Gacha Kingdom Building

Since Earth has never won one, I'm extremely curious about what Catherine will offer as a reward.

Before any of that though, I had my hands full with the current event. The suspicious Infinite Hotel. By all means. it smells like a trap, but whoever is behind this, assured me it would be safe, and used my own system to do that.

Normally, I wouldn't trust someone's words so easily, but this is the first feat of this magnitude, the only other time that someone managed to "break" [Gacha Kingdom Building] was during the Traveling Merchant's Invasion.

And even though it was clearly an unexpected situation, my Gift still tried to abide by its own rules, forcing the Merchant out until the timer reached zero.

From that, and the other events, I can see that [Gacha Kingdom Building] has not yet lied directly to me, though it does leave things open for interpretation and is not completely failsafe either. But for now, it seems like I can trust it when it says that our lives won't be in danger.

In the worst-case scenario, I can just ask the Merchant for help. Not even my Gift can keep him out forever, so I'm betting this Infinite Hotel is also unable to.

It'll put me in his debt, but it's better than getting stuck forever in who knows where.

Still, for starters, I decided to enter the Infinite Hotel and see for myself what it was all about.

In the blink of an eye, I found myself in a completely different scenario... the grass fields of the kingdom became a carpet that extended through an endless corridor. Of course, the girls around me were nowhere to be seen anymore, and instead, when I looked around, there was a never-ending number of doors.

Behind me was an elevator. A small label on top of it marked the number seven. More importantly though... there was a small table with a bunch of cookies.

The ceiling of this place was quite high, perhaps 10 meters in height, and I found the music that was playing, in combination with the pattern on the walls to be nauseating.

But before interacting with anything, I decided to try and leave the place...

Miwen: "Huh... it wasn't a lie..."

No trouble at all getting out... somehow, it even made me a bit disappointed. Still, this was good. My biggest concern was gone...

But that left me with a lot of questions... this event is called an "Invitation". Most events have their own conditions for being cleaned, and they accept a bunch of different actions to award an ending, so I thought that, for a simple invitation, entering the place, that is, accepting and acting on the invitation, might've been enough to clear it.

Clearly, I was wrong about that... which meant that entering and leaving the Hotel wasn't a valid conclusion... or in other words, there was something that I had to do in there in order to end the event.

As such, I decided to enter the Infinite Hotel again, and having confirmed that there was no problem in coming and going, I felt confident in calling the girls over too.

Ellie: "Ugh... it's disorienting... I feel like..."

Miwen: "Disable your sight-related skills, they are a problem here. And if you're going to throw up, please do it in the kingdom..."

In this closed space, that keeps on repeating forever, seeing far only gives us a headache, and it's a pain when we turn our heads... sure, our bodies aren't in the greatest state as well thanks to all the drinking from yesterday, but we had enough time to recover for the most part, this nausea we're getting is mostly from... how disturbing the place is.

It's kind of strange for me, of all people to say that, when we face the dungeon, a far more grotesque sight, every day. But I can't help it... while that place might also be endless, you can't see as far into it due to the turns and the maze-like structure.

This place, however, is like watching your own image when you're between two mirrors, it keeps on repeating forever, but even the slightest movement of your head makes the image change, which makes it incredibly disorientating and uncomfortable.

On the bright side... I couldn't help but notice that the amount of cookies increased.

It was curious that it did... there were no crumbs in the floor, which meant that, whoever got more of them here in the first place, did a meticulous job... in the few seconds that I was gone. Not only that, they managed to get away from here before I returned...

Apart from that, more than a luxurious hotel, it looks kind of old... even the music looks like it's coming from an antique radio, and when it comes to style... there is none, it's that kind of very simple background music.

Licia: "...I don't understand... is there something we should be doing...?"

I can hardly blame Licia for getting confused. Right now, I'm no better. It's clear that... there's a reason for us to be here. Whoever was responsible for this made a huge effort to get into contact with me, after all.

And yet... while they seemed so desperate through the Event's description... they are nowhere to be found. Not a single soul is here to welcome us. But they are leaving cookies, so at least they are true to their promise.

Oh, perhaps it might be important to note that the cookies are actually tasty. They also seem to be homemade, instead of being bought. Which is a plus, I guess...

Claire: "You didn't get a room assigned to you, right?"

Miwen: "I don't think so..."

At least, there was nothing about that in the descriptions I got. Unless that strange string of characters was meant to be my room number, but I kind of doubt that since it even included letters.

Beatrice: "A hotel that stretches forever... but no guests... kind of contradictory. Why would it even exist, if it doesn't fulfill its role?"

Indeed... It would be like building a street somewhere cars will not pass through... and not only that, even while knowing it's meaningless, the one responsible would make sure that it's the biggest street ever.

