No Big Deal Girl
"Baesena, um, are you okay...?" I asked.
Baesena gave me a puzzled look.
"Okay with what?"
"Well, you said you were left here all alone...? Doesn't it get tough?"
"Not tough at all! I'm used to stuff like this!"
Baesena just beamed innocently like that.
Hmm, yeah, looks like the Cute Girl Mod isn't applying to her... Why not?
Come to think of it, back when I met Baesena before, there was skinship too, right...?
This wasn't the first time Baesena had grabbed my hand.
Thinking back now, I remembered the Cute Girl Mod hadn't applied to her then either.
I'd thought it triggered through "contact," but was I wrong?
No... It's probably because she's not the main body.
The one in front of me was just one of countless Baesena duplicates.
Her real main body was deep inside the "safest shelter in the world."
Unless I landed a "Cute Girl Punch" on that main body, Baesena probably wouldn't ever turn into a cute girl.
I felt relieved that the Cute Girl Mod hadn't kicked in.
"How'd you end up here, Mayuri?"
Baesena asked. I hesitated for a second.
Doesn't seem like there are any other Special Task Force agents besides Baesena.
Glancing at her body, I spotted a tracker attached.
Baesena was a monster made of a legion of countless dolls. Her body always retained doll joints, but she could freely alter her appearance otherwise—a monster who could infiltrate human society if she wanted.
Yet Baesena never did. Because she was a kind-hearted monster.
Still, the Special Task Force didn't fully trust her, so whenever they let her out, they'd either send a staffer along or attach a tracker like this.
"Just like you guessed, we came to resolve the anomaly..."
Baesena had probably already figured out Ari and Lisa's identities to some extent. And she hadn't reported them to the Task Force yet. So it should be fine to tell her.
I gave a quick rundown of how we'd learned about the anomaly and ended up here.
"A hotel? I've been wandering this island the whole time, but I've never seen a hotel!"
"Anomalies like this depend on the sequence..."
Seeing internet humor posts → spotting the job ad → taking the boat → arriving on the island. Baesena had skipped straight to the island.
There's that saying: talk about ghosts, and they'll come.
Put another way, ghosts weren't originally there, but people kept talking about them until one suddenly popped into existence.
Monsters don't create rumors—rumors create monsters. And surprisingly, that happens a lot.
Just like that: you have to see the "Make 1.3 Billion at the Murder Hotel VS Just Survive" humor post first to gain access to Hotel the Lamento.
"Whoa, for real! There's a hotel!"
Baesena, who'd tagged along with us, exclaimed in surprise.
The hotel sat at the island's edge. A high-rise with white walls and glass windows. A massive ribbon logo crowned the red roof, and a neat fountain stood before the main entrance.
It looked like any resort you might see at a vacation spot. From afar, it could pass for a honeymoon getaway.
Silver letters spelling "Hotel the Lamento" gleamed in the sunlight on the sign.
Entity Name:Murder Hotel
Management Rank:Death (Viriditas) (Threat Level 3)
Hostility:Slightly Hostile
This entity takes the form of a hotel, a Muksi Saengmyeongche whose internal nature shifts at regular intervals. It's relatively stable during the day, but at night, up to 13 killers manifest inside and roam the premises.
Humans who enter can earn 100 million won per day survived, with a reported maximum stay of 13 days.
"The hotel's more normal than I expected," Lisa muttered.
A vast, sparkling lobby. Marble floors. Chandelier lights reflecting so brightly it stung the eyes.
Hard to believe a monster ran the place. If anything, the interior felt more human, Lisa thought.
No sign of killers. Aside from us guests, there were no other presences.
Mayuri, Ari, Lisa, Taemi, Nao, Miyeong. And Baesena.
"Unni, you sure this is okay? That person... or whatever. That doll's from the Task Force, right...?"
"It'll be fine. ...Probably."
Lisa overheard Mayuri chatting with Nao like that.
Baesena was curiously scoping out the hotel interior.
Lisa shot her a casual glare.
Originally, it was just supposed to be the agency crew checking in, but Baesena had insisted on tagging along. And Mayuri had okayed it easily.
-"You can come along, but... we're handling the anomaly investigation."
-"As long as you don't call in other Task Force people, it's fine..."
Much later, Mayuri explained it as a "random event." Apparently, you sometimes ran into certain NPCs in anomaly zones. Geom-ma, Ryu Harin, and such. Baesena was one of those random-encounter NPCs, and she had a high chance of helping out if you met her.
Even after hearing that, Lisa wasn't particularly interested. She didn't get what it meant anyway.
Mayuri's power worked in a pretty unique way. Monsters she touched got trapped in human bodies and developed a strong interest in Mayuri specifically.
