Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 136
Only Krnovel
Episode 136 – No. 107, The Gateway Room – ‘Perfect Life’ (27)
– Kim Ari
I think as I walk under the bright blue city lights.
Who the hell am I?
The spirit that began to awaken clumsily spoke to me.
This is a false world, there is a separate place where I should be. I have a goal to achieve.
But awakening is still not complete.
Why did I get caught up in this false world? What were you doing before you got caught up?
Who am I in the first place? My identity, which vaguely occurred to me, was that I was an agent of the Chaos Disaster Management Bureau.
So, am I currently falling into an unidentified fantasy while working as an agent?
I don’t know. The level of perfection of this world is too high to simply be dismissed as fantasy.
Simply put, the power to deal with illusions is the power to input false visual information into the brain.
Although there are differences in means, the VR devices created by modern humans are fundamentally no different from the power of manipulating illusions.
How much computing power is needed to put information that perfectly simulates the entire world, like all the scenes I see now, into a person’s head?
With these thoughts in mind, I arrived at ‘Barum Publishing’.
The publishing company’s building looked ordinary. Since it was already late, most of the lights in the building were turned off and the doors were locked.
While I was contemplating what to do for a moment, the door opened with a clicking sound.
As I entered the room, the security guard bowed his head at me from a distance.
How did you get inside? I’m not sure because each branch has a different approach.
After standing still for a moment, a security guard spoke up.
“Do you not know the way?”
“…”
“Can I guide you?”
“How did you know I was an agent?”
The security guard looked like he was wondering what on earth he was talking about.
“Aren’t you currently activating agent mode on your phone?”
“… that’s right.”
“It’s already waiting inside.”
I made a stupid mistake.
The security guard guided me to the elevator, then I stood in front of the dashboard and made a few adjustments.
Soon, the elevator moved ‘horizontally’.
— Clap! Weeeeeee!
… At this point, shouldn’t the elevator have gone out of the building?
Even though you know that the management bureau is a place where ‘common sense’ questions have no meaning at all, when you actually experience it, you automatically think this way.
“ah!”
As soon as I got off the elevator, I exclaimed involuntarily.
How on earth could a place like this exist in the middle of Seoul?
The space was so vast that it was hard to see at a glance, and there were at least 100 white-clothed employees running around busily.
Somewhere, a cart carrying a car-sized vehicle was being transported.
Somewhere, a rotating sphere emitting lasers was being transported in an opaque box.
Somewhere, a man with a nameplate reading ‘13th Second Coming of Jesus Christ’ was being dragged away.
Why are they all Second Coming Jesus? Second Coming Buddha, no second coming Allah?
Anyway, 99.9% of those guys are probably human beings with no special powers, but that 0.1% is why the management bureau catches them every time.
As I sighed and looked around, forgotten memories began to come back.
When viewed from afar, it is a wonderful organization that is infinitely mysterious and transcendent.
If you look closely, the market has been criticized more than once for its poor management, which is worse than that of a local convenience store!
From afar, it is an organization of geniuses whose members are said to be among the best human resources in the world.
If you look closely, Harvard is a black company full of assholes who make you want to ask if they got into school by playing poker.
It is an ordinary administrative bureau.
*
As I walked down the wide hallway, I was greeted countless times.
Actually, my memory is so hazy that I don’t remember anyone, but these people all knew me.
In the end, I didn’t know where to go, so I just stood still and held on to anyone around me.
“hey! “You there!”
“yes? Agent Kim Ari?”
“Who is in charge here?”
At those words, the man who looked like a researcher looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“It’s because my mind was a little shaken during the mission.”
After giving a vague answer, the researcher tilted his head and answered.
“If you are the top officer, are you talking about Director Park? Director Park’s office is on the right side of the hallway -”
“You guide me. “I don’t remember the geography of here.”
