Chapter 704 – Room 301, The Cursed Room – ‘Origin of Species’ (38) Fin
—
As I watched Miro fidgeting with the time lender, an essential element of our current plan, raindrops fell around us.
In the meantime, other colleagues began to gather. First were Songi and Jinchul, who had worked all day to trick Eunsol.
Soon after, Elena and the doctor joined us, who had been focused on chasing away the Administration Bureau.
Ari wasn’t among them.
From the context, it seemed like she had been by Eunsol’s side until the very end and had already lost her life.
… It’s okay. It’s really okay.
Once Room 301 is done for, she’ll come back to life anyway.
“Mookseong.”
“…”
I mean, it’s not something to say in this situation, but it’s a bit strange when Miro openly talks to me informally like that.
Yeah, I admit a few facts.
Originally, agents’ appearances and ages don’t match, and Miro’s is no exception.
Agent Miro actually has more experience and age than even Ari.
Isn’t it a bit strange that I’m on the younger side for an agent?
…
Anyway, this is about Agent Miro.
Can this little brat in front of me even be considered in that context?
Let’s be honest; this kid has no memory of her time as an agent!
If we talk about her memories before meeting us, the only ones will be from that school with the monster Santa.
By that logic, it feels like I’ve lived at least ten times more than her!
“…”
“Hey! I’m talking, why are you ignoring me?”
Forget it, it’s GG. I’m giving up.
Does this ridiculous girl even have the concept of hierarchy in her head?
She seems like the type to realize her past and think, “Oh, I can treat everyone flippantly and have fun!”
There’s no answer. It’s impossible to talk sense into her.
There’s no way I can win a battle of wits with someone like this.
The hardest person to beat in the whole world isn’t the smart guy.
Kain couldn’t get the upper hand on her. Neither could Ari.
“I was thinking. What’s up?”
“When will the room end?”
“… I don’t know.”
“It’s cold. And… just a little sad.”
“Sad because Eunsol died?”
“Yeah. I feel like I did something wrong. No, right? Eunsol agreed to this whole thing, right?”
“…”
It’s a bit admirable that she even thinks about such things. Isn’t that a surprisingly deep thought for her?
If this is how she is, maybe Miro before the distortion had more depth to her character than I thought –
“Oh, come on! If I had just summoned Eunsol from the roof and dropped her instead, we wouldn’t even have to see her corpse!”
“What kind of crazy is this?!”
“Why only me?!”
Aaargh! Are you sad about deceiving a comrade?
Or do you just hate the gruesome sight of someone dying in front of you?
Can you at least pretend to be nice?
Aside from my astonishment, I too was gradually growing curious.
Why isn’t the room ending?
It’s true that there are quite a few remaining threats.
Two Dukes, and the Is race is still intact.
On top of that, there’s still the existence of the king’s main body lurking around.
Although now, it’s more like a spirit with lost power.
Thinking like this may suggest there’s still a lot to do, but…
If we think of it hotel-style, it’s technically over.
To begin with, the hotel doesn’t demand we “solve all problems of the cursed room.”
The direct cause of the end is the blessing ceremony, and that ceremony is a phenomenon created by the King of Is.
The Is race? Separately from being evil, they’re not the cause of the apocalypse.
Only the King of Is thought to go to heaven to save the children unable to ascend.
Even the Dukes, who are the higher beings of the Is race, were entirely unaware of this fact.
If it weren’t for the king, they would have never come to Earth.
The Is race will, when the time comes, depart from this “stuffed little star” once more for the cosmos.
If their plans had worked, the King of Is would have perished in heaven.
The remaining King of Is on the ground hasn’t perished, but lacks the power to attempt a blessing again.
“…”
No matter how I think about it, it should have to end.
It’s been a while since Eunsol died, and by now, a resolution should have popped up!
Could it be that for some unknown reason, what happened in the celestial realm has failed?
“M-Mookseong! Did we fail? No way, right?”
Other nearby colleagues began to harden their expressions.
“It seems like things have gone awry.”
“Y-You must be kidding! Eunsol’s already dead!”
