Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 499
Only Krnovel
EP.499 Episode 499 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (1)
Episode 499 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (1)
[User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: —day
Current location: Room 207, Gate Room
Wise Man’s Advice: 3]
– Han Ga-in
The train runs endlessly along the tracks.
It’s been quite some time since Jincheol hyung, Eunsol noona, and Elena left the second station.
— Rattling! Rattling!
Grandfather must have been nervous about the ordeal he was going through for the first time in a long time, so he moved to the back of the train car, saying he wanted to be alone for a while.
Thanks to that, there is a girl sitting in front of me now whose face makes my heart race just by looking at her.
“I’ve been thinking about the structure of the gate room.”
“…”
“After much thought, I came up with two things. First, the party split up. Think of another room. Most of them have different starting positions, and once you get the hang of it, you can join them in no time.”
“That’s right. Is this the first time you’ve fallen into a completely different ordeal like this?”
“Second, why did you start on the train? There was no need to do that.”
“yes.”
Everyone has to go through different trials, and each person is assigned a different trial to face.
If it were a normal hotel, they would have thrown us all into our respective positions as soon as we started.
This means that there is a reason why a system was created where each person gets off at their own ‘stop’ on the train.
The merchant also emphasized this from the beginning.
“At some point I realized, maybe we’re solving one ordeal in the grand scheme of things.”
“…”
“The first trial was a very long time ago, and the second, third, and fourth trials are connected in time. Each station seems like a different place, but it’s actually like one world connected by rails.”
“…”
“If you think about it this way, the party wasn’t split. If they started off separated spatially, this time they’re just separated in time.”
I was a little impressed.
I vaguely realized this fact myself, but isn’t it a conclusion I reached by gathering various scenes that I saw with insight?
Ari figured it out on her own after seeing the background of the train.
“I see, you already knew.”
It felt like a sharp stab, so I laughed a little awkwardly.
“I wasn’t sure. That’s the case with most of the information I got.”
This is true.
All information gained through insight is in the realm of possibility or probability, and very little is certain.
In other words, insight is the ultimate enhancement of ‘scenario understanding.’
If understanding the scenario is the clearest, or the one scenario the hotel intended, shown in words, insight feels like showing countless possible scenarios in images.
Ari continued talking, ignoring my excuses.
“If you had seen it in advance, wouldn’t it have been better to just tell everyone?”
Why not share the insights you gain with your colleagues?
The moment I share, my colleagues’ behavior changes, and when their behavior changes, the possibilities I saw become useless in an instant.
In that case, insight now sees ‘new possibilities’.
Share new possibilities again?
The same thing happens again and again.
New possibilities collapse, and insight reveals ‘another new possibility’.
The only way to break this pointless cycle is to stop sharing information.
Ari and his colleagues also had a vague understanding of these characteristics of insight.
So my colleagues didn’t bother me to tell them this or that.
“You know.”
“I know. Why don’t you tell me? But still, I get a little annoyed when I’m next to you.”
Monopoly of information.
Breakdown of communication.
Secrets that can’t be helped.
Clearly, it was an undesirable situation, but there was no solution at the moment.
“You really look like an agent of the Administration right now. Or should I say, ‘the Silent One’?”
It’s the first time I’ve heard that word.
“What is that?”
“To put it simply, the leadership of the management bureau.”
The Silent, the leadership of the Administration.
“…Can you tell me? The concept itself seems like it’s top secret.”
Instead of answering, she leaned quietly against the window.
As if, for the first time, we are examining each and every one of these things.
“Aren’t you going to give me a letter?”
“hmm?”
“You gave it to Sang-Hyeon, right? I think you gave it to Elena too.”
“…”
“I don’t have anything to give you? Even something like “Come on, come on, fighting!” would be good.”
“Phew!”
I was so surprised that I spat out the water I was drinking!
No, how does he know that I’m going, going, fighting!
Surely Elena opened the letter secretly and shared it with others –
“Elena doesn’t know.”
“…”
“Only I know.”
“No, why are you the only one who knows about the letter I gave to Elena, but Elena doesn’t know?”
