Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 525
Only Krnovel
EP.525 Episode 525 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (11)
Episode 525 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (11)
– Han Ga-in
“What is this? It looks like a piece of mirror. What is this -”
— Teeing!
The moment we heard the faint sound, we simultaneously opened our eyes wide and tensed up.
“Huh? A surprise attack?”
And then a still silence descended.
“…”
Clearly, something terrible and incomprehensible was about to happen… .
Nothing happened.
“What? I thought a demon or something would pop out? Is this normal?”
I tilted my head and looked behind me for a moment, and saw Mina still lying on the floor, struggling.
It seems that Hong Go-hak was caught up in the strange magic that he released in all directions as if he was detonating himself right before his body was taken over.
“I’ll wake you up, Min-ah.”
Wake up Minah slowly –
“…”
For the first time, I felt a sense of alienation.
Because all I could hear was my voice.
Even if Min-ah fainted and Hong-go-hak had his body taken away, there was still ‘another me’ who would listen to what I said.
When I felt ominous late and turned back –
Suddenly, a lightning-like realization struck my mind!
“What is this…!”
With the second sentence of the Grimoire, I was freed from the constraints of ‘uniqueness’.
This did not mean that I and ‘him’ were truly strangers.
A relationship that is not 1, but not 2 either.
To use a metaphor, it is a situation where the left and right brains, which were loosely connected, begin to think independently.
‘Independent thinking’ was important, but more importantly, ‘loosely connected.’
But at this moment, the connection between ‘him’ and ‘me’ was broken.
“Huh!”
In an instant, a flood of information came rushing in.
It was an incomprehensible experience that he perceived ‘alone’ just before the connection between him and me was severed!
Therefore, this is the last shared consciousness between ‘us’.
An infinitely high upper realm.
One who sits in the center and is immersed in a never-ending asceticism.
There is only one step between truth and it.
Another me standing in front of him.
And then a great hand touched another me.
What just happened?
‘I’ who kept my distance was fine, but ‘he’ who touched the mirror directly was captured by a transcendent being like a prisoner?
In the process, the connection with me was completely lost?
“…”
I was out of breath.
If even the loose connection is gone, that and I are no longer ‘we’!
And then ‘he’ opened his eyes.
“I never thought that Honggohak itself was a trap.”
“you…!”
“The enemy has been aiming for this from the beginning. As the trials progress, it will eventually be revealed that ‘I’ am Horus. At that time, the apostate will have no choice but to take sudden action, even if it is for fear of being purged by me.”
“…”
“Of course, Honggohak dies to me. The opponent didn’t expect Honggohak to deal any significant damage to me. They just hoped that the mirror fragment would create a variable in the process of killing Honggohak. Just like now.”
I agree with the situation analysis, but what’s important now is not the already finished Honggohak stuff.
Another me has emerged, completely disconnected from me, with my memories and my ego intact?
What a terrible variable!
The moment I tried to recall the Grimoire again, something strange happened that I had never experienced since I obtained the Book of Incarnation in Room 102.
— Phagec!
The grimoire trembled as if it were a living creature, then appeared in the distant sky.
As if to say, ‘I don’t know who is the owner!’
A desolate park, a being looking at me with gloomy eyes.
A fluttering grimoire that appears in the middle area between us.
Amidst the boiling tension, the other person opened his mouth.
“I hate you. More than anyone in this world… I hate you.”
A bland tone that conveys no emotion.
But, because of that, it felt even more sincere.
Actually, there was no need to tell you.
Because I thought the same thing.
“It’s the same.”
“We have overcome uniqueness. So why do I hate you?”
“…”
Overcoming uniqueness in the second sentence does not simply mean acquiring superpowers.
Because the Book of Incarnation, Legacy, reformed the spirit of ‘us’ itself.
So, originally, there would be no reason for them to hate each other so much just because their minds were cloned.
“It is not natural hatred. It is a punishment from heaven given to us by those who have not become Buddhas.”
“…”
It’s not a natural emotion.
A terrible curse brought down by a mirror, or rather, an incomprehensible being beyond the mirror.
Even though we realized this fact… .
The collision was unavoidable.
— Phagec!
Once again the grimoire twitches.
A foolish book that couldn’t decide who was the master gave power to both of them.
As if the victor were his own true master!
*
– ???
A memory so old that it’s almost vague now.
In the room at the gateway on the first floor, the witch, ‘Arima’, fought for control of the spirit world.
I was scared when the fight started.
Because the witch was a master who had trained in black magic for at least several decades, and I was a beginner who had only obtained the Grimoire a week ago.
Surprisingly, I was the winner.
A similar thing happened in room 205.
At that time, the opponent was ‘Hwanma’, who was a strong man who could not even be compared to Arima above.
After hundreds of years of training in the art of divorce, he had reached a point where he could play with the human mind like a toy.
The result was the same.
No, it was more shocking.
After just one clash, the demon died and, upon waking up, accepted that he could not defeat me and completely surrendered.
To be honest, those victories were due to the differences between me, Arima, and Hwanma, rather than the differences between the ‘Book of Incarnation’, black magic, and the magic of divorce.
The eldest son of the dragon of the nebula that rules the universe, the book of incarnation created by pouring out one’s heart’s energy without being born!
Compared to that, magic and martial arts created by mere smart humans were nothing more than miscellaneous techniques.
If the difference in tool performance is overwhelming, the difference in user skill can easily be made up for.
So what if both sides use the same tools?
The better one wins!
— Phagec!
An invisible bloodbath to usurp control of the mind and body.
