WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 206: Party Time - The Final Meeting (2), Re-entering Room 104
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- Lee Eun-sol
Back in the House of Horror, we'd repeated several attempts and made it as far as the fourth. At the time, we made the mistaken decision to send most of our group to the underground facility, which put us in danger. In the end, Ga-in had to resort to Descent.
Come to think of it, none of us had actually seen Ga-in fight while using Descent. He only explained what happened after everything was over. A-ri, who had at least spoken with the Son of Heaven and understood Ga-in's explanation well enough, answered.
“I've never seen him fight directly either. Still, if you consider who he fought, you can guess how powerful he was.”
“Who did he fight?”
“The Prisoner of Room 102. Or was it the Prisoner's eldest child? The Unborn One was a moth as large as a mountain range. With a single flap of its wings, it had enough power to terraform an entire planet.”
“Then it was practically a god. You're saying he fought something like that one-on-one and killed it?”
“Strictly speaking, he killed it before it became a moth, while it was still a larva. It must have been much weaker than it would've been as a moth, but it's meaningless for people at our level to discuss how much weaker. It'd be like ants discussing an elephant's stages of growth.”
“I understand what you mean. You're saying he's strong enough to overpower even some half-baked god. If that's true, even the whole party attacking together wouldn't stand a chance.”
“I think so too.”
“At the same time, that power called Descent really is absurd. It's enough to make me regret that we weren't given that kind of luck when we were dying in the Hotel of the Deep Sea...”
For a moment, everyone fell silent and looked at Kim Sang-hyeon. Grandfather patted his back a couple of times as if to comfort him, and Sang-hyeon soon spoke again.
“I understand now why you all said Room 104 was so strange. From what I've seen, the power called Descent is worth more than an Inheritance. To exaggerate a little, it's practically a free pass through three rooms.”
A free pass through three rooms.
It sounded exaggerated, but it wasn't wrong once I thought about it. The Unborn One was the Prisoner's child, and it had been an incomplete larva when it lost to the Son of Heaven. Considering that, the Son of Heaven probably wasn't strong enough to do anything to the Prisoner itself.
Still, in every Curse Room we'd experienced so far, there'd never been a case where we needed to kill the Prisoner to resolve it. The Prisoner generally watched from a step away.
Setting aside Prisoners we didn't need to fight anyway, there was no being in a Curse Room capable of stopping the Son of Heaven. At that point, there was no need to devise tactics or strategies for resolving the room. He was strong enough to charge the Adversary the moment we started and resolve the room within three minutes.
“I already thought it was a strange power, but hearing Sang-hyeon talk about it makes it seem even stranger. How did the Lord grant Ga-in that kind of power? It doesn't seem to be an Inheritance either.”
A-ri pointed out another issue.
“How did the Lord grant that kind of power? There's something much stranger than that.”
“What is?”
“The real mystery is why the Hotel allowed such a power. Like Sang-hyeon said, it's a free pass through three rooms. It's essentially an ability worth more than an Inheritance inside the Hotel, isn't it? And we got that power for free.”
“There's no such thing as a free lunch... Ga-in said he received a notification like this when he first gained Descent.”
“A power like that has to come with a price. We just haven't paid it yet.”
Grandfather, who had been quietly listening, offered a different opinion.
“Ga-in might not be the one paying the entire price.”
“What?”
“Did Ga-in or any of us ask the Lord for that power in the first place? None of us asked for it, yet we were given tremendous power and now we're talking about a price. That's why it seems unreasonable to me. Of course, we resolved Room 102 with that power, and we'll rely on it two more times in the future, so Ga-in or all of us will probably pay some kind of price.”
“But we won't pay all of it?”
Grandfather didn't answer, as if he had nothing more to add, but the hypothesis sounded plausible.
Ga-in had said there'd been some unknown negotiation among great beings immediately after he gained Descent. Who had taken part in that negotiation?
At the very least, the Lord had likely been on one side of the table. Then who had been on the other side? Who had negotiated with the Lord and made a deal to grant us a supernatural power of immense value? The Sponsor? Buddha?
If we weren't paying the entire price, who had paid the rest?
My thoughts grew tangled, so I changed the subject.
“Let's leave the price of Descent there. Fundamentally, it's something Ga-in himself has to resolve, and talking among ourselves won't lead to anything meaningful.”
Sang-hyeon nodded.
“Let's return to the original subject, how we should deal with the Son of Heaven. Seeing your reactions has given me confidence in two things.”
“Two things?”
“First, let's avoid fighting the Son of Heaven at all costs. We can't possibly win.”
“Everyone will agree with that.”
“Second, that means we probably won't need to fight the Son of Heaven.”
“We won't need to fight him in the first place. I think so too.”
Perhaps several people had reached the same conclusion, because Grandfather and Song-i nodded. Jin-cheol gave a faint smile.
