Escaping the Mystery Hotel
Chapter 328: Room 203, Cursed Room - New Beginning Re (8)
CHAPTER 328: ROOM 203, CURSED ROOM - 'NEW BEGINNING' RE (8)
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User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 683,622
Current Location: Floor 2, Room 203 – Cursed Room ‘New Beginning’
Sage’s Advice: 1
– Han Kain
Humanity had longed for the blue sky for ages.
In many myths, great gods always looked down on the earth from the heavens above the clouds, and the messengers of the gods always descended, flapping their wings from the sky.
What about the legend of Icarus, who met with tragedy when his wings made of wax melted in the heat of the sun as he tried to fly in the sky with insufficient skill?
This content paradoxically proved that humans had longed for the sky since ancient times.
And now, I was looking down on the earth from the heavens!
“Wow... Would the Wright brothers have been moved seeing this scenery?”
Jinchul-hyung running busily hundreds of meters below looked just like a tiny ant. Eunsol-noona, riding on the Grotesque, lifted her head at just this timing and waved her hand towards me.
“Hello—eek!”
Suddenly, the “Cutter’s” body writhed and swayed. Although I was tied to the monster’s hard shell with a sturdy rope, so I didn’t fall off easily, my whole body shook momentarily and I almost threw up.
“Songee! Drive better!”
“Oppa! Seriously, shut up! What Wright brothers!? He’s going crazy saying he’s hungry!”
“...”
Hearing Songee’s irritation, my sentimental mood immediately flew away. The giant beetle slowly descended towards the ground.
***As soon as we landed after 30 minutes, Songee once again shattered my sentimental mood.
“Bleurgh! Bleurgh!”
Eunsol-noona lightly patted Songee’s back. Watching that scene, I turned to look at Jinchul-hyung.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
“...”
“Hyung?”
“Urgh! I–it’s hard. Kain, how far are we?”
“Um... At this speed, we should arrive at Miro’s location tomorrow morning.”
“We came in 4 days? That’s quite fast.”
“If we grit our teeth and move a bit more, we could arrive tonight—“
“Hey! Want to talk nonsense while riding the most comfortably? I can’t move a single step more!”
People couldn’t keep moving endlessly just by filling up with fuel like a car. The arduous march that had continued for days was tiring not only Jinchul-hyung but even the flying monster flying that was carrying us.
The sun was starting to set too.
“I guess it’s difficult to move more today.”
With those words, Jinchul-hyung laid down spread-eagled, and Songee started moving the Cutter towards the lake she had spotted from the sky.
I, the only one with energy left, reflected on the march of the past few days.
On the morning we entered Room 203 for the third time, the conclusion everyone came to when gathered was simple.
We needed a means of transportation. Fortunately, we judged that “some monsters” were suitable for moving while carrying us.
There were two candidates, one was the giant bull near Eunsol-noona and the other was the flying insect, the “Cutter”, said to be near Songee.
We decided to tame the Cutter as it seemed advantageous for scouting as it had the ability to fly, but there was considerable anxiety. If Songee failed to tame it, everything would fall apart.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen. When Hyung and I arrived at Songee’s location after moving for 2 nights and 3 days, Songee had already tamed the Cutter and even brought Eunsol-noona who was nearby.
“Kain, you drink a sip, too.”
“Yeah, are you okay now, Hyung?”
“Well... We’re near the lakeside, so I drank water, but hunger is the problem. We’ve been eating just tree fruit scraps for days.”
“That is a problem.”
“The mental stress seems considerable, too.”
“Stress?”
“She still sometimes wonders if it was right to leave all the tribe members behind and depart.”
Of course, we couldn’t do this tremendous march with the primitive humans.
“They’re not even human anyway, right? Hyung, you’re quite sensitive.”
Eunsol-noona looked at me with a subtle expression.
“You sometimes seem a bit like Ahri at times like this.”
“...”
There was also a problem that arose because we chose the Cutter instead of the bull. Unlike the bull with its house-sized body, it was a flying monster, so it didn’t have the strength to move long-term while carrying all of us.
In the end, Jinchul-hyung just decided to run, and Eunsol-noona had to move while riding the Grotesque.
“Now I’m really tired. Come to think of it, I was just riding on Perro, but my legs are shaking so much I can barely stand.”
“I know.”
