Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 671
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EP.671 Episode 671 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (15)
Episode 671 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (15)
– Yoo Song-i
The Administration claims the entire world as its domain, monopolizing more human and material resources than any other company or government in the world.
Material resources are, of course, a concept that includes headquarters, branches, and various other secret bases installed around the world or in other worlds.
It is said that this secret base is a completely different facility from the headquarters or branches of the management bureau.
“The headquarters, or branches, are the official administrative agencies of a country. They are classified facilities to the public, but… Those who need to know know their locations.”
“People like high-ranking politicians or the chairman of the Daeyang Group?”
“Yes. If it’s in that location, I can guess the location of the branch office of my country’s management office, even if I’m not sure about it. The branch office handles a lot of work, so there are a lot of permanent staff.”
“Are you saying that we can’t just sneak in and meet with the leaders?”
“Absolutely impossible. That’s why we’re looking for a secret base.”
This is why we didn’t go to the Korean branch of the Management Office.
This is because it is extremely difficult to sneak in and meet only the Korean branch manager.
Wouldn’t it have been possible if Gain oppa was here?
It’s a meaningless story because there isn’t any!
“What is the secret base for?”
“When I say secret base, I just use a general term. Each facility has a different purpose. Some are for research, some are for sealing chaos entities, and some are for shelter.”
“If I go there, will I be able to meet the higher-ups right away?”
“I don’t know about the higher-ups, but we can ignore the staff and meet the agents directly. To be exact, the agents will show up when we infiltrate.”
We finished exploring the fifth candidate site while sharing these stories.
1. Use a smartphone map app to search for a location believed to be a secret base.
2. Go to the candidate area and check in person.
3. If you are wrong, go back to number 1!
I went through steps 1 through 3 above in half a day.
It seems like I left early in the morning, but the sun has already been high in the sky for a long time.
Ari muttered with a slightly tired expression.
“It wasn’t here either.”
“Do I really have to go through each and every one of them like this?”
“If there is another way, you tell me.”
“…”
“Let’s go. The next candidate is in Gwanak-gu.”
*
The seventh building was quite old and even had a Korean restaurant on the first floor.
As soon as I saw it, I thought, “This isn’t the place.”
“Let’s go. There’s a restaurant on the first floor. Is it some kind of secret base? This isn’t it.”
Instead of answering my question, Ari entered the restaurant and began to look around.
“…”
This is the sixth time I’ve just entered a building and checked out the surroundings.
It was quite a frustrating process for me, because I couldn’t figure out what criteria Ari used to determine whether something was a secret base or not.
I asked a couple of times, and Ari explained it to me quite kindly, but… .
After hearing it, I found out that there was no clear standard in the first place.
Ari’s hundreds of years of experience as an agent was the criterion for judgment.
To put it nicely, it’s big data. To put it badly, it’s the agent’s intuition.
It wasn’t something I could do just by hearing a few words.
I just hope that feeling is right this time.
“Hey, students! Aren’t you going to order?”
“I’m looking at the menu.”
At the point when I was about to shake my head, thinking that it wasn’t true after looking at the atmosphere, Ari opened her eyes wide for the first time.
“That picture.”
“huh?”
“Do you see the ink painting?”
As expected from a high-end Korean restaurant in the heart of Seoul, there were several really nice paintings hanging there, and the one Ari pointed out was one of them.
“Isn’t the location strange?”
“uh….”
“It’s a place that guests can’t see properly. If you don’t look for it with your eyes wide open like I am now, you might not even know that such a painting exists.”
Now that I hear it, it sounds plausible.
If it’s an expensive painting that’s meant to set the mood, wouldn’t it be better to display it where guests can appreciate it?
Also, when I looked at it with suspicious eyes, the content of the picture itself seemed strange.
There is no proper background, just a house with a creepy atmosphere.
Above all!
“…”
I informed Ari of the surrounding situation with the power of various perspectives.
Now, from the moment Ariga noticed the picture, the restaurant staff were giving her meaningful glances!
Isn’t this clear evidence?
At that moment, when he is determined to have a blast at a restaurant with Ari!
Ari suddenly made an urgent expression and showed a bewildered attitude.
“Over there, push aside the right-hand staff -”
“I’ll go first.”
“what?”
What are you talking about all of a sudden?
