Living things read and respond to the world in their own ways.
That was what I, as a child, felt to be the existence of “reason.”
It may have been a matter of intelligence. Perhaps a matter of the size or capacity of the brain. We do not understand them completely. But the rules are unmistakable.
Rules between individuals. Rules of response. They existed sowhere between language and nonlanguage. No different from humans at all.
“Yeon-woo.”
A frog laid open at the belly.
Lying still.
Unable to move.
“Have you finished already?”
“...Yes, teacher.”
“You truly are deft with your hands. You will make an excellent doctor.”
“I’m not sure.”
“That is fine. Dreams are sothing you shape slowly.”
“Yes.”
“But your talent is truly exceptional.”
“…….”
“I hope you will not waste it.”
Talent.
At cutting a living frog open?
‘Is that truly impressive?’
To cut into living flesh for the anthropocentric gain called experience. That such an act could be called talent.
I thought it a little strange.
‘But perhaps it belongs to a realm I am too young to understand.’
The adults called
clever, a genius with many gifts. I did not dislike such praise. The more favorably they judged , the more benefits I stood to gain.
But as I looked at the frog, its pounding heart laid bare, I thought,
“…….”
I killed a person today.
One humans had defined as a frog.
A palm-sized person whose eyes had t mine yesterday through the small tank.
***
The morning of day 180 was distinctly unpleasant.
“…….”
“Hello....”
“…….”
“...lo!”
“Now that is a reaction I have not seen before.”
Coco had curled up like a cat confronted with a cucumber.
No, more precisely, it would be more accurate to say it had simply beco a round lump. It looked sothing like a sli seized by terror. For sothing wearing the form of a cat, it was excessively amorphous—almost ridiculous.
Still seated on the bed, he picked Coco up.
“Hello...! Hello... hello....”
“…….”
“...lo....”
The softer its voice grew, the smaller its body seed to shrink.
The black, squishy cushion-like thing nodded busily as it read his mood. The response made it easy enough to guess how dreadful he must have looked.
“I had an unpleasant dream.”
“Hello.”
“It is not as though things are truly bad....”
The lukewarm warmth against his palm gradually pushed back the unpleasant afterimage.
“…….”
His eyes t the mirror in the quarters.
“...Ah.”
A vicious expression.
“This is really hard to look at.”
“No.”
“It is a joyless face.”
Was it not?
“It would be difficult to give anyone a pleasant impression with a face like this.”
He closed his eyes and cald the sharpened edges of his nerves. After spending the night until dawn poring over records of torture, a spectacle like this had been the inevitable result.
Once he thought of it that way, the line of his mouth eased on its own.
“...It is fascinating that even this body can develop dark circles under the eyes....”
That was probably the price of forcing himself through the “extra studying” the system had never accounted for. Research beyond the bounds of the ga unfailingly accumulated fatigue. A troubleso thing, even in a body that did not truly require sleep.
Which was why he had felt obliged to lie down and close his eyes, if only for the sake of appearances.
“If I died and resurrected, would even a trivial condition like this be cleared up? What do you think?”
“No.”
“I am not so extre a man that I would choose suicide over a slightly unhealthy complexion. Using resurrection as a substitute for painkillers leaves far too bad an aftertaste.”
“Yes.”
“Quite so... the body is fine, but the mood is strangely unpleasant.”
A body that did not need to eat, wash, or sleep.
Perhaps because that setting had been reflected, the Operator’s quarters did not even contain a bathroom. But if he forcibly closed his eyes and rose again afterward, his hair would, with a certain probability, end up disheveled.
Looking into the mirror, Yeon-woo tidied his rumpled appearance back into order.
“Hello?”
That probably ant, Do you need this?
“...Thank you.”
Coco had appeared with his tie in its mouth at just the right mont.
To say “hello” with a tie clenched between one’s teeth—just where exactly had that function been implented? It stirred scholarly curiosity in him, but it was hardly as though he could dissect it and find out.
‘Being alone is breeding nothing but dreadful jokes in . I should reflect on that.’
Lee Yeon-woo’s appearance quickly returned to what it had always been. Neat, orderly, with not a single thing out of place.
“…….”
...And yet it was still a dull face.
“To entrust the post of general manager to a man who looks like this—this hotel’s hiring system is truly hopeless.”
“No.”
“It is fortunate the guests are strong-hearted enough not to be wounded by a face like mine. In any ordinary service job, I would have been fired long ago. I am not a person suited to sothing as kindly as service.”
“No.”
“Coco, you have a tendency to think too well of .”
“No.”
“...Who can say....”
The face of a murderer.
“…….”
He put on his glasses,
looked back into the mirror,
and smiled.
“That is better.”
This was the usual him—tidy, composed, without a flaw.
“Would you not agree?”
“No.”
“Ha ha. What a sha.”
***
Apart from the fact that he had dread for the first ti in a long while, it was a day with nothing especially remarkable about it.
He went to the front desk and received the backlog of guests that had built up while he slept. He made his rounds through the hotel, checking on the conditions of the few guests currently staying there, and after seeing off those who wished to check out, he called the staff to set the rooms in order.
