Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 114

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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 114.

Blood holds five things within it.

Life, memory, emotion, will, and soul. The closer one approaches the soul, the deeper the knowledge becomes. And the reason I broached this subject now, seated in the Central Control Room, was simple.

Lee Yeon-woo summoned an interface into the empty air.

“….”
“Memory.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”

I acknowledged Coco’s terse observation.

“My ‘memory’ is also part of me, and therefore reading the memories of those who bear my ‘blood’… is hardly a difficult task.”

I spoke while watching countless streams of data flow past.

“I sensed the presence of Lover of Dawn.”
“Correct.”
“It’s fortunate that our exchange didn’t end as a one-sided drain.”
“Exchange. Promise.”
“After all, my blood is itself a collective entity possessing consciousness and sensation….”

Even as I observed the cascade of countless statements, I continued speaking with measured calm.

“I should be able to conduct a shallow scan.”
“Correct!”
“The Monster Guests, who were once mere conceptual entities within the Game, now carry stories of their own—and I can obtain crucial clues to understand what those stories might be.”
“Clues. Framework.”
“I’ll need to update the manual.”

My composed gaze turned toward the bestiary displayed on the monitor.

[Bestiary]
[Monster Guest]
[Name]

[Lover of Dawn]

* * *

“So?”

Rawi plopped down beside Seme.

“You’ll get stabbed that way.”
“As long as you don’t suddenly reverse your grip, I won’t get stabbed~”
“Sigh….”

Seme exhaled deeply, fingering the blade’s flat before answering.

“…Perhaps because it was such a grand undertaking, they conducted all manner of research while studying clock fragments. Simply put, they had many projects running simultaneously.”
“Many projects running simultaneously?”
“There were various initiatives, and they’d constructed numerous facilities. You know the type—places where countless unspecified people come and go repeatedly.”
“I’m not getting a clear picture. Are you talking about a park?”
“There were hospitals, schools, theaters, department stores—that sort of thing.”
“Ah, I see.”

Rawi spoke as though understanding dawned.

“And among them was a Hotel?”
“Yes.”
“It wouldn’t have been an ordinary Hotel, would it?”
“No.”
“Even so, consider this.”

He continued, studying the blade’s somewhat dull edge.

“You can’t say for certain, can you?”
“True—I can’t claim with absolute certainty that this place is one of them.”
“Then?”
“In your estimation.”

I watched Seme sit beside me, observing the Junior with his narrow, sharp eyes.

“What do you think of this Hotel?”
“….”

Rawi answered a beat too late.

“…It’s a Hotel where monsters come and go.”
“And.”
“The guests who visit here seem very comfortable.”
“So that’s what an artist sees differently. From my perspective, they all seemed out of their minds.”

At Seme’s words, Rawi shrugged slightly.

“Like a demon finding hell comfortable?”
“That hits the mark.”

Yes, it was unsettling.

This Hotel itself.

“Lee Yeon-woo showed me the Rooftop once, remember? He showed it just that one time and told me to avoid going there if possible. It was when you were distracted by the flowers.”
“I’d never seen flowers like those before.”
“That’s not what I’m saying. What I mean is, I heard something from him back then.”
“What did he say?”
“He said death often feels like a luxury.”

―Death often feels like a luxury.
―It was a slip of the tongue.
―No one has ever died.

“…But there was a story related to that clock’s power.”

Seme continued in his characteristically calm tone.

“That it can resurrect the dead.”
“Resurrection, you say?”
“If something is renowned worldwide, it’s the sort of tale that might surface. So whether it truly possesses such power, I cannot say. Resurrection is a capability many dream of, after all.”
“But if it were real, ‘something renowned’ hardly seems sufficient description….”
“That’s precisely why the thought occurred to me. There’s a connection.”

He sheathed his blade.

“Considering that a Labyrinth in the form of a Hotel frequented by Dokkaebi has remained unknown until now, the probability it was created within the last five years isn’t zero.”
“You’re not saying it’s high?”
“A Labyrinth determined to hide itself can easily conceal itself for a century.”

Seme shrugged.

