Chapter 668 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘Origin of the Species’ (12)
—
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 5
Current Location: Level 3, Observatory – Room 301
—
It was the year I turned twenty.
While listening to the raging storm outside the window, it hit me.
I had dreamt a prophetic dream the night before!
With a dizzying feeling, I stepped outside my house.
As I wandered the streets of Busan in a daze, more and more absurd things started to unfold.
Information about which industries, regions, and companies in South Korea would thrive over the next 20 to 30 years poured into my mind.
I already knew the name of a company that hadn’t even existed in reality yet!
I realized that this company would thrive for about 20 years thanks to a shipbuilding boom, but it would ultimately go bankrupt due to a global recession.
It felt as if some celestial god or devil was whispering secrets into my ear.
There’s no need to elaborate on what happened next.
As time passed, I came to understand that not everything in my prophetic dream was accurate, but those minor discrepancies wouldn’t hinder my success!
*
‘A repeating world, I wasn’t aware of the loop. I mistook memories of a vanished world for prophetic dreams.’
‘In terms of the Administration Bureau, I was an imperfect regressor, just like Mama.’
*
It was the year I turned twenty-nine.
While working at the office of Daeyang Industrial, which would later become the foundation of the Daeyang Group, two men in black suits appeared.
For a moment, I was startled, but they didn’t look like employees of the company.
There must be other employees outside; how did they get in?
As I frowned and prepared to call the outside staff, a cold voice interrupted me.
“Don’t do anything unnecessary; it’ll just make things more troublesome.”
As I silently absorbed the unexpected appearance of the gun pointed at me, a threatening narrative unfolded.
The men in suits claimed to be agents from the Bureau that I had only heard about, and that I was on the ‘Isolation or Disposal’ list.
“Isolation or disposal? What do you mean? I’ve never harmed anyone in my life—”
“Do you really think you’re innocent?”
“If I’ve committed a sin unknowingly, I’ll listen. If it’s reasonable, I’ll repent even if I have to give up half my wealth—”
“How ridiculous. Your wealth itself is the source of your sin! Lee Seok-hwan, you gained future information from whispers of a demon from beyond. Am I wrong?”
“….”
“You abused your knowledge of the future to amass this great wealth. Just twenty-nine years old, and you truly think this process is just? Shouldn’t this be the assets of someone else originally?”
The agent’s words struck at the guilt I often pondered.
Thanks to that, I couldn’t refute anything and had no choice but to hang my head and await my fate.
“Considering your sins, it would be just for your disposal to happen immediately, but a more lenient suggestion has also come forth.”
“… A lenient suggestion?”
“Cooperate. Dedicate yourself to the Administration Bureau, for humanity. This will atone for your original sin. Then, you may live.”
After such a lofty proclamation, the agent began to soothe me like throwing a carrot after the whip.
Management could proceed as I wished.
They didn’t intend to reclaim my wealth, nor did they mind me accumulating it through prophetic dreams.
Also, I wouldn’t need to engage in dangerous endeavors myself.
Merely providing human and material resources to the Bureau would suffice.
If bizarre events occurred that I couldn’t handle, I could immediately request assistance.
Bureau cooperatives receive swifter and stronger protection than ordinary individuals.
At the time, I had no choice but to accept this, but looking back, it wasn’t necessarily a bad deal for me.
At least compared to the “next master,” the Bureau was an incredibly lenient master.
*
‘Stealing wealth that someone else should have earned… That’s the most diligent task of the Administration Bureau, huh?’
‘The president who didn’t know about the loop was fooled. It seems they blackmailed the current loop’s president using information obtained from the past loop’s president.’
‘Makes me curious; are all these Bureau cooperatives like this? The president or CEO is an imperfect regressor too?’
‘Let’s ask Ahri about it later. By the way, the next master? What does that even mean?’
*
It was the year I turned forty-one.
The Bureau directed me to purchase a large 13,000 pyeong lot in Gangwon Province with my money.
Since it was in a mountainous area, I managed to gather the funds somehow, but it resulted in a great ordeal to explain to those around me.
Maybe that’s why?
Deep within, an old anger erupted, and I drove late at night to the site.
I didn’t have any grand plans for rebellion.
I just thought I’d go and voice my complaints to the agents or staff on-site.
In the past, I would never have dared to complain to the Bureau, but it had been over twelve years since I became a cooperative party.
I was familiar with countless staff members and had gotten to know a few agents operating in Korea.
Thus, I had enough confidence to think they wouldn’t dispose of me just for saying a few cheeky words.
Once I arrived, I ran into Agent T.
She was a stunning beauty with long brown hair that flowed down to her shoulders, but despite her looks, her gaze was so piercing that it wasn’t easy to approach her.
“T, long time no see.”
