### Chapter 128 – Room 107, The Gate Room – ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship’ (19)
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 46
Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (The Gate Room)
Wise Advice: 3
—
Han Kain:
As I was running like a headless chicken, I checked the updated scenario at midnight.
/Scenario: The Gate Room – ‘The Secret of the Esper Ship’
The hotel team finally made a decision. In order to uncover the truth, Kim Mooksung will directly participate in the sacrificial ceremony for the deep-sea demon, Markus.
Having realized the reality of the sinister ritual, the hotel team rushes to put a stop to it.
Can the hotel team stop the wicked ritual and save their comrade?
—
Several new keywords popped up.
Deep-sea demon, Markus, sacrificial ritual for the demon.
Is this the secret this ship has been hiding?
There’s no mention of when the next scenario will appear. Is there no further story?
If that’s the case, great! It means if we go and cause a ruckus with Elena, it’ll all be over!
While I was running, Ahri suddenly stopped.
“What’s taking so long? Why aren’t we moving?”
“Well, since we’re not exactly throwing fists, there’s no need to rush. The ship is breaking apart, and it’s dangerous. Look down.”
I shifted my gaze towards where Ahri was pointing.
… What in the world is that?
As Elena plowed through the ship, it was literally falling apart.
Thanks to that, a massive hole now connected the guest room floor to the depths below.
The underground of the Esper ship held a place that was utterly incomprehensible.
“What is that place?”
“From a distance, it looks like an underground prison. Not really a spot that belongs on a ship.”
“Should we check it out?”
“Someday, but for now, let’s head to the coliseum.”
Let’s focus on rescuing Grandpa and taking down the enemies.
—
As Ahri, Songee, and I frantically ran towards the coliseum, Elena had already zoomed there and was busy fighting.
To be accurate, she was slaughtering.
It was hard to call that scene a fight.
The enemy count was in the hundreds, and Elena was just one, but that didn’t change a thing.
Could a bunch of chicks band together to take down a tiger?
It was precisely that sort of scenario unfolding in the battle.
Every time Elena waved her hand, six or more people were crushed; it was like an invisible wall had arisen at the coliseum’s entrance, preventing crew and passengers from escaping.
Some crew members fired guns, while passengers, caught in some mysterious force, flung themselves out of walls or extended their limbs, rushing in.
Spoiler alert: it meant nothing. Bullets stopped mid-air, and the passengers who lunged ended up splattered against the wall.
Gradually, the crew and passengers were getting swept away in a tide of fear.
Despairs filled the square as cries began to echo.
It was like witnessing an angel descending from heaven to scorch sinners when Ahri grabbed my arm.
“This isn’t the time for sightseeing! Let’s hurry to save Grandpa!”
“Right! Let’s go!”
Upon jumping into the center of the coliseum, I saw Grandpa nailed to a pillar.
—
He was literally ‘nailed’ there. Was he trying to be a crucified Jesus or something?
Large spikes were driven into Grandpa’s body.
If we pull out the spikes forcefully, he’ll bleed out even more.
With Songee and me holding up Grandpa’s body, we were at least able to reduce the pain from gravity, but that was all we could do.
A weak voice escaped Grandpa’s lips.
“Why’d you take so long?”
“I’m sorry! We thought we were sprinting but… who knew it would go this far in such a short time?”
“Ha! Those bastards! Watching Elena wipe them out really feels good!”
Songee said with a quiver in her voice, “Grandpa, what do we do?”
Despite frantically searching for a way, nothing came to mind.
Grandpa, looking exhausted, called out to Ahri.
“Please, Senior.”
“… Make it quick?”
“Please.”
Every time Grandpa spoke, white foam trickled from his mouth.
Even if he were rushed to the emergency room with doctors swarm around him, it seemed like a close call for survival.
With the realization that no solution was in sight, Songee began to cry.
Ahri quietly hugged Grandpa’s face and pointed her gun at her temple.
“Take it easy. We’ll see each other again.”
— Bang!
Now there were four of us left.
… By the way, was Ahri his senior? Grandpa seemed in so much pain he accidentally spilled a fact he’d typically keep hidden!
The moment Grandpa took his last breath, something unexpected occurred.
— Clank!
A tremendous sound resonated throughout the entire coliseum.
Everyone gasped and looked up.
The hands of the gigantic clock on the ceiling began to move.
0 -> 1
The hand was now pointing to 1 instead of 0.
What on earth does that mean?
As the clock hand moved, the wails that filled the coliseum grew more chaotic and horrific.
The remaining crew and passengers resisting Elena now began singing a mournful tune upon seeing the clock.
“Ah! Oh, Markus!”
“Please, please have mercy on us…”
Seeing their reaction made me realize: for them, the movement of the clock was a nightmare!
Flipping that around, we need to turn the clock hand!
How do we make it move? Why did it even move now? My head was spinning.
—
In a space filled with sorrow, only the angel waving the golden waves continued its relentless onslaught.
The rotating scales soared through the air, crushing any crew or passengers in sight.
It resembled a modern drone from an advanced country buzzing around a battlefield, slaughtering humans.
Every single time I saw it, I felt confused about the mechanics of this ‘justice’ fight.
