WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 394: A Midsummer Night's Dream (10)
──────
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 231
Current Location: ---
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
When I flew back to the hotel, the first thing to greet me wasn't my companions.
A black, viscous mass came shooting toward me from afar.
I looked over the hotel, wondering what the hell it was, and was left speechless.
“What happened here?”
The grotesque thing before me was obviously not a hotel.
I'd seen plenty of similar buildings in Room 203, where human civilization had collapsed and countless ages had passed.
An unidentified plant covered the half-ruined mass of concrete, and the enormous flower at its top "looked" at me as it fired thick mucus like artillery shells.
“Whew...”
Fortunately, Apollion hadn't been very strong, so a little of Descent's power remained.
After intercepting the flower from a distance, I opened the hotel's front entrance again.
“Seriously, what the hell is this?”
The moment I opened the doors, a lump of red flesh came rolling toward me.
I didn't want to damage the hotel any further, so I had to hold back as I knocked it aside.
Calling the situation inside a mess didn't even begin to cover it.
A black giant with bulging eyes tearing apart the ceiling.
A vine monster frantically spreading roots in every direction.
The lump of flesh settling into place to roll again.
Ghosts flying around everywhere.
“...”
At this point, I was simply speechless.
* * *
After walking around the first floor, I discovered the cause of the problem.
Rifts had appeared all over the place, like cracks in space that endlessly spewed out monsters.
There was no way to destroy them because they had no physical form.
Fortunately, the Status Window's companion-location information showed that no one had died. Everyone was on the second floor.
In the end, I used the little strength I had left just getting to the elevator.
Only after entering it and finally feeling safe did Pero, who had been tucked inside my clothes ever since I used Descent, poke its head out.
It had hated me for quite some time now. Even I could think of plenty of reasons for that, so I'd accepted it.
Still, whenever things became hopelessly dangerous like this, it silently clung to me.
“Our Pero really is smart.”
Pero ignored me, then shot out like lightning the instant the elevator reached the second floor.
“You hated being with me that much...”
I understood.
--- Flap!
Before the parrot that had bolted away could even catch its breath, it flew right back to me.
“...”
It wasn't because it suddenly liked me.
One look told me the second floor was no better.
“The windows! Block the windows!”
“Something's coming in through the front entrance too!”
“G-Grandpa! Above us!”
“Damn it! Where are all these bastards coming from?”
It had been a while since I'd seen my companions, but no one paid any attention to me when I stepped out of the elevator.
Ghosts and monsters were pouring in from all sides, so it wasn't as if they had the time.
Without receiving a proper welcome, I could only signal my return with my eyes before throwing myself into the fight.
* * *
It took around thirty minutes to clear the area enough for us to talk.
“You're saying the second floor is relatively okay?”
“I told you it is. Ga-in, you came in through the first-floor entrance, right? What was it like down there?”
“... It was practically ruins. More like a monster breeding ground?”
“That place isn't even a building anymore, let alone a hotel. The basement isn't much different. The second floor is the only place that's still intact.”
“The elevator was fine. Wouldn't it be better to hold out there?”
“We rested there at first, but then the elevator suddenly tried to take us somewhere strange.”
“...”
On the second floor, no monster-producing rifts had appeared inside the hotel. They were only out in the snowy field.
The monsters didn't emerge constantly either, with long breaks between attacks that gave us time to breathe.
“They'll stay quiet for three or four hours. That's how it's been so far. Anyone who needs sleep, get some rest!”
Mi-ro and Elena were already leaning against the wall with their eyes closed, without needing to be told.
There was a clear reason the second floor was the only place we could hold out.
“It's because I made my wish on the second floor.”
The answer lay in Eun-sol's gloomy expression.
She had made an overwhelmingly powerful wish while delirious, and she had been on the second floor at the time.
Grandpa and A-ri, who still had some energy left, filled in the gaps for me.
For one thing, I learned the name of the event currently happening in the hotel.
“It's called ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’?”
“That was what the display on the second floor said. It's smashed now, though.”
“The event ends when Party Time ends...”
