『The depth of the guest room bathtub has been abnormally distorted. The water churns without end, and the body has sunk. It will never surface again.』
"……."
A cutscene line from the event 『Beneath Shallow Water』.
'The intervention condition is the user physically pulling the Drenched One out of the bathtub.'
This, too, was an event where Distraction was possible.
In exchange for temporarily blocking the bathtub's erosion, penalties followed without exception. A 100% fixed trigger of 'drowning nightmare.' The persistent, vicious hallucination of being subrged in water….
'On top of that, a sharp decline in lung function and reduced oxygen saturation. A 90% chance of sleep apnea episodes during sleep. And a 30% increase in command error rate due to system anomaly.'
The worst conditions imaginable—but with luck, a 'victim transfer flag' could be raised. The probability of the user becoming the abduction target instead of the guest would activate.
If this flag functioned properly, the human guests would be relatively safe.
'In exchange, I'll die.'
He felt nothing at the prospect.
Lee Yeon-woo looked at the large hand dangling outside the bathtub.
"……."
He patted it, and sank into thought again.
'…If pulmonary edema stacks on top of this, there's no way my current organs will hold. In the main ga there would at least be recovery items, but during the tutorial that's too much to hope for.'
A death sentence, in other words.
'No—if I'm lucky, I might not die.'
Dangerous all the sa. But what if he ignored it?
'The Drenched One permanently claims this room as its habitat.'
An irrecoverable stamina penalty and ongoing room equipnt malfunctions. In other words, the health bar shrinks, and Room 703 has to be abandoned. In that case, it gets designated as a "no-entry" room.
Horror gas are full of those, aren't they? The room the staff warn you never to enter. It would transform into that quintessential sort of room.
'That's a bit much.'
He stopped patting the hand.
"……."
"……?"
Perhaps it was his imagination, but the corpse's hand seed to flinch.
Lee Yeon-woo gazed at it quietly, then spoke.
"…I consider this quite unfair. I'm still adjusting to this unfamiliar order, yet our monster guests have already perfectly internalized this hotel's workings. Thanks to that, I'm reminded of my inadequate knowledge at every turn."
"……."
"The ti I spent with you in the bathroom before seems to have been quite to your liking. Triggering events one after another like this—it must an your interest and attention have been drawn to . Whether any such 'emotion' truly remains in you, I can't say…."
He just wished it would leave the fragile human guests alone.
"Understood."
He curved his lips into a hotelier's smile.
"An old friend is asking to play. I've no reason to refuse."
Lee Yeon-woo grasped the cold hand. In ga terms, he'd selected the option "take the hand." Perhaps thanks to that, even with a body less durable than an overripe persimmon, he could exert a strong grip.
'…I needn't have worried about my health in the first place. In front of an already sensitive guest, I ended up looking like I was exaggerating.'
Whether his body had turned to persimmon or pudding, it happened automatically. This level of grip strength shouldn't have been possible for this body. Another perk built into the ga system, no doubt.
Whether "perk" was the right word, he wasn't sure. But anyway.
"…Shall I try pulling you out."
For the record, the outco is random.
With bad luck, you get dragged into the deep.
***
"…Ha…."
Hong Gyeong-yeon was currently on the seventh floor.
"…What possessed
to co here."
Good question.
'No—get a grip.'
This was no ti to space out. He needed to either flee this spot or ransack the rooms—one or the other. His heart raced.
'Tell the director quickly, or do sothing—no, wait, am I even in a position to act? Am I qualified? Young-looking or not, Mr. Yeon-woo is this hotel's General Manager, a professional. A variable like
showing up might be worse than letting him handle it….'
Letting him handle that sort of thing?
"……."
Was that the right thing, as a human being? Surely it wasn't?
'…I don't know.'
He didn't understand the system this hotel ran on. Acting rashly could trigger an even bigger disaster. So he had to restrain himself.
'Keep to the line.'
Then at least no variable enters this hotel.
'As if a guest could actually kill the General Manager. That won't happen. If I butt in and he gets hurt worse or the situation gets more complicated… that'd be an even bigger… disaster.'
The bewildernt and the disgust. At this situation where he had to talk himself into standing down. And disappointnt in himself, a man with no real right to intervene.
But agonizing changed nothing.
"…All right."
Calm down, for now.
'I'm not in a rational state.'
Maybe it was the old mories surfacing.
Impulsive choices always brought regret. Hong Gyeong-yeon decided to return to his room. He needed to talk to Lee Seon-hae.
Yes. That was what he should do.
And yet.
"……!"
SPLASH—!!
