### Chapter 139 – Room 107, The Gate Room – ‘Perfect Life’ (30)
—
Kim Ahri
After starting to think about how to wake up Kain, Songi threw out her idea.
“How about we push Kain off the building too?”
“I was already thinking about how to kill him from the get-go, but there are some precautions we need to take.”
“What kind of danger are you talking about?”
“Remember the situation from before when I woke you up? In this trial, we get super abilities to grant wishes. Kain probably has similar powers.”
“Hmm. Saying it’s super abilities sounds weird. From my experience, I didn’t feel like I had any powers at all.”
“I know what you mean. It’s not like we actively used abilities—it felt more like we expressed our wishes desperately, and the universe just made it happen! Kain must have gotten those kinds of powers too. Plus, unlike you, he probably won’t have the best control over them.”
“Control over powers?”
“When you blasted me away, you were already half-awake, right? So instinctively, you adjusted the strength. You likely hoped I wouldn’t die while tossing me.”
“I didn’t really think about that.”
“…”
“Maybe subconsciously I did.”
“That does seem likely, huh?”
“…”
“Anyway, you recognized me and controlled your strength so I wouldn’t die, but Kain might not be able to do that. If we try to harm him, he could end up wishing for our deaths!”
“Now that’s terrifying. Let’s plan a bit more carefully.”
“Maybe we should come up with a plan that doesn’t put us in the spotlight.”
With that, we strategized our scheme to ‘assassinate’ Han Kain.
We decided to kick off our plan around lunchtime.
*
Han Kain
— Ding dong, ding dong!
“Ughhh~ I’m so sleepy I could die.”
“Hey, you should at least pretend to study during class. You were already sleeping, so why do it again?”
“Shut up, idiots! Let’s go grab some food.”
“What’s for lunch today? Sweet and sour pork?”
“That’s tomorrow. Today it’s fried codfish.”
“Oh, come on—”
My ears were about to pop. The whole classroom erupted into chaos as soon as lunch started.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t care less. I was struggling to move with my leg in a cast, and after hearing from the hospital that I had to watch my diet for a while, I brought a packed lunch instead.
As I rummaged through my lunchbox, a few friends came over.
“You’re still eating that stuff?”
“I’ll be on lunchboxes for another month at least.”
“Seriously sounds disgusting.”
“Are you picking a fight? I can only eat this because my leg is messed up!”
Just then, a huge commotion erupted by the classroom door.
“Hey! Bring that bastard Kain here!”
“That jerk! If I wasn’t in a cast, I’d have knocked him out right then!”
Suddenly, what’s happening? Before I even had a chance to eat, everyone around me was dragging me toward the door.
Standing there, I saw the most adorable second-year girl.
…
Ha! Look at my popularity!
I couldn’t help but raise my hand, amazed by my own irresistible charm—
— Thud!
“What the heck? What are you going on about?”
“Hey, crazy dude! Look at my leg before you push me!”
Amidst the noisy atmosphere, a girl introduced as ‘Songi’ shyly handed me a small note before disappearing.
Pushing away the goofier guys who tried to peek at it, I checked it myself.
It said to meet on the rooftop of the newly built building after class.
After that, not a single word from the lessons reached my ears.
*
Han Kain
As soon as class ended, I shook off my eagle-eyed friends and headed for the rooftop.
What am I going to do? What will I say? I’m a senior here, is it okay to get a girlfriend? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until college? But she was cute! Ah, I can’t go breaking hearts! Why meet on the rooftop of all places? It’d be fine, right? Should I just go for it? Ugh, don’t do anything weird, just a straightforward ‘yes’ is best. What if we fight after dating? If love’s strong enough, we can overcome little conflicts! But what if the girl I meet today has a more eccentric personality than I expected?
…
In just a short while, my mind raced faster than it ever had, pouring out wild fantasies.
If I keep this up, I might end up thinking about names for our second daughter, so I forced myself to stop and went up to the rooftop.
What the? I’m up here, but there’s no one around.
I searched around, but sure enough, Songi was nowhere to be seen.
Did I arrive too early? I don’t think I came that fast with my leg being a hassle…
But soon I understood.
The one confessing would need some mental prep time!
Thinking in that direction made me feel a bit better, and I found it hard to hide my smile.
While chuckling to myself, I leaned against the railing, about to approach…
— Ping!
Suddenly, something yanked me toward the rooftop railing!
A white wire I hadn’t noticed, taut and unyielding, pushed against me.
“Ahhh!”
Before I knew it, I slammed against the railing’s outer edge and tipped over.
My already uncomfortable body, burdened with the cast, collapsed under the sudden shock.
Then the shockingly bizarre part started.
— Rumble! Bang!
Suddenly, the railing’s wall collapsed! How do you expect a reinforced concrete wall to just cave in like that?
What in the world? There was no time to even think about the reason.
Right now, the wire was still shoving me over the edge, while the railing’s exterior collapsed by some unknown force.
The result was clear.
I was swiftly propelled outside the building and facing a drop.
With all my might, I clung to the remains of the railing, desperately hanging on.
“Someone help!!! Someone save me!!!”
I screamed like a lunatic, gripping onto what I could. I couldn’t even bring myself to look down.
Time passed, filled with pain and fear, and I heard strange voices from somewhere.
“Why is he holding on so well?”
“Shouldn’t we just wait it out?”
“If we give it enough time, he’ll find a strange way to survive, right?”
“Why isn’t he dying?”
“Kain, please just die already!”
What the heck? Why are there voices wishing for my death?
One of the voices was definitely the girl who called me out earlier today!
How is this even happening?
In the chaos, my mind was becoming a messy whirlwind.
