Chapter 16
Once again, I failed to send an innocent guest away from this wicked hotel.
It was disappointing.
Truly.
“I should have had no trouble holding onto my reason.”
I was confident in keeping at least my mind intact. Even if something went wrong, I could shake it off with my own will. Even if the shell called “General Manager” lacked the function of “refusing human guests,”
I was, after all, a human being with self-awareness.
“……”
I am human, right?
Anyway.
“Just like in the power plant room, I thought if I steeled my resolve firmly enough, I could push them out of this hotel. But the result is far from satisfactory.”
It was a bitter outcome.
“It seems the domain of the mind and the mechanism of action are bound by different forces. A coercion beyond the control of my own consciousness… how troublesome.”
Because I braced myself, my head clearly judged that I must send them away immediately. Yet my body did not follow. Even though I tried to say, “Staying here for long is not a good choice.”
In the end, I uttered a completely irrelevant greeting.
“Is this related to my body having fallen into such a powerless state?”
This body made no sense. A nineteen-year-old body housing a forty-five-year-old mind, the pain that accompanied me whenever I failed to follow the so-called character’s behavioral mechanism.
“Even when I mimic those actions, the pain disappears, or I display monstrous strength… clearly abnormal. There must be a logical foundation to this as well, like blood magic.”
But with my limited knowledge, I could not yet determine the reason.
“Ha….”
I needed to finish my research quickly.
“An event, though… that’s rare.”
Was it because of the heavy rain? Or perhaps because of the previous guidance.
Lee Yeonwoo had instinctively sensed the call and had come straight to the seventh floor.
“……”
The lights hanging from the ceiling were splendid. The large windows were clean. Beyond them, the forest could be seen, raindrops clinging to the glass.
Yet the air was damp and chilly.
Rainwater clung heavily to the corridor.
The lighting was bright, yet pale.
“Really….”
Lee Yeonwoo’s dry voice settled into the empty hallway.
“How exhausting.”
The event of the “Wet Person” had occurred.
Each monster guest was assigned between two and six events in which they were the main focus. The “Wet Person” had five in total.
“This time it occurred inside the guest room.”
Lee Yeonwoo stopped in front of Room 703.
“Judging by the location, it isn’t Last Struggle.”
Though it occasionally occurred in the corridor, the Wet Person’s events usually took place in the guest room, especially the bathroom. Considering the concept of a drowned ghost, it was only natural.
“……”
Since starting the tutorial, this was the first event of the common tier across both versions.
“…Good morning, Guest.”
This hotel did not have modern doorbells. Instead, a classic bell board served that purpose.
When an event occurred, the bell on the board rang, and the user, the game character, sensed it instinctively without physically seeing it.
“I heard the call bell and came to check.”
This was a kind of system procedure. A line that had once been output automatically in the game. Now I had to recite it myself without missing a single word. Only then would the game system apply.
I continued the dialogue.
“Is there anything I may assist you with?”
Instead of an answer, an unpleasant scraping sound scratched along the corridor.
Creeeak—
“……”
The door opened.
There was no sign of anyone inside.
“Under my management, and the facilities make such a crude noise?”
Who gave permission for a guest room door to open with such a sound? Honestly, the fact that it creaked was far more unpleasant than any horror staging.
“I understand it is a game concession, but it does not feel good.”
That was merely my personal sentiment. The door had opened, so I had to step inside according to procedure.
“Excuse me. I will enter.”
I pushed my body into the darkened room.
“……”
The first thing that approached was humidity.
“Breathing is difficult.”
When I exhaled with effort, white breath scattered in the low temperature.
A doubt arose. Normally, cold air held less moisture, yet here it was damp and cold as if mocking physical law. A strange sensation as though frost formed inside my lungs.
“But I do not feel pain.”
Only the phenomenon of sensation existed. I was a game character who had entered an event sequence. There was no reason, nor need, to hesitate.
Yeonwoo walked indifferently toward the source of the sound of water.
“I see.”
When I opened the bathroom door, a familiar sight unfolded.
“So it is the shower event.”
The so-called Water That Cannot Wash.
“I know this situation well, yet it feels different. There is a clear difference between viewing it as a pixel image in a game and seeing it in reality.”
A line of text long memorized surfaced in my mind.
“Under the cold stream, the Wet Person knelt and bowed their head. The water flows, yet they remain submerged. They are alone.”
Indeed, it was exactly as described. Pathetically standing beneath the shower, letting the water pour down.
