WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 199: Party Time - The Ninth Companion (1)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 95

Current Location: Level 2, Snow Globe Snowfield

Sage’s Advice: X]

- Han Ga-in

As I reflected on my experience in Mi-ro’s Hell, I checked my Status Window and noticed that my location was listed as “Snow Globe Snowfield.” Until yesterday, the snowfield had not had a separate name, but now it did. What did that mean?

I pushed the thought aside and returned to considering Mi-ro.

“Sis.”

“Yeah. Are you done thinking it over?”

“If you think about it, the ‘Mi-ro’ we’ve seen so far can be divided into three types. Number one, Mi-ro after regressing to a childlike mental state. Number two, middle schooler Mi-ro. Number three, adult Mi-ro.”

“That’s a strange way to put it, but you’re right. Number one is Mi-ro after she gave birth to A-ri and lost her mind. Number two is the young Mi-ro we met in Mi-ro’s Hell. Number three is Mi-ro when she entered the Hotel after spending many years in the Management Bureau. Something like that?”

“We don’t even need to consider number one, since everyone opposes resurrecting her. Even A-ri says she has no intention of bringing Mi-ro back until we find a way to restore her mind. Someone whose intelligence has fallen to a child’s level can be more dangerous than a villain, depending on how you look at it. They’re the kind of person you can’t predict at all.”

“Right. At least if a villain can think rationally, we could cooperate toward the shared goal of escaping the Hotel. But there’s no dealing with a child.”

“I doubt we’ll ever meet number two again. In the end, we have to judge number three, but nobody has actually met her.”

“True.”

“As for number two, the Mi-ro I met, I honestly didn’t get the sense that she was particularly evil.”

“You don’t think that just because she was pretty, right?”

I flinched. It would be a lie to say appearance had no influence at all when judging someone.

“Probably, absolutely not.”

“Can ‘probably’ and ‘absolutely’ even go together?”

“I’m not joking. I didn’t sense any cruelty or extreme selfishness from her. It may sound strange, but setting aside the fact that she had bizarre supernatural powers, she just seemed like an ordinary, playful girl her age.”

“Then maybe she didn’t become an extreme villain after growing up either?”

“We can’t know that. Still...”

“Still?”

“Let’s consider the circumstances. When Mi-ro temporarily came to her senses, she even asked what reason there could be for her having received the blessing of Justice.”

“Blessings are somewhat connected to our own tendencies...”

“A psychopath probably couldn’t receive Justice. Also, Mi-ro seemed to have been fairly high-ranking in the Management Bureau.”

“It would be hard for someone insane or evil enough to cross the line to become a high-ranking member of a huge organization that protects the world. Fine. I understand your opinion well enough. But I don’t think this is enough reason to change the order we originally decided on.”

“The Doctor is still our first resurrection?”

“Yeah. Of course, we have plenty of questions about the Doctor, Kim Sang-hyeon, too. We don’t know whether he’s a good person or someone willing to cooperate. In a way, we know even less about him than Mi-ro, don’t we?”

“Unlike Mi-ro, though, he does have a big advantage.”

“He won’t be hard to control. Since he isn’t from the Management Bureau, there’s no risk of him splitting up our party. A-ri or Mook-seong might be lenient with Mi-ro, but they won’t be with the Doctor. In the worst case, we can just consider the Ticket wasted and kill him. Though what if he has some hidden strength we don’t know about?”

The fact that we could casually talk about killing someone if necessary...

It hit me again that we really weren’t ordinary people anymore.

“Now that you mention it.”

“Mention what?”

“Don’t we know surprisingly little about the Doctor’s abilities? We assume he has healing powers, but we don’t know what form they take. We don’t even know whether he has an Inheritance.”

“That’s true.”

“Why don’t we just ask the Guide?”

“...”

“I was thinking about it earlier, and I suddenly realized something. Everything we know about adult Mi-ro, such as how she has three Inheritances and was the previous owner of Justice, came from the Guide, didn’t it?”

“I did ask about her. Then I forgot. The Hotel keeps hiding things from us, so we’ve developed the bad habit of agonizing over things we could solve just by asking. You and Jin-cheol go ask.”

* * *

Fortunately, Party Time had not ended yet, so we could still enter the door leading to Frozen Hell. Jin-cheol and I, along with A-ri, who naturally tagged along, opened the poorly concealed door at one side of Christmas Hall and entered Frozen Hell again.

“You two were talking in the snowfield earlier. Did you decide who to resurrect?”

“We’ll decide for certain in a meeting.”

“If you two decide, I doubt anyone else will object. The candidates are the Doctor and Mi-ro, but I’ve never met either of them. You’re the only one who’s met both.”

“I can’t really say I met the Doctor either. It only felt like his voice echoed in my head.”

As I spoke, I remembered something.

“Come to think of it, A-ri, you were treated by the Doctor once too, weren’t you?”

“That was when I got a gun from the Merchant in exchange for my arms and legs.”

“Didn’t you receive any kind of message from the Doctor?”

“No.”

“Hmm... I wondered whether you might know the Doctor.”

“Why call it a suspicion? And how would I know? I’ve never even seen his face.”