“But with a Labyrinth of this magnitude, concealment might have been difficult. Around five years ago, when the Foundation was suppressed globally, Labyrinths hidden throughout the world were exposed as a result.”

It was a natural consequence, though I’d heard that many factions were destroyed or damaged in the process.

“Above all, a Labyrinth of this scale and depth couldn’t have been created by any ordinary incident.”

The surface was one thing, but underground alone stretched dozens of levels deep.

“Something of this magnitude should have become a global issue.”
“Even if it were a global issue, I’ve heard nothing of it….”
“That’s precisely what makes it convincing. Naturally, when such an operation was executed, outsiders were kept in the dark. People without prior knowledge probably just thought some major corporation had gone bankrupt.”
“Wouldn’t a major corporation’s bankruptcy make the news?”
“The Foundation wasn’t a foolish organization. They didn’t operate openly under the name Foundation on the outside—they were divided into multiple corporate entities.”
“Ah, then it makes sense they’d remain unknown.”

Rawi nodded.

“If the government deliberately conceals something, people can’t help but remain ignorant.”
“I’ve felt this for some time, but you harbor considerable distrust of civil servants.”
“Wouldn’t this qualify as faith by comparison?”
“Perhaps—so skepticism might be the more accurate term than distrust….”

But I didn’t press further. I had no desire to ruffle the young artist’s feathers, and besides, Gap-dwellers who reacted this way toward the government were hardly uncommon.

“In any case, doesn’t it sound plausible?”

If there were only one suspicious point, it might be overlooked.

“The scale, timing, and circumstances all overlap with the incidents from back then. And it’s not as if there aren’t other Labyrinths staged around the Clock or the Foundation.”
“Ah, so there are.”
“Of course there are, given that such incidents occurred. Whenever a global event happens, Labyrinths always emerge in this manner. That was precisely when the Jakyeongdan was in their busiest season.”
“The Jakyeongdan.”
“Not everyone within the Gap causes trouble. To put it in simpler terms, there are also… well… groups that function like hero organizations, in a manner of speaking.”
“In the Outside, companies get incredibly busy every year-end, so it must feel exactly like that when global incidents occur.”
“That’s about right.”
“But isn’t that itself rather strange?”

Rawi watched Seme’s blade slide into its sheath, then turned his gaze toward Seme himself.

“From what you’re describing, it doesn’t sound like they were a good organization at all.”
“If I told you they created far more people in a state worse than death than those they actually killed, would you understand?”
“That Lee Yeon-woo was part of such a group of global bastards—I simply cannot comprehend it.”
“….”

Instead of answering, Seme ran his rigid fingertips across the surface of his dull blade. It was a defensive gesture, as though steadying his breath before uttering a curse’s name, or as though wary of an invisible specter.

“…A young artist, you see.”

A talented individual who awakened as an artist despite their tender years, bearing a name of three simple characters.

“Makes for excellent prey.”

Seme fixed his gaze upon Rawi.

“That aspect of yours troubles me.”
“…That I’m young?”
“….”

Seme blinked before responding.

“If what we saw in Room 4 truly reflected Lee Yeon-woo’s inner landscape, it was likely unintentional. Or perhaps he’s simply being that guarded with us.”
“You think he’s deceiving us?”
“What was your impression?”
“It didn’t seem that way. There are some dry aspects to him, but fundamentally, he’s always treated me with honesty. Above all….”

Rawi rolled his eyes.

“He didn’t even look like someone with blood on his hands.”

A Dokkaebi who walks around caked in his own blood rather than others’—even now, it didn’t seem like he would pretend to be virtuous and courteous.

“Rather, doesn’t he seem more like the Jakyeongdan you mentioned, Senior?”
“I did consider that possibility.”
“You did?”
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be even more horrifying? It seems like it would make for a truly terrible family for Lee Yeon-woo….”
“Ah, is that so?”
“That kind of Jakyeongdan despises the Foundation with absolute fervor.”

Seme recalled his “Hero”—the one who had been dead while still alive.

