WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 222: Checking the Reward, Entering Room 202
──────
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 99
Current Location: Level 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
The utterly chaotic cooking competition was over. Naturally, everyone's attention turned to the rewards: the glass bottle A-ri had received and the hat Eun-sol had received.
Tiny writing was printed on the bottle.
‘Freshness Thermos: Please store ingredients whose freshness is important!’
I understood what kind of tool it was the moment I read the description. It was a bottle that kept whatever was stored inside fresh and prevented it from spoiling. Song-i tilted her head before asking.
“What are we supposed to use this for? Storing drinks? Is there a Curse Room where it's hard to get water? Do we need to fill it with supplies in advance for that room?”
I didn't think so.
“It's too small to use for storing food. It's only the size of a thermos, isn't it? Even if we filled it with something high in calories, it wouldn't be enough for our whole group to eat a single meal.”
The others offered a few ideas as well. Jin-cheol thought there might be a scenario somewhere in a Curse Room where we needed to store a specific liquid. It sounded plausible, but I couldn't imagine the Hotel giving us a special-event reward meant for just one specific room.
Since we had to enter a Curse Room tomorrow, I felt we needed to figure out how to use it quickly, so I used Sage’s Advice.
[Sage’s Advice: 3 -> 2]
[Ingredients are generally living things. Humans are living things too.]
After hearing the advice, A-ri's mouth fell half open as if she'd realized something.
“It looks like the words ‘freshness’ and ‘ingredients’ have broader meanings than we thought.”
“What?”
“It doesn't just keep food fresh by stopping bacteria from multiplying. It seems to prevent magical power contained in a liquid from fading away! What the advice said sounded like, ‘Put your blood in it.’”
Once she said that, the others immediately understood what A-ri had thought of.
“You're going to put your blood in that bottle?”
“My blood loses the power granted by my Inheritance almost immediately once it leaves my body. But it might be different inside this bottle.”
With that, A-ri took out a syringe and slowly began filling the bottle with blood. As expected of a Hotel item, even a tool for storing ingredients had a bloody use.
Jin-cheol looked intrigued as he watched.
“Then can we fill that bottle with A-ri's blood and use it like a potion?”
The experiment's results were somewhat different from what Jin-cheol had hoped. Hotel tools with designated owners generally only displayed supernatural effects when their owners used them, and the glass bottle was no exception. The blood inside retained the power of Old Blood for a long time while the bottle was in A-ri's hands, but the moment it passed into ours, it rapidly became ordinary blood.
At that point, we understood what the bottle was for. It gave A-ri an additional 500 mL of blood she could use.
Old Blood consumed actual blood whenever she used her Inheritance. Because of that, the amount of blood she could use directly affected Old Blood's power.
That was why A-ri had been able to wield overwhelmingly greater power than usual when she was decapitated in The Cube and after she killed herself during the second battle at Hotel High. She had used all the blood in her body in situations where death was unavoidable anyway. Considering that, the bottle was quite a useful tool for A-ri.
Unlike the bottle, whose purpose had been easy to determine, the hat was trickier than expected.
“There aren't any instructions for the hat?”
“We figured out one of its effects.”
Everyone already knew one of the chef's hat's traits. While she wore it, Eun-sol couldn't say anything she didn't mean, and she blurted out exactly what she thought, only a little more viciously.
...
What kind of effect was that? Was that even an advantage? Unable to hold back any longer, Eun-sol burst out in irritated anger.
“Hey! What the hell is this? Is this thing's entire function just turning me into a foul-mouthed lady? What am I supposed to use it for? You fucking piece of-”
“S-Sis, please take the hat off before you say anything.”
“...Sorry, everyone. Whenever I put this hat on, I keep wanting to swear. What was it even made for?”
When she wore the hat, she could only speak the truth, and curses kept slipping into her words. It would be a fairly useful effect if we could inflict it on an enemy. The swearing was ridiculous, but it would probably fluster them, and forcing someone to tell the truth would be extremely useful during an interrogation.
The problem was that Hotel tools didn't work when someone other than their owner used them. When we tried wearing the hat instead of Eun-sol, none of those effects occurred. It just became an ordinary white hat. By then, Eun-sol had started swearing a little even without wearing it.
Fortunately, it was a rest day. The cooking competition had ended around lunchtime, so we had plenty of time and nothing in particular to do. We used both remaining pieces of advice without holding back.
By evening, we finally understood the true nature of the strange hat.
“It's an interesting hat. I'm sure there'll be a situation where it's useful.”
Eun-sol didn't complain about the hat anymore.
--- Click!
The boy, who hadn't been seen since lunchtime, escaped from Room 105.
“I-I survived! I really survived!”
“Seung-yeop? You really ate all that chicken? I thought there was no way you could finish it.”
Instead of answering, Seung-yeop hugged Pero and frantically kissed the parrot. Pero, looking extremely annoyed, pecked Seung-yeop with its beak before flying away.