“I’m a bit busy right now -”
“hey! They tell someone else to take the second coming of Jesus. The self-proclaimed Jesus is what gets dumped on the side of the road anyway, so why do you always bring him back? Next time, bring someone who calls themselves Buddha or Allah.”
“There is one real monster out of hundreds… .”
The researcher grumbled but began to guide me.
After walking around the hallway for a while, I realized that I had done a good job of leading the way.
The researcher placed me in front of the door of a rather large and ornate office and disappeared.
— Snap!
The office was a pretty desolate space. There were no special decorations, just a pot of orchids in the corner.
“Don’t stand there, come this way.”
40s? 50s? A man who appeared to be older than me stood up from his desk and called me from the window.
“What can I call you? Manager Park?”
The man turned his head and sighed.
“I received a report, but have you really lost your memory?”
“Did the report come in just then?”
“You are making so much effort to show that you have lost your memory that it is inevitable that reports will come in.”
“is that so… .”
“It’s very uncomfortable. Take out that ‘yo’. “When on earth did you use the honorific?”
“okay. “Then what should we call it?”
“Call me Park Hyun-min.”
“Hyeonmin. “I think my condition is a bit strange right now.”
“…Hyeonmin is a bit like that, but it would be better if you called me Manager Park Hyunmin.”
“I’ll just call you Director Park.”
After that, I told him all about the strangeness I felt.
The abnormalities of this world that I began to notice earlier. Overflowing bars, buildings without drones, the moon shining in the sky.
And one insight. This world is all fake. I feel a confidence that I cannot explain.
The manager, who had been listening to me in silence, opened his mouth.
“I’ll give you my honest answer. You are crazy. The bizarre elements you just mentioned are stories that even I, the director of the management bureau, have never heard or seen.
A world where pigeons try to eat people… . It’s a story I’ve never thought of even in my dreams. It’s the first time I’ve heard anything about alcoholic fungal parasites or the red plague. There isn’t even a moon? It’s a change that’s hard to even imagine.
Rather than the whole world suddenly changing, it is more likely that one person changed. Aren’t you saying that your memory is incomplete? “It is possible that we encountered a strange chaos entity during the mission.”
“After hearing that, I became curious. Based on the data here, what was I doing?”
“That’s a good question. Before you came in, I checked to see what mission you were on. The results were amazing. “My security level says access is not possible.”
“Even with your security level?”
“The meaning of the fact that I cannot access it even with my security level is clear. “The only people on Earth who know the true nature of the mission you are carrying out are the World Council Command.”
Did I go crazy on a special secret mission?
…I shook my head. Because this isn’t an important issue.
“Assume everything I say is true. This world is all fake! I’m not just saying this. “Are you sure from now on that this entire world is fake?”
“The 13th Second Coming Jesus we caught today is also convinced that he is the resurrected Jesus?”
“I’m not alone in my thoughts. ‘Mom’s’ reaction was also strange. “They cheered me on and told me to go my own way!”
“This is the reaction parents would have when their child enters puberty and begins to wander.”
“Who is my mother in the first place according to the bureau’s standards? Your appearance is so special! Besides, judging by your reaction and my vague memories, I’m very old. How old is your mom? “Isn’t she strange?”
“Your mother is a former agent of the Administration. “She’s taking a break now, but she’s older than you and me combined.”
All my energy was drained from just a short conversation.
Finding the contradictions in this world logically was harder than I thought.
Even the mother, who seems to be full of mysteries, has already realized this world without contradiction.
There were many other strange things in this world, but I felt it through this brief conversation.
They all have their own logic. No matter what I pointed out, Director Park seemed to be able to provide an explanation that proved that this world was real.
… Am I really just crazy? Could it be that my mind was distorted after encountering a strange chaos entity during some secret mission?
The manager, who was looking at me in confusion, opened his mouth.
“Let’s look at it from a different perspective.”
“Another perspective?”