I once again put forth my strength to get my ‘body’ back, and the ‘thing left in my body’ repeated its meaningless resistance.
A spectacular magical showdown beyond human comprehension continues.
In the first clash, the opponent’s vanguard was broken, and in the second clash, the opponent, on the defensive, retreated repeatedly.
When the third collision occurred, the opponent began to groan as if he could not bear it.
“Only three times? The skill gap is too big?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Now it’s time to shed this cumbersome old man’s body and return to my real body!
The guy left in the body said in a panic.
“How… like this….”
“Why? Because the skill gap is too big?”
“…”
“Accept it. If you were stronger, I would have disappeared instead. One of us was going to disappear anyway, right?”
“…”
Approach someone with a blank expression.
Of course, be prepared to respond at any time in case of a tantrum –
— Jiiing!
The moment my ‘strange sense’, which was neither visual nor auditory, perceived the distortion of space, I immediately rolled backwards.
Immediately afterwards, an inexplicable disaster struck the place where I had just been.
“…”
After avoiding, the emotion I felt was ‘disappointment’ rather than surprise or anger.
‘She’ is my colleague, so why is she attacking me?
The reason is clear.
Since I was in Hong Go-hak’s body, she judged me to be a fake.
I am not fake.
The person remaining in ‘Han Ga-in’s body’ was not fake either.
From the beginning, we were one until just a moment ago, and the great sculptor’s hands simply breathed new life into me.
Therefore, if I get ‘Han Ga-in’s body’ back, I can persuade her.
When I took another step closer, the ‘one that remained in the body’ muttered as if it had given up.
“In some ways, it’s a good thing.”
“…”
“I don’t know why, but you’re incredibly strong right now. I felt it in the fight just now, and I felt it when I saw you avoid Ari’s space attack. It might be right for you to swallow me up and solve this room…”
I am stronger than my opponent.
Since the same human mind was split in two, there should be no essential difference between the two… .
I am overwhelmingly stronger than my opponent.
So this was not normal.
“…”
When I realized this fact, I stopped in my tracks.
*
– Han Ga-in
Accepted defeat.
It was a fight that ended in an instant, but I knew that I would never win if I fought again.
It was clear that they were competing using the same grimoire, but the gap was so large that it was hard to believe.
To put it jokingly, it’s like if I were Homo sapiens, the other person would be Homo godpiens.
It seemed that the brain performance differed by at least 30%.
He even avoided Ari’s ‘space charm’.
How can you avoid an attack from an isosceles polyhedron when you can neither see it nor hear it?
It is an apparently new sensory ability that cannot be explained even by my often-manifested extrasensory senses.
At this point, it’s probably best to give up.
The opponent is, well, someone like Han Ga-in Mk 2.
…
It was a little embarrassing, but I was secretly glad that Ari took my side in the end instead.
Now, shall we think of a fancy will?
As a man, shouldn’t you leave behind at least one nice thing to say when you leave?
“A life without regrets -”
“This was the opponent’s plan.”
“… hmm?”
‘He’ didn’t come to me anymore.
“The enemy’s picture was of me devouring your mind and taking over your body!”
“What are you talking about -”
When I raised my head, I was very embarrassed.
Because the other person’s expression was filled with indescribable despair.
“Why am I stronger than you?”
“what -”
“Why? I’m this strong even though I’ve torn apart the same people.”
“…”
“Because it’s not the same. It’s because the monster beyond the veil, the one who failed to become a Buddha, has strengthened me. I want to defeat you and usurp your position!”
I was out of breath.
“I thought I won. I thought that if I could get that body back, if it became real, that would be victory.”
“you….”
“This is not the way to victory. It’s the opposite. You are real and I am real? No! You can’t win if you think like this. There has to be only one truth.”
For a moment, I couldn’t follow the flow of the conversation.
It seemed as if the opponent was denying the very enlightenment we had gained through the Book of Incarnation.
Then he ran over to me, grabbed my shoulder, and spoke earnestly.
“Remember, your opponent can change you. Transcending uniqueness is your greatest strength, but in this ordeal, it is also your weakness.”
At some point, he stopped using the word ‘we’.
“There will surely be a bigger mirror, and this will happen again. You will be split again, and again.”
The future that I and ‘he’ saw with insight.
“Are you going to fight every time? The stronger one will win? If you split the same people up, is it obvious that the stronger one is normal? No! That one is just twisted.”
When split, you shouldn’t fight.
Because if they compete in strength, the one who gets ‘more strength’ from the being beyond the mirror will win.
“Listen carefully to what I say. Right now, I am trying to convince you, while at the same time, I am trying to convince ‘the other me who will be born someday.’”
“… say.”
“When the mirror shines, a coin is tossed. If you’re lucky, you’ll be in Han Ga-in’s body. That’s lucky.”
“…”
“If I’m unlucky, I’ll be in a strange person’s body. I’ll think about it as soon as I wake up. Since I’ve obtained the second sentence of the Grimoire, there’s no such thing as fake. I’m real, and that’s real too. All I have to do is take Han Ga-in’s body.”
“…”
“You can’t think like this. You can’t win. The winner should always be ‘you.’”
I couldn’t believe it.
It’s not that I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I couldn’t believe that the other person accepted this logic!
Soon, he approached Min-ah, who was panting from behind.
He looked at Min-ah with genuine pity, then grabbed the gun she was holding tightly and looked at me again.
“So, Cain, keep this in mind.”
“…”
“When the coin is tossed, the one that is not real commits suicide.”
“you….”
“That’s the only way to win. Do you understand?”
— Bang!
Once again, only one Han Ga-in remains in room 207.