Chapter 85: Party Time (7), Secrets of Room 103 (2)

Chapter 85: Party Time (7), Secrets of Room 103 (2)

Translator: RainTL

Party Time (7), Secrets of Room 103 (2)

Han Kain

Room 103.

Even when I think back to it now, I could only say that it was a room full of harsh and merciless conditions. What exactly were the secrets of Room 103?

After perhaps noticing that my eyes were on her, Songee turned towards me for a question.

Oppa? Do you have something to ask me?

No. I was just thinking back to how you pulled off such an amazing job in Room 103.

Ahaha. Whats this all of a sudden?

But it makes me quite curious when I think about it.

What do you mean?

Isnt Room 103 very strange? Everyone starts off imprisoned inside the farm of an alien monster, under the illusion that we had become animals. Besides, its set on a spaceship flying through space.

How were we even supposed to escape that? Was your method of befriending an Athanasia and the Devouring One with your Affinity the only solution?

That shouldnt be, though. Im sure not all groups inside the Hotel had someone possessing Affinity.

Then what other solutions are there?

Songee turned to the sky in deep contemplation.

From my experience, I think there were a few gaps, she added.

That was when Eunsol-noona joined our conversation with a question.

In that case, Songee, can you tell us everything you felt about Room 103?

Aht! We dont have to

Im not saying that to put you on a pedestal. Until now, the only rooms we have cleared are Rooms 101 and 103, and we all know what happened in Room 101 because we did it together.

But for Room 103, no-one really knows the details except for you, Songee. If we do a thorough analysis of the rooms we have cleared thus far, we might get some clues into the rooms we havent solved yet.

I would need to organize everything that happened before I can explain them to you. Please give me some time.

Sure.

Room 103, which none of us had seen the true form of except for Songee. I was curious as the one who solved it by herself, what was her opinion on the escape method, the gaps and vulnerable points of Room 103?

She needed quite some time to organize her line of thought. It took quite a while until she thoroughly lectured us on what happened.

On the second afternoon of Party Time, we were exhausted after visiting Safari so took a rest after dinner.

Next morning on the third day, I ran away from Grandpa Mooksung who was chasing after me all morning, but in the end, I had to go to the Park with him, and run with the excuse of it being an exploration.

It was only around noon of that same day that Songee started her Room 103 Lecture.

*

The reason Im explaining Room 103 today isnt to brag about it. Its so that we can all understand the Structure of a Cursed Room by revisiting Room 103, which you havent had the chance to really experience.

Firstly, I will explain the structure that makes sense the most in my opinion, and go through the vulnerable areas of both Room 101 and Room 103.

Lastly, I will talk about my ideas for how we could have escaped Room 103.

If you find it difficult in the middle, or have different ideas, please feel free to share them.

Songee somewhat sounded and looked like an actual teacher.

Firstly, about the Structure of a Cursed Room.

Looking at everything we have gathered thus far, we can come up with a structure like this.

Saying that, she showed us what she had written down in her notebook.

Team of Participants Enemy Convict

Of course, there are a lot of NPCs that do not fit into those categories, but they dont have a proper role or any influence so we can say that there are only 3 groups that can affect the scenario.

First are the Participants. In other words, us.

Secondly are the beings that we have to fight against, which the Hotel refers to as the Enemy.

Thirdly, there is the Convict, who possesses divine powers but can only indirectly affect us due to the severe restrictions they are put under.

By the way, the term Convict, I heard from Grandpa, is what the Administration uses to call them.

Grandpa Mooksung nodded from the side.

From what we have confirmed until now, all the Enemies inside each of the rooms had various schemes.

What if the Athanasia intervened and put another necklace on us if we broke them?

Even when I broke mine, they didnt immediately put another one on my neck. We cant tell for sure at this point, but I can come up with a few ideas.

It might be that they cant tell if one specific necklace is malfunctioning or not. Or, it could be that they have to restart the entire farm to put on another necklace.

