...I'm eating a al right now.
"......"
The blood-loving guest sat still for a long while.
The richness of the pate, the scent of butter, the warmth of freshly baked bread. Those complex sensations lingering on the tip of his tongue provoked a terrible appetite. A suprely base, animal 'hunger' that he'd forgotten for centuries.
Even his body, which should have been cold as marble, seed to have been touched by an unwelco warmth. It was sickeningly repulsive—as though he'd beco a living human.
A re few plates of food had plunged centuries of perfection built on blood straight into the mud.
'This is poison.'
The wretchedness of having swallowed it despite knowing it was poison cut to the bone with sha.
Honor, custom, and what clearly divided human from beast—that was shining reason. The more entanglents grew, the fainter the monster's nature beca, until at last one hesitated to hunt.
He was certain that long before the wretch's ego shattered, his own insufferable humanity would bloom in full.
"Ah...."
That terrible sha extended directly into killing intent.
Or perhaps it was an ill-fitting admiration, or inferiority.
That exalted god was still maintaining his reason while crawling along the floor with his positive emotions ripped away, and yet here he was, panting like a beast over a re scrap of bread, trembling in this wretched state.
'Isn't that suprely unfair?'
And so, co to the present.
"......"
Before a table that held only aroma, The Guest Without Taste lost all patience.
"...What you built up was quite delicious."
With no one seated across from him, The Guest Without Taste smiled. As always, he smiled again.
"Just one bite."
No.
"Just two more bites."
No, no. All of it, the entirety.
He intoned, filled with as much emotion as he'd consud.
"May I eat...?"
Jealousy strangled his throat, and greed hungered for perfection.
'I no longer need to follow the order.'
He should have realized long ago. Before that pathetic humanity shackled the hunter's instinct, he should have chewed and swallowed the man whole. He'd considered it a gamble, but hadn't known the fight would be this unfavorable.
'I may be able to shake his sense of self, but I cannot destroy his humanity.'
Hadn't he already entered this half-beaten?
This space suppressed 'guests' so they couldn't dare ignore the rules, but—no. Nothing was gained without pain. And now, The Guest Without Taste was prepared to pay the price of his discourtesy.
So emotions, blood, none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered to him now was one thing.
"......"
He wanted to watch Yeon-woo crumble.
'For that... it's better if he remains swamped in negative emotions.'
Shouldn't he raise the odds in this gamble even slightly?
Calculation? Calculation had gone awry long ago. This was no longer even an honorable hunt. It was karma for having underestimated the quality and weight of Velmareth's emotions.
And so the vampire—The Guest Without Taste—whispered into the empty air.
"Tell
it wasn't only my sin."
Just like everyone I've ever consud.
The blood that failed to beco a god, seething with spite, broke the rules.
***
Checking the system, Yeon-woo tilted his head.
'...The Guest Without Taste has vanished from the Interface.'
[Yes?]
'Ah, no. He's appeared sowhere unexpected.'
But... why was he on the 2nd Floor?
'That's not a normal route.'
It was movent that hadn't existed in the ga. Unless there was an event, the 2nd Floor was currently empty. Neither the Grand Banquet Hall nor the restaurant were in operation.
"......"
Thinking back to the ga, there had been tis when the vampire would mutter to himself in the banquet hall.
Even as an indescribable eeriness crept over him, Yeon-woo set that heavy feeling aside.
'I'll check on this again later. Although there's a difference between whether it's in operation or not, The Guest Without Taste did visit the Grand Banquet Hall from ti to ti in the ga. Even if this doesn't seem to be that case....'
[Yes!]
'For now, I should finish my own task first.'
Yeon-woo lifted a worn, but still sowhat legible dossier.
"...Hmm."
The sixteenth and final Sealed Record.
[Docunt Number: EO-14/Sealed/East-0227]
[Issuing Body: Research Directorate ██ Branch (HQ Code: EAO-7)]
[Date of Composition: February 27, 19██ AD]
[Classification: Top Secret / Clearance Level III and Above]
[Reason for Sealing]
[A mass contamination event occurred in the Central Control Room, the control zone overseeing surveillance and experintal control authority across the entire Joint Research Complex. As a result, the surveillance system operated in reverse, and a portion of the research personnel and Suppression Team entered an uncontrollable state....]
'Confird.'
'Yes.'
'This is the Sealed Record I rember.'
Yeon-woo logged the item into the Archive.
'One of the things that beca more troubleso going from ga to reality is precisely work like this.'
He couldn't distinguish between ordinary objects and ga items. Anything Yeon-woo perceived as an item could be stored in his Inventory.
'I need to keep in mind that the Archive may operate the sa way.'
He'd worried about collecting the wrong record and causing problems with the strategy, but Yeon-woo rembered nearly everything in the Archive. In practice, the chance of such a mistake was nil.
