Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 658
Only Krnovel
EP.658 Episode 658 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (5)
Episode 658 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (5)
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 3
Current Location: Tier 3, Observatory
Wise Man’s Advice: 2”
– Han Ga-in
“How do I look?”
“…What have you done just now?”
“nothing.”
Songi smiles brightly, as if she has finally found some free time.
Afterwards, Songi succeeded in controlling her opponent with the power of blessing.
Here is Eunsol on the phone with an employee at the management office.
“This is the Seoul branch of the Management Office. Are you Eunsol Lee? What’s going on?”
“Yes, I got information about the strange chaos disaster -”
.
..
…
— Saaaaa…!
301 – Or, the mind that was observing a very old loop was separated from the telescope.
As I was coming down, Elena, who was nearby, had a worried expression on her face.
“How are things going with you and Songi?”
“A little while ago, Eunsol reported it to the management office.”
“Oh my! Why don’t you know? I can’t trust the administration right now!”
Elena looks frustrated, and her colleagues sigh nearby just as much.
Everyone feels uneasy as they watch Song-i and Eun-sol enter room 301.
At first, I thought the same thing, but as I continued to observe, I began to think this way.
“The management of Room 301 is an untrustworthy entity.”
“That’s right. But you’re going to report it to the management! Why would you make such a mistake -”
“The problem is that it is too difficult for Eunsol to realize that fact.”
“yes?”
“How did we know that there was something strange in the management office of Room 301 in the first place?”
Ari muttered on Elena’s behalf, who was momentarily speechless.
“There were several management staff members infiltrating the Daeyang Group.”
“How did you know that?”
“I know just by looking.”
“Would Eunsol know just by looking at me?”
“No way. If Eunsol had worked at the management office for 30 years, wouldn’t she know?”
“Another reason why the Bureau judged it suspicious was the information Songi obtained. The person whose identity was revealed openly said, ‘There’s no way the Bureau would intervene now.’”
“As expected, this is information that Eunsol would not know.”
The next story that came up after my older sister’s story was Songi’s story.
“Song-i’s situation is similar. After getting the gray cat – Gray – Song-i started getting strange gazes following her around, right?”
“That’s right. There were quite a few animal gazes.”
“Would Songi notice that? Does she always pay attention to where the pigeons are looking when we walk down the street?”
“It’s not hard. I don’t even have ten eyes.”
The perspectives of us observing Songi’s entire area at once, like a third-person observer’s perspective, are different from Songi’s own.
Because human eyes are naturally located in front.
Sang-Hyeon muttered softly.
“You can’t see the whole thing from the inside… I’m starting to get what you mean. It would have been similar for someone else to go there.”
I think the same thing.
Even if someone else had gone in, it wouldn’t have been much different from the two people who went in just now.
“Looking back on my past experiences, I always had a rough go of it on my first attempt. Not only was the scenario uncertain, but who the enemy was as well.”
As expected, Sang-Hyeon hyung received the following words.
“Even the two people who just entered are not just the first attempt at 301. They are the first attempt at the entire third floor.”
Eunsol and Songi don’t just know about room 301, they also don’t know about the third floor itself.
So it is more disadvantageous than the first attempts like 302 and 303 that came later.
Why don’t you listen to me even though I warned you about the poltergeist phenomenon several times?
Because we are unaware that such intervention is even possible.
Because of this, the two people either ignored my warning or perceived it as an ominous sign of unknown origin, which is a completely reasonable judgment.
At that moment, Miro muttered with a slightly gloomy expression.
“Wouldn’t it have been different if you had gone in, Cain?”
“I?”
“There’s advice, and understanding of the scenario! And, because you’re smart… .”
“…”
“No matter how I look at it, Seungyeop didn’t choose the wrong one?”
“Miro, Seungyeop can make mistakes, but Cheonwoon doesn’t make mistakes.”
Aside from my trust in Seungyeop, I have repeatedly experienced the overwhelming performance of ‘Cheonwoon’.
I know it’s a maze, but I think it’s because I’ve been hearing only depressing things all day.
“Then why should only two people go in?”
It’s a question that everyone has had since yesterday.
Why did Cheonwoon choose only Lee Eunsol and Yoo Song?
“…”
First, the first person to enter is bound to be in a disadvantageous situation.
