### Chapter 342 – Party Time – Long-Awaited Meeting (1)
—
– Han Kain
—
I had a dream that was so long it felt like a never-ending story.
In the dream, I was a bird, flapping my wings and soaring through the blue sky, so happy that I didn’t even question whether I was a bird or not.
But, as I suddenly woke up, I realized, surprisingly, I was a human.
I couldn’t tell if a person dreamed of becoming a bird or if a bird dreamed of becoming a person.
Of course, humans and birds are clearly different creatures with distinctions.
However, the thinking subject is, either way, me, right?
So, there’s no need to obsess over the form that body takes, and that is a great principle.
It felt like I could almost grasp it.
Something immense, something beyond description, approached me and felt like it was within my reach.
Just one step.
If I took just one single step, I could surely soar to a divine position.
So….
“Enough of that.”
…
“There’s a proper time for everything. Excess can be worse than deficiency.”
A voice shattered the silence.
I vaguely saw the figure of a gigantic bird.
I was sinking.
The consciousness that had been soaring endlessly began to settle back into a small body once again.
I felt a mix of regret and relief.
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 683,628
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 – ‘Room of Rest’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
—
– Han Kain
“Ah.”
I woke up in the bed.
As soon as I came to, a headache hit me so badly I couldn’t get up for a while.
By the time the headache settled, I realized I had come out of Room 203, where I had been in pain.
What happened to me in Room 203?
I started from the tribe, battled monsters, and joined my friends.
After moving to a place with a labyrinth, I gathered various pieces of information from a mysterious research institute.
Finally, I reached the conclusion that we should escape by getting on a spaceship and headed towards the mountains with the core.
And on the spaceship….
The memories after that became hazy. Did I die right after arriving at the spaceship?
If I had died, I should at least remember how it happened, but I had no memory of how I died.
Well, whatever. I made it out somehow.
But why did I wake up in a bed instead of outside the room?
I should probably go outside and ask my companions about the situation.
*
“Ah! Kain! You’re out, you’re out!”
As soon as I stepped outside, Miro, who had been loitering at the entrance of Room 105, grabbed my arm with wide eyes.
It’s surprising, but she looked just like Arin, yet her actions were unbelievably different.
“Kain! You did well.”
“Yeah?”
“It was so hard for you, right?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about?”
“Follow me.”
As I was dragged by Miro, I felt quite absurd.
Room 203 had been solved, but I had stumbled out and fainted right away, according to her.
As I moved toward the tea table, my companions were there.
“Oh! Kain is awake!”
“Are you alright? You fainted suddenly!”
“I feel a bit dazed, but I’m okay. Where are Elena and Songee? I don’t see Grandpa either.”
“They’re playing down in the basement.”
The others were resting, eating snacks and drinking beverages at the table.
Meeting everyone again in a peaceful place after so long made me happy, yet slightly bittersweet.
The companions were already enjoying the calm atmosphere.
Usually, when coming out of the cursed room, we would all jump around and cheer.
I would be right there among the screams, but it seemed that the moment of joy had already passed.
Suddenly, Arin poked me and told me to sit next to her.
It was unusual for her to act this way, and I wondered why, but I didn’t have to go to another seat, so I sat next to Arin.
“What’s up?”
“I have something to ask. How much do you remember about what happened in Room 203?”
I briefly relayed what I remembered.
“Hmmm… So it seems you only remember until before getting hit with the anesthetic gas. What about the memories after entering Pero’s body?”
“Did I borrow Pero’s body?”
Arin suddenly turned her gaze to the doctor with a peculiar expression instead of answering.
Following her lead, I looked at the doctor, and his actions were quite amusing.
He seemed to be savoring the aroma of his coffee like it was the rarest drink in the world.
“Sanghyun.”
“Hmm….”
“Sanghyun.”
“What’s this aroma? Hmm! This truly is a miracle of civilization – Ah! What the heck?”
As soon as he was kicked by Arin, he frowned, but upon seeing me next to him, his expression softened.
“Oh! Kain, you’re awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Sanghyun, it looks like he has no memory of what happened after coming out of the spaceship.”
“Really?”
A sudden wave of rich emotions lit up the doctor’s face.
He looked a bit regretful and a bit happy at the same time.
