Chapter 17: ‘Oh’ it’s coming

Sia and I ran desperately towards the door we had entered the library from.

Behind us, the Ao Oni was chasing after us, swinging the huge purple eggplant it held in its hand.

The sound of footsteps echoing on the floor and the sound of the eggplant cutting through the air grew closer and closer.

We ran, looking only ahead, without even a moment to pause.

“The door is over there! Hurry!”

I shouted, pointing to the door we had entered the library from.

“I know! Don’t stop!”

Sia shouted the same thing as me. Her hand was trembling, but her footsteps were unwavering.

We reached the door, and I immediately grabbed the doorknob and turned it.

Fortunately, unlike other horror games, the door wasn’t locked or anything.

I opened the door with all my might, and Sia and I escaped from the library.

“Close it!”

Sia shouted.

I closed the door, turned my body, and grabbed the doorknob. Sia immediately stood next to me and pushed the door with all her might.

Thud!

As soon as the door closed, a huge impact was felt. It was clear that the monster had hit the door.

The sound of heavy breathing and the door shaking from behind the door created fear.

“Hold it so it can’t open!”

I held the doorknob with all my might and held on. Sia was also pushing the door with all her might next to me.

The door continued to shake, but fortunately, there was no sign of it opening.

But given the size of the monster, it seemed like we wouldn’t be able to hold on for long like this.

I looked at Sia and shouted.

“Sia! I think we need to run to another place!”

We struggled to hold the door and racked our brains.

“The second floor… no, let’s go to the third floor. If I remember correctly, there was a way to get to the piano room near the bed there!”

I blurted out a thought that suddenly came to mind.

Sia thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Ah, right! Okay, let’s go there!”

We let go of the door at the same time and ran towards the lobby again.

Behind us, the grotesque cry of the Ao Oni was heard. It seemed to have quickly opened the door and started chasing again.

“Hurry!”

As soon as Sia and I returned to the lobby, we sprinted towards the stairs.

The grotesque cry of the Ao Oni was getting closer and closer.

Along with her heavy footsteps, the dull sound of the purple eggplant hitting the wall or floor followed.

“Go up quickly!”

Sia shouted, pointing to the top of the stairs.

I jumped up the stairs following her. The creaking stairs shook as if they were about to break, but there was no time to stop.

“This way!”

As soon as I reached the second floor, I turned left.

“The stairs to the third floor are on the other side!”

Sia shouted, gasping for breath.

We ran along the hallway with all our might.

Thud!

At the sound of a door breaking from behind, I reflexively looked back.

The Ao Oni was standing at the end of the second-floor hallway.

She smiled crookedly at us, then raised the purple eggplant again.

“What are you doing! Let’s go!”

I jumped up the stairs with Sia.

The stairs leading to the third floor were narrow and dark, but in order to shake off the Ao Oni, we had to run without stopping.

“We’re almost there!”

Sia shouted, running ahead.

Finally, we arrived at the third floor. The hallway was relatively quiet, and the old wooden floor was dimly visible in the darkness.

Arriving at the third-floor hallway, Sia and I started looking for the door without even a moment to catch our breath.

“Here! It’s this door!”

Sia pointed to a door in the hallway.

I hurriedly turned the doorknob and tried to open it, but for some reason, the door wouldn’t budge.

“…It’s locked?!”

“If so…”

Sia urgently took out the key from her pocket.

It was the key we got from the library.

“It’s probably this key, right? If not, we’re really screwed.”

“Don’t say such ominous things.”

I hurriedly took the key from her and fitted it to the door.

Click!

Fortunately, the key fit the door perfectly, and the door opened.

“It worked! Let’s go in!”

I opened the door and jumped into the room with her.

The room was an old and worn-out bedroom.

There was a large bed, a wardrobe, and a small table in the corner.

The bed was pressed against the wall, and the air in the bedroom was cold and smelled of old dust.

“Close the door!”

When Sia shouted, I immediately closed the door and locked the latch.

After that, we started pushing the bed together without saying anything.

If my memory was correct, there should be a passage leading to the ‘piano room’ under this bed.

The bed was old and heavy, but when we pushed it with a groan, it started to move little by little.

