### Chapter 259 – Party Time – The Secret of the Mirror Room (5)
—
– Yu Songee
/Would you like to make a wish? Press ‘Yes’ to have your wish granted./
A surge of longing swirled around me. The phrase that could make it all happen sparkled before my eyes. My hand, as if entranced, reached out to hit ‘Yes’ on the notification.
Break free from the limits of sensation.
I felt someone pouring cold water over me.
Embrace your clarity of thought.
A jolt of lightning struck from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
I have bestowed upon you the bracelet.
Ever since I left Room 103, my inheritance had never left my wrist. A white flash erupted from ‘Diverse Perspectives.’
The mirrors in my view began to vanish. Countless reflections of alternate versions of myself faded slowly. I saw nothing. I heard no sounds. The cold glass underfoot disappeared from my awareness. I no longer felt the gentle breeze of air brushing my skin.
As the bracelet blocked all types of sensory information my brain absorbed, the very essence of ‘Yu Songee’ existed alone in a world of darkness.
Finally, in that moment, clarity arose. My rational mind warned me.
This place is dangerous. Even the skilled trapper couldn’t escape unscathed!
Incongruity.
Arriving in the Mirror Room, I felt a strange disquiet from everything I had experienced thus far. It was the absence of something that should definitely exist. So naturally absent that it felt downright weird.
The Mirror Room had never once asked me, “What do you wish for?” Despite reflecting countless strange mirrors that displayed various desires, it never inquired, “What is it that you wish to achieve?”
Suddenly, realization dawned!
Why hadn’t it asked me about my wish when it was supposed to grant one?
There was no need for the question. The Mirror Room was a place that acknowledged the ‘whole’ yearning nestled within the participant’s heart!
Even if those wishes harbored contradictions or were laden with profoundly dark content.
I must confirm this.
I had to discover whether the danger lurking in the Mirror Room, which my mind warned me about, was indeed true. Gradually, I began to restore the sensory perceptions that the bracelet had previously blocked.
First, I felt the cold, hard glass beneath my feet. Then I sensed the flow of air moving through my mouth and nose again. The gleaming mirrors surrounding me came into focus.
The mirrors began to reflect sights different from before.
In one mirror, there was a girl, utterly exhausted and resigned, just endlessly sleeping. In another, there was a girl overwhelmed by relationships, deep in thought in an empty space.
There were scenes too embarrassing to envision. The hidden beast within me projected unpleasant images that dazzled my eyes.
The reflections escaped me. The mirrors displayed deeply buried desires hidden deep within my heart. After passing through them repeatedly, I finally found one.
One mirror showed me ‘the human life.’
As a child, you typically attend school. In your early twenties, you often go to university and prepare for work. After completing that stage, it’s time to enter the workforce and embrace society.
If naturally meeting someone you love along the way, great happiness would fill your life. You’d likely get married and have children!
Maybe that child wouldn’t listen to you as well as you’d hoped. Yet, raising that child with your beloved will be joyful. Eventually, that child would grow independent, and you would enter the later stages of life.
This is the cycle of human existence. The reflection of me in the mirror was happily aging after enduring that journey.
I turned to the adjacent mirror.
In it, another version of me dismissed everything previously mentioned as ‘trivial.’ This other me didn’t seem eager to rush out of the hotel.
The potential to surpass humanity! The paths of immortality and transcendence lie within the hotel—so why hesitate to leave?
Work? Marriage? I saw another version of myself deeming all these human desires ‘worthless.’
The reflection next to it pursued something entirely different. A version of me reaching higher and higher, past the second floor, up to the third, going beyond the limits.
Things that can’t be valued, abilities beyond human imagination. I dreamt of ascending to greatness. What awaits after such ascension? It’s uncertain. A life incomprehensible from where I stand now would await.
Humans are inherently contradictory creatures.
We yearn for great success yet desire the lazy life spent lounging around all day. We want others to love us, yet we sometimes crave moments of solitude, wishing to be forgotten. We yearn for a simple life with loved ones while never shaking off our desire for transcendence.
Among the infinite possibilities reflected in the mirror, which one is the ‘real’ me?
It’s a meaningless question. All the reflections are merely shards that compose my identity.
Suddenly, I pondered.
The Mirror Room grants the diverse wishes harbored within the participants. Of course, there must be limits to its wish-granting power. But the real problem isn’t the extent of that power.
How on earth can contradictory wishes be fulfilled?
How can it satisfy both the girl yearning for universal love and the girl who is fatigued by relationships? How does it reconcile Songee wanting to return to a simple life with a different Songee seeking to become a deity in this hotel?!
… It started to make sense.
Behind all those mirrors, the flickering possibilities were gradually materializing.
“That’s enough. No need to fulfill my wish like this.”
As a voice, colder than I could believe emerged from my lips, the surrounding mirrors began to blur. The ‘something’ that was taking form faded back into darkness.
Determined to leave, the method came to me naturally.
— Crash!
I bunched the towel wrapped around my body in my hand and shattered the mirrors one after another. Shards flew in every direction, invading the spaces between my towel until my hands turned crimson. By that time, a notification naturally appeared.
