WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 271: Room ???, Curse Room - ‘????’ (9)

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[±úÁü : ???????{???*

???? : 131? ?

??????? : ??????-??????

???????? : X]

- Han Ga-in

[???? : ??????]

“I can't understand you!”

“Ah, damn it! I keep using the Chat Window out of habit. Roll aside!”

--- Whoooosh! Boom!

In a frenzy, I rolled again and again without even having time to breathe! Even after all that rolling, I felt another shell flying toward where I'd landed, and my breath caught in my throat.

--- Boom!

A moth that had flown in from somewhere literally blocked the shell with its body. It couldn't completely stop the blast, so I was flung around once more, but that was still better than taking the shell myself!

While everyone frantically dodged shells flying in from every direction, Elena floated in the air, offering hundreds of moths as sacrifices to the incoming shells. She stared into space, murmuring something incomprehensible.

At that moment, the robot that had been firing shells suddenly collapsed, as though its ammunition had jammed. A shell exploded inside it, bringing it down in an instant.

“Run! Run!”

We ran. I ran like crazy, harder than I ever had in my life!

* * *

After we began climbing the mountain range again, we faced life-or-death crises every moment, every second. We had sent the tribespeople to draw the robots away and chosen a place where there seemed to be fewer robots to break through, but there were still too many of them.

Once we crossed far beyond the ‘Boundary’ and truly entered the mountain range, the robots stopped firing warning shots altogether. They simply started launching shells at us without hesitation.

Could we have even dreamed of breaking through this place if hundreds of moths hadn't died in our place, practically as disposable lives?

I knew I shouldn't think this, but a small part of me regretted it. Wouldn't it have been easier if we'd turned some of the tribespeople into moths...?

Before long, it was rare to find anyone whose body was still intact. Grandpa's left arm had vanished somewhere, yet no one asked where it had gone. One of Seung-yeop's hands had been pulverized and scattered, but fortunately, his body was no longer organic, so he didn't seem to be in much pain.

For the past ten minutes, I hadn't been able to hear anything through my right ear either.

...

What could possibly be waiting at the end of this mountain range, one we'd climbed through such hell?

At this point, even if I was going to die, I wanted to at least see what lay beyond it first.

Eventually, perhaps even the robots had run out of strength, because they stopped appearing. As we finally gathered and caught our breath, we realized one unsettling fact.

“W-where are we? Wh-what's happening right now? This is still a Curse Room, right?”

Elena had suddenly begun to come to her senses.

I felt bad saying it, but honestly, Elena returning to normal made me even more uneasy.

Why had she gone mad in the first place? It was the aftereffect of Ominous Imagination. The ability itself was a power that created madness, so losing her mind had been inevitable. Then why was she suddenly beginning to regain her senses?

Because she'd used almost all of her power, and nearly all the moths created by it had disappeared. She had wrung herself dry until not a single drop remained in the jar called Ominous Imagination, and the source of her madness had vanished along with it.

“Yes, it's a Curse Room. I'll take questions later.”

“Eek! What's this on my back?”

“Later. Later.”

--- Fluff, fluff!

A soft-furred moth rubbed its antennae against Elena, and she looked like she was about to cry. Seeing that, I found myself speaking without thinking.

“Elena, be a little kinder to that child. I'm not joking. It risked its life to get us all the way here.”

I meant it.

Before we climbed the mountain range, the moths had looked like horrifying monstrosities. Now, the last one looked like an adorable puppy that loved its owner.

* * *

I was exhausted. My mind and body were both worn out, and I could barely put one foot in front of the other. How many hours had passed since we started climbing this hellish mountain range? At least three, hadn't it?

Wasn't it about time for something to appear?

That was when the Doctor reacted.

“Is that... a ‘door’?”

Just as he said, a structure that looked like a gigantic door rose between the trees. Everyone squeezed out what little strength they had left and made their way there.

Then the wind suddenly blew.

The clouds that had blocked even the dying embers of the sun in the western sky slowly drifted aside. The sun poured out all its remaining strength, and the last light of early evening shone beyond the structure.

At the center of the mountain range lay a vast basin that couldn't be seen from outside!

All at once, I realized it.

We were seeing everything this stage, this trial, had to offer.

There was the great glory of humanity overcoming nature. There was the decline of that glory, which had eventually surrendered to time and become overgrown with weeds. There was prosperity that must have illuminated the whole world. There was destruction so complete that even the traces of that prosperity were hard to find.

Every companion stopped walking and stared blankly at the remnants of a civilization.

What on earth had happened to this world?

“... Let's go in now. We need to find out what happened.”

With a faint, almost reverent feeling, I stepped into the basin.

The rock boy, who had now lost a hand, seemed unable to contain his curiosity.

“What kind of building is this? I can see something like a sign.”

Unexpectedly, the Doctor couldn't hide his academic curiosity either.

“Judging by the traces left in the images, I believe it may have been some sort of cultural facility. Of course, there is a considerable chance that the colors have changed over time.”

“D-Doctor, you can speak casually to me.”

“Haha! Seung-yeop, this is more comfortable for me.”

“Sang-hyeon, what is this? Is it a car?”

