Chapter 536 – Room 207, Gate Room – Fourth Trial ‘Fallen King’ (22)
– Han Kain
— Paaah!
The moment we entered the moon base, a dazzling light of many colors briefly blinded us all.
When my vision returned, Ari and Miro were nowhere to be found.
“…”
This was within the range of expectations.
I quickly deployed the Dream Kingdom to check on the two’s survival and then retracted it.
I wanted to join them, but for the Dream Kingdom to operate normally, both the user and the subjects must be asleep.
There’s no way Ari or Miro would be dazed and sleeping in a strange place like this.
Since the destination is Aedia anyway, I believe I’ll meet them as I go.
*
I walked endlessly through a space filled with gray walls in the suffocating silence.
There were many incomprehensible electronic devices around, and it seemed they were either powered off or broken with no response at all.
“…”
I expected to encounter Aedia’s tactical soldiers or drones in fierce combat, but none appeared.
I found myself running down an endless path that led underground.
At some point, I naturally began to wonder about the conditions to solve Room 207.
I had gathered information about the first trial after Miro joined and about the third trial after Ari and Grandpa teamed up.
The vague part was the second trial without any survivors, but I obtained indirect information through Sofia.
During this process, I thought of something.
Did the hotel truly designate the final obstacle, the boss, for each trial?
Maybe it was “us” who chose the bosses.
When this thought crossed my mind, one corner of my vision blurred slightly.
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
“Ha!”
So, the meaning of the place where the third power, Blessing, is hidden is ‘Han Kain’?
I initially thought it was about finding my true self hidden somewhere in Room 207!
What a complete miscalculation.
The Blessing was literally inside me.
It was a much more old-school problem than I expected!
I chuckled and asked someone who was probably still watching me, “Is the idea to come closer to the answer by thinking alone?”
Then I heard a faint echo, as if the hotel was whispering to me.
“Up until now, you have not proven yourself wise, so whom can you blame? Prove your worth to obtain wisdom.”
Let’s think a bit more wisely.
In the first trial, my companions considered ‘Menes’ to be the boss and defeated him.
So what about Malcab?
Was he a mere mini-boss?
He seemed too strong for that, right?
Thinking of Menes teaming up for Malcab’s defeat seems odd if you think of it “like a game.”
Plus, it wasn’t necessary to fight Menes at all.
Didn’t Menes actually open a way for you to establish your own civilization?
Choosing Menes as the boss was our decision.
This choice was not just about selecting a boss but also about selecting a narrative.
Because we could not bear to see the Reptilians dominate humanity, and because we could not accept the excessive distortion of human history, my companions chose to eliminate Menes.
The hotel simply accepted that choice.
…
The second trial’s companions fought thinking ‘Fortuna’ was the boss, ultimately leading to their defeat.
Looking back, the fact that Fortuna was the boss itself seems bizarre.
Fortuna is a twisted being of Seungyub, so it couldn’t have naturally appeared within Room 207.
In other words, the boss was not predetermined from the very start.
When Eunsol and Elena ‘chose’ the narrative, someone corresponding to that just emerged.
What choices did the two of them make?
I’ll need to ask them outside for exact details, but guessing is possible.
They must have stood against the papacy, knowing it was practically a similar organization to the ‘Administration Bureau.’
They considered the papacy’s definition as violence and chose to reform it instead of finding and exposing Sophia, who was a clear danger.
What if Ari and Grandpa had been in their place?
I feel sorry for Sophia, but the two agents might have swiftly seen through her childlike act, grabbed her by the neck, and tied her to the pyre.
By standing opposite the papacy, Aedia’s strongest sword, Fortuna, was chosen as the boss.
…
The third trial’s companions viewed Dean ‘Lucas’ as the boss and executed him.
Looking back, it must’ve been a ridiculous development for Lucas.
That’s because Lucas never considered Ari and Grandpa as enemies.
They never attacked first, and even until his dying moment, Lucas could not have imagined Ari would assault him.
He merely went berserk after watching the papacy slaughter his beloved students, and it was Ari who thought of the Dean as the boss and turned back time to judge him.
No matter what, you can see Ari’s management bureau-friendly thought process shining through.
In the end, it was Ari’s choice.
Ari felt a strong aversion towards Miskatonic University, a group established by chaos entities seeking refuge from papal persecution.
If they had thoroughly sided with Miskatonic University and opposed the papacy?
The hotel would have accepted that as well.
The role of the boss in the third trial would have been given to someone among the papacy’s strong figures, excluding Fortuna.
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 2,008,924
Wow, was that calculated from ancient Egypt?
That date is quite grand!
I should ask the Owl to reset things again as soon as I step out.
“…”
At the end of the long corridor stood a door.
Beyond that door, Aedia is surely waiting.
— Creak!
*
The instant the door swung open, a blue flash shot towards me.
Since I had already summoned the sun, it was easy to block it.
“What does this mean?”
“Just a light greeting.”
Aedia stood in the center of a colossal hall with a hole in the ceiling, turning her back to me as she gazed at the outside mirror.
“Can I ask you one question?”
“Of course.”
“I thought you’d spread us out to deal with us separately. Why scatter us if you’re not going to do that?”
“Unlike you, the other two are really struggling.”
“… Why?”
“I wanted them to talk. And especially, I can’t stand that black-haired girl.”
“Ari? I thought she considers you as a senior.”
“Ha!”
Aedia chuckled incredulously and replied with another blue flash.
— Ting!
In the universe where everything appeared to freeze, only the two beings engaged in an endless game of complex attacks.
