Chapter 677 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘Origin of the Species’ (21)
—
– Lee Eunsol
—
“Eunsol.”
Eek!
In an instant, I stumbled back, half out of my mind!
What the heck is going on?
My, my mother isn’t human?
Not just not human, but a dizzyingly high extraterrestrial deity?
Then what am I?
Do I belong to the race of Is as well?
As terrifying thoughts flooded my mind, my reason began to fade!
But thanks to all the insane experiences I’ve gone through at the hotel, a cold voice echoed from somewhere deep within me.
The veteran agent Ahri has never once doubted that I’m human.
And Songee, with the power of Affinity, has never been able to tempt me!
So then, what am I?
A human, but a human touched by the hands of a prisoner?
I don’t know… I really don’t know!
Just when I tried to calm my swirling thoughts down, my ‘mother’s’ calm voice broke through.
She was looking at my father, not me.
“You’ve used all three chances in the end.”
With the fairy tale from the butterfly dream dissolving, my mind separated from my father’s, who seemed to have regained his senses ages ago.
Of course, just because his consciousness came back, it didn’t mean he was okay.
“Huff! Hah! Ah, how can this be….”
Look at my father’s expression, completely lost and out of it.
In that moment, I genuinely felt pity for him.
My wife is a mystery monster, my kids carry the traits of that monster.
Everything I believed was true love turned out to be an illusion crafted by a cosmic demon.
In the past, my father couldn’t accept such truths and chose forgetfulness.
Now that forgetfulness was lifted, the demon stood before my father once more.
“You must now pay the final price.”
“Aah…. Please… please…!”
My father couldn’t even ask what the price was.
He had already lost his mind, drowning in despair, suffering under a distant fate.
My ‘mother’s’ next words sounded more like an inevitable decree of fate than an expression of emotion.
“What I bestowed upon you, the most valuable thing, will shatter….”
The most precious thing my mother has given to my father!
The moment I heard that, I knew what the final price my father had to pay was.
Me. Us.
It’s me and my siblings!
In the next moment, an incomprehensible force began to tighten around my neck like rough shackles.
“Ugh…!”
I can’t resist.
The butterfly dream, the inheritance, the blessing – no power could save me now.
Would it have been different if I had my teammates with me?
Not a chance! I should be thankful I’m the only one left here now.
Just then, ready to face my impending death, a calm voice spoke up.
“Stay calm.”
“…”
“Don’t think of yourself like a mortal. You still have another chance, don’t you?”
“…”
“It’ll hurt a bit, but you have time to think.”
I felt something strange in the ‘mother’s’ attitude, as if she were advising me.
After all, she’s the one causing my death right now!
The first thought that popped into my head amidst the pain was about the prisoner.
In the Cursed Room, a prisoner can hardly move freely.
If it were possible, a proper progress couldn’t be established in the first place.
The reasons vary from room to room, but prisoners are generally restrained.
Yet, a prisoner is a being of intelligence that far exceeds that of a human.
So they often attempt to overcome such constraints.
The master of Room 104 devised a strategy stating, “Solve it. If you obtain the inheritance, that will be my victory.”
Adravita of Room 203 devised a strategy stating, “If the participant’s death ends the room, then I won’t let anyone die forever.”
So what could be my mother’s strategy then?
…
This very situation itself.
Why am I dying?
It’s not that my mother is currently killing me with her own hands.
Think back to the curse my father heard when he first met the king of Is a long, long time ago.
“Silence. Forget. Obey. I will give you three chances.”
This arrangement is happening now because my father is breaking those three promises.
Once the Cursed Room begins, the prisoner cannot act recklessly.
In other words, my mother set up mines long before the game began.
Perhaps my entire existence is an arrangement from the other side.
An arrangement finely tuned for a game, prepared at the desired place and time.
“Do you think you understand something?”
I felt a gaze looking down on me.
At that moment, oddly enough, I realized something too.
I don’t know my mother’s name.
I don’t even know how she looks.
Even though we’re making eye contact, I can’t recognize her.
Will I see the truth if I look through the flute?
Well, it might be even riskier to look.
In the midst of my pain, I forced myself to mumble a few words.
“No matter how great you are, I’m still in the palm of Buddha.”
Words filled with despair, bewilderment, and a slight rebellious spirit.
The response was simple.
“I know that too.”
“…”
“The one who cries out for the Three Thousand Worlds is clinging to a thoroughly empty dream. But indeed, he is the most supreme being in the universe.”
“…”
“Any more to say?”
Feeling increasingly weak, I forced myself to speak.
“So what will happen now?”
I didn’t expect an answer.
But surprisingly, a response came back.
“Not an ascent, but a descent.”
A descent?
The final realization came to me in the depths of consciousness.
My mother’s ‘expression’ – I don’t even know how I’m perceiving this! – contained peculiar emotions.
Regret.
Disappointment.
“This wasn’t what you hoped for…”
This was my last will.
*
— Zzzzzt!
Just as if the power was cut, observations directed at Eunsol were forcibly halted.
The observations towards Songee cut off long ago in the underground ruins of Gangwon.
Ultimately, Kain sighed and pulled his eyes away from the telescope.
“First of all, it seems there’s no one to observe.”
The frantic expression on Miro’s face instantly led her to speak up.
“If we wait longer! Mooksung might turn back time! Then—”
“Then will Songee and Eunsol un-die and observations start again? That might be the case. But not now.”
