Chapter 683 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘Origin of the Species’ (27)
—
– Kim Ahri
Around lunchtime, four colleagues gathered in a quiet spot—the house of Mooksung and me, Room 301.
The moment we faced each other, Jinchul cautiously spoke to Mooksung.
“Um… Agent.”
“What’s up?”
“The conversation window… is a bit, um…”
“What? Is the lag too severe?”
“… It’s slightly annoying.”
The conversation window isn’t completely unusable.
Just as Jinchul said, it’s a bit uncomfortable.
What’s really concerning isn’t the inconvenience of the conversation window but the fact that ‘there is a problem with the blessing itself.’
That raises the alarm—could something have happened to Mooksung?
“Are you okay?”
“Of course. Do I look like I have a problem?”
“I’m relieved to hear that.”
What’s the cost of One More Chance?
In the Gateway Room, it was about thirty years of aging.
In reality, it meant losing the qualification to be a Regressor.
As for the Cursed Room…
“Hey, hey! We’re all busy people, so let’s talk about work.”
Right, Mooksung is right. Let’s get to it.
Sitting around pondering won’t lead to any answers.
“Grandpa, am I supposed to be busy with this at all?”
“Haha! Elena is right.”
If things had gone as planned, we shouldn’t have been able to gather like this in the middle of the day.
I was supposed to help Songee, Elena was to protect Eunsol, and Mooksung and Jinchul were supposed to keep an eye on Songee’s parents.
However, plans changed, and it all became meaningless chatter.
Plan B was for Eunsol and Songee to repeat their past lives and realize their original wishes.
It sounds plausible, but one significant issue has arisen.
“Didn’t we, like, lose direction?”
“True.”
“Honestly, yeah.”
“Hmmm… I’m not sure what to do now.”
Approaching Eunsol feels dicey, and Songee indicates she’ll handle things on her own.
Thanks to that, the roles for me, Elena, Mooksung, and Jinchul have become hazy.
Anyway, since we’ve met, we should share the information we’ve gathered.
I told them all about Songee.
As I finished speaking, Jinchul looked worried.
“Did Songee report to the Management Bureau a little while ago?”
“Yeah.”
“What happens now? Are those aliens going to come and kill her?”
“Probably…”
“No way we’re just going to sit on our hands, right?”
The answer came from Mooksung.
“Let it be. Wasn’t this plan inherently dangerous?”
“That’s…”
“Even if she risks it, realizing her wish is the goal. Even if Songee dies at the hands of aliens, it’s what we need to do.”
“What if she asks for help?”
“Then we should help. After all, it’s only a five-minute walk, right? If you run or Ahri flies, it won’t take more than a minute.”
So basically, if Songee dies, that’s that, but if she shouts for help, we’ll come running.
That’s how the conversation about Songee wrapped up.
The topic shifted naturally to Eunsol.
“Executive Eunsol’s Shanghai project was a failure. So, she decided to step back for some rest and introspection due to the immense stress.”
That’s how it’s publicly stated.
“The reasoning sounds solid. It’s common for people to take time off after messing up a business deal.”
Elena pulled out her phone and showed a message.
“See this?”
Since Elena had been helping Eunsol from the get-go, she had been in contact with Eunsol until yesterday.
“She’s planning a trip to Seoraksan with the three of us. By now, they’re probably already hiking?”
Mooksung responded incredulously.
“A trip? Just the three of you? With who?”
“With her mom and second brother.”
“I can get the mom, but second brother? What’s with that?”
“According to her, they had a big fight at work, so Mom suggested a short domestic trip to mend things between them…”
After a moment of silence, Mooksung muttered.
“… This whole situation seems a bit off.”
Elena immediately responded.
“Come on, this is the Cursed Room! We’re on the verge of the apocalypse, and they decide to go on a trip? Even if she’s absorbed in being Executive Eunsol…”
“That’s true! There are probably aliens lurking around, and Eunsol’s actions seem way too chill, right?”
Jinchul made a puzzled expression and said, “Is it really that strange? I mean, in this Plan B scenario, it’s normal for them not to behave like participants.”
“That’s…”
“If you look at it as Eunsol the participant, not Eunsol Lee, the third daughter of the chairman Lee Seokhwan of Daeyang Group, there’s nothing odd about her actions, right?”
“Hmm, Jinchul, you’ve got a point. Ahri, what do you think?”
My thoughts align somewhat with Jinchul’s but with a twist.
