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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 322: Re Room 203, Curse Room - ‘A New Beginning’ (2)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 683,615

Current Location: Level 2, Room 203, Curse Room ‘A New Beginning’

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

Assuming the scenario hadn't changed, I considered various possibilities.

Why did no one remember anything related to the spaceship after the first attempt?

It made sense that the others had no memories. They'd never woken from Cryogenic Sleep in the first place. But why didn't I remember either?

The first possibility that came to mind was amnesia. My Status Window had weakened then, so I might have lost consciousness the moment I saw Adravita. Or perhaps I'd suffered memory loss from the side effects of Cryogenic Sleep the AI had mentioned several times.

But when I looked closely at the Status Window, another possibility occurred to me.

[Date: Day 683,615]

A rough calculation told me that 1,870 years had passed since I woke aboard the spaceship. Why hadn't I noticed such an absurd change before?

It couldn't be explained simply by the Status Window malfunctioning. Back then, the text had become garbled in some strange alien language, but I could still make out the date surprisingly well.

The number 118 had been clear when I entered, and by the time I left, I'd seen 131. After escaping, it really had been Day 131.

In other words, the Status Window had calculated the date correctly even then. That confusing number needed a different explanation.

I remembered what had happened in Room 103. Even after everyone else died pointlessly during the scenario, Song-i spent a long time alone, but the Status Window hadn't counted the time she spent by herself.

Something similar happened in Room 104. Nearly a month passed after I died, before A-ri escaped after beating up the judge, but the Status Window hadn't counted the days after my death.

Maybe I never woke aboard the spaceship during the first attempt. Perhaps the Status Window treated that period as a time when I wasn't properly participating and didn't count the days.

What about the Cryogenic Sleep afterward? I'd gone back to sleep after participating in the scenario, so did it count that time?

That thought brought up another question. Why hadn't I woken during the first attempt, but only this time?

Thinking about who woke me answered that.

From what the AI said aboard the spaceship, it wasn't normal for a crew member to wake during Cryogenic Sleep.

The spaceship's AI woke me to deal with the situation after Adravita started doing something strange. Looking at it the other way around, if Adravita did nothing, we would never wake up.

That meant Adravita was the one who woke us during the second attempt. Unlike the ordinary NPCs in the Curse Room, Adravita was a Prisoner who recognized the attempts, so its actions changed when the attempt changed.

Why had it changed?

Had seeing us during the first attempt changed its mind somehow? Did it want something from us now?

「R□m□mber.」

Thinking about it again, I thought it had meant, ‘Remember.’

Remember what? Did it mean I shouldn't forget what happened aboard the spaceship? Had it wanted to tell me Room 203's background?

Thanks to waking early, I did gain a great deal of information that would've been difficult to obtain otherwise.

Room 203's story began with an exoplanet-colonization spaceship. The being inside A-ri's body was the spaceship's AI, and Adravita was a divine being that had joined them to help humanity colonize a planet.

The information itself seemed incredibly valuable, but I didn't know why the Prisoner wanted to give it to me.

Besides, at this point, that information was only a story from an unimaginably distant past. So what the hell happened in this world over those 1,870 years?

The AI that had treated me with such deference 1,870 years ago now called us rebels and tried desperately to hunt us down. Adravita was leisurely floating through the sky, traveling around and farming on the continent.

That brought my companions to mind. They were all okay, right?

[Companion Location Information(*)

Kim Mook-seong: 872 km northwest]

Just as I expected, it showed up like this.

Room 203 was set on a damn huge primitive continent. Civilization had collapsed long ago, there was obviously no transportation, and there weren't even place names. It had no choice but to give locations this way.

It was useless. What was I supposed to do with that? Walk 872 km northwest? Still, everyone was alive.

--- Thump!

“Divine Human! May I come in for a moment?”

“Wait.”

[Date: Day 683,615 (Day 139)]

Using a pen, I added the number of days excluding Cryogenic Sleep so it would be easier to understand. When I met Owl later, I'd have to ask it to exclude the time spent in Cryogenic Sleep.

Soon after, the tent opened and Old Wolf Claw came inside.

“Divine Human! I have something I desperately wish to tell you.”

No doubt it was about Gnashing Teeth or claws or whatever. It was time to stop thinking and deal with the current problem.

The moment I stepped outside the tent, I said I would kill the Gnashing Teeth. As before, the warriors rose with their eyes shining.

--- Grrr!

A horrifying sound came from the western sky. As if it had been waiting, Scenario Understanding informed me that I needed to eliminate the Gnashing Teeth.

After calming the frightened tribespeople, I left the tent with the warriors.

“Let's move! Everyone else, get a fire going.”

* * *

It was similar to before.

The people who had encountered the Gnashing Teeth and survived tried awkwardly to give me information. Old Wolf Claw commanded the warriors as they maintained a protective formation around me.

