### Chapter 468 – Room 206, The Cursed Room – ‘Demon King Revives After 100 Days’ Re (27)
—
– Han Kain
“Honestly, I’d rather just fight.”
Maybe it’s because I’m worn out from this endless march, but those ominous words just slipped out.
The space around me was overwhelmingly pink-toned.
It felt like some vast, empty office without any furniture, stretching endlessly.
The floor had this oddly unpleasant carpet texture, and fluorescent lights buzzed incessantly from the ceiling.
At first glance, this odd space seemed like a normal office, but it had one horrific trait.
It was huge.
Endlessly huge.
Infinitely large.
Searching the space, if I opened one door, another office appeared, and if I opened that office, yet another office emerged.
“…”
I imagined I’d be fighting fiercely against replicas enhanced with tremendous legacies and blessings, but nope.
There was no intense battle, not even a clue of an enemy’s location.
— Whoosh!
Once again, I called upon the Sacred Sun and used my transcendent perception to scan the surroundings.
“Nothing again.”
Even when I used my overwhelming extrasensory skills to gather data and pour it into my brain, nothing meaningful came up.
This wasn’t the first time I’d summoned the sun to survey the area.
However, there was one bizarre fact I already discovered.
“Feels like the space keeps generating itself?”
It seemed like I had fallen into a space that stretched infinitely, but the extrasensory feedback from the Sacred Sun told me a different tale.
At this moment, the only existing space is where I stand.
Opening a door doesn’t connect me to a pre-existing office.
Instead, a brand-new space emerges that didn’t exist before.
…
Realizing this hadn’t changed anything.
“What am I supposed to do – Maybe I should just stop talking to myself.”
Thanks to this bizarre habit developed through the grimoire, I was only feeling displeased.
— Click!
As I opened the door again, a familiar office scene greeted me.
“This isn’t right.”
In the end, I used my last piece of advice.
[Advice: 1 → 0]
‘How do I escape from this situation?’
[If you play by your opponent’s rules, victory will always be out of reach.]
“… If it’s their game…”
As always, it’s an answer that sounds like riddles wrapped in enigmas.
They say a pig can recite poetry after three years, but seeing this vague response got me thinking.
I shouldn’t get bogged down in the weird phenomena unfolding right before my eyes.
This place was created by replicas using legacies and blessings; it’s merely part of the trials laid out by the Demon King.
What’s the opponent’s goal?
To avoid fighting and exhaust my resources.
The essence of the Demon King is that of a beast, disaster, and impulse.
But this Demon King, who mimics a god in response to the faith of its followers, possesses a certain intelligence to communicate with its minions.
To such a god-like Demon King, I must seem excessively strong.
If the Demon King steps in, that’s a different story, but the clumsy replicas wouldn’t last even a minute against me.
So, instead of brute force, they’ve opted to cage me in a maze-like space to drag out the time.
“…”
I could also guess who the fake opponent is and what abilities they’ve used.
The only legacy capable of creating this bizarre phenomenon is what I know as ‘Ominous Imagination.’
Even a mighty legacy, like the Sacred Sun, couldn’t produce such ridiculous phenomena.
The user must surely be a replica of Ahri.
Are they recreating a terrifying incident they experienced while working as an agent?
I get that far, but…
So, what’s the solution?
“…”
It feels like I’ve genuinely entered the ‘real cursed room’ for the first time.
The previous encounters with ‘Luck, Bracelet Seungyub’ and ‘Justice, Star Fragment Maze’ were impressive, but they were fundamentally battles.
The real cursed room made by the hotel isn’t like that at all.
The weight placed on fighting or wrestling is less significant than I imagined.
I stood in front of the door again.
Opening it will just reveal another office.
Let’s try approaching it differently this time.
— Whoosh!
After summoning the sun, instead of opening the door, I punched the wall with my fist.
What was once a protein-based soft mass colliding with a solid concrete wall produced an astounding phenomenon where the concrete wall instantly shattered.
For the first time, change occurred in this weird place.
“… What the hell is this?”
Water that reached my ankles, greenery everywhere, and a glimpse of a blue swimming pool beyond the wall.
This is completely different from the previous places.
Is opening a door an office, but smashing a wall gets me a swimming pool?
“Does it change depending on how I move?”
What if I break the ceiling? What’s below?
By studying these colorful movement methods, might I find a way to get to the ‘place where Ahri is’?
It’s like solving a puzzle or an escape room.
— Splash!
As I walked atop the shimmering water, I concluded I wasn’t heading in the right direction.
Let’s revert to the original thought.
Why did the Demon King lay down such a tiresome trial?
Because the replicas can’t stop me with brute force, they chose to trap me in a maze to kill time.
It’s not about whether I can solve the puzzle or not.
Spending time solving puzzles itself is the Demon King’s plan.
I need to find a different method.
One that the Demon King didn’t prepare.
Something that has nothing to do with the Demon King.
The power given by the hotel.
— Flutter!
‘Dream Kingdom’
There’s no clock here, but since the status window date hasn’t moved on, it’s not even been a full day.
Considering I came in at dawn, it must be evening now.
“… Please, let someone be asleep.”
It feels a bit sneaky, but that’s why I like this method.
*
[User: The Greatest Genius]
Date: Who cares?
Current Position: A ridiculously strange place
Sage’s Advice: <— This is surprisingly not very helpful>
A chaotic world bubbling like soap bubbles.
A dream world created by my companions.
Amidst the chaos, I thankfully found the companion I wanted.
