### Chapter 257 – Party Time – Sanctum of Blessings, Exploration (3)
—
– Park Seungyub
The patron paused for a moment, as if giving me time to understand, and gently stroked the correction.
“Got it? This talk about inevitability?”
“Yes.”
“Then let me throw that original question back at you. What is the essence of luck? Forget about quantum mechanics or the uncertainty principle for a moment and just focus on what I’ve told you.”
I reflected on the words of the patron. From the perspective of an exalted being, there might not be any real randomness in the world.
The guy who won the lottery yesterday would think he was lucky when he bought the ticket. But from an omniscient perspective, isn’t it possible that his fate of winning that lottery was decided at the moment the world was created?
If that’s the case, the essence of what we call ‘luck’ boils down to ‘not knowing.’ In a world where everything is predetermined, the word ‘luck’ is what those who know nothing conjure up to describe their ignorance of what has been decided.
“Not knowing? Ignorance?”
“Exactly! In a deterministic world, luck is ignorance. We call the gaps in knowledge about beginnings and ends, causes and effects, ‘luck.’ If an unforeseen outcome from this ignorance favors you, it’s good luck; if it doesn’t, it’s misfortune.”
My head began to throb a bit.
— Snap!
The boy snapped his fingers, and the surroundings instantly transformed into a primordial Earth.
“There was darkness in the world once. In the ancient lands, where primates first ignited the flame of intelligence, everything was a mystery. Because they knew nothing, anything could happen.”
I looked around at the world filled with darkness. This darkness arose not from the absence of sunlight, but from the lack of knowledge.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I don’t understand why the sun rises and sets. Why does the moon appear at night? Why is that giant creature so strong? Why do I die from eating this plant? Why does this stone sparkle, and why is the water salty?
Nothing. I know nothing. I could only wish for good luck.
I hoped tomorrow would bring a new sun. I wished for the weather to not be too hot or too cold. I hoped the plant I was about to eat wasn’t poisonous. I prayed that there was something shiny in that stone fallen to the ground.
“This is the essence of the blessing you’ve received, ‘Luck.’ Just believe. Simply believe. Beneath the veil of ignorance, pray that the unpredictable future you’ll experience will be in your favor. Don’t seek to know, for the essence of luck is simply ignorance.”
In a single breath, a hundred or a thousand years pass. As I close my eyes and open them again, there are now believable buildings, and people dressed in soft clothes are walking around.
“There was a leap. A great sage was born. In 1643, perhaps the greatest human ever in all of history was born in England, and all called him Isaac Newton.”
A man walked in front of a giant brick building.
“Light spread. A light filled with ‘knowledge’ extended toward the entire world. The shadows of the incomprehensible that once filled the world began to vanish. This was indeed a great blessing for humanity, but the power born from ignorance ultimately lost its purity.”
There was a boy. Or could it be that he was a boy?
I saw countless shadows in front of me.
Some shadows resembled sorcerers roaming the ancient lands. Some looked like priests advising on flood control in the Yellow River during heavy rains. Others resembled alchemists wandering the streets of the medieval ages, avoiding the cross.
“Now do you understand what power you’re wielding? If the cave of the world and the light of knowledge accumulated by humans over thousands of years illuminate that cave… then luck is the absence of that light. It is the power that guides the ‘unknown events’ arising from the cave’s depths to favor you.”
“I… I don’t understand. I’ve been seeing too many chaotic visions since earlier.”
“Return to the moment of creation. If you accept the power I bestow upon you, you will lose all light and return to darkness. Walk the world beneath the veil of ignorance. Of course, if you simply ‘return,’ no one can predict what you would do then. So before returning, give yourself a command. A command you can’t refuse, even if the sky collapses and the earth splits!”
The space began to shake. Realizing it was time to part ways with the patron, I desperately shouted.
“So what exactly is this power? I really don’t know -”
“I’ve explained everything. Once you use it, you’ll know immediately. By the way, use it when your friends aren’t around, if possible. Make sure your ‘command’ is as clear as possible.”
“Yeah?”
“I said the strong enhancement would increase your ‘predictability,’ right? The key is the ‘command,’ so pay attention to that!”
“What?”
“See you next time~! It will take quite a long while!”
“Hey! Hey! Give me more of an explanation!”
My mind descended. Just before losing consciousness, I thought.
My patron certainly seems to be a divine being, but they clearly have a screw loose!
*
[Park Seungyub (Luck) -> “The First Human” has been obtained.]
*
– Kim Ari
“Look who’s trying to act all grand and important.”
“Huh?”
“Just a kid acting all high and mighty in front of another kid.”
“Huh?”
“Nevermind. That wasn’t meant for you, so continue with what you were saying.”
