WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 169: Room 201, Curse Room - ‘The Cube’ (18)
──────
- Han Ga-in
--- Crash!
[Sealing has been released!]
The sharp noise jolted me awake.
Now it was time for the protagonist to step in!
...What was with this mood?
Before I could even grasp the situation, a piercing headache tore through my head. I hurriedly brought up my Status Window!
What the hell was going on?
No one else was in sight. Only Song-i stood before me.
“Song-i? What the-”
“Don't look up. It'll be hard enough to endure even with the Status Window. I'll help you one last time.”
With those words, Song-i's bracelet flashed brighter than ever.
A powerful protection settled over me, consuming all of Song-i's remaining vitality.
I'd already seen Song-i's ‘Death Buff’ once before.
Some of the restrictions on Song-i's Inheritance, ‘Diverse Perspectives,’ were placed on the Inheritance itself, but far more came from the strain using it placed on Song-i's body.
Put another way, if Song-i gave up the rest of her life, she could wield power far beyond her usual limits.
Information too overwhelming to bear came pouring in.
The Chief Researcher's incomprehensibly vast knowledge of the hidden side of the world!
As I endured the headache that felt as if it would split my skull apart, I thought.
Why had ‘I’ been chosen as this room's Sealing target?
Where was Beatrix's true body?
What exactly had the Chief Researcher used to control Beatrix?
All those questions led to a single conclusion.
Beatrix's true body was in the place where the Zero-Dimensional Eye was sealed.
And I was the only one who could access that place.
The moment Beatrix transferred her consciousness to her true body, she would be overwhelmed by madness. She could never approach it herself.
Only I, protected by both Song-i's bracelet and the resistance of the Status Window, could endure the pressure of the Zero-Dimensional Eye and enter the Sealed Area.
A-ri could do something similar with Song-i's help, but unlike the Status Window, A-ri's power consumed blood, so her body had physical limits.
More and more memories flooded into me.
Just as I began to feel dizzy, I finally realized the ‘true solution’ to this room.
“What the hell is this? Is that Chief Researcher bastard really human?”
‘Unfortunately, I am undoubtedly Homo sapiens.’
“...I didn't know something like this was possible. Did your personality get reassembled?”
‘Let's just call it one of my many talents. You would do well to be careful in other rooms too.’
“...”
That brief exchange told me something.
He knew this place was a hotel.
Was that unique to the Chief Researcher? Or was it a trait shared by every character who awakened when Sealing was released? There was no way to know yet.
‘Do you understand the truth now? Are you confident you can do it?’
My head began to ache.
I... couldn't possibly do what the Chief Researcher had done.
‘There's no need to worry. You know, don't you? The initiative rests entirely with you. Proceed as you wish, then leave it to me only when you reach a point you can no longer handle.’
...Whatever the reason, I had to resolve this room and get out.
For now, I would proceed.
The Status Window might not have a time limit, but Song-i's mental protection did.
At the center of the Irregular Polyhedron equipment Jin-cheol had destroyed, something like a pure white vortex appeared.
The equipment was already more than half broken, but as I fiddled with the wreckage and expanded the ‘passage’ a little, Beatrix appeared.
I gave a small chuckle and glanced up at the sky.
An eye vast enough to block out the horizon watched the world like the sun.
“Why don't you come closer?”
“You!”
“You're doing pretty well yourself. The pressure has become this strong, and you can still talk. But it looks like you can't endure it if you approach this vortex.”
‘Would you give me a moment?’
Do whatever you want. The passage needed time to expand anyway.
A moment later, my mouth began moving on its own.
“Beatrix. My poor daughter. Didn't I tell you to only make trouble you could handle?”
“Dad! You... If it weren't for you, I could've gone out into the world long ago!”
“You caused all this just because you wanted to breathe a little outside air?”
“...”
“No, no. Patrick was the one who let you out. That child had his own resolve. Shouldn't you be grateful to me? If it weren't for me, you would've spent endless nights fearing the monsters you created yourself.”
