Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 598
Only Krnovel
EP.598 Episode 598 – The Stolen World (13)
Episode 598 – The Stolen World (13)
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 226
You are currently: Searching… .
Wise Man’s Advice: 0”
– Han Ga-in
After the harsh insults passed, a moment of silence fell.
The Silent Ones, Domination and Osdork.
The wisdom of the ancestors, almost half-human and half-god.
A hotel party including me.
For about five seconds, the three groups looked at each other, and then everyone realized one thing.
‘These kids have no idea what to do from now on!’
The Bureau forces either escaped on the Ark before the Moon awakened, or remained on the surface, were struck by the ‘Light of Doom’, and died, then woke up in the next loop.
The wisdom of the past probably wasn’t on Earth in the first place.
There’s no one in this place who’s ever stood up to the moon!
To begin with, most of the information Ari provided was guesswork or hypotheses.
“under….”
Let’s take a breath, the silent one and the wisdom of the past looked at me at the same time.
“There’s no one who knows much about the moon? What have you been doing all this time, you old people -”
“This really is a motherless bastard!”
Crude swear words, this time I knew who said it.
“Osdork, you’re not even human, but you curse so much -”
“You… do you know what you’ve done!”
“I don’t know.”
The wisdom of the past cried out in lament.
“Ahh…! You who shed tears for the three thousand worlds!”
At that very moment.
– Huh! Aah! Aaaah!
An ear-piercing cry began to be heard from all directions!
All the forces made their decisions as if they had been waiting for this sound.
– Doo doo doo doo…!
The wisdom of the past disappeared somewhere, making the same strange vibration sound as when it appeared.
“You bastards! I declare that from now on, there will be no forgiveness for you. In the world to come, I will kill you as soon as you wake up, no matter what means I use -”
“Oswald! There’s no time to waste!”
– Crunch!
Domination and Osdork seemed to be pouring curses on us, but then suddenly committed suicide!
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw the crushed head of Domination and Osdork’s bundle of nerves in an instant.
“You’re quick to take action.”
The silent ones are the regressors who can resurrect in the next loop by their own power.
He tried to protect the ark not for his own life, but for the survival of civilization.
So, rather than holding out any longer and risking being swallowed by the moon, they decided it was better to die quickly.
– Aaaah! Huuuu!
The sound of crying is heard again.
“What, what is this -”
Ari ran before Seungyeop could finish asking his question.
“Everyone, come here! Ga-in, you bring Eun-sol!”
After bringing Eunsol, Ari ran around frantically and explained in a hurry.
“The ark is waking up!”
“There are 4 months left until completion -”
“This isn’t a proper awakening! Even if you wake up like this, you’re not a divine being! It’s just that, if you were a human, you’d be in a fetal, or rather, an embryonic state, and you’d feel an instinctive sense of crisis and act like that!”
“so!”
“You can’t even communicate! You don’t know what they might do! You just have to get out!”
So, does that mean that a normally completed ark is capable of communication?
Do you have human-level self-consciousness?
This itself seems like meaningful information –
“This way!”
As we followed Ari, the only one among us who knew exactly what the internal structure of the ark was like, we arrived at a place with a thin outer wall.
“Yay!”
The moment an invisible sword tears through the outer wall with a roar –
“Current location: Searching… -> 6,341m above Beijing, China”
As soon as you connect to the outside world, the status window will tell you your current location?
Then why does it still say that it’s searching within the ark?
Because the arks under construction span different time and space?
Are you in a state where you can’t tell where it is because you’ve determined the location?
“No time to think! We have to escape! Run! To the ground!”
Ari must have thought I was distracted somewhere else, but I understand.
However, the reason I caused confusion is because I wanted to ‘obtain information that cannot be obtained through normal progress’, so there is no way around it.
Ari held the maze, and I, Jincheol hyung, Seungyeop, and Eunsol noona lined up like sausages and ran out of the ark.
That’s when everyone rose into the sky!
– Doo doo doo doo…!
“ah?”
“This, this sound!”
The wisdom of the past appears from thin air!
I thought this kid just quietly went off to do his job, didn’t he?
It was a vulnerable time, during a flight – no, he must have been aiming for this timing!
“This kid -”
“I don’t know about other people, but I don’t want to hear any curses from you.”
“Hey, senior!”
“senior?”
“Let’s go our separate ways! We each have our own purpose -”
“Now, my insight warns me. I will slaughter you here into five pieces.”
“My insight was that there was no such warning?”
