Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 134

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 133: Room 107, Gate Room - Fourth Trial (24) (Final)

──────

- Kim A-ri

--- Bang!

The floor shot upward like a spring, sending Ga-in flying toward the wall.

Song-i and I both jumped in shock. I pulled the trigger at once, while Song-i ordered Pero to charge Harrison again.

--- Bang! Bang!

--- Screeeech!

Amid the deafening blasts, the Grotesque's human-head-sized beak tore through Harrison's remaining flesh.

But it was pointless now.

Harrison had already become inseparable from the ship.

Those scraps of flesh were nothing but remnants.

Sure enough, as though nothing had happened, Harrison mixed the flesh on the floor together again, forming a horrific shape that vaguely resembled a face.

Did we have to destroy the ship itself?

There was no way. It wasn't as if we could blow it up, and a handgun was useless.

Pero's strength wasn't enough either. Maybe it would be possible if Cha Jin-cheol came back to life and summoned the Star.

For a moment, things settled down.

After Ga-in was knocked unconscious in a single blow, Harrison stopped his direct attacks.

Once I thought about the contract, I began to understand why.

“You two lovely ladies over there. Won't you hear me out?”

“You're going to ask whether we'll sacrifice Ga-in and become crew members of the Esper, right?”

“...”

“Am I right?”

“Miss, was your name A-ri? You've seemed to be reading my mind from the start.”

“Isn't it obvious? I don't know what kind of power you gained by merging with the ship, but it must be power granted by a demon. To maintain that power, you have to maintain your contract with the demon. And to maintain the contract, you need sacrifices and banquets.

“Even if you offer Ga-in as a sacrifice, you can't hold banquets by yourself. You've turned all the other crew members and passengers into furniture for the ship. At the very least, they can't dance looking like that.

“The Esper needs crew members. Crew members who'll wander the ocean with this ship forever, enjoy banquets, and offer sacrifices.”

“Well, aren't you clever? It makes me a little worried... Clever crew members aren't really my type.”

“Even so, you don't have any other choice. Do you think you can suddenly find new crew members in the middle of this open sea?”

“This tense relationship, always trying to outmaneuver each other, could be entertaining in its own way. So, are you willing to accept my offer?”

“Let's change the terms. I'll be the sacrifice.”

“Eek!”

Song-i made a startled sound through her nose, and the entire ship trembled for an instant. Was that Harrison's way of showing surprise?

“... What on earth are you talking about? That bastard will die soon if we leave him alone. Why would you take such a reckless risk?”

That made me laugh. Why take such a risk for someone about to die?

Because I was confident we could end this trial immediately if it worked!

Harrison must have misunderstood my laughter, because he suddenly said something ridiculous.

“Aha! I had my suspicions, but is this the pure love I've only heard about? Certainly, if the young lady becomes the sacrifice and this young man becomes a crew member, the contract's power will revive him even if he dies. Are you willing to die to save him? How touching.”

It was so absurd that I just kept my mouth shut.

Harrison seemed to mull it over for a while, then made his decision.

“Not bad. Not bad at all. It bothered me how you seemed to read my mind from the start. I don't like the thought of saving this arrogant bastard, but with him around, it should be easy to control the other ladies.”

The moment he finished speaking, wires all over the ship moved like living tentacles and lifted me into the air.

Plan Z was finally starting.

There were parts of it that worried me, so I'd wanted to keep it as a last resort until the very end. Still, the moment had come.

“Don't worry too much. I have no intention of making you suffer like those insects glued to the floor. I'll make it quick and clean. Just tell me your age and place of origin.”

“I don't know my age. My place of origin is a hotel in the deep sea.”

Harrison sneered at my answer.

“Could that possibly be your last resort? Trying to deceive me with lies?”

“...”

“Or do you truly not know your age or exact place of origin, so all you can say is that you came from some hotel? Not knowing your own roots must be painful. How pitiful. But if your final plan was that, since you yourself don't know your age or place of origin, you can't be offered as a sacrifice... I'm disappointed.”

This Captain really talked too much. He must have been lonely after being trapped underground by himself for so long.

He also seemed certain that I would try to deceive him.

“...”

“Ha ha! If you thought I was the same as those insects on the floor, I'm disappointed. Even if you deceive me, I have plenty of ways to find out.”

As soon as he said that, unknown symbols began appearing all over the ship.

Then black hands rose beneath me. They slowly climbed the wires and began gripping my body.

With a sigh, I looked around.

Song-i was staring at me with a frightened expression.

Elena still hadn't woken up, while Pero used its claws to pull flesh out of its beak.

And Ga-in was racing toward death by the second.

A huge mirror appeared before me.

Was this his way of discovering my age and place of origin?

The mirror reflected me, and countless versions of me appeared within it.

One of me trembled behind a brick wall on a battlefield filled with flying bullets.

One of me fought an invisible enemy aboard a train racing endlessly beyond the Milky Way.

One of me ran among screaming prehistoric humans, searching for the first seed.

One of me stood amid the scenery of a strange star after becoming lost in an unknown time and space.

