Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 31

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 30: Room 103, The Cursed Room - ‘Animal Farm’ (4)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 12

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

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

My chest felt tight. I couldn't breathe.

Something hot surged up from deep inside me, burning from my stomach up through my throat.

The gunshot that had pierced Seung-yeop's heart still rang in my ears.

Why?

I'd clearly told him to run. I'd told him not to overdo it, that if it came down to it, I could die alone!

Yet instead of running, that idiot had recklessly provoked the farmer and even led him toward the cattle shed.

The price was a single bullet.

The price of a wolf provoking a human holding a gun was terrible.

I had to endure because it wasn't over yet.

All we had to do was get out alive.

If we somehow made it out, the idiot who died trying to save me would get back up again.

I'd smack him on the head and scold him for not listening to me, then...

Maybe I should try to help Seung-yeop see A-ri more often? Ah, though I'd have to ask A-ri what she thought first.

I forced my thoughts elsewhere, again and again.

As I kept thinking about how we'd get out safely and what we'd do afterward, my heart calmed a little.

Slowly, slowly, I froze my heart. Anger was useless.

The green monster from the movies grew endlessly stronger the angrier it got, but that had nothing to do with me.

Anger only led to foolish decisions.

As my heart froze over, my returning reason began sounding warnings.

My broken leg. Something was wrong with my leg.

While fighting three wolves, my attention had been drawn to one prowling around in front of me.

In that time, a wolf behind me had bitten down on my leg so hard that even standing was difficult.

Rat King (Kim Mook-seong): Is everyone... all right?

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Situation summary. No issues with the rest. Wolf dead, cow injured.

Pig (Cha Jin-cheol): How bad is the leg injury?

Black Bull (Han Ga-in): Severe injury.

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): More variables now. Need to gather information.

There were more variables now.

Eun-sol was thinking the same thing I was.

She was right.

The farm was clearly in chaos, and several livestock animals had been injured and were groaning.

The farm family could be heard crying sorrowfully from all around.

The wolf crisis wasn't completely over, either. Only around ten wolves had actually died.

More than thirty still remained, wandering around nearby.

In a way, our situation had become even more dangerous.

With Seung-yeop gone, we had lost even our way of tracking the wolf pack's movements.

Overall, it was now harder to predict what would happen on this farm.

One ominous thought came to mind.

Would a farmer keep raising a cow with a leg that badly mangled?

That ominous thought soon became reality.

Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Family discussing damage recovery.

Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Mood bad. Wife wants to shut down the farm.

Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): Husband wants to deal with livestock first.

Kim Cat (Kim A-ri): They're talking about slaughtering the injured cow.

Ah... I knew it.

It wasn't strange.

I'd never really done farm work to begin with. I was probably a beef cow.

And that beef cow had suffered a serious leg injury.

How many people would call a veterinarian to treat its leg?

Still, I accepted it now.

This wasn't the time to get more people killed just so I could live. That would only lead to everyone's ruin.

Black Bull (Han Ga-in): Prepared. No more need for rescue x. Hope you escape.

Yeah. This was right.

At this point, I decided to put my mind at ease.

It seemed better than being eaten by wolves.

The farm owner wouldn't deliberately torment me to death.

They'd probably use some kind of tool and finish it quickly.

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): No, we're changing the strategy now.

Black Bull (Han Ga-in): I'm really fine-

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol)

-> I'll use up all my remaining characters now, so let's all shut up.

Situation is different from House of Horror. I made an error in judgment.

House of Horror: Unclear what danger was. Had to find danger through sacrifices.

Animal Farm: Enemy is clear. Sacrifice has no meaning, only reduces our strength. We need to fight while our strength is intact.

Rat King (Kim Mook-seong): Is the enemy the farm family?

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): The farmer killed the wolf (Park Seung-yeop) and threatened the goose (Yoo Song-i) and cow (Han Ga-in) with death.

Situation clear enough. Farm family are the enemies in Room 103.

Eun-sol's argument was clear.

In House of Horror, the dangers ultimately revealed, the corrupted priest, possessed Song-i, the demon from the depths, the moving statues, and more, remained unclear until late into the scenario.

That was why we had needed to sacrifice one or two people at a time to uncover the danger's true nature.

Animal Farm, on the other hand, already had a clear danger!

The farm family had threatened our lives several times already and killed one of us.

In this situation, sacrifice no longer had any meaning. Instead, we had to strike as quickly as possible while our strength was still intact!

After hearing the strategy, I mentally slapped my knee, even though I had no hands.

This was it.

Part of me felt relieved, too. With this strategy, I had no need to sacrifice myself at all!

As expected, everyone began planning on the premise that we'd act before I was slaughtered.

Tomorrow, we would bring this damned farm down.

* * *

- Yoo Song-i

Was this really right?

As I preened the feathers near my wings with my beak, all sorts of thoughts filled my mind.

The Farm Collapse Strategy.

Everyone had already begun laying out detailed plans for how to destroy the farm more efficiently and utterly crush the farm family.

Something... felt wrong.

But I didn't know what. It didn't feel like this was the right direction, but I wasn't confident I could explain why.

I couldn't shake the feeling that everyone was acting emotionally.

The farm family kept threatening us, and Seung-yeop had even been shot dead right in front of us all.

I understood why they were angry. I had wanted to cry in that moment too.

Still, something about this direction was truly wrong.

Goose (Yoo Song-i): Is this plan really right?

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Do you have an opinion?

Goose (Yoo Song-i): Feels like something's wrong.

That was stupid. I regretted it as soon as I wrote it.

Everyone was making plans for a battle that risked their lives, and all I could say in opposition was, “It feels like something's wrong.”

Even to my own eyes, I sounded like an idiot...

Yet I truly couldn't explain it any other way.

El Doggo (Elena): Song-i has trouble getting out of the pen, so you can just stay still.

Smart Snake (Lee Eun-sol): Boar and snake are the core anyway. Don't worry.

Ah.

They thought I was saying this because I was scared.

In an instant, I understood the image the older girls had of me, and my heart ached.

A timid young student who couldn't take part in important matters. Someone to be protected.

I understood. So far, the only role I had actually played was being protected.

Even so... it hurt. I hadn't wanted to become dead weight.

I could understand being less capable than the older members, but feeling less capable than Seung-yeop and A-ri, both younger than me, filled me with self-loathing.

A-ri was at least a Disaster Management Agency trainee, but Seung-yeop had just been a middle schooler. Even so, he had risked his life to save Ga-in and died in the process.

What was I even doing?

While I was lost in gloomy thoughts, the discussion came to an end.

Today as well, with nothing else to do, I headed to the edge of the pen to see the Goblin one more time.

Late at night.

Only after the darkness had deepened so much that I could barely see my own body without the moon hanging bright in the sky-

A dim figure appeared.

It was the same as yesterday.

The moment the figure appeared, silence settled over the entire world.

The animals quieted as though nothing had happened, and the voices of the farm family, who had seemed to be holding hushed discussions all night, vanished completely.

The dim figure looked around as if observing its surroundings...

Then it approached “me.”

There was no doubt. It had no eyes, and its form was indistinct, but I knew.

Just as it had yesterday, that being was aware of me and approaching me today as well.

Was it because this was the second time? I wasn't as endlessly terrified as I had been yesterday.

A long tentacle stretched out from the approaching figure.

As if the wall of the pen were water, it passed straight through, then tapped my head again.

Next, it brushed through the feathers I had arranged with my beak.

What was it? That behavior felt somehow... familiar.

About thirty minutes passed like that.

Just as it had appeared, the dim figure melted away into thin air without any warning.

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)