Chapter 662 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘Origin of Species’ (9)
—
– Kim Ahri
— Kukuung!
In that moment, as the monstrous being that had been releasing ominous powers finally fell to the ground as a lump of flesh, both a sense of victory and relief flooded over me all at once.
“Phew!”
It truly had been an intense battle to bring this guy down.
One thing’s for sure: it wasn’t an easy opponent for me to handle alone. I could only win because my teammate joined in just in time to save my bacon.
“Seungyub, you did well.”
“….”
“Still not with it, huh?”
“….”
“When do you plan on getting your act together? As for Kain, oh, he seems fine. Let’s head back to the truck.”
Seungyub followed my orders like a puppet on strings.
*
The situation at the truck was also resolved.
Thankfully, there were no fatalities, but several had sustained injuries.
The most seriously injured was Cha Jinchul, but looking at him, it didn’t seem like it was a big issue.
His partially severed right arm was wriggling and trying to reattach itself, after all!
Honestly, even a troll would be shocked by this!
In contrast, Mooksung and Elena were barely injured but still looked worse for wear.
Fortunately, the best doctor in the world was right here!
“Elena, does it hurt?”
“Ugh, it hurts!”
“Just hang in there.”
At that moment, Sanghyun’s hand suddenly dove into Elena’s abdomen.
He really did just dive right in, didn’t he?
A hand piercing through the skin and into someone’s body—how bizarre!
I knew Sanghyun’s healing powers, enhanced by the blessing of diligence, were in a supernatural realm, but it was just creepy to see it again after so long.
“Ugh!”
“Endure a little longer.”
“Gyaaaaaah!”
The atmosphere felt almost like a field hospital on a battlefield.
Just then, Kain appeared from behind.
“Thank goodness. No one died.”
“So true. Kain, did you see how the fight at the truck went down?”
I hadn’t had the luxury of checking on the truck at all.
“I used Miro as bait to lure the enemy in—”
“Who’s the bait? Miro?”
“It couldn’t be helped. Miro can endure mental attacks thanks to his unchanging nature.”
“…”
“As we fought the baited enemies, several people got hurt. Jinchul received a lot of attacks. In the meantime, Elena used self-defense to destroy one.”
While it bothered me that they used Miro as bait, the plan itself sounded solid.
I’d probably have come up with a similar strategy myself!
Kain then asked me.
“I saw you fighting alongside Seungyub. What happened? Seungyub must have struggled against the opponent’s body displacement abilities.”
“… You thought that too? I did as well.”
“What?”
Some abilities obtained by my teammates in the hotel can only be used for very specific purposes.
These types of skills are rarely utilized, and so everyone tends to forget about them halfway through.
“The First Humans.”
“Ah?”
“That stopped the manipulation from working on us.”
Kain widened his eyes in surprise, clearly astonished.
“Is the ego created by the First Humans prioritized over body control?”
“It’s going to be hard to understand if you phrase it like that.”
“I’m just guessing.”
By the time we were done exchanging ideas, no more screams came from the truck.
It seemed the emergency treatment was roughly finished.
“Let’s go.”
*
As we convened and shared opinions, we discovered one unfortunate fact.
Despite the fierce battle, only Kain had gathered any meaningful information!
Neither the truck party nor Seungyub and I managed to kill any enemies.
While we could destroy their physical forms, we could not prevent their spiritual entities from fleeing.
Kain muttered with a somewhat gloomy expression.
“It seems today’s events are the seeds we have sown. They provided us countless opportunities, even attempting negotiations, and we kicked them all away.”
“Are you talking about us as humanity? Or the Administration Bureau?”
“It must be so. And….”
“And?”
“According to the advice, it’s linked to ‘Origin of Species.’”
My head felt more and more complicated.
I really had no idea how ‘Origin of Species’ was connected to this.
At that moment, Sanghyun showed a slightly cynical reaction.
“Again with the Administration Bureau? It seems they’re up to their weird antics once again.”
“…”
Mooksung and I had nothing to say, but awkwardly smiled, and Sanghyun added as if explaining himself.
“I’m talking about the Administration Bureau in Room 301, not the real deal—”
Mooksung snickered.
“Again with the Administration Bureau?”
“Th-That’s not—”
“Enough. It’s true that the Administration Bureau does plenty of bizarre things. Honestly, even I think they’re a bunch of idiots.”
“Ugh!”
Just then, Cha Jinchul cautiously opened his mouth.
“I used to be a field agent, so I’ll speak up….”
Oh, good point!
Unlike other teammates who just carried an agent badge, Jinchul had actually worked as an agent for several months!
Somehow, I felt a sense of pride knowing we had one more ally in the hotel party supporting the Administration Bureau.
“The Administration Bureau can be a bit extreme, but they genuinely care.”
“Genuinely?”
“They’re an organization meant to serve humanity. It’s not about individuals, but they definitely seem to have a mission to protect all of humanity.”
Sanghyun’s expression became slightly complicated.
“When you think about it, reincarnators could indulge in whatever pleasures they wanted without any responsibilities. Yet, the reincarnators affiliated with the Administration Bureau are out there hunting monsters and demons, no less.”
“…”
“It’s a given that they have a sense of superiority while treating civilians like dirt, erasing the concept of basic rights from their vocabulary….”
“…”
“But they do have that mission to protect humanity.”
Listening to this made me feel a little flustered.
To be honest, I can’t really say he was wrong.
If they didn’t have at least some sense of mission, who would be crazy enough to hunt down demons and monsters lurking everywhere on Earth?!
