Escaping the Mystery Hotel

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 2

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Room of Rest)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

I went to sleep half in doubt but fortunately, the number of Sage’s Advice went back up to 3. It seemed to be filled back up after going to sleep as Seungyub said. 

When exactly was the reset time? I decided to check that later if I had to pull an all-nighter one day.

I cleaned myself, changed clothes and got prepared in time for the meal, as people started to ‘appear’ when it was time. While greeting those people who I was now fairly accustomed to, we arrived at the dining room and heard another piece of good news.

“I figured out what my blessing was last night. Seriously. Hah! It’s quite ridiculous.” 

“Wow! Unni, what is it? Do you have some superpower as well now?”

Eunsol-noona shook her head in response to Songee’s words, and suddenly took out her phone. 

After arriving at the hotel, we all left our phones elsewhere because they refused to function properly. However, Eunsol-noona took out her smartphone as if there was something to show us and fidgeted with the screen before pointing at a strange application.

HP Market

“HP? Is this perhaps… Hotel Pioneer?”

“Probably. Just to make sure, no-one else has something like this right?”

We all belatedly went back to have a look at our phones but as expected, there were no changes to everyone else’s phones. It was only Eunsol-noona’s phone that now contained a strange application.

“What does it do?”

“It was too late last night so I didn’t go into detail, but I did have a look. Well, it’s similar to Amazon. It’s like a marketplace that sells a bunch of stuff. The funny thing is that… there is no ‘cost’.”

“Eh? Then is everything for free?”

“There is no price but there is a buy limit. Whatever it is, you can only buy 3 in total per week. And the delivery is done immediately.”

“Immediately? The delivery speed was mysteriously fast in Korea, so I was thinking of staying in Korea considering how comfortable it was but… even Amazon wouldn’t be able to send something immediately,” commented Elena.

“Hahaha. Boys will love it if you stay in Korea, Elena! Well, this hotel is not a normal place after all. Anyway, there was a purchase limit for everything so I didn’t buy anything yet. We probably should save it until we really need something.”

“Hmm. Firstly I think we definitely need to buy a weapon. Do they have a gun or something? Even if there isn’t, anything else is probably going to be better than me carrying around a pole.”

“I did think the same thing as Jinchul-ssi yesterday. But the things being sold on this ‘marketplace’ are actually very generic. You can really think of it as Amazon. They don’t sell guns or longswords on Amazon, do they? But there are a lot of things you can use instead. What I immediately thought of was a baseball bat, a knife, an expandable baton and a tonfa.”

“That would be great enough already. To be honest, yesterday I was exaggerating a bit, and a pole is certainly… quite difficult to carry around. A baseball bat isn’t that bad but a tonfa is actually quite decent as long as you can use it probably. Umm.. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but I did do some martial arts outside. I learned tonfa for like 2 weeks… so I think that sounds okay. What does everyone else think?”

There was no-one who disagreed with Jinchul-hyung’s opinion. Eunsol-noona tapped the screen a few times as a clear ‘Ding-!’ suddenly echoed from outside.

“This… It seems it’s already here.”

“I’ll have a look. Ha, this is quite an interesting experience.”

Soon, an unpacking sound resonated from outside as Jinchul-hyung reappeared carrying a tonfa. Holding onto the handle, he aligned the long part down his arms and threw his fists into the air like a martial art demonstrator.

Although I did not know martial arts in the slightest, a large and muscular man taller than 190 cm throwing his fists with a weapon was dynamic enough to leave the audience in awe.

Clap clap clap~

Eunsol-noona began clapping with a pleased look on her face. For some reason, we felt urged to follow suit and clapped all together as Jinchul-hyung sat back in front of the table with a rare blush. It was an enjoyable mealtime for the first time after coming to the hotel.

Right when we were about to stand up after finishing our meal, a notification popped up on the display screen in a ‘timely manner’. 

/Hello esteemed guests! Did you enjoy your meal?

We at Hotel Pioneer always find great joy in preparing the meal for everyone. By the way, esteemed guests, did you know about the countless treasures hidden across the hotel? An endless array of treasures, blessings and even perhaps love which are beautiful, elegant, priceless and magnificent are all waiting for you!

Naturally, only the qualified ones may have access to those treasures. Doesn’t a little bit of risk add beauty to a treasure? Do not worry! We know every guest has the qualification!

In fact, all you have to do is open the prepared gift box! Now, everyone, let us go seek those treasures!

