Escaping the Mystery Hotel

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 90

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 – Room of Rest

Sage’s Advice: 3

- Han Kain

Shortly after Elena hurried off to the Safari, Ahri appeared.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Oh, Elena just told me something weird before she left.”

“Hmm? She said something strange to me too.”

“Just briefly. She mentioned that her Patron said something odd.”

“What did they say?”

“She said the issue with the cold wasn’t something Elena needed to be involved in. And… she also mentioned something about you. She even asked me about it.”

Ahri smiled as she finished her sentence, looking at me with amusement.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing at all.”

“What do you mean there’s nothing? You clearly have something to say.”

“I really don’t.”

I was starting to feel teased!

For some reason, I was tempted to body-check her again, but before I could act on my impulse, our comrades began arriving at the dining table.

“Good morning!”

“Did you sleep well?”

With a few light greetings, breakfast began.

***The first topic of conversation was, of course, Elena.

Noona asked curiously, “So, Elena said something weird to you this morning and then went to the Safari?”

“Yes, she said she was going to create something ‘ominous yet communicative’. I’m not sure what kind of entity she plans to make.”

Ahri seemed unconcerned.

“She’ll figure it out. After all, she’s in the Safari, right? Even Perro couldn’t enter the Safari, so I doubt any creature she creates will be able to leave. I don’t think we need to worry much.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that even if Elena creates some weird monster in the Safari, that failure likely won’t be able to leave the Safari. The Safari and the rest of the Hotel seem like two separate worlds where only we, the hotel participants, can go in and out.”

Songee looked puzzled at this.

“Then wouldn’t that mean she can’t bring out a successful creation either?”

“Hmm… I’m sure Elena thought about that. She probably has a plan.”

I had a hunch about what that might be.

“Maybe once she successfully creates something, she can recreate it outside the Safari based on the same feeling?”

Now that I’d said it out loud, I found myself genuinely curious.

Even Beatrix, who was experienced with the ability, seemed unable to consistently create successful creatures.

Of course, the ability itself seemed to have changed slightly since the Hotel interfered, and since the user was different, we couldn’t assume that what applied to Beatrix would also apply to Elena.

After wrapping up the discussion about Elena’s ability development, the conversation shifted to the more pressing matter of preparing for the Hotel’s worsening cold.

Noona briefly summarized what we learned yesterday, “It seems like we’ll need to do something at that ominous place called the ‘Frozen Hell’ once Party Time ends to resolve the situation.”

“Should we use the Advice about the hell?”

“Let’s talk a bit more amongst ourselves first. I thought about it last night, and the notification we saw yesterday seemed significant.”

Noona stood up and wrote the notification on the whiteboard.

Do you wish to open the door to the Frozen Hell? Opening the door will immediately end Party Time.

“Yesterday, we mainly focused on the first part, ‘Frozen Hell’, right? But after thinking about it more, the latter part of  ‘Party Time will end’ also seems important. What do you think it means?”

“It implies that it’s still Party Time.”

“Exactly. We’re already freaking out about freezing to death, and the 2nd floor is already a hell that surpasses the polar regions, yet the Hotel says ‘It’s still Party Time’. In other words…”

At this point, Grandpa spoke up, sounding resigned, “When Party Time ends, it’s really going to start messing with us. Right now, according to the Hotel, this is just the warm-up!”

“Let’s all stay calm. Party Time hasn’t ended yet, has it? At least on the 1st floor, it’s only slightly uncomfortable. For example, like this.”

With the words “like this,” Noona held up a mysterious pork cutlet with only the insides frozen.

Ahri spoke up with a look of unease, “I just thought of a pretty terrifying scenario based on my past experiences.”

“Experiences?”

“Right now, only the 2nd floor is an unbearable hell, while most of the 1st floor is still fine, right? If the Hotel really wants to torment us, won’t it turn the 1st floor into a freezer too?”

Seungyub responded in a gloomy tone, “Why does the Hotel want to torment us in the first place?”

“Good point. That’s something I’ll be sure to ask the Owl when I get the chance. Any other questions?”

“Of course, we need to ask about that ‘Frozen Hell’ too.”

A lot of questions were piling up. It was time to start asking them.

The first question: Will the 1st floor become weird too once Party Time ends?

*Advice: 3 → 2*

When the extreme cold hits the first floor, most of the Hotel’s systems will shut down. There will be benefits and drawbacks.

We had already suspected the answer, but confirming it came with an unusually straightforward response from the Owl.

Unfortunately, the content made me curse out loud.

“Damn it, it’s true!”

“What’s true?”

“The Hotel’s systems will mostly shut down. That means Room 105 will probably go haywire too.”

“This is just—”

A few curses flew around the room.

Even though we had suspected that to be the case, we couldn’t help but be infuriated once we confirmed it.

Despite the anger, the phrase “there will be benefits” in the response gave me some ideas.

“Hold on, everyone. Listen to me for a second. There are also some benefits to the Hotel systems shutting down. I think it’s quite clear what that means.”

Noona responded immediately, “The Cursed Rooms will stop functioning?”

“That’s it. If there’s something in the Hotel’s system we benefit from going haywire, it’s definitely the Cursed Rooms.”

