Chapter 292: Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (15)

In a strange place filled with floating screens, a middle-aged man in a suit, an otherworldly being, and a girl with bun-shaped hair sat around the central table.

The girl was the first to speak, “Why did that kid have to interfere now of all times!? In the movie, no less! What should we do?”

The otherworldly being answered nonchalantly, “Well, you’ve already edited the movie content, so isn’t it a resolved issue? The audience didn’t see the scene of the witch intervening.”

The girl reacted incredulously, “Are you kidding? The internal characters all know! They’ll definitely find out everything as soon as they get out and have a meeting!”

“Then edit it once more. Just ‘edit’ Cha Jinchul’s memory at the end of the movie. We have that much authority now. Well, I don’t see what meaning there is in hiding that the witch has started to awaken.”

“Why is it meaningless? By nature, if the entire Hotel Party loses their memories of her, won’t the witch lose her foundation of existence and collapse?”

The otherworldly being, the Merchant, snorted, “I’m not talking about whether hiding the witch’s clumsy awakening helps the Hotel Party or not. Why are you helping them at all? Do you think they’ll resurrect you? The next in line seems decided no matter how you look at it.”

In the Merchant’s opinion, this wasn’t even an issue they needed to intervene in. An entity trapped in the Gate Room sending out a replica to the outside through strange magic. It wasn’t the first time this had happened.

The Patrons with decision-making power also showed a consistent attitude towards these kinds of problems.

This too is part of the Hotel’s progression. If overcome, it will only be fertilizer for growth.

The Merchant snorted at the idea of Cha Jinchul being twisted by the witch’s tricks or the Hotel Party falling into danger.

Who cares?

On the other hand, the girl thought such an attitude from the Patrons was very plausible yet irresponsible. After all, entities that escaped “in this way” always clumsily caused accidents.

She didn’t want it. She truly didn’t want this party to collapse in vain. She hoped they would pass the Second floor and face the Great Hand at the end of the Third floor. And then…

For a moment, the girl vaguely recalled the dream from her lifetime that she couldn’t give up on, but soon shook her head.

The Merchant, who had been observing her, spoke up, “Do you still have lingering attachments to the outside? It’s about time you let it all go.”

“I’m different from you.”

“Let go of your attachment to the outside. Isn’t the Hotel quite an enjoyable place?”

“…Hearing that from you makes it a bit shitty.”

“Haha! Why do you say that? Ah! Could it be, do you still remember when I killed you in your previous life—“

A snow-white sword sprang from the girl’s right arm. The moment the sword, boasting a beauty like a crystal sculpture, spewed out a blue light, the girl cut the Merchant into 7 pieces with two sword strikes.

“…”

Soon, flesh stuck together from the air, nullifying all collisions. Watching this scene, the girl sighed.

I got caught up in this guy’s pranks again. He’s going to tease me about this for months.

They were not beings who could die just because they wanted to. They were beings who promised eternal service instead of falling into hell as the price of failure.

“Hahaha! This is emotional, isn’t it? Ha, at this rate, I should explain what taste your right hand that I ‘ate’ had—“

“Ah, really, you perverted alien bastard!”

– Thud!

As the being who hadn’t said a word until now hit the table, the girl and the Merchant’s eyes simultaneously turned to the Guide.

“Both of you, that’s enough. Actually, a much more important problem than the witch has arisen.”

The Merchant nodded.

“You mean the hidden reward?”

“The conditions for the hidden reward were met when Kurta was defeated, but the strange thing is that we can’t give the reward. We didn’t expect the escapee to mutate Cha Jinchul’s body ‘in that way’.”

The girl muttered, holding her head, “What should we do?”

A small smile appeared on the Guide’s lips.

“I have a good idea.”

Hearing that “idea”, the girl and the Merchant thought the same thing as the space collapsed with the end of the meeting.

Really, this theater guide bastard is the biggest idiot!

– Cha Jinchul

“Cut down the tyrant!”

In the midst of a chaotic battlefield, a siege battle where thousands of troops were attacking the outer wall defending the capital! Watching this scene from behind, I shouted with all my might, and enthusiastic responses arose from all around.

“Raaah! Break through!”

Wow… This is spectacular?

The scene of countless armies, too many to take in at a glance, creating siege weights or huge wooden towers to attack the capital was truly a grand sight!

As I was admiring it, the Great General of National Defense approached me.

“General Cha!”

“Please speak.”

“What do you think about the direction of this war?”

…I didn’t know. What would I know just by looking? Just from a rough glance, it seemed advantageous for our side, but when one wasn’t sure, a humble answer was best.

“Would you enlighten me?”

“It’s not good! Not good at all!”

“What do you mean…?”

“General, who do you think benefits if this war drags on?”

“The Emperor, I suppose.”

“Of course! The forces from the southern and western parts of the empire are still coming up. When they join, we’ll end up being surrounded instead.”

“What should we do?”

“We need to decide the outcome as quickly as possible. We must break down the walls and occupy the imperial palace!”

I turned my gaze to look at the battlefield.

At a glance, the capital’s walls were already shaking. Flames burned here and there created acrid smoke, and a considerable part of the outer wall had already collapsed. If neither side had reinforcements, our victory would already be certain.

But the Great General’s words were clear. The Emperor’s reinforcements were coming, so we didn’t have much time left!

No further conversation was needed. Now was the time for me to step up.

As I put strength into my legs and kicked off the ground, my entire body soared as if about to fly into the sky.

Just five steps.

That was the number of steps it took to reach the wall. My body, which was already superhuman, and now after the witch’s incomprehensible transformation, was simply not of this world anymore.

I think I can do it now.

“G-General? What are you trying to do now?”

