Chapter 825
Chapter 825 – Room 303, Cursed Room – ‘Time Machine’ (14)
— Kim Ari
After the chaos settled, I tried to make sense of the situation.
First, the absence of protective barriers on the train and the damage it caused.
About ten minutes ago, the train announced that there would be no protective barriers from the next car, warning us to be cautious.
I can guess the reason for the warning.
As the staff mentioned, the train fundamentally doesn’t harm its passengers.
The meaning of the warning was revealed just moments ago.
The protective barriers were there to shield passengers from the strain caused during the train’s time-travel process, and now that protection has vanished.
The problem is that the train’s warning didn’t help much.
I anticipated dangerous things might happen, but I didn’t know exactly what kind of incidents would occur.
It was the kind of accident we couldn’t help but experience just once.
The damage was extreme.
Thinking about how the Parinirvana Train has journeyed back 70,000 years in a single breath.
Just moments before, how many years of time pressure were inflicted upon us? Hundreds of years? Thousands of years?
Maybe it’s tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
Yusong and Eunsol couldn’t even last ten seconds and died right there.
Gain…
“Pero, is that you, Gain?”
“Screeeeee!”
“…”
“Oh, I instinctively made a bird sound. Yup, that’s me.”
What kind of person develops the habit of making bird sounds?
Anyway, I’m glad I’m not the only survivor.
Pero Gain said with interest.
“An important fact has been revealed from what just happened.”
“Hmm?”
“My biological lifespan isn’t significantly different from an ordinary human’s. Yusong is the same.”
“So the effects of the elixir must have worn off.”
“It probably vanished when Room 302 ended.”
“Would it still have worked if we took the elixir after the end?”
“I’m not sure. The important thing is that even Humpty Dumpty’s body has collapsed.”
“…”
“It means he also has a lifespan limit. There were only two biological immortals here.”
Referring to me and Pero.
Honestly, Humpty Dumpty’s death wasn’t a bad thing.
With Yusong dead, there was no way to control Humpty Dumpty.
“Anyway, the situation isn’t that bad.”
I was a bit taken aback by that statement.
What? The situation isn’t bad?
Eunsol and Yusong are dead, and Gain has also lost her body, so she can’t use her blessings anymore.
Looking at Pero Gain with suspicion, she added more explanation.
“You learned something about the opponent, didn’t you?”
“… A demon?”
“The identity of the demon wasn’t some ancient absolute evil; it was just human.”
The identity of the demon was the Management Bureau employees.
“They’re probably Management Bureau employees. That’s why I can decode the cipher.”
It’s not strange for Management Bureau employees to be on the Parinirvana Train.
The Bureau has deployed staff to the train several times under the pretext of solving civilian disappearance cases.
According to Aleph, such occurrences had been happening for a long time.
‘I boarded with several others, but when I entered, it was just me.’
“I understand why the employees are on the train. But what is everyone doing?”
“…”
“Weren’t they sent to prevent civilian disappearances? Why are they suddenly trying to twist prehistory and wipe out humanity?”
Pero Gain shrugged her wings—oddly cute—and replied.
“I don’t know about that, but I do know one thing.”
“…”
“Once again, demons are just humans. We can definitely win.”
Objectively, the situation isn’t good.
Eunsol and Yusong are dead, and Gain has lost her physical form.
However, if the opponents are merely Management Bureau employees, we can definitely win.
Pero Gain’s words were quite comforting, though that was likely her intention.
— Thud!
Pero Gain sat on my left shoulder.
“Let’s get going. It’s not good to delay any longer.”
*
After that, several similar clashes occurred.
Humans affiliated with demons detonated bombs or used strange weapons.
No additional sacrifices occurred.
The first time was merely because we were unaware.
Also, both Pero and I were immune to the damage caused by time acceleration.
The opponent, who had figured out our pattern, ended up being a miserable group of humans who fell after wandering around the train.
“Heeey…!”
“That’s the fourth one. There should be a note near the left side. Check it.”
Just like the first person we met, the others also had notes somewhere on their bodies.
QE3WD00RG3V11913296225F1809FDQ144FQW161GEFDW121151DF890HM712537690V789BAZV12WZUJ5Q5Z06O4DAOQ0SYFUITJWG
As Pero Gain stared at the endless string of characters with distaste.
“Yikes! How do you decode this?”
“…”
“Did you find something?”
“Wait a sec. It’s a task that takes longer than you think.”
“…”
“A good gardener shouldn’t feel averse to using scissors.”
The parrot tilted its head.
“What do you mean?”
“A tree rotten from the roots cannot be saved. Don’t feel guilty about pruning.”
“… Are you talking about yourselves?”
“…”
“A tree rotten from the roots? Are you suggesting all of humanity? Talk about something else.”
“The sentence is so haywire that it’s hard to understand, but it seems the group of demons is also moving to the front car just like us.”
The group of demons is also moving to the front car just like us.
