Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 151
Only Krnovel
Episode 151 – Entering the 2nd floor
[User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 80
Current location: Tier 1, hallway
Sage Advice: 3]
– Han Ga-in
Notification from the hotel that the second floor was open as expected.
We were reading the text calmly, but stopped at the last sentence.
‘The heating on the second floor is not good. Please note that it may be a bit cold.’
…
As soon as I looked up, I saw people already laughing or holding the back of their necks.
“If you say it can be ‘somewhat’ cold in a hotel, how much would it be?”
Grandpa Mukseong said in an exasperated tone.
“Aren’t these idiots the ones who say Antarctica also has cool weather? Of course, if you just go there, you’ll freeze to death!”
Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned to Eunsol. My sister’s expression turned blue.
“Don’t look at me! The number of purchases on HP Market has been exhausted! I didn’t buy anything weird. The hotel didn’t give us this warning in the first place. “I packed my bag full of essential consumables!”
“Sister, calm down. No one blamed you. “When will the count start again?”
“We need three more days. And since my vacation is over, if I wait here for three days, the hotel will do everything!”
In the panicked atmosphere, the grandfather’s calm voice was heard.
“Calm down. In any case, if they behave in such a shameful way, we just have to respond with the truth.”
The truth? I looked back at Grandpa Mukseong to see what he was saying.
My grandfather was measuring the hotel’s extravagantly decorated curtains.
When I saw that action, I immediately understood my grandfather’s thoughts.
“Let’s all get something like a blanket from our room and come out! “Let’s make temporary winter clothing using hotel supplies and go up.”
Everyone quickly dispersed to the hotel. Some people moved to tear off the fabric from the front desk or entrance, while others went to collect blankets from room 105. It seemed like someone was bringing a tablecloth.
I also participated in the ‘truth’ by tearing off the fabric of the hotel as much as possible here and there. To be honest, I didn’t feel any guilt at all.
After nearly 30 minutes, a pile of soft cloth taller than a person was piled up in front of the elevator.
We roughly assembled the fabric with knives, scissors, and tape to create something resembling makeshift winter clothing.
Compared to real winter clothing, it was heavy, very uncomfortable, and looked funny, but at least it was warm, so I thought it was enough.
Everyone got into the elevator wearing funny clothes.
It’s really the second floor now. Finally, we move on to the next step.
After looking at each other for a moment, laughing and joking, Eunsol went to the second floor.
— Weeeeing! Wow! Ding!
[Current Location: Tier 1, Corridor] -> [Current Location: Tier 2, Corridor]
80th day since arriving at the hotel.
We finally arrived at the second floor.
*
How should we interpret words used in hotels?
My views are similar to Grandfather Mukseong’s. Expressions used in hotels need to be interpreted ‘cosmically.’
The average temperature of the universe is said to be -270 degrees Celsius, close to absolute zero.
At the same time, the universe is full of stars with surface temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees.
From this perspective, ‘somewhat cold weather’ as the hotel calls it could include Antarctica at minus 50 degrees Celsius, while ‘somewhat warm water’ could include lava over 1,000 degrees Celsius.
— Whoo!
As soon as the elevator door opened, an unimaginable coldness that felt like it would freeze me alive rushed in!
We froze in the elevator, unable to even take a single step, as the wind was so cold it almost tore our skin.
Even though it was clearly a ‘hotel’, I could see a snowstorm raging!
Eunsol, who was shocked, hurriedly closed the elevator door.
As soon as the door closed, everyone’s anger erupted.
“Are you really crazy?”
“Is there a hotel in the world where it snows indoors?” . “This isn’t a heating problem!”
“Are you going to freeze to death before you even get to the curse room?”
“I think I can handle it.”
Everyone’s eyes were focused on that man, Jincheol.
Jincheol’s expression actually didn’t change much, unlike us.
As the power of the blessing grew stronger, did it also grant resistance to cold?
My brother spoke calmly again.
“By my standards, it’s just fairly cold winter weather. “I was actually surprised that other people reacted so strongly.”
“I’m fine too!”
“Seungyeop, you’re wearing a protective suit, so of course you’re okay. “Be quiet.”
“yes… .”
“Let’s go back to the first floor and talk again.”
After returning to the first floor, we made plans again. The clumsily made makeshift winter clothes certainly helped, but the cold was not worth enduring for a long period of time. I didn’t think I could last even an hour.
Jincheol opened his mouth again.
“The rest of us will stay below, and just me and Ga-in will go up and explore. Ga-in is wearing a protective suit.”
“okay! “Gain has some advice, so you’ll definitely need it in your search.”
Ari immediately pushed me towards Jincheol.
After a while, I put on my protective clothing and headed back to the second floor with Jincheol.
*
“I definitely can’t feel the outside temperature at all when I wear this.”
“what!”
“I’m not cold because I’m wearing this!”
“what?”
That’s no answer. I just gave up talking and started walking.
Less than a minute after leaving the elevator, my brother and I’s conversation was completely blocked by the noise of a huge snowstorm.
Even communication through chat windows was impossible. Is it because Grandpa Mukseong is on the first floor? I guess the physical distance isn’t that far?
I don’t know. On second thought, this is a hotel that has more things it doesn’t know than what it knows.
I tried to explore the situation on the second floor, but it was really not easy. Although the protective clothing completely protected against the cold, it did not prevent the visibility and inconvenience of movement caused by the snowstorm.
I couldn’t see an inch in front of me, so it felt like I was actually exploring with my hands rather than my eyes.
Jincheol seemed to be afraid of getting lost, so he just kept holding on to the back of his protective suit and following me.
