Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 644
Only Krnovel
EP.644 Episode 644 – Ascension
Episode 644 – Ascension
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 386
Current location: 50, 63-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Wise Man’s Advice: 3”
– Han Ga-in
Several weeks have passed since the previous generation left for the third floor of the school.
“Stop dropping sunflower seeds. Why do birds drop them all when they eat them?”
— Beep!
“You drop more on the ground than you eat. You’re thinking of building a sunflower farm in Yeouido – ah!”
— Beep!
“Haha! You’re slow! You can’t bite my finger with that kind of beak speed.”
I spent my time sitting on a bench in Yeouido Park and playing with Pero.
“… It’s been a long time since I played with you.”
As the battle of reality intensified, Pero began to stay in Delight without doing anything.
Because the situation was too dangerous for something like a parrot that could transform into a large bird to get involved.
“Is there anything you can do on the third floor? What do you think?”
Just ignore what I say and watch me bite my hair.
When I see it like this, it really just looks like an ordinary parrot.
As I sat on the bench, an indescribable cold filled my body and mind.
There’s really nothing.
In this city, in this country, I have no family, no close friends.
If I had to pick the thing I’m most attached to, it would be the city of Seoul itself.
Oh, there’s also the Sunrise Company, which was founded to gather faith.
Is Ichthus still alive?
I could have found it if I had looked for it, but I didn’t want to leave any regrets in reality, so I didn’t look for it.
Even if I’m alive, it doesn’t mean much.
Even if you don’t know about Pero, you probably forgot about me a long time ago.
“…”
It is the result of the ‘dream’ I wrote.
I made it so that no one except my hotel colleagues would remember me, so I couldn’t possibly have any meaningful relationships.
Why were dreams used in this way in the first place?
Want to avoid the eyes of the administration?
I don’t think there was any such purpose at all… .
At the time I wrote my dream, I didn’t know about my eventful past.
“Pero, wasn’t it true that I had intended to leave reality from the beginning?”
— Warm!
At that moment, I felt the presence of the person I was waiting for.
“Horus, it’s been a while.”
“Sophia, didn’t I tell you to just call me by my name?”
“Well, Horus is more familiar and comfortable to me.”
“If that’s the case… .”
After a brief silence, I spoke first.
“how is it?”
“yes?”
“You told me before. Send me to heaven.”
“…”
The girl born in room 207 told me.
‘I have served you as a god for so many years, so please send me to heaven.’
“… The world is similar everywhere.”
“I guess so.”
The latter half of No. 207 is also set in the 21st century, so it is not much different from reality.
“You guys were more embarrassing than reality.”
“okay?”
“Especially Fortuna.”
For a moment, I was speechless.
Everyone is speechless when they think of the gap between Fortuna and Seungyeop, and I was no exception.
“Still, it was good. I got a lot of sense of what kind of people you all are.”
“… I’m glad you said that.”
After another brief silence, he carefully opened his mouth.
“As you probably heard from Eunsol, we’re leaving soon.”
“I heard it from my ‘sister.’”
The expression “sister” instead of “mother” sounded unfamiliar yet plausible.
“If you want -”
“Can I come with you? In the soul box?”
“- okay.”
Seungyeop’s legacy, the soul of the ship.
Elena’s soul is gone and now empty.
If you put Sophia in the soul box, you can go to the third floor together.
The answer came back quickly.
“sorry.”
Sophia doesn’t go to the third floor.
“… Yeah, I thought so.”
After returning to reality and gaining a body, Sophia didn’t really stick around with us.
Sometimes I traveled, and sometimes I was faithful to my work as a researcher at the Administration Office.
An attitude of trying to adapt to reality rather than being part of the hotel party.
From then on, everyone vaguely realized.
Sophia intends to remain realistic.
“You guessed it, right?”
“It seemed like he was trying to adapt to reality.”
It’s not exactly a strange choice.
If we’re going to argue about who’s weirder, it might be us who are weirder for going to the third floor despite knowing both the glory and danger of the hotel.
What is the cause of the fundamental impulse I feel toward the third floor?
Want to see Buddha?
