Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual Chapter 30

How much time had passed? Her senses began to return.

 

“Ugh….”

 

She was suffocating. She couldn’t tell if it was because of the high humidity or because her lungs had been completely exhausted. 

 

Even amidst that, an instinctive relief washed over her.

 

‘—I survived.’ 

 

No, she was alive, but she didn’t know whether she was living or dying. 

 

Because he had chased her like a madman, she had run like a madman. After dragging it out for a long time, he finally slowed his pace. Taking that opportunity, she managed to slip out of the sight of the madman with the knife.

 

“…Hah, haah… hah….”

 

She caught her breath, desperately trying to stifle the sound. 

 

“…Phew….”

 

Lee Seonhae bit her lip hard.

 

‘Hiding inside the tunnel wasn’t the ultimate solution…!’

 

She had been too complacent. She was in a position where she ought to slam her head against the wall and write an apology letter to herself. 

 

There was one thing she had overlooked. The information that a suspicious yet meticulous entity gives out in the beginning is usually the correct answer. However, the walkie-talkie had said:

 

A pipe or a tunnel, it said.

 

‘It said you could speak comfortably inside the tunnel, but it never said that place would be safe forever.’ 

 

That’s what it had meant.

 

‘But I never imagined he’d actually crumple that huge body of his to crawl inside!’

 

She had been staying still in the tunnel when the footsteps stopped, and then he suddenly burst in. Terrified, she had bolted out the other side. Recalling that moment, Lee Seonhae moved her feet.

 

“….”

 

…Please, let’s get it together.

 

‘No matter how much I struggle mentally right now, my physical condition won’t keep up. In times like this, I have to hold on to my reason—my sanity. I have to move quickly without getting distracted by other things.’

 

With every step, water splashed up like pain. Her legs hurt. She couldn’t pick up speed. To make matters worse, the splashing was loud. It was truly the worst.

 

Lee Seonhae frowned.

 

“…Ugh….”

 

She hadn’t been caught yet. It was strictly “yet.” If she kept running this loudly and slowly, her location would be discovered in no time.

 

‘…Where, where should I hide… Oh, right. Pipes? Where are the pipes? Did it mean the water pipes? Aren’t those too narrow for a person to enter? Then was the talk of pipes a lie? If it wasn’t a lie, where on earth are the pipes?’

 

She hadn’t bolted out without a plan. The walkie-talkie had said ‘pipe or tunnel.’ If there was a space as safe as the tunnel, she just had to hide there.

 

The problem was that she didn’t know where it was!

 

‘Mmm, I’m screwed!’

 

This aqua park was damnably huge. She had seen the pamphlet provided at the information desk, but it was an absolute fraud. Most of it consisted of traps. Nothing was going right. 

 

‘Ah, my stamina is running low…!’ 

 

She was out of breath. The footsteps were drawing closer. He was looking for Lee Seonhae.

 

‘The closest possible… Ah!’ 

 

The timing was good.

 

Behind an observation tank, she spotted a somewhat large maintenance box.

 

‘Is it open?’

 

F*ck, thank God, it was open.

 

Lee Seonhae immediately opened the box and climbed inside. It was so dark she hadn’t even realized such a box existed. She desperately hoped the madman with the knife wouldn’t notice either.

 

“….”

 

She held her breath.

 

“….”

 

Splash, Splash, Splash.

 

“….”

 

Splash….

 

“….” 

 

“….” 

 

“….”

 

…Splash.

 

Splash, splash, splash.

 

‘…Wow.’

 

She survived. 

 

‘I really thought I was going to be sliced into fillets this time.’

 

It was worth the effort of holding her breath and clamping her hand over her mouth. 

 

She didn’t know if this was a game of cat and mouse or if he truly hadn’t seen her. But since she was alive for now, she decided to thank the heavens. Thank you, God.

