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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 102: Party Time (4) - Counseling on the Grimoire and Descent, Using Advice

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* Party Time, Day 1, Morning

- Han Ga-in

- Counseling on the Grimoire

The phenomena that occurred when using the Grimoire for Possession, the disappearance of the Status Window, and the timer.

“First, there’s a crucial reason I started thinking this way. Earlier, you said that obtaining the Grimoire gave you ‘immortality,’ right? If that’s true, then you’ve basically obtained a cheat code for escaping the hotel.

“You’re also different from the Apostle, the Grimoire’s original owner. He couldn’t leave the area around the House of Horror because he had to resurrect a god, and he had to carry out all sorts of actions for that resurrection.

“His purpose imposed regional and behavioral restrictions on him, which was why we could find him.

“You don’t have those same restrictions. If you possessed NPCs one after another and kept running endlessly somewhere in the world, could the Adversary kill you? Forget killing you, finding you would be difficult enough.

“Would the hotel allow a power that’s practically a cheat code for escape? There must be restrictions to prevent it. After hearing your explanation, I became certain.”

Was this what a second run through the hotel was like?

I hadn’t even considered it, despite being the one who gained the power. A-ri had thought of it right away.

If it had no restrictions, the ability to possess others was practically an automatic escape tool.

If I kept taking over NPC bodies and running endlessly somewhere in the world, how could the Adversary ever find me?

A-ri continued.

“This will get a little difficult, so listen carefully. What determines a person’s identity? Based on what is called mind-body dualism, Descartes argued that the human body and mind are separate, and that the pineal gland connects them.

“Of course, modern science says that theory is wrong. The mind is created by the brain, and the brain is clearly a physical organ. Scientifically speaking, separating body and mind has no meaning. Mind-body monism is the truth.

“What do you think?”

A question suddenly came in the middle of that difficult explanation.

Strictly speaking, I could use the Grimoire’s power to take over another being’s body.

My body and mind were therefore separated.

“Since my body and mind are separated right now, wouldn’t that make me closer to mind-body dualism, using your terms?”

“Don’t you think that’s strange?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Until just before you obtained the Grimoire, your ego was clearly the sum of electrical signals created by your brain. You were a mind-body monist. But the moment you obtained the Grimoire, you became a mind-body dualist who no longer depends on the brain?”

“Just explain it plainly.”

“Fine. When you use the Grimoire for Possession, you split into a body whose consciousness has left it and a mind that enters someone else’s body. Naturally, you think the ‘real Han Ga-in’ is the mind inside that other body, while your own body is just an empty shell.

“But is that really true? Your entire body is still sitting there separately. Even the brain that created your ego remains in that body.

“From another perspective, the ‘real Han Ga-in’ is the body left behind. The mind inside someone else’s body is a ghost-like being created when the Grimoire ‘copies’ the real Han Ga-in’s mind.”

I was starting to understand what she meant.

“But the body I leave behind can’t think.”

“How do you know that?”

I was instantly at a loss for words.

“In truth, the real Han Ga-in may still be thinking, only unable to move. When the copied mind returns from another person’s body to Han Ga-in’s body, the mind left behind may simply be overwritten.”

... That was a chilling explanation.

“Of course, remember that this is only my guess. Let’s return to the original question. Why does the Status Window disappear when you use Possession? What does the timer mean? This is what I think.

“The hotel considers you, after possessing someone else, no longer the ‘real Han Ga-in.’ Naturally, you can’t use the Status Window.

“Seen in that context, the timer takes on a different meaning. It’s the time until you’re declared dead.”

“I lose my eligibility as a participant?”

“If the hotel considers you no longer the ‘real Han Ga-in’ from the moment you possess someone else, then the real Han Ga-in effectively dies the moment you use Possession. But if the standard were that strict, you couldn’t use the Grimoire at all. So it gives you a one-hour grace period.

“The moment that time runs out, perhaps it judges that the real Han Ga-in has died and that the remaining ‘Han Ga-in who possessed someone else’ is just a fake copied from the original.”

Her long explanation could be summarized simply.

The hotel seemed to believe that I was no longer the real me after possessing someone else.

