Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 642
Only Krnovel
EP.642 Episode 642 – The Path of Ascension (4)
Episode 642 – The Path of Ascension (4)
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 358
Current location: Delight Hotel, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Wise Man’s Advice: 0”
– Han Ga-in
“Good question. What is the relationship between the upper and lower worlds? Water does not flow from the bottom to the top, but from the top to the bottom. Since the relationship between the top and the bottom is like this, your worries are truly useless.”
An answer that is not intuitively understandable.
I was a little taken aback as it was a typical example of the same question I had experienced countless times in hotels.
There were also colleagues who could not hide their regret.
“Can you explain in a little more detail? Why are you suddenly talking about the upper and lower levels?”
The person who called himself the third floor manager didn’t respond at all.
It’s as if they’re asking, “This is enough. What more do you need?”
My grandfather threw it at me as if he was asking a question.
“Even after leaving for the third floor, it can still affect reality? Is that what you mean?”
The person who immediately refuted it was surprisingly Seungyeop.
“That can’t be true! Hey, Ryan said that the person who went to the third floor never came back!”
Grandfather answered, slightly embarrassed.
“Oh, it wasn’t Ryan, it was Arthur. He was Ryan’s son -”
“Anyway!”
The fact that none of the ascendants returned to reality.
Although I was well aware of the information itself, I was a little surprised that Seungyeop said this.
I feel a bit awkward saying this to my colleague, but honestly, Seungyeop doesn’t have a very good memory.
That means you’ve been sensitive to this topic and have thought about it for a long time.
At that moment, a heavy hand tapped Seungyeop on the shoulder.
“Brother Sang-Hyeon?”
“…”
My brother didn’t say anything because his mouth was forcibly shut, but I could tell what he meant just by looking at his expression.
‘I think this is enough. I’m relieved, so Seungyeop, you should be relieved too.’
Seeing that reaction, I thought back to the sentence from a little while ago, and the last phrase came to mind.
‘Your worries are truly useless.’
My brother seems to have interpreted this to mean, ‘I can’t tell you exactly what the principle is, but your worries won’t be a big deal once you get to the third floor.’
Here I also conveyed my own interpretation.
“Seungyeop, keep in mind.”
“yes.”
“No one in the world knows exactly about the 3rd floor. Ryan? Even his superior, Sun Dae Jihye, doesn’t know much about the 3rd floor, so what would Ryan know?”
“… That’s true.”
“I just pretended to know with insufficient information.”
“Then, is there anyone who returned to reality from the third floor?”
“Water flows from top to bottom, not from bottom to top… .”
“brother?”
“That is, the ascendant can influence reality, but reality cannot influence the ascendant.”
This is my own interpretation.
At that moment, Songi sneaked in.
“Seungyeop, and also, um, on the third floor, you can use or get a ticket, right?”
“Tickets?”
“For example, saving Yumi… .”
Why are you suddenly talking about Yumi?
It sounded like, ‘Are you going to abandon the lover you’ve been with for so many years to care about the family you built with your dreams?’
Songi, who had been speaking, seemed to feel the same way, and immediately showed a look of regret.
“Sorry. I said something wrong -”
“… That’s an important story too.”
However, I understood Songi’s psychology.
Didn’t you tell me a few days ago?
‘I hope that whatever we do, we all do it together. Without being divided.’
Although somewhat provocative, Songi’s words themselves were very effective.
Because Seungyeop, who was focusing on the ‘reasons why he shouldn’t go to the 3rd floor’, was reminded of the ‘reasons why he should go’.
The conversation I had heard from Miro before briefly crossed my mind.
*
“Why didn’t you revive Yumi? I thought you would revive her in a dream.”
“…because it’s a one-time thing.”
“what?”
“The merchant said that overwriting reality through dreams is only possible in one loop.”
“…”
“I don’t want that kind of resurrection. If I ever wake Yumi up, I want it to be an eternal reunion where we’ll never be apart again.”
