Escaping the Mystery Hotel

- Han Kain

"Come on! Let’s all have a drink! Cheers!"

“…”

In an attempt to lift the mood, I raised a glass and cheered, but only a few joined in.

Despite Eunsol-noona’s trying her best to go along with it, there was a limit.

My comrades who returned after the first attempt in Room 201 were in a groggy state.

Since everyone was eliminated at different points, the reasons for their exhaustion varied, but ultimately, the reason was simple.

The enemy was too strong.

Really, way too strong.

Jinchul-hyung, who died from being hit by the gorilla, seemed terrified just thinking about it.

The girl who supposedly came out of the mirror, suspected to be the Adversary, was equally unbelievable just hearing about her.

She treated bullets like BB pellets, and even the bracelet and Ancient Blood could only buy time at best.

Even the Star might not be enough to guarantee success.

Listening to my comrades share their stories, I came to one conclusion.

"It’s clearly different from the first floor. The required specs have increased."

Ahri agreed and responded, "Looking back now, the first floor seemed designed to be cleared even without Inheritance. It felt like it was structured so that you could solve it with just Blessings as long as you were clever. But the second floor…"

"It’s designed under the assumption that we’ve already acquired multiple Inheritances."

"Exactly. It assumes we have several Inheritances, enhanced our Blessings multiple times, and treasures like the Protective Suit, so the enemies are insanely strong."

Everyone keenly felt the ridiculous spike in the difficulty as soon as we entered the second floor.

Naturally, we thought about another room we could enter.

"It seems we can only access other rooms on the second floor after completing a ‘repair event’, but there is one more room we can enter. Shall we continue with Room 104, Hotel High School?"

Hearing my suggestion, Ahri sighed.

"By now, you have some idea, right? The true nature of Descent. The danger of Room 104. Even the Owl warned us. Descent is probably an offshoot or copy of the power of the Lord that they implanted in you. That’s why the Inheritance seems like a toy compared to the surreal power it grants."

"So, because of that Lord’s fragment, you think I’ll betray everyone the moment we enter Room 104?"

"Think about it yourself. If you were to betray us, what would you do right away?"

If I were to betray my comrades, what would I do first?

The answer came to mind immediately.

"Wouldn’t I use Descent and kill everyone?"

"Exactly. I’d rather fight the girl who came out of the mirror than face the Son of Heaven."

And that was the end of the conversation.

The thought of possibly fighting the Son of Heaven was enough to make everyone treat Room 104 like a nuclear waste dump.

After much deliberation, I decided to use Advice.

What do you think about going back to Room 104?

This question will consume all three remaining uses. Do you wish to proceed?

Startled, I immediately backed off.

It was a repeat of what happened in the Gate Room.

Should we really leave Room 104 as it is?

I had a vague thought.

The scenario everyone is worried about—where I activate Descent and kill everyone within a second upon entering Room 104.

I believe that kind of scenario isn’t what the Hotel prefers.

But in the end, it’s just my belief or speculation.

The Hotel is an incomprehensible place.

- Creak!

In the middle of the conversation, Songee stood up from the table with a plate of sandwiches.

She was likely going to deliver food to Elena.

Naturally, the conversation topic shifted to Elena.

"Everyone came back half out of it, but Elena is especially bad. She’s so shaken that she can’t even talk."

Eunsol-noona expressed her concern.

"It’s strange. We’ve gone through so many horrifying experiences in the hotel, right? In the outside world, we’ve had experiences that would cause lifelong PTSD if we went through them even once. Yet, we’ve managed to cope with the aftereffects."

"It feels like the hotel has been managing not just our physical injuries but also our mental trauma."

"So, why is Elena especially affected this time?"

As I listened, I got curious.

If everyone had been as messed up as Elena, we’d probably despair at the thought of no longer receiving treatment from the second floor onward.

But everyone else wasn’t that bad.

There’s a skill for situations like this.

Advice: 3 → 2

Why isn’t Elena being treated?

Treatment will be administered tonight as a consideration for you.

The response was brief but reassuring.

"I used Advice and got a response. They’re going to treat us tonight out of consideration."

Everyone sighed in relief.