“I'm still grateful for that. But Dad, you've taught me all you could, so isn't it a good father's role to die at the right time and leave his Inheritance behind? If you'd only left me the Irregular Polyhedron, I would've torn you apart and killed you long ago!”
“Now, now! The Irregular Polyhedron isn't something I can give to just anyone, yet you're saying that again. Besides, who raised you into such a motherless bastard?”
“Sorry. I killed my mother with my own hands when I was young.”
“So that's why you grew into such a bastard. It's my fault for failing as a father.”
As I listened to the banter between that exceptionally close father and daughter, the passage finally expanded enough for me to pass through.
“Sadly, Dad is leaving for a distant place. Goodbye.”
Beatrix had completely lost her confident attitude from earlier and was trembling.
“Father... Please, just once-”
The vortex swallowed me.
* * *
- Han Ga-in
Inside the vortex was a truly strange space.
Countless books drifted about, opening and closing, while countless displays appeared and vanished over and over.
‘Do you understand what the Zero-Dimensional Eye is?’
“I don't know.”
‘It is a higher-dimensional being that descended from above. It sees all things as creations and wishes to endlessly carve cruel records into them. It can only be called a false Creator.’
“It feels like blind men feeling an elephant. Can you really understand such a grand being?”
‘Trust me. I obtained this information by praying to a trustworthy being.’
“A trustworthy being?”
‘It implants fragments of confusing knowledge into mortals who come into contact with it. The mortals come to believe they are insignificant insects, then collapse into despair.’
...
‘Of course, that isn't all. When a mortal comes into contact with a great being, it's common for their mind to drift like duckweed. That is vibration.’
“Vibration?”
‘A human merely walks, yet the vibrations from every step overturn the world of tiny creatures, crushing countless insects to death beneath their feet.’
“After seeing your memories and listening to you, one thought came to me.”
‘Go on.’
“Your words sound like a blind man touching an elephant and claiming to understand all of it. How could you possibly understand something this strange? A false Creator?”
‘There is one belief and one piece of evidence I would offer.’
“One belief and one piece of evidence?”
‘If there truly is a Creator in this universe, it would never wish for there to be nothing but suffering in the world. Therefore, one who carves such cruel records cannot be the true Creator. That is my belief.’
“After learning the method the ‘real you’ outside the hotel used to save the world, I think the Creator might really be a mad being.”
‘It was only the result of my shortcomings... Can you think of a better method?’
...
‘Patrick betrayed me for the same reason, but when you invaded, he gave up once more and left everything to me. He didn't agree with my method, but he couldn't find another. After all, while I was gone, Patrick maintained the Sealing by using the very same method.’
“Fine, that's your belief. What's the evidence?”
‘The evidence is very simple and clear. Aren't we all trapped in the hotel right now?’
???
‘Why would an omniscient, omnipotent Creator from a higher dimension be trapped in a hotel room? It's trapped because it was never such a being in the first place.’
That did convince me.
...
This was dangerous.
Separate from the setting of Room 201, I was gradually beginning to understand the system called ‘Sealing.’
When Sealing was released, a major character from the scenario awakened within me.
That much was fine. In fact, releasing Sealing could be considered beneficial, since it gave me a powerful adviser.
The initiative rested entirely with the hotel participant.
The problem was when I was persuaded by a scenario character's way of thinking and became assimilated with that character, like just now!
A moment ago, I had been persuaded by the Chief Researcher's logic.
At the same time, I realized that he and I had mixed together a little.
The second floor and the first floor were truly different.
Something about the rooms' very purpose seemed different.
* * *
‘It's been a while! Haven't you been in that tank too long? It was fun even without you, you know?’
* * *
Every time I pushed through the endless books and displays, a voice that stabbed into my head rang out.
There wasn't much time left. The Status Window had no time limit, but Song-i's protection did.
“It's all right. We're almost at the place where Beatrix's true body is. Now it's time for that child to fulfill the purpose she was born for.”
...
“By the way... Now that you understand the situation to some extent, isn't the term ‘Sealing’ rather amusing? Humans sealing a being like that! Wouldn't it be easier to put the sun inside your refrigerator?”