It's a reasoning I can make sense of.

Which probably indicates that there is something else to it...

Miwen: "...Well, it's too early to say that there are no other guests... as far as we know, they might just be a million kilometers away."

Beatrice: "Should we check the rooms then?"

...That's the other possibility, but... the description said that we should not mess with the rooms. The only problem is that, given the situation, we don't really have any other choice.

We had already messed with all the other present elements in this place. The cookies were alright, but they didn't seem important. And as for the elevators. Not a single button was working, it looked like it was there simply for decoration.

I thought perhaps the music had some clue but... that was far-fetched, and even if it did, I'm not sure about my... music skills... to be able to gather any clue from that.

Since it was our last option, we went with it, and to our surprise, the first room wasn't locked. Anna opened it just by using its handle, without having to force her way through.

Anna: "...it's empty..."

Not quite... it was just devoid of anyone. There was still some decoration inside, chairs, tables, and even a bed. It seemed like a completely normal room from an old hotel... just waiting for someone to occupy it.

Which made me think a little more about the structure of this place and the possible nature of it.

Miwen: "...So it's that type of infinity..."

Anna: "Hm?"

Miwen: "...Forget about the room number, just think about them as 'x plus one'. Every time we open a door, the room will be vacant because all the contents that should be there will simply be moved to the next room. That way, no matter how many people enter the hotel, it will always have space, thus it achieves infinity."

This way, you can guarantee that whatever the number of people inside the hotel is, the hotel will always have one more room vacant. Even if you have an infinite number of people inside.

Licia: "Uhuh... but then... how do you explain this?"

The second room was completely different from the first. And it broke my theory completely.

There was an actual person in there. Instantly I thought about apologizing to whoever it was, but... his hair didn't move, and his eyes didn't blink... while it's harder to notice small details without sight-related skills, with my level, I should at least be able to notice some movement... but there was none.

And that wasn't the worst part, somehow...

Miwen: "...He looks... familiar?"

Which was quite strange for me. The list of people I know is extremely short. About half of them are my family and friends of the family. And the other half would be the girls, Roy, Sam, The Merchant, and Pris. It barely amounts to 30 people...

I also doubt I would get this feeling from someone I never interacted with... at the same time, I would definitely remember this guy if we ever did talk. This contradiction should not exist, I'm sure of it.

Licia: "Hm... I kind of... feel something when I look at him too."

Claire: "Same here..."

It was the same for all the girls... which, again, is not possible. They all hail from different worlds and taking Elizabeth into consideration, there are only two people in common between us, and he didn't resemble any of them.

What's more, apart from the sense of familiarity, the only other feeling I have is that I don't like him very much... but I can't pinpoint the reason... it's just the way he looks.

He is also handsome, I guess... but not quite like the Merchant. That guy is the type who doesn't seem to even care about his own looks and has that as his own charm. But this man... he seems confident and full of himself. I can kind of picture him with a disgusting smile...

makes me want to punch him in the face...

When we approached him, we couldn't hear a heartbeat or see him breathing, but it wasn't like he was a corpse either. There was no smell, at all, coming from him. His face and body also looked healthy.... it was more like time had stopped with him inside the room.

Miwen: "Licia... can you make an ice stick? Try putting it inside the room and then moving it... but be careful so that you don't hit him."

If there was a time barrier, I was expecting the stick to get stuck there, not moving, or breaking at the point of contact... but that never happened. She could move it without any delays.

The next step was... trying to have someone go inside the room. This was much more dangerous, but I had an idea.

I used a skill I recently acquired, and had a clone enter it. I just gave it the simplest of instructions, making him walk straight forward.

To all of us outside, we could see that his movement wasn't impeded at all, and he started hitting the table but continued to walk forward nonetheless, which eventually made him fall. Leading to some of the girls laughing about it, and others showing pity to my poor other self.

Miwen: "From outside it seems safe and normal... but it could be that the laws operating inside are different... We will need someone capable of relaying the information though..."

Sadly, ordering the clone to talk wasn't going to work...

To solve that problem, I went to the Kingdom and had Elizabeth enter the room while having a request to join me still open. If she didn't come out in a few minutes, I would accept her request while inside the Kingdom, which would probably get her out. Hopefully.

But again... there was no need for that. She even took the chance to interact with the man, but whatever she did, it felt like she couldn't reach him. Even when she passed her hand through his hair, it didn't move at all. She touched his eyes, but they didn't close. She even got pissed and used magic on him, but again, there was no effect.

Miwen: "Perhaps the time barrier is not off the table yet... I think it's only affecting the guy, and not the room."

Bea: "I can't see any trace of magic..."

Elizabeth also confirmed that...