…Something feels off. What exactly does it mean by “consideration”?

While I was pondering, Eunsol-noona moved on to the next topic.

"Let’s talk in order of what comes to mind! The first thing that comes to my mind is Elizabeth."

As soon as the word “Elizabeth” came up, almost everyone reacted strongly.

"As soon as we enter, we should take her gun and break her arms and legs."

I was briefly shocked by Ahri’s extreme suggestion.

"Before we go breaking her limbs, we should get the information we need first. Start by breaking her fingers."

Even Grandpa Mooksung was openly suggesting torture.

"Let’s find out what we can and then feed her to the monsters."

Even Jinchul-hyung, who usually had a good temperament, was making ruthless suggestions.

I heard enough to understand.

Elizabeth suddenly betrayed them, causing everyone to be thrown in front of an ultra-powerful King Kong, leading them to suffer greatly.

No wonder they hold such a grudge.

Anyway, it seemed necessary to interrogate her, so I had no objections.

However, I did feel that the next attempt would be quite a shock for Elizabeth.

She’ll have to face the Hotel Party filled with people who hold a grudge against her for something she hadn’t even done yet!

Eunsol-noona cautiously added her opinion, "Oliver doesn’t seem to be a problem, right? After all, Elizabeth was the one who insisted on exploring, and Oliver was the first to die."

The next topic everyone discussed was the most important: escape.

Songee, who was the first to discover the escape route, spoke passionately, "A window! The escape route was a window. I realized it while fighting that monster girl. She had been watching us for a long time through the window."

Even Seungyub, who usually stayed quiet and ate snacks during meetings, confidently joined in, "Haha! That’s right. But Noona, if you had just said ‘window’, I might not have understood. We’d been thinking there were no windows in the mansion, right? Wouldn’t it have been easier if you had said ‘mirror’ instead?"

"Really? I didn’t think of that at the time."

Summarizing Songee’s discovery of the escape route and Seungyub’s successful escape through it, we concluded, "So, the confirmed escape route is this, right? If we stay put in the mansion without moving, at some point, a ‘Move!’ message will appear on one of the mirrors scattered around the mansion, like near the sink, TV, or wardrobe. If we break the glass with that message, there’s a passage to the outside."

"Yes."

"Yeah."

Grandpa Mooksung interjected, "Don’t forget the important part. Behind that glass is a demon that looks like it just popped out of hell."

Eunsol-noona tilted her head.

"If we don’t move and just break the glass in the first mansion, will we still find the escape route?"

Seungyub was skeptical.

"If that were the case, 'Fortune' wouldn’t have kept moving us until we reached the seventh mansion, right? I don’t think breaking the glass in just any location will work. The escape route is likely only available in a specific mansion, and you need to break the glass in those rooms to access the escape."

"You might be right. The escape route is probably limited to certain mansions. So, what happens if we break a ‘Move!’ glass in another mansion?"

It felt like a new topic had been raised. It wasn’t easy to come to a conclusion.

In specific rooms, breaking a “Move!” glass brings forth a demonic girl, and behind her is the escape route.

So, what happens if we break a “Move!” glass in another room?

As they discussed the escape route, the discussion’s topic naturally shifted to “that girl”.

Songee mumbled in a nearly defeated tone, "She was a real monster. Kain-oppa wouldn’t even be able to imagine it."

Ahri actively agreed, "If this were outside the Hotel, they wouldn’t send just a few agents to catch a monster like that. They’d send helicopters, fighter jets, and even prepare missiles."

It seemed like the monster was on a level where military force would need to be deployed.

"Do you think we have no chance of winning?"

Several people had seen the monster, but only Songee and Ahri had significant combat experience with it.

After some thought, they answered, "It didn’t seem impossible. To be honest, by the time we encountered that girl, our forces were already wrecked. Elena died because of the TV, Jinchul died because of the gorilla, and Songee and I were exhausted."

"If we go at full strength with everyone, don’t you think we could manage? Even though her skin deflected bullets, I think Jinchul-oppa’s Star could break through it. And since she’s a humanoid enemy, Elena’s Justice could definitely be activated against her!"

