Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 85
Only Krnovel
Episode 85 – Party Time (7) – Secret of Room 103 (2)
– Han Ga-in
Room 103. A place filled with conditions so extreme that we cannot understand them even when we think about them again. What on earth was the secret of room 103?
Songi must have sensed my gaze and turned to look at me.
“brother? “Do you have anything to say?”
“no. “I thought you did a really great job in room 103.”
“Ahaha~. “Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
“As I was talking, I suddenly became curious.”
“yes?”
“Room 103. Isn’t it so strange? As soon as it starts, everyone is imprisoned in an alien ranch and are hallucinating that they have become animals. Even the location is a spaceship flying in outer space.
How on earth can you escape? “Song, is the only way to possess Athanasia and the ‘devourer’ with your power of ‘affinity’?”
“That can’t be possible. “Not all hotel parties are always friendly.”
“Then, is there another way?”
Songi looked at the sky with eyes that were deeply concerned.
“According to my first-hand experience, there were some loopholes.”
At that time, Eunsol’s sister intervened.
“Then, Song-i, tell me what you felt while going through room 103.”
“Oh! There’s no need to do that again-”
“This isn’t a story just to brag about Song. The only rooms we’ve solved so far are rooms 101 and 103, and we solved room 101 together, right?
However, I don’t know much about Room 103 other than Songi, who experienced it firsthand. If you carefully analyze the rooms that have already been solved, you may find clues about rooms that have not been solved yet.”
“… I think I need to organize my thoughts before I can explain it to you all. “I’ll tell you soon.”
“good.”
Room 103, whose true identity was not even known to anyone other than Songi.
I’m curious. From the perspective of the person who solved it, what was the escape route or ‘gap’ in Room 103?
Did you need time to sort things out on your own?
It took longer preparation time than expected for Songi to begin her ‘lecture’ to us in earnest.
The afternoon of the second day of party time.
We were all exhausted after going on safari, so we quickly ate and rested.
On the morning of the third day, I tried to avoid the old man who was chasing me, but eventually got caught and had no choice but to just run in the park under the pretense of exploring.
And it wasn’t until lunchtime on the third day that Song-i started giving ‘No. 103 Special Lecture’.
*
“The purpose of my explanation of Room 103 today is not to brag. This is to go over Room 103, which others have not properly experienced, and to understand together the structure of the ‘Curse Room’.
First, I will explain the structure of the Curse Room as I understand it, and then I will point out the ‘weaknesses’ that Rooms 101 and 103 each had.
Lastly, I’ll tell you what I thought of as a solution to Room 103 and a way to escape.
“Please let me know if there are any parts that are difficult to understand or where everyone has different opinions.”
Songi seems like a teacher in some way.
“First, the structure of the curse room.
“Combining the information we have gathered so far, the cursed room has the following structure.”
Songi showed what she wrote in her notebook.
1. Participant Party
2. Opponent
3. Prisoner
“Of course, there are many NPCs who don’t fit into that role, but they actually have no role or influence.
The entities that actually affect the scenario are classified into three categories.
First, the participant party, that is, us.
Second, the beings we have to deal with are, in the hotel’s words, ‘adversaries’.
Third, the ‘prisoner’ who has almost god-like powers, but is oppressed by enormous restrictions and only indirectly affects them.
For your information, I heard from my grandfather that the term ‘prisoner’ is used by the administration.”
Grandfather nodded from across the room.
“According to what has been confirmed so far, the adversary is generally plotting various things inside the room.
In No. 101, the opponent is ‘Kim Sang-min’, in No. 102 it is probably the ‘Elder’ who is the owner of the mansion, in No. 103 it is probably ‘Athanasia’, and in No. 104 it is probably the ‘Guide’.
In the case of prisoners, they are closely related to the source of the curse, but there doesn’t seem to be a need to deal with them. “In the first place, we cannot do anything about them with our own strength.”
Eunsol’s sister answered.
“After looking at it like this, I realize that number 103 is ridiculously difficult. Of course, the leader of No. 104 was also enormous, but there was at least one person.
Was the opponent of No. 103 all Athanasia? From what I heard, it sounds like they are all incredibly strong beings.”
Songi continued her explanation.
“So what I want to explain is the next part. The ‘weakness’ of each cursed room. If you don’t know much about the cursed room, the conditions are so bad that it’s hard to understand how to break it.
However, the cursed room clearly has a ‘weak point’ to attack, and if you exploit that weakness, you can break it easier than you think.
