Yeon-woo was a light eater and a discerning one. His aversion to the sensation of fullness had only sharpened his palate.
"To think the day would come when blood suited my taste."
"Hello?"
"I wonder how one should feel about that, as a human being...."
Yeon-woo bit into another blood pack. The thirteenth already.
'This feeling of having become a vampire.'
An unbearable wave of self-loathing washed over him. Irritation and fatigue surged, yet the vivid taste of blood on his tongue cooled even those into a chill. That contradiction, repeated.
'But perhaps it's only natural. The most complete nutrient for my body right now would be fresh blood. And there's none of the revulsion of auto-consumption that comes from lapping up my own spilled blood.'
The problem was that his heightened Blood Magic senses now read the blood's information the instant he drank it. Details like: male in his sixties, or female in her forties.
Surprisingly, most of what was stored in this refrigerator was blood from middle-aged and elderly people.
"Hmm."
It was nauseating. Being forcibly made to learn information he'd rather not know was its own kind of torment.
'But not drinking isn't an option given my situation.'
According to the records, oral blood consumption was an extremely rudimentary technique. But he had no desire to become proficient in it, either. A true dilemma.
"Still, processing the discomfort is better than taking another death penalty. One more resurrection here might cost me even my human form."
"Blood pack. Blood pack."
"It's a bit eerie hearing you emphasize that word."
But the point was valid. He set aside the pack he'd drained to the last drop and retrieved more from the refrigerator. Roughly thirty.
"Not even getting a bloated feeling. How strange."
It wasn't eating but absorbing, so in a way it was natural.
'It's not just the stomach—it spreads through the entire body.'
A mere dozen-odd packs were nowhere near enough to repair his shattered, scattered body. The abysmal conversion efficiency, born of his inexperience with Blood Magic, was the culprit.
Simply swallowing blood didn't solve the problem.
"This is going to take a while."
"Yes."
"A conversion process is needed."
When consuming another's blood, a process of fully converting it into 'me.' Without that step, it was nothing more than temporarily storing someone else's blood in the leather pouch called a body.
His head throbbed—perhaps just his imagination.
"Can't this be automated?"
Once he gained control of the Central Control Room, the first thing to research would be this algorithm. A field requiring considerable study, clearly. Damn Blood Magic.
"However, a thought has occurred to me. Listen, Coco."
"Yes."
"Right now, when I drink blood, I can read rough information, can't I? At minimum, I seem able to distinguish age and gender without difficulty."
"Yes."
"As my understanding of Blood Magic deepens, will I be able to perceive even more detailed domains? Pre-existing conditions like diabetes or gout, or even specific personal details...."
"Yes."
"It sounds convenient, but for now—how unfortunate."
This was a clear invasion of privacy.
Yeon-woo resolved that direct blood-drinking from another person must be strictly avoided. Not that it would have been easy to attempt if the blood weren't in a processed, packaged state to begin with.
"I should pre-draw my own blood and store it."
"Eeh."
"I have the Operator's Quarters bed, don't I? If I draw only as much as won't kill me, recovering from anemia should be easy."
A single sleep cycle was all it took to replenish blood.
"I'll need to determine the maximum safe draw volume below the lethal threshold. I've roughly gauged my limits through this event, so it shouldn't be difficult. Then I'll prepare phlebotomy equipment...."
Wait—phlebotomy equipment?
"......?"
Did such a thing even exist?
"No."
"Not even in the interface shop?"
"Yes."
"I asked because I don't recall one either."
"Yes."
"Yes."
This was a problem.
"At this point, the extraction process itself can be managed however, but storing blood externally without vacuum-sealing will certainly cause spoilage or denaturation. Refrigeration has its limits, too."
No matter how thoroughly converted into 'his own' blood, biological degradation was hard to avoid.
"On top of that, it's summer... though of course the hotel itself maintains a comfortable temperature at all times, that alone won't solve this."
"Yes."
"This isn't something I can resolve through sheer willpower."
Yeon-woo stood with a pack still in his mouth. He straightened his disheveled gloves. The hand that had been severed was already perfectly restored.
"......"
"Pardon?"
"Mm."
Coco somehow understood the affirmative mumble around the pack.
'While I'm here, I'll take phlebotomy equipment too.'
"Pardon?"
'If delivery doesn't come to this address, just stay put.'
"Yes!"
'It does?'
"Yes!"
'That's a problem in itself, isn't it?'
Who were they planning to kill now? The delivery driver? Yeon-woo could not allow it.
***
.......
.......
...It is the core central body constituting the Hemobody Transition ritual, and functions as an anchor point that determines the direction of restoration within the ritual structure.
It exists not as a mere caster or priest, but as the very construct chosen by the blood to remember—often mistranslated as the master of blood.
This corresponds to the First Memory Pillar within the restoration point zone of the structural formula. All Hemobody rituals initiate recursive restoration using this as the origin of memory. The blood of Lidmar functions as a circulatory medium that refines the pathways of regression, emotion, and directive information.
Certain Blood-Mark commands operate as declarative syntax that make the blood recognize this. When the blood seeks to protect itself, it calls upon this first. Do not allow the boundary between the two to collapse. Malfunction and coagulation must not be tolerated.
