Chapter 30
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Explorer II
Shin No-a
"A-ryeon. Hold the elevator door open for a moment."
"Excuse me?"
"This guild master has something to check."
I immediately began climbing up the elevator wall. Sim A-ryeon let out a "Hiek!" and was startled as if looking at a giant spider, but I lightly ignored her.
I loaded aura into my hand blade, then split the ceiling as if slicing soft tofu. *Sizzle-* Sparks flew from my hand like welding.
Before long, a neat hole was punched through the elevator ceiling. This was the power of a skilled aura user.
"G-guild Master. What are you doing right now...?"
"Shh. Don't make loud noises and wait."
*Heave-* I stuck my upper body out of the elevator. I think there was a scene like this in Mission Impossible.
"Hmm."
The wind was chilling.
The scenery outside the elevator was pitch dark. Partly because the lights weren't on, but even considering that, it was excessively dark.
To describe it more accurately, it was 'crude.'
The elevator car had ropes attached, but that was it. Aside from the main ropes, essential components like governor ropes and car door drive mechanisms that should be on an elevator were nowhere to be seen.
Setting everything else aside, the structure itself was too shoddy to consider it an elevator operating in 'Sauron's Tower.' A high-rise building of this scale, yet the elevator capsule didn't even have streamlined curves?
'It's obvious.'
The mental image that became the source of this anomaly wasn't born from experts.
It was just ordinary people with vague preconceptions and images about this hotel... In other words, it was an anomaly born from average Koreans.
'I avoided the worst-case scenario.'
I smiled faintly.
This makes things easy.
"Heave-ho."
*Thump,* I dropped down from the ceiling.
Sim A-ryeon, whom I had told to hold the door, must not have been able to contain her curiosity, as she was poking her head out of the elevator.
"Guild Master. P-people are alive and well... Goodness, their clothes aren't even wrinkled. Completely neat... Ack. The carpet is completely r-ruined because of our shoe prints..."
At that moment, the gazes of the 'existences' gathered in the hotel lobby focused intensely. Their pitch-black eyes all simultaneously looked at Sim A-ryeon.
"Hiek."
"Quiet."
I immediately blocked Sim A-ryeon's mouth as she was about to scream. I quickly whispered in her ear as she flinched with a "Mmph."
"Don't talk carelessly. Avoid making eye contact as much as possible. Those staff members, and the other guests too, are all anomalies."
"Mmph?"
"To be more precise, they're parts of an anomaly. Or rather, it would be better to describe them as terminals. Most likely with a very high probability, this entire hotel is one giant anomaly and Void. If you attract their attention, eventually 'the entire hotel' will focus on you."
"Mmph. Mmph...?"
"Of course, if you were an Awakened who could use aura as naturally as breathing like me, you could smash through everything without a care. But our purpose is exploration before subjugation. We need to find out as detailed as possible how this Void operates and record it. It might help humanity. Understand?"
"..."
*Nod,* Sim A-ryeon timidly raised and lowered her chin. Her saliva got on my palm so it was a bit dirty, but I tried to ignore it.
"Now I'll show you how a skilled Awakened explores a Void. A-ryeon, don't say anything while those things are around. Just stare around with wide eyes whatever I say. Can you do that?"
Nod.
"Good."
I released Sim A-ryeon's mouth and walked with her to the check-in counter.
*Blink.* The anomalies, or the anomaly's terminals, moved their eyes with exactly the same stride every time I took a step, staring at me intently.
An ordinary person, or in other words, a beginner with little experience dealing with anomalies, would probably find this despairing from here.
But who am I? A regressor who's dealt with anomalies along with the East Sea and Baekdusan wearing down and eroding.
I approached without blinking an eye.
*Creak-*
The staff member standing beyond the counter opened their lips. The mouth was pitch black like an abyss. Not even a tongue was visible beyond the teeth.
It mimicked a person.
-Hello, welcome. Did you make a reservation at our hotel? If so...
"Good morning."
*Hesitate.* The staff members all stopped at once.
Ignoring that, I spoke fluently.
"I have a reservation at this hotel. I'm a travel YouTuber. May I check in?"
-Ah, um. Hmm?
The staff members' bewilderment was vivid. Of course it would be.
Because I was speaking in German.
High-end hotel counter staff can speak English and can relatively easily respond to Japanese or Chinese. But German, French, Spanish, Russian, and such cannot be immediately addressed unless prepared in advance.
Naturally, a Korean Peninsula native anomaly also possessed the same sensibility as an average Korean when dealing with foreigners. In other words, it became infinitely weak.
-Ah. Um, I'm sorry. Guest. Would you be able to speak in English? Reservation? Reservation, please?
"Oh my. In this global era, can you really rely only on English?"
-Excuse me?
"Ah, am sorry. I can't speak English. Deutschland. Germany. Okay?"
-Ah, Germany. ...What should we do? This person seems to be German. Ah, I'm sorry. Please wait a moment, guest.