Want to know the truth about heaven?
Want to discover the world’s deepest secrets?
Or, do you want to get out of the fishbowl?
“Not long ago, Eunsol unnie held me for quite a while. She said she couldn’t remember a conversation we had before, and asked me to tell her what I remembered.”
“I heard.”
“If I remember correctly, it was probably a story called ‘Teacup in a Bowl.’”
“…”
“If the teacup is number 207, then the bowl is reality. To the residents of reality, number 207 may seem like a false illusion….”
“Outside the bowl there is a table, and outside the table there is a room.”
“Yes.”
“…”
“To put it another way, it’s like this. If the ‘room of curses’ you’re talking about is a painting, then reality is an art gallery with paintings hanging on it.”
“…”
“But to the higher beings, the art gallery is also a painting. The hotel is a painting within a painting.”
“I guess so.”
“When I realized this, I thought to myself, there’s no point in worrying about whether it’s the real world or the fake world. Unless you plan on becoming an eternal wanderer, wandering through time and space…”
“I guess I should choose a suitable world and settle down there?”
“… Yes. Was my answer helpful?”
“of course.”
“I’m glad I could finally help you.”
At the end of the conversation, Sophia looked at me with a very regretful expression.
In the past, you followed me, but this time, you chose to remain in reality.
This is evidence that the Sophia of now and the Sophia of when she was in Room 207 have changed in many ways.
I guess it’s because, as he said, he achieved some kind of enlightenment.
I don’t think it’s a complete breakup.
Even if Sophia doesn’t know, we can still influence reality.
“Horus, I pray that your future will be glorious.”
“thank you.”
After the blonde girl left, only me and a parrot were left in the empty space.
— Beep!
“Why? You don’t want to go to the third floor either?”
— Beep!
“You can’t. Sophia can go wherever she wants, but you have to follow us no matter what.”
— Beep! Beep!
“Are you a hero too? You’re a hero parrot, so you make your own choices?”
— Beep!
“Yes, yes. Hero Parrot Phero, let’s go together.”
I stood up and thought about it.
What did Pero actually say?
Are you out of sunflower seeds?
or not….
*
“Current location: Delight Hotel, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul”
When I arrived at the Delight Hotel lobby, it was already full of colleagues.
As I waved my hand lightly, I noticed that there were placards hanging here and there in the lobby.
“What is this?”
Miro and Seungyeop giggled when they saw the placard, but when I saw the content, I also laughed out loud.
“Thank you, Agent Kim Ari, for your long-standing contributions to the Glorious Silencer.”
Up to this point, it seems like the management’s own farewell message.
“It is with great sadness that you have to leave on a long journey from which you may never return.”
“… can never come back?”
“It is certainly regrettable to be separated forever, but thanks to Agent Kim Ari’s decision, the earth will be spared from great troubles -”
“You’ve only told me twice not to come back. What’s the big deal?!”
Songi answered with a smile.
“What do you mean? You’re talking about us. Especially you, Oppa!”
“They are blatantly treating me like a troublemaker.”
“- Agent Kim Ari’s name is forever recorded in the ‘Hall of Fame.’”
“Hall of Fame?”
Grandpa Mukseong explained with a hollow laugh.
“It refers to the management office recording the achievements and names of dead people.”
“Ari is already being treated as a dead person.”
The management’s intention to tell me to just leave for the third floor and never come back was so obvious that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“By the way, when I first came here, the staff even set off firecrackers.”
“…”
“Ari chased them all away.”
I started to laugh too, so I looked at Ari, who was taking down the placard with a slightly annoyed expression.
“Go to the 3rd floor!”
“hmm?”
“It can definitely affect reality. I’m sure of it.”
“I guess so.”
This is information relayed indirectly by the third floor manager.
This interpretation was agreed upon by everyone, so even colleagues with families in real life could make a decision.
“I’m really upset! I’ve served my whole life and I can’t believe I’m being treated like this!”
“Haha! You said you’d put me in the Hall of Fame? I appreciate it -”
“You’ll pay the price as soon as you reach the third floor!”
“Won’t you get kicked out for saying things like that?”
