Chapter 154 |
> [SYSTEM] You have entered your room (Room 1209).
> Safe Zone effect applied: [Madness Contamination] level increase temporarily paused.
"What the fuck."
"What now. What is it."
"This existed?"
"What is it. Uncle asked first."
Hyeon Si-gyeong, ignoring Seung-jae, addressed Do-heon.
"It appears to be only a temporary pause. Recovery likely requires additional conditions."
"Goodness, there's another one here who ignores me."
"I recommend taking rest."
Seung-jae grumbled theatrically.
"Being stuck between two detection-type Artists always makes me feel like a rock."
"What kind of metaphor is 'a rock'?"
"I mean I feel stupid."
He shrugged.
"So what is it? Feel like telling me now?"
"Uh... it says entering the Safe Zone paused the Madness Contamination level."
"My, there's something like that?"
Genuine surprise crossed Seung-jae's face at his nephew's answer.
"Interesting. I keep thinking this, but it acts like a Game-Type Labyrinth. Looks different from what it is."
"Game-Type Labyrinth...?"
Hyeon Si-gyeong explained as he sat on the sofa.
"A labyrinth with guides or hints. Simply put, one where a method to 'beat' it always exists, no matter how difficult."
Do-heon and Seung-jae turned to look at him. Under their gazes, Hyeon Si-gyeong added.
"Use your words."
"He's talking?"
"He's talking?"
"Yes, I'm talking."
Hyeon Si-gyeong nodded readily.
"The General Manager assisted me."
Seung-jae, who understood the weight of those words, blinked and rolled his eyes. He scratched his chin with the gun muzzle.
"The fact that he has that kind of ability is surprising enough, but it's even harder to understand why he'd use that power to help a single human. Did he take pity on a human Cthul○○? Some sense of kinship?"
"I am not C○○lhu. Due to copyright issues, Mr. Lu-[redacted] has been struggling to censor the word every time, so I recommend exercising restraint. His head may explode soon."
"You always say things I can't make sense of. See, that's exactly what makes you ○thulhu-like."
Do-heon blinked and asked.
"C...? What's... what is that? Can I know too?"
"At last my nephew understands this uncle's pain. What an infuriating fellow that one is. Only comes looking for me when he's hurting."
He holstered the gun he'd been pointing at his chin and waved it.
"In simple terms, it's an overwhelming, incomprehensibly vast divinity that exceeds human understanding."
"Why does that sound so otaku?"
"Which is exactly why you don't go spouting this in front of civilians."
It could cause problems on multiple fronts. Seung-jae shrugged and continued.
"Anyway, it's the name of an entity from a novel dealing with that kind of Cosmic Horror, starting with C and ending with -lhu... and our Inspector friend's field of vision alone puts him roughly in that ballpark."
"I am a person."
"Which is why I'm calling you a human C○○, aren't I?"
Having said that, Seung-jae dug at his ear.
"Lord, when will this hymn noise end?"
"He is always watching us, so I'd advise caution."
"That fellow sure does love watching humans squirm~"
"Is he not an observer who delights in human contradiction?"
"Anyway, it's nice to have a proper conversation with the Inspector for once."
"I agree."
At that, Do-heon hugged the owl with a sour expression.
"You're both a little weird."
"Hoo."
Anyone listening would've heard that as 'I agree.'
"So, uh, the cop is... some cosmic-being something... is that what you're saying? Right now?"
"Mmhm, just the visual range? Everything else is roughly within human bounds."
"Then the General Manager... helping him was because of, what, some sense of kinship?"
"That much I don't know. I'm just guessing."
Seung-jae looked at Hyeon Si-gyeong.
"What does our friend think?"
"......"
Hyeon Si-gyeong, who had been rolling his eyes like marbles, answered.
"His vessel is certainly on par with a cosmic entity, but instead of utilizing it, he's using a small vessel of his own making as a proxy. Above all, he's young...."
