Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 637

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 636: A Path for Everyone (1)

──────

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 234

Current Location: Searching...

Sage’s Advice: 0」

- Han Ga-in

Prince Emilio and Aleph had fallen into a long sleep.

It meant the long journey that had unfolded in reality was finally nearing its end.

Of course, plenty of problems still remained.

Most importantly, as for the condition of my companions, thankfully no one had died.

“Or had they?”

“Hyung? What do you mean?”

“I’m sorting things out in my head, and now that I think about it, Elena seems to be biologically dead, so...”

“Argh! I told you! Her soul is inside the Soul Box, so...”

“Okay, okay. Just keep wrapping those bandages.”

I heard Elena’s body had been destroyed while shielding Seung-yeop.

That made Seung-yeop sensitive whenever Elena came up. He seemed to feel both grateful and guilty.

It was a severe blow, but not something that couldn’t be fixed.

We had already collected the “parts of Elena’s body” scattered throughout the Moon Church. With the Management Bureau’s technology, I believed we could create another genetically identical body.

As Dream’s effect faded, Jin-cheol returned to something closer to Cha Jin-cheol.

No matter how I looked at him, his physical condition was bizarre, and his mind seemed filled with confusion...

Still, I didn’t think it was irreparable.

With Regeneration and the Flute of Rest, he would recover someday.

The person I had worried about most was A-ri, who looked as though she might die at any moment.

Unlike Elena, her soul couldn’t be placed in the Soul Box. If she died like this, it seemed there was no answer except a Ticket.

Fortunately, Aedia had made strange use of the crystal and finished the emergency treatment.

“A-ri, you’ll need proper treatment once we get outside.”

“Thanks.”

“And have the crystal removed as soon as we’re out.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t fall asleep until it’s removed. Focus with everything you have!”

“Why?”

“If you lose consciousness, a mini Aedia will be born from your body...”

“Argh! Don’t recklessly implant something so ridiculous!”

“Don’t worry. A-ri will handle it.”

“What if it doesn’t work?!”

“Wouldn’t mini Aedia be cute too?”

I checked on the others as well. Eun-sol only waved a hand with an exhausted expression, while Mi-ro stayed glued to A-ri’s side, looking ready to cry. Then I sorted out what came next.

* * *

Toward evening, my companions, Elder Wisdom, the Holy Mother, and I gathered in one place.

Elder Wisdom was the first to speak.

“At last... It feels like the problem concerning the Moon is finally coming to an end.”

“That’s right. Oh, Holy Mother.”

“Yes?”

“I got rid of things like the Dream of Eternity immediately.”

It was the first thing I did after achieving Unification with Aleph and gaining the Crown.

Why had the Prince inflicted hellish suffering on the pitiful souls trapped within the Moon?

To purify their souls until they were pure white, then swallow them himself.

Aleph and I, on the other hand, reached one conclusion at the final moment.

‘Becoming a god through the principles of soul convergence is not my path.’

There was no reason to continue meaningless torture.

“... That’s a relief. Truly.”

Elder Wisdom slowly nodded.

“The Prince is gone now.”

“And so is the Researcher.”

Strictly speaking, neither had vanished completely, but I didn’t want to create needless anxiety, so I didn’t argue.

“That means the biggest problem has been resolved.”

“Elder Wisdom, should we throw a celebration party?”

“We can do that once we’re outside. I’ll gladly attend. There are still matters to take care of for now...”

After a brief silence, Elder Wisdom spoke bluntly.

“Tell me now. Your real plan.”

“...”

“We’ll soon leave the Moon, and the Alliance will ask me what happened the moment we do. I need to understand the situation before that.”

Elder Wisdom already knew the plan I had mentioned before was a lie.

Elder Wisdom knew, but had merely turned a blind eye because it seemed unrelated to their true purpose.

As Elder Wisdom said, I couldn’t hide it forever.

“The long struggle caused by the Management Bureau, the Pillagers, and the Moon becoming entangled! To put it roughly...”

“It’s a game of musical chairs.”

A-ri casually cut in. Elder Wisdom nodded as if in agreement.

“Right. A variety of factions coveting the one chair known as the reality of the current Loop. What do you intend to do about that?”

The Moon’s problem had been solved.

That only meant the one trying to destroy the chair had been removed from the board.

The game of musical chairs between the Management Bureau and the Pillagers, and among the Pillagers themselves, remained.

--- Tap!

I lightly tapped the table to draw everyone’s attention, then began explaining.

“First, let’s divide the problem in two.”

“Hmm?”

“First, there will be no more Arks.”

“...”

“That...”

“It’s what you told me before, Elder Wisdom. You said the Ark itself gave birth to the First Corruption.”

Something Elder Wisdom had told me.

An Ark was the process of gathering countless human souls to create a pseudo-divinity, enduring a Loop in that state, then using the Mirror to divide the pseudo-divinity and return to being human.

The problem was that the Mirror did not return them to exactly how they had been before.

It was something we had already learned in Room 207.

The First Corruption began with the First Ark.

Common sense didn’t collapse all at once.

