Chapter: 97
97 – Room 102, The Cursed Room – ‘Mansion of Horror’ Re (10)
Fourth Attempt
– Han Kain
Light streamed down from the sky. In an instant, excruciating pain exploded through my entire body!
My eyes began to perceive colors I had never seen before.
My ears started to hear sounds that were previously inaudible.
The sixth sense awakened, and the seventh sense followed suit, as an endless flood of information poured in—information that the human brain could barely comprehend.
…
Amidst the convulsing pain, I realized something.
Descent was like molting.
Do you remember anything from your life before the age of five?
There can’t be many who retain memories from their infant years as adults. Perhaps, when we were babies, we harbored grudges against the slippery floor that made crawling a Herculean task. We might have felt intense rage toward our parents for feeding us bland baby food.
But looking back, weren’t all those grievances pathetically trivial?
Even if there was a video recording of my emotions back then, as an adult, I would simply chuckle and think, “Oh, how cute I was!” before forgetting it all over again.
In this way, my infant self and current self resemble before and after cracking the shell.
Through growth, humans awaken their sense of self. Once they emerge from the shell of infancy and gain reason, they treat the past lightly.
…And I now felt my shell cracking “once again” after it broke during my infancy.
From now on, I would be Han Kain, but I would also not be the same Han Kain as before.
Son of Heaven
I opened my eyes.
The super-sensory intuition I felt when I first received power from the ‘lord’ in the Hotel flooded through me. I lightly kicked off the ground, and my body soared toward the skies as the earth crumbled beneath me.
The air filling this entire planet felt like water, impeding my movements.
Ah, how small and stifling is this world?
How do humans exist within such a diminutive prison?
Whatever the case, I didn’t care.
Having shed my shell, I had no reason to mourn the misfortunes of the past.
How should I deal with the Apostle?
There was no need to worry about the difficulty. An apostle of a fake god was little more than a slightly larger insect, at best. Let’s just call it a beetle.
However, its ability to possess was indeed a nuisance.
A few ways to counter it came to mind, but I decided to keep things simple. I reached up to the heavens and casually drew a circle.
In an instant, another sun emerged in the sky.
If the first sun in the sky is the Sun of Compassion, filling all things with vitality, then the second sun that rose over this land was the Sun of Fury, purifying everything of its corruption.
Ray of light from the Sun of Fury instantly engulfed the village in flames.
It didn’t take long for every human within a several-kilometer radius to be incinerated.
From somewhere in the village, the Apostle, who had been lurking with pathetic tricks, made its appearance.
“Who the hell are you? How can a human wield such power! Did the Vatican summon an angel or something?!”
What a ridiculous notion.
“Do you really think the Vatican could summon someone like me?”
The Apostle’s body began to ignite.
I had no intention of playing tag with a bug, so I incinerated every human nearby. With no bodies remaining, the Apostle would now return to its filthy form in that pitiful world.
After spurning the burning world behind, I moved toward the back mountain.
I recalled the “human memories” lingering in my mind.
Ah! How frail and pitiful is human life? Eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear.
A life that cannot properly perceive the changes of all creation is tragic in itself.
…
At that moment, I felt an unpleasant gaze upon me.
I raised my head.
In the sky, thirty thousand kilometers above, I sensed a man-made satellite observing me.
Was that a satellite the Vatican used to monitor the world?
How distasteful. Who did they think they were, observing me?
I clenched my fist, channeling the power of lightning.
—Rumble!
A bolt of lightning shot from the ground, piercing the sky and obliterating the satellite.
As I passed through the door of the back mountain, I encountered a world racing toward apocalypse after losing its deity.
Tentacles lunged at me the moment I stepped inside.
I tore them apart, surveying the area.
Tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands—of beings from this realm gathered around me.
“What is this? A welcoming ceremony?”
A ridiculous voice called out from somewhere.
“You monster! Please die! O God! Grant me power!”
“How amusing. Do you really think a world of chickens can kill a tiger?”
With a single gesture, I summoned the second sun in the sky—actually, here it was the first sun.
This pathetic world didn’t even have a sun?
The flaming rays from the sun began to evaporate the very ecosystem of this world.
“Ahahahaha!”
Well, this is quite entertaining! I felt like warming up a bit.
With another wave of my hand, I summoned a sword that reached from the ground to the clouds.
As I swung my sword playfully, I found that everything around me—creatures, terrain—had been utterly stripped away.
By now, the sacred grounds should have been adequately demolished, right? The Apostle, realizing the futility of resistance, stopped running away.
“May I ask what your identity is?” it asked.
“Now you’re a tad more polite.”
“I realized you are a being from heaven.
Yet, why do you wield your sword against my deity?
I believe you were not summoned by the Vatican. There’s no way they could summon someone like you.
If you put down your sword now, I’m sure the god would forgive.”
“And what if it doesn’t? Do you have the ability to punish me?”
“…”
“It was fun. I’ll send you off without pain.”
“…I may not know who you are, but it’s already too late.
I’ve already sacrificed several high-level souls; the birth of my god is drawing near.”
“Ah, I suspected it, but that’s rather irritating.”
“So please, lower your sword—”
—Slash!
I didn’t feel the need for further conversation.