“Junior, I guess I need to learn one more thing.”
The moment a sphere of shining blue appears from the fingertips of the ancient wisdom that has transcended human form –
Seungyeop fell to me with a bitter smile.
“I guess it’s hard to live like that.”
“you….”
Seungyeop doesn’t have any legacy like me that gives him the ability to fly.
But Seungyeop was standing ‘stepping on empty air’.
Seungyeop held something that looked like a spear shining brightly in his hand, as if he had picked it up somewhere in the ark.
“I thought there wasn’t much to see except for the juniors, wasn’t I?”
– Rumble!
“Haaaah!”
Leaving behind the harsh screams, Ari and I took off into the Beijing sky.
…
“now.”
“what?”
“I think Seungyeop is dead.”
“… I had placed myself in the soul box and was in a state of awakening.”
If I turn back time, will the number of awakenings I used return?
No one knows since it’s something we’ve never experienced before.
After Seungyeop died, there was no further pursuit.
No matter how strong the wisdom of the past is, it is no better than a chicken in front of a tiger in front of the moon.
Now that the moon is waking up, even the wisdom of our ancestors would not have the luxury of wasting any more time on us.
*
Me, Ari, Miro, Jincheol hyung and Eunsol hyung.
It didn’t take long for the five to return to Korea, as the ark was in the Beijing sky.
As soon as we arrived, we laid Eunsol, who was in terrible condition, on the bed first.
Not only was I exposed to sleeping gas, but I also had to endure a rough flight bare-handed before I could even recover properly, and I woke up and passed out again several times.
It seemed like it would take quite some time to recover.
Ari opened her mouth.
“Gain, do you have any concrete plans for what you’re going to do from now on?”
“doesn’t exist.”
I didn’t create any confusion because I had no definite plan.
“First, I’ll bring my colleagues from Australia.”
The moon is awakening in Australia, so we need to bring our colleagues there quickly.
“Do you have a plane? Or, I can take you -”
“Foot!”
“ah?”
Ariga answered with a smile after a long time.
“You may not know it, but there is a way to get to Australia in an instant by car.”
Are you driving from Korea to Australia?
And in an instant?
I looked at Jincheol hyung, wondering what he was talking about, and he shook his head.
Is this some kind of secret passage known only to the higher-ups in the administration?
“I’ll explain when I have time. Miro, just come.”
“Me, just me?”
“There’s no time. Hurry up!”
Is it only for two people at a time?
In that case, a maze that allows one person to use the abilities of multiple people is useful.
After Ariga took Miro and disappeared, I briefly explained to Jincheol what had happened so far.
Soon, Jincheol Hyung spoke with a heavy expression.
“The reason you told Sang-Hyeon to commit suicide was because of the risk of being eaten by the moon, right?”
“you’re right.”
“Isn’t that risk the same for other colleagues in Australia? Even if Agent Silence can just say “One More Chance Thing!” in the worst case scenario, what about Elena or Songi?”
Unlike Grandpa, who can survive even in the worst case scenario, where the moon pops out in front of his eyes, if he can just click One More Chance, Elena and Songi are in quite a precarious situation.
“The moon is the entity that devours the survivors after the ark leaves.”
“I understand that part.”
“At this time, devouring does not mean annihilating survivors as soon as the moon wakes up.”
“then?”
This is something I had guessed when I first heard Ari’s story, and it’s also why Owl said, ‘Try it once.’
The moon is not the kind of chaos that kills all humans as soon as it wakes up.
“You can’t eat the soul of someone you kill. In fact, you can’t devour the soul of a dead person.”
“ah?”
Jincheol opened his mouth slightly.
You probably haven’t thought this far because you’ve never had your soul devoured like I have.
“Look at the Holy Sun. In order to absorb souls, you need to go through some fancy procedures, like establishing a cult.”
“That, that’s right!”
“What about the ark? They say they gather people inside the ark and make them pray for six months straight.”
“I see?”
“According to my experience of swallowing human souls many times -”
“Those words just now are really creepy… .”
“- There must be a kind of ‘mental bond’ first.”
“…”
“Whether it’s faith or belief or something like that. The moon is the same. It’ll probably require some preliminary work, like brainwashing the survivors.”
“That process starts now?”
“Yes.”
After hearing this, Jincheol thought for a moment and then nodded.
“So that’s why only Sang-Hyeon committed suicide. He was so close to the moon that he had no mental resistance.”
“you’re right.”
