### Chapter 467 – Room 206, The Cursed Room – ‘Demon King Revives After 100 Days’ Re (26)
—
– Han Kain
Based on my brother Sanghyun’s experiences, the sanctuary is filled with duplicates of “us,” twisted by blessings and legacies.
Is it possible the Demon King, recognizing us, decided to manifest this?
If the goal was to shake our minds, I’d say they’re halfway there.
Just like now.
“Cough! Cough! G-gain Hyung….”
“…”
— Crunch!
Looking at the cooling body of Seungyub, I felt a complicated wave of emotions.
I know the real one is outside, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.
But really, the issue wasn’t the emotional bittersweetness.
“Seungyub with a status window and old blood from the start…”
The trials of the sanctuary differ with each entrant.
According to the ultimate entity waiting at the end, we had prepared special trials in store for us.
Sanghyun faced challenges far tougher than those posed by the Demon King’s sect.
And it seems the Demon King has planned something more tiring for me.
Why this is happening remains a mystery!
“…”
Sanghyun took a long time figuring out the abilities of each room’s duplicates, didn’t he?
I don’t have that luxury.
Didn’t Ahri tell me to return within a day or two if possible?
*
Snapping back to reality, I surveyed my surroundings.
A dusty, chaotic wasteland.
Half-collapsed concrete buildings surround me, with fighter jets flying overhead!
Is the background a battlefield?
Then I—
[Advice: 3 → 2]
[Get down.]
Before I even processed the thought, my body crashed to the ground.
As if waiting for this moment, a sharp sound sliced through the air.
— BANG!
“No way, what’s with the sniping as soon as I arrive?!”
Demon King, isn’t this a bit much?
Even the hotel’s real cursed room doesn’t start shooting as soon as you walk in!
— BANG! BANG!
I crawled on the ground, taking cover behind a half-destroyed wall.
Who’s the enemy in this room?
With gunfire coming from unseen angles, I figured it wasn’t someone like Seungyub or Songee.
It must be one of the three Kim—Kim Mooksung, Kim Ahri, or Kim Sanghyun.
— Whoosh!
As a massive anti-tank rocket zoomed toward me, I decided it was time to unleash my strength!
— Fwoosh!
In that instant, time around me slowed down.
The rocket suddenly felt as leisurely as a floating balloon.
And then, with a swift motion, I smacked the side of the rocket.
— Ka-boom!
“Ah.”
I intended to swat the rocket away like a superhero, but instead, it exploded right there.
Guess reality isn’t quite like the movies.
Of course, even with an explosion up close, all it did was mildly irritate my eyes.
— Shwoop!
With that, I kicked off the ground and soared into the air, surveying the battlefield.
…
The power of the Sacred Sun is fundamentally similar to descent.
After all, they are strengths born of the same entity.
The only difference is that while the output is lower, it can be continuously utilized through charging.
…
My cognition, endlessly expanding in real-time, surveyed every nook and cranny around me.
I sensed the presence of mines hidden in the dirt.
I recognized the speed of a bombing aircraft cruising in the far sky.
I saw the greed of termites devouring a dilapidated wooden structure.
And just when I noticed the floating feathers and the subtle whirlwinds around me—
“I found you.”
I spotted a human hiding between the concrete structures, showing hostility toward me.
— Rumble!
It took less than three seconds to close a distance over 500 meters.
The enemy, startled by my discovery through a telescope, tried to run away, but that was as pointless as a turtle dodging a hawk.
Soon, the identity of the enemy that generously gifted me both a gun AND a rocket was revealed.
“Ah, no wonder you handle weapons so well; it’s you, Hyung.”
Not wanting to prolong the fight for either of our sakes, I reached out.
From my fingertips, ethereal flames burst forth, scorching the air as they advanced.
Suddenly, a curious thought crossed my mind.
By what principle am I firing these flames now?
…
As is typical with legacies, even while using this power, I couldn’t grasp the underlying principles.
If I had to describe it, it felt like exhaling hot breath through my fingertips, adjusting direction with my nose?
A ridiculous metaphor, but it’s the best I can do.
Just at the moment the flames reached the building housing the protein-based human, unaware of what was happening—
— Flash!
A blinding white light instantly cut off my senses!
“Ugh! I didn’t think you’d have a bracelet—”
I’ve always sensed it when watching Songee, but a bracelet’s range isn’t that long.
This means that from the moment I entered the bracelet’s range, the fake was about to burst into flames!
So, with that fake dying, the illusion was about to break—
— Click!
“Shit!”
Oh no.
Did I just step on a mine in that brief moment?
— Ka-boom!
With a deafening blast that shook the ground, I was propelled into the sky and began to ponder.
Even while experiencing all this, I’m surprisingly still intact, but does it make sense for a mine to be here?
How was I supposed to predict exactly where I’d end up after losing control thanks to the bracelet?
No matter how unlucky I am—
“Ah.”
I glanced at the half-charred piece of meat that was Kim Sanghyun’s replica.
This guy’s not just endowed with a bracelet, but also with luck.
…
A door leading to the next trial appeared before me.
Now I’m starting to feel anxious.
Just thinking about it conjures a rather troublesome “combination.”
*
— Whoosh!
Everything around me was blanketed in white.
It was filled with a raging blizzard that made it hard to see ahead.
“… Anyone, please come out quickly.”
Each step I took was swallowed by the snow, making my movements painfully slow.
I thought about summoning the sun to fly again, but it’s not that simple.
“…”
The Sacred Sun is ultimately a consumable; do I just start blasting it without knowing where the enemy is?
The thought crossed my mind, but in truth, using the sun makes it easier to locate that enemy.
“Should I just use the sun….”
— Crunch!
