Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 30

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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 30.

How much time had passed? Consciousness began to seep back in.

“Gasp….”

My breath came in ragged, suffocating bursts. Whether from the oppressive humidity or from lungs pushed beyond their limits, I couldn’t tell.

Yet beneath the agony, a primal relief flooded through me.

‘―I survived.’

Survived, yes—though whether this counted as living or dying remained uncertain.

He pursued like a madman, so I fled like one. By stretching the chase across time, his pace finally faltered. In that narrow window, I slipped from the blade-wielder’s line of sight.

“…Hah… hah… hah….”

I forced my breathing into silence, steadying myself.

“…Breathe….”

Lee Sun-hae clenched her lips tight.

‘Simply hiding within the passages wasn’t enough…!’

I had been far too complacent. I deserved to bang my head against the wall and write a confession.

There was something I had overlooked. The suspicious yet meticulous presence had generally given truthful information at the start. But the radio had said this:

Pipe System or Tunnel.

‘It said I could speak freely within the Tunnel, but it never promised that place would be eternally safe.’

That was what it meant.

‘I never imagined he’d actually squeeze that massive body through and come crawling in after me!’

I had been standing quietly in the Tunnel when the footsteps suddenly stopped, and then he came bursting through. I’d jumped in terror to the opposite side. Recalling that moment, Lee Sun-hae moved forward cautiously.

“….”

…Please, get a grip.

‘Panicking won’t help my body keep up. In moments like this, I need to hold onto reason—reason above all. And I can’t let my attention wander to irrelevant things. I need to move faster.’

With each step, water splashed up like needles of pain. My legs ached. I couldn’t build momentum. And the splashing—splash, splash—was unbearably loud. It was absolutely terrible.

Lee Sun-hae’s brow furrowed.

“…Ugh….”

He hadn’t caught up yet. Not ‘yet’—that was the operative word. If I kept fleeing this loudly and slowly, my location would be exposed any moment.

‘…Where, where should I hide… Ah, right. The Pipe System? Where is the Pipe System? Was that about the water pipes? Those are too narrow for a person to fit through, aren’t they? Then was the Pipe System talk a lie? If it’s not a lie, where exactly is the Pipe System?’

I hadn’t fled blindly. The radio had said ‘Pipe System or Tunnel.’ If there was a space as safe as the Tunnel, I could hide there.

The problem was I had no idea where it was!

‘Damn, I’m finished!’

This Aqua Park was absurdly vast. I’d seen the pamphlets at the Information Booth, but they were complete lies. Most of it was traps. Nothing worked out.

‘My stamina is giving out…!’

My breath came ragged, reaching my throat. The footsteps were drawing closer. He was searching for me.

‘The closest thing nearby… Ah!’

The timing was perfect.

My eyes caught sight of a fairly large Management Box behind the Aquarium.

‘Is it open?’

Damn it, thank God—it was unlocked.

Lee Sun-hae immediately opened the Management Box and slipped inside. It was so dark she hadn’t even noticed the box existed. She desperately hoped the knife-wielding lunatic hadn’t either.

“….”

She held her breath completely still.

“….”

Splash,
splash,
splash.

“….”

Splash….

“….”
“….”
“….”

…splash.

Splash, splash, splash.

‘…Wow.’

I survived.

‘I really thought I was done for this time.’

All that effort holding my breath and clamping my mouth shut had paid off.

Whether he genuinely missed me or was just toying with me, I couldn’t tell. But since I was alive, I decided to thank the heavens. Thank you, God.

‘What the hell did I do to make him chase after me like this? Was he really so upset that Hong Kyung-yeon blocked his path? Is he the type who can never tolerate anyone who stands out?’

But the thing is, he started it first.
He just came at us with a knife, just—
The Writer I raised and coaxed into being.

“….”

…A person grows hungry and weary, and the mind conjures all manner of thoughts. Self-loathing flickered in and out like a dying flame.

‘Is this really the time for this?’

Whether I fed the knife-wielding madman gruel or cracked his skull open, such things could wait until after I escaped alive. Burning with vengeance and grievance was meaningless action in the present moment.