“Kain, you did well.”
“Yeah….”
Honestly, if I hadn’t realized anything by this point, that’d be just plain dumb, and I don’t think I’m a fool.
It appeared that I had made quite an impact while borrowing Pero’s body towards the end of Room 203.
So why did I lose my memory?
“We’ve already wrapped things up among ourselves, but it seems we need to explain it to you again, Kain. Seungyub, please help me out.”
“…”
“Sanghyun, this guy’s name is Cha Jinchul, not Park Seungyub.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Haha! It seems you’re still mixing up our names. It looks like Sanghyun has become a bit forgetful about the past…”
“I won’t make mistakes like that again in a day or two.”
Before the serious conversation kicked off, I felt from a brief Q&A.
It seemed like the doctor was starting to speak more comfortably with a few of my companions, especially Arin.
Given that his age was older than everyone else except for Arin and Grandpa, it wasn’t awkward.
People like Jinchul seemed more uncomfortable with the doctor’s careful way of speaking.
Plus, for some unknown reason, he often mixed up our names.
“Doctor, you can start speaking informally to me now.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to treat you casually, Kain. Just listen to me for a moment.”
…
It was a long tale. A very shocking one, to be precise.
While the way Room 203 was resolved and the doctor’s long suffering were, of course, shocking, ultimately, the most surprising story was what I had gone through.
“… I lived for hundreds of years in Pero’s body?”
“Correct. In fact, there were opinions to keep this information from you.”
“Because you thought I’d be too shocked?”
“Similar reasons. But Arin said it wouldn’t matter much.”
Arin simply replied casually, sitting next to me.
“Because we’ve decided not to lie to each other anymore.”
“Ari, you still lie a lot, though.”
“Right, right!”
Miro chimed in, and Arin wore an incredulous expression.
“… It’s better to avoid lies that can’t be concealed.”
It seemed she meant it was fine to tell lies that can be hidden, but for some reason, Miro flinched.
“True. Many people have seen me embodying Pero, so I couldn’t have hidden that.”
So, if my companions had hidden this information, the Owl would have surely told me in some way.
When my story came up, everyone began reacting emotionally.
Elena, who had appeared silently, grabbed my hand tightly, while Miro and Seungyub were sniffling.
Arin and the doctor watched me with worried expressions.
Grandpa, who had come up from the basement, said to let him know if I ever needed psychological counseling.
Jinchul was touched, claiming my unyielding will was impressive like that of a protagonist in a shounen manga.
Honestly, it felt extremely awkward.
Imagine waking up one morning with reporters scattered all over your house outside.
Only to find out you had been fighting a demon to save the world for the past month, but you completely forgot about that heroic battle due to the aftereffects of fighting the demon.
What kind of feelings would you have in that situation? That’s exactly how I felt right now.
Then, the observing doctor succinctly summarized everything.
“Kain, if you’re confused, you can simply let it go.”
“…”
“It’s simply a past room. You don’t need to struggle to recall past events. Just savor today’s joy, thinking that I was a hero is enough.”
At that moment, Elena asked a question.
“I’m curious now that it’s all said and done; what were the exact escape and resolution conditions for Room 203?”
The doctor answered that question.
“The labyrinth – Right, Elena. Just like how the cursed room usually works, if you think of it too complexly, it’ll be complex, but if you think of it simply, it’s a simple issue. The prisoner needs to be detached to think.”
“Detached from the prisoner? That room was the one where the prisoner exhibited the most presence since Room 104.”
“Didn’t Eunsol mention the content of the notification that appeared upon solving it? The intervention that bordered on the rage of nuestra Adrabita should be considered outside the hotel’s assumptions.”
This part was also intriguing.
According to the notification that appeared when the room was solved, the hotel apologized for the ‘guest’s’ actions being excessive.
Moreover, they promised to prevent such an event from happening in the next room.
“You won’t encounter a similar event in the room you enter next. Isn’t that sentence amusing? It seems to leave a lot open for interpretation.”
Arin nodded in agreement at the doctor’s words.
“When we decide which room to enter next, let’s talk again. And about the scenario the hotel prepared, I wonder if it was centered around AI, rather than the prisoner?”
Elena looked intrigued.
“Centered around AI? Not the prisoner?”
