WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 147: Rest and Reorganization (3)

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- Han Ga-in

Right after Greedy Hand was used, the space around us seemed to hum. Then the Merchant appeared, someone I was starting to find almost familiar.

The first time we used it, it triggered a monster extermination event, so I'd assumed this one would also be something we had to fight our way through. Apparently, I was wrong.

This was a completely different kind of event. Was it a trade event this time?

Everyone stared at the Merchant, somewhat flustered.

Their bandages fluttered as the Merchant launched into a lengthy speech.

“Greetings, dear customers. I have come personally at the request of customer Lee Eun-sol. The hotel is a harsh and exhausting place! Is it not difficult to endure without powerful treasures or supernatural abilities? The desire to grow stronger! I understand it. I sympathize deeply as well. Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world! You know that, don't you?”

Eun-sol spoke in a slightly weary tone.

“Just get to the point. What are you here to sell this time, and what do we have to pay for it?”

“What am I here to sell? Oh, my! What a misunderstanding. I have not come to sell anything this time.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am sorry, but the items I brought this time are too precious even for me to dare sell. Regrettably, they cannot be taken outside the hotel.”

“They can't leave the hotel? You're not selling them, you're lending them out?”

“You catch on quickly. That is correct. The items I will show you this time cannot be taken outside the hotel. They will be repossessed the moment you leave. However, the rental fee will not be returned.”

The items were body parts, and there was a rental fee.

I had a bad feeling. I asked just in case.

“When you say rental fee... You don't mean our original body parts, do you?”

Instead of answering, the Merchant stretched their mouth until the corners nearly split apart. That was answer enough.

As though they were having more and more fun, the Merchant began explaining in detail.

“Every item is a specific piece of body tissue! Those who wish to do so may exchange their real body parts and borrow these. Everything will be repossessed when you leave the hotel. In other words, you pay your real body parts as the rental fee, and the borrowed body tissue is repossessed when you leave. Do I need to explain further?”

I understood clearly. Put simply, we'd be left disabled once we went outside.

Everyone began making sounds as though their breath had caught.

Grandpa Mook-seong asked, “Can it be treated?”

“Not within the hotel! The real body parts paid as the rental fee cannot be restored even in Room 105. Frankly, it would be strange if they could. If the borrowed body tissue remains and your real body part is restored, wouldn't you end up with three arms? Outside the hotel, though, do as you please. Perhaps you could use wealth and medicine to receive transplants and recover?”

It was a type of loan transaction. We offered our real body parts in exchange for special ones, then the body parts we received would also be taken back when we left the hotel.

As I listened, I thought that if this was the only price, we could handle it.

For example, say we gave up one arm and received an arm with immense strength.

Inside the hotel, there'd be no real loss since we'd have the powerful arm.

Wouldn't there be some way to treat it once we got outside the hotel?

If we borrowed the Management Bureau's power, it felt like they could somehow restore a missing arm.

A-ri, who seemed to have had similar thoughts, asked, “These terms are way too good for you. Is there no other price?”

The Merchant answered as if they found it amusing.

“Ha ha! This is all I receive as payment. It's not as if I am committing fraud...”

...?

The Merchant stopped speaking for a moment.

.

.

.

Suddenly, the Merchant's mouth split open in a cross, up, down, left, and right, revealing countless gear-like teeth hidden inside!

The Merchant had never lost their smile, even when we hit them. Now, they wore an expression vicious enough to rival a demon descended upon the earth. It sent a chill down my spine.

The Merchant glared at Eun-sol.

“Ha ha. It seems your Sponsor wishes for a ‘kinder explanation.’”

Had Eun-sol's Sponsor intervened somehow?

She answered simply.

“Tell them thank you.”

The Merchant's forced smile returned. Perhaps because of pressure from the Sponsor, they began a far more detailed explanation.

“Such explanations are terribly boring, but I have no choice. Strictly speaking, it is difficult to call it a price, since I do not receive it. Still, from your perspective, there is another burden. The strain caused by the newly acquired body tissue itself.

“The human body is like a finely crafted machine. Just because strange power resides in one part of the body does not mean the strain is limited to that area. A mutated arm adversely affects the entire upper body, and a mutated eye affects the brain. That strain cannot be treated within the hotel either.”

The second price was strain placed on the entire body.

In a way, this seemed like the real price.

The disappearance of our original body parts, the first price, was nothing we needed to worry about inside the hotel. Outside, it was a problem we could somehow solve.

But the strain placed on the whole body, the second price, could not be treated within the hotel. The person involved would simply have to endure it.

While everyone considered it, the Merchant began showing us the items in earnest.

The first item was an arm covered in black, murky scales.

“This item is the arm of a powerful warrior from the Abras Clan. It can exert more than three times the strength of an adult man, and its durability is enough to deflect bladed weapons. As a bonus, it has regeneration that would make even a lizard weep. In truth, with this arm alone, anyone can become a skilled warrior.”

The second item was a digitigrade leg covered in pure white fur.

“This item is the right leg of the Lord of Mount Essede. Its power and toughness are beyond comparison with a human leg. With spring-like muscles, it can leap twenty or thirty meters in a single bound. Above all, this flexibility! This leg can even lengthen or shorten according to the situation.”

The third item was a huge eyeball, almost the size of a fist.