 

‘What on earth did I do so wrong that this b*stard is stalking only me like a lost puppy? Was he that displeased that I blocked the way in front of our Gyeongyeon? Is he the type who absolutely cannot tolerate someone stepping forward?’ 

 

But then again, he was the one who started it. Coming at our kid with a knife. The writer I raised with such care.

 

“….”

 

…Because she was hungry and tired, all sorts of thoughts crossed her mind. A sense of self-loathing flickered in and out.

 

‘Is now the time for this?’

 

Whether it was making that madman rot in prison or hitting him in the back of the head, that could only happen after she made it out alive. Burning with resentment and dissatisfaction was an action that held zero meaning right now.

 

Lee Seonhae pressed between her eyes. Her eyes were stiff from lack of sleep.

 

“…Hah….”

 

Save me, seriously.

 

‘I’m really working this hard.’

 

She had to pull herself together.

 

“….”

 

If she wanted to stay alive a bit longer, she had to move a bit more.

 

‘…This is neither a pipe nor a tunnel.’

 

She racked her brain.

 

‘There’s a possibility the walkie-talkie gave false information, but this is a place that wasn’t even mentioned in the first place. So it might actually be safer… but considering the tunnel, there’s no guarantee this maintenance locker will remain safe.’ 

 

She remembered the direction the footsteps had faded. She would have to move in the opposite direction. There was a high possibility that her opponent was toying with her while knowing everything.

 

‘Let’s get out of here.’

 

Creeeeak—… 

 

She opened the maintenance box door slowly and carefully.

 

“….”

 

No one was around.

 

‘Though those damn ghost fish are clearly visible….’

 

A faint light entered her field of vision. It was light, but there was a sense of emptiness to it.

 

‘Compared to the other monsters, they’re on the cuter side.’ 

 

Feeling a bit relieved, Lee Seonhae quietly stepped out of the maintenance locker. 

 

‘Those kids just float in the air and don’t really react to me. Even if they are eerie, they’re the monster I’m least intimidated by when I run into them, seriously. A thing like that deserves an award for being a good monster.’ 

 

The dark, empty space, and the school of fish swimming leisurely. 

 

“….”

 

No, she didn’t want to waste more time like this, but.

 

“…Wow….”

 

Honestly, wouldn’t this be worth admiring even at the risk of one’s life? 

 

They gathered in a cluster like stars up in that high place. It felt exactly like being submerged in the ocean. Transparent and emitting a faint light, they seemed to display a vision of the deep sea. 

 

It was like an awe for something vast and immense.

 

“It’s wonderful.”

 

Lee Seonhae laughed awkwardly.

 

‘It’s truly strange.’

 

Even though she knew now was not the time, her heart pounded loudly.

 

A monster’s den that felt like it could easily swallow a person whole. This place was unexpectedly beautiful and sentimental. As if this truly were an aqua park meant for guests. 

 

But she knew it wasn’t.

 

“….”

 

In that high darkness, where the faint light of the ghost fish reached, she caught a glimpse….

 

“…!”

 

Massive.

 

It was massive, and immense. But to be precise, it was so big it was outside the category of perception.

 

Even though she had no memory of seeing the whole thing because it was so vast. Just the fact that she had seen a part of it made her brain throb with pain. Had her heart been thumping, or had it stopped altogether?

 

It was so pale. Cold without a drop of blood… no. The very concept of blood was inappropriate…. Soaked and bloated, like flesh yet not quite.

 

That thing, quietly, from above.

 

It was looking at me.

 

‘Looking?’ 

 

No, something that could only be explained as looking. It was sensing her. 

 

‘It’s clearly visible, but.’ 

 

Those countless gazes burrowed into her eyes and brain like slender tubes.

 

Every time, she felt it. It isn’t safe here.

 

‘It cannot be safe.’

 

This was a tank where something that should not exist was slumbering.

 

“….”

 

…But, well.

 

‘It has nothing to do with me.’

 

Even if it exists, I hope it just considers me non-existent forever.

