Chapter 772
Chapter 772 – Room 302, Cursed Room – ‘Brave New World’ (38)
「User: Han Gain (Wisdom)」
Date: Day 47
Current Location: Level 3, Observatory
Sage’s Advice: 3」
– Han Gain
Jin-cheol hyung was naturally sitting at the telescope, observing Sang-hyun hyung.
Thanks to that, Ari and I had the leisure to talk.
It seemed that I had ignored Ari’s opinion, as she looked a bit angry.
“What’s up? Isn’t that a little too self-centered?”
“Let’s respect the judgment at the scene. Those experiencing it might think differently.”
Ari frowned slightly and asked, “Is he perhaps in a state of insight?”
The ‘me’ in the Observatory couldn’t use insight due to the hotel’s restriction.
So, could the ‘me’ from before the restriction use insight?
I didn’t think so.
Let’s not forget that the hotel classifies blessings strictly as ‘external power’.
Advice counts are shared, but there’s no reason for insight’s classification to differ.
“No, the me in Room 302 wouldn’t be able to use insight either.”
“Then what’s the deal? He isn’t just ignoring my words but yours too.”
In that moment, I felt like I could guess what my counterpart on the ground was thinking.
Ari’s argument was that there must be a reason the hotel placed Elena in the maze location, hence we shouldn’t send her to America hastily.
Upon hearing this, I had two thoughts at once.
1. It makes sense.
There must be a reason the hotel placed Elena near the maze, so changing the location hastily might differ from the ‘hotel’s recommended development’.
2. It’s not persuasive.
Did the hotel really position us conveniently to resolve the cursed room?
Looking back at past cases, there had been plenty of instances where the placement was intentionally difficult.
Thinking of Rooms 203 and 101 brought answers.
Therefore, altering a pre-decided plan on the spot based on Ari’s ambiguous claim wouldn’t be ideal.
…
The ‘me’ in the Observatory chose 1 and relayed Ari’s opinion, but the ‘me’ in Room 302 went with 2 and dismissed it.
It didn’t seem like only they had insight, so why the difference?
Was it because the ‘me’ in the Observatory, with Ari right in front of me, easily sympathized with her words?
— Crunch!
Suddenly, there was a sound of biting down.
Wondering what it was, I looked around and found Ari looking at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“… Was that sound I just made?”
“Yeah.”
The fact that the ‘me’ in the Observatory and the ‘me’ on the ground judged differently made me involuntarily crunch down on something out of disgust.
I thought I had transcended this issue by overcoming uniqueness…
But it seemed there were still flaws within me.
A painfully weak human instinct, and a worthless obsession with uniqueness.
Just as this thought crossed my mind, the status window shifted.
「Sage’s Advice: 3 -> 2」
“Looks like someone wrote advice from below.”
“Really? Hmm, seems like they’re using their head. In that case.”
「Sage’s Advice: 2 -> 1」
“… wrote again.”
“What?”
“One left.”
“No, what suddenly happened?”
The curiosity suppressed the hostility that was trying to emerge from deep within.
What kind of thoughts was the ‘me’ on the ground having?
“Ugh… I’m curious about the maze area since I can’t observe it. What’s the situation?”
“Right now.”
“Huh?”
“Words are writing on the status window. It’s Seung-yeop talking?”
“Seung-yeop?”
*
– Park Seung-yeop
“Mom, I’m going!”
“Did you pack all your books?”
“Yes?”
“What do you mean yes! Just like last time—”
“Don’t come back secretly for forgetting your history book?”
“Goodness, look at that sassy comeback.”
“Ugh! I checked. I’ll be back.”
I woke up early in the morning and headed to school.
To be honest, the me from the past wasn’t this diligent, but I was meeting Older Sister Yusong at school.
— Rattle!
“Yawn~! I’m here.”
Older Sister Yusong, sitting at the table and rubbing her sleepy eyes, looked a bit younger by 2-3 years to fit her middle school setting.
“Sister—”
“Are you stupid? Don’t call me sister right now. What if someone hears?”
Since the hotel assigned us roles as classmates, she wanted to keep the titles accordingly.
I had gotten used to this kind of thing in other rooms, so I had no objections.
“… Yusong, there’s no one around. I—”
“Are you a martial arts master and know that? Then that’s good. Yawn!”
After yawning once more, she brought up a simple topic.
“Your objectives this time are basically three.”
Immediately, a bracelet glimmered, and a vision appeared before my eyes.
1. Awareness of the First Wish
2. Discovering Soyoun’s identity
3. Retrieval of Feather of Twilight
“They all seem connected. No, they are.”
“I think so too. In the end, that girl holds all the secrets—there’s no one around, right?”
“There isn’t. The martial arts—”
“If you mention martial arts one more time, you’re going to get it.”
“…”
“I think you ultimately need to get closer to Soyoun.”