*
A moment of silence passed in a somewhat stable atmosphere.
It seems like everyone is thinking about the context of the ‘relationship between the upper and lower worlds.’
What is above can influence what is below, but what is below cannot influence what is above.
A relationship that is one-way rather than two-way.
It’s like you know but you don’t?
At that moment, Eunsol’s voice was heard.
“… I think I’ve had a similar conversation with someone before.”
“Sister?”
“wait for a sec!”
My older sister frowned and looked lost in thought.
It seemed like he was searching through past memories, but this reaction itself was strange.
The story the manager told me was mysterious information related to the third floor. Have you ever shared this story with anyone?
“Ahh…! Why can’t I remember this? It was a similar conversation!”
When my older sister got frustrated, I got frustrated too, and Songi made a curious expression.
“Sister, if you’re going to have a conversation, there has to be someone to talk to, right?”
“Right! Good point.”
“Sister, who are you?”
“Sophia!”
“Sophia is in the hospital room right now! She’s also frozen in place like a rock.”
“Of course it’s stiff since you’re not a participant…! That’s not the problem, but what was the conversation about?”
Suddenly Sophia?
The other colleagues were slightly taken aback by the unexpected answer.
I was surprised in a slightly different way.
what?
I think I know what Eunsol noona’s conversation with Sophia was about.
Was I there?
No, if I had, my sister would have told me my name too.
I wasn’t there, but I think I heard it while floating in a hazy state with the help of an owl.
“…”
Just as I was about to fall into worry, my grandfather grabbed my sister’s arm.
“Then let’s ask Sophia later. Even if you forget, she might remember. For now… .”
Ari received the following words.
“Rather than digging up old memories, it’s time to ponder the final question.”
As if he had been waiting, the manager on the third floor sent a notification window.
“This is the last question. Choose carefully.”
After a moment of silence, Ari spoke carefully.
“The last question, how about the cursed room on the third floor?”
Grandfather answered in a worried tone.
“Of course that’s what I’m most curious about, but can you tell me?”
“If it’s not about the content of individual rooms, but rather the overall theme….”
“Hmm, is that okay? Do you all agree? And you, Gain?”
“It sounds good.”
After confirming everyone’s nods, this time I raised my hand.
Of course, I didn’t forget to pay attention to ‘timing’ before raising my hand.
“There is definitely something special about these contestants -”
“Third question! The overall theme of the third floor and -”
At that moment, a plausible word came to mind and I added it.
“- Before we go up to the third floor, could you give us some topics to think about?”
…
*
“Date: 358th day -> 362nd day”
Late at night, the moon is shining brightly.
I walked around Taebaeksan Mountain in Gangwon-do, feeling the cold air.
Was the leisurely walk about 20 minutes?
There was a twinkling light somewhere, and as I approached, an incongruous ‘school’ appeared.
After walking for another 5 minutes or so, we came across a playground, with a bonfire and table in the center.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“It doesn’t matter. There’s no need for time.”
When I heard the story about time, I became curious.
“Recently, a footnote was added to the contents of the letter sent from the hotel.”
“footnote?”
“He said if I wanted to go to the third floor, I should come within a month. I guess he meant not to waste time.”
“…”
“How about you, sir?”
“I didn’t talk about dates. Maybe….”
“maybe?”
“I guess so, since I don’t have to rush it. It seems like it’ll come soon.”
Unlike Sang-Hyeon and Seung-Yeop, Seon-Dae Ji-Hye has no attachment to reality.
So, I’ll leave for the third floor at any time without you rushing me.
Maybe tonight.
“What kind of food did you cook in a place like this? Lamb skewers?”
“You’ve never been to Türkiye, have you?”
“yes?”
“It’s shish kebab. Well, it’s not entirely wrong to say lamb skewers. Sit here.”
As I sat across from the counter, delicious kebab skewers, dripping with oil and exuding an exotic aroma, were placed in front of me.
Also, a glass of wine that sparkled golden came over.
