WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 164: Room 201, Curse Room - ‘The Cube’ (13)
──────
- Lee Eun-sol
A little later, I was handed a secure smartphone to contact the Management Bureau.
About five seconds after I began operating the device under Grandfather's guidance, a call came in.
--- Ring-ring!
“Hello, valued customer! Fresh Mart's monthly discount-”
“Agent Lee Eun-sol, regular report.”
--- Beep!
“There was a conflict with a Chaos Entity inside the mansion, so this report is thirty minutes late. While exploring Hesbeth Mansion as ordered, we discovered a room containing a different model of TV from the first mansion. We inspected beyond the display, but found no evidence related to the Arizona Branch's Corruption or whether Beatrix survived. The speculation regarding Beatrix's Corruption is unfounded.”
--- Beep!
“Regular report received. Return.”
...
“That should do it, right? I reported that everything the Management Bureau ordered us to investigate had no basis.”
The expressions of the people around us finally relaxed a little.
Seeing their relief at the thought that the crisis had passed, I added one more thing.
“You heard my report, right? And the order to return? I should get going, so-”
Patrick snickered and gestured to a subordinate beside him.
“Thank you. We will meet again soon in a ‘new form.’”
The soldier beside him immediately injected me with something. A sharp sting ran through me, and my consciousness began to fade.
Just as expected, they never intended to let me go.
Of course, that wasn't a problem.
I had no intention of leaving either!
Why would I leave so soon after working so hard to get in?
* * *
--- Ding!
--- Ding!
--- Ding!
“Ah, that's so loud!”
I woke up.
I was inside an opaque box in a white room.
The Chat Window was flashing nonstop.
They said enhancing Communication would let Grandfather send video, but he was using it as an alarm.
Lee Eun-sol: Awake.
...
Lee Eun-sol: Grandfather?
Kim Mook-seong: It is fortunate that you woke before I die. Things are dire outside. I have made arrangements, so be sure to wear the Protective Suit before leaving. You are a clever child, so you will manage. I will go rest first.
It wasn't even one of his usual messages meant to save characters, and his tone was strangely sentimental.
Did everyone become like this in the face of death, even if they believed they would revive afterward?
After that, I heard no more replies from Grandfather.
Just as he said, there was a Protective Suit beside the box.
What on earth had Grandfather told them to make the enemy leave a Protective Suit beside me?
Did he tell them an agent would explode if separated from a living agent for too long? Who knew.
As I wondered how to get out of the box, it opened on its own.
The moment I stepped outside, I saw someone crawling across the floor with bloody foam spilling from their mouth.
“Ghk... Guhk!”
The man crawled with every last bit of strength he had, but died before he could even get close to me.
The sight gave me an idea.
I immediately removed the helmet from the Protective Suit beside the box.
... Seung-yeop had been dead for a long time, so the inside of the Protective Suit was too horrifying to describe.
I was a daughter from a respectable family, you know! Did I really have to wear something like this?
Still, seeing the man beside me die while coughing up bloody foam filled me with resolve.
I pulled out only Seung-yeop's body and climbed into the Protective Suit.
Grandfather's last words were that things outside were dire.
I had an idea of what had happened. I remembered the regular report I had made to the Management Bureau before passing out.
‘All suspicions inside the mansion we were ordered to investigate are false.’
Now, let's think from the Management Bureau's perspective.
Everything I reported about the Arizona Branch, Corruption, and Beatrix would have been completely unfamiliar to them!
The Management Bureau hadn't known anything from the start. They had only sent agents because they thought Hesbeth Mansion was one of the common Chaos Disasters scattered across Earth.
Then, an agent suddenly made a report from such a place and brought up things like that?
The Management Bureau was the sort of organization that caught on quickly. Of course they would have understood the situation right away.
They must have also realized roughly what Hesbeth Mansion truly was.
So, what had the Management Bureau done?
Filled with curiosity, I headed outside.
* * *
If hell existed, would it be like this?
I thought that as I walked through the Research Lab, or perhaps Headquarters, as it turned into hell in real time.
Patrick really knew nothing about the Management Bureau's true capabilities.
I didn't know what secrets they had hidden in this facility, but his arrogant laughter, claiming that even the Management Bureau could do nothing to it, had come at a terrible price.
The Management Bureau's response was extremely efficient.
I didn't know where Headquarters was actually located in the Earth of this scenario.
They had probably hidden it well, and the Management Bureau likely couldn't locate enemy Headquarters immediately.
That left only one way to infiltrate Headquarters: find the already exposed entrance, a TV display somewhere in Hesbeth Mansion, and cross through it.
In a situation like this, they couldn't deploy heavy weapons, helicopters, or tanks. They couldn't even get them into the mansion before reaching the TV.
Also, if Patrick's words weren't entirely a bluff, physically destroying this place may have been burdensome even for the Management Bureau.
Deploying a large number of special forces?
It was possible, but considering the mansion was overflowing with monsters, they couldn't avoid significant casualties.
A place where it was difficult to deploy noisy equipment, burdensome to destroy the facility, and impossible to avoid casualties if special forces were sent in.
The Management Bureau's most efficient solution for dealing with such a complex, troublesome environment!
The answer appeared right before my eyes.
Countless drones carrying biochemical weapons had entered and turned Headquarters into hell.
Drones flew everywhere, placing silver boxes throughout the Research Lab.
Pale gas poured from the boxes, slaughtering every living thing in Headquarters.
Fortunately, the hotel's special Protective Suit, which boasted that it was impervious to blades, fire, and water, easily blocked the mysterious biochemical weapon, whether it was a deadly virus or poison gas.
* * *
“This damn facility is huge.”