“What?”
“All the secrets are with Soyoun. You need to get close to her to naturally find out.”
It was obvious that to uncover secrets, one had to be close to Soyoun.
What I found curious was something else.
“We’re already close, though?”
“…”
“What—uh, ahem, it seems you forgot something, Yusong, I’m already close with Soyoun. Didn’t Gain hyung say something?”
“…”
“Soyoun already has a crush on me—”
“Seung-yeop, you’re misunderstanding something important.”
“What?”
“Liking someone isn’t synonymous with being close. You’re not at all close with her.”
I was slightly flustered.
“What do you mean?”
“Being close means having a comfortable and unrestricted relationship. It means naturally sharing intimate stories while being together without any tension. Usually, it requires time to become that close.”
“… And liking someone?”
“Love usually happens in an instant, right? The moment your eyes meet, it strikes like lightning, captivating the other person.”
“…”
“Love isn’t comfortable. It’s always tense, and you’re conscious of the other person. Rather than sharing intimate stories, you’re trying to present yourself beautifully and confidently.”
Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it that way.
“Soyoun has a crush on you, and with just a bit of an event, she’ll start liking you. But you’re not close with her. She’s never opened her heart to you, right?”
“… Now that you mention it, that seems to be true.”
I was starting to understand what Older Sister Yusong meant.
Finding my reaction amusing, she playfully brought up the next topic.
“Hey, hey, there’s no one watching us, right?”
“Huh? Yeah. There’s no one—”
“Not just NPCs, the Observatory can’t see us here either.”
“Uh, right.”
“I’ll give you an easy example to understand. Think about Older Sister Elena and Older Brother Gain.”
“…”
Without realizing it, my face turned red.
“Older Sister Elena likes Older Brother Gain.”
That’s something everyone knows.
After all, Older Sister Elena isn’t one to hide her feelings.
“But do they seem close?”
“…”
“Have you ever seen them joke around or interact easily?”
“No.”
“Exactly. They like each other, but they’re not close. Got it?”
“Ugh, yeah.”
“Now think about Ari and Older Brother Gain.”
“Ah, so that’s a relationship where they’re close but not liking each other?”
“… They are close. Anyway, at this point, you must have understood what I’m saying.”
“I got it.”
“You need to get close to Soyoun. So—”
Just then.
— Rattle! Crash!
A loud noise came from outside.
Startled, I looked back to see a girl with brown hair dashing away.
“Huh?”
“What? You were nearby? Aren’t you a martial arts master who can’t even sense a middle schooler?”
“Ah, no…! This can’t be happening!”
This can’t be true.
I genuinely didn’t sense any presence at all!
Considering our position, it didn’t seem like she had heard my and Yusong’s conversation.
After all, we were speaking in lowered voices.
Yet, Soyoun’s sudden appearance was quite shocking.
What’s this? Wasn’t Soyoun, who hadn’t awakened as an angel, just an ordinary human physically?
“I’ll chase after her. Whatever it is—”
At that moment, Yusong grabbed my shoulder.
“Wait.”
“Huh?”
“Can’t you see? She’s slightly upset. It’s a situation where you, whom she has feelings for, are alone with me in the classroom.”
“If she’s upset, then all the more reason to chase after her and comfort her—”
“Ah~ Seung-yeop, don’t let yourself be led by others. Once you chase after her, you’ll keep having to do that. She needs to chase you instead! That’s how you get closer and uncover those hidden secrets.”
“…”
Somehow, that sounded very reasonable.
…
After about a minute had passed, a sharp thought crossed my mind.
Did I really need to voice it at this point? But on the flip side, I felt like I didn’t really need to hold back.
“… Yusong.”
“Yeah?”
“You’ve hardly ever dated, right?”
“What, what?!”
“You’re really only sharp with theories, aren’t you? Did you learn everything from novels and comics?”
“Hey! Theories are originally learned from books!”
*
According to the setting of Room 302, the maze and Elena seem to be distant relatives.
Family in the concept.
Once I recognized this, a question arose that I had never thought of before.
What could Seung-yeop’s family’s true identity be?
Thinking about the information gathered during the first attempt at the maze, the Management Bureau had abducted a sizable number of children in their early teenage years from Banpo-dong and pushed them into the Brave New World, one of whom was young Seung-yeop.
The parents of the children who were taken hated the Management Bureau.
Thus, the parents of the children from Banpo-dong were not abducted into the Brave New World.
If that’s the case, then Seung-yeop’s parents inside the Brave New World are fake.
His real parents must exist separately in reality.
…
Seung-yeop has already met his parents twice.
Once in Room 101, and once in a dream in reality.
Both times, those parents were the same individuals as the ones inside the Brave New World.
The hotel has never shown Seung-yeop’s ‘real parents’.
As if there were no such thing as real parents from the start.
