Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 582
Only Krnovel
EP.582 Episode 582 – The Eve of the Storm – The Dreaming Wanderer (1)
Episode 582 – The Eve of the Storm – The Dreaming Wanderer (1)
– Han Ga-in
My head hurts.
My consciousness is clouded.
It’s not easy to even maintain your wits when the whole place is filled with scorching heat.
My body can’t move a single finger, and I’m plagued by constant headaches every moment.
More painful than physical pain is the deprivation of sensation and information.
There is almost no visibility and hardly any sound.
I don’t know if it’s because of my physical condition or the punishment, but I can’t even check the status window properly.
All you can do is think in the dark.
Every time a colleague approaches, I force myself to open my mouth and blurt out whatever information comes to mind.
“…”
On the day in question, I tried to recall my memories before entering the hotel in Jeju Island.
The results were overwhelmingly successful.
It was more like a short film, not just a few images, but a look at what happened that day.
Even when I was getting the information, I wondered, ‘Is this right?’
Insight has never been this powerful when the blessing is intact, so it is strange that it shows this kind of performance after being weakened.
Sure enough, as soon as the event ended, I immediately became helpless and the following notification appeared:
“Rules Violation Detected!”
“Punishment: Leaking the secrets of the heavens”
“Participant Han Ga-in coveted forbidden knowledge and shared that information with others. Participant Han Ga-in is prohibited from participating in activities for an extended period of time.”
“…”
It’s funny to think about it again, but wasn’t it the owl who broke the rule, not me?
I never thought I would see such a profound short film in Jeju Island!
Well, I think the owl is receiving its own punishment too.
Maybe I’m trapped in a cage.
The expression ‘long term’ is significant.
Because there was no specific period written down, it was impossible to know exactly when the punishment would be lifted.
I have a vague idea.
The six-month deadline the merchant told me about when I left the hotel is now just over a month away, right?
When that time comes, the punishment will be lifted and he will be able to resume his activities.
I guess I used the expression ‘long term’ because I didn’t want to give a specific date.
“Ugh… .”
“Are you okay?”
Someone’s voice.
He seems to be a colleague, but his physical condition is so terrible that I can’t even tell who he is.
Anyway, my colleagues took turns coming to see me almost every day.
Since it was a disciplinary action taken by the hotel, it wasn’t of much help to have my colleagues around… .
Psychologically, it was a great comfort.
“Your butt looks like it needs a change of towel, but there’s no one around.”
“…”
If there is no one nearby, who is speaking now?
“You really don’t know?”
There’s an owl next to me.
Did it appear in real form?
Or is it a situation where only the voice is transmitted?
Either way, how is this possible?
“Birds can go anywhere.”
The bird is like that, but I don’t think you are.
I thought you would have been disciplined too from the beginning.
“I’m fine. The work on the island took just as much effort from ‘Secret’ as it did from me.”
If it’s a secret, aren’t you Ari’s sponsor?
Why did he get so active when he wasn’t even my sponsor?
“He may not be your patron, but secrets are his domain. And… he’s getting a little nervous.”
Secret sponsor is getting nervous?
“He wants you to save his contestant.”
I understand the situation.
The incident in Jeju Island was a joint effort between Owl and ‘Secret’, and since the responsibility was shared, the two did not receive a severe punishment.
“The reason your punishment was so harsh was not because you saw the secret, but because you leaked it as soon as you saw it.”
It’s a bigger problem to leak a secret to someone else than to find out the secret.
So my crime is ‘leaking the secret’.
“So I said most of the responsibility lies with you.”
?
“I said that punishment is also a problem you will have to deal with.”
??
“So I’m fine.”
???
What the heck is this new guy talking about?
“You have a bad habit of turning harsh when you tell the truth.”
I was about to curse because I was so shocked, but the next words made me shut my mouth.
“Now, just stay still. It might be hard for you to move.”
Suddenly this thought occurred to me.
Am I awake right now?