From what I have observed, they were only putting on necklaces when the Animal Farms werent in motion. Maybe restarting the farm just because a small percentage of the livestock wasnt being productive wouldnt have made sense for them.

The method to escape, I believe, would have been to break our necklace to stop our intellects from being absorbed.

Finding that puzzling, Seungyub raised a question.

How is that an escape? We havent left the spaceship and we are still stuck in the farm as animals, arent we?

Think about the escapes in the other rooms. For example in Room 101, it was considered an escape just by distancing ourselves from the family, right?

For Room 102, messing with Sirs ritual was all we needed to do to escape, and being chased out of the school in Room 104 was enough to be considered an escape.

But when you think about it, the threats within those worlds are still there.

In Room 101, even if you did distance yourself from your family, the world was still doomed; and even when we interfere with Sirs ritual in Room 102, he could invite more civilians to eventually summon the demon.

In Room 104, the school would run just without a problem even if we were outside of it.

There is no need to solve the threats within those worlds to escape it. Escaping from the initial threat to our life was all that we needed to do.

I think it would have been the same for Room 103. As Seungyub said, breaking the necklace doesnt change the fact that we are still animals stuck in place, but we would have escaped the looming threat of our intellects being sucked out.

It was starting to make sense. In the first place, the Hotel differentiated escape from solutions and Songees ideas sounded like a valid take on it.

Unlike the resolutions, you did not have to resolve the fundamental curse of that world for an escape. Escaping the current, looming threat was all that needed to be done.

Thinking back to Room 101, physically distancing yourself from your family didnt mean anything, did it? The world was already doomed, and yet simply running away from your family was accepted as an escape method.

The same could be said for Room 103. Breaking the necklace to avoid the imminent threat of having our souls sucked dry and delaying our death by a few months might have been enough for an escape.

Lastly as a what if, let me talk about the normal progression that we would have had if not for my Affinity.

None of us would have known anything at the start. We would have tried to live as animals, and one of our necklaces would have broken by accident, like it did to me.

That person would live on even after everyone else died, survive for a few more weeks and witness the Devouring One trying to overturn the entire spaceship. During that process, the illusion would have been removed, and they would have noticed the true identity of Animal Farm.

The Devouring One would have failed without our assistance, but that would have been considered an Escape.

After leaving the room, we would go for a second try while this time being aware of the existence of the Devouring One. In our next attempts, we would try whatever we could to come into contact with the Devouring One, who was hostile to the Athanasias.

And this would have determined whether we escaped or resolved the room.

Breaking the necklace to survive as long as we could is an escape, whereas contacting the Devouring One somehow to help release him would lead to a resolution.

Only after listening to the lecture throughout all of lunch did I finally have a rough idea about the structures of Room 103.

In the end, doesnt that mean we all die if the first necklace doesnt break by accident?

Yes, but thats the same for Room 101 right? If Seungyub didnt avoid his family by playing League by coincidence, we would have all died anyway.

Ahri, who had been silent the whole time, finally raised her voice.

I think there would have been another method to escape, even without the necklace breaking by accident.

Of course there could have been, Songee replied. These are just my thoughts.

For example, maybe there was a way for us to be chosen as the family of farmers inside the farm? Unlike normal livestock, they would live longer as the ones managing the farm, so they wouldnt have died immediately.

Makes sense, but Im not sure about the details on that end.

That marked the end of our revision on Room 103. After that long discussion, I wrote a four-line summary of it on paper.

*

Start -> Break necklace to stop losing intellect; make sure we can live for longer.

Escape -> Survive for 2 ~ 3 weeks. And witness the Devouring Ones attempted rebellion.

Resolution -> After being aware of the Devouring One, receive his assistance to massacre the Athanasias.

& Maybe theres a method to be the family of farmers?

*

Writing them down reminded me once again of why most of the participants would fail at the Hotel.

You had to be both smart and strong but

Fundamentally, you had to be lucky, or you could be wiped out before you can even do anything!

We were nearing the end of Party Time.

It was now about time for us to start discussing the next room.

/genesisforsaken