Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Fourth Attempt

- Han Kain

Light struck down from the sky as unfathomable pain spreaded through my body at once!

My eyes started to pick up colors that I couldn’t before, and the ears started to pick up sounds that were beforehand unhearable.

Sixth sense and the seventh sense. Senses came to life without an end as a flood of information that human brains could not withstand started to pour in like a tidal wave.

…

I understood in the midst of the breathtaking pain.

Descent was like molting.

Not many would remember the life of their babyhood after becoming an adult. Perhaps as a baby, we might have resented the slippery ground that made it hard for us to crawl. We might have loathed our parents for feeding us the tasteless baby food.

But looking back, how pathetically trivial are they all?

Even if there was a video recording our emotions of that time, we would look back as adults and smile, thinking how cute we all were, before forgetting it again.

Just like that, myself from babyhood and my current self were like the before and after of breaking the shell.

Through growth, humans gained their sense of self. After becoming rational outside the shell of babyhood, we would consider everything of the past as trivial.

…Now, I was feeling my shell crack ‘once again’ after how it cracked as a baby.

From now on, I will be Han Kain but not the same Han Kain as before.

***

- Son of Heaven

I opened my eyes.

The delicate senses that I felt when first receiving the power from ‘lord’ in the Hotel, overfilled my body. I gently kicked off the ground as my body soared into the air and crushed the ground beneath.

The air filling this entire planet was like water deterring my movement.

How small and frustrating was this world?

How could humans survive inside this small prison?

Whichever the case, it didn’t matter.

I was out of my shell, and there was no need to cry over the misfortune of the past.

How should I deal with the Apostle?

There was no need to worry about the difficulty. An apostle of a fake god was like a slightly bigger insect at best. Let’s call it a beetle.

However, possession was indeed an annoying ability.

I immediately thought of several ways to stop it, but decided to go with the easiest one. Reaching out towards the sky, I nonchalantly drew a circle.

With that, another sun appeared on earth.

The first sun in the sky was the Sun of Benevolence that filled the world with life, but the second sun rising at this moment was the Sun of Fury, cleansing the world of all pollution.

The Sun of Fury shot out a ray of light that instantly set the village ablaze.

It didn’t take long for every human in the radius of several kilometers to get scorched. The Apostle, who had been hiding in the village with some petty tricks, showed itself again.

“Who the hell are you? How could a human possess such power? Did the Vatican summon an angel or something?”

What nonsense.

“Do you think the likes of the Vatican can summon me?”

The Apostle’s body started to burn down.

I didn’t enjoy playing a game of tag with an insect so I burned every human nearby. There weren’t any bodies in sight, so the Apostle would return to the humble body in that filthy world.

Leaving behind the world in flames, I moved to the rear mountain.

I remembered my ‘memories as a human’ that were left behind in my head.

Ah! How feeble and pathetic was the life of a human? They had eyes but could not see, and ears but could not hear.

A life unable to properly sense any of the changes brought by nature must be tragic in itself.

…

That was when I felt an unpleasant gaze.

I lifted my head.

In the sky, 30,000 km above ground, I felt a satellite made by humans observing me. A satellite made by the Vatican to observe the world, is it?

How unpleasant. Who are they to observe?

I squeezed my hand and grasped the power of lightning.

— Kugugung!

A lightning bolt pierced through the sky from the ground and destroyed the satellite.

***

Going past the door in the rear mountain, I came across a world that was heading to apocalypse after losing its god.

Tentacles immediately fell on me the moment I set my foot inside.

Ripping them apart, I gazed around. There were tens and hundreds of thousands of creatures from this world gathered around the entrance.

“What is this? A welcoming ceremony?”

That was when a voice screamed from a distance.

“You monster! Please just die! O god! Grant me the power!”

“How funny. Do you think a world of nothing but chickens can kill a tiger?”

I moved my hand once and summoned the second sun in the sky — Actually it was the first sun in this world.

This pitiful world didn’t even have a sun.

The ray of light from the burning ball of flames started evaporating the entire ecosystem.

“Hahahaha!”

This was quite enjoyable in fact. I felt like warming up a little.

Waving my hand another time, I summoned a sword that was tall enough to reach the clouds in the sky.

Swinging the sword around, I enjoyed myself until there was nothing intact remaining in the world.

This much should be enough for the Hotel to consider the sacred land as being destroyed. I then turned to the Apostle, who had seen through the futility of trying to run away.

“May I inquire about your identity?” he asked.

“Now you are being a little polite.”

“I have realized that you truly are a being from heaven.

So why are you pointing your sword at the one I’m serving?

I believe that you were not summoned by the Vatican. There is no way they would have the power to summon a being like you.

If you sheathe your sword now, I’m sure the god will forgive you.”

“And what if they don’t? Do you have the power to punish me?”

“...”

“It was fun. I will send you off in peace.”

“... Although I have no idea who you might be, it is already too late.

I have already offered several souls of a higher status and the birth of my god has drawn near.”

“Ah, I saw it coming but that is a bit annoying.”

“So please sheathe your sword and—”

— Slash!

I didn’t feel the need for a longer conversation.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the birth of the moth couldn’t be stopped in time.

