WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 139: Room 107, Gate Room - Final Trial (30)

──────

- Kim A-ri

After we started discussing how to wake Ga-in, Song-i offered an idea.

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

“I'd been thinking along the lines of killing him too, but there's something we need to be careful about.”

“What’s dangerous?”

“Think back to when you woke up earlier. In this trial, we gain powers that make our wishes come true. Ga-in probably has something similar.”

“Hmm. Calling it a superpower feels strange. When I used it, it didn't feel like I was using an ability.”

“I know what you mean. It's less like we use a power directly and more like we desperately make a wish, then the universe grants it. Ga-in must have gained that kind of power too. Unlike you, though, he probably won't control it.”

“Control it?”

“When you sent me flying, you were already half-awake, right? So you probably controlled your power instinctively. Even as you threw me, you must've wished that I wouldn't die.”

“I didn't really think that.”

“...”

“Maybe I did unconsciously.”

“You did, right?”

“...”

“Let's say you did. Anyway, you recognized me and controlled your power enough that I wouldn't die, but Ga-in isn't like that. If we try to hurt him, he might wish for us to die.”

“That’s really scary. Let's make a more careful plan.”

“I think we should make a plan where we don't reveal ourselves directly.”

After that, we carefully devised a plan to assassinate Han Ga-in.

We decided to begin around lunchtime.

* * *

- Han Ga-in

--- Ding dong dang dong!

“Ugh, I'm so sleepy I could die.”

“You'd think you studied during class or something. You slept through it anyway, so why are you still sleepy?”

“You idiots! Let's just go eat.”

“What’s for lunch today? Sweet and sour pork?”

“That’s tomorrow. Today is fried pollock.”

“Ah, damn it.”

My ears hurt. The entire classroom grew noisy the instant lunchtime began.

I, on the other hand, didn't have much on my mind. My leg was still in a cast, so getting to the cafeteria would be difficult. The hospital had also told me I needed to manage my diet for a while, so I'd brought a packed lunch.

As I unpacked it, a few friends came over.

“You're still eating stuff like that?”

“I'll probably be eating packed lunches for another month.”

“That sounds seriously disgusting.”

“You picking a fight? I told you, my intestines are injured, so this is all I can eat.”

Around then, an enormous commotion rose by the classroom door.

“Waaah! Hey, bring that fucking bastard Han Ga-in over here!”

“Damn, if that asshole didn't have his leg in a cast, I'd beat the hell out of him right now!”

What was this all of a sudden? Before I could even take a bite, the people around me dragged me to the door.

There was an incredibly cute-looking second-year girl there.

...

Ha! So this is how popular this body is!

My hand rose on its own as I marveled at my uncontrollable charm-

--- Smack!

“This fucking bastard is acting up again?”

“Are you crazy? At least look at my leg before you push me.”

Amid the loud commotion, the girl who introduced herself as Song-i handed me a small note, then hurried away as if embarrassed.

After shoving aside the idiots trying to open it with me, I checked the note alone.

It said to meet her on the rooftop of the newly built building with the cafeteria after class.

I couldn't focus on the rest of the lesson after that.

* * *

- Han Ga-in

The moment class ended, I shook off the friends who had been watching me like hawks and headed to the new building's rooftop.

What should I do? What should I do? I'm a high school senior now. Is it okay for me to get a girlfriend? Wouldn't it be better to date once I get to college? But she was cute! Ah, I can't hurt her feelings! Why did she ask to meet on the rooftop, though? My leg hurts. Still, that much is fine. Should I play hard to get once? No, don't do weird things like that. I should say yes right away. What if we fight while dating? If there's enough love, we can overcome small conflicts! But what if the girl I met today has a worse personality than I thought? Wouldn't that be a huge problem?

...

In that brief time, my mind spun faster than it ever had since I was born, pouring out an absurd amount of delusion.

I felt like I would start thinking of names for our second daughter if I kept this up, so I forcibly stopped and went up to the rooftop.

??

What? I was there, but nobody was on the rooftop.

I walked all around looking for Song-i, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Had I come too early? With my leg like this, it didn't feel like I got here particularly fast...

Then I understood.

The person confessing needed time to prepare!

Once I thought that, my mood immediately lifted, and it was hard to hide the smile spreading across my face.

I snickered to myself and started toward the parapet wall to lean against it.

--- Twang!

Something suddenly pulled tight and shoved me toward the rooftop parapet wall!

A white wire I hadn't noticed because it was laid across the floor snapped taut and pushed me forward.

“Argh!”

I crashed into the parapet wall and fell over.

My body, already awkward because of the cast, collapsed under the impact.

Something even more shocking happened next.

--- Rumble! Crash!

The parapet wall suddenly collapsed!

A reinforced concrete wall just crumbled without warning?

How could this happen?

I had no time to think about why.

The wire was still pushing me beyond the parapet wall, and the parapet wall had collapsed from some unknown force.

The result was obvious.

In an instant, I was shoved outside the building and put in danger of falling.

I grabbed the remains of the parapet wall with both hands and hung on with every ounce of strength I had.

“Help! Somebody help!”

I screamed like mad as I clung on with all my strength. I couldn't bring myself to look down.

Time filled with pain and terror passed, and strange voices came from somewhere.

“Why is he holding on so well?”

“Shouldn't we just wait?”

“If we give him too much time, he'll survive in some weird way.”

“Why won't he die?”

“Ga-in. Please just die!”

What was this? Why could I hear voices wishing for my death?

One of them was definitely the girl who had called me out earlier that afternoon!

How could this be happening?

My mind became a tangled mess in the confusion.

Then I heard something that made all this suffering worse.

--- Screee!

