CHAPTER 340: MOMENT OF CHOICE (1)

0% – Kim Ahri

He spent a long time touching and moving his hands and feet as if they were fascinating.

What would it feel like to regain a human body after hundreds of years?

Soon he started approaching us.

Strangely, as he got closer, the surrounding temperature dropped and the lighting dimmed.

“I have a question that came up belatedly.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why was Kain trapped in a bird’s body? Since he could use the Grimoire, he could have switched to another primitive human’s body...”

“He wasn’t exactly trapped for all 300 years. In the early days, he often borrowed human bodies too.”

“Really?”

“The last time he borrowed a human body, he said. There are ‘threads’ in primitive humans’ bodies. He was afraid of that, so he wouldn’t enter primitive human bodies.”

“...”

I understood.

In the latter part of Room 203, the malevolent god changed the entire legion into monsters by some means.

In other words, the malevolent god had some kind of connection that could control the legion.

It seemed Kain noticed that connection with the power of the Grimoire at some point.

Certainly, entering a primitive human’s body in such a situation carried a big risk.

At that moment, Kain sat down next to me silently.

Just in case, I spoke to him, “Hey, do you remember anything?”

Instead of answering, he stared blankly at my face and suddenly reached out to touch my face and neck.

“...”

It was as if he was checking how to make a “voice”.

“It’s like the behavior of a big child...”

“It’s actually a similar situation.”

“Did he act this recklessly when he was with you too?”

“This level is quite recovered. It seems to be the influence of the flute.”

“You’re saying this is a recovered state?”

“...In the end stage, he was just a bird. A bird that occasionally acted mysteriously for very brief moments but was a bird nonetheless.”

Sanghyun’s expression was so dark that I didn’t dare to ask any more.

It must have been a tremendous shock for him to see a companion he had been with for hundreds of years acting just like an animal.

After observing Kain in silence, I realized that Kain’s current state was much more serious than Sanghyun’s.

Sanghyun lived as a tribe leader and someone’s husband or parent while maintaining a human body. It was a human life.

That was why Sanghyun, even after enduring 300 years, was clearly human, albeit different from the past.

On the other hand, Kain endured hundreds of years trapped in a bird’s body for most of the time, relying solely on the power of the Grimoire.

Moreover, the Grimoire was a power that allowed him to exist while also being an evil power that broke down his intellect.

The current Kain was closer to a Being of Chaos that had obtained a human body rather than a human.

If there was a fortunate point, it was that he didn’t seem to be completely like an animal that had lost all intellect, as Sanghyun described the “end stage” to be.

He had recovered his intellect itself through the power of the flute, but it just wasn’t at a human level.

At that moment, I heard what sounded like a metallic sound, and a metal cart containing three plates approached us.

“This is...”

“It’s a meal. It seems they want us to talk while eating.”

When I brought the plate and opened the lid, as if by magic, it contained the food each of us wanted, and this point felt so familiarly like the Hotel that it even felt nostalgic.

– Rustle!

A strange sound was heard from Sanghyun’s direction.

There was something like an unidentified leaf on his plate, and as soon as Sanghyun saw that leaf, he brightened up and crushed some of it finely while rolling up some—

“You smoke? Did you smoke originally?”

“I’m not sure how I was originally, but I do smoke now. This has quite a nice aroma.”

Saying that, Sanghyun put the cigarette in his mouth and snapped his fingers to light it.

“Phew! How long has it been? Really—“

“...”

“Achoo! Cough!”

Fortunately, before I could point it out, Kain next to me immediately coughed.

Hearing that sound, Sanghyun opened his eyes wide and then, with a look of realization, threw the cigarette in the trash can at the bottom of the cart.

“I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

The act of smoking without saying a word to the person next to you during a meal as if it were only natural.

This was an action that the past Sanghyun, who was almost uncomfortably attentive to our reactions, would never do.

I felt anew how much the past Sanghyun and the current Sanghyun had changed.

I didn’t feel like scolding him.

For the past 300 years, Kim Sanghyun lived not as some slave or servant, but as the king and ruler of a city.

How often would he have had to be mindful of others?

