Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 701
Only Krnovel
EP.701 Episode 701 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of Species’ (35)
Episode 701 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘The Origin of the Species’ (35)
– Kim Ari
Here’s a quick summary of what happened in the latter half of the second round.
1. The King of Is has been hiding underground in Gangwon Province for a long time, and Eunsol has had a copy of the King of Is in her heart since she was born.
2. The king woke up the clone of himself that was sleeping in Eunsol’s mind and also transferred his power to her.
3. As a result, Eunsol was completed as a ‘participant with the power of a prisoner’, and invaded heaven and saw beyond the gates of heaven.
Now that the third attempt has begun, the King of Iss, who is underground in Gangwon-do, is aware of situations 1 and 2 above.
Like other prisoners in the past, the King is also a prisoner and remembers the events of the previous round.
But number 3, I don’t know exactly what happened in heaven.
This is because it was his clone that went to heaven, not him himself.
So, could we convince the king by telling him that going to heaven is pointless?
…
Persuading someone is a very difficult task.
It’s a problem if the opponent is stupid, but it’s also difficult if they’re overly high-ranking.
Think about it.
Do you think it would be easy for an adult to change his mind after listening to a child?
“My King… Creator. Please, listen to me.”
Now, there was someone trying to do the impossible by borrowing my body.
+ My son, I am listening. +
The duke began to persuade the king.
I thought the odds of success were zero, but my colleagues thought a little differently.
Some people thought it was something you never know until you try, while others thought it was something you couldn’t lose by doing.
The Duke also asked for a chance to persuade him, so it was decided to give it a try.
A sort of safeguard was created during the negotiation process.
The duke must appear before the king in my body, and my ego must be awake.
“Your Majesty… Before the time of the universe turned back, I saw heaven with you. Your Majesty must know this fact.”
+ Yeah, what did you see? +
“I understand your intentions. I know that the one who sheds tears for the three thousand worlds has abandoned us, and I know how despairing you were when you realized this fact.”
+ … +
“But, Your Majesty, I also knew that this fact was a mistake on your part.”
+ Illusion? +
“Please believe what I say. Those who shed tears for the three thousand worlds have not abandoned us. We have been saved, are being saved, and are destined to be saved. This is not my arbitrary judgment. It is the direct word of the King who ascended to heaven.”
+ … +
“You have seen beyond the gates of heaven. I do not know what was there, for I saw nothing. But Your Majesty, you have seen something, and your will has been broken and you have fallen.”
+ … I looked beyond heaven and collapsed with my will broken? +
“Yes, do you understand? We are saved, so your despair is without reason. On the contrary, going to heaven is destruction. For you and for us!”
The peacock reported, without any exaggeration, what had happened in heaven.
There is absolutely not a single word of falsehood, and it is exactly as the Duke and we understood it.
The race of Iss is also an object of salvation.
Therefore, there is no reason for the king to despair or be angry at those who shed tears for the three thousand worlds.
The King of Is opened the golden gates of heaven and looked beyond.
They say that Ga-in couldn’t see anything, and it seems that the same was true for the Duke.
The king, on the other hand, saw something and collapsed, his will broken.
“Your Majesty… let go of your attachment to heaven. You must refrain from your pointless anger toward the One who sits on the highest throne. If you yield, we can reach a happy ending.”
At that moment, I felt the heart of the peacock that had borrowed my body.
The duke had sincerity.
He really hopes that the king will come to his senses.
I hope that even now, you will give up your vain dreams and return as a great king.
Unfortunately, this is an impossible wish.
+ Poor child… +
“Your Majesty -”
+ My son, you could not endure the madness of heaven. +
“…”
The duke lost his voice for the first time.
+ The supreme evil, the ultimate hypocrite, has bewitched you. +
It’s me after all!
Did I get it right this time too?
Didn’t Gain say something about persuasion or something?
I think it was manipulated by Buddha!
The peacock did not give up easily.
“If you find it hard to believe me, think of it this way. Before the universe’s time turned around, the King sent the clone he had implanted in the princess’s body into heaven.”