The sound of sothing plunging into water.
His head snapped around.
It had co from Room 703, whose door was slightly ajar.
***
'Ah, damn.'
Must be bad luck today.
'How impressive.'
Losing a coin flip on top of back-to-back events. Soone had clearly drained every drop of Lee Yeon-woo's fortune. The suspects were Coco and this hotel.
'…I'll cut the escapism here.'
Lee Yeon-woo looked straight ahead.
'Terrifying.'
It was, admittedly, the face of a rather fine-looking young man, but—
"Hypocrite."
'Still blaming everyone but itself the mont its mouth opens.'
"Warm hypocrite. Don't be alive. Don't be alive in front of …!"
A mouth ripped wide, pointed teeth, red eyes. Scales raised on the skin, hair billowing in the water—a harmonious whole. Like an illustration pasted in; the quintessential form of a water ghost.
'According to the description, it's still crying, even now. Below the surface, endlessly.'
It had been recorded in the bestiary. Invisible because it was subrged in water, but they were always crying.
Lee Yeon-woo extended a hand without emotion. Then, gently, he touched the area around its eyes.
"……."
…His sense of touch was quite dull.
'Must be the status ailnts.'
The "cold" debuff applied earlier must have numbed the extremities. But there was still no pain. Not even now, with his neck in a chokehold as he was shoved underwater.
A character drowning doesn't make the player behind the monitor hurt.
'If there'd been no human guests in this hotel, I would have quietly wrapped things up here. A sha for both of us.
and this one.
Ah, though strictly speaking, this one probably isn't human.
'Maybe it's the realism of being here instead of in-ga. Strangely, there's a human scent about it.'
Manifestations of concepts. That was the hallmark of the monster guests who visited this hotel. But staring down this vicious hatred and desperate flailing, other thoughts intruded.
The sort of suspicion that maybe this was sothing wearing a ga as a shell.
'I'll save that contemplation for later….'
Lee Yeon-woo looked toward the "surface."
"Don't leave ."
"……."
"I'm lonely. You've gone silent now. I can't hear you. Let's sink like this. Die. Don't be alive. I'm lonely. It mustn't be too warm. I'm lonely…."
'Hm.'
He could guarantee that a slightly better temperant would have made it considerably less lonely.
'No items, so I'll need another ans. What to try.'
One of the downsides of the tutorial bug. Items corresponding to common-to-both-versions guest events can't be obtained. That was why he'd wanted to avoid the bathtub event.
"……."
"I'm lonely."
'Let
see.'
What did one do in situations like this?
'Without items, a 99 percent chance of death….'
Flipped around, that ant the system hadn't locked death in at 100 percent. If there was even a 1% opening—well, not bad terms.
'I have a cheat that lets
not die.'
How glad he was to have learned blood magic. At this point, it was better to feign "death."
The cold hand around his throat. He could feel sharp nails digging into his skin. He released the grip of the hand that had been holding on.
In ga terms, he'd chosen this option:
[Use Item ??]
[Resist ??]
[Give Up ??]
All yours—eat up.
***
"Hmm…."
The floor-to-ceiling window of a 21st-floor room.
"As expected, I can't see from this side."
Too much ti had passed.
Lee Seon-hae knew Hong Gyeong-yeon's habits. The cigarette case he'd taken looked light. Three at most—yet he showed no sign of returning.
An ominous thought crept in.
"…He didn't go to the seventh floor, did he?"
Lee Seon-hae threw on a jacket.
***
Hong Gyeong-yeon, who had been standing outside Room 703 for what felt like ages.
He heard the sounds of struggle and splashing. He heard the heavy sound of sothing being fully subrged. And then every noise going still—he heard all of it.
His trembling hand hovered near the room's door handle.
"……."
But in the end, Hong Gyeong-yeon chose to leave.
"Urgh…."
He backed away from the door, stumbling.
'…There's a reason the seventh floor was called dangerous.'
He could see why it was dangerous, but sothing worse might lurk beyond.
He kept thinking the sa thing: Lee Yeon-woo was a professional. He knew far more about this hotel than Hong Gyeong-yeon ever could. That ant the probability of Hong Gyeong-yeon causing an incident was far greater than the probability of Lee Yeon-woo dying.
Hong Gyeong-yeon moved his feet toward the elevator—silently, but as fast as he could manage.
'I'll tell the director. If I explain the situation, she'll make a better judgnt than I can right now. Right—maybe we really do call her family, or—or….'
Lee Yeon-woo needed help. That was the right thing. But the help he needed was certainly not Hong Gyeong-yeon's. So a different solution had to be found quickly.
