WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 267: Room ???, Curse Room - ‘????’ (5)
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“Achoo!”
A powerful wind swept across the barren land, so strong it was hard to remain standing. It blew sand and dust into the cave, making Mook-seong cough and frown. Of course, the sand and dust were not the only reason for his expression.
“If what you said is true, Sang-hyeon, Elena will soon come charging toward you and me.”
“That is correct.”
“There’s nothing we can do on our own. It seems we’ll need Eun-sol’s Flute.”
“Based on the notification we received at the start, the Inheritance should still be intact. Eun-sol’s Flute should be able to restore Elena. But we have no way of knowing where Eun-sol is, so we must do the best we can ourselves.”
“The best we can do? What can we even do-”
“Elder, please send the others away for a moment.”
Though Mook-seong tilted his head, he followed Sang-hyeon’s suggestion and sent the tribal warriors who had followed him to guard him outside the cave. Once they were alone, Sang-hyeon asked with an inscrutable expression.
“Elder, this is somewhat unrelated to our current situation, but... what do you think of those primitive people?”
“What do I think? They’re Stone Age ooga-boogas.”
“Do they look human to you?”
“Pfft! Sure. Are you saying they look like monkeys because they’re filthy and stupid? I’ve lived longer than you, so I’ll tell you this. When the environment is harsh, people become ignorant and dirty.”
“No, that’s not what I mean...”
Sang-hyeon hesitated over whether to continue. As a doctor, he had won the primitive people’s support almost immediately by treating their illnesses and injuries the moment he arrived in this setting.
“They felt... slightly different.”
“Hm. When we saw the Merfolk in Room 202, you said they were just humans. These people don’t look any different from humans, so I don’t know what you mean.”
“Mm. Let’s leave that topic there. I may be mistaken.”
Sang-hyeon found it difficult to explain his reasoning clearly as well. The ambiguous sensation he had felt while treating them was not easy to put into logical terms. Deciding it was more reasonable to discuss the problem before them, he returned to the original subject.
“You have heard about Paradise, correct?”
“Paradise? Do you mean the ‘Sweet Land’ from the tribe’s legends?”
“It seems each tribe has a different name for it. Yes.”
“I’ve heard of it. It’s obviously a place we must visit to resolve the room.”
“That is right. But do you think the tribespeople will cross the mountain range?”
Mook-seong immediately shook his head. Impossible. The primitive people considered the mountain range to be hell descended upon this world. Even if a Divine Human told them to go there, they would never follow. Being primitive did not mean they lacked intelligence.
“The mountain range is somewhere we must go, but the tribespeople refuse to head there. It will be difficult to deal with the danger approaching us. Even if the entire tribe packed up and moved immediately, the speed of a large group is always determined by its slowest members.”
“... Right. We’d be moving at the pace of children, women, and the elderly, not warriors.”
Sang-hyeon quietly watched outside the cave before speaking again.
“When you encounter a bear in the mountains, you don’t need to run faster than the bear to escape. You only need to move faster than the person beside you.”
“Sang-hyeon, you...”
“I’ve made up my mind. What about you, Elder?”
Mook-seong was speechless. Sang-hyeon was proposing that they abandon the tribe and head for the mountain range by themselves.
* * *
- Lee Eun-sol
“I’m glad you’re doing well. I was so worried you might’ve gone through something difficult or dangerous. Though, seeing that reliable~ helper by your side, as comforting as a hearty bowl of soup, you probably didn’t face any danger at all!”
Song-i, the companion I had finally managed to meet, was doing far better than I had expected. Unlike me, she wore fairly clean white leather clothes, and colorful ornaments covered her body.
More than anything, envy surged up from deep within me when I saw the familiar bird approaching with Song-i on its back. Why did Pero always start next to Song-i? He should help someone weak like me!
“What are all those ornaments on your body?”
“The tribespeople give them to me every day. I think they like me a lot.”
