Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 583
Only Krnovel
EP.583 Episode 583 – The Calm Before the Storm – The Girl of the Strange World (2)
Episode 583 – The Calm Before the Storm – The Girl of the Strange World (2)
– Han Ga-in
I think, floating on the border between reality and unreality, awakening and dreams.
What date is it now?
Is the image I see of my colleagues current?
Or is it that the owl is retelling the events of the past?
I don’t know.
Anyway, it was quite interesting to see Eunsol open her mouth in front of me somehow.
*
“So, Sophia! Long time no see. I heard the news. So, the Administration gave you a new body?”
Sophia resembled a classic beauty in her early 20s, like someone you might see in an American movie from the 1970s.
Appearance is appearance, but the clothing, hair, and makeup style itself give off that feeling.
Of course, considering she was born in the Middle Ages, it might be ‘latest’ by Sophia’s standards.
“Yes. Shall I show you?”
Sophia laughed lightly and spun around as if she was in a fashion show.
“Wow~! Sophia, you’re so pretty!”
I could feel Eunsol’s sincerity in these words.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case next time.
“Uh, shall we have dinner? Do you remember the beef stew I made for you before?”
“… I’m sorry. I don’t remember very well.”
Beef stew that Eunsol made for Sophia when she was young.
To my older sister, it was only half a year ago, but to Sophia, it was about 500 years ago.
In the first place, does Eunsol even remember that stew exactly?
I think it was just something that came to mind in a hurry when Sophia said she was coming.
“When I looked at you as a child, I wondered what you would be like when you grew up… I didn’t know you would be like this.”
“Looking at it again, I have similar thoughts.”
“Similar thoughts?”
“So this is what you looked like? I thought you never forgot what your mother looked like, but I guess not.”
It seems that Eunsol’s real appearance was different from the one in Sophia’s memories.
It’s not surprising, given the gap of hundreds of years.
In Room 207, she played the role of a backward medieval widow, but in reality, she is a successful businesswoman, so her positions are completely different.
“Hmm, is it really different? Hmm… Was she prettier back then? I guess it’s because she was half a year younger!”
Unlike Eun-sol, who took it as a joke, Sophia was always serious.
“His physique is bigger than his face. He’s smaller than I thought. When I was young, I thought he was really big.”
“… okay?”
A young girl’s idea of her mother may seem larger than her actual size.
Now, Sophia is taller than her older sister Eunsol.
“Your face is different, too. The image I remember is a mix of your real appearance and my reflection in the mirror.”
As time goes by, memories of your mother tend to fade.
Sophia seemed to have filled the gap with her own face reflected in the mirror.
“Well, then I guess you might be a little disappointed. After all, Sophia is so pretty -”
“That’s not what I meant.”
After that, the story continued in a somewhat superficial way.
“The Administration asked me to work as a researcher in exchange for giving them a body.”
“You accepted?”
“Looking at the circumstances surrounding the return, it doesn’t seem like the administration and you guys are particularly hostile… .”
“That’s right. I’ve never actually been given a mission, but I’m an agent in name only. Don’t worry about it. Rather, I’m not an agent, I’m a researcher?”
“The administration said they weren’t sure if I could withstand the loop.”
“I see.”
I’ve heard that there’s no way to know with 100% certainty who can withstand a loop.
The information that hotel escapees can survive the loop is only an inductive conclusion, as past escapees have done so.
“Now that I think about it, Seungyeop’s chest must be empty now that you’ve become independent.”
“They say he put his soul into it now.”
“Ah~ Then, will that guy, like in Room 207, come back to life even if he dies?”
“Umm… Speaking of that boy, I was more surprised by Fortuna than by my mother.”
“Oh, really?”
“It was a tremendous shock therapy. The Fortuna I knew was not a great demon from hell, but when I came to reality… .”
“How was it?”
“Well, there was a little kid who was proud of the fact that he was the top student in Bangbae Middle School.”
“…”
Seungyeop, who regained his ‘pure appearance’, whether in a good or bad way.
There was definitely a moment when I repeated the teachings of Izaseong and split the body in half with a single sword and split the sky… .
When I came to my senses, only the first place in the Bangbae Middle School rankings remained.
I’ve also heard that even though I’ve mastered martial arts, my LoL score is still ambiguous.
Instead of focusing on the game with your outstanding physical abilities, are you busy fighting with kids and swearing in between your skills?
No, he’s my colleague, but does this make sense?
“Thanks to you.”
“More, thanks? Thanks to what?”
“Because that kid gave me a huge shock therapy, I was able to adapt to reality quickly. Ah, the people I knew and the real people are completely! 180 degrees different people.”
“No…! No matter what, Seungyeop is a bit much!”
“Mother, I guess the way I remember you and the reality might be different.”
“I told you, not as much as Seungyeop?”
“Pfft! But he’s my colleague. Aren’t you being too aggressive?”
Two people laughing happily.
I feel like we’re becoming closer and more natural.
This can definitely be seen as Seungyeop’s virtue.
Maybe the lucky boy is playing the villain to please everyone?
Is this a villain role?
“Honestly, it was a shock at first. In today’s terms, it was a confusion of identity?”
“Sophia… .”
“Is the life I’ve lived an illusion? Is it no different from a movie being screened in the real world?”
“…”
Not only Eunsol, but even I, who was listening, was speechless.
In the past, Hwanma also showed a similar reaction and lost his mind!
“As time went by, I began to think like this.”
— Ting!
Sophia suddenly put the teacup into the stew bowl.
“A teacup in a bowl. Is this what we see?”
