Escaping the Mystery Hotel-Chapter 255: Party Time - The Package and Mysterious Craftsman (1)

Chapter 255: Party Time - The Package and Mysterious Craftsman (1)

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 108

Current Location: Floor 2, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3

- Han Kain

The ticket could be used to reclaim a forfeited inheritance, resurrect the dead, or for other purposes. It was probably the most valuable treasure in the Hotel.

Jinchul-hyung grumbled beside me, “What the hell, why give just half of a ticket? They’re basically forcing us to get another half somewhere else!”

No matter how valuable it was, it only mattered if we could complete it into a full ticket.

Just as Jinchul-hyung said, we’d have to find another half to make it meaningful.

In any case, thinking about everything we still had to do, I realized we had a lot on our plate.

We needed to check the Package and the Mysterious Craftsman.

We also had to visit the Sanctum of Blessings—after all, wasn’t there a high chance that Seungyub would receive an enhancement this time?

Not to mention, we still needed to go searching for the Mirror Room whenever we had the time.

“Let’s check the package and the craftsman on the second floor first.”

Sure enough, there had been some changes to the package.

The box had become semi-transparent, revealing its contents inside.

“What’s in there?”

Grandpa flipped it around, inspecting it before making a comment, “Looks like a piece of toughened glass... If I do this—huh!?”

A notification appeared for everyone.

3 days until delivery.

“Three days? So it’s coming soon.”

Songee tilted her head.

“The timing is a bit odd, don’t you think? In three days... that’d be around the end of ‘Party Time’, right? Since we just cleared Room 202, we should be getting a Party Time.”

“Maybe...”

It did seem strange.

The whole “delivery” concept was just some arbitrary wording from the Hotel.

The real question was why the Hotel decided that three days later was the appropriate time to give us whatever was inside.

“Isn’t it weird? If the package contained something useful for the next room—say, Room 203—shouldn’t they give it to us immediately so we could get used to it? On the other hand, if it’s something we shouldn’t use in Room 203, they could just wait until afterward.”

“Let’s just think about the package when it arrives! More importantly, everyone, come here!”

Ahri’s excited voice called out from across the room, and we all moved toward her.

The “Mysterious Craftsman”, built entirely out of LEGO, had finally started moving.

[Greetings, participants. I hope you are having an enriching experience at Hotel Pioneer. The Mysterious Craftsman is responsible for crafting the ‘Winged Boots’, which can be of great assistance to you. If you would like an explanation about Winged Boots, please press 1.]

“Press 1? Do we just push this keypad on its chest?”

[If you would like an explanation about the Winged Boots, please press 1.]

“Hey! Are you even sentient?”

[If you would like an explanation about the Winged Boots, please press 1.]

“What about 2?”

[If you would like an explanation about the Winged Boots, please press 1.]

“Hey! Stop talking to this blockhead and just press 1!”

Grandpa lost his patience.

Since this was an NPC, we had expected it to be somewhat intelligent, but it turned out to be a robot that could only repeat pre-programmed lines.

Maybe it’s because it’s made of LEGO?

While we were dealing with that, the doctor spoke up, “The Winged Boots? Are these supposed to be an escape tool?”

The room fell silent.

It felt ridiculous to outright deny it.

An awkward atmosphere filled the space, and noticing it, the doctor chuckled.

“Why are you all reacting like that? If the main entrance leads to the sky, and suddenly we’re given shoes that let us fly, it’s only natural to wonder. Just press the button and see.”

“R-right! Everyone, come on, why are you acting weird? Let’s just hear the explanation. It’s not like we can get them just by pressing the button.”

Eunsol-noona stepped forward and pressed 1.

[The Winged Boots, or the flying shoes. This is a shared item that all participants can use once obtained. When worn, they enable flight. With sufficient training, one may be able to escape the Hotel through the main entrance. Unfortunately, the required materials for crafting are currently insufficient. If you would like to proceed with the crafting request, please press 1.]

