WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 132: Room 107, Gate Room - Fourth Trial (23)

──────

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 46

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

Sage’s Advice: 1]

- Han Ga-in

--- Bang!

The door shuddered under a tremendous crash, as if someone were hammering on it.

A-ri’s urgent voice rang out.

“Pero! Can you use that howl from earlier right away?”

Song-i, who had naturally become Pero’s spokesperson, answered.

“Not yet. We need to wait about ten more minutes-”

--- Crunch!

Before she could finish, something sharp as an awl shattered the upper glass pane of the captain’s cabin door and pierced through.

“What the hell is that now?”

--- Bang!

A-ri immediately shot the hand holding the awl, but the fight had only begun.

A deafening crash followed as they started pounding on the door with something like an oxygen tank. It was obvious the door would not hold for long.

I had no choice but to look behind us.

“Harrison! You’re not expecting us to hold all of them off by ourselves, are you?”

“Of course not. I’m preparing a little something of my own, so hold on for a moment.”

Just as he said, Harrison was busy fiddling with the controls and carving something into the wall.

Watching them smash the captain’s cabin window with an awl gave me an idea.

“Give me all your Capsaicin cans.”

I gathered every spray can our group had.

--- Hiss! Hiss!

“Ugh! Ptoo, ptoo! What is this?”

“Mustard gas? Why’s it red? Where the hell did they get something like this?”

I sprayed furiously through the window in the door, whose hinges were beginning to give way.

Rather than aiming at anyone in particular, I fired wildly into the entire space beyond the door. The area fell quiet for a moment.

--- Bang! Bang!

“Argh!”

“Ga-in! Did you get hit?”

“No, it just grazed me.”

The crew began firing at the window from a distance.

We had no choice but to move away from it.

The thunderous pounding resumed, and eventually the door’s hinges tore loose.

The instant the door was ripped away, a chaotic sound tickled at my ears from behind us. Something rose from the floor and blocked the doorway again. Had Harrison done something?

A disgusting mass of flesh, like opaque tentacles and meat fused together, sealed the entrance.

At least dozens of people stood on the other side, their eyes full of malice.

With the door gone, we could see each other clearly.

Tension filled the air, followed by a murderous voice.

“You bastard! I’ll peel the skin off your face while you’re still alive! Don’t think that lump of flesh can hold us off for long!”

I wondered if I should curse back when the Grotesque suddenly leaped out from behind us and opened its beak!

Pero was about to use its howl without warning, and I flinched.

I immediately expanded the Filter and covered my ears.

The enemies who had experienced Pero’s howl earlier were startled too. They all covered their ears and threw themselves to the floor.

...

...

...

???

What?

Pero was just standing there with its beak open.

...

“That fucking bird tricked us!”

Wow! Pero was smart! Was that a bluff just now?

My admiration lasted only a moment. A man in an angular beret appeared among the enemy, holding a cane.

He touched the wall with the cane and muttered something. The mass of flesh blocking the door slowly began to melt.

Was that the one Harrison had mentioned, the person who had wandered with him for decades and mastered some of the wicked secret arts?

A-ri immediately tried shooting him, but the flesh protecting us from their bullets blocked ours as well. There was no way to stop him.

At last, more than half of the flesh melted away, opening a hole.

The Grotesque brought its beak close to the opening again.

Mocking laughter came from the other side.

“You think we’ll fall for that again? Get ready to be fried-”

--- Piyooooo!

This time, it was real.

Many of the enemies had already drawn their pistols, so the effect was even more violent than before.

--- Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out in rapid succession from beyond the wall, followed by the noisy sounds of them fighting one another.

Around then, another voice came from behind us.

“It’s almost done! You held out well. Just a little longer, and I can bind them all at once.”

Had Harrison finally finished preparing the vicious magic he had spent so long working on?

I moved closer to Harrison to check the situation and took A-ri’s gun.

--- Bang!

“Ah! You fucking bastard!”

“Captain Harrison, why are you cursing?”

“You wouldn’t curse if a bullet got lodged in your fucking head?”

“How would you curse with a bullet in your head? Your head exploded. You’re the abnormal one for still being able to move your mouth, you crazy bastard!”

Even then, Harrison’s blown-apart head began reattaching itself.

“Song-i! Tell Pero to swallow this lump of flesh or something!”

“Hey, hey, hey! Wait! Seriously, wait! You crazy bastards, didn’t we agree to deal with everyone outside the door before fighting among ourselves?”

A-ri’s urgent voice rang out.

“Han Ga-in! Leave Harrison alone for now! They’re starting to come to as the howl wears off. Harrison! What about the ritual you were preparing?”

“If this crazy bastard hadn’t shot me in the head, it would’ve been done by now.”

I was dumbfounded that he was blaming me, but it looked like we needed to give him time.

“Fine. I won’t interfere anymore, so hurry up and do it.”

As we carried on that frantic conversation, mocking laughter came from outside the door.

“Captain Harrison’s leadership never fails to amaze me. How do you always manage to join hands with people like this? If you go through one mutiny, the people who revolt may be the problem. But if everyone you meet stabs you in the back, don’t you think you might be the problem?”

“Stevenson! Shut your mouth!”

I spoke up too.

“Captain, shouldn’t you prepare your magic instead of wasting time arguing?”