“Sis, don't we know enough about this Hotel by now? It isn't the Hotel's way to send us out to fight a demigod who can cause an earthquake with a flick of his hand. If it wanted to kill us like that, it could just throw us in front of a Prisoner's mouth.”
“Right.”
“So the Hotel wouldn't create a scenario where Ga-in uses Descent the moment we enter and wipes us all out.”
“Still, let's not let our guard down. Even if it isn't something that extreme, I think the Lord will find some way to interfere with Ga-in.”
“Let's divide our response into two parts. First, like now, we keep the key points of our meetings from Ga-in. Second, everyone watches him, and if he starts behaving strangely, we knock him out immediately.”
We couldn't come up with much more than that right now. Curse Rooms were structured so that we could only learn how to resolve them by confronting them and nearly dying.
Elena, who had been listening, brought up something else.
“What are you planning to do about Aurelia? We may not know about the Son of Heaven, but we've already figured out Aurelia's conditions for appearing to some extent, haven't we?”
“She'll show herself when things start getting out of hand at the school. We've experienced it once already. What do you think, Elena? You're the only one who fought Aurelia during the first attempt.”
Elena seemed to search through her memories for a moment.
“I can't compare it numerically, but that was when I first used Justice. I've used it many times since then, and I think I've gradually become stronger.”
“That makes sense. Everyone's blessings and Inheritances seem to be getting stronger.”
“I think I could handle her alone now. It would be even easier if everyone else helped.”
I couldn't help being impressed.
A-ri and Ga-in, who had faced Aurelia when they first challenged Room 104, had said she was so transcendent that they couldn't even think of approaching her. Elena hadn't lasted long before being defeated either...
Now Elena could naturally say she thought she could win one-on-one. Elena was certainly incredibly strong while Justice was active, but we really had grown quite a bit.
...Everyone except me.
Come to think of it, Greedy Hand had been activated for some time now. So much had happened during this Party Time that everyone needed rest, so we hadn't found a chance to use Greedy Hand, which would create another burden. I'd definitely use it next time.
That was enough idle thought. It was time to roughly assign our roles. On the night before entering Room 104, the meeting continued until very late.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 97
Current Location: Level 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: X]
- Han Ga-in
I was anxious.
After going through so many Curse Rooms and all kinds of trials, hadn't I become something of an expert in bizarre events? Yet it had been a very long time since I entered a Curse Room knowing absolutely nothing! It felt just like when I first woke up in the Hotel and blindly entered Room 101 without having the slightest idea what was going on.
I started feeling uneasy while talking with my companions that morning. They said they'd held a meeting until late at night, so I expected them to explain a great many things. Surprisingly, it didn't even take ten seconds.
They decided to interpret the hints again after gathering more information. Elena would keep Aurelia occupied as before.
That was really all. Hearing the entire explanation took about ten seconds. Was that seriously the result of a meeting that lasted until late at night?
Of course, I wasn't an idiot, so I understood the situation. My companions suspected that the Lord might control me, so they'd decided to hide their plans. I understood. I wasn't childish enough to feel hurt over something like this. Still, I couldn't help feeling anxious.
Let's think about something else. The suspicion that the Lord might control me was reasonable. I had that possibility in mind myself. Was there any way I could deal with it on my own?
Control...
The ability I'd discovered this time was also a power of control.
My companions' voices came from a distance.
“Ga-in! Is there anything else you need to prepare?”
“No. I'm coming now!”
Right before we entered, A-ri told me something rather meaningful.
“Ga-in.”
“Yeah?”
“Don't be too surprised once we're inside.”
“What am I not supposed to be surprised by?”
“Just don't be surprised.”
I was already anxious about entering without knowing my companions' plans, and hearing that made me even more uneasy.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 97
Current Location: Level 1, Room 104 - Curse Room ‘Hotel High, the Prestigious Academy’
Sage’s Advice: X]
Ding dong daeng dong~!
When I came to my senses, I found myself wearing Hotel High's uniform again.
There have been many attempts to define what music is in terms of the specific att- If we examine the meaning of this sentence through its surrounding context --------
I let out an involuntary groan at the familiar sound coming from the front of the classroom, then looked around after receiving a few glares. My familiar companions were there. A-ri wore a subtle expression, Elena was somehow dressed in a school uniform, and Song-i had a parrot perched on her shoulder.
No, I knew the Hotel set things however it pleased, but did bringing a parrot to school make any sense?
Song-i was petting Pero and smiling as though she found it ridiculous too.
--- Clunk!
I looked toward the loud noise and saw that Seung-yeop, who had grown larger, was standing up. He held a hand hammer in one hand.
...A hand hammer?
“Park Seung-yeop! What kind of commotion are you making during cla-”
--- Bang!
I blacked out.
Footnotes:
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