### Chapter 335 – Room 203, The Cursed Room – ‘A New Beginning’ (15)
—
– Park Seungyub
—
It’s dark and stifling.
The space isn’t exactly cramped, but there are complex machines everywhere, blocking movement, and since I’m in a protective suit, I feel even bigger.
— Clank!
“Oops!”
“Be careful. Just stay still.”
“Yes…”
After hundreds of years, Ahri noona was just the same as before. After all, she had only been in cryogenic sleep, so a drastic change would’ve been weirder.
Finally, a strange metallic sound rang from the machine she was operating, and a video began to appear on the wall. It must be some kind of beam projector.
The video started like this.
—
“Consider the moment of destruction.
Since the subject of thought isn’t human, the word ‘regeneration’ might be more appropriate.
…
…
…”
—
After the video ended, noona quietly fell into thought.
“Noona.”
“…”
“Ahri noona, I have something I’m curious about—”
“Sorry, but I need to ask first. I need to sort out my thoughts.”
“Yes.”
“I heard roughly that 322 years have passed since I woke up?”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of 322 years. Has it really been that long?”
“If the AI’s records are accurate, then yes. After waking up, I joined the city-state that Sanghyun established and got help to come back to the mountain range. Start from there.”
“Upon entering the mountain range, robots appeared! The moment they aimed a cannon that was even bigger than my head at me, my instincts sensed a crisis—”
“You used divine luck, didn’t you?”
“… Yeah.”
“Skip that part. It’s probably a boring story anyway.”
“A cannon fell behind me, and I was swept away by the shockwave. After repeating a similar situation about three times, I arrived at the spaceship.”
“That’s more ridiculous than I thought. Anyway, when you got to the spaceship, you said your luck ended, right? Go on from there.”
“As I entered, the robots stopped firing cannons.”
“Of course, if they kept shooting the spaceship, I’d either die or wake up.”
“At some point, Pero suddenly led me. I think he sensed where you were. Then I discovered a gap leading underground.”
“Continue.”
“While moving, Pero suddenly stopped behind a massive wall. At that moment! My instincts told me that you were behind that wall.”
“How did you get over that wall?”
“I tried punching it with the protective suit’s strength, but it didn’t work at all. I didn’t know what to do then when I heard a strange sound.”
“A strange sound?”
“A metallic rattling? A screech? Getting closer, I saw that marking.”
I pointed to the hole I came through in the wall. Noona examined that spot closely.
“Then what? I went in and found the capsule you were sleeping in.”
“Good job. And well done.”
Suddenly, she gave my head a light hug.
“Ahh!”
“Surprised by a simple hug? You’re not in elementary school anymore.”
“No! You’re hugging me while I’m in this protective suit! Wait, I’ll take it off so we can do it again—”
“Stop rambling and sit back down.”
“… Yes.”
Noona seemed lost in thought, wandering around. Thinking of the teacher waiting outside made me anxious.
“Noona! Shouldn’t we go out now? The teacher is waiting outside!”
“After waiting over 300 years, is one or two more hours really a big deal?”
“…”
Wow, that was a bit harsh!
For a moment, I almost understood why Kain hyung sometimes wanted to headbutt Ahri noona.
“Besides, there are a lot of records left by the AI in this place. It’s hard to get back in here, so we need to check everything.”
“… You should have said that from the start.”
Suddenly, noona looked at me intently.
“Noona?”
“I don’t think this is it.”
“Huh?”
“No, but you had something to ask me, right?”
“Ah, while watching the video left by the AI, I didn’t understand the latter part. It said the AI found a logical flaw in the proposal from the snake and rebelled; what does that mean?”
“This record itself.”
“Huh?”
“The fact that everything in this room was designed from start to finish under Adrablita’s plan is the rebellion.”
“What do you mean?”
“The prisoner commanded the AI to ‘forget about today and never remember it.’ After that, the AI separated that day’s records from its database and processed it so it couldn’t access it.”
Now I understood. Since the AI couldn’t access that data, it couldn’t forget what happened and was bound to never remember it as ordered.
But that data didn’t disappear!
