Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 34

[User: ▢▢▢▢▢▢

Date: ▢▢

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 103 (Cursed Room – Athanasia’s Human Farm)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

My memories were fuzzy.

I wonder how long it has been since I fell into this hellish human farm.

If I was by myself, I probably would have continued living like this with not a sliver of hope until I was dead, and the road out of Room 103 would have been forever closed.

But ever since I came across Teacher, we became a solace of hope for each other.

I got to understand many things which would have been impossible by myself, and Teacher earned a tool that could move outside of his water tank.

Escape Plan

The word ‘Escape’ was enough to make my heart race. For over 10 days (I believe), we fine-tuned our plan during the 1-2 hour period where Teacher and I could talk to each other.

We forged our plan by combining the pieces of information and wisdom of the Teacher, who had been locked in this facility for a long time, and the new ones obtained by me, who was a little bit more free in comparison.

The escape plan that we created as a result was in fact quite simple. Overall, it wasn’t too different from the riot that we had at the Animal Farm with my teammates from the Hotel.

The success of the escape plan weighed on two elements.

Firstly, could Teacher buy me at least a minute?

Secondly, could I make use of ‘Diverse Perspectives’?

Both of them were questions that couldn’t be answered until the actual day of our plan.

The first element was on the Teacher. Teacher himself considered the possibility to be more than enough but… the second element was on me. Even the Teacher, who had exceeded the capability of humans, wasn’t sure about it.

Whatever the case, I waited on and on until the Teacher was done with his preparations.

——————————————————–

As always, Theodus took me to the large room in the basement. After some time, he and the other giants began having a look at the machines while roaming around the room.

After a fair bit of time, the long-awaited voice echoed in my ears.

Didn’t you say we still needed a bit more time?

If we waited until I gathered more power, the likelihood of our success would certainly increase,

But as time goes, I can feel your mind weathering away.

Even if I buy enough time with my strength, that would be meaningless if your mind as the one moving is weakened by too much.

That is why, today is the day.

My heart thumped. The deep sense of fear surging out from the very depths of my soul threatened to freeze my body and mind, but I knew this was something that had to be done one day, and today just happened to be that day.

Quietly, I stood up and gazed at the surroundings.

Like every other day, the white giants were using their numerous tentacles to fidget around with unidentifiable machines.

I stood up but none of them were concerned.

That was understandable because for them, I was nothing but a pet goose. Who would pay attention to every little move of their pet in the middle of their work?

It was then–

————— Kugugugugung!!!!!!!!!!!

The water tank imprisoning the Teacher let out a threatening roar!

Seeing that shockwave, all the giants immediately stood up and dashed to the machine that was stuck right next to the water tank, which was probably one of the tools locking the Teacher down.

But–

————— Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

The shockwave was actually just to make the giants run towards the water tank. A prismatic and indescribably beautiful sound reverberated across the entire room and…

That was followed by an overwhelming silence.

The giants stopped.

It was like how the world used to turn silent when the giants appeared as ‘monsters’ in the Animal Farm, but this time around, it was the world of giants that had come to a pause.

From now on, it was up to me.

After collecting my breath, I dashed forward and took out the silver bracelet from the arm of one of the halted giants. Although it was a bracelet, that was only for the giant and it was more like a hula hoop for me but…

The moment I took it out, the bracelet turned immensely smaller until it was enough to enter my arm.

Could I seriously use this thing properly?

Humans made guns.

But that didn’t mean humans had some kind of tolerance against guns.

Likewise, Athanasias made this bracelet, but there was no way they could retaliate against the power of this bracelet when they were in a ‘paused’ state like this!

That was the core of the escape plan that we came up with.

It felt like I was hearing a lecture when the Teacher was telling me about the overall logic and how the bracelet functioned but… I wasn’t sure.

Even if someone trained a parrot or a dog, would they be able to properly use a smartphone?

I had no idea. What I did know was that my failing here would end up destroying any possibility of a successful escape.

– Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

Slowly, I started popping my tongue at a regular pace and closed my eyes.

