"…Ugh…."
Cough, hack…! Hack!
Lee Seon-hae lurched upright, noisily spitting water.
"Gah, ah… my nose is stuffed… water got in my ear…."
She scrubbed her ear furiously at the unpleasant foreign sensation. Not satisfied, she thumped her own head. But the water drained at a thoroughly unsatisfying pace.
"Ugh, seriously…."
The years of sprinting around in her pri paid off—her composure returned quickly.
'I swear I'm going to bury that deranged bastard.'
A burst of newly sharpened profanity directed at the Room 703 guest was short-lived. Lee Seon-hae realized the ground beneath her feet was far too damp and heavy.
…Huh?
"……?"
She noticed that wherever she was, it was quite humid. Whether from prolonged exposure to water or the low water temperature, her body was cold too.
"……."
Wait—that's wrong. "Water temperature"?
"…Where am I."
She raised her head, and instead of the hotel's walls, a vast, fathomless darkness stretched before her.
"What…."
And simultaneously, light.
Beneath a ceiling—or night sky—so impossibly high it couldn't be gauged, an enormous expanse of water spread out. It was too vast to be a pool. Too still to be the sea. Each ti the surface moved, a blue glow radiated from below.
A dreamlike scene one might find on so distant foreign shore. It was undeniably beautiful, yet chilling, alien, unsettling. She couldn't shake the nauseating sensation that rely looking at it was gnawing at the bottom of her mind….
How long had she been staring at "it"?
"……."
Lee Seon-hae suddenly ca to her senses.
'…No, no—this isn't the ti. Don't tell
that lunatic dragged
all the way here?'
She was wringing out her soaked clothes when—
"……."
"……."
"……."
It wasn't just one.
In every gap of the dark ceiling, behind every unseen pillar, and in every shadow deep below the water where no light reached.
Sothing—many things.
"…Ha?"
…were watching .
***
Lee Yeon-woo had always thought:
Better that I'm the one who dies.
My death.
My injuries.
My pain.
All of these fell within a domain he could control. They were wholly his own, re constants that needn't be excluded from the calculation.
"……."
…Which was why the variable before his eyes made him angry.
"…I see."
Quite angry, in fact.
"So what you're saying, Writer—"
"Yes, yes."
"—is that Director Lee Seon-hae has gone missing."
"She was with
until yesterday—no, until dawn, at least, talking… she's not the sort to wander off, and there was no reason for it… her phone's just sitting there… even her shoes are still…."
"I see. Thank you for cooperating with the situation report."
He'd considered the possibility. Once the 'Drenched One' initiated pursuit, it abducted the human guest within three days and took them to the Aqua Park. After 12 hours, it killed them.
The "within three days" part—three was the maximum. The minimum was unspecified. The fastest Lee Yeon-woo had confird was one minute later. A thoroughly unpredictable guest.
"I-I didn't know what to do. We were using separate rooms. Sothing seems to have happened at dawn, but I couldn't check. I was—I was just sleeping…."
At Hong Gyeong-yeon's self-bla, Lee Yeon-woo briefly lowered his gaze, then smiled.
"Resting in one's room is a guest's natural right. This is not your fault, Writer. Given the circumstances you've described, Director Lee Seon-hae's absence was not of her own volition either."
"Right, yes, of course. Of course. I need to stay calm."
"Yes, you're doing well."
He steadied Hong Gyeong-yeon's agitation. He still needed information.
"What ti did you last speak with the Director?"
"The last ti I saw her was… um, around… two a.m. To be precise, I think it was about one fifty-sothing."
"I see. And the exact ti you beca aware of the Director's absence?"
"Seven o'clock. We'd packed all the luggage before bed, planning to just grab it and go first thing in the morning. Seven o'clock. Yes, seven."
Then the gap was roughly five hours. Abducted a maximum of five hours ago.
'If not for the tutorial, one system upgrade would've given
the exact ti she was taken. Without the interface, I feel like my hands and feet have been cut off as a user. Thoroughly inconvenient.'
Right, then.
'So what do I do now.'
Staying angry accomplished nothing. The golden hour was fixed.
'The timing is too convenient to rule out the hotel pulling strings. Coco's reaction yesterday nagged at , too. If they goaded the Drenched One… then the most reasonable assumption is that it took her the mont she fell asleep at 2 a.m.'
Then ti remaining?
'Seven hours, minimum.'
The problem was that he was still in the tutorial.
'…As I am now, I cannot reach the 23rd floor.'
Think.
Think.
Think again.
This was why, through the long pre-dawn hours, he'd reviewed countless scenarios with the quarters bed right beside him, not sparing even a sigh. A worst case this extre had been within his projected range.
He'd doubted the board could truly be stacked this unfairly. He'd assigned the probability low, and sincerely hoped they'd check out safely.
"……."
…Yet the board had already been set.
"…Writer Hong Gyeong-yeon."
"Yes? Ah, yes. Yes."
"If it wouldn't be an imposition, would you help ?"
"Ah, if there's anything I can do—anything at all…!"
