### Chapter 475 – Time of Choice
—
– Kim Ahri
It felt like a never-ending nightmare.
My consciousness wavered like mist.
The Demon King’s specter seared into my eyes like a brand.
…
A refreshing aura enveloped me, soft as a cozy feather blanket.
When I regained my senses, I found myself waking up in the comfortable first class of a passenger plane.
– The hotel-bound flight is about to take off.
“… Seriously, I’ve seen all sorts of weird stuff.”
*
All my companions were on board except for Han Kain, which startled me a bit.
Sure, Kain was dead and out of the picture, but wasn’t Miro supposed to be here too?
Then I understood the situation upon spotting Miro’s ‘flight attendant outfit’.
Looks like she inherited the memory of the former director of the Research Institute in the depths of paradise, acting as our guide to the inheritance.
To add a little comfort, there was airplane food in the form of a bento box.
“Seems like they want us to eat first? Let’s chow down!”
With Jinchul’s bright smile as the cue, we all began our meal.
“…”
When I opened my bento lid, I was shocked by how sparse the contents were.
Half was rice; the other half was Vienna sausages slathered in ketchup.
“What is this?”
“Ah! Ku-ku! Look at the hotel’s sense of humor!”
Songee’s giggles from next to me made me feel a bit annoyed.
She seemed to be teasing me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“There’s plenty of your favorite sausage, Ahri! Enjoy!”
“…”
“Are you not hungry?”
Well, I do like sausages.
But having only rice and Vienna sausages is a bit of a letdown.
After finishing my bento, we gathered around Miro, whose head was deep in thought.
“Okay, former director! You received the info about the inheritance, right? Spill it!”
Despite Eunsol’s bright demeanor, Miro still looked bewildered.
“Miro, what’s with you? Are you confused? Just explain things step by step. Let’s start with the ruler of time.”
Only then did Miro open her mouth, but her first response caught us off guard.
“… It’s not the ruler of time.”
“What?”
“It’s called ‘One More Chance’, apparently?”
“…”
A wave of disappointment swept through the group.
If my memory serves right, One More Chance is just a mimic of the ruler of time.
The Order probably replicated the ruler of time through an unrepeatable process and then studied it to make an imitation.
I personally wasn’t that surprised.
It seemed like the original ruler of time was something we could never get our hands on anyway.
It could manipulate time in all aspects like delaying, accelerating, or even rewinding—without the harsh price of human sacrifices.
I’d have bet a million bucks that it wouldn’t come out as it was, and they replaced it with a downgraded version called One More Chance instead.
“Then tell us about One More Chance.”
“Okay!”
Everyone focused intently on Miro as she spoke.
“It’s coin-shaped, and when you use it, you can turn back time. But I don’t think it can handle delays or acceleration.”
“The ruler of time could do those too, but One More Chance can only revert time?”
“Seems that way.”
There’s no control over time beyond reverting.
That’s good enough!
After all, reverting is the most powerful ability there is.
“You have to specify the moment you wish to revert, and the time range is one month—precisely 30 days.”
For instance, if you tried to revert on the 31st day, it would take you back to a specified point anytime between the 1st and 30th days.
If you go past the specified moment by more than a month, the specification becomes null, and you can’t revert if you don’t specify a time.
“Uh… there’s no spatial range at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“None! It seems infinite! It might even rewind the whole star system!”
Considering that One More Chance’s reverting range was limited to just the depths of paradise, this was a significant upgrade for the inheritance.
“And about the cost…”
“Cost? Is it like a cooldown time? You can only revert once a month?”
“…”
At this moment, Miro clammed up instead of answering.
“…”
“…”
Eventually, Moksung couldn’t hold back and poked Miro again.
“Seriously, what’s the cost? Do you lose a finger every time you use it?”
“… The price of reverse heaven.”
“What? Reverse what?”
Miro couldn’t hide her confused expression as she muttered.
“The user must bear the cost of ‘reverse heaven’.”
“…”
With a brief lull around us, Miro continued.
“This one sentence is all that’s stuck in my head. I don’t know the details.”
