WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 227: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (5)
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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 100
Current Location: Level 2, Room 202, Curse Room ‘The Little Mermaid’
Sage’s Advice: 1]
- Han Ga-in
At four in the afternoon, while we were each taking a short break and looking around Haesin Island, an unfamiliar sound rang out.
--- Rooooar!
Startled by the enormous, distant cry, as though it had risen from the deepest abyss of Hell, I looked around in every direction before realizing something.
I was the only one shocked.
The islanders were startled at first too, but soon returned to what they’d been doing as though it were nothing unusual.
Was this normal for them?
The moment the sound stopped, I questioned the guide Serenade had sent, who happened to be nearby.
“What was that sound?”
“You mean the sound Kadarudah makes when he has a nightmare?”
“Kadarudah’s nightmare?”
I recognized the name Kadarudah. It was said to be the true name of the god worshipped by the Merfolk, whom outsiders called the Sea God, the God of the Ocean, and many other names.
“Of course, nightmare is only a figure of speech. No one knows why he actually does that. It’s been happening for hundreds of years, so we simply accept it as a kind of natural occurrence. Perhaps even a god suffers from nightmares like we do.”
“Does it not mean anything?”
“It does have one consequence. For two or three days after that cry echoes, all communication with the outside world is cut off.”
Communication with the outside world?
The moment I checked my smartphone, I understood what they meant. There was no signal, so neither the internet nor calls worked.
The guide saw my flustered expression and looked more surprised than I was.
“You didn’t know? It’s such a famous phenomenon that it should be common knowledge even on the mainland.”
We had found a hole in our information.
I’d thought the hundreds of pages of documents Cheongseong Group and the Management Bureau had sent us contained most of the information we needed. Yet there was nothing at all about this strange phenomenon happening right now.
It was probably because everyone in this version of Korea knew Haesin Island periodically lost contact with the outside world.
Of course, it was common knowledge to them, not to us.
I vaguely explained that I’d spent a long time overseas to the guide, who was looking at me as though they couldn’t understand how I hadn’t known.
“By the way, what did you mean when you said, ‘like we suffer from nightmares’? Do the Merfolk often have nightmares?”
The guide didn’t answer.
I returned to our lodging.
* * *
The others had already figured out the situation. The moment I returned, Song-i grabbed my arm and began pulling me somewhere.
“Eun-sol and I found something while we were looking around the government office. You should see it too.”
Song-i led me to the first floor of the government office, where photographs boasting of Serenade’s achievements were displayed. She pointed to one of them.
“Should I look at this picture?”
“Look closely.”
“Hmm. I guess the governor worked hard. While renovating the island’s water supply, she built this building...”
“Not that. Look here.”
I opened my eyes wide and stared at the spot Song-i was pointing to. A familiar face was in the corner of the large photograph.
“It’s Elena.”
“It is Elena! And for the record, we couldn’t find a single other photograph with Elena in it. What do you think that means?”
Elena had likely become a major figure in the scenario when she was Sealed. She’d been high-ranking enough to appear in a photograph praising the governor’s achievements. Yet there were no other photographs of her, as though all traces of her had been erased, and only this one small trace remained in the corner of this picture.
There was only one answer.
“Elena has become one of the Daughters of the Sea God who were purged.”
“Eun-sol thought the same thing. It has to be right.”
“You two, stop talking so carelessly here and follow me.”
I turned and saw A-ri.
Fortunately, no one else was nearby, but this was the Haesin Island government office. It wasn’t somewhere we could meet freely.
When we returned to the limousine provided by the Management Bureau, all our companions were already gathered there. The moment I arrived, Grandpa grabbed my shoulder.
“You’re here. We were discussing how to wake Elena while you were gone.”
After going through Room 201, we’d all realized something. Waking a Sealed participant was the quickest way to solve a room.
“We need to know where she is first. Where could she be?”
“That’s the problem. I considered using Compass to find her.”
Compass was an ability A-ri had gained after enhancing her blessing. But wasn’t it an ability for finding objects, not people?
“Can Compass find people too?”
“No. If it could, I would’ve tried to find you in Room 201. Compass is an ability that finds objects whose appearance and characteristics I know, not people.”
“Could we track one of Elena’s belongings?”
“I actually tried that, but it wasn’t easy. Thinking back, when I received Compass, I was told that supernatural power could nullify its search.”
It seemed that Sealing, the special system on the second Level, prevented us from using Compass to track the belongings of a Sealed participant and locate them.
“Then we’re out of options, aren’t we?”
“I thought the same and had given up. But when I found that picture, I used it just in case and realized something.”
She used it and realized something?
That meant Compass was tracking something. But hadn’t she just said we couldn’t track the belongings of a Sealed participant?
“The Hotel Sealed Elena. That means Elena’s belongings are also affected by the Sealing, so Compass cannot detect them. But what if it isn’t Elena, the Hotel participant? What if it’s ‘Elena, Daughter of the Sea God,’ an existence within Room 202’s scenario? She isn’t someone the Hotel has confined.”
Only then did I understand.
We couldn’t track the belongings of Elena, the Hotel participant we knew, but we could track the belongings of Elena, Daughter of the Sea God.
“So I learned one thing. Elena is in the basement of the government office.”
Eun-sol, who had been listening, pointed something out.
