### Chapter 163 – Room 201, The Cursed Room – ‘The Cube’ (12)
—
– Lee Eunsol
“What’s your purpose for intrusion?”
“…”
“How did you obtain information related to the Headquarters?”
“…”
Oh man, I’ve messed up.
“If you could just politely enlighten us, it would make things easier for both sides.”
“…”
“I’ll leave it at that. Proper questioning will start once Arthanin arrives anyway. By the way… your ‘eyes’ are quite extraordinary.”
At least it seems like they’re being nice because of my ‘eyes.’
I could already hear my grandpa getting smacked around on the opposite side.
What on earth led us to this absurd situation? I sighed and began to retrace my memories.
*
After separating from our party, my grandpa and I entered the TV’s display.
Thanks to Ari’s suggestion, we believed we were in a non-hazardous area at the time, and we went straight ahead with our eyes closed for what felt like ages.
Thud! After a noise, we collided with something, and as we opened our eyes and looked around, we realized.
We were sunk.
Armed soldiers surrounded us.
Everyone had their guns aimed at us, so was there really a way to resist?
We were instantly subdued and dragged off for questioning.
I guess it’s a relief that the conversation tab worked without a hitch, allowing us to formulate some plans.
Lee Eunsol: OK?
Kim Mooksung: Those bastards. OK.
The folks from the so-called ‘Headquarters’ looked eager to interrogate us.
Thinking about it, it must be fascinating for them.
Now that Ari’s hypnosis had worn off, I realized that beyond the TV display lay the source of incomprehensible madness.
The mere fact that such incomprehensible monsters existed was the way to dodge madness!
But this solution is as simple as it is exceedingly difficult to execute.
Monsters aren’t exactly transparent, so the moment you see one, you realize it exists.
Thus, you have to shield your gaze, but the moment you do that, anyone with a normal intelligence would feel a palpable sense of unease.
‘There’s something dangerous here that shouldn’t be seen.’
Even that level of awareness couldn’t prevent the contagion of madness.
In reality, without Ari’s ancient blood hypnosis or some similar special method, there’d be no way to counter it.
Yet we managed to execute this challenging countermeasure flawlessly as we entered.
Naturally, the people from the ‘Headquarters’ couldn’t help but wonder how we knew such things!
Earlier, the high-ranking official from the Headquarters, ‘Patrick,’ showed up.
“I’ve verified your identity. You’re Lee Eunsol, right?”
“I never said my name.”
“I received the names of you all beforehand.”
“Now you’re not even hiding it. Did you plant a spy within the Administration Bureau or something?”
“Haha! Your gaze is alive, huh? That eye, isn’t it a relic of ‘Dananggeojo Eevlax’?”
I’d heard the term Dananggeojo before, but Eevlax was a first for me.
“How on earth did you implant that eye into a person? No matter how advanced the Administration Bureau’s technology, that shouldn’t be possible.”
“…”
“Well, well. Seems like you’re quite tight-lipped. Don’t worry; I’ve brought Arthanin with me.”
The word I’d heard repeatedly—‘Arthanin.’ What on earth could it be?
Patrick interpreted the confusion on my face differently.
“Ho ho. You don’t need to be scared. I know how harmful Arthanin can be to people. I’m not thinking of administering it to you, so relax. It’s best for the old man to go through the rough stuff, right?”
“Stick it in your own arm, you bastard!”
Lee Eunsol: What’s Arthanin?
Kim Mooksung: A powerful truth serum.
Lee Eunsol: Aah…
Kim Mooksung: No worries. I know how it works. We can deal with it.
A countermeasure. Looking at it, it seemed the folks from the Headquarters were quite confident about the effect of ‘Arthanin.’
But my grandpa was an agent of the Administration Bureau, so he should be reliable. I had nothing to say.
Lee Eunsol: Strange, they’re being kind to me.
Kim Mooksung: Your eyes are a valuable treasure according to the Bureau.
Lee Eunsol: Are they planning to pluck my eyes out?
Kim Mooksung: They can’t implant it even with their technology. Of course, these idiots can’t do it either.