The moment I turned my head in shock, Ari was instantly out of my cognitive range!
“…!”
Hey, is this guy crazy?
What am I supposed to do if you disappear by writing about a girl with no presence?
Pero also reacted in a ridiculous manner.
— Beep!
Wait, Pero?
“… Pero.”
— Beep! Beep?
“I’ll go first.”
*
.
..
…
A ‘rippling’ feeling.
Soon, we arrived at an unknown place filled with cool air.
I’ve had so many experiences in hotels that the extraordinary feels like everyday life, but it’s really hard to get used to the feeling of entering a painting.
As I was moving forward feeling uneasy, I discovered Ari stopped in front of me.
“hey!”
“You just got here.”
“What were you thinking, moving alone?”
“… I thought we’d be late if we moved together.”
“what?”
Soon, Ari silenced me with a ‘Shhh!’ gesture, leaving her mouth wide open.
‘There’s an agent here right now. That’s why I came in right away.’
‘…’
‘How did you get here so quickly, beating all the staff?’
‘Pero is causing a ruckus outside.’
‘…’
After a brief silence, a “multi-angle!” sound was heard from somewhere.
— Clang!
A cold metallic sound is heard from behind.
I slowly turned around and saw a cold gun pointed at me and Ari.
“…”
At this moment, I was slightly embarrassed.
Because the opponent’s appearance was so different from what was expected.
Cold, shining black eyes, ghostly white skin, and eerie hair that constantly wiggles like a living snake.
Up until this point, he looked more like an evil spirit than a human, but the most bizarre thing was that his overall facial features were that of a boy in his early to mid-teens.
Of course, as we can see from Ari and Miro, age doesn’t mean anything to agents.
A tense gaze crossed in an instant.
It seemed like the person pointing the gun at me was making a silent demand.
‘Who are you and how did you get here?’
Soon, Ari began to tell her prepared lie, raising both hands and indicating that she had no intention of fighting.
“As you might have guessed, I am an agent.”
“…”
“The one behind is my trainee. As you can see, he has also crossed the apocalypse, so I plan on reporting to headquarters soon to have him become an agent.”
Ari entered the secret base without warning, even though she knew there were agents there.
At first, I was confused and wondered what to do if the opponent attacked me without any questions or answers… .
“Are you going to keep pointing your gun at me?”
“It seems like they both made it through the apocalypse….”
The conversation between the two men now contained the answer to my question – why didn’t the other man shoot immediately?
Agents can recognize other agents, or more specifically, ‘returners’.
This is because regressors are essentially beings of a higher spiritual level.
Ari, did you ever show this kind of talent to your great-grandfather or grandfather, Ga-in?
Of course, I heard that it is not a very accurate ability.
Rather than a sophisticated superpower, is it closer to an intuition acquired through a long career as an agent?
Rather than saying, ‘This person is 100% an agent!’, it’s more like, ‘This person seems like an agent, right? Or not.’
It seems the other person feels the same way.
“Hmm, I don’t know. More importantly, if you’re pretty -”
“thank you.”
The opponent flinched at Ari’s clever words, but did not lower his gun.
“- Once you see it, you can’t forget it. No matter how much I search my memory, I can’t remember seeing anyone like you.”
“That could be true. In fact, I’ve been living a bit wildly the last few loops.”
“What does it mean?”
“I’ve been wandering the world, hiding my identity. You understand? Isn’t this a bit difficult?”
“…”
“Is it like a super long-term vacation?”
This is also a lie prepared after a meeting outside.
Although there is no official concept of retirement for agents, let’s think about what an agent is like.
He is fundamentally a regressor.
He suddenly awakens at an unknown time in an unspecified place and regains memories of his past.
They have gained a lot of experience over their long lives and have mostly mystical powers.
Therefore, even the management office has difficulty strictly controlling each individual agent.
So, what I’m saying is that there are agents who actually go on long vacations on their own, just like Ari said.
Without going too far, Grandpa Mukseong is exactly that kind of case in reality, right?
Soon, Ari began to slowly bring out information about the administration that only agents could know.
Of course, there was a significant gap between the management office Ari knew and the management office of Room 301, so a lot of the information was inaccurate… .
There was also quite a bit of information that was consistently consistent.
Thanks to this, the opponent’s expression became increasingly confused, and before he knew it, he lowered his gun.