“Ah, so it was you who annoyed the employees outside?”
When I actually met T, an instinctual fear of agents surged within me, causing my prepared words to stumble.
Still, I managed to express my disappointment, and T gave a brief response.
“Haha! I wondered why you showed up; it turns out the president was feeling a bit disgruntled?”
“….”
“This time, we handled things rather urgently, so there’s been a lot of noise. So don’t look at me like that.”
“If it happens again—”
“More importantly, come here.”
Suddenly, T closed in on me, seemingly uninterested in what I was saying, and her piercing gaze bore into me.
Soon, her eyes began to spin 360 degrees and shimmered like glass marbles, filling the space with an unexplainable ominous aura.
“Uh-uh…!”
“You’re just too valuable, in my opinion.”
What on earth did that mean?
The conversation we had back then remains a mystery even after a long time has passed.
“I feel like you just need to grow a little more.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Seok-hwan. You may not know, but I know quite a bit about you.”
“Eh?”
“For instance, you’ll have arrhythmia in four years, so you should start treatment early. I originally planned to tell you in two years.”
T’s words were as if she already knew what would happen to my future.
“Do you know? Chaos is contagious.”
“….”
“Even ordinary humans can elevate their souls through chaos disasters. This is because the power of chaos influences the soul. Of course, usually just enduring it once is enough to scare them to death, so they can’t really grow!”
“….”
“But if you’re lucky enough to survive and keep doing so repeatedly, miracles occur, albeit a very low probability.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re almost there. Just one more step, and you’ll be one of us.”
“Eh?”
“Follow me. Who knows, today you might witness a miracle!”
At that moment, I couldn’t even imagine what would unfold before me.
On another note, I think T was just as clueless about what was about to happen as I was.
Anyway, T led me into the gray concrete facility constructed on the Gangwon lot.
Employees in the vicinity were startled and tried to stop me, but none of them could stop T.
That day, I realized just how high her position was.
*
‘Kain, what is going on? Is President Lee Seok-hwan in a state right before becoming an agent?’
‘If agents are at 100, he seems to be around 80 or 90.’
‘I understood that much, but what on earth did that crazy agent T do?’
‘It seems like she exposed the president to chaos disasters to forcibly grow his soul. It looks like they aimed to make him an agent like that….’
‘Is that even allowed?’
‘… I think that would be considered a shocking rogue action, even by the Bureau’s standards.’
*
In the center of the facility was a massive glass tube with a translucent form writhing inside.
Additionally, there were at least hundreds of hospital beds surrounding the glass tube.
I felt considerable fear as the beds were all occupied by bound people.
“Ugh!”
“Stay still.”
“W-Who are those people?”
“Calm down. They’re all serious criminals and death row inmates. They aren’t innocent people.”
This statement hit me with two meanings.
First, the people tied to the beds were indeed criminals.
Second, the fact that they were being used as “test subjects” suggested that a significant loss of life had occurred.
Amidst the fear triggered by that second meaning, something incomprehensible happened.
Even after recalling what transpired countless times, I still cannot piece together the entire sequence of events.
To put it metaphorically, it’s like witnessing an accident while touring a nuclear physics lab.
If I had to describe it, it felt as if the glass tube shattered, and the murky form broke free.
And…
Except for me, everyone was engulfed in madness and began to harm one another.
The people who had been tied to the beds tore loose their restraints with absurd strength and lunged at the researchers.
The researchers who attempted to intervene soon lost their senses as well, starting to bite and stab each other.
The last person holding onto their sanity was T.
She pulled out a bizarre weapon I had never seen before and killed at least a hundred individuals, but in the end, she snapped too.
The only thing I couldn’t comprehend at that time was:
Why was I the only one unaffected?
Trembling, I lay on the ground, begging and pleading.
I didn’t know who the god or devil ruling over this realm was…
Please, let me live. I have a wife and little children; I can’t die now!
In that moment, a gentle hand rested on my shoulder.
Trembling, I lifted my head, only to see T’s familiar beautiful face staring back at me.
In that instant, I realized.
That ‘thing’ wasn’t T.
It was an unknown monster that had seized T’s body—a demon.
Under the pressure that suppressed my very soul, I could hardly breathe as the demon whispered.
“You are but a mere creature. However, I have seen your destiny.”
“…”
“Someone born from your small self shall obtain a great destiny. One among your children has been marked to scream for the Three Thousand Worlds.”
“…”
“Silence. Forget. Obey. I will grant you three opportunities.”
Overwhelmed by the presence that felt utterly insurmountable, I dared to ask.
“W-Who are you?”
“I am the king. The king of the faithful beyond the galaxy, the king of those who will be born on this land. And I am also your king.”
*
‘… About that absurd action of T from earlier.’
‘That monster seems to have been manipulating everything from the start.’
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