“… Reverse heaven’s cost.”
Scratching his head, Jinchul chimed in.
“Let’s hear the next one. What about the Unyielding Rationality? How’s that?”
“The Unyielding Rationality is similar to the information we already have. Um, it shrunk to a portable size, I guess?”
The original one in the depths of paradise was more like an installation than a tool; if it’s that size, there’s no way we could use it normally.
The size reduction seemed to be the hotel’s way of being considerate, only to fall short.
That was the end of their consideration, and Miro’s next statement plunged us all into silence.
“It suppresses supernatural powers within a certain range. The strength of the suppression depends on how many sacrifices you offer.”
So the harsh requirement of offering sacrifices to use it was still in effect.
Now that we understood the features of both inheritances, it was time to decide ‘who’ and ‘what’ to collect.
At this juncture, I took a slight step back, sensing something awkward, and checked everyone’s expressions.
“…”
Based on the information Kain got from Room 204, the inheritance in Room 206 is reportedly a ‘tool to save the world’ along with the hourglass.
That signifies our foundational aim for stepping into the hotel.
So, there was a tacit agreement for the people from the Administration Bureau to obtain this inheritance.
Still, how much did Moksung and I actually contribute to Room 206? That’s a gray area.
“…”
While it might be a relief, the person with the highest contribution, Kain, had already been knocked out.
If we start comparing among the remaining folks…
“…”
Among the remaining, Songee seemed to lead by a mile.
She’s been managing to control the Mayor’s rampage ever since round one.
Even excluding Kain from the last round, there’s no way Songee can be compared to either of us.
It seems others thought similarly, and their gazes naturally turned to Songee.
And then, with slightly sleepy eyes, the high school girl spoke up.
“What’s the issue? This item has a defined purpose, right? It’s just a matter of picking between Grandpa and Ahri.”
“Ha ha, that’s a bit awkward.”
Seeing Moksung scratch his head made Songee chuckle.
“Did you ever take the inheritance based on who worked hard?”
“But, what exactly are we supposed to take?”
At this point, things hit a snag.
We gained a ‘ticket’ through the resolution of Room 206, but this is again a subject to discuss with Kain included.
As always, Eunsol整理ed the situation coherently.
“This item has a clear goal, right? To ‘save the world.’ What other inheritance could be more fitting?”
“…”
Which of the One More Chance or the Unyielding Rationality would be a more suitable tool for saving the world?
To discuss this, we must first scrutinize the problems plaguing society.
“So, Ahri. Can you tell us in more detail what you mentioned earlier? It seems like the issue we’ll soon face. What exactly is the problem in the world?”
With Eunsol’s inquiry, all eyes turned toward me—
“… Moksung, why are you staring at me?”
“Oh dear! I am not staring, I just got nostalgic, Ahri.”
Desiring to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I signaled Elena to perform a lie detection.
“Listen closely. I have withheld quite a bit of information from you, and still do. But I won’t hide the reality of the crisis.”
“What? Wasn’t that vague explanation part of what you’re hiding?”
It seems Eunsol assumed I had kept revelations concealed back then, but that wasn’t the case about this crisis.
“I’ll explain it again. At a specific moment, an incomprehensible strange light falls from the sky.”
“And?”
“That’s it!”
“…”
“I’m telling you, that’s how the world ends. I have no clue what the nature of the light is, what happens afterward, or what kind of demon would do such a thing.”
“…”
Everyone was entangled in bewildered expressions, deep in thought for a moment.
In the midst of it, I felt a strange sensation, as Elena hadn’t utilized lie detection even after seeing my gesture.
At that moment, Cha Jinchul made an unexpected yet sharp comment.
“How do you know the world ends?”
Oops, slip-up!
“If the world ends, wouldn’t you all be dead too? Ah, is it some kind of parallel universe nonsense?”
“…”
Keeping my mouth shut and pretending I didn’t hear felt like the right move, and everyone opted to assume that’s how it was.
Thank you, popular culture, for spreading the concept of ‘parallel universes’ so widely.
