Chapter: 53
Chapter 53 – A Day at the Camping Grounds, Meeting a Strange Merchant (3), Entering Room 106
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 21
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Room of Rest)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
The box that Ahri brought over was still sealed.
“I’m sorry, but I haven’t opened the box yet. I heard there might be a ‘dangerous weapon’ inside. It’s probably better to open it together in a safe room, don’t you think?”
“Good idea. I might as well be the one to open it.”
Immediately, Jinchul-hyung reached out and took the box. Just like me, he probably had an uneasy night and was now eager to be useful.
The box opened easily.
Inside, there was something incredibly familiar.
“A gun?”
“Is that a gun?”
“Wait, that’s a bit too normal, isn’t it?”
With a dumbfounded expression, Jinchul-hyung pulled out the pistol.
“No way. I mean, sure, a pistol can be a good weapon, but what are we supposed to do with this? We have no bullets! Noonim, do they sell bullets at the HP Market by any chance?”
“Have you ever seen bullets for sale on Coupang? I’m baffled too. Check the magazine. Are there any bullets loaded?”
Clack!
“Wow! These guys are total scammers! Not a single bullet in there! How can they give us this and expect us to—”
“Hey now, both of you, let’s take a moment to quiet down. There’s an instruction manual underneath.”
As Ahri pointed out, there was indeed a small manual under the pistol. Its content was exceedingly simple.
“If you fill the magazine with blood, bullets will appear.”
…
“Wow, everyone here is seriously messed up. Do they really need to give us a gun that drinks blood?”
“Well, at least it has a way to load bullets. Let’s give it a shot.”
The moment Ahri pulled out the syringe from before—
Jinchul-hyung snatched it from her.
“Let’s just use someone else’s blood.”
Ahri didn’t object, and Jinchul-hyung drew his blood into the magazine.
“Umm, but if we use one syringe on multiple people, isn’t that a hygiene concern? I mean, we’re not actually transfusing blood, but still.”
“…”
“It’s okay. They probably sell syringes at the HP Market.”
“Speaking of which, I should order some right now. You all keep doing your thing; I’m ordering syringes.”
After about a minute of the blood-soaked magazine sitting in the gun, suddenly, click!
“I think something’s happened? Let me give it a shot.”
Bang!
The gun shot with significant force. It definitely left a mark on the wall.
Finally, it felt like we had a proper weapon in hand. Of course, we had the bracelet, which was infinitely more powerful, but that wasn’t designed for direct combat. It didn’t really have any killing potential either.
At long last, we managed to obtain something useful at the hotel. Everyone enjoyed a lively meal, shooting off a few rounds and laughing as time flew by.
After lunch, we decided to venture into the next room, and everyone scattered to their personal spaces.
*
Lee Eunsol walked toward her bed.
It hurt. In front of everyone, she pretended like it was no big deal, but her hand still stung.
But it was bearable.
Having had breakfast, she decided to rest until lunch, as they planned to resume room exploration afterward. Sometimes she thought, the pure leisure time since coming to the hotel had actually increased.
Outside, she had endured grueling days where sleeping more than 5 or 6 hours felt like a luxury. But in the hotel, it seemed like they often ate well and slept soundly.
As she rolled onto her bed, she turned her head and spotted a small piece of paper.
“Oh, I didn’t throw that away?” she realized. It could have been a big problem if someone had stumbled upon it during their shared meal.
That piece of paper was the lower part of the secret letter she’d carefully sliced with a knife.
She had struggled to cut it subtly. And even though everyone was reading it, her anxiety led her to quickly tuck it away as soon as they were done. Fortunately, no one caught on.
Just before disposing of the paper, she took one last look.
“3. One of your teammates knows about Escape Route 1.”
After meticulously tearing the paper into tiny shreds, she tossed it into the toilet and flushed.
*
After lunch, when everyone geared up to explore the new room and headed to the first-floor corridor, they realized something had changed.
“Huh? What is that? A new door?”
“Looks like a door to Room 107 appeared? Can we go straight for the Gate Room?”
“That’s strange. We haven’t even entered Room 106 yet. Ahri, do you know anything?”
“I don’t know either. The conditions for the Gate Room are different each time. Sometimes you can attempt it just by escaping other rooms, and sometimes you need to resolve multiple rooms first.”
“Should we check Room 107 first? It seems we can ignore Room 106 and go straight to 107.”
After some pondering, I decided to take the initiative.
“I’ll grab the doorknob first. If we’re lucky, maybe the Sage’s Advice will give us some clues.”
As I approached the door and grabbed the knob, an announcement popped up—not from the Sage’s Advice, but for everyone to see from the Hotel itself.
/Warning!
The Gate Room requires you to pass multiple trials in succession without rest, and it is extremely difficult.
Minimum Condition: Escape from all the Cursed Rooms; possess at least 1 Inheritance.
Recommended Condition: Possess 2 or more Inheritances.
…
…
…
Participants may attempt the challenge if they meet the minimum requirements, but it is not recommended.
Would you like to proceed?/
I immediately backed away. Seungyub reacted quickly.
“This feels like a real game. To enter the dungeon, we need to escape all the cursed rooms and only need to get one inheritance. But it seems tough, and we should at least have two.”
“I don’t think the hotel usually offers such warnings,” I noted.
“The fact that they’re openly saying it’s ‘immensely difficult’ means they don’t want us to try without preparation. Let’s hold off for now. We should gather at least two inheritances first,” Jinchul-hyung suggested.
