Chapter 242

The water was so blue that it almost looked black.

The waves crashed and splashed.

Raindrops scattered as they hit the tetrapod.

The sharp, fishy smell of the sea tickled his nose.

In the distance, even the tail of a swimming whale was visible.

What William saw before him was undoubtedly the sea.

“Is that the sea?”

There couldn’t be a sea here.

Yet undeniably, what existed right in front of William was, in fact, the sea.

The deep blue waves stretched infinitely beyond the horizon.

With every gust of wind came the familiar salty scent.

Every time a wave crashed, there was the sound of splashes and the unique sounds of the waves breaking apart.

The damp sensation of the moist breeze carried the sea water.

As he stood there, mouth agape in surprise, the sea’s scent and taste even began to tickle his nose and mouth.

His five senses screamed out.

This is the sea.

You are standing right next to the sea.

William stared blankly at the ocean.

Then, he opened his mouth and urgently called out the name of his summon creature.

“Russell!”

His ever-loyal companion, more trusty than any human, who always stayed by his side and protected him.

Russell.

But even as he called out desperately, the room remained silent.

No matter what he did, Russell was always the one who would come running at the sound of his name, wagging his tail. If he was far, he would even jump through space or fly to him, yet now there was only silence.

Instead, an unsettling silence filled the air, as if that creature had never existed.

Then, suddenly, William let out a sardonic laugh, as if he finally understood.

He wrapped his right hand around his left middle finger and bent it backward hard.

“Heh heh heh. I knew this would happen.”

In a normal situation, his finger would have surely snapped.

The eerie sound of breaking bone would usually follow, accompanied by intense pain that would make William scream so loudly that the hotel would shake.

Yet, his finger was completely intact.

It was bent back as if he had done some yoga, still touching the back of his hand, and he felt no pain whatsoever. Moreover, as if it were made of rubber, his hand flipped back into place and then moved back and forth, returning to its original position solidly.

Movement?

It was perfectly fine.

As if nothing had happened, it moved normally without any sense of oddity at all.

“Damn it.”

William spat on the floor and grabbed a vase. Tilting it like a spinning top, he let it go.

And the vase spun.

On and on.

As if it were spinning in space, it balanced perfectly and kept spinning in place without losing momentum.

“What a shitty nightmare.”

Two reality checks clearly told him it was all a dream.

William realized he wasn’t awake but had instead fallen deeper into a dream, which had the unusual properties of a lucid dream.

And, quite naturally, this situation was very. very bad for William.

Every time he dreamed, it was always a nightmare.

However, if just regular nightmares were shitty, adding a lucid dream into the mix?

There was no way it would end well.

“Wait a second, wait a second…”

The moment William recognized this place as a dream, he realized that there were numerous issues with it.

Smartphone.

Just a while ago, he had been on a call with “staff,” and that smartphone was still connected!

William turned quickly and dashed towards the smartphone.

“Have you checked outside the window? This place is originally the sea.”

However, even as he rushed to press the end button, the call wouldn’t disconnect. The regular voice of the staff continued, sounding almost playful, or maybe it was a nightmarish voice pretending to be “staff.”

“This was originally located inland. Therefore, the view was not very good. The former owner thought that to create character for this hotel, it needed quality service and the dignity worthy of its high price, so he invested a lot of money. Thus the magnificent appearance of this hotel was completed.”

“But the new owner had a different idea. They thought that a hotel should have a great location and scenery, and without that, it would reach its limit. In fact, the hotel’s sales had been stagnant for a long time and potential customers had been drawn away by newer hotels in the vicinity. If time passed, this hotel too would gradually decline and forget its former glory, facing closure.”

“That’s why the new owner made a decision. Let’s bring the sea here.”

“Indeed, if the sea were brought here, wouldn’t it become a hotel by the sea? The owner wisely realized this fact that no one had thought of before and pulled the sea here with powerful magic. That is the sea you see before you.”

Through the smartphone, the “staff” explained the hotel’s history as if they were some art museum docent. Yet, the substance of those words was no different than nonsense.

Bringing the sea here?

Could that even be true?

“Eat shit.”

“It may be hard to believe. But the owner really did achieve this. Isn’t there the sea outside the window as proof?”

“I know it’s a dream, so eat shit.”

“A dream, you say? You perceived the existence of the sea with your five senses, yet how can you conclude this is a dream? Think carefully, sir. Filling land with the sea, digging the land to bring the sea here, which seems more unrealistic?”

“Huh.”

“Canals were dug by people. Land reclamation was done by people too. Therefore, it’s not a problem for the sea to appear before this hotel.”

“I just did a reality check, so are you going to keep babbling nonsense?”

At the mention of “reality check,” the voice of the one trying to convince William suddenly cut off.

An eerie silence enveloped the room.

The imitation of a human voice abruptly turned into something metallic and lifeless, producing no sounds at all. And as if that weren’t enough, the smartphone’s battery started to rapidly drain.

98%.

45%.

1%.

0%.

-3%.

-44%.

-1321%.

As it continued to drain, the smartphone finally—

Thunk.

Like it had run out of battery, it powered down completely.

Disgusted, William hurled the smartphone against the wall.

Kooom!

‘This doesn’t feel like just a nightmare, does it?’

Crisis.

William felt that what he was experiencing wasn’t just a simple nightmare but something far more terrible.

Evidence?

None.

It was simply William’s instincts telling him so.

Right now, he was in danger.

‘Danger. Danger…. What should I do? What can I do?’

Realizing he was in danger, William began to “ponder,” something he rarely did in his life.

But there are no answers to questions that have no solutions.

William felt like the more he thought, the more complicated his mind became.

Eventually, he decided to abandon thought and move instinctively as he usually did.

‘Well, it’s a nightmare anyway.’

No matter how serious it seemed, at its core, it was still a nightmare.

There’s no way he would be tortured or die, would he?

With that conclusion in mind, William attempted to enter the room.

If he was in danger right now, then whatever was in the model in the room would clearly be in danger too.

But just as William reached for the doorknob to go back in, his hand froze in place.

Grasping the doorknob halfway turned, it felt like he had suddenly been paralyzed.

‘Model?’

Before opening the door, the two characters flashed through William’s mind.

Model.

The one who spent the night with him, had a stunning body, was turned away from him, whose face he didn’t remember, and whose name he didn’t know.

Model.

‘What model?’

He couldn’t remember anything.

What kind of model?

Where did he meet her?

At what party?

What conversations were exchanged to entice her?

How did they grow close?

How did they end up in the hotel together?

None of it came to mind.

Of course.

It was a nightmare.

Right now, he was in a nightmare!

“Fuck.”

Thud.

William let go of the doorknob and stepped back.

Click.

Click, click.

Click, click, click, click.

Click, click, click, click, click, click!

Kooom!

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Thump!

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Kooom!

The moment he stepped back from the doorknob, a chilling event occurred.

The “something” inside the room violently pulled at the doorknob, banging on the door as if it desperately wanted to be let in.

The doorknob shook as if it would be torn off, moving all around, while the door trembled with a deafening sound, about to break at any moment.

Kooom!

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Thump, thump!

Click, click, click!

Click, click!

Click!

What was even more horrifying was where the banging was coming from.

The sounds that seemed ready to smash the door were horrifically coming from two different places.

From below, there was the sound of something smashing its head against the door.

From above, there was the sound of fists pounding on it.

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