WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 157: Room 201, Curse Room - ‘The Cube’ (6)

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- Han Ga-in

“Come on! Let's all have a drink! Cheers!”

...

I raised my glass with a forced “Cheers!” to lift the mood, but not many people joined in.

Eun-sol was doing her best to play along, but there was only so much she could do.

My companions came back from their first attempt at Room 201 in a daze.

They had each been eliminated at different points, so the reasons for their exhaustion varied slightly. Still, the reason was simple in the end.

The enemy was too strong. Far too strong.

Jin-cheol, who said he'd been beaten to death by a gorilla, seemed terrified at the mere thought of it.

The girl who had supposedly come out of the mirror, likely the Adversary, sounded just as absurd.

She treated bullets like BB pellets, and neither the bracelet nor Old Blood could do more than buy time.

At this rate, there was no guarantee even Star would work.

After listening as my companions took turns describing what had happened, I came to one conclusion.

“This is clearly different from the first floor. The required specs are higher.”

A-ri nodded.

“Thinking back, I think the first floor was basically designed to be cleared even without Inheritances. It felt like you could solve things with blessings alone if you used your head well enough. The second floor...”

“It was designed on the assumption that we'd already have multiple Inheritances.”

“Right. It assumes we'd naturally have several Inheritances, enhanced our blessings multiple times, and acquired treasures like Protective Suits, so the enemies are stupidly strong.”

Everyone had felt the overwhelming difficulty the moment they entered the second floor.

Naturally, I thought of another room we could enter.

“It seems we can access the other rooms on the second floor after proceeding with the Repair Event, but there's one more room we can enter now. Should we continue Hotel High in Room 104?”

A-ri sighed at my words.

“You've got a rough idea now, don't you? What Descent really is. How dangerous Room 104 is. Owl already warned us, too. Descent is probably a power the Lord made by splitting off or copying part of itself and pasting it into you. That's why you can use such unreal power that even Inheritances seem like toys.”

“So because of that fragment of the Lord, I might betray everyone the moment we enter Room 104?”

“Think about it yourself. Say you betrayed us. What would you do first?”

What would I do right away if I betrayed my companions?

The answer came to me at once.

“Wouldn't I use Descent and kill everyone?”

“You know yourself well. I'd rather fight the girl from the mirror than the Son of Heaven.”

That ended the conversation.

Just imagining that they might have to fight the Son of Heaven was enough for everyone to treat Room 104 like a nuclear waste dump.

After some thought, I tried using Sage’s Advice.

‘What do you think about going back to Room 104?’

[This question requires all 3 remaining uses. Would you like to ask it?]

Startled, I immediately gave up. It was a repeat of what had happened in the Gate Room before.

Did we really have to leave Room 104 alone like this?

I had a vague feeling about it.

The scenario everyone was worried about was that I would use Descent the moment we entered Room 104 and kill them all in one second.

I didn't believe that was the kind of scenario the Hotel liked.

Still, that was only my belief, or perhaps a guess. The Hotel was an incomprehensible place.

--- Scrape!

In the middle of our conversation, Song-i got up from the table with a plate of sandwiches and other food.

She was probably taking it to Elena.

That naturally brought Elena into the conversation.

“Everyone came back half out of their minds, but Elena is especially bad. We can't even talk to her.”

Eun-sol looked worried.

“It's strange. Haven't we had plenty of horrible experiences in this Hotel? If this were the outside world, even one of them would be enough to give us PTSD for life. Yet the aftereffects were bearable in their own way.”

“It felt like the Hotel took care of mental injuries as well as physical ones.”

“Then why is Elena the only one this bad this time?”

As I listened, I became curious too. If everyone had been as out of their minds as Elena, I would have fallen into despair, thinking the second floor no longer treated us properly. But apart from Elena, the rest weren't that bad.

There was an ability for moments like this.

[Sage’s Advice: 3 -> 2]

‘Why isn't Elena being treated?’

[Treatment will be provided tonight, out of consideration for you.]

The answer was brief, but reassuring.

“I used Sage’s Advice and got an answer. It says they'll treat her tomorrow, out of consideration for us.”

Everyone sighed in relief.

