### Chapter 274 – Meeting (1)
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 131
Current Location: First Floor, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
— Han Kain
—
In the evening, the meeting began. Elena, who had been holed up in her room without dinner, seemed a bit recovered as she returned. Naturally, Songyi was still clinging tightly to Elena’s hand when my older sister, scribbling something in her notebook, finally spoke up.
“I’ve jotted down the points we need to check in today’s meeting, so everyone take a look at the whiteboard.”
On the whiteboard were the following notes:
1. Combine the information each of us has gathered.
2. Proceed to the next round.
3. Investigate the identity of that trashy hourglass.
… Everyone exchanged smirks at the only item that seemed to have some emotion attached: number 3. Seriously, what on earth was that hourglass? Let’s make sure to check it again before the day is over.
Dr. Jinchul, having scanned the whiteboard, grabbed a pen and added a number 4.
“Let’s talk about this too.”
4. How about checking out another room?
“Sounds great! Let’s discuss that. But I think we should follow the order starting from number 1. So in that spirit, number 1! Since everyone had different experiences in the rooms, let’s share the information. First, let’s hear from the ‘Mountain Party.’ I’ve heard you discovered some kind of ancient ruined civilization?”
Together, Jinchul, Grandpa, and I recounted our findings about the robots we encountered while crossing the mountains, the valley we found afterward, and remnants of a decaying civilization. We also talked about Ahri, who had attacked us under the influence of some indecipherable power.
With an intrigued expression, Ahri asked, “So, 203 is kind of a post-apocalyptic world? A long time ago, a human civilization flourished, but it got wiped out by some unknown force? And the primitive humans outside are descendants of that fallen civilization?”
That had been the first theory Jinchul put forward. But there were some rather disturbing terms we’d heard along the way.
“When I was possessed, I heard some strange words. That unknown entity inside you referred to us as ‘descendants of the traitor.’”
“Descendants of the traitor? So you’re saying the outside humans are traitors’ descendants? That means the humans who escaped—presumably for some reason—before the city was destroyed are now the primitives?”
“Let’s think a bit more deeply about this.”
I felt like we were missing something. There was something I heard before I got possessed…
“Non-human beings have no right to life, only the right to die. The traitor and their descendants are the same.”
“Hmm?”
“Doesn’t that sound like something you said?”
“That’s one seriously insane sentence right there.”
As silence enveloped the room, Eunsol tilted her head.
“Isn’t that kind of a strange sentence? It implies there was at least one being that wasn’t human in that place.”
“Non-human beings… Seungyub, don’t you have anything to say about this?”
Suddenly, Grandpa pointed at the doctor.
“You mentioned they seemed a bit strange when you first met me, right?”
Dr. Jinchul, deep in thought, finally replied.
“I can’t say for sure, but during the process of treating the tribespeople, I often felt something odd. Their anatomical structure was subtly different from that of humans. As you all know, my ‘treatment’ method is more akin to half-magic than real medicine. My hand would penetrate inside their bodies, and I could only gauge their internal state through my sense of touch.”
“So, you were feeling around and thought something felt odd, but since you didn’t see it directly, you can’t be sure?”
“Exactly. Why is this bone here? There are no blood vessels? How can the legs move without muscles? I’ve had experiences like these several times, but I’ve never actually dissected a human body myself.”
The discussion began to tilt toward the possibility that the ‘primitive people’ might not be human after all. Hearing this, Jinchul added his two cents.
“Kein and I have talked about something similar. Guys, there’s this peculiar group called the ‘New Humans’ that’s just as strange as the primitives, you know? New Humans don’t originate from the primitive people.”
“I’ve heard that too. Supposedly, a New Human suddenly appears among the tribes without warning after nobody knows from where… It’s not like a stork drops them off or something…”
I realized this might be the very reason the tribe wanted to kill Seungyub. Why would they want to kill someone of divine lineage who can perform miracles? Because if they did, another New Human would just drop down from the sky!
I jumped in, “It seems pretty clear that primitives are not actually humans. The term ‘New Humans’ also seems loaded with some hidden secrets. Based on context, could it be that the ‘descendants of the traitor’ that ‘Adversary Ahri’ referred to were actually about New Humans? Let’s dig deeper on this next time. Why not have the doctor dissect one if necessary to find out for sure?”
At the mention of “dissect,” everyone flinched slightly. But frankly, I thought it was a necessary procedure. The doctor nodded, looking resolved.
“I’ll look for the right opportunity to definitely make it happen.”
“Also, don’t forget something important, everyone. Initially, you all faced that bizarre monster, right? Seungyub seems like he didn’t encounter any since the whole tribe was out searching for food, but the rest of you must have had your share.”
Everyone nodded.
“Those monsters had strange tentacles. While possessed, I confirmed that the monster’s body and the tentacles are entirely separate beings. I suspect those tentacles were created by some demonic entity and spread throughout the world.”
“I felt they were separate entities too, but man, this world is overflowing with creepy stuff.”
As Jinchul nodded along, Ahri jumped in.
“Do you think that the civilization inside the mountains created those tentacles?”
“Hm… could an already fallen civilization really have the means to create those tentacles?”
“Perhaps they made them ages ago.”
The doctor shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s it. If those who observed the civilization in the mountains were present, they would understand that the tentacles are fundamentally different.”
I felt the same way.
“I agree. The ancient civilization left behind in the mountains felt… strangely familiar. Even those robots gave off a weird vibe. It seemed like the remnants of a civilization far more advanced than 21st-century Earth.”
“On the other hand, those tentacles are nothing like that. They are definitely products of some occult force.”
Eunsol chimed in.
“Then could those tentacles be traces left behind by whatever destroyed the civilization in the mountains?”
