Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 143

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Unnamed Editor’s Survival Rules 143
ep19. Expedition! Timeless Hotel! (15)
Kwon Mu-seop’s face bore a complex light as he murmured the forbidden name.
It seemed flustered, yet also desperate.
Though not quite as much as Kwon Mu-seop, I too felt dizzy at this turn of events.
Lee Seob, of all people.
Had we actually stumbled upon the Kwon Mu-seop Team exploring this place?
But why had Lee Seob been in that state from the beginning?
I couldn’t call it an actual body, but this was my first time seeing the person known as Lee Seob with my own eyes.
A man in his mid-thirties with an average build.
Yet I couldn’t make out his features despite looking at him.
His eyes too were hollow like gaping holes.
I turned to look at the opposite side of the corridor, leaving Kwon Mu-seop staring fixedly at Lee Seob.
Nothing was there.
The Hazardous Entity that appeared before us seemed to be only Lee Seob.
Kwon Mu-seop spoke in a fractured voice.
“……Let’s move to another location.”
“I’ll wake Director Go.”
I stood up, my eyes briefly leaving Lee Seob.
It seemed Kwon Mu-seop had glanced toward the Director in that moment too.
Then when we looked back at Lee Seob again.
“……!”
Lee Seob raised one arm, pointing at something.
Beyond the corner of the corridor where he stood.
What? Was he telling us to go that way?
“Did you see it move?”
“No…… It appears to have moved while I looked away for a moment.”
So it only moves when not being watched.
“Do-un, don’t look at it. Wake Director Go, but quietly.”
“Yes.”
I moved toward Director Go at Kwon Mu-seop’s low command.
“Mm……?”
Director Go stirred awake, half-conscious.
After rousing the Director, I kept my gaze from Lee Seob and waited for Kwon Mu-seop’s next order.
For a while.
“It doesn’t seem to be moving anymore.”
At Kwon Mu-seop’s words, I glanced toward Lee Seob.
Just as he said, Lee Seob merely stood there, still pointing down the corridor.
“Should we go take a look?”
“……I’ll go check.”
Kwon Mu-seop stood.
Then, leaving the Director and me behind, he approached Lee Seob.
Step- step-
I kept watch over Lee Seob, ready for any sudden change, while stealing glances at the opposite side of the corridor.
Step- step-
Meanwhile, Kwon Mu-seop reached the space before Lee Seob.
He had come within about three meters, but Lee Seob remained perfectly still.
Kwon Mu-seop pressed his body against the wall and continued forward.
That way, he reached the end of the corridor and saw beyond where Lee Seob was pointing.
“…….”
After a moment, Kwon Mu-seop gestured to me.
Was he telling me to come as well?
“Director, please wait here for a moment.”
“No, come with me.”
Director Go stood up the moment I did.
I approached where Kwon Mu-seop stood, the Director trailing behind me.
As I passed Lee Seob, standing there like a scarecrow, the bent corridor beyond came into my view.
Still an ordinary hotel hallway.
But then, large letters were written on the wall.
Letters smudged as if written in ash.
For some reason, I could read them immediately.
—Help me.
“Help me……?”
I traced the words absentmindedly and swallowed hard.
I remembered.
The dreams from the previous night.
All those repeated dreams I’d had, yet forgotten completely upon waking, came rushing back at once.
Sparks falling from the sky.
Gray ash.
Black feathers.
And beyond them, Lee Seob—existing there.
As if waiting for this very moment, everything I’d seen in those dreams surged up from my unconscious mind into the realm of consciousness.
How could I have forgotten this?
“What’s wrong?”
“A memory has returned.”
“A memory?”
“I had the dream several times. A dream where Lee Sol’s father was asking for help.”
“…….”
Why had I forgotten, truly?
Every scene was so vivid.
While I grappled with those past dreams, Kwon Mu-seop remained silent.
His face had gone deathly pale, and looking at it, I understood.
I understood what emotion Kwon Mu-seop felt upon discovering Lee Seob.
It was guilt.
An overwhelming guilt that erased all other feelings.
Kwon Mu-seop wiped his face with a dry hand, trying to compose himself.
I turned my eyes toward Lee Seob to avoid watching him.
“Huh……?”
But Lee Seob had disappeared.
Where had he gone?
Startled, I looked about and found him again.
Lee Seob had moved to the end of the corridor.
He stood at the far end of the corridor we’d just entered, facing us.
His movement seemed almost like luring us on.
“……Should we continue following?”
At my words, Kwon Mu-seop nodded heavily.
We took steps toward Lee Seob.
That’s when it happened.
Whoosh—!
A sound of rushing liquid came from behind us.
Turning around, a massive tide of blood came surging toward us.
Blood rushing at us like a tsunami.
“Ugh……!”
We recoiled in alarm.
But then.
Splash—!
The blood that should have engulfed us struck an invisible barrier.
As if blocked by a glass wall, it rose upward, then fell back down, rippling.
The space has been separated……?
“Isn’t that a Hazard Phenomenon from the ‘Hotel Overflowing with Blood’?”
“Right. We saw it once in the very first guest room.”
The “Hotel” had undergone five resets so far.
Each time it was recreated, it received a new name suited to its characteristics.
Starting with the “Hotel-type Special Management Zone,” then “Hotel Overflowing with Blood,” “Hotel Where Shadows Grow,” “Civil War Hotel,” and finally “Hotel that Selects the Real.”
And that vivid blood was a Hazard Phenomenon that had appeared in the “Hotel Overflowing with Blood.”
