Chapter 172
Originally, when this type of game came out, I was usually the one who kept my promises.
There is also the influence of having reigned as the crown prince of a country in
I also felt sorry for letting down the naive members' expectations.
However, if people insist on the same image, it becomes boring.
In particular, it is only right to try diverse changes for the sake of fans who want to see a new side of the idols they support.
I was rationalizing this picture of betrayal under the pretext of Seleves.
'I've always been loyal, but I've been stabbed in the back of the head by guys like Kang Si-yoon more than once. I guess I can take on that role this once.'
Kang Si-yoon, who has established himself as an icon of betrayal and individual play, is somewhat controlled under the concentrated supervision of the members.
Also, no one would have doubted me from the beginning, as I have always built an image of being calm and loyal.
In other words, now is the best time to make a killing.
But I have to be careful.
Because there may be other members who think like me.
'First of all, it is important for me to get the first turn as much as possible.'
In order to execute the plan I have in mind, I need to set out to find Hallabong as soon as possible before the other members.
"Then what should our order be?"
"I feel burdened by being the first."
"What if the manager, or rather the teacher, is waiting for me as soon as I go out?"
"Isn't the first runner a complete sacrifice?"
This is good news for me.
Everyone feels pressured to start first.
I volunteered, raising my hand in a cheeky manner.
"There's nothing I can do. For everyone's sake, I'll be the first runner to check out the situation."
"Oh, that's right. We had the human weapon, Karis."
"Will Karis show us again? Will he show us his skills again when tearing off the name tag?"
During the name tag tearing part of the
I think he's probably looking forward to it while remembering how I was when we were filming it.
"That's right. Everyone, just trust me."
"I believed you after all!"
"Karis, be careful though. Just like Min-ha said, the teacher might be waiting right in front of you."
"I get it."
I smiled confidently and lightly bumped fists with the members.
Yeah, I'll do my best.
Of course, this time I'm going to hit you from behind.
The order of the rest, excluding mine, was decided fairly by rock-paper-scissors.
"Karis, you need to go out and look after things a bit. I'm not good at this kind of thing because I get nervous."
"Are you really unable to do it?"
Chae Eun-gyu, who received the second turn, nodded with his lips pursed.
"I can't find anything."
"Aha."
"I can't even find the ones in the corner of my room sometimes, so how can I find Hallabong in such a large place?"
It was so self-objectifying that it was funny and sad at the same time.
Well then, there's nothing I can do.
It might be easier for me to ease that pain.
"Karis, are you ready?"
"Always prepared."
"I think he got really arrogant because of this game."
"They're dependable when they're on our side, but they're the type I hate the most when they're on the other side."
Kang Si-yoon's careless words slightly pricked my conscience.
But I soon made up my mind to think differently.
'Let's see what happens when I'm on the other side.'
I waved my hand and said goodbye.
Then, without hesitation, I opened the door and went out into the hallway.
'It's dark.'
Most of the long lights mounted on the ceiling of the youth hostel hallway were turned off, with only the bare minimum of light shining to ensure visibility.
Looking at the eerie atmosphere, if the timid Heo Yu-bin had been the first runner, it would have been a big problem.
First of all, contrary to what the members were worried about, there was no sign of Manager Hyung's presence.
I walked calmly toward the lobby, where the central staircase and elevator were located.
'In this situation, it is important not to make any noise.'
There is no need to make noise by touching unnecessary objects.
I have to walk as quietly as possible so that my footsteps don't echo in the hallway to erase my existence.
I recalled memories from
There was a time when we had to launch a surprise attack against the Demon King's army that had formed a stronghold.
Since we had to sneak right up to where the enemies were, we really couldn't make any noise.
As I recalled those memories, I lowered my posture and took careful steps.
It would have been much easier if I had mana, but now that I had no mana, I had no choice but to use my body as much as possible to muffle the sound of my footsteps.
As I adjusted my stance so that my entire foot did not touch the floor at once, my gait became a little strange.
But there was definitely no sound.
'It was a success.'
I also gave some words of advice to the filming crew that was following along.
"You must move as quietly as possible, as you cannot make any noise."
"I, I'll try."
I rolled my head as I walked down the hallway.
Let's think about it very simply.