“If the Doctor recognized you, wouldn’t he have said something? No, more importantly, wasn’t there a Doctor among the members of your first party?”

A-ri thought for a moment before answering.

“I vaguely heard that there was someone unusual. It came up in passing, so I didn’t ask more.”

“Someone unusual?”

“They had a special forces background and went to medical school.”

“That’s impressive.”

“They were also selected as an astronaut candidate.”

“Was that a person or a comic book character?”

“Surprisingly, a person. The problem is that I never met them.”

She had never met them. Hearing that reminded me of something A-ri had said before. Two people from her first party had died in internal conflict before they even reached the second floor. Since A-ri was born on the second floor, she would never have met anyone who died before getting there.

“I heard the people in your first party had impressive backgrounds, but that’s incredible.”

“It was probably someone different from the Doctor we’re going to resurrect this time. The person I remember had a name like Johnny, and I don’t think he was Asian. At least, it wasn’t Kim Sang-hyeon.”

“It must’ve been someone else. If he really had a special forces career and had even been an astronaut candidate, wouldn’t he have mentioned that when he asked me to resurrect him?”

At that, A-ri suddenly tilted her head.

Jin-cheol cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“Do you remember what I said in our meeting before?”

“You said we should save the Ticket.”

“What do you think now? I still think we should keep it for ourselves.”

“I considered that possibility too, but given the nature of the Hotel, Curse Rooms end with either everyone dying or everyone surviving. It would be hard for a situation to arise where only one of us dies and needs resurrection.”

“Curse Rooms aren’t the only danger.”

“But Curse Rooms account for over ninety percent of the danger.”

“...”

“We also have to consider the opportunity cost. Saving the Ticket doesn’t come without risk, does it? It means giving up the increase in strength a new companion would bring. That opportunity cost is a kind of risk. I think the greater danger is the higher chance of all of us dying in a Curse Room because we’re weaker.”

Jin-cheol nodded and didn’t bring it up again.

Frozen Hell was becoming a little familiar now. As we waited, with faint screams sounding almost like a greeting, a drone descended from the sky.

“Participants! Have you decided what to use the Ticket on?”

“Before that, I’d like to ask a few questions.”

“Please ask.”

“Can I ask about Kim Sang-hyeon? I mean the Doctor who appears when we’re injured in the Hotel.”

“What would you like to know about Former Participant Kim Sang-hyeon?”

“First question. Kim Sang-hyeon is both a Former Participant and a hidden NPC of the Hotel, right? What happens to the hidden NPC after he’s resurrected? Even if someone with healing abilities joins us, I think we’ll still need the Hotel’s medical support. Kim Sang-hyeon himself could get injured too.”

“You need not worry about that. After Kim Sang-hyeon is resurrected, another person will be assigned to the role of the Hotel-appointed Doctor.”

“Can you tell me what form Kim Sang-hyeon’s, uh, healing ability takes?”

“Are you asking about his blessing?”

“His healing ability comes from a blessing? Then what about an Inheritance?”

“He is a participant who did not obtain an Inheritance.”

Jin-cheol muttered with some disappointment.

“Someone without an Inheritance. Isn’t that a little disappointing?”

“Let’s hear more first. We expected him not to be someone with great combat ability from the start.”

A-ri snickered.

“You said Mi-ro being strong was the problem. Someone being too strong is a problem too, so having no Inheritance could be an advantage in some ways.”

“Please explain his blessing.”

“Former Participant Kim Sang-hyeon. His blessing while he was alive was Diligence. Since Diligence currently has no owner, he will regain Diligence after resurrection.”

“Diligence? What kind of blessing is it?”

“Renew yourself every day, then renew yourself again! The calling of every person is to hone themselves daily and become someone of greater worth. Yet sadly, high achievement cannot be gained through effort alone.”

???

Jin-cheol and I were both taken aback. What was with this way of speaking all of a sudden? It didn’t sound like the Guide.

“No matter how diligent one may be, if their aptitude cannot support them, achieving greatness is not easy. The blessing Diligence is the power that allows one to surpass that limit! Those who persistently train to hone themselves shall gain aptitude equal to their efforts.”

After listening blankly for a moment, I quickly answered.

“So it’s a blessing that turns someone into a genius?”

“Child. You have understood only half the meaning of my blessing. It is not a power that blindly turns its owner into a genius. If you train diligently every day with such dedication that your bones turn to dust and your body shatters, you will surely achieve greatness. The essence of my blessing is to reward those who strive. Do you understand?”

Incredibly, the being speaking through the Guide’s speaker was the Sponsor of Diligence.

“So it was you, Sponsor. I understand. May I ask one more thing?”

“Ask.”

“What kind of person is Kim Sang-hyeon?”

The Guide suddenly fell silent for a moment, then speech flowed from it again.

“...I expected you to ask about the blessing, yet you suddenly ask about the participant. Is that one of your tricks? You resemble that Owl bastard in a strange way.”

“I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“He was one of the most diligent mortals I have known. And at the very least, he was not an evil person.”

After that, the Sponsor never used the Guide’s speaker again.

Footnotes:

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