WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 168: Room 201, Curse Room - ‘The Cube’ (17)

──────

- Kim A-ri

After securing Patrick, the way to the third floor was smooth sailing.

We had already destroyed most of the military units in Headquarters, and Beatrix, the only obstacle worth mentioning, had taken longer to arrive than expected.

Maybe she was taking a route other than the TV passage we used. Who knew?

Patrick’s condition grew stranger by the minute. It wasn’t simply that his mind seemed clouded...

“Ah... Chief. Was even this part of your arrangement? Just how far does your plan go?”

“...”

“I’ve always wondered. What are you thinking? Do you truly care about humanity?”

“...”

This was too strange.

The nonsense he was spouting like a man out of his mind had nothing to do with my Suggestion.

The others seemed to be growing uneasy too.

Song-i finally asked, unable to hold it in any longer.

“A-riii...”

“What?”

“What’s wrong with this guy?”

I didn’t know either.

At last, we reached the third floor. Eun-sol briefly tried to recall where we needed to go, but it wasn’t necessary.

Patrick took the lead and began guiding us himself!

It felt ominous, but it would’ve been strange to stop him. He was doing what we needed without being told, so why stop him?

After about ten minutes, an incomprehensibly complex machine appeared before us.

It was a massive facility that looked as though it had been built to condense energy into a single point at a nuclear fusion plant.

At its center, inside a glass tube, a reddish polyhedron of strange shape floated mysteriously in midair.

And behind it...

We saw the water tank everyone had searched for so desperately.

The moment they saw it, the others’ eyes widened and they rushed toward it!

--- Thud!

Cha Jin-cheol, who had covered the distance to the tank in just three or four strides, crashed into something.

“What’s this now?”

Elena held out a hand into empty space.

“It’s like there’s a wall in the air.”

A voice filled with endless exhaustion answered.

“It’s a Spatial Severance created by the Irregular Polyhedron. It may look like it’s right in front of you, but it’s actually somewhere else entirely. There’s no point throwing punches at it, so save your strength for the fight.”

...

Everyone turned their bewildered eyes toward Patrick. I finally couldn’t hold back any longer.

“These machines are for controlling the Irregular Polyhedron, right?”

“Yes. They’re practically the reason this Headquarters exists.”

“Patrick, you’ve seemed perfectly sane since earlier-”

--- Rumble!

The ground bucked like a trampoline, and a sharp form burst up from below!

“Argh! Aah!”

“W-Wait, what is this-”

At last, the being we feared most appeared!

Beatrix arrived, and as if they had timed it perfectly, the remaining military units and researchers emerged from all directions to surround us.

Sharp tension instantly filled the room.

Strangely, the girl who pierced through the floor as if it were jelly didn’t even look our way.

If her gaze could kill, it would’ve torn someone into five pieces long ago. That mad gaze was fixed on Patrick.

“Patriiick! What do you think you’re doing? Don’t give me that ridiculous excuse about being brainwashed!”

“Beatrix...”

“What are you doing?!”

“I just had a thought. They entered Headquarters as though they knew everything about this facility, as if it were their own home. That means all our information has already leaked to the Management Bureau.”

“...”

“How long do you think we can hold out? What changes if you kill all these people? Next time, an army five times as large will come.”

“Hmph! Even if they send five times as many-”

“If you kill them all, the next force will be twenty-five times as large.”

“...”

“We’ve reached our limit. The moment we were discovered, the match was already over.”

“Ha! So what, you’re going to wake the Chief up and grovel at his feet? Ask the Management Bureau to take you back? Do you think they’ll forgive you?”

“...You still know nothing.”

“What?”

“It’s been over ten years since you were freed from the laboratory, hasn’t it? That was more than enough time to learn for yourself what kind of person the Chief was, why he was the savior of the world and yet a demon for the ages.”

“What... What are you talking about-”

“Do you know why the Chief raised you? Don’t tell me you still believe that laughable excuse that he created you to use the monsters you make as weapons.”

That was an excuse? He hadn’t raised Beatrix to use the monsters she created as weapons?

We weren’t the only ones shocked by the sudden revelation. Beatrix’s eyes went wide too!

Seeing that, Patrick looked tired for an entirely different reason.

“What kind of idiot organization would use the power to produce monsters that can’t be controlled ninety-five percent of the time as a weapon? If we poured the money and manpower spent researching that into tanks, helicopters, drones, and walking war machines, we could defend a country three times over!”

He turned and walked toward the facility controlling the floating polyhedron.

The next moment, everything happened at once.

Beatrix flew toward Patrick at a speed too fast to follow, reached out her hand, and did something.

A golden wave burst from Elena’s body, and it and the vibrating scales threw Beatrix back. The two tangled in a wild fight and smashed through the Research Lab.

A tongue began protruding from Patrick’s neck, and a hand from his back.

Lee Eun-sol and I rushed toward Patrick in horror.

The military units aimed their rifles at us, and Cha Jin-cheol summoned the Star to confront them.