+ … +
“That is, Your Majesty has already achieved your goal once. So has something changed?”
The Duke’s words sounded very logical to my ears.
If you don’t believe me, look at what happened objectively.
You have already sent a clone to heaven once.
But, even after achieving your goal, nothing changes?
+ Ahh… Son. At first glance, that seems reasonable, but the answer lies in your current appearance. +
“What, what are you talking about?”
+ There is evil in heaven that twists all things, and your appearance is proof of it. My own body has also been twisted by that evil. +
“Your Majesty…”
+ I will begin again. I will wait for the time when my will is transmitted to heaven. +
At this moment, since the Duke was borrowing my body, I could vaguely feel the Duke’s state of mind.
Despair, lamentation, suffering.
As expected from the beginning, the king cannot be persuaded.
No matter what I say, they will only say that I deceived you from heaven.
One thing that makes me sigh is that the third floor of the hotel – Heaven really has the power to deceive and charm us.
So, if we change our perspective, the king’s opinion is not particularly lacking in logic.
It is just a difference between the perspective of hating and distrusting those who shed tears for the three thousand worlds and the perspective of trusting them to some extent.
Another thought.
How much time and effort did the King of Iss put into this moment?
Eunsol is in her thirties, so this is a plan that she has been preparing for for 30 years?
It’s a misconception that people make when they see pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs in just one second and think, ‘One second is enough?’
It would have taken more than 10 years for research and development, and the investment cost would have been in the hundreds of billions.
The same goes for the King of Is.
It must have taken a tremendous amount of time and effort to create a successful work like Eunsol.
I dare not fathom it.
Thousands of years, tens of thousands of years may be but a breath.
I thought about becoming the king of Ys and thought about it.
After a whopping 3 million years of build-up, they’ve accomplished something incredible, and we’re nearing the conclusion of their plan.
But let’s say someone comes and says, ‘Stop it. I saw the future and it’s going to fail anyway and it’s meaningless.’
Can you stop?
At that moment, I understood the king’s mind.
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that he understood the mind of the duke who understood the mind of the king.
“…I remember the moment I first woke up in the sea of ??chaos and saw you.”
+ I also remember the moment I created you. +
“You created me and gave me the mission to protect the future of my race.”
+ So it was done. +
“From now on, I will follow my mission. Therefore, this is not betrayal, but loyalty.”
+ Do so. +
The negotiations are over.
All that remains is to demonstrate your skills.
*
– Lee Eun-sol
“Yes, Eunsol.”
“…”
“I spent all four hours in meetings yesterday. Can I borrow an hour? One more time.”
“… okay.”
.
..
…
Suddenly I came to my senses.
“ah.”
“Eunsol, are you awake?”
“huh.”
If we lend our time at Miro’s request, we disappear for an hour and then reappear.
The memory of an hour gone is a complete blank.
It feels similar to closing your eyes for a moment and then opening them.
If you say, “I’ll lend it to you,” and close your eyes, an hour will have passed in the blink of an eye.
It was exactly like that right now.
“Thanks for lending it to me!”
“Ugh…”
For a moment, I felt a slight fear of myself in another time zone that had occurred again.
How will Miro use ‘another me’?
Will the summoned being that appeared this time also plan to deceive me?
I didn’t think much about this before, but now I’m a little scared.
I feel like a stranger in a different time zone.
“Whew…”
“Eunsol is sighing a lot today!”
“sorry.”
When I looked out the window, avoiding the maze’s gaze, I discovered a disconcerting fact.
“uh?”
“what’s the matter?”
“Isn’t this near the Gangwon-do ruins?”
“that’s right.”
“No… Are we going to the Gangwon-do relics now?”
“huh.”
No, wasn’t I supposed to not go underground in Gangwon-do?
According to the circumstances, the mother’s body is underground in Gangwon-do.
It was revealed in the second episode that Songi was attacked by her mother as soon as she went underground in Gangwon-do!
For a moment, I was extremely confused, not understanding what on earth my colleagues were planning.
“Is this right? I, so -”
Miro nodded and said.
