he said that, he let go of my hand and heard the door slam shut.

I was at a loss because this was my first time, but I heard Se-hee’s voice from behind.

“Now you can remove the blindfold.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Okay. Whoa~”

The Demon King removed his hand from his shoulder and sighed as he took off his eyepatch. Then he looked at me with a mischievous face and whispered.

“Are you excited?”

Ah little

No matter what I say here, I will say that I am excited to escape the room, I gave up nagging, thinking.

Instead, he took off his blindfold and looked around.

“It’s kind of scary, isn’t it?”

True to its name, the secret room of a serial killer, a red light came out from the ceiling and cold air blew from the air conditioner with an English logo. Dark red paint was applied to the gray cement walls. On top of the cabinet standing next to it, there was a green plastic basket the employee had been holding earlier and a walkie-talkie in it.

As I calmly looked around, Sehee urged me.

“Brother, what are you doing?”

“Uh?”

“Time passes faster than you think.”

There was an electronic clock with red numbers on the wall she pointed to. The clock already told me there were 58 minutes left.

“Uh, okay. Sorry. So what can I find now?”

“Anything.”

“What? Anything? Is there a problem of ‘solve something’ or something like that?”

“Why does a serial killer give me trouble? If you release it, the prey will run away.”

That’s it again If that’s the case, why would a serial killer give clues to get out of here? Isn’t that strange too?

When I said this, Sehee, who had been looking around, turned to me.

“Brother. This is an escape room.”

“Oh right.”

“Find it quickly. My sister too.”

“Hmm?”

It was the first time the demon king came here, so he just looked around. When she was pointed out, she gave her a sloppy nod and started looking again.

“Um, don’t do that. Hmm.”

It seemed that he had no interest in solving the problem. Or maybe it was because it was so strange that he seemed to have lost his mind.

Anyway, I looked around to get a little bit of what I paid for. But what I could see inside was a locked chest of drawers, a closet, and a bloody burlap sack that looked like it was holding a corpse.

Wait for a sec.

I asked Sehee as I walked to the sack.

“Sehee. What could be in here?”

“Not there, brother.”

“Just look, it’s here. It looks suspicious.”

“It says below that it doesn’t matter.”

“Uh?”

Certainly, as Sehee said, I could see a white plastic plate underneath. There it was written that this item has nothing to do with the quiz.

“No.”

With a disappointed tone, he turned away from the battery. Then the demon king, who was still playing, laughed at me.

“Ahahaha! Let’s see what ruined it by overthinking it like that!”

“Noisy! Then what did you do!”

“Hey, is that a load? Do you think Jim didn’t do anything?”

It was quite a dignified appearance for looking around the inside blankly.

“You have a problem with that. You judge people based on their first impressions.”

“No, what the hell did you do?”

“Look at these!”

The demon king stretched out his arm exaggeratedly and pointed at the red-painted wall.

“This bloodstain! It just seems to bounce randomly, but it actually points in a certain direction.”

“Sister. I already solved that. Please find another one.”

“What, what? Did you solve it?”

“Really?”

I also looked at Se-hee in surprise like the demon king. Conscious of our gaze, she showed her open lock.

“Because I solved it. Look.”

“No, how did you solve it?”

“Look at the bloodstains you mentioned over there. Each of them points in a certain direction, and two or three drops of blood splattered in the direction they pointed. So I moved in that direction and as much as the blood that splattered. Like this.”

Clap clap clap!

Se-hee showed me how to unlock the round button on the lock by moving it up, down, left and right. Then he smiled at his sister.

“I am also a sister. It’s the first time, but I’m noticing this.”

“Uh? Um, haha! As expected, Sehee! Not even noticing that!”

It was so shameless.

“Do not lie! I didn’t know until Se-hee said it!”

“What? Do you have proof? I have proof!”

“The fact that you’re so angry right now is proof!”

“Bring physical evidence, not heart evidence! How can you reprimand Jim without knowing this! Do you think someone hasn’t investigated thugs!”

Even copying lines from famous movies, he is a demon king. She was angry at her like this, and it was cute that she pretended not to know when she was obvious.

I couldn’t say anything more, so after stroking the demon king’s silver hair,

“Aww, yes. Let’s do something like that.”

“What… !”

“What came out of that?”

Sehee turned her attention to the chest of drawers she had unpacked.

“This is it.”

What came out of the drawer was a resident registration card. Of course, it wasn’t real, it was a fake made by coating the printed paper. Looking at the red paint, it looked like something belonging to the victim.

Holding the evidence, she pointed to her identification card and tried to solve the puzzle.

“This is probably, this way,”

“Wait for a sec.”

I stopped Sehee from trying to solve it first.

“Yes?”

“Sehee, I’m sorry. Can’t we solve this?”

“Oh, sorry. Solve it alone.”

“No. Things like that happen, too. I’m sorry we couldn’t.”

“You! Jim was doing well!”

“Don’t lie! And, we should enjoy this together. We’ll solve it first, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll leave it up to you. Are you okay?”