Upon hearing this, Pero Gain clicked her beak in surprise.
“Could it be that they’re fleeing from us?”
“Maybe… The note has something written about their willingness to sacrifice themselves.”
“So, they’re dropping off one by one to catch us. What’s next?”
“I can’t interpret anymore from this note.”
“…”
“There are too many strings that are difficult to interpret. The encryption could be in a form I don’t know, or perhaps they intentionally mixed in meaningless random numbers, or…”
“Or the author has a low intelligence and wrote it strangely.”
“Exactly.”
*
About the time we subdued roughly five more, Pero Gain calmly said.
“Let’s think positively. Overall, we are heading towards escape.”
The notion that we are heading towards escape logically holds weight.
Let’s think.
The reason humanity perished is that demons intervened in prehistoric history.
Gain and I are taking care of humans affiliated with the demon group one by one.
Our comrades are descending into primitive humanity 70,000 years ago.
If both sides successfully finish their tasks, the causality of the end will vanish, and the escape judgment should appear.
Since Eunsol and Yusong died, we’ve been progressing without major crises.
… So it felt unsettling.
“Earlier, Gain, what you said was correct.”
“…”
“That we could definitely win, that was true.”
“…”
“The reason demons avoid direct confrontations until Aleph loses its memory. The reason they’re fleeing from us now. It’s simple.”
“Because they’re weak.”
“They’re not confident they can defeat us through force.”
If it were during the time we were progressing on Level 1, it might have been different, but for the demon group to hear our divine sounds, they were far too weak for us.
The only advantage demons had over us was their knowledge of the Parinirvana Train.
This turned out to be unexpectedly powerful, as was revealed from the earlier incident, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap in strength.
“I originally thought that the train was the prisoner, and the demons were the opponents.”
“…”
“Considering everything so far, the train is more like a backdrop.”
“It was an event that already existed.”
The train is quite close to being a backdrop, not an entity that leads the scenario.
Of course, there have been cases where prisoners were closer to the backdrop.
The best examples are Room 101, where we couldn’t even know who the prisoner was until the end, and Room 102, whose voice only resonated just before the finale.
So, it can be said that the Parinirvana Train is close to a backdrop.
The problem is the following.
“Leaving the train aside, aren’t the demons too weak to be opponents?”
Think about the Duke from Room 301 or the eight-winged angel from Room 302.
“If you think of demons as ex-employees, it’s not surprising that their combat power is lacking.”
“What I’m saying is…”
“It seems the demons aren’t opponents at all.”
“There seems to be something else that corresponds to opponents or prisoners.”
— Clank!
Pero Gain opened her beak with an expression full of meaning—it’s amazing how a parrot can convey such expressions.
“Listening to you reminds me of something.”
“Go ahead.”
“The demon group isn’t all from the same organization, is it?”
“If the identity of the demons is a collection of employees dispatched by the Management Bureau and similar groups over many years, then yes.”
They can’t all be from the same organization.
“The content you decoded is clear evidence. I’ll discuss the details when we go out, but… no matter how I look at it, this isn’t knowledge that people from Room 303 would know.”
The first phrase I read flashed through my mind.
The Parinirvana Train is the first salvation. It’s the dream of our ancestors who longed to be freed from endless suffering.
“The employees from the Management Bureau, Anomaly Control Bureau, Order of Reason, and others met on the Parinirvana Train. What’s important is what follows.”
“…”
“They are employees from different organizations, yet they’re acting as if they are one single group. How is that possible?”
“…”
“Despite their different backgrounds, they share a common point: a kind of mission to protect humanity.”
“…”
“They realized that there exists an opponent on the train.”
The Parinirvana Train indeed has an opponent.
There’s a presence that has made employees from different organizations form a single group.
“One person knows. Aleph.”
“…”
“Honestly, just the two of us, if the Management Bureau employees knew Aleph’s true identity, they would be all gathered together.”
“… Ah, it can’t be Aleph, right?”
This remark showed a truly uncertain tone from Gain.
However, I secretly agreed with the content.
It was strange to think of Aleph as the opponent.
The demon group had tried to deal with Aleph and me lightly by getting us off the train.
Aleph was far back in the other cars, yet the demons kept heading towards the front cars.
Moreover, the fact that Aleph is too weak to be an opponent is the same as well.
Certainly, there’s something more.
Something that has pushed the fate of Room 303 into destruction.
“I’ve felt while deciphering the several notes since earlier that one word keeps repeating.”
“What word?”
“Ancient voice.”
“Is that all?”
“I couldn’t interpret the other words before and after. If I had to specify…”
“To specify what?”
“What a str—”
“That’s vague. Let’s move on. From the vibe, I feel we’re about to encounter the leader of the demon group.”
“Gain, before that, one thing.”
“Yeah?”
“If you climb on my chest one more time, I’m going to pluck all your feathers.”
“Ouch! It’s just a habit!”