I think seeing them like this reassured me before...

Now, they were in the way. I already knew enough about the enemy's nature, and I wasn't the same person I had been then.

My blessing was functioning properly now. I could protect my mind with it and use the Grimoire's higher authority, ‘Power of the Avatar.’

“Stop blocking my view and move.”

“D-danger...”

“Just do as I say. Stay together, and only Old Wolf Claw should follow me.”

“Understood.”

“If I collapse, grab my body.”

“Yes.”

I remembered my first battle with the Gnashing Teeth.

The monster preferred attacking anyone who had strayed even a little from the group instead of people gathered together, right? Taking advantage of that habit, I walked out of formation alone. The warriors watched me with uneasy expressions.

--- Rustle!

Branches shook, and I heard the heavy sound of flesh moving through the leaves. I immediately summoned the Grimoire and aimed toward the sound.

The instant I noticed the tentacles moving in that chilling way, my consciousness left my body.

My consciousness, my soul, rose into the air.

My mind was freed from its suffocating flesh. Then I could see the entire situation at once, something I could never have understood from a human perspective.

Three unpleasantly writhing tentacles were forcing their way between the trees in the dark forest, aiming for us.

According to the information I obtained during the first attempt, those tentacles were parasitic organisms, living things separate from their main body. That meant I should be able to control them all at once through the Power of the Avatar.

As my will became clear, pitch-black threads stretched out from the Grimoire and bound the three tentacles.

‘Go back! Devour your main body!’

--- Twitch!

For a moment, the tentacles thrashed up and down as though resisting the Grimoire's power, but their rebellion didn't last long. They lacked both the intelligence and the standing to resist the Grimoire.

In the end, the tentacles began returning toward the Gnashing Teeth's main body.

...

Even with my consciousness outside my body, intense pain washed over me. I'd already given the command, so it should be fine to withdraw the power now.

My floating soul rapidly returned to my body. Once more, the shackles of flesh seized my soul.

“Ghk!”

By the time I returned to my body, my eyes were bloodshot and drops of blood were falling from my nose.

“A-are you all right?”

The old man holding my body looked anxious. Instead of answering, I looked west.

--- Kyaaaah!

An ominous cry filled with pain rang out.

“Is it dead?”

“What?”

“Send a few people to check. It might be dead.”

The warriors reacted as though they couldn't believe it.

What did they think had happened? From their perspective, had I simply stood still alone, gotten a nosebleed, and collapsed?

A short while later, a warrior who had bravely run ahead returned looking completely out of it. The warrior reported that they had found a mountain-sized mass of flesh believed to be a writhing blade.

Upon hearing that, the warriors began kneeling before me with expressions too awestruck to describe.

“You are... truly someone sent by the heavens! Divine Human, you truly...”

“Enough. Let's go back. I'm tired.”

The Power of the Avatar was far more exhausting than Possession. I had only used it for a few minutes at most, but all the strength drained from my body.

Then Scenario Understanding updated and gave me guidance to pay attention to the tribe's song.

... Up to this point, it was similar to before. How should I proceed from here?

* * *

There was once a time when limitless glory was with the Children of Heaven.

Listening to the familiar song, I leaned against one side of the tent.

I woke in a primitive tribal society and defeated the monster threatening the tribe. Up to this point, the progression wasn't much different from the first attempt.

What should I do from here? Go into the mountain range once more like before? Or should I follow Owl's advice and search for traces of the supernatural being said to be in the sky?

Come to think of it, what were the others doing? No one had died in the meantime, right?

[Cha Jin-cheol: 282 m east]

[Cha Jin-cheol: 218 m east]

[Cha Jin-cheol: 174 m east]

“Huh?”

[Cha Jin-cheol: 42 m east]

“J-Jin-cheol?”

--- Crash!

“Divine Human! A monster is approaching from the plains...”

“MOVE! OUT! OF! THE! WAY!”

The outside suddenly became incredibly noisy, accompanied by a shout powerful enough to shake heaven and earth.

--- Flap!

The tent opened, and Cha Jin-cheol's imposing figure stepped inside. At the same time, the tribe's warriors surrounded him with their spears, giving off a menacing air.

“Hey!”

“... You ran all the way here?”

“Yeah, punk. When I thought about it, your tribe and mine were right next to each other, weren't they?”

“They were.”

“Once I came in again, I remembered the rough location too. If you pass by the river and keep going, that's your place, right?”

The Prisoner wasn't the only being whose actions changed when the attempt changed. We were the ones who came up with a different strategy every time.

During the second attempt, Cha Jin-cheol used the Blessing of Courage and ran to find me the moment the scenario began.

Come to think of it, there might be other companions capable of doing something similar.

Just as Adravita had, I sensed that my companions would act differently from before as well.

Footnotes:

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