A little later, Sanghyun brought up another topic, “Living through such a long time, there were often times when I felt regretful.”

“In what way?”

“With my own mouth—“

“Sanghyun, just speak comfortably now.”

“...”

“Or should I call you Oppa? Sanghyun-oppa. What do you think?”

The next moment, Sanghyun burst into laughter as if he couldn’t hold it in.

“Hahaha! No, no. Let’s not do that. Don’t call me oppa. That kind of thing is funny the first time you hear it, but it’s not funny from the second time onward.”

“Okay. So what were you regretful about?”

“Even living for so long, I didn’t have as much time as I thought to steadily train martial arts or combat techniques.”

“Because you lived as a leader rather than a warrior?”

“More accurately, because I often avoided crises rather than facing them.”

I think I understood what he meant.

If one wanted outstanding achievements as a warrior, one had to face monsters when they approached, not avoid them.

Life-risking struggles were precious experiences that couldn’t be replaced by other methods.

However, this was the attitude of a warrior who only had to be responsible for their own life.If the chief of a primitive tribe acted like that, there wouldn’t be any people left.

“Kain was different from me.”

With those words, Sanghyun finely, very finely sliced the meat on the plate.

Meanwhile, the knife moved so fast that it looked like a skilled knight using swordsmanship to slice steak.

“You’ve learned how to handle cold weapons, I see.”

“I consider myself an expert now.”

As I watched Sanghyun slicing the meat as if for a child to eat easily, I belatedly looked at Kain next to me.

“...Oh no. Kain, you’re not supposed to touch that with your bare hands.”

Kain was touching the whole chunk of meat with his hands without even touching the knife or fork, pondering how to swallow it.

Sanghyun moved the finely sliced meat to Kain’s plate.

Only then could Kain start eating the meat, and after Kain started his belated meal, the topic of conversation between me and Sanghyun shifted to the “choice”.

“Which Inheritance do you think is better to choose?”

“Oppa, weren’t you obviously going to choose the Cryptic Cell?”

“I’m considering it.”

I was surprised by the very fact that Sanghyun was considering this.

“The fact that you’re considering it is surprising. Don’t tell me you’ve lived so long that you’ve lost interest in immortality?”

“That can’t be. While longevity without youth would be unbearable, the Cryptic Cell would guarantee me youth too, so it’s a lie to say I don’t want it at all.”

“Then what are you considering?”

“I realized after enduring a long time in the Hotel that things like immortality don’t mean much inside the Hotel. It’s meaningless if we can’t get out.”

I understood.

If Final Flash was a more powerful Inheritance than Cryptic Cell, choosing Cryptic Cell out of desire for immortality carried a big risk.

If one died due to lack of power, one would be trapped in the Frozen Hell, so what meaning did immortality have?

For Kim Sanghyun, the top criterion for choosing an Inheritance wasn’t immortality, but whether it would aid in escaping the Hotel.

He continued his explanation, “Cryptic Cell is a powerful Inheritance. At least in terms of ‘enhancing an individual’s body’, I think it surpasses other Inheritances we’ve confirmed so far. It certainly surpasses physical enhancement through Rudah, and based on my experience of directly competing with you...”

“It surpasses Ancient Blood too.”

This was the conclusion drawn from our fight.

“However, its limitations are also clear. No matter how much you enhance and mutate it, in the end, the human body is a lump of flesh made of protein.”

“Can’t you change your entire body to titanium or something?”

“It’s impossible.”

“Hmm...”

“I felt it countless times while competing with you. Even though Cryptic Cell surpassed Ancient Blood, and even with my trained martial arts added to that... I couldn’t win. Why was that?”

“Final Flash. And please stick to either formal or informal speech. It’s really annoying.”

“Didn’t you mix speech styles in the past too? Are you suddenly asking me to change perfectly?”

“That’s true.”

“Anyway, I felt the limits of Cryptic Cell’s power. Even if I scraped out all the potential contained in Cryptic Cell, even if I enhanced my body to its limits with that power...”

“You die if you just get grazed by a laser?”

“Right. At least from what I felt, the difference between the two Inheritances was clear.”

