Ch 14: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Hot Spring Bathhouse (2)

What had originally only been a shower area for guests to quickly rinse off before entering the hot spring pools had somehow been turned by several unreliable players into a northeastern Chinese bathhouse overflowing with laughter and noise…

Having suddenly been granted the chance to bathe under the supervision of the stingy system, they were happy like two idiots.

Yi Han politely declined the two idiots’ fiery enthusiasm about scrubbing his back. After taking a quick wash himself, he returned to the changing room, changed into swim trunks, and prepared to head to the next area to search for his recipe and exploration percentage.

Past the men’s bath entrance was a spacious corridor. Going left led to the dining area, which looked the most likely place to hide a recipe.

There was still no movement from the women’s bath next door. Girls probably took longer to bathe…

Thinking this, Yi Han walked in alone, intending to thoroughly search the place while no one else was around.

Unexpectedly, the moment he entered, he saw four women who had already changed into swimsuits, their hair still wet, sitting around a table chatting and eating.

The table was covered with sliced pizza, pasta, seafood, steamed dumplings, fruit, desserts…

“You’re here! The food here is really good, come eat with us!”

“There’s just as much variety as the system mall! And it tastes great too!”

“Exactly! Most importantly, it’s free! The system is usually so stingy, but this time we can finally eat to our hearts’ content!”

When they saw Yi Han enter, they immediately greeted him enthusiastically, their tones light and cheerful. It was obvious they were in extremely good moods.

The dining area food was buffet-style, with every type imaginable available, and they had taken huge piles of it…

Yi Han truly could not suppress the doubts in his heart and asked,

“…You’re not worried there might be something wrong with the food?”

“…Something wrong?”

The women all froze.

In an escape game, wasn’t it common sense not to casually eat things?

Unexpectedly, after exchanging glances, none of the girls showed any expressions of sudden realization or regret. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Instead, they cautiously asked:

“Um… didn’t you come in using an admission ticket?”

“…Admission ticket?” Yi Han paused.

Seeing that he genuinely did not know, one of the girls took out a card from her system and handed it to him.

【Hot Spring Bathhouse (One-Star Hard) Two-Person Admission Ticket】

【Quality: C-Class】

【Status: Used】

【Description: Players holding this ticket will, upon their next stage draw, be forcibly locked into the One-Star Hard Mode stage: Hot Spring Bathhouse. No need to painstakingly search for escape routes. After midnight, you will automatically leave the stage. During the entire process, you may focus on enjoying food, hot springs, water parks… Although you may still encounter accidents and die within the stage, isn’t the opportunity to enjoy a free hot spring bath amidst thrilling and exciting stage-clearing worth it?】

“…I spent 50 points on a lottery draw and got this. At first glance, I thought it was something amazing. Who knew it would force me into a Hard Mode stage? But after entering, it actually feels pretty nice! The food and hot springs are just too tempting!”

“Yeah, same here. I also got it from a lottery draw. When I heard it was a Hard Mode instance, I almost couldn’t even find a duo partner, sob sob sob, but I really wanted to soak in hot springs. For hot springs, I’m willing to take risks!”

“Me too… Even though the hot springs are amazing… this is still a Hard Mode stage! We could actually die in here. If I hadn’t drawn this admission ticket, I definitely would never willingly enter a Hard Mode instance in my life.”

“Who wouldn’t feel that way, hahaha? I think everyone’s like this. There probably isn’t anyone who would actively queue into a Hard Mode stage to suffer without drawing an admission ticket… right?”

The girls chatted one sentence after another, laughing as they spoke. Only at the end did they suddenly remember Yi Han, who had actively queued into this place and was still standing beside them…

The girls: …

Yi Han: …

…Alright. The mystery was solved.

So aside from him, the other seven people were not high-level players who had voluntarily unlocked Hard Mode.

They were simply unlucky enough to be unwillingly thrown into this Hard Mode instance for sightseeing and vacationing…

And as long as they were careful not to get killed by ghosts during the stage, they would simply be automatically teleported out at midnight.

Only Yi Han actually needed to search for the escape route and key.

Those admiring looks in the lobby earlier had not been admiration for his courage in solo-queueing.