“…”
“Let’s wait a bit. I think the telescope will make a sound when time resumes.”
As Kain’s words put a pause on the observation room, Sanghyun, who had been quietly standing, muttered.
“How shocking.”
“…”
“I can hardly remember when I’ve been so astonished. Having gone through numerous events at the hotel, I thought I wouldn’t bat an eye….”
“…”
“Is Eunsol not human? A being conceived by a prisoner? From Is?”
“I don’t know. Eunsol doesn’t seem sure herself.”
“Not sure?”
“For now, Is beings are entities unbound by physical forms.”
“Well then, Eunsol’s body seems to indeed be human. What about her soul?”
“Think back to the first attempt. Didn’t the beings of Is still get tangled if they stole a human body?”
“There hasn’t been any signs that the blessing of Affinity works on Eunsol, right?”
“If it had, Songee would’ve known.”
“Hmm….”
A murky situation they couldn’t conclude.
Soon, Kain tossed in another thought.
“Just before the observation was cut off, Eunsol said something interesting.”
“Interesting?”
“She said, ‘This wasn’t what you hoped for…’”
“Huh?”
At that moment, Seungyub, who had been looking through Kain’s notes every time he changed shifts, spoke up.
“Here, here! Kain, look at this!”
Seungyub pointed to a spot where the sentences read as follows.
“Finally, the chance has come.”
“It’s regrettable that it’s not the child first prepared, but this is fate.”
“With this, everyone shall have a glorious ending.”
“This was something Songee muttered just before the observation was cut off.”
“Evidently, Songee parroted what she overheard from the prisoner. Of course, this was something meant for us to hear.”
Kain pondered for a moment and then seemed to find it amusing.
“What Songee heard, what Eunsol heard. Combining both stories gives a clearer picture.”
With that, the gazes of the other three turned toward Kain.
“Why did the situation deviate from the king of Is’s intentions? Because it was Songee, not Eunsol, who ended up underground in Gangwon.”
“Hmm!”
“Let’s think from the prisoner’s perspective. The basis for guiding the participants underground in Gangwon would be the chairperson’s past memories, right?”
Naturally, no one argued Kain’s claim that the chairperson’s memories were also the ‘prisoner’s arrangement.’
“The chairperson happens to be Eunsol’s father. So he placed the appropriate basis right next to Eunsol.”
At that point, Sanghyun nodded his head.
“They were trying to guide Eunsol to the underground in Gangwon.”
“Yet, our real progress was different. Realizing there was a sealed portion in the chairperson’s memories, Eunsol decided she wouldn’t leave him.”
“Instead, Songee went to the underground in Gangwon.”
“No matter how smart the prisoner may be, they couldn’t foresee this. Why? The other participant they didn’t know about was involved as a variable at the arranging point. That’s their limit.”
The prisoner’s arrangement, the prisoner’s limit.
At that, Miro looked a bit dazed as if struck.
“The limit of the king of Is….”
“Room 301 still holds many questions, but at least now we know ‘what the prisoner hopes for.’ The king of Is hopes for Eunsol to go to underground in Gangwon. Songee goes? They begin something with an unsatisfactory attitude!”
“Sounds like a failure.”
“They will fail. By the time they talked with Eunsol, they had probably already failed.”
After wrapping up that explanation, Kain added one last sentence.
“But we must all remember: the aforementioned scenario is the ending the king of Is desires. Whether that also results in a positive outcome for us, well, we’ll have to wait and see.”
As Kain finished his explanation, Sanghyun unknowingly dropped his mouth open, and soon realized Miro was reflecting a similar reaction beside him.
It seemed Kain wasn’t particularly aware of it, but…
Sanghyun and Miro thought it was only natural for Kain to discuss the prisoner’s limits in such a matter of fact way; it was a different kind of thrilling.
“Anyway, let’s wait. As you know, the Cursed Room is still in progress.”
*
– Kim Mooksung
—
— Vrooom!
Driving frantically through the streets of Seoul, I thought about Eunsol.
I doubt I’ll manage to meet her.
“Phew…”
Songee and Ahri broke contact in the underground of Gangwon.
Elena also ditched during the escape.
I couldn’t get in touch with Eunsol anymore either.
The last one who stayed with me, Jinchul, got out of the car about ten minutes ago to handle an unknown attack.
At this point, it felt like I was the only one left to escape.
— Rumble!
Once again, a strange roaring sound reverberated throughout the city!
“…”
This time it was different from before.
It wasn’t just a sound erupting; it was as if waves brushed against my skin, sweeping across the area.
Soon, absurdities began to unfold everywhere around me.
— Bang! Boom! Ahhh!
Cars that were perfectly fine suddenly collided with each other on the road, slamming onto the sidewalk and hitting people.
I even saw a bus deliberately crash into a building!
It was complete hell on Earth!
“Is that enough?”
I inadvertently opened my mouth only to realize no one was around me.
Regardless, it felt like the right timing now.
Surely, those out there witnessing this must have figured out a lot!
Thinking that, I opened my left hand.
“…”
A coin emitting a mysterious light – One More Chance.
With a ‘click!’ I could restart my second chance.
But then, a fear crept in.
“… The cost of using reversal.”
What form would the cost of reversal take in the Cursed Room?
I don’t know.
But I have to accept it.
— Ding!
Let there be light.
Thus, a second chance was granted to all life.
*
– “Kim Mooksung (Communication) -> Kim〿Sung (So 〿)”
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