『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Party Time (4), Souvenir Shop ༻
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 25
Current Location: Basement, Hiking
Sage’s Advice: 3]
– Han Kain
“Catch her! Don’t let her go!”
A sonorous roar echoed across the mountain.
“KYAAAAAAK!”
And it was followed by a scream.
…
What was going on all of a sudden?
The girl, who suddenly appeared in the middle of the mountain, immediately started running away from us so we relentlessly chased after her.
In the middle of our pursuit, I asked myself. Why was that kid running away from us? And why were we even chasing after her?
I had no answer to either of the questions, but regardless, we just went after her as fast as we could.
The mountain had steep slopes and dense trees, so running through the woods away from the designated trail immediately made my clothes dirty. They would have been ripped already, had I been wearing my usual outfit.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
I heard Eunsol-noona asking from a distance as she joined the pursuit after noticing the fuss.
“KYAAAAAAK!”
Please stop screaming, young lady! What was wrong with her? She was making us look like bad people now!
Fortunately, the young girl wasn’t as superhuman as Ahri was, while Grandpa Mooksung had the moves of a legendary martial hermit. In less than 10 minutes, he caught up to the girl and shouted a question.
“Why are you running away from us!?”
“Why are you even chasing after me?!” the girl shouted back.
“Because you were running away from us!”
“I ran because you were chasing after me!”
…
I became speechless. Thinking back, maybe we were in the wrong.
If a young girl met a young man and an old man in the middle of the mountain, who suddenly started screaming and chasing after her the moment she smiled at them, wouldn’t anyone run away in that situation?
*
When Eunsol-noona soon appeared at the scene, the girl immediately clung onto her waist and started to weep.
Why was this girl constantly trying to make us seem like bad people?
“Hey! That’s enough. I don’t know if you’re an NPC or not, but stop doing something unnecessary.”
Hearing Grandpa Mooksung say that, the girl’s expression changed in the blink of an eye and asked with a mischievous tone of voice.
“Was it obvious?”
Grandpa gave a dumbfounded response.
“Obviously, there’s no way a kid would be in a place like this for no reason. So, what is your role?”
“I’m the clerk of the Souvenir Shop~.”
Now that I looked at her clothes after hearing that, it did seem like the traditional types of clothing that clerks wore in souvenir shops of tourist attractions. Looking lively all of a sudden, the girl stood up and started leading us through the forest.
“You can meet me if you roam around the Hotel with less than half of your group!”
Less than half?
“It shouldn’t be less than half though? We came to the mountain as a group of five.”
“Ah.”
Eunsol-noona gasped as if she had a gist.
“Noona?”
“Seungyub was having a really hard time so I told him to go back. Songee was also standing still in the middle, but it looks like she went outside as well.”
“Hah! Kids these days and their little tricks!”
Eunsol-noona rebutted, “Grandpa. This is what normally happens when you suddenly take kids to a mountain. In fact, you should be surprised that Kain and I haven’t run away from it.”
“But thanks to that, it’s looking like we’re about to get something! This is why you should always listen to your elders.”
“It’s not like you knew we would come across a Souvenir Shop though…” I quietly murmured to myself.
After walking for another 30 minutes, we arrived at a store that definitely did not look like it belonged here in the mountains.
The inside of the shop was exactly what one would expect from a souvenir shop – it was full of various items like stuffed animals, postcards, toys and simple clothes like an actual place selling souvenirs.
“Anyone who finds the store has the privilege to take one item per customer! But you can only pick for yourself, and you cannot pick for someone who is not present.” the clerk announced in a loud voice.
I asked just to make sure.
“These are not normal items, are they?”
“It would be very disappointing if they were, right? Of course, they’re made specially by the Hotel! However, you can only check their specific abilities after you decide on your item.”
…
What should we pick? It felt like all of them would have some kind of ‘unique abilities’ but I wasn’t sure what would be the right choice.
That was when noona came up and poked me with her elbow.
“I have no idea. Try using your Advice.”
“It won’t tell us anything useful when we don’t know anything though.”
“Still, let’s just try it.”
Focusing myself, I asked, ‘Tell me what I should pick.’
[Choose what you are familiar with.]
“It’s telling us to choose what we are familiar with.”
“Isn’t that too broad? There are a lot of items that we’re familiar with.”
“We’ll only get answers like this if we don’t know anything specific about the situation.”
“Ugh~. Where’s Seungyub when we need him the most? His Fortune would have immediately told us the three best things in this store!”
“That’s why you should have stopped him from going back.”
“This place wouldn’t have popped up if he was here though?”
We chatted with each other but were unable to decide what we should pick. There were no hints other than the Advice to rely on.
A familiar item…
The biggest hurdle before coming into the Hotel was the university admission exam, so I spent most of my time studying and reading books. So would stationery be the right option?
After coming into the Hotel, I used the dagger quite often but I couldn’t see anything resembling a dagger.
