WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 339: Re Room 203, Curse Room - ‘A New Beginning’ (19) (Final)

──────

- Lee Eun-sol

The moment a flash of light cut through the air, my vision filled with light.

As I watched an immense heat wave, hot enough to burn my retinas, sweep across the entire world, a terrible thought crossed my mind.

No way, right?

Don't tell me we solved everything, only for all of us to get caught in this explosion and die, making it a failure?

Come on! That can't be it!

Then I heard someone's voice.

「At least your ending will not be so futile.」

When I felt a ray of light shine down on me from the sky, everything that made me who I was, including my body, mind, and soul, rose toward an endlessly high sky.

It was so high, far too high, that I couldn't tell whether this place was the sky or outer space.

And Adravita stood before me.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...”

A profane being filled my vision.

The overwhelming presence, something no human could endure, crushed my soul in an instant. Just as the urge to gouge out my eye surged within me, a notification appeared.

[You have obtained ‘Eye of the One Who Contemplates All Things from the Summit’!]

That brought me back to my senses.

“It would've been better to just go insane. Now I have to gouge out my eye while I'm fully conscious...”

I jabbed my fingers toward my eye.

“Argh!”

A-Again!

“Argh!”

Again!

“Damn it!”

「What in the world are you doing?」

“... Gouging out my eye.”

「Why would you do that?」

“Because I have to.”

The next moment, a tentacle flew in from somewhere and jabbed my eye.

My eyeball popped out like an egg from a glass bottle, then vanished somewhere.

“...”

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

What had been the condition for obtaining the ‘Eye of the One Who Contemplates All Things from the Summit’?

Wasn't it that I had to enter outer space, or at least an extremely high sky, after the scenario began in earnest?

Yet I hadn't come to outer space through my own efforts.

For some reason, Adravita had suddenly brought me here.

Had the hotel really anticipated that the Prisoner would act so unexpectedly and set that condition? If not...

「What has you so deeply lost in thought?」

“Could it be... the hotel's intention was for us to escape this planet aboard the spaceship? If we'd gone that route, I would've naturally lost my eye too.”

「Why must you go so far as to remove your eye?」

Escaping the planet aboard the spaceship.

I'd thought it was only the Prisoner's trap, but could that have truly been a solution as well?

There was no way to know. This was why Curse Rooms were always difficult. There wasn't only one answer.

“Your words have been reaching me clearly for a while now. Room 203 must be resolving, and everything must be coming to an end. Why did you call me here at a time like this?”

「... What did you do to me?」

“I didn't do anything. The Flute has no offensive power. Perhaps it has the power to restore a twisted heart?”

I wasn't certain. Like other Inheritance holders, I used my Inheritance without understanding how it worked.

「I remembered something from long ago.」

“...”

「A very... old memory.」

“...”

「Have you ever built a sandcastle? Have you ever spent all day painstakingly building one, only for a wave to brush past it lightly and turn that day's effort to nothing?」

“Everyone's experienced something like that. It's common for a project you've worked on for months to turn into a pile of debt in the blink of an eye.”

「Have you ever seen a castle you spent eighteen hundred years building disappear?」

“Not that.”

「It was futile. Not anger, not sadness. Only futility. I thought I had done my best and built a rather fine castle.」

“...”

「How could I protect that castle? After much thought, I began to use various methods.」

“...”

「Yet they did not work well. To those who lived within the sandcastle, children on the beach might seem like gods. But before the crashing waves, even children are powerless.」

“So this time, you used an especially ruthless method?”

「And yet it still ended in failure.」

Now that Room 203's ending was near, the emotion the Demon God Adravita felt was neither anger toward us nor sorrow at watching the world collapse.

Adravita felt futility once more. The wave had swept in without restraint and destroyed the sandcastle.

「Thanks to this, I realized one amusing fact.」

Had Adravita realized something even in the midst of such futility?

「My first purpose was to build a magnificent sandcastle.」

“Was that to help humanity on this planet make a good new beginning?”

「Before I knew it, I had become fixated only on preserving the sandcastle.」

It was a common thing.

It was the sort of story that often appeared in dramas.

Someone wanted to earn money for the person they loved and devoted themselves to work to make that money.

Then they failed to care for the person they loved and lost that love.

Perhaps something similar could happen even to a god.

After saying that, Adravita began flying toward the distant sky.

Around then, space began to collapse.

/You have succeeded!

A primordial world without even traces of civilization, a primitive land filled with savagery and ignorance!

Who would have known that the most primitive world was, in truth, a seed planted by the most advanced civilization?

What you see is not everything.

That is what we have always wished to tell our participants.

You gather information in an unknown land, then reach a conclusion through rational reasoning.

But what if that very information has been manipulated?

Your conclusion cannot help but head in the wrong direction.

If we put it that way, you might feel we are being a little shameless, yes?

There was a minor incident in this room.

It seems the actions of the ‘guest’ staying in the room were somewhat excessive.

This certainly crossed the line a little.

We promise, separate from your reward, that nothing similar will occur in the next room you enter.

We also congratulate you on the newly born young civilization's liberation from the Evil God's dominion!

We promise an additional reward for this happy ending as well.

.

.

.

A companion has achieved Final Resolution! Congratulations. A Final Resolver has emerged, and all members will return safely.

The Time to Choose will begin shortly!/

The contents were a little different from usual.

Phrases like, ‘There was a minor incident in this room,’ and, ‘The actions of the guest staying in the room were somewhat excessive,’ stood out.

So did the promise that nothing similar would occur in the next room we entered.

I needed to discuss this with my companions in detail.

* * *

- Kim A-ri

--- Clank! Clank! Whooo!

