### Chapter 404 – Room 206, The Curse Room – ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’ (6)
—
– Park Seungyub
“Geez, come on! You dense idiot, how many times do I have to explain this? I told you to pull lever three towards you while pushing! Just forget about dinner tonight!”
A burly man yelled, shoving a scrawny boy who crumbled like a stick.
The boy, trembling and too stunned to complain, couldn’t help but shake.
Life at the ‘Little Hope’ orphanage for grade 4 kids who have lost their parents was brutal and unforgiving.
Good way to put it—it’s like they’re getting vocational training from an early age. Bad way to say it? Child abuse, pure and simple.
It’s frustrating.
There’s no way out, no way to gather information.
Why does the hotel leave me so powerless?
…
I think I’m starting to grasp it.
It’s because of that girl.
“Uwaah!”
“Peter, hold out your knee.”
“Big sis Mei…”
At the orphanage, there was a girl named Mei, about three years older than me. She acted like a caretaker for the little kids—a kind of nanny.
Of course, I’m not concerned about her just for that reason.
She’s no beauty compared to Ahri or Miro.
“There! Doesn’t it feel better now?”
“Yeah!”
With a gentle sweep of her hand, Mei made an injury seem to vanish into thin air.
The clueless kids giggled after witnessing it, but I couldn’t share in their laughter.
That was blatant telekinesis.
Thus far, I could accept it.
I’ve seen plenty of supernatural abilities while climbing the hotel.
But the really weird part? It’s not the existence of powers; it’s how they can be used.
My unyielding reason has completely blocked my blessings and the essence of my soul—so why can that girl use healing powers?
“Seungyub, stop glaring like that.”
“…”
I guess I’ve been too obvious watching her.
I really wish I had Kain’s acting skills right now.
*
Late at night.
Someone gently shook my body.
“Wanna come out?”
“…”
Mei led me up to the rooftop of the orphanage.
“What in the world…?”
“Hmm?”
“What have you done? Where are the director and teachers?”
“Today, I made them go to bed a bit earlier.”
“…”
Mei stood there quietly for a while, soaking in the rooftop breeze.
“Occasionally, there are kids like you around.”
“…”
“Suspicious and subtly perceptive.”
“Is it even meaningful to be perceptive when you blatantly use your superpowers?”
“Seungyub, neither the director nor the teachers have noticed at all. What does that mean?”
Hearing that left me a bit flustered.
Thinking back, this girl casually uses her powers, whether there’s a teacher in sight or not, doesn’t she?
Why don’t adults realize it?
“They’re supposed to be oblivious. Usually, they wouldn’t know. You’re the peculiar one.”
“What do you intend to do, then?”
“Hmm, maybe eliminate some nonsense?”
I gasped and looked up at her.
Mei had a smirk on her face, and only then did I realize she was joking.
“W-Wait, you’re scaring me!”
“Most likely, I’ll be shifting to another orphanage.”
“…”
What on Earth is she?
One thing’s for certain.
I woke up in this orphanage to learn about her existence.
Then, Mei mumbled with a complicated expression:
“Sometimes I feel sorry for you all.”
“What?”
“It’s just that the world is so tough.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Listen. I’ve been doing my best for many years now.”
“… You must be older than you look.”
“Indeed. Anyway, I’ve done everything I could to make things better.”
“…”
“But in hindsight, the results have been horrifying. I wanted to make everyone happy, but it ended up creating hell.”
“Why is that?”
“That’s a good question. My answer? ‘I don’t know.’”
“Don’t know?”
“Really don’t. Was there something wrong with my choices? Even after all this time, I can’t find what went wrong.”
“…”
“If most of my choices were spot on and it ended up like this… did we have to end up this way?”
After finishing her thoughts, Mei vanished like a bubble popping.
I think I grasp what her identity could be.
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 264 (+32)
Current Location: Room 206, The Curse Room – ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
– Han Kain
32 days.
That’s how much time I’ve spent since entering Room 206.
If we were in any typical curse room, the prisoner inside would have ended the world at least fifteen times by now, yet the prisoner in 206 hasn’t even shown their face.
Instead, the mood in the city has been growing increasingly tumultuous.
Spontaneous protests led by grade 4 workers began erupting left and right, and I’ve found myself subtly becoming the focal point of these demonstrations.
Various journalists from different media outlets have been sneaking in to see me daily, which confirms it.
“The informants are in chaos trying to catch Kain.”
The doctor’s observation is something I was already aware of.
“It’s fine. I get daily updates from those informants.”
“Ha-ha! Looks like Jinchul and the agents are playing their parts well.”
“Eunsol is helping out too.”
My mentor is a level 2 agent, one of Leon Kardirov’s loyal claws.
Of course, that “claw” secretly visited me with all the insider information.
“Do you know why Kardirov can maintain control over Paradise with an iron fist?”
“You mean that ‘evaporation’ thing?”
“That’s right. It’s essentially a punishment that’s even more frightening than a death sentence.”
‘Evaporation’
In George Orwell’s 1984, this horrific term appears.
It’s a form of record erasure—deleting not only the individual but also any evidence of their existence. Basically, it’s a powerful weapon Leon uses to rule the city through fear.