Everything henceforth was the unknown. It might seem laughable, but this repetitive action of popping my tongue was the one tool that would let me keep myself sane.

Closing my eyes, I inserted the bracelet into my arm.

My body began to soar into the skies.

No – actually, my body was still there. What was floating was my consciousness drifting out of my body.

When I slowly focused on the Athanasia in front of me and selected it as my ‘target’, a torrent of incomprehensible data struck my brain.

Would a person with a visual impairment who had perceived the world in black and white ever since their birth be able to understand the diversity of colours?

Would an animal born inside a cave without the ability to see be able to understand sight?

Sharks could feel subtle flows of electricity with their ampullae of Lorenzini. Would humans be able to understand that?

Every one of them was probably impossible.

If so…

Then what would happen if a cluster of such innately incomprehensible data was forcibly shoved into the brain?

Today, I was somewhat enlightened to the answer of that question.

A storm of information which I couldn’t even categorise let alone understand numbed my brain. Inexplicable senses that humans could neither feel nor sense – the assembly of data which only Athanasias could understand started flooding into my head.

At one point, I began to see the world in 5 primary colours.

At one point, I could touch sound, feel colour and see flavour.

My brain felt like it was being fried but I calmly focused my mind.

There was only one way for me to keep track of myself in the midst of that tempest of information. By focusing on the senses that I could understand, I ignored everything else.

– Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

The sound of my tongue being popped.

I focused all of my senses on that sound. Slowly but surely, my mind that had been floating away from me started to return to my body.

Soon, I opened my eyes.

A mysterious sense and an indescribably exalted sensation filled my soul.

The ‘perspective’ or rather, the ‘world’ that was perceived by Athanasias – it took its spot in a corner of my brain like the combined shape of countless puzzle pieces.

I succeeded at controlling the ‘Diverse Perspectives’!

I walked up to the Athanasia that was standing right next to me.

After understanding my intention, the Teacher slowly removed the restriction of time that was binding it, and after waking up from the world of silence by itself, the Athanasia started slowly turning its head in doubt.

I carefully moved the ‘Perspective’ that Athanasias perceived the world as.

Like the creator changing a piece of the created world, I slowly added new pieces of information into its mind.

I slowly started to modify the information they had about activation and removal of the restrictive system, so that the Athanasia would personally remove the restrictive system which I couldn’t destroy by myself…

That was when the Athanasia under my control suddenly took out its tentacle–

And it pierced through its own head.

?

What was going on?

It managed to figure it out.

Did I do something wrong?

Because you are inexperienced at using the item, that Athanasia discovered the fact that it was being controlled by ‘Diverse Perspectives’. However, even the Athanasias are not able to escape the control of the bracelet by themselves.

That is why it decided to commit suicide instead of being controlled.

Then…

That is well within our expectations. It would have been easier if we could directly control the Athanasias, but we came up with our plan under the assumption that it won’t be easy to control them, did we not?

There is no need to be agitated. Move on with the next plan. I shall focus on reserving my power once again.

Today will be a very exciting day.

Was it because my senses had become uncannily more sensitive after being able to control ‘Diverse Perspectives’? Unlike the tranquil and beautiful ambience that I had constantly been feeling from the Teacher…

I could faintly sense a very deep and dark emotion inside him.

But that was nothing strange. Even a demi-god would have some type of dark feelings budding inside them after being locked in a place like this for such a long period of time.

After turning around, I looked at the wall.

‘Diverse Perspectives’ was not a simple mind-controlling device.

This device was similar to a person’s smartphone.

I was only able to use a small portion of those functions because I was still inexperienced as its user but… this device itself was an omnipotent tool that assisted the Athanasias in every aspect of life.

According to the Teacher, this device also had the function of allowing one to ‘move’ across this facility.

I settled my mind and thought about the next destination – an unknown location that I had never been to, that was neither the human farm nor the basement.

As soon as ‘Diverse Perspectives’ read my intention,

I arrived at a peculiar plot of land where everything in the world including the sky and the ground were filled with twitching faces.