Lee Sun-hae pressed her fingers between her eyebrows. Her eyes ached from sleeplessness.

“…Hah….”

Please, just let me live.

‘I really am going this far.’

I had to pull myself together.

“….”

To stay alive a little longer,
I had to keep moving.

‘…This isn’t the Pipe System or the Tunnel.’

I turned my mind to the problem.

‘The radio could have given me false information, but this place was never mentioned at all. That might make it safer, but thinking back to the Tunnel… there’s no guarantee the Management Box will stay safe forever.’

I remembered the direction his footsteps had faded into. I needed to move the opposite way. The likelihood that he knew everything and was toying with me was disturbingly high.

‘I need to leave this place.’

Creak—…
I opened the Management Box door slowly, carefully.

“….”

No one was around.

‘Those phantom fish are visible enough, but….’

A soft luminescence entered my vision. It was light, yet something about it felt hollow.

‘Compared to the other monsters, they’re almost cute.’

Lee Sun-hae emerged quietly from the Management Box, somewhat reassured.

‘Those creatures just drift aimlessly through empty space without reacting to me. Eerie as they are, they’re the least frightening monsters I’ve encountered. Honestly, they deserve a “kindest monster” award.’

Darkness. Fish schools swimming serenely through the void.

“….”

Still, I didn’t want to waste time like this again.

“…wow….”

Honestly, wasn’t this worth risking my life to witness?

From that great height, they clustered like stars. It felt as though I were submerged in the sea. Those transparent, softly luminous creatures seemed to reveal the spectacle of the deep ocean itself.

A sense of wonder before something vast and boundless.

“It’s magnificent.”

Lee Sun-hae laughed awkwardly.

‘How strange.’

Even knowing this wasn’t the time, my heart raced violently.

A monster’s lair that could swallow a person whole without effort. Yet this place was unexpectedly beautiful, unexpectedly sentimental—as if it were truly an Aqua Park designed for guests.

But I knew better.

“….”

In that towering darkness, glimpsed where the phantom fish’s faint luminescence touched….

“…!”

Immense.

Vast and immeasurable. Yet precisely because it was so enormous, it existed beyond the boundaries of perception itself.

So boundless that I held no memory of witnessing its entirety. And yet, merely from glimpsing a fragment of it, my brain throbbed with a searing ache. My heart hammered violently—or perhaps it had stopped altogether.

It was impossibly pallid.
Bloodless and frigid… no.
The very concept of blood was inadequate….
Swollen and saturated, something between flesh and not-flesh.

It hung there, motionless, from above.
Regarding me.

‘Regarding?’

No—something that could only be described as observation was sensing me.

‘It’s clearly visible, yet….’

Those countless gazes bored into my eyes and mind like thin needles.

Each time, I felt it.
This place is not safe.

‘It cannot be safe.’

The Facility was a tank in which something that should never exist slumbered.

“….”

…But then again.

‘It has nothing to do with me.’

I’d rather pretend it never existed, even if it did.

In any case, I got a decent show out of it. I was feeling dejected about not being able to do anything for Lee Yeon-woo, but crawling into this Hotel has given me reason to find value in it like this.

‘Ah, my eyes hurt….’

I rubbed my bloodshot eyes and lowered my head again. Even knowing there’s nothing good about watching, why do I keep taking it in? I wonder if it’s one of those things—the more negative, the more addictive.

Director Lee Sun-hae moved her footsteps as quietly as possible.

‘Oh.’

Then I discovered a decent pair of crutches.

The place I found them was probably the Staff Break Room. Or perhaps the Infirmary. There was a bed, however modest, and a small medicine box. Everything looked worn, though.

“…?”

But setting aside the crutches, there was a medicine I’d never seen before.

“What is this?”

The packaging itself was definitely mass-produced.

But as someone who’d bought plenty of medicines and gotten injured often, Director Lee Sun-hae knew all kinds of drugs. Yet no matter how much I looked at this one, I couldn’t identify it.

‘Is it safe to use?’

After deliberating for a moment, I put the lid back on.

‘I’m not dying yet—no point gambling recklessly.’

Gambling is something you do when the odds are in your favor. At minimum, you do it with confidence or hope that you’ll win. I had no trust whatsoever in this mysterious medicine.

