Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Chapter 151: Entry to the Second Floor

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 80

Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3

- Han Kain

As expected, the Hotel announced the opening of the second floor.

We were calmly reading through the message until we reached the last sentence.

The second floor is not well-heated. Please be aware that it might be a bit cold.

“…”

Some were already letting out a bitter laugh or grabbing the back of their necks.

“What do you think ‘a bit cold’ means in the Hotel terms?”

Grandpa Mooksung spoke in a tone of exasperation, “Aren’t they the type of idiots who would describe Antarctica as ‘refreshing weather’? Of course, it’ll be cold enough to freeze to death if we just go up as we are!”

Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned to Eunsol-noona.

Her face had gone pale.

“Don’t look at me! I’ve already used up all my purchases at the HP Market! I didn’t buy anything weird. The Hotel hadn’t warned us about anything in advance. I stocked up on essential consumables in my bag!”

“Noona, calm down. No one’s blaming you. When will the points be refilled?”

“We need at least three more days. But if we wait for another three days, the Hotel is going to cause all sorts of trouble now that our break is over!”

As the atmosphere grew more tense, Grandpa’s calm voice cut through, “Calm down, everyone. If they’re going to play dirty like this, we’ll just respond with some dirty tricks of our own.”

Dirty tricks?

I turned to Grandpa Mooksung, wondering what he meant.

He was eyeing the elaborately decorated curtains in the Hotel, seemingly measuring them by sight.

Seeing his actions, I immediately understood his plan.

“Everyone, grab blankets or something similar from your rooms and bring them out! Let’s use the Hotel’s supplies to make some makeshift winter clothes before we head up.”

Everyone quickly dispersed throughout the Hotel.

Some went to tear down the fabric from the front desk or entrance, others headed to room 105 to grab blankets, and someone even brought back tablecloths.

I also joined in on this “dirty trick” of ripping out the Hotel’s fabrics from every corner.

Honestly, I didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt.

After nearly 30 minutes, there was a pile of fabric stacked higher than a person in front of the elevator.

We hastily assembled it into makeshift winter clothes using knives, scissors, and tape.

Compared to real winter clothing, these were heavy, very uncomfortable, and looked ridiculous, but at least they were warm, so we figured they were good enough.

Dressed in these absurd outfits, we boarded the elevator.

Now it’s really time for the second floor.

We’re finally moving to the next stage.

We took a moment to glance at each other, laughing and joking around before Eunsol-noona pressed the button for the second floor.

- Wiiiing! Wiiiing! Ding!

Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor → Current Location: Floor 2, Corridor

On the 80th day since arriving at this Hotel…

We had finally reached the second floor.

***How should we interpret the vocabulary used by the Hotel?

My opinion was the same as Grandpa Mooksung’s.

The Hotel’s descriptions needed to be interpreted on a “cosmic” scale.

The average temperature in space was stated to be close to absolute zero, around -270 degrees Celsius.

At the same time, the universe was full of stars with surface temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees.

From this perspective, the Hotel’s “a bit cold” could include Antarctic temperatures of -50 degrees, and “a bit warm” could mean lava over 1,000 degrees.

- Whoooosh!

As soon as the elevator doors opened, a chilling cold far beyond anything we could imagine rushed in.

If not for Grandpa’s quick thinking, this temperature could freeze us alive!

In the face of this skin-tearing cold wind, we were frozen in place, unable to take even a single step out of the elevator.

Despite it supposedly being a “Hotel”, a snowstorm raged before our eyes!

In a panic, Eunsol-noona quickly shut the elevator doors.

As soon as the doors closed, everyone erupted in frustration.

“Are they insane?!”

“What kind of Hotel has a snowstorm indoors!? This isn’t just a heating problem!”

“We’ll freeze to death before even reaching the Cursed Room!”

“I can manage, though.”

All eyes turned to Jinchul-hyung.

Unlike the rest of us, he seemed unfazed.

Had the power of his Blessing grown to the point of granting him resistance to the cold?

He spoke again in his usual calm tone, “From my perspective, it’s just a fairly cold winter day. In fact, I was more surprised by how strongly everyone else reacted.”

“I’m fine too!”

“Of course, Seungyub, you’re wearing the Protective Suit. Now, be quiet.”

“Yes…”

“Let’s head back to the first floor and discuss this.”

Once we returned to the first floor, we revised our plans.

The makeshift winter clothes we had thrown together were helpful but not nearly enough for the extreme cold up there. We wouldn’t even be able to last an hour.

Jinchul-hyung spoke once again, “Let the rest of the group stay here. Kain and I will go up to explore. Kain can wear the Protective Suit.”

“Right! Kain has the Sage’s Advice, so he’ll be essential for exploring.”

Ahri immediately pushed me toward Jinchul-hyung.

Soon after, I put on the Protective Suit, and the two of us headed back to the second floor.

***“Wearing this suit, I don’t feel the cold at all.”

“What?”

“I SAID, IT’S NOT COLD AT ALL WITH THIS ON!”

“What?”

I gave up on conversing with Hyung and just started walking.

Less than a minute after exiting the elevator, our conversation was entirely drowned out by the sound of the raging snowstorm.

Even communication via the Chat Window was impossible.

Is it because Grandpa Mooksung is on the first floor?

The physical distance doesn’t seem that great, though.

There were more things we didn’t know about this Hotel than things we did.

Exploring the second floor was no easy task.

The Protective Suit completely blocked out the cold, but it didn’t help with the blinding snow or the difficulty in traversing through it.

I could barely see an inch in front of me, making it feel more like I was searching with my hands rather than my eyes.

