Chapter: 99
99th Episode – Party Time (1) – Reflection and Rest
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 32
Current Location: Floor 1, Hallway
Sage’s Advice: 3
– Han Kain
I came out of Room 102.
It’s a common occurrence to feel a bit dizzy after leaving the Cursed Room, but today it’s more intense than usual.
Could it be because I had transcended my humanity for a bit?
Naturally, I found myself looking at the “Grimoire” in my hand.
Previously, when we obtained a star, there was this whole “time to choose” debate about who would get the inheritance, but this time, the Grimoire came directly to me without any of that nonsense.
To be honest, it’s probably because I was the only one who truly contributed to the final battle.
The Grimoire radiated a bluish light, practically shouting “Pick me! I’m the inheritance!”
The others who stepped out of the room also gazed at the Grimoire with curious eyes.
Elena approached, intrigued, and asked, “Is this the Grimoire?”
“I think so—”
That was when Ahri butted in with a shout.
“Elena! Mind your disrespect!”
“Eh? What?”
“How dare you speak like that to the Son of Heaven!? From now on, you must bow every time you address the Son of Heaven.”
Ah! Seriously!
“Please, stop…”
“What is it, Son of Heaven? Did I offend you? Should I bow this time?” Ahri teased.
Seungyub, looking bewildered, jumped in. “Noona? What are you talking about?”
“From now on,” Ahri said sternly, “when you speak to Kain the Jeezus, you must bow at a 90-degree angle and clasp your hands together. I almost got smited by the angel in the Cursed Room for not doing that.”
…
All the way to Room 105, Ahri couldn’t stop teasing me.
Songee and Seungyub seemed to be having too much fun, turning every conversation into some sort of prayer camouflage, and at one point, Jinchul pulled out a tiny cross and started making signs of the cross!
We finally arrived at Room 105.
Is this Son of Heaven brat serious with this whole divine act? Let’s be real here. He’s not a god; he just borrowed the power from the “Lord,” right?
Is he a rich kid flashing his allowance about like it’s his own achievement?
I just don’t get why he’s so into playing the part of a god with borrowed powers.
And these people… since when did they band together so quickly just to roast someone?
As expected, the moment we entered Room 105, we were greeted with a flurry of fireworks alongside a loud notification.
/Dear beloved customers! Congratulations!
All the employees of the hotel sincerely congratulate you on discovering the third treasure.
An ominous foe whose identity is unknown! The fear of possibly losing your body! The evil god trying to be born!
You have overcome all these trials, and you are undoubtedly the heroes we have been waiting for.
Starting tomorrow, a four-day rest period! You should get used to the treasure.
Today’s surprise event: Party Time! It begins now.
# The Party Time lasts for four days, during which no dangerous events will occur./
?
Having experienced Party Time a few times, I quickly noticed that something was different this time.
“There’s something off about this notification, isn’t there? Congrats, take a break, practice – that’s usually what we see, but the part about ‘finding a secret that only reveals itself during Party Time’ is missing.”
Noona tilted her head in confusion and replied, “They wouldn’t change the wording for no reason, right? Could it be…?”
“Does this mean there are no more secrets to find?”
We all fell into brief silence. Should I write for advice?
Before I could think of it, Ahri blurted, “That’s exactly what it means.”
As expected, a second-timer at the Hotel!
… occasionally, I feel like Ahri remembers things a bit too conveniently. It’s like she only recalls what she wants to.
Anyway, if she’s right, it means no more exploration is needed during this Party Time!
After leaving Room 102, I began sharing how I solved things while we had a meal in the dining area of Room 105.
As I was the last one to solve it, I ended up explaining most of it.
“Did you all understand what I’ve said so far?”
The surreal tales left me wondering what I was even talking about, so I can only imagine how the others felt—trying not to scream, “What the heck is that supposed to mean?”
Fortunately, Ahri, having encountered me right before heading to the basement, added, “I get the gist. In short, we weren’t able to prevent the evil god from being born, so we were practically doomed, but Archangel Kain prayed and saved the day, right?”
Without hesitation, I whipped out my pen and scribbled at her eyes!
Ahri couldn’t even react to my swift assault, and suddenly blinded, she gracefully knelt on the dining table.
“How long should I bow for?”
To be fair, she did summarize well. My prayers did save us!
With a puzzled expression, Eunsol-noona chipped in, “The part about fighting the evil god and the awakening dragon is honestly lost on me. No offense, but it seems like Kain doesn’t fully understand it either, right?”
“Exactly. I’ve mentioned before, but after the descent, it feels like my sense of self disappears. I’m just piecing together the memories in my head, which makes it really hard to explain.”
“But I want to point out what I can understand. The message that popped up after your victory is a bit interesting, isn’t it?”
“It is, indeed.”
“I mean, the ‘Congratulations’ and ‘You did well’ parts seem like pleasantries. The ‘Don’t go into the ‘hard mode’ next time’ feels like the actual message they wanted to convey.”
“It seems the Hotel is not too pleased with our results, and I can understand why. It’s all because of the colossal mistake we made during the Fourth Attempt. By the end of the Third Attempt, the hint basically meant ‘Don’t go to the basement.’ If we had remembered that, no matter what Lee Sehyun said, we wouldn’t have gone to that altar in the basement. If we hadn’t split up and gone down…”
Grandpa Mooksung replied, “The crystal would have eventually vanished, and Jinchul could have taken care of any Apostles just by ringing the bell. The manors’ monsters wouldn’t have awakened, and even if they did, if we stayed together, we’d have smashed them easily.”