 

Anyway, thanks to that, she got a good look. Just as she was losing heart because she couldn’t do a single thing for Lee Yeonwoo-ssi, she found another reason for having crawled into this hotel.

 

‘Ah, my eyes hurt….’

 

Rubbing her bloodshot eyes, she lowered her head again. She knew there was nothing good to be gained from looking, yet she wondered why she kept taking it in. She suspected it was one of those things that are more addictive the more negative they are.

 

Director Lee Seonhae moved her steps as silently as possible.

 

‘Oh.’

 

Then, she found a decent crutch.

 

The place she found it was likely a staff breakroom. Or an infirmary. There was a bed, albeit simple, and a small medicine box. Though everything looked quite old.

 

“…?”

 

But crutch aside, there was a medicine she was seeing for the first time in her life.

 

“What’s this?”

 

The finishing itself was certainly that of a manufactured product. 

 

However, Director Lee Seonhae was someone who frequently suffered and got hurt on the job. She knew almost every medicine there was. But no matter how much she looked at this, she couldn’t tell what it was.

 

‘Is it okay to use this?’

 

After contemplating for a moment, she closed it for now. 

 

‘I’m not at the point of dying yet, so let’s not gamble needlessly.’

 

Gambling is for when you have a chance of winning. At the very least, you do it while having the certainty or hope that you’ll win. Lee Seonhae didn’t have a shred of trust in this unidentified medicine.

 

“Augh.” 

 

The sound of footsteps was heard again. Lee Seonhae immediately hid in a locker. 

 

‘It’s not like they’re putting me through some dog training… that man is definitely toying with me while knowing everything, isn’t he?’

 

No, she didn’t even know if he was human. Having seen so many monsters, she wasn’t certain that someone who looked human was actually human.

 

‘For one, his actions are a total failure as a human.’

 

She stuffed a few of the medicines into her pocket. It was a relief she hadn’t slept in pajamas. If she had been in thin pajamas without pockets, she would have died of hypothermia by now. She wouldn’t have been able to carry anything, either.

 

“….”

 

The footsteps fade again.

 

‘I guess he was just passing by.’

 

And just as she stepped out of the locker.

 

Thud. 

 

“….”

 

A strange noise was heard. Right by her ear, at a very close distance.

 

“…Uh….”

 

She slowly turned her head.

 

On the inside of the door she had pushed, a red palm print was stamped.

 

‘A hand?’

 

To be precise, it was a handprint stamped exactly at her eye level.

 

“…Why, is this….”

 

The mark had spread as if it had been pushed out from the inside. 

 

A red liquid slid down. Silently, yet vividly even in this darkness.

 

‘This is….’

 

What could it be? 

 

“Was it left for me to see…?”

 

It truly looked that way.

 

It was in too perfect a position, as if waiting to be discovered by Lee Seonhae. It was so overly perfect that it looked strange. 

 

‘Then again, there’s no way this phenomenon couldn’t be strange.’

 

Anyway, wow.

 

“….”

 

Wow! A delayed exclamation.

 

Director Lee Seonhae stroked her chest. Her tongue was dried against the roof of her mouth and wouldn’t come off.

 

“A completely typical horror movie….” 

 

What a scene of thrills this was.

 

‘I thought my heart was going to pop out through my mouth.’

 

To the point where she worried it might stop soon. It was a scene that was more terrifying because it was so formulaic and so intentional. It was a predictable cliché, but experiencing it in reality made it this scary. 

 

‘If it were Hong Gyeongyeon, he would have fainted already.’

 

Right, it was a relief that the coward hadn’t been captured and brought here. He has a tendency to hasten his death with crazy actions when panic sets in. Looking at it that way, the situation wasn’t the absolute worst. 

 

‘Then where should I go now, ha….’

 

It was right when she opened the door of the room and stepped out this time. 

 

“….” 

 

“….”

 

…Their eyes met.

 

A long, torn mouth. Reddened whites of eyes. Hands drenched in blood.

