Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 351

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 350: Hungry Ghost Hell (4) (Final)

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“How is it, A-ri? My place looks different from the last time you came, right?”

The moment she opened the door, a gleaming marble floor, freshly papered white walls, and a living room too spacious to take in at a glance came into view.

Considering its location in the heart of Seoul, it was a luxury apartment that anyone could tell had cost a fortune.

Every time So-yeon opened the door and stepped inside, she felt moved, thinking this view was why she had succeeded.

Then she realized A-ri, who had entered with her, hadn't said a word and turned around.

“A-ri?”

Rather than admiring the apartment, A-ri was struggling with Louis, the poodle panting and licking at her.

“Uh, you got a dog?”

“Hahaha! What kind of silly question is that? You know Louis too. Louis recognizes you, and look how happy he is to see you. Hold on, I'll take him away.”

After pulling the poodle away, So-yeon led A-ri to the home theater she had recently installed.

She had turned one room into a small movie theater, and A-ri looked flustered when she realized So-yeon truly intended to show her a movie.

After some thought, A-ri finally spoke.

“I'm not here today just to watch a movie.”

“What?”

“Did you forget what I said earlier? About something appearing in your house...”

“...I let it slide earlier because I was so flustered, but who told you that story?”

A-ri was a little taken aback.

Come to think of it, what had Kang-hyeok said while explaining So-yeon's problem to her?

‘Ha... Sis told me not to tell you...’

‘Don't say I told you.’

“...”

“It was Kang-hyeok, wasn't it? I told him over and over not to tell you!”

“That is a serious offense. Scold Kang-hyeok tomorrow, and talk to me today.”

A-ri was so confident it bordered on shamelessness that So-yeon laughed without meaning to.

Oddly enough, she began to wonder whether she should really talk about what was troubling her.

For some reason, A-ri seemed dependable today.

Was it because she had driven Kim Seok-min away in such a shocking manner earlier?

At the time, So-yeon had worried the police would come soon after A-ri had thrown Seok-min out so forcefully. Yet as she rode the elevator home, she realized that probably wouldn't happen.

After all, it would be troublesome for Seok-min too if word got out about what had happened today.

Hadn't Seok-min come into her home first and threatened her before A-ri got into the car and threatened him?

It wasn't as though Seok-min could easily report this to the police.

If A-ri had thought that far ahead before acting, it was certainly a wise decision.

Having reached that conclusion, So-yeon naturally began to speak.

* * *

Three days earlier, an unidentified presence had appeared in So-yeon's home.

To uncover its identity, A-ri began by reviewing the videos recorded inside the apartment.

Many had been filmed by the motion-activated pet cameras So-yeon had installed. Since there were cameras all over the place, there was no shortage of footage.

“These are the videos Kang-hyeok and the staff checked?”

“That's right. Oh, and I got help from the building management office to check the outside CCTV too.”

After reviewing footage for over an hour, A-ri's expression began to turn strange.

So-yeon asked curiously, “Did you figure something out? Should we go check the outside CCTV too?”

“I don't think we'll need to.”

The final video A-ri stared at showed So-yeon.

In a bedroom dotted with cute elephant and bear dolls, So-yeon was walking around the room with a terrified expression.

“...”

“Phew... Seeing that day again with my own eyes is scary all over again. What could that thing outside really have been?”

A-ri asked, “Where's your bedroom? Let's go there.”

When they arrived, A-ri spoke again.

“Stay in the room for a moment. I'm going to the management office.”

“The management office? I'll come with you...”

“Stay here. This is part of the process too.”

“Huh? Huh?”

So-yeon couldn't refuse the firm tone that left no room for argument, so she remained in the room.

All of a sudden, she felt A-ri was completely different from the girl she remembered.

As if someone else were moving A-ri's body in her place.

This side of A-ri wasn't bad either.

Feeling A-ri's place in her heart grow even larger, So-yeon waited for her return.

...

The air turned cold.

No one had to explain it. So-yeon understood immediately.

It was the same as three days ago.

An incomprehensible, unknowable presence had taken over the apartment.

Strangely, the emotion So-yeon felt at that moment was relief.

If this had happened while A-ri was beside her, they both would have been in danger. But A-ri had gone to the management office to check something.

If something dangerous was going to happen, it was better for me to face it alone.

Repeating that to herself, So-yeon leaned against the wall and steadied her shaking breaths.

--- Tick!

She sensed a presence. A presence that clearly wasn't her own.

