The Tales of an Infinite Regressor

Chapter 30 – Explorer II

[Translator – Jjsecus]

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 30 – Explorer II

“Aryeon. Hold the elevator door open for a moment.”

“Yes?”

“The Guild Master has something to check.”

I immediately climbed up the elevator wall. Aryeon looked startled, as if he had seen a giant spider, but I casually ignored it.

After imbuing my palm with aura, I sliced through the ceiling like cutting tofu. With a sizzling sound, sparks flew from my hand.

Before long, a neat hole was pierced in the elevator ceiling. This was the power of a skilled aura user.

“Guild Master, what are you doing now…?”

“Shh. Wait quietly and see.”

I cautiously extended my upper body outside the elevator. It felt like a scene from Mission Impossible.

“Hmm.”

The wind was chilly.

The view outside the elevator was dimly lit. It was not only due to the lack of lighting but also because it was excessively dark.

To be more precise, it was ‘sloppy.’

Although there was a rope attached to the elevator’s car, that was it. There were no essential items that should be present in an elevator, such as a speed governor rope or a car door operating device.

In any case, the elevator currently in operation in the “Tower of Sauron” was too shoddy in structure to be considered an elevator. For such a tall building, even the capsule of the elevator lacked streamlined curves?

‘Sloppy.’

The imagination that became the prototype of this oddity was not born from experts.

It was just an oddity born from the preconceptions and images of ordinary Koreans… In other words, it was an oddity derived from the average Korean.

‘Avoided the worst-case scenario.’

I chuckled softly.

It makes things easier.

“Thud.”

I descended from the ceiling.

Aryeon, who was asked to hold the door, couldn’t overcome his curiosity and was poking his head outside the elevator.

“Guild Master. P-people are perfectly fine… Their clothes aren’t even wrinkled. Everything is so clean… Oh. The carpet is completely messed up because of our shoe prints…”

At that moment, the gazes of the ‘beings’ gathered in the hotel lobby were sharply focused. It was as if their pitch-black pupils were all looking at Aryeon.

“Yikes.”

“Quiet.”

I immediately blocked Aryeon’s mouth, which was about to burst into screams. I quickly covered his ears and whispered to him as he flinched.

“Don’t make a fuss. Try not to make eye contact either. Those staff members and other guests are all anomalies.”

“Huh?”

“More precisely, they’re part of the anomalies. Or you could say, they’re terminals. There’s a high chance that this entire hotel is one anomaly and void. If you attract their attention, eventually the ‘entire hotel’ will focus on you.”

“Ugh… Got it?”

“….”

Aryeon timidly nodded his head up and down, then stopped. I ignored the saliva on my hand, which made it a bit dirty.

“From now on, I’ll show you the exploration of the void by a skilled Awakened. Aryeon, you just stay quiet while they’re around. Just look around with vacant eyes, no matter what I say. Can you do that?”

Nodding.

“Good.”

I released Aryeon’s mouth and walked together towards the check-in counter.

Step by step, the anomalies or terminals moved their eyeballs with exactly the same pace, staring at me fixedly as I took each step forward.

Perhaps an ordinary person, in other words, a novice with little experience in dealing with anomalies, would feel ominous from here.

But who am I? Along with anomalies, I am the reincarnator who has experienced the East Sea and Baekdu Mountain to the point of wearing them out.

I approached without blinking an eye.

Creak…

The staff standing behind the counter opened their lips. The black hole in their mouths was pitch black. Not even the tongue could be seen beyond their teeth.

It was an imitation of a human.

-Hello, welcome. Have you made a reservation at our hotel? If so…

“Good morning.”

The staff froze in unison.

Regardless, I continued smoothly.

“I have a reservation at this hotel. I’m a travel-focused YouTuber. Could I please check in?”

-Oh, um. Um?

The confusion of the staff was clear. Of course it would be.

Because I was speaking in German right now.

The high-end hotel counter staff can speak English and can relatively easily handle Japanese or Chinese. However, languages like German, French, Spanish, or Russian cannot be immediately dealt with unless prepared in advance.

Naturally, indigenous anomalies on the Korean Peninsula also have the same sensibilities as the average Korean when dealing with foreigners. In other words, they become exceedingly vulnerable.

– Uh, um, sorry. Sir. Can you speak English? Reservation? Reservation, please?

“Well, in this global age, relying solely on English won’t do.”

– Excuse me?

“Ah, I’m sorry. I can’t speak English. Deutsch. Bitte. Okay?”

– Uh, bitte. …What should we do? He seems German. Oh, sorry. Please wait a moment, sir.

My flawless German pronunciation instantly made the anomalies flustered, as if they were confused hamsters scrambling around.

Aryeon was watching me with an amused expression, as if witnessing a giant hamster performing a trick.

