WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 179: Party Time - The Most Ominous One (6)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 90

Current Location: Level 1, Room 105 - Rest Room

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

Shortly after Elena hurried off to the Safari, A-ri appeared.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Ah, Elena said something suggestive to me before she left.”

“Hmm. She said something strange to me too.”

“You already met her?”

“Briefly, earlier. She said her Sponsor had told her something strange.”

“What did they say?”

“Something about how matters related to the cold aren't for Elena to handle. And... apparently, they said something else about you too. She even asked me about it.”

After she finished speaking, A-ri snickered as she looked at me.

“What on earth do you mean?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? You clearly have something to tell me.”

“Really, it's nothing.”

I was starting to feel like she was making fun of me! For some reason, I wanted to ram into her again, so I got into position. A-ri gave me a dumbfounded look.

Fortunately, before I could act on it, the others began gathering around the dining table.

“Good morning!”

“Did you sleep well?”

Breakfast began with light greetings.

* * *

The first topic of conversation was, of course, Elena. Eun-sol asked, looking fascinated.

“So Elena said something suggestive to you first thing this morning, Ga-in, then left for the Safari?”

“Yes. It sounds like she's going to create something ‘evil but capable of communication.’ I have no idea what kind of monster she'll make.”

A-ri didn't seem concerned.

“She'll figure it out. Besides, the location is the Safari, right? Pero can't enter the Safari either. Wouldn't monsters Elena creates be the same? I don't think we need to worry much.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, even if Elena creates some strange monster or failed creation in the Safari, it probably won't be able to come out. The inside and outside of the Safari are divided almost like different worlds. Only Hotel participants seem able to come and go.”

Song-i looked puzzled.

“Then wouldn't she be unable to bring out a successful creation too?”

“Hmm... Elena must've thought of that much. She probably has some kind of plan.”

I could vaguely guess what it might be.

“Maybe once she makes a successful creation, she can recreate it outside while preserving that same feeling?”

Now that I'd said it, I was curious too. Even Beatrix, who was experienced with the ability, didn't seem capable of creating successful creations every time.

Of course, the Hotel seemed to have subtly changed the ability itself, and Elena was a different user. I couldn't say for sure that the same logic applied to both Beatrix and Elena.

The discussion about Elena developing her ability came to a rough conclusion. The topic shifted to everyone's greatest concern, preparing for the Hotel's increasing cold. Eun-sol briefly summarized the information she'd learned yesterday.

“So once Party Time ends, it looks like we'll have to go somewhere ominous called Frozen Hell and do something to settle this?”

“That's right. Should we use Sage’s Advice to ask about hell?”

“Let's talk it over a little more. I thought about it carefully last night, and the notification we saw yesterday didn't look normal.”

Eun-sol stood and wrote the notification on the whiteboard.

/Would you like to open the Door of Frozen Hell? Party Time will end the moment the door opens./

“Yesterday, we only focused on the first phrase, ‘Frozen Hell,’ right? But after giving it more thought, the latter part, ‘Party Time will end,’ doesn't sound normal either. What do you think it means?”

“It means it's still Party Time for now.”

“Right. We're already freezing to death, and the second floor has become a hell worse than the polar regions, yet the Hotel says it's ‘still Party Time.’ In other words...”

Having listened that far, the old man spoke as though lamenting.

“It means it'll start seriously screwing us over once Party Time ends. This is still just a warm-up by the Hotel's standards!”

“Everyone, think calmly. Party Time hasn't ended yet, right? At least on the first floor, it's only a little unpleasant for now. Like this, for example.”

As she said that, Eun-sol picked up a mysterious pork cutlet that was frozen only on the inside.

A-ri spoke with an uneasy expression.

“A horrible scenario came to mind. Because of something I've experienced before.”

“An experience?”

“Right now, only the second floor has become an unsalvageable hell, while most of the first floor is fine, right? If the Hotel really intends to torment us, won't it turn the first floor into a freezer too?”

Seung-yeop answered gloomily.

“Why does it intend to torment us in the first place?”

“Good question. I'll grab the Owl by the collar and ask it that later. Any other questions?”

“Of course we should ask about that damn ‘Frozen Hell’ too.”

Questions piled up in no time. We decided to ask right away.

First question: “Will the first floor become strange too once Party Time ends?”

[Sage’s Advice: 3 -> 2]

[If the bitter cold strikes the first floor, most of the Hotel's systems will cease functioning. There will be benefits and losses.]

Since we already had an idea of the answer, I asked to confirm it. Uncharacteristically for the Owl, the reply was clear.

Still, the moment I heard it, I wanted to curse.

“Ah, fuck, it's true!”

“What's true?”

“It says most of the Hotel's systems will stop working. Room 105 will obviously be screwed too.”

“This is seriously-”

A round of cursing passed through the group. We had suspected it, but knowing for certain still made it impossible not to get angry.

Separate from that anger, the latter part of the message, saying there would be benefits too, gave me an idea.

“Wait, listen to me for a second. It says the Hotel's systems stopping will benefit us too. I think that has a very obvious meaning.”

Eun-sol responded immediately.

“The Curse Rooms will stop too?”