"......"
However, questions did remain.
'As I thought, it's not just records from a single facility?'
This record was written in Chinese. However, the docunt as registered in the Interface was translated into Korean. Just as it had been when he'd played the ga called Hoone.
'Most were in English, but there were so in Spanish, Arabic, and Russian too. One in Korean, I think. I saw records in Japanese as well. When I played Hoone, everything in the Archive had been in Korean, but.'
[Yes!]
'The content is an exact match, but... the languages are different.'
A flash of curiosity stirred, but Yeon-woo imdiately squeezed shut his bloodshot eyes and forced himself to swallow a sigh.
'I don't want to find myself interested in so blood-soaked clue like this.'
Even the smallest ripple surfacing on his withered emotional baseline grated. A headache like needles being driven into his brain struck his temples.
[Yes.]
'What a headache.'
Why? Where on earth had he been dragged to? The thought crossed his mind, but Yeon-woo pressed his thumb firmly against his throbbing temple and closed the Archive.
'For now, let's find the Central Control Room.'
[Yes!]
'It's not far from here.'
Recalling the layout of this map, Yeon-woo thought. It was a small rcy that items stayed in place even after leaving the floor. No—if The Guest Without Taste hadn't interfered in the first place—
'Shut up.'
He needed to shut up.
"......"
Yeon-woo pressed his thumb hard against his temple. His brain throbbed as though heated. Or perhaps that was only an illusion. What was certain was that his condition was steadily deteriorating.
'...At this rate, it's not a joke—actual ego fragntation could set in. This isn't a normal human body; it's Velmareth's body, made of blood with an already powerful sense of self....'
[No!]
'...Thank you for the encouragent.'
But no good thoughts ca.
"......"
Trudge....
He carefully stepped out into the corridor.
The corridor was still dark, and above all, eerie. The occasional crackling panel or distant footsteps set Yeon-woo's heart racing. In the negative sense.
This ti was no different.
'...A Watcher.'
[Yes!]
Damn.
'And a Listener, at that.'
THUD, THUD, THUD.
SHHHHH—....
Vividly close to his ears, the grotesque sound of flesh dragging across a rough surface.
Sothing crawling on all fours, groping along the floor. It was nothing like the Watcher that at least mimicked human footsteps. The sound alone was enough to raise goosebumps across his entire body, as though insects had latched on.
Holding even his breath, he waited, and soon its form was revealed.
"......"
"...Ah, aah... ah...."
"......"
"Ah...."
Goddamn it.
"......"
"Ah... aah...."
...No matter how many tis he saw it, the sight never got easier to stomach.
'It wasn't nearly this horrific viewed in pixel art.'
[Yes.]
'I know that's obvious.'
Its eyes were sewn shut so tightly that the eyelids protruded like seams, not a single gap remaining. The ears were enormous funnel shapes, like trumpets, and as with all creatures that possessed ears, they tilted toward the direction of sound.
Crawling on its belly, dragging its two long arms, it pressed those massive ears against walls and floor to track sounds. Yeon-woo forcibly stopped his blood flow.
"......"
"......"
Because his heartbeat was so loud, he feared those enormous ears would detect it.
'...Disgusting....'
[Yes!]
Unable to make so much as a single wisp of breath, Yeon-woo froze in place. In this corridor—not what one would call wide—he couldn't exactly announce 'your al is right here' to the monster.
'Calm down.'
Hadn't he already seen it several tis?
'No different from before.'
The sa situation. Handle it the sa way and the sa result would follow. Yeon-woo engraved that into his brain until he was sick of it. If his heart wouldn't do what he wanted, he'd have to knead his brain instead.
As even his breath subsided, the Watcher moved thodically.
"......"
"...Ah...."
It raised its head, and.
"......"
Just as the illusion of eye contact ford.
The Watcher lowered its body once more, pressed its face to the floor, and crawled away.
How long had it been? The sound of four limbs crawling down the corridor grew steadily fainter. The scraping of flesh likewise. What remained in the corridor was only Yeon-woo, Coco, and silence.
After a long spell of immobility, Yeon-woo exhaled slowly.
"...Haah...."
He struggled with everything he had to regulate his blood flow and control his heart rate.
'Is there a function in the Interface to lower image resolution?'
[Yes.]
'Damn.'
His head felt like it would split open.
'No, in this case—'
Driving a Purification Sample into his neck, Yeon-woo grimaced.
"......"
[Yes?]
'Let's move as fast as possible.'
His stomach churned.
'This one's going to be hard to endure.'
...He had to get there before it hit.
***
He'd always imagined the worst.