Something, an unknowable being, seemed to be walking outside the room and touching the things in the apartment.

--- Rumble!

There was a sound like something lightly scraping the wall, along with a faint vibration that shook the floor.

So-yeon's senses, sharpened several times over by her tension, relayed every small change happening in the apartment.

Her breathing quickened.

She was afraid even to imagine what was happening.

--- Creak!

The moment the door opened, So-yeon finally gave in to her fear and closed her eyes.

As she surrendered herself to the fate awaiting her...

“Sis.”

“...”

“Sis, can't you hear me?”

“A-A-ri?”

When she opened her eyes, A-ri's familiar figure stood before her.

“Right now! It's dangerous right now...”

“Phew... I thought so, but it really is true.”

“What?”

“Sis, stop talking nonsense and come out. To think something like this became a lifelong Trauma...”

“Huh?”

So-yeon was startled by A-ri's tone, as if she were dealing with someone pathetic.

Normally, she might have gotten a little upset, but the relief of escaping danger and her curiosity about A-ri's reaction, which seemed to mean she had figured something out, were much stronger.

* * *

- Kim A-ri

I'd wondered if that was it.

Even as I gradually grasped the truth while watching the videos So-yeon showed me, I wondered if it could really be that.

It was absurd that So-yeon hadn't noticed such a ridiculous truth, and even funnier that her agency staff hadn't realized it after watching the videos.

Well, it wasn't really fair to blame ordinary people.

People only see what they know.

Even when looking at the same crime scene, the information one can read from it differs greatly depending on the observer's ability.

An experienced violent-crimes detective or a lawyer who had visited plenty of scenes could reconstruct what happened the night before from fallen hairs and crushed carpet fibers.

Ordinary people, on the other hand, were fortunate if they didn't wreck the scene while going, “Oh my! Oh my!”

The same thing happened with problems involving Chaos Entities.

Ghosts, evil spirits, monsters, demons. Dealing with such beings was also the domain of professionals.

There was one strange detail in the video So-yeon showed me: the reaction of Louis, her poodle.

Ghosts and demons were spiritual beings, so they might not leave direct physical traces.

But the sounds of objects moving and vibrations shaking the floor were clearly physical phenomena.

Dogs were naturally more sensitive to such things than people, yet Louis had curled up quietly on its pillow, regardless of whether its owner was terrified in the bedroom.

That meant...

To the dog, the being making those sounds and vibrations was something familiar.

Nothing to be surprised or frightened by. Something that could do whatever it wanted nearby while Louis kept sleeping.

“Th-the culprit was a robot vacuum?”

So-yeon stared at me with her mouth hanging open as I explained what I had discovered.

“This robot vacuum you bought is an expensive model, right?”

“Yeah. It cost over three million won.”

“These expensive models have built-in AI. They identify objects in the house and differences in height between the living room and bedrooms, then move around while avoiding collisions as much as possible.”

“I heard it had features like that.”

“There are even more features when you look through the settings. It can recognize and avoid moving dogs too. Anyway, this is the important feature.”

I worked the display on top of the robot vacuum and showed her.

“Auto Home Scanning?”

“It recognizes changes when you alter the interior of your home. Normally, the robot vacuum moves around by itself at night and scans everything.”

“...”

“You recently redid the interior, right? When we came in earlier, you asked whether it looked different from when I visited before.”

“...I had everything redone about four or five days ago.”

“So it spent the entire night wandering around the house, checking where the furniture had been moved and whether places had become blocked off or opened up compared to before.”

“...”

“Of course, while it was performing Home Scanning, it hadn't fully recognized the changes in the furniture arrangement yet, so it must have bumped into things here and there as it moved, making noise.”

After I pressed the button a few times, the high-performance robot vacuum displayed its Home Scanning records.

The record showed the day three days earlier, when So-yeon had sensed an unknowable presence and spent the whole night awake.

“I thought that might be it, so I ran Home Scanning one more time. Then you...”

“Eek!”

“...”

“Sorry. I'm just so embarrassed...”

So-yeon couldn't lift her head for quite a while, too embarrassed.

I...

Well, it was good that it had been resolved so easily. What was the problem with that?

It wasn't anything unusual.

When working as a Management Bureau agent, I had often seen cases that seemed to involve ghosts or demons but turned out to be an old house or an ordinary crime.

It was about time to return to the hotel. Still, I had saved one suffering Hungry Ghost in the process, so I felt a sense of accomplishment.

So-yeon began muttering as if making excuses to me.