/Would you like to exit?/
“Yeah. But what happens to my wish?”
/Unfortunately, if you choose to give up, the opportunity for your free wish will pass to the next person who enters the Mirror Room. So don’t rush to judgment—/
What a letdown. Hearing the warning that my ‘chance’ would vanish ignited a tempest of greed within me. But…I think I began to understand.
I now had insight into how the Mirror Room granted wishes. I also realized why the trapper had to meet his demise.
“It’s okay. Really, it’s fine. This place…isn’t somewhere I can gain anything. For the unfit, only horrific ruin awaits.”
Even as I repeatedly reassured myself, taking that first step felt harder than expected.
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 110
Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 2]
– Han Kain
In the early morning, Songee suddenly appeared naked, hands covered in blood, leaving everyone bewildered. Even stranger was that she didn’t offer any explanation.
She simply sat blankly in a lobby chair and mumbled,
“… If I enter again right this moment… I’d be the ‘first’ again, right?”
Flustered Eunsol brought something for her to wear, while others tried shaking Songee, but her departed spirit didn’t return. Seeing Songee in a clearly disturbed state, saying, ‘I’m fine. You all rest and go in,’ it wasn’t easy to motivate anyone to enter.
I couldn’t help but wonder why she was acting this way, anxious whether it would affect her contribution. The advice offered a curious reply.
[A problem you must overcome on your own. Just leave it be.]
So I simply went in and took a nap.
After Ari and Seungyub woke up the following morning, the situation changed slightly. Unlike us, who were flustered, Ari clung to Songee in sheer desperation, her problem entwined with that of her mother.
After some time focused on Songee’s explanation, Ari asked,
“So, this place called the Mirror Room grants human desires indiscriminately?”
“Something like that.”
“But many of those desires contain contradictions, so they have a high chance of manifesting in ‘distorted’ ways. For example, if one person has incompatible desires, the Room may split them apart to fulfill them?”
“That’s how I felt.”
“Your intuition holds merit. Without a doubt, you know the Mirror Room better than anyone I know. Even the trapper entered, lost their mind, and escaped, while you’re perfectly intact—”
“…”
“Is it correct that you came out intact?”
“Probably…Plus, it’s not just the contradictory wishes that are problematic.”
“Is there another issue?”
“A bit… like embarrassing wishes? Sinister desires? It has a tendency to read even those and fulfill them ambiguously.”
“Ambiguously?”
“Because the Mirror Room’s power has limits. It can’t perfectly fulfill all the infinite and diverse wishes people harbor. It feels more like it fulfills a variety of wishes ambiguously.”
Though there are no easy places to rest in the hotel, it seems even this so-called Mirror Room is bewilderingly uncanny. I explained what I felt.
“It feels like there are two main issues. First, it even tries to grant wishes that shouldn’t be fulfilled. Second, it even tries to grant contradictory wishes, leading to potentially splitting a person apart.”
“Sounds about right. That summary seems fitting.”
It’s a complex issue. Now I understand why Songee came out having given up on her wish.
How could just one thought reside in someone’s heart? Naturally, thousands upon thousands of wishes must exist. Among that myriad of desires, there will inevitably be darker wishes that shouldn’t be fulfilled, and contradictory ones are only to be expected.
The contradiction between her wish to leave immediately and her desire to stay in the hotel and obtain surreal treasures and power also rings true for me.
And the trapper must have felt similarly, right?
The result was the trapper losing his mind and Ari’s genesis. Of course, it’s hard to speculate what he truly wished to attain.
Ari muttered with a somewhat hollow expression.
“You are better off than the trapper. In the end, he couldn’t overcome his desires, while you came out intact.”
“Eh? I wouldn’t say so. Since the trapper was aware of what he went through, he could recognize that the Mirror Room harbored dangerous elements. That allowed him to regain his senses in the nick of time.”
“Thanks for saying that.”
Well, thankfully, it was all over without a major incident. As the others rejoiced and embraced Songee’s shoulders, I felt the urge to play a little prank.
“By the way, Songee.”
“What is it?”
“What was that embarrassing and dark wish of yours? Just how disgraceful was it that you found it hard to look in the mirror? Was it connected to how you showed up naked yesterday morning—”
“Wha—! I was originally wearing a towel, but it got thrown off when I broke the mirror!”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Songee dashed off in a whirlwind. Ari sighed in annoyance from the side.
“Ah! You idiot! How do you escape when I still have so many things I want to ask?!”
“Then just run after and ask her! What are you curious about?”
“The Mirror Room. It’s definitely not a place made to keep you out. A chance for a free wish, and you can even spend tickets for additional wishes—it’s hardly a simple trap, right?”
“Absolutely not.”
“There should be a way to make a wish. There might be a method for avoiding the risks Songee found out about. We need to figure that out.”
As far as I got into that thought, Ari kicked my leg and chased after Songee.
…
Lying on the ground alone, I pondered about the two dangers lurking within the Mirror Room.
Wishes that should never be granted and contradictory desires.
How do I overcome this? Isn’t it impossible for human hearts to hold such desires?
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