Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 700
Only Krnovel
EP.700 Episode 700 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (34)
Episode 700 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (34)
– Kim Ari
I look out the car window and feel the chilly breeze.
A few shabby buildings and several half-rotted greenhouses were visible.
If you were not familiar with it, you might mistake it for a farm that the owner had abandoned.
But, my colleagues here and I knew it well.
The scenery is all camouflage, and in reality it is the entrance to an unidentified relic that the management office created underground in Gangwon-do.
The ruins are also the source of the apocalypse and the place where the secret of ‘grace’ is hidden.
It is also the battleground where we will create the ending of Room 301.
The most important actor hasn’t appeared yet, though.
At that time, Mukseong, who was driving the truck, scratched his head and said.
“Hey, hey. Miro sent me a private message.”
“What is it?”
“They say they arranged for Eunsol to meet at the Duke’s request. The conversation ended in a few seconds, and Eunsol fainted shortly after. The problem is that the Duke added another request.”
Additional requirements?
“What did you say?”
“He wants me to meet another duke in this time zone. He knows how to meet him, and he says three minutes is enough.”
“… 3 minutes.”
“There won’t be a time shortage. If all goes according to plan, Room 301 will be finished before this evening.”
Elena, who was behind, reacted.
“Time is not the issue. The Duke doesn’t seem to know the dangers of time zones. If the summoned entity and the current time zone’s main body meet -”
“I heard that Miro told me that story. He said that he didn’t want to meet his current timeline self, but that he wanted to meet ‘the other duke’.”
“Oh my god!”
I also said to myself, ‘Oh my!’
Additional information indirectly revealed thanks to the Duke’s request – that ‘several’ Dukes have already arrived on Earth.
Soon, Sang-Hyeon, who was sitting across from Elena, frowned and said.
“That’s a very dangerous request. After all, the Duke is an alien and an evil being.”
Mukseong answered immediately, and it seems he is communicating with Miro in real time.
It may be a bit redundant, but this means that the blessing of silence can still be used without any major problems.
It also means that the maze is not that far from us.
“Hey, hey! But the Duke can’t stop or adjust the grace ritual on his own?”
“this…!”
“It is said that at least three or more dukes must intervene to stop the grace.”
“You didn’t say that yesterday, did you?”
“So he’s a dog!”
Just as we didn’t share all the information with the Duke, the Duke also hid quite a bit of information and revealed it one by one at crucial moments.
There are two main things that the previous round’s operatives had to do.
First, try to persuade the King of Is.
I personally don’t have high expectations for this part, but regardless of success or failure, the attempt at persuasion itself is part of the plan.
Second, the interruption or manipulation of the grace ritual.
This part was something that only the Duke could do, but when he entered Room 301, he finally revealed the truth that the other party had been hiding.
That he cannot manipulate the grace ritual alone and requires the help of several other craftsmen.
“…”
What should I do?
With our power, it’s difficult to even control one peacock!
A moment where everyone is watching with anticipation.
The colleague sitting in the passenger seat opened his mouth.
“Let me do whatever you want.”
“what?”
“Anyway, the plan for this round can only proceed if we trust the Duke to some extent. If the Duke has other thoughts…”
“What if you had different thoughts?”
He shrugged and answered Elena, who was looking anxious.
“This attempt will fail. But isn’t there any reliable insurance left in the observatory? Next time, just don’t trust the ploy.”
Even if this round fails due to the Duke’s betrayal, there’s no need to worry.
Why? Because the ‘reliable insurance’ remaining in the observatory will succeed in escaping!
As long as you don’t repeat the same mistake in the next round, that’s it.
“Foot!”
That answer was so confident that I couldn’t help but laugh.
In reality, the escape will not be as easy as my confident answer suggests.
But thanks to those words, my colleagues’ anxiety has lessened.
“Also, I think this.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I think the Duke himself understands this situation.”
“…”
“There’s no point in him betraying me. So, he’ll cooperate.”
“Is that so?”
“But in the big picture, it seems like he has his own goals while cooperating with us.”
The Duke’s strategy, as seen by his colleague in the passenger seat.
In the grand scheme of things, they cooperate with us, but they also pursue their own goals.
I asked cautiously.
“If the Duke had a separate purpose, what would it be?”
The young man, who had been silent for a moment, muttered softly.
“…getting a new cogwheel.”
*
– Lee Eun-sol
.
..
…
“ah.”
When I came to, the duke’s voice was no longer heard.
Instead, I saw Miro sitting next to me.
“Are you awake?”
“… Miro, you summoned the Duke a little while ago and had him speak to me, right?”
“Yeah. I asked for a chance to talk to you.”
The Duke’s request is extremely clear.
In place of my mother, whose judgment was clouded, I wish to inherit her power and become the King of Ys.
“What did the Duke say?”
“…”
“Eunsol?”
“Just a minute, let me think about it for a minute.”
What does it mean to ask to be king?
Can I inherit the power of a real prisoner?
If I inherit, will the race of Iss really loyal to me?
In the first place, why would the race of Iss need a king?
In an instant, countless thoughts crossed my mind.
My mind became extremely confused as I imagined my future as an alien king!
Fear of straying from the human path.