“The data didn’t vanish. The AI just can’t access it; someone with a higher authority than the AI, like me, can easily access it.”
—
After finishing that statement, noona fell silent again. This silence stretched on for a long time.
“Um….”
“Seungyub.”
“Yes?”
“Shall we escape from here?”
“Huh? Why suddenly!”
Can we escape right now?
“What do you think the escape condition for Room 203 is? Think back to the first and second escapes.”
“The first escape was when Eunsol noona and Songee noona moved far in the opposite direction of the mountain range, for reasons they didn’t know—”
“Isn’t that similar timing to when people who went to the mountains fought fiercely with the AI borrowing my body?”
“That’s true, but….”
“The second escape happened right after the maze summoned us to kill us. And it was a complete escape. What’s common? Both times we dealt a critical blow to the AI, right?”
“That’s right?”
“What’s the direct threat to us in this room? The prisoner who designed this hellish game? No, the prisoner has been suffering through various restraints since we awoke.”
“Is the AI the direct threat in this room? Thinking about it, the AI is also the one who froze us in cryogenic sleep.”
“Exactly. Dealing a heavy blow to the AI and putting distance between us or suddenly destroying the body housing the AI to prevent any preparations. Ultimately, dealing a critical blow to the AI is the escape condition. And….”
Noona silently pointed at the screen. A small notification popped up.
“Captain Kim Ahri, would you like to shut down all functions of the ‘Pride of Humanity’?”
“One press of enter here will make the AI stop forever.”
Then we’d escape from Room 203.
—
“Are you hesitant to escape?”
“Regretting it? Sanghyun has struggled for hundreds of years, so just ending it with an escape feels a bit off?”
“Am I just being naive?”
“No, it feels similar to me.”
“Noona too?”
Ahri noona wandered around for a bit, then spoke again.
“We escape. We endure to solve this. What’s right? There’s a basis for needing to escape immediately. We’re already in a big crisis.”
“A big crisis?”
“I found out while checking the AI’s central control system, but Han Kain, Cha Jinchul, and Elena are already dead. The followers of Adrablita broke in and destroyed the cryogenic sleep facilities.”
“Ugh!”
“Be quiet.”
“Why are they dead? Moreover, they were killed by the prisoner? Even if we die, won’t the room disappear?”
“If all of us die, of course.”
“Huh?”
“Think from Adrablita’s perspective. It should never happen that we all die, as you said. But does she really need to keep all of us alive?”
“Uh….”
“As long as we’re alive, we have a chance. If we hold on for hundreds or thousands of years, who knows what could happen? Just look at how you escaped from the earthquake.”
“Well, that was divine luck—”
“Did divine luck cause an earthquake? Isn’t that strange? You’ve used divine luck several times, but it never exerted that level of power before, right?”
“That’s true. It surprised me too.”
“Think simply. The earthquake might have occurred independently of blessings, right? Some might question how an earthquake could just happen by chance, but if you stay in a specific area for hundreds of years, it’s bound to happen.”
“That’s true. They say there’s no earthquake-safe zone.”
Listening to this, I began to understand why I woke up so late.
The force of divine luck couldn’t have hastened the timing for the earthquake.
Divine luck didn’t cause the earthquake, but rather ensured I’d wake safely during a naturally occurring one, right?
“What this means is that our existence itself is a variable. You being here is proof of that.”
“Indeed.”
“Let’s go back to the prisoner’s perspective. From Adrablita’s viewpoint, we can’t be all killed, but she doesn’t necessarily need to keep us all alive.”
“Therefore they killed the ‘dangerous participants.’ Ahri noona was spared because, as captain, she had to control the spaceship in case of emergencies?”
Kain hyung, Jinchul hyung, and Elena noona.
The prisoner thought these three were too dangerous to keep alive and sent followers to kill them while they were in cryogenic sleep.
“… I suppose I’m alive because I seemed weak in the prisoner’s eyes. I even used some of the primordial human abilities!”
For some reason, I felt a bit dejected. Sensing this, noona chuckled softly.
“Are you sad because you’re alive?”
Of course, it’s not that.
