Our Hotel Is Open for Business as Usual Chapter 46

Welcome, General Manager.

 

What lies before you is not merely an old TV. This is the ‘Administrator Qualification Test,’ a trial to determine if you are fit to access the 14th floor of the Central Control Room.

 

“….”

 

[Test Objective]

[Control the subjects within the chaos!]

 

Scenes flickered rapidly across the TV screen. Your task is to become the acting administrator of the Central Control Room, identify the ‘Research Subjects’ and ‘Researchers’ on screen, and control them using the remote. 

 

※Research Subject: Isolate them so they cannot approach the room where you and the researchers are located※ 

※Researcher: Protect them from dying or being injured by external threats and Research Subjects※

 

“….”

 

[Test Method] 

[Observe, judge, and manage!] 

 

The screen is filled with severe noise, distortion, and flickering. In your hand is an old remote with an Isolation button and a Safety button.

 

※Quarantine Button: Red※

※Safety Button: Blue※

 

On the TV screen, the following two core subjects will appear and disappear for very brief moments. They will be clearly distinguishable even amidst the noise.

 

※Research Subject: A twisted form that appears as if it is trying to crawl out of the screen※ 

※Researcher: A figure wearing a white lab coat, sometimes appearing to be in danger※

 

The moment you identify a subject, you must press the corresponding remote button.

 

※If a Research Subject appears, press the ‘Isolation Button’ to block them from reaching you※ 

※If a Researcher appears, press the ‘Safety Button’ to protect them※

 

Multiple victims and researchers may appear in rapid succession within a short timeframe. You must identify the subjects in real-time and press the correct buttons to perform perfect management.

 

“….”

 

Are you truly prepared to pass this exam and face the hidden truth? 

 

“There’s nothing I can’t do.”

 

Then, right now.

 

The test begins.

 

* * *

 

“A mini-game in this kind of management-simulation format isn’t particularly difficult.” 

 

“Ing.” 

 

“I don’t know why you’re disappointed, but Hotel One was a pixel art game. Even if the file size was large for a pixel game, I understand there wasn’t enough… room to implement complex patterns using AI or the like.” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“Even so, objectively speaking, this one is on the fairly complex side.”

 

Click, CLANG! 

 

Click, Beep—beep—beep— 

 

Click, Argh!!

 

“I’ve played only this game for twenty-six years.”

 

He had long since memorized the patterns, of which there were only forty-eight.

 

“If anything, the higher resolution makes the perceived difficulty even lower. Ha… When I first played this game, those crude pixels hurt my eyes so much that I kept dying without even knowing what was going on.”

 

“Pixels?” 

 

“It’s hard to perform such precise controls with pixel art. I recall a resolution barely high enough to allow play was only achieved because the developer put a lot of effort into color adjustment.” 

 

“Color grading, pixels. Paid extra attention.”

 

“That’s right. Though it made my eyes just as dim either way. Compared to back then, a high-definition screen with a bit of noise… is essentially a free pass.” 

 

A reaction speed of 0.5 seconds. Though he kept his eyes glued to the screen just in case an unexpected variable arose, no pattern deviated from his memory. 

 

“….”

 

It was simply surreal.

 

‘…Who are they?’

 

A game is just a game. Unless it’s based on a true story, it should rightfully be a fictional pastime.

 

However, the beings within the footage beyond the old CRT screen looked far too much like real people. It wasn’t just the people. The facilities, and even the movements of the grotesquely twisted flesh and bone.

 

They look only like recorded materials that must have clearly existed somewhere, one day.

 

“So this is how it feels when seen in actual footage.” 

 

“Yes?” 

 

“No, it’s just that there’s a large gap between this and what I had vaguely imagined. As I feel every time, it’s like being in an immersive experience center based on Hotel One. The pixels… perhaps….”

 

Ah, he almost made a mistake. Lee Yeonwoo adjusted his grip on the remote.

 

“…It seems the pixels also served as a mosaic of sorts. Even though the patterns are familiar, the footage itself feels as strange as if I’m seeing it for the first time.”

 

Lumps of black metal and old wires were encrusted all over human bodies. They twitched as if connected to the nervous system, and every time they moved, they made an unpleasant grating sound that set one’s nerves on edge.

 

“It is considerably cruel.”

 

There were those whose body parts had become transparent or mutated into glowing crystals. Distorted organs were visible beyond the crystals sprouting from various parts of their bodies, such as eyes, foreheads, and lips. Occasionally, a blue flash flickered.

 

“Very bizarre….”