 

“…….”

 

Those hands. It was that hand. 

 

The very same hands that had left the mark on the locker door just moments ago.

 

“…Ah,”

 

In short, completely ruined. 

 

Lee Seonhae judged instinctively. In fact, she didn’t even think. She just moved.

 

Conveniently, she happened to be holding something in her hand. 

 

“…Aaargh, f*ck—!!” 

 

Thwack—!!! 

 

She threw the chemicals in her hand at those eyes.

 

“Get away from me!!” 

 

“…!”

 

The man faltered, but he didn’t even blink his eyes. However, during that falter, Lee Seonhae turned her body around and walked rapidly. It was a stroke of heavenly luck that she at least had the crutch. 

 

‘But ah, seriously, what’s the point then!!!’

 

Running away in this physical state? Naturally, she was caught after only a few steps.

 

“Haaargh…!!” 

 

The man’s blood-soaked hands were very large and cold as a corpse. The sensation of insects crawling on her neck as he grabbed her in an instant made her skin crawl.

 

Ah, just like that.

 

“Ugh, cough…!!”

 

Bam—!! 

 

She was slammed onto the floor.

 

“You, b*stard…!” 

 

“….” 

 

“…Cough, haah, ugh…!!” 

 

“…….” 

 

“Ugh…!!” 

 

“….”

 

The man looked down at Lee Seonhae without a word.

 

It truly felt like dying. The madman was looking at Lee Seonhae with a deranged face. Her breath was more than choked—it hurt, and soon she grew dazed. 

 

‘I heard that sometimes you can breathe if you do it right.’

 

Was he a pro at strangling? He completely blocked her windpipe. It was a pressure that wouldn’t tolerate even a hint of oxygen.

 

She tried scratching roughly at the hand choking her neck, but the opponent didn’t even budge. 

 

‘F*ck, seriously f*ck this… you son of a bitch…!’ 

 

Death was right before her eyes. No way to escape was visible, and her reason was gradually becoming blurry.

 

“…!” 

 

“….” 

 

“…Ugh….”

 

The sensation of even the last bit of breath in her lungs hardening. At that threshold of death, Lee Seonhae unknowingly thought.

 

‘…What will happen to our Writer if I die?’

 

The problem wasn’t just that. 

 

‘This, I barely managed to keep him alive to send him out… but if I die here….’

 

Through her blurry vision, she saw the man raise his knife. Eyes that were strangely red. Bloodshot beyond belief for a human, those deep red eyes curved into a bizarre crescent shape.

 

—No.

 

“Hr… ugh!!” 

 

Lee Seonhae squeezed out her remaining strength and gripped the crutch.

 

“…!!!”

 

Thwack—!!! 

 

She swung it at his head.

 

The moment the opponent flinched, Lee Seonhae didn’t hesitate. Just how many times, over and over, she beat down on that head with the crutch. Finally, the worn-out crutch shrieked and snapped. 

 

Lee Seonhae ruthlessly drove the sharp end of the broken crutch into the man’s eye.

 

—Squelch!!

 

The sound of a squishy eyeball bursting hit her eardrums.

 

“Hraah…!!” 

 

It was grotesque and unpleasant. But along with a pulse that couldn’t be stopped, a ragged breath burst out like a burst of laughter. 

 

“Hah, cough, cough, cough…!! Hah, ugh…!!” 

 

“….” 

 

“Ugh, cough, cough…!!” 

 

“….” 

 

“Haah, hah, ugh… ugh, ha….” 

 

She desperately held onto her consciousness. Only by doing so could she live. 

 

Naturally, the crutch hadn’t pierced through that head. Her strength was terribly lacking. However, the ruptured eyeball was a certainty. She roughly shook off the grip of the man, who had frozen like a statue, and crawled out. 

 

She barely managed to lean against the wall and stand up.

 

‘I can’t handle that man.’

