Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 664
Only Krnovel
EP.664 Episode 664 – The First Escape, Meeting (1)
Episode 664 – The First Escape, Meeting (1)
“User: Han Ga-in (Jihye)
Date: Day 4
Current Location: Tier 1, Room 105 – ‘Room of Rest’
Wise Man’s Advice: 0”
– Han Ga-in
— Chewy!
A stone pot radiating blazing heat and the sizzling sound of scorched rice baking on the bottom!
Add to this the fragrant aroma of sesame oil that stimulates the olfactory sense, and it’s hard to resist.
Without hesitation, I took a big spoonful of the stone pot bibimbap.
The taste was, needless to say, amazing.
Stir-fried beef with a variety of vegetables and gochujang, and even a golden fried egg!
Even with the addition of a spoonful of slightly toasted, crispy rice, it would be strange if it didn’t taste good.
Looking around, everyone had a satisfied look on their face.
There was Seungyeop eating a juicy hamburger, and there was also an old man eating a steak.
Elena was eating something like cheese fondue, and Miro kept saying, “Just one bite~! Just one bite~!” because it looked so delicious.
“Miro, don’t do this. Ask for some too. It’s a hotel, so there’s no way they wouldn’t take extra food orders -”
“no.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you know, Elena? This kind of food is meant to be enjoyed by stealing a bite from someone else!”
“…”
Honestly, I understand what you’re saying.
Hey, there are some foods that are special for just one bite, right?
There are foods that are really delicious when you sneak a bite while other people are eating them, but when you order them properly and eat them in front of you, they just feel disappointing.
I understood Miro’s feelings, but I was impressed by his mind that could openly express such a timid feeling.
“Is this the American mindset of not caring about what other people think?”
Sang-Hyeon, who was cutting the sirloin steak, retorted as if he was dumbfounded.
“It’s not an American mindset, it’s just a nuisance. Miro wasn’t raised at home, so there’s nothing he can do.”
“You’re doing this to me again! Just a bite of the sirloin steak!”
The moment when Miro moves quickly and aims for Sang-Hyeon Hyung’s bowl!
— Ting!
Sang-Hyeon Hyung’s knife moved sharply and struck Miro’s fork.
“Huh, huh?”
Miro opened his eyes wide and tried again to take ‘just one bite’, but this time he was grabbed by the wrist.
In the end, Ari, who was watching this scene, sighed deeply and had to take Miro away.
“Please stop… The more you do this, the slower the recovery of the ghost story maze becomes.”
“What does this have to do with that?”
“Why doesn’t it matter? Every moment of this is taking a toll on the spirit of the ghost maze!”
In this way, everyone had a pleasant mealtime.
*
The first topic is about signals given from outside.
Songi was the first to complain about this.
“Wow~! This is ridiculous! So you’re saying that the house door getting locked and the car door breaking down were all because of your intervention?”
“I told you so. That guy Gain did it with all his concentration.”
“How would I know that! Of course, I would feel like it was an accident or an ominous sign.”
Honestly, Songi is right.
When the poltergeist phenomenon occurred at the observatory, I felt frustrated with Song-i and Eun-sol, who did not understand, but at the same time, I understood this part.
We know what we’re seeing from the outside, but how can the people inside understand it?
Ariga answered, tapping the table.
“That’s why Seungyeop said that only you and Eunsol should go in. Since the first attempt was going to fail anyway, he only let the two of you in.”
“Wow~! You know what’s even more annoying? Being treated like a piece of trash!”
“It was my first attempt, so I didn’t know what to do, so I ended up throwing it away. The Duke said at the end. Next time, don’t come back until after the apocalypse and solve it.”
“Hmm….”
Ari is right.
The fact that Song-i and Eun-sol were treated like throwaways was just a characteristic of the first attempt.
In reality, only the ‘solution team’ including two people can truly end Room 301.
He looked around at everyone and said.
“Now let’s set a signal so that something similar doesn’t happen again.”
As someone who has experienced the poltergeist phenomenon, I have added additional explanations.
“You have to make it very simple. It’s impossible to convey a complex message.”
Songi asked curiously.
“Delicate manipulation is impossible?”
“That’s right. If I had to describe it, it would be like holding the room with both hands and shaking it up and down?”
“…I don’t know what that feeling is.”
It wasn’t easy to make someone who hadn’t tried it understand, but I was able to tell this much.