No one could answer that question. As the silence hung in the room, Eunsol held up her notebook.
“I’ve summarized the stories so far and written down a few ‘problems we need to solve’ moving forward. First, analyze the identities of the primitives and New Humans. Since primitives might not be human, dissection is necessary. Second, analyze the identity of the tentacles. They might be remnants of whatever annihilated the ancient civilization in the mountains.”
“With this, I think we’ve gathered a fair amount of info from the ‘Mountain Party.’”
“Wait!”
Seungyub hurriedly raised his hand.
“I saw something really strange right at the end!”
“Something strange?”
“You might remember when Adversary Ahri set that trap to chop off my leg—”
“Seungyub, can you not call her ‘Adversary Ahri’ when she’s right here? How about just ‘Ahri’? That would make things less awkward…”
“When Ahri tried to chop my leg, I fell, and Grandpa threw me aside. As I was rolling on the ground, I spotted a building with a huge hole in the floor. I think when Ahri shot the laser trying to incinerate Elena, that laser broke the building in the back—”
“Seriously, this is so awkward…”
“I think the laser blew up the building at the back! Inside that building, I saw something that looked like a ‘protective suit.’”
Protective suit! That word clicked, but who in the world had that protective suit this round, only to find it in an unexpected place like a valley city?
“But when I went in, it wasn’t a protective suit. It was something entirely different that just looked like one. It was white, attached to something complex with an oxygen tank, and there were hundreds or even thousands of them lining the walls. Looking at them curiously, I started poking around when suddenly, a bomb came flying in and killed me!”
Something that resembled a protective suit, complete with complex machinery and an oxygen tank. Just thinking about it brought several pieces of equipment to mind: diving suits, spacesuits, etc. Hundreds of such suits?
Eunsol scribbled on the whiteboard.
“Third, we should figure out the identity of all those suits that look like protective suits found in the ruins of the destroyed city.”
“Nuna, I think the information gathered by the Mountain Party is sufficient for now. But what about you guys? What did you find out?”
As they exchanged glances, both my sister and Songyi wore identical expressions of bewilderment.
“Well… Kain oppa, no offense to you and the others, but honestly, I have no idea.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah, I genuinely don’t. We just chased after some strange creature in the sky for like ten days and suddenly got a message saying ‘you have successfully escaped!’”
“I’m also pretty clueless… but if I had to mention one thing you didn’t notice, it would be the weather.”
“The weather?”
“It was getting abnormally cold. I thought maybe the curse was an Ice Age or something. I had no clue about the whole ancient civilization thing beyond the mountains.”
An Ice Age. That felt like another new keyword.
“But then, what about the being in the sky? Seeing it fill the entire world with vitality just by floating there, I suspected it was a ‘prisoner,’ but it didn’t say a word to us.”
“I don’t know. If it’s a prisoner, then the reason it didn’t speak to us could have been due to some ‘restrictions’ placed upon it.”
Before the fifth attempt, prisoners would be heavily restricted and couldn’t easily interfere. Until then, they acted almost like NPCs that followed a set script. Only the ‘Master’ of Room 104 seemed to break that rule.
At that moment, Elena, who had been silent during the meeting, suddenly murmured in a small voice.
“Purification.”
“Elena?”
“First, I apologize, everyone. I felt like I was on the brink of going mental there.”
“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t intentional, and besides, hasn’t everyone gone a bit insane since arriving at this hotel? Getting a little bonkers and attacking other people isn’t that big of a deal…”
Ahri giggled.
“True! I didn’t even apologize for roasting Elena with lasers! That kind of stuff doesn’t really require an apology.”
“Thanks! So I’ll share one realization I had. Everyone, didn’t you think that the power I used in Room 203 was preposterous?”
“Preposterous?”
“Not only did I create a powerful moth monster, but I could also turn hundreds or thousands of people into monsters in one go! Producing hundreds of monsters like it was breathing—do you really believe that’s purely the power of ‘ominous imagination’?”
I hadn’t thought about that angle before, so I was a bit taken aback. Elena responded firmly.
“That’s a power that far exceeds the limits of ominous imagination. Just think about it. Even Beatrix from Room 201, who had both skill and talent with her powers, couldn’t produce monsters as easily as that.”
I got what she meant. Recalling the cube that produced monsters in Room 201, Beatrix’s method was closer to a meticulous ‘hand-crafted’ approach. In contrast, Elena had unleashed a veritable factory of monsters filling the skies in just ten days!
“I can state categorically. The monsters I created are just the first one and myself, plus Seungyub’s… ‘modification.’ That makes a total of three.”
Grandpa, who had been absentmindedly listening, voiced what everyone was thinking with a look of disbelief.
“So what about the rest?”
Elena didn’t answer that question easily.
“That’s what I’m curious about too. At that time, I thought I wasn’t creating monsters but purifying the twisted world with the power of fairies. That’s kind of how I pictured it.”
By now, my head began to ache.
Many keywords had gathered: primitives and New Humans, tentacles, Seungyub’s discovered equipment, Ice Age, and the reason why Elena could mass-produce monsters.
The problem was, I felt like I couldn’t find a thread to connect these keywords together.
“Alright! Let’s wrap up the information gathering for now. We’ve pieced together a decent amount of what we’ve discovered. Now it’s time to move to number 2. We’ve mentioned a room change, but let’s save that for later… So let’s assume we’re heading back to Room 203 next. How would you like to proceed?”
Last night, I caught the live broadcast of the Soccer God finally ascending, and before I knew it, I found myself tearing up. As an author, it might sound silly to say this, but sometimes, reality shows us miracles in plots that no story could rival.
Lionel Messi felt like the completion of a masterpiece last night. It seems the Soccer God has now risen to the heavens. As a mere human, I’m deeply moved.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.