Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 519

◈ 519. Increasingly Unpredictable

“Why bother doing it that way?”

The group focused on Rembrary’s words simultaneously.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you saying there’s no need to distinguish?”

Rembrary nodded.

“Yes. Is there really a need to distinguish?”

“Are you saying…”

“Just that all six of us need to pass. Isn’t it just about surviving a week together?”

“!”

“Then it doesn’t matter who is who. Right? Everyone will return to their original selves once we’re out of the dungeon anyway.”

‘And we’ll find out who the fraud is,’ Rembrary omitted the last part, but everyone understood.

Even with Rembrary saying this, Geumsoo still looked unconvinced.

“What if there’s a culprit among us?”

“If there’s a culprit among us and they attack us, that person must be the fake. Either way, we have to take them out even if they’re playing the culprit role.”

He was worried that the word ‘culprit’ might trigger the ‘beep’ sound, but thankfully, it didn’t.

It seemed that the ‘beep’ wasn’t triggered because he wasn’t specifying anyone.

‘True. It would be natural to find the culprit and eliminate them beforehand.’

Rembrary nodded in agreement and warned the group, who all wore blank expressions.

“And one more thing. If there’s a culprit among us, try not to kill anyone.”

“Not even people outside our group?”

“Not even people outside our group. Let’s all aim to get out together. Understood? We’re going for pacifism.”

As if they didn’t like this idea, a series of ‘beeps’ erupted from all directions.

Everyone was making ‘beep beep’ sounds, making it pointless to distinguish between fake and real.

Rembrary watched them grumble, then smiled kindly and asked.

“Everyone thinks my idea is right, don’t you? Let’s go now.”

* * *

As Rembrary stepped out of the restaurant and wondered which way to go, Geumsoo suggested.

“Shall we stick together?”

He asked with a smile, as if assuming they would.

Rembrary stared at Geumsoo, who looked just like Shin Jo-woon, and asked.

“Are you a ‘beep’?”

“I don’t know what you’re asking.”

Rembrary was asking if he was the culprit.

Shin Jo-woon was smart, so he might have been assigned the role of the culprit.

But on second thought, the dungeon probably wouldn’t assign the culprit role to someone smart.

Unless Noir was involved like with Warrior, it was probably random.

‘Anyway, I have to save the culprit, so I need to find out who it is.’

To find out who the culprit is, it would be better to act separately from the group.

He would need to go to places where the culprit might be active, secluded places where people don’t usually go.

Or places where he could be alone with another participant.

But….

“Okay. Let’s all stick together.”

Rembrary was determined to stop anyone from being framed and eliminated. So, there was no need to find the culprit.

“All together? Everyone?”

“Isn’t that what we were talking about?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter.”

“What about you guys?”

When Rembrary asked the other members, they all said it was fine. So, the group decided to stick together on the first day.

“Have you decided where to go?”

“Is there anything we can do before the culprit acts?”

“Then let’s look around the mansion. And if we go outside, we can check that out too.”

Having made a decision, the group decided to observe the interior of the mansion, moving from one end of the hallway to the other.

The kitchen was at one end of the hallway, and the restaurant was next to it, so it wasn’t a bad choice in terms of the route.

“We’ve been in the restaurant, so let’s check out the kitchen first.”

* * *

After scanning the first floor, starting with the kitchen, the group was able to get a rough idea of the mansion’s layout.

When you enter the mansion, there’s a large space, and behind that, there’s a long hallway.

The kitchen and the living room are at opposite ends of the hallway, and the kitchen is connected to the restaurant by an archway.

And there’s a door to the bathroom in the kitchen, and a back door leading to the backyard.

There were quite a few people in the kitchen wearing chef uniforms, but none of them said anything to Rembrary’s group.

But they couldn’t hide their curiosity and kept glancing at the group, so they seemed to be real people.

Next to the living room was Study 1, and there was a reception room in the middle of the first-floor hallway.

Behind Study 1, there was a room with a bed, but it didn’t seem like any of the participants were using that room.

Behind Room 1, there’s Bathroom 1, and behind the reception room, there’s Bathroom 2.

“It seems like there’s no place we can’t enter on the first floor.”

But unlike the first floor, most of the doors on the second floor were closed.

“This is my room.”

One of the closed rooms was Minsu’s room. When Minsu opened the door with his key, the inside looked exactly like Rembrary’s room.

“Are all the closed rooms the participants’ rooms? So they locked the doors and left?”

“That seems likely.”

The only room on the second floor that wasn’t closed was Study 2.

And it was when the group entered Study 2 to look around.

“Aaaagh! What the heck!”

A sharp scream came from above.

The group instinctively looked at each other and hurriedly went outside and up the stairs.

They went to the source of the sound, which was one of the rooms on the third floor.

The door was already open, and other people were gathered there, so they could immediately tell which room the sound came from.

Rembrary quickly walked over there as well. Pushing through the crowd and entering the room, Rembrary realized the situation.

“Oh, dear.”

Someone was dead in the bed. It was clear at a glance that they were dead, not asleep.

“Didn’t they say we wouldn’t really die?”