The startled reactions of the doctor and Elena.
“When did Eunsol die?”
“A few minutes ago.”
“What! There’s no way the King of Is could still be alive! Unless time has slowed down!”
Even Jinchul, usually so chill, was now ramped up with anxiety.
At that moment, I just felt dizzy as I looked up at the sky.
If Kain failed, then we have no other options.
There aren’t any other options!
Why?
— Saaah…!
“Oh, it’s coming!”
“Eeeeek! It’s a Duke!”
“Oh no!”
There are two more Dukes not too far away!
Just one comes, and we’re doomed, and there are two perfectly fine Dukes!
What kind of backup plan might they have?
The voices of the Dukes rang in my ears, making my head throb.
‘You tricked us!’
At that moment, I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
We tricked you? Let’s be straight here!
‘We agreed to destroy the blessing to save the Is race and humanity!’
The Dukes said yes in front of us, then decided in reality to ‘maintain the blessing but narrow its scope’!
A truly tear-jerking choice that lets them protect their kin without going against the king’s will.
If there’s a silver lining, it was that their choice was part of our plan!
We mustn’t destroy the blessing.
Instead, we narrow it down, stopping the apocalypse of humanity while pushing forward.
That’s how the King of Is can go to heaven.
That’s how we can kill the god!
We tricked each other.
The only difference is that those with deeper schemes emerged victorious.
Just then, Songi, who had looked exhausted moments before, started to grin.
She cupped her hands, covering her mouth halfway, and said,
“Oh dear, what could have happened to the King? Oh my, what should we do? This is a mess~! What are we to do?”
At that moment, I could picture a Duke clutching their neck as if they were a person saying,
‘Get lost, you crazy girl!’
At that instant, the atmosphere was on the verge of exploding.
— Boom!
The mighty sound reverberated through the universe.
*
“User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 18
Current Location: Floor 3, Lobby
Sage’s Advice: 0”
—
Han Kain
Three endless seconds.
Three seconds that felt like they would never end.
I never thought three seconds could stretch this long.
…
An eternity in a heartbeat.
It’s a combination of two words that cannot coexist, and yet it’s clear reality now.
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, I wasn’t shocked by what I saw anymore.
I had experienced the sensation before when Eunsol’s head slowly exploded, and the moon distorted time with its powers in reality.
In the realm of the great, even death isn’t an end, and time can stretch and compress like rubber at will.
…
In that long second, thoughts emerged.
I see countless waves of power.
The King of Is was attempting to perform an extremely complex miracle, and while I couldn’t grasp the process, I could guess the result.
The resurrection of a lion.
I poured all my strength into disrupting that miracle.
…
In the next two seconds, I grasped one piece of negative information and one piece of positive information.
What is the negative piece?
The thought that I could match the King of Is for three seconds was close to a delusion.
The reason I could fight him previously for three seconds was less about my greatness and more because the King had let me.
What were the King’s inner thoughts at that time? Perhaps something like,
‘Even if you’re a participant, you’ve shown this much talent as a mortal? What a wonderful spectacle!’
Fortunately, there’s also positive information.
This situation isn’t the same as fighting the King one-on-one for three seconds.
The King is trying to perform the profound miracle of resurrecting a lion, and my role is to hinder that miracle.
As the principles of the world always dictate, it’s much easier to break than to build.
Even someone who doesn’t understand semiconductors can ruin a computer by pouring cola on it.
Someone who knows nothing about how a car works can smash it into a wall and destroy it.
I don’t understand the principles behind the great magic of resurrecting a lion.
But it’s clear that if I crudely insert my power into the midst of the complicated magic, something will break.
…
In the long three seconds, I came up with a thought.
The board the King of Is constructed in Room 301 is truly extraordinary.
It creates a special human capable of containing the prisoner’s power.
This human is fated to become a participant in the hotel.
In the end, the malicious program planted in that vessel will activate, stripping him of his participant qualifications.
Such an intricate design is something I’ve never seen in any of the other rooms on the first or second floors.