This content is not being aired on large-scale terrestrial entertainment programs.
This is our 'self content' that is uploaded exclusively on Seleste's YouTube channel.
In that case, they will try to accommodate the members as much as possible.
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't hide items in such outrageous places when playing this type of treasure hunt game.
A place where people's eyes can easily reach.
Among the easy places, I can focus on finding places where an object the size of a Hallabong can fit.
The first thing that caught my eye was the trash can standing next to the elevator.
It's the perfect place to hide something inside.
'It's empty.'
But there was nothing inside.
Obviously, someone else would have just passed it by, but my intuition told me to look a little deeper.
So I bent down and checked behind the trash can, and I felt a round object at my fingertips.
I succeeded in obtaining my first Hallabong.
If I had found a Hallabong with my name on it right away, it would have been less motivating and less fun, but fortunately, the owner of this Hallabong was perfect in many ways.
'Kang Si-yoon.'
I almost burst out laughing when I saw the name written in black letters on the surface of the Hallabong.
I can already imagine this guy's expression.
You'll be stamping your feet in confusion, wondering why you can't see your own Hallabong.
The moment I put Kang Si-yoon's Hallabong in my pocket, another thought crossed my mind.
'Wait a minute. It doesn't make sense to hide only seven Hallabongs in this large youth hostel. If there's only one Hallabong for each member, the moment you can't find it, your chance of succeeding in the mission will be gone. So, common sense dictates that there should be at least a few Hallabongs with each member's name written on them.'
My original plan was to loot as many members' Hallabong as possible before finding my own.
Then, when I ran into our manager, I would try to betray the members by selling all the Hallabongs I had harvested so far.
I smiled as I reviewed the plan, which took a further step in a different direction.
'There are ways to hit the back of the members' heads without necessarily selling the Hallabong. For example, I can find as many Hallabong as possible and prevent the members from finding Hallabong with their names on them.'
After finding the Hallabong with my name on it, if I don't give the other members' Hallabong to our manager, I will officially be keeping my promise.
But if you twist the idea a little and make it so that the members can't find their own Hallabong at all....
It is possible to commit a truly perfect crime.
If someone betrays you here, you can turn things around.
"... Oh, are you taking that with you?"
"Yes."
"Hoo."
The filming crew that was with me asked with some surprise.
As I gradually found hidden Hallabongs one after another with my animal-like senses, the staff's exclamations grew louder.
"Wow, you're so good at finding things?"
"Shh. If you speak loudly, our location may be revealed."
"Oh."
Sigma Entertainment rented out this entire large youth hostel.
So, except for the rooms used by the members and staff, all the rooms were empty.
I couldn't bring myself to search through all the rooms, so I just explored the places that felt right to me.
As a result, I discovered three Hallabongs.
'I think I've searched quite a bit, but my name still hasn't come up.'
If I can't find my Hallabong like this, I'll have no choice but to betray semi-forcibly.
We came down from the third floor where we were staying and started a full-scale search of the second floor.
I was so engrossed in finding Hallabong that I barely thought about it, but I still haven't run into our manager even once.
'Where the hell is he?'
I wondered if Manager Hyung, like Chae Eun-gyu, didn't have a talent for treasure hunting or hide-and-seek, but soon a situation arose that made one's heart pound.
"It's Karis's turn, right? How could I not hear a single sound?"
"... !"
"Did I overdo it? Oh, I didn't know it would be this hard."
While I was searching the corner room on the second floor, I heard the manager outside complaining to the filming crew about his suffering.
I instinctively leaned down and signaled to the camera director to be quiet.
At first, the filming crew seemed to have a hard time keeping their footsteps quiet, but soon they got used to the stealth action and started holding their breath.
If this were a game, it would be a learning ability that could immediately train one to become a professional assassin.
I held my breath and waited for a few seconds.
"Isn't he here? He wasn't on the first floor either, so he can't be on the third floor. Let's go back quickly!"
The manager turned around, probably thinking I wasn't on the second floor.
Only after I was sure he was out of there did I get up and carefully open the door.
'This, it would be fun to tease Manager Hyung.'
As I was determined to go for an overtly evil concept today, another good idea occurred to me.
There is no time to rest until I find my Hallabong.
