Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 668
Only Krnovel
EP.668 Episode 668 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (12)
Episode 668 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (12)
– Lee Seok-hwan
It happened when I turned twenty.
I realized this as I listened to the sound of the wind and rain hitting outside the window.
I had a prophetic dream last night!
I left the house feeling dizzy.
As I was walking through the streets of Busan at night, feeling lost in my thoughts, increasingly absurd things started to happen.
Information about which industries, regions, and companies will thrive in Korea over the next 20 to 30 years poured into my head.
I knew the name of a company that doesn’t even exist in reality yet.
I knew that the company would prosper for about 20 years thanks to the shipbuilding boom, but I also knew that it would fail because of the global recession.
It was as if some other world’s god or demon was whispering in my ear.
There is no need to explain in detail what happened afterwards.
As time went by, I realized that not all of my precognitive dreams were accurate, but I couldn’t let those minor issues get in the way of my success.
*
‘I didn’t perceive the repeating world, the loop. I mistook the memories of the disappeared world for a precognitive dream.’
‘To put it in terms of the management bureau, he was an imperfect regressor like Mama.’
*
It happened when I turned twenty-nine.
While I was sitting at the office of Daeyang Trading Company, which later became the predecessor of Daeyang Group, working, two men in black suits appeared.
I was momentarily confused, but no matter how I looked at it, they weren’t company employees.
There must be employees outside, so how did they get in?
As I was frowning and trying to call the staff outside, I heard a cold voice.
“Don’t do useless things. It just makes things more bothersome.”
While we were silently looking at the gun sticking out as if it was a given, a threatening story was heard.
The men in suits explained that they were agents of the Administration they had only heard about, and that I was on a ‘quarantine or termination’ list.
“Isolation or disposal? What do you mean? I have never hurt anyone in my life -”
“Do you really think you are innocent?”
“If you have committed a sin without knowing it, I will listen. If it is reasonable, I will atone for it even if it means giving away half of my wealth -”
“How funny. Your wealth itself is the source of sin! Lee Seok-Hwan, you obtained information about the future from the whispers of the devil from outer space. Am I wrong?”
“…”
“You have amassed such great wealth by abusing information about the future. And you are only twenty-nine years old. Do you really think this process is fair? Isn’t this an asset that should have been acquired by someone else?”
The agent’s words hit home exactly with the guilt I often felt.
Because of that, I couldn’t refute him in any way and had no choice but to bow my head and wait for the decision.
“Considering your sins, immediate punishment would be appropriate, but there are also more moderate suggestions.”
“… You say it’s a moderate story?”
“Cooperate. Devote yourself to the Administration, to humanity. This will atone for your original sin. Then you will live.”
After that abstract declaration, the agent began to coax me, throwing me a carrot followed by a whip.
I can continue to manage things the way I want.
I have no intention of recovering my assets, and I am okay with accumulating wealth through precognitive dreams.
Also, I don’t have to do anything dangerous myself.
Often it is sufficient to provide human and material resources to the management agency.
If something weird happens that I can’t handle, I ask for help immediately.
Agency partners are provided with faster and more robust protection than the general public.
At the time, I accepted it because I had no choice, but looking back, it wasn’t a bad deal for me.
At least compared to the ‘subsequent masters’, the administration was a very generous master.
*
‘The crime of stealing someone else’s wealth… That’s what the administration is working the hardest at.’
‘You tricked the chairman who didn’t know about the loop. It looks like you threatened the current loop chairman based on the information you got from the past loop chairman.’
‘I’m curious as I look at it. Are all the so-called management bureau partners like this? Is the chairman or president an imperfect regressor?’
‘Let’s ask Ari Yang later. By the way, who is the future owner?’
*
It happened when I turned forty-one.
The management office instructed me to purchase 13,000 pyeong of land in Gangwon-do with my own money.
Because it was a mountainous area, I was able to somehow secure the funds to purchase it, but I had a hard time explaining it to the people around me.
Was that why?
After a long time, I felt a deep sense of anger building up inside me, and I drove to the scene late at night.
I had no intention of doing anything grand.
I was just thinking of complaining to the on-site management agents or staff.
In the past, I wouldn’t have dared to complain to the management, but it’s been over 12 years since we became a partner company.
There are countless employees whose faces I have become acquainted with, and I have also become familiar with several agents operating in Korea.
So, I was confident that he wouldn’t punish me for saying something presumptuous.
As soon as I arrived, I met Agent T.
She was a considerable beauty with brown hair that flowed below her shoulders, but apart from her appearance, she had an eerie look in her eyes that made it difficult to approach her.
“T, it’s been a while.”
“The staff outside were getting annoyed, was it you?”
When I actually met T in person, I was overcome by a fear that was almost instinctive toward the agent, and I couldn’t say what I had prepared.