Oh right, at times there will be a preceding visitor in rooms with treasures. If possible, please enter together. There will be no problems for everyone as long as one person manages to come out.

Silence filled the room as we tried to comprehend the situation.

“So… I can understand their intention at the very least. It is: ‘You had enough rest, so get to work.’”

“Are they trying to joke around or what? Seriously, isn’t this just a trap to kill us? What is with this, ‘All you have to do is open the prepared gift box’? Then why not just drop the box in front of us? Then we can open it.”

Ignoring the grumbles of Jinchul-hyung, Eunsol-noona started her analysis.

“The first 3 paragraphs can just be summed up to them telling us to find treasures, but the last one has a decent amount of information. ‘There is a risk in rooms with treasures’, and ‘Go in together’. I understand those two, but ‘There will be no problems for everyone as long as one person manages to come out.’? What does this part mean?”

‘As long as one person manages to come out.’

Actually, I perceived the meaning implied by that sentence as ‘It is so disgustingly hard that it would be great if even one of you can make it out alive!’ and my head turned a bit dizzy. What should we do? Should we really do as told and go look for those treasures?

My head was gradually turning numb when an alarm rang from the ‘status screen’.

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 2

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Room of Rest)

Floor Information(*)

Room 101 (???)

Room 102 (???)

Room 103 (???)

Room 104 (???)

Room 105 (Room of Rest)

Room 106 (???)

Room 107 (???)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

“Umm… I got another notification. It says ‘Floor Information’, and underneath it goes from Room 101 to Room 107, and all the rooms have ‘???’ written next to them except for Room 105, which says Room of Rest. My understanding is that we should go to other rooms apart from Room 105.”

“Those are the rooms with monsters and treasures – is that how it is?”

“I guess I will have to use the tonfa very soon…”

Following the mutters of Eunsol-noona and Jinchul-hyung was Elena.

“Hmm. Shouldn’t we also have some weapons for ourselves at least? Of course, it’s a bit embarrassing to say this in front of Jinchul-ssi, but I also trained my body a little while preparing to become an actor.”

“Haha, there is nothing embarrassing there. Of course I will try my best with the power I’m given, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare everyone else. Look, here we also have a handsome young man with a good build. Hey Kain, shouldn’t you get something for yourself? Do you know how to use something like a tonfa?”

I replied to him.

“Uhh, sorry but I didn’t learn any martial arts but I do think my stamina is okay. Should I get something as well?”

“Hmm. You look quite sporty yourself but it is a shame you haven’t learned martial arts before. Well, considering your build, it would probably be fine for you to just swing something heavy. A tonfa won’t be that good if you don’t know how to use it, and I think a bat would be a better choice for you.”

“Wait,” Eunsol-noona interjected. “Did you forget what I said just then? There is a purchase limit of 3 per week, so don’t order anything else and let’s wait a little.”

“Aht, then do we have to go empty-handed? That’s a bit worrying though…”

“Uhm… there is something I saw last time,” Songee started off. 

While unconsciously thinking to myself that Songee had the tendency to shrink a little whenever she was speaking, I gazed at her.

“There are strange props that you would see in movies along the corridor, right? There was also a dagger there.”

A dagger.

Looking back, I also did grab a silver candlestick on the first day to swing around as a weapon. 

I quickly got up and jogged in the direction Songee pointed at. As she said, there was an ornamented dagger in one of the walls of the tremendously long corridor which I missed last time.

It looked extremely fancy. Although I didn’t have a good eye for something like this, it would probably start at around 10,000 dollars if I was to sell this somewhere else. After picking it up, I returned to the dining table.

“Isn’t this more of an art piece than a practical dagger? There’s even a gem on the handle. The durability will be quite bad for something like this because it’s not made for actual use. But it would still be better than bare hands though. It’s a shame there is only one of them.”

There was only one dagger. I felt bad using this for myself so I asked for their opinions.

“This… should I really use this? This is the only thing close to a weapon so I feel bad.”

“I think you should. Maybe Elena can, because she trained a bit, but I don’t think Songee, Seungyub and I will be able to fight properly with this. A stronger person should use it especially because we don’t have many weapons. Do we all agree?”

No-one disagreed with Eunsol-noona’s words and thus, I became one of the two people alongside Jinchul-hyung that had a weapon. Soon after finishing our meal and preparing ourselves, we headed to Room 101.