I Couldn't Tell You Who It Was

Sixth, the hint about the exit might not be a slip of paper but an object. The hint was marked with a red four-leaf clover.

Seventh, the cast was free to explore whenever they wanted.

However, it was recommended that the cast took a break or slept between 10 at night to eight in the morning. Any accidents that happened during that time were the responsibility of the individual, and the production staff would not be liable for it.

Eighth, in some of the rooms, there were hidden “tricks.” Rooms with tricks would always have a hint, a switch, a battery, or something else hidden in them.

Aside from avoiding tricks and searching for hidden objects, cast members were to refrain from destroying property. If property destruction happened indiscriminately, the member may be responsible for compensation.

Ninth, the cast members were free to exchange information with each other. However, this was only possible after everyone returned from exploration. Should one person not return from exploration, the exchange of information was forbidden. Breaking this rule would result in a penalty.

Straying from the filming set would also result in a penalty.

Tenth, there were 101 rooms in this building, and among those rooms, there was one with no door. The doorless room was the biggest in the building and contained an elevator. This elevator would only take you down.

In this room, there was a hidden map of the mansion.

* * *

The rules above were written in more detail in a thin booklet that was around 10 pages long.

The end of the book had things about rewards given upon winning, but I wasn’t interested, so I skimmed through it. On the other hand, Hyehyun Ham seemed to have read through that part very thoroughly because he was discussing the taxable portion of the reward with some other people.

Since the uppermost floor was where everyone was staying, the spacious central hall was so packed with people that it felt crowded. On one end of the hall, people’s cell phones and electronic devices were being collected, much like the morning of the national examinations. My phone was already among those collected.

I shouldn’t have brought my phone charger after all. It was so small that it wasn’t really extra weight, but I wasn’t confident I could keep that useless thing safely for one whole week. I was sure I would lose it.

The man who seemed to be the producer knocked on the table. “Do you have any questions?”

Several questions popped up from here and there like they were waiting for this moment.

“What do you mean by ‘trick’?” Goyeon’s stylist asked. She seemed to have asked in the stead of the fearful Goyeon Lee.

The man raised his right hand and stuck up two fingers, lightly bending and unbending them. He made theatrical air quotations. “I guess it’s a ‘surprise.’ You’ll need to stay on your toes.”

It was a vague answer, but the stylist seemed satisfied. A surprise on a show like this could only be something like an actor disguised as a ghost or an object falling from the ceiling. She looked relieved with that thought. She seemed to forget that the same kind of shoddy device never failed to scare viewers for over 20 years.

The man in charge of hosting the show raised his hand. “Are there no hints about the location of the doorless room?”

“There are. They are also related to the hints pointing to the exit, so they will be marked with a red clover.”

Upon hearing that, Hyehyun walked over to me and whispered, “Why are they hints about the exit?”

“If you climb the stairs from the very bottom floor, you’ll know how many floors this building has.”

Hyehyun still looked perplexed. “Aren’t there four floors? Since here, we’re on the top floor…”

“Maybe there’s more than what meets the eyes. There could be basement floors.” I recalled what Woorim told me. The real building had no windows. Windows were the easiest way to count the floors. There were none, which basically meant that we wouldn’t be able to know how many lower floors there were. The top floor looked like a normal floor of any building, but the lower floors could look like the inside of an anthill.

“Did they really need to go that far? Will anyone be able to find the exit in a week at this point?” Hyehyun muttered, looking astonished. He must have been confident that someone would be able to find the exit within a week. “I don’t want to stay here for a long time though,” he said, which made me more convinced of his thoughts.

I too did not want to stay trapped in a building like this for too long. However, that didn’t mean that I wanted to quickly find the exit.

“Now that I think of it, why did you want to appear on this show?”

Instead of answering, I raised my hand. At the same time, Hyehyun took a step away from me. The man who seemed to be the producer nodded in my direction. “Yes, go ahead.”

The people around looked at me, hoping that my question would be of some help. I glanced at the ceiling and the western end where the stairs were and asked, “Do you know who the owner of this mansion is?”