### Chapter 168 – Room 201, The Cursed Room – ‘The Cube’ (17)
—
– Kim Ahri
After securing Patrick, the way to the third floor was a breezy stroll.
Most of the military units in the headquarters had been smashed to bits, and the only barrier left, Beatrix, was taking her sweet time arriving.
I couldn’t help but wonder—was she using a different corridor than the TV passage we took? Who knows?
Patrick’s condition was getting weirder by the minute. It was more than just a foggy mind…
“Ah… Chief! Was this all part of your scheme? Just how far does your plan stretch?”
“…”
“I’ve always been curious. What are you really thinking? Do you truly care for humanity?”
“…”
Something was definitely off.
His rambling nonsense had nothing to do with my hypnosis.
My crew seemed to be getting anxious too.
“Ahri…”
Songee couldn’t hold back and asked.
“What’s up?”
“Why is this guy acting like this?”
I had no clue.
Finally, we made it to the third floor. Eunsol was trying to recall where we needed to go, but that wasn’t necessary.
Patrick started leading the way, guiding us himself!
I felt a sense of foreboding, but blocking him would be weird. He was doing what we told him to—why would we stop him?
About ten minutes passed, and a bewildering complex of machinery appeared before us.
It looked like a massive setup, probably used for condensing energy at a fusion power plant.
In the center of this setup, a bizarre, reddish polyhedron floated mysteriously in a glass tube.
And behind it—
There it was, the tank everyone was frantically searching for.
The moment they spotted it, their eyes widened in sheer amazement, and they darted toward it!
— Thud!
Cha Jinchul, who was bolting toward the tank, slammed into something.
“What the hell is this?”
Elena spoke with her hand reaching into thin air.
“It seems like there’s some wall or something in midair?”
A weary voice answered, “It’s a spatial partition made of an irregular polyhedron. It might look like that, but it’s actually different. Swinging a fist won’t help, so save your strength for the fight.”
…
All eyes shifted to Patrick, and unable to hold back, I finally asked, “So these machines are for handling the irregular polyhedrons, right?”
“Exactly. This is basically the reason for this headquarters’ existence.”
“Patrick, you seem surprisingly sane—”
— Rumble!
The floor trembled like a trampoline, and a sharp form sprang up!
“Aah! Ahhh!”
“What’s going on—”
At last, the being we feared the most appeared!
As if on cue, Beatrix arrived just in time, with the remaining military troops and researchers popping up to surround us.
The air filled with electric tension.
Bizarrely, the girl emerging from the floor like jelly didn’t even glance our way.
Her frenzied gaze was fixed solely on Patrick.
“Patrick! What is the meaning of this? Don’t give me that pathetic excuse of being brainwashed!”
“Beatrix…”
“What the hell is this?!”
“I just had a thought. They entered our headquarters as if they knew every detail about the facilities. It’s already clear our info has leaked to the Administration Bureau.”
“…”
“How long do you think you can hold out? If you kill them all, what’s going to change? Next time, five times more troops will come.”
“Hmph! Let them send five times the troops! -”
“If you kill them all, next time it’ll be twenty-five times!”
“…”
“You’ve hit your limit. The moment you were discovered, the game was over.”
“Hah! So you’re going to wake the Chief again and beg for mercy? You think the Administration will accept you back? Like that’s going to happen.”
“…You still have no idea.”
“What?”
“Don’t you know how long it’s been since you escaped the lab? It’s been over ten years, right? In all that time, you should’ve figured out who the Chief really is and why he’s both humanity’s savior and the utmost evil.”
“Why… what are you saying?”
“Do you even understand why the Chief raised you? Are you seriously still clinging to the ridiculous idea that he created you as a weapon to wield the monsters you produce?”
Was it all just an excuse? Did he raise Beatrix to use those monsters as weapons?
The sudden revelation stunned both us and Beatrix, her eyes widening in shock!
Seeing that, Patrick wore a different kind of exhausted expression.
“What kind of lunatic organization thinks it can use a monster with a 95% uncontrollable failure rate as a weapon? With all the money and resources, they could defend the nation three times over with tanks, helicopters, and drones instead!”
He then turned and approached the apparatus controlling the floating polyhedron.
In the next moment, chaos ensued.
Beatrix zoomed in on Patrick like a blur, reaching out to do… something.
A wave of golden energy erupted from Elena, repelling Beatrix, and they flew off, crashing through the lab.
From Patrick’s throat, a tongue shot out, and hands emerged from his back.
In horror, Eunsol and I dashed toward Patrick.
The military aimed their rifles at us, and Cha Jinchul prepared to summon stars in defense.
Meanwhile, researchers next to the military shrieked in terror.
“Please! Everyone, calm down! For the sake of the world, please!”
…
Whoa! We totally looked like villains right now!
But no matter what, the vibrations in the floor were getting louder. At this rate, we’d all be toast.
Cha Jinchul chuckled in a resigned way. He had made up his mind.
“Well, where the heck is this place? Room 201. It’s basically a dimension harder than the first floor. We have no choice but to take risks. After all, this is a being that was once sealed by the chief researcher. It must have some tricks up its sleeve.”
Sensing the tension, one researcher wailed, “What are you saying?!”
“Beloved hotel companions, prepare yourselves and take all possible measures. Especially Songee?”
If things went sideways, she was the only one who could withstand any outcome.
Songee nodded, her expression tense, clutching the escape button she somehow had.
A dark wave erupted from Cha Jinchul, filling the entire institute.
And then, the world ended.
*
It’s crumbling.
The laboratory is collapsing.
The city is falling apart.
The nation is disintegrating.
At last, I could hear the sound of the world shattering.
A great eye, looming over everything, filled the universe.
“In a single breath, I bore the stars; in two breaths, the cosmos.”
Ah—
A vision, so blasphemous that even my humble eyes dared not meet it, looked down on me.
“Did you come back to die after I let you off once?”
Then what else should I do? If I keep quiet, I’ll be devoured by the monsters rising from below!
Under the overwhelming gaze, my body, mind, and soul scattered like a sandcastle against the waves.
Old blood dried up in an instant as I accepted that inevitable death—
In that moment, I saw ‘it’ behind my eyes.
Now I understood. The essence of the eye that dwells in all things, the true nature of the Zero-Dimensional Eye.
Sadness, joy, fear, delight, ecstasy, despair, anger—every single sensation surged through me like a tidal wave.
In my fading consciousness, one vivid truth emerged.
I wouldn’t be able to hold onto this knowledge.
It was too far beyond my limits.
In the haze of my consciousness, I thought—
If I’m going to go, I’ll at least say my piece!
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