At my perfect German pronunciation, the anomalies instantly became flustered and scurried about.
Sim A-ryeon was looking at me like that with, hmm. Eyes rounded as if witnessing a giant hamster performing a handstand trick.
It might seem like a silly act, but this 'I don't know Korean, oh I don't know English either' strategy was a tactic that worked quite well in Voids. Especially in Voids like Sauron's Tower here that mimic proper buildings, it worked even better.
The anomalies murmured among themselves.
-Can't you reach the person in charge?
-No. They're not answering the phone.
-But why now of all times... We should ask if they made a reservation, but we can't communicate...
-Now, now. Let's calm down. Guide them to the lobby sofa for now. We can't keep the guests standing. Serve welcome tea too.
If this were really a hotel, they would have responded promptly.
But I guarantee these anomalies are facing a German visitor for the first time since their creation.
Foreign guest department? There's no way an anomaly would have prepared that far. Naturally, if you transfer the call, no one answers.
-Excuse me, guest? Please? Could you come this way for a moment?
"Hmm? What are you saying?"
-Ah, just a moment, please sit on this sofa and wait. Yes. Right now, phone. We can't reach them. Yes. I'm sorry.
The staff member used all sorts of body language to somehow make us understand. Of course, I sat on the sofa with a slightly annoyed expression, but making it clear I had no intention of causing trouble.
"Goodness."
As soon as the staff member moved away, Sim A-ryeon whispered while clinging close.
"Guild Master... What, what just happened?"
"It's a tactic that shows an almost invincible win rate limited to the Korean Peninsula when dealing with anomalies trying to mimic humans."
Of course, this strategy works only particularly well in Korea, and should never be used in the Netherlands. There are too many people who speak foreign languages well there.
"You, you knew foreign languages too?"
"Of course. English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, I can speak most foreign languages. Is perfect memory ability for nothing?"
"Woah... I thought you only liked old-fashioned content like Three Kingdoms all the time, but suddenly you look like a different person..."
"..."
This kid. If it weren't for me, she would have knocked on the glass door and crossed to the afterlife before even getting on the elevator, this Void newbie...
Anyway, no matter how dangerous a dungeon is, if you know how to respond, there's no problem at all.
I took out a camera from my travel backpack. A polaroid camera, in other words, an instant camera that produces photos immediately after taking them.
"Hm? Why the camera all of a sudden...?"
"Ah, don't worry. This may not look like much, but it's a precious item. A treasure among treasures I received as compensation for helping magical girls in Japan last time."
"...?"
The model was the Polaroid OneStep (Land Camera 1000) released in 1977.
Originally it should use SX-70 Time-Zero film... but fortunately this camera itself is a kind of anomaly, so no film is needed.
*Click.*
I photographed the hotel lobby. A flash burst from the model's characteristically large head. And before long, a pure white film slid out.
"You take it. Don't scream."
"Excuse me? What is this... Hiek!"
Just as expected. The lobby scenery taken with my camera was quite different from the luxurious scenery reflected in our eyes now.
Marble floor covered in dust everywhere. Lights and ceramics shattered and scattered here and there. Even corpses hanging by their necks and swaying beyond the counter.
"Heck, hiek... Huuh..."
Furthermore, right near the sofa where we were guided by the staff and sat, there was a corpse in military uniform with both eyes wide open and mouth agape. Sim A-ryeon experienced breathing difficulties.
"Amazing, right? This is a truly rare camera. It's called a 'Spirit Photography Camera,' and it's quite a well-known anomaly in Japan. I'd been eyeing it for a long time to obtain it, and only after subjugating the Inunaki Tunnel last time did I finally manage to get it from the magical girls. They had two more similar cameras with Nikon F series, but I don't know why they were being so expensive about it."
"Guild Master, hik. Guild Masteerr..."
"Sigh. Don't be so scared. This becomes fun once you start enjoying it. There's a charm in testing how far those morons can mimic humans."
"You're the only person in the world who enjoys anomalies...!"
While I was teasing Sim A-ryeon like that, the hotel side even brought welcome tea.
Shortly after, someone who appeared to be a person in charge came out and desperately used English and body language.
-We are truly sorry, guest. Currently, we have no way to serve you.
"Hmm."
My chin angle rose 20 degrees, and conversely, the staff's angle descended 20 degrees.
-If you could wait just a little longer, we will somehow...
"Hmm."
At this point, I slowly moved the weight of my consideration toward the latter regarding whether to subjugate this anomaly or put it on hold.
Usually, most anomalies would reveal their true colors by this point.
But judging by how things were going, these ones seemed sincere about hotel operations. In other words, as long as we didn't drop our 'guest' act first, they wouldn't give up their 'hotel' act either.
Pass.
"It's fine. Okay, okay. I'll just look around the area and do some sightseeing, so please take care of things by then."
-Excuse me?
"Please keep this backpack for me. This is my phone number. Okay?"
