Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 673
Only Krnovel
EP.673 Episode 673 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (17)
Episode 673 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (17)
– Lee Eun-sol
It’s been three days since I started my second attempt.
What are my goals for this attempt?
The fundamental goal is, of course, to resolve issue 301.
However, a long and complex process is required to solve the problem.
I wanted to find out the secrets related to the Is race from my father, Lee Seok-hwan, the chairman of the Ocean Group.
How is this work going?
Let’s be honest. Right now, I’m stuck.
“…”
If your father is missing, you should find him.
If they try to keep their mouths shut, just force them open, and if the enemy gets in your way, just fight them.
Unfortunately, the problem was completely different from the above.
My father is sitting nicely at the table across from me and is quite cooperative in answering my questions.
There was nothing out of the ordinary like my father’s bodyguards trying to assassinate me.
However, the most important information cannot be accessed.
According to his own account, he was given security measures by a retired Bureau agent he met 12 years ago.
That security measure left him unable to recall ‘critical information’ even to himself.
“Eunsol, you’ve been staring at me so intently that my face is about to wear out. Do you have something to say?”
No matter how great the security measures of the Administration are, their limitations are obvious.
If you use the flute of rest, you can easily break it, and maybe even destroy Cain or Ari.
The problem was that there was a warning that if you forcibly find out that information from your father, something terrible will happen.
Ironically, even my father himself had no idea what that terrible thing was.
However, Elena confirmed that her father himself truly believed that.
Even Ga-in or Sang-hyun, who was observing from outside, warned me that it was a poltergeist, so there was nothing I could do.
A point of confusion where you don’t know what to do.
The day passed quickly, and I began to work on various tasks to take over the Daeyang Group.
Before coming to the hotel, I might have been happy because it was a moment I had dreamed of.
Now it just feels like a waste of time.
“…”
Let’s beat it!
No matter how I look at it, this kind of thing is a waste of my energy?
It would be worse to just take a nap.
My precious brain should be used for more important things!
— Bam!
As I roughly sat up, all the various documents on the table spilled onto the floor.
My father looked at me in confusion, but didn’t really say anything.
“…”
I let go of the reins of my thoughts.
Because I was obsessed with the keyword ‘Room 301’, I felt like my scope of thinking became narrower.
Maybe information that you consider unrelated to Room 301 is actually related to Room 301?
thought.
thought.
thought.
All sorts of thoughts come and go repeatedly.
Some of my thoughts were about Room 301, but there were far more unrelated – or, at least, seemingly unrelated – distracting thoughts.
“It looks like you have quite a lot of worries.”
“Yes.”
“Is this an important concern?”
“Of course.”
“…better than the Ocean Group?”
“Much more.”
At those words, my father thought for a moment, then suddenly walked over to the bookshelf and took out a small book.
“What is this? The teachings of Shakyamuni that give hope?”
“It may be different from you, but I have had many troubles in my life. These things have helped me at those times.”
“…”
A small booklet containing instructive Buddhist sayings and lessons.
I often saw my father reading it, and I read it myself a few times before.
When I saw the book title, “The Teachings of Shakyamuni That Give Hope,” after a long time, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Isn’t Sakyamuni the founder and founder of Buddhism, and the name that Buddha used during his human days?
In the past, I wouldn’t have thought much about it, but now the word Buddha has a completely different meaning to me than it did in the past.
A distant being that exists somewhere in the universe!
However, no matter how you look at it, it is completely different from the kind of being that Buddhism talks about.
“ah.”
“Why is that?”
For the first time, a very strange thought occurred to me.
therefore….
My whole family believes in Buddhism.
“Father, our family has believed in Buddhism since early on, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Father, why did you start believing in Buddhism?”
“Didn’t I tell you before? When I was in my 20s, I met the great monk Jiun of Seoraksan -”
“Father, isn’t that something you made up for broadcasting and public use?”
“…”
“Be honest with me. You don’t have to hide anything from me.”
“…”
“Have you heard? Somewhere in the universe, there exist divine beings beyond human knowledge.”
“…”
“They are terrifying creatures who can turn the ocean into a desert with a single wave of their hand, and who melt the eyes and brains of ordinary humans just by looking at them.”
“…”
“However, there is a being that even such divine beings kneel down and bow down to, and that being is called Buddha… ”
Silence came into the office.
Before I knew it, my father, like me, didn’t care about useless paperwork.
Soon, my father’s confession of faith, which I had never heard before, began.
“… Personally, this is what I think about Buddhism.”
“Tell me.”
“Shakyamuni – Siddhartha Gautama is a real person who existed in human history.”
“…”
“Didn’t he come to know of the distant being called ‘Buddha’ through some kind of mystical process and, drawing some kind of inspiration from it, establish Buddhism?”
“…”
“I don’t think that the human Siddhartha Gautama himself was a god. However, the ‘Buddha’ who inspired him was a real person. That’s why I decided to believe in Buddhism. Is this enough of an answer?”
Several thoughts crossed my mind.
Because I know much more about the secrets of the world, hotels, and Buddha than my father.
Could it be that the founder of Buddhism in history was the first hotel escapee?
If you think about it that way, all the supernatural powers that Sakyamuni was said to have had can be easily explained. They must have been abilities derived from inheritance or blessings.
Of course, I don’t know.
Given that Ari has never mentioned this before, it seems like the administration doesn’t know about it either.
“Let me ask you one more thing.”
“okay.”
“Who was it?”
“hmm?”
“Who told your father about the existence of ‘Buddha’?”
“…”
It didn’t seem like the administration office.
