Hotel Trap (3): The Creator's Confession
Crack.
The monster's neck twisted and snapped in my black grip.
"Phew."
Yoo Hwa, having already taken down five of the damn things, was faithfully carrying out her master's orders. Protect the humans. Even before becoming a demon, the Association had rated her a 7th Grade monster. But once she turned demon, her power shot up to a whole other level. Punks who just hunted humans for sport? They weren't even worth her time anymore.
"Hope they don't catch me wandering around like this..."
Her team had split up long ago after encountering monsters. Thanks to that, she'd gone with the brute-force strategy of wiping out every monster to keep them from reaching the humans. Crude, but effective.
I wonder if Lady Seol-ah has escaped yet? Yoo Hwa thought, starting to feel the fatigue set in.
That was when it hit.
"Guh...?!"
Thud.
A sudden, crushing pressure clamped around her throat. Shocked, she dropped to her knees.
Wh-what the hell was that...?
Just the sheer force of it had forced her down. Stunned, she whipped her head toward the source.
It was where Heuk Seol-ah was.
* * *
I landed amid shattered concrete chunks on the first floor—the hotel lobby.
No one's here.
As expected, not a trace of humans anywhere on the ground floor. Of course not. No way someone schlepping down the stairs could outpace the Demon King crashing through the floor.
Whoosh.
I pulled something from my pocket. The hotel room keycard. Gotta turn this in for checkout.
Step, step.
I strode quickly toward the front desk.
Scrape, scrape.
At the same time, I heard something slithering closer. I glanced up at the ceiling with a bored look.
-Krrk, guest, krrk. Checkout, krrk.
A grotesque thing with its mouth torn ear-to-ear but the rest of its face blank as a corpse crawled across the ceiling. Scrape, scrape-scrape.
-You can't, leave.
-We'll, help you, out.
And it wasn't just one. About eight of them. A decent horde crawling my way.
Something I could do for those fuckers.
"Is that how you treat guests, you pieces of shit?!?!?!?!?"
Boom!
-KREEEEEEEK!!!!
The burst of demonic energy exploding from my throat sent the ceiling-crawlers tumbling down like rain.
-Gu, guest? Guk?
"All of you, gather up!"
I clenched my fist in the air, and a black orb formed overhead. Nearly 3 meters across, it spun ominously.
-...
Even monsters couldn't fight their survival instincts. They slithered over without a peep and clustered in front of me.
"Apologize."
-Gue, st?
"I was trying to leave, and you blocked me. Apologize for that."
They started glancing at each other. Their stupidly huge eyes made every twitch obvious.
Snap.
-Kreeeek!
At my signal, a massive tentacle shot from the black orb and skewered one monster's head. Down to seven.
-S-sorry, dear customer!
-We apologize for our, terrible service!
-Forgive us just this once, please!
Only then did they start banging their heads and begging. Gotta respect their guts, though. Takes balls not to run from a lunatic in black armor.
Step, step.
I ignored them and headed for the front desk. Scrape, scrape from behind, but fading fast. Tucking tail and running, looks like.
-...
The one at the front desk looked pretty intact. Around Yoo Hwa's bathhouse days level?
-Ch-checkout assistance, for you, sir...
It opened its mouth cautiously.
-Just hand over your keycard and go...
"What kind of employee training is this shit?"
-Pardon...?
I laid into the thing.
"You crawl on the ceiling like rude assholes when serving guests, block the exit pretending to 'help' when I'm leaving, and only apologize after I blow up? Is this how your staff acts?"
-Y-yes...?
"Unacceptable. Get the manager."
Its face went ghost-white. It was already pale, but now it was straight-up paper.
-S-sorry, sir... We'll train them better, please forgive us just once...
"You think I'm fucking around?! Get the manager NOW!!!"
-Hiiik!
I raised my hand like a blade, and it teared up, backing away.
"I said get them!"
-G-getting them now! Please wait!
It stumbled backward and bolted to the back.
Just wait a bit.
Why was I doing this? Half of it was venting my irritation. Upper floors were handled by Yoo Hwa with no issues anyway. So this was personal stress relief.
The other half? Meeting the creator.
Horror Escape Room Creator Club. The group tied to my first monster encounter. Name screams nest of crazies, but what can you do? I desperately needed info on monsters. And here was a human group handling them. Too good to pass up.