“So if the Cursed Rooms goes haywire, what does the Hotel want us to do?”

“Let’s ask the second question.”

The second question: “Tell me about the Frozen Hell.”

Instead of an answer, a notification popped up.

This question requires all three counts of Advice to be consumed. Since one has already been used, you cannot ask this question.

“…So there’s another situation where we have to use all three counts of Advice, besides questions about Room 104.”

“Wait… Does that mean we can’t ask about it now?”

“Correct. This question qualifies as ‘crossing the line’. Let’s think about other questions until lunch. We still need to use the remaining two counts of Advice before the day is over.”

Everyone seemed a bit deflated as the morning meeting ended.

The only thing we had learned from the ominous warning was that the 1st floor would go haywire once Party Time ended.

***- Elena

- Roar!

An enormous roar echoed from far away, so powerful that I could feel the ground trembling beneath me.

What kind of creature could possibly make such a sound?

Has such a creature ever existed on Earth?

According to the notification I received upon entering the Safari, I was currently in a time period roughly 330 million years ago, likely during the Permian or Carboniferous period.

- Buzz! Shhh!

As I turned my head absentmindedly, a massive dragonfly-like insect, as big as my head, flew by.

If I had seen an insect that large before my experiences in the Hotel, I probably would have screamed and fainted on the spot.

But the Hotel has long since turned me into a completely different person.

It had been several months since I started encountering corpses and monsters daily as if it were nothing.

Honestly, at this point, I can eat a meal right next to a monster without so much as flinching. Me screaming at an oversized dragonfly? Oh please, that time has long passed—

“Kyah!!!”

But that cockroach the size of a puppy is crossing the line!

Technically, it was probably an ancient ancestor of the cockroach, but still!

I was so shocked that I had to sprint a good 30 meters before I could calm down.

As I leaned against what seemed to be a tree and tried to catch my breath, I felt something tickling my back.

I just brushed it off against the tree without bothering to check what it was.

Should I be relieved?

Aside from whatever was making that huge roar in the distance, most of the creatures here are just oversized insects.

They’re certainly disgusting, but they’re still just insects, even if they’re as big as a puppy.

I haven’t seen any monsters that look like they could eat me.

After walking for about 10 minutes, I finally came across a lake.

This was the place I had been searching for.

“Will this work? What do you think, Kain?”

Of course, there was no one here to answer me.

The lake wasn’t particularly clean.

Strange creatures floated here and there.

In the past, I would have hated even looking at them.

I took off my coat, shoes, and let my skirt fall to the ground. Wearing nothing but a light negligee, I submerged myself waist-deep in the lake.

“Here we go.”

The bucket tips over.

The ominous energy filling my soul spread out like wildfire.

In an instant, the world fell silent.

The bugs in the lake, the dragonflies in the air, and the centipedes crawling on the ground all fled in terror from me.

- Splash!

***What exactly is ‘Ominous Imagination’?

Kain once explained it to me based on the Chief Researcher’s memories. In short, it’s a power that turns our everyday anxieties into reality.

My Patron also warned me that properly using this power would affect me mentally.

But beyond these superficial details, what exactly is ‘Ominous Imagination’?

As I felt the boiling power inside me, I pondered.

This power is the ability to turn trauma into reality!

Beatrix’s power evolved into a force that grotesquely twisted everyday objects and turned real animals into terrifying monsters because she awakened this power as a child.

Do you remember the terrors of childhood? When you trembled in fear throughout the night?

Lying in bed after turning off the lights, it sometimes felt like the doll on your shelf was staring at you, and every time the wind made the window rattle, you thought someone was about to burst in.

All of these unsettling imaginings became the source of Beatrix’s power.

But I’m different from her as a child.

My trauma wasn’t like the vague fears that formed Beatrix’s childhood; mine was based on ‘real experiences’.

Ah!

I finally understand my Patron’s warning.

I could painfully see why Ominous Imagination was inherently a power akin to a mental illness.

I felt the presence of a man in a black suit relentlessly chasing me from behind.

I heard the voice of the old woman who sold turnips in the morning, ratting out my family.

When I got out of bed and went to the living room, I saw a vision of my father with blood dripping from his mouth.

As my mind began to crumble under the weight of the personal hell I had created, the embodiment of ominousness itself emerged from the surface of the lake.

This entity resembled the man in the black suit who chased my family during my childhood.

This entity resembled the smiling old woman from the market who betrayed us.

This entity resembled the housekeeper who poisoned my father’s teacup with a smile.

And beyond all these nightmares—this entity resembled the young girl who laughed as I shattered her body and cracked her skull, only to see her laugh at the sight of her own head exploding.

“Hello?”

- Stab!

The hand that emerged from the water pierced my abdomen in an instant.

The excruciating pain was so intense that I couldn’t even scream.

As my body began to grow cold, the creature’s body began to disintegrate.

It made strange noises, unable to comprehend why it was falling apart.

It impulsively killed the person in front of it?

“…”

You’re a failure. A bad child.

It’s okay… it’s okay… It’s not a big deal. I’ll make you again.

I’ll make you over… and over… and over…

Until I create a good child who listens to me.