Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 27

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 26: Exploring the Elevator, Entering Room 103 (Revised)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 9

Current Location: Level 1, Room 105

Sage’s Advice: 3]

As usual, the moment everyone gathered in the hotel room for breakfast at seven in the morning, the display lit up.

/Today is the hotel's day off. Meals will be provided./

"What the hell does that mean all of a sudden?"

"Today is a day off? We're supposed to rest, but they'll still feed us? What the hell does that mean?"

"Um... I think I can explain that."

At A-ri's clear voice, everyone turned to look at her.

"Do you know something?"

"According to the information we've gathered, the hotel periodically gives us 'safe days' like this. Put simply, there won't be a penalty event today even if we don't enter a Curse Room."

"So, in other words, we can take it easy today?"

"That's it. You get it. We've more or less cleared two rooms, and we've worked hard. It's telling us to rest today."

Everyone brightened at the rare piece of good news from the hotel.

A whole day off without anything horrible happening!

Things moved quickly after that.

Everyone finished eating in no time, brimming with anticipation, then scattered to the facilities on Basement Level 1, like they had on the day of the pool incident.

The women left together, talking about going to the bar and swimming. Jin-cheol and Mook-seong, who had been butting heads until yesterday, headed to the gym, saying they were finally going to get some exercise.

Seung-yeop had looked eager to follow A-ri somehow, but the moment it became a girls-only outing, he looked deeply disappointed and disappeared somewhere.

As for me...

When everyone else got off the elevator and went their separate ways on Basement Level 1, I stayed inside alone.

I didn't have anything in particular I wanted to do while resting, and this was the elevator they had said was broken since the first day.

I had a strong feeling it was hiding something.

'It's broken.'

What function was broken, exactly? I already knew I couldn't go to the second or third floor.

Could there be something else?

I examined it carefully from top to bottom.

At a glance, it wasn't much different from an ordinary elevator. There was a small display at the top showing the floor number, and the panel on the right was marked from Basement Level 1 to the third floor. The buttons for the second and third floors didn't light up.

And...

At the bottom of the panel was a red button labeled "Escape."

An escape button?

Normally, wasn't the button at the bottom of an elevator panel some kind of intercom for informing people that someone was trapped inside after an elevator malfunctioned?

The word "Escape" immediately caught my interest.

Should I press it? I slowly brought my hand toward it while keeping my eyes on the Status Window.

If there was danger, it would warn me.

No notification appeared, even when I was about to press it, so I finally pushed the button.

Click!

The next moment, the bottom of the red button flipped open, revealing a display!

It was a window for entering a number. A warning was written beside it in tiny letters.

/Enter the password while wearing a Protective Suit./

A Protective Suit? What was that? And what number was I supposed to enter? Still watching the Status Window, I brought my finger toward the numbers at random.

[If the password for escape is incorrect, you will be incinerated.]

The chilling message made me pull my hand away at once. Incinerated. This damned hotel really had devices meant to kill people everywhere.

It was absurd, but I had also realized something.

This was real. If I could somehow obtain and wear a Protective Suit, then learn the password, this device would let me escape!

I had found another Escape Route out of the hotel.

[Your understanding of the hotel has increased slightly.]

Happy, for the first time in a while, at the thought of discussing this with my companions, I noticed something engraved beside the newly revealed panel.

My breath caught. Before I realized it, my heart was pounding wildly.

What did that mean? Who had written it? And why was I being told not to tell anyone else?

As I stood there blankly, lost in thought, the panel disappeared again after some time had passed without me touching it.

What should I do?

We had only known each other for about a week. Still, we had gone through hardships that nearly killed us in such a short time, and a strong bond had formed between us.

Naturally, I should trust them and share everything I had learned.

But...

A thought suddenly came to me.

What if only one person could use that Escape Route? What if that was why it had a warning not to tell anyone else?

Wouldn't revealing it become the seed of division?

For now, I decided to bury it in a corner of my mind and stepped out of the elevator.

As I walked down the corridor on Basement Level 1, troubled by the thought, someone approached from the other end.

"You said you were looking into something. Did you find anything?"

I thought this every time, but I was twenty and they were sixteen. Wasn't it strange how naturally they spoke informally whenever we were alone?

Still, I didn't want to fight over something that trivial in this grueling hotel.

"I'm not sure. I mostly confirmed what we already knew. The buttons for the second and third floors still weren't lit."

"You probably have to clear a specific room on the first floor before you can get there."

"A specific room?"

"We called it a Gateway Room. You can enter it after achieving certain results in all the other rooms except that one, and if you clear it, you can move up to the next floor."

"What do you mean by certain results?"

"It changes every time. Sometimes escaping every other room is enough, but sometimes it requires completely resolving one to three rooms."

"Completely resolving them..."

"We've only cleared two rooms so far, but this party's goal until now has only been to survive and escape.

"But... if we want to leave the hotel, we'll eventually have to destroy the Source of the Curse in at least a few rooms.

"That's when the treasures the hotel keeps emphasizing will start appearing, and we'll need to use those treasures to progress through later stages."

"One obstacle after another. But in the House of Horror, does destroying the Source of the Curse mean we have to kill that monster?

"After seeing the memory you showed yesterday, I can't imagine humans being able to do anything against it."

"I don't know either. It might really demand that, or we could think of it more simply."

"More simply?"

"Strictly speaking, was the Great Demon of the Depths our main enemy in the House of Horror? Scenario-wise, the great demon was just buried underground. The Elder was our real enemy, wasn't he? Maybe eliminating the Elder would be enough..."

"That would be better, but we'll only know once we try."

As we discussed our future plans, I realized we had been talking alone for quite a while.

"Come to think of it, didn't the women say they were going to the bar before heading to the pool? Why did you come out alone?"

"How could a minor drink? And I don't really like swimming."

"Seung-yeop must be looking everywhere for you."

"I've been avoiding him just fine."

I had nothing to say. They said they had been avoiding him so calmly. There was a boy who wanted to be Romeo, but Juliet clearly had no interest.

We naturally went our separate ways, and only then did I do the things I had wanted to try.

I went to the zoo Song-i had mentioned and looked at several bizarre animals. I tried a strange cocktail at the bar, and at mealtimes, we gathered in Room 105 to laugh, talk, and enjoy ourselves.

That was how our day off ended.

By the time dinner was over, no one could hide their gloomy expressions.

Everyone knew.

Starting tomorrow, we would have to resume the forced march.

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 10

Current Location: Level 1, Room 103 (Curse Room - Animal Farm)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

Moooooo~~~~

What the hell was this? Was that really the sound coming out of my mouth?

The day after our break, we all entered Room 103 in what was now a somewhat familiar atmosphere. When I woke after briefly losing consciousness,

I had become the Black Bull.

I thought I had experienced every bizarre thing imaginable, but something beyond anything I could have imagined happened again. Thankfully, a message arrived.

Mook-seong: Wow! This hotel is fucking stupid, huh? Hurry up and report your conditions!

Eun-sol: I think... I'm a snake.

Song-i: I'm a goose...

Elena: I think I'm a golden retriever.

Kim A-ri: A cat. Maybe a Norwegian Forest Cat?

Park Seung-yeop: A wolf! This is so cool!

Han Ga-in: Moooooo!

Cha Jin-cheol: I'm a pig... A wild boar.

Mook-seong: You're just as you always are.

Pig Bastard: Don't start picking fights. Ah, you changed it already. You senile old bastard, seriously.

Clever Snake: Let's each figure out where we are and what's going on first, then talk later. You said our Chat Limit was low.

Rat King: Yeah, we've already used more than half of it. Take stock of your situation, and let's talk in about two hours.