“Be precise. Elena isn’t in the basement. The clothes worn by the Daughter of the Sea God in that picture are in the basement of the government office.”
“I understand. There’s no guarantee Elena is where those clothes are.”
For now, we decided to follow Compass and track the clothes. We stepped out of the limousine and followed A-ri as she frowned and moved in the direction Compass guided her.
Wasn’t there a more reliable object to track?
We might find something by following the clothes, but I didn’t think that alone would lead us to where Elena was trapped.
“Would it be alright if I did something else for a while?”
“Doctor?”
“I’d like to observe the Merfolk more closely, as I mentioned earlier. I believe I can gather important information for solving this room. Of course, if you don’t wish it...”
“Sang-hyeon, there’s no need to ask our permission. If you trust your judgment, follow it. No one here knows the right answer to what we should do in this place anyway.”
“Thank you.”
“Let’s take the Protective Suit too. Who’ll wear it?”
“Eun-sol, I’ll wear it. I’m taking the lead right now.”
* * *
- Park Seung-yeop
I barely kept my balance atop the head of the staggering colossal Ragworm as I approached the mysterious girl, and she let out a shrill scream.
“Eek! Don’t come any closer!”
I didn’t see any reason to answer.
“Please! Please don’t come closer! I’m not a bad person!”
What bullshit.
Was I an idiot? She was standing on top of a man-eating monster, looking as though she was obviously controlling it, and she expected me to believe she wasn’t a bad person?
Every time I took a step closer, the girl took a step back in fear. No matter how huge the Ragworm was, though, there was only so much space on its head. There had to be a limit to how far she could retreat.
“Eeeeeek!”
... The girl stepped back, slipped off its head, and fell.
Was she seriously an idiot?
--- Shudderrr!
At the same time, the enormous Ragworm suddenly began trembling all over. I couldn’t hold my position for even three seconds before I lost my balance and slipped.
Aah! If I fell from the head of the Ragworm that had been looking down at us from the roof of the express bus terminal, how many meters would I fall?
Was I really dying like this???
...
Something soft and warm caught me from below.
Only then did I realize the protection of the Great Cosmos, ‘Heavenly Fortune,’ hadn’t ended yet.
“Who the hell... Pero?”
The one who had caught me was Pero’s transformed form, the Grotesque!
I’d already heard that Pero couldn’t fly in its Grotesque form, but it was an excellent swimmer. It wasn’t that surprising that the Grotesque had leisurely swum through the tsunami devastating Busan and caught me, but there was one thing I couldn’t understand at all.
How did it know to come here?
It had definitely entered Haesin Island with Song-i!
More importantly, where had the girl who fell earlier gone? Was she already dead?
--- Craaash!
Waves surged toward us. The Grotesque’s body rocked violently, and I felt like I’d be flung off, so I frantically grabbed its neck.
--- Quaaaack!
“Oh! That sounded exactly like a duck! Pero, hang on! I’m going to fall!”
Thankfully, the Grotesque didn’t drop me even though it seemed annoyed.
Then something grabbed my foot.
“W-what is that?!”
“It’s me.”
The girl from before appeared from the water as though she were an old friend who knew me well.
“You’re not dead?”
The girl spoke as if she found the question absurd.
“They say my ancestor was a fish. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if I died in the water? More importantly, you!”
“Huh? Me?”
“You’re an expert from the Management Bureau, right? I saw that incredible lightness skill earlier. You don’t look old enough to have mastered such esoteric martial arts... Could it be? Rejuvenation! I heard that was a state that only existed in imagination!”
“You seem to be having some strange thoughts.”
“I’ll keep your secret. More importantly, because you interfered, many people are about to die!”
“What are you talking about...”
“I was rescuing people with Kong-i! Did you mistake Kong-i for something that would hurt people just because of how it looks? Look over there!”
I followed where the girl pointed.
Around the neck of the giant Ragworm called Kong-i was a huge iron box I hadn’t noticed earlier. Inside, there were many people.
It really had been rescuing people?
“Hey! Who in the world would see that monster and think it was rescuing people? At least put a ribbon on its head!”
“A ribbon? That’s a good idea... No, that’s not the issue. You need to find my flute quickly. I can’t control Kong-i without it.”
I understood the situation.
Ridiculously enough, this girl had been using that monster to rescue people. Then she’d been startled by me appearing on its head, fled, and lost the flute she used to control it.
“Where is the flute?”
I looked in the direction she pointed. A car being swept away by the waves had become lodged against a building.
“You can see it, right?”
See what?
“You must have learned a sight technique, so you should be able to see the flute stuck near that car’s wheel. Luckily, it was swept away and got wedged there. Please get it for me.”
???
“Me? Get that? How? There are too many obstacles. Even Pero looks like it would have trouble getting in there.”
The girl answered with a completely calm expression.
“By Pero, do you mean the mysterious bird you are riding? I don’t understand what you’re worrying about. You can simply use Water-Reed Crossing, the art of running across water. Or are you planning to hide your identity even now?”
I was at a loss for words.
After forcing my mouth open, I asked what I’d been wondering this whole time.
“Who are you?”
The soaking-wet girl smiled brightly.
“My name is Riringanor. Some call me the third Daughter of the Sea God.”
Footnotes:
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