Anyway, it seems I couldn’t prevent the birth of the moth in time.
To begin with, too many participants from the Hotel had been slain. Ahri and Songee perished independently from the ritual, so they wouldn’t count as sacrifices, but the rest were quite the different story.
Seungyub and Elena were likely sacrificed after dying at the hands of monsters within the mansion.
Moreover, it remained highly probable that Mookseong and Eunsol, having lost their bodies, were deemed sacrifices.
Although they couldn’t compare to Ahri, who survived her first round in the Hotel, the remaining participants had souls elevated beyond mere humans.
At this stage, resolution seemed impossible, but I found no reason to lose hope.
Why should resolution be deemed impossible? Just because the Evil God was born?
Not all gods were on the same level.
A baby chick might perceive a new-born elephant as divine, but in the elephant’s world, a new-born elephant was merely a baby.
Furthermore, how could a god birthed from the remains of a dead god and base mortals be categorized as a proper deity?!
As I returned from that realm to Earth, a booming power wave erupted near the mansion.
The cocoon would soon emerge.
Since the cocoon hadn’t been summoned yet, a better plan formed in my mind.
Although I was prepared to battle the moth, was there a need to give it time to evolve?
It would be easier to crush a caterpillar wriggling in its mother’s womb than to wait for it to become a moth.
Before proceeding with my plan, I knelt down and looked to the heavens for good measure.
“I beseech you, ‘lord.’
Your son wishes to tread a dangerous path, so please, bestow your light upon me.”
…
“Eh? Huh? What’s happening?”
“W, what?”
“You…!”
Both Yu Songee and Cha Jinjul woke up bewildered, while Ahri gazed intently at me.
“Did you bring us back to life?”
“I did. And remember to show respect.”
“…Yes, my apologies for the discourtesy. Resurrection—it seems that such miracles aren’t solely reserved for the Daughter of Heaven after all.”
In a moment, Songee and Jinchul dropped to the ground in shock.
Meanwhile, although Ahri trembled slightly, she stood tall, eyeing me intently.
The spectacle was amusing, so I posed a question.
“Why do you think I brought you back? Just so you know, resurrection costs me quite a bit of strength too.”
Ahri quietly surveyed her surroundings before answering.
“The cocoon will soon appear. I believe you intend to confront the being who wasn’t born. You seem to be anticipating a potential loss.”
Not slow on the uptake, are we?
“Correct. Although it’s unformed, a god is still a god. Victory is uncertain, and in fact, defeat is highly probable. However, even in a loss, if I inflict sufficient damage, it will delay its birth.”
“And if we’re far enough out, we’ll escape.”
“So, don’t do anything foolish and stay put.”
Just as I turned to head downstairs, Ahri suddenly bent at the waist and spoke in a manner I’d never seen before, one of unprecedented politeness.
“O one who descends from the heavens. I fervently pray you succeed in this endeavor. If you’re harnessing the power of a god, it would be quite embarrassing if you couldn’t even defeat a mere caterpillar. Right?”
Hmm. That’s less politeness and more audacity. To speak so insolently to me in this state was impressive in its own right.
Yet, she wasn’t entirely incorrect.
I descended into the basement.
A book glowed a vibrant blue.
Ah-ha, is this the inheritance of this room?
It resembled a grimoire that the being who could not be born had passed down to the Apostle. I picked it up and began inspecting it.
It didn’t seem like anything particularly noteworthy, but it had its convenient functionalities. This would serve me decently in the Hotel.
Suddenly, a distant voice jabbed at my mind.
‘Why are you doing this to me?’
“Are you still asking that?”
‘Why, why, why, why! Why are you tormenting me! I shall make you my servant!’
With those words, a sinister energy radiated from the book.
Of course, it didn’t amount to much.
“Haha! You’re still clinging to the idea of servitude? But how can a wolf cub serve under a dog?”
‘I’ll kill you myself!’
I found myself in a murky expanse. Endless free-fall continued as I reflected upon my third attempt.
The moth re-entered its cocoon to regenerate its deformed wings and allowed us our fourth attempt.
…What foolishness led it to such a decision? If it hadn’t voluntarily entered its cocoon, we wouldn’t have been able to escape.
Was it seeking to recreate its wings before crafting a new world?
Since it was already trapped inside the Hotel, what was the point of conjuring a new world within?
Such actions were incomprehensible unless it was oblivious to its confinement within the Hotel.
Could it be because this wasn’t the fifth attempt yet?
That couldn’t be the case.
In room 103, Songee obtained the inheritance on her first attempt, and the ‘Devourer’ clearly understood the Hotel’s system.
It was the enemies who needed to wait until the fifth attempt to grasp the Hotel, not the prisoners. The prisoners already knew they were confined within the Hotel from the start.
So why did this caterpillar act as if it were unaware of its imprisonment?
Moreover, the previously strange conversation lingered in my mind.
How childish and simple-minded was this creature?
This caterpillar screeched more like an upset child than a deity.
…I couldn’t fathom any of it.
Despite wielding powers that transcended humanity, the Hotel remained a mystery shrouded in enigmas.
In the distance, I saw the caterpillar crawling toward me.
For the time being, I resolved to focus on the battle at hand.
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