Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Chapter 103: Party Time (5) - Ahri's Escape Story, Sanctum of Blessings

Party Time First Morning

- Han Kain

The reply we got to the question, “Can we escape with a parachute made using materials bought from the HP Market,” was...

Try it if you don’t value your life.

When I told everyone the answer I received, the campsite turned silent. On the outside, it sounded like a snarky comment.

But until now, even though there had been some ambiguous responses, there had never been something blatantly snarky.

“Just asking to make sure, but are they trying to mock us?” Jinchul-hyung asked.

“Not sure… It’s never done that before at least.”

“Instead of saying impossible or possible, it said, ‘Try if you don’t value your life’. Would this imply that it’s extremely dangerous, but there’s a chance of success?”

“You could see it that way but…” Eunsol-noona didn’t seem very keen on that approach, “It’s confusing. I think we need some assistance from the only one with experience in our group.”

Everyone turned towards Ahri, who tilted her head in thought before opening her mouth.

“Mhmm, I’ve indirectly mentioned it a few times, and some might have heard me say it directly.” While saying that, Ahri threw a glance at Elena. “But I was just lucky.”

“Can you tell us how it went still? Regardless of whether it was by chance or not?”

“When I was born, the front entrance of the Hotel wasn’t the sky, like it is right now, and it was the middle of a deep ocean. We would have died from the high-pressure water the moment we opened the door. That was why we didn’t even have questions like this, because yes, you can make semi-parachutes with some materials, but there was no way for us to make a submarine that could keep us safe under pressure.”

The site turned silent again, but this time, it was Seungyub who broke the silence.

“It might sound too much like a game, but I think speculations like this are like ‘exploiting bugs’.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The ‘official escape method’ provided by the Hotel is the ‘wing boots’ that you can get somewhere on the 2nd Floor, right? I don’t think they’ll let us make an escape tool with a skill that Eunsol-noona had from the start.”

Grandpa Mooksung cleared up the mood and put an end to the topic.

“Let’s just say it’s possible but with a very minuscule chance of success!” he summarized, “What’s the point of lingering on this topic? We are not going to jump off after hearing that, are we?”

I was thinking about something different though. What if I possessed Perro and flew outside to have a look?

To achieve that, I decided to regularly take Perro’s body to practice flying.

***

** Party Time First Afternoon**

- Han Kain

The way back to the Hotel opened up. We headed straight to the Sanctum of Blessings and confirmed the list of people who could enhance their blessings.

You may empower Kim Mooksung, Lee Eunsol, and Han Kain. Would you like to proceed? (Yes / No)

Grandpa Mooksung, who wasn’t given a chance to empower despite being part of the Inheritance selection phase in Room 101; Eunsol-noona with her first chance to enhance her blessing; and me, who recently acquired an Inheritance.

The list was within our scope of imagination.

When I pressed “Yes”, the light of the Sanctum came down as my consciousness floated up.

***

- Han Kain

I was back with the owl again.

“This time I got an Inheritance!”

I shouted that out loud like I was prideful, as the owl replied with a rather strange look on its face.

“Well done. But next time, try to reduce your mistakes.”

“I do think it’s a shame that we had to use Descent.”

I took a chance at mentioning the Descent to see if the owl was willing to give an explanation, but the owl immediately shut its beak the moment I mentioned it. It didn’t seem very likely that it would tell me anything.

With no other choice, I changed the topic.

“It’s time for a ‘very powerful empowerment’, right? What kind of ability is it?”

“Like I told you last time, it will be very helpful for your progress in the Hotel. You can understand the scenarios of the rooms.”

“And about the Advice—”

“Stop there.”

…The owl sternly cut me off, before re-opening its beak.

“Let me give ‘you’ some advice.”

“I am all ears.”

“The objective of the Advice is solely for the progress of a Cursed Room. Asking about the Hotel, blessings themselves, and escape methods is improper use of the Advice that derails from the original purpose.”

“But didn’t you give me a response for most of them?” I asked.

“I did. At the cost of your contribution points.”

???!

It was an astonishing consequence that I had never even considered.

