Escaping the Mystery Hotel

0% – Park Seungyub

Ahri-noona and I, who came down from the mountain range, received a grand welcome. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

It was embarrassing to say with my own mouth, but Ahri-noona was different from me, who was hard to distinguish from a neighborhood kid unless the doctor or Perro said, “This is a Divine One.”

Beauty that would make anyone’s eyes widen and an unknowable mysteriousness instantly captivated the soldiers waiting below the mountain range.

Soon, the people kneeling and praying increased whenever Noona passed by.

In the evening, a hotel party meeting started after 300 years.

***Noona spoke about what she thought we should do to resolve the room, “What is the curse of Room 203 and how can we resolve it? Long ago, Kain found the answer to this question in the room’s title.”

“New Beginning!”

“Right. Kain’s interpretation was that the situation itself where humanity’s future fell into the primordial mire was the curse, and rescuing humanity from this situation was the resolution.”

“But aren’t those conclusions drawn from looking at fake records left by the Convict?”

“Your point is correct, Seungyub. But have you heard this saying? Skilled con artists don’t tell 100% lies. They mix 1 part lie with 9 parts truth.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“The records left weren’t completely false. Also, Kain has the power of ‘Scenario Comprehension’. If the Convict had left completely nonsensical records, there would have been contradictions with the content shown in ‘Scenario Comprehension’, and Kain would have felt a sense of discomfort too.”

“That means...”

“I think Kain’s interpretation itself that I mentioned earlier is true. The curse is humanity’s future being ruined, and ending this situation is the resolution. Just the methodology of ‘escaping on a spaceship’ was wrong.”

After saying that, Noona slightly bowed her head towards the doctor.

“Fortunately, our great high priest, humanity’s new progenitor, has resolved 80% of this problem. Thank you.”

It was the first time I had seen Noona praise someone like this. Sensing that, the doctor smiled slightly, “Ho ho, well, this kind of praise is unlike Miss Ahri.”

“Although I haven’t seen the ‘City of Light’ myself, I could tell just by looking at the armor and weapons worn by the soldiers outside. This is clearly enough to be called a civilization. Surely the Hotel wouldn’t expect some kind of industrial revolution too.”

“But there’s still a great danger.”

The City of Light raised by the doctor had a serious threat they couldn’t overcome with their power alone.

“You all remember Miro’s starting point, the hatchery, right?”

“Yes.”

“300 years ago, we thought that place was just where Divine Ones were created, but over the long years since then, we’ve learned much more.”

Divine Ones born in the hatchery were moved across the entire continent by wasp-like monsters. It was truly an admirable continent-wide transportation system.

Was there a need to move only Divine Ones with that transportation system?

“The hatchery is both the birthplace of Divine Ones and the source of monsters filling the continent.”

Kain-hyung found interesting information in the process of dealing with monsters using the power of Possession. It was that unidentified tentacles parasitized normal animals’ bodies to create monsters.

How on earth did they spread those tentacles across the whole world?

“I’ve confirmed countless times over the long years. On dark nights, wasps coming down from the sky sprinkled writhing flesh on the world. That flesh crawled across the ground on its own and burrowed into the bodies of nearby animals.”

To resolve Room 203, we needed to raise civilization in the primitive world and destroy the hatchery that created monsters threatening civilization.

We had already finished the former, so we just needed to do the latter.

At that moment, Ahri-noona opened her mouth, “Let’s wake up the others too.”

“Do you mean Eunsol and Senior? Of course it’s necessary, but... The distance is very far.”

The doctor unfolded the “continent map”—to the astonishment of Ahri-noona and I—and showed the locations of Noona and Grandpa.

We needed to move at least hundreds of kilometers.

“Just in case, I’ll mention this, but this room isn’t the 21st century now. It means we can’t import food for a hundreds of kilometers march from America or China.”

I understood this too. It meant to take the army that distance, we needed to go back to the city and gather food while enduring for 1-2 years.

“No need to bring the army. I’ll go alone.”

With those words, Noona simply raised her finger. A blue flash briefly appeared at her fingertip.

“Then, we’ll wait for that time—“

“No, don’t wait, you head to the hatchery too. It’s not a room with tight time limits, but it would be good to move efficiently. Perro can find your location, anyway. And—“

Noona, who was about to say something while looking at the doctor, soon closed her mouth.

But there was no one here who didn’t understand what Noona was about to say.

The doctor’s thrice-repeated expulsion of coughed up phlegm mixed with blood during the meeting spoke volumes.

Perhaps the doctor didn’t have much time left.

As the meeting was ending, Noona asked the doctor, “When Seungyub came to wake me up, he was wearing the Protective Suit, where did you find the Protective Suit?”

“Over the past years, I approached the mountain range three times to wake up Ahri. In the end, I couldn’t break through those damn robots and came back each time... But it wasn’t without results.”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

“This is personal curiosity, but... Do you have something like a ‘history book’?”

“We do have something like that.”

“Could I get one?”

The doctor tilted his head and asked back, “Are you curious about such things?”

Noona spoke, unlike usual, in a somewhat emotional voice, “Someday when we leave this room, the city you built will crumble along with the room.”

“...”

“I want to engrave it in my mind before that. So I can remember this great achievement for a very... long time.”

The doctor trembled for a moment as if struck by lightning. Whitish droplets flowed from his aged eyes.

“... Really, you’re saying many things that don’t suit you today.”

I almost cried along next to them. I didn’t know Ahri-noona had this side to her!

