### Chapter 172 – A Happy Dinner Time: What on Earth Was Room 201? (1)
—
– Han Kain
Elena’s newly-acquired superpower, Ominous Imagination, was turning out to be one exhausting ability!
I had to cover Elena’s mouth to keep her from saying anything more strange.
Is it fortunate? The howling of wolves was unsettling enough that those ahead of us turned back, sensing something was off about us trailing behind.
“Hey Kain! What kind of situation is this? There weren’t any wolf monsters before!”
“It looks like Elena made one!”
“What?”
“I’ll explain once we get down! Let’s move!”
And just like that, roles were assigned.
Eunsol, decked out in her protective suit, scooped up Elena in one hand and dashed off first, while Jinchul took a position at the back to guard against any wolf attacks.
…
Turns out, the wolf attack never happened. Instead, something even more outrageous occurred.
— Ding! Dong!
“Everyone, get inside! To the elevator – wait, Songee? What’s that?”
“Big Sister, isn’t it cute? I named it Snow!”
“No, Songee! That’s a crazy, monster wolf!”
“Guys, let’s just get inside, alright?”
Fortunately, the hotel elevator managed to fit all of us, including the monster wolf, without any issues.
Ignoring the creator, Elena, the giant wolf was eagerly licking Songee’s hand with what seemed to be affection.
The wolf’s body wasn’t made of meat or muscle; it was purely made of snow.
As soon as we reached the first floor, a scream pierced the air.
…
“Eh? EEEEH? Snow? What’s going on?”
“…I wouldn’t say what’s going on, but it’s just melting since it’s made of snow.”
“Elena? Can’t you do something about this?”
Elena awkwardly looked away.
Soon, the wolf vanished, leaving Songee feeling a sudden wave of sadness.
Pera tried scratching at the spot where Snow used to be, but nothing could replace the absence of the melted wolf.
I realized again just how peculiar Songee really was.
In the meantime, Ahri asked Elena.
“Can you create other monsters? Like Snow 2 or something!”
“Don’t just try to replace Snow!”
“But you made it with snow, didn’t you? You can totally make Snow 3 or Snow 4!”
“Ugh!”
“Hey! Don’t kick me~!”
After remaining quiet, Elena sighed.
“I’m starting to understand Ominous Imagination in real-time, and it’s quite different from the powers Beatrix used in the cube. For instance, while Beatrix’s monsters just existed endlessly, the creatures I create disappear over time.”
“That sounds like more of a benefit than a drawback, right?”
“Really?”
Elena’s expression brightened a bit as she gazed at the corridor’s decorative frames.
“Ugh!”
“Eh? Kain?”
I grabbed a blanket I used to create a makeshift winter suit and covered Elena’s eyes with it.
Seeing that, Eunsol cleverly took Elena’s hand and started pulling her along.
“Good job! Elena should stop having those strange thoughts and just go take a nap in Room 105.”
The thing that was about to “pop out” from the frames quickly retreated.
Ahri and I opened our mouths simultaneously.
“This is going to be really tiring for a while…”
“This is going to be really fun for a while!”
Ahri’s expression was incredibly bright. I suddenly wanted to give her a kick, too.
—
As always, when we saw the dining table filled with amazing dishes, everyone’s mood lifted instantly.
“Big sister? What about Elena?”
“She said she’s too tired to continue and just wants to sleep.”
During our delightful meal, the hot topic of conversation was undoubtedly Room 201.
As Eunsol took a bite of garlic bread, she was the first to ask, “Kain, can you start explaining? What on earth happened? I heard bits and pieces, but it was all so confusing!”
“Hmm… Let’s briefly go over the facts, and we can discuss whatever parts are difficult to understand,” I said.
“Sounds good.”
“In the 1980s, the Zero-Dimensional Eye appeared in the world and began causing significant damage. The Administration Bureau believed this entity couldn’t be defeated by force. At that time, the lead researcher came up with an idea. Since the Zero-Dimensional Eye enjoys witnessing humans suffer, they decided to create a small hell of endless cruel suffering as a gift. There was much opposition, but it was executed, and surprisingly, it worked.”
“It worked?”
“If I remember correctly, it got trapped inside the small hell, aka the cube.”
Ahri chimed in, “Keep going! Next!”
“However, the management of that hell gradually reached its limits. Internally, there were people questioning, ‘Isn’t this crossing the line?’ The representative of that was Patrick. Externally, the Zero-Dimensional Eye started showing signs of wanting to escape. The researcher judged this as the Zero-Dimensional Eye getting bored.”
Jinchul, who looked confused, asked, “And that’s when Beatrix came into play?”
“Exactly. Beatrix seemed to be an entity separate from the Zero-Dimensional Eye or the cube, but the lead researcher viewed her as someone who could help resolve the issue with the cube. What was the cube’s problem again?”
Ahri replied, “There were two main issues. First, there was internal skepticism from those who experienced the situation and thought it was crossing a line. Second, external spectators were reacting with boredom, as this was no longer engaging.”
“The lead researcher saw Beatrix as the answer to both problems. For one, the monsters she created could replace the deadly facilities inside the cube, significantly reducing the number of people needed to operate it. Secondly, since her methods of killing were incredibly creative, it would increase the Zero-Dimensional Eye’s satisfaction levels. That was the idea behind it.”
My friends were staring blankly, completely astonished. Unable to hold back, Jinchul exclaimed, “I’ve never heard such a crazy story in my life.”
“Me neither.”
“No way, Grandpa! Are you saying the Administration Bureau actually pulled this kind of stunt?”
Mooksung grandpa looked perplexed for quite a while before finally answering.
