Chapter 99
“Damn it.”
As soon as I arrived at the study, the message filling my vision made me mutter a curse. That damn evil spirit must have already regained consciousness.
But moments like these require calm. I steadied my breathing, recalled my memories from the game, and crouched down under the desk.
“As expected.”
Lifting the carpet on the floor, I saw a black safe standing out unnaturally between the wooden boards. The safe was embedded flat with the floor, and in its center was a combination lock dial.
In the game, I simply had to press the correct number buttons, but here, a combination lock? It suited a world without electronics, but it was tricky to open.
One false move and you could easily fail even knowing the correct numbers. I’d experienced the frustration of failing to open these locks countless times, and this sight alone made me want to curse.
“Damn, no conscience at all. This is basically a death sentence!”
The only consolation was that this infuriating lock, while rare in Korea, was common in the country where I’d studied abroad.
Since I used one to open my school locker every day, I knew how it worked. But because it’s so easy to mess up, I had to be extremely careful.
The combination was three digits. And if the game’s settings still held, the numbers corresponded to the number of deer heads mounted in each room by Rudolf Midas.
Seeing the deer head engraving on the lock, memories from the game surged, and my anger flared again.
That was probably the only clue, right?
“Game room, study, bedroom.”
In the game, I had to search every room of the mansion to find those deer heads—and died many times in the process.
Fortunately, having played this chapter dozens of times, I couldn’t forget those rooms even if I tried. The memories were so vivid that I could easily recite them without effort.
I even remembered the order to input the numbers because I’d tried all six possible combinations. At first, I thought it was random and stupid, but after dying countless times, I realized there was a set rule.
So I had to enter the number of deer heads found in each room in this exact order: game room, study, bedroom. Regardless, it was a ridiculous game.
“There were four in the game room, three in the study.”
I reset the dial by spinning it clockwise several times, then began entering the numbers.
“4… 3…”
Click, click.
Each rotation made a chilling sound. I felt like pouring oil on it to stop the dreadful noise.
“In the bedroom… in the bedroom…”
I hesitated before the last digit. Damn it, I’d overlooked a problem.
“There were none in the bedroom?”
The small bedroom, the last location—no deer heads.
Could it be that the bedroom with the clue wasn’t that one? Maybe I mistook a guest room for the clue room…?
“No, I went by the map and to the best of my memory, that’s the right room.”
Was the game’s setting different from reality? Should I check other rooms now?
[The evil spirit ‘Rudolf Midas’ is hunting.]
The message in front of me cut off my thoughts. There was absolutely no time.
How many rooms were in this mansion? It would be lucky not to have died by the time I checked two.
“What’s the last number… what was it?”
The number of deer heads changed every time I died and restarted, so memorizing the numbers from the game wouldn’t guarantee the correct answer here.
In the midst of confusion, a sudden possibility struck me like a rope descending into a dark field.
“Could it be…”
With trembling hands, I cautiously turned the dial. The previous number was 3, so the interval I turned it was extremely short.
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