This was getting absurd. I had suspected it, but their faking kindness was all due to my eyes.
It’d be dumb to waste such a treasure, but they lacked the technology to implant it into someone else.
If they wanted to use my eyes, I would have to be alive, not dead.
Naturally, they wouldn’t be using something like that extremely harmful truth serum.
Beatrix seemed to have mind-control powers; it looked like they intended to use such skills on me.
A moment later, a soldier-looking man brought a syringe filled with an opaque green liquid and injected it into my grandpa’s arm.
Kim Mooksung: I die in three hours. Hang in there.
Lee Eunsol: Let me out to take a look.
The enemy’s interrogation began.
The veteran truth serum countermeasure expert with decades of agent experience was absurd yet creative.
*
Patrick’s voice rang out.
“Kim Mooksung. Are you ready to answer now?”
“Yeah.”
“First of all, let’s clarify what happened a little while ago. Bring in the brat!”
The brat?
Shortly after, Seungyub was wheeled in! Well, to be exact, his protective suit was brought in.
From inside, it seemed like Seungyub had already lost consciousness or may even be dead.
“Is he part of your party? Seems like he’s already dead. He fell into a ‘trash bin’ a while ago. Looks like he’s wearing some very special suit, but I couldn’t take it off. How do you remove it?”
Kim Mooksung: Just put your hand on the helmet, and the sensors will react. I doubt you can take it off since you’re not hotel participants.
“I’ll open it manually from the inside. If I force it open, there’ll be a massive explosion.”
What is this now? Suddenly explosions? Does that suit have such a feature?
Moreover, what’s with that previous conversation I overheard?
… No way?
“First, let’s ask the most curious question. How on earth did you know how to enter the Headquarters?”
Kim Mooksung: I gathered information from the first attempt at Room 201 and figured it out with advice from Kain.
“Wait, you had intel from the inside?”
“Intel from the inside? Don’t tell me! Did we have a mole?”
Kim Mooksung: I don’t know, you idiot.
“Regular reports were received.”
Could it be about countermeasures for the truth serum…?
“Can we trust this guy’s words?”
“Look at his eye color. Arthanin is functioning normally. Also, we have Elizaveta planted in the Bureau, so it’s not like they can’t contact us. We could have someone plugged in as well.”
“I don’t know. I just know the content of the intel.”
Hearing the exchange from the other side made me gasp!
In that brief moment, my grandpa realized the countermeasure against the truth serum.
The simple plan was to provide honest answers through the conversation tab to me alone, then lie verbally after that!
How fascinating! What on earth is the principle of this truth serum for this kind of counter to work?
For the first time, I began to feel that my grandpa was acting like a ‘veteran agent.’
Meanwhile, Patrick and those around him began to speak urgently among themselves.
“This guy seems to have no idea about the identity of the spy.”
“We should ask him about the intel he received regularly.”
“Sure. Mooksung, what intel have you received recently?”
Kim Mooksung: Nothing that matters, you idiot!
“…”
“Why have your answers slowed down? George, check his eye color again!”
“Arthanin’s effect is still active. Just a moment.”
Kim Mooksung: Damn it! I can’t think of an answer. Eunsol, quickly conjure something plausible!
Uuugh! Grandpa! You seemed so much like a veteran until just now! Why are you turning on me?
Lee Eunsol: Pero! Pero! We’ve probably been caught somewhere around here!
“Recently, I heard they captured a peculiar parrot with the power to transform into a monster.”
“What? That was just yesterday! Did the report already come in?”
“How is the Headquarters’ security system so compromised? Where’s the information leaking from?”
“Isn’t it from the Research Building? The parrot should have been kept in Research Building 2–9?”
The mention of Pero, which I had come up with on the fly, seemed to have caused quite a shock to them.
The place where Pero is located—Research Building 2-9. I’ll remember that.
*
A moment later, most of the people around had disappeared.
It seemed Patrick had deemed everyone else untrustworthy except for his most trusted few.
“Mooksung, what was the purpose of your visit here? How much does the Administration Bureau know about us?”