When the bed was completely pushed, a small passage was revealed at the bottom of the wall.

It was a narrow and unclean passage, but it was large enough for a person to pass through.

“Okay. This is just like the game.”

“Thank goodness.”

Sia and I lowered our bodies and crawled into the passage.

It was narrow and dark inside, but at least it seemed difficult for the Ao Oni, who was over 2 meters tall, to chase after us.

We went a little further along the passage, then crouched down inside and started catching our breath.

The sound of the Ao Oni’s heavy breathing and footsteps could be faintly heard from behind.

It felt like she was entering the room, but she didn’t seem to be able to reach the passage.

“Phew… we barely survived.”

Sia said in a small voice.

I wiped my sweat and nodded.

After crouching in the passage for a long time and catching our breath, we started talking quietly.

“Phew… What should we do now?”

Sia looked at me and asked.

“If my memory is correct, there will be a screwdriver in the bathroom on the first floor. We might need that.”

“Okay. Then let’s go out now.”

We carefully came out of the passage and entered the piano room.

The room was quiet.

I could faintly hear the Ao Oni still walking around the hallway upstairs, but fortunately, she didn’t seem to know about the existence of this room.

I, with Sia, silenced our steps as best as we could, and exited the room.

We passed the second-floor hallway, went down the stairs, and headed for the first floor.

The moment I was about to enter the hallway, I stopped.

It’s hard to explain exactly what, but a thought crossed my mind.

“Why?”

Sia asked, puzzled by my reaction.

I paused, then looked at the front door on the opposite side of the hallway.

“Hey, Sia.”

I slowly moved towards the front door, muttering.

“Just thinking out loud… Isn’t it strange that a game we know is appearing in a space like this?”

Sia thought for a moment, then tilted her head.

“Huh? What are you trying to say?”

I stood in front of the front door, looked at the doorknob, and continued.

“Well… it’s just, it feels awkward. It’s a space from a game we already know, albeit vaguely.”

“So?”

Sia still seemed not to understand, and asked.

I put my hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it.

“If there’s someone who created this space… that person seems really malicious. Just look at the previous rooms.

‘Hypnosis’, ‘Double Piece’, and stuff like that.”

Click.

The front door opened without any resistance.

I stared blankly at the open door.

“So… someone might be deliberately creating this easy path, and subtly inducing people who come to the rooms to think that the orthodox method is the only way to clear it, and enjoying it.”

Sia said with a surprised face.

“…You mean it was open all along?”

Really.

You can’t predict anything in this space.

“Well, so, that means if we had just opened the front door of this mansion from the beginning, it would have been a clear?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“We could have cleared it without even seeing that monster, ‘Ao Oni’?”

To Sia, who asked again as if she couldn’t believe it, I nodded in affirmation.

“Ao-!!!”

Only then did Sia understand the meaning of my words, and she let out a huge roar that shook the mansion.

‘Ao’ Oni Mansion.

A bland escape.

Day 1 of escaping the Ao Oni Mansion.

Today was really terrible.

At first, it was simply a chase that started in the library.

The monster with a huge purple eggplant in its hand, Ao Oni, was much more threatening than the original I had imagined.

We barely managed to escape.

We hid in a passage made by pushing the bed in the bedroom on the 2nd and 3rd floors.

We took a deep breath, sweating profusely, and came down to the 1st floor again, thinking that we should find a screwdriver.

And… the front door.

I never imagined that that door would open.

Sia was furious as soon as the door opened.

It felt like all the rooms we had struggled through, the chases with the monsters, had become meaningless.

If we had just opened the front door from the beginning, we wouldn’t have had to risk our lives like this.

But well, I guess that’s the essence of this Backroom.

A place that subtly tests people’s psychology, mocks them, and enjoys their suffering.

It was our fault that we didn’t grasp the intentions of the creator of this space.

Phew, it’s a good thing anyway.

Thanks to my clever head, we were able to avoid continuing meaningless hardships.

Wait a minute, then maybe all the rooms we’ve been through so far had easy paths?

Well, it’s a room we’ve already passed. Let’s not think about it again.

Now is the time to think of a way to clear the next room.

Until I, no, we escape from this Backroom.