“Hmm…”

She pondered for a moment as she groaned. But despite her worries, she nodded her head neatly.

“Yes, that is fine.”

“Really?”

“Sure. And as my brother said earlier. They said they came to ‘have fun’ together.”

Se-hee’s eyes, looking at me, seemed to be full of greed for some reason.

Is it because the lights are red?

I guess I got permission anyway. I approached the demon king and asked.

“Sohee, look at this. Let’s unpack this.”

“Hmm? Let’s see.”

“If you see anything that comes to mind, let me know right away.”

“Wait a minute, that’s too far. Come see me.”

“Like this? Can I do this?”

“No. More.”

“Isn’t this enough?”

“… It’s because I can’t understand the language like this!”

Wow!

“What?!”

Suddenly, the demon king put his arm around my neck. Then he said playfully with his upper body in close contact.

“This way, you can see the lovely you better, right?”

I thought my heart would stop at the sight of her wicked smile and sweet scent. The demon king looked at that day with blue eyes, and he said as if he was about to hit the final blow.

“It’s revenge for stroking it earlier.”

“!”

“Hmm ♪”

Her head was hot enough to make her dizzy from the hum in her ears.

“…”

And Sehee watched all of this.

“Hey, Sehee is watching!”

“All right. It’s not like we’re secretly dating anyway.”

If that’s the case, why were you ashamed of entwining your fingers earlier?!

I looked at the demon king with absurd eyes, then moved my gaze to Se-hee, who was staring at us. She was watching us slowly, the corners of her mouth raised.

Sehee said that she came to ‘have fun’ together. I didn’t know it then, but now I understand what he meant.

“Hey you… !”

“Brother. Aren’t you going to solve it?”

Even after receiving my gaze, Se-hee urged it casually.

“I don’t have much time. Solve it quickly.”

“Did you hear Sehee?”

The Demon King, more shameless than her own brother, clung to me and said.

“You don’t have much time. Hurry up and solve it.”

At this time, I felt that the only way to be released from this bondage was to solve this problem.

“Okay. Let’s solve it quickly!”

Shaking my head, I looked at the ID that Sehee had taken out earlier. The Korean name didn’t seem to represent numbers or letters, and the same was true of the date of birth. The only thing that stood out here was the English name.

“Look.”

I raised my hand and pointed to the English name written on the ID card. Upon seeing this, the Demon King asked as if he had no idea.

“Hmm? What does this matter?”

“Why does Minjeung have an English name? They are all Chinese names.”

“Right!”

I looked at Sehee to see if it was correct.

Nod

If she was right, she nodded her head with the corner of her mouth raised. Encouraged by that, I immediately pointed to the next clue.

“You can break the air conditioner.”

“What!”

“Yes?!”

For some reason, Sehee reacted violently. I was taken aback by her appearance and asked her what I thought.

“No?”

“No!”

“No, there is an English name on the ID and an English logo on the air conditioner?”

“The thing on the air conditioner is the company logo! Not a clue!”

“Jiheon is right.”

The Demon King added credibility to my words.

“Look. Isn’t it suspicious that cold air comes out of the air conditioner?”

“Isn’t it because it’s summer?”

“No matter how you look at it, it’s award-winning. Take a look at it once,”

“If you break it, you have to pay for it!”

“Don’t worry about that. Sohee and I will compensate for that.”

“That’s not the problem!”

It was the first time Sehee was so surprised. It’s the first time I’ve been in the position of nagging, so it couldn’t have been this much fun.

Still, the problem had to be solved, so I said the correct solution again.

“It’s a joke. Only the first letter in this English name is capitalized. Look for a specific order first and there.”

He pointed to the lock on the cabinet. The lock had to be in alphabetical order to open.

“You can just type it in the lock over there.

However, the demon king intervened in my answer.

“Hot! That’s what Jim wants to say!”

“When did you say that?”

“Well, you said that earlier. A moment ago.”

“So when?”

“Noisy! Hurry up and start typing!”

“Enter what! I need to find an order!”

“Order? Perhaps the order you speak of,”

Her words slurred, she untied her arms and moved towards one side of her wall. What the demon king showed with a meaningful smile was,

“Is this order?”

It was the name written on the ID card, excluding the surname.

“Uh! That!”

“I knew Jim from the moment you showed me your ID!”

Congrats on getting one right.

Still, it was cute to see him smiling confidently. I raised the corners of my mouth and asked Sehee.

“Should I type in my name now?”

“Great.”

“Can Jim type in this one?”

“So what am I going to do next?”

“Let it be.”

We got together amicably with a lock whose alphabet is the password. From there, I entered the initials in the order the demon king told me.

Clap!

The lock opened easily, and the demon king’s eyes twinkled at the sound of it opening.

“Ho! Did you see this!”

“I saw it. Let’s open it now.”

I removed the open lock and opened the cabinet. Then another room appeared. What I thought was a cabinet was the door to the next level.

A new room appeared and Se-hee spat out words full of curiosity and excitement to us who were distracted.

“Now, what problems await?”