Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 675
Only Krnovel
EP.675 Episode 675 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (19)
Episode 675 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (19)
– Lee Eun-sol
“Find out what secret is hidden in the Chairman’s head right now!”
I was momentarily speechless at the words I heard over the phone, and several thoughts flashed through my mind.
Why did Grandpa suddenly give an order without any consideration for the future?
Because I plan to turn back time!
Why do you suddenly want to turn back time?
The answer comes when I think of the unidentified loud noise that reverberated throughout the world just a moment ago.
Songi, Ari, something ridiculous happened.
Is this a situation where the board has exploded and time has to be turned back?
I understand and answered up to this point.
“Are you planning to use One More Chance?”
“okay.”
“Okay. I understand what you mean, just find out the information without thinking about the future. But, you know that if Grandpa turns back his memories, I will lose them, right? How do I-”
Should I make a phone call before Grandpa uses his One More Chance?
It’s obvious that a catastrophe is about to happen, but there’s no time for it to happen –
“Eunsol! It seems like Songi is already dead! Gain and Sanghyun will only be looking at you anyway!”
“Oh, I understand.”
I see!
If my colleagues outside are observing me anyway, I don’t need to worry about transmitting my memories.
Even if I forget my memories, Gain or Sanghyun will observe me from outside and tell me.
*
— Bam!
As I opened the door to the chairman’s office, my father, who had been looking through the documents, opened his eyes wide.
“Eunsol? If it’s because of the strange noise I heard outside -”
“sorry.”
Immediately, the butterfly dream opened and a mysterious light began to fill the conference room.
Also, the flute of rest appeared on the right hand.
Soon, my father muttered with a dark expression.
“That’s… the magical tool that stole my memories a while ago, right?”
“I need more information.”
“If you forcibly find out my memories, something dangerous will happen, right?”
“There are times when you have to take risks. That’s the same thing in management, right?”
My father’s next words were slightly disconcerting.
“I don’t know. I’ve never taken a risk in management.”
“ah?”
“I only touch businesses that are sure to succeed.”
“…”
I forgot. Wasn’t your father an imperfect regressor?
He wasn’t a man who took risks in business.
After a moment of silence, my father answered with a bitter smile.
“How can I stop you? I just hope you’ve thought it through enough.”
It looks like he has no intention of stopping me.
— Boohoo…!
He blew the flute slowly.
and….
“Ugh…!”
The ‘security measures’ that an unknown agent had put on my father’s head 12 years ago had melted away like bubbles in front of the Flute of Peace.
“Please be patient for a little longer.”
Soon, I became a butterfly and delved into the past of the chairman of Daeyang Group.
The beginning of the memory continued from the end of the scene I had seen earlier.
“Be silent. Forget. Obey. I will give you three chances.”
*
– Lee Seok-hwan
I returned home to Seoul, half out of my mind.
My wife was horrified when she saw my clothes soaked with sweat and blood, but I didn’t even have the energy to explain it to her.
The best I could do was to calm my wife down, who threatened to call the police at any moment.
After that, I just curled up in bed all night, shivering and praying endlessly to someone I didn’t know… .
The next day, and the day after that, and the day after that.
One day, two days, three days – a week passed and there was no word from the administration.
Does this make any sense?
A major accident occurred while conducting an incomprehensible chaos experiment, resulting in a large number of deaths, and yet there is no response?
Shouldn’t you at least summon me and have me investigate what happened that day?
Could it be that even a normal recovery like the above is impossible?
Thinking about it like this made me so scared that it took my breath away.
There was also dissatisfaction with the management office that usually passed on all sorts of chores, and anger towards the secretive group that didn’t even tell us anything properly…
I felt it when things turned out like this.
I’ve been psychologically dependent on the administration!
Even though the Administration is a bunch of shit, I still believed that they were an organization that protected the world!
…
Eventually, I couldn’t stand my anxiety so I took the initiative and contacted them.
It was possible because there were agents I had personal contacts with and many staff members I knew by face, thanks to their loyalty to the Bureau for over 10 years.
I arranged to meet Agent K – he was called K because his last name was Kim – at a secret location that had been given some serious security attention.
He was a young man in his twenties with a cheerful and likeable appearance, and like all agents, his age had no meaning.
“Agent, it’s been a while.”
“Haha! Was it 6 years ago when I last saw you? I owe you a lot back then.”
“No. I am the one who is always grateful to you, Agent.”
K was a very kind-spoken agent, for one.
Although he may look down on ordinary people in his heart, at least his outward attitude was impeccable.
I observed the other person’s attitude through the natural, formal words that flowed back and forth.
K, at least on the outside, acted as if nothing had happened.
As soon as we sat down at the square table, he asked me to get to the point.
“Mr. Chairman, since we are both busy, let’s get to the point. Why did you suddenly ask to meet? If you have any requests, it would be better to contact headquarters rather than privately.”
“…”
“Or, do you have a personal favor to ask of me?”
“…”
“Haha! We’re not strangers, and I’ll listen to you if it’s something. So tell me. What, is your little son acting strangely? I’m afraid that if I report him to the management, they’ll punish him, so I want you to handle it so that he doesn’t get hurt as much as possible?”
“I guess there are a lot of requests like that.”