 

The subjects whose skin had been completely flayed were also striking. Sophisticated blueprints and circuit diagrams were engraved upon the exposed dermis. They stood in fixed postures or were embedded in the walls, as if they had lost even the will to move.

 

“Unpleasant.”

 

Lee Yeonwoo stared at them.

 

“….”

 

A being whose neural network was exposed. An artificial neural network blinked with blue light. Beneath torn skin, expressions twitched, and though the face was otherwise expressionless, tears of blood flowed. They didn’t even have the freedom to form an expression.

 

Limbs were twisted and deformed like a spider’s. The entire body was bound by old leather straps. Metal fragments and experimental tubes were embedded in the body, and attempts to escape were repeatedly thwarted by horrific restraints.

 

Parts of the body were excessively enlarged. The head was massive. Ears were expanded. They lay prone on the floor, unable to support their bodies, or leaned against walls. They showed behaviors as if trying to cover their eyes or block their ears.

 

“…Hmm….”

 

And that was— 

 

‘…Judging by my shallow knowledge of Blood Magic, that much is certainly close to a success.’

 

Lee Yeonwoo watched all those sights without even blinking. Even though he was in the position of an observer, he was not in a situation where a mistake was permissible.

 

“I don’t feel very good.”

 

“No.” 

 

“A game should have just stayed a game.”

 

If they were beings that truly existed. If this footage was not a mere manifestation but an actual record of a day in the past. If I am currently appreciating such preserved pain,

 

Lee Yeonwoo would feel like he truly wanted to go mad.

 

“I don’t feel this way simply because I watched an unethical video. There is a distinct regularity to it. The subjects in the video are clearly being researched for a specific… purpose.” 

 

It was like that in the game too.

 

“Did they pray for the Evil God?” 

 

They performed rituals for him.

 

“But this is… a bit….” 

 

“….” 

 

“…The direction….” 

 

“….” 

 

“….”

 

There was a clear direction, but— 

 

“…The destruction of humanity. Transparent, or crystalline… blue… purification.” 

 

“….” 

 

“An attempt to make them clean, not just a simple physical mutation… Why must purification and destruction coexist? Lumps of metal and iron chains.” 

 

“….” 

 

“It must be torture, but if it’s meaningless torture…? In a situation they’ve labored over this much, there’s no way…. Connected to the nervous system. Repeatedly injecting pain… Sin?” 

 

“….” 

 

“Making them recognize sin, and purification….”

 

This is not simple torture. An ingenious injection of pain flowing through the neural network, and an attempt to refine the soul by breaking the body.

 

To summarize, this is.

 

“….” 

 

“Asceticism?”

 

Faceless watchmen and imitators with frozen smiles. Entities designed purely for control, their egos and individuality castrated, their free will erased. 

 

“Why?”

 

The circuit diagrams and blueprints engraved on the bodies relegated the human physical form to mere parts. Deformed bodies and artificially expanded senses were forcibly accepting external information.

 

‘They wanted evolution.’

 

They were attempting to create beings that transcended humanity.

 

‘At the same time, they forced penance upon them.’ 

 

Right, they were trying to create something divine.

 

“….”

 

…He felt thoroughly unpleasant. 

 

“It doesn’t look like a simple creation.” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“It’s a very unpleasant fact, but I’ve found parts where Blood Magic was utilized in the footage. And Blood Magic was not a fiction from a game called Hotel One, but something that exists in this reality.” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“This is an actual record.” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“….”

 

He took off his glasses and wiped his face.

 

“…They certainly were something else.”

 

The mini-game came to an end. 

 

* * *

 

A shutter, hideously twisted and pierced.

 

Darkness settled over the blood pooled and glistening in every crevice of that dented floor.

 

Cutting through that silence, the hem of a dark red long coat slid in slowly. A man who looked transparent rather than pale came to a stop before the pool of blood.

 

“….”

 

His build was abnormally gaunt, looking as though thin leather had been stretched over a coarse skeletal frame, yet his smooth, matte coat maintained sharp, crisp lines. 

 

The man’s lips didn’t move in the slightest, yet anyone present could hear his voice. 

 

“Oh.”

 

With his mouth firmly shut, wearing nothing but a slender smile, he inquired politely.

 

“Hello?”

 

As if wanting to snatch something, fingers with protruding knuckles flicked through the air. It was a slow movement that didn’t even make a tiny sound of friction.

 

“May I eat?”

 

The guest who liked blood asked again.

 

Traces of dark, dried red remained like a brand on his neatly manicured fingertips. Soon, his hands came together in front of his chest as if in prayer. 

