WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 383: Party Time, Concerns About the Next Room and the Soul Box

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 223

Current Location: Level 1, Room 105 - ‘Rest Room’

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

The moment we arrived at Room 105, a notification appeared before everyone.

「Dear valued guests!

It feels like only yesterday that you first entered the Hotel and struggled to stay afloat, yet you have already cleared Room 205!

Doesn't time fly?

We sincerely congratulate you on clearing Room 205.

We are also delighted to witness your achievements.

You will be granted a total of seven days of rest starting tomorrow.」

“Seven days? Was it always this long?”

“Ooh! It's pretty long this time, huh?”

Then, as if it had been waiting for us, another notification appeared.

「You who are delighted by this long rest!

We are happy as well, but unfortunately, there is a reason your rest is so long.

Only one Curse Room remains on Level 2, Room 206!

Room 206 is ‘a little’ difficult.

Surely you do not wish to end your long journey here.

During the remaining week, carefully consider whether there are any rewards you have missed.

Even if you gather everything you can, it may not be enough.

Surprise Event: Party Time! It begins tomorrow.」

“...”

The brutally ominous warning sobered everyone up.

* * *

“Wow! There it is, there it is!”

“...Seung-yeop.”

“Hotel! Give us some fried shrimp too!”

“Seung-yeop.”

“A-ri?”

“Don't pile on so much fried food. That's already your third plate.”

It was our first proper Hotel meal in a while.

Everyone busily reached beneath the table and pulled their hands back out, producing whatever food they wanted.

Room 205 wasn't a place like Room 203, where we had to eat bugs and call them food.

Still, quite a few of our companions hadn't had a proper meal.

Though, despite having been the ‘Emperor,’ Seung-yeop was certainly eating the most enthusiastically.

During the meal, Eun-sol asked Seung-yeop and Song-i a few questions.

“The Hotel showed a notification after Room 205 ended, right?”

“Yes.”

“What did it say?”

“Uh...”

Seung-yeop looked toward Song-i, who wore an equally flustered expression.

“Uh, um... It said we'd worked hard holding up a collapsing Empire? And asked what we thought after watching three masters, each with their own perspective?”

“Not that ceremonial stuff. The evaluation part.”

“Ah, there were some bad comments too. It said we should've paid more attention to the hint about needing exceptional martial prowess.”

“Hmm... So it didn't go the way the Hotel considered ideal. No Ticket?”

“No.”

It seemed the Hotel's evaluation had been average.

There was one likely reason.

“Didn't Yi Ja-seong get way too strong near the end?”

As if he had realized something, the doctor nodded.

“Now that it's all over, I can say this... Yi Ja-seong was a unique character in many ways. I've never seen an NPC like him while progressing through the Hotel. If I had to compare him to something, he was a growth-type NPC.”

“Right. He had a connection to the Heart Demon from the beginning, and he was the type to grow stronger once it was resolved. Somehow, Yi Ja-seong realized the Hotel itself and became too...”

The word didn't come to mind, but Grandfather answered at once.

“He attained the enlightenment of Flawless Realm. He wasn't quite a Prisoner in the final moments, but I think he possessed strength close to the limits of a human.”

“Right. As a result, he tried to split apart the entire false world. The Prisoner nearly got released in the process too.”

Had it not been for the restrictions placed on the Prisoner, everything might have been destroyed then.

After wrapping up our discussion of Room 205, we moved on to our rest.

“Seven days of Party Time! That's seriously so long!”

A week was a very long time in the Hotel.

It was good news, but everyone still looked tense.

“There is a reason the rest is so long...”

A-ri muttered with an uneasy expression.

“Everyone remembers, right? According to the Sponsor, the last Curse Room on each Level is especially difficult.”

“...That means Curse Rooms 104 and 206.”

Honestly, I'd never thought any Curse Room was easy, but being warned in such terrifying terms made it hard to breathe.

Eun-sol brought up another line from the notification.

