Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 638
Only Krnovel
EP.638 Episode 638 – A Path for Everyone (3) Fin
Episode 638 – A Path for Everyone (3) Fin
– Aidia
“Say it again, so that I can trust myself!”
Perhaps sensing my sternness, Gain looked at me with a complicated expression for a moment.
“… First of all, from the beginning, the only candidates are you or me.”
“Because of the crown.”
To control the moon, a crown is needed, and only royalty, the returnees of the first civilization, can wear the crown.
There are only two people under heaven who can do this: Cain, who has become one with the prince, and me.
It’s an easy story up to here, so I accepted it right away.
“Second, Aidya, you have great potential that you don’t even know about.”
It was already a little absurd.
“The ability to love and cherish humanity for at least several thousand years, and to endure all hardships and adversities.”
“You experienced a potential you didn’t even know you had in room 207?”
“That’s correct.”
No matter how many times I heard it, it was still strange.
In the first place, I am here, and the fact that there is an ‘other me’ in the cursed room is absurd.
Let’s say that the hotel itself is a weird place.
No matter how great I am in room 207, what does that have to do with me outside?
“It may sound strange, but this side of Aidia and that side of Aidia -”
“It was very similar?”
“That’s it.”
“It’s a story I’ve never experienced before, so it’s still hard for me to accept… . Let’s say that’s true. But didn’t you say it yesterday?”
“…”
“Even I, in room 207, started to go wild at some point.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t have told that story.”
“yes?”
“no.”
“…”
For a moment I was dumbfounded and fell silent, but Ga-in smiled playfully and answered.
“What’s wrong? Keep asking questions.”
“… The great me you saw also eventually collapsed over a long period of time. It’s not strange. Humans have limitations -”
“You’re not human, you’re a reptilian. Or are you a mineral?”
“… As time passes in units of ten thousand years, minerals also begin to turn to dust.”
“That’s true.”
“The elders told you a few days ago. When the one wearing the crown becomes mad, no one can stop him.”
“Who is watching the watchers? That’s the question.”
“Who will be watching over me while I am wearing the crown?”
“One, loot from the plunderers.”
The entity that watches over the world is the Administration.
The entity that watches over the administration is silent.
So then, who watches over those who remain silent?
The answer to this is the Tablet of Silence.
The stone tablets were not created by chance, but were created by logical necessity.
That is, each of the looters had an object that corresponded to the Tablet of Silence.
“‘Unwavering Oath’, ‘Will to Protect’, ‘Eternal Seal’ -”
“Stop it, I know because we watched it together.”
“About eight of them were fine. I swear on them all.”
“…”
“You know the specifics of the oath. If you deviate from the path for humanity, you will be punished?”
“… The content of the oath is not the problem.”
“then?”
“Can they punish me? Something as simple as a stone tablet punishes me after I wear the crown?”
“You can do it now, because you -”
“Even if I wear the crown, I won’t become as strong as the prince or you?”
“Yes. Also, contradictions can be watchdogs for you.”
“…”
Contradiction.
A distant spirit that naturally arose on the moon where the souls of eons gathered.
He was born as a god.
Depending on your perspective, contradiction is the true lunar self.
“Aidya, I guarantee you that once you get the crown, you won’t have time to worry about corruption or self-pity.”
“…”
“Even if we try our best to reconcile the contradictions, it won’t be enough.”
Wearing a crown doesn’t make everyone equally strong.
Just look at Prince Emilio and Cain.
The prince was only able to use a tiny fraction of the moon’s endless power during his lifetime.
Because we did not have enough awareness, we wasted most of our energy suppressing contradictions.
On the other hand, the man in front of her had no difficulty controlling the contradiction at all.
What if it were me?
I am incomparable to Cain, and I am far inferior to the prince.
As he said, he would spend almost all his energy suppressing the madness of contradiction.
“Do you understand?”
“…”
The three reasons Cain gave.
First of all, the only people who can wear the crown are either Cain or me.
Second, according to what Cain confirmed in Room 207, I have sufficient qualifications.
Third, I am less enlightened than Cain or the princes of the past. That is why the similar stone tablets and contradictions can restrain me.
All three are plausible.
But, as is often the case with the clever, the most important part was missing.
“you are.”
“hmm?”
“Why can’t you?”
“Look at the third. The pseudo-stone tablets and contradictions can restrain you, but they can’t restrain me -”
“Let’s stop here. I may not be as wise as you, but I am a person with a lot of experience. Three reasons. They are not lies and they are logical, but they are reasons that were made after deciding on a conclusion, right?”