“Ugh.”

Footsteps sounded again. I quickly hid in the Locker.

‘It’s not like I’m training some mutt… Is this creature just toying with me while knowing everything all along?’

I wasn’t even sure if it qualified as human anymore. After witnessing so many monsters, the mere resemblance to human form no longer guaranteed humanity.

‘At least its actions disqualify it from being human.’

I stuffed a few items into my pockets. It was fortunate I hadn’t slept in pajamas. If I’d worn those thin, pocketless sleepwear, I would have succumbed to hypothermia by now. I wouldn’t have been able to gather anything either.

“….”

The footsteps receded into the distance again.

‘So it was just passing through.’

And just as I emerged from the Locker.

A dull thud.

“….”

A strange sound reached my ears.
From beside my ear, at an uncomfortably close distance.

“…what….”

I turned my head slowly.

A crimson handprint was smeared across the inner surface of the door she had pushed.

‘A hand?’

More precisely, it was a handprint positioned exactly at my eye level.

“…why… is this….”

The mark was smeared as if pressed outward from within.

Red liquid streaked downward in a silent cascade, yet rendered starkly vivid even in this darkness.

‘What is this…?’

What could it be?

“Did you leave this for me to find…?”

That’s precisely how it appeared.

It was positioned far too deliberately, as though waiting to be discovered by Lee Sun-hae. So perfectly placed that it seemed almost unnatural.

‘Though I suppose there’s no way this phenomenon could be anything but strange.’

In any case, wow.

“….”

Wow!
A belated gasp of astonishment.

Director Lee Sun-hae clutched at my heart. My tongue had gone dry against the roof of my mouth, refusing to move.

“This is straight out of a horror film….”

What manner of thriller was this scene?

‘I thought my heart was about to leap from my chest.’

I was beginning to worry it might stop altogether. The scene was terrifying precisely because it was so formulaic, so deliberately constructed. A clichéd trope, yet experiencing it firsthand made it genuinely horrifying.

‘If this were Hong Kyung-yeon, he would have already fainted.’

Yes, it was fortunate that coward hadn’t been captured. When panic seized him, he had a tendency to do reckless things that hastened his own demise. By that measure, this wasn’t the worst situation.

‘So where do I go next, then…’

It was at that moment I opened the door to the Room and stepped out.

“….”
“….”

…Our eyes met.

A mouth split wide open.
Whites of eyes stained crimson.
Hands caked in blood.

“….”

Those hands.
It was those hands.

The very same hands that had left marks on the locker door moments before.

“…Ah,”

In other words, I was completely finished.

Lee Sun-hae made an instinctive judgment.
I didn’t even think. I just moved.

Fortunately, I had something in my hand.

“…Aaagh, damn it―!!”

Splash―!!!
I hurled the chemical in my hand straight at those eyes.

“Get away from me!!”
“…!”

The Young Man faltered, but didn’t even blink. In that moment of hesitation, I spun my body around and walked quickly away. Having the crutch was a stroke of luck.

‘But what good does that do, really―!!’

Running in this condition was laughable. Of course, I didn’t make it more than a few steps before being grabbed.

“Nngh…!!”

The Young Man’s blood-soaked hand was enormous and corpse-cold. I felt insects crawling across my throat as I was seized in an instant.

Ah, like that.

“Ugh, cough…!!”

Crash—!!
I was slammed into the floor.

“Y-you bastard…!”
“….”
“…gasp, wheeze, ugh…!!”
“….”
“Nngh…!!”
“….”

The Young Man stared down at Lee Sun-hae in silence.

It was truly suffocating. The madman gazed at me with a vacant expression. My breath didn’t just catch—it became agony, and consciousness began to slip away.

‘Sometimes if I’m careful, I can still breathe…’

Was he a professional at strangulation? He had sealed my windpipe completely. The pressure allowed not a single molecule of oxygen through.

I clawed desperately at the hands around my throat, but he didn’t even flinch.

‘Damn it, damn it all… you fucking bastard…!’

Death was inches away. There was no escape, and my mind grew increasingly hazy.

“…!”
“….”
“…ugh….”

