WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 321: Re Room 203, Curse Room - ‘A New Beginning’ (1)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 138

Current Location: Level 2, Room 203, Curse Room ‘A New Beginning’

Sage’s Advice: 2]

- Han Ga-in

The moment I saw the mysterious being beyond the door Pride had thrown open, I was struck dumb.

Something so enormous that even a vast space large enough to hold an entire building felt cramped seized my attention.

If I had to compare it to anything, it resembled a gigantic whale. It drifted through empty space as though swimming, with tiny wings and fins along its body. Every time those masses of flesh swept through the void, beautiful light filled the room.

The huge being slowly turned to look at me. The instant an eye far larger than my entire body shone upon me, an unbearable pressure crushed down on me.

“Urgh!”

Just as I was about to collapse to my knees, a hand reached out from behind and caught me.

“Adravita, that’s enough. Didn’t I bring you the communications officer you wanted?”

The tangible and intangible force pressing down on me vanished when Pride finished speaking. Once I barely managed to straighten up, Pride addressed me.

“Mr. Han Ga-in, try speaking to Adravita. Adravita doesn’t even pretend to listen to me.”

“... Adravita? Can you hear me?”

No matter how I looked at Adravita, Adravita had to be the Prisoner of this room. A being like that responding to human speech-

「I c□ □ear you.」

It responded? What was it saying, though? It sounded like there was static in the middle.

“What did you say?”

「Th□ 5□□ h□ □n't ended, so n□rmal communication is imposs□ble.」

“...”

It was the same. Adravita was trying to convey something, but unknown static was interfering.

I thought I understood, vaguely. The moment I saw the number 5, I felt it. If that being was a Prisoner, then the only thing that could prevent Adravita from communicating with us had to be the hotel.

What was going on?

The scenario had suddenly changed, and the setting had become a spaceship. That was absurd enough, but I was already speaking with a transcendent being that looked exactly like a Prisoner. On top of that, the hotel was interfering with that communication.

Then Pride spoke from behind me.

“It seems the two of you can communicate. Mr. Han Ga-in, please relay my words to Adravita.”

“Got it.”

“Adravita, why have you suddenly been spreading contamination and interfering with A New Beginning? Didn’t you join this journey after promising to cooperate with humanity’s colonization? If you have a complaint, please tell me.”

Contamination. A New Beginning. Humanity’s colonization. Several key terms had appeared in an instant.

For now, I relayed the message as requested. I had no idea what purpose there was in simply repeating Pride’s words verbatim.

「R□m□mber.」

The response was short. In the next moment, Pride and I were thrown outside the room as if we had teleported.

The situation was so absurd that I instinctively turned to look at Pride. Pride was looking back at me with the exact same expression on A-ri’s face.

“... What was that?”

“I believe Adravita wants us to leave. Mr. Han Ga-in, what do you think is happening?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Do you still not have all your memories?”

A-ri’s scarlet eyes turned toward me. Since I knew the being before me was dangerous, I couldn’t think of an answer.

[Advice: 2 -> 1]

‘What should I say? Hurry!’

[I’m more or less awake now. How much longer until we arrive?]

“I’m more or less awake now. How much longer until we arrive?”

Perhaps my answer pleased Pride. The taut tension instantly drained away, and a gentle smile appeared on A-ri’s face.

“That’s a relief. I was worried you had been exposed to contamination during Cryogenic Sleep. We had to dispose of several crew members because of contamination.”

“... Dispose of them?”

“We’re almost there. To be exact, we’ll arrive in 572 days, 16 hours, and 32 minutes.”

My mouth nearly fell open. Almost there? What did 572 days mean?

As I struggled to control my expression and stayed silent, Pride led me to a place where a hologram floated in the air. What was this place now?

“It’s originally an educational device for those beginning a new life, but I think it’ll be useful to you now, Mr. Han Ga-in. Watch this. I have work to do in case Adravita does something strange again.”

After Pride left, I activated the object called an educational device.

* * *

... I roughly understood the situation.

First, I was aboard the Pride of Humanity, a spaceship flying toward an absurd mission called exoplanet colonization. The being borrowing A-ri’s body to speak with me was the spaceship’s main AI.

Second, the spaceship held a large number of crew members in hibernation, along with Human Growth Kits that would rapidly grow humans after arrival at the exoplanet. Every crew member was an Enhanced Human.

Third, Adravita was a divine being that had formed a friendly relationship with humanity.

Adravita had boarded the ship to help humanity settle on an exoplanet that would inevitably be harsher than Earth, while also providing auxiliary power for the spaceship. In return, humanity had promised Adravita the right to spread their faith in the colony.

Fourth, Pride had not been exaggerating when Pride said the ship was almost there.

The Pride of Humanity had already been traveling for 482 years. If the journey itself was close to 500 years and only 572 days remained, then the ship really was almost there.

...

Every part of it was strange and astonishing.