She said the stalking messages that regularly came to her and her conflict with the agency president had frayed her nerves, so she must have been foolish enough to fear a mere robot vacuum and spend the night terrified.

That made sense.

When a person's body and mind were weakened, they were bound to see things that weren't there and hear things that didn't exist.

So I advised her to take some time off.

So-yeon said she would rest for a month or two as soon as her current schedule ended.

Then So-yeon suddenly looked like she had made up her mind.

“A-A-ri!”

“Yes?”

“You said something earlier, didn't you? That you didn't come today just to watch a movie?”

“I did. Fortunately, your problem has been resolved...”

“M-me too!”

“Huh?”

“I didn't call you over just to watch a movie either. Well, I was planning to watch a movie too, but I didn't call you only because of that.”

This atmosphere was getting strange.

“What do you mean...?”

“I've wanted to tell you this at least once... Something I've thought ever since I first met you. I was afraid to bring it up, but...”

What was this???

“If I can't say it today, I think it'll haunt me for the rest of my life. And... after seeing how cool you were just now, I really can't hold it in anymore.”

“S-Sis?”

It couldn't be, right?

We're both women, and weren't we supposed to be relatives in this setting?

“A-ri. I... with you...”

“I'm sorry.”

“...”

“Wouldn't it be better to stop here? I want to remain your good younger sister.”

The instant before So-yeon's confession came out, I reflexively rejected her, then regretted it.

I wasn't going to live in her memories forever anyway. Wouldn't it have been better to just accept the confession?

“...I'm sorry. I guess I got carried away by the mood today. Shall we watch the movie?”

Fortunately, So-yeon seemed to have expected my reaction to some extent.

She might have been crying inside, but at least on the outside, she looked composed as she collected herself again.

Then the space began to shake little by little.

So-yeon's Trauma had been resolved, and this entire stage was beginning to collapse.

The moment I rubbed my chest in relief...

The air froze.

“The movie I prepared is...”

I couldn't hear So-yeon's voice.

Louis cowered in terror.

Only at that moment did I realize that I, who had laughed at the carelessness of ordinary people earlier, had missed one piece of information too.

Kang-hyeok had definitely told me!

So-yeon had pressed the phone buttons again and again in terror, but it hadn't responded!

What did a robot vacuum performing Home Scanning have to do with a phone becoming unusable?

A dark shape rose behind So-yeon.

The real culprit lurking in this apartment.

A colossal evil that gave off streams of chilling energy.

What was it? A ghost? A demon?

Either way, there was no way I could win when we met so suddenly without any preparation...

“A-A-ri, you don't have to worry too much about what I said earlier. I think Sis was a little sentimental today. So...”

Even now, So-yeon hadn't noticed anything.

Had the release of tension also dulled her sharpened senses?

Or was she too shocked after confessing to me and being rejected to pay attention to her surroundings?

Either way was fine!

The moment I realized that, one solution for escaping this crisis came to mind.

When you got down to it, what happened today was not something happening now. It was merely part of So-yeon's past memory.

So...

Even if there really had been a ghost or demon in her house.

“Sis!”

“Don't worry too much about it... Huh?”

“I love you!”

“W-What?”

“I was flustered earlier and said whatever came to mind, but after thinking it over, I realized it. I definitely love you too!”

Believe it! Just believe it! There were no evil spirits in your experience.

Everything was just an accident caused by the robot vacuum.

“W-What are you suddenly saying...?”

I'll cover the memories of a stalker, a crazy agency president, and an unidentified evil spirit with an even more shocking memory.

--- Grab!

“Eek!”

I rushed at So-yeon without thinking and hugged her.

So she wouldn't notice the horrible being revealing its true form behind her!

Don't look behind you. Look only at me!

Just look at me, and forget what happened today!

Desperately, I reshaped So-yeon's heart once more.

I swung the hammer of love, striking the memories of fear carved into her soul again and again.

Human memories were sometimes shaped by what one wanted to believe.

And so, at the moment the terrible memories in So-yeon's heart, filled with a stalker, a crazy agency president's assault, and an unidentified evil spirit, disappeared, leaving behind only the illusion of “a successful confession.”

At last, tears streamed from So-yeon's eyes, and the entire space began to collapse.

“A-ri! I love you!”

“Okay, okay...”

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 152

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: X]

- Han Ga-in

“She’s out! She’s out!”

“...”

Like the other companions, A-ri suddenly appeared near the fountain at the front desk, as if she had teleported.