With a resounding cry, an adorable parrot appeared, carrying itself like some magnificent bird of prey.

The parrot slowly approached the parapet wall where I was hanging.

“No, right? You wouldn't, right?”

--- Twang! Twang!

“Ah, fuck! Are you insane? Get your beak off me!”

--- Crack! Peck!

“Argh! This crazy bird is trying to kill me! Stop biting my fingers!”

--- Krrrik!

“You? Did you just laugh? You laughed, didn't you?”

--- Riiip!

“Ah! Seriously, get your beak away from me! Ah! My eyes, my eyes!”

Perhaps because I was holding on for too long, the parrot climbed right onto my face and started attacking it with its beak and claws.

It boiled up inside me.

An endless rage I had never experienced before rose from the depths of my heart.

At that moment, not only my fear of death but even the pain from hanging off the parapet wall disappeared.

If only I could fry that damned bird!

The instant every stray thought vanished and a single wish remained in my heart, the world answered my prayer.

And I snapped awake.

* * *

- Han Ga-in

--- Squeee!

“Aw, Pero got hurt badly. Are you okay?”

“This is why we avoided letting Ga-in see us! Pero! I told you not to jump in carelessly.”

“I never thought Ga-in would suddenly summon boiling oil out of thin air... Is Pero okay?”

“A normal parrot would have died instantly. But Pero is special! It'll be okay.”

After listening to A-ri and Song-i talk for a while, I was too dumbfounded to stay quiet.

“Are you two only worried about the parrot right now? What about my fingers and face, which that parrot almost mangled?”

“What does it matter? The hotel will heal everything once we get out. Anyway, you woke up in a funny way too. You suddenly snapped awake when the boiling oil you summoned out of thin air was about to cover you too?”

“...”

“Wow, wasn't that too cruel? Pero did its very best to wake you up, and you tried to pour oil on it.”

“Don't lie! That thing was definitely biting my fingers while laughing at me.”

“Ga-in! Pero is hurt right now. Do you really have to say that?”

“...”

“Song-i, don't be so hard on him. Ga-in came here all excited because he thought he was about to hear your confession.”

A-ri's words dealt a critical hit to both Song-i and me.

Remembering the absurd delusions I'd had earlier was unbearable, so I could only stare at the floor.

“Ga-in, you're definitely awake, right? If you aren't sure, how about taking another trip off a building?”

“... The hologram already appeared, so stop it.”

I suddenly wanted to push A-ri off a building too.

After that noisy process, I finally joined the “Wake Up the Companions Party.”

Now only Elena remained.

I felt deeply moved by the fact that this long Gate Room was truly nearing its end.

“Only Elena is left now?”

Song-i immediately gave her opinion.

“Yes. But I think Elena will be harder to wake than us. She seems the most deeply immersed in her dream.”

“There’s another problem too. She’s already become a huge star in this world, right? Elena will probably have a lot of bodyguards around her. That means it'll be hard to use the vicious method you used on me, calling her somewhere and pushing her off a rooftop.”

“... I'm sorry for using a vicious method.”

Song-i began carefully wrapping Pero in bandages.

That unbearably arrogant animal was still glaring at me and chirping.

Could the crown of creation lose a staring contest to a parrot? I opened my eyes as wide as possible and glared back at Pero.

A-ri, who was watching, said, “Hey! Stop having a standoff with an animal.”

Eventually, A-ri called me over, and we began talking about various things.

Naturally, the topic was how A-ri and Song-i had awakened.

As I listened to how A-ri had begun to sense that something was wrong with the world, there were far too many strange details.

“What?”

“Hm? I entered Management Bureau headquarters, and Department Head Park-”

“No, not that part. The part about realizing something was wrong. You mentioned pigeons and Fungal Parasite.”

“I did.”

“... I've never heard those words in my life. Fungal Parasite? Pigeons? I haven't even seen anything like that in the news. Maybe I don't know much about bars because I'm underage, but Predatory Pigeon? If creatures that strange had spread across the entire country, there's no way I wouldn't know.”

“...”

When A-ri heard my answer, her eyes widened at first. A moment later, she nodded as though she had figured something out on her own.

“Don't keep it to yourself. Explain it to me too.”

“It’s nothing. You'll understand if you think about it a little.”

She was clearly avoiding an answer.

Still, I understood soon enough. It was something I had experienced many times in this hotel.

The stages looked just like Earth, yet they were full of absurd events that I had never heard of in actual history.

At first, I thought the hotel had simply created them.

But according to what Song-i heard from the Devourer after clearing Room 103, the hotel’s scenarios are recreating events that actually happened somewhere in this universe.

They were events I had never seen or heard of in the history I knew, but they had really happened?

I'd seen the concept that explained this dozens of times in movies!

Could it be parallel worlds?

A-ri and I must have come from different parallel worlds.

If so, would we be unable to meet anymore once we left the hotel and returned to our respective worlds someday?

The thought saddened me.

Sigh...

Enough of these thoughts. Right now, staying alive day by day already kept me very busy.

* * *

- Kim A-ri

After our earlier conversation ended, Ga-in stopped asking questions. He seemed lost in thought for a while, then nodded.

It looked like he had reached an understanding in his own way. I could easily guess what kind of understanding it was. Something about parallel worlds, probably.

Ever since hero movies made by America's XX Comics had taken over theaters, parallel worlds had become common knowledge.

I sighed.

This time, I absolutely couldn't tell Ga-in the truth. This time, I had no choice but to keep the truth completely hidden from him for his own sake.

He would be terribly shocked someday after leaving the hotel.

But I couldn't let him suffer that shock while we were still going through the hotel’s trials.

He and I had lived through different phases of the same world.

Footnotes:

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