"This place is called 'Hotel One.'"
Lee Yeon-woo filled out a register. The sound of pen tip rolling over paper was regular and neat.
"The standard tutorial completion criteria are as follows. For 'human guests'—"
He finished the signature in the final column and looked up.
"—nightmares must be secured from the guest, and proper checkout procedures must be followed through the front entrance for it to be considered a complete 'clear.'"
"…I'm sorry? What does that…."
"However, under the current 'tutorial bug' conditions, exception rules may apply. When the scheduled stay period ends, there is roughly a 60% chance that a completion ruling is granted even if only part of the group checks out."
"…I'm sorry, what are you saying?"
"Additionally, a similar probability exists for completion processing when only nightmares have been secured. Combining these two variables yields a calculated probability between approximately 82.4% and 85.6% for a 'conditional completion' ruling."
"That's…."
"Excuse ."
He handed over the register. The contract.
"Please sign here."
"…Do you have any intention of explaining further?"
"I know you'll forget in the end, as every guest who has visited this hotel has."
"……."
Hong Gyeong-yeon, pen in hand, looked at Lee Yeon-woo. A dazed face. The expression of soone who has lost their way. Perhaps he thought the situation was unreal.
Staring at the pen tip, he asked:
"Then what changes?"
"Director Lee Seon-hae's probability of survival increases dramatically."
"And?"
"Writer Hong Gyeong-yeon will pay the accommodation fee."
"You said you weren't going to charge us."
"That had been the plan, but regrettably, this particular matter requires a separate service fee. I humbly ask your understanding."
"……."
"…Upon tutorial completion via the bug…."
Lee Yeon-woo paused briefly before continuing. Adding words that would be forgotten anyway was a final courtesy he extended as a hotelier.
"If a specific event has occurred involving a companion, the event can be imdiately inherited and continued upon the completion ruling. Barring variables, it ans I can proceed directly to the 23rd floor."
"…What happens if luck is very bad?"
"Then I'll have to resort to a sowhat dangerous thod. Foolish and inefficient, but there's no surer way to save a person. Of course, with luck, such a situation won't arise."
"…What do I need to do…."
"Your signature, please."
Ah—that was a ga line. It was required for "nightmare collection."
"Did you have an unpleasant ti at our hotel?"
"……."
A long pause.
"…Yes."
Hong Gyeong-yeon signed with a trembling hand.
"…Here."
"Thank you."
Lee Yeon-woo smiled and bowed his head.
"I wish you a pleasant day."
***
"I wish you a pleasant day."
"……."
Hong Gyeong-yeon blinked.
A vaguely dazed feeling ca and went.
"…Hm? Ah, yes. Have a good day."
"How shall we have the luggage in your room transported?"
"Luggage… right, I'm sorry. I didn't bring it down. Must have slipped my mind."
"That happens when travel fatigue hasn't fully lifted. Think nothing of it. If you'd like, our staff can collect the luggage directly from your room and deliver it to the lobby."
"If you could do that, I'd be grateful."
"It's only natural to do our utmost for those who've chosen our hotel."
Lee Yeon-woo summoned the staff. Still using that small golden bell for commands. Their "way" of doing things still left a lingering unease, but he deliberately looked away.
Using selfish ddling to get a kid hurt—once was enough.
"……."
"Co to think of it, Director Lee Seon-hae…."
"…Ah, she had sothing urgent co up and left for Seoul ahead of ."
"Oh dear, Seoul?"
"I'm not sure what happened, exactly."
He could guess. Probably called in by the maternal side of the family. He'd heard about the advice sought from "the uncle" the other day. Likely fallout from that.
'Maybe she's getting an earful for poking around sowhere too dangerous.'
He felt sorry on multiple fronts. If only he hadn't gone to the seventh floor, things wouldn't have escalated this far. Past thirty by a good margin, and yet—what kind of nuisance was this.
"We'll have to manage the work in Gapyeong on our own for now, I suppose. Doesn't look like the person who went to Seoul will be back right away… and if she happens to show up at the hotel alone, please send her packing."
"Haha, that's quite the difficult request for hotel staff."
"Ah, no, I didn't an it like that…."
"A small joke. I understand well what the writer is concerned about. If the Director were truly to visit again on her own, I would exercise my personal discretion to ensure she returns ho safely."
"That puts my mind at ease."
"So please, do not worry."
The General Manager curved his eyes into a smile.
"You ought to have a comfortable journey ho, after all."
"……."
…He'd been thinking it all along—the man smiled just like a fox.
Sly and yet genteel; kind, certainly, but the depths utterly unreadable. Director Lee Seon-hae had called him "a person who knows how to use his body well," and indeed he did.
He was soone who knew perfectly how to draw another's attention toward himself.
"I will do everything in my power to ensure there is nothing for you to worry about."
"…Yes, thank you."
"Travel safely."
Sothing.
'…Did I forget so luggage?'
He couldn't say why, but sothing nagged at him.
The feeling lingered all the way into the car.
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