“Hmm... It's difficult to tell with only the frame remaining. Still, it seems this civilization developed in a somewhat different direction from the twenty-first-century Earth we know.”

As we walked through the heart of the ruined city and looked around, Grandpa muttered uneasily.

“Where did all the people who built a city like this go?”

Jin-cheol gave a bitter smile.

“Considering this place is a Curse Room in the hotel, doesn't a scenario come to mind right away?”

“Let's hear it.”

“Some demon woke up and destroyed the civilization. They put the demon to sleep somehow, but the descendants fled the prosperous city, lived outside, and civilization regressed to the level of the primitive age?”

“It sounds plausible, but there's one strange thing.”

“What is it?”

“Why are there no traces of civilization outside, only in this mountain range? Surely humanity couldn't have reached such an advanced civilization and then lived huddled together only inside the mountains?”

“... That's true.”

Now that I thought about it, he was right.

If they had possessed the ability to build a city like this, they should have lived across the entire world. Traces of their civilization should have remained everywhere. Even if it had collapsed for some reason, remnants of buildings like these should have existed outside the mountain range too.

My head gradually started to hurt. We'd clearly arrived somewhere filled with countless clues, yet there was still far too much we didn't know.

Then...

“Huh?”

“Seung-yeop?”

“Isn't someone over there?”

Something with a human shape was watching us from across the road.

Maybe because she'd only just come to her senses, Elena seemed strangely lacking in tension. She reacted with delight.

“It's A-ri! Isn't it? Maybe she reached the mountain range through another route?”

Elena smiled brightly and took a couple of steps forward. When she waved her arm through the air...

I heard a strange sound.

“The day of judgment draws near, and the Final Flash shall purify all things. Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

A beam of light crossed the road.

The beautiful golden-haired girl became ash in an instant, leaving behind no trace at all.

* * *

『Hostile Entity: Elena Ivanova』

『Owner of ‘Ominous Imagination.’ The side effect of losing one's sanity the more it is used is severe, but the ability itself has an extremely high degree of freedom, making it difficult to counter. Once she begins using the ability in earnest, there is no way to defeat her. However, her reaction speed and physical abilities remain within the range of an ordinary human, so the best response is to snipe her from a distance with the Final Flash. The most threatening entity among the Descendants of the Traitor.』

* * *

“E-Elena!”

“This isn't the time to scream!”

The first person to regain his senses was, as expected, the battle-hardened Grandpa. He immediately grabbed Seung-yeop with one hand and threw him aside, then drew his gun and aimed it.

But the opponent disappeared between the buildings in an instant.

“Maintain formation! Maintain formation!”

“What if it fires that beam again?”

“You dumb boar! If it could keep firing something like that, why would it hide in the first place? It would've just fired one after another and killed us all! It hid because it can't fire it right now!”

We moved frantically between the buildings, searching for the enemy's position.

Where was it? It had definitely fired the beam and moved to the building beside...

Something brushed against my leg.

A sharp thread? Wire?

I instinctively lifted my leg, but someone reacted too slowly.

“Aah!”

Seung-yeop's leg was gouged out, and he rolled across the ground. The startled Doctor rushed toward him.

“Sang-hyeon! Don't!”

At that moment, the enemy appeared at a second-floor window of the building beside us, and an icy force slashed through the air. The sharp energy struck in an instant, leaving a gash in the Doctor's chest deep enough to fit a hand inside.

“Ghk! Ghh...”

There was no time to help anyone. We scattered in a panic, each of us hiding behind buildings.

“Ghh... I can't believe I fell for such an obvious trick. Injure someone, then target whoever comes to help them...”

The Doctor's last words sounded less like anger at the enemy and more like disappointment in himself.

* * *

『Hostile Entity: Kim Sang-hyeon』

『His combat ability is not particularly high, but he possesses healing abilities. His special forces experience also makes him difficult to eliminate. Since joining the party, he has been under psychological pressure to contribute to the hotel party as a ‘Doctor’ in order to avoid ‘betrayal.’ This is a weakness. If anyone is injured, he is likely to instinctively go to save them, so eliminating him at that moment is the appropriate response. A medium-level threat among the Descendants of the Traitor.』

* * *

My heart pounded violently.

Who was that?

That ‘body’ was definitely A-ri. But A-ri would never try to kill us, so some unknown being had clearly taken over her body!

“You! Who are you? Why are you trying to kill us?”

I hadn't expected an answer. The words had only slipped out because I was so frustrated, but unexpectedly, a low voice cut through the air.

“What reason do you have to be alive?”

“What does that even-”

“No one shall leave this land alive today. Those who are not human have no right to live, only the right to die. The traitors and their descendants are no exception. There are 4,824 entities gathered in this district. I seek the death penalty for every one of them.”

* * *

『Hostile Entity: Han Ga-in』

『Owner of the ‘Grimoire.’ His physical combat ability is not particularly exceptional, but he possesses a wide range of abilities, including Possession and Avatar, allowing him to seize or control the bodies of others. If necessary, he can use Possession to escape while ignoring the death of his own body, making him difficult to kill. He must therefore be eliminated last. The second most threatening entity among the Descendants of the Traitor.』

Footnotes:

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