“If I guide this event, the penalty was…”
The illusion of being drenched across the entire body for twenty-four hours.
A cold debuff inserted into all decision-making.
Acute pulmonary edema, hypothermia, and arrhythmia.
“Fatal.”
Even without penalties, my condition was poor. I was barely holding together organ damage and bleeding with blood magic. Adding pulmonary edema and arrhythmia on top of that.
“That is no different from telling me to die.”
But.
“If I leave it unattended?”
Frequent electrocution and bathroom-related accidents. In other words, contamination of the water system spreading throughout the hotel.
“Our innocent guests will use the bathrooms.”
There were many electronic devices in this hotel. Despite its nineteenth-century Western hotel concept, it used electricity freely. At worst, it would not merely cause injury but risk lives.
They could not revive upon death as I could. They would feel pain.
“I must intervene.”
And besides that.
“…Ha….”
It was pitiful to look at.
“Guest.”
I straightened myself from where I had leaned against the bathroom door and stepped inside.
“Though it is summer, perhaps because of the rainy season, the weather is cold.”
“……”
“The humidity in the room is high. The temperature is low as well. If you require any related service, please let me know. I will assist you.”
“……”
There was no answer.
“Of course.”
In this event sequence, the Wet Person did not speak. Unless the Aqua Park event triggered, they would remain silent.
“They are submerged, so they cannot speak.”
The monster guests here were manifestations of universally negative concepts. The Wet Person embodied drowning, the fear of a water ghost and a killer spirit. They were still underwater.
“Even so, though they are not truly human…”
Shells without origin or soul, mere reproductions of situations.
“Still, as a user, I have the right to feel sympathy.”
They looked so pitiful.
“…You like the rain. I remember.”
I spoke idly.
“I know you focus on the faint vibration when raindrops fall upon the water’s surface. In the blurred senses of the underwater world, there is nothing better for feeling the existence of outside.”
“……”
“Where might you be now? Near the surface? Or sunk into the depths? Are you in the sea? Or a river? A deep lake? It would not be shallow, wherever it is.”
“……”
“If my words grow long and disturb you, I apologize.”
Perhaps they were offended.
“But whenever you stand in the rain like this, I have always wanted to ask.”
“……”
“I wanted to pull you out.”
That was not a game line.
“It is presumptuous meddling.”
It was a game I cherished. I cherished its monster guests as well. Some were purely dangerous, but others were born from pitiable concepts.
The Wet Person was like that.
“…You may call me a hypocrite again this time, but well.”
“……”
“Would it not be better for you to come outside than to remain submerged?”
I reached to turn off the shower, then changed direction. I grasped the shower head and checked the temperature.
“Too cold.”
I turned the faucet toward hot water, gauged the warmth against my hand, then hung the head back up. Warm steam began to rise in the frigid bathroom.
“Even though I set it lukewarm to avoid burns, this much steam.”
For a moment, I wondered if it was all right.
“……”
Under the warm rain, the Wet Person lifted their head.
Their hair was disheveled, hiding their face. I sat down against the shower booth wall.
“……”
“……”
They did not attack. It did not seem entirely bad.
“I am doing such things now that the game has become reality.”
The guidance method for this event, Water That Cannot Wash, was simple. Turn off the shower and place a towel over the Wet Person. That would end it.
But I waited a moment.
“I have watched you for twenty-six years.”
“……”
“Each time, you weighed on my mind. Everyone has moments they wish to sink. Even if one cannot remain there forever… perhaps for a while it is acceptable.”
It might look foolish to grow attached to a fictional existence. But over twenty-six years, even that gained a certain value. Even if it was mere game data.
There were no people in this hotel. If there were, they were those I had to send away, those I had to protect. Cut off from society, all that increased was my muttering.
“You may grieve or rage as you wish. But at the very least, one must take care of their body. If you must cry, do so in a warm, soft bed. If you must be angry, at least eat something first.”
That was why I raised the water temperature.
“Regrettably, I cannot remain here too long.”
“……”
“…Shall we rise?”
After a while, I turned off the shower. I retrieved the largest, thickest towel from the linen closet and placed it over the Wet Person’s head.
“Should I dry them as well?”
But that seemed excessive. They looked like a grown adult. And they were the sensitive type. More contact would not help.
I left the bathroom.
The air in the room had already normalized.
“……”
As I stepped outside the room, a thought occurred.
“…Ah.”
