WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 257: Party Time - Sanctuary of Blessings, Exploration (3)

──────

- Park Seung-yeop

As if giving me time to understand, my Sponsor fell silent for a moment and stroked the crystal.

“Do you understand? What I said about inevitability?”

“Yes.”

“Then let me ask the first question again. What is the essence of Luck? Don't think about quantum mechanics or the uncertainty principle. Just focus on what I've told you.”

I went over what my Sponsor had said. From a transcendent being's perspective, perhaps true coincidence did not exist in this world.

A man who won the lottery yesterday would believe he had been lucky when he bought the ticket. But to an omniscient being, hadn't that man's fate of winning the lottery been decided the moment heaven and earth were created?

Then the essence of what people called ‘luck’ was, in the end, ‘not knowing.’ In a world where everything was determined, people who did not know what had been determined, and therefore could not know what would happen next, had created the word ‘luck.’

“Not knowing? Ignorance?”

“Exactly! In a deterministic world, luck is ignorance. We call the gaps in our knowledge of beginnings and endings, causes and effects, luck. If an ‘unforeseen outcome’ born from that ignorance benefits you, it is good luck. If it harms you, it is bad luck.”

My head gradually began to hurt.

--- Snap!

The boy snapped his fingers. In an instant, the scenery around us transformed into prehistoric Earth.

“Once, there was darkness in the world. In the ancient land, all things were incomprehensible to the primates who had first begun to kindle the flame of intelligence. Because they knew nothing, anything could happen.”

I looked at a world filled with darkness. This darkness had not come from the absence of sunlight, but from the absence of knowledge.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know why the sun rises and sets. Why does the moon rise at night? Why is that huge animal so strong? Why do I die if I eat this plant? Why does this stone shine? Why is this water salty?

Nothing. I knew nothing at all. Since I knew nothing, all I could do was pray for good luck.

I prayed that tomorrow's sun would rise. I prayed the weather would not be too hot or too cold. I prayed that the plant I was putting in my mouth was not poisonous. I prayed that there would be something shining inside the stone I smashed against the ground.

“This is the essence of the blessing you have received, ‘Luck.’ Believe. Simply believe. Beneath the veil of ignorance, where you cannot know anything, pray that the unpredictable future you encounter favors you. Do not try to know. For the essence of luck is ignorance...”

With every breath, a hundred years, a thousand years passed. After I blinked a few times, proper-looking buildings stood around me, and people in soft clothes walked past.

“There was a leap. There was a great sage. In 1643, in England, a man who may have been the greatest in all human history was born. Everyone called him Isaac Newton.”

A man walked past a massive brick building.

“Light spread. Light filled with ‘knowledge’ spread across the whole world. The shadows of incomprehensibility that had filled the world began to vanish. It was certainly a great blessing for humanity, but as a result, the power born from ignorance lost its former glory.”

There was a boy. No, was he really a boy?

I saw countless shadows within the one standing before me.

One shadow resembled a shaman walking through the ancient land. Another resembled a priest advising how to control the overflowing Yellow River amid a torrential downpour. Another looked like an alchemist wandering the streets of the Middle Ages, avoiding the cross.

“Do you understand now? The power you wield? If the world is a cave, and the refined knowledge humanity has built up over tens of thousands of years is the light that illuminates that cave... Luck is the gap in that light. It is the power that guides the ‘unknown events’ arising from the depths of the cave to favor you.”

“I-I don't understand. I've been seeing too many confusing things.”

“Return to the primordial moment. If you accept the power I grant you, you will lose all light and return to darkness. Walk through the world beneath the veil of ignorance. Of course, if you simply ‘return,’ no one can know what you will do then. So before you return, give yourself an order. An order you cannot refuse even if the sky falls and the earth splits apart!”

The space began to shake. Realizing it was time to part with my Sponsor, I shouted urgently.

“So what kind of power is it? I have no idea what you're talking about-”

“I explained everything. You'll understand immediately once you use it. And if possible, use it when your companions aren't nearby. Make your ‘order’ as clear as possible.”

“What?”

“I told you a powerful enhancement would increase ‘predictability,’ didn't I? Since the key is the ‘order,’ pay as much attention to that part as you can!”

“What did you say?”

“See you next time! Though it'll be a very long time from now!”

“Hey! Hey! Explain more!”

My consciousness sank. Just before I lost consciousness, I thought:

My Sponsor was definitely some kind of god, but he was definitely a god with something wrong in his head!

* * *

[Park Seung-yeop (Luck) has obtained ‘Primordial Human.’]

* * *

- Kim A-ri

“He sure puts on a grand show.”

“Pardon?”

“An immature brat making such a fuss in front of a little kid like himself.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind. I wasn't speaking to you, so continue what you were saying.”

The Sponsor of my blessing, ‘Secret,’ whom I was meeting again after a long time, was dressed like a neat office worker as usual. Were the gears and clocks turning all around us a reflection of that Sponsor's taste?

“I'm glad things worked out.”

“Do you mean Room 202?”

“You did well there too, but I'm talking about something from before that. I was worried that trouble would arise when the owner of Wisdom discovered what you were hiding.”