The patron of the long-awaited blessing, ‘Secret,’ was dressed in a smart office outfit. I wondered if the ticking gears and clocks around were his thing.
“I’m glad things went well.”
“Are you referring to Room 202?”
“It was okay there, but the part I’m talking about is from even earlier. I was worried you’d end up in a troublesome situation when the owner of Wisdom caught onto the facts you were hiding.”
“…”
“Had you added more lies back there, it would’ve become tedious for both of us, so it was good that you addressed what needed to be said directly. Anyway, your biggest crisis seems to have passed.”
“Thank you.”
“By the way, I honestly thought you would drop out soon.”
“…”
“While you’re quite capable, the chances of the party splitting seemed high. Also, because of your wishes, my blessing got a bit distorted.”
“The blessing got distorted?”
“Didn’t you notice? Reflect on the power of ‘Secret’ that you received. In the room of curses, it’s practically useless and only optimized for exploring the secrets of the hotel. The fact that it also has a restraining feature for allies is just a bonus now.”
“Sometimes I did feel like its performance was a bit questionable….”
“Since you wanted to resurrect your mother, it became the power to uncover hidden elements. And because you worried about conflicts with your comrades, you gained a restraining power. Well, there’s a benefit to that, I suppose.”
A benefit, huh?
“I’ll give you an interesting power. It fits your tendencies quite well, and it’ll be quite useful inside the room of curses.”
“Thank you. But….”
“But what?”
“Next time, I’ll probably enter Room 203, right?”
“…”
“But think about it. The order of entering rooms in the hotel doesn’t actually matter, except for the last room, which is the Gate Room. It doesn’t matter if we go to Room 204, 205, or 206; there are still three more rooms—”
“Only Floor 1.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s talk about Floor 1.”
“…”
“How was the structure of Floor 1? Room 105 was for resting. Room 106 was the room for missions, right?”
“Right.”
“None of them were rooms of curses, huh?”
“That’s right.”
“Room 104 was the last of the cursed rooms, right?”
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t it a bit challenging? Compared to the other rooms?”
“It was challenging. The prisoner was quite cunning. That’s why we gave up on just Room 104 on the first floor.”
“Right. Since it was the final problem, it seemed a bit tough. That should wrap things up for what I had to say. You may go now.”
The patron slammed a cup on the table. As I started to feel my eyes grow heavy, I thought.
I realized two things.
First, there’s a room left on the second floor that isn’t a cursed room.
Second, the last cursed room is particularly difficult.
*
[Kim Ari (Secret) -> “A Girl with No Presence” has been obtained.]
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 109
Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
– Han Kain
“I’m just glad hyung woke up right away.”
Jinchul hyung quickly awakened in the sanctum. He understood the situation right away since this had happened before. He must not have used contributions for a strong enhancement.
“I’m curious about what kind of ability they’re giving. Ugh, that confusing patron really doesn’t explain things clearly.”
“Geez! If you had woken up late, we’d have to carry those who fainted! Seungyub or Ari would be fine, but you….”
“This punk! I’ve carried you three times!”
With laughter and chatter, we moved the fainted Seungyub and Ari to Room 105, then gathered in the lobby. My sister chimed in, looking quite cheerful.
“Now you know what to do, right? Just mess around and eat while exploring here and there. It’s important to explore, but don’t forget to rest.”
Of course. There are always plenty of things to do in this hotel, but if we only do those things, when will we rest? Even humans need to take a break, even on the battlefield.
… And an hour passed.
When I was parting ways with my comrades this morning, I had planned to rest fully and then start exploring, but now that I was alone, I found there wasn’t much to do. I naturally found myself heading up to the second floor to rummage through the hotel.
In the corridor on the second floor, while shuffling through the pictures, I heard a voice calling me from behind.
“Do you think something’s hiding behind the painting?”
A rather polite tone of honorifics, but the owner of this voice, leaving aside the period when he was dead, was nearly twenty years older than me.
“Well, since it’s a hotel, I thought there might be something. By the way, Dr., you don’t need to speak so formally—”
“It’s more comfortable for me this way. Besides, aren’t you my lifesaver?”
Since he found it more comfortable, I had nothing more to say.
“Looking at the word ‘mirror,’ I suspect something might be hidden behind something transparent, right?”
“I’m thinking it might work similarly to how the Sanctum of Blessings was connected through the main entrance.”
“There’s a possibility. Let’s search the paintings together.”
Soon, I heard sounds of something rattling nearby.
“Ari would be best at finding these things, but she just has to be unconscious at the moment.”
“Is it because of the blessing ‘Secret’?”
“Yes. Ari was also the one who found the Sanctum of Blessings. Back then, I thought it was just luck, but thinking back now, it must have been due to the power of the blessing.”
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