“Didn't those hotel bastards even word the explanation in the most annoying way? They say it's a fun event and that we should have a happy time!”
“...”
A-ri sighed and explained.
“It isn't fun. Still, it isn't an event that harms us. That's probably why it started even though it's Party Time.”
We went over what everyone had gained one by one.
Jin-cheol had met Arima's illusion in person and received a strange proposal. He had already discussed it with Seung-yeop.
“You heard it from the Owl a few days ago, right? That there's a special way to put a Witch into the Soul Box. The Witch figured it out herself.”
“What is it?”
“Arima sees herself as something like a computer virus. In that analogy, the Soul Box is a tool that stores a computer. It couldn't hold the virus itself because she isn't a soul, only mental data.”
The answer came to me the instant I heard the analogy.
“Then we need to store an infected computer.”
“She says she'll take over the body of one of the Curse Room NPCs. If we put that NPC in the Soul Box, it should work.”
Grandpa, Seung-yeop, and Song-i hadn't joined the drinking party, so they hadn't been caught up in the event.
Eun-sol, on the other hand, had received another interesting reward.
“An enhancement event from the Mysterious Craftsman?”
“I'd wondered about it sometimes. Was making Wing Boots the only thing that damned craftsman did? Apparently not. Greedy Hand could control it.”
Eun-sol, who had been across the room, came over to explain it herself.
“I'd always felt a little dissatisfied. I have all sorts of tools, but something about them has felt lacking. They're all excellent magical tools, but still somehow incomplete. At some point, I realized why. The output of my wishes wasn't strong enough.”
That was easy to understand.
“So you needed to wish like you did this time. You should've wished, ‘Who cares about my companions? If weak people die, they die.’”
“... I didn't go as far as saying they could die. It was more that I didn't think about anyone else.”
“So you wished to enhance your existing tools?”
“Yeah.”
The Mysterious Craftsman, that LEGO figure, had suddenly marched over and taken Eun-sol's tools.
“It took the Invisibility Badge, Butterfly Brooch, and Chef's Hat. Three tools, aside from the eye. I guess the eye isn't eligible because it technically belongs to someone else and is only on loan to me.”
“So it enhanced them?”
“Not yet.”
“What? There are monsters everywhere. Why wouldn't it give them back right now...”
“That's a good point, but I want to check something. You should go to the Mysterious Craftsman too. We have all the materials for the Wing Boots now.”
Wing Boots.
Escape tools whose existence had been hinted at from the very first day we arrived at the hotel, shoes that let you fly.
Back then, just thinking about Wing Boots had made my heart race.
Now that I thought about it again, I didn't want them as desperately as I had then.
I'd already escaped by flying without any tools, then returned.
After going outside, I'd also realized that escaping with Wing Boots wasn't a true escape.
Of course, Wing Boots would still be more than useful for progressing through the hotel.
“Hello, participants. Enjoy your time at Hotel Pioneer-”
The explanation was still ridiculously long.
“-please press 1.”
I pressed 1.
“Flying shoes, also known as Wing Boots. As a shared item, all participants can use them after acquisition. The wearer can fly, and with sufficient training, may escape the hotel through the front entrance.”
I already knew all that.
“All materials for crafting have been secured. To proceed with the Crafting Request, please press 1.”
Come to think of it, why had they even made a keypad when I only ever had to press 1?
--- Beep!
The next moment, the Mysterious Craftsman hummed and vibrated, and three materials appeared in midair.
A small notification window beneath them gave an explanation.
Hair of a Warrior Who Can Withstand Even the Power of Thunderbolts (Cha Jin-cheol, obtained in Room 204, Hotel Cinema)
Eye of the One Who Contemplates All Things from the Summit (Lee Eun-sol, obtained in Room 203, A New Beginning)
Wing Feather of a Bird That Soars Through Typhoons (Han Ga-in, obtained in the sky outside the first floor)
“We will proceed with crafting the Wing Boots. The finished product will be delivered tomorrow.”
The Mysterious Craftsman fell silent after saying that.
“Tomorrow?”
Did it have to be tomorrow?