“It said to check whether we've missed any rewards?”

“There are quite a few things. The Sanctuary of Blessings, your Greedy Hand, the Soul Box Seung-yeop received...”

The doctor shook his head.

“Ga-in, I don't think that sentence means that.”

“Ah, you're right.”

Checking the Sanctuary of Blessings, Greedy Hand, and the newly acquired Inheritance.

Those were things we always did anyway. They weren't anything special we had to do for Room 206, nor were they rewards we'd missed.

“If it's a missed reward, then Wing Boots?”

The moment I mentioned Wing Boots, Eun-sol nodded.

“Why haven't they appeared yet when we're already in the latter half of Level 2?”

There were three materials for Wing Boots.

Wing Feather of a Bird That Soars Through Typhoons.

Hair of a Warrior Who Can Withstand Even the Power of Thunderbolts.

Eye of the One Who Contemplates All Things from the Summit.

“We got the warrior's hair in Room 204 after Jin-cheol plucked out some of his hair.”

“Cough!”

“The Eye of the One Who Contemplates All Things from the Summit came from Room 203, when my eyeball that had gone into space was plucked out. But what about the feather? Isn't it obviously this guy? You little bastard!”

--- Screech!

“Pero, no matter how I look at it, it has to be your feather.”

--- Screech!

I quietly joined in.

“Maybe I should pluck this bastard's feathers now, even if it's late- Aah!”

That was the limit of the bad-tempered parrot's patience.

Pero knocked over the braised short ribs in front of me and flew away.

“That thing! I really should pluck its feathers!”

“Hyung, even if you do, you need to pluck them somewhere with a ‘typhoon.’”

“Hmm...”

--- Tap!

“Listen up for a moment.”

Everyone turned toward A-ri.

“I have two things to say. First, Ga-in should try plucking the parrot's feathers tomorrow. If the typhoon is the issue, go out into the snowfield and do it there.”

“Okay.”

“Everyone's being so mean to Pero...”

“I'll only pluck half of them. Just half.”

“That many?”

Ignoring Song-i, A-ri continued.

“Second, there is one more thing besides Wing Boots.”

“Huh?”

A-ri went over to the whiteboard and scribbled something down.

「Hotel Secrets! Level 2 Edition

1. Hidden Rooms

1) Mirror Room

2) Resurrection Room

2. Hidden NPCs

1) Mysterious Craftsman

2) ??? 」

“I told you I could see a chart roughly like this, right? Level 1 was the same. The hidden rooms were the Sanctuary of Blessings and the Souvenir Shop, while the hidden NPCs were the Doctor and Merchant.”

“There are still question marks on Level 2.”

“There is still a hidden NPC left.”

Eun-sol looked somehow tired.

“So we have to explore again. But is there really anywhere left in this Hotel to search?”

“The basement.”

“...Does that make sense? That place is practically endless!”

We hadn't explored the Hotel just once or twice.

There was no way we could believe there was anything more on Levels 1 or 2.

If there was, it would be in the basement, but the basement was nearly infinite to begin with.

“There's no answer. None at all.”

At that point, the doctor began organizing the agenda.

“Let's handle things one at a time. This is about all we need to do during this Party Time.”

1. Receive enhancements at the Sanctuary of Blessings

2. Look for Wing Boots and the final NPC

3. Consider the Soul Box

4. Choose the next room

I looked over the list and gave my opinion.

“We can do number one tomorrow morning... We can handle number two during our free time. Let's finish three and four today.”

“We're already talking about the next room?”

“We usually decided on the last day, but it's obvious now. Only Curse Rooms 104 and 206 remain.”

A-ri looked at me curiously.

“Where do you think we should go?”

“Room 206.”

“You wanted to cleanly wrap up Room 104 whenever things were ambiguous like this. I thought you'd do the same this time.”

“That was before Revelation of Heavenly Secrets.”

“Revelation of Heavenly Secrets?”