“The bowl is reality and the teacup is number 207?”
“yes.”
A teacup in a bowl.
A hotel in reality.
“To someone living in a bowl, No. 207 must be an illusion.”
“…”
“But look outside the bowl.”
“Outside the bowl?”
“Do you see the table?”
There is a bowl outside the teacup.
There is a table outside the bowl.
Even the table is not the end.
“Just like the room of curses, reality also loops. In the hotel, they even use the power of ‘dreams’ to freely repaint reality.”
Sister Eunsol also fell into serious thought.
“Is the hotel a table?”
“Well? However, you can think like this. From the perspective of the truly exalted, there is no difference between the room of curses and reality.”
“…”
Being at the highest point of the hotel – what difference does it make to Buddha whether it is reality or a cursed room?
Both are just paintings that can change anything with a single stroke of the brush.
…even such a great being could not create heaven.
“I feel relieved when I think about it that way. Perhaps the very concept of an unchanging reality is an illusion.”
If everything is an illusion, then Sophia, who was born in the illusion, is no less lacking than real people.
“I’m glad you feel better.”
At the end of the conversation, Sophia took her sister’s hand and asked,
“Please tell me this honestly.”
“okay.”
“Do I feel like a daughter to you?”
After nearly a minute of silence, my sister spoke with a heavy expression.
“Sorry. I don’t think so.”
“I understand.”
“But… . A precious relationship doesn’t necessarily have to be between mother and daughter. I want to think of you as a colleague.”
“…”
“What do you think?”
Sophia turned around without answering and walked out the door.
When Eunsol also waved her hand lightly with a resigned expression, Sophia smiled brightly.
“I will try.”
To this extent, it seems like things have worked out well.
The problem between the two of you is not something I can deal with.
Consciousness gradually fades.
Now that I have seen the situation of my colleagues, it seems like the strange dream is about to end –
uh?
Suddenly, a hard pressure roughly pulls my consciousness!
If before it felt like I was floating comfortably, it’s been completely different since then.
It’s clear that the hand of ‘another being’ is roughly grabbing and leading me?
Consciousness flies far, far away – to infinitely distant places.
It’s a strange feeling that not only the speed is faster, but the flow of time is also faster.
Suddenly, a mystical realization came into my mind.
If the being that had been guiding my mind until just a moment ago was an ‘owl’, now it’s a completely different being!
Is it your secret?
The sight of a man in a suit passing by as if he had been waiting.
There was no conversation, but this situation could be described as telepathy.
He asked me to ‘save Ari’.
— Paaaaat!
In an instant, my vision cleared up and I could feel the surrounding scenery.
If I had to describe it, it was like a city that had been destroyed after a nuclear war.
*
The first thing he discovered was a beautiful girl walking through the ruins.
Oh, hello?
I greeted him reflexively, but of course there was no response.
To begin with, it is unclear whether the scene we are seeing now is in the present or the past.
— Kreuk!
The insect-like monsters that appeared with strange cries rushed forward with their saw-like teeth bared.
Ari evaded the attack, rising with the power of her wing boots.
Next is a place deeper in the ruins.
It was full of bare wires, and Ari was trying to weave them together to operate something like a machine.
Where is this place and what is Ari doing?
Why can’t the status window find this location and just says ‘Searching’?
—Whoosh!
A tremendous vibration that made it seem like the whole world was shaking!
As dust poured down from all over the ruins, Ari leisurely floated into the air and hid in a place that seemed like a hiding place she had prepared in advance.
It seems that they have already adapted to this place and this phenomenon.
— Shhhh!
As the vibrations end, whitish entities appear ‘through’ the concrete wall!
The moment when you feel nervous because you can tell at a glance that this is a formidable enemy –
Ari took out the camera from her bosom as if she had been waiting.
— Click!
With a click of a finger, an unidentified chaos entity disappears in an instant.
Seeing the impressive performance, I understood why Ari called the camera a treasure of the ages.
“Whew… .”
A long sigh.
He looks exhausted from struggling to survive day by day.
For now, I’m holding on thanks to my own strength and useful tools, but it’s only a matter of time.
If this condition continued, there seemed to be no way to survive.
“Haa… Buddha. Since you saved my life, it would have been better if you had saved me properly. I didn’t even have clothes on, and I was dreaming.”
You escaped by writing down your dreams a while ago?
“It’s fine that they sent it to a place out of the reach of the management, but this place is a bit too much.”
A place beyond the reach of the administration.
“At this rate, it’ll only take two months – huh?”
At that very moment, a feather appeared fluttering in the air.
A feather that seemed so out of place floated lazily toward Ari’s face and landed on her prominent nose.
“…”
An expression that seems to be deeply thoughtful.
Soon, she looked up at the sky and muttered as if she felt an unknown hope.
As if to tell someone to listen.
“This is the realm of the fallen god.”
…
“The great one who was created by everyone’s hands to avoid the end, but was abandoned by our own hands.”
…
“An entity essentially similar to the one Eunsol saw in the other world.”
— Paaaaat!
With this, my consciousness began to rise upward.
In an instant, Ari became as small as a fingernail, and her hiding place became smaller than the palm of her hand!
When the gaze moved to a high place where the ruins where Ari was hiding, the entire city could be seen at a glance –
I met eyes with a gaze that was so enormous that it was beyond my imagination.
A boundless, distant being.
An immature god who lost his intelligence after being abandoned and ruined.
iced coffee…!
I thought, screaming in a silent scream that no one could hear.
Ari is now on top of a giant creature’s body!