### Chapter 499 – Room 207, The Gate Room – The Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (1)
—
– Han Kain
— The train travels endlessly along the tracks.
It’s been quite a while since we left the second station where Jinchul Hyung, Eunsol Nuna, and Elena got off.
— Clunk! Clunk!
Grandpa seemed a bit nervous about the upcoming trial, so he moved to the back of the train for a moment alone.
Thanks to that, a girl sitting right in front of me makes my heart race just by looking at her.
“I’ve been thinking about the structure of the Gate Room.”
“…”
“After much deliberation, I came up with two conclusions. First, the party is split. Think about it. Most of the starting positions are different, and once you get the hang of things, you can join up pretty quickly.”
“Right. It’s the first time we’ve completely fallen into different trials like this.”
“Second, why did we start on the train? There was no need for that, right?”
“True.”
Everyone experiences different trials, and the type of trial each falls into is predetermined.
In a typical hotel setting, we’d probably be thrown into our respective places the moment we started.
So, the fact that there’s a system where we get off at our own ‘stations’ on the train suggests there’s a reason behind it.
The merchant emphasized it right from the start.
“I realized at some point. Perhaps we’re solving one big trial as a whole.”
“…”
“The first trial—long ago in the past. Then the second, third, and fourth trials are time-connected. Each station seems to be in a different place, but in reality, it’s more like a world linked by rails.”
“…”
“Thinking like this, the party isn’t truly split. While we started spatially separated, this time, we’re just temporally divided.”
I was slightly impressed.
I had somewhat realized this myself, but it’s mostly a conclusion I reached by collecting various scenes seen through insight.
Ahri figured it out by thinking about the train setting all by herself.
“I see, you already knew, huh?”
That caught me off guard, and I awkwardly laughed.
“I wasn’t sure. Most of the info I nabbed was like that.”
I meant it genuinely.
Information gained through insight is all in the realm of possibilities or probabilities, so nothing is certain.
Put simply, insight is the ultimate enhancement of ‘scenario understanding.’
If the scenario understanding shows the clearest intended scenario of the hotel in written form, then insight feels like it visualizes countless possible scenarios.
Ahri pressed on without acknowledging my excuse.
“If you had a premonition, wouldn’t it have been better to just share it with everyone?”
The reason I don’t share information seen through insight with my teammates is simple.
The moment I share, their actions change, and if their actions change, the possibilities I saw become nothing in an instant.
Once that happens, insight sees ‘new possibilities.’
Share that new possibility again?
The same thing repeats.
New possibilities collapse, and insight sees ‘yet more new possibilities.’
To cut this meaningless cycle, there’s no choice but to stop sharing information.
Ahri, along with my other teammates, vaguely seemed to understand this aspect of insight.
So, they didn’t push me much for info.
“You know.”
“Yeah, I know. Why you don’t share. Still, being right next to you is kinda annoying.”
Information monopoly.
Communication breakdown.
Inevitably hidden secrets.
It’s definitely an undesirable situation, but there was no sharp solution at the moment.
“You’re like a real Management Bureau agent right now. Instead, maybe you’re like ‘The Silent One’?”
That was a term I had never heard before.
“What’s that?”
“To put it simply, it refers to the upper echelon of the Management Bureau.”
The upper echelon of the Management Bureau, the Silent Ones.
“… Can you tell me? That sounds like something top-secret.”
Instead of answering, she quietly leaned against the window.
As if asking why I was nitpicking over such things.
“Don’t you have a letter for me?”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you give one to Sang-hyun? I think you gave one to Elena too.”
“…”
“Don’t I get anything? Even a ‘You can do it!’ would be good.”
“Ha!”
I spit out the water I was drinking in shock!
How does she know about ‘You can do it!’?
Did Elena open the letter secretly and share it with everyone—
“Elena doesn’t know.”
“…”
“I’m the only one who knows.”
“Wait, why do you know what Elena doesn’t know?”
“I sneaked a peek while she was dozing off.”
I was speechless.
“… Why would you do that? It’s not like you’re Miro.”
“She’s the ‘Daughter of Miro,’ you know?”
Seeing Ahri grinning made me laugh, making it harder to get upset.
“So, do you have anything to say to me?”
“Nothing.”
“Why? You’re not sulking, are you?”
Sulking?
Does she think I’m really Miro or Seungyub?
Let’s be honest here.
“I haven’t seen anything definitive. Every time I try to focus on you, completely different scenes flash by like a slideshow with no commonality.”
Ahri half-opened her mouth and asked,
“What did you see? If it’s meaningless stuff, then it’s fine to share.”
If it’s something of value, I can’t tell her to protect its worth.
Flipping that around means if I saw meaningless and confusing scenes, it’s fine to share it, right?
Thinking that way made sense to me.
“Sometimes, I’m walking under a blue sky wearing a pure white dress, and in another moment, I’m covered in dust in ruins that look like a meteor just crashed. Then a moment later, I’m sitting in a shabby lecture room wearing a mix of black and white clothes. Then—”
“Stop, stop. I got it. So, the images are all jumbled up, and you have no idea what’s what, right?”
“Exactly.”
Ahri sighed softly.
“Why do I have to be the one that looks like that?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I’ve thought about this: I’m not seeing meaningless information. Perhaps all those scenes are indeed happening to you, Ahri?”
The moments of walking under a blue sky in a pure white dress.
The moment I’m covered in dust in a ruined world.
The moment I’m sitting in a shabby lecture room wearing mixed black and white clothes.
If all this could actually be ‘important moments’ that might happen—
“Ah, still don’t get it.”
If I’m confused writing this, then Ahri listening from a distance must be even worse.
Soon, Ahri changed the topic with a look of resignation.