 

She usually didn’t neglect exercise and self-defense, but it was entirely meaningless in this situation. 

 

Lee Seonhae’s body was a wreck, and her opponent was in peak condition. On top of that, could she kill her opponent? Not only were her means inadequate, but it was a fact that those who had killed before were the ones who killed well. 

 

“Cough, ugh…!” 

 

She had never committed a murder. Inflicting injury in self-defense was the greatest deviance of her life. She lacked the luxury to weigh conscience or ethics, but a lack of experience meant hesitation, and— 

 

Hesitation connected directly to death. 

 

‘As if I’d take a gamble like that.’

 

Therefore, she had to run. She had to leave this spot immediately. 

 

“…Ugh, ugh… uugh….” 

 

“….” 

 

“Bleeeaaargh…. Cough, hack….” 

 

Her stomach—her stomach turned inside out. 

 

“Cough, ugh. Ugh….”

 

Gastric acid spilled out in a surge. 

 

Her vision shook relentlessly and her head spun. Her senses were so mangled she couldn’t tell front from back or left from right. The inside of her throat stung as if burning, and her lungs felt heavy as if she were inhaling wet cotton.

 

Her fingertips were cold. A damp and dull sensation. When she snapped back to her senses, she was crushing her hands against the water covering the floor. Did she fall? No, she fell. It was probably so. 

 

“….”

 

The moment she gasped for breath roughly, an strangely distinct sound pierced her ears. 

 

It was footsteps mixed with the sound of water.

 

‘Ah, please.’

 

Splash. 

 

Splash. Splash….

 

It was the sound of someone walking through mud or a swamp.

 

“….” 

 

“….”

 

She barely managed to turn her head and capture the man in her vision. The madman with the knife. The guest from Room 703.

 

“…My god.”

 

Pieces of flesh were falling away from his mangled eye. Even though blood was streaming down, there wasn’t even a hint of pain on his face. Only after Lee Seonhae burst into laughter involuntarily—

 

Only then did she seem to understand something. 

 

“You really were a monster.”

 

So there was no way he would feel pain. There was no way my desperate struggle would feel like a struggle. 

 

That thing was smiling, and its eyes were dark red as if they weren’t bloodshot. They were red to the point where one couldn’t even distinguish the pupils, and both those eyes and that mouth were curved like crescent moons. 

 

‘Ah….’

 

When the knife, Just like that, Fell like a star.

 

…The pain. 

 

“….”

 

Strangely, it didn’t come.

 

“….” 

 

“…?”

 

The man’s movement stopped abruptly.

 

‘Why?’

 

Before the question could even pass through her mind, a bizarre sense of déjà vu swept through Seonhae’s entire body.

 

‘It was on the 7th floor.’

 

The man had shown this exact same reaction once before. Her frozen brain relaxed in relief, finally finding that piece of memory.

 

‘…Right, when Lee Yeonwoo-ssi rang the bell—.’

 

Ssssss— 

 

“……!”

 

At that moment, a very deep bloodstain spread across the water.

 

Far away, from beneath the pool floor she had believed was darkness, something was slowly rising. The water on the floor throbbed like a heart, reacting to that presence.

 

It wasn’t a mere bloodstain. It was blood itself. A massive, living pool of blood. The blood that had seeped through the gaps in the walls began to take shape one by one, causing a faint trembling.

 

A chillingly vivid vitality, and intelligence. Though they were particles so fine as to be invisible to the eye, they were undoubtedly….

 

Moving while possessing an ego. 

 

【■■】

 

It was a single word.

 

Had she felt the breath of the living in that noise, or had she wanted to believe so? From within the pitch-black water, a single scarlet stalk surged up like a plant root.

 

“….”

 

The stalk turned its direction.

 

As if lifting its head. As if looking at Lee Seonhae. Above all.

 

…As if it knew everything.

 

【Guest?】

 

Simultaneously, countless stalks rose above the surface of the water.

 

‘No way.’

