Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Chapter 168: Room 201, The Cursed Room - The Cube (17)

After securing Patrick, the path to the third floor was smooth.

By then, we had already taken down most of the military forces within the headquarters, and the only real obstacle, Beatrix, took longer to arrive than we expected.

Maybe Beatrix is using a different route than the TV portal we used?

Who knows?

Patrick’s condition grew increasingly strange.

It wasn’t just that his mind seemed clouded…

“Ah… Chief. Was this all part of your plan too? Just how far does your scheme go?”

“…”

“I’ve always wondered. What exactly are you thinking? Do you really care about humanity?”

Something’s off.

These incoherent ramblings had nothing to do with my suggestion.

My companions also seemed increasingly uneasy.

Songee couldn’t hold back and asked, “Ahri…”

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong with this guy?”

I don’t know.

We finally reached the third floor.

Eunsol tried to recall where to go, but it wasn’t necessary.

Patrick took the lead and began guiding us himself!

I felt a sense of foreboding, but it would have been strange to stop him.

Why stop someone who is doing exactly what we need?

After about ten minutes, a complex machine appeared before us.

It looked like a massive apparatus used to condense energy in a fusion reactor.

In the center of the machine, inside a glass chamber, floated a mysterious red polyhedron with a strange shape.

And behind that—

We saw the tube we had been searching for.

The moment they saw it, my comrades’ eyes widened as they rushed toward it!

- Thud!

Jinchul, who had been flying towards the tube, suddenly hit something.

“What the heck is this?”

Elena reached out into the air and said, “There’s some sort of invisible wall here?”

A tired voice answered.

“It’s a space severance created by the Irregular Polyhedron. It might look like it’s right in front of you, but in reality, you’re far from it. Don’t bother swinging your fists; save your strength for the real fight.”

“…”

Everyone’s confused eyes turned to Patrick, and I finally couldn’t hold back and asked, “These machines are designed to handle the Irregular Polyhedron, right?”

“Yes. They’re essentially the reason this headquarters exists.”

“Patrick, you’ve seemed mentally sound since earlier—“

- Rumble!

The floor shook violently, and something sharp sprang up!

“Argh! Aaaah!”

“What the—“

Finally, the entity we feared most had arrived!

As if perfectly timed, Beatrix appeared, and simultaneously, the remaining soldiers and researchers emerged from every direction, surrounding us.

In that instant, a sharp tension filled the room.

Oddly enough, the girl who emerged from the floor like jelly didn’t even glance our way.

If a gaze could hold murderous intent, her wild, maddened eyes, capable of cutting someone into five pieces with just a look, were locked onto Patrick.

[Patrick! What the hell is this? Don’t you dare give me some stupid excuse about being brainwashed!]

“Beatrix…”

[What the hell are you doing!!!]

“I just thought this: These people walked into the headquarters as if they knew the facility like their own home. This means all our information has already leaked to the Administration.”

“…”

“How long do you think you can hold out? Even if you kill all of them, what difference does it make? Next time, they’ll just send an army five times as large.”

[Hmph! Even if they send five times as many—]

“If you kill them, then they’ll send twenty-five times as many.”

“…”

“It’s over. The moment we were discovered, we lost the battle.”

[Ha! So, what? Are you planning to wake up the Chief again to grovel? Are you going to beg for mercy? Or perhaps you’ll ask the Administration to take you back? Do you honestly believe they’ll forgive you?]

“…You still don’t understand anything, do you?”

[What?]

“Hasn’t it been over ten years since you were freed from the lab? In that time, you should have figured out who the Chief really is—why he was both the savior of the world and the most diabolical demon in history.”

[What the hell are you talking about—]

“Do you know why the Chief raised you? Don’t tell me you still believe the ridiculous excuse that you were created to produce monsters to be used as weapons?”

An excuse?

So Beatrix wasn’t raised to produce monsters to be used as weapons?

Not only were we stunned by the sudden revelation, but even Beatrix widened her eyes in surprise.

Seeing this, Patrick wore a slightly different, wearied expression.

“What kind of moronic group would use a power that produces uncontrollable monsters 95% of the time as a weapon? You could defend a country three times over if you put the same amount of money and manpower into tanks, helicopters, drones, and walking weapons!”

He turned and walked toward the apparatus controlling the floating polyhedron.

The next moment, things got complicated.

Beatrix launched herself towards Patrick at a speed almost too fast to see, reaching out to do something.

A golden wave burst from Elena’s body, repelling Beatrix, and the two clashed violently, smashing through the lab and disappearing from view.

Patrick’s neck started to sprout tongues, and hands began sprouting from his back.

Startled, Eunsol and I rushed towards Patrick.

The soldiers aimed their rifles at us, and Jinchul summoned the Star, preparing to counter.

At the same time, the researchers standing next to the soldiers screamed in panic, “Please! Everyone, calm down! For the sake of the world, please!”