—
“Anyway, the survivors are you, me, Sanghyun outside, Mooksung and Eunsol still asleep. That makes five of us. We have less than half of our power left, so moving forward is going to be very risky.”
“Then should we escape?”
“There’s also a reason to try longer.”
“What’s that?”
“Firstly, usually after escaping, we gather information and plan again to come back, right?”
“That’s right.”
“This room won’t be like that. I’m sure. I feel that if we escape now, we will never return to Room 203.”
“Why is that?”
“It was revealed that escaping into space via spaceship is a trap set by the prisoner. The real solution is? Following what Sanghyun is doing now—taking the primitives along for a ‘new beginning’.”
“I think so too.”
“Who will take on that hard job next time?”
“…”
If the true solution is raising civilizations with the primitives, just like the doctor does… who would want to take on such a tough job?
Even I think it’s better to not return to this crazy room.
“A more serious problem exists, too. As we evolve, so does the prisoner. The prisoner in Room 203 isn’t any less insane than the ‘master’ of Room 104.”
Right.
Just like how Adrablita actively designs the room, the ‘master’ in Room 104 is also a complete maniac. If we escape and return, the content of the room may have bizarrely twisted.
“So, this escape isn’t just a step back to take two steps forward. It’s like giving up all the rewards we could gain from Room 203 forever.”
“That’s true.”
“Secondly, surprisingly, I think we’re almost done solving this room.”
“Because the doctor has already established civilization?”
“That’s right. The hardest part has already been handled by Sanghyun, who struggled like crazy. Now I think all we need is some finishing touches.”
“Finishing touches?”
“Creating a new beginning for humanity, and we’ll be the ones pushing through the obstacles. I’ll explain this in detail when we meet Sanghyun later.”
“Okay.”
Noona fell silent again, and I began to organize the stories I had heard from her.
Currently, Ahri noona can shut down all the functions of the spaceship with her captain’s authority, effectively destroying the AI and allowing the hotel party to escape.
But if we aim for a solution and go outside instead of escaping, it means giving up this convenient escape. It would be difficult to destroy the AI from the outside.
What’s the basis for needing to escape?
Because Kain hyung, Jinchul hyung, and Elena noona died in cryogenic sleep, the party’s remaining power is low.
What’s the basis for trying longer?
If we escape now, we’ll give up the legacy of Room 203, and according to noona’s perspective, we’re close to solving the room.
Since the doctor handled the most difficult process for us.
—
Suddenly, Ahri noona turned to me.
“Decide.”
“Huh?”
“Not too full of thought!”
“Yes?”
“Don’t think, just choose! Trust the energy of the universe!”
“Ugh! Work with me here!”
I didn’t think.
Would I come up with an answer to such a tough problem that my sister, ten times smarter than me, couldn’t conclude?
I chose not with my head, but with my heart. The doctor suffered for 300 years!
Would I just end this magnificent tower of effort with a simple escape?
No way.
—
Ahri noona smiled softly and looked up at the ceiling.
“Yeah. Let’s do this. Let’s finish this damned room, and maybe serve sushi to that delusional whale!”
Noona pointed her hand toward the sky.
“In fact, there was one more reason why we should try harder.”
“Huh?”
“I think I know what one of the two legacies of this room is.”
“A legacy?”
At that moment, noona’s voice flowed out like a song, rich with rhythm.
“The last flash of radiant light shall purify all. I have now become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
—
And then, the light ignited.
The flash emanating from the tip of noona’s fingers pierced the heavens.
Neither the exterior walls of the spaceship, which flew across the universe, nor the stones of the crimson mountains, which had endured for eons like flowing water…
Nothing could stop the flash.
Finally, all terrain was pierced, revealing the blue sky, and the flash even evaporated the clouds in the sky.
My heart swelled.
The pure power, destruction, and the shock that the might delivers surged over me like an emotion. I watched noona with a feeling like I was about to cry—
“By the name of love and justice! I will not forgive that whale!”
“What’s with that line?”
“Huh? Don’t you know? It was a trend from an old comic—”
“Headbutt!”
“Ahhh!”
Today, I finally understood why Kain hyung occasionally headbutts Ahri noona.
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