“Whenever you use the Advice for purposes unrelated to the progress of a Cursed Room, it eats up a small amount of your contribution. I am not telling you it’s a bad thing – if need be, there will be times when you should unravel the secrets of the Hotel even at the cost of your contribution. However, I advise you to refrain from over-using the Advice for ‘other people’.”

“Is that why you avoided a direct answer when I was asking about other people’s blessings—”

“If I answered that question, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“...Thank you.”

“Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not telling you to only use the Advice inside a Cursed Room. If that was the sole objective, the blessing would have been deactivated whenever you weren’t inside it. What I am telling you is to use it ‘for yourself’. Keep that in mind. I want ‘you’ to achieve the glory at the end of the Hotel; not ‘all of you’.”

“...”

“After this, you won’t see me for a while. We might not even meet until the very end.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The stronger a blessing, the more contribution you need to empower it. It will be hard for you to see me from now on unless you build enough contributions to earn at least 2 more Inheritance.”

With that, my consciousness started to turn fuzzy.

I etched the owl’s advice into my heart.

A broad use of the Advice comes at the cost of my contribution. Therefore, use it only for myself if possible!

…Why was this place asking us to cooperate, while simultaneously sowing seeds of distrust? Do I even need to follow what the owl was telling me to do?

It was hard to tell.

***

Han Kain - Wisdom → Has acquired Scenario Comprehension.

***

- Kim Mooksung

“You have the talent for sure! Of course, you might think, ‘Talent at my age?’ but you have to understand, now that you are inside the Hotel, you never know how long you are going to live. From the long epic poetry of your life, these 70 years could have been a very tiny fraction of the beginning.”

***

“What is life!? A mortal life is short and meaningless. But that volatility and weakness is what creates the greatness of humanity. Humans had to join forces because they were weak, and they set up civilizations and cultures because they joined forces, did they not?”

Ah. This guy.

“So what is the most important factor of cooperation? It’s proven by your own history! The history of humanity begins with the first creation of letters. Pieces of data that get erased the moment you speak of them were left behind in the form of letters, and a group sharing the knowledge of an individual is what marked the beginning of civilization. Letters and language. What do you think is the commonality between the two?”

“Pardon?”

“You weren’t listening to me, were you? Don’t disappoint me any further.”

Oh, come on! You’ve been doing a Ted talk for the past 30 minutes! How the hell am I supposed to stay focused?

“The commonality between letters and language is that they are both methods of communication. Communication, in the end, is what marks the beginning and the end of human civilization. That is the reason behind the blessing I have bestowed on you.”

“Umm… Sorry to interrupt, but what is the empowerment that I will be receiving?”

“Great question! For that, you must understand the limitations of letters and language and the long and arduous journey humanity had to take to overcome that. What were the limitations, you ask? To answer that question, we must inspect the first writing system: Pictographs; the greatest invention throughout the history of humanity.”

***

I wasn’t expecting this when I first came across that massive giant.

I certainly didn’t expect that the giant would be this much of a chatterbox!

Whenever a guy was yapping their mouth off in front of me, I always bashed their head in (not literally), and to this date, there have always been people begging me to let some steam off.

However, it’s impossible for me to bash the head of a giant transcendent, who seemed to be at least 10 meters tall.

As such, I had no choice but to listen to the long lecture on the developmental history of human civilization.

The conclusion made at the end of the lecture was quite simple.

There’s a limit to what letters can portray on the conversation tab, so you can send visual, auditory, and sensory things now as well.

I see, so does that mean I can post pictures and videos on my Discord now? How did this warrant a half-a-day lecture in any way?!

Such an ability is already somewhat possible through Ahri’s Ancient Blood.

When the lecture was finally over, the giant started giving “another” piece of advice.

“Let me say this one last thing before wrapping it up. Looking at you thus far, I’ve noticed that you have an instinctive tendency to try to hide whatever you find out. It’s perhaps a habit you have formed after staying for a long time at a secret organization, but that is not an ideal attitude in this Hotel. You must all become one to escape this place. How about you open up a little more of your secrets? My blessing and this empowerment will assist you in that sort of communication. The first step of communication might certainly be scary. Of course, you might ask, ‘Scary at my age?’ but being afraid of starting something fresh is a common trait for everyone! Even I—”

Please! You said “one last thing” yourself! How is this “one” last thing? And can you please pause after sentences? This is so damn hard to listen to!

