Once the light had faded Wade found himself in a cozy hotel room, a suitcase on the nearby bed, and steam coming from the nearby bathroom.
He stood there blank faced for several seconds before crouching down, slowly crawling towards the nearby window. Before Wade had the chance to look outside, a small prompt suddenly appeared before his eyes.
| You have been entered into your first mission, ‘ The Reton Resort’, you will have 24 hours to prepare before the monster is released. Until then blend in with the other tourists and enjoy the resort. |
Wade relaxed and stood back up, he was going to immediately run off, but stopped when he looked down. He was still dressed in his security uniform, and by now he had sweated through his shirt with multiple damp spots. The warm shower called to Wade and he went in to take a nice long shower, in order to clear his head and relax.
Coming out of the shower Wade finally noticed the suitcase on the bed, filled with several winter outfits, along with several pairs of gloves and goggles. While changing Wade a small pamphlet fell from Wade’s pants, it was an advertisement for the Reton Resort.
“The Renton Ski Resort, come on down in the winter to enjoy our snowboarding and skiing trails, or come join us in the summer with our wonderful outdoor events.” The pamphlet’s cover read, causing Wade to immediately open it up and begin reading through the entire thing.
The pamphlet detailed all the events one could enjoy in the events, and which events could be visited year round or were specific to certain months.
It also contained a small map of the manor showing off the 3 winged hotel, and once again showed off everything which could be enjoyed at the resort.
Two events which caught Wade’s interest were the history tour guide and the library, both of which could provide very useful information about both the resort, and the monster.
‘Just take it slow Wade,’ he thought to himself, ‘ walk through the hotel slowly, floor by floor first, you should find out where you can escape and where you can hide first. ‘
Wade stepped outside of his room and walked through the eternity of each floor before heading to the history tour. He found out his room was on the third floor of the middle section, unfortunately it was one of the furthest from both the fire escape and stairs.
He searched through the fourth and second floors, but found them to be almost exactly the same as the third floor, the only difference being the fourth floor having less guest rooms.
The first floor was the reception area, and was a largely open area, allowing Wade to see the dining room, waiting area, and employee rooms, but instead of sitting down for breakfast Wade headed to the mansion's tour.
He also did a quick check outside, but didn’t stay long, clouds had started forming with small bits of fluffy snow starting to reach the ground.
Wade eventually made it to the tour’s starting point, finding a simple waiting area with a single employee at a small kiosk. Behind him there were several guests relaxing, with others impatiently checking the nearby clock, which now read 9:22.
“Hello, I was wondering when the next tour was?” Wade asked.
“The next tour is in eight minutes, guests of the hotel can take the tour for free, but others have to pay the 20 C$ admission fee. Do you happen to have your keycard sir?” The man answered Wade politely, though lazily.
“Yes, let me just get it.” Wade patted his pants pockets and found the room key in the front pocket, handing it to the employee. He just nodded before handing back the room key, a small booklet, and an admission ticket.
“Could you tell me what this is?” Wade asked the man in confusion at the booklet.
“ This is a stamp marker sir, every guest of the resort receives them for free. If you happen to complete the booklet you can turn it in for a chance at a free stay.” The cashier quickly answered him while pointing towards a nearby chair.
“Ah okay, thank you for the help.” Wade moved away from the counter and sat down, opening the stamp pack, only to have the system to suddenly appeared before him,
|Congratulations! You have found your very first side mission! Each mission has a plethora of side tasks players can partake in with a variety of rewards. All of these are optional with no punishments for failure, so be sure to find as many of them as you possibly can. |
| Side Mission: Tourist: Complete a stamp packet while at the resort. 0/1
Reward: Randomized Room Card- One of the events will be given as a permanent room in your world. |
| Side Mission: True Tourist: Complete all stamp packets at the resort 0/5
Reward: Area Card- Get the entire resort to place inside your world. |
Wade checked the stamp pack, and found that it detailed six other attractions on this side of the hotel. He needed to explore the library, get a drink at the cafe, complete a nature trail, take a walk through an indoor garden, join a native speaker’s speech, and take part in a family crafting class, of course it also detailed where he could find the other stamp booklets.
Wade frowned slightly, while some of them would be easy to complete, others would be taking precious time out of his day, and depending on the reward it would be an almost complete waste of time.
He sat quietly for a few minutes, wondering if he should complete the attractions, but was unable to come to a complete decision before the tour guide came, asking the guests to politely form a line so she could stamp their tickets.
Wade stood in the line and while getting his ticket punched, noticed a man who was strangely scared. His eyes were constantly jumping around the room looking for anything out of place, and when the lady asked for his ticket, he almost jumped in fright.
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‘ So, I’m not alone in this mission, I wonder just how many people are also here with me.’ Wade thought to himself. He decided to not make contact with the man for now, he didn’t know what the man might have done on Earth, or how he might react when finding out there were others just like him.
Once the tour guide had finished checking everyone’s tickets, she closed the doors and started speaking to them, “I’m very happy you have decided to join me on this tour today! While most might not think this as interesting, there are plenty of unique treasures for everyone to see today, so please remain calm and follow me!”
She opened up the first room of the tour guide, and the group was greeted by multiple beautiful paintings, from castles or mountains, to a dog playing in a field of snow, with dozens of these wonderful pieces adoring the walls, it was surprising to say the least, but the best piece had to be a marble statue of a Inuit hunter, staring right into the eyes of the entire group.
“ As you can see, the original owner of this mansion, a mister Horris Renton, was an avid collector, he loved many different parts of the world and was an avid explorer and researcher. One of his favorite subjects was the arts, to the point that in his retired years he not only wrote several books, but even made all of these beautiful pieces.”
