### Chapter 199 – Party Time – The Ninth Companion (1)
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[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 95
Current Location: Floor 2, Snow Globe Snowfield
Sage’s Advice: X]
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As I reminisced about the experiences in Miro’s hell, I checked my status window and discovered that my location was marked as ‘Snow Globe Snowfield.’ Just yesterday, this snowy area didn’t have a designated name, but now it does? What does this mean?
Shaking off my thoughts, I returned to contemplating Miro.
“Hey, sister.”
“Yeah? Are you done thinking?”
“Well, if I actually think about it, this person called ‘Miro’ can be categorized into three types: 1. Infantile Regressive Miro. 2. Middle Schooler Miro. 3. Adult Miro.”
“That’s a bit of a strange classification, but it makes sense. Number 1 is the Miro that went crazy after giving birth to Ahri, Number 2 is the childhood Miro stuck in hell, and Number 3 is the Miro who came into the hotel after spending a long time in the Administration Bureau. Something like that?”
“Exactly! We don’t even need to think further about Type 1 since everyone opposes reviving her. Even Ahri said she wouldn’t bring her back until she finds a way to restore her sanity. An intelligence level of a child can be more dangerous than any villain.”
“Right. It’s much easier to cooperate with a calculative villain who has a common goal like escaping the hotel than a child who’s a complete unknown.”
“I think Miro Type 2 is someone we won’t meet again. So ultimately, we need to decide on Type 3, but none of us have actually met her.”
“True.”
“I personally don’t think the Type 2 Miro I encountered was evil at all.”
“Don’t tell me it’s because she’s cute?”
For a moment, I flinched. It would be a lie to say that looks don’t influence my judgment at all.
“Definitely not.”
“Can ‘definitely’ and ‘probably’ coexist as terms?”
“I’m not joking; I didn’t sense anything ultra-evil or extreme selfishness from her. Weirdly enough, if you set aside her bizarre supernatural powers, she just seemed like an average girl of her age with a playful nature.”
“Then she might not be a supremely malevolent person as an adult either?”
“That’s impossible to say. However…”
“However?”
“Think about the circumstances. At the moment Miro temporarily regained her sanity, she even asked why she received the blessing of ‘Justice.’”
“Blessings do relate to our own tendencies to some degree…”
“A psychopath probably can’t receive ‘Justice.’ Plus, it seems that Miro was quite high-ranking during her time in the Administration Bureau.”
“It would be tough to rise to the upper echelon of a big organization that protects the world if you’re crazy or exceedingly wicked. Alright, I roughly understand your perspective. But this seems like we don’t really need to change the order we originally set.”
“So, the first resurrection is the doctor?”
“Yeah. Though I have a lot of questions about Doctor Kim Sanghyun. We don’t know if he’s a good or cooperative person. In some ways, we don’t even know him better than we do Miro, right?”
“Yet, unlike Miro, there’s a significant advantage here.”
“He probably won’t be a hard person to control. He’s not part of the ‘Administration Bureau,’ so there’s no risk of him splitting our party. While Ahri and Grandpa Mooksung might be lenient toward Miro, the doctor isn’t likely to get the same treatment. Worst case, we can just think of it as having wasted the ticket and simply kill him. However, if he surprisingly possesses hidden strength, what then?”
It’s odd that we casually found ourselves discussing the potential need to kill someone during our conversation… Once again, it struck me how we’ve really turned into some not-so-ordinary people.
“Speaking of that, though…”
“What about it?”
“Isn’t it kind of odd that we don’t really know much about the doctor’s abilities? We suspect he has healing abilities, but we have no idea how they work, and we’re unsure if he even has a legacy.”
“True.”
“Why don’t we just ask the guide?”
“…”
“I just realized that since earlier, the knowledge we have about Adult Miro—such as having three legacies and being a previous possessor of Justice—was all information provided by the guide, right?”
“I did ask before. I totally spaced on that. This hotel keeps hiding things, causing us to develop this bad habit of arguing over things we can just ask about. How about you and Jinchul go ask him and come back?”
*
Fortunately, the party time hadn’t ended yet, so we could still access the door leading to Ice Hell. My brother and I, along with Ahri who naturally tagged along, opened the somewhat poorly concealed doorway in the Christmas Hall and re-entered Ice Hell.
“It seemed like you were chatting with your sister out there; did you decide who to revive?”
“Ultimately, it’ll be settled in a meeting.”
“If you two decide, I doubt anyone would object. After all, the candidates are the doctor or Miro, and I haven’t met either of them. Only you have met both.”
“I wouldn’t say I met the doctor in a relevant way either. It just felt like his voice was echoing in my head.”
While talking about this, I suddenly recalled something.
“By the way, Ahri, didn’t you receive treatment from the doctor?”
“Yeah, back when I traded my limbs to a merchant for a gun.”
“Didn’t you get some kind of message from the doctor?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm… I was suspecting you might be on good terms with him.”
“Why use the word ‘suspect’ for that? And I wouldn’t know. I’ve never even seen his face.”
