It was so close—just a hair's breadth away.
But no matter how hard Hoshino Ai racked her brain, she couldn't find the answer. She still couldn't figure out what the numbers meant.
"Hey!"
Suddenly, she tilted her head, stuck out her tongue, lightly knocked her fist against her forehead, and flashed an awkward, apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry, Lin Ye. I just... can't figure it out. Could you maybe... tell us?"
The gesture was meant to be cute, and it would have been, if not for the black and gray spots marring her cheeks. To Lin Ye, it made her attempt at adorableness seem oddly grotesque.
"Hoshino, you might want to rethink your behavior," Lin Ye said, unimpressed.
"Did I do something wrong?"
Hoshino Ai widened her eyes and tilted her face up slightly, angling it just right for maximum cuteness. She even pointed her slender index finger toward him, another move designed to amplify her charm.
"Why don't you take a look in the mirror and see for yourself?"
It took a moment for Hoshino Ai to process what he meant. But then she imagined her current appearance—covered in dark spots—doing such cutesy actions.
It was horrifying.
She couldn't even bear the thought of it herself, and a wave of nausea washed over her.
"I'm sorry for leaving such a bad impression on you, Lin Ye," she apologized immediately, her tone sincere.
"Don't take it so seriously. I was just joking," Lin Ye replied indifferently.
Hoshino Ai pouted slightly, then raised her eyes to look at him again.
"Lin Ye, just tell us already! I'm not really all that smart."
Lin Ye turned his gaze toward Kuroda Hikari. The girl with the chestnut twin ponytails shook her head vigorously, signaling she didn't understand either.
"Alright, I'll give you some more hints," Lin Ye said after a moment of thought.
"When Hoshino and I entered Room 306, the number below the clock was 0. At 11 p.m., it had risen to 20. By midnight, it was 40."
As time passed, the number continued to increase.
"Pollution," Hoshino Ai and Kuroda Hikari said in unison.
The two girls exchanged glances and smiled knowingly.
"That's right. It's the pollution value—not ours, but the room's," Lin Ye clarified. "Based on my observations, the room's pollution value starts increasing at 10 p.m."
"Wait, there's a problem," Hoshino Ai interjected suddenly. Her eyes fixed on the clock, which now showed a pollution value of 0. But if she remembered correctly, Lin Ye had said that the pollution value of Room 306 had been 70 when they left earlier.
"From 0 to 20, 40… shouldn't the next step be 60, not 70?"
Lin Ye pointed toward Kuroda Hikaru.
"Me?" Kuroda Hikaru asked, confused.
But then it clicked for both girls.
"Because there were three people in the room," Kuroda Hikari realized. "The pollution value increases by 30 per hour with three people."
"Exactly," Lin Ye confirmed. "The more people in the room, the faster the pollution increases."
Kuroda Hikari's thoughts raced back to Sawanaga Taisuke's suggestion of putting all six people in one room when they had been in the lobby.
If six people shared a room, the pollution value would reach 100 within just two hours. At that point, everyone would be completely consumed by contamination, transforming into the hotel's monstrous entities.
A cold sweat broke out on Kuroda Hikari's back as she shivered at the thought. She realized how dangerously close she had come to agreeing to such a plan. If they had shared a room with four people, she would already have become one of those creatures, trapped forever in the hotel.
Gratitude surged within her, and she cast a thankful glance at Lin Ye.
Hoshino Ai, too, felt a swell of admiration.
"Lin Ye, you figured this out from the very beginning?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with newfound respect. Trusting and supporting Lin Ye had been the right decision.
"Experience," Lin Ye replied.
His confidence came from the knowledge he had gleaned from countless strange and supernatural novels in his previous life. In scenarios like this, when multiple people gathered in one place, it almost always spelled disaster.
Rules often didn't specify upper limits but only hinted at lower ones. That was a subtle clue. Two people per room was the safest choice.
Hoshino Ai and Kuroda Hikari both took his explanation differently.
They began to wonder if Lin Ye had prior experience with "strange games" and the supernatural. How else could he remain so calm and unshaken?
Hoshino Ai became even more convinced that Lin Ye had acquired his "time-stop ability" as a reward from one of these games.
"If I survive this game," she thought, "maybe I'll gain powers too…"
A glimmer of excitement surfaced within her, anticipation for what might come after their escape.
"Senior Lin Ye," Hoshino Ai asked, "if the pollution value is tied to time and the number of people, then someone could survive alone in a room from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., right? The pollution would only reach 80 by morning."
"This is a love hotel," Lin Ye replied. "Staying alone isn't what it's designed for."
His words sent a chill through Kuroda Hikari. Even without an explicit rule forbidding solo occupancy, she now understood the implied danger.
"I'd bet the hotel would assign a 'companion' if someone stayed alone," Lin Ye added.
The thought made both girls shudder.
What would that "companion" be like?
Neither could bring themselves to imagine it.
"And… Taisuke?"
Kuroda Hikari's thoughts turned to Room 307.