“However, this evaporation is quite peculiar.”
“In what way?”
“There have been about three cases of evaporation in the last ten years, but those who witnessed it all say the same thing: the target just vanished out of nowhere.”
“Vanished out of nowhere?”
“Yeah. Just disappearing while walking down the street or while eating. Anyone evaporated loses all records, starting with their birth certificate.”
“… That seems unnatural for political maneuvers.”
“Absolutely not. It’s some sort of supernatural force. The issue is, it happens even when unyielding reason is functioning.”
Although I was confused, I felt I had something to say when it came to the supernatural.
“Recently, I got invited by Songee to visit Kardirov’s luxurious mansion.”
“Did you meet Leon?”
“No. I only met Songee.”
During that visit, Songee had questioned me about why I was doing this, then made one significant suggestion.
“She said to seize Leon’s body.”
“Sounds like an alluring option. Why did you decline?”
“Because he’s not a recluse philosopher; he’s a mayor. He spends more than half of his day in the city, doesn’t he?”
“Ah!”
“Once he’s in the city, unyielding reason is functioning, the possession might wear off.”
“Now that’s a serious problem.”
“Right? But Songee told me an intriguing tale. The Kardirov family has a hereditary supernatural ability. Only the head of the family can utilize it, she added.”
“Hereditary superpowers?”
“Yeah. Because of that power, Leon Kardirov and Songee live at the very top of Paradise, outside the realm where unyielding reason can suppress supernatural phenomena.”
“To use when they want supernatural powers? Sounds complicated. What’s that ability?”
“No idea. Songee didn’t know either.”
“Hmm…”
After thinking for a moment, the teacher moved on to the next topic.
“There’s one strange matter regarding the cult of the Demon King.”
“The followers of the Demon King?”
“You must have met them, right?”
“I’m not sure if they’re demon kings, but I’ve met a kind of heretic.”
“Do you know what the strangest thing about them is?”
“What?”
“Just the fact that I’m keeping an eye on them.”
After giving it a moment’s thought, I began to understand the teacher’s meaning.
Her position is a level 2 citizen, a secret agent.
Is her duty to keep an eye on the Demon King’s followers?
Does this mean the higher-ups in Paradise are already aware of their existence?
“Leon must be quite aware of the Demon King’s followers, right?”
“Of course.”
“Why don’t they eliminate them if they know?”
“That’s the very question I have.”
“…”
Following that, a brief silence fell over the dim room.
The means with which the mayor controls the city: ‘evaporation.’
The hereditary powers passed down through the Kardirov lineage.
Knowing about the existence of the Demon King’s followers yet choosing not to purge them.
Once I started thinking through all of this, I felt like I was on the verge of some understanding, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it.
“This is tough.”
— Tap!
The teacher lightly tapped the table and shifted to the next subject.
“Let’s talk about the city itself. Thanks to your flashy acts, Kain, something big is about to happen.”
“Don’t pin this on me.”
That’s genuinely the case.
“This city was prepared for this mess all along. The anger of the citizens, including grade 4 workers, has long since reached its boiling point.”
“You’re saying Kain simply offered the occasion? While that’s true, that occasion does play a crucial role.”
“Could be possible.”
“Do you have any plans for a ‘next occasion’?”
I do.
After hearing my explanation, the teacher gaped for a moment and then sighed.
“Phew… well, do as you please. By the way, this isn’t definite information, but…”
“What is it?”
“It seems Seungyub has gone missing. I found his name on the orphanage’s roster, but by the time I went to check, he was already gone.”
*
– Kim Mooksung
“Explain it! Explain it!”
The chants of protesters filled the square, echoing throughout the city.
“Leon Kardirov! Leon Kardirov!”
Finally, the name of the level 1 citizen, revered as the sanctuary of the city, Leon Kardirov, began to be mentioned.
Of course, thousands of informants were summoned, and they were even more terrified witnessing the enormous scale of the protest.
At that moment, Jinchul carefully asked.
“Old man, are we really doing this?”
“Of course.”
“Are you really going to do that insane thing?”
“Of course. Kain told us to.”
“Ugh…”
“Is that strange coming from you? Just stay out of it; I’ll handle it.”
“…”
Just then, a youth leading the protest approached, passionately delivering his speech.
“All history in Paradise is the history of class struggle!”
That’s such a famous line it almost made me chuckle.
Sure enough, if I waited a little longer, another celebrated declaration would surface.
“Workers of Paradise, unite!”
“Waaaaah!”
The presence of the protesting crowd ignited fervor among them.
This is truly a crucial moment now.
And then–
— Click!
A rifle slipped into Mooksung’s hands.
The other informants around him gasped and tried to intervene.
“Whoa! Mooksung! Can’t you put that down? If you shoot now—”
If you pull that trigger now, it’ll cause chaos.
That’s the goal.
— Bang!
A single shot pierced the air.
Indeed, it split the space around it.
The young man leading the protest staggered back, spitting blood as he fell.
In the overwhelming shock of the situation, not only the protesters but even the informants lost their composure for a moment—
I heard yet another famously notorious quote.
“Do not… announce my death!”
“Uwaaaah!”
The precarious balance had shattered in an instant.
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