Strangely, they showed little interest in anyone else. Take Ari, who'd been living with them for a while now—there wasn't much interaction between Ari and Lisa. Ari just followed Mayuri, and Lisa followed Mayuri.
So Lisa let her interest in Baesena drop. If Mayuri said it was fine, it was fine.
"No killers show during the day. So we prep during daylight..."
Mayuri said that and took the lead.
As they walked, she explained the hotel. Lisa had already heard it the day before.
It was a "defense-style horror game," apparently. A bit like Teddy's Pizzeria, whatever that was—Lisa had no clue.
Anyway, according to Mayuri: roam the hotel during the day for useful items, then survive the night against killers.
"The hotel layout shifts a little every day. Item types and spots are random too..."
"Feels like we're really in a game! But how do you know all this, Mayuri? First time here, right?"
"Th-that's a trade secret... I have my ways..."
"Got it! Won't ask then!"
And after that, Baesena really didn't pry.
A monster that protected humans, huh. As long as she could protect them, she didn't care how. A unique one, Lisa thought.
"The first night won't be too dangerous. Just one killer shows up."
So they skipped item hunting that first day and just picked rooms.
Mayuri got 1003. Ari would bunk with her in 1003.
Doors didn't lock at night, so killers could barge in anytime. Someone had to guard Mayuri, and Ari drew the short straw.
Nao got the room right next door, 1002. Lisa took 1004 next to that. Miyeong 1005, Baesena 1001.
"I'm crashing till night. Wake me when it gets dark."
Mayuri declared free time and headed into 1003 with Ari.
Lisa dragged a chair from 1004 into the hall and sat, just passing time.
"Lisa...? What're you doing out here?"
Nao asked.
Nao dropped formal speech with Ari and even Mayuri, but not with Lisa. Guess Lisa intimidated her.
Lisa didn't understand or care about Nao's feelings on that.
Lisa smiled faintly. "Gotta guard Mayuri. So I'll wait here."
"B-but it's still a while till night..."
"You never know."
Lisa replied. Nao soon mumbled, "Then I'll prep my stream in my room... Call if anything happens..." and went inside.
Apparently, she could stream from the hotel—as long as she didn't leak internal info.
Baesena said, "I'm gonna scout the hotel! Grab some of those items Mayuri mentioned!" and took off.
1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds. 4 seconds.
Time ticked by one second at a time, but Lisa's posture never wavered.
Baesena seemed super curious about the hotel.
Nao didn't show it, but she quietly enjoyed staying here too. Minus the killers, the facilities were top-notch.
Even Ari was into the food—she kept popping in and out, hauling back piles from somewhere. Always munching when she returned.
She pulled a churro from her pocket and offered it to Lisa in the chair.
"Wanna eat?"
"I'm good."
"Eat."
"Then I won't hold back."
Lisa politely took the churro from Ari and ate it.
And so night fell.
Ari emerged from 1003. "It's night."
"I know."
"Mayuri's sleeping."
"No need to wake her."
"Yeah."
Ari went back into 1003.
Lisa drew her chef's knife and cleaver. Blades already honed sharp.
Still, she pulled out a pocket whetstone and sharpened them.
Shhkk, shhkk. Shhkk, shhkk.
The sound rang out each time steel met stone.
It wasn't the blade being refined—it was something else. A chef's resolve? Spirit? Whatever it was, Lisa didn't care.
Her focus was simple and clear. Always keep the blades sharp for the best cuisine.
But quietly, so sleeping Mayuri wouldn't wake.
Then, faintly from afar—
-Ziiiiing!
A chainsaw revved. A man in a mask-like thing approached.
Lisa glared at him. "Loud noise. If this were a restaurant, you'd get noise complaints from the neighbors."
No reply.
Probably couldn't communicate. Maybe for the best.
-Taat!
The killer swung the chainsaw at Lisa.
She met it with her cleaver.
-Kagagagak!!
The chainsaw scraped the cleaver's flat, but it didn't shatter.
Lisa drove the blade into the killer's neck.
-Puk!
Meat parted with a spurt of blood.
From there, it was just cooking. Slice, dice, score—keeping the rhythm.
And she realized: No different from human.
Took it down easy.
The killer's corpse tumbled across the floor.
Lisa eyed it a moment, then dragged it into empty 1006 and dumped it.
Grabbed cleaning tools, mopped the hall.
Left 1004's door open, changed clothes. Tossed the soiled ones in the laundry basket, sat back in the chair.
Time passed.
1 second. 2 seconds. 3 seconds. 4 seconds.
How much time had gone by?
-Creak.
A door opened.
"Huh? Lisa? You stayed like that the whole time...? What about the killer?"
Mayuri emerged. Dawn had broken sometime.
Lisa smiled faintly. "No big deal."
She replied.