Hearing it say outright that the shoes could allow escape somehow made things less tense.

At least we didn’t have to play mind games with each other over it.

But the phrase “with sufficient training” caught my attention.

Ahri seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“‘Sufficient training’... What do you think that means?”

“Probably that it’s harder to use than we expect. I mean, flying isn’t exactly a simple ability.”

“No, Eunsol. I’m not talking about the difficulty of using the shoes. I mean that even if we can fly, escaping through the main entrance might be more dangerous than we think.”

Back when we asked the Owl if we could escape through the main entrance with a parachute, it responded with something like, “Try it if you don’t value your life.”

Just being able to slow our descent clearly wasn’t enough to make it out.

“What, are there man-eating birds flying around outside? Also, what’s this about a crafting request? I remember hearing before that we’d need to complete a request from the Mysterious Craftsman to get the Winged Boots...”

“We heard that from the merchant. I’ll press 1 again.”

[Crafting request. To create the Winged Boots, three materials are required. First, the feathers of a bird that soars through typhoons. Second, the hair of a warrior who endures even the force of lightning. Third, the eye of one who observes all from the pinnacle. All materials can be found within the Hotel. If a material is located inside a Cursed Room, it can be taken out.]

Once again, silence filled the room.

Feathers of a bird that soars through typhoons.

The fur of a warrior that endures even the force of lightning.

Eye of one who observes all from the pinnacle.

Reading those vague descriptions, I couldn’t help but laugh dryly.

“Let’s just use Sage’s Advice. These are way too abstract for us to figure out on our own.”

Give me advice on these materials.

Questions related to the Mysterious Craftsman require the use of all remaining advice points. Would you like to proceed?

*“Oh, here we go again.”

“We have to use all three counts?”

“Every time we try to ask something actually useful, this happens.”

“Just use them. It’s not like we’ll be exploring today since it’s Party Time, the package hasn’t arrived yet, and there’s nothing else urgent to ask about.”

Advice: 3 → 0

The materials cannot be obtained yet, but all of them can be found on the second floor.

It was a useful answer in its own way.

At the very least, knowing that we couldn’t collect them yet meant we wouldn’t waste time searching for anything.

When we returned to Room 105, a notification popped up immediately, congratulating us and announcing that Party Time would begin the next day for three days.

As always, another message stated that Party Time would reveal some of the Hotel’s hidden secrets.

***“Great job, everyone!”

“You did well!”

After exchanging words of appreciation, we all settled into a cheerful mood as we ate and started discussing what needed to be done during this break.

“On the first day—so, tomorrow—we should go to the Sanctum of Blessings first. A lot of people are likely to get enhancements.”

“The rest of us should search the Hotel. We need to find the Mirror Room. Oh, and there’s something else we shouldn’t forget.”

With that, Ahri scribbled something onto a whiteboard.

Hidden NPCs on the second floor: Mysterious Craftsman, ???

Hidden rooms on the second floor: Room of Resurrection, Mirror Room

“See? We’ve already found the Mysterious Craftsman and learned about the material collection request. We’ve also used the Room of Resurrection once and know that the Mirror Room exists. But besides these, there’s still one more hidden NPC on the second floor.”

The second floor felt like a bottomless pit of mysteries—no matter how much we uncovered, it never seemed to end.

We still had no clue about the identity of the remaining hidden NPC.

“Let’s keep searching whenever we have time. It could be on the second floor or even the basement.”

“On the last day, we also need to decide which room to go to next. Though it’s probably going to be Room 203.”

Songee added another point.

“We also need to check the package. According to the timeline, it should arrive on the last day.”

Ugh...

I felt like I was going to get indigestion just thinking about how much we had to do.

Next to me, Seungyub muttered in disbelief, “So many games out there where you run out of things to do in just three days, but this damn hotel overflows us with endless content. It’s like a god-tier game. Even the rabbit princesses would collapse from exhaustion!”

Grandpa chuckled.