That was why I couldn’t use the Status Window, and A-ri guessed that if I didn’t return to my original body within an hour, the hotel would judge the ‘real Han Ga-in’ to be dead.

If that was true, I couldn’t use other people’s bodies to escape endlessly.

- Counseling on Descent

“Now I’ll tell you what I think about Descent. This is also connected to ‘your identity.’ What exactly is the Son of Heaven after Descent? Is he a completely separate being from you?

“If he were, the hotel would have judged you dead the moment you used Descent and wouldn’t have given you an Inheritance. Even after Descent, the hotel still judged you to be ‘participant Han Ga-in.’ No timer appeared, and you received an Inheritance after resolving the scenario.”

“Because my body remains the same?”

“That could be it, or it could have more complicated criteria.

“What I mean is, don’t think of yourself after Descent as being too separate from who you are now.

“I felt it while you were explaining it to me before. Right after Descent, you became deeply absorbed in thoughts related to shedding your shell, and you came to believe that you before and after Descent would be completely different.

“That thought itself may have changed you too much. The next time you use Descent, try thinking differently. Something like, ‘I am still myself!’”

A-ri’s explanation left me a little puzzled.

A-ri and Grandpa Mook-seong were both from the Management Bureau.

Wasn’t the Management Bureau an organization that opposed supernatural powers capable of threatening humanity?

The Son of Heaven had massacred countless civilians as soon as he descended, and he was a being of extreme arrogance.

“I thought you’d tell me not to use Descent if possible.”

“Because it’s such a dangerous power?”

“Yeah. It twists me mentally too.”

“If I told you not to use it, would you really refrain from using it? Even in a situation where we might all be wiped out and become wandering ghosts trapped in the hotel forever?”

“... I’d use it.”

“That’s why I won’t tell you not to use it. There’s no point. You’ll definitely use it when you’re in danger anyway. If it’s a power you’ll use regardless, then you should think about using it well.”

I was persuaded without much difficulty.

Like A-ri said, it was a power I would eventually use again.

There was no point in fearing it for no reason.

As she said, I should focus on using it well.

I decided I would change my mindset the next time I used it.

“Do you have any guess about the Lord’s intentions?”

“None at all. Honestly, I really don’t understand it either.”

“What exactly don’t you understand?”

“The Lord seems like a remarkable being, but the hotel is a place that locked beings like that inside a single room. The hotel is so incomprehensibly transcendent that it considers the Lord insignificant. So how could the Lord, trapped in one room, possibly grant power to participants and plot something?”

“...”

“It’s a performance in the palm of Buddha’s hand. What puzzles me is that the Lord must know that too. So I don’t understand. I don’t know what Buddha is thinking as he watches Sun Wukong perform in his palm, and I don’t know what Sun Wukong is thinking as he performs either.

“There’s only one conclusion I came to.”

“What conclusion?”

“Let’s avoid Room 104 if possible. We can already challenge the Gate Room, right? There’s no need to go somewhere that contains a Prisoner who has clearly been pulling some kind of trick. I think Room 104 could be more dangerous to us than the Gate Room right now.”

That brought the long counseling session to an end.

I summarized the advice and made notes in my Status Window.

- Grimoire

1. The hotel seems to consider me after Possession to be not real.

2. If Possession lasts longer than one hour, it will likely judge the ‘real Han Ga-in’ to be dead.

- Descent

1. It’s a power I’ll eventually use again in a crisis. Instead of fearing it, I should think about using it well.

2. Next time, instead of obsessing over the thought that I’ll change, I should think of a way to preserve my ego.

3. We should not go to Room 104 until we investigate the Lord’s scheme further.

* * *

After finishing my counseling session with A-ri, I returned to the fire.

While A-ri and I had been talking alone, the others had been making plans of their own.

Eun-sol spoke to me.

“So, are you done talking through all your worries?”

“I think we said everything we needed to.”

“You two were talking over there for so long and so seriously that we couldn’t even join in. I even heard something about Descartes. Sounded pretty grand.”

“It was a very difficult conversation.”

“Give us a summary later. Anyway, we thought about things while you two were gone. We decided that as soon as we return to the hotel, we’ll head straight to the Sanctuary of Blessings.”

