Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 140

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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 140.

Rawi, who had been sitting in the entryway, sprang to his feet the moment he saw Seme.

“Where have you been? Why do you look like that? Where did you throw your blade? And why is your phone—”

Rawi’s words trailed off. Seme’s face had drained of all color, as though he had stumbled upon a secret he was never meant to know, or had been consumed by a shock too immense to bear.

“Senior?”
“I don’t know where to even begin.”
“Just tell me. Anything.”
“Lee Yeon-woo is dead.”

Silence fell between them. Seme parted his parched lips.

“The Lover of Dawn enchanted me and dragged me to the rooftop. Lee Yeon-woo was devoured in my place.”
“Devoured? By whom?”
“I just told you. The Lover of Dawn.”

Seme muttered as though his soul had fled his body, repeating that he couldn’t have died entirely, that there must be a way given the structure of this hotel—words that seemed less like hope and more like self-hypnosis.

“Still, you have to get out alive. You’re human, after all.”

That was when it happened.

Ding-dong—

“…What is that…?”

Following the doorbell, a series of rhythmic knocks echoed through the space. Knock, knock, knock.

“Who could that be?”
“With all that commotion, probably a staff member or something.”
“There’s no one who should be coming here.”
“I’ll go check and come right back.”

Rawi blocked him, noting his impatience.

“I’m here.”

Rawi separated from Seme and approached the door. Pressing my eye against the peephole lens, I saw golden irises with pitch-black pupils staring intently through the glass.

【Pardon the intrusion.】

A voice that filled the space with composure. The tone was leisurely and courteous.

【I am the Hotel General Manager. An unexpected disturbance has occurred within the hotel, and I am making rounds to ensure the safety of our guests. Should you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to inform me.】
“….”
【If all is well, might I enter?】

Through the lens, I saw Lee Yeon-woo’s face.

【Please open the door.】

Lee Yeon-woo’s warnings flashed through my mind.

“You were the one who told me never to open the door to any being whose eyes meet mine through the lens.”
【You remember well.】

The man’s eyes narrowed like a fox’s.

“You also said that a being casting no shadow through the door’s gap is not human.”
【That is also correct.】
“You said that letting in something inhuman would make this an ‘open room.’ So which are you?”
【A wise judgment.】

Instead of answering, the man smiled.

【I am delighted that you are enjoying our hotel so much.】
“….”
【Should you require anything, please contact the Front Desk at any time. We shall attend to your needs with utmost care so that your requests are promptly fulfilled. I hope the remainder of your stay proves peaceful and comfortable.】

My heart beat heavily.

【Hotel General Manager
Lee Yeon-woo
was the one.】

Thump.
Thump.
Thump.

* * *

“Good grief, what on earth is all this?”

Nak-do Master let out an exaggerated sigh as he gazed at the warning sign blocking the path.

“The determination to keep people out is quite impressive. Usually, something like this is nothing short of an invitation practically begging you to enter. It’s just poking at people’s competitive instincts, you know~….”

With a playful gesture, he swept the sign aside, and the steep mountain road opened its mouth once more. Nak-do Master scratched the bridge of his nose with his gun barrel as he surveyed the unpaved road kicking up clouds of dust.

“We’ve been circling around here for a week now? So the Fox Den near Gapyeong was in this area. I’ve heard most sorcerers can’t even approach it and vanish without a trace, but what about our police captain friend? Still in one piece?”

When Hyun Si-gyeong offered no response, Nak-do let out a hollow laugh.

“If you don’t want to talk, just say so, will you? Anyway, seeing that the path, which wouldn’t open no matter what we tried, has finally cleared… should I take it to mean they’ve finished preparing to welcome their guest inside?”
“They were waiting for the right moment to accept it.”
“Well, well, our police captain is quite chatty today. I’d tease you for being excited, but honestly, I’m too thrilled myself to say anything. Finally, I’ll get to see that hotel.”