“…”
“The most important premise. Cain, you don’t want to do this job. So there has to be someone to do it for you, and that person is me.”
“…”
“Why wouldn’t you want to do this? I think I know now. You -”
“Because I want to go to the third floor.”
“Just like our predecessors.”
“…”
“Wearing the crown means staying in reality and becoming an eternal watchman. That way, you won’t be able to go to the third floor.”
“that’s right.”
He admitted it honestly, as if he had no intention of hiding it.
I want to go to the third floor.
To do that, you need someone to wear the crown in your place and remain in reality, and that person is Aidia.
“Why do you want to go to the third floor?”
“…”
“At first, I thought it was a vain view of reality, like the wisdom of the past. But, no matter how I looked at it, that wasn’t the case.”
Feeling a sense of futility about reality is a common trait among hotel escapees or relapsers.
But, there is bound to be a difference in degree.
Not everyone, like the wisdom of our ancestors, regards the whole of reality as an empty dream.
Not everyone, like the wisdom of the past, considers hotels as the only true world.
“The life you remember may not be as long as the wisdom of our ancestors.”
“Yes. There are many blank spaces in Aleph’s memories, and I’ve forgotten most of the life in between… I have a lot of memories from the hotel.”
“Also, living long doesn’t mean you’ll always think like your ancestors did.”
“Like you?”
“Like me.”
The time I have lived is comparable to the wisdom of my ancestors, but I don’t think like them.
“Come to think of it, that was also a big reason.”
“yes?”
“Aidya, you didn’t seem to have any intention of going to the third floor.”
“Actually, you don’t think much about it. I’m more surprised that you’re willing to risk your life to get to the third floor.”
“…”
“You have already obtained eternal life and can enjoy all the riches and honors of the world.”
“…”
“Why on earth do you want to go to the third floor?”
I’m just genuinely curious.
I can understand why the wisdom of the ancestors, worn down by eons of life, would desire the third floor.
Because enough time has passed for him to grow tired of the transience of reality.
Why would Ga-in, who still has a fresh mind, risk her life and climb up to the third floor?
I asked the question without expecting an answer.
This time too, I thought it would be passed over with some vague, enigmatic remark.
At that moment, Gain looked at me with clear eyes.
“oh?”
“…”
“Is this insight?”
I’ve experienced it several times over the past few days, but no matter how many times I’ve experienced it, the eerie feeling never goes away.
“… Aidya.”
“Did you see something? Can I tell you? Can I not?”
“I’ll tell you something you usually forget.”
“yes?”
“Your true self is underground, and you here are a kind of clone.”
“…”
I was momentarily speechless by the sudden, shocking remark.
What is most embarrassing is myself accepting this ‘naturally’.
This is a fact that has been known from the beginning.
Usually, we just intentionally forget it to maintain our ego.
“Why are you suddenly saying this -”
The explanation began abruptly.
“The principle of gathering human souls to create a quasi-divine being. The civilization that discovered this was the one you and the prince were born into.”
“Yes.”
“The reason for starting the research would have been different from today’s Ark. There was no mention of mirrors in the research materials. I guessed that the ancestors were trying to create a powerful weapon.”
“…”
I was a little embarrassed.
The story itself was interesting, but I couldn’t figure out why I had to go to the third floor of the hotel and what it had to do with it.
“Whatever the initial research purpose was, it is true that it ultimately became an ark.”
“Yes.”
The initial research goal may have been to develop weapons, or to turn royalty into gods.
But in the end, I combined it with the mirror I found and made an ark.
“What were you running away from?”
“…”
“It is a civilization that has reached a level that we cannot even fathom today. They have poured millions and tens of millions of souls into the study of soul condensation without any hesitation. What does this mean?”
“…was human rights awareness so bad that people were used as research material?”
“Uh, um, that’s true, of course.”
He was a little embarrassed at first.
I guess you didn’t know we could talk about human rights in this context?
“You’re saying that the population itself was large? Wasn’t it probably in the hundreds of billions?”
“…”
“I might have ruled over many stars.”
“Not many stars, but many dimensions.”
“uh?”
“The technology to create extra dimensions was so advanced that 400,000 people would live in an area slightly larger than an apartment building. Living on the real Earth was a privilege reserved for the upper class, by today’s standards.”
“I didn’t know that. Anyway, what on earth could such a great civilization be so afraid of that they built an ark and fled?”
“… I don’t know. I was taken to a hotel before that.”
After a moment of silence, Gain began telling a strange story with a distant expression on her face.
“The first ark wasn’t built to go to the next loop.”
“yes?”
“Because I failed and lacked the skills, I just got dropped to the next loop.”