Enhancing our blessings would put us to sleep for a day, and we also needed to test our newly strengthened blessings. We needed to get started as quickly as possible.

“But there’s something we need to do first.”

“What is it?”

“When we go to the Sanctuary of Blessings this time, Ga-in, you’ll enhance your blessing and fall asleep, right? So use up all your Sage’s Advice before you go to sleep.”

I understood. It seemed she had also thought up a list of questions while A-ri and I were gone. She showed up holding a notebook packed full of them.

“I referred to the explanation you gave us before. You said questions about subjects you have absolutely no information on don’t get normal answers, so I organized these around things we already have information about but find difficult to interpret.”

I used Sage’s Advice while reading the list.

The first question.

‘Wealth has far too little practical use. It is of no help at all in strengthening the individual.’

It was something I often thought about too. Eun-sol must have found it very disappointing herself.

[Sage’s Advice: 3 -> 2]

[Ask the Sanctuary’s Sponsor about Wealth in person today.]

I relayed the answer.

“What? That’s really irritating! I can’t even meet my Sponsor in the first place because it’s so hard to make use of my blessing!”

“Eun-sol, I don’t think this is as bad an answer as you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think the reason it didn’t answer directly may be an issue of authority. Blessings fall under each Sponsor’s authority, so perhaps it’s something it can’t interfere with. Or maybe using a blessing to learn about blessings was blocked as a trick, like using a wish to increase the number of wishes.

“But from what I’ve noticed while using Sage’s Advice, when it can’t answer a question directly, it tends to give an indirect answer.”

Eun-sol understood right away.

“Does telling me to ask in person today mean... I’ll be able to meet my Sponsor this time?”

“That’s what I think. The fact that it specifically said to ask in person ‘today’ means you’ll be able to meet your Sponsor when we visit the Sanctuary of Blessings today.”

While Eun-sol rejoiced, I crossed out every question about blessings from the sheet of paper.

It seemed questions about the blessings themselves weren’t permitted.

The second question.

This time, I asked something I was curious about.

‘I cannot understand the Avatar’s power at all. I need advice.’

Honestly, I felt uneasy even as I asked. Wasn’t this a typical question about something I knew absolutely nothing about?

Still, outside Party Time, it was difficult to use Sage’s Advice to satisfy that kind of curiosity.

Since Sage’s Advice and Crisis Alert shared the same number of uses, I had no choice but to save them for Crisis Alert on days when we entered a Curse Room.

I hoped to get even a half-baked answer.

[Sage’s Advice: 2 -> 1]

[Are you using Possession with an understanding of it?]

... What?

It was an even stranger answer than I expected. I told everyone both the question and answer.

Unexpectedly, Song-i was the one who understood it.

“Ah! I get it. I think it means, ‘It’s natural that you don’t understand an Inheritance.’ I use the bracelet, but I don’t understand how it works at all.

“It’s no different from a TV remote. I don’t know anything about the technology inside it, but I know the TV turns on when I press a button. That’s about the level of understanding I have when I use the bracelet.

“It’s probably the same for you, Ga-in. You don’t use Possession because you understand its power, right? You just know how to use it, so you use it. The answer means it’s natural not to understand the Avatar’s power either.”

“I understand that it’s natural not to understand it, but then how am I supposed to use it?”

“I think it’s something time will solve. My skill with the bracelet is very different now from when I first got it.”

In the end, I decided to use the Grimoire for longer before worrying about the next stage of power.

The third question.

This time, Eun-sol had written down something very important.

‘Is it possible to escape using a parachute?’

“Eun-sol? This is...”

“It was something I happened to think of a while ago. The HP Market sells blankets and sturdy ropes. If we combine those things well, we could make something like a parachute, right? Couldn’t we use it to escape beyond the front gate?”

I looked toward A-ri, who was on her second run through the hotel.

A-ri only tilted her head, then shook it. She didn’t know either.

I used Sage’s Advice.

[Sage’s Advice: 1 -> 0]

[Try it if your life isn’t precious to you.]

...

What was that supposed to mean?

Would it get sick if it explained things simply?

Footnotes:

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