The final breath in my lungs hardened into rigid, crystalline sensation. At that threshold of death, I found myself thinking unbidden.

‘…If I die here, what will happen to our Writer…’

That wasn’t even the worst of it.

‘I was supposed to get him out alive… if I die here like this….’

Through the haze of my vision, I saw the Young Man raising his blade. Eyes of an unnaturally vivid crimson—beyond mere bloodshot, a scarlet so intense it seemed inhuman, warping into a grotesque crescent shape.

―Not like this.

“Ugh…!!”

Lee Sun-hae wrung out every last ounce of strength, gripping the crutch with desperate force.

“…!!!”

Crack―!!!
I swung it down against his skull.

The moment the opponent paused, Lee Seon-hae did not hesitate. Over and over again, I hit his head with the crutches. Finally, the old crutches screamed and broke.

Lee Seon-hae plunged the sharp end of the broken crutch into the man’s eye without hesitation.

-Sigh!!

The sound of a squishy eyeball exploding hit my eardrums.

“Ugh…!!”

It was gross and unpleasant. However, along with the unstoppable heartbeat, a heavy breath burst out like a burst of laughter.

“Chuck, clack, clack, clack…!! Wow, clack…!!”
“….”
“Ugh, cough, cough…!!”
“….”
“Heave, gasp, wheeze… ugh, ah….”

I struggled to keep my spirits up. Only then could I live.

Naturally, the crutches did not penetrate his head. There was a complete lack of strength. However, the eyeball rupture was certain. I roughly shook off the hold of the man who had become frozen like a statue and crawled out.

I barely managed to get up and hold on to the wall.

‘I can’t deal with that person.’

I always neglected exercise and self-defense skills, but in this situation, it had no meaning.

Lee Seon-hae’s body is in perfect condition, and her opponent is in excellent condition. But can you kill your opponent? Not only are there not enough means, but a person who has tried killing people is also good at killing people.

“Ugh, ugh…!”

I have never committed murder. Causing injuries in self-defense was the biggest deviation of my life. There was no time to consider conscience or ethics, but lack of experience meant hesitation.

Hesitation is directly related to death.

‘Do you think you would take a gamble like that?’

So you have to run away. I need to get out of this place right now.

“…Ugh, Ugh… Ugh….”
“…Ugh, ack… uack….”
“….”

My stomach, my stomach turned.

“Kellogg, ugh. Ugh….”

Gastric juice poured out.

My vision was shaking mercilessly and my head was spinning. My senses were torn to the point where I couldn’t tell what to do. The inside of my throat felt like it was burning, and my lungs felt heavy as if I had breathed in wet cotton.

My fingertips were cold. Wet, dull sensation. When I came to my senses, I found my hands crushed by water all over the floor. Did you fall? No, I fell. Probably so.

The moment I was breathing hard, a strangely clear sound penetrated my ears.

Footsteps mixed with the sound of water.

‘Oh, please.’

Slosh.
Splash.

It is the sound of a person walking through mud or swamp.

“….”

I barely turned my head and caught the man in my field of vision. A crazy guy with a knife. Guest in room 703.

“…oh my god.”

Pieces of flesh fell off from the crushed eyes. Even though the blood was flowing, there was not even a sign of pain on his face. It wasn’t until Lee Seon-hae burst out laughing without realizing it,

Only then did I feel like I knew something.

“It was a real monster.”

So there’s no way you’re in pain. There was no way my struggles felt like struggles.

It was smiling, and its eyes were dark red, as if they were not bloodshot. The eyes were so red that you couldn’t even tell them apart, and both the eyes and mouth were curved like a crescent moon.

‘ah… .’

The knife,
When the blade,
fell,

… The pain is.

Strangely enough, he didn’t come.

“….”

The man’s movements suddenly stopped.

‘why?’

Before the question even crossed her mind, a strange sense of déjà vu passed through Lee Seon-hae’s entire body.

‘It was on the 7th floor.’

A man once had this same reaction. My frozen brain relaxed with relief, and I finally found a piece of that memory.

‘… Yes, when Lee Yeon-woo rang the bell-.’

