Ch 16: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Hot Spring Bathhouse (4)

Unexpectedly, this time when the female ghost’s head collided with the bottom of the pot, she merely staggered a little. Forget fainting, she did not even fall on her butt.

The female ghost had clearly come prepared. She had probably spent all the wages she earned from working on strengthening her head. But even though she had become more resistant to beatings, she was still incomparably furious at Yi Han’s behavior!

“Mmmph mmmph!!”

She screamed angrily and reached her hands outside the door, trying to claw at Yi Han’s face.

At this moment, Yi Han actually had another option.

He could have kicked the door shut again while she had her arm extended outside. Given the female ghost’s lightning-fast movement speed (?), one good slam might even break her arm.

But that was simply too cruel…

No matter what, she was still technically a girl (?), and she had worked so hard just to avenge the grudge from back when Yi Han kept smashing her head.

Yi Han very much admired this kind of hardworking, positive spirit, so he felt he should not use such a brutal move on her.

Thus he extended the pot once more.

Abandoning the underhanded tactic of crushing her arm, he instead directly smacked the pot toward her face.

This time, Yi Han used the side of the iron pot.

His arms were already longer than the female ghost’s to begin with, so the instant the pot struck her, all her forward momentum stopped. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Though she still desperately tried pushing forward, her little hands wildly scratch scratch scratching, Yi Han blocked her completely. She could only remain pinned helplessly inside the doorway, unable to reach him no matter how hard she tried…

“Anyone got rope?” The female ghost was actually pretty strong. Back in the beginner stage, Yi Han had nearly lost to her in a contest of strength at the end, so he did not want to stay in a deadlock. He turned and asked the teammates behind him.

By now the people behind him had mostly recovered their wits. Seeing that Yi Han had already subdued the ghost, they hurriedly began searching frantically for rope.

Unfortunately, rope was one of those things that felt like it existed everywhere when you did not need it, but once you actually needed it, suddenly nobody had any.

In the end, it was the woman from the couple who, while secretly coaxing her blushing boyfriend, contributed a length of red rope.

“It might not be very sturdy…” she said.

Yi Han: …

Now was not exactly the time to question what mysterious purpose this rope originally had…

Yi Han wrapped it around several times and tied up the female ghost. Just to be safe, he also dislocated her arm joints first.

Unable to exert strength and unable to stand, the female ghost could only squat on the ground glaring angrily at Yi Han.

After all the struggling, the hair that had covered her face had scattered aside. Only then did Yi Han realize she was actually not very old.

And furthermore, her appearance somewhat resembled the female ghost who had disguised herself as “Yanyan” earlier.

Perhaps the two had really been sisters while alive.

“You four all came this time?” Yi Han placed the iron pot in front of her, squatted down himself, and faced her, deliberately softening his tone as he questioned her.

Unfortunately, the female ghost merely glared at him without speaking.

“There should be others in this stage besides you guys, right? Where are they hiding?”

This time, the female ghost directly turned her head away. Not only was “I’m not telling” written all over her face, she clearly did not even want to look at him anymore.

Seeing this, Yi Han could only lean closer and change his approach.

“You appearing here wasn’t a coincidence. Looks like you spent quite a few points just to come after me, huh?” Yi Han said softly. “Though ‘points’ probably isn’t quite the right term for your side. Maybe something like ‘performance credits’ would be more appropriate.”

Sure enough, after hearing this, the female ghost finally turned back and looked at him again.

“Ever since recognizing you just now, I’ve been thinking. There are countless stages in this escape game. I’ve only cleared three in total, yet I’ve run into you people twice already. That kind of probability can’t really be explained away as fate.

“So the only possibility is that at some point I obstructed something important for you guys. And of course, I’m not talking about knocking you out of the beginner stage. That’s why you’re so determined to come after me.

“So what exactly was that thing?”

Seeing the female ghost completely drawn in by his words, Yi Han slightly curled his lips.

“There was something in the beginner stage that I never fully understood. Why did the system announce there were two players when in reality I was the only player? At the time, I thought it was simply fake information intentionally released by the system. But now that I’ve seen you all, I understand. It wasn’t fake.

