Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 178

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 177: Party Time - Concerns About Room 104, Exploring the Second Floor (4)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 89

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 0]

- Han Ga-in

The advice was vague enough to leave me confused. The others immediately began asking what it had said.

“What answer did you get?”

“...”

“Another one of the Owl’s cryptic riddles, I guess.”

“It said, ‘The wisest person sets the board so that everyone benefits.’”

The table fell quiet for a moment. Eun-sol was the first to break the silence.

“That sounds vaguely familiar. I’ll give you a simple explanation based on what I know. When a businessman sets up a game, they say it’s amateurish to create a structure where only you benefit. If you’re the only one gaining from it, the other side will naturally resist fiercely, and the whole arrangement will soon collapse.”

“So it means a structure where everyone benefits is more stable?”

“Right. That way, everyone is satisfied, the arrangement doesn’t fall apart, and everyone gets rich together. It’s a little like game theory. You’ve heard of it, right? Nash equilibrium?”

Nash equilibrium referred to a state in game theory where every player had made their best choice, so there was no need to change their strategy any further. Broadly speaking, it was similar to the idea that no one would try to break a situation where everyone benefited.

“I understood it in a similar way, but there are still too many confusing parts. First of all, who exactly is ‘the wisest person’? If I think about it simply, since it uses the word ‘Wisdom,’ it seems like it’s advising me to set the board wisely.”

“When I heard ‘the wisest person,’ I thought of the Owl. It’s the Sponsor of Wisdom, after all.”

A-ri immediately shook her head.

“I don’t think the Owl is the subject. You have to consider the rest of the phrase too. The one ‘setting the board’ is the subject, right? A Sponsor can’t be the one setting the board in the hotel. I think it might be an expression referring to the Lord instead. It’s a godlike being that transcends mortals, so ‘the wisest person’ would be a fitting description.”

A-ri’s point made sense. Here in the hotel, Sponsors were ultimately beings who stood a step removed. They couldn’t be the ones setting the board.

Still, if the subject was the Lord, why had it specifically used the word Wisdom? In this hotel, Wisdom was the name of my blessing. The Owl, which packed all kinds of meaning into every word, wouldn’t have used it without purpose.

I remembered what the Chief Researcher had said in Room 201. The Owl enjoyed giving riddle-like answers not because it wanted to mock or torment me, but because it used expressions open to multiple interpretations to pack as much meaning as possible into a short sentence.

The riddle that had tormented us throughout Room 201, Look to the Moon, Not the Finger. What had been the finger, and what had been the essence?

At first, I thought the Cube was the finger and Headquarters was the essence. Then I thought it explained Beatrix, who sent a clone before us while her true body, the brain, was somewhere else. Looking back after everything was over, maybe Beatrix herself had been the finger, and it meant we should focus on the essence, the Prisoner.

Perhaps all those interpretations had been expressed in that single phrase.

Seen in that context, I shouldn’t try to find a single correct interpretation in the Owl’s words. The point was to convey several meanings at once.

“I think both could be right. The subject could be Han Ga-in, or it could be the Lord. In other words, perhaps the Owl’s advice meant this?”

I wrote my own interpretation on the whiteboard.

1. The Lord has already set a board where everyone benefits.

2. To break that board, you must also set another board where everyone benefits.

A-ri tilted her head and muttered.

“I don’t think we can reach a conclusion based on just this....”

She was right. It had become two sentences with clearer meanings than the original advice, but they were still just as abstract. I couldn’t figure it out easily. It seemed like we would need to use more Sage’s Advice before reaching any further conclusion.

The problem was the hotel’s cold. Starting tomorrow, I couldn’t use Sage’s Advice just to satisfy my curiosity about Room 104.

A-ri suddenly looked a little tired.

“We talked about Room 104 before, didn’t we?”

“We did.”

“Don’t you think you’re getting too fixated on having to clear Room 104? I don’t understand why you think we need to go there. The hotel wasn’t structured so we had to resolve every single room in the first place.”

“...”

“Is it because you regret missing the Inheritance in Room 104? But you already received a reward from Room 104 apart from the Inheritance.”

That was true. I had already gained a powerful reward called Descent from Room 104. Eun-sol took my side a little.

“I understand Ga-in’s thoughts too. Level 1 should basically be easier than Level 2. It can make you uneasy to move on to a more difficult Level while leaving rewards behind in an easier one.”

“That makes sense too, but there’s something strange about Room 104. There are so many strange things about it that it feels like... a rotten room, maybe?”

“That... is true. It’s a strange room. There’s something unsettling about it.”

I knew what she meant. I often thought the same thing.

We had cleared every room on Level 1, even the most difficult Gate Room, yet Room 104 remained unknown until the very end.

Strangely, we had received a reward called Descent from Room 104 without even resolving it.

