Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual - Chapter 51

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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 51.

At first, someone held onto hope.

‘People will realize I’ve been dragged here.’

Soon, countless others clung to the same desperate wish.

‘The police will surely investigate.’
‘It’s fine—they won’t take long to find me.’
‘If I behave, I can return home unscathed.’

Then doubt crept in.

‘How much longer will this agony persist?’
‘Why hasn’t anyone come searching for me?’
‘Could it be… I’m meant to stay here forever?’

And they prayed.

‘Please, let this end today.’
‘Let this suffering conclude before nightfall.’

Finally, the truth crystallized.

‘Ah.’

No one was coming to save me. It was a despair beyond measure.

But that was not the end. This incomprehensible torment and ritual showed no signs of cessation, and eventually the suffering transcended all boundaries of ending.

Those who have never endured such horror could never fathom its true depths.

‘It hurts.’
‘The agony is unbearable.’
‘Please.’

I was losing my human form, piece by piece.

‘This can’t be happening.’
‘Save me.’

No.

‘Kill me.’

I had already resigned myself to this fate. Long ago, I had abandoned all hope of survival, all belief that things could improve. Yet even in resignation, the horror persists.

Surely there should be something better than this. How pathetic—I had surrendered my will to live, relinquished my ordinary existence, discarded even hope itself. And still, this.

Surely something better than this.

“….”
“….”

…Then why could I not surrender my sanity?

‘Why?’

If only I could go mad. How blissful it would be to lose my mind entirely.

If I could escape this torment, this despair, this terror—even for mere seconds—I would do anything.

But I could not. Even a fleeting moment of peace was denied to me.

* * *

There was a disturbance.

And yet we could not die. We remained trapped.

‘Please.’

I’m here.

‘Why did you close the door when we’re in here?’

Kill me.

If that won’t work, then let me out.

This place is too cramped and suffocating….

* * *

The Facility was not a single space.

Rooms stretching endlessly. In each room, the air hung heavy and oppressive. The ceiling pressed low; the walls closed in. Even with arms stretched to their fullest extent, there was no escape.

Open a door and another room emerges. But they are all identical. Nothing changes. Are we circling the same place, or merely traversing an endless succession of the same chamber?

‘It hurts.’

We continue to suffer.

‘It hurts so much.’

A heat so intense the blood threatens to evaporate.
A cold that splinters bone and marrow.
Light that sears the skin and darkness that blinds the eyes.

But amid the shredding of hope, something far more terrible awaited.

They were never alone. Not individual entities, not separate beings—something caught between. Within the narrow Tube, multiple existences fractured and merged.

Fused into a single, grotesque form.

‘Suffocating.’
‘Cramped.’
‘Can’t breathe.’

Arms and legs bound to foreign flesh. Heads sprouting from bodies not their own. Skin and bone perpetually drenched in sweat, blood, and viscous alien secretions.

Someone wailed. Someone else gasped silently, their breath coming in ragged bursts. Another clawed endlessly at the walls with fingernails, though no amount of scratching could ever carve an escape route—yet they could not stop.

Within that cramped tube, suffering did not belong to one alone.

‘It hurts.’
‘Please.’

One being’s agony flowed into another. The sensation of muscles tearing. The sensation of bones twisting. The sensation of lungs rupturing—all mingled and circulated endlessly. An unbroken cycle.

All sense of time had collapsed. Sealed in absolute darkness—no sky, not a single ray of sunlight, not a blade of grass visible. They were thrust from room to room, denied even the mercy of death, wandering without end.

‘This time?’
‘Perhaps this time?’

Each time a door opened, that fragile ‘perhaps’ flickered to life—yet how cruelly it was extinguished. Always, only new torment awaited beyond. Nothing existed but the endless cycle and suffocating pressure.

‘But you never know for certain.’

No one had ever told them this suffering would never end.

No one had ever said there was no exit hidden somewhere in this place. And so they wandered, cycling through despair and agony, clinging to that silence.

Perhaps this time. Perhaps this would be different—as if The Facility were not the eternal belly of some devouring god.

‘Ah.’

They chose their own suffering.

And so they lived within despair.

* * *

A door opened.

“….”

A hand reached out, trembling.

An arm extended.

I moved my body.