Curiosity about possibilities we have never imagined in our lives.
and…
Greed for immense power and cosmic authority.
At that moment, I finally understood why the hotel had read the greed into my nature.
“after…”
I took a deep breath and looked around, and saw that the situation inside the car had changed in the meantime.
Gain had long since disappeared, and only Miro, who looked tired as if she had been busy since early morning, was left next to her.
“Sister, are you okay?”
The driver had also changed from Grandpa Mukseong to Jincheol.
“It’s okay. By the way, it’s been a while since I’ve ridden in a car you drive.”
“Haha! I said I’ll ride anything that isn’t manual.”
Where did grandpa go?
Was this guy Jincheol in the first place?
One thought that I’ve had since a while ago.
Maybe Songi is sitting in the empty passenger seat.
What did Songi say yesterday?
Oh, if I go back to room 301, my parents said they would stop me from being taken over by the Iss race.
“maze.”
“huh?”
“What happened to Songi? She said she would protect her parents.”
“Oh, that’s already over!”
“already?”
“Already? It already ended at dawn?”
“ah…”
When I heard the word dawn, information revealed at the beginning of the second round came to mind.
At dawn of the 301st opening, the Iss race invaded Songi’s house using a fog-like shape, right?
“Did that stop the fog from appearing at dawn?”
“Yeah. They were intruders. Songi killed them both. Don’t they look like Sora-ge?”
“…Sora-ge?”
Suddenly, Sora-ge?
“A sea squirt constantly replaces its shell, but without it, it dies. It’s kind of similar.”
“The race of Iss can change bodies, but without a body, they cannot last long and die?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it similar?”
It’s a metaphor that a middle school student would think of, but when you hear it, it’s somewhat similar.
Thinking of Sora, the great race of Iss suddenly felt somewhat insignificant, and I laughed a little.
By the way, according to Miro, Songi has already resolved her family issues and is free.
That means you could be in this car right now!
There might be a mushroom in the passenger seat that ‘appears’ to be empty.
Could it be that he periodically greets me from the passenger seat?
In the past, it would not have been possible to fool me for hours because of functional limitations from various perspectives.
However, Songi’s power of various perspectives greatly strengthened as she realized her first wish, so it’s something to be aware of.
“phew…”
“Why do you keep sighing like that? Things are going well for you.”
“I know.”
I felt uneasy because it felt like my colleagues were just kicking me out and doing things among themselves.
Of course, if you bring up something like that, I know what Miro will say in response.
‘Eunsol agreed too? It was almost the plan you made in the first place?’
Another unpleasant feeling of being swayed by a plate I don’t know about.
I knew that such strange things could happen here due to the nature of the time zone, but knowing it in my head and actually experiencing it are two different things…
Honestly, I was a little scared by this situation.
From now on, I don’t think I’ll be able to take things as lightly as I used to when I’m entangled with time zones.
Could this kind of confused mind also be a kind of ordeal that I must overcome?
At this point, I was deeply contemplating my self-identity.
Next to me, Miro started tapping away frantically on his phone.
— Knock!
“Hey! Hey!”
“…”
“Come on, come on! Fighting!”
I was planning to ignore even the most unusual behavior, thinking it was a profound plan, but no matter how I looked at it, Miro’s actions were a bit strange.
“maze.”
“huh?”
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m on my 3,000th birthday, King!”
“… King God?”
“It’s the most popular game in Room 301.”
“… 3,000 years?”
“I really wanted to try it! In reality, Ari controlled her phone bill so that it didn’t exceed 100,000 won! Isn’t Ari really going too far?”
“…”
“You have a lot of money, so what’s 100,000 won a month? Do you think 100,000 won is a waste on your mom? Huh! I already spent 4 million won on gacha~!”
I was speechless for a moment.
Hey guys, is it really your plan to secretly spend 4 million won on a mobile game?
Meanwhile, Miro was glaring and frantically wagging his fingers, pouring more money than an average office worker’s monthly salary into mobile games.
I couldn’t hold it in any longer and opened my mouth.
“… I don’t know what kind of game Miro or Wangshin is, but isn’t it a popular game inside Room 301?”
“huh.”
“What I mean is, I think this is your first time seeing the game.”
There is a huge time gap between Room 301 and reality, and the games that were popular in Room 301 could not have been popular in reality.
In other words, there is a high probability that the game called ‘Wangshin’ is a game that Miro is playing for the first time today.
“That’s right. I just downloaded it because it was ranked #1 in the store.”
“Oh, is it fun to spend that money on a game you’re seeing for the first time today?”
Miro shook his head.
“No. I don’t even know what the game is, so it’s not fun.”
“Then why are you charging me for it?”
“Hoo hoo…!”
Miro began to capture the game screen with a meaningful expression.
“Eunsol, you don’t know? It’s not that the game is fun, this is the real thing!”
Soon, Miro began uploading captured screens to the Internet and writing the following:
“Title: I’m a newbie who started today!
Samael (SSR), Callisto (SSR), Balita (SSR), and others all appeared in the free leveling stages.
“Is this any good?”
“…”
I earnestly asked my colleagues who were somewhere in their hearts.
Guys, is this really the plan?
“Yes, Eunsol.”
“…”
“I used up all four hours in the meeting yesterday. Can I borrow another hour?”