Strangely, the Prisoner in Room 104 had distorted even the hotel’s notification to tell us, “You did not fail.”

Strangely, it took all three charges of Sage’s Advice to ask a question related to Room 104.

In the hotel, strange meant ominousness and fear. All these strange developments were making my companions afraid of Room 104.

... I had an odd feeling.

It was as though a cunning spider watched us from somewhere high above. The people caught in its sticky web couldn’t easily escape, no matter how much they wanted to.

What was the Lord planning?

As silence settled around us, someone walked over from afar.

“I’m back!”

“Hm? Seung-yeop?”

Only about thirty minutes had passed since he left the Sanctuary of Blessings.

The reason soon became clear. Like I had before, he had chosen to save up Contribution once and gain a powerful enhancement all at once.

“Oh, and my Sponsor said something about the cold too.”

The old man, who had been struggling with a frozen block of green tea, opened his eyes wide and shouted.

“What? Did that bastard give you a decent hint?”

“... Prepare well for the cold?”

That was supposed to be advice? Was that Sponsor the Owl or something? Everyone was dumbfounded for a moment.

With Seung-yeop back, our conversation naturally shifted from Room 104 to preparing for the cold. Eun-sol spoke first.

“Let’s start with the obvious. We need to prepare like we’re getting ready for a severe winter. I’ve already ordered everything we need from the market. I even ordered tents, just in case.”

The old man immediately responded.

“Start gathering hotel supplies today. Can’t we bring out supplies from the underground facilities? The Hiking Room had plenty of high-performance cold-weather gear.”

“That’ll be difficult. Those things disappear as soon as they’re brought outside the room.”

“Then transform that parrot bastard and pluck out its feathers.”

--- Screee!

“Screee my ass! Gather as many feathers as the hairs you’ve plucked from my head, and we’ll have enough to make a hat!”

Pero? You plucked that much of the old man’s hair?

“Now, now, quiet down. You all know what to do by now, right? Go around the hotel and gather anything that could help us prepare for the cold.”

What could we bring back?

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take anything out of the underground facilities, which had everything we could need, so we had to search Level 1. My eyes fell on nearby fabrics, like the curtains and tablecloths we had used to make makeshift cold-weather clothes.

A-ri asked, “Since we’re talking about gathering things, can you use Greedy Hand? Couldn’t it get us something suitable for surviving the severe cold?”

“I thought of that too, but I still can’t use it after getting the eyeball last time. It seems like the skill has an absurdly long cooldown.”

“It makes sense, considering it gives you equipment with supernatural abilities every time you use it. It’s unfortunate right now.”

While everyone discussed how we could endure in the freezing hotel, I found myself troubled by one thing.

Simply enduring the cold wouldn’t solve anything. We eventually had to end this untimely ice age in the hotel, and the answer to that problem had to be on Level 2.

We needed to go up there and see what was happening.

“Shouldn’t we check out Level 2 before the cold gets worse?”

Everyone nodded as though they had been thinking the same thing. Jin-cheol responded eagerly.

“Good idea. I was about to say the same thing. Let’s go to Level 2. Who else should go with me?”

He spoke as though he were making the suggestion to everyone, but his eyes were actually fixed on one person. Even I knew the proper number of people for the expedition and who was suited for it.

Other than Jin-cheol, who could resist the cold through Courage, the only equipment that would let someone endure the extreme cold on Level 2 and investigate was the Protective Suit. Therefore, only one person besides him could join the expedition.

There was also only one person among us who could look around through the blizzard.

Eun-sol let out a deep sigh.

“Ugh, this is why I didn’t bring up Level 2. Well, we have to do what needs to be done. Jin-cheol and I will go.”

“Sounds good. I’ll break the ice and clear a path while you keep watch. Whatever’s up there, we’ll find it.”

The two of them seemed to have overlooked one fact.

“I’m sorry, but one more person needs to come.”

“What? You must’ve forgotten, but there’s only one Protective Suit-”

“The other person doesn’t have to take part in the search. They can just wrap themselves in blankets and endure it in a corner. Either way, one more person needs to go. Old man?”

The blizzard on Level 2 made normal communication impossible. We absolutely needed support from the Chat Window.

The old man grabbed the back of his neck.

“Good grief! I thought I could start sitting out the hard work now that I’m old, but this young bastard insists on sending me into danger.”

“...”

“I’m going, I’m going! Strike while the iron’s hot, right? Let’s go now.”

“Huh? Chef too?”

“...”

“Seung-yeop, you must be tired. Rest a little longer.”

A-ri’s kind words immediately brightened Seung-yeop’s expression.

“Take Pero too! After going back and forth through Room 201, I noticed Pero seems to handle the cold well too.”

--- Screee! Screee!

“Ah! Don’t bite me! That hurts!”