“I opened it and checked while Elena was sleeping.”
I was speechless.
“…Why are you doing something like that when it’s not a maze?”
“She’s Miro’s daughter.”
As I looked at Ari who was smiling brightly, I started laughing too, so it was hard for me to get even angrier.
“So, you don’t have anything to say to me?”
“doesn’t exist.”
“Why? Surely you’re not upset right now?”
Because it’s crooked… .
Does this guy think I’m the real Miro or Seungyeop?
Let’s be honest.
“I haven’t seen anything for sure. Every time I focus on you, Ari, completely different scenes flash by like a slide show, and they have nothing in common.”
Ari asked back with her mouth half open.
“What did you see? If you saw meaningless information, you can tell me.”
If you see something valuable, you can’t tell it because you don’t want to lose the value of the information.
Let’s turn this around.
If you see a scene that is meaningless and confusing, doesn’t that mean it’s okay to tell me?
When I thought about it, it made sense in its own way.
“Sometimes I’m walking under the blue sky in a pure white one-piece dress, and at other times I’m covered in dust in a ruin that looks like a meteorite has fallen. And then a little later I’m sitting in a shabby lecture hall wearing a black and white outfit. And here again-”
“Stop, stop. I get it. You mean, all these images are mixed up so much that I can’t tell what’s what?”
“That’s correct.”
Ari sighed softly.
“Why am I the only one who looks like that?”
“… maybe.”
“perhaps?”
“I thought about this too. I’m not just looking at meaningless information. Could it be that all of those scenes are actually happening to Ari?”
The moment when you walk under the blue sky wearing a pure white one-piece dress.
The moment when everything turned into dust in the ruins where everything was destroyed.
The moment I sat in a shabby lecture room wearing black and white clothes.
If all this is a ‘critical moment’ where it can actually happen –
“Oh, I still don’t know.”
I, the one who wrote the insight, am confused, but Ari, who is listening from across the bridge, must be even more confused.
Soon, Ari changed the subject with a look of resignation.
“Let’s continue what we were talking about earlier. All trials are connected in time.”
“okay.”
“But the time gap is quite large. The first trial is at least a few thousand years away, even if you think about it roughly. And after that, it’s basically a few hundred years away.”
“yes.”
“Is there a way to join across this gap? Not all of them, but just a few.”
there is.
I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure it’s there.
Because I saw the possibility that ‘the labyrinth would go through the trials with me’!
“I think so. Maybe, there will be one in every trial.”
“…”
“I’ll have to look for it.”
Ari stood up, wondering if she had finished what she had to say to me.
It seems like he wants to talk about various things with his grandfather, who will be going through the ordeal together with him.
So, I also tried to relax and lean back in my chair.
— Taat!
“Ugh! Why is it like this?”
Ari suddenly came closer!
Too close.
It was dizzying to see the already unrealistic eyes glowing red.
The moment I tried to enlarge the status window in the realm of instinct to block my view, Ari moved away again as if there was no need to do so.
I looked at it wondering if it was some kind of joke and Ari smiled faintly.
“How was it just now?”
“… I was surprised.”
“When you look at it this way, it just looks like a person.”
Looking at it like this, it looks like a person.
If you look at it differently, does that mean it doesn’t seem human?
“I won’t say childish things like ‘keep your humanity’ again. I just wanted to say this much.”
“I’m listening.”
“You said in the latter half of issue 206 that you had an epiphany about the sacred sun?”
Enlightenment?
Looking back, it wasn’t that grand.
At some point, the divine sun, which had become an end in itself rather than a means, was turned back into a means again.
“Keep in mind. You might fall into a similar trap again.”
“…”
“Okay, I’ll be going now. I need to talk to Mukseong too.”
I fell into the same trap again… .
Is the power that trapped me this time insight?
Soon, Ari leaves and I am left alone.
Just like when I first got on the gateway train, the outside scenery was covered in darkness and I couldn’t see anything.
As a result, train windows are virtually like cloudy mirrors.
Look in the mirror.
I see myself reflected in the mirror.
