Ch 18: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Hot Spring Bathhouse (6)

Soon, a system notice stating that a player had failed to escape and had been eliminated was sent to everyone’s app.

Yi Han took his phone from the waterproof pouch and read it. His expression did not change, but his gaze darkened as he looked toward several teammates.

These teammates, assuming for now that they were all “human,” had not entered the hot spring instance willingly, but they had at least cleared two normal-difficulty stages of the same rank. They should have encountered forced missions before, so they should know that no matter how scared they were, they must not leave the pool.

A five-year-old child being unable to endure it was one thing, but an adult woman being this irrational…

The ten minutes had almost passed. If she had held on just a little longer, they could have completed the task. For her to die here at the final moment really felt unworthy.

Thinking carefully now, Yi Han actually believed that the first sacrifice had not happened without certain teammates maliciously egging things on.

During the task earlier, everyone had been panicking, but at first, they had still held themselves together. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. It was only after certain people began creating chaos, shouting that it was too dangerous and that they had to leave the pool, then seeing that everyone was still holding on, loudly claiming that the water would crawl into their mouths and nostrils.

Others might not have noticed such obvious words meant to shake morale, but Yi Han had.

It was just that in that situation, even if someone spoke up to stop it like the child’s father had, the effect would probably be limited.

And the final result was exactly this:

The people who had shouted the loudest never actually left the pool.

Instead, the teammate who had already been timid and mentally unstable was provoked into losing reason.

Yi Han shook his head and sighed, silently memorizing the two suspects. Then he left the indoor hot spring hall alone.

He had already obtained the exploration progress for this area, and he had also obtained the recipe. It was time to go to the remaining areas and earn points.

But before that…

Yi Han examined the directions of the corridor. Seeing that the dining area was still pitch black, he turned and went directly to the outdoor hot spring area. By the outdoor path lights, he found a small pavilion close to the entrance and sat down.

…Then he took out the iron pot, added ingredients, and waited for the dishes.

The remaining areas in this stage were the outdoor hot spring area and the water park area, and by conservative estimate, there were five enemies.

The steel-headed female ghost he had captured earlier had already been rescued by her companions not long after the forced mission began.

Time was tight and the task was heavy. Yi Han decided to apply his buffs first.

This time, he made two dishes: “Honey-Glazed Chicken Leg” and “Fresh Scallop Scrambled Eggs.”

The wait time was only two minutes before both dishes emerged with fragrant steam.

There was no need to say much about the honey-glazed chicken leg. It was golden in color, tender and juicy. Even without mentioning the mouthwatering aroma of meat, its appearance alone was enough to hook a person’s appetite.

And the fresh scallop scrambled eggs, whose recipe he had just obtained today, was not bad either. The soft, springy scallop meat mixed with tender scrambled egg looked bouncy and delicate, smelling both fresh and savory.

The two dishes were placed on exquisite small plates, paired with chopsticks and a small bowl of rice. Yi Han had not been very hungry originally, but now just looking at them made his stomach feel empty.

The winter night wind was somewhat cold.

Perhaps to let players experience outdoor hot springs in the snow, the environment setting of this stage was actually a northern winter.

Even though he had taken a thickened yukata from beside the door before leaving the corridor, Yi Han sat upright in the small pavilion amid the snow, under the warm yellow light of the little night lamp, eating hot, steaming food, yet still felt coldness spreading through both his body and heart.

Ever since entering this game, things had gone fairly smoothly for him. Today was the first time he had seen a teammate die right in front of him.

He could not quite describe the feeling…

Maybe there was some regret, or maybe a sense of sorrow for another rabbit’s death.

But the stage was not over yet, so that emotion only remained in his heart for the length of a meal.

Once the meal was finished, only one thought remained in Yi Han’s mind:

He had to work even harder to save points and strengthen himself.

After putting away the dishes, he stood from the pavilion.

The enormous outdoor hot spring area held only him. No teammate had followed him out.

They had probably all been scared out of their wits and planned to cower in the hot spring hall until the end.

Only…

If Yi Han’s guess was correct, among those six people, at least two were probably “ghost” players.