It doesn’t seem real when the sponsor is talking next to me.
Am I talking to my sponsor in my dream?
“Do you understand now?”
Normally I would have remembered it right away, but the headache and dizziness were so bad that I realized it too late.
“You’ll be bored for a long time, so I’ll help you have interesting dreams.”
— Foodduck!
I heard the sound of wings flapping.
My consciousness also floated up.
*
The first place we arrived was a secret conference room.
Songi, Elena, Sanghyun, and Grandpa Mukseong were gathered together.
The conference room looks like a rebuilt Delight Hotel, but Eunsol isn’t there. Is she busy?
In this configuration, it seems like Sang-Hyeon would be the only one talking and the rest would just listen, but surprisingly, Song-I was in the center.
Because Song was the one who gave me the information before I became powerless in Jeju Island.
If you think about it, the punishment became harsher because the information was passed on to Songi, which added to the ‘leak’.
“Do you understand all three stories?”
Sang-Hyeon nods his head.
“First, whether or not one is responsible for the sins of a previous life even after reincarnation. Second, the tragic history of the ark. Third… Heaven? Is that right?”
“yes.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
“I’m surprised. Ga-in was a regressor before she came to the hotel?”
Grandfather corrected himself.
“He’s not a complete regressor like the agent. If he was, his memories and personality should have been inherited, but Ga-in wasn’t like that before she came to the hotel.”
“It seems similar to the Mama I mentioned before. I vaguely remember memories from before the loop, but I don’t think they are memories from a previous life.”
“I think the contradictions in memory are simply because I am confused.”
“Isn’t that what a normal person is like? It’s even stranger to think of something like a loop out of nowhere.”
Elena asked the question again.
“I understand the story itself, but I don’t see how it connects to our current problem.”
“I think the first story is about the individual, Mr. Gain. Is he responsible for his past life’s sins even after reincarnation? This is a question of whether he is the same person before and after reincarnation… .”
“This has nothing to do with the agents of the Management Bureau. They are people whose memories and personalities have been perfectly inherited, so of course they are the same people.”
“Yes. These are ethical considerations that arise when you are an imperfect regressor like Mr. Cain. This is information about Mr. Cain himself.”
Song-i muttered with a somewhat anxious expression after hearing the story between her grandfather and Sang-hyeon.
“So… does that mean that the ‘young Hitler’ in the story is Gain’s older brother?”
Then everyone became quiet.
… No matter what, young Hitler is too much.
“Ahem, let’s move on to the next story. The story about the ark. This seems to be directly connected to reality.”
“I agree. Doesn’t the keyword ‘ark’ sound familiar? I’ve heard it many times.”
He emphasized that he remembered Songi.
“Brother Cain muttered that ‘Ju’ also seemed to be a type of ark!”
“Come to think of it, Eunsol said that too. When she was captured in a strange area on the Esper ship, she met a divine being referred to as the ‘Ark’.”
Sang-Hyeon mutters while rubbing his chin.
“After all, the ‘ark’ is something completely different from the ship we usually think of. It seems to refer to a divine being that protects mortals from great disasters… .”
“Or perhaps it is the divine being itself.”
The surroundings became quiet after the grandfather’s words.
Because everyone vaguely understood the meaning of those words.
“… The Lord is also an ark. The sacred sun of Cain’s army is a small Lord.”
“The sacred sun serves to gather human souls.”
Finally, Elena muttered with a look of fear on her face.
“If you gather the souls of the people of the world together and create a divine being, that is the ark?”
“I think it’s a plausible hypothesis.”
Now that we have an interpretation of the ark, we need to interpret the story of the ark being stolen by those who arrived late.
“I think it’s an ancient tale.”
“It’s ancient….”
“A very long time ago. The most advanced loop existence among us would probably be Gain-kun, but this happened long before Gain-kun.”
It’s been so long since I could have imagined.
“It’s a kind of ancient history.”
“… So, who is the ‘last survivor’ in that story?”