This is the structure. You will remember it, and become it again. Lidmar is the emotion. You will cradle that blood and hold your tongue. This does not signify qualification, but a seat within the cycle. Worship him.
From the moment one stands in that seat, the blood no longer merely restores. It begins to choose, of its own will, what to restore. May you please remember that....
Remember....
.......
"Ah."
"Ah."
"Ah."
Ah?
"May I have some,"
sir?
***
"......!"
Yeon-woo stopped abruptly and looked behind him.
"......"
"Hello?"
"...Heh."
Coco tucked under one arm, Yeon-woo let out a sigh tinged with revulsion.
"The blood-loving guest has gotten quite close."
"Pardon?"
"I've been consuming so much of my own blood that I seem to have started blending with the other party to some degree. I read a fragment of that guest."
"Pardon?"
"If the synchronization rate has climbed this high, the amount consumed must be considerable. It probably swept through the debris I left in the ventilation shaft. I'd hoped the blood I scattered as bait would hold its attention... how unfortunate."
"Eeh."
"I agree. No matter how much it loves blood, The Guest Without Taste's gluttony wasn't at this level. With this much pursuit, you'd think it would have given up."
"Eeeh."
"I can't fathom what about my blood it finds so captivating."
When he'd tasted it himself, the flavor hadn't been particularly pleasant. Whether that was due to the revulsion of auto-consumption or genuinely terrible taste, he couldn't say.
What was certain was that The Guest Without Taste was following the scent of Yeon-woo's blood with unerring precision, heading directly this way. He quickened his pace through the darkness.
"In its memories, I saw teachings about a certain ritual. It seems to have had a personal teacher. As far as I know, it was part of the Crimson Core Commentary. Far more refined and neatly organized than the records in my quarters."
"Hello?"
"I'm less disoriented than I expected. I'm clearly aware this is a dangerous situation, but strangely, the danger doesn't feel real. I even have this bizarre confidence that I could devour the other party right here and now. That's something I need to be wary of."
"......"
Coco, tucked under his arm, paddled its four legs as if swimming and wobbled.
"No."
"No?"
"Yes."
"Your faith is excessive."
He was not so sturdy a being. Neither in body nor in mind. One wrong move and fragments of the guest's self could blend with his own, causing irreversible contamination.
"It isn't a pleasant feeling, either."
A sense of pressure transmitted, as though trapped within tight, cramped, hot, damp flesh.
"My blood, too, has... considerable grievances about it."
An arrogance clawed through his mind—to tear apart this bumbling, presumptuous outer skin, to swallow down its brain and heart and nerves whole.
That was not Yeon-woo's own will. He disregarded the sensation.
'The nerve to be so arrogant when it can't even properly gauge its opponent.'
If the guest had been easy to handle, he wouldn't have been going through this ordeal to avoid it in the first place. The guest was strong, and Yeon-woo had a body that would crumble at the slightest touch.
"Having my thoughts and will pull in opposite directions, as though I've developed a split personality... it's quite distressing."
"Hello?"
"I can't give you a definite answer, but blood that's separated from my body has truly abysmal self-control. I can only vaguely hope it's something that can be improved through research and training."
"Yes."
"Ha...."
Another person's memories flickered before his eyes like afterimages. A panoramic flash of how a man whose only weapon had been arrogance fell into monstrosity.
'None of this was in the game.'
This, too, must be an effect of the hotel becoming reality.
"I understand the situation. However, at this rate, the monster on this side and the monster on that side may end up meeting head-on. Coco, how do you see it?"
"Yes."
"As I feared."
It wasn't only The Guest Without Taste pursuing Yeon-woo. This Room 14 event had always been a scenario with a chase built in.
And the first pursuit lay just ahead.
"......"
Tap.
Yeon-woo stopped at the edge of a precipice.
"...The drop is much greater than what I felt in the game."
"Eeh?"
"I mean it looks that way from my perspective."
"Yes."
"Yes."
Far below the dizzying height, a dark crimson current swirled in a maelstrom.
"Quite fast...."
It wasn't simple contaminated water. Chunks of unidentifiable flesh and organs drifted on the surface like flotsam. The first pursuit would take place inside that water.
The 'hand-bearing monster' from the beginning of the event—separated by the isolation shutter—would reach out from openings throughout the water system. To seize Yeon-woo.
'I won't die in this pursuit, at least.'
There was only one route by which a player could die in this section.
'Drowning.'
Asphyxiation by water.
But for the present Yeon-woo—contracted with a Water Ghost, his body itself transforming into liquid blood—death by drowning was a rather distant prospect. Since things had come to this, he intended to make maximum use of the environment he'd been given.
Yeon-woo adjusted his hold on Coco. Two round eyes gazed up at him.
"Will you be alright, Coco? The current will be quite fast."
"Yes!"
"If you say so."
Without a moment's hesitation, Yeon-woo hurled himself off the edge.
"Let's go for a little swim."
SPLASH—!!
***
"......"
"...Hello."
The water was nauseating, but the voice that emerged was perfectly calm.
"Friend."
A tail so long and massive it seemed to fill the entire waterway swallowed Yeon-woo's field of vision. Then a mouth ripped open, baring rows of razor-sharp teeth.
The fish trapped in water mimicked Yeon-woo's words.
"Friend."
"......"
"Hello?"
It was the Drenched One—seen for the first time in a long while.