“There’s something weird here. The minimum condition is ‘Escape from all the Cursed Rooms,’ but the final solution to Room 103 is a higher concept than just escaping, and we haven’t even entered Room 106.”
“Instead of being strange, it seems quite clear,” Eunsol-noona remarked. “Room 106 isn’t a Cursed Room at all.”
“Let’s head over to the tea table and sort out the situation. My knees are getting old and ache a bit.”
*
“Shouldn’t we check Room 106 first? It’s not a Cursed Room or the Room of Rest—what is it? Is it safe since it’s not cursed? What do you think, Noonim?”
“Well, just because it’s not a Cursed Room, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe. There are plenty of dangers in the basement, but they aren’t considered Cursed Rooms.”
“Kain, can you look at the status of all the rooms with your Location Information?”
I checked the status window for spatial information.
Room 101: Cursed Room (Strange Family) – Escaped
Room 102: Cursed Room (Mansion of Fear) – Escaped
Room 103: Cursed Room (Athanasia’s Human Farm) – Resolved
Room 104: Cursed Room (Prestigious Exam Hotel High) – Escaped
Room 105: Room of Rest
Room 106: ???
Room 107: Gate Room – Enterable
“I can see Room 107 is now available. ‘Gate Room – Enterable,’ as expected.”
“To deal with the first floor, we have two main actions to take. First: retry one or more of Rooms 101, 102, or 104 to get an inheritance; second: check out Room 106.”
“Let’s start with the second option. The first sounds too exhausting just to think about.”
“Okay. Let’s check Room 106 first. As for another attempt after Room 103, I think we ought to rest first—completely organize what we know, our abilities, information, and our strategy before jumping in. I have a lot of thoughts already, but for now, let’s start by checking Room 106.”
At this moment, our two main goals for the first floor were:
First, obtain one or more inheritances.
Second, discover the identity of Room 106, which wasn’t a Cursed Room.
We decided to pursue the second goal first.
Everyone got up from the table and headed toward Room 106.
As expected, I grabbed the doorknob first, but no notifications appeared. Even with its many flaws, the Sage’s Advice indicated there wouldn’t be an immediate danger upon opening the door.
We opened the door and stepped inside together.
*
/Welcome, customers, to the Hotel Land of Hope!
The Hotel Land is filled with a variety of very entertaining attractions.
You may now experience 7 types of attractions!
If, after going through all 7 attractions, there are still survivors, a great reward is waiting for you!
However, participating in Hotel Land is not mandatory. You can still leave. Just like in the Cursed Rooms, if there is a survivor at the end of the attractions, anyone who died in the process will be revived.
# Would you like to start the Mission Room: Hotel Land of Hope?/
Silence fell over the group as we processed the information swirling in our heads.
“So, basically, we have to go through these 7 attractions in order, and if we pass, there’s a reward? But why do they call themselves ‘Hotel Land of Hope’ and then mention ‘if there are survivors’ as if it’s something they expect? It sounds like they’re outright saying they’ll kill us! Kain, can you check the room information with your status window?” Jinchul-hyung asked.
/Room 106: Mission Room – Hotel Land of Hope/
“It says Mission Room, Hotel Land of Hope. According to the instructions, participation in this room isn’t compulsory. That’s why Room 107, the Gate Room, opened up even though we haven’t entered Room 106 yet. Looks like we can leave anytime.”
The door to the corridor was still there, confirming we hadn’t been whisked away to another place.
After Eunsol-noona, it was Grandpa Mooksung, who chimed in.
“Seems like it’s time for us to make a decision. Are we proceeding?”
What’s the right move here?
While we had faced multiple Cursed Rooms, this was the first time a room seemed optional. The fact that we could trigger the Gate Room despite ignoring Room 106 implied we could leave the hotel without engaging with it.
“It’s subjective. You could think, is there any reason to take on a challenge we don’t have to? Alternatively, you might consider it a chance to strengthen ourselves for the ‘surprising reward.’ I think it’s pointless to dwell on it. Let’s go with a majority vote.”
In the end, the nature of the ‘reward’ remained unclear, making it difficult to logically weigh the risks and benefits. Still, I sensed the reward wasn’t likely an inheritance. Perhaps it would yield something entirely different from the Cursed Rooms?
The majority vote turned out to be more one-sided than I expected. Everyone wanted to take on the challenge except for Elena.
After weeks of enduring this hotel, continuously facing death and resurrection, we had started dismissing the danger of dying as trivial, and our anticipation for the ‘reward’ grew.
But how should we signal our intent to take on the challenge?
That question was rendered moot. Just as expected from the ever-watchful hotel, a notification popped up as everyone stood and walked forward.
/Hotel Land of Hope! The challenge starts now!
Real Life Bumper Cars
1! 2! 3! Start!/
Real Life Bumper Cars? What kind of title is that?
*
As the space trembled and our surroundings shifted,
I finally understood what that insane title meant!
Everyone found themselves inside sedans in a massive arena roughly three times the size of a football field.
“Wait! Some of us don’t even know how to drive! Why are we put in separate cars?”
VROOOM!!!!!
The earth-shattering noise erupted around us.
When I turned to the center of the arena in a panic—
A monster truck larger than a house was barreling toward us.
“No way… can we at least match the size of the cars for bumper cars? This is a freaking bumper truck!!”
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