A Room That Isn’t a Room

I had never stayed in a place called a hotel even once, and the same was probably true for Won-gyeong.

Led along by the administrator’s smooth, practiced flow, we ended up completing the lodging procedure almost without thinking.

We were even told that a long-term stay of up to a full year was possible.

As if anyone in their right mind would spend a year in a nest of monsters like this.

Strange as this place was, the administrator certainly seemed like a professional at this sort of thing.

For now, we followed his lead, changing elevators several times before finally arriving at the top floor.

“This will be your room.”

With those words, the administrator opened the door using a card key.

I let out a small gasp at the sight that unfolded beyond the doorway.

It wasn’t just one room. Doors led off into a spacious living room and separate bedrooms.

All the furniture inside looked pristine, as if it had never been used.

“Wow!”

“Do you like it?”

Perhaps reacting to my voice, the administrator asked with a grotesque smile.

A smile I still hadn’t gotten used to.

I nodded mechanically and replied that I did.

The administrator stepped inside, briefly explained how to use several amenities, and then excused himself.

“Please enjoy your stay.”

After he left, Won-gyeong and I stood in the wide room in silence for a moment.

I listened to the administrator’s footsteps as they faded away.

At first, they sounded like the steps of a human walking on two legs— then suddenly, they changed into the sound of a beast walking on four.

So that monster really had been mimicking a human form.

Shuddering as I listened to the sound of a four-legged creature walking away, I spoke to Won-gyeong.

“Is getting sent somewhere like this common in rifts? There’s no way a place like this still exists on Earth.”

“Rare, but not impossible. Still, this is my first time entering a building like this too.

Like you said, it doesn’t feel like something that exists on Earth.”

Won-gyeong said this while looking around the room.

I picked up a cushion from the sofa, then suddenly voiced a thought that came to mind.

“Do you think… maybe we’re dreaming right now?”

Like when I’d been drawn into Jaeyul’s dream.

“There’s a chance. A small one, but it’s possible.”

“Then what do we do now? Everyone except us is a monster.”

“How did you know that?”

I’d slipped up while thinking about the absence of biological sounds.

Their appearances were perfectly human.

Aside from their unnatural smiles, there was nothing that gave them away.

Won-gyeong immediately questioned me.

His gaze, which had been scanning the room, settled on me.

I squeezed the poor cushion in my hands and answered casually.

Habitual acting came to my rescue.

“I thought so because their smiles were just too strange. Like they were imitating how humans smile. Didn’t you notice?”

I widened my eyes and turned the question back on him.

At some point, he had taken out a coin and was rolling it between his fingers.

Fiddling with the coin whose front and back were impossible to tell apart, he glanced down at it briefly, then looked up.

“That’s not the only reason, is it, Go Doya.”

Won-gyeong spoke in a tone that had turned oddly cold. He used my surname on purpose, even though he knew I disliked it.

I was done for. It sounded like he’d seen through my lie.

I didn’t even have time to be angry about the surname.

‘Of all people, why did I have to end up in a place like this with a fortune-teller who can detect lies?’

Keeping my face neutral, I desperately worked my brain.

My thoughts were racing faster than usual.

Something that wasn’t a lie,
some other moment when I realized they were monsters—

The strange way all of them had stared at us at once, the administrator talking to the staff behind the counter—

Those scenes flashed through my mind in quick succession.

As I pieced them together, I arrived at a new conclusion about the monsters’ nature—one that wasn’t a lie.

I hadn’t fully organized my thoughts, but I spoke anyway. First, I needed to calm Won-gyeong’s suspicion.

“Well… this is just a guess, so I was planning to bring it up later.”

“Say it.”

“When we first refused the monster’s offer, everyone around us turned to look at us at the exact same time.”

Won-gyeong nodded in agreement. The coin was still moving between his fingers.

That damn fortune-teller. He was nodding along while still divining whether I was lying.

Suppressing the urge to snatch the coin and throw it away, I continued.

‘If I get the chance… I’m getting rid of that thing.’

“Even people who were far enough away that they couldn’t have heard our conversation all turned toward us.

