Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 47

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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 47.

Ho-won contained such a vast array of collectible items that they were nearly impossible to count.

“Memory Cards and Sealed Records are among them. There are items that can only be found here on the 14th Floor, in the hidden Room 14. Of course, Coco, you know this well.”
“Yes, you do too.”
“I wasn’t certain, so I said it.”

I’d lost too much blood. My cognitive efficiency had plummeted dramatically, so I forced myself to speak aloud to organize my thoughts. Coco’s responses proved to be quite an effective verification tool.

“Since you’ve successfully completed the test, you must be here now.”

When the mini-game ended and the TV screen went dark, the old, rusted metal drawer beneath it had opened. I grasped the drawer handle.

“That’s right.”

Inside the space that opened with minimal force lay old photographs and documents.

“In the game… it was an object you couldn’t interact with until the test was complete, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, you couldn’t.”
“I thought it was just background imagery and didn’t touch it until my third playthrough. It wasn’t until the fourth run that I realized it was an element you could only obtain after solving the puzzle. I remember being quite frustrated about that.”
“Yes.”
“I was very displeased.”
“Yes.”

A secret revealed only on the fourth playthrough. I’d prided myself on playing thoroughly, so my ego took quite a blow at this discovery.

I flipped over the photograph I’d taken from the drawer.

“…Ah.”
“Yes?”
“No, I just… remembered.”

Memory Cards. Items that forced you to recall the ‘memory’ contained within the corresponding card. Early players had speculated based on this item that the Hotel General Manager must be a figure deeply connected to the Hotel.

‘Whether I’m the perpetrator or the victim remains unclear.’

Perhaps I was never human at all.

‘An inanimate object like a surveillance camera.’

No matter which memory card I examined, the narrative was so sparse that the truth remained hidden. Both the test subject’s screams and the researcher’s records were described with clinical detachment, as if recounting someone else’s affair.

Yet since there were traces of subjective emotional description, Lee Yeon-woo had assumed it was written by a person.

“Memory cards are always like this. It feels as though the narrator is a ghost standing alone in the middle of events. An observer removed from everything, yet entangled more deeply than anyone else….”
“….”
“It seems you have nothing to say about this matter.”
“Yes.”

It was a mystery never resolved even within the game. Perhaps the developers themselves had left it unfinished, so it was only natural that Coco, being part of the system, couldn’t provide an answer.

“I see….”

I tried to delve deeper into the ‘memory’ but stopped myself. This wasn’t a situation where I had the luxury to contemplate while coughing up blood. I’d already registered it in my data, so I wouldn’t forget it.

After confirming that even the sealed document had been added to my collection, I pushed myself up.

“Let’s move to where the blood packs are.”
“Yes!”
“I hope it actually works.”

From the start, I wasn’t even sure if I could consume it properly. I’d only recently learned blood drinking, and having lived my entire life as an ordinary law-abiding citizen, I had no confidence whatsoever.

“―Cough!!”
“No!!”

And I coughed up blood again. What a tiresome penalty this was.

* * *

A cold laboratory. A man lay helplessly on the operating table, like a living canvas. A researcher was etching an intricate tattoo onto his arm—not mere decoration, but something resembling a complex circuit diagram. With each stroke, his body swelled grotesquely, and his skin grew increasingly transparent, revealing the organs beneath. He writhed and groaned in agony, yet no one acknowledged his suffering. The research team recorded his torment with expressions of satisfaction and hunger.

A narrow, dark room. A woman stood with metal embedded throughout her body, countless chains and shackles connected to her, endlessly restricting movement and inflicting pain. Beyond the threshold of endurance, she slammed her head against the walls and bit her own hands. Why she had to bear such suffering, what crime warranted such punishment—none of it was clear. Only that her body’s agony was a form of consciousness, a trial. The pain transmitted so vividly announced the situation.

A massive liquid tank. Multiple human forms submerged within it. Their bodies had undergone grotesque transformations, appearing as though they had become part of the structure itself. Their limbs had hardened into pillars that formed the walls, their faces warped into sculptures adorning the ceiling. All of them had their eyes closed, yet I could instinctively sense they were alive. The liquid in which they were suspended was slowly dissolving them, using their forms as material for something. Their existence was fading, yet I understood they could find no salvation even in death.

This was an experiment and ritual carried out by the desires of those who wished to achieve something.

* * *

Lee Yeon-woo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and sighed quietly.

“Good grief…”

Upon leaving the room where the old CRT television had been placed, a narrow, elongated corridor appeared. It was a dark passage where dolls of every conceivable type hung suspended from the ceiling by their necks.

“This is truly terrible for one’s mental health.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m not sure how many times I’ve said this, but games can only be enjoyed when they remain games. No matter how little stimulation of this sort affects me, that only applies when it isn’t reality.”
“Stimulation?”
“Yes, now I’m experiencing stimulation in a different sense. It’s rather difficult not to feel it, wouldn’t you say?”
“Why?”
“I’m an ordinary, law-abiding citizen with conventional sensibilities. I believe it’s entirely reasonable to feel discomfort in a situation like this.”

His reaction fell squarely within the bounds of common sense.

“Hello?”
“This is sudden, but I’ve wanted to ask for some time now—Coco, aren’t you using that ‘hello’ as a synonym for ‘are you alright’?”
“Yes! No?”
“There’s nothing wrong with it.”

It wasn’t even illegal.