“… So, you’re saying that you awakened about two years ago?”
“that’s right.”
“Are you planning on finishing your vacation and returning to headquarters soon?”
“yes.”
Naturally, the other person started calling Ari ‘senior’.
The moment the tension eased slightly at the sight of the boy scratching his head!
— Clank!
The opponent pulled out another gun from his bosom and aimed it at Ari’s head, asking her decisive questions.
“Answer yes or no. Are you an agent?”
“yes.”
As soon as Ari answered, the opponent pulled the trigger without hesitation.
— Tick!
Not ‘bang!’ but ‘tick!’
I pulled the trigger, but the bullet didn’t come out.
“…”
After a moment of silence, the boy finally smiled brightly and this time he really put the gun back in his pocket.
“Excuse me.”
“…”
“Haha! It seems like you’re an agent, but just in case. Wouldn’t it be better to knock on a stone bridge before crossing it?”
“okay.”
So, that gun just now was some kind of magical tool that judges lies?
If Ari lied, a bullet would have gone out and blown her head off?
Oh, I guess it’s because all sorts of strange things are popping out, as if they were agents!
Anyway, the crisis has been overcome.
Ari is really an agent. She’s just not Agent 301.
“Please call me C. But, senior, why didn’t you report back to the Korean branch and come to a place like this?”
“I tried to do that, but I felt something strange.”
Now is the real start.
“Strange?”
The next moment, Ari summoned an isomorphic polyhedron and surrounded the area with an opaque barrier.
C was slightly flustered, but soon calmed down, perhaps realizing that Ari wasn’t attacking her.
“What is it?”
“I wonder if there are any ominous eyes around.”
“…”
“I’ll be honest. Some of the staff at headquarters are acting strangely.”
“…”
“It seems that quite a few of our staff have been possessed or infected by an unidentified entity. We don’t know how far the corruption has spread. What do you think?”
“after….”
C answered with a sigh.
“It’s the same all the way to headquarters. Senior, you have found traces of the ‘race of Is’.”
“…Tell me more.”
“An alien race with the powers of possession, body-snatching, and remote control. There have been ongoing conflicts between the Iss race and the Administration in recent years.”
“…”
“We are constantly defending and weeding out the infiltrating enemies… but it is difficult. As a result, the headquarters’ activities have been greatly reduced in recent years.”
“I guess there won’t be any problem maintaining public order?”
“This is also interesting. Even the employees infected by the Iss clan deal normally with chaos issues unrelated to the Iss clan.”
“…”
“It may sound strange, but the other person’s attitude is like -”
“Let’s not make a big deal out of it. Unnecessary civilian casualties are annoying. If the administration accepts our demands, we’ll just back down. Is that what it feels like?”
“…Wow. You’ve already felt that far? That’s right. It seems like the other person doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”
Listening from behind, I was amazed at Ari’s speaking skills.
As you flesh out the information you get from the post-apocalyptic world, the other person starts to trust Ari more and more, right?
Even I think it’s strange to doubt Ari at this point.
Ariga said in a calm tone.
“C, is it possible to contact someone higher up?”
“It’s possible. Should I contact the ‘visionary’?”
“…Please.”
Ari flinched for a moment at the word ‘visionary.’
Given the circumstances, wouldn’t Room 301 be calling the leadership of the Management Bureau the Visionaries?
In reality, they are called ‘the silent ones’, but the name may change.
“Is there anything else you know?”
“… This is just information I heard.”
“That’s perfect. Tell me.”
C muttered with a somewhat uncertain tone.
“About 500 years ago, the company discovered unidentified relics underground in what is now Gangwon-do.”
Gangwon-do.
This is the place mentioned in Eunsol’s Telegram message.
“ruins?”
“They say it was a relic that contained a very powerful force of chaos. They say it was capable of performing miracles beyond imagination.”
“What kind of miracle is this?”
“I’m sorry. That’s all… .”
“Tell me what you know.”
“It wasn’t usable when it was discovered. But, strangely enough, it’s said that it became usable around 30 or 35 years ago.”
“…”
“At that time, a very large project related to the relics was started.”
“What is that?”
C’s next words were unexpected.
Because it wasn’t a word I didn’t know, but a word I knew very well.
I just didn’t know it would come out at this timing.
“Have you heard of ‘Project – The Origin of Species’?”