It was unfortunate because I hadn't had a chance to rest properly, but today was the last day of Party Time.
If we received them today, we could at least use them for a day.
If they came tomorrow, we'd have to enter a Curse Room without even getting the chance to practice properly.
Eun-sol sighed.
“Just as I thought. It took all my tools too, then said it would return them tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow?”
A-ri answered from behind me.
“So they don't disappear.”
“...”
The moment she said it, I understood.
I'd vaguely felt it outside, and returning to the hotel and hearing my companions' explanations had made it certain.
Everything that had happened after being swept up in A Midsummer Night's Dream over the past week would reset when the event ended.
The time Mi-ro had used from Midnight Mi-ro, the hotel's destroyed condition, and the number of times I had used Descent would all be restored.
By the same logic, if they gave us the enhanced tools or Wing Boots now, they would disappear when the event ended.
“So that means they'll give them to us after the event ends.”
“You could call it a kind of consideration.”
If they wanted to screw us over, they could give them to us now, then erase them with a casual “good work” as soon as the event ended tomorrow.
It was considerate of the hotel, which was unusual.
“...”
At the mention of resetting, I unconsciously turned to look at Elena and Mi-ro.
Neither of them had looked in my direction since I came back.
This was unbelievably awkward.
Honestly, I wasn't some oblivious protagonist from a comic. It would be a lie to say I had no idea.
I might have been uncertain because Mi-ro often seemed so childlike, but I knew how Elena felt.
Still, keeping something in your heart and bringing it out into the open were completely different things.
I wished the event would erase those memories too.
“Ahem!”
A-ri cleared her throat to draw our attention.
“Now you roughly understand what everyone got, right?”
Jin-cheol and Seung-yeop had something to ponder or a reward connected to Arima.
Eun-sol would receive powerful tools.
Grandpa and Song-i had nothing to do with the event, but they had gained blessing enhancements.
Elena and Mi-ro... Let's just say they had lightened the burdens in their hearts.
I had also satisfied my curiosity about the outside world and learned the true cost of Descent, so I had made gains too.
As always, we had gotten many things out of this Party Time.
“A-ri, what did you get?”
“... My curiosity satisfied?”
It was a relief that A-ri had gained something too.
Only one person remained.
He still hadn't returned.
“What happened to the Doctor?”
Everyone's expression darkened at those words.
“Couldn't he find a way back? Damn... If I'd known the Doctor had escaped too, I would've made sure to bring him with me!”
If I had asked Director Park, wouldn't he have found him?
Grandpa muttered with a gloomy expression.
“The Doctor's situation is different from yours, Ga-in.”
“What?”
“... Do you remember the conversation we had when we first escaped the House of Horror?”
“It was so long ago that I only vaguely remember it.”
“When you successfully escape, the hotel sends you out and gives you an Entrance Ticket.”
“Ah, I remember! One that only the person who escaped can use-”
As I spoke, I became confused. I hadn't received anything like that.
“What? Why didn't I get one? If I'd had that, I wouldn't have had to go through all that hell.”
A-ri immediately explained.
“Because you didn't use an Escape Tool.”
“Ah?”
“Protective Suit, Wing Boots. If you use an Escape Tool to leave through its designated route, the tool changes into an Entrance Ticket the moment you get outside.”
“... Then that means.”
“Sang-hyeon, unlike you, left wearing a Protective Suit. That means he has an Entrance Ticket.”
“...”
The area fell silent.
Unlike me, the Doctor had an Entrance Ticket that would let him return whenever he wanted, yet he still hadn't come back.
Everyone wore complicated expressions as the same ominous idea came to mind.
The Doctor longed to escape far more desperately than we did.
Then Grandpa spoke abruptly.
“He'll be back soon.”
“...”
“He clearly said, ‘I'll rest for a few days.’ He said the hotel ought to have vacation time too.”
“...”
“He doesn't know the hotel has turned into this kind of mess. Eun-sol hadn't used Greedy Hand yet. He probably thinks we're all having a good time, and he's resting while he has the chance too.”
Was Grandpa right to believe that?
There was no way to know.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