… I hope this isn’t another trick concocted by the Administration Bureau?
Even though it’s my workplace, sometimes it’s frightening.
Thankfully, Elena chimed in with a suggestion during the meeting.
“Hmm, so we’ll have to withstand this mysterious light at least once, right?”
“I believe the hourglass is the tool for that.”
Once that destructive light descends, we use the hourglass to hold out.
That’s why the hourglass is deemed ‘the first tool to save the world.’
“What about One More Chance?”
“… After experiencing the moment the light descends, we travel back to the past to resolve the root issue?”
“Sounds curiously hotel-like. Knowing the cause and restarting to solve it?”
“Exactly.”
“And the Unyielding Rationality?”
“… It suppresses the destructive light to withstand it?”
“Then don’t their roles overlap? Both are about holding out!”
Did they really give us two tools with the same function?
That didn’t seem right.
There must have been distinct roles for them, but we were just too clueless about the crisis at hand to know the roles yet.
— Clap!
Moksung lightly applauded.
“I often pondered this topic, and it aligns closely with Ahri’s view. The hourglass is indeed a tool to withstand the light when it falls, and One More Chance aims for the user to know the cause and then go back.”
That seemed to strike a chord with everyone logically, as they nodded in agreement.
“There likely is a purpose for the Unyielding Rationality, but right now, we have no clue. Withstanding the destructive light? Sounds like the hourglass’s role.”
Even though I had a hunch regarding One More Chance, I didn’t have a clue about the Unyielding Rationality.
“So, let’s go with One More Chance. If we have to choose between knowing something vaguely and knowing nothing at all, we should favor the latter.”
Miro murmured, looking anxious.
“… What about the price of reverse heaven?”
“Ha! Reverse heaven, schmers heaven! If the world is ending, what does it matter what the cost is?”
By the time opinions naturally gravitated towards One More Chance, Sanghyun wrapped things up with a final word.
“I think it would be better if the agent takes the One More Chance. The Unyielding Rationality seems beneficial to someone not present in this room.”
That one missing person? Han Kain.
“… You think Unyielding Rationality is good for Kain?”
What followed was an angle none of the others had thought of.
“The Unyielding Rationality needs sacrifices to be used, right?”
“True.”
“Miro, is Unyielding Rationality charge-based, like, can it be recharged like the Holy Sun?”
“Uh, that specific information is missing…”
“If it’s not charge-based, that means each time it’s used, a sacrifice is required.”
“Probably?”
The Unyielding Rationality in Room 206 also had such traits of inheritance.
“In order for us to use it readily when needed, we need to carry around a ‘sacrifice candidate’ with us.”
“Oh.”
“Oops!”
“Uh-oh!”
Oh my, that’s true.
If a tool requires sacrifices to use every time, we have to keep sacrifices handy for immediate use.
But the sacrifice needs to be a person.
“If it’s not Kain, who’s holy like the Holy Sun and can ‘charge’ sacrifices, then it would be difficult to utilize the inheritance properly.”
“…”
“Of course, from the hotel’s cold perspective, what’s the harm in just brainwashing a couple of sacrifices to tag along? It wouldn’t be a problem for someone like Songee or Ahri.”
“Eek! Teacher, I’m not really…”
“Let’s go with those who can use it efficiently, although whether or not to spend the ticket on the Unyielding Rationality will be discussed later.”
After that, our conversation briefly settled into a quiet, contemplative pause.
– The hotel-bound flight is about to land! Please rise if you’ve been chosen.
With perfect timing, a cheerful announcement broke the silence, and the elder who had given their all for humanity over the ages stood up.
“Well, I’m feeling a little nervous now that we’re nearing the end, huh? The price of reverse heaven…! Ugh! Enough already! Give me that One More Chance!”
The moment the golden coin fell into Moksung’s palm, the space around us began to quiver.
…
The end of the second floor was finally drawing near.
Only the gate room remained.
Though I suspect there will be a few events in between.
Don’t we need to visit the ‘Sanctum of Blessings’ as well?
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