By the time I came to my senses, Elena and Beatrix had vanished after breaking through the building, the soldiers and Jinchul had started an awkward standoff, and we were left unsure of what to do next to Patrick.

“Ahri! Ahri! Ahri! Ahri!”

“Eunsol, please calm down.”

“What should we do? Without his help, we can’t unseal Kain!”

“Well, it’s not impossible. We do have Plan D, don’t we?”

“You said that was too dangerous!”

In that brief moment, Patrick had transformed into a grotesque shape, with tongues growing from his neck and hands sprouting from his back, no longer resembling anything human.

Finally, Mooksung, who had come closer, pointed his gun at Patrick’s twisted head.

“What do we do with him? Should I just kill him?”

As everyone hesitated, Patrick spoke what might have been his last words, “Beatrix… You didn’t even try to learn about the Chief or yourself and instead just tampered with my body. Your perspective is so narrow… Why is your thinking so childish…?”

With those words, Patrick’s face collapsed, and just as a monster began to emerge from his body, a gunshot rang out, and Patrick’s body went limp.

“Looks like using this guy to unseal Kain was a failure. I kind of expected this.”

“Did you really think so?”

“Ahri, didn’t you think the same? From the moment Eunsol suggested brainwashing Patrick, you kept saying it wouldn’t work, over and over.”

“…”

“Eunsol may seem smart, but she has an ordinary way of thinking. When making plans, she doesn’t account for the supernatural variables enough.”

“…Mooksung, Eunsol is right next to you.”

“Sorry for being so ordinary. And if the plan seemed so flawed, maybe you should have spoken up earlier?”

No matter how old someone gets, they’re still just as childish.

I sighed without realizing it as I looked around.

Patrick was dead, Beatrix and Elena were gone, Jinchul was still in that awkward standoff, and there was a rumbling sensation from the floor.

…?

A rumbling?

“E-Eunsol!”

“Ahri?”

“What’s with this rumbling?”

Eunsol finally snapped out of it, feeling the shaking floor, and her face went pale!

“This is it, isn’t it? The monsters from the facility’s underground are coming up, aren’t they?”

We didn’t need to wait long for our query to be answered.

As the rumbling grew stronger, everyone’s faces turned grim, including the soldiers and researchers!

Jinchul rushed over to us.

“Looks like we’re going with Plan D. If I use the power of the Star to destroy the machine that controls the Irregular Polyhedron or whatever, Kain should be unsealed, right?”

“ … “

As we fell silent, a researcher on the other side, who had overheard us, shouted on the brink of tears, “Please! Please! Calm down, I beg of you! I’m not just saying this to save my own life. Think about the outside world. Out there, there are people who worked hard today, going home to enjoy dinner with their beloved families in a peaceful world.”

…Wow, we really do sound like the bad guys here!

But regardless, the rumbling from the floor continued to grow.

If this keeps up, we’re all going to die.

Jinchul let out a dry laugh. He had already made up his mind.

“Well, where are we? Room 201. A place even harder than that grueling first floor. We have no choice but to take the risk. After all, isn’t the Chief Researcher the one who sealed that entity in the first place? He must have another way to deal with it.”

Sensing the seriousness of the situation, the researcher desperately pleaded, “What on earth are you talking about?”

“Dear fellow hotel guests, prepare yourselves and take all the precautions you can. Especially you, Songee?”

If things go wrong, she’s the only one among us who might survive.

With a tense expression, Songee nodded.

Somehow, the Escape Button had already found its way into her hand.

A sinister wave erupted from Cha Jinchul’s hand, spreading throughout the entire research lab.

And then, the world ended.

***Everything crumbled.

The research lab crumbled.

The city crumbled.

The nation crumbled.

And finally, the sound of the world collapsing rang in my ears.

The great eyes, overseeing all of creation, filled the world.

With one breath, it encompassed the stars; with the next, it encompassed the universe.

Ah—

The gaze that looked down upon me was so overwhelming that it felt blasphemous for my insignificant eyes to even behold it.

[I let you go once, and now you’ve come back to die again?]

What was I supposed to do?

If I just stood there, I’d be dead meat for the monsters rising from below!

In the face of that overwhelming gaze, my body, mind, and soul scattered like a sandcastle being struck by a wave.

As the Ancient Blood within me quickly dried up, and I accepted the inescapable death that was closing in—

I saw “it” behind the eyes.

Now I understand. I finally know the true nature of the eyes that observe all things—the true form of the Eye of Zero Dimension.

Sorrow, joy, fear, ecstasy, bliss, despair, rage—all of these emotions were transcended by a sudden, overwhelming revelation that struck my mind.

As my consciousness faded, I realized one deeply unfortunate fact.

I wouldn’t be able to remember this knowledge. It was a knowledge that had crossed too many boundaries.

As my consciousness dimmed, I thought:

Even if I’m leaving, I should at least say goodbye!

“Everyone, are you enjoying our story?”

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