Chapter 1 - First Day at the Hotel, Meeting the Companions
Day 1
I was dumbfounded the moment I woke up.
Since I was on a trip where I was spending quite a bit of money, it was a fairly decent hotel, and it was definitely a reasonably okay room.
In other words, it was the kind of room where a single guy could comfortably fall asleep while watching a Netflix movie on a wall-mounted TV in a neat atmosphere.
The room I had woken up in now was absurdly huge and glamorous, like something straight out of a movie.
It was definitely not a single room to begin with.
For a hotel room, the walls were adorned with classical paintings, making it feel as though I had stepped into the mansion of some wealthy tycoon.
The bed was draped in such luxurious bedding that I felt apologetic for messing up its arrangement just by moving.
I turned on my phone to check the time, only to be startled once more. The screen showed no signal.
Feeling increasingly confused, I hastily washed up, changed my clothes, and stepped out of the bedroom—only to see a display screen in the living room flashing brightly.
Congratulations on the start of your adventure! You have acquired the Blessing of Wisdom.
You can know facts that other companions cannot know, and comprehend facts that others cannot comprehend.
As you progress in your adventure, the Blessing of Wisdom will also give rise to new possibilities.
The blessing is activated.
Today's Surprise Event: There are no bad animals in the world.
What in the world is this? I feel like I'm truly losing my mind.
The moment I grabbed the back of my neck and looked up at the ceiling, a corner of my vision wavered.
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 1
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Room of Rest)
Sage's Advice: 3]
Is this some kind of game status window?
Only then did I finally accept that something entirely absurd was happening to me.
*
As I moved toward the living room, I found an absurdly massive dining table like something out of a movie, and on the table was a button labeled 'Meal'.
Does food pop out if I press it? While I was pondering this, a piercing scream echoed through the air.
I frantically ran to escape this ridiculously huge 'room' and threw the door open.
The moment I stepped out into the hallway and reached the lobby, my jaw dropped.
A giant monkey? Something was off. It was walking on two legs, and wielding a cold weapon in its hands.
The inside of its mouth was filled not with teeth, but rather with what looked like saw blades. This wasn't just a monkey; it was a straight-up monster.
Four? Maybe five people were being threatened.
Near the front desk on the left, a pair of women—one of whom appeared to be a foreigner—were screaming helplessly.
Near the bonsai tree on the right, a single person had completely passed out, slumped over on the floor.
The reason there were no casualties yet, even in such a desperate atmosphere, was clear.
"A Terminator?..."
A man with such a towering physique that I momentarily blurted out something stupid, wondering if he was the Terminator.
He was fighting, swinging a wooden stick that looked suspiciously like a chair leg.
His frame was even larger than the monster monkeys, and every time he swung his club, the monsters were sent flying backward, seemingly overpowered by his sheer strength.
While I stood there dumbfounded, blankly watching the fight, one of the monkeys noticed me and began to approach.
I had no idea. I really didn't have the slightest clue what was going on.
I desperately wished for something—anything, be it an angel or a demon—to just tell me what to do. At that thought, a sentence suddenly floated into the air before me.
[Move to Room 105 immediately.]
Room 105. My room number. The moment I acknowledged it, the number next to 'Sage's Advice' changed from 3 to 2.
Fortunately, it wasn't too far. As I ran frantically toward Room 105, I could hear incomprehensible shrieks and the loud thudding of footsteps chasing me from behind.
I suppressed the urge to do something as pointless as looking back, running and running until I threw open the door to Room 105. The moment I did, the sounds vanished.
Only then did I dazedly look back.
The monster that had clearly been chasing me just a moment ago was huffing and glaring at me from across the hall, but it didn't approach. Instead, it turned around and headed back toward the lobby.
Was there something about this room? It seemed the monsters couldn't approach it.
After returning to the room and catching my breath for about ten seconds, the people in the lobby who had been in danger earlier finally came to mind.
The Terminator-like man seemed to be holding his own, but he couldn't fight endlessly, right? Regardless of what was going on, I had to save those people.
I clenched my teeth and grabbed an incredibly expensive-looking silver candelabra just in case.
If I swung it, it would at least serve as a makeshift weapon.
Given the severity of the situation, no one was going to bill me for damaging the décor.
