Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 394

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 393: A Midsummer Night's Dream (9)

──────

[Us〿r: Han Ga-i〿 (Wisdo〿)

Dat〿: 2〿〿 Day 〿

Curren〿 Locatio〿: ---

Sage’〿 Advic〿: 〿]

- Han Ga-in

After falling into reality, I wondered how I could return.

What should I do once I find my real body?

The hotel’s first floor should be in the sky.

Once I realized that, the situation became simpler.

Since I hadn't obtained Wing Boots, Descent was the only way for my real body to fly.

I was somewhat afraid of using Descent for a third time, but the hotel had told me through Revelation of Heavenly Secrets that I could.

And...

A vague yet unwavering certainty.

It would be fine to use Descent now.

I didn't need to think about what came after, not now.

That certainty helped me make my decision.

[Descent : 1 -> 0]

* * *

A wave of light crashed down from the sky.

This was already the third time I had used Descent, yet the pain of my shell breaking never changed.

Things I couldn't see, things I couldn't hear.

A flood of information beyond human perception poured into my brain like a tidal wave.

Endless power boiled up throughout my body.

It felt as though I had become a living volcano.

The blessing of that limitless power spread through my body and soul, so even the pain did not last forever.

When I opened my eyes, the area around me had already become a mess amid the raging torrent of power.

Not just Ictus, but the followers who had come close had either been flung somewhere or sprawled across the ground.

Perhaps some of them were already dead.

And Apollion, the arrogant being who dared call himself a god, stood before me.

What exactly are you?

There was something I had desperately wanted to say to Apollion these past few days.

Now I could say it.

“I never thought I'd be the one saying this.”

What do you mean?

“Hey, let's get this straight. What kind of god are you?”

Apollion's eyes filled with a vicious light.

Even so, I had to say what I had to say.

“Anyone and everyone calls themselves a god these days.”

A power beyond anything seen before rose from the dark red demon's body, making the ground around us tremble.

Suddenly, I remembered the moment I had first met Apollion a few days ago, led there by Ictus.

What had I thought then?

I had been genuinely curious.

How powerful was a Chaos Entity in reality that called itself a god?

It had been disappointing.

Even when I faced him in Pero's body without the Status Window's protection, I had barely felt any pressure.

I had already seen in the hotel how powerful someone needed to be to call themselves a god in this universe.

The Prisoners were like living suns.

With a single nod, they toyed with the laws of the universe. With a single gesture, they created new life.

Beings in whom the destruction of all things and the birth of all things were condensed into a single point!

Lower beings found it difficult even to stand still before them.

Not because they bore any malice, but because they were too vast.

It was like how a person who goes near the sun turns into a handful of ash, not because the sun bears them any malice.

Wasn't that what a god should be?

Compared to them, Apollion was, at best, the moon.

The moon might look huge to humans, but the sun's mass was more than twenty-six million times greater.

Then the demon wrapped his entire body in a black aura like tar and charged at me.

Apollion attacked once.

I tore off the red demon's right horn, ripped away the writhing skin from his left shoulder, then kicked him lightly.

He shuddered, then fired a flashing beam from his horn.

I twisted aside with ease, then punched a large hole through Apollion's stomach.

After just two exchanges, the difference between us was obvious.

How could you call yourself a god at this level in the first place?

“Do you understand now how ridiculous it was for you to call yourself a god?”

Why are you attacking me? I only helped you recover. I have never harmed you.

“Helped me recover? That's true. Since you helped me, we could say we're friends. Right?”

That is right. We are friends. I shall serve you as my elder brother, so-

“There's a saying. Friends don't distinguish between yours and mine.”

What?

“Since we're naturally supposed to help each other, I don't need to repay you just because you helped me.”

You insane bastard, that makes no sense-

Before Apollion could finish speaking, a wave of light from my hand crashed into his body.

--- Rumble!

The red demon's massive body slammed into the ground, sending an enormous shockwave in every direction.

Most of the followers still nearby had probably died by then.

I didn't particularly care about the deaths of demon worshippers.

“You know friends don't owe each other anything, right? And put a hand on your chest... You don't have hands. Put a tentacle on your chest and think about it. What kind of god are you? Do you think gods are something Nike sells?”

--- Grrraaaah!

Apollion let out a bizarre cry. Rather than charging at me again, he began flying in the opposite direction.

Running away to buy time?

Considering Descent had a time limit, it was a fairly suitable tactic.

There was one problem.

He was far too weak and slow to pull that tactic off.

The moment I kicked off the ground and leaped into the air, a thunderous boom erupted as though a bomb had exploded beneath me.

At the same time, Earth's atmosphere hindered my movement like a viscous liquid.

What an inconvenient planet.

Apollion suddenly stopped fleeing and turned toward me. Once I saw his position, I understood his intention.

He watched me with Incheon, a city of three million people, behind him.

Apollion was too weak to be called a god, but he had clearly surpassed the limits of mortals.

An attack powerful enough to destroy him would inevitably cause enormous damage to a major city.

“Is this your plan?”

I wish to negotiate. I have no intention of interfering with you, nor of remaining on this planet. I will leave quietly, so-

“No, forget that. You seem to think I'm a real angel.”

I laughed.

Of course, my current appearance was that of an angel descended from heaven, no matter who looked at me.

That demon must have thought an angel would not casually harm civilians.

“I'll send about a hundred thousand humans along with you, so you won't be lonely on the way. Goodbye, friend.”