Second, the fateful choice to only allow two people to enter.
It may seem contradictory at first glance, but what if we look at it from a different perspective?
I thought I knew the answer.
*
– Lee Eun-sol
Animals that have gained intelligence – During the chaos disaster report, the staff member cut me off and answered.
“Eunsol Lee, we have received your report. This is a serious crisis. It is dangerous to move rashly, so please stand by. We will send a suppression team soon.”
— Bam!
The call was hung up in an instant.
At first glance, it’s a common disaster reporting process, whether in reality or in the cursed room.
But what is this sense of discomfort that suddenly comes over me?
“…”
I never said I was in danger.
Also, as she is the daughter of the chairman of the Ocean Group and an executive director, there are many security guards nearby.
In reality, I had a nominal position as an agent of the management office and was observing the work being done from over their shoulders, so I felt something was strange.
In these low-intensity risk situations, it is common to respond by sending only one or two employees.
It’s not because the management is a group without a sense of crisis.
Because we don’t have the capacity to deploy force every time we receive a report from around the world.
But you’re sending a suppression team right away?
I never said there was a talking animal next to me, so what are you trying to suppress –
At this point, goosebumps ran down my spine!
— Bam!
“this!”
Let’s think about it while moving the location.
*
I quickly grabbed my car keys and went out of the office.
“Oh, sir, what’s going on?”
“Secretary Kim, I have an urgent schedule. Cancel the afternoon meeting!”
“I already cancelled it.”
“thanks -”
what?
Already cancelled?
The moment I opened my eyes in surprise, Secretary Kim, who had been assisting me for five years, smiled brightly.
“Sir, you have to wait. Didn’t you hear me tell you to wait?”
“you….”
A moment when you feel a strong sense of caution and take a step back.
— Dadaak!
Employees in suits began to gather, accompanied by loud footsteps.
Everyone is smiling brightly.
Everyone has the same expression.
The sight of them walking with their right and left feet in sync.
Not only the way they walk, but even the rhythm of their exhalations is all the same.
It was as if a group of marionettes were being controlled by a single magician.
“…”
I was on the phone with the administration and it only took about 3 or 4 minutes?
Does it make sense that so many ‘suppression teams’ would arrive in such a short period of time?
Did the company have management staff from the beginning?
“Sir.”
“…”
“Sir. Sir …
It’s broad daylight, but I feel a suffocating chill.
At that very moment.
“What is going on?”
My father – the voice of Chairman Lee Seok-hwan.
The moment I was about to say something, my father came up next to me and whispered in my ear.
“Eunsol, stay still so I can take care of it.”
“…”
What the hell is going on here?
While he struggled to keep up with the situation, his father spoke to the employees who gave off a strange aura – or rather, to the strange entity controlling the employees.
“My Baron, I don’t know why you are suddenly acting like this. There must be some misunderstanding.”
“Your daughter just tried to leak information about the ‘transfer’ to the outside world. This is a grave act of betrayal.”
“I will explain everything. I have been in charge of dealing with you all, and my children have no idea about ‘transfer’. My daughter probably witnessed the process by accident. So -”
The big picture is starting to appear – a connection between the talking animals and the mysterious chairman!
People who were suddenly trapped in animal bodies were the aftereffects of a phenomenon called ‘transfer’.
Is there an unknown group behind it, and is my father interacting with that group?
“Didn’t I warn you a long time ago? There will be rewards for merit and punishments for deeds.”
“This incident was not a mistake, but a simple one -”
“It’s no different. However, it wasn’t your fault, so I’ll end it by punishing your daughter.”
It’s not an equal relationship.
A relationship where the other party has absolute dominance, and the father is completely led around and submissive.
The moment they understood this, all fifteen employees raised their hands at once.
“I sentence you to three years in quarantine.”
The moment I heard it, I immediately understood what the phrase ‘three years of isolation’ meant.
How can one not know that a human soul can be trapped in an animal body?
If this continues, I’ll be trapped in the body of a dog or cat for at least three years!
A breathtaking turbulence in the air.
A cold sensation as if an unknown hand were approaching and melting my head.
As soon as I moved my hand, the employees smiled brightly.
It felt like an unknown entity behind me was speaking to me.
Are you planning on pulling out a gun? Do you think that would be meaningful?