She spoke as if it was nothing in the mountain range, but did Noona’s cold heart waver seeing the doctor who had become an old man after coming down and the traces of the newly risen civilization?

Soon, Noona announced she would depart immediately without wasting time.

“Ah, Seungyub, you come too.”

“Okay.”

***Ahri-noona walking under the dark night sky was truly so mysterious I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Perhaps to add to that mysteriousness?

Perro, suddenly appearing from the sky, perched on Noona’s shoulder.

“Perro! Where have you been again? The doctor said he wanted to see you, too.”

– Squawk!

“Was Perro not usually in the city?”

“No. He said Perro always left somewhere and didn’t come back often. Maybe he was looking for a way to wake us up?”

“Maybe. It’s probably not a coincidence that Perro was next to you as soon as you woke up from the cryosleep facility.”

Perro waited for us for hundreds of years like the doctor. Thinking that made my heart swell.

At that moment, Noona suddenly said to me, “I don’t know.”

“What?”

Soon, Noona’s expression started changing in various ways.

First, the smiling expression I saw when we first met in the Mansion of Fear appeared, then the emotionless doll she often showed normally appeared.

The emotional literary girl-like expression she showed in the conference room earlier flashed by, and the playful look she often showed when with Kain-hyung also passed by.

Seeing her truly ever-changing expression, I sensed Noona had fallen into very complex thoughts.

“What on earth are you thinking about?”

“...Many thoughts. For example, should I leave alone, leaving only you behind?”

“Haha! No need to worry. The doctor is here too! Don’t worry about me and bring Eunsol-noona and Grandpa Mooksung—“

“I won’t bring both of them.”

“What?”

“There’s no time for that. You saw the doctor coughing, right?”

“...Then who are you thinking of bringing?”

“Eunsol. I felt it during the meeting. In this matter, there will definitely come a moment when Eunsol’s flute is needed.”

She felt it during the meeting? Was there such content?

“It seems like another conversation I don’t know about has passed.”

“That can happen.”

“Can’t you just explain it to me?”

“Sometimes not knowing is medicine.”

“There’s also a saying that knowledge is power.”

“You get weaker the more you know.”

“...”

Noona’s expression that had been changing complexly fixed on one. The emotion contained in that expression was “worry”.

Noona is worried about me. Why on earth?

– Pat!

A soft hand brushed my head.

“Take care. I’ll come back as soon as possible.”

“Have a safe trip.”

Soon, Noona disappeared into the darkness.

***After I, the doctor, and the army of the City of Light started advancing towards the hatchery, we met monsters almost every day.

The content that came out in the meeting a few days ago felt real anew. Without burning the source of these monsters, humanity’s new future cannot sprout in this land.

“Defensive formation!”

– Clank!

When a house-sized ox with six legs started charging while raising dust, the “Great General”, who looked like the doctor’s descendant no matter how one looked at him, loudly announced the start of battle.

The soldiers didn’t fear even seeing the monster’s charge and moved huge shields with wheels to the front.

Soon, with a tremendous collision sound, the shields were pushed back greatly.

But they were only pushed back, the shields themselves were still intact, and rather the ox groaned in pain and sat back.

Immediately, the soldiers started throwing sharp javelins, and in less than 10 minutes, the ox became a lump of meat.

“Wow...!”

“Seungyub, how is it?”

I was watching that magnificent scene riding a cart with the doctor on a hill, and undisguisable pride appeared on the doctor’s face next to me.

“It’s amazing!”

“What’s so amazing?”

I laughed for a moment.

He’s just fishing for praise, right?

I heard that people became rather childish as they got older, it must be true.

But for someone who had cultivated such a civilization for hundreds of years in reality, not a game, they couldn’t help but be moved seeing that majestic scene.

“It’s amazing that they made shields strong enough to block the monster’s charge, and it’s amazing that the soldiers face such monsters without fear.”

“You probably don’t know how long it took to reach that level...”

“Doctor...”

“I showed an emotional side again. It’s embarrassing, but leading the soldiers I raised and advancing with you all! I’ve dreamed of this moment for 300 years.”

After that, the forces of the City of Light advanced truly unstoppably.

Worms with rock-hard skin appearing from the soil, wild boars as big as cars with six molars, large pigeons with four wings.

No monster could stop the legion.

If there was anything slowing down the legion’s advance, it was food or water, not monsters. Of course, even the world’s best army had to stop without food and drink.

What was I doing during this heart-swelling period?

...I did nothing. Really.

From the beginning, the doctor didn’t expect me to fight monsters, and rather told me not to leave his side and always put me on the cart.

Only the soldiers from the city fought hard.

“Well, Noona was very worried, but I guess she didn’t expect this situation.”

“Ahri was very worried?”

“Yes. She said she was worried about leaving only me behind.”

“I see... She probably didn’t trust the legion’s strength. I understand.”

Three days later, scouts announced that we had finally entered the malevolent god’s domain. The legion stopped marching and entered rest.

“Now let’s wait for Ahri and Eunsol. It shouldn’t take long. After the two join, we can all burn that terrible land together.”

I felt an intense longing in the doctor’s eyes as he used somewhat rough expressions unlike usual.

“Doctor.”

“Yes, Seungyub?”

“This room is really coming to an end now, right?”

The doctor, who had been struggling even to raise his body from the cart, gritted his teeth and stood up for the first time to hit my head.

“Ouch!”

“Seungyub. Never, and I mean never, say such words again.”