### Chapter 165 – Room 201, The Cursed Room – ‘The Cube’ (14)
—
– Han Kain
I woke up feeling like I was being blamed for something.
At the same moment, an icy wind cut through me like a knife.
“Ugh! Seriously, Hotel?! This weather is just not right!”
As I brought up the weather, I took a sideways glance at the situation of my comrades.
What’s the atmosphere like this time?
…
Is it similar? Most of them seemed half out of it, sighing heavily.
Room 201, isn’t this a bit much?
At this rate, I’d just end up sleeping through everything! At least let me wake up!
“Alright, let’s go! I’ve got loads to say, so let’s get moving quickly!”
At least one person looked really upbeat.
Seeing Eunsol’s bright expression, it seemed to light a fire under everyone, and their faces brightened as we set off.
I’m excited!
As soon as my teammates entered the elevator to escape the cold, they began to chatter animatedly.
It seemed the ones who faced Beatrix had it rough.
I heard exhausting tales about how her main body is somewhere else and they can’t figure out how to kill her.
Finally, after we returned to the warm room 105, Eunsol’s full explanation began.
*
Eunsol launched into a story about how she and Grandpa had been active in the Bureau, recounting heroic tales that left us in awe.
In the short time, as she spoke of Grandpa’s countermeasures against that confession drug and her pulling in the Bureau’s forces, applause followed naturally from everyone.
At the end, when she recalled the memory of unlocking Pero’s seal and escaping because of his sacrifice, I felt just as tense, sweating bullets.
Eunsol, perhaps caught up in emotion, suddenly hugged Pero beside her and rubbed her cheek against his. She only let go after he bit her ear with his beak.
Once her adventure tales wrapped up, she started explaining the information she had collected.
“Where should I begin? Alright, I’ll go in chronological order. In the 1980s, a being known as the ‘Eye of the Zero Dimension’ suddenly appeared. No one knows where it came from or what its intentions are. The moment it showed up, the entire world fell under its gaze, and people who saw the ‘eye’ fell into madness in an instant. According to the charts, the world fell apart in less than half a year.”
I couldn’t help but interrupt at the ridiculous claim right from the start.
“The world fell apart?”
“According to the documents I saw, yes. Of course, inside Room 201, looking at the quality of the weapons we used and the army of the Bureau we saw at the last moment, it didn’t feel much like a collapse… But hey, it’s a grand organization; they must have done a decent job of mopping things up.”
Grandpa nodded along.
“‘Eye of the Zero Dimension.’ That must be what Elena and Kain saw with their weird eyes, right?”
“Sounds about right? I’ll continue. At that time, the Bureau somehow managed to seal the Eye of the Zero Dimension. And that’s where our esteemed Chief Researcher Han Kain comes into play!”
In an instant, all eyes turned to me. I had nothing to say, so I shut my mouth tight.
“Nobody really knows how the Chief Researcher did it. But the circumstances suggest that she used a tool known as the ‘Irregular Polyhedron.’ In fact… the depictions of the Chief Researcher across various records didn’t make her seem human.”
I grew more curious as I listened.
“What exactly was my role supposed to be?”
“You thought being called ‘Chief Researcher’ meant you were this neat, sophisticated intellectual, right? Not even close! According to Patrick’s journal, you were described as a charismatic monster.”
Ahri seemed to find that description funny.
“Kain~! No more devilish antics from now on.”
“…”
“Anyway, the Chief Researcher sealed the Eye of the Zero Dimension in a strange space that couldn’t normally be accessed with the Irregular Polyhedron, and for that, she got a pretty big promotion. A good long while passed. In the 1990s, the infamous Beatrix appeared in New York.”
And now we’re getting to the good stuff. Beatrix.
“Beatrix reportedly had the power to create monsters from the get-go. She lost both parents at a young age because of that power. The Bureau initially aimed to eliminate her, considering her ability useful, but since they couldn’t control the monsters, they chalked her up to just another natural disaster.”
Been there, done that.
“And there I was again, stepping up to help. I was the one who helped Beatrix gain control of her power, right?”
“Exactly! There’s even more detailed information. During the Chief Researcher’s experiments, Beatrix produced countless monsters, but most were failures. The sheer number of failures became a huge issue. When we say ‘failures,’ it means monsters that couldn’t be controlled.”
“So she couldn’t control these monsters either, even though they were super powerful.”
“Spot on! And our Chief Researcher Han Kain leaped into action again, recalling the seal of the Eye of the Zero Dimension she sealed in the past.”
Ahri seemed to realize something and opened her mouth in disbelief.
“Could it be… you built a lab inside the place where the evil god was sealed? And while Beatrix was there making monsters, she tosses the failed ones to the evil god?”
“Right on the mark! I see you really are from the Bureau.”
Grandpa looked utterly flabbergasted.
“Seriously, they’ve crossed a line—there’s no other way to say it…”
Jinchul couldn’t restrain himself and asked.
“Grandpa, did our world’s Bureau ever do anything like that?”
“Let’s just say occasionally, but not to that extent.”
Songee sighed.
“‘Occasionally’ means it’s not unheard of, huh?”
“…”
Ahri added defensively.
“Even if the Bureau has aspects that deviate from general common sense, that’s a whole other level. Thinking they could create and use monsters? That’s definitely not normal. It’s surely that Kain’s fault.”
It wasn’t my story, but I felt like it was, leaving me breathless.
Eunsol seemed to sense something.
“Remember the story I told you earlier? According to the records, due to the evil god, the world was on the brink of collapse. The one who stopped it was Chief Researcher Han Kain. If I stretch the truth a bit, what a savior-like accomplishment that would turn out to be! Imagine how high her standing would be! The Bureau is still, at its core, run by people. Who’s going to question someone who saved the Earth?”
