I’m Not a Bad Person, I’m a Pitiable Person 41

Why does it feel like I’m surrounded by nothing but perverts.

I flatly rejected Lulu’s request and opened the bathroom door.

“…..”

For a moment, the door felt heavy. But that weight vanished as quickly as it came, as if I’d imagined it. When I opened the door, Yeom Hajae was standing right in front of the bathroom.

“That took a while.”

“You waited, didn’t you? Sorry about that.”

Yeom Hajae’s expression was more relaxed than it had been right before I went in.

This bastard…

He’d clearly had his ear pressed against the door.

Is he suspicious of us?

Still, since we’d kept our voices as low as possible, he probably hadn’t heard the content of the conversation. I put a hand on Lulu’s shoulder.

“This guy’s got a bad stomach.”

“Hehe, sorry about that.”

Lulu played along, scrunching his brow slightly.

He’d apparently tried to straighten himself up a bit, but his uniform’s ribbon was crooked. I roughly fixed the ribbon’s balance with one hand.

“The lobby’s this way!”

After walking a little down the hallway, we soon reached the lobby. We were passing single-file in front of the front desk when Lulu came to an unnatural stop.

As Lulu headed toward the desk, Yeom Hajae shone his flashlight that way. I deliberately kept some distance and watched Lulu’s movements.

Lulu scurried ahead and bent down.

He disappeared behind the desk for a moment, then reappeared. He came toward us with his fist clenched, looking triumphant.

“Did you find a key?”

In response to Yeom Hajae’s question, Lulu raised one hand instead of answering. A glinting key sat in his palm.

“Guess we don’t have to make the trek all the way up to the 31st floor!”

Lulu winked at me.

“Well, that’s lucky.”

Yeom Hajae looked a bit dazed by how suddenly the situation had resolved itself, but since Lulu and I were acting natural about it, he followed along without complaint.

He really was easy to handle. Unlike a certain someone from the same guild.

Lulu said he’d go disable the alarm and went into the room behind the desk. Yeom Hajae and I stayed outside to keep an eye on things.

I went over to the hotel entrance, wondering if anything had changed. The door was still surrounded by what looked like sturdy iron plating.

Clank!

Just then, the sound of some mechanism moving could be heard—Lulu must have done something from inside. We stood in front of the slowly opening iron door and waited.

We watched the heavy iron door slowly rising for a moment.

Clunk.

“I wonder if something went wrong…”

The iron door stopped halfway up. At this rate, we couldn’t get a clear view of the outside. Beyond the iron door, a glass entrance door blocked the way.

I crouched down and ducked under the iron door. Yeom Hajae frowned.

“It’s, kind of hot.”

“Yeah, it really is.”

The air was humid and hot enough to feel physically against your skin.

Outside the glass, something like fog hung thick. On top of that, the glass had fogged up so much you couldn’t see a thing beyond it.

I hesitated, then placed a hand against the glass door. It was warm.

This is ominous.

There was no fire or light on this side. Maybe this heat was coming from whatever smoke was on the other side. I pushed down the anxiety rising in me instinctively and grabbed the door handle.

“…I’ll open it.”

“Okay.”

Yeom Hajae nodded. After seeing him draw his sword, I pushed the door open. The heavy glass door opened more smoothly than expected.

And then—

“Ugh!”

The moment the door opened, a wave of hot air rushed in from outside.

I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve. It felt exactly like stepping into a fire scene. Looking back, Yeom Hajae seemed to be having just as hard a time, shaking his head. The only one unaffected was Whitey, who was clinging to the iron door, watching us from inside the building.

We can’t go out like this.

The air was way too hot. Outside was probably even worse. Just as I was about to close the door again—

“Kreeek!”

Whitey, inside the building, let out a cry. As if giving a signal. When I lifted my lowered head, I saw something black moving rapidly closer beyond the glass door.

“!”

Instinctively dodging, I got tangled up with Yeom Hajae and we both fell sideways.

Whoosh!

Something unidentifiable shot past us and went inside. The door shook and rattled from the impact, so I hurriedly pulled Yeom Hajae back into the hotel.

“Hyung?”

Yeom Hajae called out to me, confused. I swallowed.

“…Something got in.”

“What?”

“Inside, something…”

Having apparently finished his work, Lulu came out of the control room.

“Senior! How’s it looking outside?!”

“We need to,”

We needed to lower the iron door again. Just as I was about to say that—

Thud!

A dull noise, like something fairly large colliding with something. The conversation stopped. We all turned our heads at the same time, as if on cue.

We couldn’t see outside, but faint light and shadow reached into the hotel lobby. There seemed to be quite a few of them, judging by how the shapes overlapped. All we could make out were what looked like frog-like feet.