Initially, it seemed like people just died without any middle steps. Then at times, it felt like some gigantic invisible hand would fling people around, and at this point, it was as if the flying scales had turned into high-performance AI war drones.
There was zero consistency in the fighting style. The only commonality was that it was ‘overwhelmingly strong.’
Ahri, who seemed to have similar thoughts, chimed in.
“Is she just implementing some awesome power that Elena envisions?”
“Didn’t you say you’ve seen other justice users before? Feels a lot different now, huh?”
“Way different. It’s not like that at all…”
“How so?”
“It wasn’t as fantastical as this. And it didn’t feel like they were fighting however they pleased.”
“…”
“It’s as if some AI has awakened in the blessing itself.”
“AI?”
“Look closely. Elena doesn’t seem to properly track where the enemies are. She’s just standing there while the scales automatically target the enemies.”
“What if it develops further and the scales start talking to Elena?”
It sounded like a joke, but Ahri remained stoic.
“That’s actually a possibility.”
Before we knew it, the coliseum fell silent.
The radiant waves that filled the space grew calm, and the scales that danced in spirals hovered mid-air.
“Is it over now?”
“The only survivors in this space are us.”
Is it over at last? Everyone stood still, panting and waiting.
…
Songee sounded puzzled as she asked a question.
“Why hasn’t it displayed ‘cleared’ yet?”
Ahri noticed something odd too.
“Since there are only survivors left, why hasn’t the execution concluded?”
Just as she mentioned, the scales of justice merely hovered in the air and didn’t disappear.
—
— Rumble!
Suddenly, the whole ship started to shake!
We clung to nearby objects in surprise.
—
— GROOOOAR!
A monstrous roar reverberated throughout the entire ship.
The next moment, the time on the Esper ship started rewinding!
The scattered flesh, blood, and bones of the enemies swirled in the air and began to reform human shapes.
Hundreds of the deceased regained life, and their endless malice was reignited with flames.
Elena’s scales began spinning again, attempting to shred the resurrected dead.
However, the time rewind began affecting us too.
In an instant, Elena flew backward, and we found ourselves retracing our steps back to the guest room as if we were in reverse!
From the guest room to the coliseum, Elena started flying again, smashing apart the ship, which began to rapidly revert back to its original state.
—
It was overwhelming. Faced with an unreal miracle, we were at a loss.
— Krreeeek!
Something came to an abrupt halt.
With a vibration we couldn’t comprehend, our bodies halted in reverse.
Elena, who’d been flying backward at breakneck speed, appeared before us once again.
The golden waves emanating from the rotating scales enveloped us.
Amid the chaos, Ahri shouted.
“Elena! Can you hold on?”
Elena shook her head with a pained expression.
—
Even if it were a tiger slaughtering hundreds of chickens, in front of a dragon, it’s just a big cat!
In the face of the demon’s time-altering power, even the power of justice had reached its limit.
— CRACK!
The scales began to crack. Ahri, with a desperate expression, shouted.
“Memory!”
“What?”
“My memory is fading! The memories of us arriving on the ship!”
I frantically tried to remember what happened after we arrived on the ship.
I couldn’t recall the meal we had yesterday. Why isn’t Pero with us?
What did Grandpa call Ahri again?
—
I immediately sought advice.
‘Guide me on the best response I can take right now!’
[Wise Advice: 3 -> 2]
[Record in an unerasable place.]
An unerasable place.
A power that even a time-altering demon could never interfere with!
I expanded the status window. Took out a pen.
I started writing frantically, again and again.
—
Spark!
…
My consciousness began to fade.
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 46
Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (The Gate Room)
Wise Advice: 2
—
Han Kain:
When I regained my senses, we found ourselves standing in an incredibly lavish room.
I was dressed in a very stylishly old-fashioned tuxedo.
Ahri, Songee, Elena, and the others were in dresses so beautiful you could hardly take your eyes off, adorned in soft fur shawls.
Are we going to some kind of party?
Ahri showed a puzzled reaction.
“This dress is very vintage…”
Old-fashioned style? I’m clueless. It just felt like an overwhelming Western suit, throwing me off entirely.
—
Looking around, Grandpa Mooksung was nowhere to be seen.
Songee, flustered, said, “Where’s Grandpa?”
“Did he start in a different location? Like when Seungyub was in the Mansion of Horror?”
During the progression of the Gate Room, we had never started in different locations before — it seems like something has changed in the fourth trial?
While we were all puzzled, there was a knock at the door.
Soon, someone dressed like a hotel employee walked in and explained vaguely about the ‘ship’ and the dinner party before leaving.
Elena responded with curiosity, “So this place is a ship?”
“It certainly looks like the sea from the window. Let’s check the scenario first.”
Alright, let’s expand the status window to check the scenario—
—
???
What in the world is this? Why does the scenario status look like this?
—
As I stood there flabbergasted at the status window, my comrades talked to me.
“Is something strange?”
“Yes. It feels like the scenario has already progressed quite a bit instead of just starting fresh? Huh?”
“What’s wrong again?”
“It’s full of jumbled letters in the empty spots of the status window.”
As I expanded the empty space as much as I could, I found myself at a loss for words.
The first line of the nonsense text read:
“We are currently rewinding our time.”
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.