After hearing all of that, I tried to piece together what we understood about Room 201.
First, in the 1980s, the overwhelming entity known as the ‘Eye of the Zero Dimension’ showed up, pushing the world toward destruction. The Chief Researcher sealed that evil god with the Irregular Polyhedron and saved the world.
Secondly, in the 1990s, a girl named Beatrix emerged, capable of creating monsters. Initially, she couldn’t control them, but the Chief Researcher initiated experiments to help her control her powers, leading to countless failures.
Thirdly, the Chief Researcher built a lab inside the location where the evil god was sealed. While experimenting with Beatrix inside the seal, the failed monsters were sent to die by the evil god.
Once I grasped the big picture, all the bits of information my friends had collected started making sense.
Ahri spoke up first.
“Right before I nearly died, I saw an absurd location. At first, I thought it was just a red wasteland, but when I got closer, it turned out to be an endless mass of monster corpses filling a giant lake. That place was basically a dumpster.”
Songee nodded along.
“The cube was like a monster breeding ground. They’d create monsters in dozens of boxes, keep the good ones, and if they didn’t seem right, they’d just flip the box to let the monsters fall out.”
“That’s why Patrick was so confident he couldn’t just wipe out the facility; it must have been the spot where the Eye of the Zero Dimension was sealed?”
Grandpa replied.
“Probably. In fact, according to Eunsol, they had helicopters and armored units prepared but just waited without physically destroying the facility. They were likely waiting for Beatrix to emerge.”
“So Patrick underestimated the Bureau. Thinking it was safe since they couldn’t demolish the place led to a surprise from biochemical weapons.”
“Yeah, it’s common for the little ones to think they’re now some big deal once they gain supernatural powers, only to learn the hard way not to underestimate the Bureau.”
Seungyub asked.
“If they tossed the failures into the dumpster below the cube, where did the successes end up?”
“Aren’t the ones left in the cube the successes? Beatrix was indeed able to control those monsters.”
“Is that so?”
I was now curious about something.
“There were mentioned to be hundreds of casualties in the mansion by the time you all entered, right? Why on earth would they draw in and kill ordinary people? Wouldn’t that just attract the Bureau’s notice?”
Ahri seemed to ponder before forming a hypothesis.
“Maybe the monsters created by Beatrix need to feed on humans.”
Hearing that, I absolutely couldn’t hold back a question.
“So the Bureau wanted to use a girl who creates human-eating monsters as a ‘useful weapon’?”
“… Why are you looking at me like that? I’m just a clueless 15-year-old girl here.”
Her absurd remark led to an awkward silence in the room.
Even so, many questions hung in the air.
For instance, how did the Chief Researcher end up trapped in the tank?
If they could confine her in such a place, surely they could’ve killed her too—so why didn’t they?
It seemed Eunsol hadn’t found any documents about that part, either.
It couldn’t be helped. We couldn’t uncover all the secrets tied to the cursed room, nor did we need to.
We just needed to learn enough to resolve the issue.
*
The next discussion topic turned to “How do we unlock Han Kain’s seal?”
Eunsol informed me of the location where I had been trapped and the conditions required to unseal it.
Truth is, it didn’t sound easy at all.
“Simply storming the Bureau and laying waste to it won’t cut it?”
“Nope. According to the information I found, only Patrick and Beatrix can unlock your seal.”
“That’s tough. I can’t just ask Beatrix to show me the way, so do we have to brainwash Patrick somehow?”
Curiously, I glanced over at Ahri, who responded vaguely.
“If it were a normal person, just making eye contact would be enough to manipulate them. For someone with a strong mind, if they were to drink my blood forcefully, they couldn’t resist. The problem is, Patrick is no ordinary person. He likely has means to resist, and actually capturing Patrick alive is already a challenge.”
Jinchul seemed to be in thought.
“If it comes to that, I think I could break through his barrier to get close?”
“Do I need to explain again why that’s dangerous?”
“I understand. But let’s consider it a sort of Plan D.”
Songee raised a different issue.
“It seems in the next round, we’ll all sneak into the Bureau together, but what do we do about Beatrix? If we start rampaging in the Bureau, she’s bound to come over too.”
Elena answered simply.
“I’ll save my justice for when Beatrix arrives. While I hold her off, you all unseal Kain.”
With that, the outline for our third attempt began to take shape.
We’d transition to the Bureau through the TV, wreak havoc there, and free myself from the seal.
Should Beatrix attack us mid-operation, Elena would buy us some time against her.
Afterwards, I’d rise again and together, we’d eliminate Beatrix!
Everyone was finally celebrating how close they were to resolving Room 201.
Amidst that joy, I…
Honestly, felt a wave of anxiety wash over me.
The plan my comrades had laid out missed one extremely important issue.
As good as it sounded, how are we supposed to kill that Beatrix?
Everyone seemed to think, “As long as we just unseal the Great Chief Researcher Han Kain, Beatrix will be taken care of somehow!”
Is this for real? Is this a trustworthy strategy?
I didn’t even know what Beatrix looked like, but my teammates seemed entirely convinced she’d just be snuffed out by the legendary Chief Researcher.
That left me pretty uneasy!
Unable to hold it in, I finally spoke up.
“Um… I feel like I’m ruining the vibe here, but is it really guaranteed that once I’m freed from the seal, I can just go and take down Beatrix? Wouldn’t it make more sense to call in the Bureau again?”
Eunsol appeared somewhat downcast all of a sudden.
“… There’s something I haven’t mentioned to you.”
I’ll repay you with sincere updates.
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