“There really were two players in that stage. It’s just that one was a ‘human’ player, while the other was a ‘ghost’ player. This real escape game was never designed solely to test the human side from the very beginning. That’s why you ghosts also have apps, a point system, and ways to strengthen your bodies and abilities through effort.

“It’s just that the process is probably much harder for you than it is for us. That stage was only an ordinary stage to me, but for the other player, namely the one who kept following beside me, it was probably a rare opportunity. I’m guessing it wasn’t easy for him to obtain the chance to challenge a stage as a ‘player.’

“And because of that, there was that woman at the end of the stage who clearly wasn’t on your side. Her mission wasn’t just directed at me, but also at the other player. In a certain sense, she was the shared ‘examiner’ for both players. Which is why this time she didn’t come together with you all.

“Although I don’t know exactly what he lost after failing that stage so miserably, if your skills aren’t good enough, missing an opportunity is normal. Holding a grudge over it is kind of pointless. After all, even if you come back a few more times, it still seems like you can’t beat me.” Yi Han said calmly.

The not-very-old female ghost’s eyes had widened completely in shock.

And Yi Han immediately knew his guesses had basically all been correct…

He did not ask whether there were ghost players mixed among the eight “players” in this stage too.

Because even if he asked, she would never tell him.

And besides, Yi Han could completely figure it out himself.

At this point he only felt emotional about how much occupational pressure ghosts apparently faced too.

No line of work was easy…

These little ghosts had probably worked themselves half to death just to come after him. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. And now that they were getting smashed offline again, they would probably lose more performance credits too.

Seeing that she could not break free, Yi Han stopped making things difficult for her.

He planned to use this ghost as bait instead, to lure the others over so he could smash them all together.

“Just leave her there for now. I’ve got another use for her later,” he explained to the teammates behind him as he stood up.

After this ghost was captured, the one outside the door had already run away. But Yi Han believed she had not gone far, and that male ghost was probably still somewhere in this hall.

After a brief discussion, everyone decided to continue searching according to the earlier arrangement.

Once everyone dispersed, Yi Han looked toward the now-open restroom door.

Suddenly he remembered that during the last stage, this female ghost had stubbornly remained beneath the podium blocking the way because she had been guarding the recipe.

And now she had appeared in the restroom…

Yi Han’s heart suddenly stirred.

Stepping around the ghost squatting in the corner, he entered the restroom.

Not long afterward, he really did find that familiar glowing recipe page hidden in a crack.

Only this time, the paper looked wrinkled…

It seemed to have been deliberately moved here.

…Looks like these little ghosts really held creative grudges. Knowing Yi Han wanted this thing, they had specifically hidden it in the bathroom just to disgust him.

【Recipe: Fresh Scallop Scrambled Eggs (Learned)】

【Description: After consumption, enhances underwater vision depending on deliciousness. Duration: 2 hours.】

After integrating it into the recipe book and reading the description, Yi Han slightly raised an eyebrow.

This buff would probably be useful in this stage.

The hot spring area still had not been fully explored, and afterward there would still be the water park, wave pool, and swimming pools.

If the key happened to be hidden at the bottom of some pool, he might very well need to dive underwater to retrieve it.

But it was inconvenient to make it immediately.

Yi Han walked back out and saw the teammates all diligently continuing their search efforts.

After thinking for a moment, he still felt it was better to prioritize collecting exploration percentage first.

Just as he was about to go regroup with everyone, Yi Han suddenly heard several screams from the other side of the hall.

Immediately afterward:

【System Notification: Due to improper behavior by team members, Forced Mission 1 has been triggered. Enter the designated hot spring pool and soak for 10 minutes. Leaving the pool during this time will be judged as stage failure. Successfully completing the mission will allow the game to continue.】

“Who did what?” Yi Han quickly walked over.

Then he discovered that among the seven teammates, only the parents with the child looked absolutely miserable.

“That little kid said he wanted to use the bathroom just now, but because there was a ghost near the restroom entrance, his parents didn’t want to go over there. So they suggested secretly letting him pee in the pool instead…” one female teammate whispered secretly to Yi Han. “And then the mission triggered. Every one of us got assigned different hot spring pools, but for their family of three, the system specifically stated they had to soak in the exact same pool the kid almost peed in earlier… hahaha!”

Yi Han: “Pfft…”

System: 🙂

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