Rewind With A Superstar System

Chapter 178: Escaping The Hotel (1)

<🎧 Song Recommendation: What’s Up Danger by Blackway, Black Caviar>

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Upstairs in the room, Von continued waiting for Loki to return. What felt like a really long wait at the one-hour mark eventually morphed into a grueling five hours.

By the time the digital clock on the bedside table reached 11:00 PM, Von had cursed Loki a hundred times already. He lay flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, and could only close his eyes to sleep, knowing that failing the Quest was already set in stone. He had a;ready considered other options for breaking out on his own, but he ruled them out almost immediately. Without a disguise, he would definitely get caught on the cameras and face even worse punishments. So, accepting defeat, Von simply slept.

Just an hour into his sleep, Von heard a sharp knock on his door.

"Your package is here," an arrogant voice came from the other side of the door.

Von’s eyes snapped open. He grinned, already concluding that it was Loki at the door. He waited a full minute just like the rules demanded, before pulling down his door handle to take the garbage sack that was sitting on the carpet.

Just as he was lifting the heavy nylon bag onto the floor of his room, a black blur dashed into the room according to the plan. Von acted as if he was incredibly surprised and happy to see her. Well, he was actually happy.

After Von quickly locked the door behind them, he turned to the cat.

"Finally you decided to return! What took you so long?" he asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

Loki completely ignored his complaints. She grabbed the bottom of the nylon bag with her sharp teeth and emptied it onto the floor. Out tumbled a pile of blue janitor clothes, and then a massive bunch of expensive, sealed fish snacks from the hotel kitchen. Lots and lots of them.

Von was just about to complain about her stealing from the kitchen when he saw an extra item sitting beside the complete clothing set. He reached down, picked it up, and recognized it immediately.

"A fake moustache."

"Yup," Loki stopped emptying the bag and nodded her head smugly at him. "I’m a genius, I know. You can thank me by ordering a massive portion of those sushis right now before you go."

Von could only laugh. Despite the crazy delay, he was still incredibly impressed by her consideration. Bringing something extra to help hide his face better was a smart move he honestly hadn’t even considered.

"Sure, sure," Von said, picking up the blue costume. "Now you have to act exactly like me until I’m back. We’ve practiced this before. When they come here in the morning to check your temperature, just act normal. Don’t overreact and blow my cover."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Loki said, literally using her paws to push him toward the bathroom door. She was already moving toward the room’s telephone to figure out how to order the food herself.

Von came out of the bathroom two minutes later looking exactly like a late-night hotel janitor. He pulled the cap down low over his eyes and pressed the fake mustache above his lip, securing it with the mask. He looked down at his feet. He didn’t know if it was just her way of trolling him for the earlier argument, but the shoes Loki had brought didn’t match his feet in any way. They were both left-footed shoes, and they were of completely different colors. But Von could only manage it that way. He had no time left to complain.

He looked over at the bed one more time. Loki had already transformed. She was sitting there looking exactly like Von, with her legs casually crossed over the white sheets, aggressively eating the stolen fish snacks.

"Please don’t do something crazy while I’m gone," Von warned his own face.

Loki yawned lazily in Von’s voice. "Get going, human."

Von could only laugh quietly to himself. He turned around, walking over and opening the large glass windows to climb down for the final stages of the plan.

Von opened the glass window of his hotel room and stepped out onto the balcony. The cold night air immediately hit his face. He walked to the edge and looked down.

He couldn’t just jump down four stories without a proper plan. If he tried to drop straight into the parking lot, not only would he get caught by the security patrols walking around down there, but he would likely die too. Or at the very least, he would break both of his legs, which would end his acting career before it even started.

That was exactly why going down was never his plan. He had to climb up instead.

Von took a deep breath and bent his knees. Relying entirely on his superhuman agility and strength, he jumped straight up.

His hands easily clamped onto the ledge of the balcony right above him. He pulled his body weight up effortlessly, bypassing the floor above entirely. He didn’t stop to rest. He balanced his feet on the railing and did it again, leaping to the next floor.

In less than a minute, he hauled himself over the final ledge and landed quietly on the hotel’s flat roof.

He quickly looked around and found the heavy metal door built for the maintenance stairs.

He walked over and grabbed the handle. It was locked tight, but he applied a little pressure with his enhanced strength and forced it open with a soft click.

Von slipped inside and hurried down the dark steps. The mismatched left-footed shoes Loki had brought for him made him stumble a few times, but he managed to descend all the way to the basement level, aiming for the underground loading dock where all the hotel trash was taken out.

Von didn’t make it there smoothly. While he walked through the lower basement hallways, he encountered a few hotel staff members working the night shift.

Most of them didn’t recognize him in the oversized uniform and the fake mustache. If he had looked up, they would have definitely seen his striking violet eyes and recognized him, but he kept his head low at all times. He just pushed a random cleaning cart he found and kept walking.

It took a few wrong turns, some close mistakes, and twenty minutes of sneaking around, but he eventually found the loading dock.

Stepping inside, Von found it completely empty, but it was brightly lit.

If he just stood there waiting for a garbage truck to arrive, any passing hotel worker or security guard would spot him instantly. He looked totally out of place just standing around doing nothing.

Von scanned the entire area. Lined up against the far wall were several massive dumpsters.

He didn’t have much of a choice. He had made up his mind already when he accepted the System’s quest.

Von walked over to the dumpsters and flipped open the heavy lid of each of them, checking the contents.

Luckily, he found a certain blue one that was only filled with dry cardboard boxes, empty crates, and discarded office paper.

He didn’t contemplate much. He climbed over the edge, dove in, and buried himself underneath the thick layers of cardboard to wait.

Over thirty minutes went by in boredom and silence for Von and just when he was starting to think about abandoning the bin and trying a different plan entirely, he heard the heavy double doors of the loading dock swing open.