This time, she was wandering on a shabby harbor along the beach.
“Ahri!”
“…”
“Don’t pull out a gun, don’t hit me, just listen to me -”
“I understand the situation, so stop talking nonsense.”
“Right, you woke up right away this time?”
Last time, the dream’s setting was a school, and it took getting shot three times to wake me up.
Is it because that was the first time and this isn’t?
“Yeah, what are you doing there suddenly?”
I slowly explained the situation to Ahri.
“Hmmm. So it’s my replica using ‘Ominous Imagination’ that’s causing this problem?”
“Exactly.”
“Is it implementing the Far Room…?”
Far Room?
As expected, Ahri knows what that place is!
“Ugh! So it’s really your fault this time, Ahri!”
“…”
“Then what’s the solution?”
If she knows the place, she should know the solution, right?
“…”
“What is it, then?”
“I don’t know.”
In that instant, I hit a brick wall.
“Don’t give me that look. Just because I’m from the Administration Bureau doesn’t mean I know everything about reality.”
“Isn’t this been experienced by you?”
“I did experience it.”
“Then you would have escaped, right? How -”
“… I used a kind of one-time escape tool. It’s a rare tool, even in the Administration Bureau, and only I could use it.”
“You didn’t go in alone? What about others?”
Ahri’s expression immediately darkened, and I didn’t need to hear the answer.
In the end, it means the Bureau couldn’t figure out how to escape the Far Room.
Only Ahri, with that one-time escape tool, managed to get out.
“How frustrating. What did the advice say again? Don’t play by your opponent’s rules?”
“Right.”
I was genuinely trying to feel how frustrating it felt, and Ahri began frantically tossing out what information she knew.
“It might look like there are several rooms in sequence, but in reality, there’s only one -”
“When you open the door, a new room appears. If you move to that room, the original one disappears.”
“Uh, uh? You already know, huh?”
“Keep talking.”
“The existing room doesn’t necessarily disappear. To be precise, it seems only the ‘room without people’ disappears. It can also create multiple rooms at the same time -”
Simultaneously create multiple rooms.
“That part!”
“Huh?”
“How do you create multiple rooms at the same time?”
“Uh, you probably moved by opening doors, but -”
“I tried smashing through walls.”
“Then you’ve figured it out. When you open the door, can you see the opposite room? Don’t cross over at that moment; instead, punch through the original room’s wall. Then another room will show beyond the wall. Just don’t cross over -”
“OK. Got it.”
Basically, every room without a person disappears, but if you open the door and break walls, ceilings, etc., you can create multiple rooms simultaneously.
So…
“I understand.”
I realized how to escape.
Upon hearing my ‘I understand,’ Ahri looked genuinely shocked.
“You understood? You figured out how to escape the Far Room? Over 125,000 people have reportedly died in the Bureau over the past 60 years -”
“No, it’s not the escape from the Far Room.”
I knew how to escape.
But, it wasn’t the escape method for the Far Room.
“Han Kain! What the heck are you talking about -”
“I’ll explain later. We’re out of time.”
I woke up from the dream.
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 555
Current Position: Room 206, The Cursed Room – ‘Demon King Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 0
Back to reality, in a space similar to the swimming pool of the Far Room.
I stood still for a moment, thinking.
“Escape from the Far Room…”
I’m sorry, but I don’t know the actual escape method from the ‘real Far Room’ either.
But this place isn’t the real Far Room.
It’s just a fake created by Ahri’s replica using Ominous Imagination!
— Whoosh!
The Sacred Sun ignited.
Once again, flames danced from my fingertips turned into beams of light.
As the door opened, countless pink offices formed.
With a massive hole cut into the wall, another swimming pool appeared beyond.
As the ceiling collapsed, a room filled with dolls came into view.
With the floor breaking apart, the stale air of an old abandoned factory hit my nose.
In that fleeting moment, five rooms were created.
“Let’s get started.”
If I moved to the newly formed room, everything else would disappear.
In other words, as long as I don’t move, all the rooms won’t vanish.
“Come on.”
I stood still and summoned ‘Sun Kain.’
Naturally, there was no need to explain in a lengthy fashion.
He knew what needed to be done the moment he appeared.
— Rumble! Waaargh!
A deafening noise erupted that could be mistaken for a construction site.
As I stood still, Sun Kain moved to another room and repeated my actions.
In just about 20 seconds,
1 room bloomed into 5, then 5 into 25.
Next comes 125, and then 625!
The entity that created all this space.
Surely, a replica of Ahri would be watching me from somewhere.
“I’ll give it a try. I’m curious how many rooms you can create!”
…
…
…
272 rooms.
This was the limit of how many rooms Ahri’s replica could conjure.
Not long after, all the spaces we created suddenly began shattering like glass.
The familiar black-haired girl, blood dripping from all over her face, fainted at various parts.
She looked pretty painful, so I gently choked her a bit to give her some rest.
While I was in the process of shattering space, I thought.
Out there, in reality, exists the ‘real Far Room’ that’s nothing like this shoddy imitation.
Of course, the escape method I just used wouldn’t work there.
“…”
All of a sudden, that thought crossed my mind.
When I eventually step into reality, will I end up facing the real Far Room?
What a dismal thought.
— Whoosh!
The surroundings suddenly brightened.
Soon, a cheerful voice echoed through the air.
“Wow~! You made it here in just one day? You’re truly incredible!”
Finally, the first Demon King worshipper, the leader of the Order of Reason, made their grand appearance.
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.