Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Chapter 195: Party Time – The Secret of the Second Floor (4)

- han kain

as i crouched in the body of a cat—most likely named “coco”—the door opened, and a boy who looked about ten or eleven years old entered.

“coco~! i told you not to mess with the stuff in my room!”

so, this is the kid’s room?

judging by the look of it, he seems to come from a well-off family.

not exactly a billionaire, but definitely wealthy.

“not answering, huh? hey!”

suddenly, he smacked me on the head.

what does this kid expect from a cat?

am i supposed to make a sound or something?

- maowww~!

it wasn’t quite the right sound, but it couldn’t be helped.

it was my first time possessing a cat, so i didn’t know how to meow properly.

the boy tilted his head, puzzled for a moment, then warned me again not to do anything weird and left the room.

is this kid for real?

does he really think a cat listens to warnings?

watching his carelessness is getting me pissed!

should i show him the true nature of a cat by scratching up all his wallpaper with my claws?

...no, han kain... get a grip.

no need to actually think like a real cat.

but the moment i heard that kid’s voice, something dark and twisted stirred deep inside me.

what if i took over the kid’s body?

can that be considered another method of escape?

my heart raced.

right now, it felt like “escape” was within my grasp.

at the same time, i realized something else.

normally, when i possess someone, a timer would appear in the corner of my vision—something like [57:39], indicating a one-hour limit.

but now, that countdown was gone.

in the past, ahri speculated that the time limit during possession wasn’t due to the grimoire’s limitations but rather a restriction imposed by the hotel to prevent an easy escape by body-swapping.

the reasoning was solid—unlike “sacrifice”, which had been clearly altered, “possession” had no obvious signs of hotel interference.

another clue came from the style of the notifications and timers.

the font and format matched the style used by the hotel, not something an ancient, isolated entity like the one who couldn’t be born would have come up with.

so, the time limit was likely imposed by the hotel, and it seemed i was right.

after leaving the snow globe and entering the outside world, the time limit had disappeared.

but... can i really escape this way?

why did the owl go to such lengths to guide me to this place?

is it to show me a new escape route?

i doubt it.

the patrons’ true motives were still unclear, but based on what eunsol-noona’s patron once said and things the owl hinted at, i had a theory.

the patrons didn’t want us to escape; they wanted us to achieve results within the hotel.

the owl doesn’t want me to escape, so why show me a way out?

it’s because the owl knows i won’t be able to escape like this.

the flame of hope for escape that had ignited inside me snuffed out like a match.

i can’t escape. not like this.

is it because taking over an innocent boy’s body is an evil act?

that’s part of it.

but what struck me even more was a different reason.

i’m the only one who could escape this way.

my comrades have no way out.

besides, what was the point of leaving if they couldn’t follow?

“no, this time, i’ll go alone. compared to the outside world, we’re way too small. i have to possess the cat or the boy to explore, and if the others come with me, it’ll be too distracting.”

considering the size difference, the cat or the boy could blow on my teammates and send them flying.

it would be better if they stayed inside the snow globe for now.

after explaining the situation, i headed back outside.

***it didn’t take long to possess coco the cat again after leaving the snow globe.

poor coco had done nothing wrong but was cowering in a corner after getting scolded by the boy.

still, thanks to coco’s bright eyes, it wasn’t hard to find her.

next, it was time to “borrow” the boy’s body.

- rip! rip!

“minyoung! check your room!”

“ugh, this is so annoying! coco’s tearing something up again!”

...sorry, coco, looks like you’re getting in trouble again.

soon enough, the door flew open, and the boy returned.

while i was still in coco’s body, i quickly moved behind the snow globe, and when he came to grab the cat, i switched back to my original body.

as the boy, now holding a confused coco, stood there in bewilderment, i took over his body.

for a moment, my head throbbed.

unlike the dim-witted mind of a cat, “kim minyoung” was human.

with possession came a flood of information about who this kid was.

nothing particularly special.

he was in third grade, currently on vacation.

that was about it.

i glanced in the mirror and muttered to myself, “hmm. it feels weird to talk to myself like this. anyway, i’ll make sure you’re safe and return you in one piece. not that you’ll ever know anything happened. oh, and don’t be too hard on coco—she didn’t do anything wrong.”

sure enough, i’m much more suited to human vision than the cat’s.

i turned on the lights in the dark room first and then sent coco outside to prevent any weird behavior.

now, what should i do next?

i approached the snow globe.

“was this the cause of the snowstorm?”

the snow globe seemed to be quite expensive, being about the size of a human head and connected to an electrical cord.

carefully examining the button section on the back so as not to shake the snow globe, i saw that there were three modes to choose from.

“one is power off, another is lamp mode, and the last one... is christmas mode?”

the reason why the snowstorm on the second floor of the hotel had been raging nonstop was incredibly simple.

it was simply because the snow globe had been set to “christmas mode”, and thanks to the power of electricity, the snow kept swirling.

i considered turning it off completely, but that would make the room too dark, so i switched it to lamp mode.

the snowstorm stopped, and only the lights remained, creating a calm and serene environment.

“with this, the snowstorm problem is really solved! anything else i need to do?”

it seems like the first task of “stopping the snowstorm” is definitely done now.

however, just this alone feels a bit lacking.

after all, even if i hadn’t stopped the snowstorm, it wouldn’t have been a big issue once the hotel ceiling was fixed tomorrow.

i calmly looked around the room.

with about 50 minutes left, considering the time, it didn’t seem like i needed to go outside the room to do anything.

scattered around the room were toys like lego sets, mini cars, and game consoles, things that minyoung seemed to like.

several study worksheets were also slotted into the bookshelf.

“...minyoung, 8 x 8 isn’t 88. you’re still confused about multiplication, huh? well, as long as you’re healthy, that’s what matters.”

as i carefully examined the lego sets, i finally discovered another peculiar element.

‘a mysterious craftsman’

the name being the same can’t just be a coincidence, right?

i found the first hidden npc on the second floor.

it was unexpected to find out that the npc was a lego figure, though.