... Something was strange. What exactly did it mean by “out of consideration for us”?

While I was thinking about it, Eun-sol brought up the next topic.

“Say whatever comes to mind! Elizabeth is the first person I think of.”

The moment she said Elizabeth's name, everyone reacted fiercely.

“The moment we go in, take her gun and break all four of her limbs.”

I had barely recovered from the shock of A-ri's violent words when Grandpa spoke up with a torture plan of his own.

“Before breaking her limbs without warning, we need to find out what we can. Break her fingers first.”

“We find out whatever we can, then throw her to the monsters.”

Even Jin-cheol, who was usually good-natured, said something chilling.

I had heard the rough details, so I understood.

Elizabeth had suddenly stabbed them in the back, causing everyone to be thrown in front of an absurdly powerful King Kong and putting them through hell. Everyone seemed to hold a deep grudge against her.

We probably needed to interrogate her to learn something anyway, so I had nothing to say.

Still, I imagined Elizabeth's confusion next time.

She wouldn't have done anything yet, only to find seven people appearing before her, full of hatred for her!

Eun-sol added a cautious thought.

“Oliver seems fine, right? If you think about it, Elizabeth forced the exploration, and Oliver was the first one to die.”

The next topic everyone began discussing was the most important one: escaping.

Song-i, who had discovered the Escape Route first, spoke passionately.

“The window! The window was the Escape Route. I realized it while fighting that monster girl. She watched us through the window for a long time.”

Seung-yeop, who usually said nothing and just ate snacks during meetings, confidently joined in.

“Haha! That's right. But, Song-i, I almost didn't understand when you said window. Didn't we all think there were no windows in the mansion? Wouldn't it have been easier if you said mirror?”

“You're right. I didn't think of that at the time.”

I summarized what Song-i, who found the Escape Route, and Seung-yeop, who had actually escaped through it, had said.

“Is this the Escape Route we confirmed? If we stay in a mansion without moving, at some point the word ‘Move!’ appears on one of the mirrors around the mansion, like the ones by the sink, TV, or wardrobe. If we break the glass with those words on it, there's a passage leading outside.”

“That's right.”

“Yeah.”

Mook-seong interrupted.

“Don't leave out the important part. Behind that glass is a fresh demon, hopping around like it just crawled out of hell.”

Eun-sol tilted her head.

“If we don't move and break the glass right away in the first mansion, would the Escape Route still appear?”

Seung-yeop was skeptical.

“If that were the case, Luck wouldn't have kept moving us until we reached the seventh mansion. I don't think breaking glass anywhere has any meaning. There must be only certain mansions we can escape from, and we need to break the glass in one of those rooms for the Escape Route to appear.”

“I think Seung-yeop has a point. The mansions we can escape from are predetermined. Then what happens if we break a window where ‘Move!’ appears in a different mansion?”

It felt like a new question had been raised. We couldn't easily reach a conclusion.

In a certain room, if we broke a mirror with ‘Move!’ on it, the demonic girl appeared, and behind her was the Escape Route.

Then where would a mirror with ‘Move!’ on it lead if we broke it in a different room?

Once we started talking about escape, we naturally began talking about that girl too.

Song-i muttered, sounding thoroughly sick of it.

“She was really, really a monster. You can't even imagine it, Ga-in.”

A-ri strongly agreed.

“If we were outside, we wouldn't send a few agents to catch a monster like that. We'd send helicopters and fighter jets, and prepare missiles.”

Apparently, she was a monster that required the kind of firepower normally used in war.

“Did you think we had no chance of beating her ourselves?”

Several people had seen the monster, but only Song-i and A-ri had fought her in any meaningful way. After considering it for a moment, the two answered.

“I don't think it's that bad. Honestly, when we met that girl, our fighting force was already ruined. Elena died because of the TV, Jin-cheol died to the gorilla, and Song-i and I were exhausted too.”

“If everyone went in at full strength, wouldn't we have a chance? Even if her skin deflects bullets, I think Jin-cheol's Star could break through it. She's humanoid, so Elena's Justice can definitely activate too!”

The enemy was strong, but she was still humanoid. If she was an evil human, Elena could display fighting power even greater than Jin-cheol's.