Still, I somehow expressed my disappointment, and T simply replied.
“Haha! I was wondering why you came all of a sudden, but it turns out the chairman is a bit dissatisfied.”
“…”
“This time, we’re dealing with it in such a hurry that there’s a lot of noise. So don’t look at it that way.”
“From now on -”
“Come here instead.”
T suddenly came up to me as if he was no longer interested in what I was saying and looked at me with creepy eyes.
Soon, her eyes began to rotate 360 ??degrees and glow like glass beads, and an incomprehensible ominous aura filled the surroundings.
“Ugh…!”
“No matter how I look at it, you seem like a waste.”
What did this mean?
The conversation we had back then was something I didn’t understand, not only at the time, but even now, many years later.
“I think it would be okay if it was just a little bit bigger.”
“Wh, what are you talking about?”
“Seok-Hwan. You may not know, but I know quite a bit about you.”
“yes?”
“For example, you should get treatment in advance because you will develop symptoms of arrhythmia in 4 years. Originally, I was planning to tell you after 2 years.”
T’s words, as if he already knew what would happen to me in the future.
“Did you know? Chaos is contagious.”
“…”
“Even ordinary humans experience chaos disasters and their souls level up. This is because the power of chaos affects the soul. Of course, most people die after experiencing it just once, so there’s nothing to grow or do!”
“…”
“If you are lucky enough to survive and keep surviving, a miracle will happen, even if there is a very small chance.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“You’re almost there. Just one more step and you’re on our side.”
“yes?”
“Follow me. Maybe a miracle will happen to you today!”
At the time, I had no idea what was going to happen next.
On the other hand, I think this.
T, who was moving with me, probably didn’t know what was going to happen either.
Anyway, T took me inside the gray concrete facility built on the Gangwon-do site.
The staff at the scene were startled and tried to stop me, but none of them could stop T.
It was only that day that I realized how great a person T was.
*
‘Gain-kun, what on earth is this? Chairman Lee Seok-hwan was a spirit on the verge of becoming an agent?’
‘If the agent is 100, the chairman would be around 80 or 90.’
‘I understand that, but what did that crazy agent called T do?’
‘I think he was trying to force the Chairman to grow his soul by exposing him to chaos disaster. I think he was trying to make him an agent that way…’
‘Is that okay?’
‘… I think it would be an absurd act even by the standards of the management office.’
*
At the center of the facility was a huge glass chamber, inside of which opaque shapes swayed strangely.
There were also at least hundreds of beds surrounding a giant glass chamber.
I felt quite scared because all of those beds had people tied up in them.
“Ugh!”
“Stay still.”
“Those people, what the heck -”
“Calm down. They’re all felons, death row inmates. They’re not good people.”
This statement had two meanings for me.
First, people who are literally tied to bed are sinners.
Second, using criminals as ‘experimental subjects’ results in enormous human casualties.
At the point when I was feeling even more fearful because of the second meaning, something incomprehensible happened.
I’ve recalled that incident countless times since then, but I still don’t know the full story of what happened.
It would be similar to a normal person seeing an accident occur while touring a nuclear physics laboratory.
If I had to describe it, the glass tube suddenly broke and an opaque shape came out.
and….
…
Everyone except me went mad and started hurting each other.
The people lying on the beds tore off their restraints with absurd strength and rushed at the researchers.
The researchers who tried to stop them soon lost their minds and began biting and stabbing each other.
It was T who maintained his sanity until the very end.
She pulled out a strange weapon she had never seen before and killed at least three digits of people, but eventually lost her sense of reason.
At that time, there was only one thing I couldn’t understand.
Why am I the only one who is okay?
I lay on the floor in fear and begged and begged.
I don’t know who the god or demon is that rules over this area….
He desperately pleaded, “Please spare me. I have a wife and young children, and I cannot die now.”
At that moment, a soft hand touched my shoulder.
I raised my head, shivering, and saw T’s beautiful, familiar face.
I knew it the moment I saw it.
‘That’ is not T.
An unidentified monster and demon that took over T’s body.
The devil whispered to me as I couldn’t even breathe due to the oppression that weighed on my heart.
“You are a small creature. However, I have seen your destiny.”
“…”
“Someone born from you, small and small, will attain a great destiny. The one who cries for the three thousand worlds has taken possession of one of your children.”
“…”
“Be silent. Forget. Obey. I will give you three chances.”
I asked, feeling an overwhelming presence that I couldn’t resist.
“Da, who are you?”
“I am the king. The king of the faithful beyond the galaxy, the king of those who will be born on this earth. And I am your king.”
*
‘… I’m talking about T’s absurd impulsive behavior earlier.’
‘It seems like that monster has been controlling it all along.’