Ch 22: I Run a Food Shop in an Escape Game

Hot Spring Bathhouse (10)

The binding process was interrupted, and the skinny monkey NPC finally regained the right to surrender and admit defeat.

As a permanent employee of this hot spring bathhouse, he had used this disguise technique to trick many foolish players who entered with sightseeing tickets and believed this place was truly a vacation paradise.

But today, for the first time, he felt that the game system’s rule allowing NPCs to surrender was wonderful.

At this moment, all five of his ghost coworkers had been wiped out. The sadist holding the iron pot was standing right in front of him. He could not win in a fight, and he could not escape.

If he continued struggling, who knew what form of humiliation he would suffer next!

Therefore, the moment he received the message, he immediately offered up 15 points and logged off on the spot.

Only Yi Han and the two girls who still had not recovered remained in the area.

“Is… is it over?” one girl asked uncertainly.

“Not necessarily.” Yi Han looked at the time.

The numbers on the phone screen had just reached 23:00. There was exactly one hour left until midnight.

Logically speaking, this final hour should be when ghosts were completely released from restrictions and posed the greatest threat to players.

But now, it seemed that all the ghosts in the entire stage had already become points in Yi Han’s hands, as if no further danger would appear.

“There isn’t much time left. I still need to find the key. You two should find a safe place around here and wait for clearance. The dangers in stages don’t all come from ghosts, so still be careful.”

Yi Han glanced around the enormous water park area and finally said this.

“We’ll help you look for the key,” the two girls said, supporting each other as they stood from the ground.

They both had admission tickets, so they did not need the key to clear the stage.

But after Yi Han had saved their lives several times earlier, they seemed to want to help him in return.

“No need. I already have some ideas.”

Yi Han waved his hand, not wanting help from others.

But the moment he finished refusing, he saw the girls clearly looking disappointed.

He paused and softened his tone slightly before adding,

“If I need help, I’ll call you.”

“Mhm, mhm! You absolutely have to call us!” Only then did they settle down.

Yi Han left the two girls and, after thinking for a moment, still chose to circle the water park area alone first.

Very quickly, he had almost fully obtained the exploration progress for the entire hot spring bathhouse.

After searching every corner, he could confirm that there were no more enemies here.

And although he had not yet obtained the key, there was another unexpected gain.

【Recipe: Kung Pao Chicken (Learned)】

【Description: After consumption, increases charm according to deliciousness, making you both fragrant ♂ and spicy~ Duration: 2 hours.】

He had found this in a crack in one of the water slides…

Although the effect was full of things worth mocking, it was indeed the second recipe Yi Han had obtained in this stage.

He had not expected Hard Mode rewards to be this generous.

Not only did it give more points, with a chance to drop special items, even recipes came in double servings.

It seemed that after reaching higher star levels, he should try this mode more often.

Yi Han stored the recipe away, then turned his gaze to the water before him.

At this moment, he was standing in the northwest corner of the water park, in the swimming pool area, before the deepest pool.

He had searched every other area and found no trace of the key.

Now, the only place left was here:

The bottom of the deep-water pool.

This was a location Yi Han had already suspected earlier. Since it was nowhere else, the answer was basically certain.

Because it was located in the corner of the entire area, the lighting here was not very good.

Although the sign by the pool indicated that the water depth was only 1.8 meters, and although the pool water looked clear, for some reason, shadows flickered within the water. No matter how carefully he looked, he could not see the bottom.

Looks like this was the final stage of the Hot Spring Bathhouse level.

If he wanted the key, he had to dive to the pool bottom.

Yi Han was not especially good in water.

But he did not trust anyone else, and he did not want to hand over this portion of contribution for retrieving the key either.

So after taking a deep breath, he entered the water.

The moment he entered, he realized something was wrong.

Yi Han was 185 centimeters tall. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. If this pool water were 180 centimeters deep, then he should have been able to stand on tiptoe and keep his head above the surface.

But after entering the water, he only felt his body continuously sinking.

His head submerged beneath the surface, and several seconds passed without his toes touching bottom.