“It told us something quite clear about Room 104. ‘Empty the enemy's magazine.’”

“Descent!”

“We still have one shot left, so we should use it somewhere else, then return to Room 104.”

Having heard that much, my companions understood what I meant, and their expressions brightened.

“Ah, you're planning to use Descent no matter what in Room 206?”

“Exactly!”

The most difficult room the Hotel had warned us about, and the strongest power we'd saved for this!

Ha!

I'd saved one shot of Descent for exactly this moment!

Even I was impressed by my own ability to plan ahead!

The Owl must be hooting up there too, right?

Sponsor! Honestly, that was insane, right? Awesome, right?

If things went badly, I still had Descent left, enough to put up something like a fight even against a Prisoner.

The faces of my companions, who had been weighed down by the pressure of Room 206, gradually brightened.

Grandfather spoke honestly.

“This time, I really do find you reassuring.”

The corner of the doctor's mouth curved slightly.

“I have never doubted you, Ga-in.”

A-ri gave a short laugh and summed it up.

“Sure, with your Descent, even if the situation is hopeless, we'll at least escape. Let's trust that and take a crack at Room 206. Next, the Soul Box?”

Seung-yeop looked at me curiously.

“You said you had some candidates in mind, hyung?”

“Candidates Ga-in thought of?”

Which NPC should we put in the Soul Box?

I had two candidates in mind.

First, Arima.

A few people seemed to have already guessed, and they nodded.

A-ri offered her opinion.

“I figured it would be that Witch. Based on what I remember from meeting her... she might at least cooperate with you.”

Eun-sol spoke in a similar tone.

“She had an extreme curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Still, Arima as she is now, residing in Jin-cheol, would be somewhat different from the one we remember.”

“That's better. She hasn't developed any resentment toward us.”

“That's true too.”

“Besides, unlike Yi Ja- Cough! Unlike other NPCs, she's a Witch, so she won't be affected by whether she has a body or not.”

Everyone reacted positively to Arima.

From what we'd experienced once already, her nature was clearly not good.

Still, she was far from an existence like Phantom Demon, who was consumed by madness and acted without restraint.

Besides, the old grudge was gone, so was there any reason for Arima to be hostile toward us?

A-ri nodded, then asked me.

“Who's the second one?”

This time, I hesitated a little.

I expected there would be more opposition than there had been for Arima.

“The Lord.”

The moment I answered, everyone looked speechless.

“W-who? The Lord? The Lord I know? The mad god from Room 104?”

“Rather than mad, it's a rational being in its own way.”

“You...”

While A-ri was at a loss for words, Eun-sol asked in confusion.

“It's not even an NPC to begin with. You're going to put a Prisoner inside an Inheritance? It's like trying to fit the Pacific Ocean into a soy sauce dish-”

“Eun-sol, the Lord's plan from the start was to leave contained in an Inheritance.”

“Uh, uh? That's...”

As Eun-sol faltered, the doctor, who had finished eating and was slowly drinking tea, spoke up.

“Come to think of it, the Lord's plan is not for its main body to escape.”

“It's for a ‘small Lord’ that shares the main body's identity to escape. Sacred Sun is also an Inheritance. If it can be contained within Sacred Sun, it can be contained within the Soul Box too.”

“I understand why you think it might be possible, but... what would that accomplish? Even compressed into a smaller form, it is still a Prisoner.”

“Right.”

“It is far too different from an NPC. It's a crude comparison, but no matter how small the Lord becomes, it is a handgun, while an NPC is just a Paleolithic hand axe.”

A-ri pointed something out as well.

“Sacred Sun is basically a compressed version of a Prisoner, right? Didn't we leave Room 104 unresolved by escaping because Sacred Sun was too dangerous? What difference does it make if it goes into the Soul Box instead of Sacred Sun?”

I told them what I had in mind.

...

...

...

My companions looked uncertain.

Some said they understood, while others found it hard to agree.

Then the person with the final say began to speak.

Footnotes:

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