In the end, I picked up a pen that had the letters ‘HP’ engraved onto it. Did it stand for Hotel Pioneer?
Turning around, I found Eunsol-noona carrying a badge that equally said ‘HP’.
“I just picked it because it looked easy to carry around.”
Meanwhile, Grandpa Mooksung came back carrying a single glove.
“Looks pretty fancy, doesn’t it? It feels nice so I’m going with this.”
Just like that, we each picked a pen, a badge and a glove, and stood before the clerk.
“Are you certain about your choices?”
“Do you have any other recommendations then?”
“Everything inside our store is made specially for the Hotel! They are all amazing items, so I recommend all of them!”
“What a long way to say that you can’t recommend anything. I’ll just go with this glove.”
“I’m fine with the pen.”
“Same here with the badge.”
The clerk gave a short clap before pointing at the door. Before leaving the store, I stopped my feet and turned around.
…
It was highly likely that this clerk was also an NPC – someone who failed the trials of the Hotel before us. Could I ask her something maybe?
“Can you tell us anything about the Hotel?”
The wide and bright smile on the girl’s face immediately became frozen.
“…”
“I don’t even know what to ask. Anything is fine. Anything simple – even your ‘real’ name is fine.”
“That would be the last thing I can tell you.”
…I recalled the conversation I had with Doctor ‘Kim Sanghyun’. He mentioned how a normal conversation wouldn’t have been possible if my mind had been in a normal state.
Was it impossible for her to chat outside of her role as the ‘clerk’?
For quite some time, she blankly stared into the air.
“The other two of you,” the girl suddenly said.
“What?”
“Sir and Young Lady. The two of you have purchased an item already, so you may leave.”
It came out of nowhere. Suddenly, the clerk suggested that Grandpa and noona leave the store. The two had a puzzled look on their faces, but left as suggested, which left only the clerk and myself inside the shop.
“Do you want to leave?”
“Of course. Who would ever want to live their whole life in a strange place like this?”
“There are several escape routes inside the Hotel. And you’re aware of a few of them already.”
While saying that, the girl looked directly into my eyes. I instinctively knew that the clerk was aware that I knew about the most number of escape routes out of the entire team.
“…”
“You must be curious. Wondering if there is a way for everyone to leave, and not just one person.”
“Is there a way?”
“The 3rd Floor.”
“3rd Floor?”
“The 3rd Floor contains a path where everyone can leave without any conditions. You do not have to solve the guest rooms of the 3rd Floor, and you simply need to reach it. Strictly speaking, all of you can leave the moment you pass the Gate Room of the 2nd Floor.”
My heart started to race.
When I found out about the escape route through the elevator, I instinctively concealed it from everyone. I couldn’t deny the fact that there was a slightly selfish thought inside me, of thinking about using it for myself.
However, the biggest reason I concealed it was because an escape route for only 1 person would inevitably become a seed of conflict. I had to hide it but now, I finally realized that there was a way for everyone to escape.
Just by knowing that there was a way out for everyone filled my heart up with various emotions.
The girl lowered her head and bowed, signaling the end to the conversation.
But why? Why did she say that just to me, and no-one else?
I stopped myself before asking her that question. Thinking about her previous statement, I had a rough idea about the reason.
Maybe the ‘information about escape’ was only to be revealed to the ‘one who knew the most about escapes’ already.
—Click!
Opening the door, I left the store. Upon turning back, I noticed that the shop was gone like it had been a mirage. Even if we were to come back here later on, we wouldn’t be able to come across that store again.
Grandpa and noona asked what we talked about on the inside the moment they saw me. I told them everything I heard, and how there was a way out for everyone on the 3rd Floor.
However, I told them that the reason the clerk specifically chose me was probably because of my blessing, ‘Wisdom’.
*
When we left the Hiking Room and returned to Room 105, we were greeted by Seungyub and Songee, who had come back to rest already. The two of them, not knowing what we went through, came up to us with apologetic looks on their faces and started giving excuses about how they had to come back because of their leg pain.
Grandpa, noona and I were momentarily lost for words. We came across an NPC thanks to the two of them dropping out and acquired an unexpected treasure, so maybe we should thank them for it instead?
…
After a short conversation, the atmosphere changed in the blink of an eye. The three of us couldn’t hide our joy but tried to console the two, who started rolling across the floor.
They were actually rolling on the floor. Seungyub, I could understand, but wasn’t Songee a bit too old to do that?
“Like, what are you guys doing? You guys are like elementary school kids!”
“I’m really upset, you know! How could you not bring us to a place like that!?”
“Guys~. You just disappeared on us, so we couldn’t.”
“Grandpa could have used his conversation tab!”
Honestly, I did think about that option, but didn’t carry it out in fear that the store might disappear if Songee and Seungyub came back. After consoling the two of them, we started testing the effects of our three new tools in excitement.
