Chapter 177: Snow Mountain (2)

After a detailed explanation at the hotel front desk, Everly finally understood what had happened.

After all the confusion, it turned out there was nothing wrong with the rooms—they were indeed empty at the moment. However, they weren’t unbooked; rather, the people who had reserved them were very likely not coming anymore. The ones who made the reservations were the three mountaineers Everly had seen in the news.

“For this climbing expedition, they started preparing several months in advance. They even came down to the mountain beforehand to scout the area, and stayed at our hotel. According to the original plan, after successfully crossing the snow mountain, the three of them would go around from the eastern foothills back to the hotel, stay here for a while, and experience the skiing at the Pence Ski Resort. So before setting off, they booked rooms from December 22nd to the 31st…”

In the end, no one expected an accident to happen during their climb—they lost contact with the outside world. Counting the days, it had already been three days. Even if they were eventually rescued alive, they probably wouldn’t come back to stay at the hotel anymore.

The Christmas to New Year period was usually the hotel’s most profitable season. Seeing that there had been no news from them, the hotel owner couldn’t afford to keep the rooms empty. So when Everly called to inquire, the front desk, under the owner’s instructions, changed its answer and said there were rooms available.

“If we book the rooms and those three suddenly show up later, who do the rooms belong to?” Everly asked.

“Please rest assured, they will be yours.”

Everly then turned to the other three, asking for their opinions.

“No problem, we’ll take it. Don’t worry—I’m here too.” Rebecca made an OK gesture, meaning that if those unlucky guys really died in the mountains and came back as resentful spirits haunting the hotel, she could take care of them.

“I have no objections,” Misha said next.

Old John nodded slightly, clearly in agreement as well.

Everly nodded, and on the other end of the call she provided her credit card number, name, security code, and other details. She booked three rooms using her credit card as a guarantee, from December 24th to December 26th—two nights in total.

She had checked the weather forecast in advance. The snow mountain would be clear and sunny on those two days, making it perfect for outdoor activities. If two days weren’t enough, they could always extend their stay depending on the situation.

With the rooms booked, the next step was to prepare everything needed for skiing.

Since they were only going to try skiing once, there was no need to buy expensive gear like skis, ski suits, ski boots, or helmets. They could simply rent those on site. However, warm essentials like knit hats, thermal face masks, scarves, and quick-dry clothing were necessary, otherwise they might end up getting sick from the cold.

In addition, since they would be staying overnight outside, it was best to bring spare clothes, toiletries, snacks for entertainment, a door stopper for safety, an infrared lamp to detect hidden cameras, common medications, self-defense items, and other necessities.

On top of that, Everly even spent the entire afternoon driving around town, buying all kinds of strange and unusual items, and packed an extra suitcase.

When asked about it, she didn’t explain, only mysteriously saying they were “essential supplies.”

Fine, then they’d bring it all. Since they were driving there themselves, the trunk of the car was large enough to fit everything.

So the next morning, the four of them put on thick winter clothes, grabbed their packed luggage, and got into Everly’s Jeep Grand Cherokee early, heading toward the Pence Ski Resort.

It had snowed all night. By morning, as expected, the road leading to the snow mountain was covered in a thick layer of snow. The snowy surface slowed their driving significantly. They moved forward cautiously, and by the time they reached the foot of the mountain, it was already close to ten in the morning.

Pence Ski Resort is built on a gently sloping snowy plateau on the southern side of Mount Nathanjoya, while the hotel the three had booked was located to the east of the ski area. Since they had quite a lot of luggage in the car, they decided for safety reasons to go to the hotel first to drop their things off and take a short rest.

So after arriving at the ski resort, they did not drive into the parking lot. Instead, they turned right at a fork in the road and continued east along a winding mountain road.

The road sloped upward at an angle, with a mountainside on one side and a nearly vertical cliff dropping off on the other. It looked rather intimidating. Fortunately, the road itself wasn’t too narrow. They slowed down and kept close to the inner side of the road. After driving less than two kilometers, a two-story wooden building with a retro design appeared before them.

This wooden lodge was the snow mountain hotel they had booked online—“Yomoor Snow Mountain Resort Cabin.”

Like the road leading up the mountain, the hotel itself was also built along the slope. When the steep mountainside extended to the hotel’s location, the incline eased just enough to form a small plateau roughly the size of half a football field.

The hotel occupied the inner side of this platform. The outer edge served as a parking area for guests.

As they drove in, Everly noticed that beneath this platform was also a sheer, bottomless cliff. Because of that, she parked very carefully, choosing a spot further inside.

By then, including her car, there were already five vehicles parked on the flat area.

After parking, the four of them each grabbed their luggage and entered the hotel one after another. As soon as they pushed open the door, a wave of warm air rushed toward them.

A fire blazed in the lobby’s fireplace. In front of it, on a sofa, a young man wearing glasses and a suit vest looked up from his book, glanced at them, and said:

“Are you guests with a reservation? Hello, please come here to register.”

On the left side of the counter, a young girl with a face full of freckles enthusiastically waved at the four of them.

Everly stepped forward and verified the booking information with the front desk. After confirming everything was correct, the girl quickly came out from behind the counter, led the way ahead, and brought them to three adjacent rooms at the far end of the second floor.

“Here are your room cards. Two per room—please keep them safe. If you have any issues, you can contact the front desk via the internal phone. Also, this hotel does not provide free meals. If you need food, please make a reservation in advance by phone, and the cost will be charged separately…”

After smoothly finishing her standard check-in instructions, the receptionist handed the room cards to them, accepted the tip, and turned to leave.

