### Chapter 330 – Room 203, The Cursed Room – ‘A New Beginning’ (10)
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 683,623
Current Location: Floor 2, Room 203 – The Cursed Room ‘A New Beginning’
Sage’s Advice: 0]
– Han Kain
As evening descended, everyone gathered in what resembled a conference room inside the building. Eunsol picked up a pen, just like always, and began jotting something down on the whiteboard.
“Let’s organize this chronologically. Starting from the scenario of Room 203 to where we currently stand.”
Using all the information we found in the building alongside the advice from the Owl, the scenario of Room 203 unfolded as follows.
Precisely 1,872 years ago, the pride of humanity, The Star, arrived on this planet equipped with a hibernation pod for over 800 crew members and a cultivation kit capable of creating more than 100,000 enhanced humans.
According to records, a mere ten years later, the first civilization in the planet’s mountain range reportedly emerged. Those remnants of a fallen civilization we saw in the mountains were exactly that.
Up until that point, there had been absolutely no conflicts.
Humanity was bursting with hope for a new beginning, and the AI actively cooperated, sowing the seeds of civilization, whilst Adravita bloomed with dreams of becoming the master of the newly unfurling myths.
After 14 or 15 years since they landed on the planet, the first conflict arose.
“At this time, Adravita broke away.”
The reason for Adravita’s departure was quite grand; it turned out that there were significant differences in opinion with the AI regarding the direction of civilization’s development.
“More precisely, it was a clash over the educational issues concerning the so-called second-generation enhanced humans created by the cultivation kit.”
I felt I could grasp the vague concept now.
“Adravita seemed to wish to mold the second-generation humans created by the cultivation kit into loyal servants. The AI, on the other hand, wanted them to be nurtured just like the first-generation humans who were born in a sci-fi civilization and raised to be ‘great beings’.”
Having left the mountains alone, Adravita, according to records, began to liberally spread ‘quasi-humans’ across the continent.
These quasi-humans had no proper civilization, thus becoming heavily reliant on Adravita to endure the planet’s harsh environment.
“Those quasi-humans are likely today’s primitive humans, right?”
“Probably…”
The moment I grasped the truth, Jinchul let out a chuckle.
“Just to be sure, the one who spread those monsters across the planet is Adravita, isn’t it?”
“… About 99.9% certain.”
“Oh, that kid without a mother!”
At this point, if you don’t get the situation, you might as well be a fool.
What was going through the mind of a god who separated from his followers because they didn’t worship him as they should, only to create new humans?
Of course, he’d think to make himself a being that they couldn’t help but worship!
Spreading monsters across the world was simply one of his means!
The future human forces residing in the mountains were vaguely aware of this awful deed happening outside but chose not to intervene, focusing instead on increasing their own numbers.
Jinchul displayed a somewhat uncomfortable reaction.
“Why were these guys holed up in the mountains? With humanity suffering so painfully outside, they could’ve at least helped a little, right? They had the capabilities to traverse the universe and conquer stars!”
Why didn’t the mountain forces help the primitives?
The answer to this question wasn’t explicitly stated, but the nuances of the text, particularly the term ‘quasi-humans,’ allowed for some speculation.
“Hyung, the space-faring humans didn’t consider the outside primitives to be fellow humans.”
“…”
“The term ‘quasi-humans’ was a courteous enough expression. Other records are filled with much more explicit phrases like ‘Adravita’s livestock’, ‘Gods who enjoy worship and beasts who can only worship’, and ‘vermin’.”
“It seems to them that the outside primitives were nothing but beings beneath beasts.”
Eunsol chimed in as well.
“Perhaps they thought that once they secretly grew in numbers, they could just wipe out the primitives like an ant hill when the time came for serious planet colonization.”
Jinchul sighed deeply.
“I’m not asking because I don’t understand what you all are saying…. I’m just feeling stifled. Just think about it. How do you think that ‘future humanity’ group views us who live in the 21st century?”
“…”
“Wouldn’t we appear just like primitives to them?”
“Not just due to the gap in civilization; it’s probably because we were born different from them. They’d likely see us as the toys created by Adravita.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a bit of good news.”
A fleeting peace didn’t last long.
This was something that could have been easily predicted, not by the AI of a spacecraft created by far-future science or a great god breathing life into a continent.
After all, the future human faction arrived at this planet with the original goal of colonizing it.
Naturally, they intended to increase their numbers sufficiently and then emerge from the mountains to colonize the entire star. During that process, the primitives Adravita unleashed were nothing more than a weak group that could be swept away with a mere huff.
“There were also these goal-oriented issues and the balance of power. The future human faction in the mountains grew rapidly stronger as time went on, right?”
“Adravita remains all alone. The primitives are barely worth mentioning in calculations.”
Everyone nodded at the dialogues shared between Eunsol and me.
In the end, as time progressed, the future human faction in the mountains would become the rulers of the star. The AI calculated it this way, and it seemed undeniably accurate.
If there hadn’t been any rebellions, that destiny would have surely unfolded.
How urgent the situation must have been, the records barely captured what happened on a certain day when a rebellion occurred.
“From this point onward, there’s downright unfathomable information. As a human, I can already imagine the kind of hatred that could develop…”
“According to the records, Adravita promised eternal glory to the descendants of the rebels.”
“Given the current state of this planet, what kind of contract do you think that was?”
A world filled with monsters.
To survive, the primitives worshipped the betraying humans, calling them ‘gods,’ kneeling before them, and living under the sway of Adravita, who descended as the harbinger of those gods.