“Exactly. Of all the Hotel's systems, the Curse Rooms are obviously what benefits us if they stop functioning.”

“What could it possibly make us do if even the Curse Rooms stop?”

“I'll ask the second question.”

Second question: “Tell me about Frozen Hell.”

A notification appeared instead of an answer.

[This question requires all three uses of Sage’s Advice. Since one use has already been consumed, you cannot ask it.]

“... So there are other questions besides ones about Room 104 that require all three uses of Sage’s Advice.”

“Huh? It needs all three? Then it can't answer us now.”

“That's right. I guess this is another question considered to be ‘crossing the line.’ Let's all think of more questions until lunch. We have to use the remaining two before today ends anyway.”

Everyone ended the morning meeting feeling somewhat deflated. All we'd learned was the ominous warning that the first floor would be ruined too once Party Time ended.

* * *

- Elena

--- Woooooo!

An immense roar sounded in the distance, so powerful that I could feel the ground vibrate through my entire body. What kind of creature could possibly make that sound? Had anything like it ever existed on Earth?

According to the notification that appeared as soon as I entered the Safari, this was 330 million years ago, perhaps the Permian or Carboniferous period.

--- Buzzz! Shriririck!

I turned my head blankly and saw a giant dragonfly-like insect as big as my head fly past nearby. Before experiencing the Hotel, wouldn't I have screamed and freaked out just from seeing an insect that large?

The Hotel had turned me into a completely different person long ago. Months had already passed since I'd begun seeing corpses and monsters as routinely as eating meals. Honestly, I could eat beside most monsters without trouble now. I'd long since passed the point of screaming over a “mere” oversized dragonfly-

“Aaaah!”

Damn it! A cockroach the size of a puppy was crossing the line! Strictly speaking, it was an enormous ancestor of a cockroach, but still!

I only calmed down after running thirty meters in terror.

After leaning against some kind of tree for a while and catching my breath, I felt “something” tickle my back. I simply rubbed it off against the tree. I decided not to check what it was.

Should I call that fortunate? Other than the thing making that enormous sound in the distance, most of the creatures were simply oversized insects. That was disgusting enough, but they were still insects, and even the largest were only the size of pet dogs. I couldn't see any monsters big enough to eat me.

After walking for around ten minutes, I finally found a lake. This was the place I'd been looking for.

“Will this work? What do you think, Ga-in?”

Of course, there was nothing here that could answer me.

The lake wasn't very clean. Strange creatures drifted around everywhere. In the past, wouldn't I have hated even looking at it?

I took off the coat I had been wearing, then my shoes, then took off and set aside my skirt... Wearing only a light negligee, I waded into the lake until I was half-submerged.

“Now it begins.”

The jar tilted.

The ominous force filling my soul spread in every direction like wildfire. Silence fell over the world in an instant. Water bugs in the lake, dragonflies in the air, centipedes crawling across the ground, all of them hurried away from me.

--- Splash!

* * *

What kind of power was Ominous Imagination?

Ga-in had once explained, based on the Chief Researcher's memories, that it was a power that made real the momentary anxieties people felt in daily life. My Sponsor had also warned me that properly using this power could easily make my mind unravel.

Putting aside such superficial information, what exactly was Ominous Imagination? I felt the power boiling inside me like a living volcano and thought.

This was the power to summon Trauma into reality!

Beatrix's ability had evolved toward grotesquely altering nearby objects or creating monsters by bizarrely enhancing real animals because she awakened her power as a child.

Do you remember a childhood spent trembling in fear every night?

When the lights were off and you lay in bed, dolls somehow seemed to be watching you. Whenever the wind rattled the window, it felt as though someone outside might pounce.

All that sinister imagination had become the source of Beatrix's power.

But I wasn't like Beatrix as a child. Unlike Beatrix's Trauma, born from a vague fear of all kinds of real-world things, my Trauma was based on...

Experiences that truly happened.

Ah.

Only now did I understand my Sponsor's warning. I felt it in my bones, why Ominous Imagination was a power inherently akin to mental illness.

I sensed a man in a black suit pursuing me endlessly.

I heard the old woman who sold turnips that morning reporting my family and me.

The moment I rose from bed and entered the living room, I saw my father with blood flowing from his mouth.

Just as the hell I had created myself filled my mind and I was about to lose my sanity, the embodiment of all that was ominous rose from the water's surface.

It resembled the man in a suit who had pursued my family in childhood.

It resembled the old woman from the market who had warmly smiled while reporting us.

It resembled the friendly housekeeper who had put poison in Father's teacup.

Beyond all those nightmares, it resembled a girl who had laughed as though even her burst-open head were a joke, after I threw myself at her with all my strength, crushed her body, and split open her head.

“Hello?”

--- Stab!

A hand rising from the lake's surface pierced my abdomen in an instant. The pain was so intense, so beyond words, that I couldn't even scream.

As my body grew cold, the monster's body began to collapse as well. The monster made strange noises without understanding why it was falling apart.

You couldn't resist your impulse and killed the person in front of you without warning?

...

You're a failed creation. A bad child.

It's okay... It's okay... It's nothing.

I'll make you again.

Again and again, I'll make you over and over.

Until a good child who listens to me appears.

Footnotes:

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