“At first I thought it was a story about Gain.”
“now?”
“If you think about it that way, doesn’t it seem a bit strange?”
Who is the last survivor?
me?
If you look at it that way, the story before that doesn’t fit.
In the previous story, what did I say, baby Hitler?
Isn’t it a justified revenge for the last survivor to avenge his clan?
It’s a bit awkward to say things like this is a sin that will lead to hell, or that he’s called Baby Hitler.
Of course, even if it was a justified revenge, if too many people were killed in the process, wouldn’t it be right to go to hell?
I don’t know.
“But, if you compare the information that Gain-kun obtained with the information that Ari-yang gave, there is a strange difference.”
The difference between the information I got from Jeju Island and the information I got from Ari.
“The story of the return, the story of the ark. Let’s say that these two roughly overlap. Isn’t one completely different?”
The story about the ‘Demon King of Reality’ that Ari emphasized is completely missing from the information on Jeju Island.
On the other hand, Ari contains a story about ‘heaven’ that is not even mentioned.
“Well… the information sources will be different.”
At that time, Songi gave a sharp opinion.
“The information that Ga-in got from Jeju Island is very old information, right? Ancient history!”
“Yes.”
“What Ari gave me was the latest information. So, the Demon King of reality or the Demon of the Moon!”
“It wasn’t there before Ga-in came into the hotel?”
That makes sense.
The moon I remember was the Earth’s satellite that lit up the night sky, not some primordial demon or cosmic disaster.
Afterwards, the colleagues had a heated discussion.
There were quite a few parts that were interesting but also made me wonder if this was right.
Time will tell which interpretation is correct.
Consciousness is surfacing again.
Owl’s thoughts seemed to indicate that the subsequent meetings were of little value.
*
The next place we arrived at was the night school.
Behind the cell phone light, there were three people: Miro, Seungyeop, and Jincheol.
Is Eunsol alone?
“Everyone understands what I say!”
Seungyeop and Jincheol laughed awkwardly at Miro’s confident words.
“I understand. So, the maze of ghost stories that resides in your body -”
“The Darkside Maze is in danger!”
“…”
“I heard from Songi, Darkside -”
“I’m sorry, but it would be better to call it a ghost story maze… .”
“No! When the Black Dragon Maze finally disappeared, he said, ‘I’m starting to find it hard to bear it!’”
“I heard.”
“I didn’t understand what you meant then, but I do now. Black Dragon Maze only has a short time to maintain his sanity!”
“…”
“I spent most of that time talking to Cain. That’s why I think Black Dragon Maze is a little crazy.”
Seungyeop made an anxious expression.
“Why are you calling me and saying that?”
Miro answered with a confident expression.
“The Black Dragon Maze is dangerous!”
“Hey, you called me because it’s dangerous?”
“You guys should handle the dangerous stuff. After you’ve had a blast, even the Black Dragon will become quiet. Now call -”
“Eww!”
“Hey! Hey, calm down!”
No matter what Seungyeop and Jincheol said, Miro didn’t pay any attention and just placed his hand on the paper on the desk.
There were O and X drawn on the paper.
“Start! Clone Saba!”
“Calm down, you idiot!”
“Oh! Are all middle school students like this these days?”
“Brother! I’ve never done anything like that -”
If all middle school students these days were like mazes, the world would be ruined five times over.
“I’m a clone! I’m a clone! I’m a clone! Oitte kudasai -”
…
The real maze is really fun.
I often feel that without Ari and me, no one can control the maze.
Well, it’s ambiguous whether Miro’s actions are wrong now.
It might be absurd for Jincheol and Seungyeop, but even if I were in the maze, I think I would have called my colleagues and solved it like this.
Consciousness is surfacing again.
Aha, it’s Eunsol.
I was wondering where you were alone, and you were here?
My sister wasn’t alone.
“Mom, it’s been a while.”
“…”
My sister started to sweat coldly, unable to even breathe deeply.