Do-heon, who had been quietly listening, snapped his head up. Full of questions.
"? Young? Who's young?"
"In practical terms, the current General Manager is close to a human state."
"The General Manager is young?"
"Somewhere between a minimum of five and a maximum of several thousand years old."
"What in the world does that mean."
"It depends on interpretation and perspective, so by human standards, it's functionally meaningless. I recommend not digging deeper. The more you know, the easier it is to go mad."
Seung-jae, however, had the background knowledge, and he crossed his arms and nodded.
"But in cosmic terms, he is, without question, endlessly young?"
"Which is why what he showed me was human kindness. Even if he only followed rules and structure, there must have been a 'personality' that set those rules."
"This is something... we should keep quiet about. From the Director, too."
He scratched his head with the gun muzzle.
"If she finds out The Foundation actually succeeded in creating a god of paradise, I can't predict how she'll react."
Do-heon, who had given up asking unanswerable questions and sat dazed, spoke up.
"...Fuck, can someone please talk about something I understand?"
"Easy now, nephew."
"How am I supposed to not be angry right now??"
He'd just been told the General Manager might be five years old or several thousand.
***
"......"
"......"
Central Control Room.
The Water Wraith, who had been eavesdropping on the living, turned to General Manager Lee Yeon-woo. She pointed at the CCTV screen showing the three and asked wordlessly.
"...? ...???"
"I am not five years old."
This irrationality and inefficiency. He was beginning to tire of lengthy explanations.
"Coco, would you say something?"
"Eing."
Coco, inside the coffee cup, exercised its right to silence.
"Coco?"
"Yesno."
"Pardon?"
"Yes."
***
"So to summarize...."
Seung-jae waggled his gun hand.
"The General Manager is, surprisingly, quite invested in our well-being? Is that right?"
"That is my assessment as well."
And Do-heon sat motionless, clutching the owl. The owl was pecking his hand--poke poke poke--but no matter how you looked at it, the owl's intelligence seemed the sharper of the two.
"Oh dear, the kid's gone catatonic."
Only after hearing that did Do-heon exhale the breath he'd been holding.
"Haaaaahh...."
"Aged about ten years in one go."
> Would you like to rest on the sofa? [Yes / No]
> [Yes]
"Seriously, this is...."
> [SYSTEM] Taking a short rest....
> HP and MP have recovered slightly.
"I'm really going to lose it."
"Lose what?"
"The fact that this might actually be kindness."
Do-heon threw himself onto the plush living room sofa. The owl in his arms fluttered up and re-settled on his shoulder.
Do-heon scrubbed his face roughly with both hands. The sequence of events at the 22nd-floor Dining tangled chaotically in his head.
The Guest Without Taste, who'd looked ready to devour them. And the General Manager, who'd stepped between them as if it were the most natural thing.
"......"
After a long silence, Do-heon spoke abruptly.
"Hey."
He hesitated, then continued.
"About what happened at the Dining."
"What, still want more meat? Just say so~"
"Oh, come on. I'm being serious."
Despite Seung-jae's deflection, Do-heon's expression was grave.
"The General Manager helped us back there. Right?"
The timing was too perfect to be dismissed as mere dining etiquette. The instant that tall man had been bearing down on them, the way the General Manager had stepped forward as though shielding them.
A machine-perfect smile, but the result of the action was unmistakable protection.
"At first, I just thought he was the boss of this insane monster den... you know, the worst of the worst? I figured he was the villain keeping us locked in this hotel and making us do life-or-death quests."
Why they'd been roped into suppressing a problem guest in the first place was still beyond him. Do-heon muttered, brow furrowed.
"But then why go out of his way to shield us? Even getting into a standoff with that creepy beanpole. He didn't seem like your average lunatic."
"True enough~"
"Honestly, whether we get eaten or not, he could just leave us be. Whatever those rules are, there's no obvious reason to enforce them that strictly."
