Welcome to Dungeon Hotel Chapter 237

231. I got you, you brat. 

 

What is that?

 

Goblin NOM? Let’s catch a goblin?

 

I frowned at the strangely familiar naming. 

 

But for now, this is my chance.

 

Experience points and even market gold.

 

In a situation where the Demon King might employ some trickery again, it was necessary to level up as much as possible and stock the hotel with various items. 

 

Hotel Owner

 

Thank you, Merlin.

 

Former Hotel Owner

 

Don’t mention it.

 

Demon King 

 

Hurray.

 

The Demon King’s anger seems to have grown a little, but well.

 

At that moment, Alex opened a message window.

 

That window, which looked very familiar, had the exact same design as the one used when the Demon King or Merlin was talking to me.

 

‘That’s the dragon speciality, so that’s why…’

 

However, it seemed that the chat window between the Demon King or Merlin and me wasn’t visible to Alex. 

 

Lucifer

 

Invitation? What is possible?

 

What will you do if I invite you?

 

Lucifer answered right away.

 

Alex looked at me at Lucifer’s mischievous question.

 

What…Why are you looking at me?

 

I sighed deeply and nodded.

 

“Please tell him I’ll invite him to Yeongchun Hotel.”

 

Ah, to bring that demon into our hotel with my own hands!

 

I slightly wrinkled my face as I recalled the horrible memory.

 

Lucifer

 

What?! An invitation to the Gray Hotel? I don’t want to go to that eerie mountain lodge…

 

However, it seemed there was a misunderstanding, as Lucifer misinterpreted Alex’s words, causing Alex’s face to twist in discomfort. 

 

“What is this, you b*stard? Eerie mountain lodge? What do you think the Gray Hotel is?!” 

 

Former Hotel Owner

 

What are you talking about!

 

I looked back and forth between the two people who were suddenly excited, flustered.

 

Don’t fight, you guys.

 

“Alex, you’re getting too worked up…”

 

But then.

 

Alex

 

No, I mean the Yeongchun Hotel! And why is the Gray Hotel an eerie mountain lodge? 

 

Lucifer

 

Yeongchun Hotel? It’s in Yeongchun-myeon? The name sounds kind of tacky?

 

Tac…ky? 

 

As I unconsciously tightened my grip, the ceramic cup I was holding filled with water shattered.

 

It was the first time since becoming the owner of an S-class hotel that I struggled to control my strength.

 

Clank—.

 

While I was watching the ceramic pieces scatter with a cheerful sound, Alex flinched and said after seeing my eyes 

 

“Your eyes are too scary, boss…”

 

“Since it seems like an invitation won’t work, please tell him that if he doesn’t invite me into the painting, I’ll pour holy water on it.” 

 

Last time, the knight Jan Schultz sent me a few boxes, so there are a lot.

 

“!”

 

Who was it that just said she was getting too worked up? 

 

Alex muttered as she sent a message to Lucifer. 

 

The answer came quickly, of course.

 

Lucifer

 

Holy water? Why bring up such a scary topic?

 

W, who should I invite?

 

And at that moment, the door swung open, and Han Woohyun, dressed in black and wearing a hat, walked in. 

 

‘He looks exactly like a grim reaper…’

 

Putting that aside.

 

Why is he sweating so much? Did he come running?

 

“….!”

 

Looking disheveled as if he had run over, Han Woohyun froze at the door as soon as he saw me. 

 

“You…”

 

As soon as I got up from my seat, Han Woohyun slumped down right there. 

 

“You went to room 303… But it’s been a while since you haven’t come back, so I came… to see…”

 

Han Woohyun, with a flushed face, covered his mouth with his large hand. 

 

“Why are you doing that?”

 

I checked my appearance at Han Woohyun’s question. Hair tied up in a bun, a flowing skirt, and a face with light makeup. 

 

Is it a bit funny since I’m imitating the appearance of a gumiho?

 

“It’s weird.” 

 

As I awkwardly smiled and spoke, Han Woohyun slightly stepped back. In the process, the corner of the door lightly hit his broad shoulder. 

 

“No, that’s not what I meant—” 

 

“?”

 

“Because you’re pretty. I was so surprised.”

 

I was momentarily dazed, unable to find the causal relationship between me being pretty and Han Woohyun being so surprised, but I soon came to my senses.

 

It was thanks to Alex mumbling next to me.

 

“Wow.”

 

Former Hotel Owner

 

Wow. 

 

Demon King

 

Wow.

 

Feeling my face flush, I tried to change the subject.

 

“I have to go into the painting right now, you know? Do you want to come with me?” 