If we had to compare, it might be equivalent to the master of Room 104, but honestly, the master wasn’t this elaborate.
Understanding the King’s plan, I also gained a crucial insight.
No matter how great they are, if they lose their ‘participant qualifications,’ they can’t endure in the celestial realm.
Because they can’t endure, they’re causing this uproar to regain qualifications.
Ironically, if it weren’t for the King, we’d struggle to notice this fact.
It’s something a participant could hardly figure out on their own.
Final question.
How much could a prisoner who lost their participant qualifications endure in the celestial realm?
The only answer we could gather on this was one.
We don’t know.
Of course, we had no clue, and consulting didn’t help; even the Owl seemed puzzled.
I don’t even think the prisoner himself would know.
The phenomenon we’re experiencing is, in several ways, an unknown territory for everyone involved.
…
The last four seconds.
I ended up holding out for a second longer than expected.
The positive information appeared to outweigh the negative one.
At this moment, I felt an overwhelming weight that seemed like it would break my whole body.
Above? Below? To the side?
No! Every direction.
An immense pressure bore down on me from all sides simultaneously.
It felt as if the weight of the stars would crush me into a dried fish.
In this excruciating pain, I barely realized.
This sensation isn’t mine!
It’s the sense of pressure felt by the King of Is, and I only momentarily misinterpreted it because part of my consciousness connected due to the collision.
What I felt was just a fraction of the immense burden he carries.
To put it metaphorically, it’s like a raindrop splashing in the Pacific Ocean, reeking of cosmic weight just by getting a droplet on me.
If this is the case, then how much weight is the King of Is truly feeling?
This is where the seemingly endless time comes to an end.
— Quack!
The king’s power, his ego, his soul – all instantly collapsed.
The being that had felt like a living supernova disintegrated in an instant!
The divine became a pathetic star, the pathetic star became a tiny planet, the tiny planet turned into a drifting rock in the universe.
In the end, what remained was cosmic dust, so inferior it’s almost embarrassing to call it a rock.
If a creature wandering on the ground falls into the unending depths of the sea and a whale-like huge body crumples like a crushed soda can, it would look just like this!
At the final moment, there wasn’t even a scream.
Only the cool breeze and pale corridor remained, lingering from the trace of the once great being crushed into a handful of dust under the heavenly weight.
With my head raised, I saw the display on the hotel wall reflecting my surroundings.
Eunsol, now a headless corpse, lay sprawled on the floor.
In front of her was a young man with a blank expression, almost in a daze.
At this moment, I finally realized.
A great being had died.
A god fell prey to the schemes of mere mortals.
“… Ah.”
“You have resolved it.
Finally, this moment has arrived!
Overcoming a gigantic giant with hands as tiny as a sprout is indeed an extraordinary achievement.
Although it’s more like trickery than a fair fight, the weak often need schemes to topple the strong, you see.
What a moment of reflection this is.
It feels like the plant you carefully nurtured in a greenhouse has finally bloomed, doesn’t it?
The moment it’s born, so much is intricately planned.
An inescapable conspiracy, an incomprehensibly grand board.
An apotheosis of someone who seemed eternally unshakeable has crumbled.
This is, in essence, the end of the cursed cycle rolling toward doom.
Perhaps, you came to the hotel precisely for this moment.
I understand what you all are thinking.
You’re undoubtedly looking forward to the reward, right?
Congratulations!
You’ve saved the world condemned to doom.
A commendable accomplishment, a happy family, immense fame – your adventures are about to bear fruit!”
“…?”
When I read the last sentence, my head was filled with a question mark.
So… what’s the reward again?
The adventures you’ve undertaken serve as the reward?
“…”
So, does that mean if I blow up the hotel with a nuclear missile, I’m completely innocent?
There might be plenty of epilogues to follow!
Every time a room ends, a myriad of thoughts flood my mind.
Maybe it could have been better written this way?
Or, perhaps this part could be described more effectively?
Naturally, even if I had written it differently, the thoughts would still arise.
Just as I found joy in recalling the content, I hope you readers found joy in reading it as well.
Thank you.
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