Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 504
Only Krnovel
EP.504 Episode 504 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (6)
Episode 504 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (6)
– Kim Ari
“The Third Trial – Miskatonic University”
“…”
I woke up to the light streaming in through the window.
— 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.
After looking through the small booklet on the bedside table to get some basic information, I left the building.
*
“So, this is Miskatonic University?”
As I surveyed the gloomy and eerie atmosphere of the college campus and sorted out the situation in my head, I felt someone’s presence.
A man of considerable height and strong physique.
Although his hair turned gray a little early, he looks to be in his late 40s or early 50s.
“Huh? Haha! Congratulations!”
“…”
“Congratulations on your rejuvenation! Wow, you look 20 years younger.”
“…”
“How long has it been since I’ve seen something like this? I haven’t even seen it in the room of curses? It’s been almost 20 years since I saw it in real life -”
“Wait a minute, let me talk.”
“uh?”
Mukseong took me to a quiet place nearby.
He looked unusually tired and weary, and his fatigue seemed more mental than physical.
It was soon clear what was causing the feeling of weakness.
“So, you’ve already used up your one more chance?”
“okay.”
“… You were twenty in the first round?”
“right.”
Could the ‘price of reversal’ that the hotel warned about for One More Chance be aging by about 30 years?
It’s a pretty threatening penalty.
Considering the human lifespan, it is dangerous because using it just once would put you in your 80s, and from the second time onwards, you could die immediately.
Besides, although he is in his 50s and has excellent physical abilities as expected from an agent, it is difficult for him to do so once he turns 80.
What kind of eccentric person is this?
Banrohwandong?
“…if.”
“hmm?”
“What if an immortal or extremely long-lived person got one more chance?”
“Well… .”
You can use One More Chance endlessly with virtually no risk?
…
I don’t think so.
First of all, let’s not forget that the ‘legacy’ is a different item from the original that was in each cursed room.
The original is just a kind of motif, and the identity of the legacy is fundamentally a powerful tool that the hotel provided after the balance patch.
If the user was immortal or long-lived, wouldn’t there be another type of penalty?
Either way, one thing is clear.
“I guess we have to consider that there is actually one chance left.”
“… yes.”
“Okay, tell me more about the first episode. I think I’ve forgotten everything.”
In the original of No. 206, only the mayor himself retained his memories after the regression.
So I guessed it, but if One More Chance turns back time, even if they are comrades, they lose their memories.
I don’t know about the Miro with its immutability and the Cain with its status window, but I have no way to keep my memories.
“I don’t have much time, so I’ll speak quickly, so concentrate.”
…
After a while, I understood the general situation.
“Just in case… Arya, do you think the ‘Yaldabaoth’ summoned by the Dean is the boss?”
I don’t think so.
“You’re so scared that you can’t even look me in the eye? The description is almost like a prisoner’s?”
“Hmm….”
“If you’re a prisoner, you probably weren’t made to fight. It’s a bad ending that appears when the game is over.”
“I guess so. What about Lucas?”
The Dean is mortal after all, so he would probably be better suited to fight than an alien god of unknown identity.
If he was invincible in the first place, he would not have fled to avoid the Vatican.
However, just because you can kill doesn’t mean you can kill.
“I have a thought. A powerful wizard like the Dean who has fought the Vatican for so long would have thought that he might die someday.”
Beings who live for hundreds of years tend to let the world go by like flowing water, with no sense of tension.
However, it is impossible for the Dean, who has lived under threat from the Vatican 365 days a year, to have such a relaxed attitude.
“Perhaps, they even arranged the situation after death.”
“Have you prepared the magical deadman switch?”
“Okay. So let’s be careful.”
The discussion focused on two main points regarding future progress.
“First, we must prevent the bad ending that leads to the massacre of the Vatican and the dean’s rampage.”
“yes.”
“Second, the relic storage room that only faculty members can access. It’s definitely a special place. I’m not saying this because I got drenched in water.”
“That’s right. I think you should go to the relic storage at least once. It feels like…”
“How does it feel?”
“There might be some of these ‘common tools’.”
Since Pero is already dead and stuffed, the remaining common tools are the protective suit, wing boots, dream kingdom, and hourglass.
Don’t you think some of them might be in the relic vault?
“That makes sense. Let’s find a way to get into the relic vault.”
At the end of the conversation, Mukseong let out a long sigh.
“Phew… .”
“what’s the matter?”
He couldn’t hide his depression.
“If I had known I would age this quickly, I should have eaten more meat when I was young!”
“Haha! You still look younger than your actual age, right? So -”
“Ari, you can never understand me, a human. You were born with an immortal destiny.”
“…”
I didn’t know how to comfort her.
No matter what I say, it will be a painful story to the current silent one.
Fortunately, the experience I gained in ‘Eternal Life’ allowed me to take appropriate action.
Sometimes silence is golden.
*
The first lecture I heard from the Department of Occult Studies, “Introduction to Demonology,” was somewhat of a bittersweet read.
It’s complicated, but it’s ultimately the logic that chaos and mystics have come up with to justify themselves, and I could think of dozens of counterarguments to it.
What was interesting was the attitude of silence.
“I understand emotionally.”
“…”
“In the previous episode, the Papal soldiers cut down at least 100 students with automatic weapons. When I saw that, hmm….”
“Did you think this was too much?”
“yes.”
Is it really right to slaughter countless innocent people in the name of protecting the world and humanity?
The administration is close to brainwashing, teaching us, ‘Don’t even think about such concerns.’
Let’s think about it the other way around.
The teaching not to steal comes from stealing.
The teaching not to harm people comes from harming people.