“To be offered as a sacrifice to the Labyrinth, backed by a group that despises everything to the point of total devotion… that’s on an entirely different level from simply getting caught up in a workplace where your values don’t align.”

Rawi, turning the words over in his mind, opened his mouth a beat too late.

“A workplace where values don’t align.”
“That’s right.”
“But if I synthesize what you said with what Lee Yeon-woo mentioned….”
“Being a test subject is a job in its own way.”
“The Gap really is a genuinely insane dystopia.”
“No, not everything in the Gap is like that….”

Even this side grimaces at the mention of unethical experiments. During the nearly five years when things were especially turbulent because of the Foundation and we barely escaped, it was even worse. The Resonance Bureau even cracked down on it once.

“That’s why I said it.”
“What?”
“That he works as both a researcher and a test subject.”
“You said it was abnormal. I remember.”

Seme nodded at Rawi’s words.

“It’s already unusual enough that he volunteered as a test subject at the Gap Research Institute. But that’s not all—if it really was work from the Foundation….”
“…Then?”
“Then I think I understand why Lee Yeon-woo was offered as a sacrifice to this Labyrinth. Lee Yeon-woo said it himself—he took full responsibility for the safety inspections and stepped forward actively.”

The Foundation had committed countless terrible acts.

“But one thing is certain—what Lee Yeon-woo was trying to accomplish within that organization.”
“Right.”

Rawi continued.

“He wanted to minimize the suffering—as much as possible.”

Not his own, but that of everyone else.

“Among such a collective, he was the only one with any semblance of ethics. His hands were tied.”
“….”
“If he hadn’t done it that way, the researchers would have….”
“…I see.”

Rawi murmured with an expressionless face.

“I’m not particularly pleased about this.”
“Wouldn’t it be strange if you were?”
“In the Gap, I wonder if the strange has become normal.”
“Sometimes it feels that way.”
“It’s remarkable how indifferent people become to suffering, no matter how it occurs.”

But he understood the general situation well enough.

“Lee Yeon-woo said it himself—’talented people who listen well and work hard are always exploited to the marrow, wherever they go.’ Hearing something like that suggests the Foundation valued him to some degree, or rather…”
“He was favored?”

Seme understood what Rawi was getting at.

“Otherwise, he couldn’t have balanced the work of a researcher with that of a test subject. Whether he started as one or the other, I couldn’t say.”
“What surprised me was that such an infamous organization tolerated that level of resistance. Lee Yeon-woo must have been genuinely capable—perhaps because he was an artist.”
“And he himself carried an attitude as though it was natural for him to be valued so highly within that place.”
“That’s not exactly pleasant to hear either~.”

If this assumption was true, then Lee Yeon-woo had been caught up in the Foundation first, and then a second time after becoming a Dokkaebi.

“But if things are like this…”

Rawi crossed his arms and leaned back against the sofa.

“So you’re saying he was a victim from start to finish?”
“Seems that way.”

Seme shrugged.

“The thing is, I’m not even sure if he has memories from back then.”
“Still, if he had some recollection, wouldn’t he have mentioned being a Researcher?”
“But his reaction was so flat that I can’t be certain. The way he put it was more like ‘I don’t remember everything.’ And he’s not exactly trying to escape the Labyrinth either.”
“Ah, true. I’m not sure about that part either.”

So in the end,

“He’s just someone with truly terrible luck.”
“That’s right.”

Seme slowly cradled a sword as tall as himself and murmured.

“He was just too unlucky….”

Like everything else in this world, he was simply swept up by irrational calamity.

―My research never caused any innocent person to suffer or be injured.
“….”
―I took full responsibility for it all.

Within those words, Lee Yeon-woo was perhaps not an “innocent person” after all.

* * *

Ding-dong—
The doorbell rang.

“….”

Ding-dong—
It rang repeatedly.

Not that it’s entirely regular, either.

“….”

In the dark dawn, Seme pressed my eye against the door viewer lens.

The corridor lights were dead, casting everything in shadow. Beyond the narrow lens, the Hotel sank like deep ocean blue. It had been long since the sun set. The moment resembled that uncertain hour when the world couldn’t decide whether to rise again.