Just as the divine sun and the ark require ‘preliminary work’ to devour souls, the moon also requires preliminaries such as brainwashing.
In other words, Elena, who has a clear mind, and Songi, who has various perspectives, still have some time after the moon wakes up.
Grandpa, if you can just click One More Chance, that’ll be enough.
The person with the most no plan is Sang-Hyeon.
So I had to commit suicide.
“…”
Jincheol, who had been thinking deeply about something, suddenly got up.
“brother?”
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Just stay here until Ari comes -”
“It’s something that must be done.”
“What is it?”
“…Trust me.”
“Oh, of course!”
You want me to just trust you without giving me a clear reason for going out?
I was a little surprised because I wasn’t used to Jincheol acting like this, but I nodded immediately.
Because there is nothing untrustworthy between us.
“ah?”
Just before Jincheol Hyung left, Tongchal sensed a thick smell of blood from his brother.
“…”
I thought I knew what my brother was trying to do.
As everyone left to go about their own business, I stayed by Eunsol’s side, who had fainted, and thought about what would happen next.
*
Towards evening, Ari returned, leaving the dark night sky behind.
Grandpa Mukseong, Elena, and Miro followed in, all three of them looking extremely tired.
“… came.”
“hello.”
“I’m out… Gain! What about the others?”
Eunsol, who had just woken up, answered instead.
“I’m here, and Jincheol went out for a bit.”
Six people, including me, Ari, Grandpa, Elena, Miro, and my older sister Eunsol, sat around a large table.
Four people are empty.
Jincheol hyung only went out for a little while, but it wasn’t the three of them.
Eunsol asked mutteredly.
“… Songi?”
Ari answered calmly.
“He died during the escape.”
“…”
“The soldiers of the previous wisdom attacked. There was even a bomb planted in the car. There was nothing we could do. It’s fortunate that he died peacefully.”
It’s okay to die in a bomb attack.
If I turn back time, I will come back to life.
After some conversation, the grandfather, who understood the situation, asked.
“The time frame for the return of One More Chance is one month. You probably plan to find out as many facts as possible within one month and then return?”
“you’re right.”
“In the meantime, it would be impossible for the people who were eaten by the moon to survive even if time were turned back…”
I didn’t answer because it was true.
Because we started this project after considering this part.
If we can stop the moon, even at the cost of sacrifice, we can save many more lives.
My grandfather answered me as if he cared about me.
“Well done. At first I wondered what you had done, but after hearing you say it, it seemed like a stroke of genius.”
“I hope so.”
“Have you made a rough plan?”
“Rather than a plan, I set a goal.”
This time Ari asked.
“What is it?”
I showed everyone the whiteboard I had written on in advance.
“1. Find out how to stop the Moon Demon.
Understand how the Moon Demon devours the souls of survivors
The relationship between me and the moon in the past
2. Find out the purpose of the wisdom of the ancestors
The Source and Solution of Abnormally Strong Power
“Is there more?”
“Me!”
Surprisingly, Elena answered.
“Hey, I think you’ve forgotten, Mr. Gain too… .”
“What do you mean?”
“As the wisdom of the past said, things will get weird if I die.”
“ah?”
“After that, you also realized that my blessings had weakened?”
That’s right.
“There are other definitions besides mine. There certainly are.”
Miro’s eyes widened.
“Where are you?”
“I know.”
At first, I thought it was in the Administration, that is, the Ark, but it didn’t show up even when Domination and Osdork were in danger.
It’s not on the side of the wisdom of the past either.
Where is another definition?
“Let’s add it.”
“3. The whereabouts of the previous justice”
At this point, everyone was organizing their future plans.
– Crackle!
A loud noise began to erupt from all directions!
“Ugh! Dee, the display suddenly turns on!”
“Eunsol! What is this?”
“I don’t know either!”
– Crackle!
“Emergency disaster alert!
A chaotic disaster has occurred in your area.
This alert is effective from this time.
Citizens are advised to remain in enclosed buildings.
You should never go out into exposed areas.
For the safety of all citizens, please remain indoors.
You should never look at the night sky.
Other guidelines to follow are –
– Crackle!
“Emergency disaster alert!
The current chaos disaster alert is corrected as follows:
This correction is effective from this time.
A widespread chaotic disaster is occurring that is destroying enclosed buildings.
Please leave the room immediately and go to a nearby shelter.
For the safety of our citizens, you must evacuate from indoor spaces.
Other guidelines to follow are –