Jinchul-hyung, now confused, asked, “But wasn’t the Grimoire down in the basement? How on earth could we not go down there?”
I quickly thought up an answer for that.
“There was never a need to grab it in the first place. If you think about it, we only received the star fragment as a reward after everything was done. If we stayed near the crystal like Grandpa said, it would’ve eventually disappeared. After that, we could have killed the Apostle and cleared out the other world’s sanctuary, and that would have been enough, right?”
“Now that I think about it, we are on the first floor, right? There’s no way they would have wanted us to face off against something only the Son of Heaven could defeat.”
Seungyub summed it up, “In a nutshell, we made a poor choice and ended up on a bad ending route, but Angel Kain used the cheat code of descent to get us back to a good ending. Maybe that’s why the Hotel’s reaction is so lackluster.”
Without skipping a beat, I scrawled on Seungyub’s eyes too.
Just HOW useful is this pen? It’s like a Swiss Army knife!
Seungyub then took a knee beside Ahri.
Standing up and stretching her back, Ahri grumbled, “Honestly! We’re all human; how can we not make mistakes? The script got flipped upside down, so isn’t it normal to mess up?”
There’s truth in her words. Usually, for a normal person, making errors is to be expected. But…
We should not just be “normal people.”
“Normal folks would panic at the sight of a lion, but a hero would keep their wits about them or even fight back. Maybe the Hotel is looking for that kind of hero?”
“Whatever. As long as Kain got the inheritance, it’s all good. Please wipe my eyes now.”
Eunsol-noona brought up another point. “No, we can’t just brush this off lightly. We need to think about why we made that mistake and how to prevent it going forward. I’ll be honest with you.
Based on the discussions we’ve had, it seems like Mooksung, Kain, and I do about 95% of the talking, while the rest just stay quiet. We have eight people, but only two to three are really contributing at any given time.”
The sudden factual assault from Eunsol-noona left everyone silent.
“We had a meeting after the Third Attempt. The problem was, it was a flash meeting, and we just skimmed over everything. Why? Probably because three of us were just exhausted that day.”
It felt like a teacher was reprimanding their class.
“I’m sorry…” Songee murmured.
“Don’t be. I’m not here to chastise anyone. This often happens in meetings of large groups. You can have over 20 people at a table, but if you look closely, only about three are actually contributing, while the rest are just thinking ‘Please, make time go faster!’ even in corporate settings.”
“There’s one method I’ve used to deal with this.”
“What is it?” I asked with interest.
“I call it ‘Devil’s Advocate.’ One person intentionally opposes the main idea. From now on, I’d like Ahri to take that role.”
Noona specified that “Ahri” would take on the role of voicing “alternative viewpoints” during meetings.
Ahri replied, “I’ll participate more actively in discussions. And…”
“And?”
“And Kain. Seriously, just wipe this off my eyes already.”
That seemed sufficient feedback on how to handle meetings. I shared my thoughts on how we should spend the Party Time.
“Let’s implement Eunsol-noona’s suggestion for the meetings from now on. Even if it’s not Ahri, it would really help if one or two people offered different perspectives.”
“Umm, Kain? Can you please wipe this off first?”
“Let’s also ponder how we’ll spend this Party Time. Since this time we don’t need to explore, we’ve got plenty of time on our hands. During this break, we should reflect on ourselves a bit.”
“Could you at least consider my eyes while you’re at it?”
“Don’t you think we have a lot of secrets around our blessings? We still don’t know much about our blessings, so let’s discuss them when we can.”
“Good thought,” said Grandpa Mooksung. “We should actively utilize your advice for that. It would be wise to go through your advice carefully every day and research our blessings more.”
That marked the conclusion of our afternoon meeting.
In the end, after Ahri tried to choke me, I reluctantly wiped her eyes clean before heading back to my room.
*
– Kim Mooksung, Kim Ahri
Kim Mooksung: Private message. Is it true that there are no hidden elements left?
Kim Ahri: Yup.
Kim Mooksung: How do you know?
Kim Ahri: The compass.
Kim Mooksung: Hidden Rooms 3, Hidden NPCs 3? Rooms are Blessing Sanctum, Souvenir Shop, Safari; NPCs are Doctor, Merchant, Shop girl?
Kim Ahri: Nope. Hidden Rooms 2, Hidden NPCs 2. Safari is something the Hotel told us directly. It’s not a Hidden Room. The shop girl is part of the shop components. Not a separate NPC.
Kim Mooksung: No need to dig anymore in the basement?
Kim Ahri: If we go up to the 2nd floor, new hidden elements might show up. None for now.
Kim Mooksung: Do I need to keep hiding the compass?
Kim Ahri: I’m still thinking.
*
– Han Kain
I rested in my room, contemplating.
This Party Time without exploration.
What should we do now?
I noted it down on the status window.
1. Reflect deeply on our respective blessings.
2. Learn more about the Inheritance and Manifestations.
3. Visit the Blessing Sanctum.
4. Think about descents as well.
5. Decide on the next room to explore.
Wow! That’s a lot more than I expected!
… Maybe I should just take a nap.
We can think it over later when we gather for dinner, jot down some advice, and discuss.
That evening, an event occurred that overshadowed everything on that list.
The hatching of the “egg” began.
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