...
“All I did was provide that being with the cruel ‘theater’ it wanted. There were some sacrifices, but humanity gained peace. If not for me, the Zero-Dimensional Eye would've made the entire planet its theater.”
‘Throwing humans into a devil's mouth as food is what you call a theater?’
“It was quite an exhausting task. For many long years, we had to bring people into the Cube created inside the Irregular Polyhedron and kill them. Doing all that by hand was quite difficult. There was another, more serious problem.”
‘...’
“All stimuli grow tiresome in time. Even that cruel god, I could sense it gradually growing bored. Something... It needed different ‘actors.’ It needed something that guaranteed its entertainment would never grow stale.”
‘Was that Beatrix?’
“Yes, yes. She's right ahead. Isn't that child truly a gift for humanity?”
Who was I?
At some point, I could no longer tell whether it was me or the Chief Researcher speaking when my mouth opened.
The more his words persuaded me, the more meaningless the distinction between us became.
At last, Beatrix's true body appeared.
...
What appeared before me was an opaque test tube...
And a human brain floating inside it.
“Don't think of it as cruel. It has no sensory organs, and its consciousness is elsewhere, so it can endure even in this place. That child has considerable endurance, but not as much as we do.”
An ominously glowing polyhedron appeared in the Chief Researcher's hand.
“Do you think destroying this floating brain will resolve everything? Perhaps it will. But when you think about it, the hotel has always wanted you to resolve the Source of the Curse. Claims that you had to kill the Adversary or do something to the Prisoner. Weren't those all hypotheses you came up with yourselves?”
‘What do you mean?’
“I mean, what would change if you destroyed Beatrix's brain? The Zero-Dimensional Eye would devour the world in real time. In the end, you must make a decision. Of course... I've been saying it all along, haven't I? I have no intention of forcing you. I can't do so in the first place. The initiative has always rested with you.”
The Chief Researcher asked whether I had a better way to save the world.
I couldn't think of an answer.
“You have many worries. What is making you so confused? When you think about it, Room 201 is only a false world created by the hotel. Is feeding NPCs to a devil really such a big deal? Isn't it similar to what you've already done countless times when necessary?”
Why was that?
Just as the Chief Researcher said, we had already proceeded by killing people inside rooms whenever necessary.
Then why was my mind so confused now?
...
I knew the answer. Only after the Chief Researcher's memories awakened inside me could I accept it.
Only today did I truly feel that what happened in Room 201 had also happened in reality.
I had come to realize that humanity, and before that, I myself, had lived upon such sacrifices...
I didn't know. I truly didn't know what the better method was.
What had I been in the outside world? At most, I was a student studying for the college entrance exam.
The problem presented in Room 201 now was like an exam where the passing score was thirty out of a hundred.
Passing itself wasn't difficult. If I scored over thirty, I could leave the room and take the Inheritance with me.
But.
It felt like the ‘examiner’ wanted an answer from a far higher level.
Perhaps an answer even the examiner did not know.
When I finally gave up on finding a better answer, I could no longer move my body.
A sinister glow began spreading from the polyhedron in my hand.
An evil ritual song rang out from my mouth.
“I offer it! I offer it! O great Eye, I offer you a theater that sings of suffering through countless eons. Here is an immortal goat for you. Here is Sæhrímnir, eternally regenerating!”
I felt the enormous gaze turn toward me once more.
Somewhere far away, in a plane inaccessible on foot, the ‘Cube’ appeared once more.
Beatrix's brain moved to the center of the Cube.
Screaming in fear and pain, Beatrix began filling the Cube with monsters once more.
Now, this theater would never close.
Like the pig of Norse mythology that endlessly regenerated after being eaten, Beatrix would create monsters forever, and the Management Bureau would endlessly pour humans in.
So that the cruel god would never turn its gaze toward Earth.
Crying reached my ears.
The screams of living sacrifices offered to prevent the sacrifice of the planet pierced my ears like awls.
The cruel god's laughter rang out from every direction.
And then, the ‘finger’ descended.
Footnotes:
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