It was terrifying, but if things went south, I could just turn tail and run back to Room 105.
I dashed back toward the lobby, only to find the situation had worsened.
The man who had been fighting like a warrior was now bleeding profusely from wounds sustained somewhere, and the two women huddled behind the front desk were frantically swinging jagged pieces of debris they had picked up.
The woman near the bonsai tree, who had appeared unconscious and whom I feared might already be dead, was thankfully still unharmed.
Aside from them, I could see two other people running around in a panic. The only silver lining was that one of the monsters was down and unable to move, seemingly taken out by the Terminator-like man through sheer force.
"The monsters can't approach Room 105! Please, come this way right now!"
I screamed myself hoarse, shouting it over and over again, and the people around finally looked my way. One by one, they started running toward me.
As if he had been waiting for this, the Terminator-like man placed himself between the people and the monsters. Wary of the man who had apparently already killed one of their own, the monsters hesitated to pounce.
How many lives had that man saved in such a short amount of time?
Honestly, even if I hadn't called out to them, wouldn't this man have somehow beaten the remaining two monsters to death?
Of course, seeing blood flowing from wounds all over his body, he might have died before he could finish them off.
The woman by the bonsai tree, who had appeared unconscious, also came to her senses belatedly.
Eventually, after everyone had fled toward Room 105, the Terminator-like man and I made our way there as well. Just like before, the monsters only glared at us, unable to approach.
The moment I entered the room, I took a deep, ragged breath, slammed the door shut, and looked behind me.
No one was there.
Was I seeing things? I had clearly seen two men and three women—excluding myself—enter the room.
Just as I thought I was getting used to these bizarre occurrences, the display on the wall flashed.
Welcome, guests who have gathered at Hotel Pioneer! Please take note of a few guidelines. These guidelines may be updated, and you can view them at any time on the hotel's display.
1. Hotel Pioneer always loves its guests.
2. Please be advised that the elevator is out of order.
3. The hotel always protects the privacy of its guests. However, wouldn't it be nice to have meals together?
A situation filled with nothing but question marks. The only thing offering any semblance of information was the notice on the display.
I read through the sentences with the utmost concentration I had ever mustered in my life.
'Privacy'. Could it be that everyone disappeared because of privacy?
Having keenly felt that common sense was entirely useless, I tried to think as 'counter-intuitively' as possible: in a situation where six people were crammed into a single room, privacy could not be maintained.
If the text was to be believed, everyone in Room 105 existed separately under normal circumstances, only meeting up together during meal times.
[You have gained a slight understanding of the hotel.]
A message immediately popped up on the status window, and a hollow laugh escaped my lips. This absurd deduction was actually real. I dazedly made my way toward the massive room with the dining table.
I spotted a clock, and next to it, a notice stating that meal times were at 7:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 7:00 PM, each lasting for one hour and thirty minutes.
It was currently around 10:20 AM, so if I could just hold out until 12:00 PM, something would surely happen.
An incredibly confusing morning. I was so utterly exhausted that I lay down on the bed just to close my eyes for a moment.
Tap. Tap.
"Could you wake up for a second?"
Ah. I had completely fallen asleep in that brief moment.
I startled awake, and right before my eyes stood one of the women I had seen earlier. She looked to be in her mid-thirties?
She was tall, with an aura that practically screamed, 'I'm a successful city woman.'
However, she gave off a somewhat chilly vibe, making her difficult to approach.
"Uh... thank you for waking me. Where are the others?"
"Well, I hardly believed it, but the moment it struck 12, everyone just popped up out of nowhere like they teleported, and aside from two people, they've all gathered in the dining area.
Mr. Jincheol was injured fighting earlier, so he managed to stop the bleeding for now, but he's lying down... And you were asleep, so I wondered if I should wake you. We need to talk to each other, don't you think?"
"Yes. Everything is weird, but we do need to talk."
"Follow me."
As we turned and walked together toward the dining area, the woman suddenly looked back.
"Ah, and... thanks for earlier. I thought I was going to end up as monster food out of nowhere, but you called out to me and saved my skin. I'm Lee Eun-sol."
"It was nothing. The Termi... I mean, Mr. Jincheol? He did all the work."
After a brief exchange of modesty, Lee Eun-sol offered a slight smile and turned back around.