It was quite difficult to walk without making any noise.
Because my center of gravity was focused on my front heels, I felt overall fatigue building up in my legs.
But I continued the search with full concentration until the end.
Luckily, I finally found a Hallabong with 'Karis' written on it in one of the cabinets on the first floor.
Now, if I can avoid Manager Hyung's eyes and return to our room, my mission will be a success.
But I still had work to do.
'It's a bit much to just throw away Hallabong.... Okay, I guess this is a good idea.'
Don't they say that it's dark under the lamp?
I went back up to the third floor with the five Hallabongs I had collected so far.
And then I went into the room right next to ours and hid all the Hallabongs under the blanket.
Finally, Kang Si-yoon's two Hallabong, Song Hyung-bin's two Hallabong, and Yoo Min-ha, Ji Yoon-chul, and Chae Eun-gyu's one Hallabong settled within arm's reach.
'Even though I have good search skills, I could only find this much due to time constraints, so it must be even harder for the other members.'
One of two things will happen.
You can really receive the energy of the universe and get lucky enough to find your own Hallabong and avoid punishment.
Or, you might get caught by our manager while you're panicking and can't find your own Hallabong and get penalized.
Thanks to collecting and hiding the members' Hallabong, the option of three or more members betraying each other has disappeared.
In order to betray from the beginning, you need a Hallabong other than your own, but if you can't find it, you can't betray even if you want to.
If this happens, all members can naturally avoid penalties.
'Even I can see that this game has shaken up the landscape tremendously.'
I felt satisfied with the big picture, which was more perfect than I could have imagined.
Now, before I go back to our room, there's one thing left I want to do.
Other people might have thought I was crazy, but I grabbed a couple of pillows and cautiously headed toward the stairs.
Then I held my breath and listened.
To find Manager Hyung, who is wandering around somewhere in the building.
Before long, I thought I heard footsteps down there.
"I'm telling you, it's scary at this point. Hey, he really didn't evaporate, right? He hasn't gone back to the room yet?"
"Yes, he hasn't arrived at the room yet."
"You're saying he's still wandering around? I haven't even seen Karis's shadow in 20 minutes. Does that make sense?"
Manager Hyung's voice was a mixture of emptiness and bewilderment.
After I figured out that his voice was coming from roughly the second floor, I quickly went down the stairs.
'There it is.'
From afar, I could see the lights of the manager and staff.
I clutched the pillow in my hand.
And then I threw it with all my might towards the right side of the hallway.
Pow-!
The sound of a pillow hitting the ground echoed loudly in the quiet hallway.
"Hey, I heard a noise over there! Hurry up, hurry up!"
Manager Hyung came running really fast at the thought that he could finally step on my tail.
Coming back up to the 2.5th floor and hiding in the shadows, I heard them walking past the central stairs and picking up one of the remaining pillows.
And this time, I quickly threw the pillow to the left side of the hallway.
Pow!
"Hey, wait a minute. This time it's this way again? What the hell is going on? Where are you, Karis? Let me see your face!"
How could I possibly comply with such a one-sided request?
I leisurely went up to the third floor, leaving our confused manager behind.
And then I opened the door leisurely and returned to the members' side.
"Hey, why did it take so long!"
"I thought I was going to die waiting."
"How did it go, how did it go? Did you find the Hallabong? Is it easy to find?"
The members surrounded me like a swarm of bees.
Everyone must have been very worried because I didn't come back for over 20 minutes.
"I was late because I was trying to figure out where the Hallabong might be hidden and what the teacher was doing."
"You didn't get caught?"
"There's no way I'd get caught, Hyungbin."
I answered Song Hyung-bin's words in a confident tone.
"Oh, by the way, the teacher's search ability is close to 0, so you don't have to feel too burdened. However, it was quite difficult to find the Hallabong. It took me this long to find my Hallabong."
"Okay, okay! I was just thinking about avoiding the teacher, but this is doable."
"Oh, and Eun-gyu."
"Huh?"
I gave a tip to Chae Eun-gyu, who was preparing to leave.
"I didn't have enough time to check out the first floor, so it would be better to start from there. For reference."
"Okay, thanks."
Of course, that is, except for the fact that there are six Hallabongs sitting right next to us in the room.
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