WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 138: Room 107, Gate Room - Final Trial (29)

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- Kim A-ri

Now that I was the only one who'd made it through, all I had left to do was wake my companions who still hadn't awakened!

As I leaned against the side of a building and made plans, I felt a heavy weight settle on my shoulder.

“You headbutted me and sent me flying earlier, and now you're sitting on my shoulder?”

Pero tilted its head at me as if nothing had happened.

It was pretty cute when I looked at it again, and my sulking quickly faded.

“Pero, you must've had a hard time getting to me, huh?”

Pero wasn't in good shape. Had it pecked apart that strange straitjacket I'd seen before?

A lot of feathers must have been torn out in the process. There were bald patches all over its body.

I could guess why it'd gone through so much trouble to find me.

“Right. Looks like your goal and mine are similar. I came to the hotel because I wanted to save my mom too. Let's go save your mom now.”

Before getting to work in earnest, there was something I needed to check, so I raced around the city for a long time.

Just as expected.

There was no longer any trace of the Management Bureau in the publishing company building. Only an ordinary publishing company remained.

This world was a perfect world built from the dreams and fantasies of the four people who had reached the final trial.

Since I'd awakened from my dream, my share of it had disappeared.

Places that existed solely because they depended on me, like the Management Bureau headquarters, had vanished.

By the same logic, adult Mi-ro was gone when I returned home.

After figuring that much out, I ended the long night and fell asleep at home.

Without Mom, the house was far too wide and quiet.

* * *

Once morning came, I went to school. Nothing much had changed there.

That was probably because I wasn't the only one dreaming of keeping the school around.

After all, there were already three of us attending this damn school: me, Song-i, and Ga-in.

I figured I should wake those two up first, then Elena.

As soon as lunch started, I beckoned to Pero, which had been sitting in a tree outside the school window, then went to find Song-i.

Finding Song-i was way too easy.

What exactly was Song-i's idea of a Perfect Life? Some kind of druid life?

Was her dream to bring animals to school?

I should've realized something was wrong with her the moment she added in a setting where she'd gotten permission to bring a parrot to school!

The second I reached the second-year classrooms, the loud barking was so overwhelming it was hard to think.

Thanks to the “setting” Song-i had added, the second-year floor had long since stopped being a school where people studied. It had become a school where dogs studied.

Even among all that, it was far too easy to find Yoo Song-i, the saintess of dogs and saint of cats, who was especially beloved by animals.

To blend naturally into the atmosphere, I put Pero on my shoulder and approached Song-i.

Song-i recognized me from a distance and ran over.

“Peroooooo!”

So she'd recognized Pero.

“I was so startled when it suddenly disappeared! Where did it go? Did it bully A-ri again?”

Then Song-i met my eyes and continued.

“If Pero did anything strange again, I'm sorry!”

“No, Pero didn't do anything strange. You're the one doing strange things.”

... The atmosphere around us turned cold.

When I glanced around, countless dogs and cats had begun glaring at me.

“I don't know about anyone else, but I think you're already half-awake.... What do you think? You put Pero in that straitjacket too, right? I've been thinking about it on the way here. Before Pero came to me, it probably tried to wake you up first. You didn't want to wake up, so you-”

“Be quiet!”

Before I could finish, Song-i screamed loudly enough to shake the school!

Even worse, those words forced my mouth shut, and I couldn't make another sound.

“Get out of here!”

Song-i shouted again.

And I was thrown out of the school.

--- Crash!

Wow! What the hell was that?

When I tried to wake Song-i, she got angry. That much was expected, but...

When she got angry and yelled, “Get out!” I really was thrown out of the school.

Like I'd run into a bug in some game, my body flew through the air, passed through a wall, kept flying for ages, then landed on the school field.

It was so ridiculous that I didn't even feel like getting up.

I just lay there, covered in dirt from the field, and thought.

Had she used some kind of reality-altering ability?

Thinking about it, it wasn't that strange.

This place was the stage for Perfect Life, created to fulfill our wishes.

In truth, creating a world that fulfilled people's wishes wasn't easy.

Human desires changed constantly and grew stronger over time.

Someone satisfied with a decent house at first would want a grand mansion next, then a whole building after that.

How could a Perfect Life that fulfilled all those desires forever be created?

By giving every one of us the power to make our wishes come true!

Come to think of it, wasn't that a power I'd already used?

When I jumped off the building, I wished for the world to stop out of fear of death.

The entire world stopped in response to my wish.

Compared to that incredible miracle, throwing me out of a school was nothing.

Now that I thought about it, Ga-in's situation wasn't normal either.

In the fourth trial, everything from his organs to his bones had been completely wrecked.

In reality, he wouldn't have been able to leave the hospital for months at minimum. Even if he did, it wouldn't have been strange for him to suffer lifelong aftereffects.

Yet only about a week had passed, and he showed up with nothing but a cast on his leg, cheerfully hanging out with his friends.

That abnormal recovery was probably this world's answer to his wish to get better.

That made waking them much harder.

Should I kill Song-i or Ga-in to wake them if it came down to it? I wasn't sure anymore.

Now that they'd gained an absurd superpower like reality alteration, could I even kill them?