“...”

“I’m not just talking about the outcome when the two Inheritances clash. It’s like this. A monster that I can defeat while risking my life with the power of Cryptic Cell, Final Flash can destroy with just a flick of a finger.”

I understood as I listened.

I used Final Flash and Kim Sanghyun used Cryptic Cell, so I thought Kim Sanghyun would prefer Cryptic Cell, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Every time I threatened him with Final Flash, Sanghyun rolled on the ground helplessly, which seemed to have been a very shocking experience for him.

I fully understood what Sanghyun was trying to say.

This wasn’t so much a limitation of Cryptic Cell as it was a limitation of the “human body’.

No matter how much one enhanced the human body with Cryptic Cell, it was hard to compare with Final Flash in terms of combat power.

Several counterarguments came to mind.

Comparing an Inheritance that unleashed all its power in one blow and then had a long cooldown time with an Inheritance that provided continuous physical enhancement in a short decisive battle itself iswas advantageous to the former.

However, the problems we faced in the Hotel weren’t just about combat.

Still, I decided to hold my tongue.

There was no way Sanghyun hadn’t considered such things before.

If it was a decision made after careful deliberation, it should be respected.

“It seems you’ve already decided. You just need to write it down in the catalog, right?”

“That’s right. But Ahri, you should wipe your hands.”

“Huh?”

As I was about to stand up, wondering what he meant, I looked at my hands. My entire hands were covered in greasy meat oil.

“W-what’s this?”

Sanghyun smiled bitterly.

“You didn’t notice until now? It’s surprising, but Kain’s power is amazing.”

“...”

“This time, look closely at your own hands.”

A moment later, my hands moved on their own towards Kain’s meat plate.

Soon my hands strongly grasped and tore off the meat on the plate, and Kain ate that torn meat with a happy expression.

“...”

“He’s using your hands as a substitute for a knife. Because it’s uncomfortable to use a knife.”

“...”

“As time passed while dwelling in Perro’s body, he started using such skills. He mainly used it to comfortably control believers’ bodies as if they were his own.”

“I didn’t feel it at all. Even though my hands were moving on their own. Even now, I have no sensation. What on earth is this? Is it a part of Incarnation?”

Of course, Sanghyun couldn’t answer either.

The ability itself seemed to be an extension of Incarnation.

It was controlling one’s own body while simultaneously taking control of part of another person’s body.

If the power shown in the past was seizing control of the entire body, now it was controlling only part of the body, so it was actually smaller in scale.

But it looked like he was using it much more comfortably.

While Incarnation was difficult to use for even 10 minutes even with the filter of the Status Window, controlling just one hand like now seemed to be used as comfortably as breathing.

I felt somewhat eerie. It was a thought I’ve had often for a long time, but...

He now seemed to have clearly entered a realm I couldn’t handle.

Sanghyun, who read my anxiety, carefully defended, “Kain probably doesn’t have any bad intentions. It’s just, uh, a mindset that doesn’t particularly distinguish between his own body and others’ bodies.”

“What kind of mindset is that?”

“W-well, maybe it’s the free American spirit...”

“Are you trying to make a joke right now?”

Sanghyun awkwardly started adding various reasons again.

Kain didn’t enter primitive human bodies due to anxiety that Adravita might control them.

Yet, as he tried to borrow primitive humans’ hands depending on the situation, it seemed this habit developed.

What I realized in this process was that Sanghyun had a considerable psychological debt towards Kain.

“Now that we’ve learned pretty much everything we need to know, let’s prepare to leave. The Inheritance is Final Flash, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“What about memory and oblivion?”

“...”

“Think about it a bit more on your own.”

To give Sanghyun time to ponder alone, I started walking through the train pulling Kain’s arm.

Actually, I could guess what decision Sanghyun would make.

He was perfectly human even with all his memories now.

“The problem is you.”

Kain had already pressed himself against the window, looking outside.

Meanwhile, my right arm, which I had been confused about whose it was since earlier, moved on its own to push the chair so Kain could sit comfortably.

“...”

At that moment, Kain suddenly turned towards me.