Through the expansive window that filled one side of the Hotel corridor, the blue of dawn filtered through, and you—

were reflected there.

“….”
─Seme.
“….”
─It’s Ser-sang. Your brother Ser-sang has come.
“….”
─Open the door for me.

It was you.

Eyes the color of dark brown wood.
Soft hair.
A smiling mouth.

It was you.

─It’s okay.
“…Yes.”
─Let’s run away together.
“Let’s run away.”
─Open that door.
“Alright.”

Click.
I undid the latch.

“I’ll protect you.”

I opened the door.

Just as I had done every dawn that had passed.

“Just as you did for me.”
“Yes.”
“This time, I will….”
“Yes, Seme.”
“This time, I will….”
“My sister.”
“I will protect you.”

Wide open.

“I love you.”

My younger sister.

* * *

“I told you not to open the door if our eyes met.”

Lee Yeon-woo, standing with his hand over Seme’s eyes, blocked the path of the woman in the white nightgown.

“Adults often forget sincere advice from others, don’t they?”
“Ah….”
“I understand. The world grows narrow as one ages.”
“My sister, go.”
“Guest.”

Lee Yeon-woo asked the Lover of Dawn with a grin spreading across his face.

“Were you happy over the past day?”
“….”

She did not answer.

Her face bore an expression that was neither laughter nor tears, neither living nor dead.

I could only stare at the Hotel General Manager.

“….”
“….”

* * *

“The Lover of Dawn, as you may know, is an erosion-type monster guest that parasitizes the happy memories of the Human Guest.”

Lee Yeon-woo explained while gazing straight ahead.

“From the Hotel General Manager’s perspective, she appears as a woman with white hair dressed in a white nightgown. Her frame is somewhat lean, she walks barefoot, and though her hair is slightly disheveled, she appears beautiful.”

His tone was businesslike.

“However, once she identifies a Human Guest who is in love, she targets them. It matters not whether it’s a love they can no longer meet or one still ongoing.”
“Yes.”
“As Coco said, the more a Human Guest clings to this love, the more dangerous they become when targeted by the Lover of Dawn. In the worst-case scenario, they become her apostle and transform into a monster.”

However.

“That said, in most cases, management is not difficult. She doesn’t harbor hatred toward Human Guests like the Wet Person does, nor does she obsess over blood like the Tasteless Guest.”

Lee Yeon-woo spoke while rolling his eyes slightly, as if verifying his own thoughts.

“However, ‘not difficult’ only applies to the Lover of Dawn that originally existed within the Game, or when the Hotel’s rules function normally. If she strays beyond the rules and lingers, the probability of unpredictable accidents occurring becomes considerably high.”

He continued his explanation with a light warning.

“The Lover of Dawn appears only at dawn, as her name suggests. She goes to the Guest Rooms of her targeted Human Guest, rings the doorbell, and calls them out in the form of the lover they remember.”
“Hello!”
“Yes, one must be careful. Her imitation is quite skillful. Even if the target’s remembered loved one is already dead, her meticulous mimicry is so well-crafted that it opens the door with high probability.”
“Open the door.”
“Sometimes, through the Guest Room’s telephone, she perfectly modulates the voice of the person the target trusts most. Remember that the Lover of Dawn is a monster guest who works particularly well with the Hotel’s tricks.”

He continued speaking, his chin set firm.

“However, when the Lover of Dawn overlaps with ‘And Then There Was No One,’ most guests lose their judgment the moment they hear that voice, even if they try to endure it with reason. This is not simply being deceived because the voice is identical.”

Then she added further.

“During the Game, I merely regarded it as a simple ‘abnormal condition,’ but after a light scan… that person’s illusory magic was implemented with dark magic as its foundation.”
“Warning. Warning.”
“Whether reality was reflected in the Game or the Game was reflected in reality, the fact that those who hear that voice cannot easily escape is the evidence.”

Those enchanted walk out on their own limbs.

“Just like when Director Lee Sun-hae and her party came to the Hotel….”
“Coco. Guarantee.”
“What do you intend to do by guaranteeing your own dangerousness?”