“...”

“If you had piled on more lies then, it would have exhausted both of you. You dealt with it well by taking the straightforward approach and telling him what needed to be said. In any case, your greatest crisis has passed.”

“Thank you.”

“That said, I honestly thought you would be eliminated quickly.”

“...”

“You are impressive as an individual, but it seemed likely that the party would split apart. Also, my blessing became somewhat distorted because of your wish.”

“My blessing was distorted?”

“Didn't you notice? Think about the effect of the ‘Secret’ you received. It is almost useless inside a Curse Room and optimized solely for uncovering Hotel Secrets. The added function of keeping your companions in check, which is no longer especially meaningful, is just a bonus.”

“I did sometimes think its performance was a little underwhelming...”

“Because you wished for your mother's resurrection, it became a power that finds hidden elements. And because you feared conflict with your companions, you gained a power that keeps them in check. Well, that has its own advantages, I suppose.”

Its own advantages?

“I will give you an interesting power. It suits your disposition quite well, and I have prepared an ability that will be fairly useful even inside Curse Rooms.”

“Thank you. But...”

“But?”

“We'll probably enter Room 203 next time, right?”

“...”

“But think about it. The order in which we enter rooms at the hotel doesn't matter, except for the final room, the Gate Room. It wouldn't matter if we went to Room 204 or Room 205.”

“...”

“Both the unidentified voice Seung-yeop heard in Room 201 and Seung-yeop's Sponsor warned us about the danger of Room 203. It seems like it might be a fairly dangerous room for Seung-yeop... Of course, it might not be.”

“As you know, I cannot answer questions about future progress.”

“Then just treat this as me talking to myself. I'm thinking of suggesting that we skip Room 203 entirely. Do we really need to enter a room we've been warned is dangerous? Room 204, Room 205, Room 206! Room 207 seems to be a Gate Room again, so we can exclude it, but there are still three more rooms-”

“Level 1.”

“Pardon?”

“Let's talk about Level 1.”

“...”

“What was the layout of Level 1 again? Room 105 was a place for rest. Room 106 was a Mission Room, wasn't it?”

“That’s right.”

“So not all of them were Curse Rooms.”

“That's true.”

“Room 104 was the last of the Curse Rooms, right?”

“Yes.”

“Wasn't it a little difficult compared to the other rooms?”

“It was difficult. The Prisoner was rather cunning. That's why we gave up only on Room 104 among the rooms on Level 1.”

“Right. It must have been difficult because it was the final problem. That is all I have to say. You may go back down now.”

My Sponsor sharply set the cup on the table. As my eyes slowly closed, I thought about the two things I had learned.

First, one of the remaining rooms on Level 2 was not a Curse Room.

Second, the final Curse Room was especially difficult.

* * *

[Kim A-ri (Secret) has obtained ‘The Unremarkable Girl.’]

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 109

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

“I'm glad you woke up right away.”

Jin-cheol woke up immediately at the Sanctuary of Blessings. Similar things had happened several times, so I understood the situation at once. It seemed he had not spent his Contribution on a powerful enhancement.

“They said they'd give me a powerful enhancement, so I'm already curious what kind of ability it'll be! Sheesh, that Sponsor or whatever gave such a vague explanation.”

“Come on! If you'd woken up late, the rest of us would've had to carry the people who fainted. Seung-yeop and A-ri would be easy, but you...”

“You little punk! I carried you three times!”

After laughing and chatting as we carried Seung-yeop and A-ri, who had fainted for their enhancements, to Room 105, everyone else gathered in the lobby. Eun-sol spoke with a fairly cheerful expression.

“You know what to do now, right? Relax and have some fun, but explore whenever you have the chance too. Exploration is important, but don't forget to rest.”

Of course. There was always too much to do in the hotel, but when would we ever rest if we focused only on that? Even on a battlefield, humans needed to rest when they could.

... An hour passed.

When I parted with my companions that morning, I had definitely planned to rest properly before going out to explore. But once we separated, I had nothing much to do. Before I knew it, I had come up to Level 2 and was searching the hotel.

I was looking behind the paintings hanging along the Level 2 corridor when I heard someone call out behind me.

“Do you think something might be hidden behind the paintings?”

It was a very polite way of speaking, but even excluding the time they had been dead, the owner of that voice was nearly twenty years older than me.

“Since this is a hotel, I thought there might be something. By the way, Doctor, you don't have to speak so formally-”

“This is more comfortable for me. Besides, you saved my life.”

Since the Doctor said it was more comfortable this way, I had nothing else to say.

“The Mirror Room. Judging from the word ‘mirror,’ perhaps it is behind something transparent?”

“I've been thinking it might be connected in a similar way to the Sanctuary of Blessings, through the front entrance.”

“That is possible. Let's search behind the paintings together.”

Soon, I heard clicking sounds beside me as well.

“A-ri is the best at finding things like this, but unfortunately, she's unconscious right now.”

“Because of her blessing, ‘Secret’?”

“Yes. A-ri found the Sanctuary of Blessings too. I thought it was a coincidence at the time, but now that I think about it, it must have been the power of her blessing.”

Footnotes:

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