It wasn't easy to tell where anything was, and there were many places outsiders couldn't enter.
Most of the people were dead because of the biochemical weapon, but the security system was still operating.
What was my situation now?
Were my companions alive? Probably not.
If they had killed Beatrix, wouldn't the Curse Room have already vanished?
More importantly, Seung-yeop, who had headed toward Beatrix, had returned dead.
I had an idea where I needed to go.
The corpses scattered throughout the Research Lab had all died while running in one direction.
The place they had been trying to reach while alive was probably a passage connected to the outside.
But I had no intention of escaping right away.
Ga-in, Pero, and countless other secrets were clearly hidden in this place!
Anyone who could interfere with my search had been wiped out by the Management Bureau's special biochemical weapon.
At this point...
“These are the best conditions for searching.”
The only dangerous variable was Beatrix, who might return to Headquarters.
Inside the Protective Suit, I gripped the object Seung-yeop had held tightly until the moment he died.
‘Escape Button.’
I'll trust this and search a little longer.
* * *
The first place I found was the research wing.
It wasn't difficult to find Lab 2-9, where Pero was being held.
“The door's locked?”
I thought about it for a moment, but soon found a solution.
Normally, it would've been impossible for me, but I was wearing a Protective Suit now!
Through its internal mechanisms, the Protective Suit gave its wearer strength far beyond that of an ordinary human.
--- Boom! Boom!
After ramming it with my body about five times, the door finally collapsed.
--- Kieeeek!
“Have you been well?”
The Grotesque Parrot, which I was starting to find rather cute, greeted me.
You were already out? What was going on?
I looked around and roughly understood the situation.
Pero had probably been inside the transparent box in the middle of the room.
That box must have been perfectly sealed off from the outside.
Looking at it another way, with biochemical weapons filling the entire place like this, it was also an isolation chamber for survival.
Some of the researchers had probably released Pero so they could get inside that box and survive.
Come to think of it, it was exactly the same as when the box I woke up in had opened on its own.
A researcher must have opened it to get inside the box I was in.
Of course, Pero killed every researcher the moment it got out.
The researchers must have known the risk, but they took a gamble anyway.
Well, it wasn't my problem.
--- Squeee!
“Yeah, yeah. Let's go. And we need to clean your beak. No matter what, having a human finger stuck in your beak is a little unsightly.”
The moment Pero and I left the research wing, a notification appeared.
[Grotesque Parrot Sealing Released!]
“... You counted as being under Sealing too?”
* * *
After searching through Headquarters for quite a while longer, I finally found a promising location.
“Alright, Pero. It's your turn now.”
--- Squeee!
“Quit squeaking and transform already. Do I have to ram the door down again?”
--- Kyuing?
“Act cute one more time and I might buy nothing but acorns instead of sunflower seeds for a month. I know you understand people, so move now.”
After grumbling for a while, Pero finally transformed and tore the door down.
No, why were you so lazy when you hadn't done anything this whole time?
You listened to Song-i right away, but ignored me, the person who bought your food? Had I given you sunflower seeds too often?
Patrick's body was inside the office.
It looked like he had tried to survive until the very end. The gaps around the door had been stuffed with tissues and scraps of paper.
Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to block the Management Bureau's special biochemical weapon.
Come to think of it, I was pretty lucky. If I'd been trapped in an ordinary room with only the door locked, I would've died.
They seemed to have locked me in a special box meant to contain Chaos Entities so I could never escape, but that had saved my life.
...
For a long time, I read the documents scattered throughout the office and the journal Patrick had organized himself.
“This is incredible. Did things like this happen in reality too? What do you think, Pero?”
--- Kyuing?
“No sunflower seeds for a month.”
--- Kiiiiing???
I think I understand almost all of Room 201's scenario now.
I also had a rough idea of how to resolve it. Curse Rooms were always like this.
Before you knew the answer, nothing made sense, and it felt like you were flailing through fog...
But once you knew the answer, it was surprisingly simple.
I also learned where Ga-in was.
Still, I didn't think I could free him from Sealing this time. It was a place I couldn't approach with my current abilities.
Let's leave now.
I knew how to resolve Room 201.
* * *
I left the office and headed in the direction the corpses had been facing.
...
It should be around here?
I was almost there, but there were no corpses nearby, so I couldn't tell the exact location.
Maybe everyone who made it this far had somehow managed to escape?
--- Rumble!
“Eeeeh?”
The entire facility started shaking!
The loud sound of a room exploding and collapsing echoed through the halls.
This felt bad! Really bad!
I frantically threw open every nearby door and passage.
“Where is it? Where the hell is it?”
“Second door on the left.”
“Thanks! I won't forget this.”
“You're welcome.”
Relieved by the sudden help, I was about to open the second door on the left-
...
When I turned around, something even more terrifying than the Grim Reaper stood behind me!
“You really did ruin everything.”
The other person looked like nothing more than a young girl, but I found myself speaking politely without thinking.
“Um... I wasn't the one who did it?”
“You little vermin-”
I spun around and ran like mad! Please let me live!
--- Boom!
Something kicked me with tremendous force, sending me flying nearly ten meters in an instant.
“Pero!”
Pero, the heavenly messenger sent down from above, the parrot of God blessed by the great golden balloon's blessing!
Pero kicked me toward the exit and charged at Beatrix!
There was no time to look back. Not anymore, NAVER!
I just ran and ran like crazy.
The moment I threw myself through the door, an incredible sight came into view.
Helicopters and impressive robots, enough to make me wonder if they planned to wipe out an entire city!
Was this the Management Bureau's force prepared to subdue Beatrix?
...
The second attempt ended.
/You have escaped!/
Footnotes:
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