Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 35

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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 35.

“How much do you know about humans?”
“Nothing.”
“My, we have quite the journey ahead.”
“Yes.”
“Or perhaps you’re simply distracted by food.”

Lee Yeon-woo placed a steak in front of Coco. Coco stared at the meat with such intensity it seemed ready to bury its face in it. Truly, this was a creature of voracious appetite.

Observing this, Lee Yeon-woo took a seat across from Coco. Though with Coco sitting in the center of the Table, “across” was admittedly a vague description.

“Hello?”
“This is head cheese—pork head meat boiled, compressed, then sliced thin. The texture will be quite different from the steak before you.”
“Hello?”
“That one is buckwheat jelly with seasoning, and next to it is buckwheat pancake. And this is buckwheat tea.”
“Pork? Buckwheat?”
“Yes, I’m rather… fond of them.”

There were few foods I could genuinely say I enjoyed. Alcohol, pork, buckwheat, and perhaps some rice cakes or fruit. But truthfully, I disliked the act of eating itself.

The sensation of foreign matter entering my body…

“I noticed it during the game too, but being a Western-style Hotel, Korean dishes are remarkably difficult to find. The few I managed to locate were the sort you’d see at funerals or ancestral rites.”
“Ancestral rites.”
“The feeling is somewhat peculiar from an eating perspective, but since they’re foods I originally preferred, it doesn’t matter. They even had barley rice, as if it were genuinely intended for such occasions.”

Head cheese paired with buckwheat jelly was an excellent combination. Add the pancake and vegetables, and it was perfection. With rice cake for dessert, it would be complete.

‘I never imagined the end of the tutorial would yield such benefits.’

My coworkers’ comments about my tastes—beyond old-fashioned, positively ancestral—flickered through my mind, but I dismissed them.

Lee Yeon-woo took a bite of the buckwheat pancake.

“Hmm….”

It was delicious, though.

I recalled tasting the Human Guests’ food before, and perhaps because it had been so long, the discomfort felt more pronounced this time.

That peculiar sense of wrongness when foreign substances invaded the body—I set down my chopsticks and wiped my mouth, steering the conversation elsewhere.

“Let’s leave the menu discussion at that.”

It was merely a pretext, after all.

“Today, I thought we might discuss humanity for a while.”
“Yes.”
“Whether such conversation will truly help you understand humans remains uncertain, Coco, but I believe the most crucial element in bridging the gap between species is ultimately understanding and acceptance.”
“Yes….”
“You’re acting like a student who despises studying. The very fact that you’ve learned to express yourself that way suggests you already understand me—a human—to some degree.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”

I broke apart the rice with my spoon. Quite soft in texture, as intended. Despite being a dish that existed within the game system, it seemed I could impart such minor variations.

“Humanity. And human nature. These are subjects worthy of extensive discussion.”

Coco opened her mouth wide in an expression that seemed to say, “As if I care.”

“Ah.”
“….”
“Ah. Ah.”
“…One moment.”

A star’s maw.

Where exactly does this food go?

I began to cut the steak for her, then stopped. Such an action was unsuitable for that mouth size. Instead, I placed the entire piece of meat into that gaping maw.

Coco absorbed it without even the pretense of chewing. Not surprising anymore, yet fascinating nonetheless.

‘What kind of structure does the digestive system have?’

Lee Yeon-woo set aside such musings and continued with the main point.

“Shall we revisit the discussion?”

First, philosophy.

“From a philosophical perspective, humanity is defined as the combination of reason and autonomy, existential awareness, and moral responsibility. It means being a weary creature that constantly poses the question: ‘Who am I?'”
“Moral responsibility.”
“Precisely. The very reason I made such a fuss and endeavored to send Lee Sun-hae and Hong Kyung-yeon out in as safe a condition as possible stems from the same principle. It is the sense of responsibility that humans universally possess.”
“Universally?”
“Do you think otherwise?”
“Yes.”
“That is regrettable.”

Anyone with a modicum of social experience knows full well that, unfortunately, not all humans possess such “universal responsibility.”

‘Few people understand this as intimately as I do.’

It was ultimately a matter of probability and averages. Humans are creatures of strong individuality, after all.

“Then let us move to the legal perspective. Humanity in law can be summarized as a prerequisite for rights—the basis for being an entity deserving equal respect before the law.”
“No.”
“How forthright. Though I suppose laws crafted by humans hold little fascination or significance for someone like you, Coco, dwelling in this game system and lawless territory. Such candid opinions are as uncomfortable as they are intriguing.”
“Hello!”
“That was not a compliment.”

Lee Yeon-woo added further.

“In other words, humans are creatures who must resort to such intricate contracts merely to guarantee themselves minimal rights.”

That is how law defines humanity.

“Then how does science express humanity? Simply put: advanced primates. Merely a species possessing sophisticated neural structures, social capacity, and metacognitive faculties. However….”
“Yawn.”
“Growing drowsy already?”
“Yes.”
“Such is the nature of social interaction—it begins with enduring tedious discourse. I apologize, but we are not yet finished.”

There was nothing to apologize for, really. Given that Coco was likely the primary culprit who had dragged Lee Yeon-woo into this den, he—the kidnapper—bore an obligation to share the Manager’s burden of anguish.