The same goes for room 103. Let’s start with room 101, which we all know well. What do you think was the weakness of Room 101?”
When I thought about it carefully, there was an element that came to mind.
“Your opponent, Kim Sang-min, is weaker than you think?”
“that’s right. Although they say they created a giant in their own way, it was just a rather strong creature. Kim Sang-min himself is just a lump of flesh and can’t even move.
It was difficult to go beyond the family, beyond the broadcasting station, beyond the broadcasting station, beyond the hospital, and find Kim Sang-min in the hospital room.
The adversary itself could be easily killed once found. “I think that’s the weakness of Room 101.”
Unit 101’s weakness was its opponent’s poor strength and inability to move.
The silent elderly man nodded and then asked a question.
“No. 101 is persuasive. However, I still don’t know about room 103. “The Athanasias of No. 103 are each very strong, and their numbers are also large.”
“Room 103 had one element that was crucially different from the other rooms. “That was the weakness.”
What is the difference between No. 103 and its decisive difference?
“Of all the rooms we discovered, Room 103 is the only one where the relationship between the adversary and the ‘prisoner’ is hostile.
The prisoner of No. 101 did not appear properly until the end, but at least he did not seem to have an antagonistic relationship with ‘Kim Sang-min’.
The prisoner in room 102 is probably the devil in the basement of the mansion. The owner of the mansion sought to gain power from the devil and free it. It is a partnership.
The prisoner in room 104 is ‘Ju’. The guide worshiped ‘Lord’ as his god. It is a partnership.
The prisoner of No. 103 is ‘the swallower.’ The adversaries, the Athanasias, imprisoned the ‘Devomer’ through unknown facilities and absorbed his power for eons.
The moment I freed the Devourer, his first action was to annihilate the Athanasias. “It is an adversarial relationship.”
Of all the rooms, it was the only room where the prisoner hated his adversary.
That was the weakness of No. 103.
“Perhaps you thought that because I had ‘friendliness’, the Devourer took my side and used that power to solve the problem.
However, a ‘prisoner’ is a being with power comparable to that of God. Would such a being be so swayed by blessings?
If anyone other than me had been able to contact the ‘devourer’, I believe he would have received his active help.
My blessing may have had the effect of making the devourer a little kinder, but even if it wasn’t a blessing, the devourer would have helped the participant.
In the first place, the person who swallowed it was a being who endlessly hated the Athanasias.”
Now I’m starting to understand little by little.
The prisoner of No. 103 was not an opponent from the beginning, but a ‘collaborator of the participants.’
This was the most important part in resolving issue 103.
However, this explanation alone is insufficient. I asked a few questions.
“I know that any of us would have helped if we had come into contact with the Devourer. But was there a way to contact them in the first place?
“You were able to possess Athanasia with ‘friendliness’ and leave, but I don’t think we could have possessed Athanasia or killed her.”
“We need to break away from that stereotype. It’s not our role to fight Athanasia in issue 103. If you think like that, you can never break it.
Each Athanasia is a semi-divine being in the eyes of humans.
In the process of escaping from Room 103, I killed only one Athanasia, and even then, I only finished off what the Devourer had stopped.
It is the role of the Devourer to wipe out Athanasia. What was our role? “It holds out until the swallower recovers.”
Escape from Room 103, our role in solving it.
Songi said it was ‘to hold on until the swallower recovers.’
“Approximately two weeks from the time of entering room 103? 3 weeks? I don’t know the exact time either. After about that amount of time, the devourer will regain enough strength to attempt escape.
You can stop the Athanasias by spreading a shock wave throughout the spaceship. So, our role is to hold out until that point.
If only he had held on, the Devourer would have done it one way or another after that. “He could have contacted us on his own, or he could have brought down the ship without our involvement.”
The old man nodded and continued speaking.
“You shouldn’t even think about fighting Athanasia in the first place. I totally understand. But is it possible to survive for two or three weeks while your intellect and soul are exploited?”
Songi answered.
“It was not the bracelet that exploited the intellect, but the role of the necklace around our necks at the time. The necklace was real, just not visible to our eyes.
Even its durability is weak. “It would have been a good start to break it down properly.”
“If the necklace was broken, wouldn’t Athanasia have intervened and put it back on?”
“Even when my necklace broke, they didn’t intervene right away. We don’t know at this point, but we can think of some evidence.