“Isn’t it?”
K had no idea why I asked to meet him, which made it even more bizarre.
It’s as if you don’t know anything about what happened in Gangwon-do!
“… Agent, I recently received instructions from headquarters to purchase 13,000 pyeong of land in xx-gun, xx-myeon, Gangwon-do.”
“Is that so? If the purchase price is too large and there are management problems -”
“no.”
Even though I mentioned Gangwon-do openly, it seems like he still doesn’t understand what I’m saying.
In the end, he said it directly.
“Agent, do you really not know? Or are you pretending not to know?”
“yes?”
“That day! Wasn’t there a huge massacre in Gangwon-do?”
“…”
“I saw it with my own two eyes. I remember it vividly. Wasn’t it the unknown monster that escaped from the glass case? Not only the researchers on site, but also Agent T were killed by that monster’s hands -”
The moment when I tried to explain while sweating profusely.
— Ting!
K smiled brightly.
“Agent?”
“You lack insight.”
“Wh, what -”
“Is this the only way to survive in this harsh world?”
The moment I realized that my speech had completely changed!
— Crunch!
I jumped up in surprise and slammed myself against the wall.
This tone, this attitude, this presence!
In an instant, my breathing stopped and cold sweat began to run down my body.
“All of you…!”
A young man smiles brightly, gets up, and approaches me.
He was K, but he wasn’t K.
Someone had already swallowed K!
“Didn’t I tell you just a week ago? Be silent, forget it, obey.”
“Ugh! Ugh!”
“You seem to have severe forgetfulness?”
As in Gangwon-do, this time too, the opponent did not cause me any particular harm.
He just smiled broadly, held up three fingers, and folded one.
“I gave you three chances, and one of them has already passed.”
“Ugh…!”
With those words, the other person disappeared with light steps.
…
When I stepped out onto the street, half-souled, a world without common sense greeted me.
Ten people stopped in front of my car like dolls.
As soon as they saw me, they suddenly opened their mouths wide, put their hands down their throats, and started pulling out their own tongues!
As if warning me not to wag my tongue so carelessly again.
“Ugh!”
As I sat on the floor in horror at the disgusting sight, I realized something even more horrifying.
“…”
It is broad daylight and this is the middle of Seoul.
Naturally, the surrounding area was filled with Seoul citizens living ordinary lives.
But, no one was surprised.
Ten poor people are being manipulated by the devil to have their tongues ripped out in broad daylight, and people are walking by as if nothing happened!
It’s the same. It’s the same!
It’s as if everyone except me had promised that ‘nothing would happen’ and ‘the world would be at peace’!
*
‘What a disgusting sight.’
‘Controlling the minds of thousands of people around you at the same time? If the opponents were prisoners, it would be possible, but… That’s amazing.’
‘What exactly is so great about the steering? If it’s you, then -‘
‘It’s difficult to control that many people at the same time, and above all, it’s impossible to handle a mass murder in broad daylight as if nothing happened.’
‘I can understand why the Chairman is fed up.’
‘Also, this thought occurs to me. They’re putting on such a bothersome show without killing the chairman or directly touching him.’
‘…’
‘There is a reason why it is difficult to directly touch the chairman of the King of Iss.’
*
This happened when I turned forty-nine.
At this point, I was more aware of the facts than I was eight years ago.
For example, I felt that the lower levels of the management office were slowly changing.
This is because I felt the presence of an ‘unknown monster’ beyond the staff or agents I met.
If the body of your master suddenly became possessed by an unidentified evil spirit, would this be what it would feel like?
Even if I had noticed, there was nothing I could do.
All I did was serve an unknown monster disguised as the Administration and cooperate with various strange and incomprehensible acts.
During that time, I realized only one thing.
The monster seemed to need a lot of humans.
Well, I decided not to think about what purpose humans are needed for.
From some point on, even the pangs of conscience stopped being such a big problem.
…
One day, as I was spending my days like this, I got into my car to leave work and there was an ‘other being’ in the driver’s seat.
“Is that Lee Seok-hwan, Chairman of Daeyang Group?”
“That’s right. You came from headquarters -”
Before he could finish speaking, a whitish fog rose from the hands of the unidentified being.
What is this? I didn’t even have time to say anything.
It’s just that the fog was creeping towards me recklessly, making me dizzy.
“Ugh…!”
I felt my consciousness fading.
Also, I just realized that the measures I just took have made it so I can no longer lie, etc.
It seemed like the other person was planning to interrogate me.
“Who are you?”
“If I were to put it in a way you can understand, I would say ‘Count.’”
“count?”
“Answer as you remember. According to what I have learned over the past few months, you are the last mortal to have made contact with the ‘King’.”
“Wow, King?”
“The King has disappeared. The dukes have even spread the incredible story that the King has ‘disappeared.’ Do you know anything about it?”
Under the pressure of an irresistible question – I asked, because I really couldn’t understand.
“Who, who said that it was destroyed?”
*
‘When the chairman was 41 years old, the king of Is arrived on Earth, did something, and then suddenly disappeared 8 years later? Then, the Is race came to Earth and started searching for the king who had disappeared or disappeared?’
‘It looks like the secret surrounding the king’s death or disappearance will come out.’