“I swear on my name, although it’s not very significant, I’ve never heard of anything quite so extreme.”
Ahri started to look somewhat confused.
Eunsol nudged me again. “Let’s say this was all true for a moment; that’s not something we need to be discussing right now. Kain, carry on.”
“The lead researcher’s grand plan had one major flaw. The lead’s peculiar tendency to view all humans as mere tools caused them to overlook the fact that Beatrix wasn’t just a monster-maker but a girl who yearned for freedom and happiness.”
“… I never thought of her as a normal girl at all.”
“That’s just one aspect of her. She’s definitely cruel, though. Anyway, Beatrix had no intention of remaining a mere slave, creating monsters for eternity. The researcher recognized this and decided to seal Beatrix while leaving only her brain in the prison zone.”
At this point, Songee spat out the meat she’d been chewing.
“Every time I hear these stories, I’m getting queasier! This isn’t something to talk about while eating!”
Eunsol, who had been listening intently, asked, “So, did the rebellion ultimately succeed?”
“Indeed. While Beatrix’s solo rebellion was impossible, things escalated when Patrick decided to lend a hand. The lead researcher anticipated Beatrix’s rebellion and was ready for it, but Patrick, having been a longtime loyal follower, was underestimated in the trouble he could cause. Ultimately, the Zero-Dimensional Eye and the sealed zone fell once again under Beatrix and Patrick’s control, which is how we ended up in Room 201 later on.”
“I get the progress made. Since we did it, we can summarize and say we broke into the cube, found the TV connected to the headquarters’ research lab, raided it to wake up the chief researcher. What happened next?”
“Oh, that was trivial. It was about suppressing the rebellion. We took down the bulk of the rebels, and most of the residual forces were dealt with when the Zero-Dimensional Eye descended. When the researcher awoke again, this time he sealed Beatrix away in a box which had no entrances—inside the cube.”
“In that box, Beatrix just keeps creating monsters? And the Administration Bureau keeps supplying people?”
“Essentially.”
After a lengthy silence, Ahri finally spoke up. “This might sound weird, but if you strip away the sensational parts, it’s a relatively straightforward story.”
This time, the group turned their attention to Ahri.
“What do you mean about murder traps, or feeding people to monsters? If you think logically, it seems like the sealing facility that trapped the evil god just fell into the rebels’ hands, but once it returned to the Administration Bureau, everything got resolved.”
It’s a bit of a rough summation, but it does provide a valid perspective.
Songee, who had stopped eating, tilted her head and asked, “What exactly was the curse of Room 201? At first, I thought it was the cube, but it turned out the cube was actually the sealing facility, and resolving it just meant remaking the cube perfectly?”
Ahri replied succinctly, “The origin of the curse is the Zero-Dimensional Eye, and with the cube sealed, it became an issue we had to resolve.”
Is that how it’s supposed to be interpreted? Looking at the revealed circumstances, it wasn’t necessarily wrong, but something felt off.
As everyone pondered, Eunsol finally broke the silence.
“I feel like we’ve been interpreting Room 201 too much from the perspective of the chief researcher. Since we’re on the topic, let’s consider a completely different point. The chief researcher recognized that his solution was fundamentally flawed by hotel standards, didn’t he?”
I added some context. “Yes. He thought it was only a score of 30 out of 100 when it came to the hotel’s criteria. It was something I considered, but since I was mixed with the former chief at that point, it’s fair to see it as his perspective.”
“Why such a low score, though?”
Jinchul replied incredulously, “Are you seriously asking that? Isn’t it odd for a solution that throws people away to become food for devils to get a high score? The fact that such a method was evaluated as ‘solving’ is even stranger to me.”
“No, if you think it through calmly, the one issuing the evaluation is the hotel. Do you think this hotel actually values human lives that much?”
…
I felt like I had been hit on the back of the head with a hammer, and silence swept over the group.
“I’ve never seen a place that takes human life less seriously than this hotel. So the idea that contributing a few hundred humans as devil food is a serious issue for the hotel seems questionable?”
…
“I also noticed something strange. According to the chief, the Zero-Dimensional Eye enjoys watching people suffer in their deaths, but if it truly is such a being, then why did it willingly get trapped inside the cube and find satisfaction there? I find it hard to comprehend the psychology of that psycho god, but wouldn’t it be more amusing for it to watch 8 billion humans suffering on Earth instead of just a few hundred dying in the confines of a cube?”
…
“That’s what I’ve struggled to understand. Perhaps I’m not familiar with the Administration Bureau’s ‘occult’ way of thinking and am stuck in my ‘business’ mindset…”
Ahri summarized, “So your points are twofold. First, there’s no place that treats human life flippantly like this hotel does. If the chief is out to save the planet, it’s understandable to sacrifice a few people; why is the score so low? Secondly, if the evil god enjoys human suffering, why is it satisfied with just that cube rather than tormenting the whole planet?”
“Exactly.”
Songee hung her head.
“I’m finding it hard to follow this conversation…”
On the other hand, Eunsol and Ahri seemed to get more engrossed in the dialogue as it progressed.
“I have a logical explanation for these questions,” Ahri said.
With a curious expression, Ahri asked, “What’s that? I’ve noticed that if you ever get out of this hotel, you should ditch the mundane stuff with the Daeyang Group and come to our side instead.”
“…We’ll think about that when we get there. I believe that if we understand the Zero-Dimensional Eye’s bizarre behavior from a ‘business’ viewpoint, it could be surprisingly easy to interpret. Rather, the overly ‘occult’ interpretations have trapped the chief researcher. That’s why the hotel gave it a low score.”
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