“Let’s go back to what we were talking about. All trials are time-connected.”
“Yeah.”
“But the time gaps are pretty wide. The first trial is minimum a few thousand years apart, right? And hundreds of years afterward is standard.”
“Right.”
“Is there a way to merge beyond that time gap? Not all of us, but at least a few.”
There is.
What it is, though? That’s certain as well.
I saw ‘the possibility of Miro progressing through trials with me!’
“I think there is. Perhaps it could happen in every trial.”
“…”
“We’ll have to look for it.”
With that, it seemed Ahri had said all she wanted and got up.
She appeared to want to chat with Grandpa, who’s also going through trials.
So, I tried to relax and lean back in my chair when suddenly—
— THWACK!
“Ugh! What’s happening?”
Ahri suddenly got really close!
Too close!
Her already surreal eyes were glowing red, and I was dizzy!
Just as my instinct screamed to expand my status window to block my vision, it seemed unnecessary as Ahri stepped back.
What kind of prank is this? When I turned to look, Ahri smiled.
“How was that?”
“… I was surprised.”
“From this distance, you look just like a regular person.”
This is what she means by that?
Does that imply she doesn’t appear like a person from a different angle?
“I won’t give you that cliché of clinging to humanity. I just wanted to tell you this much.”
“I’m listening.”
“Towards the end of Room 206, I had an epiphany related to the Divine Sun, remember?”
Epiphany?
Looking back, it wasn’t as grand as all that.
I just reverted the Holy Sun from being a means to an end back into an end.
“Remember, you might have stumbled into a similar trap again.”
“…”
“So, I’ll take my leave now. I need to chat with Mooksung.”
Stumbling into a similar trap again…
Is she saying the power that trapped me this time is insight?
Soon, Ahri left, leaving me alone.
The outside scenery was covered in darkness, just like when I first boarded the gate train, with nothing visible.
Meaning the train window is essentially a foggy mirror.
I look into the mirror.
I see myself reflected in the mirror.
“…”
The possibilities of my teammates I observed through insight never showed just one possibility.
While cases as complex as Ahri’s were rare, other teammates also displayed a wide range of possibilities that weren’t easy to describe.
But… there’s one exception to this.
It’s ‘Han Kain.’
Everyone else has colorful fates like a rainbow, yet my fate is singular.
“…”
In the mirror—I tear, scatter, and see myself fragmented, too broken to maintain my identity, spread across a star.
“Phew….”
Once again, I sat at the Go board where I can’t share anything with others.
The ultimate goal is singular.
To change my future!
「Starting the third trial! All participants, please prepare.」
*
「The Third Trial – Miskatonic University」
– Kim Ahri
“…”
I woke up feeling the light streaming in from the window.
Soon, a faint notification blinked for three seconds.
「We will now seal the blessings of the participants. Please be mindful.」
As expected, they’re sealing our blessings.
Well, Mooksung got his ‘One More Chance,’ and I got ‘Irregular Polyhedron,’ right?
Seriously sealing our legacies before even getting a chance to use them, that’s just bad etiquette!
— Creak!
In a somewhat shabby room, an old wooden bed creaked.
It didn’t seem like a very lavish environment.
I think I woke up in a decent-looking dress at the dinner party, but in reality, it was completely different.
Checking the table beside the bed, I found a little book.
It’s as though it was hinting to me to understand the current situation.
…
The spatial background is in Arkham City, Massachusetts, at ‘Miskatonic University.’
The temporal background is 1897, and my identity is set as a university student.
“1897, a female university student.”
Well, this isn’t 21st-century Korea.
Women going to college wasn’t common in this era at all.
So, there must be some special significance attached to my identity, right?
With this thought, I stepped out of the dorm.
*
Miskatonic University’s atmosphere can be summed up as eerie and unsettling.
The sky was filled with dark, brooding clouds, and when I asked a couple of students rushing past, they said the weather had been like this for a while.
On top of that, all around are the bizarre bones of creatures on display—each one a type I’d never seen before—and horrific paintings that look like they were done in blood caused me to instinctively cringe.
Staying at this university for even half a year, wouldn’t a normal person end up going insane?
Fortunately or unfortunately, the students themselves seem mostly normal.
The way male students blush every time they see me is quite clear.
“Excuse me. Uh, sorry, do you have a moment?”
“Wha-! Of course, Lady!”
Lady?
What do I look like, going to a party or something?
This guy turned bright red just by catching the lapel of his coat, and while I gleaned some information about the university, I felt a question bubbling up.
“By the way, Thomas, which department should I go to?”
Asking this while chuckling, how on Earth could someone else know my department when I don’t even know it—
“Haha! Are you joking? Or are you telling me to guess? That’s easy! You’re definitely in the ‘Occult Studies’ department. Am I right?”
“…”
Occult Studies?
Just hearing about it makes it seem odd.
“The Occult Studies department gathers the most bizarre and mysterious students in the world. You, Miss Ahri, are someone who obviously belongs in it.”
“… Is that so? Then, could you tell me where the department is?”
“Do you see that plane tree over there? Turn right around it—”
By the time our conversation wrapped up, he timidly mentioned,
“Uh, Miss Ahri, if I could contact you later—”
“Farewell!”
*
As I walked toward the building of ‘Occult Studies’ that kind Thomas had informed me about, I realized that most of the bizarre, eerie atmosphere of Miskatonic University stemmed from this area.
Wouldn’t it fit right in if the professors were living skeletons or vampires?
So I made a mental note to not be shocked by anything trivial.
“…”
As I approached the door to an unidentified lecture room following what seems to be fellow students, I suddenly froze, unable to hide my surprise.
This was because a nameplate on the classroom door caught my eye.
「Introduction to Demonology」
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