But it's still strange... he is completely frozen, and yet, it looked like he could start walking and talking normally whenever he wanted.

One by one all of my theories were going down the drain, but with how mysterious this place was, I kept thinking about other alternatives.

For now, it didn't seem like entering the rooms caused any problems, so...

Miwen: "Let's try opening a few more..."

The third room was very similar to the second one, but this time, a girl was inside. The same rules seemed to apply, and she didn't move no matter how much we tried to touch or attack her. Entering and leaving also wasn't a problem.

We all had a sense of familiarity for her as well, lesser than the first guy for sure, but she was still someone I didn't recognize. And this time, given how out there her style was, I'm sure I would have if I had ever met her.

The fourth and fifth ones contained guys. Same rules. No familiarity.

sixth and seventh, girls. Same rules. No familiarity.

Eight, ninth, and tenth, all guys. No familiarity.

Eleventh, twelfth, all girls. No familiarity...

I thought I was seeing a pattern, and the thirteenth would confirm it, but...

Miwen: "...A wall?"

Out of all the things... when finally something was starting to make some sense...

This broke the pattern I was starting to realize completely. There was nothing that made this wall recognizable, familiar, or special. It wasn't even made of bricks, just a giant stone blocking the room completely.

Of course, we tried breaking it to see if perhaps it was hiding something inside, who knows, perhaps the room was different. But it was no use, neither physical attacks nor magical ones made contact. Bea suggested trying arcanum but Elizabeth confirmed that there would be no reason for it to work and that our witch was just looking for an excuse to mess with it.

Though I didn't dismiss it completely... but it was better to keep it as a last resort.

Then, moving on from the wall in the thirteenth room... nothing.

All the rooms were empty of any presence aside from the same decorations and furniture that all the others had. We could enter and leave... and nothing would happen.

Just in case though...

Miwen: "...The rooms are somewhat big, but... if you were to run for about an hour, how far do you think you could get?"

Mia: "Hm... about room 5000? maybe 7000..."

I think each room is separated by about twenty meters so that's actually pretty far...

Miwen: "Alright... can you go to room 4990 for us then? Open like fifty doors after that, and then you can ask to enter the kingdom. You are also allowed to do that if you see anyone else, but if possible, try to keep a distance and ask some questions..."

Mia: "Sure."

We had a lot of free time to explore this, so an hour wasn't such a big deal.

In the meantime, the girls had managed to finish the cookies, and we went back to the kingdom to wait for Mia.

She finished her task right on time, but she actually managed to open quite a few more doors. The reason being...

Mia: "All of them empty..."

It could simply be that we got unlucky in the doors but... she opened more than 200, so it's doubtful...

Miwen: "I suppose I was told that getting an invitation was rare..."

Claire: "I don't know... this hotel is kind of trashy... I get the gimmick but... it's dumb if there's nothing in it, right? Maybe I should start burning it down, then someone responsible would show up! I know for sure that if it was Licia's I would get in trou-"

Miwen: "That's not a bad idea..."

Claire: "Eh? No no, I was just joking... We will get in trouble if we do something like that, right?"

Perhaps... but it's worth trying out.

The cookies that we had finished were suddenly replenished. And there were more of them this time too. Mia didn't know when they got there, she couldn't capture any smell, nor there was any trace of magic.

But someone or something had to have gotten them here... and if they were going to play hide and seek, we might as well try to find them.

Miwen: "Claire... can you burn a hole in the floor? But make it contained so that we can still breathe."

Claire: "Um... sure?"

I thought she'd be delighted to do it, but she seemed more confused than anything.

Well, I couldn't really blame her though, it's definitely a forceful way to do it.

Still, while this place operates strangely, this surprisingly worked the way you'd expect. It was quite easy to burn through, and we suddenly had a hole leading to the lower floor.

The label of the elevator marked a six, indicating our current floor.

Just in case, we checked every room, and while the faces were different, we obtained the same result and pattern from the upper floor. Again, after room thirteen, all of them were empty.

We repeated the process until we reached the first floor...

By now, Claire was getting genuinely annoyed at this place, so she started burning it with a smile on her face.

Miwen: "...Let's try one more."

Licia: "Are you sure about this Miwen? I'm almost sure we'll get thrown out."

Miwen: "Eh... that's what they get for inviting an idiot, right? I am not confident in solving their little puzzle, so I'll just brute force my way."

And while I say that, I think I got enough clues to figure out a few things about this place... And if I was right, soon enough I would have my answers.

...For the last time, Claire burned a hole through the floor, and we jumped in.

As predicted, we found ourselves in a completely different place. The rooms were nowhere to be seen anymore, instead, a lonely figure sat behind a desk, behind her, there was a single door, and opposite to the desk, the elevator...