“…”
The possibilities of colleagues observed through insight were not always unique.
Although cases as extremely complex as Ari’s were rare, my other colleagues also showed various possibilities that were difficult to easily explain.
There is one exception to this.
It’s ‘Han Ga-in’.
Everyone has a destiny as colorful as a rainbow, but my destiny is only one.
“…”
In the mirror – I see myself torn, scattered, and fragmented.
I see myself scattered all over the stars, so finely divided that I cannot maintain my self-identity.
“Phew… .”
Once again, I sat down in front of a Go board that I could not share with others.
There is only one ultimate goal.
Changing my future!
“The third trial will begin! Participants, please prepare yourself.”
*
“The Third Trial – Miskatonic University”
– Kim Ari
“…”
I woke up to the light streaming in through the window.
Soon, a blurry notification blinked for three seconds.
“From now on, we will seal the participants’ blessings. Please be careful.”
As expected, it’s a blessing seal.
Well, Mukseong got ‘One More Chance’ and I got ‘Isomorphic Polyhedron’, right?
It’s just so immoral to seal a legacy before it’s even properly used.
— Squeak!
A somewhat shabby room, with a creaky wooden bed.
It doesn’t look like a very affluent environment.
I woke up at the dinner party wearing a pretty nice dress, but in reality it was completely different.
I looked on the table next to the bed and found a small book.
It feels like you’re trying to understand what kind of situation I’m in right now.
…
The spatial setting is ‘Miskatonic University’ in Arkham, a large city in Massachusetts, USA.
The time period is 1897, and my status is set as a college student.
“A female college student in 1897.”
This is not the 21st century Republic of Korea.
It was a time when it was uncommon for women to go to college.
So isn’t there something special about my identity itself?
I left the dormitory with this thought in mind.
*
The atmosphere at Miskatonic University was, to put it simply, gloomy and eerie.
The sky was filled with gloomy dark clouds, and when I asked some of the students who were hurrying along, they said that the weather has been like that all these days.
The grotesque creatures’ bones displayed everywhere – all of them creatures I had never seen before – and the gruesome drawings that seemed to be drawn in blood made me frown.
Wouldn’t a sane person go mentally ill if they attended a university like this for just half a year?
Fortunately or unfortunately, most of the students themselves seemed like ordinary people.
I can tell for sure because the boys blush every time they see me.
“Excuse me. Um, sorry, do you have a minute?”
“Oh! Of course, lady!”
Lady, what a lady!
What party are you at?
I grabbed the young man by the collar, his face flushed like a carrot, and I gathered some information about the university.
“Oh, school? Miss Ari! Miskatonic University is a deep-rooted comprehensive university founded in 1797 -”
As I listened to various stories, I naturally began to have questions.
“Um… Mr. Thomas, which department should I go to?”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I asked.
I don’t even know what department I’m in, so how would someone else know?
“Haha! Are you kidding me? Oh, are you asking me to guess? Easy! Miss Ari is definitely a member of the Department of Mystery, right?”
“…”
Department of Mystery?
Just hearing it makes me wonder what this is.
“The Department of Mysteries is home to the most bizarre and mysterious students in the world. Miss Ari, well, anyone can tell she belongs in the Department of Mysteries.”
“… Is that so? Then, please tell me the location of the department.”
“Do you see the sycamore tree over there? Turn right and -”
At the end of the conversation, he said with a blush on his face.
“Hey, Miss Ari. If you can contact me later -”
“good bye.”
*
As I approached the building of the ‘School of Mysteries’ that the kind Thomas had told me about, I realized.
Much of the eerie and gloomy atmosphere of Miskatonic University was created in this very area.
If you were a professor, wouldn’t it look good if a living skeleton or a vampire appeared?
So I promised myself that I wouldn’t be surprised by anything.
“…”
The moment I arrived in front of the unidentified lecture room, following the students around me who were presumed to be my classmates, I had to stop for a moment, unable to hide my surprise at not being able to keep my promise.
Because there was a nameplate like this on the classroom door.
“Introduction to Demonology”