The car rumbled as it climbed the mountain road once more. After ascending for some time, an imposing building appeared beyond the dense forest. Hotel One.

Nak-do Master slowly savored the name.

“Does it mean ‘one’? Or ‘supreme’?”
“Neither is incorrect.”
“Then?”
“It borrows the pronunciation.”

At Hyun Si-gyeong’s answer, Nak-do’s eyes narrowed. The Labyrinth that began in Europe and was born in Korea.

‘So it’s resentment, then.’

Resentment and regret. Unlike regret, which settles and hardens into stone, resentment burns hot and active. A sharp emotion that targets its prey like an arrow and cries out. Nak-do twisted his lips into a smile.

A fitting name for the Labyrinth dwellers who were always quick to blame others.

“If it had been Hotel Regret, the atmosphere would’ve been so depressing I couldn’t have entered. But Resentment? That’s got some spirit. I like things with that kind of bite.”
“Entering now.”
“Yeah, let’s go… but could you give me just a little more time to prepare myself mentally?”

Ding—
A cheerful bell chimed.

* * *

▶ You have awakened in an unfamiliar room.

“―Gasp—”

Kwon Do-hyun’s eyes snapped open as he gasped for breath.

‘Where did that bell sound come from just now….’

Was it an auditory hallucination? His entire body was already drenched in cold sweat. It felt like he’d had a nightmare, but he couldn’t remember the details.

But he realized a beat too late that this wasn’t the time to worry about dreams.

“…?”

The first thing that registered was an unfamiliar ceiling.

Ornate molding in dark wood and an elaborate chandelier suspended at its center. Kwon Do-hyun sat up in a daze. The heavy velvet blanket rustled as it slipped away.

His head throbbed as if it might split open.

‘Last night, definitely….’

Fragments of the previous night’s memories surfaced.

He’d fought with his father again, who kept trying to swing at him, his voice rising in anger. When had he ever treated him like a monster? And now suddenly he wanted to act like a father? Unable to contain his rage, he’d slammed the door shut and collapsed face-down on his bed—that was his last memory.

But when I opened my eyes, I found myself in a place like this.

“…Not medieval Europe, either.”

The antique room was excessively spacious and luxurious.

I wondered if my father had thrown me somewhere in a fit of rage, but the scale was far too overwhelming for that old man’s taste. Kwon Do-hyun pressed the back of his hand firmly to test his grip on reality.

A dull, tingling pain rose up.

‘This isn’t a dream.’

With a sense of reality that felt suddenly severed, he descended from the bed and approached the window.

▶ Heavy blackout curtains. Would you like to open them?
[Yes/No]

When I drew back the curtains, a floor-to-ceiling window came into view. Opening the section that could be unlocked, a damp and cool rain-laden wind rushed in forcefully.

“….”

The view beyond the window was bewildering, even unsettling.

‘What the hell….’

No matter how vast Korea was, there should have been apartment complexes and the familiar lights of the city—yet they were nowhere to be found. Beneath a gloomy navy sky churning as if swept by a tempest, an expansive landscape stretched out unfamiliar and alien.

Only an endless, rugged mountain range blocked my view like a folding screen.

“I’ve never seen something so completely obscured before.”

Though I was normally confident in my eyesight, even straining to look, I couldn’t find a trace of any dwelling.

‘Why does this feel so eerie.’

A thoroughly isolated landscape. Kwon Do-hyun lifted his gaze to the sky. Murky navy clouds without any sense of depth spiraled and undulated.

Beyond the torrential downpour, formless shapes seemed to ripple and shift.

▶ It was like a scene from a masterpiece painting.

For a natural landscape, it was far too ominous a sight.

“…Insane.”

Click.
Kwon Do-hyun hastily shut the window.

‘Am I actually in a sound state right now?’

Kwon Do-hyun patted his body uncertainly. Fortunately, his limbs were intact. Determined to learn something—anything—he moved his feet and passed before the mirror, then quickly pulled his body back.