The enemy is strong, but she’s still humanoid. As long as the premise is that the enemy is an evil human, Elena could demonstrate even greater combat power than Jinchul-hyung.

Because of that, everyone seemed to have a subtle sense of confidence.

As we continued talking, the familiar sound of a bird chirping echoed through the room.

- Piyoo! Piyo!

It sounded like, “Aren’t you forgetting about me?”

Perro, who seemed full of complaints, flipped over the dishes around him and perched on Songee’s shoulder.

"Where has he been?" Ahri asked curiously.

Songee seemed unsure.

"I’ve been trying to read Perro’s thoughts for a while, but I can’t make sense of them. Perro is like a three-year-old child, so it’s hard to understand what he’s thinking. All I could get was a feeling that he was in a very stuffy white place."

"A very stuffy white place, huh…?"

Listening to that, I started to have an idea.

"He’s probably somewhere near me? Maybe he was trapped in a test tube, like me?"

"So, where were you?"

I had nothing to say and shut my mouth.

How would I know?

The unsealing.

As of now, we haven’t made any progress on this issue.

"Can’t you use Descent before the ‘Seal Notification’ pops up as soon as you start, or possess another researcher’s body to escape?" Jinchul-hyung asked in a slightly frustrated tone.

"It was impossible to summon the Grimoire. Descent is also likely impossible."

"Use Advice to check."

Since I had two uses left, it was worth checking.

Advice: 2 → 1

Can I escape using Descent?

Seeing the finger, but not the moon.

Here we go again.

I chuckled at the response.

"What’s that supposed to mean? Seeing the finger but not the moon? Is that some kind of proverb?"

Jinchul-hyung looked puzzled before Grandpa Mooksung proudly explained, "Ha! That’s why you shouldn’t associate with ignorant people. The problem with kids these days is that they haven’t had proper education in Chinese proverbs."

"Okay, okay, stop showing off. Tell us what does it mean?"

"It’s a saying that criticizes the foolishness of focusing on a part instead of the whole, like looking at the finger pointing at the moon instead of the moon itself."

Not seeing the essence and fixating on a part.

Once I heard that explanation, I immediately understood the meaning of the advice.

It was something I had already suspected even before using the Advice, but the Advice confirmed it.

"What’s the purpose of the seal? Isn’t it to target parties that rely too heavily on specific members or powers? Trying to break the seal by saying, ‘I’ll act before the notification pops up,’ or ‘I’ll use a stronger power like Descent’ is focusing on a part instead of the whole. That’s the meaning of the advice."

"Your Owl is too much, it has a knack for making things hard to understand when a simple ‘no’ would suffice."

There was a moment of silence at the table.

Eunsol-noona brought the conversation back to what everyone was most interested in—escape.

"Alright! Let’s focus on securing an escape route. Once that’s settled, we can keep trying until we eventually break through."

"We’ve confirmed the escape method, right? As we rely on Fortune to move around, at some point, we’ll reach a mansion where we just know, ‘This is it!’ In that room, if we wait, a ‘Move!’ message will appear on one of the mirrors, and behind that mirror is a demon. If we jump through the mirror after the demon appears, we can escape."

"That seems right. Honestly, the biggest problem with that is the demon."

"A demon waiting right behind the escape route. What is she, a gatekeeper? It looks like we’ll have to fight that demon no matter what," Grandpa Mooksung grumbled.

"Isn’t that girl the Adversary? We’ll have to kill her eventually anyway. How about we have everyone fight her together while Seungyub or Eunsol-noona slips away?"

It seemed best for the stronger ones to fight the demon while the less combative ones focused on securing the escape.

Eunsol-noona nodded and emphasized one thing, "Don’t forget to break Elizabeth. Not that you’ll forget once you see her face."

I felt a bit of pity for Elizabeth, who would face a hotel party filled with seven people holding a grudge against her while not even knowing what happened.

We wrapped up our evening meeting on the first day after the first attempt.

We decided to discuss specific plans again in the morning.

Now, it’s time to check on Elena.

I recalled the answer I got earlier when I asked for advice regarding Elena.

Treatment will be administered tonight as a consideration for you.

Even when I think about it again, that answer still sounds strange.