A presence!
And it’s extremely close.
“Eh, achoo!”
A coughing silver-haired girl, Miro, appeared before me.
“…”
Seeing the silver-eyed girl materialize through the blizzard felt like a scene from a dream.
Any guy with average sensibilities would be entranced by this view.
“Ugh…. It’s cold! Kain? Is that really you?”
“…”
Just a fake created by the Demon King.
No point in wasting my thoughts on this.
Without hesitation, I opened the grimoire.
“Huh? Huh? What’s that— Ugh!”
I figured that since there wouldn’t be any unchangeable constants, there was no need to possess this grimoire again; I’d just thrust it in front of the fake Miro.
Shortly after that, with the sound of her retinas bursting, the girl collapsed and shivered in the snow.
“… What’s this?”
I expected a blessing or legacy to retaliate, but nothing happened.
She died like some power-less civilian.
“This can’t be right.”
Did blessings or legacies not suit combat?
For instance, the blessing of wealth?
…
I lightly checked her body, and yep, she was definitely dead.
Apparently, the existence of blessings like mine made it impossible for her to live as a regular human.
As I pondered, trying to make sense of the situation—
— Raiii!
A golden wave, burning white hot, dispelled the blizzard in an instant and engulfed me!
“Ugh! What a ridiculous trick!”
With it came an endlessly spinning scale.
The “true enemy” of this trial was the Justice Miro!
“The first Miro was just a trigger for Justice to activate, huh!”
If I had known this, I would’ve spared her!
Ah, pointless now.
Had a similar situation occurred again, I’d probably end up killing her again.
— Fwoosh!
The sun blazed once more.
This time, my choice was to flee.
*
An ordinary human could freeze to death in an instant due to the harsh snowstorm, but the one pursuing me now could not be stopped by a mere snowstorm.
Of course, I’m in the same boat, dodging the infuriating Justice Miro!
— Raiii!
Even at speeds faster than a small plane, I wasn’t managing to distance myself.
Should I try to fight back?
The blessing of justice is unarguably stronger than any other, but then again, can I hold my ground against it now?
— Rumble!
As I twisted my body to dodge the shockwave that felt like it could split the heavens, an overwhelming force crashed down on the ground.
The sight of a massive avalanche descending had me gasping for breath.
It’s not a question of whether I can win or not.
Even if I could triumph, how much of that precious power of the Sacred Sun would I waste?
I had barely managed to recharge through two cycles of this cursed room—!
Not to mention, wasting it on some doll created by the Demon King is unacceptable.
“…”
I slightly turned to glance at the fake Miro.
With a stony expression, like a rock that couldn’t have been forged by a real Miro.
“…”
The blessing of justice is heavily influenced by the mental state of the person involved.
The reason it wants to kill me is that it saw me taking the life of an innocent civilian.
Yet, right now, my true companions don’t even know I understood the “second sentence.”
— Crunch!
In an instant, as I unleashed both the grimoire and the Sacred Sun together, an intense headache surged through me.
Brightly, another version of myself, blazing in the air, appeared.
There was no need for lengthy instructions of what to do; we simply originated from the same root.
He wore a delightfully wicked grin and struck my body, sending me tumbling into the snowy field.
“…”
I lay still in the snow.
It was freezing; I felt like my whole body would become paralyzed, but I had to endure.
Truth is, there’s a bit of pain accompanying the smoke of the spirit-infused flames.
“…”
A faint noise echoed from the air.
Another version of myself put on a show of resistance before pretending to vanish.
Then…
Amid the sound of crunching footsteps, I sensed her presence.
“…”
The spirit-infused flame!
Not long ago, I had been manipulated by a wicked spirit.
The existence that murdered the innocent Miro was that evil spirit that just exited my body!
I’m a victim manipulated by the spirit.
I’m not the villain deserving of punishment by the power of justice.
“Kain! A-Are you okay? Aren’t you cold?”
A voice void of hostility.
But I wouldn’t let my guard down just yet.
“Ugh…”
“Kain!”
“What the hell happened…?”
“Are you okay? A strange monster was hiding in you!”
“… Monster?”
This isn’t a lie, right?
Then it’s time to—
[Advice: 2 → 1]
[Lie detection in progress.]
Our fake version of Miro is pretty darn thorough, huh?
“Kain, honestly tell me what you went through.”
“… It was a strange, strange room. When I entered, bizarre occurrences unfolded, none like I’d experienced before.”
“And then?”
“Somewhere along the way… I feel like I split into two. Sometimes, it feels like another me is controlling my body.”
I relayed only the unvarnished truth.
“… That’s real. What could have happened? First off, get up. Don’t forget that Miro saved you!”
The girl raised me with her triumphant attitude.
Finished with both the blessing of justice and the lie detection, she was remarkably like the Miro I recognized.
Due to the replicants in the sanctuary possessing substantial memories of the original, she knows me and perceives herself as Miro.
Therefore, she must harbor some feelings for me.
“It’s a bit cold.”
“Eh? C-cold?”
“Miro, would you like to come over here? It might be warmer if we stick together?”
“Ugh! What are you saying?! D-Didn’t you hear? If Ahri finds out, she’ll freak out—”
“Eh~! But Ahri’s not here right now.”
“…”
In a flash, her face turned as red as a ripe tomato as she inched closer to me.
“J-just for a minute! It’s so cold right now…”
“… What was Miro’s legacy again?”
“My legacy? Ah, it’s the stars of the other realm—”
— Flap!
A book flew up, obscuring her eyes.
With that, the chaos in the snowy field came to an end.
“Surely, there can’t be a foe worse than the Justice Miro, right?”
The door to the next trial opened.
Numerically speaking, this could be the final trial.
—
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