That was a long-standing habit of Yeon-woo's. Because he had to envision the worst possible scenario to protect himself amid every contingency. Because he thought it would be too late once the situation was upon him.
Even after being appointed as the hotel's manager inside the ga, if anything, it only grew worse.
"BLEGH—!"
HACK, GKH, COUGH!
"Haagh...."
"Hello?!"
"No."
It was truly wretched.
"There is absolutely nothing about this that's fine...!"
Clamping his jaw shut with one hand, he ran. His face flushed with veins as emotions surged to the top of his skull.
'Damn it!!'
BEEP—! BEEP—! BEEP—!
WHIRR—! WHIRR—!
Alarm klaxons blared from every direction at what was a truly drastic course of action.
As for how things had co to this—the remaining path was a straight line with nowhere to hide.
anwhile, blood was flowing, his head was splitting, and even though he could plainly see on the Interface that the red marker which had been lodged on the 2nd Floor had shot up to right in front of him on the 14th Floor in an instant, there was nothing he could do.
'Forget the Watchers—I need to run.'
Every Watcher on the 14th Floor was charging toward him, and at the head of the pack—having torn through the hotel's own rules to leap between floors—was The Guest Without Taste. This was precisely the worst-case scenario Yeon-woo had envisioned.
He didn't look back, and sneered. His stomach was thoroughly twisted.
"Catching a whiff of blood and you co barreling all the way here without a shred of dignity?!"
From that far away, no less.
"Were you afraid you'd get eaten first if you followed the order like a good boy?!"
"Let us dine together."
"Was your precious reason going to make you hesitate, so you panicked?!"
"May I eat?"
"How many tis do I have to say no...!"
It seed he'd decided to abandon reason entirely.
'A truly hopeless man.'
If only he could use his Hunting Skill. But that was only usable in the Hunting Grounds. To face that lunatic head-on, he'd have to be prepared to die here.
'Then I really will beco a Mass of Liquid Blood.'
He couldn't allow that. Even as he thought it, the other kept calling out to him.
"Speak—now, let's have a conversation."
"It seems our definitions of 'conversation' differ considerably...!"
"Speak. Tell ."
"Tell you what!"
"What's different?"
"...Ha ha!"
Amid the spine-chilling wails and blooming man-eating flowers, Yeon-woo laughed out loud.
"What a remarkable question!"
To ask that—it seed centuries of learning hadn't been enough.
SKITTER, SKITTER, SKITTER, SKITTER—vengeful spirits crawled in from every direction. He couldn't even tell whose they were. The 14th Floor's history? The Guest Without Taste's hunting hounds? Yeon-woo laughed with a look of pure revulsion.
'I don't even know why I'm laughing.'
What was certain was that the dizzying terror was enough to drive him insane.
"That's why you're in that sorry state!"
"Together."
"Can't even act your age...!"
"Together, let's go to ruin."
The whole world was red. Walls, floor, midair—the gates of hell were opening.
"Damn it."
Dodging the skeletal hands reaching through the blood, driving Purification Samples into his neck until the skin broke down, Yeon-woo muttered with an empty laugh.
"Who set that thing as an Open Version-exclusive guest?"
"Yes."
"I'm filing a complaint."
He would report this to the labor office for violations of the Industrial Safety and Health Act.
***
SHHHHH—....
The Aqua Park, where water fell endlessly.
"......"
Draped over the edge of the pool, The Drenched One rested her chin on her hand.
A tail large enough to fill the deep pool undulated. It was as splendid as a betta's, as long as a dragon's. Rippling with an ominous quality like smoke, it belonged to The Drenched One.
Her eyes rolled sideways, heavy with boredom.
"Ah...."
Discontent gathered on her female form's face.
"What are they doing out there?"
Water was always one, and the sa was true of her friend. The Water Wraith, who prided herself on being the largest of them, could sense her friend's condition. He was drying out, fast.
A proper Water Wraith didn't regard re blood-water as water, after all.
"He could just co to the water."
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"Bored. So bored."
If he ca in here, it wouldn't hurt anymore.
"......"
Then again, it was that very stubbornness that had made them friends in the first place, so she wasn't really in a position to talk.
"...Hmm."
She respected her friend. She knew there were many kinds of death in the world. And just as many kinds of life as there were kinds of death. The large Water Wraith, bundled tightly in one place, understood that very well.
But boredom was simply intolerable.
Ah, this subrged sensation.
"It's raining."
"There's no one here...."
She murmured.
"It's not warm."
In the end, she erged onto dry land.
SPLAT—
"......"
Let's see.
'...Where was that narrow tunnel?'
'The Hunting Grounds.'
'That corpse field full of water mist.'
Let's go there.
'My body won't dry out.'
In rain gear and boots, leaving wet footprints with every SPLAT, she headed toward that narrow elevator.
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