Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 10

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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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Chapter 10.

I had naturally intended to turn them away.

“What kind of Hotel is this that I would bring civilians here—people who seem to know nothing about Hotel One—to a place where one careless move could drive them mad or kill them? Me, of all people. Damn it.”

Coco grumbled.

“Yes, no, yes, no… Hello… Yes….”
“Was it you?”
“Meow?”
“Where did you pick up such awful language?”
“Meow?”
“One of us is definitely losing our mind.”

It wasn’t a joke. This Hotel truly kills people. Through countless playthroughs, it had claimed the lives of many guests—or rather, I had failed to protect them from the Hotel’s malice.

But that was fiction beyond the monitor, and this now was reality transmitted through all five senses.

‘I had intended to respond adequately and send them away, but my mouth wouldn’t obey.’

More than that, my entire thought process felt paralyzed. Before the Guest, Lee Yeon-woo was a conscientious Manager. I hadn’t even realized the moment it happened.

A compulsion similar to but distinct from mental corruption. As if I myself wanted to accept these Guests, something had betrayed my will.

“Why?”

I had some idea.

“Before it’s reality, because the foundation of this place is a ‘game’?”

Hotel One has no function to refuse Guests. Only the proportion of Guest encounters varies depending on playstyle. Moreover, this is still the tutorial phase, when nearly all authority is locked away.

“I must be insane.”

Such an absolute lack of flexibility.

‘If this had been nothing more than a game, I could have accepted it.’

I had clung to a sliver of hope until the very end—that even if Coco referred to them as ‘people’, perhaps they were merely sophisticated AI or intricately designed NPCs instead.

‘But they weren’t.’

The moment I encountered a ‘human guest’ at the Front Desk, I had no choice but to accept the truth, however unwelcome.

‘I’d already suspected it halfway when the monster guests displayed reactions beyond what a game should produce, but those guests arriving here truly cannot be dismissed as mere data.’

The faces I’d seen countless times across various channels and articles beyond the screen. They weren’t clusters of data—they were real, living people with beating hearts and body heat.

Director Lee Sun-hae and Writer Hong Kyung-yeon, to be precise.

“No matter how I examined them, they bore no resemblance whatsoever to game characters. The immediate reactions they displayed when asked about the films they created were far beyond what rendering game resources could possibly produce.”

And yet.

“…How on earth can real, living people simply be brought into this place?”
“….”
“Coco?”
“No….”
“Do you have any intention of offering me even a shred of logical explanation?”
“No….”
“Fine, fine then. Debating with a wall isn’t my style anyway.”

My emotional response right now serves no purpose. Mere venting of frustration does nothing to resolve the situation.

Hadn’t I already known that my counterpart was neither human nor a complete cat?

‘It’s unclear whether Coco even has the authority to answer.’

What good would it do to press Coco in such circumstances? Hounding a child with imperfect language was hardly befitting of someone past forty who claimed to have common sense.

“….”

I composed myself.

“…I’m embarrassed to admit I got a bit excited there. My apologies.”
“No!”
“Whether you caused this mess or if someone else’s interference is to blame—we can sort that out later. Right now, damage control takes priority over identifying the culprit. We don’t have time to waste debating who’s garbage and who isn’t.”
“Yes.”
“What matters now is figuring out how to get these people out of here. I need to think carefully about whether this Hotel actually has any conventional escape routes.”
“Conventional escape.”
“Your language acquisition speed is remarkable—truly impressive. I only hope that learning doesn’t eventually become humanity’s downfall.”
“Yes.”
“So what I need to do is….”

The answer came quickly.

“Food.”
“Yes.”
“It’s certainly crucial. The Guest already requested confirmation on this matter, so if I don’t provide an immediate answer, it’ll only raise unnecessary suspicion. But I can’t serve something unverified either.”
“Food.”
“Getting them to find food outside would be safest for them. Actually, wait—where exactly is this Hotel located?”

I paused to think. I could make rough inferences.

“They said they arrived by car.”
“Yes.”
“They also mentioned getting lost. A downpour so heavy they were drenched just walking from the car to the entrance, surrounded by mountains on all sides….”
“Yes.”
“In this day and age, if people believe their signal got cut off just from some rain, it must be quite remote. I’m not sure if it’s Gangwon Province Mountain Village or what, but I’d say there are virtually no convenience facilities I know of within this radius.”
“Yes.”
“Going out myself to procure supplies would be the cleanest solution, but my range of activity is bound to this Hotel system. So I have to consider using the ingredients stored here instead….”

He rolled his eyes dryly.

“The question is whether those ingredients would be suitable for humans with ordinary biological structures.”
“Yes.”
“…Did you just confirm that the ingredients are suitable, Coco?”
“Yes.”
“….”

I decided not to calculate the probability that Coco was telling the truth.

“Let’s give it a try.”

It’s simply the easier and faster path to become my own control group.

“I’ll taste it first.”
“Yes.”
“Just because it’s safe for me doesn’t guarantee it’s safe for others… but it’s a more rational choice than standing idle and watching the stomachs of our distinguished guests dissolve, wouldn’t you say?”
“Rational?”
“Every time something like this happens, I find myself missing the body of a healthy adult male.”
“Yes.”
“While it’s not quite what one would call the standard age, there was no better database of clinical specimens I could comfortably rely on. They say you know where you’ve left something but not where you’ve come from, and indeed….”
“Yes… yes?”

Coco trailed off mid-answer and looked up at Lee Yeon-woo. Meeting that bewildered gaze, Lee Yeon-woo nodded calmly.