Well, in any case.

“After being enchanted in such a manner, the Lover of Dawn wanders the Hotel with the target. We call this the ‘Secret Meeting at Dawn.’ If this is not interrupted before sunrise, the guest who has become the target forgets the corresponding memories.”
“No?”
“Perhaps, as Coco suggested, do you also think this is a trivial penalty?”

Lee Yeon-woo looked forward again.

“Humans are creatures that depend on emotions and memories, and with only slight exaggeration, without them they become beings of no significance whatsoever. While it might be different during the Game, now that it has become reality, the final result that the Lover of Dawn creates is harmful to people.”

The reason was clear.

“The Secret Meeting at Dawn does not end in a single occurrence. Even if one secret meeting concludes and the target forgets their lover, that alone is not ‘love.’ Friends, family, beloved pets….”

She devours all the memories the target holds dear.

“When the target has forgotten so many memories, can we still call them the person they once were?”
“No!”
“I too anticipate it would be difficult.”
“Yes!”
“In summary, if left unattended, the human guest who becomes the target will develop amnesia.”

That is not all.

“They may even become like drug addicts. Since it is a result I have yet to witness, I cannot be entirely certain, but guests who checked out after being subjected to the Lover of Dawn in the Game would search for a ‘lover’ they themselves could not remember, displaying behavior bordering on mental and physical weakness.”

What can be understood from this is that the target easily becomes addicted to meetings with the Lover of Dawn. In fact, the frequency with which they fall for the process of being summoned for secret meetings by the Lover of Dawn gradually increases.

“Now that it’s become reality, we can’t ignore the possibility that it will manifest in a form even more harmful than the Game.”
“Yes!”
“I like it so much….”

I pressed down on Coco’s head in mild reproach and continued.

“So until either the Lover of Dawn or the Target checks out, you must interfere with the Lover of Dawn’s secret meeting. Patrol the Hotel around the clock, and pay special attention to the morning shifts.”

I interlaced my fingers together.

“However, this ‘interference’ won’t be easy. If my memory serves correctly, when you interfere with the secret meeting, the Hotel General Manager will forget the memories from that time as a matter of course.”
“Yes.”
“Now that it’s become reality, there’s a possibility they might forget additional memories as well. But in that case, please don’t panic and simply follow the Hotel’s manual faithfully.”
“Hehe.”
“It’s not difficult. Fortunately, we’ve already opened the Central Control Room.”

I tapped the back of my hand with my interlaced fingers.

“First, remember the Target’s condition and location before sunset.”
“Second, patrol the Hotel directly and check whether the Lover of Dawn approaches the Target.”
“Third, if the secret meeting has taken place, say the following to the Lover of Dawn.”

『Were you happy over the past day?』

“…After selecting that option, the Target will return to their Guest Room, and the Lover of Dawn will return to their own Guest Room. However, to obtain such an option, there’s a necessary task you must complete.”

I unlaced my fingers and lightly spread my hands, gesturing toward the Facility.

“Finally, visit the Central Control Room between 21:00 and 24:00 every day and check the CCTV records.”
“Yes!”
“Unlike in the Game, whether you can recall the memories you lost by interfering with the Lover of Dawn’s secret meeting through this task remains uncertain. However, through this process, you gain the authority to interfere with the secret meeting.”
“I gain the authority!”
“Without going through this process, even if you happen to witness their secret meeting, you lack the authority to interfere and cannot take any action.”

I clasped my hands together again and continued.

“If you remember the situation even after interfering with the secret meeting, please come to the Central Control Room. And record what you saw and heard here.”
“….”
“Like this video you’re watching right now.”

The video was coming to an end.

“…This is merely an additional suggestion….”
“….”
“Should you judge the flow of events to be dangerous, it would be acceptable to create a noticeable sense of discord—decisions and actions that I would not ordinarily take.”
“….”
“Then I entrust this to you.”

It was the first and last message Lee Yeon-woo left for the Hotel General Manager.

* * *

Like a shattered ankle.

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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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