He admitted to himself that he was in a state of panic. This wouldn't do. I'm no help right now.
'The director should still be awake….'
And.
That was when.
Creeeak—…
"……."
"……."
Squelch, squelch.
Waterlogged footsteps.
His breath seized.
Hong Gyeong-yeon turned around.
"…Ah."
A towering man, drenched to the bone, was standing there with a knife.
"……."
"……."
…A kitchen knife?
'…Why is he holding a knife?'
For what purpose?
Hong Gyeong-yeon found himself examining the blade first. To check for blood. Fortunately, no blood was visible. Of course, it could have been wiped. Nothing was certain.
He stepped back. The figure took one step forward.
"……."
Through the tangled hair, those eyes and lips were visible.
'It's smiling.'
Bloodshot, scarlet eyes. Lips soaked in amusent.
'So—why?'
Lee Seon-hae teased Hong Gyeong-yeon for being timid. But Hong Gyeong-yeon always felt it was unfair.
He had perfectly ordinary sensibilities. Gunshots startled him; blood frightened him; too many bugs made him scream. Just that much.
So he wasn't a coward.
He was simply ordinary, except—
"……."
—when cornered, he lost all reason.
"…What are you doing?"
Hong Gyeong-yeon valued his own life a reasonable amount. Had he valued it a great deal, he wouldn't have spent his bright twenties following Lee Seon-hae around doing that sort of thing.
"What were you doing in there?"
"……."
"Why the knife? What was that water sound earlier? Are you the one who summoned Mr. Yeon-woo? Been to a water park? Why do you look so happy?"
He couldn't not be sarcastic—the other party was too, too detestable.
"Is it fun bullying soone who can't even fight back?"
Must be fun, fuck. Must be so fucking fun.
"You perverted bastard."
He might be lashing out at the wrong person in a fit of panic. But you see what you know. Hong Gyeong-yeon had reasoned from the facts, and the one before him had co out carrying a knife.
Even if it wasn't the culprit behind Lee Yeon-woo's cognitive impairnt, this was simply a lunatic.
"Say sothing, won't you? Can't talk? Then I'm sorry about that—but for everything else, I'm not sorry at all. Mind if I call the police? Probably not an option, right? This insane hotel really needs every last staff mber hauled away."
"……."
"Why'd you co out with a knife? Going to stab ? Are you? Will you let
off if I grovel? No? Of course not—I've never t soone with eyes rolled back like yours who wasn't a freak. Prove
wrong. You didn't, so I guess I'm right."
The figure's face contorted strangely. Roughly a 'what the hell is this deranged bug' sort of look. Contempt, annoyance, and irritation rolled into one. The excitent and thrill had died down.
'No.'
That made it even more infuriating.
'Then why were you so elated a mont ago?'
And the answer was already there. Those red marks caught under the nails, and the stain on the lips….
"Oh, you really are a sick bastard, aren't you??"
"……."
"…Uh…."
"……."
"…S-sorry… no I'm not, you psycho."
He'd assud the lips were just split. But why was there blood on them without a wound? And why were those teeth so red?
Hong Gyeong-yeon's face went from white to blue.
'Don't tell
this lunatic…?'
Correct in a sense, but slightly off. A monster eating a human the way humans eat animals wasn't all that extraordinary. At least not in fiction.
The problem was that this was both a ga and reality. And Hong Gyeong-yeon didn't even know it had been a ga. Didn't know the other party wasn't human.
"……."
Which ant a truly, unspeakably horrifying hypothesis had just ford in his mind.
"…1… 119… 119… why the hell is there no signal again… I really want to cry… the blood sll is insane…."
"……."
"Shit, even on raw physical terms I lose… ah, I should've just co out with the director. What kind of glory was I chasing, being alone in this psycho hotel."
"……."
"What do you eat to grow that big? Your hand is the size of my face. Jealous? Ah, wait—please tell
it's not actually what I think you've been eating. Please say no. Fuck, why does it feel like I can hear a 'please no' from sowhere else too… for the love of god."
"……."
"Ah! Go ahead, kill ! Ah, go ahead and try! You think I haven't been stabbed before? You think you're the only one who can bite? I've got hands, feet, and teeth too!"
"……."
"Let's all die together…!!"
And Director Lee Seon-hae, arriving on the seventh floor just then—
"……."
—heard her colleague's declaration of mutual annihilation from inside the elevator.
"…What."
What was all this.
She was tracing the exact sa question Hong Gyeong-yeon had held in the lobby.
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