After all, such intricate deliberations only crystallized when shared with another.

“There’s also this perspective: that only humans create art. From that angle, perhaps humanity in art is the refinement and interpretation of experience—the pinnacle of self-expression itself.”
“Meow.”
“You’ve grown rather cunning, haven’t you? Such coquetry doesn’t particularly sway me, but I do appreciate how your interaction with humans has evolved. I’ll consider this matter settled.”

The behavior had become quite endearing.

‘That sort of petulance must be an imitation of human mannerisms.’

What could it possibly be referencing within this desolate Hotel?

‘If there were no external influences, it might mean the intelligence system was already highly sophisticated. Or perhaps there was some channel through which it learned human culture. But… no.’

I set aside such questions for now.

“…So then…”

Back to the main subject.

“…In summary, humans are beings who understand others, recognize themselves, create meaning, and bear moral responsibility. After much deliberation over countless ages, people arrived at such a conclusion. Regardless of whether it’s truly correct or not.”

Lee Yeon-woo tasted the braised pork and set down his chopsticks.

‘Conditions that make appetite difficult to regain.’

Fragments of pork meat rolled across his tongue, and the thick taste of blood lingered in his mouth.

“I don’t think I’m not human.”
“….”
“…Unlike during the tutorial, I now perceive certain aspects of more genuine biological responses.”

Following the scent of blood, his tongue traced his lips, and his gaze rolled sideways.

“I am aware of fatigue, pain, hunger, and the incompleteness of my senses.”
“….”
“But do you know what the uncanny valley is?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you know?”
“Pardon?”
“I am experiencing that discomfort right now. I have become something that is neither living nor inanimate, and I don’t know what to do with this feeling.”
“No.”
“Do you want me to completely shed my humanity?”

Lee Yeon-woo chewed on the buckwheat jelly.

Scallions and red chili peppers. Soy sauce, garlic, and sesame oil. The flavors and aromas should have been bold and intense, yet they were all buried beneath the metallic taste of blood coating my tongue. Even breathing alone brought the scent of iron.

It felt as though I had been buried alive in a pool of blood.

And yet, or perhaps because of it.

“….”

Lee Yeon-woo continued eating.

“…Perhaps you may be right.”
“Yes.”
“It might be far more efficient and rational for me to stop being human. If I were to consider statistics, probabilities, and the vast majority of possible outcomes.”
“Yes.”
“But if I keep abandoning things one by one, giving up piece by piece, I can’t even imagine what choices I’ll make later. And as you know, I absolutely despise uncertainty. Even if not everything in this world can be clear, at the very least, I should have myself within my own grasp, shouldn’t I?”
“No.”
“Is that so?”

He clicked his tongue as if genuinely disappointed.

“How disappointing….”

Yet an intriguing opinion nonetheless.

‘So the Hotel truly does need Lee Yeon-woo after all.’

Lee Yeon-woo smiled faintly and continued.

“You seem displeased about something, but this is quite an important matter. How can someone who cannot even protect their own foundation accomplish something greater than that? Don’t you agree?”
“Hello.”
“Coco, this arrangement wouldn’t be a bad deal for you either. You want me to drive my stake into this Hotel, to manage this living, breathing building filled with these mysterious Guests ideally, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So, being extremely generous, even if I were to cease being ‘human,’ it would not matter.”

I could gladly stake that much as my wager.

“What matters is that I remain ‘myself,’ not how my cells are composed.”
“….”
“Humans are inherently products of adaptation and evolution according to their environment. I too shall follow that natural order—merely with a stride that is unusually broad and swift compared to others.”

And yet I wish to remain ‘myself.’

“…Shall we think about what constitutes ‘myself’?”
“Yes.”
“I tend to skip meals. I’m the type who gets full easily and tires of food quickly, so I eat little. I have no desire to eat something tasteless, and the sensation of fullness feels burdensome and uncomfortable.”
“Yes.”
“I aspire to live as ideally as possible, but it is not easy…. When I concentrate on something, meals, exercise, sleep—all become repugnant. Only after everything is finished do I regain the composure to care for myself.”
“Yes.”
“…And….”

What else could there be.

What could express me. What could be called my essence.

“….”
“….”
“…Seeing that so many things come to mind that I’m too lazy to voice them, it appears I have not yet lost my mind. Isn’t that fortunate?”
“No.”
“Wicked Cat.”

Philosophy and psychology are not my fields of expertise.

Yet Lee Yeon-woo knew himself. He knew what he could never abandon, even in death. And that remained unchanged even as his cells were ground away and he cycled through life and death.

It was obvious, but what he could not accomplish was….

Incompetence.

‘At least for me.’

That was only natural.

“It seems we’ve made some progress.”
“Hello?”
“Yes, doing what we can right now should come first.”

There were many tasks ahead. My mind was still tangled, but at the very least, sustaining one’s own life by harming others could not be called ‘me’. That was what Lee Yeon-woo thought.

For that to change, both I and the Hotel needed to take measures.

“Then first….”

[Tutorial Reward Received]
Nightmare Assets×300
Random Box×1
Staff Recruitment Voucher×10

“Should I open the gift box first?”
“Yes.”

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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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