“Basically, I agree with Jinchul. They’ve abandoned their participant identities, right? No sense of crisis or awareness of the Is species doesn’t hint at foolishness but rather shows seasoned method acting. They’re doing well. However…”
I turned to my colleagues, ready to ask my question.
“I’m genuinely asking, but is it common for grown adults over thirty, in a chaebol’s top executive positions, to go on a ‘reconciliation trip’ with their mom?”
The surroundings fell silent for a moment.
“Eunsol and that guy aren’t kids! Both are high-ranking executives in a conglomerate, aren’t they? Why would they go on a reconciliation trip? By Mom’s arrangement? What’s up with that?”
Soon, my colleagues started relaying their tragic confessions.
“I don’t know. I only remember running from a dictator with my family.”
“I don’t have siblings and have never worked in a regular company…”
“Hey, hey, I don’t even remember what my parents looked like.”
They all have less social knowledge than me, born in a hotel.
After a big sigh, I finally said what I really meant.
“Haah… anyway, what I’m saying is this: logically breaking down Eunsol’s actions isn’t unreasonable. Yet there’s something odd when you look at it all together.”
“Hmm… if that’s how you feel, Ahri…”
“Was that why you told Songee not to contact Eunsol?”
“Exactly. Something is off with Eunsol right now. It feels like she’s being played by some gigantic invisible hand!”
That made Mooksung’s face turn pale.
“Originally, Eunsol was supposed to protect us using the Flute of Rest. If she’s being manipulated by the Is species, that’s a serious problem.”
“On the flip side, I also wonder… Is this how she was before coming to the hotel?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if Eunsol’s original state was being played by the Is species, then this situation is just something we need to observe. That’s Plan B.”
As we dove into this conversation, Mooksung brought up an unsettling point.
“Hey~! Just saying, but isn’t Plan B feasible only because we’re in a hotel?”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it! If this were reality, and we were part of the Management Bureau? No matter how things played out, Eunsol would be a target.”
“…”
It’s one of those statements that’s laughable to take seriously yet chilling enough to feel uncomfortable.
The atmosphere grew tense in an instant.
Sensing the chilly vibe, Mooksung added a defensive remark.
“I mean, I’m just talking about how the Management Bureau operates. If they see Eunsol showing gaps while being toyed by aliens, even if they drive out the Is species, they’d have no choice but to eliminate her. Because—”
“She’s already fallen.”
“… Exactly. So, even if we risk corruption as we gather information through plans like Plan B, it’s nearly impossible to execute in reality. Regardless of success or failure, agents or staff involved are classified as targets.”
“It’s only possible in a hotel.”
“It’s feasible only in a hotel.”
Here we are, Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘Origin of the Species.’
Inside the Hotel Pioneer.
Even if Eunsol is ‘corrupted’ by the Is species, it’s fine.
As long as we can escape from Room 301, all problems will resolve.
No matter how much Eunsol mutates, falls, twists, or becomes corrupted…
The hotel will revert all the negative changes occurring from Room 301 back to zero.
*
– Lee Eunsol
From the morning, the sudden hiking trip had begun.
“Phew…”
While I sighed, an endless stream of complaints started next to me.
“It’s your fault.”
“…”
“Ugh! It’s all because of you, Eunsol!”
Since earlier, my brother has been grumbling about how he was dragged to this place because of me.
The situation itself is juvenile and absurd.
I’m flabbergasted, but won’t my colleagues find this ridiculous too?
Let’s break it down, piece by piece.
First, it’s funny that two grown adults in their thirties fought at work, but it’s even funnier that they decided to mend things with a trip.
Second, as soon as we reached Seoraksan, my brother has been complaining to me for two hours straight. His elementary-school level attitude is hilarious.
Third, I figured out this childish flow, but there’s no way to stop it. Why? Because Mom suggested the trip.
“How did I end up hiking with this idiot?”
“… Because Mom suggested the trip.”
Yeah, that’s my family for you.
From the outside, they’d say, “Wow! Chairman Lee Seokhwan is a giant in South Korea! So charismatic!” but…
Inside the house, Mom is the law.
It’s outrageous for two executives from a conglomerate to take a forced vacation?
If my brother and I had planned this trip and told Dad, we would’ve been accused of being out of our minds.
When Mom made the decision, nobody, including Dad, dared to protest.
“Hey, are you running to Mom just because I said a few words?”
“… I haven’t told Mom what you and I discussed.”
“Don’t lie. How else would she know about this reconciliation nonsense?”