Jinchul-hyung, perhaps afraid of getting lost, kept clinging to the back of my suit as he followed me.

Despite the difficulties, I did manage to sense a few things.

First, the second floor was vast—much larger than the first floor.

It was definitely wider horizontally, and it was so tall that it was hard to compare.

The ceiling wasn’t visible at all.

We couldn’t even figure out where the snow was coming from.

About 10 minutes into our exploration, my hand finally hit something solid as I was moving along the wall.

When I held my helmet up to it, I saw the number “201” behind a thick layer of ice.

We found the first room on the second floor.

I signaled Jinchul-hyung to come over to the ice.

Understanding my gesture, he first tried to chip away at the ice with his hands.

When that didn’t work, he pushed me aside, summoned the Star, and melted the ice.

We decided to end our exploration after finding a room.

We risked getting lost if he continued when the visibility was so poor.

Would it be easier if Eunsol-noona used the Protective Suit to explore with her enhanced vision?

As we headed back to the elevator, I got frustrated and decided to use the Sage’s Advice.

Advice: 3 → 2

You crazy bird! Is the second floor going to stay like this?!

Mind your manners. The second floor requires repairs.

Repairs?

That’s unexpected.

Should I use Advice again?

I hesitated and decided not to.

We might enter a Cursed Room today, so I should save the remaining uses.

Of course, it was likely I would be sealed, but one never knew.

Someone else might be sealed instead.

Either way, the raging snowstorm on the second floor isn’t normal, even by the Hotel’s standards.

After wandering around for a while, we finally made it back to the elevator.

***As soon as Jinchul-hyung and I returned, everyone crowded around us.

Before I answered their questions, I handed the Protective Suit to Eunsol-noona and asked her to explore once more.

As Noona nodded and headed up to the second floor, the others began questioning us.

“How was it?”

“Did you find anything?”

I shared what we had discovered.

The blinding snowstorm, the space being larger than expected, the location of Room 201, and Advice about “repairs”.

Despite just following me around aimlessly, Jinchul-hyung had surprisingly much to say.

Though its purpose was unclear, he mentioned that the second floor seemed to be divided into several zones.

I had thought the ice was just ice, but it turned out to be a series of walls separating different zones.

Then, Jinchul-hyung offered his opinion, “After hearing the word ‘repairs’, I realized something. The current state of the second floor is like an unfinished building. There were supposed to be several rooms, but the construction wasn’t complete, so the zones were only vaguely divided. The outside isn’t properly sealed, so the snow is blowing in.”

The absurdity of it all made Songee mutter to herself.

“What kind of Hotel calls in guests when construction isn’t even finished…?”

“A Hotel with monsters everywhere and doors that open to other worlds.”

Seungyub offered a different perspective, “Repairs. If we think of this in RPG terms, doesn’t it sound like it could be part of some ‘repair event’? Like the Hotel repair quest.”

I couldn’t help but add my own incredulous comment, “They want the guests to do the repairs? For the Hotel?”

As I said it, it started to make sense. This was the kind of place where that would happen.

Ahri sighed and spoke up, “Alright! Alright! Let’s focus on what we need to do today. Whether it’s a repair event or whatever, our vacation ended yesterday. If we don’t enter a Cursed Room today, the Hotel will probably trigger some special event.”

Grandpa Mooksung also shared his thoughts, “I get the feeling that this repair event is something we’ll have to handle during Party Time. Unless they give us a pass on entering Cursed Rooms while we do it—which I doubt since there wasn’t any notification about that.”

As we were discussing our options, Eunsol-noona returned.

What she found was mostly the same as what we had seen, but she added one curious detail.

“No ceiling at all? You could see a mountain beyond it?”

“I’m not sure. The snowstorm was too intense for even my eyes to see clearly.”

Grandpa let out a heavy sigh.

“It just keeps getting worse.”

Eunsol noona looked around at us and asked, “In any case, we have to enter a Cursed Room today. Should we go straight to Room 201 that Kain found? If we run there in these ridiculous makeshift winter clothes, we should be able to get there before we freeze to death.”

We considered it briefly but didn’t have many options.

As Grandpa had said, figuring out how to restore the second floor to normal was something to worry about during Party Time.

There were no other rooms we could find, and the fact that Room 201 was relatively close to the elevator added weight to our theory.

It seemed like the Hotel intended for us to clear Room 201 first, earn Party Time, and then use that time to restore the second floor.

In the end, we decided that the most fragile member, Seungyub, would wear the Protective Suit, while the rest of us donned our makeshift winter clothes and sprinted to Room 201.

It was a short run, less than 10 minutes, but during that time, it felt like ice blades were slicing into my skin.

The cold was so intense that none of us had the energy to offer each other words of encouragement.

Jinchul-hyung, who was leading, quickly opened the door to Room 201.

***

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 80

Current Location: Floor 2, Room 201 (Cursed Room – □□□ □□□□)

Sage’s Advice: 2

- Brrrrrr

“…”

Bubbles rose from all around me.

It felt like I was trapped in a giant test tube.

People scurried about outside.

Are they some sort of researchers?

As I opened my eyes drowsily, I heard someone shouting something.

A message from the Hotel about “sealing” appeared in my blurred vision.

As expected, I’m the first to be sealed.

I tried to summon the Grimoire just in case, but there was no response.

I remembered Ahri’s words…

it’s impossible to escape on your own.

I don’t even know the name of this room yet.

Will I only find out after the seal is broken?

“…”

My consciousness began to fade.

You all can handle this, right? I’ll just rest for a bit.

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