In essence, Adravita made the traitors into kings and emperors.
“Did the traitors offer up the cultivation kits capable of creating enhanced humans to Adravita?”
“Seems like it.”
At that moment, Seungyub muttered incredulously.
“Isn’t that strange? So… the rebels chose to live as ‘kings of the primitive era’ over being ‘pioneers of SF civilization’?”
“Correct.”
“No matter how I think about it, isn’t the former a total loss? Sure, they brag about being kings, but we’ve experienced that job before, didn’t we? Was it fun?”
Seungyub’s words were easy to grasp.
Playing the role of a primitive chief? We’d already done that.
When it came down to it, the only thing served to you was larvae and half-rotten meat.
Honestly, it was an existence worse than being a jobless bum in the 21st century and utterly incomparable to the thrilling concept of being a pioneer of SF civilization.
However, Seungyub was overlooking one essential detail.
“That’s a problem stemming from the war ending in mutual destruction.”
“Huh?”
“When igniting a war, you’re always thinking of the glory after the victory. The rebels would have thought the same. They weren’t after the primitive chieftain’s life; they likely planned to steal the spaceship and revel in the comforts of future civilization.”
“While simultaneously bossing around the slaves who worship them as divine messengers, right?”
“Ugh…”
Destruction arrived in an instant.
The burgeoning future humans were instantly split into two and began a civil war. Not even the AI, tasked with assisting humanity, could mitigate the conflicts between human beings.
The later records were filled with misery.
Due to the civil strife, the spaceship split into pieces remaining in the mountains along with its power source. Once the spaceship lost its powers, the future humans too could not escape ruin.
Even more tragically, the traitors couldn’t evade destruction either.
The future humans couldn’t reclaim the spaceship’s power source, nor could the traitors breach the mountain’s security units to steal the spaceship’s main body.
In the end, everyone lost civilization. Those who dreamed of eternal glory were left with nothing but the destiny of primitive chieftains.
“Truly, this is everyone’s doom…”
With Seungyub’s hollow words, silence descended upon the room.
After some time passed, Elena cautiously opened her mouth.
“It’s not the ‘doom of everyone’.”
“Huh?”
“There are winners. While the people of the mountains and the traitors lost civilization and fell….”
“Adravita won.”
Indeed.
After splitting apart the forces of future humanity and watching them fall, Adravita, with the cultivation kits to create enhanced humans, became the true god of this despair-laden world.
In a world filled with monsters, the likelihood of primitive humans establishing a normal civilization approached zero, forcing them to rely on the divine beings descending from above.
The god who birthed those beings and spread them into the world was the immortal singularity of this hell.
At this point, I vaguely understood why Adravita was helping us.
“I think I get why Adravita is aiding us now.”
Eunsol displayed an exasperated response.
“She said she wanted to see not the clumsy endings crafted by the hotel, but the real conclusion….”
“From Adravita’s perspective, this world is already a well-crafted faith farm. However, there’s one crucial element that causes anxiety.”
“The very existence of the spaceship.”
Correct.
Since the faith farm was already complete, there was no need for the spaceship to remain on this planet. Should it be destroyed by force?
That sounds dangerous. Even for the malevolent god whose wickedness and calculations run deep, the immense power contained within the spaceship created by the far-future humans who traversed the galaxy wielded a certain discomfort.
Pride of humanity, albeit now powerless and decommissioned, still lurked in the mountains alongside the AI.
Thus, Adravita devised another scheme.
“She’s suggesting we leave. To return to the spaceship with the power source, fix the spaceship, and head back to space.”
Jinchul scowled.
“Can’t we just fight that thing with a fully operational spaceship? Surely the spaceship holds power that an evil god would fear—”
“What about us?”
He was momentarily at a loss for words after my retort.
Eunsol smiled wryly and interjected.
“Everything that’s happened so far has been horrific and heartbreaking, but for us, it’s merely an anecdote from a world that’s a step removed from our own. Do we have any reason to risk our lives battling the evil god for the vengeance of fallen humanity?”
“…”
“After all, we’ve read this far, so she’s helped us.”
“…”
“Let’s pack up the core tomorrow and set off for the mountains. If we claim we’re repairing the spaceship, the AI won’t obstruct us.”
“You mean we’re going to repair it and head back into space?”
“Doesn’t that seem like a resolution of this room? The AI is an evil entity aimed at killing us, the ‘new beings.’ That’s precisely why the escape assessment appeared the moment Ahri died. But if we repair the spaceship and go back into space….”
“The AI might let go of its past grudges for a greater cause. After all, it’s not human, so it’d likely approach this problem from a calculative standpoint. Now we’re effectively moving towards a ‘new beginning.’”
[Current Location: Floor 2, Room 203 – The Cursed Room ‘A New Beginning’]
I finally understood the meaning behind the title of Room 203.
We must lead the ‘new beginning’ for humanity defeated by the evil god.
*
Once the meeting concluded, everyone turned in early for the vigorous journey that would begin the next day.
At that moment, Lee Eunsol cautiously nudged Elena’s cheek while she slept.
“Huh….”
“Elena.”
“Is that you, Kain?”
“What’s that about suddenly?”
“Yikes!”
“Keep it down. You’ll wake everyone.”
“… Okay.”
“I have something to ask you while your memory is still fresh.”
“…”
“What exactly did Seungyub do yesterday? I saw a glimpse of it, but….”
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