Kim Mooksung: We came here because this is the cursed room, Room 201, you idiot! What’s with the Bureau?
“There was a report about ‘corruption.’ I heard it was related to the missing persons at the Arizona branch. We’re the vanguard reporting on the corruption of the survivors from the Arizona branch after searching the Hesbot Mansion.”
“What…! How did you find that out! Arizona, how do you even know about that information!”
“Something’s strange! There was no report about Elizaveta recognizing the Bureau!”
“Elizaveta might have already been a person of suspicion to them.”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense. They didn’t hesitate to kill Elizaveta shortly after entering Hesbot Mansion, did they? They must have known Elizaveta’s identity by then!”
As Patrick and the secretary, astonished by the leak of classified information to the Bureau, became unable to contain their excitement, someone picked up on the alarming words from my grandpa’s reply.
“A report, you say? How was the reporting done?”
“Regular reporting is required every six hours.”
That had me in awe. I began to grasp the picture my grandpa was painting!
“Patrick, this is a big deal! While these guys are caught, they wouldn’t be able to submit periodic reports!”
It was slowly reaching the time for me to join in the conversation.
“Realizing the situation, are we? An assault team is about to arrive. At that time, I doubt you’ll breathe a single breath before dying…”
“Are you somehow gaining confidence now that the Bureau has been mentioned? Don’t forget that we’re standing right in front of you. You have no idea of our strength.”
“If we’re talking about strength here, is it Beatrix you mean? Our group should currently be fighting against Beatrix.”
“… Soon, Lady Beatrix will suppress them and return.”
“Your faith is admirable. Beatrix is indeed a monstrous force, and with the Bureau’s army barging in, she might find a way to escape still. But do you think you’ll survive in that fight?”
The atmosphere grew silent.
Fear that the Bureau’s army might soon swoop in paralyzed their reason.
Surprisingly, although the Bureau had always felt like an abstract and nebulous organization in reality…
They are quite something else.
In retrospect, I was nothing more than an utterly powerless human.
Yet, by relying on the Bureau, I was able to bamboozle them into being at a loss.
Patrick’s calm voice cut through.
“You’re not trying to act smart all of a sudden; you have something to say, don’t you? Let’s cut the wordplay.”
“If you’ve even planted a spy in the Bureau, you must have a means of communication, right?”
Lee Eunsol: How do you generally communicate? Make it snappy!
Kim Mooksung: Secure smartphones.
Just like any regular company.
“Secure smartphones, you definitely have those, right?”
“…”
“Hand it over. I’ll submit a regular report saying everything is fine.”
“I can’t trust you to give a false regular report to let you go safely? I’d like to try giving you Arthanin at this rate too.”
Now it was time for me to bend a little.
“When you’re next to me while I report, isn’t that enough? If anything sounds off, you can cut it immediately. I’m just doing what I have to do. Dying by your hand is a problem, but dying at the hands of the Bureau is another issue.”
“Dying at the hands of the Bureau? What on earth – Oh. I see. They are indeed idiots. They’re worried about blowing up the facility entirely.”
“…”
“Hahaha! Well, well, you seem surprisingly scared! As I see it, you don’t exactly understand what ‘Arizona branch’ really is. Don’t worry about that. I assure you they could never destroy this facility!”
Patrick replied confidently.
He was entirely convinced that the Bureau would never obliterate their facility through bombardment or anything similar.
What’s the basis for that? That the Bureau doesn’t know the location of this facility?
They think their information has leaked to the Bureau, but it seems they wouldn’t be naive enough to think they were safe just because they didn’t know the facility’s position.
There’s got to be some other reason. There’s a definite reason the Bureau cannot destroy this facility.
Yet Patrick complied with negotiations.
“Well, that works. We have to put out the fire quickly. But…. I’d recommend against any funny business. I’ll be watching closely.”
We’re almost there.
Now I had to keep the premise of requesting ‘assistance’ from the Bureau under the watchful eyes of the enemies, and I needed to survive to the end.
… By the way, where on earth is Kain?
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