Humanity didn’t suddenly turn into cephalopods, nor did tentacles suddenly sprout in place of hands.

The world’s common sense slowly melted away, like ice beneath the sun.

Some people became captivated by voices from distant worlds and summoned bizarre monsters.

Some rose from their graves after death, wishing to settle the grudges they had held in life.

Some jumped into the sea, and fins sprouted from their backs.

Only after such things repeated for centuries did the Forerunners accept it.

Humanity had strayed “slightly” from its original purity, and because of that, the world’s common sense had changed “slightly.”

At first, they did not consider it such a major problem.

They could eliminate minor monsters without much difficulty.

Because the first “slight” change was not a serious threat, they made another Ark.

One slight change became two, then three.

Before they knew it, they had reached the present.

“What do you think the world was like before Arks were born?”

“You likely know better than I do. You have the Prince’s memories.”

“Even then, what people call mysticism existed. Back then, it was part of science, like physics or chemistry.”

“...”

“It was far easier to control then. It was much more logical, too.”

“...”

“Did science turn into the occult as Corruption spread? Let’s stop with the old stories there. Even to the Prince, those ancient events are memories too distant and vague.”

“Very well.”

“Corruption is only one part of the Ark problem. The greater problem is the game of musical chairs itself. That, too, was born because of Arks.”

After saying that much, I took a slow breath and looked around.

None of my companions, Elder Wisdom, or the Holy Mother objected.

Of course they didn’t.

Why did Elder Wisdom tell me such things in the first place?

Because after passing through countless ages, Elder Wisdom had also realized that making Arks was itself the problem.

I remembered Elder Wisdom’s earnest words.

And now, I agreed with them.

* * *

‘We are paying the Price of Defying Heaven...’

‘We made Arks because we feared the End Times, because we feared the sandcastle called civilization collapsing... But think again. When summer comes, ice melting is the Natural Order. When waves crash in, sandcastles collapsing is the Natural Order.’

‘When the End Times came, the sandcastle collapsing was also the Natural Order. We should have let it collapse... We tried to force the sandcastle to remain standing, and disaster followed.’

* * *

“Wasn’t that what I said from the start? It’s true enough, but... the question is how.”

The Holy Mother nodded.

“There are many beings that threaten the world. The Moon was the greatest threat, but it’s far from the only one.”

I remembered the “note” Aleph had passed to me just before dying.

The Moon wasn’t the only thing humanity had to fear.

... It might even have been the beginning.

“As you all know now, I’m from what you call the First Civilization, and...”

“The first person to discover the Mirror. You could call her the root of all evil, worse than Ga-in.”

The Holy Mother gave an awkward smile at A-ri’s sarcastic remark.

“Ahem. I didn’t know something like this would happen later. As I told you before, at a certain point, I was taken to the School, the place you call the Hotel.”

When she returned, the End Times and restarts had already repeated several times.

There must have been many stories between then and when the Holy Mother later met Prince Emilio.

“The most absurd thing when I returned was that the people who had nearly lost their world to an Ark that attacked from a previous Loop...”

“...”

“When they thought their world was ending, they made an Ark themselves and left to steal the next world.”

When you did it, it was an invasion. When I did it, it was an unavoidable choice for humanity.

That had repeated countless times throughout human history.

“Creating Arks is practically the survival instinct of humanity in crisis. How do we stop it?”

“The principles behind an Ark are the Soul Convergence Circuit and the Mirror.”

“That’s right.”

“Of the two, the Soul Convergence Circuit is technology. It’s one of the principles of the universe itself, something humanity will naturally discover when the time comes.”

“True.”

“We can’t control that.”

The Soul Convergence Circuit couldn’t be controlled.

Its foundation was a principle of the universe. Once civilization reached the right point, it would eventually discover it, no different from a kind of science or technology.

The Mirror was different.

It was a great treasure bestowed by an unknowable Outer God, the Practitioner. Even the First Civilization had used it without understanding its principles.

“Therefore, controlling the Mirror is the key.”

“...”

“Let’s gather every Mirror in the world on the Moon.”

Elder Wisdom murmured.

“So that’s what it meant to combine the Moon and the Pillagers.”

“The people on Earth will never touch a Mirror again. They’ll live without even knowing Mirrors exist.”

“That takes care of this Loop. You have the Moon, and with my cooperation, you can absorb all the Pillagers and obtain every Mirror in the world.”

“That’s right.”

“What about the next Loop? Just in case, don’t tell me something like, ‘I’ll prevent the End Times, so there will be no more Loops.’”

“Ha ha! Do you take me for a fool?”

I would prevent every crisis of the End Times, so there would be no next Loop?

That was the most meaningless thing anyone could say.

Did anyone want their world to be ruined?

Think of the Pillagers who appeared in Earth’s sky, those pitiful refugees.

They, too, had once been masters of their world. They likely had never imagined the End Times would come.

This was a world where a meteor could suddenly fall from the sky and awaken an Outer God.

--- Tap!

I lightly struck the floor with my hand.

“The final Ark left in the world, the Moon, will serve as its administrator.”

“... What do you mean?”