She gestured towards a line of paintings depicting a variety of things from the surrounding mountains, to multiple native tribes of the area. The tour guide walked forward pointing out the many different paintings before stopping at a picture of a smiling elderly Innuit woman.
“ This is not only my favorite work of Mr.Renton, but also the last piece he ever got to finish. It was a birthday gift to his wife, Uki, unfortunately about a month later Mr.Renton passed away in his sleep.”
The tour guide continued to point out several different pieces to the group, all having either cultural significance to the hotel or a high priced piece, but Wade ignored her, focusing on the works of Mr. Renton.
One painting caught Wade’s eye, it showed a group of hunters in a hardened snowstorm, they were each looking at different areas. Each of them having their spear ready, poised to attack, yet Wade couldn’t see what was causing them to be so nervous. He looked to the painting’s frame to find the title, and strangely it was , ‘ A Snowy Meal’. While it could mean they were off to get a meal in the snowstorm, Wade felt different. Knowing that there was a monster out there in the mountains, the painting most likely depicted the monster’s meal rather than the hunter’s meal. At that thought the system once again appeared before Wade.
| A hint about the monster has been discovered! For being the first player in this mission to discover a hint you will be rewarded with a map of the Zuming Mountain. It includes the nature trails, several cave entrances, and other noteworthy additions. You’ll find it back in your suitcase. |
Wade smiled at the system’s message, now knowing he was on the right track, and quickly looked for other paintings for any that may hold another hint. Unfortunately, before Wade could find any, the tour guide gathered everyone to move onto the next room. Having to blend, Wade could only take one last look before moving onto the next room.
Continuing on through the tour they walked through several different rooms each containing many different artifacts, from a pirate captain’s flag and hat, to a peace signature Mr.Renton had helped create between multiple different Africain clans. While each room was very interesting and provided plenty to look at, Wade had yet to find any other hints, until they entered the final room.
The final room was a history of the surrounding mountains, the nearby town, and this very hotel with many small miniatures showing, plaques and pictures showing the different events. One of the smaller models showed off the events in ‘The Snowstorm Massacre.’ over five families had vanished during a particularly long snowstorm, spanning almost 7 days of constant snowfall nearly burying the entire town under it. While they originally thought an avalanche had crushed them during the storm, no bodies were found even in the summer when the snow had completely melted. Each of their houses also contained several very strange markings, small holes that had punctured the walls, furniture, ceiling and floor each being almost the exact same side.
As soon as the tour was finished Wade walked outside to check the snow, and even though only 30 minutes had passed the snow fell much harder than before. Already starting to blanket the ground in a very fine layer. With the information from the tour Wade knew that it would only get worse from here.
‘ I won’t be able to explore the mountain at this rate, I should just rush through the side mission before holding myself in the library.’ He thought to himself.
He quickly rushed through multiple attractions, going through the nature trail and cultural talk quite quickly due to it being canceled from the snow. The indoor garden had a multitude of fresh fruits and vegetables, all of which Wade planned to gather once tomorrow came.
The final outdoor attraction, the crafting class, was also canceled, but they instead provided a miniature compass crafting kit as an apology.
Pocketing the compass Wade headed to the cafe, both for the side mission, and also for a quick lunch. The clock now read 12:49, but Wade pushed the timer out of his head. The snow had now locked him into the manor, and with it much of what he could prepare for was blocked off. Besides researching in the library and collecting supplies he had very little to actually do.
While eating he did see the man again, he seemed to also be doing the side mission, but he was in a much bigger rush then Wade. Instead of sitting for a meal, or even taking a sip from the drink he ordered, he just immediately threw it out to the surprise of both the employee and other guests around him.
Several people were now staring at him even as he left, Wade shook his head, by now unless the man did something drastic he would avoid him. At this rate the man would probably just hide in a corner.
Wade finished up his meal and left the cafe and walked right across the hall to the library, where the system automatically updated and spun in front of his eyes.
|Congratulations on completing a side mission, you have earned the nature walk, the room token has been dispensed into your PADS system. |
Wade frowned a bit, while he was originally excited for the reward, the nature walk had to be the worst attractions he could have gotten. Right now he didn’t need a large area to walk about, what he needed were tools, weapons, and real food. All of which were provided in the different attractions, yet instead he now had a place to leisure walk through snowy trees.
He put the room out of his mind, he could find a use for it later, right now he needed to search for the old records or history books, both of which could provide plenty more information.
Walking through the rows of books Wade once again found the panicked man, this time he was trying to rip a book from a child’s hands.
“Let go you little brat!” The man was getting angry and was about to hit the girl when he was stopped by Wade.
“Sorry about my friend.” Wade pulled the man back, smiling politely while handing the book back to the small girl, “ He’s been very stressed lately, so I brought him out here to calm down, but it isn’t going well. Could you forgive him?”
The little girl hesitated for a moment before stomping on the man’s toes, running away with the book immediately after.
Once she was out of earshot Wade pulled the man close, “What in the hell do you think you’re doing? We are supposed to blend in yet you go off acting like a madman and try to hit children.” He was upset at the man now. Wade could understand that he was stressed out, Wade himself barely managing to keep himself together, but that doesn’t give any excuse to just randomly hit children.
“Wait. You’re like me? I’m saved, I’m saved!” The man was ecstatic now and was almost crying in joy, he thought everyone else was gone.
“Calm down.” Wade slapped the man, “You aren’t saved until we escape this place. Now let’s go sit down and talk.”