 

Right now, what’s urgent is finding that goblin.

 

Han Woohyun nodded, covering the broken door with his hand. 

 

It didn’t get covered even though he tried to cover it. 

 

Alex sighed and wrote this in the message window. 

 

Alex

 

Three people. Me, a gumiho, and one grim reaper. Is that possible?

 

The reply came right away.

 

Lucifer

 

Yeah, that’s possible.

 

 

I couldn’t understand what was happening, but the next moment, the clock distorted, and in an instant, the hotel—no, the tavern room I was in transformed into a different place.

 

A huge tiled house under a beautiful ink-and-wash painting-like mountain. 

 

And in front of the pavilion located in the courtyard of that tiled house.

 

On the roof of the pavilion, Bihyeong was snoring loudly.

 

Challenge to catch Bihyeong!

 

Bihyeong / Affinity 0  

 

!Note! You can catch the goblin NOM with a Critical Rope. However, if you don’t raise your affinity, you won’t be able to put it in the goblin’s pouch, so be careful!

 

Before I knew it, a red thread was tied around my hand.

 

At this point, I noticed too.

 

This is it.

 

Augmented reality game. 

 

Hotel Owner

 

Have you played that game?

 

Former Hotel Owner

 

Oh, you played that game too?

 

The game that Merlin is talking about here is this. 

 

Dungeon ON – Let’s catch monsters. 

 

A game that turns the user’s location into a dungeon through augmented reality, where various monsters appear at different locations, and the encountered monsters can be captured in a ‘Hunter’s Basket.’ 

 

Ogre, Lamia, Slime, etc. 

 

It’s a game that gained significant popularity for a time due to its gameplay that connects with reality, featuring monsters that wouldn’t be very cute in real life but are designed with quite adorable graphics. 

 

And at that time, I also played that game.

 

The reason I played the game was simple.

 

My previous company told me to do it.

 

My company definitely wasn’t a game company, but one day, Manager NOM got really into this game and came up with the idea of creating an educational program using augmented reality games.

 

The idea itself wasn’t bad.

 

The problem was that he didn’t even have the slightest plan for how to realize that idea, and he brought up a massive project while we hadn’t even finished the work we were already doing. 

 

‘Thinking about the old days makes me feel a bit tired.’

 

I recalled the time when I completed the 879 entries in the game’s monster encyclopedia in just two weeks. 

 

‘Wow, how did you fill this out? This monster is incredibly rare?’

 

‘Don’t you have to catch this with a curve ball in one shot?’

 

‘But how…’

 

‘I watched strategy videos and practiced.’

 

It wasn’t just a casual watch, though.

 

I copied the angle of the finger throwing the capture tool at the monster to put it in the basket, and the timing of lifting the finger.

 

‘Can you really do that just by practicing?’

 

I’ve always been able to.

 

Since I was young, due to my tendency to watch strategy videos and imitate them, I couldn’t enjoy games, but I inevitably ended up being able to do them ‘well’ faster than others. 

 

However, this game is based on GPS, so it’s not something you can do with just hand skills. I got some help from Aunt Misoon to find rare monsters. 

 

Aunt Misoon was also into the game at the time, so she made a GPS controller. 

 

I helped her out with the workshop, and after work, I used the controller to diligently catch monsters, and I quickly filled up my Pokedex. 

 

‘Is there really anyone who goes that far with a game? Usually, you just get better at those things by doing them instinctively, right?’

 

‘You told me to work hard, didn’t you?’ 

 

I answered with a tired face. 

 

At that time, the tired expression on the face of the section chief NOM who was looking at me was blurred. 

 

Is it because it was a face I wanted to forget?

 

I thought back to that time and put the rope in my hand and swung it around.

 

Dungeon ON was also about capturing monsters using various capture tools, and a familiar feeling came over me, similar to the movements of the capture tools I experienced back then. 

 

‘It feels familiar.’

 

Han Woohyun asked me as he saw me twirling the rope. 

 

“You’re going to catch it with that? It looks like it won’t reach far enough.” 

 

It was a natural question. 

 

The distance from where I am standing to the roof of the pavilion where the monster is located is more than 5 meters.

 

However, having had the experience of having to throw capture tools from a distance when encountering a fire-breathing dragon that wouldn’t let me get close in Dungeon ON, I simply nodded.

 

“Mhm. I’ll catch it from here.”

 

The moment I tightened my grip on the red rope, Bihyeong’s eyes suddenly opened wide. 

 

It was as if he had sensed that it was going to be captured. 

 

As soon as Bihyeong saw me, he was shocked and said. 

 

“You…!” 

 

There was no time to answer.