The system may not be able to immediately identify malfunctions in each necklace. Another hypothesis is that the system requires a complete restart of the farm to fill the collar.
From what I observed, collars were put on only when the animal farm was shut down.
If you restart the entire farm just because the ‘production’ of some of the livestock has dropped, it may not be profitable.
“The escape route would have been to break the necklace like this and prevent Ji-seong from being extracted.”
Seungyeop felt puzzled and asked a question.
“Why is that an escape? “It’s not like they escaped from the spaceship, they’re just like livestock stuck on a farm?”
“Think of an escape from another room. For example, in Room 101, you were allowed to escape as long as you distanced yourself from your family, right?
In No. 102, escaping was allowed just by ruining the consciousness of an elderly person, and in No. 104, escaping was allowed just by being kicked out of school.
But in fact, the crises in those worlds are not resolved at all.
Even if you distance yourself from your family in room 101, the world will still be ruined, and if you ruin the consciousness of the elder in room 102, the elder will someday attract ordinary people again and summon the devil.
Even if we are kicked out of room 104, the hotel will be able to operate normally.
There is no need to solve the world’s crisis in order to ‘escape’. It was just accepted as a temporary escape from the threat that was threatening us right now.
I think similarly about No. 103. As Seung-yeop said, even if you break the collar, the condition of the livestock trapped inside will not change. However, I escaped the fate of having my intelligence sucked out and dying immediately.”
I started to realize what he meant. From the beginning, there is a clear distinction between escape and resolution in the hotel.
Unlike resolution, escape does not require solving the fundamental curse of the world. It is a structure that allows for temporary escape from the current danger.
Let’s look back at room 101. Does it mean anything to physically leave your family? The world is still ruined. However, escape was recognized simply because the person was free from the immediate danger of death to their family.
You can think of room 103 similarly. They are destined to die sooner or later as their souls are sucked out, and their escape is acknowledged just by breaking the necklace to extend their lives for a few more months.
“Finally, as a kind of IF story, I will tell you what the ‘normal scenario’ would have been like if my affinity hadn’t done something mysterious.
We probably all knew nothing at first. I guess I was just trying to live like an animal. Then one of us’s necklace would ‘accidentally’ break. Just like me.
He would live long after the rest had died, and after holding out for several weeks, he would see the Devourer attempt to overturn the ship. In the process, the hallucination was broken and the reality of Animal Farm must have been revealed.
Perhaps without our cooperation, the Devourer’s rebellion would have failed, and ‘Escape’ would have occurred at that point.
We who came out like that would have tried again while being aware of the existence of the ‘swallower’. In the next attempt, they would have tried to somehow cooperate with the ‘devourers’ who are hostile to Athanasia.
This is probably where ‘escape’ and ‘resolution’ are divided.
“Escape” is to destroy the necklace and survive for a long time, and “solution” is to contact the devourer in some way and work together to liberate the devourer.”
It was only after listening to the lecture throughout the meal that I understood the general structure of Room 103.
“After all, if the necklace doesn’t break ‘accidentally’ in the first place, won’t everyone just die?”
“Yes. Actually, room 101 is the same, right? “If Seung-yeop hadn’t ‘accidentally’ avoided his family while playing LoL, we would all have died.”
Ari, who had been listening for a while, answered.
“I think, ‘The necklace breaks accidentally.’ “I think there might have been another way to escape.”
Songi answered.
“Of course it would have been there. “I only said what came to mind.”
“For example, wasn’t there a way for us to gain a ‘farm family role’ within the farm? “Unlike regular livestock, they were meant to be used as ‘farm managers’ for a long time, so they would not have been killed right away.”
“That makes sense. “But I’m not sure about that part.”
That concludes our ‘review’ of issue 103.
After a long discussion, I simply summarized the content in four lines on paper and wrote it down.
*
Start -> Destroy the necklace to prevent intelligence absorption. Ensuring long-term survival.
Escape -> Condition recognized as surviving for 2-3 weeks. Afterwards, we witness the Devourer’s rebellion.
Solution -> After recognizing the existence of the Devourer, obtain his cooperation and annihilate Athanasia.
& maybe there was a way to get the farm family role?
*
As I wrote it down, I realized why most of the participants fail at the hotel.
You have to be smart and strong, but… .
Basically, if you’re unlucky, isn’t this a perfect structure to get swept away before you can even do anything?
Now it feels like the party time is slowly coming to an end.
I think it’s time to talk together about which room we’ll go into next.
See next episode