“Pero ate it for me!”
Fortunately, we avoided a situation where Seung-yeop couldn't leave Room 105 until right before we entered the Curse Room. Late that night, we decided to enter Room 202 tomorrow.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 100
Current Location: Level 2, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
“Uh... This isn't really the time to say it, but according to the Status Window, today is the hundredth day since we entered the Hotel.”
We were about to enter a Curse Room, and everyone was tense. A-ri answered.
“Does it mean anything? We all spent different amounts of time anyway. Your Status Window stopped counting time after you died in a room.”
“That's true. I was just saying.”
Elena asked worriedly.
“Who do you think will be Sealed this time? You again, Ga-in?”
“Maybe. Nobody said the same person couldn't be Sealed twice.”
Grandpa looked slightly doubtful.
“I don't know. I think it'll be someone else this time. That's just a feeling, though.”
After figuring out the hat's power yesterday, Eun-sol had grown quite cheerful.
“All right! Let's go in. Everyone brought the tools they need, right? And you're mentally prepared?”
There was no point dragging this out any longer. This was the Hotel, after all. If we seemed to be dragging things out, it would decide we looked bored and hold some strange event for us. The door to Room 202 opened.
* * *
- Elena
I felt rage boiling up inside me.
The unfathomable malice of those barbarians who walked on two feet on the land high above!
Our ancestors had once bestowed favor upon them, yet the kindness shown to beasts that knew no gratitude had returned as desperate tears of blood.
Memories of the countless sufferings my compatriots had endured relentlessly battered my mind.
...
My head hurt. Memories that weren't mine, hatred accumulated over eons that no human mind could bear, burrowed deep into my head.
[You have been Sealed! The skill, ‘Clear Mirror, Still Water,’ is not functioning. Wait for your companions’ help.]
The consciousness of ‘Elena Ivanova’ sank into the depths. Before I lost consciousness, the best I could do was offer everyone a little encouragement.
“Good luck, everyone!”
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 100
Current Location: Level 2, Room 202, Curse Room ‘The Little Mermaid’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
“Department Head, did you read the materials Cheongseong Group sent us?”
“I read them, but what the hell are they trying to claim?”
“It seems their public stance and their actual position differ somewhat.”
“That's why we're going there ourselves to see that damned chairman's face. Honestly, that bastard-”
“Department Head, please be careful at Cheongseong Group. No matter what, the chairman's son met a violent death.”
--- Beep!
I came to my senses with a notification that rang through my entire head. At the same time, the overwhelming flood of information left all of us speechless.
...
“J-Jin-cheol! Pull the car over first!”
After pulling over, we began assessing the situation.
“Everyone else is here, but one person is missing. Elena has been Sealed.”
“What could it mean? They said the person with an ability essential to resolving the room would be Sealed.”
“I don't know... Maybe Justice is necessary because the other side is evil. Let's each sort through what we know first.”
I looked around. Everyone except Elena was riding in a luxurious limousine. We wore rather stylish dress uniforms, and old-fashioned badges were pinned to them as if we were advertising them to the entire world.
‘Chaos Disaster Management Bureau’
The fact that we wore flashy uniforms advertising our Bureau to the world and used a limousine that every passerby would turn to look at as an official vehicle suggested two things.
First, we were Management Bureau agents. Second, the Management Bureau in this setting operated much more openly.
Information surfaced in sequence. Perhaps because he was older and an actual Management Bureau agent, Grandpa held the title of department head and was leading us. We had been dispatched to Cheongseong Group with the mission of uncovering the truth.
According to a report received by the Management Bureau, Merfolk living on Haesin Island off the coast of Busan had killed several high-ranking officials of Cheongseong Group. One of them had even been the chairman's eldest son. Naturally, the Merfolk strongly denied the murder accusations. We had to uncover the truth and resolve the situation.
“What the hell is this?”
The companions who had grasped the rough outline of the scenario around the same time as I did all stared in shock. What was this supposed to mean?
There was something off the coast of Busan? Haesin Island? A nonhuman race openly lived in South Korea? And they were in conflict with a conglomerate? The setting was clearly South Korea, considering all the talk about Busan, but incomprehensible information kept pouring out so naturally that nobody could speak.
Then Grandpa suddenly took out his phone.
“Ah! This is Department Head Kim. Is the chairman doing well? It's nothing serious, but it looks like we'll be about an hour late. Please let the chairman know.”
Everyone turned to look at Grandpa. He gave A-ri a meaningful glance.
“Should I explain?”
“I'm not very good with words.”
“Fine. It looks like we need to explain the scenario's ‘setting.’ That's why Mook-seong bought us time.”
Fortunately, two people seemed to understand the situation fairly well.
“Have you heard about the Management Bureau's ‘Factions’?”
Footnotes:
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