“What are you talking about?”
I had a fun time with this feeling.
The administration’s reaction to us was so blunt that it was funny, but it didn’t feel all that bad because it seemed to ease the tension among my colleagues a little.
Maybe that’s what the administration intended – no, that’s a stretch.
Meanwhile, some colleagues spent time talking about how they told their families and that they had plans for a long-term business trip.
and….
A heavy silence fell.
Finally, the pressure of being on the ‘3rd floor’ began to weigh on the hearts of my colleagues.
— Gulp!
Here and there, you can hear swallowing and hiccups.
They are colleagues who have overcome the trials of reality on the first and second floors of the hotel, but even for these warriors who have overcome hardships, the unknown territory of the third floor is not easy.
“Let’s go.”
Jincheol was the first to get up.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Grandpa stood up, rubbing his chin, and Jincheol called the elevator.
— Ding!
The elevator finally arrived.
“Let’s go in.”
“…Everyone, come this way.”
Eunsol’s expression turned slightly pale.
Come to think of it, why is Eunsol trying to go to the third floor?
The conversation just now was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the third floor manager.
I asked him a few more times after that, but he just smiled awkwardly and didn’t give a clear answer.
Well, even older sisters have privacy.
There’s no need to rush, you’ll know everything when the time comes.
Everyone looked up at the top of the elevator dashboard with nervous expressions, and a peculiar button appeared.
[3rd floor: Heaven]
“It’s amazing every time I see it. It’s heavenly.”
“That’s why the management staff used the expression ‘heavenly layer.’”
After the construction was completed, the elevators now have buttons to go to the heavenly floor.
It’s a button that only we can press.
“Should I press it?”
“Eunsol, stop sweating and press down. If someone sees you, they’ll think lightning is going to strike them as soon as you press down!”
“… If it’s something like lightning, it’s nothing.”
“Sister, just press it. It’s getting scarier and scarier.”
“sorry.”
— Click!
The moment the button is pressed.
— Doo doo doo doo…!
The elevator shot up at an absurd speed, accompanied by a tremendous vibration!
“Eww!”
“Gyaaaah!”
— Beep!
— Crazy!
“Hey, hold my hand -”
“Gain~!”
“Miro, stay still!”
In less than a second, power was scattered across the elevator floor, and unprecedented pressure began to suppress the power.
Extreme agony that makes you feel like you might lose consciousness at any moment!
Instinctively, my colleagues summoned the Legacy, but it was meaningless.
“Ugh…!”
I’ve had a similar experience before! Where was it?
It’s a sanctuary!
It’s exactly the same pain I felt when I went from the sanctuary to the ‘higher realm’!
The type of pain is similar, but the intensity is tens or hundreds of times stronger.
“…”
Surely we won’t all die in a group in an elevator?
At least I’m not in imminent danger of dying, since the crisis alert is silent!
“Ugh…!”
We are endlessly heading ‘upward’.
Suddenly, the elevator disappeared, and an inexplicable force was pulling us into an unknown realm.
The Earth has long since disappeared.
The sun had shrunk to a speck of dust, and it was unclear whether that tiny ‘dot’ was the sun or not.
In less than a few seconds, countless sparkles flashed around.
Soon, I realized that I was seeing countless planets and stars – and even ‘galaxies’.
It’s dizzying!
In the midst of the pain that made me feel like I would lose consciousness at any moment, I saw the other side filled with pure white light.
“…?”
A pale straight line or thread is seen running across the center of the white space.
What the heck is this –
“Advice: 3 -> 2”
“You’ve seen too much. Close your eyes and cover your ears.”
“…”
It was only then that I realized that my entire face was covered in blood.
Some people consider me to be halfway to a great realm, but even to me, the current scenery seemed so distant.
But the next question was something I just couldn’t stand.
“Advice: 2 -> 1”
‘What on earth is that?’
“entire.”
“…”
“Advice: 1 -> 0”
‘What should I do now?’
“Stop sleeping. When you wake up, help your comrades.”
Help your colleagues?
After hearing that, I realized that there was no one else around me.
This was my last memory.