WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 113: Room 107, Gate Room - Second Trial (4)

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Episode 113: Room 107, Gate Room - ‘Witch’s Forest’ (4)

- Han Ga-in

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 37

Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (Gate Room)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

The fire in the brazier began to crackle.

The companions who had been rushing about started sitting down here and there to rest.

“Ga-in.”

“Grandpa?”

“Does the scenario tell us anything?”

“That’s the thing. We entered the house like it told us to, but nothing else has appeared yet.”

A-ri, who had been leaning against me, answered.

“If we think of it like a movie, maybe it isn’t time yet.”

Time... Was something going to start soon?

A-ri sighed, sounding disappointed.

“Ah, I collected five pistols on that train! And four Invisibility Badges. I can’t believe they all just disappeared.”

During the first trial, ‘Doppelgänger Train,’ everyone’s items except their Inheritances had been duplicated.

The fakes had been given everything, including pistols, badges, pens, and gloves.

A-ri had picked them up one by one as she made her way through the train, but unfortunately, all the duplicated items disappeared once the first trial ended.

“Those pistols were obtained by having your limbs torn off in the first place. They’re valuable items, so I didn’t think they’d duplicate them that easily.”

“That’s true. Anyway, if it’s called ‘Witch’s Forest,’ there really will be a witch, right?”

“Probably.”

Song-i, who had been listening, joined in.

“Do we have to kill the witch?”

“Who knows? We shouldn’t make assumptions on our own. I think we should follow Scenario Understanding so we don’t make any mistakes.”

“I’m hungry. Should I see if there’s anything to eat?”

With that, Eun-sol got up and headed toward the kitchen.

At that moment, a notification appeared.

/From this point until the end of the second trial, the participants’ Inheritances will be sealed./

In the first trial, blessings had been sealed. In the second trial, Inheritances were sealed.

Did they alternate what they sealed?

Along with the notification, Scenario Understanding began flashing again.

Now it was really starting.

/Scenario: Gate Room - ‘Witch’s Forest’

While resting in a suspicious house, the group opens cabinets and drawers in search of a snack.

Ominous traces are found inside! The group senses danger, but it is already too late.

The witch approaches the house. Can the group survive the witch’s threat?

Please check the next part at midnight./

What? All of a sudden, what the-

“Ahhhhh!”

A piercing scream rang out. Everyone turned toward the kitchen in alarm, where Eun-sol stood trembling with the cabinet open.

Grandpa Mook-seong rushed over and checked the area.

“Fuck! Eun-sol, get out of there!”

He immediately started cursing. What the hell was it?

“What is it?”

“The owner of this house is a mad cannibal. Every container is full of human corpses!”

I forced myself to get up and look, then immediately turned my head away.

Clear food containers were filled with human eyeballs, and human body parts lay scattered everywhere.

Just as everyone began to shudder at the true nature of the ‘witch’...

Every beast in the forest began to cry out.

---Woof! Woof!

---Awooooo!

I didn’t have Affinity, but I could understand the meaning behind those cries even without it.

They were cries of terror! The beasts were surely warning each other to run because a monster had appeared.

In the horrible atmosphere, everyone began moving frantically.

Jin-cheol was still unconscious. We couldn’t run from the house. We had to hold out here.

We secured the doors and windows, made torches in case we needed them, and loaded the pistols. Tense minutes passed.

Who here could fight? Of all times, Jin-cheol, our strongest fighter, was incapacitated!

I could barely move, and with their Inheritances sealed, Song-i and A-ri had become ordinary girls.

Did that mean Grandpa Mook-seong, the only one with a gun, had to fight alone?

When I turned my head, I spotted our second combatant.

“Song-i!”

“Yes?”

“You said you can communicate with Pero, right? Tell it to turn into a monster like before!”

The moment Song-i heard me, she seemed to communicate with Pero.

Had it understood? Pero flew up from Song-i’s shoulder and moved near the house’s door.

I couldn’t just lie there doing nothing either. Gritting my teeth, I stood up.

The instant I did, my limbs shook and stabbing pain washed over me. There was no helping it.

I readied myself for battle, fiddling with the Capsaicin spray and the Silver Dagger.

---Thud! Thud! Bang! Bang!

At last, the ‘witch’ reached the house and revealed itself through the window.

I’d never seen such a horrifying creature in my life.

Maybe because it was called a ‘witch,’ it could barely be described as having a feminine form.

It seemed to have at least eight limbs, and eyes protruded all over its body like growths.

Though it crawled along the ground, it looked three meters tall from the floor to its head, and its mouth was full of sharp, awl-like teeth.

After the horrible monster saw us through the window, it grinned so widely it looked as if its mouth would split apart.

...

The sight of that smile was so revolting I nearly threw up.

Did it feel like its ‘meal’ had walked into its house on its own?

---Bang! Bang!

The moment it appeared, Grandpa Mook-seong began firing.

I inspected it by torchlight. It didn’t seem to be working.

The bullets didn’t bounce off. They simply sank into its body as if it were jelly, while the witch moved as though nothing had happened.

---Thud!

The witch tried to tear down the door with both hands!

“Block it!”

Everyone rushed around the house, dragging tables and furniture to barricade the door.