All rooms in this hotel were twin rooms. Everly and Misha took room 212, Rebecca took 211 directly across from them, and Old John stayed in 210 next to Everly.

Horror Movie Survival Rule #10: In unfamiliar environments, always check high-risk areas such as under the bed, inside wardrobes, and behind mirrors.

After swiping the key card to enter, the routine continued as usual: Misha handled unpacking, while Everly inspected the room.

No suspicious area was spared—she lifted the carpet to check for hidden doors, knocked on the walls to rule out hollow spaces, and carefully examined the mirror edges in case there were concealed compartments behind them. After a thorough search, nothing unusual was found.

But that still wasn’t a reason to relax.

After all, this was a hotel—and Everly had watched enough horror films involving hotels to know that many of them included hidden surveillance plots.

Horror Movie Survival Rule #19: In unfamiliar environments, always check for hidden cameras.

For this purpose, Everly had specifically brought infrared flashlights—three of them, enough to cover all three rooms.

The camera lenses reflect infrared light, forming bright reflective spots. This kind of reflection is clearly different from the way mirrors or other surfaces reflect light—it stands out very distinctly. Using this principle, one could easily determine whether there were hidden cameras in a room.

Taking advantage of her good stamina, Everly ran around the room holding the infrared flashlight, switching off the lights, drawing the curtains, and scanning every possible corner. After a thorough inspection, the results showed that this was indeed a legitimate hotel—there were no hidden cameras in the room.

After reaching that conclusion, Everly let out a long breath of relief.

Good—no issues.

Since they had traveled all the way to the ski resort, if there had been a problem with the room, they would have had no choice but to leave, and all the nearby hotels were already fully booked. That would have been very troublesome.

“So, finally feel at ease now?” Misha asked, resting her chin on her hand as she watched Everly busy herself.

Everly nodded.

Because of this delay, by the time the four of them finally finished unpacking and putting away their belongings, it was already lunchtime.

Since they hadn’t made a reservation in advance, there was no lunch prepared for them at the hotel. But such a small inconvenience was nothing compared to the excitement and happiness of finally going skiing.

After eating instant noodles in their room with hot water—enough to warm their bodies and fill their stomachs—they brought some essentials and left the hotel, walking toward the ski resort.

The afternoon of skiing was very enjoyable.

There’s a saying: “One thing leads to understanding everything.” Perhaps due to her past training, Everly was at an extremely high level in both balance and coordination. Even though it was her first time skiing, after only one accidental fall, she quickly learned how to use her core muscles—her abdomen and waist—to precisely control every part of her body, smoothly executing turns, jumps, and other movements.

Not only her—Old John and Misha, who both exercised regularly, also quickly figured out the trick to the sport. They graduated from beginners and began freely racing across the slopes, gliding down with ski poles in hand.

Among the four of them, only Rebecca was a bit weaker. Like an old lady, she slowly and steadily pushed herself forward, unable to leave the beginner slope and progress to higher, steeper runs.

Even so, judging from the ever-present silly smile on her face as she skied, it was clear that Rebecca was enjoying herself just as much.

The ski resort had a cable lift. After sliding down the slope, they could take the lift back up, avoiding the effort of climbing—very convenient.

So the four of them repeated the cycle of skiing down, riding back up, and skiing down again, endlessly and joyfully.

Winter nights fell late. By around 4 p.m., the ski resort gradually lit up. Under the glow of the lights, the snowfield took on a special, almost dreamlike charm. They originally planned to stay a bit longer—when suddenly, a familiar wave of unease and dread washed over Everly.

This time, the reaction was far stronger than before. Fear felt almost physical, stabbing into her spine and making her entire body go cold, her teeth trembling uncontrollably.

“No… we have to leave immediately! If we stay here any longer, something bad is going to happen!”

Barely suppressing her fear, she grabbed Misha’s wrist tightly.

Having worked together with Everly for a long time, Misha understood her meaning from just that one sentence.

“I’ll go get Rebecca. You go find Uncle John.”

“Mm.”

The two of them split up and quickly gathered their companions from within the crowd of skiers.

Old John and Rebecca were already aware of Everly’s unusual sense of premonition. Hearing her voice trembling as she urged everyone to leave immediately, their expressions turned serious at once.

“Let’s go. Don’t bother returning the rented gear.”

The four of them skied down to the exit, dumped their skis, ski poles, and other equipment carelessly outside, and didn’t even bother taking off their ski suits. They immediately ran up the mountain road toward the hotel.

At this point, their assumption of the “danger” Everly mentioned was still limited to the ski resort itself. They thought that staying there any longer might expose them to some kind of violent incident.

However, after they left the resort and started up the mountain road, Everly’s unease still did not fade.

The road was damp. In places where car tires had passed, a layer of wet, slushy ice had formed. Their boots made sharp “crack, crack” sounds as they stepped on it.

As they walked, Everly suddenly felt—maybe it was just her imagination—that there was another sound mixed in with the cracking of their footsteps.

“Crack… crack crack…”

She frowned and asked the others, “Did you hear—”

At that moment, the faint “crack” sound stopped.

Instead, a deeper, heavier “rumbling” sound rolled down from the mountain above.

Drawn by the noise, all four of them looked up at the same time.

In their widened eyes, a vast, rapidly expanding wall of white snow was reflected—

An avalanche!!!