Chapter 157: The Ark of the Golden House (7)

6. Escape Method

It's simple. Just open the door to the wheelhouse on the topmost level and step outside.

“Isn't that exactly what you said?”

The escape method was supposed to be simple.

Rachel, who was gasping for breath, grabbed her hair and shouted at the top of her lungs.

Since they were all wearing earplugs, shouting was the only way to make themselves heard.

Looking back on it now, the situation was anything but simple.

Just look at the state they were in.

“Cough, hack... Haaah.......”

Beside them, Do-jin was coughing up blood, his abdomen pierced by something sharp.

Han-su was in terrible shape as well, barely managing to carry Ji-hye like a bundle of luggage.

Su-myeon was no different.

The sukajan jacket he had worn almost like a second skin for so long.

That item had vanished without a trace, leaving him dressed in a black short-sleeved T-shirt.

Even so, Su-myeon made an effort to speak in his usual tone.

“......The rules haven't changed. We just have to follow them.”

All they had to do was cross the deck, climb up to the wheelhouse, and open the door.

The problem was the Sirens scattered across the deck, along with their corpses.

“You never mentioned anything like that.......”

Su-myeon also pushed back his sweat-soaked hair and repeatedly wiped his glasses with the hem of his T-shirt.

The five of them were currently hiding behind a cargo container in a corner of the deck, taking a moment to pull themselves together and assess their conditions.

They hadn't even made it halfway from the deck entrance to the wheelhouse.

“How much ammunition do you have left?”

Just to cover this much distance, they had already needed to fire dozens of rounds to bring down the Sirens.

When Su-myeon asked with a gesture, Rachel, whose hair was now a complete mess, checked her remaining ammunition.

“I only have five rounds left.”

As she showed him what she had, Su-myeon nodded.

He had stocked up on so much ammunition in his inventory that he still had plenty to spare.

“We'll figure something out.”

Ji-hye looked as though she was about to burst into tears, while Do-jin was on the verge of collapsing and dying.

“Cough, hack.... You have to... you have to take me too.... You can't leave me......!”

He had no intention of leaving Do-jin behind, but.......

He had neither the time nor the patience to go out of his way to look after him. The man could figure out how to follow them himself.

To explain how the group had ended up in such a state, it was necessary to go back a little.

***

About 20 minutes earlier.

The group had each plugged their ears with earplugs to prevent anything unfortunate from happening on the deck.

It was a precaution against being bewitched by the Sirens' voices.

And when Su-myeon, who was leading the way, opened the door to the deck.

They couldn't help being taken aback.

Unexpectedly, the deck was packed with Sirens.

Since those creatures lured others with their voices, their own hearing had almost completely deteriorated.

They could only pursue stimuli they could see.

“Whoa! What the fuck is this?!”

Su-myeon immediately slammed the door shut in alarm, but the Sirens near the entrance had already spotted him.

BANG!

BANG! BANG!

The Sirens pounded on the steel door with such force that the vibrations shook their bodies.

The metal door immediately began to buckle, looking as though it would soon be torn from its hinges.

There was nowhere left for them to retreat.

At this point, their only option was to clear the way and escape.

“When the door comes off, throw this first.”

Su-myeon handed Han-su a canister filled with poisonous gas.

When Do-jin looked at him as though wondering why he wasn't being given anything, Su-myeon gestured toward him.

“Stay safely in the back. We'll take care of this.”

In truth, it was more that Su-myeon didn't trust him to throw the canister far enough.

But he figured that explanation would be easier for someone like Do-jin to accept.

Sure enough, Do-jin promptly agreed and hid at the very back.

BANG!

With a harsh metallic screech, one of the hinges on the deck door finally twisted out of place.

As the door tilted at one corner, the Sirens began thrusting their sharp claws wildly through the opening.

Their hands, covered in sickly blue skin and scales that had partially lifted like those of a rotting fish, groped disgustingly through the gap.

Su-myeon immediately raised his gun and fired several shots in rapid succession through the opening.

He felt the recoil jolt through his body, but the silencer he had purchased from Bell was definitely working.

If he had fired a gun like this in such a narrow corridor, they probably would have all gone deaf, even with earplugs.

All he could barely hear through them was the creaking of the door as it threatened to come apart and the monstrous shrieks of the creatures being shot.

“The door's about to come off!”

Rachel warned him while providing support, neatly shooting the Sirens clinging to the door in the head, one after another, through the twisted opening.

By the time a mound of corpses had formed on the other side of the door.

Crrrack-

A massive red hand, completely unlike those of the Sirens they had seen so far, suddenly seized the edge of the opening.

And with one effortless movement, it tore away the remaining hinges.

7. Master of the Ghost Story

The Crushed Little Mermaid

A half-human, half-fish creature that moves around spraying corrosive foam. It resembles the Sirens but has red skin and an enormous body.

If possible, prevent it from making any sound as soon as you encounter it. Hearing its voice can instantly rupture your eardrums and cause a concussion, so extreme caution is necessary.

If you avoid attracting its attention, it is also possible to escape without confronting it.

“Han-su!”

At Su-myeon's urgent shout, Han-su hurled the gas canister straight at the Crushed Little Mermaid.

The mermaid's face hung in tatters, as though it had literally been crushed by something. Just as it opened its jaws to make a sound.

The small gas canister slipped directly into its mouth.

And Rachel immediately fired, aiming precisely at the canister.

----!

This time, an explosion so loud that it left their ears ringing and numb reverberated through the narrow corridor.

The canister exploded inside the mermaid's mouth, blowing away its jaw and part of its throat before sending it toppling backward.

The explosion had rattled their heads so badly that it was difficult to think clearly, but what they needed to do was obvious.