“You have a strong stomach. Are you okay riding on a swaying bug for hours? I tried once and couldn’t ride at all.”
“More or less...”
Am I strong against motion sickness?
Eunsol-noona muttered as if worried, “I wonder if the others are doing well?”
Hearing those words, I recalled the plan again.
In the second attempt, we were forcibly escaped without much gain, but fortunately, before that, I was able to find out the distance between me and my companions using the Status Window.
Considering this along with the red mountain range, a kind of landmark that everyone could see, we could estimate everyone’s approximate location.
As a result, we concluded it was reasonable for these four people to meet and move towards Miro: me who could track Miro’s location with the Status Window, Eunsol-noona who could find distant traces with her powerful eyesight, Jinchul-hyung who could run like a car with his bare body, and Songee who could tame monsters.
The progress of the remaining four was somewhat tricky.
Grandpa and the doctor were too far from Miro location-wise and rather closer to the mountain range. So they just decided to move towards the mountain range, the final destination, while exploring.
On the other hand, Elena and Seungyub were in a position where it was much faster to move directly towards Miro without needing to join us. The problem was...
“Kain, can Seungyub accurately track Miro’s location?”
Eunsol-noona didn’t ask about Elena who would be with him. She didn’t have that kind of ability.
“Based on the companion location information, it seems he’s tracking well. We should be able to meet Seungyub and Elena within a day or two.”
After a moment of silence passed around, Noona asked me, “Have you found out anything? These days it seems like you’re almost having conversations with the owl.”
What else is there to do while riding on a swaying beetle flying all day long?
Of course, I used the excess Advice every day. Even so, my questions these days were always similar.
“I’m exchanging opinions about Adravita’s intentions.”
“The phrase ‘exchanging opinions’ itself is somewhat funny. Isn’t the owl supposed to tell you originally?”
“I’m certain now, but it seems even the Patrons can’t fully read the Convict’s plans. Actually, I felt something similar in Room 104 too...”
It was a thought I had when we were in danger of destruction by the Lord in Room 104. If the owl had fully grasped the Lord’s plan, couldn’t it have warned us more clearly in advance?
Those ambiguous answers then and the equally vague answers now.
Even a Patron who transcended humans might not be able to fully grasp the schemes of a Convict who also transcended humans?
Eunsol-noona asked with a somewhat hopeful attitude, “Wouldn’t our initial thought be unexpectedly correct?”
“Initial thought?”
“Adravita is tired now. It’s fed up with the Cursed Room repeating for thousands or tens of thousands of years and just wants to die.”
“Based on the conversation Songee had, it didn’t seem like it particularly wanted to die.”
“Haa... That’s true. So, have you found out anything?”
“The owl...”
“The owl?”
“...said that Adravita seems to be very deeply immersed in this room.”
“Deeply immersed in Room 203?”
Noona, who was listening to those words with interest, soon brought up an interesting story, “Have you heard of Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream?”
“He dreamed he became a butterfly, and when he woke up, he was a person. He couldn’t tell if he was a butterfly or a person.”
“You know it well. It’s a thought I have sometimes, but Adravita’s situation feels exactly like this. Maybe for him, this place, Room 203, is another true world...”
What did the experience inside feel like to the Convicts trapped in the Cursed Room? An infinitely repeating meaningless puppet show?
It might unexpectedly not be. After all, the beings inside the Cursed Room were no different from real people in terms of intelligence or behavior.
Moreover, because “participants” and “Convicts” who recognized the outside world cause butterfly effects inside each time, the beings inside the Cursed Room showed completely different behaviors every round.
This was why cases arose where people like Jinchul-hyung or Eunsol-noona regarded the beings inside as just people.
Eunsol-noona continued speaking, “The Devourer in Room 103 felt pleasure killing the Athanasias inside. It means he felt ‘hatred’, a real emotion, towards the NPCs inside. The Sea God in Room 202 hoped for salvation for his followers. This also means he truly cared for his followers.”
“That’s persuasive. Let’s say Adravita has been here too long and has deeply fallen into Room 203’s scenario like some other Convicts, as you said. Then what would be the goal?”
“...Our conversation stops here again.”
“...”
“We could think about this much. What on earth happened after that spaceship arrived on this planet?”
An incalculable amount of time had passed since the Pride of Humanity arrived on this planet.