To someone, it might look like a battle of angels, but…
To me, it felt like mere meaningless skirmishes—Paaah! Ta-dah! Bang!
It’s excessive for a joke, yet insignificant as sincerity.
Do you really want to discuss something?
“I’d like to ask one more thing: why is the place set on the moon?”
“… I’m sorry.”
“If you don’t want to tell me—”
“It’s not that I don’t want to; I simply don’t know.”
“What?”
“Did you know? There’s an unfathomable mystery resting on the moon.”
“What mystery?”
“I don’t know either. I was researching it.”
A slightly off-kilter conversation followed.
In the past, I might have been confused, but not now.
An ethereal intuition flickered from the distance.
The moon’s mystery isn’t a problem of Room 207.
The hotel won’t allow you to know the moon’s mysteries yet.
You need to go outside and figure it out in reality.
In reality, there wouldn’t be a moon… what does this intuition mean?
One thing is certain.
‘Insight’ is slowly returning.
“Alright. There’s no need to discuss this topic anymore.”
“…”
At that moment, Aedia’s eyes shone coldly.
“You’ve seen something.”
“…”
“I wonder… After researching here on the moon for decades and discovering nothing, how come you can just see it once?”
“…”
“The look in your eyes. It’s the same as a thousand years ago. I’ve always hated that.”
“What?”
“Do you think you’re really an omniscient deity?”
— Rumble!
The attacks that followed were much more earnest than before.
That said, they were still not impossible to handle.
Suddenly, I realized that Aedia was avoiding my gaze.
…
A long time ago, during the first trial ‘Absolute Master,’ I remembered Grandpa saying something.
He said that when martial artists face each other, they can know about one another.
Sanghyun had been shocked to hear that.
“Martial climbers can tell if a person is good or bad just by facing them once, you know?”
“I’ve never heard of such a nonsense psychological theory in my life—”
“This isn’t psychology! For martial artists, a person’s life is contained in the blade’s edge!”
“Ha! Mooksung, I’ll try to be patient because of your management bureau experience, but I’m a Harvard-trained doctor!”
Looking back now, Grandpa’s words weren’t complete nonsense.
I felt Aedia’s emotional line amidst the fierce exchanges of attacks.
“I can feel your despair and pain.”
“Have you mastered mind reading now?”
“More like rational deduction.”
“Deduction?”
“Is it weird not to be depressed while holed up in this remote, forgotten room?”
“Ha!”
Soon, Aedia put down her wriggling flesh as if she was about to spew out a wicked curse.
“I told you before starting my salvation, right? If I fail, I want you all to be my insurance.”
“I remember.”
“I saved humanity. I freed 90% of humanity from fear and suffering! So why are you flipping the whole board?”
“It’s a matter of perspective.”
“Perspective?”
Reasons why Aedia’s choice was wrong.
Therefore, the reasons why I need to make another choice!
“You didn’t save 90% of humanity. You killed 90% of humanity and turned them into monsters, and you just dropped the remaining 10% into hell.”
“Those blessed by the mirror are no longer human? What’s your basis for that?”
Countless thoughts flooded my mind.
The story of the ship of Theseus popped up.
Is one who’s twisted and manipulated by love and hatred an actual human being?
To put it harshly, 90% of humanity has become nothing but beasts with dulled intelligence.
Moreover, the power granted to the new humans by the alien gods beyond the mirror is merely a counterfeit of ‘Affinity.’
The original affinity had its limits; how could this counterfeit be humanity’s salvation?
Additionally, I ponder this thought.
Could those who have been stripped of selfishness maintain or develop civilization to suppress conflict?
…
There’s one problem with these thoughts; most of it is simply my speculation.
While my insights are far more accurate than an ordinary human’s guesses, they still lack the logic to persuade others.
On the other hand, there was also a basis for which I could not persuade anyone except Aedia.
“Most of the thoughts I conjured, you must have similar ones rattling around in this shabby room. So I won’t go through each one.”
“If you have no words to say—”
“I have no words. Because from now on, I plan to ask you.”
“What?”
With a bright smile, I lowered my arms to reveal my lack of intent to fight.
Aedia only glared up with muddy eyes, unable to attack anymore.
Just as the hidden place of wisdom was in my heart, the answer to Aedia’s question lay within herself.
Ari had emphasized this time and again.
“Aedia is humanity’s greatest guardian.”
“At times, it was almost miraculous. In some ways, she truly deserved the title of ‘Holy Mother.’”
“Unlike me, she possessed an unreasonable degree of love for humanity.”
It’s truly incomprehensible that a non-human alien lizard could realize her identity and yet love humanity infinitely.
Even when the Egyptian mob revolted and massacred her kin, she let go of all that hatred.
This being, a chaos entity herself, established an organization meant to eradicate chaos entities.
It is something that defies understanding.
Thus, that love is nothing less than a miracle.
Just as my human companions returned from beyond the mirror with hatred towards humanity and love for those twisted…
The one who was not born human from the outset simply obtained the opposite.
“So tell me, Aedia. If you truly believe you saved the world, look me dead in the eye and say it. Can you feel love for the 90% of humanity you saved with your own hands?”
“My feelings are… merely worthless things created by instinct—”
“But you tried to create the papacy and save the world based on that instinct, didn’t you? Either accept or deny that instinct. Make a choice.”
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]
Date: Day 2,008,924
Current Location: Room 207, Gate Room – Fourth Trial ‘Fallen King’
In Room 207, the last moment of the trial has always been decided by the choices of my companions.
Finally, the moment of choice has come to me.
…
The ominous flash of the mirror reflects me.
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