“I miss the Auto function.”
“No.”
“I miss it desperately, truly.”
“No.”
“I know very well that it is a feature unlocked only after the tutorial ends. There is no need to remind .”
Even so, he still had not the slightest intention of accepting human guests. When real humans actually arrived, he had no idea what sort of stance he ought to take. As things stood, Lee Yeon-woo was neither human nor NPC.
Of course, it had not been a day wholly devoid of gains either.
“Communication remains inadequate, but through consistent reaction patterns and repeated learning, I believe the groundwork for a relationship of trust is being laid. What do you think?”
“…….”
“Why no answer?”
“Yes... no... yes... hello....”
“I warned you not to use your clumsiness with human language as a shield, you wicked cat.”
For the ti being, he was building camaraderie with the monsters inside the hotel. That might have been optimism on his part alone, but that was how it felt to him.
‘...Is it because of the playstyle I chose?’
This hotel could be operated in various ways. The route he preferred among them was the no-kill route. Rather than making enemies of the monsters, he won them over to his side through managent and contracts.
The thod was simple. All one had to do was provide the service best suited to each guest. He had struggled at first, of course, but was a twenty-six-year veteran user truly going to be ignorant of a single strategy?
‘Even if the setting says they are closer to phenona than living beings, there is nothing wrong with the attempt to understand unknown existences. If I am fortunate, I may even be able to pull a re phenonon down to the level of a living thing and place it within the frawork of my own common sense.’
It was a very typical researcher’s mindset.
“For now, we are still sowhat awkward with one another... but there will be plenty of chances to learn. That will improve in ti. It is only because we are not yet used to each other’s ways.”
“Yes.”
“They are not common creatures like cats or dogs, with plenty of available data. Naturally it takes ti to adapt.”
“Yes.”
Back when they had been re clumps of graphics inside a ga, he could simply think, So that is what kind of character you are, and move on. But now, this was reality. They were entities on a level approaching living organisms.
He could not treat them as though he were rely clearing a ga strategy guide. Fortunately, what he had learned thus far was helping him.
“…….”
That studying those notes—which did not even deserve to be called books—could provide real assistance was sothing that wounded his pride both as an ordinary citizen and as a researcher.
‘The dark circles I have developed lately may be a symptom of blood depletion during my research....’
Even so, the foundation of this hotel did indeed arise from that unpleasant history.
“It is a relief that there is still more left for
to study.”
“Yes.”
“And yet there are monts when I almost forget why I was so wary of this knowledge to begin with. Those brief instants are rather chilling.”
Which is why he said,
“If the sacrifice or dium were not another person, but myself... then would that not, in its own way, be the more rational conclusion?”
“No.”
The cat began to cry out noisily.
“No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.”
Even this kind of sudden commotion no longer surprised him much.
“Enough.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“Yes.”
It lacked an understanding of humans, certainly, but if asked politely for help, Coco was a good friend who would listen as much as needed. Of course, the circumstances also left them no choice but to beco friends by force.
“…….”
...Well, perhaps that did not matter.
“Shall we discuss this subject today.”
“Yes.”
“Very good. Please, take a seat.”
“Yes.”
“Verifying the results of a particular project is a very serious process. The sa goes for confirming the degree of harm those results might inflict upon the human body. The surest thod is to apply them directly to a human subject, but—”
“No.”
“Sadly, barriers called budget and ethics tend to block the road ahead.”
“Yes.”
“Even if one turns instead to animal experintation, the hardships remain. Pigs, in particular, cost a truly astonishing amount per individual. Unless it is a large-scale national project, no such budget will be approved. At tis like this, we can perform a very efficient shift in perspective.”
“Yes.”
“To offer one’s own body as the test subject is, at the very least, not illegal.”
“No.”
“Ah, a fair point. Of course, there are also cases in which legal trouble is difficult to avoid... but if one can simply pass IRB review, then it is a perfectly legitimate experint. Provided the consent forms are signed voluntarily, the risk is minimized, and all other conditions are satisfied.”
Lee Yeon-woo sank deep into the sofa. A leisurely ease spread across what had been a blank expression. It was one of the few enjoyable conversations in his monotonous life of isolation.
“For reference, I was a frequent visitor to IRB review.”
It was less a matter of pride than of confidence in verified knowledge.
“The review standards did grow stricter with each passing year, but in any case, it was never illegal.”
“Yes.”
“So from that perspective, even if the technique’s origin is impure... if I myself am the one paying the price, might that not free , at least a little, from ethical responsibility?”
“Yes.”
“Do you an no?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear. I thought it a fairly plausible idea.”
The corners of his mouth twisted into a crooked arc.
“Did this hotel ask my consent and kidnap
through lawful procedure in the first place?”
“No....”
“In that case, I believe that sothing like voluntarily assuming risk within it ought to be entirely tolerable. Above all, there is sothing deeply attractive in the fact that it can produce efficiency beyond what is input while all but ignoring the law of conservation.”
“Yes, no, yes....”
