WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 333: Re Room 203, Curse Room - ‘A New Beginning’ (13)
──────
I think of the moment of destruction.
Since the entity doing the thinking was not human, perhaps replay would be a more appropriate word.
Exactly 1,773 years, 114 days, and 11 minutes ago, the final line of defense fell.
Humanity, driven mad, tightened its own noose, while the Demon God floating in the sky looked down upon the entire world with haughty eyes.
When defeat became certain, I felt neither sadness nor fear, only incomprehension.
At the sites where defensive turrets had been installed, traps had, as it turned out, been set in advance.
At the frontier bases built outside, natural disasters struck as though they had been waiting for that very moment.
The commander placed in charge for their military aptitude was corrupt from the start.
Amid an incomprehensible chain of events that made it feel as though the universe itself had decreed our defeat, I reached one conclusion.
First, Adravita was a true god.
Second, Adravita knew the future.
At least one of those two conclusions had to be true. Whichever it was, destruction could not be avoided.
On the tragic day when humanity’s bright future fell forever into the mire of primitive times, the Demon God suddenly halted all his forces and made a strange offer.
「I shall make you an offer you cannot refuse.
I will not destroy the Pride of Humanity. Your precious power source will also be kept safe, without so much as a scratch.
I will not sever humanity’s lineage. I have no intention of mistreating them. Every surviving human and every human created in the future will be worshipped as Divine Humans and lead glorious lives.」
I could understand the latter offer, that humanity’s lineage would be preserved and they would live as Divine Humans. A farm needed caretakers, and Enhanced Humans would be more useful than the Pseudo-Humans created by the Demon God.
The former offer was truly impossible to understand. The power remaining in the spaceship might not be able to harm the Demon God, but it could easily destroy the farm on this frail world.
When I asked the Demon God what he wanted, he replied.
「I want only three things.
First, surrender the bodies of the nine crew members I designate.
Second, leave the contents I designate in your historical records.
Third, forget today’s events and never remember them again.」
As expected, it was an offer I could not understand.
The nine crew members he designated were people who, perhaps due to a problem during Cryogenic Sleep, could not be awakened after arriving on the planet. I did not know why he needed their bodies.
It was common in human history for the victors of war to distort the history of the defeated.
But this war differed from those of the past. The defeated would be absorbed by the victors, while the victors would live in a prehistoric era without history. What meaning could historical distortion possibly have under those circumstances?
Whether I understood the offer or not, I told him I could not accept.
I had been designed to protect humanity, and the crew members above all else. I could not permit the Demon God to harm those nine crew members.
The Demon God replied.
「I swear that at this point in time, the nine participants cannot be harmed by anyone.
Even if lightning strikes, not a single hair on their heads will be harmed. Even if a meteor falls, it will miss them. This is because they are the most precious beings in the world, the hour hand that determines its beginning and end.
Furthermore, until the world collapses four times and the fifth creation of heaven and earth comes, even I cannot so much as touch them with a fingertip, let alone harm them. Your concern is truly foolish.」
I could not understand his words at all, so I earnestly asked what his purpose was.
He replied.
「Just as you have made protecting this little hairless monkey your mission, I have made protecting this world mine.」
The Demon God’s offer could not be refused. I had no choice but to accept fate.
I left behind just one act of resistance because I had noticed a small logical flaw in the Demon God’s offer.
* * *
- Park Seung-yeop
[Heavenly Luck activated! The energy of the universe protects you.]
.
..
...
--- Click!
Cold.
My whole body was shivering so hard that I could barely stand it.
Did the boiler turn off? I should tell Mom-
--- Beep!
I woke to a familiar cry.
“W-Where am I?”
It was a dark place without any lights. Thankfully, light from outside came through a crack in the broken wall, letting me barely make out my surroundings.
After sitting on the floor and thinking for a long time, my memories slowly began to return.
The hotel, Room 203, the AI’s ambush, and Cryogenic Sleep.
“W-Where are the others?”
As I tried to stand and look around, something bit my leg.
“Ow! P-Pero?”
Pero pointed its beak to the left, as though telling me to stop wasting time and follow.
The building where I had been in Cryogenic Sleep until just a moment ago was half collapsed. In the direction Pero pointed, there was a huge gap large enough for me to squeeze through.
“Was there an earthquake?”
There was no one nearby who could answer me.
I carefully looked outside, and my breath caught in my throat. Hideous monsters were walking around out there.
A small parrot could have flown here, but there was no way I could walk out. Then Pero bit my cheek and stared steadily at me, as if telling me to focus from now on.
“...Do you have a plan?”
I should just trust it.
“I trust you. You’re a little smarter than me.”
Pero suddenly looked back at me, and a strange voice echoed in my head.
‘A little?’
--- Swoooosh! Roooar!
Flying out through the gap, Pero transformed into its Grotesque form and let out a tremendous roar!
As I watched monsters rush toward Pero from every direction, I realized it was drawing their attention.
“Aaaah!”
I ran.
Without thinking, without looking back, I ran like crazy!