Though it seemed like a funny tactic, the “I don’t speak Korean, oh no, I don’t speak English either” strategy worked quite well in the void. Especially in places like the Tower of Sauron, mimicking a perfectly fine building, it was even more effective.

The anomalies muttered.

– Can’t get in touch with the responsible person?

– No, they’re not picking up the phone.

– Well, of all times… We should at least ask if they made a reservation, but since we can’t communicate…

– Okay, let’s calm down. First, guide the guest to the lobby sofa. We can’t keep the guests standing. Offer them a welcome tea.

If this were really a hotel, there would have been prompt responses.

But I guarantee these anomalies were welcoming a German visitor for the first time since their establishment.

A foreign affairs department? There’s no way the anomaly would have prepared that. Naturally, no one would pick up the phone even if they tried.

– Excuse me, sir? Bitte? Could you come over here for a moment?

“Huh? What did you say?”

– Oh, just a moment, please sit on this sofa and wait. Yes, right now, the phone. We can’t get through. Yes, I’m sorry.

The staff tried to convince us with various body languages, doing their best to persuade us somehow. Of course, I maintained a slightly irritated expression, but I made it clear that I had no intention of causing trouble by sitting on the sofa.

“Wow.”

As the staff walked away, Aryeon leaned in close and whispered.

“Guild Leader… What just happened?”

“It’s a tactic that almost guarantees invincibility when dealing with anomalies mimicking humans on the Korean Peninsula.”

Of course, this tactic works exceptionally well only in Korea and should never be used in the Netherlands. There are too many people there who speak foreign languages.

“I thought you could speak foreign languages?”

“Well, yeah. English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, most foreign languages are possible. Do you think I have this exceptional memory for nothing?”

“Wow… I always thought you were just into geeky content like Three Kingdoms, but suddenly you seem like a different person…”

“…This guy. He’d probably have knocked on the glass and crossed the void before even getting on the elevator if I wasn’t there to stop him, a newbie in the void…”

Anyway, no matter how dangerous the dungeon, as long as you know how to deal with it, there’s no problem.

I pulled out my camera from my travel backpack. A Polaroid camera, basically an instant camera where the photo comes out as soon as you take it.

“Huh? Why suddenly the camera?”

“Oh, don’t worry. This thing is valuable even just looking at it. It’s one of the treasures I received in exchange for helping magical girls in Japan last time.”

“…?”

The model was the Polaroid OneStep, released in 1977.

Originally, it should have used SX-70 film, but… Since the camera itself is a kind of anomaly, fortunately, film is not needed.

Click.

I photographed the hotel lobby. Flash flashed from the distinctive large head of the model. And soon after, a white film was ejected.

“Take it. Without screaming.”

“Huh? What’s going on…? Eek!”

Sure enough, the lobby scenery taken with my camera was quite different from the luxurious scenery we were seeing with our eyes right now.

Marble floors covered in dust. Broken lights and ceramics scattered everywhere. Even a body hanging behind the counter with military clothing, eyes wide open and mouth gaping.

“Eek… Ugh…”

Even near the sofa where we were sitting, there was a corpse in military attire, eyes wide open and mouth gaping. Aryeon experienced shortness of breath.

“Isn’t it fascinating? This is a really valuable camera. It’s called a ‘spirit phenomenon camera,’ quite well known in Japan. I’ve been eyeing this for a long time, but I only managed to get it from the magical girls after helping them with the Inunaki Tunnel last time. They have two or more similar cameras with the Nikon F series, so I don’t know why they’re so expensive.”

“Guild Leader, huh… Guild Leader…”

“Ugh. Don’t be so scared. It’ll be fun as you get used to it. There’s a thrill in testing how far those bastards can imitate humans, you know?”

“The only person who finds anomalies… fun in this world is… Guild Leader…!”

As I teased Aryeon like that, the hotel staff even brought us welcome tea.

A while later, someone who seemed to be in charge came out and desperately used English and body language.

“I’m truly sorry, sir. At the moment, we don’t have a way to accommodate you.”

“Hmm.”

My chin angle rose by 20 degrees, and in proportion, the employee’s angle dropped by 20 degrees.

“If you could just wait a little longer, we’ll figure out a way…”

“Hmm.”

[Translator – Jjsecus]

[Proofreader – Gun]

Here, I quietly shifted the consideration of whether to tackle this anomaly or to hold off on it to the latter option.

Usually, most anomalies reveal their true colors by now.

But judging from the way they’re reacting, it seemed like they were genuinely committed to hotel operations. In other words, unless we abandon our ‘guest’ cosplay first, they won’t give up their ‘hotel’ cosplay either.

“Everything’s fine. Okay, okay. I’ll just wander around here and explore, so I’ll leave it to you then.”

“Yes?”

“Here, could you please take care of my backpack? This is my phone number. Okay?”

I packed only the important items from my backpack and handed it to the employee. The employee seemed to understand my words and grinned, saying,

“Ah, okay! Thanks a bunch!”