“I cannot tell which part you wish to refute and which part you wish to affirm.”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
At any rate, it made him understand why the cultists had beco so obsessed with such dreadful knowledge.
This unpleasant body of knowledge yielded results greater than what was put into it. It pretended to obey the law of conservation, all while simply substituting the necessary resources with things like human emotion and soul.
The formulas corresponding to it certainly existed, but he was still at the stage of learning them.
“…….”
After gauging the ti, Lee Yeon-woo looked at Coco.
The cat had gone limp.
It was rather cute.
“Shall we head up now.”
“Yes!”
“Very good.”
He had just returned to the quarters to finish out the day when—
“…….”
“...Hello?”
He imdiately understood what the gaze Coco turned up at him was implying.
Just as the cat was the hotel itself, he too was a being bound to this space. He was also the owner and general manager. Any variable that arose within the hotel, his instincts detected first.
His senses rippled. A sticky, ominous alienness. The presence of a guest.
But....
“—Ha,”
...This was different from anything until now.
“You really must have lost your mind.”
It was unmistakably a human guest.
By whose permission?
***
Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province.
A black sedan rattled along the road, where rainwater had collected in pools. Each ti the wheels struck a deep puddle, the body of the car jolted violently.
“Ugh, look how uneven this road is.”
“You should probably take it to the repair shop once we are done with this scouting trip.”
“It feels like we are on so kind of carnival ride. My butt is killing . What is this, honestly.”
“It cannot be helped. It is an unpaved road.”
“You are always so unflappable, you know that?”
The woman at the wheel complained with deliberate exaggeration. Her eyes remained fixed ahead, thick with fatigue and a thoroughly worn-out look.
It was the sort of torrential sumr downpour common during the monsoon season.
“I am not even sure the filming crew will be able to move properly in weather like this.”
“I think that is a matter the director ought to consider.”
“So that ans you do not want to think about it with ? How cold, Writer Hong. We have known each other for so long. My, my, has the love faded?”
“Haa....”
“All right, all right. My apologies.”
The director, Lee Seon-hae, laughed.
“Still, maybe it is because there are so many mountains, but the atmosphere is excellent. The air is clean, too. I was not unwilling to go as far as Gangwon Province if necessary, but if it is like this, Gapyeong does not seem bad at all. We are settling it within Gyeonggi Province, after all, so it should be easier on the actors too.”
“Better than Gangwon, certainly, but Gapyeong is not exactly near, and the mountain terrain is not as rough as we had hoped either. If it had been Gangwon, we would not have had to co in this deep.”
“Oh dear, are you still sulking? This is eerie enough and perfectly good. Several people could die out here and no one would know.”
“It is not that it is bad. I just....”
“I know very well how greedy you original creators can be, but we cannot wield the actors like tools just because we want to. Co on, you know how this works.”
“...Such are the desires of the original author.”
The two were a film director and a story writer. They had co for a preliminary location scout before filming.
Writer Hong had originally argued for Gangwon Province as the filming location. Although the setting in the work lay within the Gyeonggi region, he had expected there to be better candidates in Gangwon than in Gyeonggi.
“No, honestly. It is greed, yes, but... you know how he is.”
“Ah, I understand. Cha Do-hyeon is very much that type.”
“I know nothing good cos of talking behind an actor’s back, but Actor Cha is genuinely difficult to handle. To be honest, choosing Gapyeong in the first place was because of that man’s stubbornness, was it not?”
“He is at least famous enough to throw his weight around that much. More importantly, there is no actor better than Cha Do-hyeon for the male lead in this script. The side with more to lose is the one that has to bend.”
“It is only because Han Ye-seol agreed to match Actor Cha’s schedule that this is even working. Frankly, I am still irritated.”
The writer, Hong Gyeong-yeon, let out a sigh.
“My apologies. You are driving, and yet I have done nothing but complain.”
“Oh, honestly. It is not as though we only t yesterday, so why act like this? It is just because you are tired. When the body feels unwell, one gets sensitive and irritable for no reason.”
“...Thank you.”
The man folded his arms and leaned back into his seat.
“It is taking longer than I expected. Are we still far?”
“What, you think we should have sent soone else?”
“You know that is not what I ant.”
A preliminary scout for filming locations was always important.
The two had worked as a pair for a long ti, and it was always like this. They left the basic surveys to the staff, then ca in person to inspect the site on foot. It was a necessary process to match the image they had in mind.
Of course, two mbers of the filming crew had accompanied them on this scout as well.
“Are you all right back there? Any motion sickness?”
“Yes... thankfully I took dicine before coming.”
“Thank you for coming all this way with us.”
“Oh, it is our job, after all.”
Without the filming crew, it was difficult to estimate the true cost of working on location. Even so, considering the thick and rugged mountain terrain, they had kept the team as small and elite as possible.
The more people there were, the more exhausting movent through the mountains beca.
“Um, but....”
“Yes?”
“It feels like it is getting dark rather quickly.”
A midsumr day, as though the whole world had been swallowed alive by the torrential rain.
“Ah. You are right.”
With the rain pouring down, they could barely even see the road ahead.
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