Ignoring the words of a flustered allied general, I started climbing the wall.

“S-stop him!”

A viscous liquid poured down.

Boiling oil? It was meaningless. This was a body that withstood Kurta’s lightning.

– Ping!

Arrows flew from above, repeatedly hit my body. Again, meaningless. My body now boasted a hardness, as if covered in iron plates all over.

Grabbing protruding rocks here and there, I threw my body into the air a couple of times and arrived at the top of the wall. The surrounding soldiers began to look at me in a daze.

I hesitated for a moment. It was a bit different from the battlefield in the plains. Back then it was a battle with a foreign tribe, so I just moved while cutting indiscriminately, but now it was a kind of civil war.

I needed to consider factors like post-war public sentiment. Therefore, rather than mass slaughter of soldiers, I needed to show overwhelming power to induce surrender.

Slowly, slowly, I started descending the wall.

I deflected incoming arrows with my body.

When they rolled huge stones, I crushed the stones with my fist.

I picked up soldiers charging with spears and pushed them aside.

Finally, when I started to appear in the enemies’ eyes not as a strong general but as something inhuman, I opened my mouth in front of hundreds of soldiers defending the castle, “Is this the best you can do?”

“…”

“I’ll give you a chance, try harder.”

Until the moment I slowly, leisurely walked to the gate and destroyed it—not a single human on the battlefield could stand in my way.

It was a bit of a belated observation, but it seemed the genre of the movie changed a lot when the battlefield shifted from the “wall” to the “capital”. Of course, the same could be said for the first work.

The siege battle to break down the capital was the highlight of “The Guardian of the Wall – Cha Jinchul’s Version”. There was no particular crisis after the army that had been guarding the empire’s wall entered the capital.

As it was a civil war, the Great General strictly prohibited looting, and we soon faced the imperial palace.

“Is it about time for the ending?”

Considering the movie’s runtime, it should be about time for it to end. I thought if there was still a “villain” left in this tiring movie, it would be the Emperor, but even that prediction was wrong.

The Emperor’s corpse was found hanging deep inside the imperial palace.

The last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the Chongzhen Emperor, ended his life as the emperor of the empire rather than prolonging a miserable life as a prisoner when faced with the empire’s destruction. The Emperor of the Jincheon Empire in the movie must have tried to maintain his last dignity through suicide.

In one corner of the imperial palace, I saw generals discussing the “post-war situation”. From now on, they’d probably fight among themselves over who would swallow up the empire. Of course…

Now that the movie was ending, what happened after was none of my business.

“Hey.”

“Yes? General?”

“Bring me a drink.”

The taste of a drink beside the Emperor’s corpse dangling from the ceiling felt quite poetic. I waited for the ending credits to roll while looking at the scenery outside the window.

“…”

“It’s a bit late. Surely there isn’t another boss coming out here? Hotel, that kind of development would be brain-dead.”

“You think so too?”

“Ah, fuck! What now?!”

The moment I turned around in surprise, the Emperor’s hanging corpse wriggled and spoke to me.

No, really, who wrote this movie script? Don’t tell me this is suddenly going to become a zombie movie? Is the Emperor a shaman or some crap like that?

I picked up the polearm I had laid aside and took a stance.

If that Emperor bastard is a necromancer, I’m a paladin!

Burning with fighting spirit, I rotated the spear half a turn—

“No, no! Wait a moment!”

The polearm blade I thrust out while rotating crushed the Emperor’s head in one strike.

Did this guy say something strange?

“Ha!”

The human flesh scattered in front of my eyes flew up, and bone fragments scattered around gathered to reform the Emperor’s head.

To think the Emperor could wield such evil black magic!

Even so, I wasn’t one to be defeated. Even if it was not just at black magician level but a Lich King or Demon Lord, with my current strength—

“No, listen to me! The movie is already over!”

‘Movie?’

“What’s going on? There’s no way a character would mention the word movie…”

“Now, now. Actor Cha Jinchul, think about it. Isn’t there an essential element that always appears in dramas?”

“What are you suddenly talking about!? And who are you?”

“It’s a part that’s usually not in Korean movies, but in India or Vietnam, they insert it even during movie screenings. So we inserted it.”

“What nonsense are you—“

“Come on~ You see the letters in front? I’ve kindly displayed them, so please read them.”

I lost my mind seeing the letters that started to float in the air in front of me.

“If you read this, it’s over.”

“…This really is a fucking stupid movie!”

“Thank you for the compliment. Please read it.”

I had no choice.

“Hair, hair, hair…”

“Don’t you know how to read Korean?”

Ah, fuck it! Let’s read it and end this!

“Hair strengthening! Follicle recovery! Hair loss improvement! Scalp recovery! Scalp aging prevention! Can you believe all these effects are included?”

“Happy Happy Hair Land! The Hotel’s specialty product, ‘Grow! Grow!’ Please be sure to purchase. Shall we read the last words together?”

“”Thirty-nine! Thousand! Eight hundred won!””

By the time I was losing my mind, I felt a slimy sensation on my head. When I looked up dazedly, the Emperor’s corpse, controlled by “someone”, raised only its hand and applied something, whether shampoo or medicine, to my head.

“…What are you doing?”

“Haha, well, do you know how flustered I was earlier?”

“What for?”

“You fulfilled the hidden reward conditions by defeating Kurta, which should have been avoided, but your body became incapable of receiving that reward! What should I do?”

“Hidden reward? My body becoming incapable of receiving rewards?”

“Don’t worry. You can receive it now.”

My head itched. I felt a strange sensation of something popping up, and then the scales on my head started to peel off.

Amidst the ending credits filling my vision… I was at a loss for words.