“…Huh?”

▶ An ornate full-length mirror framed in elaborate gilt.

“Something’s a bit,”

The reflection staring back at him felt unfamiliar. A scar running vertically across his lips. He was unmistakably eighteen-year-old Kwon Do-hyun, yet beneath that surface churned an inexplicable sense of wrongness.

“Why do I look so… hollow?”

It was a stranger’s face, worn by fatigue and vigilance—one that couldn’t possibly belong to an ordinary high school student from just yesterday. As he unconsciously lowered the hand that had been brushing his lips, his brow furrowed.

▶ The hands of an ordinary high school student who held pens bore thick calluses across the palms and knuckles—the kind that came from gripping rough metal for a long time.

“…Did my hands always have this many calluses?”

Yesterday’s self and today’s body felt subtly misaligned.

Unsettled by the discord between memory and flesh, I turned my gaze away. As I stepped toward the center of the room, an overwhelming sense of space suddenly engulfed me.

‘What kind of hotel room is this spacious? I could play soccer in here.’

Even the estates of conglomerates featured in typical dramas weren’t this expansive.

‘And it’s not just the size that feels off….’

Kwon Do-hyun possessed an unusually keen intuition.

“….”

He murmured to himself.

“Something feels off.”

▶ Luxurious, yet devoid of human warmth.
▶ The spacing between the arranged furniture was too wide, as if the room were designed for one additional person to inhabit it.

“Ugh.”

An inexplicable emptiness settled over him. Kwon Do-hyun rubbed his arms absently.

“Despite all this brightness, it feels like a haunted house.”

He wanted to find some clue to explain this situation. Kwon Do-hyun’s eyes darted around the room, finally settling on the king-sized bed where he had been lying moments before.

▶ Except for the depression where he had lain, the sheets were perfectly smooth and crisp, as though someone had carefully and meticulously placed an unconscious person upon it.

“…Who laid me down here…?”

Unable to discern anything further with his eyes alone, Kwon Do-hyun’s nose twitched involuntarily. An unfamiliar scent tickled the tip of his nose.

▶ A subtle, unidentifiable fragrance mingled with a faint metallic scent emanated from the pillow.

‘Blood?’

He hadn’t noticed it immediately, but Kwon Do-hyun soon realized the truth. It was the smell of blood.

“What exactly is this place?”

He stepped back cautiously. The bizarre traces of someone’s obsessive cleanliness mingled with devotion left Do-hyun with an unsettling expression.

‘I always found it ridiculous how characters in movies ask if anyone’s there.’

Now he was willing to try it himself. To ask if anyone was here. To ask where he was.

“I’m going to lose my mind….”

In the ornate room, meticulously arranged to an almost unsettling degree of perfection, only his voice echoed through the space.

* * *

【It appears to be functioning normally.】
“Mm.”
【Ah, my apologies.】

The Hotel General Manager chuckled softly and apologized to Coco.

“Will this level of performance suffice?”
“Confirmed. Confirmed.”
“It seems Rawi still hasn’t perceived the ‘guidance window’ yet.”

It was the product of this facility’s system—the ‘sensory threshold’ mechanism.

“I’ve made considerable effort to lower the perceived difficulty, but it appears adaptation will require some time.”

Coco affirmed this with a smooth hop onto his shoulder, settling into place. On the Central Control Room’s display, he observed the young man who was once called Rawi—now to be known as Kwon Do-hyun.

“Hello?”
“Yes, how delightful.”

Despite his complete lack of game development experience, it mattered not.

“At last, this game has acquired another user besides myself.”
“Enjoyable?”
“These are honored testers. As a co-owner of this Hotel, I have a duty to ensure that our new human guests experience no unnecessary stress and receive only the finest service.”
“Hehe!”

A profound satisfaction welled up within him at the realization that his carefully crafted design had finally found its master. It was a certainty born of successful service deployment as an administrator.

“They will surely enjoy themselves.”

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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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