“A fallen civilization with some reason to be hostile toward survivors. It seems likely that if we strike down or deal a severe blow to the AI, we could escape, and if we persuade or overpower the AI to escape the star, we would resolve it.”
The doctor added to that insight.
“In short, it’s all become rather meaningless. Since Adrabita turned everything upside down.”
With that, the story of Room 203 began to wrap up.
The finale was the doctor’s ‘magic show.’
— Tick!
“Wow! That feels like real superpower!”
“Brother, that’d be great for lighting up a cigarette.”
“Actually, I used it for that purpose quite often.”
The doctor performed tricks that ignited flames with each snap of his fingers or moved an invisible knife that sliced through the table at lightning speed.
Creating flames wasn’t as impressive as one might think.
It was just about enough firepower to light a cigarette rather than summon giant flames.
What would be more helpful were his skills with cold weapons or superior martial arts abilities.
Of course, the most useful ability would be the ‘Final Flash,’ right?
… I wanted to shoot a laser once too.
“By the way, it’s party time starting tomorrow, right?”
I asked, and Grandpa replied.
“Yes, it is. I saw the notification earlier saying it’ll be for five whole days.”
“That’s quite long. Have you set the schedule yet?”
“First, we need to go to the Sanctum of Blessings in the morning. That’s the top priority. A lot of people are probably going to enjoy themselves this time as well…”
As Arin yawned beside him, she chimed in.
“There was talk about searching, but this time let’s just rest. Room 203 was too tiring after all.”
Everyone nodded.
According to what Arin told me before, the hidden elements that surfaced upon arriving on the second floor were two hidden rooms and two hidden NPCs.
Since we’ve already found the Room of Revival, the Room of Mirrors, and the Mysterious Craftsman, that meant one NPC remained.
Yet, it seemed everyone had lost a lot of their enthusiasm for exploration.
As Arin said, after Room 203, everyone needed a break too.
“Eunsol, don’t we have to use the Hand of Greed this time?”
Suddenly, I realized my sister hadn’t said a single word throughout our long conversation.
Isn’t she usually the most talkative among us?
“… Ah, yes. I had planned to. I meant to use it right after coming back from the sanctum.”
It seemed like she was lost in deep thought about something.
“By the way, where’s Songee?”
Arin awkwardly smiled.
“She’s probably in the botanical garden healing Pero’s heart.”
“Healing the heart?”
“…”
As the conversations around the tea table wrapped up, I began feeling a significant wave of fatigue again.
I got up, saying I would take a little more rest.
*
After Kain left, Arin looked puzzled and turned to Eunsol.
“What’s wrong? You suddenly stiffened up and haven’t said a word?”
“…”
“Sister? Are you alright?”
“The lighting.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t the lighting seem a bit dim?”
At Eunsol’s words, my companions looked up at the ceiling.
No one found anything particularly different, but Arin responded with a nuanced expression.
“I felt something similar back on the train.”
“On the train?”
“The time of choice occurred in a place resembling a train.”
“Did the lighting dim there when Kain appeared?”
“I sensed something like that.”
With those words, Eunsol fell silent again.
At that moment, Sanghyun, who had been drinking coffee, asked Eunsol a question.
“Eunsol, how does Kain appear in your eyes?”
“… Nothing special. He’s just Kain.”
Feeling the brief silence and awkwardness, Sanghyun realized that Eunsol was lying.
At the same time, he realized that Eunsol didn’t want to reveal something she had seen.
Sanghyun understood her attitude.
If it was an irreversible change, then discussing it in detail would only provoke excessive tension among everyone.
To lighten the mood, Cha Jinchul spoke in a light tone.
“Who’s going to enhance at the sanctum this time?”
Seungyub replied, as if he had been waiting for this.
“Jinchul, you gathered contribution points for powerful enhancement last time, so you should definitely be able to this time.”
“Haha! What about me?”
“I think my name should be in there too.”
Arin also agreed. It’d be odd if the names of Cha Jinchul, who gathered points, and Kim Sanghyun, who made the biggest contributions in Room 203, weren’t there.
I imagined there would be more names.
Especially, a person who had been enhanced for quite a while should be due for their turn.
Thank you for your support! I will repay you with diligent updates.
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.