Rather, they were admiring how, despite clearing so many stages, he was still such a strong single dog that he did not even have a good bro to use a two-person admission ticket with…

Speechless, Yi Han returned the ticket to the girl, tactfully declined the enthusiastic invitation of “the food in this stage is safe, come eat with us,” and continued his lonely investigation.

Actually, he had originally been determined to take first place in contribution percentage.

And since these Buddhist-style teammates clearly had no intention of competing with him for contribution, learning this cruel truth did not really affect his upcoming actions at all.

On the contrary, with less competition, he felt much more relaxed…

Which was honestly pretty nice too…

And so, amid the women’s chatting and laughter, Yi Han became like a merciless recipe-searching machine, burying himself in the task of checking every possible hiding spot.

Unfortunately, even after searching every nook and cranny, there was still no trace of the recipe.

The women finished eating, greeted him, then each carried drinks and soda off toward the hot spring area.

After that, the men who had finished showering also came through once, each grabbing an ice-cold beer before leaving again.

Unable to find anything and having already collected the exploration percentage, Yi Han also prepared to leave.

As he was about to go, he suddenly noticed the refrigerator cabinet near the main entrance, the one every teammate had opened once already.

Apparently, because the last teammate who grabbed a beer had forgotten to close the door properly, it was currently slightly ajar, leaving a crack.

A thin layer of condensation covered the glass, and several droplets of water ran crookedly downward.

Yi Han casually glanced at it, then suddenly frowned.

…He had a bad feeling somehow.

Ever since entering this game and facing danger and ghosts multiple times, Yi Han seemed to have gradually developed a strange instinct.

Although he did not know why he was instinctively resistant to it, he still reached out and closed the refrigerator door.

Sure enough, that strange sense of disharmony faded somewhat.

But because he had touched the glass door, his hand became covered in water droplets, instantly damp and wet.

“…Wait. Condensation forms because the inside surface of the refrigerator glass is colder and comes into contact with the warm outside air… But I touched the outside of the glass door. Why is there water?”

Yi Han’s expression sharpened.

Looking down at his wet hand, he immediately moved away from the strange refrigerator.

Unexpectedly, just as he neared the dining area exit, he heard a bang.

The hall suddenly plunged into darkness as every light bulb exploded simultaneously.

Yi Han did not stop moving. He quickly rushed toward the room’s only remaining light source: the open doorway.

There seemed to be the sound of dripping water beside him.

His damp hand also began feeling strange, as if something was slowly spreading through the moisture, crawling from his wrist upward.

Yi Han ignored it for now and rushed to the doorway first.

There, he saw a figure in sauna clothing suddenly dart out and reach to shut the door on him.

Yi Han reacted instantly, quickly pulling out his pot and jamming it into the door crack.

Bang.

The door was stopped by the pot just before fully closing. Dangerously close.

The strange sensation in his hand grew stronger. It felt as though the moisture had already crawled up to his forearm.

But Yi Han had no time to look.

Seeing that the person outside could not exert force for the moment, Yi Han immediately reached through the gap to grab them.

The person panicked, struggling briefly in Yi Han’s grip. Realizing they were weaker, they decisively gave up, refused to fight further, turned, and fled.

Yi Han held on tightly and directly tore the sauna top off the person.

The figure scrambled away in panic but did not dare make a sound that might reveal their identity.

In the end, against the backlight, only a silhouette remained, impossible to identify by body shape.

Yi Han kicked the door open and finally returned to the brightly lit corridor.

In his hand was a one-size-fits-all sauna uniform. It seemed impossible to tell who had worn it.

He casually used the clothing to wipe the hand covered with strange liquid.

Unexpectedly, there was actually nothing on his hand at all, as though the flowing water from earlier had all been an illusion.

Yi Han glanced in the direction the person had escaped.

That way led to the indoor hot spring hall.

Putting away his pot and tossing aside the clothing, Yi Han kept a calm expression and walked directly in.

Before even entering deeply, he already heard laughter and cheerful voices coming from inside.

This area was essentially an enormous hall filled with pools of various temperatures.

Several teammates were soaking in different pools in small groups.

Yi Han counted roughly and discovered that all seven of his teammates were currently in the pools, each exposing only their upper bodies, with beer and soda sitting at the pool edges.

Then someone spotted him and enthusiastically waved him over.

Not a single person appeared to be the culprit who had just tried to harm him.

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

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