Because information about hotels and ministries is considered highly confidential even within the administration.
My father still doesn’t know about regressors or loops.
This means that the Administration did not tell Father the truth about the world, and it was unlikely that they would have told him the information about the Buddha, which was a higher secret.
“It’s not the management office, is it?”
“No. No. They didn’t tell me anything properly.”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know either. Maybe it’s because of the security measures taken 12 years ago -”
“Don’t you remember some of it, even if it’s not all? You also mentioned the reason why you started believing in Buddhism.”
“…”
“Tell me anything you remember. Anything is fine.”
My father bowed his head and sat in thought for a long time.
It felt like I was wandering through phantom memories that were halfway there and half away.
Soon, his mouth opened and a strange story began to be told.
“Someone in my memory said this.”
“…”
“You, we truly have a pitiful fate.”
“Why?”
“They say I was born too early.”
We were born too early.
“They were born not in the heaven that will one day be completed, but in the hell before that… That is why they are called pitiful beings.”
“Is that all?”
“The other person added this at the end. I want to send my children to heaven.”
*
– Yoo Song-i
After our first meeting with the visionary, she took us to the Gangwon-do ruins as promised.
“Sheep Songi.”
“yes!”
“I checked on my way here. It looks like you’re still going to school and have a special relationship with your parents.”
“…”
“Is this your first regression? Right now, I still feel that family and daily life are precious. I know that someday, I will miss this moment.”
“… I hope you don’t touch my family -”
“Touching? Oh my, what kind of villain is the Administration? The agent’s family is the top priority for protection. Don’t worry.”
The strangely friendly attitude actually feels burdensome.
Compared to the visionaries before me, all the ‘silent ones’ I’ve met in reality seem like they’re all broken people.
We just met today, and he told me his secrets without hesitation and guided me to a mysterious place.
Of course I was very suspicious, but it was also strange not to follow it.
Let’s say you’re aiming for A, and the opponent just gives you A.
Should I give up on A because I feel suspicious of the other person’s attitude?
If that’s the case, then why did you make A your first goal?
In the end, I had to follow the seer with Ari, my nerves on edge.
— Bam!
Kim Ari: Okay! Okay!
However, Ari asked me for confirmation several times just now.
This is because she suspects that the seer may have been possessed by the Iss clan.
It’s a valid doubt, and I’ve had the same dilemma many times.
no.
Yoo Song-i: No.
A fact confirmed on the first attempt.
In both cases, the soul of a human inhabiting an animal body and the race of Iss inhabiting a human body are judged as ‘chaotic’.
The blessing of affinity must be communicated, and telepathy must also work.
Kim Ari: Really?
Yoo Song-i: No!
Although the seer is friendly to me, it has nothing to do with friendliness.
Because she also shows an extremely kind attitude towards Ari.
Also, if telepathy were possible, the feelings or simple thoughts of the seer should be felt, however vaguely, but that was not the case at all.
Like other agents of the Bureau, the Seers are merely humans with special powers.
What confused me more than my doubts about the seer was the underground ruins themselves.
— Squeak!
“Huh!”
“be careful.”
“Be careful. The ground is unstable because excavation is in progress. If possible, it would be best to only step on the places that Ari has stepped on. Ari is like a ghost, and only steps on safe places.”
The air was thick with a sticky humidity, and the floor felt unpleasantly sloppy.
Add to this the stench of rotting flesh and the scattered bones, and there was no other hell like this.
It wasn’t all unpleasantness.
This is because there were also many mysterious sculptures and murals.
“… There are so many murals.”
“These are very old paintings. Most of them are from the Stone Age.”
There was no scene like this in the memories of the chairman that Eun-sol told me about.
Considering the timing, was it because the research was in its early stages at the time?
It may have been a time when we hadn’t dug this deep underground.
While I was lost in thought, the seer suddenly started telling me a strange story.
“Have you ever thought about why the project is called Origin of Species?”
“Can you tell me?”
“Of course. Origin of Species – that’s the name of a very famous book. It’s the work of a great man who first discovered the principle of evolution in history.”
Origin of species, evolution.
“You both know about evolution, right?”
“…”
“I have a rough idea.”
Honestly, I don’t know!
At times like this, I feel a little ashamed of my past when I wasn’t diligent in my schoolwork.
I don’t know, but wouldn’t Ari know?
“Organisms accumulate genetic mutations over time. Sometimes mutations are beneficial or harmless to the organism, but many times they are harmful. In this case -”
“You can skip the general discussion about evolution.”
Ari’s words were slightly disappointing.
Because I also wanted to hear a little bit about the theory of evolution.
“I’m glad you know to some extent. Then, Miss Ari, have you ever thought about this?”
“…”
“Does the principle of evolution only apply to biological bodies?”
“…”
“Perhaps the principles of evolution apply to the soul as well.”
“Can you elaborate a little more?”
“The core of evolution is natural selection. Mutations in the body or soul occur almost randomly, but -”
At some point, the seers naturally began to explain the ‘soul’ as well, including it in the category of evolution.
“- Among them, only the souls that have acquired mutations suitable for survival survive and continue to exist.”
“A mutation fit for survival?”
“It refers to us.”
“What is that -”
The seer’s next words contained a story I had never thought of before.
“The beginning and the end of the world, the loop. This is the law of the universe. We, the regressors, are the ones who can endure the loop. In other words, we are the souls who were naturally selected.”
“ah?”
“Ari, do you understand? The result of the human soul’s evolution is the returner. That’s us. We evolved a little faster than our kind.”