...

It was pointless to worry about it. Let's go back to Song-i.

At least waking Song-i probably wouldn't be that hard.

Unlike the others, she already seemed half-awake because of Pero.

“So this time, you need to do some work. It's about saving your mom, so do your best.”

I poked Pero, which was sitting on my stomach, then entered the school again.

Was it because Song-i's conflicted state of mind had been reflected in it?

The second-year floor was absolute chaos.

The animals ran wild as they pleased, while the students staggered around like zombies.

After making my way through that distracting place for a while, I approached Song-i again.

Song-i was curled up alone in one corner of the classroom.

Would she throw me out again if I talked to her? That was kind of dangerous. Still, I had to try.

“Song-i?”

Song-i abruptly raised her head and looked at me.

I might look like this, but I'm a Management Bureau agent! I was confident in my quick, accurate responses.

I immediately grabbed Pero with both hands and held it in front of me.

“Bird Shield!”

“...”

“...”

--- Screech! Squawk, squawk!

The humans were silent, while the parrot furiously tried to bite me to pieces.

“Ah! Ahh! Don't do that! Don't pull out my hair!”

Song-i, who had been watching, sighed and took Pero from me.

“What was that just now? Did jokes like that work in the seventies?”

“So you woke up too?”

“...”

“If you're awake, didn't something like a hologram window appear?”

“Something like that appears? I haven't seen it yet. Maybe it's because I thought I wanted to stay a little longer.”

She wanted to stay a little longer.

The temptation offered by this “perfect world” must have been enormous.

I sat beside Song-i. She apologized in a tiny voice.

“I'm sorry I sent you flying earlier. I didn't know my power would work like that.”

“It's okay. Getting thrown around and sent flying is just part of daily life for me.”

“What kind of world is that normal in?”

“You think it's someone else's problem? Once you leave the hotel, it'll be part of your daily life too.”

“... Come to think of it, Grandpa Mook-seong was always talking to Ga-in about agent work. Do I have to do that kind of work when I get out too?”

“I was just saying it. We'll only know once we get out.”

Silence lingered between us for a while.

“Wouldn't it be better to get up soon?”

After waiting a little, Song-i slowly began telling a story that sounded like a lament.

When she was little, she had a happy family. As time passed, for reasons the child couldn't understand, her parents' relationship plunged into ruin. Eventually, they both openly began seeing other people.

Avoiding divorce for the sake of their child had its limits. By the time Song-i entered the hotel, both of them had already begun seeing lawyers. Tears gradually ran down Song-i's face.

“Honestly, even before Pero woke me up, I vaguely knew. But I really didn't want to leave. Every time I saw my parents getting along at home, I was so happy.”

I didn't know what to say, so I held Song-i's hand.

“Do I seem childish? You, A-ri.... You work for the Management Bureau. You've seen countless horrible, terrifying misfortunes that can't even compare to something as minor as parents getting divorced, right? Do I seem stupid?”

“I don't think that at all. Is there even any point in comparing misfortunes like that? It's like saying that compared to the suffering of starving people in Africa, every misfortune Koreans face is just childish whining.”

“...”

“Everyone has their own misfortune. Just because someone else suffers a worse misfortune doesn't lessen yours, so what's the point of comparing them? I only hope you can overcome that sadness.”

“When we leave the hotel... will it be fixed? Couldn't my parents get along again?”

... I didn't want to lie to her, so I decided to be honest.

“No. It's not like your parents fought once or twice. If conflict had built up over several years, it would already be hard to undo. It isn't something that can be solved just because you leave the hotel with countless treasures and superpowers. But there will be growth.”

“Growth?”

“By the time you leave the hotel, your world will be much bigger than it was before you entered. I'm not talking about superpowers or treasures, but your state of mind. As children grow up, they gradually build worlds of their own, and when that process ends, they become independent from their parents' world. By then, you'll be able to understand that your parents have lives of their own.”

“...”

“Leaving the hotel won't make your parents get along again, but you'll be able to understand and accept them.”

Wow! Didn't I sound like some psychology expert just now?

“... Pfft!”

“Hm?”

“No, it just sounds so strange coming from someone who looks like a child. You look like a kid too!”

Song-i laughed and tapped my head.

I'd gone to all that trouble to advise her, and that was her reaction.

Still, I didn't feel bad.

That solved the first companion's problem!

After our conversation ended, Song-i's gaze fixed on empty air.

“Did the hologram appear?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You saw this window too, but you're waking the others instead of leaving, right? I'll do the same.”

As Song-i awakened, all the animals at the school, aside from Pero, disappeared like mirages.

Song-i was curious about how I'd awakened, so we talked about that for a while.

Then we began choosing who to wake next.

“Ga-in, right?”

“Waking Elena will probably be the hardest. Unlike us, she doesn't even attend school, and when you see how movies and dramas keep coming out, it feels like she's fallen deeper into this world than any of us.”

“How should we wake Ga-in? Unlike you, he seems properly asleep, so I think persuading him will be pretty hard.”

After thinking for a long time, Song-i offered her opinion.

“Let's push Ga-in off a building too!”

Pero was extremely happy to hear that.

Footnotes:

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