Chapter 137: Revisit (1)

[1. Do not enter a room you have already left. The housekeeper is tidying the guest rooms :)]

As a precaution, everyone entering together had decided to fall asleep in one of the Governance's overnight duty rooms.

Su-myeon sighed as he repeated the first rule, which he had already read so many times he was sick of it.

Since they were scheduled to enter directly into a suite this time, at least they shouldn't wake up in the same room as during their previous visit.

At the very least, they probably wouldn't get sliced apart in their sleep.

But the more Su-myeon thought about things like that, the more awake he felt.

He needed to sleep already. He really did....

"Do you think you'll be able to fall asleep?"

Making Su-myeon's question seem pointless, Mu-yeon, lying between the two of them, was already snoring softly.

The steady breathing of the enormous wolf filled the room, and somehow it did make Su-myeon feel a little drowsier.

"......."

Han-su remained silent for a moment at Su-myeon's question, then sat up and took out some medicine.

Su-myeon accepted it from him and gave a bitter smile when he saw the name written on the bottle.

Melatonin, something meant to help with sleep.

To think that someone like him, for whom falling asleep had always been the easiest and most pleasant thing in the world, had reached the point of taking something like this.

"......."

Looking at the melatonin, Su-myeon tossed the pill into his mouth.

He'd heard the dreams you had after taking this stuff could be ridiculously bizarre.

If he could just treat all of this as one of those dreams and wake up after a single night, how nice would that be?

"Sleep well."

Han-su's curt farewell was the last thing spoken before silence settled over the overnight duty room.

Feeling strangely certain he was about to suffer from sleep paralysis, Su-myeon slowly surrendered himself to sleep.

***

And then Su-myeon opened his eyes.

"You're awake?"

Surprisingly, both his body and mind felt refreshed, as though he had slept deeply for a long time.

Han-su informed the dazed Su-myeon of their current situation.

"The current time is 8:03."

Was it because they were in a suite this time?

His body felt remarkably light as he rose from the soft bed.

He was also wearing exactly the same clothes he had fallen asleep in.

Han-su appeared to have gotten up already and was inspecting the room, while Mu-yeon was visible curled up asleep near the foot of the bed.

It had been worth going to sleep fully dressed, shoes and equipment included, just in case.

The bag Su-myeon had slept hugging was still in his arms as well, so he immediately began organizing his equipment.

"...."

Han-su, however, was a little different.

His clothes themselves were unchanged from when he had gone to sleep, but his belongings had changed.

"......Why is this...."

Hanging from his neck was the access pass he had used as a detective, which he had already returned after changing affiliations.

There was even a police identification card in his pocket.

They were the same belongings he had possessed when he first came to Alice Hotel.

"The bag you had... didn't come through?"

Han-su had definitely gone to sleep holding the bag packed with his supplies as well.

He looked just as bewildered by his empty hands and the completely unexpected identification card in his pocket.

"For now, let's divide up what I brought."

There were plenty of strange points, but they couldn't sit around thinking about them forever.

After dividing up some simple food and drinking water, Han-su organized his inventory beside Su-myeon.

Su-myeon also checked the Alice Hotel vouchers he had left.

He remembered having a considerable amount remaining, but now there was only around nine million won's worth of vouchers left.

It seemed a large amount had been consumed paying for this stay.

Just then, Mu-yeon, who had been curled up asleep in the corner of the bed, seemed to wake and let out a small whine.

"......I'll check yours too, Mr. Mu-yeon."

Fortunately, the bag they had strapped onto Mu-yeon had made it all the way into Alice Hotel.

Su-myeon checked inside the bag Mu-yeon was wearing.

They had packed various foods, drinking water, and even a few small weapons for emergencies....

"Nothing."

All of it was gone without a trace, leaving only a single phone inside.

It was Mu-yeon's phone, the one Hwi-yeon had prepared for him.

"......Why...."

Why were only things that belonged to me brought into the ghost story?

The strange situation confused Su-myeon for a moment, but perhaps because he had rested so well, he quickly assessed the situation.

There was no point thinking about that now when he wouldn't be able to figure it out anyway.

What mattered was the criterion by which Mu-yeon's phone had apparently been recognized as one of his belongings.

When Su-myeon checked it, the phone had clearly transformed into a Heartphone and possessed the proper functions available inside the ghost story.

Inventory and messages.

That probably meant the ghost story still clearly recognized Mu-yeon as a human being.

When Su-myeon opened the messaging app on his phone, a codename appeared.

[#ROSE]

It would be difficult for Mu-yeon to use the phone with his clumsy animal paws.

Still, just in case, Su-myeon added his own and Han-su's codes before putting the phone back into the bag.

"......It came through properly. It'll be difficult for you to use it yourself, but keep it with you for now."

When Su-myeon closed the bag securely, Mu-yeon nodded his large head.

"The first rule probably applies to the suites too."

They had already discussed the possible variations, scope, and loopholes in the rules countless times.

Since they weren't supposed to be able to return here, it would be best to take whatever supplies were available in the suite now.

While Han-su searched the suite again, Su-myeon contacted Bell.

[We're back inside Alice Hotel.]

[How much causality do you think is sleeping in this place?]

This was also where he had first obtained Rose Coins.

And now that he knew the hotel vouchers were themselves a currency created through the use of causality.

[Prepare some good things in advance. I think I'll be able to make the next rose bloom soon.]