Fortunately, the blood did not overflow toward us.
But the corridor was now blocked, and we could no longer return toward the Fitness Center.
“We have no choice but to follow.”
Kwon Mu-seop murmured quietly.
Though it felt like we were being herded, we decided to follow for now.
As we rounded the corridor, Lee Seob was there again.
But the Lee Seob we had passed was already gone.
Lee Seob stood at the entrance to the stairwell in the middle of the corridor.
Was he telling us to enter the stairwell now?
And on the corridor wall, there was another message.
—Everyone is watching you.
‘Everyone’…… who could that be?
‘You’—who was that?
For some reason, as if these words were directed at me, a chill ran down my spine.
But surely not.
Damn it, what is all this supposed to mean?
Swallowing my unease, I pulled out my notebook.
As I copied what was written on the wall, Kwon Mu-seop opened the stairwell door.
—The Golden Rule
Large letters written on the stairwell wall as well.
And I could see Lee Seob’s feet hovering halfway up the stairs.
Whoosh—!
As we entered the stairwell, the corridor where we had been standing moments before was submerged in blood.
Beyond the unclosed doorway, blood surged and rippled everywhere.
But like before, that blood was blocked by a transparent wall and did not invade the stairwell.
Descending to the lower floor in this situation would be foolish.
Moreover, Lee Seob was openly hinting that we should go upward.
Director Go looked at us with anxious eyes.
The situation felt just as hopeless to us, but we climbed the stairs without showing it.
As we climbed, Lee Seob went one floor ahead of us each time.
And on the stairwell walls, there were incomprehensible messages written on each floor.
—Crow
—The Chosen One
—Face the Shadow.
“Do you understand what this means?”
“No, I have no idea.”
The feeling of sinking deeper into a labyrinth.
Moreover, blood was steadily rising up the stairs behind us.
We had no choice but to keep going.
But on the next floor, we saw something new.
—They
For some reason, the message on the wall was only half-visible.
It seemed there was more written after ‘They,’ but it had been rubbed away.
We couldn’t read it at all.
And Lee Seob stood beside that message.
His head was caved in as if struck by a hammer.
Half his head was crushed, but Lee Seob showed no pain.
He simply stood there in silence, like a broken toy.
We observed him for a moment, then continued upward.
—20XX. 1. 23.
This time, numbers were written.
It seemed to be a date, but I couldn’t discern its meaning.
Kwon Mu-seop, however, flinched silently.
I copied down the date and climbed to the next floor.
—A Secret Exposed
Again, the rest was erased.
And Lee Seob’s head was more crushed now, caved in down to his shoulders.
—They
The condition on the upper floor was the same.
The wall was covered with hastily smudged marks, and Lee Seob’s entire upper body was now compressed.
Like something being crushed under the wail of the Siren.
“Chief, this is almost like…….”
“Like someone silencing him.”
At Kwon Mu-seop’s words, I nodded.
It seemed as though something was urgently erasing what Lee Seob had written.
And then, in punishment or retaliation, violently crushing his head.
I couldn’t begin to understand the situation.
Could it be that “Crow” deliberately brought us to this Special Zone in its early stages to show us this?
Moreover, even though it was just a phantom, as my friend’s form grew increasingly tragic, Kwon Mu-seop’s expression was also quietly contorting.
But Lee Seob did not stop.
He continued trying to convey something to us, crumpling and collapsing to the floor.
—The Mighty Angel
—The Golden Calf
—The Roaring Lion
—The Bird That Guides Souls
—They
—They
—They
—They too
Lee Seob kept trying, but all his attempts failed.
Lee Seob no longer had the form of a human.
Compressed flat like a tire, only one arm barely held up.
As if trying to convey something to us.
But strength failed him—he seemed inadequate to the task.
And when we climbed to the next floor.
Lee Seob was gone.
Something with a Siren’s head, standing at human height, remained.
“……!”
We jumped back in terror.
But behind us, blood had already risen high enough to cut off our retreat.
The thing with the Siren’s head and a skeletal body stopped being still and began to move.
We went on guard, but it did not attack us.
Crunch-! Bang-!
The Siren’s head tore the stairwell door from its hinges and went outside.
Forced by the rising tide of blood behind us, we followed it.
Upon exiting the stairwell, we found ourselves in an upscale hotel corridor again.
But this time, text covered every surface.
—Help me.
—Help me.
—Help me. Help me help me help me help me help me help me help me help me help me help me help me help me help me.
The phrase “Help me” was written like a pattern, densely covering the hotel’s walls, floor, and ceiling.
The Siren’s head slowly moved across them.
The Siren’s head stopped before a grand door.
Seeing that ornate door, Kwon Mu-seop murmured quietly.
“Room 201.”
We’d climbed the stairs so many times, yet here we were at Room 201.
The spatial geography was nonsensical, but we had no time to dwell on it.
Room 201 was one of the escape routes from the “Hotel Overflowing with Blood.”
But to escape through that room, someone had to die.
When one person’s blood filled the hotel floor, the rest could escape—a kind of Sacrifice Altar.
At that moment, the Siren’s head turned to face Kwon Mu-seop.
Then it lifted the skin beneath its head, exposing something like a heart wedged between its collarbones.
“…….”
The meaning was unmistakable.
In that instant.
Kwon Mu-seop seized my knife.
Then he slashed the Siren’s throat in one clean stroke.
As blood spurted like a fountain, moments later we were back in reality.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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