 

All his movements were soft and smooth. Just like a slow-motion picture.

 

“May I eat?”

 

Pupils faintly mixed with the color of bloodstains.

 

Clink, clink. The sound of cutlery clashing, as if heard from a kitchen or a dining table, rang out faintly. Gentle noise and warmth that might go back and forth at a harmonious table were layered over the bizarre silence.

 

A harmonious conversation.

 

“May I….”

 

The noise of the pleasant meal was suddenly cut short in an instant.

 

“….”

 

All noise sank into an inky darkness. 

 

“It’s you.”

 

Give me just one bite.

 

The mouth that had remained closed split open in a dark-red tear. A tongue reached out. 

 

* * *

 

The moment he was standing up after finishing the mini-game.

 

“…”

 

Lee Yeonwoo rubbed his forearm. He got goosebumps.

 

To be precise, they didn’t actually rise because his physical state was abnormal, but he felt that way. It was because he had learned a shocking fact that made him doubt his own judgment.

 

He muttered quietly.

 

“…Someone is eating me right now.” 

 

“Yes?”

 

He is a mass of blood and living blood itself. He could perceive in real-time where and how the blood he spilled was being consumed, as long as the distance wasn’t too great.

 

Because the blood leaked outside his body was still a part of him and was alive.

 

“Who on earth….” 

 

“Who?”

 

“Ah, wait.” 

 

“Who?” 

 

“『The Guest Without Taste』.”

 

Lee Yeonwoo spoke the name of the ‘guest who liked blood.’

 

“He was staying at this hotel today as well.”

 

An erosion-type monster guest of medium risk. An entity with the unique characteristic of appearing almost instantaneously at the site where blood has leaked. He was the most likely suspect currently tasting Lee Yeonwoo’s blood.

 

“Then can he appear even in a situation where an internal hotel event is in progress? Because unlike the game, this is reality, and there’s no reason the ‘Guest Without Taste’ can’t come?” 

 

“….” 

 

“Coco?” 

 

“Yes….” 

 

“Yes?”

 

Has he gone mad? 

 

“There’s now a reason we need to secure blood packs quickly.” 

 

Lee Yeonwoo is the success of the Crimson Core ritual, contracted with a water ghost, who must vomit blood even while doing nothing. He was no different from a smartphone whose battery was draining in real-time.

 

But in a state where the remaining amount had drastically decreased due to the cutscene event, a monster guest had even appeared. If he encountered him like this, there was only one alternative he could offer.

 

‘There’s no choice but to end up on that person’s dining table.’

 

He absolutely declined. Realizing the situation had become urgent, Lee Yeonwoo let out a lament.

 

“Ha, I was in the middle of one of the few internal events in the hotel….” 

 

“Ing?”

 

Coco looked up with eyes that said ‘is that what’s important right now?’, but Lee Yeonwoo ignored it. Self-triggered events happening on non-existent floors were rare.

 

‘Above all, internal hotel events can’t be rewatched.’

 

One could tell just by looking at the mini-game. This was a place where information about the hotel—especially data about the current hotel that had become reality—was concentrated.

 

To think he wasn’t even given time to organize such precious information. 

 

“This is why there are no users.” 

 

“Ing?!”

 

Coco flared up. Its eyes stayed the same, but its mouth widened into a round circle. It seemed to have learned to mimic fairly human-like reactions. It was commendable, and at the same time, Lee Yeon-woo felt a surge of emotion himself. 

 

“If the difficulty had been designed reasonably in the first place, there’s no way I would have been the only user for all that time! Of course, it’s also because distribution was blocked because I bought the copyright in its entirety…!” 

 

“Yes!” 

 

“Are you taking the developer’s side in front of me right now?!” 

 

“No!!” 

 

“Thank you for that!!” 

 

It seemed Coco decided to take the side of Lee Yeonwoo—a twenty-six-year veteran user and practical owner—rather than the developer who had wept and sold off the copyright in despair over its lack of popularity. 

 

“….” 

 

“….”

 

The two of them quickly regained their composure. This was not the time for this.

 

“The Guest Without Taste is pathologically obsessed with consuming blood, and right now, I am blood itself. At this rate, I’ll turn into a handful of a meal and vanish into the monster’s stomach.”

 

“You can’t….” 

 

“That linguistic reaction just now was very good. Excellent.” 

 

“Blood pack….”

 

“I’ll go find it soon.”

 

But first, I need to pack some items.

 

“Yes?” 

 

“Yes?”

 

I have to complete the encyclopedia.