Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 670
Only Krnovel
EP.670 Episode 670 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (14)
Episode 670 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (14)
– Yoo Song-i
Early in the morning, when I was washing up and getting ready to go out, my mother looked puzzled.
“You’re leaving this early? It’s not even 7 o’clock yet… Are you meeting a friend?”
I think I said something to my mom in a slightly sarcastic tone in this situation the first time.
I didn’t think much of it, but Ari advised me not to ‘create unnecessary conflict.’
“Yes, we agreed to meet a little further away. I think I’ll be a little late today.”
“Take Perodo too?”
“I decided to go to the parrot cafe!”
I made up a story roughly along these lines.
“…”
As I put on my shoes, memories of last night came to mind.
A chilling sight as an unidentified fog swept through the house through the walls!
It was a bizarre thing, but I still don’t know what exactly it was.
The same goes for doubts about parents.
Ari said she’d look into my parents, but she didn’t find anything out last night.
*
Ari appeared before I could even take a few steps outside the house.
Ari had already gotten a baseball cap and was wearing it pulled down low, along with a mask, which seemed to indicate that she was trying to hide her impressive appearance.
“You’re late.”
“Hey, it’s only 6:40. I came out almost immediately after washing up -”
“Did you wash? Shower?”
“huh.”
“You are doing something dangerous.”
“What is that -”
Ari’s next words were something I had never thought of!
“Gain or Sanghyun must be watching from outside.”
“What, what?”
“A white and soft mushroom body -”
“Eww! Don’t say weird things! B, definitely -”
“Surely what? Do you think I would have stopped observing you because you were taking a shower? Because of Ga-in’s personality?”
“… Oh, what’s your personality like, oppa?”
“The kind of person who would watch Songi showering with wide-open eyes.”
The moment I heard that, an embarrassing memory from when I was doing episode 206 flashed through my mind.
*
‘By the way, did you know that there’s a heart-shaped dot on Songi’s right shoulder?’
…
‘How did you know there was a heart-shaped dot on your shoulder?’
*
At that moment when my face was about to blush without me knowing it, Ari naturally changed the subject of conversation.
“This time, what you and I need to do is contact the administration.”
“… know.”
“I have discovered that corruption has spread to the lower levels of the Administration Bureau due to the failure of the first round. The Iss clan must have taken over the bodies of quite a few employees.”
“It will be like that.”
“But, there’s no way they all got eaten. If they had, the world would have already ended.”
Ari’s guess was that the leaders, including the so-called silent ones, would be fine, and his colleagues generally agreed.
In short, we must avoid the corrupted lower reaches and make direct contact with the higher-ups who know the truth.
“What about Grandpa and Jincheol?”
“I have something else to do.”
“Want to check with your parents?”
Ari flinched slightly, then confessed obediently.
“I’ll just find a dog and go find your father at the hospital. Let’s focus on our work.”
“… okay.”
*
7am at Gangnam Station is a crazy time with people going to work.
At that time, Ari and I were sitting in a coffee shop, tapping away at our smartphones.
The goal is to find the secret base of the Management Bureau in Seoul.
“Are you sure you’re in Seoul?”
“There definitely is. Not just one, but many.”
“Do I have to find it manually like this? Eunsol unnie told me -”
“Places known to outsiders are not real. They are just camouflage.”
The story is that the location identified by the Ocean Group is also not real.
If it were a management agency, it wouldn’t be strange if there were a secret base that civilians don’t know about… .
In other words, how can you find such a secret base just by looking at the G Company map app?
“No matter how much I think about it, this is a waste of time!”
“Just do it. What’s so hard about clicking your smartphone? I told you some of the conditions, didn’t I?”
“…”
“Secret bases are usually larger than they appear from the outside. They usually have hidden spaces underground. So -”
“There are no other buildings around.”
“Also, in terms of site selection and operation -”
“Stop, stop. Okay. But, I have one question.”
“say it.”
“What are you going to do when you meet?”
“…”
This is a story that came out in an actual meeting.
The plan to bypass the lower levels and meet with the upper echelons of the administration sounds plausible, but the question is what to do once they meet.
“… Oppa Gain openly asked for cooperation.”
At the meeting, Gain Oppa’s opinions are taken very seriously by everyone.
To put it bluntly, if Ga-in oppa says, “Let’s do A,” it feels like 90% of the time we’ll go with A.
This time it was a 10% exception.
This is because Ari, her grandfather, and even Jincheol were strongly opposed to it.
There was some basis to what Gain oppa said.
“The management has some, if imperfect, knowledge of the hotel.”
“… yes.”
“Also, many of the participants who escaped from the hotel are now in the leadership of the management bureau.”
“that’s right.”
“After openly revealing that we are participants, we say that we are here to solve real-world problems. Does that sound weird?”
“…”
After a moment of silence, Ari spoke carefully.
“I understand why Ga-in said that. If it works to openly reveal that you’re a participant and ask for cooperation, it can be used not only in Room 301 but also in other rooms.”
“That’s right! My brother told me that story too.”
If it works, it’s an amazing method that can be used in other cursed rooms as well.
“That sounds plausible, but think about it. Have I ever done something like that on the first or second floor?”
“I don’t think there are any.”
“Now, think about this story from the perspective of the administration.”
The administration’s point of view, not ours.
“The management knows about the hotel, unlike the general public. That means, the moment the participants reveal their identities openly, they suffer from the following fears.”