Just then, after listening to Jinchul, Kain responded.
“In summary, you’re saying that pinning all the blame on the Administration Bureau reflects a prominent viewpoint among the species of Is. They probably have their reasons—and those reasons likely involve humanity.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“There’s merit in that. Let’s go discuss this further outside. Right now….”
Kain looked at the sky with an extremely dark expression.
“We need to concentrate on the situation at hand. Things are looking quite ominous.”
Everyone exchanged uneasy glances as they looked at Kain.
“We still have a hard time grasping the enemy’s full capabilities, but they seem to have learned quite a bit about us.”
“…”
“After such a ruckus of battle, and considering two of the three enemies have retreated, they probably got a good look at our individual abilities.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“To be honest, it’s a miracle we’re still alive.”
It felt like I was suffocating.
“Let’s say our opponents are the Administration Bureau. A barrage of missiles would have rained down on us from nowhere, hitting us left and right.”
“Yeah, you might be right.”
“Plus, the opponents are aliens who’ve suppressed the Administration Bureau. Their spiritual race could be lacking in physical weaponry—”
As Kain explained how precarious our current situation was—
“—What!?”
Suddenly, Kain instinctively summoned the Sacred Sun.
It was as if he felt an intense sense of crisis!
With the summon, a mass of white light heated the surrounding area, perhaps representing the peak of strength of all the legacies obtained by the hotel party?
However, no matter how powerful a legacy might be, it’s ultimately just a tool.
A star that can’t shine by itself will simply wither away once its handler is crushed.
Just like right now!
An overwhelming blow soared through the skies at a speed too fast to react!
The sound followed a beat late.
— Urrulung!
Kain’s defense with the Sacred Sun was only half effective.
While he managed to lessen the power of the incoming strike to protect his teammates, he couldn’t prevent his own head from vanishing.
“Ah, uh…!”
The urgency was so great that even screaming would feel like a luxury!
Without a breath, I desperately utilized the irregular polyhedron.
Forming wall after wall— Kwa-chik!
The moment yet another strike pierced through my steadfast defense, I felt a fiery sensation in my right arm.
That’s it; my arm is gone.
It felt like only 1.5 seconds passed.
— Swaaa…
A distant whisper echoed from beyond the skies.
It didn’t contain a single coherent message, but at the same time, it conveyed so much.
An ancient desire.
An unreachable longing of eons.
The agony of being obstructed right before achieving a goal.
Irreversible failure.
Inevitable doom.
A thread of hope!
…
Before I could even blink, the sky turned a deep red.
The entity before me regarded all earthly beings as mere pathetic flesh.
It felt as though it had reached the pinnacle of evolution.
“…”
My body didn’t move a single hair.
It was as if an overwhelming power had turned everyone in the vicinity into stone.
In that unbelievable moment, time seemed to stop.
The wriggling shape briefly halted near Kain.
But the delay was brief.
The being soon ignored me, sinking back down toward my companions behind me.
First was Miro.
Since the Time Borrower can only be used with willpower, Miro managed to summon Eunsol successfully.
However, the Eunsol who appeared also froze like stone and couldn’t take any action.
It didn’t take too long for Miro’s body to be ripped apart.
Seungyub was in a slightly better situation.
As his body began to get destroyed, the vessel for his soul manifested, but the opponent also didn’t attack it right away, as if they were ignoring him.
Of course, it was just leftover food sitting around, right?
Jinchul seemed to have put up some resistance.
Although he couldn’t move, summoning the fragments of celestial bodies in this realm acted as a legacy by itself.
Sadly, Mooksung didn’t even manage to utter a word.
One last chance requires a ‘bounce’ action, so it was nothing to worry about.
In less than 10 seconds, I realized I was witnessing half of my teammates’ demise.
Ahh…
This thing, this monster, this great being is none other than the “Duke.”
It was different.
It felt far too different from the beings we had fought up until now.
To put it bluntly, it was hard to believe we belonged to the same species.
The gap was so ridiculous it made me not even feel frustrated. I couldn’t even get angry!
Would the quality of a painless death render me grateful for such feelings? Can I even explain how I feel right now?!
The only downside is that it all started with our strongest member getting ambushed and dying so pathetically.
Just as I felt my consciousness slipping away…
“Uh, ugh… Huh?”
Did I just hear a voice?
My body… My body is moving!
The responses of my comrades, now freed from their restraints, were swift.
Did we really have the luxury to grasp at straws against such a monster?!
“I am now death—”
Immediately, the last burst of light fired off, and malevolent intentions surged forth, shaking the horizon.
Of course, I was also focusing intently, eyes bloodshot, as I continually split the space!
— Toodoo-dook!
The falling tentacles dripped with purple liquid, staining the ground!
Our attacks are connecting?
Even the last burst of light couldn’t withstand it and ended up splattering the ground with sticky liquid!
Incredible power! But not enough to be classified as a prisoner level.
It was only at that moment I finally heard the enemy’s voice.
‘… Are you still not dead?’
Still not dead?
Whom are they referring to—
— Grab!
Someone grabbed my ankle.
Now I understood why everyone had been freed!
“…”
I was afraid to look down at the ground.
A person must die if their head is gone.
Even if they’re a reincarnator, that still holds true!
They’ll just awaken in the next loop, not walking around without a head!
Then what is that ‘being’ with a grimoire, reaching out its hand toward me?!
“Kain…”
And then—the small object from Kain’s grasp was now in my hand.
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