I could feel a few things.
First of all, the area of the second floor is very vast. It is certain that it is much larger than the first floor. It is wider horizontally and is so high that it is difficult to compare in terms of height.
The ceiling was not visible at all. I couldn’t even figure out how the ‘snow’ was coming in in the first place.
After about 10 minutes of exploring, my hand, which was moving along the wall, caught something with a ‘thud’.
When I put my helmet on the stuck part, I saw the number ‘201’ behind the huge ice.
I finally found the first room on the second floor. I motioned for Jincheol and brought him towards the ice.
My brother also understood the meaning and at first tried to tear off the ice with his hands, but it seemed to be too much for him, so he pushed me back and briefly summoned a star to destroy the ice.
Now that we’ve found the room, let’s stop exploring. Since you can’t see clearly, it’s easy to get lost if you move further.
Would Eunsol, who has acquired powerful eyes, be better off exploring while wearing a protective suit?
As I was walking back toward the elevator with my brother, I was frustrated and angry so I wrote some advice.
[Advice: 3 -> 2]
‘You crazy bird! Is the second floor still like this?’
[Be polite. The second floor needs repair work.]
Renovation work. An unexpected word came out.
Should I write some more advice? After thinking about it, I quit. You may enter the cursed room today. I think we need to leave some number of times.
Of course, I think I’ll be sealed anyway, but I don’t know. Other people may be sealed.
In any case, the conditions on the second floor during the snowstorm did not seem normal even by hotel standards.
After wandering around for a while, I finally made it back to the elevator.
*
As soon as my brother and I came out, everyone gathered around.
Before answering, I first gave Eunsol a protective suit and asked her to search again.
While my sister nodded and went up to the second floor, other people started asking questions.
“how was it?”
“Did you find something?”
I reported my findings.
Visibility is blocked due to a huge snowstorm, the space is larger than expected, the location of Room 201, and the ‘renovation work’ mentioned in the advice.
My brother, who seemed to have been following me without thinking, surprisingly took a long time to explain.
The meaning is unknown, but the second floor is divided into several areas. I thought it was just frozen ice, but it turned out that there were a number of walls dividing the area.
Here, Jincheol expressed an opinion.
“I felt it when I heard that it was a renovation project. The current state of the second floor is, in a word, similar to an unfinished building. Originally, there were supposed to be several rooms, but construction was not completed, so they were only divided into sections awkwardly. “It seems like snow from outside is coming in because it’s not properly blocked from the outside.”
It was so absurd that Songi muttered.
“What hotel in the world invites customers even before it is completed? .”
“If it’s a hotel that’s infested with monsters and where a different world appears when you open the door, you might be able to summon customers while the construction isn’t complete.”
Seungyeop expressed a somewhat different perspective.
“Renovation work. To put it somewhat in an RPG game style, wouldn’t this be connected to a kind of ‘repair event’? “The hotel repair quest occurred.”
I was dumbfounded, so I added a word.
“Customer needs to fix it? “A hotel?”
Now that I said it, I thought it was true. This is another worthy place.
Ari sighed and opened his mouth.
“ruler! ruler! Let’s start by thinking about what to do today. I don’t know if it’s a repair event or something, but our vacation ended yesterday. “If I don’t enter the cursed room today, the hotel will hold a special event.”
Grandfather Mukseong also expressed his opinion.
“It seems to me that the repair event should be held during party time. “I don’t know if you don’t have to go into the room of curses during that event, but I’m saying that because there’s no such notification.”
While we were discussing our opinions for a while, Eunsol came back.
What my sister found out was mostly similar to ours, but there was one interesting story added.
“There is no ceiling at all? “You can see the mountains beyond the ceiling?”
“I’m not sure. “The blizzard was so severe that even my eyesight was limited.”
Grandpa sighed heavily.
“It’s becoming more and more like Mt. Taishan.”
Eunsol looked back at us and asked.
“Anyway, today we have to enter the Chamber of Curse. Should we go straight to room 201 that Ga-in found? “If everyone wears these funny winter clothes and runs hard to room 201, I think we’ll get there before we freeze to death.”
I thought about it for a while, but there was no choice.
As my grandfather said, it seemed like I would have to worry about how to make the second floor work properly during my break.
We couldn’t find where the other rooms were, and the fact that only ‘Room 201’ was located not far from the elevator also added persuasiveness to our guess.
I think the hotel’s intention was to first open room 201 and then have a party time, and then normalize the second floor during that period.
In the end, Seung-yeop, who was the weakest, put on a protective suit, and the rest ran frantically to room 201, wearing makeshift winter clothes.
It was a short period of less than 10 minutes, but in that moment, I felt like an ice blade was flying at my skin.
It was so cold that we didn’t have time to cheer each other on as a courtesy. Jincheol, who was running in front, immediately opened the door to room 201.
*
[User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 80
Current Location: Tier 2, Room 201 (Curse Room – Mlitschko Mmpp)
Sage Advice: 2]
— Grrrr.
…
Bubbles rising from all directions.
I felt like I was trapped in a giant test tube.
People outside are busy shooting. Are those people some kind of researchers?
When I opened my eyes blurry, I heard someone shouting something.
A notice from the hotel saying something about being ‘sealed’ appeared in my field of vision. As expected, the first person to be sealed is me.
I tried to summon the grimoire just in case, but there was no response at all.
I remembered Ari’s words that I could never escape on my own.
It doesn’t even tell you what the room name is. Will I only find out after my seal is broken?
…
Consciousness becomes blurred.
Everyone can do well, right? I’m going to take some rest.
See next episode