Staying together with ghosts until midnight without realizing it, how many of them would survive to leave was still unknown.

Yi Han knew they would still fall into danger.

But before leaving the group, after hesitating for a moment, he ultimately had not warned them.

It was not because he felt the others’ lives did not matter, but because even he himself was not completely certain how many of those six were true “human” players.

Even that dead woman might have been a skilled actor among the ghosts, using this move solely to create panic. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. It was not impossible.

Speaking rashly before the situation was clear would make the humans begin suspecting one another. The ghosts naturally would not admit anything. In the end, the blame would most likely be directed at him.

This sort of thankless task was something Yi Han had already stopped doing when he was a teenager. And he also had no desire to waste precious time explaining such things.

Smart teammates did not need his reminder.

Foolish teammates, even if saved this time, would not survive long afterward.

In this real escape game, if one wanted to live, one had to rely on oneself.

Holding the pot, Yi Han walked out of the pavilion and finally stepped onto the small path of the outdoor hot spring area.

The stone path was a little rough underfoot. Beside the road were open-air hot spring pools one after another, steaming in the winter night lights.

There was no one around. Everything was quiet.

There were no insect sounds that should exist in a normal world. Only the sounds of faint wind and flowing water reached his ears.

The small path circled the area once. After walking a full loop, Yi Han returned to where he had started.

He had already obtained the exploration progress here and discovered nothing special, so he prepared to return to the indoor corridor.

But the moment he turned, he stopped.

The place that should have been a fork in the road now only had one small path left.

The stone path twisted and wound, still leading in the same direction he had just walked once.

“…A ghost wall?”

He was currently standing beside the pavilion where he had eaten earlier.

But the path on the other side of it, the one that should have led back to the corridor, had disappeared.

Now behind the pavilion, there were only pine trees and enclosing walls.

The nearby lights seemed to have been swallowed by abnormal space. In the breeze, the shadows of the trees and pavilion swayed slightly, dim and indistinct.

Sure enough…

After he had deliberately been alone for so long, those three extremely grudge-holding little ghosts had finally made another move against him.

Yi Han had planned for this, so he was not surprised. He only focused on thinking of a way to break through.

The three of them had not really had anything special about them back in the beginner stage.

But now, after relentless effort, each of them had developed their own special ability.

For example, that male ghost: as long as someone was touched by his water, they would become entangled by that thing, whether illusion or invisible current. Right now, it seemed only to induce fear, but near the time limit for clearing, it might gain the ability to cause real damage.

That ability paired perfectly with this stage full of water. He must have chosen it specifically to take revenge on Yi Han.

That slow-moving female ghost he had once captured had clearly strengthened her steel head…

She had probably developed a psychological shadow from being hit by Yi Han back in the beginner stage.

And that bathroom-stall little sister of hers was most likely the maker of the mind-bewitching drinks, possessing the power to confuse people’s minds.

This ghost wall was definitely her doing.

But even knowing who was behind it, and even knowing that the scene before him probably was not real, an ordinary person would still find it very difficult to break out.

If all five senses were deceived, how could one find the real path?

Yi Han sighed.

“I really didn’t want to do this…”

Before entering this game, Yi Han had clearly never felt that he was especially violent.

He was only a little more capable with his hands, had beaten every school bully and nasty neighbor into defeat, repaid grudges as they came, and dealt with matters case by case.

It was not as though he would blow up someone’s house just because they disagreed.

But who knew why, ever since entering this game, Yi Han always felt like every stage involved him demolishing buildings, smashing walls, and wrecking people’s courtyards.

The landscaping of this outdoor hot spring area was actually quite beautiful.

This time, even Yi Han himself felt slightly reluctant to act.

“You might as well come out yourselves. I’m not afraid of a crossdressing debuff, but I wonder how much repair cost you’ll have to split if I tear this place apart.”

Yi Han said indifferently.

---

The breeze swayed the light. The tree shadows on the ground shifted slightly, slowly forming a question mark…

── ⋆⋅🖤⋅⋆ ──

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