The giant finally let me go after speaking for another 30 minutes.

***

Kim Mooksung - Communication → Has acquired ‘Vivid Communication’.

***

- Lee Eunsol

Wow.

I was shocked the moment I arrived at the sanctum.

What was this place? It was filled with gold everywhere as well as treasures and jewelry. Almost instinctively, I was about to pick up some of the gold and treasures when a sonorous voice filled the area.

“Do you like my treasures?”

Turning around, I found a dragon the size of an apartment building.

…Dragon and “Wealth”, huh? I guess that fits.

“Sorry. I was unconsciously drawn in by the gold.”

“What’s there to be sorry for? It’s human instinct to be drawn toward valuable treasures.”

Fortunately, the dragon didn’t seem mad, so I walked closer.

“Seeing you struggle till now did make me feel bad.”

“Honestly speaking, the blessing felt a little underwhelming.”

“Right?”

The sponsor also appeared to be in agreement. Unknowingly, I spoke in a louder voice.

“Isn’t it too much though? Everyone else had incredible superpowers, and my ability was just getting a few objects from the real world. I couldn’t even get guns or proper weapons. Besides, since it’s given as an application on a phone, I couldn’t even use it inside a Cursed Room, because I didn’t have “that phone” there.”

“I do feel a bit sorry, but it was a part of my strategy.”

“Strategy?”

“Let me tell you something interesting. What do you think is the floor with the lowest possibility of success for the participants?”

“Uhh… It would be harder the higher up, right? Maybe the 3rd Floor?”

“Wrong.”

“Then is it the 1st Floor? Because we have to tackle it without enough information and skills?”

“Wrong.”

“Is it the 2nd Floor?”

“Indeed. Let me explain to you why. You’ve heard from the ‘shop attendant’ about the 3rd Floor, haven’t you? You can leave for sure once you are on the 3rd Floor.”

“I did hear that.”

“Who do you think will be the ones proceeding forward even though they can leave anytime?”

“People who are confident they can pass?”

“Exactly. They’ve already gained several Inheritances through Floors 1 and 2, and only those with confidence in their skills attempt it. That is why the chance of success is naturally quite high. Also, the 1st Floor has several helpful devices in store so that you guys do not get disqualified too early.”

“I’ve never felt such a helpful measure being put in place…”

“You will realize once you reach the 2nd Floor, how ‘generous’ the 1st Floor has been.”

…That’s stifling news.

“In actuality,” the dragon continued. “The hardest place in the Hotel is the 2nd Floor. That is why I have prepared my strategy and planned out the blessings in an order. It’s to save up a large amount of empowerment in reserve until the moment you arrive on the 2nd Floor! All the abilities you gain henceforth won’t be so disappointing.”

The dragon sent me off after that conversation. In the midst of my fading consciousness, I thought to myself.

My sponsor, the dragon, was like… someone playing a game. Were we their chess pieces? If we were, then what were the sponsors trying to achieve through us?

***

Lee Eunsol - Wealth → Has acquired ‘Hand of Greed’.

***

* Party Time Second Afternoon

- Han Kain

My consciousness returned to my body and I woke up on the bed of Room 105. The first thing I did after coming to myself was check the status screen.

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 34

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 - Room of Rest

Sage’s Advice: 3

Scenario Comprehension (*)

Yes! A new ability!

It was exciting to see. I wonder what it did?

For some reason, the ability was grayed out though, and an alarm popped up the moment I tried to activate it.

You cannot use this ability outside of Cursed Rooms.

It made sense when I thought about it. It was a power to understand the “scenarios”, and was fundamentally a tool that would be very helpful at solving Cursed Rooms.

It’s no wonder why it didn’t activate outside the rooms at all.

Although it made sense, it was still a bummer that I couldn’t use a new ability straight away, so I was fidgeting around with the status screen when something strange entered my sight.

???

What’s this?

Teammate Information

Kim Ahri (???) - ???. Top Agent of the Calamity Administration /genesisforsaken