“A body in the late stages of growth still retains individual differences in metabolism and hormonal factors, creating variability in certain indicators. Ordinarily, minors aren’t used as specimens except in pediatric disease research or when alternative samples are unavailable, but theoretically speaking, that’s the situation.”
“Yes?”
“Of course, since I don’t know the exact mechanism by which this body operates, it’s difficult to consider it a purely nineteen-year-old specimen, but that uncertainty itself introduces another variable….”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”

Lee Yeon-woo adjusted his glasses absently.

“The conclusion is that this body is far from ideal as an experimental specimen.”

Quite an unreliable sample, this one.

‘Obtaining food itself isn’t particularly difficult.’

Even in this Horror Hotel, the concept of service existed.

Human guests, of course, but even monstrous guests whose forms were unclear often complained of hunger. Being the most fundamental service, even the tutorial had unlocked at least basic provisioning functions.

‘Though my range of activity and authority are restricted.’

The Kitchen is off-limits. I can’t use cooking tools either.

“A hotel without a chef—the management situation is truly dire.”
“No.”
“I know. I’ll need to hire a chef eventually. Though that sounds like a distant prospect.”

Lee Yeon-woo stared at the empty Lobby with a dry expression, clicking his tongue.

“Even so, it’s possible to summon the results The Guest demands. Within this illogical system, at least.”

Where?

“….”

The Guest Room Floor Corridor.

“….”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s try it.”

On both sides of the Guest Room Floor Corridor exist small service elevators called dumbwaiters.

Ordinarily, dishes prepared in the Kitchen would ascend through them, and waiting Staff Members would transfer them onto trays to deliver to The Guest—that was the standard sequence.

‘But now we’re in a tutorial phase where much is lacking.’

I couldn’t say how the structure operated now that reality had taken hold, but at this stage, I could only extract one result from the dumbwaiter: ‘food’.

“…Do you think this method would work on human Guests as well?”
“Yes.”
“True enough—even when it was a game, this Hotel’s cuisine posed no problems for human Guests. But whether that holds true now is questionable.”
“No.”
“Sometimes I even envy that optimistic attitude of yours.”

The problem was that even this rigid system had minimal procedures.

Under the tutorial regime, I had no authority to push services proactively. The dumbwaiter operated passively—it only functioned when The Guest made an explicit ‘request’.

“In the end, I’ll have to ask—what kind of meals do The Guests prefer?”

The system merely offered choices, and I had grown skilled at selecting the closest thing to the best option among those crude alternatives. That was the social skill I had cultivated as a person.

If there was a possibility, I had to act on it.

* * *

In the midst of their conversation, the phone rang.

“A phone call?”
“Is it from the Front Desk?”
“Well, there’s no one else who would contact us anyway.”
“What could they want at this hour….”

The Director picked up the phone.

“Hello?”
―Good evening, sir. This is the Front Desk. I hope our call hasn’t interrupted your rest.

The voice was courteous and refined. The tone carried through the receiver seemed to embody that neat silhouette I’d glimpsed in the Lobby—as if his voice had been sculpted from the same elegant form.

‘Just hearing his voice, I can tell who it is.’

A slightly awkward laugh escaped me. Gentlemanly, courteous, dignified. It wasn’t merely eloquent speech—there was something about the way he spoke that compelled the listener to straighten their posture. An elevated manner of speaking that seemed to demand respect.

‘Without even seeing his face, just hearing his voice like this, he’s a seasoned hotelier through and through… but no matter how I think about it, his age….’

Sensing the history woven into that voice, I asked without quite realizing it.

“Ah, yes. What can I help you with?”
―I’m currently reviewing options regarding breakfast service tomorrow morning. I wondered if you might have any preferences regarding the type of meal you’d like.
“Oh… is a meal possible? I thought it might be difficult.”
―Nothing is confirmed yet, but we are doing our best to arrange what we can. For your reference, the guests in Room 2102 have requested Western cuisine. If you’d be so kind as to tell me your preference, I’ll prepare something as similar as possible to that style.
“Ah, then… one moment please.”

The Director turned to look at the Writer.

“Honey, is there anything you’d like to eat in the morning? Korean, Chinese, Western….”
“…Korean food?”
“In the morning, you need something gentle on the stomach. Okay, noted.”

I pressed the phone back to my ear.

“Korean cuisine would be perfect.”
―Thank you for that. Are there any additional details I should be aware of? Ingredients you cannot eat, for instance?
“No, nothing like that. But if you could prepare some soup or rice porridge, that would be wonderful. My digestion isn’t great in the mornings.”
―I appreciate your candor. I will prepare something nourishing within our means to ensure your morning is comfortable.
“Wow, thank you so much.”
―Please, think nothing of it. I’m the one who should be grateful for your response. I apologize for reaching out at such a late hour. I hope you have a peaceful night.
“You too, Manager.”

The call ended shortly after.

“What? They’re providing breakfast?”
“A buffet might be difficult, but given how much they emphasized it, I doubt they’d refuse.”
“I was even considering driving somewhere far tomorrow if they wouldn’t.”
“The guests may bring their own meals, but the staff will be staying and eating here. I think that’s what they’re getting at.”
“So they could have offered meals from the beginning?”
“Some guests would object to eating food prepared from the same ingredients the staff uses. That level of pickiness is necessary to avoid upsetting these temperamental visitors.”
“How many unusual guests does this place actually have?”
“You’d be surprised how many people refuse to eat the same food as the staff. This isn’t particularly odd, though it is strange.”
“Wherever you go, difficult guests are always a problem.”
“That’s just how the world works.”

They reached that conclusion together.

In any case, the staff here would need to eat as well.

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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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