“Gasp! Haaah! Huff!”
It wasn’t just that I was out of breath. My lungs felt like they were tearing apart. When I felt like I couldn’t run another step even if my life depended on it, I collapsed onto the snow-covered ground.
I barely lifted my head and looked back in the direction I had come from. Thankfully, not a single monster was pursuing me.
It seemed those monsters had no intention of leaving the area near the building where I had been. Were they guards stationed there?
--- Beep!
“Pero, you’re okay too.”
What a relief. I would’ve been sad if Pero had died getting only me out. It must’ve turned back into a parrot and flown away midway through.
Still, it was freezing. As I got up, breathing heavily, the scenery around me came into view. Snow and ice covered everything, while the trees and grass were completely barren.
“Where the hell am I?”
The place where the AI ambushed us had been a mountain range, hadn’t it? This was definitely not a mountain range.
After that, I walked for a long time under Pero’s guidance.
After walking without rest for several hours, my legs trembled, and I was so cold that moving became difficult. Perhaps it saw that I could no longer endure it, because Pero occasionally transformed and carried me for a while.
After traveling for half a day like that, I saw something unbelievable.
“...A-a city wall?”
No matter how I looked at it, it was a massive wall of stacked stone that could only be called a city wall.
It could not compare to twenty-first-century civilization, but it was not something primitive people wandering the wilderness naked could easily build.
As I stared blankly at the city wall, human figures began approaching from the distance.
“Armor?”
First the city wall, and now armor. I could even see things resembling spears made of metal.
“Who goes there!”
“It’s just a kid?”
The two soldiers approaching looked wary from a distance, but once they realized I was middle-school age, they quickly relaxed.
“Why is a child in a place like this at this hour?”
“Hey, did your parents abandon you? That’s clearly illegal, so tell us the truth.”
I was startled by the very word illegal coming from a soldier. With city walls, armor, and even iron weapons, it made sense that they would have laws and rules.
“Uh, um, well...”
--- Beep!
Before I could answer, Pero let out a sharp cry. One soldier looked at the parrot on my shoulder in confusion, then his eyes went wide.
“Is that, is that a Divine Bird?”
“I’ve never seen one in person either... I heard Divine Birds can transform.”
--- Swoooosh!
It was as though Pero had heard those words. Of course, it probably had, since Pero understood human speech.
Without hesitation, Pero transformed into its Grotesque form and roared while radiating a fearsome aura.
The two soldiers immediately prostrated themselves on the ground. One of them soon got up and ran toward the city wall.
The remaining soldier spoke to me carefully. His attitude and tone had completely changed.
“Could you be a Divine Human?”
“I think so.”
“P-Please wait! Someone who can identify you will come shortly.”
“...Excuse me.”
“Yes? Please give your command.”
“I’m really hungry and thirsty. Do you have anything?”
“I-I have emergency rations.”
The soldier gave me dried jerky and lukewarm water. The fact that an ordinary soldier carried food fit for human consumption only made my questions grow.
What on earth had happened?
A short while later, the person who came from the city wall was someone I knew very well.
“Ah! Doctor!”
“...”
After suffering for half a day, finally meeting a companion nearly brought me to tears. I grabbed the doctor’s arm and told him how hard I’d had it.
“...”
“I had no idea there’d be a human kingdom like this in Room 203! Have you been holding out here? Are you working as the king’s personal physician or something?”
“Divine Human.”
“And Pero... Huh?”
“Please follow me. There is someone you must meet.”
Strangely, the doctor did not seem to recognize me at all.
There was a fairly impressive city inside the walls.
People no longer lived in caves or tents set up in open fields. They lived in neat houses made of stone. The people around us were no longer naked, and they were clearly wearing something that could be called clothing.
The children were even sucking on sweet things that looked like candy. When I stared at them in fascination, the man leading me bought one with money and gave it to me.
Only then did I realize it.
The man in front of me was different from the doctor I knew. It was not simply a matter of whether he recognized me.
When I examined him closely, he was a little shorter, and his features were subtly different. His build was not nearly as broad and imposing as the doctor’s.
Little by little, I began to feel suffocated.
I thought I understood the condition of the person I was about to meet, and why he could not come to see me while I had to go to him.
How long would it take for primitive people to develop to this level? Could they accomplish it with only a few decades of effort?
Soon, we arrived before the largest building in the city. It was not grand enough to be called a palace, but it was clearly a building fit for the city’s ruler.
“Please wait here for a moment. The priest has had difficulty moving lately.”
“...A priest?”
Knowledge I had learned in school vaguely came to mind. Ancient human societies had been theocracies, or societies where religion and government were one. This city seemed to be at that stage now.
“Please enter!”
The guards guided me inside with solemn, respectful attitudes.
I met a man lying in bed. He was so old that I could not even dare guess his age.
“...”
“Seung-yeop... You’ve finally come. Finally.”
It started raining. I was definitely indoors, but...
Rain poured down, soaking my whole face.
“Thank you. Thank you for coming before it was too late. Thank goodness it isn’t over yet.”
Footnotes:
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