“This is the eye of the Monocular Giant Bird of Philote Island. It possesses remarkable vision, capable of spotting a mayfly a hundred meters away and reading the writing on a flying arrow. That is only the beginning. This eye can capture the entire scene within its field of vision, just like a camera. An even more astonishing fact! It is said that it can faintly perceive invisible beings that human eyes cannot see.”

The final item was a spine.

“This is the spine of a Ploxian. This item...”

A-ri immediately cut the Merchant off.

“Wait. The price for that bone is having our spine pulled out, right?”

“That is correct.”

A-ri turned to us.

“This one's no good. Even with the Management Bureau's technology, there is still no way to regenerate an entire spine. Besides, if your spine disappears, wouldn't you drop dead the moment you return to Earth? None of you plan to die the instant you leave, right?”

I asked A-ri, “You only reacted like that to the spine. Arms, legs, and eyes can be restored?”

A-ri nodded.

“The eye wouldn't be regenerated. It would be a prosthetic eye, but the rest can more or less be restored.”

It seemed we should consider the other items, excluding the spine.

Eun-sol, the person who had used Greedy Hand, was clearly tempted by all those items. She stuck close to the Merchant and began asking more detailed questions.

When I looked around, the people who were interested and the people who weren't were clearly divided.

Those of us who already possessed reliable power without such things, Inheritance holders like me, Jin-cheol, Song-i, and A-ri, were indifferent.

Honestly, they didn't seem that impressive compared to an Inheritance. I also wondered whether the strain those items caused might interfere with the free use of an Inheritance.

Seung-yeop showed considerable interest, so I pulled him away. Jin-cheol, Grandpa Mook-seong, and I had already discussed this, but considering his blessing, Luck, Seung-yeop seemed like the most suitable person to regularly wear the Protective Suit in Curse Rooms.

If he was going to wear the Protective Suit anyway, a strange body part wasn't especially meaningful.

In the end, Elena, Grandpa Mook-seong, and Eun-sol began discussing it earnestly.

Grandpa Mook-seong was passionately making his case.

“Everything except the eye is a trap! The arms and legs are nothing special. Can't you tell just by looking? The arms and legs just make you stronger, don't they? We already have Jin-cheol, Pero, and the Protective Suit for brute strength. There are plenty of replacements. But overwhelming visual ability! There is no replacement for that.”

Eun-sol half agreed but offered a different opinion as well.

“I agree that the eye is the best, but aren't the arms and legs good too? Only three people are interested anyway, so wouldn't it be better for one person to take the eye and the other two to take the arm and leg? That way, all three of us get something.”

Elena joined in.

“I think the leg is really a trap. There is some point to one arm becoming stronger, but is there any point in just one leg becoming stronger? Whether you're running, leaping, or jumping, most things you do with your legs need balance between both legs. Can you really run properly if only one leg is strong?”

“Hmm. The leg really is a trap. Then just the eye and arm?”

I gave my opinion too.

“In the end, it is up to the people who will receive them, but I think it would be better if Elena did not take one.”

Elena looked at me curiously. More precisely, at my feet.

It was still awkward to meet her gaze.

“These body parts seem useful, but they are not powerful enough to compare to an Inheritance or blessing. It would be a problem if they interfere with the use of your Inheritance or blessing. If you gain a small power only to weaken a greater one, that is a loss far greater than the gain.

“From that perspective, Eun-sol's Wealth and Grandpa Mook-seong's Communication should be fine, because their blessings are not particularly related to their bodies. Even if those body parts strain their bodies, Wealth and Communication won't be affected much.

“But Elena, think back to what happened before. Injuries you received before activating Justice cannot be healed even after it is activated. Didn't we confirm that those injuries could make you faint or leave you incapacitated even after using Justice?”

Elena understood what I meant.

“If damage builds up in my body while using a new body part, that damage could make me collapse while using Justice. Then I'll give it up.”

In the end, Eun-sol decided to take the eye, while Grandpa Mook-seong would take the arm. The two of them approached the Merchant.

Standing before the Merchant, Eun-sol asked with a slightly fearful expression, “I'll take the eye, and the gentleman here will take the arm. But how are you planning to give them to us? You're not going to personally rip out my eye and his arm...”

“Good heavens! Who would do something so barbaric? Are you savages? Pulling out an eye and tearing off an arm without anesthesia! That kills people. They die from shock. Do you understand?”

“...”

That bastard. The last time we met the Merchant, hadn't they told us to cut off our fingers and limbs immediately as payment?

“You need not worry. While you are sleeping, we will attach the items without pain. Just in case, please do not grit your teeth and force yourselves to stay awake at night. It will only tire both sides.”

The loan transaction was concluded.

The Merchant put away the other rejected body parts. After showing us the arm and eyeball one more time, they disappeared.

...

It was the price for gaining great power, but both body parts looked far too different from a human arm or eye.

The eyeball especially seemed so large that I doubted it could even fit inside a human skull.

I thought the grotesque appearance must have also influenced Elena's quick decision to give up the leg.

That meant the resolve of the people who wanted the eye and arm despite such grotesqueness must have been extraordinary.

Newly struck by that realization, I looked at Eun-sol and Grandpa Mook-seong with fresh eyes.

Footnotes:

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