Suuuuuuuuuuuu

At that moment, very thick fresh blood spread across the water.

In the distance, something was slowly emerging from beneath the bottom of the pool, which I thought was dark. The water on the floor responded to its presence by pulsating like a heart.

It wasn’t just a blood stain. It was blood itself. A huge, living pool of blood. The blood seeping through the cracks in the wall began to take shape one by one, causing a slight tremor.

Creepily vivid vitality and intelligence. Although the particles were so fine that they were invisible to the eye, they were definitely… .

He was moving with his ego.

It was one word.

Did I feel the breath of the living in that noise, or did I want to believe that? A bright red stem rose out of the pitch-black water like the root of a plant.

The stem turns direction.

Like raising your head.
As if raising its head.
As if gazing upon Lee Sun-hae.

… As if you know everything.

【customer?】

At the same time, countless stems rose above the water.

‘That doesn’t make sense.’

The blood vessels intertwined and the spine grew, the arms attached to it, and the broken bones found their proper place and were aligned one by one. And when the snow was created.

Lee Seon-hae was sure.

I’m sure I’ve seen those eyes before… .

“customer.”
“The Guest.”
“….”

His own name came out from his elaborate lips.

Here, at this time, among these red things. Although it should have been a welcome call, my heart dropped for some reason.

Did you notice that? Lee Yeon-woo’s eyes blink slowly like a cat. As if to not be on guard. Like I won’t hurt you and you’re not in danger.

“…I think you’re in a dangerous situation.”

Lee Yeon-woo opened his mouth carefully, as if he were caring for a small and weak creature.

His tone was still calm and polite. For a monster that walked out of a puddle of blood, he was overly polite, making him sound like a kind adult offering a hand to a scared child.

Has my brain gone crazy for thinking like that?

“Do you need help?”
“Do you require assistance?”

It was truly ironic. A being who was reborn from blood in an unconventional way is asking about my well-being in such an extremely humane manner. I burst out laughing at the stark discrepancy.

So I laughed.

“Aha, ha… ha….”

That was Yeonwoo Lee.

“This is really amazing.”

Hair neatly pulled back. Eyes beyond the glasses. Dressed in a neat three-piece suit and shoes. It’s a face I keep seeing, but in this situation, it looks even more unrealistic.

Maybe this isn’t a person.

‘But it looks human.’

It was because I could feel the eyes examining my well-being and the fatigue asking for permission beyond that skillful smile. Because it was funny to feel that wonder and humanity at the same time.

So, I held on to the rope that came down like a miracle.

“Hey Yeonwoo, I’m really sorry.”
“Lee Yeon-woo, I’m truly sorry.”
“Yes.”

With those words, the tight thread of my mind was suddenly broken. As I was losing consciousness, the last thought I had was one thing.

This hotel is really crazy.

“….”

Lee Yeon-woo felt sad.

Director Lee Seon-hae seemed to have lost his mind because he was so nervous when he faced him, but the problem was that the current situation was not conducive to letting him rest in peace.

“It’s difficult to take you outside right away.”

After many twists and turns, I reached the 23rd floor, but there was still a long way to go.

‘I’m still bound by the rules of this game.’

It may be embarrassing to come this far and say this again, but director Lee Seon-hae, a human guest, was also restricted by the rules.

In the end, the only way for them to escape was to use the game’s rules and systems, and any errors that might exist. Fortunately, we arrived with a mere 10 hours and 57 minutes difference.

‘But this is only the minimum condition for survival.’

In other words, there are still several more hurdles to go through.

“….”

Director Lee Seon-hae has been forgotten for a while.

“Even if you glare at me so harshly, I have no gift for you.”

A brief standoff.

However, Lee Yeon-woo expected this and entered the aqua park.

‘… ‘Playable characters have a companion transport function.’

A motion called ‘Carry Companion’. This is a function that allows you to directly support and move a colleague whose health has fallen below 30% for a certain period of time… .

Lee Yeon-woo started running, carrying the coach around him.

“…!! …!!”

Lee Yeon-woo was disgusted by the ‘wet person’ who chased after him brandishing a knife. Dealing with men who didn’t deserve their money and went on a rampage was always tiring.

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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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