That made me even more jealous. Why were only Song-i’s tribespeople so kind? In my tribe, there was no shortage of people who came at me as though saying, “How dare a woman,” so establishing dominance had been a whole ordeal.
Thankfully, “How dare a woman” had been offset by “The great Divine Human,” and after subduing the bull, it felt like I had gained some authority.
“Ahem. I had my share of hardships too. A monster attacked not long after I arrived at the tribe.”
“A monster? I was attacked by a bull the size of a truck, something called a Five-Legged Bull.”
“A massive mantis-like monster called The Cutter attacked me, but I defeated it with the bracelet and Pero’s help.”
Song-i and I had both started as leaders of primitive tribes, then had to fight monsters attacking those tribes shortly afterward. That couldn’t have been a coincidence. The others had probably gone through the same thing. I began to worry whether everyone else was all right.
Naturally, the conversation shifted to what lay beyond the mountain range.
“I heard the songs the tribespeople sing. They say their ancestors were all children of the Sky God and lived in a sacred land. Then one day, they were driven out of that land.”
“Honestly, it’s a common myth. Christianity has almost the same story, and it isn’t the only religion with something similar.”
“That’s true. The unusual part is that the location of that ‘sacred land’ has been passed down fairly specifically.”
“They say you have to cross the mountain range. But... I had a slightly different thought.”
“Yes?”
“Song-i, what do you think we need to do to escape?”
“First, we need to know what the ‘curse’ is.”
Based on our experiences so far, the conditions for escape differed from room to room. Simply surviving for a long time did not trigger an escape. We had to delay the curse itself or flee from it.
“This is only my guess, so tell me what you think too.”
“All right.”
“Haven’t you heard the tribespeople talk about how strange the seasons are? They say it isn’t supposed to get this cold yet.”
“I did hear that.”
“The moment I confirmed this was the prehistoric era, I started thinking about it. What could the ‘curse’ be in a setting like this? To put it sadly, this world is already hopeless from the perspective of modern people like us. It’s practically ruined from the start.”
“It feels somewhat similar to Room 101. We’re all scattered around, and the world itself was already ruined from the beginning.”
“What disaster could truly ruin a world that was already ruined? Something that could deal another fatal blow to humanity in the prehistoric era. The weather was getting colder in a way that was hard to understand, so a word naturally came to mind. ‘Ice Age.’”
Song-i thought for a moment before answering.
“That sounds convincing. Could this room’s Scenario be something like humanity going extinct because of an Ice Age? Then what should we do? We can’t stop an Ice Age.”
“It might not be a natural Ice Age. Maybe some evil, horrible being is creating it.”
“Mm.”
“Let’s think about the cause of the Ice Age later. Honestly, I’m certain resolving the room is impossible this round.”
“...”
“Our blessings are malfunctioning. Is Elena all right? Seung-yeop might already be dead. Jin-cheol probably isn’t normal either. We can’t resolve it in this state. The best option is to focus on survival and escape. Want to hear the plan I have?”
“Unni, do you have a plan?”
I stood and stared blankly up at the sky. The sacred form of the incomprehensible being I had seen far off in the sky yesterday filled my thoughts.
“I saw a divine being in the sky.”
“What?”
“It resembled a bluish seal or whale swimming through the sky as if it were the sea.”
“Isn’t that... dangerous?”
“Song-i, what do you think about this place we’re in right now?”
Startled by my question, Song-i looked around.
“Uh, isn’t it just grassland? There’s soft grass and trees bearing nutty fruit-”
“Isn’t it strange?”
“... It is more fertile than the other places. It’s also a little dark.”
“It’s absurdly fertile. You saw it while riding Pero, didn’t you? The seasons in this world are already starting to turn cold, and this is fundamentally a barren world. Trees full of fruit don’t grow just anywhere.”
“...”
“Song-i, this place is the Shadow of God.”
The being in the sky was so enormous that its shadow covered a radius of several kilometers. Those on the ground could not even realize it was a shadow. Even if they noticed their surroundings had suddenly darkened while walking, they would probably assume the sun had gone behind clouds.
