A Rainy Day

It was a rainy day.

“You’ve worked hard all this time. It would’ve been a lot tougher without you, Chul-ho.”

Today, I was closing up shop.

Closing down the motel I’d been running for so long.

“Not at all. I got to coast along pretty comfortably because of you, boss.”

Kim Chul-ho. One of the few employees at this motel, and our ace.

No matter what task I gave him, even if it wasn’t technically his job, he handled it without complaint or fuss.

That made me sound like some kind of evil employer, but I’d always made sure to give him holiday gifts and bonuses, too. Of course, even that never felt like enough.

“You punk.”

I gave his shoulder a light punch. Chul-ho answered with a good-natured grin and a joking tone.

“So what are you going to do now, boss?”

“Not sure. Maybe I’ll go work at a factory or something. I’m tired of sitting around in the middle of nowhere, waiting for guests who may or may not ever show up. What about you?”

“I’ve saved up some money, so I’m thinking of doing part-time work while taking online classes. I’ll get some certifications and make a lot of money.”

He was responsible, all right. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠He was young, so he still had chances. I envied him.

“Good. Whatever you do, I hope it goes well. Stay healthy, and call me once in a while. All right, get going.”

“Yes, sir! Thank you for everything, boss!”

Chul-ho bowed his head and stepped out through the glass entrance.

And then,

Thwack-!

Something gray suddenly flew in from the side and slammed into Chul-ho.

It was so fast I could barely follow it with my eyes.

“Huh?”

I blinked, and the upper half of Chul-ho’s body was gone.

Blood poured down the motel entrance wall from where he’d been, and his lower half staggered once before collapsing to the ground.

“Wha… wha…?”

My brain gave up on processing the scene. It was too absurd to be real.

Then,

Beeep-! Beeep-!

An alarm sounded on my phone.

“W-what the hell….”

Was some kind of zombie apocalypse breaking out?

More importantly, Chul-ho?

I snapped out of it and ran to where he’d been standing.

And through the glass, I saw it. The source of this nightmare.

It had the shape of a dog.

But wet, plaster-like flesh clung all over its body, and its muzzle had split into four jagged sections, each packed with fangs.

“W-what the hell is that!”

My mission to check on Chul-ho vanished like snow under a hot sun in the face of that overwhelming terror.

Instinct screamed at me.

I had to survive. That was the only thought left in my head.

“Shit...! Shit...!”

I shoved the lobby furniture into place and barricaded the entrance.

For a second, I even thought about running out the back door.

But the emergency alert had told me not to go outside.

Even setting that aside, there was no way I was going out there with that monster roaming around.

“Haa...! Haa...!”

I threw my full strength into blocking the entrance until I was gasping for breath.

Thankfully, the barricade did its job.

Something kept pounding at the front door now and then, but it never managed to get inside.

And just like that, I was trapped inside the motel.

***

The water, electricity, and internet were all cut off after about two weeks.

Still, by then I’d managed to gather enough useful information.

First, the bizarre phenomenon of people being torn apart and monsters appearing was apparently caused by the Gray Rain.

No one could identify the exact cause or mechanism, but if you were exposed to it, human or beast, you’d turn into a monster. As if you’d been infected by something.

And once infected, they became feral and started attacking other people. Then those people got infected, and the cycle of human attacks continued all over again.

There were rumors that a few people who’d been caught in the rain didn’t go mad and instead awakened special powers, but I didn’t know what to make of that.

Compared to the hell outside, though, I’d been lucky.

Our motel was in a remote place where, every once in a while, people would wonder, “Why the hell is there a motel out here?”

Naturally, there were few people around besides guests, so the level of risk was lower.

There were a few monsters wandering around outside, but none of them were enough to pose a major threat.

Thanks to that, I was able to survive by living off the motel’s stored food and barely scraping by.

“Though it looks like even that ends today.”

The food I’d kept in the staff pantry, along with the water and drinks I’d scavenged from the guest rooms, had finally run dry.

It had already been almost three days since I’d last reluctantly nursed a single pack of uncooked ramyeon over several meals.

“Should I go outside…? Not like there’d be much to gain if I did, though….”

The nearest convenience store was more than fifteen minutes away on foot.

And there was no guarantee it was still standing. Odds were high it was already wrecked.

That was when, while I was wallowing in reality’s misery,

ding.

Translucent letters appeared before my eyes.

“W-what is this?”

I waved my hand. I rubbed my eyes. The letters still didn’t disappear.

“... What the hell is this?”

Actually, I did have some idea.

About a week earlier, there had been reports of people suddenly awakening after translucent windows appeared in midair. People had started calling it “Awakening.”

I seemed to have done something similar, but….

“But an innkeeper?”

Wasn’t that a little too much?

It was too ordinary.

I wasn’t even asking for some Heaven-Slaying Death Beam or anything.

At least give me something useful for survival, like a skill or a physical boost.

“Unbelievable. What’s an innkeeper supposed to do?”

As if waiting for that exact question, the translucent hologram kindly provided an answer.

“Huh...?”

The inn became an absolute zone, and it replenished consumables?

That meant nobody could break in, and water and food would just keep on replenishing?

I went straight to the staff pantry to check, and sure enough, the cup ramyeon and bottled water that had all run out were fully restocked.