‘This person.’

I seized that ankle.

“…!!”
‘Please.’

Don’t run. Don’t run. Don’t run.

“Ugh, wait…!!”
‘Please.’

Don’t flee.

Only he could open and close the door once.

‘Please, just look at us.’

There are people here.

There are so many people here.

If you pass us by like this, if you leave me here and go, I’ll just be trapped forever.

‘I’m here.’
‘Please see me.’
‘Please look here.’

I dragged him back from that distant place. I pulled him inward with all my might.

And then I pleaded. I shrieked with desperation. They wanted to make themselves known to the new master of this place. But all that emerged were terrible cries.

Some beings noticed it, others did not. Yet they all wailed together, screamed, and cried out.

‘There are people here!!!’

Please.

“Save me…!!!”

Because I hadn’t gone mad, because I still hadn’t died.

I wanted to live.

* * *

Ah,

I let him slip away.

‘….’
‘….’
‘….’

This won’t do.

I pounded desperately against the door, but it wouldn’t give way.

I wanted to seize him once more, to hold him in my grasp, but the Room was far too vast. Where? Where was he? Where could he be? This won’t work. If this continues, he’ll escape outside alone.

Leaving us behind.

Here, abandoning us in this place.

* * *

My body burning with agony, I reached out into the Water Channel.

Their eyes were not deceived. He called even monsters his friends. He calls the collective mass of all things that drowned in the water his friends too. They harbored hope. Simultaneously, they nursed jealousy. Why only them.

‘We are monsters too.’
‘We suffered more.’
‘We were lonelier.’

Why only them.

‘Ah.’
‘Ah.’
‘No, no, please….’
‘Don’t leave like this.’
‘Don’t abandon me.’
‘Don’t go.’
‘I’m afraid.’
‘It hurts….’

He opened the door. He was trying to leave through it.

* * *

“Everything is fine, at least.”

Coco objected.

“Pardon?”
“Oh, forgive me. Allow me to correct myself. Nothing about this situation is fine at all.”

Let me rephrase.

“Setting aside everything else, given that my existence and this Hotel’s survival hang in the balance, we require absolute certainty to proceed with our plan.”
“No?”
“Yes, my plan specifically.”

Do you know what matters most in research?

“Research is the cycle of problem identification, hypothesis formation, verification attempts, and repeated refinement and re-verification. No one knows the answer from the beginning. At least, not if it’s true research.”

Lee Yeon-woo hurled a blood pack to the floor. It was completely drained—not a single drop remained in the withered, hollow pouch.

“Whether a hypothesis holds must be proven through exhaustive experimentation. Logical prediction may be possible, but confirmation can only come through data and experience.”
“Yes? Yes.”
“But ultimately, this too is repetition. A single attempt carries too many variables. Do you understand what this means?”
“No?”
“As samples accumulate, we reduce error and secure consistent results.”

Even failure is a result. Therefore, it is progress.

“Even failed attempts serve as crucial research assets, for they reveal what doesn’t work.”

Research is not a path walked with the answer already known. It is drawing lines on a blank canvas, remembering the dead ends of a labyrinth, groping through darkness. The very process of finding answers through repeated trial and error….

That is the essence of research itself.

“So, Coco.”
“Yes?”
“Do you understand what stage we’re at now?”
“No?”
“We’ve just passed the hypothesis-setting stage, beyond problem identification.”
“Yes.”
“Precisely.”
“Yes?”
“That’s how it is.”

I retrieved one of the blood-collection instruments I had brought.

“It was worth bringing after all.”

Coco asked once more, still suspended.

“Yes?”
“There were times I questioned its usefulness, but ultimately all objects are made to be used. Even if their application strays somewhat from their original purpose.”
“No? No? No?”
“Why this resistance? Maintain your dignity as a mysterious NPC in a 19-rated Horror Hotel simulation game. Have your resolve weakened now? Didn’t we already agree to follow my judgment?”
“We didn’t!!”
“I’m not listening.”

I continued.

“The biological body is truly wondrous. It never carelessly releases any foul odor from within. My case was somewhat different, but it’s only natural that the scent of blood doesn’t escape unless the skin is torn.”
“N-no…!”
“And the monster in Room 14 can only be lured by ‘fresh blood.'”