 

Since capture tools are usually thrown with a delay. 

 

Swish!

 

I threw the red rope to the right. The thrown rope started to spin in the air as it flew toward the pond. 

 

Demon King

 

It’s flying far~away. Did it fail? ㅋㅋ 

 

The rope flew as if it was going to touch the water. And Bihyeong laughed at the rope.

 

“What are you doing, you pathetic human?”

 

But I just stared at the rope.

 

Until the rope’s rotation changed direction little by little and returned to the pavilion.

 

And until Bihyeong, who was startled by the rope returning, jumped down from the pavilion and saw the rope tightly tied around his waist. 

 

“Ugh…!”

 

Bihyeong, who was about to jump up, suddenly lost his balance because of the tied body and fell down to the pavilion. 

 

I could have caught him, but I didn’t. 

 

Instead, I slowly walked over to Bihyeong, which had fallen beneath the pavilion and was now sprawled out on the ground.  

 

“You brat! How dare you tie up this goblin with something so shameful? I won’t let this go…”

 

“Bihyeong.” 

 

In the pavilion, Lucifer’s giggling and laughter could be heard. 

 

I reached out to Bihyeong, who was lying down in a pitiful state. 

 

Bihyeong said as if dumbfounded. 

 

“You have to let this go, whether you hold my hand or not…”

 

“The human woman and the son of the ghost king. Half-blood. Or rather, a hybrid—was I looked down upon for that?” 

 

“What?”

 

The moment Bihyeong’s eyes twisted.

 

I said this while looking at the eyes glaring at me fiercely from behind the mask.

 

“Don’t run away anymore.”

 

“You…”

 

I realized as I watched his eyes react to the word ‘run away.’ 

 

That I had hit the right spot.

 

Yeah.

 

The reason the goblin ran away must be because of what Alex said to him. 

 

‘You are already running away.’

 

Even though Alex seems just like Bihyeong, a carefree slacker, she’s not someone who would actually ‘run away’. 

 

If she were really someone who ran away, she wouldn’t have tried to protect the Grey Hotel at the cost of giving up the travel she loved so much. 

 

Alex tried to somehow run the failing hotel until she found me, someone she could trust and leave to the Gray Hotel. 

 

That’s Alex.

 

Even though she liked games just as much, she didn’t obsess over winning.

 

Even though she wandered around just as much, she didn’t lose her sense of responsibility.

 

Because of the words he heard from the carefree scholar, who seemed to drift aimlessly just like him, the goblin probably… 

 

“You must have been jealous. The courage not to run away. That person who has their own story. Is that why you ran away here?”

 

“T, that…!”

 

The moment the goblin, who had been hit hard, was about to say something, I brought my outstretched hand near his face. 

 

I stopped my hand and crouched down in front of him as I watched the goblin twisting his body in disgust. 

 

“I saw the goblin tavern you made. A place where goblins, ghosts, and people can all hang out together without discrimination. That’s what you wanted to say.”

 

“!”

 

The goblin’s eyes widened at my words.

 

I moved my hand again, which had paused for a moment, and untied Bihyeong’s invisible rope. 

 

Now free, he looked up at me instead of running away. 

 

With a masked face.

 

That mask.

 

Since that mask seemed to be some sort of constraint that bound him, this time I reached for the mask. 

 

And for some reason, I removed the mask from him while he remained still. 

 

Clear eyes beneath his thick eyebrows and pure pupils revealed beneath them. 

 

It was a much more handsome and pure face than the one I had seen before.

 

It felt like his original face, without any changes.

 

I just felt that way.

 

“This is your real face.”

 

“….”

 

“Remember.”

 

As I watched the goblin’s eyes gradually, very slowly, become moist, I gently placed a hand on top of his head. 

 

As someone who works in the hotel business, I could tell as soon as I saw the goblin’s tavern.

 

A barrel full of alcohol.

 

A large banquet hall where the gumiho, ghosts and Jang Mito could all play together. 

 

The reason he suggested playing a game of Go instead of taking money from a lost person. 

 

That everyone was gathered in one place.

 

Loneliness. 

 

The emptiness that he couldn’t bear unless he kept placing bets and drinking. 

 

To fill that emptiness, he created a place where everyone could play. 

 

Bihyeong. 

 

Bihyeong / Affinity 100

 

Sssh…

 

At the same time, a window appeared, and the goblin vanished into golden dust. 

 

To be precise, he didn’t disappear; he entered the goblin pouch I was wearing. 

 

“I got you, you brat.”

 

Even after successfully completing the quest, I felt a sense of desolation for some reason, so I crouched down and stayed there quietly for a long time.