"That too~"
That was when. The white owl, which had been quietly preening on his shoulder, nuzzled its round head against Do-heon's cheek.
"Hooeng."
A gesture that seemed to say 'you're right,' oddly laced with affection. At that soft touch, Do-heon blinked, then declared.
"See. Even this one agrees with me."
"Oh nephew, you're not getting attached to a Recognition Species already, are you?"
"Recognition Species?"
"A terrifying monster. A monster."
Seung-jae clicked his tongue and perched on the table across from his nephew. His usually genial eyes had gone cold.
"Some call them Dokkaebi, some call them gods, others call them spirits or demons. Granted, the Manager does seem like the most traditional kind of Dokkaebi...."
"Can you say it so I can understand?"
"Think of them as a type of nature spirit. But even so, humans can't comprehend them. Shouldn't even try. The maybe-two Dokkaebi left in Korea? Nobody in the world touches them."
That dangerous. Not just their malice, but even their goodwill.
"They're the kind of being that can curse you for doing better than promised, claiming it differs from the original agreement."
"......"
"The handful of recorded indigenous Korean Dokkaebi might be different, but the General Manager here is young. Born and raised in this deranged labyrinth--that's all he's ever seen."
"...What does that...."
"What do you think that kid learned, growing up here? Hm?"
He wasn't denying the Dokkaebi General Manager's good intentions.
"I know it too--the only reason this volatile labyrinth can run in any kind of balance is entirely thanks to that Dokkaebi. If his temperament were even a little worse, not just this labyrinth but the surrounding region, maybe even Korea's Gaps as a whole, would've been at risk."
But.
"That's a separate issue."
A Dokkaebi is a Dokkaebi. It could cut off a person's leg or pluck out an eye as a form of goodwill.
"Dokkaebi don't have human sensibility. The General Manager became a Dokkaebi from a human, so he looks a bit better, but even so."
Seung-jae looked at Hyeon Si-gyeong.
"How does it look to you?"
"His gears are different from the human average."
"You heard that?"
He added his explanation.
"His head can understand human values, but that's the extent of it. He can understand and try to control, but deeply empathizing is difficult. That's what a Dokkaebi is."
He clicked his tongue.
"Humans can't even fully understand each other, which is why we fight--so how much more so for a Dokkaebi? Expecting him to be a 'good person' or a 'kind person' in that way isn't positive for you or for the Dokkaebi."
He'd been drilling this into his nephew's ears for a year, but since the memory was gone, he'd say it again.
"Don't judge Dokkaebi or labyrinths too much by human standards."
"......"
"No matter how indigenous the Dokkaebi, trusting that its goodwill is genuine 'human kindness' is the day you become the guest of honor at your own funeral. Got it?"
"...That's...."
***
The occupants of the Central Control Room nodded in unison.
"That's fair."
"Fair enough."
"More or less."
In order: the General Manager, the Water Wraith, and the vampire.
"Yes."
Coco was there too.
Unbothered by the now-bustling Central Control Room, General Manager Lee Yeon-woo propped his chin.
"I'll need to be more careful about offering help going forward. I wanted to stay true to my role as a guide, but if the NPC's personal backstory leaks, it'll interfere with future Human Guests' comfortable hotel experience."
The vampire seized the opening and murmured slyly.
"While you're at it, how about dialing back that favoritism?"
Even the Water Wraith, who usually treated the vampire as invisible, turned at those words. Naturally, as everyone's General Manager, Yeon-woo graced them with a smile.
"I won't be listening to that."
The Water Wraith clicked what might or might not have been a tongue and turned away. The vampire, apparently sharing the sentiment, shrugged in exaggerated dismay.
"How cold."
"If you hadn't tried to take a bite out of my guests, I wouldn't be having this dilemma in the first place."
As if these senile ghosts would dare harass his precious new users.
"Eing."
"Rotten cat."
"No."
"Am I truly the only one here who wants to revive this game?"
Our hotel's base difficulty is way too high.