“Let’s have a drink.”
I drank it lightly as it was given to me and was slightly surprised.
I knew it wasn’t beer, but it had a higher alcohol content than I thought.
Moreover, it gave off a strange smell that I couldn’t tell if it was the smell of earth or grass, which was somewhat unpleasant.
“Eww! What kind of alcohol is this?”
“Whiskey. Springbank 21… Don’t you know? It’s a pretty famous liquor.”
“Ugh…! Who would drink something like this with lamb skewers? It’s obviously cola or beer.”
“…”
“I almost spit it out.”
Seondae looked at me with bewildered eyes for a moment, then muttered as if sighing.
“Just by the way you talk, I’d think you’re really twenty. You’re just starting to learn how to drink.”
“I take that as a compliment.”
After a brief chat, we brought up an important topic.
“Recently, I met a strange being at Delight.”
“A strange being?”
“He said he was the self-proclaimed third floor manager.”
“Hoo… Is this some kind of hidden NPC?”
There are two hidden NPCs and two hidden rooms on each floor of the hotel.
“That’s not it.”
“Well, there’s no way the hidden NPC would have already appeared.”
“I guess I’ll have to find it myself on the third floor. He was literally like a guide or a servant.”
“Servant?”
“There were unidentified beings behind it.”
“Is it not existence but ‘beings’?”
“Their words were visible only to me. It was in the form of a notification window, but when I talked to my colleagues later, they all said they had never seen it.”
“what?”
“At the time, I wondered why only I could see this. As time passed and I thought about it -”
“Insight?”
“- That must be true. I didn’t notice it right away though.”
“aha!”
“It was strange when I realized it later.”
In any case, the manager is a being tied to the position of ‘Hotel NPC’.
So the notification window that everyone could see came up with a sentence that sounded like a normal, polite hotel employee’s speech.
Why did an overly provocative sentence appear in the notification window that only I could see?
Because it wasn’t normal communication.
The person who called the manager was Eunsol, and it was also unusual that there was information that only I could see.
In retrospect, this is evidence that the source of that information was insight, not greed.
It has often been the case in the past that the illusions of insight have been mistaken for something else.
This time, it was shown in the form of a ‘notification window’, so I realized it a little late.
“It often happens. Sometimes insights are vague like dreams, and sometimes they are vivid like reality. I have often been confused as to whether this is my illusion, my feeling, or my insight.”
“If possible, it would be good to say ‘Insight begins!’ at the beginning.”
“Haha! I’ve thought that too sometimes. Anyway, you have to understand that that bird is unfriendly.”
“Let’s have a drink to celebrate that.”
“Okay.”
After cursing owls with my ancestors, I realized that kebabs could not taste this good.
“Now that I have realized the existence behind the manager thanks to the insight, another interesting thought occurred to me. What do you think it could be?”
“Are you giving me a quiz right now?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at my predecessor’s absurd remark.
It wasn’t my intention, but it sounded like I was saying, ‘Try to guess.’
Do I sometimes speak like this to my colleagues?
So it looks like Ari was messing around a few days ago.
I have to keep using it in the future.
“Haha! This is wisdom.”
“Huh! I see what you’re trying to say.”
“What is it?”
“Not only did I become aware of the existence of the mastermind behind the scenes, I also heard their intentions… This is information that is not usually known through insight.”
“Right?”
“Insight is not clairvoyance or foresight. You can’t get that much information without any basis. In other words -”
“I think the owl gave me the insight I needed. Something similar happened before, in Jeju Island.”
“…”
“There’s someone behind the manager. They’ll be a variable on the third floor. Something like that.”
“… Besides the 3rd floor you’re going to, there’s also the 3rd floor I’m going to, right?”
“maybe.”
“Huh! This is it, our patron seems to have been very kind as always?”
“Is that so?”
“Let’s have a drink in that spirit. To the glory of great wisdom!”
“For!”
I had another drink.
The next story that came out was information relayed by the manager.