“The guns aren’t working! How are we supposed to deal with that thing?”

“How would I know? If we had a star, it’d be easy, but our Inheritances are sealed, and that bastard Cha Jin-cheol doesn’t look like he’s waking up anytime soon!”

“Shouldn’t we burn it?”

“With what oil? You think it’ll catch fire just because we hold a torch up to it?”

---Scrrrape!

With the sound of something harshly scraping the wall, a massive hand smashed through the window!

The hand lunged for Seung-yeop in an instant, but Seung-yeop ‘happened’ to fall over and avoided it.

---Piyoooo!

Pero transformed into its grotesque form and slammed its enormous beak down on the witch’s hand.

The witch let out a bizarre sound as if enraged, then grabbed Pero by the head and threw it away!

Forgetting my own pain, I rushed over and lifted Pero’s head after it struck the wall, checking its injuries. Usually, Pero would run whenever I got close, but it didn’t avoid me now.

There really was no answer. We had no star, and with Jin-cheol unconscious, there was no way we could stop that monster.

“Just die already, you fucking bastard!”

I grabbed something like a pitchfork hanging in the house, thrust it out the window, and swung it wildly. The witch, which had been trying to tear out the window and enter, stepped back slightly.

Its chilling eyes wriggled counterclockwise as they stared at me.

The moment I saw those eyes, one thought came to mind.

I rushed over and grabbed Grandpa’s gun.

Grandpa looked startled, but he handed it to me. I passed it to Seung-yeop.

“Use your blessing and shoot!”

“Huh?”

“Use your blessing and shoot, like when you hit the balloons!”

Only then did Seung-yeop understand what I meant. He walked over to the window...

Then he pulled the trigger without even looking at the witch, his eyes tightly shut.

---Bang! Bang!

Of course. Luck! He wasn’t even looking, yet his shots accurately struck several of the witch’s eyes, drawing blood.

No matter how much of a monster it was, could it endure having its eyeballs burst?

---Kieeeeeek!

With a scream that shook the entire house, the witch began to flee.

...

Everyone sprawled across the floor with vacant expressions.

Had it been about twenty minutes? It had been such a short fight, but it felt as though my soul had left my body.

That monster was absurd.

Eun-sol muttered blankly.

“Is that it?”

Grandpa Mook-seong was skeptical.

“Of course not. A monster like that will obviously regenerate its eyes and come back!”

“How does the Management Bureau even deal with something like that?”

“Simple. Usually, they bring in a helicopter, fire the autocannon, then launch rockets or missiles.”

“What? A helicopter?”

“What, did you think we’d sprinkle holy water and pray? It’s the twenty-first century! An autocannon beats holy water, and missiles beat an autocannon. In the twenty-first century, a monster’s greatest enemies aren’t priests but helicopters and tanks. Tanks would have trouble getting into a forest like this, so we’d use a helicopter.”

“...That’s an impressive thought, but we don’t have a helicopter.”

“Exactly. I don’t know why they expect us to kill a monster that even the Management Bureau would need equipment to take down...”

All strength drained from me. Even a veteran who had spent his whole life killing monsters thought there was no answer without military weapons like helicopters and tanks.

How were we supposed to kill something like that without an Inheritance?

A-ri stood up and spoke.

“Something’s strange. We’ve cleared Curse Rooms many times, but there has never been a case like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“This hotel is supposed to make us think our way through things instead of just crushing them with brute force, right? It doesn’t suddenly throw an absurd monster at us and say, ‘Here, beat it with strength.’ That’s not how it works!”

Everyone nodded.

She was right. Suddenly throwing in a monster so ridiculously powerful and telling us to fight it wasn’t the hotel’s way.

There had to be another way to clear this.

Everyone immediately got up and began searching the house for clues.

* * *

I went back into the kitchen, the place we’d cursed at and fled from the moment we saw it.

Food made from human beings filled every corner.

Small glass jars contained something like pickled eyeballs, and sausages that were obviously made of human flesh hung from one side of the ceiling.

There were also many other remarkably creative dishes.

“Why does this perverted bastard go through all this trouble with people?”

As I wandered around with a sigh, I noticed something was off.

...

What had the witch we saw earlier looked like?

It had been the very image of a twisted monster.

Numerous limbs protruded from its haphazardly twisted body, and eyes jutted out all over it like growths.

It had looked three meters tall even while crawling. How tall would it be standing on two legs?

Could something that large enter this ordinary-sized house? Even if it could, would it be able to move around properly?

And could that twisted body make this kind of ‘food’?

I immediately called my companions over and told them what I was thinking.

A-ri nodded.

“That makes sense. This house isn’t large enough for a monster like that to enter, and there’s no way it could make this food with that body.”

Grandpa Mook-seong continued.

“Are you saying it can turn into an ordinary human form?”

I answered immediately.

“I think that’s the key to solving this. No matter how I think about it, fighting that monster isn’t the answer. Don’t we need to somehow turn it into a human and kill it then?”

“Hearing that reminds me of something.”

“What?”

“The scenario you told us about earlier. Didn’t it say to check the next part at midnight? Maybe some kind of change will happen at midnight.”

Footnotes:

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