One of the people who had gathered earlier muttered in fear. The commotion quickly spread among the people.

Rembrary frowned and looked at the body, then approached and tried to use his divine power.

He wouldn’t be able to revive the person since they had just died, but he might be able to fix their appearance.

‘Huh?’

But unlike other dungeons, his divine power couldn’t be used.

‘Is it because of the dungeon rules?’

To the dungeon, which replaced personal information with ‘beep’ sounds, Rembrary’s unique ability was too obvious.

‘Then Anchovy won’t be able to use his ice ability either. And the same goes for other people.’

Rembrary lowered his hand, which he had raised towards the body, and informed the completely panicked people.

“The rules don’t lie. If the rules say you won’t die, then you won’t die, so don’t worry.”

However, with the sudden appearance of a corpse, the people were already terrified and didn’t seem to hear Rembrary’s words.

Instead, someone pointed a finger and lashed out at Rembrary.

“How do you know that!”

“That’s right! Are you a demon? How do you know that!”

Two people, in particular, were excessively angry at Rembrary.

With them suddenly expressing so much anger, even some of the surprised people grumbled, “Can’t you stop it?” “He’s a hunter, so he’s probably been there a few times.”

‘Are they playing a role like that? Or is that their real personality?’

As he was observing them, someone asked.

“Did the owner of this room die?”

The person who spoke wasn’t one of Rembrary’s group.

“I’m the owner of the room.”

The person who answered was also not one of Rembrary’s group.

Rembrary looked back and forth between the two.

The person who asked the question was lost in thought as if he were a detective, and the person who answered was shielding his eyes with his hand, unable to bear looking at his own bed where the corpse was lying.

The person who asked the question asked again.

“Didn’t you lock the door when you left?”

“I locked it.”

“Then why did this person die here?”

“How would I know that?”

“You’re the owner of the room, aren’t you?”

“If you live on Earth, do you know everything that happens on Earth?”

“Earth is big, but this room is small, isn’t it?”

“Even if this room is small, I was in the restaurant and just came up here. How would I know what’s happening on the third floor?”

“Still, it’s your room.”

“The exam paper is much smaller than this room, but there are still a lot of people who don’t know the answers, you know?”

At the room owner’s words, some people grimaced as if they had been hit with a harsh truth.

Rembrary stared at the person who kept bombarding him with questions.

He seemed passionate as he bombarded him with questions, but his expression looked tired.

Even though he hadn’t done much. It seemed like bombarding him with questions was just his role.

‘Anyway, if things continue like this, it might be difficult to take everyone with me. If they die while I’m not watching…’

Rembrary clicked his tongue in disappointment.

‘Anyway, it seems like there’s no culprit among our group. At least, we were all together while the body was discovered. There was no time for anyone to slip away and do anything.’

As he was thinking that, suddenly Insoo stepped forward.

“What’s wrong?”

When he asked, Insoo approached the body and began to examine it closely.

Everyone watched with a ‘Could it be?’ expression, thinking he was an expert, but suddenly Insoo straightened his posture and said.

“I know who the culprit is.”

At the sudden declaration, everyone in the room fell silent.

“Who is it?”

When someone couldn’t stand the silence and asked, Insoo pointed to one of the people who had been watching the situation.

“You’re the culprit.”

“Me?”

The person asked in confusion, as if he hadn’t expected it at all.

“Yes.”

But Insoo was confident.

“Why?”

“Because your expression looks the most like a culprit.”

“Huh?”

The person accused of being the culprit looked at Insoo with an expression that said, ‘What nonsense is this?’

Rembrary also looked at Insoo in bewilderment.

Rembrary had thought that Insoo or Kyungsoo might be the psychopath, so he was surprised by this sudden outburst.

Rembrary now looked at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo was nodding with his arms crossed, as if Insoo’s words were correct.

Both of them were acting unlike psychopaths.

‘Indeed. It’s the right choice to have all six of us escape. Because of the roles we’ve been assigned, it will become more difficult to distinguish as time goes on.’

* * *

The participants gathered and continued to discuss, but that lasted only 15 minutes.

The corpse disappeared automatically after 15 minutes.

The surprised people stared blankly at the bed where there was no trace of the corpse, then left the room one by one, and soon everyone scattered.

Since it was obvious that there was a culprit among them, everyone seemed reluctant to stick together.

“How am I supposed to sleep here!”

The room owner cried out in anguish, but no one paid attention.

The room owner eventually went down the stairs, grumbling that he would find the butler and change rooms.

Watching him until the end, Rembrary urged his group again.

“It seems like there’s no culprit among us, so be careful. You never know when the culprit might target us.”

* * *

That evening. Unlike breakfast, the atmosphere at dinner was not good.

Everyone seemed shocked by the fact that a corpse had been discovered on the first day, right after breakfast, which was only natural.

Rembrary also focused on his meal without saying much, so everyone in his group was quiet.

And when the meal was over, the participants got up without anyone saying anything.

Watching the situation, Rembrary suddenly had a good idea.

‘Wouldn’t it be better if we found the culprit first, then locked them in a room for a week and just brought them food? It seems like a good idea if there’s no culprit among our group.’