Heavenly Wave gathered at my fingertips.

Even the Unborn One, the remains of a god, could not take this attack lightly.

A self-proclaimed god fit for a Nike street stall could not possibly withstand it.

Despair appeared on Apollion's face as he realized his unavoidable destruction.

Then, just as my hand was about to pass severe judgment upon one hundred thousand humans and one demon-

For the first time, I felt a crack.

I should not do this.

Didn't I blow up an entire city in Room 102?

That place was not reality, but this place is reality.

No. I regard this place no differently from a Curse Room.

It may not be my reality, but it is my companions' reality.

What logic is there in that meaningless distinction?

A strange exchange.

I asked myself, and I answered myself.

Who was asking, and who was answering?

Was this a conversation with myself?

Or a conversation between divided selves?

I was confused.

Yet I knew the question and answer clearly existed.

And then...

Another line of reasoning appeared.

The Management Bureau's military forces have arrived nearby.

I told them not to send troops for three days. Did they break their promise?

No. To be exact, I told them not to interfere with Apollion finding my body.

They did not intervene until I reclaimed my body, so this is not a breach of their promise.

The Management Bureau's military forces are nearby. If I slaughter Incheon's citizens before them, I will have to fight the Management Bureau as well.

I have already spent considerable power on Apollion. It would not be wise to recklessly increase my enemies.

Remember that ‘our’ father was wary of the Management Bureau as well.

Therefore, underestimating the Management Bureau is not confidence. It is foolishness.

This reasoning persuaded both versions of me.

The moment I realized the crack existed, I knew that ‘I’ had awakened.

I was myself. Then had I not been myself until just now?

What the hell was-

May I leave?

Apollion's voice stopped the confusion in my mind.

All those thoughts had taken less than a second.

A short time for humans, but a fairly long one for beings at the level of that demon and me.

Since I did not attack and remained silent, Apollion seemed to take it as a sign that I would spare him.

“...”

Apollion began fleeing quickly, as though relieved.

And then...

A heavenly wave aimed as precisely as possible struck the demon.

Apollion was destroyed.

* * *

The moment the red demon's form shattered, the aftermath of the force that destroyed him spread toward Incheon.

If left alone, it would not claim a hundred thousand lives as before, but thousands of casualties would be unavoidable.

Fortunately, exactly as I had predicted, that did not happen.

When the Management Bureau forces operated an unknown device, an opaque barrier resembling joined hexagonal panels covered the sky over Incheon.

As I had experienced in Rooms 201 and 202, the Management Bureau's technology was truly like magic.

Perhaps the boundary between magic and technology was meaningless to someone truly great.

A helicopter flew over from the Management Bureau's side.

Judging by the lack of missiles or machine guns, it did not seem to intend to attack.

... Park, the department head I met before, was probably inside.

He was quite cunning and skilled with words. It felt like I could easily fall into a trap if I spoke with him.

Everything that needed handling on the ground was already finished, and I didn't want to deal with anything bothersome.

So I ignored it and flew into the sky.

It was time to return to the hotel.

...

I thought about the crack I had recognized for the first time.

The memory of the moment I had spoken with myself.

I had clearly sensed a being that was not another person, yet was distinctly separate from me.

He and I had grown from the same root, like a tree split into two.

He was Revelation.

The moment I reached that thought, I felt a gaze upon me.

I saw Revelation.

Revelation saw me.

Should I fight?

Should I subdue that being now and reclaim the purity of my mind?

Then Revelation raised a hand, stopping me.

Now is not the time.

The moment I heard those words, I knew I was caught up in one of the hotel's strange games.

Or perhaps I had known from the beginning.

Dream and reality had become strangely mixed together.

That did not mean everything I had experienced until now was an illusion.

What happened today would surely be recorded forever in the history of this planet.

Only one thing was certain.

When the hotel's event ended, everything that had happened to me would be reset.

There was no point in settling this now.

Be patient. The time is near anyway.

I will reclaim my purity from you.

What a foolish thought. Take good care of that body.

... It was an unpleasant conversation.

* * *

The sky over Incheon became peaceful again.

The chaos on the ground had not yet faded.

“Director, we can no longer observe it!”

According to the report delivered to Park Hyun-min, the ‘angel’ that had flown into the sky had suddenly disappeared.

Even precision satellites capable of distinguishing human expressions had lost all trace of the ‘angel.’

Naturally.

Not only could the unqualified not casually approach the hotel, they could not even observe it.

If that had been possible, the Management Bureau would have poured a thousand people at a time into the hotel.

“Tell them to stop tracking it. It's a waste of time.”

“Yes, sir.”

The power of a participant surpassed imagination.

Park Hyun-min did not know what the being itself thought, but to him, calling such a being human was like saying a chicken and a T-Rex were the same kind of dinosaur.

It was no different from the mad gods of Olympus who had stepped out of Greek mythology.

“This is troubling.”

“Director?”

He recalled their conversation once more.

‘This is not my world.’

Those words implied a belief that somewhere, there was a world that belonged to Han Ga-in.

As far as the Management Bureau knew, there was no such place.

The mad god of Olympus had remained unaware of the truth of the world until the very end.

That did not mean the god lacked ability.

There was a time when one could discover the truth, and now was not that time.

Because of that, the god had obediently returned to the hotel in search of a hometown that did not exist.

... How would that person act once they learned the truth someday?