“Let’s say an Outer God suddenly descends from the sky. We try to stop it, but fail, and the world ends.”

“...”

“We move on to the next Loop. Another Mirror appears underground on the Iberian Peninsula... Ah, this is confusing. Does a Mirror appear underground in Spain every Loop?”

“Not every time. Sometimes it does. Or perhaps it appears every time, but was destroyed by earthquakes or something similar in some Loops.”

“Let’s say it appears. The Moon can destroy it or take it back.”

“...”

“The Moon will no longer swallow souls from Earth. It’ll simply shine in the night sky and manage the surface.”

A-ri, who had been listening, asked to confirm.

“Like a Management Bureau above the Management Bureau? It removes causes of destruction like the Mirror, and properly eliminates demons that humanity seems unable to handle?”

“Something like that.”

“How should I put it? It feels very godlike. It seems like a Moon Church will naturally appear on Earth again.”

“That can’t be helped.”

Then the Holy Mother spoke with a somewhat dark expression.

“To put it simply, after the Moon swallows all the Pillagers, it will manage the world and prevent any more Arks from being born...”

“Something like that.”

“Would that really be a happy ending? I mean, what happens to the Moon and the Pillagers then? They, too, are a group that desperately wished for a world of their own...”

The Holy Mother’s point was simple.

The Moon and the Pillagers were also collections of souls that wished to settle in a world. What would happen to them?

Would they shine in the night sky forever, serving humanity on Earth?

That wasn’t a happy ending for the countless souls contained in the Moon and the Pillagers.

“It’s time for the second part.”

“The second?”

“If the first part is, ‘There will be no more Arks from now on,’ the second is, ‘What do we do with the Arks that have already been born?’”

“...”

“They’ll evaporate.”

“Pardon?”

“The Moon and the Pillagers will slowly evaporate. They will no longer swallow souls, and the souls they have already swallowed will slowly settle into the world.”

“...”

“There are at least hundreds of billions of souls sleeping in the Moon alone. The total number of souls within the Pillagers is enormous as well. There’s no way for all those souls to settle on Earth at once. But!”

Elder Wisdom, sounding amused, answered.

“They don’t need to settle all at once.”

“Exactly. They can settle slowly, little by little. How about scattering around thirty million people across the entire Earth each year? Is that too many? We can work out the exact numbers later...”

“What about their identities? Unidentified orphans?”

“We’ll leave that to the Management Bureau. We even have one of The Silent right beside us.”

Instead of answering, A-ri gave a bitter smile.

It wouldn’t be easy, but it didn’t feel impossible if the number was appropriate.

“Wouldn’t that take too long?”

“What does it matter? Once the Moon can endure Loops, time is something we have in excess.”

Eun-sol, who had listened blankly until then, murmured.

“Who knows? If we endure long enough, perhaps an age of space colonization will open someday.”

“An age of space colonization?”

“Once we reach the point where we’re colonizing another star system, we can settle a billion people on that new world at once. If we keep doing that, it’ll be over soon enough.”

Honestly, that part felt a little far-fetched.

Still, if the work continued over thousands of years, wasn’t it possible?

A moment of silence followed.

Then Elder Wisdom summarized everything we had discussed.

“In short, this is your plan.”

“Go ahead.”

“Gather the Moon, the Pillagers, and every Mirror in the world. Then manage the surface and ensure no more Arks can be born.”

“That’s right.”

“The unified Moon and Pillagers will evaporate over an extremely long time. They will swallow no more souls, while the souls they have already swallowed will be gradually scattered throughout the world over many years, receiving new lives.”

“Exactly. What do you think?”

After considering it, Elder Wisdom replied.

“On the whole, it seems acceptable. As you said, it even feels like a happy ending. Humanity on Earth will no longer need to fear invaders from previous Loops, and the members of the Arks that have already been born will receive new lives someday.”

“...”

“The time it takes is a flaw, but that can’t be helped.”

“As I said before, I put a stop to things like the Eternal Prison long ago. The souls waiting to be reincarnated on the Moon will suffer no more. It will feel like a single momentary dream.”

It was the end of the game of musical chairs, and a truce.

There would be no more Arks, and the members of Arks already born would receive new lives over a long period of time.

“Still, I see exactly two problems.”

“Please tell me.”

“First, what do you plan to do after the Moon and Pillagers evaporate? Once the administrator is gone, everything that has happened until now will repeat again...”

“Pfft!”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter.

“Elder Wisdom, even if the plan proceeds without a hitch, it will take truly immeasurable time for the Moon and the Pillagers to evaporate.”

“...”

“Perhaps several Loops will have passed by then. What happens at that point...”

“Will be left to the people of that age?”

“Exactly. Did you really intend to eradicate all evil in the universe by yourself? Something like that...”

Calmly, I raised a hand and pointed to the “sky.”

“Let’s leave it to that great person who cries for the Three Thousand Worlds. We only need to finish what we can do.”

“I understand even that. Then the second problem. In truth, this is the core issue.”

“Go ahead.”

“Who, exactly, will manage the Moon and the Pillagers for those ‘immeasurable ages’?”