In the first place, too many participants of the Hotel had been killed. Ahri and Songee died independent of the ritual and they wouldn’t have been counted as sacrifice, but the rest were a different story.

Seungyub and Elena died in the mansion to the monsters so they probably became a part of the sacrifice.

Apart from that, Mooksung and Eunsol were probably also deemed as sacrifice after having their bodies taken away.

Though they were far from being comparable to Ahri who survived the first time of being in the Hotel, the souls of the rest of the participants had already gone up significantly compared to mere humans.

Normally, resolution would be impossible and escape would be the best option, but it didn’t seem impossible for me.

Why would it be impossible? Because the evil god was born already?

Not all gods were on the same level.

A baby chick might think of a new-born elephant as a god, but in the world of elephants, a new-born elephant was nothing but a baby.

Besides, how could a god born after consuming the dead body of a god and pathetic mortals be considered a real god?!

***

I returned to Earth from the other dimension and felt a strong wave of power from near the mansion.

The cocoon would be showing up shortly.

After realizing that the cocoon hadn’t even been summoned yet, I came up with a better plan. I was ready to fight the moth if need be, but was there a need to wait until it became a moth?

A caterpillar wriggling in the womb of its mother would be easier to crush than a moth flying around.

Before proceeding with the plan, I knelt down and turned to the sky just in case.

I ask of thee, ‘lord’.

Your son wishes to embrace risk, so please shine thy light.

…

“Huh? What? What’s going on?”

“W, what?”

“You…!”

Yu Songee and Cha Jinjul woke up and stuttered in confusion, but Ahri looked at me prudently.

“Did you revive us?”

“I did. And do not forget your respect.”

“...Yes sir. Apologies for the disrespect. But resurrection – it seemed that the Daughter of Heavens wasn’t the only one that could carry out that inexplicable miracle.”

Songee and Jinchul fell on their bums in shock after seeing me. Meanwhile, despite shivering faintly, Ahri remained standing tall with her eyes looking straight.

It was an intriguing sight so I asked.

“Why do you think I brought you back? For your information, resurrection takes a lot of energy even for myself.”

Ahri quietly glanced around before forming a response.

“The cocoon will appear soon. I believe you are trying to fight the One who couldn’t be Born. It seems to me that you are being cautious of a potential chance of defeat.”

She was decently quick-witted.

“Right. Although it wasn’t born, a god is still a god. It is hard to be certain of victory and there is a higher chance of defeat. However, even if I lose, as long as there is enough damage dealt, that will delay its birth.”

“And it will be an escape for us if we are far enough.”

“So don’t try anything useless and make sure to escape.”

Right as I was about to turn around towards the basement, Ahri suddenly bent her back and spoke in the politest tone I had heard from her.

“O one who descended from the sky. I sincerely hope you resolve the curse with this attempt. You are using the power of a god; so it will be a shame if you can’t even defeat a single caterpillar. Right?”

Hmm. It seemed that she was being rude and not polite. Hearing this girl say something so insolent despite seeing my current self was impressive in its own way.

However, she wasn’t wrong.

I walked down towards the basement.

***

A book was gleaming in blue.

Ohoh. Was this the Inheritance of this room?

It seemed to be a grimoire that the One who couldn’t be Born passed down onto the Apostle. Picking it up, I scanned the exterior.

Although it didn’t feel like that great of an item, it had its uses. This would serve a decent purpose in the Hotel.

That was when a distant voice pierced through my mind.

‘Why are you doing this to me?’

“Are you still asking that?”

‘Why, why, why, why! Why are you harassing me! I will make you my servant!’

With that, an infinitely evil aura started to emerge from the book.

Of course, it didn’t mean much.

“Haha! Looks like you still wanted another servant? But how can a baby wolf serve under a dog?”

‘I will kill you myself!’

***

I was brought into a murky area. In the midst of my endless descent down the bottomless pit, I reflected back on what occurred during the Third Attempt.

The moth re-entered its cocoon to recreate its deformed wings and allowed us our Fourth Attempt.

…Why did it do something so stupid? If it didn’t enter the cocoon on its own, we wouldn’t have been able to escape.

To recreate its wings before creating a new world?

It was already imprisoned inside the Hotel, so why bother creating a new world inside it?

That course of action was unexplainable unless it didn’t know it was locked inside the Hotel.

Was it because this wasn’t the Fifth Attempt?

That didn’t sound right.

In Room 103, Songee obtained the Inheritance in her first attempt, and the ‘Devouring One’ was fully aware of the Hotel’s system.

The one who needed to wait until the Fifth Attempt to understand the Hotel was the ‘Enemy’, not the ‘Convict’. The Convict was supposed to be aware from the beginning that it was locked inside the Hotel.

So why did this caterpillar act like it was unaware of that fact?

Aside from that, there was also that short yet disturbing conversation from before.

How childish and immature was this being?

That caterpillar was screaming more like an angry baby than a god.

…I wasn’t sure.

Despite transcending a human, the Hotel was still full of mysteries.

Before long, I saw the caterpillar crawling from a distance.

For the time being, I decided to focus on the battle at hand.

***

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