The spaceship was abandoned in the mountain range with only its power source separately extracted and moved hundreds of kilometers away, and the AI was in a frenzy trying to capture and kill the crew members immediately upon seeing them, calling them traitors.
The semi-divine being, who boarded the spaceship together to help humanity’s pioneering, was aimlessly floating in the sky touring the continent, and beings who might or might not be humanity’s descendants had lost civilization and were living as primitive humans in the Stone Age.
“This is also something I heard after asking the owl.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s clear that the crew clashed with the AI, right?”
“Seeing how it calls them traitors and rebels, it seems so.”
“Maybe that clash wasn’t the annihilation of everyone? The spaceship lost its power source and is half-dismantled, unable to leave the mountain range, and the force that may or may not be the crew’s descendants has lost civilization.”
“It seems that way.”
“What role did Adravita play in that clash?”
“Well... Maybe we can find out if we find that power source or whatever. I’ve come up with another disgusting hypothesis.”
“What is it?”
“This world, there are so many damn monsters, right? It feels like we see one almost every day.”
“That’s right.”
“It’s an environment where humans without civilization can’t endure. The power of Divine Ones coming down from the sky is essential.”
“I guess so.”
“In other words, as intelligent primitive humans, they have no choice but to desperately worship ‘some being’ that sends down Divine Ones.”
“...”
“...”
“You said we can meet Miro tomorrow morning, right? Ah, did you say Seungyub and Elena are nearby too?”
“Yes. Less than 40km remains distance-wise. It’s quick if we fly. Seungyub’s side has come nearby too.”
“It feels like the calm before the storm.”
The next morning, Songee died.
***– Elena
“Young Master! Please listen to me!”
I turned my head hearing the now familiar plea. As expected, several old men had gathered and were earnestly pleading while prostrating themselves in front of Seungyub.
From their perspective, they probably couldn’t understand the current situation at all.
An endless hellish forced march continues for no apparent reason. They didn’t know the destination or the reason for moving. They just endlessly walked across the plains because the Divine One commanded it.
Food and water were scarce. The scarce food and water were not enough even for the few strong warriors, including the Divine One to eat, so the weak just perished on the plains.
Yet this world was full of monsters, making it impossible to escape the Divine One who ruled like a tyrant. They say another Divine One descended within a few months if the Divine One died, but it wouldn’t be strange for the tribe to be wiped out in the meantime.
From their perspective, there was only one way out. Persuading the tyrant.
“Young Master!”
“...”
“Please, over 30 people fell behind yesterday. Where on earth are we going?”
“You will not survive today.”
“What?”
An ominous single sentence quietly echoed.
The surrounding primitive humans flinched and stepped back. The old man who received his fate trembled without even lifting his head.
That person would die today, or tomorrow morning at the latest. This had already been repeated several times.
Feeling eerie, I approached Seungyub—no, the “First Human”.
“...I’m always curious, how exactly do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“How do you kill them? With just a word?”
“I’ve never killed anyone.”
“Y-you killed them, didn’t you? I’ve seen people die one after another several times when you make ominous sounds?”
“You’re saying strange things.”
The boy who seemed to have gathered all the darkness of the world looked at me as if I was strange and pointed around. Everywhere I looked across the vast plain was full of corpses of primitive humans who couldn’t overcome hunger and thirst.
“Look. You saw them walking and collapsing, right?”
“...”
“People die originally. I just told that person he would die too.”
This was ominous. This boy was ominous.
...I felt skeptical of myself for thinking this way.
The primitive humans trembled in fear just looking at the First Human, Seungyub. Yet when they couldn’t endure anymore, the person they went to was Seungyub, not me.
After all...
Seungyub didn’t turn people into monsters at the very least.
– Squeak!
I turned my head hearing a sound that was cute, at least to my ears. I saw a mystical scene of “fairies” flying around with bright smiles.
Now I knew. I knew that I was the only one on this plain who found those beings beautiful.
“Elena.”
“Yes?”
“We’re almost there now.”
“Did you divine that with the turtle shell again?”
“Yes. Look at this.”
I recalled when I hurriedly went to find Seungyub a few days ago, worried he might be suffering. The boy I knew was already gone.
What remained was an unholy shaman walking the primordial world.
“I wonder... what command was inputted.”
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing.”
I prayed for this time to pass quickly.