In the same vein, the teaching of ‘do not worry’ exists because the members of the Administration also feel pain at the sacrifice of innocent people.
“It reminds me of the old days.”
“Thinking about the old days?”
“Every new employee at the management office ends up in the same dilemma you just mentioned.”
“Ahem…! Is this a childish concern that a newbie would have? Sorry. As your body gets younger, so does your mind -”
“No, Mukseong-ah.”
“…”
“I never once thought of such worries as childish. I just thought of them as problems that needed to be overcome.”
“I have to overcome it?”
“It was a long time ago.”
Was it because there was some time left until the next plan?
A story that I had buried deep in my heart because I thought it was a shameful memory naturally came to mind.
“There was a company called Saetbyeol Pharmaceutical in Busan. At the time, it was a very promising mid-sized company. Like any other pharmaceutical company, Saetbyeol Pharmaceutical also developed new drugs.”
“…”
“One day, we got some intelligence. Some of the new drug ingredients were suspicious. They didn’t seem to be normal drugs.”
“…”
“If we waited until it passed all the clinical trials and was distributed, there would have been a major disaster, so before that, one agent and about 17 operatives were deployed.”
“Was the agent your senior?”
“Yes. A few months later, it was discovered that the suspicious new drug ingredient was a deteriorated copy of a portion of the flesh of an alien god. Naturally, the conclusion was that not only the CEO and the executives of the pharmaceutical company, but also the employees were subject to punishment.”
“Even the temple staff?”
“A significant number of the temple members took the new drug because they wanted to get closer to the ‘Great One.’”
“You want to get close to the great one? You’re already mentally ill.”
“That’s right. So we decided to dispose of the temple without any objections. The problem was the spouse and children.”
“… the spouses and children of the employees?”
Mukseong lowered his head with a dark expression.
In fact, if you’ve heard this far, you’ll probably have guessed what kind of case I’m talking about.
“There were many different opinions among the agents. The decision-making authority came to me as a superior and agent. By the way, I was disguised as the child of an agent who was disguised as an employee.”
“…”
“At that time, I said that we would keep the spouse and children alive for now and have the branch office of the management office inspect them before deciding whether to dispose of them.”
“…”
“I became quite close with a few of them, and they were all so kind and innocent. Even though I used the power of my heritage to do a quick test, I couldn’t find any particular contamination.”
“… Were there also people who wanted to dispose of it?”
“There were many. The priests themselves ate the flesh of the great one, hoping to get closer to him. Didn’t they also feed the flesh they ate to their families?”
I still remember the agent who tried to convince me with a look of despair on his face.
He was not a villain or a psychopath who enjoyed massacring civilians.
However, since he was not an agent, he was lower ranked than me, but he was more experienced.
“The old blood test is unreliable. I know Agent Ari’s superpowers are amazing, but isn’t the identity of the flesh part of the body of a great being who can fold stars in one breath? A simple test can’t reveal everything.”
“… So what happened?”
“You know, the kids I saved turned into frogs before four days had passed and they started croaking, and then a frog the size of a building showed up in Busan.”
“…”
“A frog as big as a building croaked! After a few times, 45,000 people died in Busan.”
“…”
“That’s enough old stories. Let’s go now.”
Epilogue.
After I finally killed the giant frog with great sacrifice, the administration began disciplinary proceedings against me.
At that time, I had no intention of living.
This was because the guilt of having caused the death of over 40,000 people due to a wrong choice consumed me from head to toe.
At that time, even the instinct to return to the hotel and revive ‘Mom’ did not work.
Now, I remembered the conversation I had with the branch manager of the management office who first taught me – a person whose face was now blurred.
*
‘I accept full responsibility. Just kill me.’
‘Agent Kim Ari, she looks like a child, but her ego is big.’
‘yes?’
‘You are a piece on a chessboard, a cog in a machine. If ordinary employees are pawns, you are a knight, a slightly larger cog. Have you ever heard the saying, ‘The cog is responsible?’
‘…’
‘If anyone is to blame, it is the chessman who failed to see the knight’s weakness. It is the machine manager who failed to realize that the gears were smaller than expected.’
‘Manager □□□… .’
‘It’s my fault for not understanding your problem. That’s why I filed the report.’
‘…’
‘I just hope we learn one lesson from this incident.’
‘What is it?’
‘Agent, remember. Compassion is the most expensive emotion in the world.’
*
The place we arrived at after silence was where the taxidermy of Pero was.
“Ugh… Really! What on earth did this guy do to become a stuffed animal?”
“That’s right.”
Even though I had heard that Pero was stuffed, I still felt a bit disgusted when I saw it with my own eyes.
Of course, taxidermy of beloved pets still occurs frequently in modern times, so people’s opinions may differ.
“Hmm… .”
Gently, he reached out and seemed as if he was going to touch the stuffed animal.
“…”
There’s no reaction to this. Harder?
— Whoosh!
Immediately a heavy hand grabbed my arm.
“Kids these days are really careless.”
“…”
The dean has appeared!
It may be funny, but touching the stuffed Pero is the easiest way to meet the Dean.
“Student, you just tried to touch the stuffed animal? I don’t think this is the time to be silent.”
“I’m sorry, Dean, but I have something to tell you.”
The old man didn’t show much reaction to the expression ‘Dean’.
“It’s about the opening party that will be held soon.”
“I think it would be better to discuss that with the student council.”
“What good is talking to children who are about to die?”
For the first time, a look of surprise crossed the dean’s eyes.
“Are you going to die soon?”
“Dean, would you believe me if I told you I could see the future?”
The old man looked at me silently with an unreadable expression.