Chapter 540 – Room 207, Gate Room – Fourth Trial ‘Fallen King’ (26)
– Kim Mooksung
It’s been three years since that day. We’re creeping up on year four, I guess?
On a stormy day, Ari came to visit.
“Long time no see.”
“We’ve video-called a few times, though.”
“Hey~! It’s not the same as seeing you in person. Where’s First?”
“He suddenly disappeared yesterday. Oh, he now wants to be called Second.”
“Second, huh… He must not want to meet me.”
While casually sipping our tea, we discussed the current situation.
“The situation seems dire. It feels like a world war is about to break out.”
“There might be localized conflicts, but I don’t think it’ll escalate to that level.”
“They’ll end up killing and absorbing each other first, then?”
“Exactly.”
A brief silence followed. Then, Ari broached a rather sensitive topic.
“I’ve been thinking for the past three years. What on earth was Kain thinking, splitting himself up and causing all this chaos?”
“That’s the biggest mystery of all.”
“I feel like I know one part of it.”
I thought I knew what she was getting at.
“… To restore the world to its original state, right?”
“You guessed it.”
Three years is quite a long time in hotel terms. With not much else to do, I’ve been lost in thinking.
“If I were Kain and said it, the first realization would be, ‘It’s useless to turn back time.’”
Turning back time is useless.
Why?
If I knew the answer, I could guess the reasoning behind it.
“Maybe Mooksung, your return point was already too late.”
“Phew….”
At that moment, our plans on the outside fell apart.
“Caught between a rock and a hard place. We proceeded thinking we could turn back, but that’s fallen through. What should we do instead?”
We can’t solve it by turning back time.
Then, we need to unravel it from this current point.
“First, we must nullify what Aidia has done. In other words, we need to return people to their original state.”
Return people to their original state.
“I also thought of a reason for this. Think back to the entities touched by Yaldabaoth in the past.”
Yaldabaoth’s meddling in the past references Aidia, Park Seungyub or Fortuna, Kim Ari, Han Kain, among others.
“Doesn’t it strike you that everyone seems to have a strong free will?”
Eventually, Seungyub returned and casually butchered the protector Fortuna.
Ari, who helped us while suppressing her disgust.
Kain’s avatar who committed suicide for ultimate victory.
Except for Aidia, who’s rather ambiguous, they all had vibrant personalities.
“Is this the limit of Yaldabaoth, or is it the preference of the Great One? But it means they don’t just sit quietly like puppets.”
The creations of Yaldabaoth surprisingly behave with freedom.
So, returning to ‘normal’ shouldn’t be impossible.
“A few days ago, when the parking lot wall collapsed, I called in an interior worker.”
“Really?”
“He asked for money. If I didn’t have that, he wanted at least some items.”
“Greed is back. Must be Serena’s influence since we’re in the U.S.?”
“Not sure. It might be because of the loud news that comes every day.”
Kain’s scattered 348,000 shards throughout the world.
Those who held those shards are now embroiled in a bloody war for ascension.
Whether they realized the power of the grimoire or the Holy Sun, they all share one thing in common.
They impact from hundreds to, potentially, billions of humans!
Greed. Hostility. Lies.
Such ‘virtues’ of humanity have begun to resurface.
Not all changes are negative, though.
“As you know, I’m helping Jin Mookgyeong. He showed me a public document three days ago.”
“… A decree against the hunting of abhorrence entities?”
“By the way, here, ‘abhorrence’ means—”
“Humans, I guess. A ban on hunting humans. Similar things exist here too.”
I handed Ari a poster lying on the table.
“Similar sentients segregation zone?”
“It’s a type of confinement area where they’re herded into 10% of the human survivors. It’s a problem in its own right, but it’s better than those chaotic days where they fed us to the chaotic entities.”
The instinctive disgust against the 90% of that 10% is lessening.
In the past, demons would be fed without a shred of guilt.
Now, people are slowly starting to contemplate ‘the rights of similar sentients.’
What all these circumstances imply.
“The Virgin is bringing back what she erased in Paradise.”
Ari scratched her cheek and replied.
“Does it mean the curse that turned humans into dimwits is being lifted…?”
“Curse of being a dimwit?”
“That’s how the English prince put it.”
“Well, it’s not entirely wrong.”
The first solution from Kain’s answer was ‘erasing Aidia’s mistakes.’
So far, that seems to be going well, but questions remain.
“Ari, I thought of that much, but beyond that, I’m stuck.”
“What are you curious about?”
“Originally, why did Aidia lash out? The state of the world must be dire for him!”
“That’s true.”
“Even if we erase Aidia’s blunders, it only returns us to ‘normal.’ That original state had its own set of problems.”
“Exactly.”
“Then we also need to address what that original state looks like, right? Only then will Room 207 get a resolution.”
If 1 is to erase Aidia’s blunders.
Erasing the wrong doesn’t yield the right answer.
It simply returns to a blank slate, and submitting just that scores a zero.
So, don’t we have to erase the wrong and then write a new answer on that blank state?