"I hope he's okay," she murmured.
Lin Ye didn't respond, but his silence spoke volumes.
Kuroda understood. Lin Ye had already done his best for Taisuke. Asking the cleaning staff to "clean Room 307" had been his final act of mercy.
Taisuke had squandered that kindness.
With a sigh, Kuroda Hikari refocused her thoughts and glanced at Lin Ye.
An idea began to form in her mind.
Lin Ye possessed a noble character.
Beneath his seemingly cold exterior, he was remarkably kind and gentle. He helped others in his own unique way, even showing compassion toward Taisuke despite his "betrayal." Repaying evil with kindness was simply part of who Lin Ye was.
Kuroda Hikari believed that someone like Lin Ye wouldn't refuse if she asked for help.
Because Lin Ye was that kind of gentle person.
But...
No.
She couldn't do it.
Kuroda Hikari shook off the idea. Exposing everyone to unnecessary risk wasn't an option.
From the beginning, Lin Ye didn't owe Taisuke anything. If anything, it was Taisuke who owed Lin Ye.
"Phew…"
With a long exhale, Kuroda buried the thought completely.
Respecting Taisuke's choices and accepting his fate—that was her decision.
Whatever lingering fondness she once felt for him had faded entirely.
She wasn't sure when her feelings for Taisuke had started, but now they had disappeared.
In their place, someone else's figure took center stage in her mind:
Lin Ye.
"He's amazing…"
Her gaze drifted to Hoshino Ai. Only someone as beautiful and talented as Hoshino Ai could be worthy of Lin Ye. Perhaps girls like Kotonoha Katsura or Setsuna Kiyoura from Sakakino Academy could also match him, but as for herself...
Kuroda Hikari sighed inwardly.
Lin Ye, sharp as always, noticed the subtle shift in Kuroda's demeanor. With their current proximity, it was easy for him to detect such changes.
If his memory served him correctly, Kuroda Hikari had a romantic interest with Sawanaga Taisuke in the original story. Whether this held true in the strange, two-dimensional reality he now inhabited was hard to judge.
But if it were true...
Lin Ye found himself looking at Kuroda Hikari twice.
This only flustered the sensitive girl, who immediately turned her head to the side, her face flushed and ears burning.
There was no way Hoshino Ai wouldn't notice this!
Her cheeks puffed up in a pout, a clear expression of displeasure.
'This is my fan! This is the man who confessed to me! Don't even think about it!'
"Alright, now that we're here, let me share a bit more insight," Lin Ye said, changing the subject.
He decided to provide the two women with additional information.
"The twin room can't be used and must be rebooked—it's related to pollution. I went to check it earlier and saw that the number under the clock was 100. That means anyone in the twin room by 22:00 would face 100% contamination."
"As for Kimimura Mihui and Tanaka Ichiro, their transformations likely occurred because they did something they shouldn't have, pushing their pollution values off the charts."
Kuroda Hikari looked puzzled, unable to grasp what "something they shouldn't have done" referred to.
She turned to Hoshino Ai for help.
Hoshino Ai hesitated, then leaned over and whispered an explanation to her.
Kuroda Hikari's ears burned even hotter.
"Senior Lin Ye," she asked hesitantly, "I have another question. The pollution value in rooms increases over time. What about the corridors and the lobby on the first floor?"
"There's a clock there too, and the values increase steadily," Lin Ye explained. "But based on my observations, these values aren't affected by the number of people. They simply increase with time and will reach 100 by six o'clock."
"Then…" Hoshino Ai proposed tentatively, "couldn't we stay in the corridor until two or three o'clock, then return to the room? That way, the pollution value of the space we're in wouldn't reach 100 before six."
The logic of her suggestion was quite right. According to their current understanding, a person's pollution value depended on the highest pollution level of the space they occupied. As long as it stayed below 100 by six o'clock, they would be safe.
"It's feasible," Lin Ye acknowledged. "But would you dare to stay in the corridor at the start?"
At this, Hoshino Ai immediately shook her head furiously.
No. Absolutely not.
She couldn't face the receptionist or the cleaning staff again. Without Lin Ye, she wouldn't even leave the room.
"There are probably other ways to survive this ordeal," Lin Ye continued. "But no matter the method, the key is to uncover the hotel's operating rules."
Whether it was understanding the pollution values, the effects of the shower water, or the front desk staff's willingness to assist in dangerous situations, everything required careful observation, courage, and a willingness to take calculated risks.
"Both are indispensable," he concluded.
Lin Ye refrained from mentioning certain details, like how the pollution level in a room reset to zero only after the cleaning staff finished and the door was closed. Explaining this would reveal his time-stop ability, which he couldn't justify.
So he kept it to himself.
"For now, let's rest," Lin Ye instructed. "We'll change rooms later, and at six o'clock, we'll head to the lobby to check out and leave."
At this, both women smiled, their faces lighting up with newfound hope.
But Lin Ye couldn't forget one thing.
There was still one rule in the "Hotel Rules" they hadn't yet encountered.