“If the doctor recognized you, wouldn’t he have said something? Or didn’t you have any of your first party members be doctors?”
Pausing to think for a moment, Ahri replied.
“I did hear vague talk about a unique person who existed. It was just mentioned in passing, and I didn’t inquire further.”
“A unique person?”
“There was someone apparently a special forces veteran who also graduated from medical school.”
“Impressive!”
“Plus, they were even a candidate for an astronaut.”
“Are we sure they’re a human and not a manga character?”
“Surprisingly, they are a person. But it’s a problem that I’ve never met them.”
Having never met him either, the memory of Ahri once mentioned people from her first party dying before they even set foot on the second floor came back to me. Since Ahri was born on the second floor, she probably wouldn’t have met anyone who died before they arrived there.
“I’ve heard your first party members had remarkable profiles, but that is incredible.”
“This doctor we’re going to revive must be a different person. I remember hearing a name like Johnny? He didn’t seem to be Asian at least; he was definitely not Kim Sanghyun.”
“It’s pretty certain they’re different. If he had special forces experience and was an astronaut candidate, he wouldn’t have left out those credentials when asking me for revival.”
At those words, Ahri suddenly tilted her head.
Jinchul coughed awkwardly to break the tension.
“Do you remember what I said during our previous meeting?”
“You suggested that we save the ticket.”
“What do you think now? I still think it might be good to save it for ourselves.”
“I considered that possibility too, but in this hotel, the curse room usually means either total annihilation or total survival, doesn’t it? It’s hard to imagine a scenario where one of us dies and we resurrect them.”
“Risks don’t just exist in the curse room.”
“However, the curse room holds more than 90% of the danger.”
“…”
“Plus, we have to consider opportunity costs. Saving the ticket isn’t without risks, right? We end up forgoing a power boost from a new companion, which in itself could be a kind of risk. I think the greater danger might actually be the increased likelihood of total annihilation in the curse room due to weakened power.”
After Jinchul nodded and stayed silent on the subject, I waited in the now somewhat familiar Ice Hell, as distant screams felt like a welcoming greeting, when a drone descended from the sky.
“Participants! Have you decided where to use your ticket?”
“First, I’d like to ask a question.”
“Please go ahead.”
“Can I ask about Kim Sanghyun? The ‘doctor’ who appears when one gets injured in the hotel.”
“What aspects of participant Kim Sanghyun are you curious about?”
“First question. Kim Sanghyun is both a participant and a hidden NPC in the hotel, right? After he’s resurrected, what happens to the hidden NPC? Even if a healing ability user joins us, it seems we’d still need medical support from the hotel since he can get hurt himself.”
“You need not worry about that. After the resurrection of Kim Sanghyun, another individual will be assigned to the role of hotel doctor.”
“Can I know what kind of, uh, healing abilities he has?”
“Are you curious about his blessing?”
“Is his healing ability a blessing? Then what about his legacy?”
“He is a participant without a legacy.”
Jinchul mumbled somewhere in disappointment.
“A participant without a legacy, huh? That’s a bit disappointing, isn’t it?”
“Let’s hear more. We already assumed he wouldn’t be someone with great combat power.”
Ahri chuckled.
“Miro is the issue because she’s too strong, right? It wouldn’t be a problem if they aren’t too powerful, at least from that perspective.”
“Explain the blessing.”
“Participant Kim Sanghyun. While alive, his blessing was ‘Diligence.’ Currently, no one possesses ‘Diligence,’ so he will regain it after resurrection.”
“Diligence? What kind of blessing is that?”
“Daily renewal! Every day is about refining oneself to become a more valuable being—that is the calling of humanity. However, alas, the reality is that high achievement cannot be attained solely through effort.”
???
Jinchul and I were both taken aback. What is this sudden change in tone? This isn’t the guide’s usual way of speaking!
“No matter how diligent a being is, if their talent doesn’t support them, it’s not easy to achieve impressive accomplishments. The blessing of ‘Diligence’ is the power that allows one to overcome that limit! Those who constantly train with the determination to the point where bones turn to powder and bodies break will surely gain the corresponding talent.”
As I sat there dumbfounded, I quickly jumped in.
“So, it’s a blessing that turns people into geniuses?”
“My dear child, you’ve only grasped half the meaning of my blessing. It doesn’t simply grant genius status to the holder. If you continually grind down your very essence with daily diligence, you will indeed achieve lofty achievements. It is truly the essence of my blessing. Reward awaits those who strive. Do you understand?”
To my astonishment, the voice using the guide’s speaker was none other than ‘the Patron of Diligence’!
“I see, it was you, Patron. Understood. May I ask one more question?”
“Go ahead.”
“What kind of person is Kim Sanghyun?”
Suddenly, the guide fell silent for a moment before words trickled out.
“… I thought you’d ask about the blessing but to suddenly ask about a participant? Is this your cunning? You really are remarkably reminiscent of that Owl.”
“If that offended you, I apologize.”
“He was one of the most diligent mortals I knew. And at the very least, he wasn’t a villain.”
With those words wrapped up, the Patron’s use of the guide’s speaker ceased.
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