chapter 12
chapter 12
Rest, Hotel Basement
[User: Han Gain (Wisdom)
Day: 2
Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 0]
Everyone except one person was completely out of it.
Jincheol lay sprawled on the floor, making strange noises under his breath.
Eun-sol sat at the coffee table, downing cup after cup of coffee.
Song crouched by the bonsai again, muttering “Happy… Somi…” in a trembling voice.
Elena sat across from Eun-sol, curled up tightly.
As for me—
I just wandered around, my mind blank.
What just happened to us?
I replayed the memories.
Those weren’t our families.
They were monsters wearing their faces—
Violating our minds.
Making the unnatural feel normal.
In the end—
I froze to death in the middle of winter, naked, believing it was natural.
The others must have gone through something similar.
But none of us wanted to ask.
Didn’t want to know.
Didn’t want to answer.
And yet—
One of us had made it back intact.
“…It’ll be lunchtime in about 30 minutes. Shouldn’t we head back to Room 105 soon?”
Silence.
Then—
“…Yeah. We should eat. And… Seungyeop, thank you. Truly.”
Once I started—
Everyone followed.
“If it weren’t for you, we’d all be dead.”
“Seriously… thank you so much.”
Seungyeop waved his hands, embarrassed.
“No, really—it just kind of… happened. I don’t even know how I escaped.”
But his grin—
He couldn’t hide it.
For the first time—
The heavy atmosphere lightened.
“Alright! Let’s give Seungyeop three cheers and go eat! In the end, nothing matters more than food!”
“Cheers! Cheers! Cheers!”
With gratitude—
And an attempt to shake off trauma—
We shouted together and returned to Room 105.
＊
[User: Han Gain (Wisdom)
Day: 2
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Rest Room)
Sage’s Advice: 0]
Ten minutes before lunch.
I washed my face, changed clothes, and checked the status window.
No change.
Still Day 2.
Still zero advice.
But—
That couldn’t be right.
Inside that nightmare—
Didn’t we spend at least a full day?
Morning.
Botanical garden.
Duck restaurant.
Resort.
Sleeping.
Skiing.
Death.
That’s at least a day.
But—
Then I realized.
None of it made sense.
No time gaps.
No real transitions.
Sleep came instantly.
Morning came instantly.
Back then, I accepted it.
Now—
It was obvious.
Time hadn’t actually passed.
We entered around morning—
And exited around late morning.
Maybe two hours.
And yet—
That was enough to completely break us.
“…We should rest.”
The moment we reached the dining hall—
Jincheol spoke.
“Yeah… let’s rest. Today… maybe even tomorrow.”
“Just eat first.”
“Food is the only good thing about this place.”
We sat.
But Song began to tremble again.
“Too… too…”
“Stop,” Eun-sol said firmly. “From now on, we don’t talk about what happened in that room. Not a word. It was just a nightmare. Look at yourselves—nothing changed. You’re all fine.”
Gradually—
The mood stabilized.
“Let’s end this topic here,” Jincheol added.
“…Yeah.”
Then—
We ate.
White rice.
Spicy pork.
Fried egg.
Sesame oil.
One bite—
And the nightmare faded, just a little.
“…You eat really well,” someone said.
“…There were too many choices—I just picked randomly.”
“Try the ribs too. They’re amazing.”
As we ate—
The atmosphere softened.
Then Elena spoke.
“So we’re resting today and tomorrow, right? I noticed something yesterday—the basement has a lot of facilities. Maybe we can explore them while resting?”
“That sounds good—but this place could hide monsters anywhere,” Jincheol replied. “Without Gain’s ability, it’s risky.”
“…You have no advice left?” Seungyeop asked.
“…None.”
“Then yeah, it’s dangerous,” Eun-sol said. “Let’s not explore today.”
We agreed.
Instead—
We talked.
About the basement.
A swimming pool.
A gym.
But also—
A zoo.
A botanical garden.
A campsite.
An amusement park.
“…What kind of hotel has those underground?” someone asked.
“Well… after seeing what we’ve seen, anything’s possible,” Eun-sol replied.
“Maybe it’s like the rooms—looks normal outside, but inside is completely different.”
“Swimming pool sounds nice…”
“I want to see the zoo!”
Despite everything—
Everyone sounded almost excited.
Then—
A dry voice cut in.
“Yeah, sure. Keep dreaming. Hopefully the hotel likes us enough not to throw monsters at us again.”
Still—
Something had changed.
The crushing weight of trauma—
Had lightened.
Maybe—
We were forcing ourselves to act normal.
But it worked.
The memories faded.
Just a little.
We rested.
Talked.
Ate dinner.
Rested again.
And fell asleep.
If only—
This could last forever.