“That’s right! To stop the end of Room 301, we have to destroy the Grace Ritual. Do you get the idea?”
“I know that, but is there a reason I have to come here?”
“uh…”
Funnily enough, Miro suddenly became speechless here.
Even this, I suspected, was not part of my colleagues’ grand design…
No it wasn’t.
“Hey, Jincheol!”
“what?”
“I forgot.”
“…”
“…”
“What was it?”
At this point I was sure.
Hey, that 4 million won I spent on a mobile game earlier had nothing to do with the plan!
Soon, Jincheol sighed deeply and said.
“Sister, if you think of grace as a program, then we are in a situation where we are trying to hack that program.”
“so?”
“We don’t do the actual hacking.”
“…”
Although no one actually said anything about it, you could tell it was a peacock without even hearing it.
To begin with, the Iss race knows quite a bit about grace.
As a duke, he would have often led ceremonies of grace as a servant of the king.
Therefore, it would not be strange if a peacock could interrupt or destroy the grace ritual.
“However, he said that apart from knowing how to hack, you need permission.”
“authority?”
“Our authority alone is not enough. We need your authority as well…”
“…”
I roughly understood what you meant.
In the final stage of the grace ritual, the distant self that my mother had ‘laid’ in my mind awakens.
After that, the ego takes the lead in the final process.
That is, I have equal authority with my mother.
It’s just that I don’t know how to use that authority right now.
*
When we arrived at the entrance to the underground ruins, screams could be heard from all directions.
Originally, the underground ruins were occupied by some of the Prophet and Corrupted Administration forces.
It looks like they’re probably ‘organizing’ it.
Listening to the screams of pain, I could tell that the cleanup process was quite violent.
“…”
If I were you back when I was on the first floor, I think I would have felt guilty hearing the sound of an ordinary person dying.
Even now, somewhere in my heart it aches.
Even though they were people who betrayed humanity by being possessed by the King of Iss, consider that their opponents were prisoners.
No matter who was in that place, if the King of Iss is determined and possessed, they will have no choice but to fall.
On the other hand, I also felt like there was nothing I could do.
Regardless of responsibility, they are servants of the cosmic great evil, so they must be killed.
“Ah… I’ve become an agent too.”
“Yes? What did you say?”
“…”
I wondered why he couldn’t hear what was being said right next to him, but Jincheol was staring blankly into space.
It looks like he’s communicating with his grandfather somewhere via ‘private message’.
At that moment, Ga-in came to mind and I laughed.
Even Gain, who is the most advanced colleague among us in many ways, still has a few weaknesses.
One of them is the same behavior that Jincheol is doing right now.
At important moments, your gaze often stops in space out of nowhere.
Perhaps a status window or advice will pop up at that location.
So, a quick-witted colleague like Ari would notice like a ghost when Ga-in was about to give advice.
“… It’s something I’ve wanted to tell Gain sometimes.”
“yes?”
“I think it would be a good idea to break the habit of suddenly looking into space. Wouldn’t it be better to naturally look around and check things out?”
Jincheol smiled awkwardly and answered, perhaps embarrassed that he had been caught looking at the chat window.
“Come in now. The internal cleaning is finished.”
I realized this just before entering the ruins’ basement.
From some point on, the maze was nowhere to be seen nearby.
“…”
Looking at the current situation, it seems like this is the plan my colleagues have made.
1. Proceed quickly without accessing the memories of the Chairman of the Ocean Group. As a result, the King of Is cannot escape from the underground of Gangwon Province.
2. Use my authority and the skills of the craft to destroy the ritual of grace.
3. Happy ending!
It’s a very simple and clear plan.
“…”
This thought occurred to me.
If that’s all, then there’s no reason to hide it from me.
There’s definitely something more.
That something is something that would be difficult for me to know.
So let’s not think about it any more.
If it’s a plan that I have to know about to succeed, then the very act of trying to find out will only hinder my colleagues.
Did you sense something in my silence?
Jincheol spoke comfortingly.
“Sister, there isn’t much time left.”
“Let’s go in.”