“What is that -”
“It was written in the material Aleph saw. They found a ‘shipwreck’ containing great technology. It was full of terrified souls… .”
The initial destination is much further away, not the next loop or anything like that.
Due to lack of skill, I just fell into the next loop.
It was a shipwreck, not an ark.
…
…
…
*
The room that Gain left.
I sit alone on the soft sofa, caressing the fish tank and thinking.
Why a great civilization built an ark and escaped.
The reason Aleph was driven mad and wanted to become great.
The reason why Gain wants to go to the 3rd floor.
“…”
It’s not that shocking of a story.
Because it was a collection of stories that you could imagine at least once if you gathered the information you already knew.
At least some of the content is like that.
Of course, no one, or very few, has ever imagined all of the content at once.
It was more despairing than shocking.
The gap between dark fantasies and recognizing that they are the truth of the world was extremely wide.
It would have been better if you had hidden it until the end… .
“…”
A dizzying emptiness.
The prince whom she had served her entire life was ultimately a weak man.
After that, Cain appeared and refused to wear the crown and left.
So then, in this emptiness, who should I serve?
Fortunately, the answer was in Cain’s explanation.
This time, fortunately, it was a ‘truly’ great being.
“I pray to the greatest being in the universe.”
I pray for those who shed tears for the three thousand worlds.
Even if we all go to hell, may your dreams come true someday.
I sincerely hope that heaven will be born at the very end.
“…”
Thanks to prayer, I realized what I need to do from now on.
Didn’t Cain say that at the beginning of the story?
‘Your true self is underground, and you here are a kind of clone.’
If the clone is destroyed before synchronizing memories, the main body will not be able to know the contents of the conversation.
Let me separately record the knowledge that I need to know from now on.
…
“Okay.”
Some truths are only known by those who know them.
Isn’t it true that Aidia doesn’t necessarily have to be in that person’s group?
I decided to give myself a paradise of ignorance.
— Kwajik!
*
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: 255th day
Current location: Uisadang-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Wise Man’s Advice: 3”
– Han Ga-in
— Swish…!
It was an early morning, and I was back on the ground again, with cold raindrops falling.
A world where neither the plunderers nor the ark have disappeared.
There was a blue moon shining in the sky.
Thanks to that, it seemed to subtly resemble the world I remembered.
As I was blankly staring at the sky, I started to feel a strange vibration in my pocket.
“It’s Songi’s phone call.”
There are probably other people around Songi.
I also wanted to hear the voices of my colleagues right away… .
Let’s be alone for a bit.
“…”
The colorful, complex and eventful days of reality!
It seems like it’s all over now.
There may be more, but at least it’s out of my hands.
I was happy, but at the same time a little disappointed.
The image of the crown was still lingering in my mind, and I felt as if I could just reach out and grab the emperor’s tiara.
Time will eventually resolve these regrets.
“…”
I remembered the image of Aidia that Insight had shown me.
The last god that the Virgin Mary, who had always been searching for God, found was Buddha.
If you’re going to serve someone, wouldn’t it be better to serve the greatest being?
I didn’t tell the Virgin Mary, but this is one of the reasons why I chose her.
Since he was a servant of God, it seemed that he would not fall to the extreme.
Well, I don’t know.
“after….”
The reason why the first civilization, Aleph, and even I felt distant in succession.
A fish that had lived its entire life in a fishbowl one day learned a frightening truth.
The first truth is that the world he lived in was a ‘fishbowl’… .
The second truth is what’s outside the fishbowl.
“…”
I knelt down without realizing it, feeling the pouring raindrops.
At this moment, I too may have had the same feelings as the Virgin Mary in the sky.
I pray to the One above.
I lost both my parents in an endless cycle.
The beings I believed to be my parents were nothing more than a vain illusion.
Therefore, I am an orphan.
It’s not that they had parents and then they disappeared, it’s just like they never had parents to begin with.
It is a result without a cause, a fruit without roots.
But, when I thought about it carefully, I realized I had parents.
There was someone who created my body, mind, and soul in succession.
therefore.
“I will call you this for the first and last time. Our Father in Heaven, the Great One Who sheds tears for the three thousand worlds.”
I took a deep breath and whispered to the sky.
“I will go see you.”
When I stood up after praying, I realized that something had appeared in my pockets, which had been empty until then.
It was a letter shining like gold.
*
We have good news for our dear customers.
The construction of the 3rd floor connecting passageway of Hotel Pioneer is finally completed!
Are you longing for new adventures, new treasures – or true salvation?
This is the 3rd floor for you!
I will wait.
– All Pioneer staff members are always honest and kind.