Lulu lowered his stance as if about to bolt forward, and Yeom Hajae readjusted his grip on his sword.

Crash!

The glass shattered.

Monsters that had broken through the door with their bodies came pouring toward the iron door. Seeing this, Lulu started running a beat late.

Lulu dashed forward like the wind and grabbed the iron door, which was raised about halfway.

“Hyaaap!”

Bang!

Through sheer superhuman strength, the iron door came back down.

“Haa, ha…”

Lulu let go of the dented iron door and laughed weakly.

“That was close.”

“Kgrrrr.”

Cold sweat ran down my back. I didn’t say it out loud, but I felt exactly the same way. If we’d had to fight with that heat constantly pouring in, I’d have definitely passed out.

“I must’ve hit the wrong button—it only went up halfway.”

The hotel’s safety mechanism, which I’d thought of as an obstacle, had ended up protecting us.

“Hunter, the detector?”

“…!”

At that, Yeom Hajae frantically dug through his pocket. Had he completely forgotten he even had it…?

I rubbed at the back of my neck, stiff with tension.

Until now, I’d been focused on the fact that we were trapped. So all I’d been thinking about was getting outside… but now that I’d confirmed the escape route, we needed a plan.

“I hope it’s close by. Lulu hates anything hot.”

I agreed with that sentiment. The temperature outside wasn’t enough to cause burns from a brief exposure, but it would be too much for an extended search.

The situation was sigh-worthy enough that I glanced toward the front desk. That was where the druggie was sprawled out.

What am I even doing, going through all this just to save that piece of human garbage.

Yeom Hajae opened the detector’s lid. From the impact, the hexahedron suspended in the center swung back and forth.

We waited anxiously for the swinging to settle. After a moment passed…

“…..”

“Huh?”

It stopped.

“The direction changed. Until just now it was pointing outside…”

The hexagon was now tilted at a slight angle, pointing diagonally upward.

“Don’t tell me, that monster that went in earlier…”

“Wow! We’re so lucky!”

Lulu, bouncing with excitement, grabbed onto my arm.

“The boss monster’s in here, right?”

“Who knows. Just from this… it might be somewhere on the building’s outer wall too.”

“Ehh.”

I said that, but given that direction, there was a high chance it was on one of the upper floors.

I let out a breath of relief. It seemed the core was somewhere inside the building.

I relaxed and leaned against the bar table.

…….

For a brief moment, a flicker of unease crossed my mind.

Up, 31st floor, the druggie’s room…?

No way.

What were the odds of that? If it really were true, that’d be too much of a coincidence.

“Lulu’s thirsty.”

“Here, water.”

Yeom Hajae, who’d been by the water dispenser, handed Lulu a cup. Cups were placed beside Whitey and me too, but Whitey didn’t even touch its tongue to the water.

Yeom Hajae approached hesitantly and whispered in my ear.

“Thanks for covering for me earlier.”

“I’m pretty agile, after all.”

I smiled lightly and lifted the cup.

“Ugh.”

I took a sip of water and felt something strange against my lips.

Startled, I looked into the cup. There were small dots stuck densely along the inside wall of the cup. Looking closer, it seemed like a transparent membrane was wrapped around each dot. They were so small, and the surroundings so dark, that I hadn’t noticed them until now.

But the more I looked at it, the more the foreign object looked like…

Frog eggs?

The vague memory of slimy skin I’d glimpsed earlier came to mind. My face twisted in disgust.

As I sat there frozen with a grimace, Yeom Hajae peered over.

“Ah! That one looks like it was already sitting there… this is the new one.”

Only then did I notice the other cup. It seemed I’d picked up the cup that had been sitting there instead of the one Yeom Hajae had handed me.

Yeom Hajae looked into the cup I’d set down and went pale.

“Wh-what is this? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, well…”

“Huh? What’s going on?”

Even Lulu, paper cup in mouth, butted in. I waved a hand dismissively.

Fuck, I think I swallowed one of those…

An unpleasant feeling welled up against my will. But my pride wouldn’t allow making a fuss over something like this.

Who did they think I was? I was a man who’d survived eating actual frog eggs before.

…That definitely wasn’t a real egg, right?

The anxiety kept rising, but I gave a small shake of my head to brush it off.

Everyone had caught their breath, so it was about time to move.

“Let’s head up the stairs floor by floor and try to pinpoint the monster’s location.”

“Okayy.”

“Yes.”

***

After the three of them left.

In the paper cup left behind, a black circle sat inside, still wrapped in its transparentent membrane.

Wriggle.

A tail poked out from the black circle.