Su-myeon expected Alice Hotel to possess more causality than any ghost story they had visited so far.

He had no idea how much monetary value could be assigned to a single coin.

Still, judging from the fact that the ghost story could manifest firearms and food identical to those in reality, it couldn't be a small amount.

And that inevitably led to one conclusion.

Alice Hotel probably hadn't simply killed people for breaking its rules.

It must have transformed them somehow and bound their causality to itself.

"Let's go over our objectives again."

They had not returned to Alice Hotel of their own free will, of course.

But now that they were here, there was no way they could simply leave without gaining anything.

Su-myeon considered it fairly likely that his parents might also have fallen asleep together and ended up here.

If so.

"Let's search, as much as we reasonably can, for what form the survivors here remain in, how they remain here, and where they're gathered."

They had already developed several theories about that.

The countless playing-card employees, the servants commanded by the Queen of Hearts.

Then there were the shadows that stayed in the suites, the mannequins, the various mutated monsters, and even the beasts at Alice's tea party.

For now, those were the main things they suspected had originally been human in some form.

And that wasn't all.

There were the deserters whose arms the clown guards had torn off and collected.

And the trespassers the housekeeper had cleaned away.

Their whereabouts were unknown, and since they were missing persons, they needed to find out where they had ended up as well.

If his parents hadn't even known about the rules....

"......."

The unpleasant possibilities that followed made Su-myeon shake his head, trying to ignore them.

What Su-myeon felt was no different from the feelings of people who, after a disaster or disappearance, eventually found themselves wishing that at least their family's bodies would be discovered.

As long as they were never found, he would never be able to let go of the vague hope that they might still be alive somewhere.

If that wasn't the case.

If it wasn't....

Then perhaps confirming even their bodies would at least allow him some peace and help him continue living afterward.

"Anyway, for the sake of rescuing them, I think we should also check whether there's some secondary escape route."

But in truth, he wasn't expecting much from that.

Going back to Alice and using the entrance leading to the surface was probably their best option.

"And if necessary... let's try reducing Alice Hotel's causality by killing all of the mutated monsters here and at least giving them eternal rest."

If that didn't work, they would have to kill everything and bring this ghost story to an end, or if that proved impossible, at least diminish it.

Su-myeon didn't like Jang Bok-eum's priorities, but he was right about one thing: the ghost story had to disappear if they wanted to prevent any more victims.

Alice was going to regret inviting him this time.

"Then for our initial plan, let's head down as far as the spa."

The floor beneath the spa was the wine bar.

He was somewhat reluctant to meet the Red Queen again, so for now, they had no intention of going any farther underground than that.

At least at the spa, aside from the trouble they had gotten into because of Gi San-hyeok....

"For now, let's make sure we don't lose each other."

Right. There was one other thing they needed to be careful about.

Still, compared to everything else, that wasn't too bad.

Having settled their immediate objective, the group left the suite.

[AM 09:00]

"It's exactly 9:00."

The lights went out every twelve hours, so they could investigate the spa for a while and then come back up to this corridor, right?

Just as the group finished organizing their plans and was about to move.

Su-myeon froze after only a few steps.

A black mass was blocking one side of the corridor as though it had taken possession of the space.

Encountering it was still within the range of what he had expected.

The method of dealing with it was simple anyway, so there shouldn't be any problem....

"Fri...end...?"

......Damn it.

The shapeless black mass stretched out a long tentacle like a hand and waved it back and forth.

Seeing it wave at Han-su, Su-myeon cursed inwardly.

Things were already starting to go wrong.

***

Black and white square tiles stretched out like a chessboard.

Ears covered the walls in every direction, but those ears did not hear only the sounds inside this room.

Every one of those pieces was part of Alice's collection, and at the same time, a component of one interconnected whole.

At every moment, Alice could hear and perceive everything surrounding the hotel.

"Hmm, hm-hmm...."

A frail girl's voice began to hum.

At the center of the room, strands of blond hair hung from the ceiling like spiderwebs, holding something suspended.

Dozens of heads and dozens of limbs.

Something made from pieces of bodies stuck together into a single mass was humming from somewhere deep inside itself.

Across its many heads, eyes of just as many different colors blinked and darted about, surveying the surroundings.

Pourrr-

Along with the fragrant scent of black tea, a hand stretched out and filled its own teacup.

As the mice serving her hurriedly carried fresh tea leaves and cake.

Centered around the hand holding the teacup, Alice's body began to shrink, like stuffing being pushed back into a doll that had burst open.

The many skulls attached to her sank inward as if caving in and disappeared into her neck, while her numerous limbs folded one by one and were shoved back inside her body.

With thick, sticky sounds, Alice compressed her flesh and muscles inward before finally °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° letting out a sigh.

Before long, she had taken on the appearance of a stereotypical ‘Alice’, with blond hair and blue eyes.

Wearing a blue dress and even a white apron, she was as pretty as a doll.

"With this, that child won't dislike me, right?"

Hmm, hm-hmm.

Humming an incomprehensible tune, Alice swallowed the tea after it had cooled to a suitable temperature.

However, because her current body had been made by forcing numerous bodily structures inside, the passage for swallowing food was located beneath her jaw.

She opened herself wide all the way down to her neck, exposing the inside, poured the tea directly into it, then neatly closed herself back up.

Alice smiled.