“You really should get ready to be fried alive!”

“I’ll make sure to fry your upper body and roast your lower body.”

Being told from both sides that I’d be turned into half fried, half roasted chicken left me momentarily unable to think straight.

Even amid all this chaos, everyone’s preparations continued steadily.

On the other side, the passengers and crew who had belatedly come to their senses began using some kind of power to melt the flesh blocking the door. Behind us, Harrison held onto his dangling head and prepared magic for a reversal.

A-ri came over to me.

“Stay close to Harrison. Don’t move away from him.”

“Why all of a sudden?”

“It’s just a feeling. Do what I say.”

Though I found it strange, I carried the still-unconscious Elena on my back and moved close to Harrison.

Pero and Song-i moved too, apparently having heard the instruction.

At that moment, Harrison’s dangling head turned toward us.

“You’re pretty sharp.”

--- Bwoooooom!

A vibration spread through the entire ship.

“Aaaaaagh!”

A wail that seemed capable of filling the world came from outside the captain’s cabin.

When we escaped the ballroom earlier, Harrison had used some kind of power to make the crew and passengers stick to the ship.

Was this an enhanced version of that power? It went beyond making them stick to the ship. Their bodies began to merge with it.

Wires, concrete, and steel plates protruding from the ship grotesquely covered their bodies, while their flesh seeped into the ship in return. They could only groan, unable to die despite being reduced to that horrific state.

People became the ship, and the ship became people. My limited knowledge couldn’t fathom what sort of power could create such a horrifying sight.

The vibration covered everything outside the captain’s cabin, then entered the cabin itself and began shaking the spot where we had been standing moments ago!

Only the area around Harrison remained untouched by the vibration.

Unable to believe it, I blew his head apart once more.

--- Bang!

“Were you planning to turn us into that too?”

Harrison replied as though I were being ridiculous.

“You’ve blown my head apart twice, and you think you have the right to complain?”

For a moment, I had nothing to say. I turned to look at A-ri.

“How did you know?”

“Just a feeling. I didn’t know what magic he was preparing, but I thought it might sweep us away too. Still, he’d at least make sure he wasn’t affected.”

--- Crunch!

The returning Grotesque crushed Harrison’s dangling flesh with one furious peck.

... This probably wasn’t over.

Sure enough, a voice echoed through the entire ship.

“It’s already too late! I have already achieved union with the 120,000-ton Esper. A body made of protein is nothing more than clay. I have cast off this frail clay body and gained a body of steel.”

[Sage’s Advice: 1 -> 0]

[Jump sideways immediately!]

--- Boom!

Before I could react, my body flew through the air and slammed into the captain’s cabin wall.

What the hell was that thing now?

It was as if the ship had grown muscles. A massive muscle made from countless fused pieces of flesh lifted the steel plating of the captain’s cabin floor and violently flung me away.

Was that something like the union of ship and human Harrison had dreamed of?

...

Still, that damn Advice was at it again.

It should read the future in advance and tell me ten seconds earlier.

What was I supposed to do when it warned me 0.3 seconds beforehand?

Something else felt strange too.

Sometimes it warned me with enough time to respond, but other times it warned me right before danger struck, when it was useless.

There had to be some secret behind that difference too.

I had hit the wall too hard to move at all.

It felt similar to when the tongues that erupted from the swimming pool floor hit me.

The pain was so intense that the sensation throughout my body became hazy, while my thoughts grew clearer.

A blow like this would probably make me lose consciousness soon.

Holding onto my fading mind, I thought about the Contract Clock.

What did the number indicated by its hand mean?

My first hypothesis was the number of time reversals.

But according to the Captain, the Esper had already been sinking when it first made its contract with the demon.

Time must have been reversed once back then. If the hand represented the number of time reversals, it should have started at 1 rather than 0.

Another hypothesis was the number of Sacrifices offered.

But that wasn’t right either. The Esper had offered countless people as Sacrifices during its forty years at sea, so it made no sense for the hand to be at 0.

A prospective Sacrifice had apparently already been offered on the real first night of the past, which had now disappeared. So it couldn’t have been 0 either.

Strictly speaking, this stage was a space created when we entered it, so perhaps it only counted events after our arrival.

Still, neither of those hypotheses could explain why the hand moved to 2 when the party was ruined.

Time hadn’t reversed then, and no Sacrifice had been offered.

As I ruled out one hypothesis after another, a single possibility came to mind.

‘The number of contract violations.’

The terms of the contract between the Esper and Marcas, as revealed so far, were that the Esper would hold banquets and offer Sacrifices, while Marcas would grant immortality.

When the hand first moved, we barged in during the ritual where the grandfather was being offered.

I didn’t know exactly what happened then, but Elena had likely ruined the ritual.

Since the Sacrifice hadn’t been properly offered, the hand moved one space.

Then, when the hand moved for the second time, Pero transformed the ballroom into a space of madness with its howl.

Since the party couldn’t proceed normally, the hand moved another space.

Only one space remained until 3.

... Based on all these deductions and the information we got from Harrison, we had made Plan Z.

My consciousness was starting to fade.

Looking toward A-ri, I thought,

Plan Z, you’ll handle it well, right? A-ri, I’m trusting you. I’m going to get some sleep.

Footnotes:

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