When I came to, I was aboard an unfamiliar train.

“Miss A-ri, come over here.”

Kim Sang-hyeon had already taken a seat. A small booklet was in his hand.

“What situation are we in? Is this the Time to Choose?”

“That is correct.”

“I shot the Core with Final Flash. There was a huge explosion, and the polluted land was blown away in an instant. Then...”

“We were caught in the shock wave and flung far away together. It seems you lost consciousness in the process. Unfortunately, given that only the two of us are here, Miss Eun-sol and Seung-yeop may have been caught in the explosion and died.”

“I see.”

“If you lost consciousness, you must not have seen the notification related to the resolution.”

“Right.”

“Let's discuss it after we leave. There was quite a bit of meaningful content.”

Meaningful content.

I lightly shook my head. As he said, it was something to discuss once we got out.

“Pick quickly. Then let's leave.”

“...”

“Even I have some sense of shame. No matter what, it wouldn't feel right for me to take this room's Inheritance.”

“It is not such a simple matter.”

“Don't tell me you're trying to give the Inheritance to me? I'd gratefully take it if you did, but-”

“Read this first.”

“The title is unusual. ‘Two Choices’...”

Kim Sang-hyeon handed me the small catalog booklet he had been reading. Had he awakened before me and already figured something out?

According to the booklet, we had to make two kinds of choices during this Time to Choose.

The first choice was, as always, choosing an Inheritance.

“Final Flash, I expected that one, but the second is unexpected. Unknown Cells?”

“You must know what it is by now.”

“The power Adravita gave you?”

“It is the power bestowed upon me, as well as the power that turned the beasts of this continent into monsters.”

I recalled the power Sang-hyeon had wielded.

First, there was the physical enhancement powerful enough to overwhelm my movements, even strengthened by Old Blood.

He had also drawn bone blades from all over his body, so it seemed to include the ability to mutate his body itself.

If I had to choose between the two, I would choose Final Flash without hesitation.

I was curious how strong I would become if I enhanced my body twice with Old Blood and Unknown Cells, but in the end, it would only be a fast and powerful body.

No matter how much you enhanced a body made of protein, it had limits. As proof, every time I charged Final Flash, Kim Sang-hyeon, who used Unknown Cells, had been busy rolling across the ground.

Yet Kim Sang-hyeon seemed likely to choose Unknown Cells.

He appeared to have trained in martial arts at a high level while living for hundreds of years as a primitive tribe's chief in Room 203, and that combat skill would have synergy with Unknown Cells.

His professional knowledge as a Doctor would also help him mutate his body.

Setting all that synergy aside, there was another, more important reason.

“Sang-hyeon, congratulations on becoming immortal!”

“...”

Unknown Cells gave their owner an immortal life.

For most people, that alone would be enough to make it worth choosing over any other Inheritance.

Rather than answer, Kim Sang-hyeon turned to the next page of the catalog.

“Look at the second choice.”

The second choice read as follows.

‘Memory and Oblivion, which will you choose?’

“This is the part where I shouldn't say anything either way.”

“...”

--- Clank! Clank!

In silence, the train ran endlessly across the plain.

The landscape outside looked like the African savanna, but there were no people in sight. It didn't seem to be Room 203.

“Why would they give us a choice like this? Doesn't the hotel normally heal mental Trauma as well?”

“...”

“On reflection, I think I understand. When mental damage goes too far, the proper treatment is oblivion.”

“The Management Bureau says the same. For memories horrific beyond a certain point, oblivion is the best treatment. Elena, who lost her mind in Room 201, lost every memory after one night.”

“But right now, I have far too many memories that should be erased. And...”

“And?”

Instead of answering, Kim Sang-hyeon lightly rubbed his fingers together. Flames rose from his fingertips in that instant.

“... What's that?”

“Do you know how difficult it is to make fire in primitive times? You can't imagine it. One day, I came to my senses and found that fire started whenever I snapped my fingers.”

A hollow laugh escaped me. It was an odd but unique trick, though I wondered if it was really necessary when lighters existed.

“I get what you're saying. You gained all sorts of skills during your hundreds of years in Room 203, and you're afraid you'll lose them if you lose your memories?”

“I will not lose them completely. It is difficult to explain, but I simply know. Abilities gained through the power of my blessing, Diligence, can still be used even if I lose my memories. But...”

“But?”

“I will forget the process of acquiring those abilities, and the memories of using them afterward.”

I was beginning to understand.

Even if Sang-hyeon chose oblivion, the mysterious abilities he had gained in Room 203 would not disappear.

But because he would lose the memories of using them, he would lose his proficiency.

“If the question is strength, you should leave with your memories.”

I held back what I wanted to say next. We both knew it already.

Could someone who had spent three hundred years building a family, leaving descendants, and establishing a small kingdom leave with all those memories intact, then climb the hotel again?

That was why I had no choice but to stay quiet. Only the person involved could decide.

--- Screeech!

Then the train stopped for a moment.

...

One more person boarded the train.

The newcomer had no eligibility to take part in the ‘first choice.’

At the moment of resolution, the newcomer had already lost the qualifications of a participant.

But...

The newcomer was eligible to take part in the ‘second choice.’

“...”

The newcomer was human. No, a bird. Or perhaps neither.

The young man seemed to have gone so long without speaking that the young man had forgotten human language.

I watched the young man touch his human body here and there with an expression of incomprehension.

If the young man could use the Grimoire, why had the young man been trapped in a bird's body? Could the young man not have borrowed a primitive human's body?

Was there a reason the young man had needed to remain trapped?

If the young man had truly lived three hundred years in a bird's body, what state was the young man in now?

The train grew a little colder.

Footnotes:

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