That uniform reaction felt strange. So I wondered if everyone here might be sharing a single consciousness.”

The coin stopped.

Won-gyeong closed his fist around it and listened intently. His expression was serious.

“So… I thought maybe everyone in this place is connected to one shared consciousness, and they move according to its commands. It sounded too far-fetched, so I was going to mention it later.”

When I finished, Won-gyeong fell silent, deep in thought.

It seemed I’d successfully exploited the loophole in his divination this time.

He hadn’t realized I’d identified the monsters through sound.

Still, the idea I’d voiced had unsettling plausibility.

Only afterward did I shiver at my own words.

What if the monsters really were acting under a single consciousness?

If we were spotted fighting or trying to escape anywhere, every monster here could converge on us at once.

It was a horrifying possibility, yet Won-gyeong didn’t immediately refute it.

After thinking for a moment with his gaze lowered, he finally looked at me.

“It’s not a baseless theory. I’ve seen monsters that move under the command of a single entity before—just not on this scale.”

“Then…”

“There’s probably a command unit here too.”

Ah.

This time, I was screwed in a different way.

‘How are we supposed to escape a place like this?’

I hoped the system would suggest some kind of solution, but for once, the thing that never shut up was completely silent.

[Searching for a new objective based on the player’s current location.]

[This may take a short amount of time….]

[TIP! When the system processes a large amount of information, some delay may occur.]

[TIP! While the system processes information, why not gather clues on your own?]

As if it sensed my frustration, the system rattled off excuse after excuse.

Useless thing.

So it wasn’t all-powerful after all.

I shoved the unhelpful system aside and asked Won-gyeong,

“Like a queen bee?”

“Probably.”

“Then to escape, we’d have to find it…Do you think we even can?”

I muttered skeptically.

We didn’t even know the layout of this hotel. What were the odds we could locate a queen unit while avoiding the monsters’ eyes?

Even if it were possible, the probability was slim.

With the system stalled, the only thing I could rely on was Won-gyeong’s ability.

Unlike me, he seemed to have a plan.

He lightly tapped my shoulder in reassurance and said,

“Those kinds of entities usually only have consciousness-transfer abilities.

Their combat and mobility tend to be weak. I can divine their approximate location. There’s no need to worry that much.”

Fortune-teller sir!

The dying spark of hope flared back to life at his words.

I looked at Won-gyeong with eyes full of hope and admiration.

He was an excellent fortune-teller.

Thank god it was this fortune-teller who’d fallen into the rift with me.

I immediately switched gears and began to mentally worship him.

From now on, everything Won-gyeong said would be treated as divine revelation.

Only until we escaped the rift, of course.

[An objective has been generated based on the current scenario and player location.]

[Sub-scenario ‘Won-gyeong 1 – Observation’ in progress.]

[Sub-objective created!]

[Current area: ‘Top-Floor Suite’. Locate, interpret, and activate 3 hidden ‘Mysterious Arrays’ within this area.]

[Once all 3 ‘Mysterious Arrays’ are collected, interpretation and activation will proceed automatically.]

[Progress 0/3]

It seemed the system had finally figured something out.

Since I was already placing my faith in the excellent fortune-teller known as Won-gyeong, the objective itself wasn’t particularly appealing.

[TIP! Completing sub-objectives grants rewards.]

Hmm. If there was a reward, maybe it was worth doing.

I was about to ignore the message when the next line made me change my mind.

The system’s rewards tended to be decent.

When I’d found the bunker, it had even pointed me to a safe place with food supplies.

I hadn’t accepted many rewards since I usually ignored them, but thinking back, this wasn’t a bad offer.

I was planning to search the room anyway, so I might as well look for what the system wanted too.

After wandering the rift for so long, my body was exhausted.

As I forced myself to get up,

Won-gyeong—who’d told me to rest on the bed—was already checking the surroundings.

The first thing he examined was the view beyond the curtains.

When he pulled them aside, we were left speechless.

Behind the curtains was nothing but a solid wall.

No window. Nothing. Just a wall.