And then that noise came to amplify all my suffering.
— Pee-yoo!
With a loud sound, a cute parrot appeared, bringing the air of a great bird of prey.
It slowly approached where I was clinging to the railing.
“Please, no! This can’t be happening, right?”
— Ping! Ping!
“Oh, come on! Are you seriously going to start with me now?”
— Squawk! Snap!
“Ahhh! Crazy bird, don’t grab my fingers!”
— Screech!
“Did you just laugh? You definitely laughed, right?”
— Squeal!
“Ah! Please just stop pecking at me! My eyes, my eyes!”
Maybe it saw me holding on for too long, because the parrot hopped up onto my face, attacking me with its beak and claws.
I was fuming.
A deep, unmatched rage surged from within.
Right now, both the fear of death and the pain of hanging on faded away.
All that remained was the burning desire to fry that damn bird!
The moment all other thoughts disappeared, and only one wish lingered in my heart…
The world responded to my prayer.
*
Han Kain
— Kii-iiing!
“Ugh~ Poor Pelo got hurt. Are you okay?”
“It was exactly for this reason we kept dodging Kain! Pelo! Didn’t I warn you not to jump in?”
“Still, I didn’t think Kain could summon boiling oil out of thin air… Is Pelo alright?”
“If he was any ordinary parrot, he’d be toast. But Pelo is special! He’ll be fine.”
Listening to Ahri and Songi’s conversation, I found myself unable to hold back my laughter.
“Are you kidding me? In all this chaos, you’re just worried about the parrot? What about my poor fingers and face?”
“Who cares? Once we leave the hotel, they’ll fix everything anyway. Speaking of which, you woke up in quite the funny manner. Summoning boiling oil only to have it splash all over you to snap you out of it?”
“…”
“Come on! Isn’t that a bit much? Pelo was just trying his absolute best to wake you up with oil!”
“Don’t lie! That bird definitely mocked me before biting my finger.”
“Oh, Kain! Do you have to say such things when Pelo is hurt?”
“…”
“Come on, Songi, don’t be like that. Kain came here all excited, thinking he was going to hear your confession.”
Ahri’s comment was lethal for both me and Songi.
Remembering the wild fantasies I had earlier, I couldn’t bear it and just looked at the ground.
“Are you sure you’ve awoken, Kain? If there’s still any ambiguity, why not just take one nice flight off the building again?”
“… The hologram’s already up, so just cut it out.”
For a moment, I was tempted to push Ahri out of the building just to see her fly.
Through this noisy process, I finally joined the ‘Teammate Awakening Party.’
Now there was only one person left—Elena.
Feeling nostalgic that this long ‘Gate Room’ journey was coming to an end brought a sense of closure.
“Is it just Elena left now?”
Songi quickly chimed in.
“Yeah. But waking up Elena might be trickier than us. She seems the most immersed in this dream.”
“Another problem pops up too. Given that she’s now a colossal star on this stage, she probably has a bunch of bodyguards around. Using the same ‘lure her out and shove her off the roof’ tactic like we did may not work.”
“…Sorry about the whole pushing idea.”
Songi started lovingly wrapping up Pelo in a bandage.
The sassy little creature squawked at me while seeming to glare.
Can a mere parrot claim superiority over a human? I also squinted my eyes and stared back at Pelo.
Ahri looked on at our antics, shaking her head.
“Hey! Can you both just quit the animal standoff?”
Eventually, Ahri led us into a discussion.
The topic was naturally how Ahri and Songi woke up.
As I listened to Ahri’s journey of feeling the world’s discord, I was completely baffled by the bizarre details.
“What?!”
“Huh? I said I went into the Bureau’s headquarters to talk with Manager Park—”
“No, not that part. I’m talking about the strange bits—something about pigeons and fungal parasites?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve never heard terms like that. Fungal parasites? Pigeons? I didn’t even see any news about those. I might have missed out due to being a minor in bars but- carnivorous pigeons? If such bizarre creatures were spreading all over the country, how could I have not known?”
“…”
After hearing my response, Ahri’s eyes widened briefly, then her expression settled into a sort of understanding.
“Don’t just figure it out on your own; explain it to me too.”
“It’s nothing much. If you think a bit, you’ll probably grasp it.”
The atmosphere felt like I was deliberately dodging questions.
But in reality, I quickly came to understand. I had been through this multiple times in the hotel.
It was a stage that looked like Earth but was filled with absurdities that I had never learned about in actual history.
At first, I thought it was just the hotel creating all this.
However, after observing Songi resolve Room 103, I learned from the Devourer that the hotel’s scenario was recreating events that actually occurred somewhere in the universe.
Stories that I had never heard or encountered in my history—were they actual events? This concept is something I’ve seen in films countless times!
Could it be parallel worlds? Maybe Ahri and I come from different parallel realities.
If that’s the case, will we never meet again once we finally escape the hotel and return to our worlds? That thought made me feel a pang of nostalgia.
Sigh…
Let’s leave these thoughts for now. Right now, I’m way too busy worrying about how to survive day to day.
*
Kim Ahri
After the previous conversation ended, Kain seemed to nod his head, deep in thought without asking more questions.
It seemed he understood in his own way. What he grasped was easy to guess—a concept about parallel worlds, likely.
Since the rise of superhero films from American comics, stories about parallel worlds have become common knowledge for everyone.
A sigh escaped me.
This time, I definitely couldn’t tell Kain the truth. I had to keep the truth rigorously hidden for his sake.
Whenever he eventually steps outside the hotel, he’ll be met with a massive shock.
But I couldn’t let him experience that shock now, during the trials of the hotel.
In this strange fashion, Kain and I have lived through different phases in a singular world.
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