One of me listened to someone's confession in the middle of an endless barley field.

Countless events from my far-from-short life passed by like a panorama.

Harrison, taking in that information, cried out in shock.

“What in the world! What is this? How could it be so strange... Have you traveled through time?”

That wasn't all.

After endlessly replaying my past, the mirror arrived at a splendid hotel.

A hotel rising from the floor of the deep sea, still unknown to humanity, in the middle of the boundless ocean.

I was born at sea.

--- Clank!

A vibration that rang through the whole ship. That chilling signal I had already experienced!

The hand of the Contract Clock turned toward 3.

At that moment, the flesh forming Harrison's face twisted with all its strength and screamed.

“No! No! This is impossible! You... What are you? You have no age, and you were born at sea? You're not even a mermaid. What kind of human are you!”

“I've been curious about my age too.”

Woooooo!

A tremendous sound rose from the endless, deep blue sea, loud enough to feel against my skin.

Harrison, furious, pulled wires from the ship like tentacles to pierce us, but it was already too late.

As the contract was terminated, all the evil power granted to him began to disappear.

The wires drooped like the arms of a powerless old man, and the flesh mixed into the ship separated from it and fell away.

The moment I landed, I hurried over to the others.

Pero must have carried Ga-in over in the meantime, because everyone was gathered in one spot.

Song-i spoke right away.

“How did you do that?”

“It was nothing. Marcas hates the land and enjoys offering humans from the land as sacrifices, so I only guessed that maybe someone born at sea couldn't be offered as a sacrifice. I also thought my uncertain age might be one of the conditions. It turned out to be exactly right.”

“You thought of that in the middle of all this-”

--- Rumble!

The whole ship shook, then suddenly began coming apart everywhere!

“Aaaah! What's happening?”

“Ah! I had a feeling this might happen! Human flesh was embedded throughout the ship, and now that all the flesh has disappeared, I think the ship's collapsing.”

Looooo--- Aaaaah---!

A song seemed to cover the entire world as it rose from the sea. Was it Marcas's song?

Fishermen and sailors who had long made the sea their livelihood feared its violence and fickleness, worshipping it as a cruel goddess.

The cruel demon, as though given form by the sea's terror, twisted its body and destroyed the Esper in an instant.

We clung to Pero in a panic. Though it seemed to complain, Pero didn't return to its parrot form.

Instead, it held the unconscious Ga-in and Elena with arms that seemed to be a mixture of wings and tentacles. I clung to Pero's neck and held on.

Amazingly, Pero could not fly after transforming despite being a bird, but it could float on the sea.

We held on atop the Grotesque like hamsters riding on the back of a giant duck.

“Please, please save me!”

... People in a wretched state appeared from all directions.

Harrison, who had completely lost his human form, seemed to have died the moment the contract was terminated. But the people who had remained crudely mixed with the ship and retained their human forms hadn't died even in that state, and they swam toward us.

Thankfully, before we could do anything, Pero shoved them back into the sea one by one with its beak.

The crew members who had feared death more than anyone and joined hands with a demon returned to the sea's embrace, as fate had ordained.

/Congratulations, participants! You have passed the fourth trial, ‘The Secret of the Esper’./

The space began to collapse.

* * *

- Kim A-ri

The moment we entered the familiar resting area, Song-i and I hurried over to check on Ga-in first.

We checked whether his breathing was steady and how serious his external and internal injuries were.

Song-i stood beside me, staring only at my face with an expression full of tension.

“Is Ga-in okay?”

“I don't think he'll die right away. But he'll definitely die if we leave him alone.”

“Then what should we do?”

Instead of answering, I immediately drew my blood with a syringe. Song-i understood what I was doing and quickly brought Ga-in's arm toward me for a transfusion.

I repeatedly drew my blood and injected it into Ga-in.

“Will this help Ga-in recover?”

“This alone won't be enough. The restorative power in my blood only becomes strong when I'm almost dead. Normally, it isn't that powerful.”

As I said that, a chill ran down my spine. Song-i wouldn't hear that and order Pero to leave me at death's door so she could draw my blood, right?

... Thankfully, Song-i showed no sign of doing that. I was just being paranoid for no reason.

The paranoia I'd developed from being born and raised in the hotel had grown worse after I experienced the Management Bureau. It had become incurable long ago.

“Then what do we do?”

“I don't know either. He'll live if the next trial takes place in a hospital or something. Otherwise, we'll have to clear it ourselves.”

Next, I checked Elena.

Unlike Ga-in, Elena didn't appear to have any physical problems.

Had the crew of the Esper used sleeping pills on Elena? She was simply sleeping peacefully.

With Ga-in near death and Elena sleeping so deeply she wouldn't know if we carried her away, Song-i and I could only sigh beside them and wait for time to pass.

At last, the final trial of the long, long Gate Room began.

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 46

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

Sage’s Advice: 0]

- Han Ga-in

--- Rattle! Rattle!

--- Rrrrk!

My mind was hazy. I could hear something being hurriedly transported.

...

Ah, I was the one being moved. Once I realized that, the sounds outside became faintly clear too.