There was something wrong with this pool.

Yi Han opened his eyes and saw rippling light and shadow within the water. It was actually brighter than it had looked from above.

His ears were blocked by water, leaving him unable to hear anything at all.

Before him, there was only shifting current, soundless and formless.

In a daze, more than ten seconds had already passed since he entered the water, yet his body was still sinking.

Yi Han steadied himself.

Relying on the underwater vision enhanced by the food, he focused on staring below, searching for any trace of the key.

After who knew how long, just as the oxygen he had inhaled before diving was about to run out, his feet finally touched the bottom of the pool.

Yi Han stabilized himself underwater and slowly turned.

Then he saw a silver key lying on the pool floor not far away.

It happened to be right beside a drain.

The key was caught along the edge of that opening.

Yi Han laboriously moved through the water and grabbed it in his hand.

【System Prompt: Player has obtained the key to survival.】

The system prompt rang beside his ear, but for some reason, Yi Han could not relax.

When he had touched the key earlier, he vaguely felt as though something above the water surface had trembled slightly.

By now, Yi Han was already struggling to hold his breath. There was no time to think further.

He immediately prepared to return to the surface.

Unexpectedly, when he raised his head, he discovered several crisscrossing shadows in the water above him.

From afar, they looked like strangely shaped ghost shadows. They blocked the water surface, constantly patrolling, preventing anything from rising from the bottom.

Yi Han frowned and tightened his grip on the key.

He was nearly at the limit of holding his breath.

His lungs burned painfully.

Without oxygen soon, he might drown at the bottom of this pool.

After quickly scanning the surroundings, Yi Han once again struggled back to the drain.

He took out the iron pot from his inventory, turned it upside down, and used the handle to smash down hard.

Being underwater, and already somewhat oxygen-deprived, Yi Han could not exert his usual strength.

Fortunately, the pot was S-rank. Even its wooden handle was extraordinarily hard.

Again and again he struck.

The water obstructed sound transmission, but the metal grate of the drain visibly loosened little by little.

Who knew which strike finally did it, but the metal frame finally cracked, and the grate burst open.

The current around him surged violently, knocking Yi Han down.

He firmly covered his mouth and nose, forcing himself not to choke on water.

The turbulent pool water rushed past him.

After a while, the water level finally dropped. The water pressure disappeared, as though he had finally returned from that underwater world back to reality.

Yi Han worked hard to breathe air.

Only after a long while did the black spots before his eyes and the dizziness from oxygen deprivation gradually ease.

He discovered that he was indeed standing at the bottom of the now-drained pool.

But this pool really was only 180 centimeters deep.

The bottomless pool from earlier had indeed been another space.

After the water drained away, the ghost shadows blocking the surface vanished too.

At the final moment earlier, Yi Han had been somewhat unclear-headed, so he had not noticed where those ghost shadows went afterward.

Rubbing his still-dizzy head, he climbed out of the pool.

Not far away, the two female teammates were running toward him. They had probably heard the commotion earlier and came to check out of concern.

Yi Han waved at them, indicating he was fine.

Since he had already obtained the key, and it was almost midnight, the three of them tried several exits together.

At the third emergency exit, the key smoothly slid into the lock.

【Congratulations. Stage: Hot Spring Bathhouse (One-Star Hard) successfully escaped!】

“Wait a second…”

Before leaving the stage, the two girls suddenly called out to Yi Han.

Yi Han: “Hm?”

“Um, do you want to add each other as friends…?” Yan Yan raised her phone and asked shyly.

“Although we might not get the chance to queue together in the future, at least let us enjoy the superiority of having a bigshot in our friend list!” the other girl was much more direct than Yan Yan.

But apparently, their reason for asking to add him was not actually to cling to him for help…

Yi Han did not mind this, but…

“I can’t yet. I haven’t unlocked the friend function.”

He said helplessly.

The two girls looked at each other, eyes widening.

“…So this is only your second One-Star stage, bigshot??”

Yi Han: spreads hands.jpg

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