“True.”
“Seriously! Didn’t I just get worked up for a bit?”
“…”
“Hey, am I the bad guy here? When I made mistakes before, you—”
“Can you shut up for a bit?”
If you just look at our conversation, no one would think these words are coming from two high-ranking executives in a conglomerate.
They’d consider us immature siblings who can’t act their age.
The funny thing is that I’m oddly enjoying this situation.
It feels like both my brother and I have returned to our teenage years.
“Hey, have you gotten a lot stronger physically than before?”
“…”
“Back then, you’d be panting near the entrance, right?”
“I wasn’t that weak, to begin with.”
Hey, I’m a hotel participant.
If I’m panting after a couple of hours of hiking, it would be super embarrassing, right?
Meanwhile, my brother seems to have run out of grievances, and he started rambling about random things.
Like how his laptop broke down recently.
“You know my laptop, right? It started having some issues recently. Suddenly, the screen cracked, or a black grid pattern popped up on the display.”
“Why?”
“No idea. Virus? Malware? There could be plenty of potential causes.”
Typical of many men, my brother is also an IT gadget enthusiast.
So, he said a little pompously, “Eunsol, do you know what the most universal countermeasure is when a computer faces issues?”
“Call the secretary.”
“… Not that.”
“When you call the secretary, everything gets fixed.”
“Seriously! You sometimes really don’t get it!”
“Oh come on. I’ll listen, so just tell me.”
He shook his head and continued.
“It’s a system restore.”
“A system restore?”
“Let’s use the flu as an example. Just because you have a sore throat doesn’t mean the issue is only with your uvula. You get that, right?”
“I’d assume so. While the pain might arise from a narrow area, the infection likely occurs throughout the bronchial tube.”
“Computers work similarly. While visible symptoms might just be a few broken windows, the actual issues can often be much broader. Hundreds or thousands of codes could be twisted and twisted as a result.”
“Hmm…”
“In fact, issues like these don’t always arise from viruses or malware. Often, normal usage over time leads to accumulating problems.”
“What are you implying?”
“When issues pop up in a computer, pinpointing precisely where the problem lies can be incredibly challenging. Fixing that specific part may lead to issues cropping up elsewhere. That’s why in many cases, the convenient and universal solution is a ‘system restore.’”
“…”
“Resetting the computer to a time when it was functioning well. Nowadays, technology is advanced enough to preserve data like photos, videos, and documents while only restoring the operating system, drivers, and programs.”
Just because there’s an issue with A doesn’t mean A is the only problem.
In many cases, larger areas experience big and small cracks that manifest as A.
Thus, the most universal solution is a system restore.
Unapologetically rolling back the computer to the time it was problem-free.
Furthermore, technology has improved so that you can restore programs while retaining documents, photos, and videos.
“… In some ways, computers and humans are pretty similar.”
“But people lack that system restore function.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“What?”
“Not really.”
Thoughts about the hotel raced through my mind.
While we’re navigating the Cursed Room, we’re facing many issues both physically and mentally.
The hotel’s reaction to this seems more or less similar to how a computer’s administrator would respond.
‘Data’—meaning the memories created in the Cursed Room are preserved, but the rest is ‘reset’ to the point of entering the Cursed Room.
In that sense, a system restore is a universally excellent response, whether for managing a computer or a human.
I was nodding in slight intrigue when my brother brought up the next topic.
“However, there’s a weakness to system restores.”
“A weakness?”
“Viruses and malicious programs that exploit this weakness are everywhere.”
Is there a weakness in the solution of rolling back to a good time?
“What is it?”
“You really know nothing about computers. This is basic knowledge!”
“… Could you stop being so condescending?”
Jinwook shrugged and explained.
“Let’s say the restore point is set for December 1st. If you keep using the computer and you notice problems towards the end of December and then roll it back to December 1st, all the issues from December disappear. Got it?”
“Sure.”
“But what about the problems that arose before December?”
“…”
“The malware was already slipped in before the restore point. It could’ve been there in October or September, or even earlier, like in January.”
“…”
“In that case, even system restoration will be ineffective.”
If malware was already installed before the restoration point, it’s difficult to fix it with a system restore.
To the system administrator, the very ‘infected state’ might be its original state.
“… That’s a chilling thought. What do you do in such a case?”
“That would be—”
Right at that moment.
“Eunsol, Jinwook. Should we take a break here for a bit?”
The cheerful voice of my mother echoed from the front.
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