“Whoa….”

A gasp escaped me.

I’d thought it was some garbage Awakening, but this was amazing, wasn’t it?

And it restored power, water, and the internet, too?

When I went to the window and looked outside, I saw that the motel’s tacky sign was lit up again.

When I turned on the faucet, water came running once more.

“... This is insane.”

At this rate, I could hold out for years until the situation settled down.

“More importantly, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it said Level 1, right…? So if I get to Level 2… something else might unlock?”

“A guest… I need to take in guests.”

That made sense, considering the name of my Awakening as innkeeper.

But this wasn’t the kind of place anyone was likely to come looking for. It seemed like it would be hard to meet the Level 2 condition.

“Well, whatever. Nice if someone comes, no big deal if they don’t. Haven’t had 짜짜게티 in a while, so I might as well eat that.”

I turned on the gas burner and filled the pot with water.

“This is the life.”

How inconvenient had it been, all this time, to eat with only a flashlight on and bottled water cracked open beside me?

The comforts of civilization, regained at last, were sweet beyond words.

“Come to think of it, it said the internet would work, too.”

With a little hope in my heart, I powered on my smartphone and opened NewTube.

“... It works.”

The video played as if nothing were unusual.

“What in the world….”

I didn’t know the mechanism behind it, but inside this motel, the water, gas, electricity, and internet all worked.

I could enjoy civilization exactly as it had existed before the apocalypse.

Maybe I’d landed on an incredible power after all.

I was humming to myself, feeling lucky, and had just finished cooking the jajang ramyeon when it happened.

When I blew on the steaming noodles and put them in my mouth, tears suddenly threatened to come out.

“Damn it….”

Who would have thought?

That losing just two weeks of ordinary life could feel this heartbreaking.

“Hngh…!”

So I ate, my eyes damp.

After I finished showering in hot water in one of the rooms, I honestly felt as if I’d stepped into heaven.

“Haa…. Nice. So what now?”

At least now I could live without discomfort.

Even if I didn’t bother leveling up the inn ability, survival itself would no longer be a problem.

“And there’s plenty of content to enjoy, too.”

No new videos would be uploaded, but NewTube still worked, and so did OTT streaming.

When you thought about an apocalypse, mental health was usually a major issue, but even that had been solved.

“For now, I’ll keep quiet. Until things calm down.”

If I could hang on for a few weeks, or a few months at the longest, the outside world might improve a little.

With that hopeful thought in mind, I turned off the motel sign.

I’d only invite trouble if I left it on and attracted attention.

Hilltop Motel, closed for business.

***

And so, one year passed.

I was still alive, somehow.

I watched videos, read webtoons, played games.

The internet didn’t work at full capacity, but it was functional enough.

When I got hungry, I picked from the assortment of convenience foods I had on hand, and because the motel also had alcohol, I sometimes drank to ease the loneliness.

But after a year, I realized a person couldn’t live on that alone.

There was no one.

Not in reality, not on the internet.

Of course there was no one on NewTube, SNS, or the forums either.

Only posts from a year ago remained, as if time itself had stopped.

And reality was no different.

The only living thing in this vast motel was me.

With each passing day, I grew lonelier, more depressed.

My body was alive, but my mind ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was slowly rotting away.

The first three months were fine.

By six months, I was bored out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of my mind.

Maybe around nine months in, I started leaving comments on the videos I watched and replying to my own replies, just to have some fun.

And once the year mark passed, I started hearing phantom chimes from the front desk bell.

The situation that was supposed to settle down soon showed no sign of improving.

In the early days, the government would sometimes send information by radio, but even that had now gone silent.

“Did everyone die?”

Maybe the world really had ended.

I sat in the front desk chair, lost in thought.

“I’m supposed to survive all alone in a destroyed world.”

For decades, maybe.

“... No way.”

Honestly, that was my limit.

Life wasn’t fun anymore.

At this rate, I might not even make it several months, let alone several years.

For me, this place had become nothing more than a giant coffin.

“... I’m depressed.”

Then, all at once, a memory surfaced that had been so obvious I’d nearly forgotten it.

“I said I was an innkeeper.”

That was my role in this ruined world.

Take in guests, and receive payment in return.

“A guest… will someone come?”

Up until now, I’d hidden on purpose.

I’d kept the sign dark and closed the blackout curtains whenever I was in a room, minimizing any light.

Even though the motel was an absolute zone, someone might still try to break in and do me harm.

Still, if I hadn’t hidden like that, would anyone have come looking?

The place was abandoned to begin with, blocked off by roads on both sides, and any living person would have no real reason to come this way, so the odds seemed low.

But still,

“One last try wouldn’t hurt.”

There was nothing left in this life that was likely to bring me much joy anyway.

So it wasn’t a bad idea to look for a new stimulus.

I was still alive.

If anyone else was still alive, I could at least give them a place to sleep for the night.

Click.

Quietly, I turned on the motel sign and the exterior lights.

The ridiculously flashy lights began to shine with a warm glow.

They were a buoy for those in need of shelter, and at the same time, a signal flare for me to escape my loneliness.

And so the motel, cold and dormant for so long, started its engines again.

And then,

ding.

A sentence I had never seen before appeared in front of me.

Hilltop Motel, back in business.