That seemed to give everyone a subtle sense of confidence.

After we talked for a while, I heard a sound I hadn't heard in quite some time.

--- Screech! Screech!

It sounded as though it were asking if we'd forgotten about it for too long.

Pero overturned several plates with an air of deep dissatisfaction, then climbed onto Song-i's shoulder.

A-ri asked curiously.

“Where on earth was this thing?”

Song-i didn't seem to know either.

“I've been trying to read Pero's thoughts for a while, but I still don't know. Pero is like a three-year-old child, so it's really hard to understand what it's thinking. All I could pick up was that it had been in a very stuffy, completely white place.”

“A very stuffy, completely white place...”

Listening to that, I thought I understood.

“It must be somewhere near me, right? Maybe it was trapped in a test tube like I was?”

“Then where are you?”

I had nothing to say, so I shut my mouth. I didn't know either.

‘Sealing release.’

At the moment, we had made no progress at all on that matter.

Jin-cheol asked in a frustrated tone.

“Can't you use Descent the moment we start, before the Sealing notification appears? Or possess another researcher's body and get out?”

“The Grimoire couldn't do it. Descent probably can't either.”

“Use Sage’s Advice and check.”

I still had two uses left, so it was worth checking.

[Sage’s Advice: 2 -> 1]

‘Can I escape through Descent?’

[Look to the Moon, Not the Finger.]

This bastard was at it again. I let out a hollow laugh and relayed the answer.

“What does that mean? Look to the Moon, Not the Finger? Is that some kind of idiom?”

Jin-cheol tilted his head, and Mook-seong, who was beside him, spoke proudly.

“Ha! This is why you shouldn't associate with ignorant people. Kids these days are a problem because they never learned Chinese characters properly.”

“Fine, you're impressive. So what does it mean?”

“You point at the moon, but they only look at the finger. It's an idiom criticizing the foolishness of failing to see the essence and obsessing over one part.”

Failing to see the essence and obsessing over one part.

The moment I heard the meaning, I understood Sage’s Advice at once.

Honestly, it felt like Sage’s Advice had only confirmed what I had already suspected before using it.

“What is the purpose of Sealing in the first place? Isn't it meant to target parties that rely too heavily on specific members or specific powers? Trying to overcome it by saying, ‘I'll act before the notification appears,’ or ‘I'll force my way through with Descent, a stronger power,’ is the foolishness of failing to see the essence and obsessing over one part. I think that's what the advice means.”

“Your Owl makes something that could be answered with one word, ‘Impossible,’ ridiculously hard to understand.”

Silence settled over the table for a moment.

Eun-sol turned the conversation back to what everyone cared about most: escaping.

“Come on, come on. Focus on escaping first. Once we secure an escape, we can keep charging in three or four times and eventually clear it.”

“We've confirmed the escape method itself, right? If we move while relying on Luck, at some point a mansion that feels like, ‘This is it!’ appears. If we wait in that room, ‘Move!’ appears on a mirror somewhere, and there's a demon behind that mirror. We jump down behind the mirror the demon came out of to escape.”

“I think that's right. The biggest problem with that route is the demon.”

Mook-seong grumbled.

“A demon waiting right behind the Escape Route. What is this, a gatekeeper? It looks like we'll have to fight that thing.”

“Given the circumstances, isn't that girl the Adversary? We'll have to kill her eventually anyway. How about having the people who can fight pool their strength and battle her while either Seung-yeop or Eun-sol secretly jumps down?”

It seemed best for those with combat ability to deal with the demon while someone less suited for combat secured the escape.

Eun-sol nodded and emphasized one point.

“Don't forget to put Elizabeth on the rack, either. Though I doubt we'll be able to forget the moment we see her face.”

I offered my condolences to Elizabeth, who had no idea what had happened and would meet seven Hotel participants holding grudges against her.

That was enough for the evening meeting on the day the first attempt ended. We decided to discuss a detailed plan again the next morning.

Now, I should go check on Elena.

I recalled the answer Sage’s Advice had given me for Elena earlier.

[Treatment will be provided tonight, out of consideration for you.]

No matter how many times I thought about it, something about that answer was strange.

Footnotes:

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