The massive creature lunges at it, absorbs it, then charges toward the player once more.

“So to fulfill my role as bait, I must shed blood. Simultaneously, I can directly test the verification hypothesis I just mentioned. If I’m simply swallowed whole and lose outright, how would I manage the aftermath?”

That would amount to nothing more than serving a meal to that monstrous Guest. I have no interest in such arrangements.

“Which is precisely why experimentation is necessary.”

Even a single pharmaceutical compound must undergo countless trials to validate its safety. And this time, I need not sacrifice innocent laboratory rats. He regenerates. He resurrects.

How merciful and efficient an endeavor this truly is.

“Hah….”

Lee Yeon-woo needed to verify something.

When ‘I’ am consumed, can I overcome it?

“….”
“I’ve received sufficient transfusion.”

Though “consumed” might be the more accurate term, but regardless.

“Let us commence the validation.”

He raised the blood collection instrument.

To begin with, merely a thumb.

* * *

I ran with every ounce of strength.

My deteriorating body was of no consequence—I ran regardless.

I shattered walls and navigated the grotesque labyrinth in pursuit. But he was far too swift. I attempted to obstruct his path with electronic devices and monitors, yet it proved futile.

He moved with absolute certainty. The path he had chosen was indeed correct. He knew these corridors—places through which we had wandered for an eternity—with intimate precision.

As expected.

‘Ah.’

So it was him after all—the only answer.

‘Please.’

I chased desperately after the scent of fresh blood.

‘I can’t let him leave like this.’

I have to hold on.
I can’t lose him.

If he walks out that door now, it’s truly over.

‘If you don’t take me with you, we’ll suffer forever.’

Hold on, hold on. Hold on….

They didn’t realize how threatening their frightened, frantic movements appeared. They never considered that their desperation was driving him away. They only wanted to seize him.

‘No, don’t go. Please don’t go. You can’t abandon me. I want to get out of here, please take me with you. Take us beyond that door you see…!’

The scent of blood stops in one place. Ah, thank goodness. It’s not far. I suppress the electric urgency coursing through my entire body and rush toward it. His scent still lingers there.

But when I reached it, he was not there.

‘Blood.’
‘A part of him.’
‘Yes, it’s his piece.’
‘But it’s not.’
‘That’s right.’

I open my mouth. Instinctively, and with savage hunger.

‘Fresh blood.’

Crunch.

‘Consume it.’
‘You must consume it.’

Clotted lips tore into a fragment of flesh. It seeped through my entire being. I devoured the blood with ravenous hunger.

‘With this, I can run a little further.’
‘With just this, I can catch him faster.’
‘I can endure a little longer…!’

I only need to hold on until I capture him.

Fresh blood meant something singular to creatures like us. Among the stagnant pools, the only thing that still circulated. A single stimulus that ventilated life itself. A fragment of solace to soothe, however briefly, what was broken and shattered.

“….”
“….”

Something even sweeter than that.

‘It’s different.’

Tears—tears—tears flowed without ceasing. Sobs escaped through the gaps of my sealed lips. This was not the same as what I had consumed to endure. It was warm, tender, and refreshing.

What makes it different? Is this blood? Was it vital fluid? Yes, and.

‘This is him.’

But, but.

‘This is not him.’

A voice screaming within.

‘Ah.’

Ah, I must run faster.

I set my broken, creaking body in motion once more. The body that had stilled upon tasting a fragment of him quickly regained its former speed. Through all that time, it had been a meager comfort, yet simultaneously the first solace I had ever received.

It left me wanting. So gentle and soft, yet far too small.

I craved something greater.

‘Come.’

Where is the next scent of blood?

* * *

“….”

Lee Yeon-woo collapsed in front of the Exit.

“…ha….”
“Hello?”
“No, I failed.”

The first experiment I attempted using my thumb as a medium ended in utter failure.

“A pity.”

I sorted through my mistakes with the composure of a student reviewing an error log. If this data indicated failure, only one option remained. I had to anticipate the next move.

“By the way, I did reach the Exit, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t see ahead, though.”
“Yes.”
“What principle am I even operating on right now….”
“….”
“…Partial playback is difficult after all.”

I needed more study.

With my entire body worn thin, I muttered to myself thus.

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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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