At the same time, the researchers beside the soldiers cried out in shock.

“Please! Please, everyone, calm down! For the sake of the world, please!”

When I came to my senses, Elena and Beatrix had vanished somewhere after smashing through the building. Cha Jin-cheol and the military units stood in an awkward standoff, while we stood beside Patrick at a loss.

“A-ri! A-ri! A-ri! A-ri!”

“Eun-sol, please be quiet.”

“What do we do? Without this man’s help, we can’t free Ga-in!”

“It’s not like we can’t free him. We still have Plan D.”

“You said that was dangerous!”

In that brief time, tongues had sprouted from Patrick’s neck and hands had risen from his back, transforming him into a grotesque shape that could no longer be called Homo sapiens.

Kim Mook-seong finally came over and aimed his gun at Patrick’s twisting head.

“What do we do? Do we have to kill this bastard?”

As everyone panicked, Patrick left what were likely his final words.

“Beatrix... You haven’t even tried to learn about the Chief or yourself, yet you only meddled with my body because it was right in front of you. You really are short-sighted... How can your way of thinking be so childish...”

The moment Patrick’s facial features collapsed and a monster burst out, a gunshot rang out. Patrick’s body went limp.

“Our plan to use this guy to undo the Sealing has failed after all. I figured this might happen.”

“Mook-seong, did you think it would be difficult?”

“A-ri, weren’t you thinking the same thing? Ever since Eun-sol said we should brainwash Patrick, you said it wouldn’t work at least five times.”

“...”

“Eun-sol seems smart, but she still thinks like an ordinary person. When she makes plans, she doesn’t account enough for supernatural variables.”

“...Mook-seong, Eun-sol is right beside you.”

“I’m sorry for having the sensibilities of an ordinary person. And if you thought the plan was so flawed, you could’ve told us beforehand.”

No matter how old they got, people were still like children.

I sighed without realizing it and looked around.

Patrick was dead. Beatrix and Elena were gone. Cha Jin-cheol was still in an awkward standoff. And the floor was trembling.

...

Trembling?

“E-Eun-sol!”

“A-ri?”

“What’s this vibration?”

Eun-sol finally noticed the trembling beneath our feet, and her face went pale!

“This is it, right? The monsters beneath the facility are coming up, aren’t they?”

We didn’t need an answer.

As the vibrations grew stronger, not just us but all the soldiers and researchers in the room looked sick.

Cha Jin-cheol ran over to us.

“Let’s go with Plan D after all. You said that if we use the Star’s power to destroy this machine, this facility that controls the Irregular Polyhedron or whatever, Ga-in will be freed, right?”

“...”

As we fell silent, a researcher on the other side who had heard us nearly cried out.

“Please! Please, calm down. I’m begging you. I’m not saying this just to save myself. Think of the outside world. Out there is a peaceful world where people who worked diligently all day return home to enjoy dinner with their beloved wives and children.”

...Wow! We really looked like complete villains!

Whether we cared or not, the vibrations beneath our feet only grew fiercer. At this rate, all of us would die.

Cha Jin-cheol gave a hollow laugh. He had already made up his mind.

“Well, where are we? Room 201. It’s a place one whole dimension more difficult than that grueling first floor. We have no choice but to take the risk. Besides, isn’t this a being the Chief Researcher supposedly sealed once before? He’ll figure something out.”

The researcher sensed something was seriously wrong and wailed.

“What are you talking about?”

“Dear hotel comrades, prepare yourselves mentally and make every preparation you can. Song-i, especially.”

If things went wrong, Song-i was the only one among us who could endure.

Song-i nodded with a tense expression. She was already holding an Escape Button.

An ominous wave burst from Cha Jin-cheol’s hand and filled the entire Research Lab.

Then the world ended.

* * *

It was collapsing.

The Research Lab was collapsing.

The city was collapsing.

The country was collapsing.

Before long, I heard the world collapsing.

A great eye looking down upon all things filled the world.

In one breath, it held the stars.

In two breaths, it held the universe.

Ah...

A gaze so sacred that even meeting it with my humble eyes would be irreverent looked down at me.

‘I spared you once, and you came back to die once more?’

What else was I supposed to do? If I stayed still, the monster coming up from below would kill me!

Before that overwhelming gaze, my body, mind, and soul scattered like a sandcastle struck by waves.

Only when Old Blood dried up in an instant and I accepted that inevitable death had arrived did I see it behind the eye.

Now I understood. I understood the true nature of the eye that dwelled in all creation, the nature of the Zero-Dimensional Eye.

A powerful realization that transcended sorrow, joy, fear, ecstasy, rapture, despair, and rage struck my mind.

As my consciousness faded, I thought of one terribly regrettable fact.

I wouldn’t remember what I’d just learned. It was knowledge that had gone too far.

As my consciousness faded, I thought.

If I was going to die anyway, I might as well say goodbye!

“Everyone, are you enjoying our story?”

Footnotes:

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