“Well, in the end, all of this is about the things we get to take with us, right? Look at the bright side. In the real world, monsters kill people without giving anything in return. At least here we get treasures handed to us regularly. Isn’t that great?”

It was so absurd that I almost wanted to argue, but he wasn’t exactly wrong, so I just laughed it off.

Maybe because I was feeling tired from thinking about everything we still had to do, the conversation naturally shifted to Room 202, which we had already cleared.

“Now that we’ve resolved Room 202, I want everyone to think seriously about something. This ties directly into how we’ll approach future rooms.”

“Noona, what do you mean by that serious tone?”

“The way we resolved Room 202—was that really the ‘intended’ solution the Hotel had in mind?”

In the end, our chosen solution for Room 202 was to resolve Sea God’s grudge and punish the Administration.

“You don’t think it was?”

“That’s right. I believe we handled it completely differently than what the Hotel intended. There are quite a few clues supporting that.”

With that, Noona pointed out several key facts.

“First, let’s talk about Elena, who was sealed away. She was the second daughter, purged by the eldest, right? The moment she was unsealed, she told us Sea God’s revival was imminent and that Lee Suho was the cause. What does that suggest?”

Ahri answered, “The role the Hotel assigned to Elena was to ‘provide information to prevent the Sea God’s revival’, right?”

“Exactly. Elena’s position was fundamentally meant to prevent Sea God’s descent. And then there’s Kain’s Scenario Comprehension—that’s another piece of evidence.”

Since I already understood what Noona was trying to say, I answered in her stead, “Scenario Comprehension led us to Sea God’s Island in the first attempt and guided us to uncover hidden secrets there. But it never gave us any reason to suspect the Administration.”

Ahri asked another question, “And what about the third attempt when we fully set our sights on attacking the Administration? What information did it give us then?”

That was a straightforward question.

“Nothing. After the initial directive to ‘go to Sea God’s Island,’ it completely stopped updating when we ignored that path.”

“Which means...”

“It felt like there were no prepared responses left—like we went too far off track.”

Now that Noona had pointed it out, I fully realized it.

The way we resolved Room 202 was completely outside of what the Hotel had planned. novelbuddy.cσ๓

The fact that Elena’s placement and role, the guidance from Scenario Comprehension, and other provided hints all stopped functioning properly proved that.

As everyone nodded in agreement, Noona, looking more confident, continued, “We completely strayed from the Hotel’s guidelines, but instead of punishing us, it praised our resolution and even gave us extra rewards. What does that mean?”

The answer was obvious.

Each Cursed Room had an “expected” solution in the Hotel’s convoluted mind.

Based on the NPCs’ roles, the information revealed upon unsealing participants, and my Scenario Comprehension, it was possible to guess what that expected answer was.

For Room 202, the Hotel’s planned solution was likely to quickly eliminate Lee Suho and Liringanaur to prevent Sea God’s descent.

But we deviated from that entirely.

And yet, the Hotel still gave us a high evaluation and even gave us extra rewards.

In other words...

“There’s no need to follow the Hotel’s intended path. In fact, even the Hotel itself considers that only a ‘50-point answer’ at best. It’s basically telling us to find a better answer.”

Countless worlds faced apocalyptic crises.

Some were destroyed, unable to overcome them.

Others endured through incomplete solutions, suffering immeasurable losses or leaving behind dangerous consequences.

Perhaps someone had once asked—was there no better answer?

Not a miraculous intervention where a god or Buddha smote the evil with divine power, but a solution created by human hands.

...I felt like I was grasping something, yet it still seemed elusive.

If this theory was correct, then it meant that relying solely on NPC placements, the information provided by unsealed participants, and Scenario Comprehension would have its limits.

Even if we carefully analyzed all the information and came up with the “intended” answer, the Hotel might still say, “Eh, 50 points!”

We should take it easy.

At the very least, we should first aim for the expected 50-point solution using the given information.

But if at some point we had an “aha!” moment and came up with a brilliant alternative, we should try it.

The next day, we headed to the Sanctum of Blessings.