But after recognizing the being floating in the sky, I could clearly sense the slowly moving Shadow of God on the ground. I could also see the unnatural abundance thriving along the shadow’s path.
Two hours.
That was how long it took Song-i to understand what I meant. She rode the Grotesque along the shadow for quite some time before returning, looking dazed.
“The ecosystem is completely different along the shadow’s path. There are thickets laden with cherries in barren areas covered in pebbles, and even in forests where the cold weather has left nothing but bare branches, only the trees along the path the shadow passed through are bearing fruit like it’s spring or summer.”
“You feel it now too. I don’t know what the being in the sky is. But...”
“But?”
“I don’t think it’s evil. It may even be a Prisoner, but Prisoners have not always been evil.”
The Sea God in Room 202 and the Teacher in Room 103 were examples of Prisoners that were not necessarily evil.
“So what is your plan, unni?”
“Let’s follow the shadow. After the being in the sky met my gaze yesterday, it began moving slowly as if it wanted me to follow.”
“...”
“It can’t be a coincidence. If it is a Prisoner, it probably knows we are hotel participants.”
“A Prisoner is guiding us somewhere?”
“We happen to have a great many mouths to feed. Your tribespeople and mine. Where can we find food and water for so many people? If we follow the shadow, that problem will be solved too.”
Song-i leaned against a tree, looking troubled.
“This feels like a course of action without enough evidence. A mysterious being in the sky, holy power like that of a god of life restoring vitality to the earth. I understand all that, but is there any reason we should follow it?”
“That’s a good point.”
“Of course, if we were really primitive people, we would follow the shadow just because food appeared along its path. But our goal is not simply survival. More than anything, the shadow is moving in the opposite direction from the mountain range.”
“All right, I understand what you mean too. But let me ask you the opposite question. Have you found a reason we must go to the mountain range?”
Song-i fell silent at that.
“It’s only a legend passed down in the tribe. They even say the mountain range is full of absurd monsters. Do we really have to go there now?”
“Now?”
“I think we must eventually go to the sacred land beyond the mountain range. We should visit it to resolve the room, but I don’t think this is the right round. If we head there while we still haven’t properly reunited, we’ll all be wiped out. So this round, let’s follow the safe path and aim to escape.”
After discussing it that much, Song-i and I fell into thought without being able to make an easy decision.
Two choices lay before us. On one side was the sacred land beyond a mountain range full of monsters. On the other was a path overflowing with milk and honey, guided by a great being floating in the sky.
Which way should we go?
* * *
Looking down at the grasslands lashed by fierce winds, the boy wondered how things had come to this.
His body was floating high in the vast sky. Wings had not suddenly sprouted from his back, so it was clear another being had lifted him into the air.
And it was obvious who was holding the boy and flying through the sky. That being resembled an angel who had descended from heaven.
The long golden hair swaying below its waist looked as though it held the radiance of the sun, and looking into eyes that contained the green of the forest made his heart feel warm. The opaque dragonfly-like bodily mutation sprouting from its back was honestly creepy, but its angel-like aura made it seem fitting.
If the grasslands below had not been covered in Cocoons wrapped in wispy threads, if he had not known those Cocoons had been people just moments ago...
Of course, after watching hundreds of people become Cocoons with his own eyes, Seung-yeop felt like he was losing his mind.
“What a relief.”
“Elena, noona...”
“What a relief. I found you before you got hurt. I was so worried.”
“Noona...”
“It’s a strange place, isn’t it? The moment I woke up, monsters were everywhere.”
“...”
“Seung-yeop, I’ll protect you now, so don’t worry. Where could the others be?”
Behind Elena were moths.
Even at that very moment, a horde of monsters flew in every direction, harvesting the humans trying to escape. Seung-yeop felt he knew what would emerge from the Cocoons filling the grasslands.
Footnotes:
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