I had no idea what ‘our answer’ could be.
“…”
Ari remained silent.
I was lost in thought.
Then, Ari cautiously murmured.
“I don’t know that part. It’s hard to read the thoughts of someone superior to us.”
It felt like it was the first time Ari honestly acknowledged someone else’s superiority.
“I at least thought of this.”
“This much?”
“It probably isn’t the ultimate answer that scores 100 out of 100. I don’t think the hotel demands that much. Just a vague sense of direction, maybe?”
“….”
While it’s not the ultimate answer, it would point to a ‘direction of improvement’ over the current state.
I think even the hotel would settle for something like that.
But I still don’t know what that direction should be.
Reading the thoughts of someone better than me is a tough task.
“That’s enough about Kain. So how are you and Miro doing?”
“I don’t really know about Miro. He’s been missing since that day. I told you over video call.”
“Though you said he’s missing, you must have some idea about what he’s trying to do?”
“I can guess. He’s probably doing something similar to me.”
Miro has gone missing.
But, apparently, he’s doing something ‘similar to Ari.’
“Then what about you?”
Ari pulled out a small bag with a mischievous smile.
“Farming.”
“What?”
“I found a few things using a compass.”
“No, why the sudden white noise—”
“Mooksung, Room 207 is likely a reflection of past realities outside the hotel. In other words, think of it as a ‘latest world scenario adaptation version.’”
“… That makes sense.”
“Have you thought about what this implies?”
Room 207 being a reflection of past realities means that some variables from 207 exist in reality too.
“The mirror seems to exist in reality.”
“And?”
“… The reptilian invasion likely really happened back in ancient Egypt. Of course, without our intervention, things would have unfolded entirely differently.”
“And?”
“Is there anything else? I don’t think people would overlap.”
With a playful glint in her eye, Ari responded.
“Oh come on, you only know one side of it, don’t you?”
“… Come on, I’m getting old.”
“Why only think of one side?”
“One side?”
“What do you think? If some secrets of Room 207 exist in reality, how could you just stop there? You should also consider the reverse.”
“The reverse?”
“The implication that some secrets from reality are also in Room 207.”
“…!”
“Things related to human interference likely don’t exist. We must have caused an enormous butterfly effect from the ancient Egyptian times to change everything.”
“Things unrelated to humans!”
If they’re aspects unrelated to the butterfly effect, it means there are things in reality that also exist in 207!
For example, elements like meteorites that fell from space.
Isn’t the ‘mirror’ exactly that!
Ari grinned, subtly opening the bag.
Inside was a ‘miracle.’
A long-lost ancient treasure from the Management Bureau!
“Is it possible to take this outside? Such means—”
—Thud!
A small thermos landed on the table.
“… It’s certainly not the size to fit in a thermos.”
“I’m working on that part.”
Everyone is doing their best in their respective positions.
If Kain is splitting himself in a bid to solve Room 207’s issues, then Ari and Miro are perhaps painting a picture for reality.
“By the way, Mooksung.”
“Hm?”
“Jin Mookgyeong is planning to invade Korea soon.”
Gulp! “Hey, hey man! Why are you revealing such important info now!?”
“What’s it to you? It’s not like it’s really Korea.”
“Damn you, like you’re from the Chinese army!”
“I’m seriously a part of the Chinese army.”
*
– Jin Mookgyeong
The stench hit my nose sharply. Despite having spilled countless blood to get to this point, I still can’t get used to the smell of blood.
Is this my hypocrisy? Or is it the last semblance of my humanity?
Who knows?
Fortunately, the long fight is slowly coming to an end.
“It seems the major piece in Korea is just you. What do you think?”
A man crucified, bleeding as if mimicking the desert religion’s Messiah. Seo Il-do showed a tired expression.
“I just want to take a break already.”
“Want to rest? You want to kill me or lament your laziness all this time?”
“Honestly, I’ve been living pretty diligently.”
“Haha! You, all you did was build a big church to gather followers. Isn’t that a foolish thing?”
“Foolish, you say?”
“How many followers do you have? Didn’t it barely reach 100,000 until the end? Do you think that’s enough to oppose me?”
“So you want me to fill the whole nation with my followers? Even if I did, how would I defeat the crazy god of the continent.”
The crazy god of the continent refers to myself.
It’s a prickly comment, but rather than feeling offended, it’s amusing.
“That point is valid. Seo Il-do, let’s just say you were born under unlucky circumstances in a small nation.”
As I stepped closer, Seo Il-do gave a wry smile.
“It seems you find it amusing?”
“Of course. I have some advice for your majesty, the emperor of the great nation.”
“I’m all ears.”
“You are a pig.”
“…”
“You’re just a pig mindlessly gobbling up the food scattered by your master and feeling all stuffed. And, oh, look at that, you’ve gained quite a bit of weight.”
“…”
“I wonder if you’re satisfied looking at your plump belly, but remember this: in due time, pigs are destined to be slaughtered.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
—Crack!
With that, Korea’s largest shard was also in my grasp.
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