 

Veins wove together to grow a spine, arms were attached to it, and broken bones found their places and clicked in one by one. And when the eyes were formed.

 

“….”

 

Seonhae was certain.

 

She had definitely seen those eyes before….

 

“Guest.” 

 

“….” 

 

“Director Lee Seonhae.”

 

Her name came from those meticulously formed lips.

 

Here, at this time, among these red things. Although it should have been a welcome call, for some reason, her heart sank.

 

Had he noticed? Lee Yeonwoo’s eyes blink slowly like a cat. As if telling her not to be on guard. As if telling her he won’t harm her, and that she isn’t in a dangerous situation.

 

“…It seems you are in a dangerous situation.”

 

As if soothing a small and weak creature, Lee Yeonwoo carefully opened his mouth.

 

His tone was still calm and polite. For a monster who had walked out of a pool of blood, he was so excessively courteous that he sounded like a kind adult reaching out to a frightened child.

 

Has my mind gone strange for thinking such thoughts? 

 

“Do you need help?” 

 

“…Ah….”

 

It was truly ironic. A being reborn from blood in an irrational manner was asking after her in such a thoroughly human way. A hollow laugh burst out at that stark discrepancy.

 

That was why laughter came. 

 

“Aha, ha… ha….”

 

It was Lee Yeonwoo.

 

“This is truly surprising.”

 

Hair neatly slicked back. Eyes behind the lenses of his glasses. A neat three-piece suit and dress shoes. A face she had been seeing constantly, yet an appearance that felt all the more unrealistic because of the situation.

 

Perhaps this thing might not be human. 

 

‘But he looks like a person.’

 

It was because she could feel the gaze checking on her well-being, the fatigue seeking permission, and the expert smile beyond. It was because it was laughable to feel that wonder and humanity at the same time.

 

And so, she grabbed the lifeline that had descended like a miracle.

 

“Hey, Yeonwoo-ssi, I’m truly sorry, but.” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“…Please save me.”

 

With those words, the string of her consciousness that had been barely holding on snapped. In the moment she lost consciousness, only one final thought remained.

 

This hotel feels truly crazy. 

 

* * *

 

“….” 

 

“…Ah, oh my.”

 

Lee Yeonwoo felt pity.

 

Director Lee Seonhae seemed to have lost consciousness as her tension relaxed upon facing him, but the problem lay in the fact that the current situation was not lenient enough to let her rest so comfortably.

 

“It will be difficult to take her outside immediately, though.” 

 

Though he had made it to the 23rd floor after many twists and turns, he still had a long way to go.

 

‘Since I am still bound by the rules of this game.’ 

 

It was embarrassing to add such words anew after coming this far, but Director Lee Seonhae, being a human guest, was likewise subject to the restrictions of the rules. 

 

In the end, the only way for them to escape was to utilize the game’s rules, the system, and perhaps the errors that might exist. It was a relief that he had arrived with a fleeting difference of 10 hours and 57 minutes, at least.

 

‘But this is only the minimum condition for survival.’

 

In short, it meant there were still a few more hurdles left to pass through. 

 

“….” 

 

“…Should I say I am grateful for you looking this way as intended.”

 

Director Lee Seonhae was momentarily forgotten.

 

“Even if you glare so fiercely, I have no gift to give you.”

 

A brief confrontation.

 

But Lee Yeonwoo had stepped foot into the Aqua Park after anticipating this much.

 

‘…A playable character has a companion transport function.’

 

A motion known as ‘Carry Companion.’ A function that allows one to directly support and move a comrade whose health has fallen below 30% for a certain period….

 

“…!”

 

Lee Yeonwoo slung the Director over his shoulder and began to run.

 

“…!! ……!!” 

 

“There is no limit to this stubbornness.”

 

Lee Yeonwoo was disgusted by ‘The Wet Man’ chasing him while swinging a knife. Dealing with those who run wild without acting their age was a tiring task no matter when he experienced it.