Should I have shown more fear?
It was, after all, a horror hotel management simulation game. I wondered if I had failed in my duty as a horror game user.
“It feels less like experiencing horror and more like comforting a guest with heartache.”
But there must be something to fear in order to fear it.
“If we have spent decades together, to be frightened now would be discourteous.”
Wishful thinking.
An excuse directed at no one in particular.
Five minutes after leaving the room, as I braced myself, the penalty arrived.
“—Cough, cough—!!”
My lungs shrank until I could not breathe.
Lee Yeonwoo writhed on the bed in the staff quarters, groaning. His situation was truly pitiable. Acute pulmonary edema, hypothermia, and arrhythmia.
“At this rate, I could be included in a medical textbook.”
“Yes.”
“Let us think positively. I have received my comprehensive health check results in advance.”
“No.”
“Indeed.”
It was the perfect condition to collapse.
I reviewed what little medical knowledge I possessed. Respiratory distress from acute pulmonary edema. Coughing fits. Hypothermia from falling body temperature. Slowed reactions and mental confusion.
“Arrhythmia could even precede cardiac arrest.”
For a normal body, it would be fatal.
“Perhaps because this is a game, it does not go that far.”
“Yes.”
“Please… speak properly.”
For now, the reflected conditions were stamina reduction, delayed response to commands, action nullification, automatic collapse during movement, coughing fits, limited environmental awareness.
Various abnormal statuses, but nothing beyond that.
“No frothy cough. Muscle rigidity remains within limits.”
The developer had been too busy coding the game to meticulously recreate human anatomy. He was not a doctor.
“The absence of real pain is a small comfort.”
“Yes.”
“Of course, this will not remain someone else’s problem forever. The moment I shed this character shell and return to reality, these illnesses will flood in at once. Then it will truly be difficult to manage.”
“Yes.”
Fortunately, stamina reduction could be removed by using the bed. But I could not sleep now. Once I slept in this bed, I would wake at dawn the next day without fail.
“In the end, these status effects apply only to the game character’s body.”
When a game character was sick, the user beyond the screen did not suffer. The same now. Only the status was reflected. There was no true confusion or blurred vision.
“……”
Absurd.
“Calm down.”
Before analyzing this abnormal body that would have Hippocrates rising from his grave and Nightingale taking flight, there was something more important.
The innocent guests came to mind.
“…Should I postpone the conversation?”
“Postpone the conversation.”
“I will not consider answers that reflect only your opinion.”
“No….”
“Acting cute will not help.”
“No….”
“I said it will not help.”
Yet my hand diligently kneaded Coco. The texture was exquisite. If such a pillow were released, I would buy seven and rotate them daily.
I placed Coco by my side and stroked it.
“Postponing it will not resolve the status effects.”
The most efficient option was death and reset. The second-best option was using items, but the situation did not allow it.
“Face reality.”
The longer I delayed the conversation, the greater the chance innocent people would be endangered.
“……”
I looked at the clock.
The hour hand pointed to seven.
“……”
“No….”
“Hmm.”
Lee Yeonwoo rose from the bed. His body felt heavy.
“With pulmonary edema, hypothermia, and arrhythmia, if my body felt light, that would be stranger. I am grateful it has not become that abnormal.”
He stood before the mirror.
“…As an adult, I cannot break a promise.”
Even so, irritation surged.
“Am I truly insane?”
He felt disgusted at his body tossed about by various status effects. At this rate, he would cough while walking, collapse while walking. It was already dizzying.
“This is the first time so many status effects have overlapped outside of pure gameplay.”
The future was unclear.
But to think it would become literally unseen.
“Mr. Yeonwoo?”
“…Ah, you have arrived.”
“I called you from the main entrance.”
“……”
“…Are you unwell?”
“No.”
He denied it immediately while his mind spun.
“Limited environmental awareness.”
Is this how it manifests?
“Can a person truly become unseen?”
Have I gone mad?
Even amid confusion, he attempted to say, “There is nothing wrong.” Naturally. The more anxious a human guest became, the more the hotel liked it. It would not benefit the guest either.
But the words did not come. Why? For what reason?
“……”
The answer surfaced automatically.
“Delayed command response, action nullification.”
I must truly be insane.
“…I am truly fine.”
“……”
“Truly.”
“……”
Good heavens.
“That foolish statement came from my own mouth.”
It was a pitiful response that would make even someone who believed him turn back in doubt.