Honestly, the scale was so immense that it left my mind blank. Was this humanity’s distant future? A future advanced enough to colonize exoplanets?

The fact that humanity had made a contract with a being like Adravita was telling too. A contract was something formed between equal parties.

Of course, individual humans would still be insignificant to a being like Adravita. Yet humanity as a group apparently had enough power to make an equal contract with a being like that.

What was I supposed to do now?

First, I should check the scenario.

「Scenario: Curse Room - ‘A New Beginning’

The hotel group woke scattered across an incomprehensibly vast world. Han Ga-in woke among prehistoric tribespeople who called themselves Divine Humans and came to hear an ominous story from an old man outside the tent....」

“What?”

It was bewildering, but I understood the contents as soon as I saw them.

During our first attempt at Room 203, we had woken inside a tent in prehistory. Scenario Understanding was telling me how I should act in that situation.

If I went outside the tent, there would be an old man named Old Wolf Claw, a leader of the tribe. Talking to him would reveal that a monster called Gnashing Teeth was about to attack.

...

I understood all of that, but why was it showing up now?

Couldn’t it see that I was on a spaceship? If the scenario had changed, shouldn’t Scenario Understanding give me useful information suited to the new scenario?

I had no idea what to do when Scenario Understanding, which I had expected so much from, provided utterly useless information. Then Pride appeared behind me as I stood there confused.

“Have you completed your reeducation?”

“I understand the situation. I have a question.”

“That’s a relief. Do you have a question?”

“You said you’re the main AI of the Pride of Humanity, right?”

“Yes.”

I carefully phrased my question so that Pride would not suspect me.

“If you’re an AI, then you’re originally, uh, a being unrelated to a human body, right?”

“Of course.”

“Your true body is, in a sense, this spaceship itself, correct?”

“Certainly.”

“Then what is that body?”

Why was Pride inside A-ri’s body? How could I drive Pride out and undo A-ri’s Sealing?

“Ah! That information certainly wouldn’t be in the educational device. Ms. Kim A-ri is the Captain of the Pride of Humanity. The Captain possesses the Nanomachines called Old Blood, so her body is extremely durable. That is why she lent me her body during the journey.”

Quite a few questions were answered at once.

In this scenario, A-ri was the Captain of this spaceship. Due to Old Blood, which was treated here as Nanomachines, she was an immortal being.

That was why A-ri could endure a space journey lasting nearly 500 years without Cryogenic Sleep. The AI normally used A-ri’s body.

Was a human body necessary to communicate with Adravita? I didn’t know.

I had learned so much in such a short time that my head felt overloaded. Holding my throbbing forehead in one hand, I thought.

Shouldn’t I find my companions? Weren’t the crew members said to be somewhere aboard the spaceship actually my companions?

“Where are the rest of the crew?”

“All crew members are in Cryogenic Sleep. You should return to sleep now too, Mr. Han Ga-in.”

“What?”

--- Beep!

Before I could say anything else, an unfamiliar noise rang out. Pride rushed over in a single step and carefully caught me as I lost my balance and crumpled.

“Mr. Han Ga-in, excuse me. Your memories do not seem to be intact, so I was concerned you might behave unpredictably. I sedated you. It would be best if you went back to sleep. I will see you in 572 days, 16 hours, and 11 minutes.”

I forced my stiffening mouth to move and barely managed to speak.

“Why did you wake me up in the first place?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Adravita suddenly began interfering with the journey, so I needed someone who could communicate with Adravita. Fortunately, Adravita has begun cooperating again. You have done well.”

A realization struck like lightning through my fading consciousness.

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 683,615

Current Location: Level 2, Room 203, Curse Room ‘A New Beginning’

Sage’s Advice: 3]

When I regained consciousness, the red blaze of a campfire filled my vision.

The spaceship had vanished, and scantily clad primitive people crowded around me. Every one of them was kneeling before me.

“... No way.”

The moment my voice came out, every one of them began weeping in joy.

“Oh! The Divine Human has awakened! The Divine Human has awakened!”

My eyes did not turn toward those people in their frenzy. I stared blankly at the absurdly increased number in my Status Window.

[Day 683,615]

I pushed away the people crying out as they tried to grab even my hands and entered the tent. Fortunately, the warriors seemed to think I needed time alone to compose myself, so they cooperated.

As I paced inside the tent, I reconsidered the question I hadn’t been able to understand since I woke on the spaceship.

Why had the scenario changed? At first, I thought it was simply because Mi-ro had joined us.

But then I recalled the realization that had struck me like lightning just before I fell asleep on the spaceship, along with the grounds for it.

Scenario Understanding had described events as though it had never anticipated anything that happened aboard the spaceship.

My companions, who had never woken and therefore could not know the spaceship even existed.

Adravita, who had suddenly done something strange, seemingly to wake one of us.

...

What if the scenario had never changed at all?

Footnotes:

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