“It’s hard to control the timing, and it’s hard to cause the phenomenon I want. No matter how much I try to convey the message from the outside, it’ll be hard for the inside to understand.”
Songi made an anxious expression.
“Well, then?”
“As I said at the beginning, let’s keep it simple and have only one meaning. If you think, ‘It’s dangerous!’, then do it.”
From now on, the meaning of the poltergeist phenomenon will be unified to one thing: ‘It’s dangerous!’
The second topic is a story about a person trapped in an animal’s body.
“So, all the talking animals I’ve seen are people? They’re people, but their bodies were taken by the Iss race and their souls were trapped in animals?”
“maybe.”
“I understand that your body was taken over by aliens, but….”
Songi tilted her head and expressed her doubts.
“Why does the remaining soul enter an animal?”
Grandfather answered simply.
“Didn’t those guys put that in?”
“why?”
“uh?”
“Think about it. When Ga-in oppa takes over someone’s body, the spirit that was left in that body doesn’t really go anywhere, right?”
“Well… .”
“When the nobles of Iss took over the bodies of the doctor and Seungyeop, their souls didn’t go anywhere.”
“I see. That’s true.”
There is no necessary causal connection between the body-snatching and the exiled soul being trapped in an animal’s body.
When I possess someone, their soul doesn’t get trapped in an animal, and from what I’ve seen, the same goes for the nobles of Is.
Grandfather frowned and muttered.
“Is it a revenge? The king died at the hands of humans, so there must be considerable resentment. They are humiliating the victim by trapping him in the body of an animal.”
“Is that so?”
Take revenge by humiliating animals by being locked up?
It’s not that it’s unreasonable, since the Iss race seems to hate humans… .
Something is ambiguous.
Let’s think about it a little more.
The third topic is about the ‘Chairman of Daeyang Group.’
Naturally, the colleagues’ gaze turned to Eunsol, who was eating her sandwich without saying a word throughout the meal.
Where did her usual calmness go? My sister is silent as if she doesn’t feel our gaze.
“…”
In fact, when I first came out of room 301 and walked down the hallway, my sister’s attitude was different from now.
As always, I tried to lead the meeting in a lively manner.
Since the theory in question, that the chairman of the Ocean Group is a traitor to humanity, came out, things have been quiet.
Finally, Songi hit him.
“Excuse me… Sister?”
“Ah, ah. Is it my turn to speak now?”
“yes.”
“Sorry, sorry everyone. I was thinking too deeply by myself.”
“no.”
Judging from the dream from earlier and the attitude shown in Room 301, my sister’s feelings for the Chairman of Daeyang Group are indeed complicated.
Respect for the achievements that created the conglomerate.
The fear of always feeling pressured by someone looking down on you from above.
Love for blood relatives who have shown many favors to oneself.
Resentment toward the father who encouraged conflict between brothers.
Admiration for the intelligence and work ability that defies age.
I have a suspicion that all of these achievements were possible because he was a regressor.
Up to this point, it’s the kind of love and hate a grown child might feel toward an oppressive parent, but the weight of the next sentence is completely different.
A traitor who sold humanity to aliens.
My sister muttered with a tired expression.
“I was looking up things about my father when Songi got hurt. I thought I would get hurt too if this continued, so I reported it to the management office. Then, the nobles of Iss came and killed everyone.”
This is what we have all seen so far.
“It seemed like my father had an acquaintance with a noble of Is. It was strange at the time, but now… Well, it would be natural if he sold out humanity.”
At this time, I said a question that had been on my mind recently.
“Sister, when I first had a dream about your wish, I was a bit confused, but now that it has become clear that the Chairman has communication with supernatural beings, I have a different idea.”
“What is it?”
“Isn’t the very existence of Daeyang Group strange?”
“…”
I raised my hand calmly and pointed at myself.
“I knew about the Daeyang Group before I came to the hotel. Of course, the very idea of ??‘Han Ga-in’s past memories’ is quite vague.”
At this point, Eunsol asked everyone a question.
“Anyone know about the Ocean Group before coming to the hotel?”
Soon, more than half of my colleagues raised their hands one after another.
“… I know what you’re trying to say, Gain. Everyone comes from different loops, so it’s weird that they all know about the Ocean Group?”
“Yes.”
My sister sighed deeply and muttered.
“If your father is a regressor, this part can be easily explained. Since he is a regressor, he has always succeeded and has the same name.”