They had to get out!

Thanks to the repeated gunfire and the explosion, the area immediately ahead of them was clear.

Without anyone needing to tell the others to go first, they all rushed outside and ran toward the wheelhouse visible a short distance away.

Su-myeon once again aimed his gun at the Sirens converging on them.

If they could somehow push their way through and climb higher, just reaching the upper level would give them the advantage of elevation.

Now that they had killed the master of the ghost story, they could simply release the poisonous gas to deal with the remaining Sirens and....

“......!”

Su-myeon stopped when he felt something grab hold of him.

Then he heard what sounded like bones and muscles being torn apart as something was pierced through....

“.......”

Su-myeon instinctively felt around his abdomen, but his fingers found nothing.

Instead, he saw the sharp claws and fingers of the mermaid gripping his sukajan jacket at the side of his waist.

And directly behind him.

“...Cough... Urgh.......”

Do-jin, who had been following right behind him, was coughing and choking, impaled by the mermaid's hand instead.

“.......”

If it had happened simply because Do-jin was following him, Su-myeon might have felt a momentary pang of guilt.

But that wasn't the case. Do-jin's hand had been reaching greedily toward Su-myeon's back pants pocket.

He had been after Su-myeon's phone, which Su-myeon had been using to pull out all sorts of items amid the chaos!

Su-myeon grasped everything in that incredibly brief instant, but he couldn't break free from the mermaid's grasp through his own strength.

If it hadn't been for his sukajan jacket, he really would have died.

But now, ironically, the jacket itself was threatening to get him crushed to death in the mermaid's grip.

“Ditch the jacket!”

At that moment, Han-su managed to grab Su-myeon by the collar and yank him backward.

Su-myeon quickly understood the situation and gave up on the sukajan jacket, pulling himself out of it.

With Han-su pulling him forcefully at the same time, he swiftly abandoned the jacket he had been wearing.

He had no choice but to release his gun to get his arms out of the sleeves, but Rachel's judgment was just as quick.

She immediately extended her foot, hooked the strap attached to the gun, and dragged it back toward them.

“Are you all right?”

“.......”

Rachel asked, but Su-myeon was so startled that he couldn't even speak.

After picking up the gun that had been dragged across the floor, Su-myeon looked toward Do-jin, who had also slipped free of the mermaid's hand and was now rolling across the deck.

In more ways than one, it was fortunate that he had kept his phone in his pants pocket.

If he had put it in the pocket of his sukajan jacket, things could have become very troublesome.

“.......”

The mermaid still appeared to be reeling from the effects of the gas canister exploding inside its mouth, unable to seize the people who had escaped its grasp.

Moreover, the gas inside had been poisonous, so even those movements would soon come to a halt.

The monster weakly clawed at empty air, while Do-jin crawled along the floor, blood pouring from his abdomen as though it were being sprayed out.

Su-myeon bit his lip as he watched.

Half ignoring Do-jin, who was panting and trying to crawl back toward the group, Han-su grabbed Su-myeon and pulled him behind a cargo container in the middle of the deck.

***

Given what had happened, it was hardly surprising that the group was in something of a panic.

The monsters they were originally supposed to encounter on the deck hadn't been nearly this aggressive.

As far as Su-myeon knew, they shouldn't have encountered the Sirens at all as long as they stayed away from the railing.

But the reason things had turned out this way was.......

After calming down a little and carefully looking around, Su-myeon finally began to understand why.

“......The ship is sinking.”

Until now, they had been disposing of every monster they encountered as they made their way upward.

As a result, the amount of causality had decreased, causing the ship to gradually sink lower. Consequently, the Sirens clinging to its outer walls had lost their places and been forced inward.

The ship had sunk so low that, beyond the railing at the bow, they could clearly see the magnificent sea glittering with gold and jade.

“Everyone, take a deep breath and run.”

There was no more time to waste.

Using gestures to communicate through their earplugs, Su-myeon handed the remaining canisters of poisonous gas to Han-su and Rachel.

The two understood the situation without needing further explanation. They opened the canister valves as far as they would go and rolled them toward the opposite side of the deck.

At the same time, Su-myeon readjusted his grip on his gun and took the lead once more.

“.......”

After sprinting up the remaining short distance to the wheelhouse.

The group immediately began escaping the ghost story without the slightest hesitation.

The Sirens spotted them emerging from behind the cargo container and running, and all opened their mouths at once.

Aaaa---!

The Sirens' voices rang out like screams, resonating in a prolonged, discordant chorus.

It was a strange sound unlike anything Su-myeon had ever heard in his life, closer to the creaking of wind instruments than anything that could be called a human voice.

Suppressing the urge to listen more closely, Su-myeon shot the creatures blocking his path in the head and kicked them aside.

“.......”

Having barely made it halfway up the stairs to the wheelhouse, Su-myeon turned to check on the rest of the group following him.

Do-jin was bringing up the rear, practically crawling as he tried to avoid the Sirens' notice.

Han-su, who had been the first to follow Su-myeon, handed Ji-hye over to Rachel.

“...!”

Rachel was startled, but she understood his intentions without needing an explanation. She took Ji-hye into her arms and opened the wheelhouse door.

After the two women had gone through first, Su-myeon cleared the area around Do-jin so he could crawl up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Han-su threw several more of the gas canisters he had brought onto the deck.

Hissssss-

The canisters, their valves opened almost to their limits, rolled across the deck, loudly spewing gas.

Then, after even Do-jin, the last of them, had practically crawled through the doorway.

Su-myeon watched the small canisters rattling around and releasing clouds of pale gas for a moment before finally stepping through the wheelhouse door himself.