“It’s not like Coco needs to go outside the Hotel right now and engage in society, and above all, I can roughly understand what Coco is saying anyway…”

To be honest, that part was a bit unsettling. Forced to brush against the dangling dolls because of the narrow passageway, Lee Yeon-woo continued speaking.

“Yes.”
“But now, no matter how strangely you speak, I can roughly grasp your true meaning. Without even making an effort to analyze it. I can’t even explain why I understood it that way.”
“Yes.”
“…Let’s just say it’s thanks to my excellent adaptability and literacy.”
“…let’s just say it’s thanks to my excellent adaptability and literacy skills.”

As the tutorial ended, I wondered if some structural change had occurred within me as well. By the time I shook off that thought, the narrow passage came to an end.

“….”

And an even narrower passage appeared.

“Ha….”
“Hello?”
“Well, there’s no reason I can’t greet you.”

It was a path I already knew. I simply didn’t want to go through it.

Lee Yeon-woo crouched down. The system’s ‘crouch’ function seemed to work normally, but a terrible vertigo seized me. The combination of a damaged body and excessive blood loss was taking its toll.

“I’m already dreading the moment I have to stand up later.”
“Hello.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Yes.”

My vision was already wavering. Though I was trying to maintain focus, the fact remained that a blood transfusion was urgent. I sighed and pushed my body into the cramped ventilation shaft.

“Ugh….”
“Hello?”
“I’m embarrassed, but it seems I need to gather my words.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t think I can greet you properly.”

Darkness so complete I could barely see ahead. The acrid smell of dust pricked my nostrils, along with the sensation of insect corpses and decaying flesh. Now I had to crawl through this.

‘My mind is so dizzy I can barely tell which way is forward….’

A flicker.

Through the darkness, Coco’s two eyes gleamed.

“….”

Lee Yeon-woo let out a hollow laugh.

“…You’re only showing your eyes right now.”
“Mm.”
“What kind of structure allows you to be there exactly?”

If Coco took the form I knew, those two round eyes could never appear within my crawling field of vision.

And vertically, at that.

“It would be disappointing if you gave up pretending just because I can’t see you.”

Coco was no longer in cat form. Yet there was no tangible substance in my hands either. As if merged with the darkness itself.

Lee Yeon-woo let out a small sigh at the oppressive feeling of the narrowing passage, then tensed his body again.

“I understand your willingness to help me.”
“Yes.”

Despite appearances, Coco was leading the way. Those eyes served as a beacon so that I, in my wretched condition, wouldn’t lose the path.

I groaned as I dragged my body forward.

“…Thank you.”

I was in no position to refuse kindness.

* * *

“….”

The Burgundy Coat Gentleman tilted his head.

“….”

He passed in front of the broken television.

“….”

The sound of dishes clinking.

“Belmarés….”

Click….
Click….

* * *

A pristine hospital room suffused with biting cold.

Wet sounds seeped through the latticed iron grating at the base of the wall—a transparent noise like footsteps in puddles on a rainy day, yet far more viscous and heavy.

Soon, a brilliant crimson liquid began trickling through the gaps, taking on form.

“―….”

It exhaled a hoarse breath, fangs barely grazing between parted lips.

“…Getting difficult, is it.”

Coco, now in feline form again, pattered across the floor and answered.

“Yes.”
“This is maddening.”

This hunger transcended mere starvation. A strange, alien emptiness clawed at my insides—something I’d never experienced before. I felt hollowed out, a mere husk.

‘I gambled too recklessly.’

Halfway through the ventilation shaft, I’d lacked even the strength to crawl. My mind grew hazy; the penalties came faster. I’d realized it was impossible to reach the blood packs at this rate.

So I’d done something insane—just as I had when rescuing Director Lee Sun-hae.

“I brought this tool thinking it might prove useful, never imagining I’d use it like this.”
“Yes….”
“Quite ironic, indeed.”

I’d retrieved the chainsaw from my inventory, fixed it in the passage, and methodically dismembered my own body to pass through.

“Are you alive?”
“Yes, I am still alive.”

A chainsaw was a useful item obtainable without capital. It served to destroy blocked doors or passages, but originally couldn’t be used for other purposes.

However, I judged that in this place that had become reality, there would be no such restrictions.

‘It’s heavy, sure, but its destructive power is undeniable.’

Lee Yeon-woo suppressed a sigh. The losses were severe. I’d had to abandon the chainsaw on the other side of the passage.

“Now I have only 38% battery remaining.”
“Huh?”
“That’s how it is.”

If only it were a phone battery. The blood I had was woefully insufficient to maintain my body. Still, Lee Yeon-woo’s gamble—choosing speed over blood conservation—seemed to have paid off to some degree.

“Never thought I’d be so grateful for a bag of someone else’s blood.”

Lee Yeon-woo headed toward the white refrigerator.

As I opened the massive refrigerator door, blood packs hung densely inside. In the game, they were background objects I couldn’t even interact with, but now they were tangible things within my grasp.

“….”

With a brief sigh, he brought one pack to his mouth.

The fangs I’d already reshaped pierced through the thick vinyl effortlessly. Metallic, viscous blood flooded into my mouth. With the pack still between my teeth, Lee Yeon-woo slowly slid down the refrigerator wall.

My breathing gradually stabilized.

“….”
“….”

For a long while, only the sound of blood being swallowed echoed through the Hospital Room.

“…sigh.”

It was repulsive.

“That’s a shame.”
“Why?”
“It’s delicious.”
“Huh.”
“I must have lost my mind.”

I was clearly out of my senses.

“It’s so delicious….”

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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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