At the point where it was half-confirmed that the Chairman was a regressor, I added what I really wanted to say.
“Could it be that the administration didn’t know about your sister’s father?”
“ah?”
“Every time, the same person starts a business at a similar time, and makes the right choice at every moment to succeed in starting a business. The name of the conglomerate that is created like that is always Daeyang Group. How could the management not know that?”
To this extent, I’m advertising that I’m a regressor.
“That’s right.”
“There is a high probability that the chairman was an agent or high-ranking official of the Management Bureau. The Ocean Group was one of the conglomerates managed by the Management Bureau. What do you think, Ari?”
Ariga made a subtle expression.
“I don’t know for sure whether it was managed by the old Lupus Management Bureau, but it’s possible.”
Naturally, the fourth topic, the story of the administration, began to emerge.
This time, my older sister looked at Ari and asked a question.
“You must have seen it from outside, but when I reported it to the administration, a demonic being came. So at the time, I thought the administration was the mastermind behind the whole conspiracy?”
At that time, Eunsol had no idea about the concept of the ‘Great Race of Is’, so it was a possible misunderstanding.
“If the real enemy is the Iss race, then what is the Administration Bureau? Why did aliens come when I reported to the Administration Bureau?”
Ari shrugged and answered.
“I’ll have to check, but it’s possible that a lot of the lower-level employees have become corrupt.”
“The lower levels of the Administration Bureau have been invaded by the Iss race?”
“If that were the case, what you went through would have been entirely possible.”
Soon, Ari opened her mouth as if she found it difficult to understand.
“As we were talking, a thought occurred to me. The Iss race is truly a powerful race. Aren’t they?”
What kind of power did the great race of Iss display?
Each individual is strong enough to outwit any other contestant.
They are powerful even as a species, having conquered the entire Earth in an instant and forced the survivors into human zoos.
Whether it is supernatural power or scientific and technological power, it is not an exaggeration to call them a ‘great race’ since they are beyond the capabilities of humans.
“At this point, I think it would have been okay if the management office was wiped out without even putting up a fight… ”
Ari’s next question was quite reasonable.
“But the nobles of Iss told a completely different story. They gave us countless chances, and tried to negotiate many times.”
No human being in the world negotiates with a chicken or a pig.
Negotiations are only possible when the other party is also qualified to sit at the table.
“Even according to what Cain found out!”
The last word was mine.
“The race of Iss is plotting the resurrection of their dead king. And the race that killed their king is the Administration.”
Ari said as if she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“How is this possible? Well, I wouldn’t say it’s absolutely impossible.”
Naturally, everyone’s eyes were focused on me.
Because I was the one who got that information from the duke.
— Bam!
“I should start from the beginning. The first thing that happened was a surprise attack by the enemy. As Ari will remember, I was very anxious at the time.”
“I remember. The enemy had a lot of information about us. It was like hundreds of missiles could be launched at any moment, something like that.”
“I knew a crisis was coming. I just didn’t know the timing was right.”
“so?”
“A flash! The attack came flying at me with incredible speed. The force slightly brushed my head -”
Ari and Sang-Hyeon immediately objected, perhaps because they had difficulty agreeing with the expression ‘slightly’.
“I evaporated it slightly.”
“If it’s just a little bit, there’s no concept of injury in the world.”
“… Anyway, if it were normal, I would have died instantly.”
“Usually?”
Memories of that time flash through my mind.
A memory of momentarily blocking the enemy’s attack with the power of the sacred sun.
I remember eventually not being able to hold out and the barrier being breached.
A great wisdom that came to mind instinctively as I felt my approaching death.
Know that you are the only one under heaven
In terms of time, it probably wasn’t even 10 seconds.
In a brief moment, barely enough to drink a sip of water, I felt all my boundaries crumble.
At that moment, I was the peacock, and the peacock was me.
Two in one, a single intelligence that gathered all the information and found a satisfactory conclusion.
“The Duke was also full of doubts.”
“…”
“How could a king be defeated by a mortal man? How could a great star in the sky be defeated by a tiny creature?”
“…”
“He thoroughly trampled upon the people of the earth. However… . until the very last moment, he found no power that could threaten the king.”
He said this while looking at his colleagues in confusion.
“Perhaps this is one of the greatest secrets of Room 301. How did the Bureau manage to harm the King of Iss, whom the Duke worships like a god?”