“As you said, let’s just assume that this entire world is fake. Normally, the power to deal with hallucinations quickly falters when the hallucinating person begins to doubt them. “Why?”
“I don’t know. “I think I knew from the beginning.”
“In simple terms, hallucinations are a series of processes that input information simulating the world into a person’s brain.”
A somewhat familiar explanation. I heard this explanation once before.
“The problem is that continuously injecting information that simulates the world is much more difficult than expected. It consumes an enormous amount of computing power. In the end, it is difficult to handle the hallucination with the computational power of the caster alone, so it is usually implemented by borrowing the imagination of the person ‘afflicting’ the hallucination.
To put it simply, the caster only injects the victim with the message ‘You are going to school from now on’, and after that, the victim’s head imagines itself going to school. This is the essence of the power to deal with hallucinations. Do you understand?”
“I understand. In fact, it seems like a story you already know.”
“In other words, hallucinations are similar to the power that allows a person to dream with a clear mind. So, if a person in hallucination starts to doubt, he or she will soon wake up. “Because the person who created the hallucination itself in the first place is the hallucinating person himself.”
“If that’s what you said, I’m already suspicious, so why doesn’t this hallucination break?”
“There are two possibilities. First, the theory I mentioned earlier only applies when the hallucination caster is a person with limited computing power. In the first place, if the caster’s capabilities are so transcendent that they are constantly injecting information simulating the real world regardless of the victim’s imagination, there is no way for the victim to wake up regardless of whether they recognize the hallucination or not.
For a similar example, think of VR devices. Although it is still an immature technology, all visual information displayed by VR devices is information created through the device’s own calculations and has nothing to do with the user’s imagination. All these scenes while wearing a VR device are lies! Does shouting “Change anything?”
“In that case, I don’t think there’s any way for me to wake up… .”
“Honestly, I think it’s a case where there is no answer. In the first place, if such a transcendent being were the caster, he would have to wake up from his hallucination before he could kill you by pressing down on you with a single fingernail.”
“There is no answer to that possibility, so let’s rule it out. “What is the second assumption?”
“It’s a case where you still lack confidence in yourself. The human mind is complex. Part of you has awakened and begun to doubt reality, but deep down you still believe this is reality, don’t you think?
Or maybe you’re just hoping it’s real. According to your explanation, the real reality seems to be a hopeless situation heading towards the end, but there are plenty of reasons to not want to wake up.”
I thought I had woken up, but deep down, I still haven’t fully awakened?
If not, would there still be a desire to stay in this place somewhere in your heart?
In the end, it seemed like it was a matter of convincing myself.
I quietly stood up and looked out the window.
The manager who was observing me opened his mouth again.
“An idea occurred to me.”
“idea?”
“If this world is truly a place where the happy ideals you imagine are realized, then you will not be able to realize what you cannot imagine. “The more terrible and unfortunate the imagination, the more difficult it will be to realize it.”
It’s a terrible and unfortunate imagination. One answer came to mind without difficulty.
Lastly, I asked one question.
“Aren’t you scared? “If this whole world is fake like I said, then you are just a fake too.”
“What on earth are you afraid of? There are two possibilities. There is a possibility that you are crazy and that the world is really your dream or fantasy. If you are crazy, I have no reason to be afraid. If the world is your dream, then I am also a part of you.
Didn’t Descartes say that? ‘I am thinking therefore I am existing.’ Even if this entire world is fake, you are the only one who thinks it is real. And the me created by that real imagination will also be a part of you, so there is no reason to be afraid.”
He is a really difficult person to understand. He felt vaguely.
If this whole world is an illusion created by my mind, then there must be something real out there that became the source of my imagination about Director Park.
I think the real Director Park was also a really difficult person to understand.
There was success. Because I discovered the real way to awaken through long conversations in this place.
Something so terrible and unfortunate that I could never imagine and could not be properly realized in this world.
I found out the answer to that ‘something’.
See next episode