“…”
“Are you saying that this entire reality is a lie? It’s just a fake world created by the hotel, and it could disappear like a bubble tomorrow?”
“… That’s not what Gain oppa said.”
Ari’s words are slightly different from Gain’s opinion.
Gain oppa’s idea was to reveal that ‘we are the hotel escapees’.
In other words, I am saying that this place is also reality, and I am not saying that I am saying that I am revealing the curse of neglect.
Also, I secretly think this.
From the third floor onwards, it doesn’t seem like a fake world.
If you look at it this way, it wasn’t a lie in the first place.
Ariga retorted in a calm tone.
“I know what you mean. What I mean is that the Bureau can’t easily distinguish between the two.”
Is it reality that a hotel escapee has appeared, or is the world itself a false illusion?
There is no easy way for the administration to distinguish between the two.
That’s why the mere appearance of an unidentified participant makes the administration afraid.
“You shouldn’t think that the fact that there are many participants in the leadership of the Management Bureau is a peaceful conclusion to negotiations. In many cases, there were conflicts and clashes that were enough to make several movies, and then the surviving participants were incorporated.”
“…”
“Also, this is something I thought about while going through the first and second floors… ”
“What is it?”
“It seems like there are no other participants in the cursed room besides us. Isn’t that right?”
“Is it because of the blessing?”
“That could be true. In that case, the moment the Administration learns of our presence, they might become convinced that ‘this is the room of curses.’”
If I summarize all this content now, it is this.
How do the management offices within the Room of Curses perceive reality?
I’ve never thought this deeply about this issue before.
Anyway, as the story got deeper, Ari’s opinion started to make sense.
The moment we reveal ourselves as participants, there is a chance that the administration will realize that this world is a lie.
It’s hard to predict what would happen in that case.
“It’s difficult….”
“I felt this while talking at the meeting, but Ga-in seemed to think of everyone as herself.”
“what?”
Ari’s next words were quite meaningful.
“What if the Administration thought like Cain? Well, maybe they didn’t care if the world was fake or not. They might have thought, ‘What does it mean if the world is real or fake?’”
“…”
“But humans cannot be like Cain.”
After about 50 minutes, Ari and I found about 3 possible locations.
Just when it was about time to go and check for myself, my phone buzzed and a security message came flying in.
“Sister Eunsol?”
The long message my sister sent was full of mysterious information that Eunsol Lee and Elena had found out from the chairman of Daeyang Group.
Ari muttered as if she felt sorry.
“It looks like there was more important information.”
“What specific information is missing?
“I wonder what the Chairman of Daeyang Group did while serving the Is race….”
I feel sorry for the dead, but it’s not surprising at all that they would mind control and massacre civilians or take over the bodies of agents.
Even if it’s just Gain oppa, it’s possible to do that with your eyes closed.
How could someone as grand as the King of Is not capable of doing that?
But the next sentence was really interesting.
“Someone born from you, small and tiny, will attain a great destiny.”
“…”
“The one who cries for the three thousand worlds has taken possession of one of your children.”
“hmm….”
“Did the King of Iss really think that Eun-sol would become a hotel contestant?”
How is this possible? Because I’m a prisoner?
For divine beings, foreseeing the future is not impossible.
We don’t have to go far, because hotels also have the blessing of foresight and have a similar ability of insight.
Looking back, I think Haesin said something meaningful to Eunsol when episode 202 ended.
In addition, consider the appearance of the ‘Dragon of the Nebula’ or the design of the ‘Zhu’ that has no end in sight.
There were quite a few arrangements that were possible only if one could foresee the future or destiny.
but!
“Something, something is strange. That is….”
Compared to the previous cases, I can see that it’s strange, but I’m confused about exactly what’s strange.
Ariga clearly explained my confusion.
“It’s strange. It’s as if the King of Iss has read the Buddha’s movements.”
“… that’s right.”
“It wouldn’t be difficult for a prisoner to predict the fate of an ordinary human being. Look at this.”
Suddenly, Ari reached out and pointed at an ant crawling on the table.
“Can you see where that’s going?”
“Stuck in a corner, moving in a straight line.”
“Even humans can easily read the behavior of ants. It’s like trying to read a person’s fate from a prisoner. However, it’s difficult for humans to read people.”
“yes.”
“How much more can a person read the movements of God?”
“It would be impossible.”
“That’s what’s strange. The King of Iss didn’t just see the future, he knew that Buddha would choose Eunsol.”
“…”
This does not mean that the existence of the ability called foresight is impossible.
It exists as a blessing, and it is an ability that can be acquired without difficulty by prisoners.
However, reading the fate of an ordinary person and reading the ‘Buddha’s Choice’ are completely different matters.
Ari’s point is that the latter is unreasonable even if he is a prisoner.
So, Ari brought up an interesting story.
“I think the King of Iss cheated.”
“trickery?”
“It is much easier to disrupt the stock market by borrowing the power of powerful forces than to predict the movement of stock prices.”
Predicting stock prices is difficult even for the greatest scientists, but crimes that use force to manipulate the stock market occur every day around the world.
“Prophecy is difficult, but self-fulfilling prophecies are relatively easy.”
“What is that -”
“The Bureau can’t read the Buddha’s choices. However, we have had success in pushing the beings we want into the hotel many times. Miro and I are proof of that. Is it impossible for the prisoners?”