This one's a hotel-themed escape room.
Checkout on the first floor for success. Would a simple setup like that have detailed job ranks? Probably just guest, staff, receptionist. So who shows if I call the manager?
Simple answer.
Step, step.
The creator.
Creeak, click.
A man walked up and sat at the reception desk. Blond with a neat slicked-back hairstyle.
"Hello."
Looked foreign, but Korean words came out.
"I'm Kallup, the planner and creator of this work, Hotel Escape."
"Nice to meet you. Heuk Seol-ah."
Kallup looked pretty tense. Can't blame him with a crazy bitch in black armor right there.
"I heard you had complaints about our club's latest work. Was there something wrong with our game?"
"No real problems. Life-or-death escape rooms are kinda fucked up, but nothing that could hurt me anyway."
He answered cautiously.
"Our club's policy for horror escape rooms emphasizes that life-risk thrill. Sorry we couldn't get your consent on that."
"Sorry, huh?"
"...?"
He looked confused. Realized he'd grabbed a bullshit excuse?
"If you're sorry, show some sincerity."
Snap.
Black iron chains erupted from the floor and wrapped him up.
"Wh-what?!"
"Truth is, I don't know much despite my power."
Bam!
I smashed the desk blocking us and stepped up to him.
"Answer my questions honestly from now on, and you won't get hurt."
* * *
"...That enough?"
"Yeah, good, good."
The brief Q&A left me deeply satisfied.
My naming sense is universally appealing, huh.
I'd slapped "Goe-i" on them, and turns out everyone else calls them monsters too.
And a ton of other info besides.
Details on the Horror Escape Room Creator Club. Other groups. And most importantly...
Monster Management Association.
Apparently the top dog in the monster world. They manage monsters and kill them when unnecessary. The escape club gets labeled terrorists for using monsters, so they're on the run from the Association.
"Thanks for cooperating."
I smiled and snapped my fingers.
"Hah..."
The chains binding him vanished like they'd never been.
"You're free to go now. Keep making your works hard~."
I stood, tossed the keycard carelessly, and headed out.
"But don't invite me again."
With that parting shot, I walked to the exit.
The message appeared on the door, and the game ended.
Shh.
I immediately dissolved the armor back into demonic energy and floated it into the air.
-Kyaaak!
-Wh-what!?
-Who escaped?
People teleported right to me all at once. They looked around wildly, spotted me, and shouted.
-D-did you escape successfully?
"Yeah, I did."
They cheered and hugged each other at my words.
15 people... so five dead.
The survivors were all familiar faces. Probably five from the group that didn't follow me at first.
"Ahem..."
Yoo Hwa coughed awkwardly, covertly tossing away the monster head she'd been holding.
That was close to fucked.
Luckily, they were too busy celebrating to notice.
But...
Something felt off. The monsters and Kallup were gone, the wrecked hotel restored. So why was the lobby empty?
Step, step.
Footsteps approached.
"So glad you made it back safely."
A woman in a suit.
"I'm Park Hye-yeon, field investigator for the Monster Management Association's Team 3."
-Monster Management Association?
-What's that?
Monster Management Association?
"Congratulations on your survival. The five who died will be processed as 'non-existent' per Association protocol."
What the...?
I kept my mouth shut for now.
"And all of you... pay attention."
She pulled something like a stick from her pocket.
"You're about to undergo memory erasure."
Pew!
Light burst from the stick.
Wait, that's some X-Files memo—
-Let's unpack quick and grab food.
-Any good spots nearby?
Suddenly, everyone was back in the bustling hotel lobby.
Did that wipe memories?
But mine was fine.
-Uh... what were we doing here?
-Checkout, right? Let's go.
The others who'd exited with us from the hotel had their memories totally gone. They muttered among themselves and soon scattered.
"Yoo Hwa, you remember?"
"Yes... head's a bit fuzzy, but I'm okay."
Guess we monsters weren't affected.
Monster Management Association...
So that's how they control info.
Good enough.
This incident netted a shitload of info already. Profit.
"Let's go."
"But I didn't finish my drama..."
And so we left the hotel.
* * *
Horror Escape Room Creator Club
Blacklist: Heuk Seol-ah, Yoo Hwa.
Do NOT invite these two to any escape rooms under ANY circumstances.
—Club Leader, Kallup—