I took only the important items from my backpack and handed it to the staff member. Then the staff member seemed to understand and said "Ah, okay! Thank you so much!" and smiled broadly.
The staff member kindly guided us to the elevator. We comfortably rode the elevator and headed back to the original 1st floor.
Sim A-ryeon, who had been trembling continuously since witnessing the spirit photograph, spoke.
"Uh... Guild Master, is it okay for us to leave like this?"
"Probably."
"B-but earlier the door didn't open?"
"Unlike before, this time the hotel side has permitted us to leave. If I had said I was leaving for good, they might have blocked us, but I gave the hint that I'd return anyway."
"Ah. So you intentionally left the backpack...?"
"That's right. When exploring a Void, you need to quickly figure out the character of this space and adapt to it. No matter how dangerous a Void is, as long as you follow the rules properly, there's only about... a 50% chance they'll attack me first."
"That's half!"
That's why you need to build up enough power to immediately slap them if an anomaly charges at you. *Tsk tsk.*
When we arrived at the 1st floor, the elevator opened. I tried taking a photo of the 1st floor with the camera too, as a test.
"Hmm."
"W-what came out...?"
"I'll tell you later."
In the photo of the 1st floor. Corpses were piled up like mountains there.
Shapes of humans with their heads half-eaten were standing near the glass door, about 20 of them. And about 100 corpses were pressed against the glass, scratching it with their palms.
The structure that looked like a pretty chandelier to my eyes was nothing but a gathering of hanged corpses in the photograph.
"Let's go out for now."
"Okaaay..."
As expected, this time the glass door opened naturally when pushed. *Whoosh,* the rough outside air rushed into my nasal cavity.
Sim A-ryeon collapsed on the spot.
"I was so scared...! I was scared! Guild Master, please! Don't drag me into things like this because it's bad for my heart!"
"Here, the 1st floor photo. A souvenir."
"A souvenir? What kind... Kyaaaaah!"
Sim A-ryeon fainted on the spot.
For reference, I was satisfied. This is why it's fun hanging out with this kid. Good reactions.
Of course, my satisfaction was halved after seeing the shitpost uploaded on SG Net the next day.
-Goryeo Jang: Went and left my footprint at 'that tower' in Gangnam, Seoul lol.
-Goryeo Jang: They say this is that famous dungeon? I went and there was jack shit. Awakened bastards always acting high and mighty, but they're dying in this kind of trash dungeon?
(79th floor lobby photo)
(1st floor elevator photo)
-Goryeo Jang: I have psychometry items so I took proof shots too. Look carefully to see if your mom and dad's faces are in here lol.
Of course, the proof shots uploaded by Goryeo Jang villain were none other than the instant photos I had given Sim A-ryeon.
A heated response poured in.
-Anonymous: Where is this?
└Literature Girl: It's obviously Sauron's Tower.
└Anonymous: ?? This bastard went on a raid to Sauron's Tower alone and came back alive?
-[Samcheon] Officer: Wait, seriously what's up with Goryeo Jang villain? Is this sociopathic attention-seeker really a hidden master?
-[Baekhwa] 6th Grader: Hehe. >_<);;
-Anonymous: Kya lol Sasuga Goryeo Jang ham is the best lol
-[Mystery] Cooking Queen: Very interesting.
Hmm.
I quietly turned my head to look at Sim A-ryeon sitting in the guild break room fiddling with her phone.
"Hehe, hehehe..."
Sim A-ryeon lying sprawled on the sofa looked happy. Extremely so.
Perhaps the true anomaly is something like that?
4
Afterword.
Right in the next episode, I picked up Seo Gyu from Busan Station and researched 'Sauron's Tower' on the internet.
It hadn't been long since civilization started rushing toward destruction. I could easily obtain the image file of hotel vouchers circulating on the internet.
And I forged a voucher using that image file.
Why. Well. The barcode was scanned all wrong, but it's not like anomalies could actually verify barcodes anyway?
Thus, I visited 'Sauron's Tower' alone once more with this voucher (top-tier Presidential Suite, room size 145m², meals included, standard price of 8 million won per night).
The result?
"Yes, your reservation is confirmed. Mr. Funeral Director. We will serve you with our best service."
"Oh..."
Surprisingly, the reservation went through!
Thanks to that, that night I not only enjoyed dinner at a high-end restaurant after a long time, but also took a bath while looking down at the beautiful night view of Seoul through the window.
Naturally, wherever I went in the hotel, the staff treated me with bright, kind smiles.
'This is sweet.'
The next morning, I took a photo of the meal placed on the table for breakfast, as a test.
*Click-*
I waited for the film to develop while eating delicious miyeok-guk. And finally, I looked down at the photo that came out.
"Hmm..."
I won't reveal what was captured in that photo here.
I'll only add that I made up my mind that if I were to bring anyone here to hang out, I would definitely choose someone with very, very strong stomach.
Ah.
Of course, I won't come with Sim A-ryeon.
- Explorer. End.