Of course, the object I summoned wasn’t a gun or anything like that.
“pipe?”
— Laaaaa…!
The moment the beautiful melody began to spread, the ominous feeling that seemed like it would rip my skull out at any moment disappeared as if it had been washed away.
For the first time, the opponent showed a bewildered reaction.
“… It is a mysterious power. I didn’t know it could stop transference.”
Soon, when the brooch on his head, Ho-Jop-Mong, began to release countless butterflies and subdue the staff in the area – the opponent spoke to his father behind him, not to me.
“This price will be paid.”
*
The hallway suddenly became quiet.
A father and daughter stare at each other speechless.
I was the first one to speak.
“father.”
“Eunsol… Where on earth did you get such a tool?”
“I think we’ll have a lot to talk about. Father will be curious about the source of my power, I’ll be curious about what ‘transfer’ is, and Father will be curious about what my relationship with them is -”
At that moment, the lights in the area began to go out one after another.
“What is this -”
“Ugh…!”
A groan was heard before the words were finished.
“Ah, ahh…! Eunsol, Eunsol!”
“father.”
“Tea, you should have been punished instead! Up until now, it was just a mistake, and it was something that would only end in a few years of suffering!”
“…”
“Well, now it’s over. You have been rude to the Baron -”
Chairman Lee Seok-hwan, his father is seen talking nonsense in fear.
At that moment, what I felt could not be expressed in words.
Hotel, a fact I know from experiencing countless mysterious things in reality.
No matter what you do as the chairman of a conglomerate, you are still just a lowly being in the eyes of those who are truly high and mighty.
If you hit it well, it’s nothing more than a beetle among ants.
When you encounter demons, monsters, or tyrants of chaos, it’s not at all strange to just sit on the ground and cry like a child.
I know it in my head.
It was hard to accept with my heart.
I never knew that my father, the chairman of the Daeyang Group and a leading businessman whom I had looked up to my entire life, had such a weak side.
“Father, please answer my question. Does the Baron belong to the rank of the being who threatened us just now?”
“…”
“Now that the crime of rebellion has been added, a stronger being will come and punish me. Is that what you mean?”
“…”
“What rank is higher than baron? Count? Marquis?”
At that moment, I heard a distant whisper from across the darkened hallway.
It was a sound that came from an unknown source.
The voice didn’t speak, but its flawless resonance said it all.
It was a warning. It was a threat. It was a promise.
The company’s landscape became distorted, and its hallways were no longer straight.
It was a place like the stomach of an infinitely twisted beast.
The door was no longer a door.
It was a mouth. It opened and closed, as if it were trying to swallow someone.
The window was no longer a window.
It was an eye. The eye did not look outward. It looked inward.
A disembodied hand brushes past me.
A cold, soft, heavy hand presses against my shoulder.
At this point I accepted it.
You are something I can’t handle.
Another way to put this is:
I was defeated.
The first attempt is a failure.
When I closed my eyes feeling distant –
A notification from the hotel popped up.
*
– Yoo Song-i
“…”
I thought things were going well, but they weren’t.
I thought something would work out since I possessed the being that took over Park Ji-ho’s body… .
Not at all.
It’s just that the real thing appeared, sensing the distortion of the ‘end’.
When I bowed my head under an indescribable sense of pressure –
A notification from the hotel popped up.
“You failed!
You rushed into enemy territory, chasing only the strange phenomenon that appeared before your eyes!
Didn’t he look more like a stupid boar than a great hero?
Of course, considering that it was the first attempt, there were some unavoidable aspects.
We failed to resolve the source of the curse. It’s a shame.
But there is still a chance. Just wait for your colleagues.
Soon, the ‘post-apocalyptic world’ will begin!
“… what?”
Post-apocalyptic world?
*
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 3
Current Location: Tier 3, Observatory
Wise Man’s Advice: 2”
– Han Ga-in
As the space around them began to shake, a notification appeared before everyone’s eyes.
“The solution has failed. Therefore, the ‘post-apocalyptic world’ begins!”
“Eww! What, what is this?”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
I thought as I listened to the voices of my colleagues filled with confusion.
That’s why Cheonwoon only put Eunsol and Songi in on the first try!
Since the first attempt was bound to fail anyway, the idea was to tie up as few people as possible!