The employee kindly guided us to the elevator. We comfortably got in and headed back to the original first floor.

Aryeon, who had been trembling since witnessing the spirit photograph, said,

“Um… Guild Leader, are we allowed to leave like this?”

“Probably.”

“B-but the door didn’t open earlier, right?”

“Unlike earlier, this time the hotel staff allowed us to leave. They might have stopped us if I had tried to leave on my own, but since I hinted that we would come back, they let us go.”

“Oh. So that’s why you deliberately handed over the backpack…?”

“Yeah. When exploring the void, you need to quickly understand the characteristics of the space and adjust yourself to it. As long as you follow the rules properly, there’s only… about a 50% chance of them attacking me first.”

“Only half?!”

Well, that means you need to build up the strength to knock them out as soon as they attack, no matter when they come at you. Tsk tsk.

When we arrived at the first floor, the elevator opened. As a test, I snapped a picture of the first floor with my camera.

“Hmm.”

“W-what came out…?”

“I’ll let you know in a bit.”

In the photo of the first floor. There were piles of bodies scattered everywhere.

Around 20 humanoid figures with half-eaten heads were standing near the glass, and about 100 corpses were stuck to the glass, scraping it with their palms.

What might have looked like a beautiful chandelier structure to my eyes was just a feast of bodies hanging from nooses in the photo.

“Let’s just get out of here.”

“Y-yeah…”

As expected, this time the glass door opened smoothly when pushed. With a swish, the rough outside air rushed into our noses.

Aryeon slumped down in fear.

“I-it was s-so scary…! It was terrifying! Guild Leader, please! Don’t drag me into such things because they’re bad for my heart!”

“Here, this is a souvenir from the first floor.”

“A souvenir? What… Aaaah!”

Aryeon fainted on the spot.

By the way, I was satisfied. It’s fun to be with him like this. His reactions are good, aren’t they?

Of course, my satisfaction waned a bit when I saw the nonsense post on SGnet the next day.

-KoreanVillage: I stamped my foot on ‘that tower’ in Gangnam, Seoul, lol.

-KoreanVillage: Is this the famous dungeon they’re talking about? There’s nothing special here. These Awakeneds always make a fuss, but they’re just dying in this cheap dungeon?

(Photo of the 79th floor lobby)

(Photo of the 1st floor elevator)

-KoreanVillage: I brought a proof shot with my ability item. Take a good look and see if your mom and dad’s faces are missing here, lol.

As expected, the proof shots uploaded by KoreanVillage villain were the instant photos I handed to Aryeon.

The reactions poured in like wildfire.

-Anonymous: Where is this?

└ BookGirl: It’s obviously the Sauron Tower.

└ Anonymous: ?? This guy raided the Sauron Tower alone and came back in one piece?

-[Three Thousand] Cadet: Seriously, what’s up with this KoreanVillage villain? Is this aggro-seeking personality really a hidden master?

-[Baekhwa] 6th Grade High Schooler: Eww. :3;;

-Anonymous: Haha, SasGot-RyeoJangHam, lol.

-[Satisfied] CookingQueen: Very interesting indeed.

Hmm.

I glanced over at Aryeon, who was sitting in the guild lounge, playing with his phone.

“Heh, hehe…”

Aryeon, lying sprawled on the couch, looked happy. Very much so.

Perhaps true anomalies are like that, aren’t they?

4

Epilogue.

In the very next run, I grabbed takeout with Seo Gyu at Busan Station and then researched “Sauron’s Tower” on the internet.

It was still early in the period when civilization had just begun to charge towards extinction. Images of hotel vouchers were easily available on the internet.

And I manipulated the hotel voucher with that image file.

Well, the barcode was messed up, but anyway, the creatures wouldn’t really be able to check the barcode, right?

So, armed with this voucher (top-tier presidential suite, room size 145m², including meals, regular price for one night 8 million won), I visited “Sauron’s Tower” alone once again.

The result?

“Yes, your reservation has been confirmed, Mr. Jang. We will serve you with the best service.”

“Oh….”

Surprisingly, the reservation went through!

Thanks to that, that night I not only enjoyed dinner at a high-class restaurant after a long time but also took a bath while enjoying the beautiful Seoul night view outside the window.

Wherever I went in the hotel, the staff greeted me with a smile and treated me kindly.

“It’s like living the dream.”

The next morning, I tried taking a photo of the meal placed on the table for breakfast.

Click-

While waiting for the film to develop, I enjoyed the delicious seaweed soup. And finally, I looked down at the photo that came out.

“Hmm….”

I won’t reveal what was in that photo here.

But I’ll just say that if anyone plans to come here for fun, they should definitely choose someone with a very strong stomach.

Ah.

Of course, Aryeon won’t be coming.

– Explorer. The End.

[Translator – Jjsecus]

[Proofreader – Gun]