WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 400: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’ (2)
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Toward evening, Tobier finished an exhausting workday and entered a shabby bar.
Drunks lay sprawled everywhere, and deafening noise pierced the ears.
It was the typical chaotic scene of a bar.
It was also where Tobier's colleagues gathered.
One of them, Henderson, spotted Tobier.
"You're here. You're a little late today."
"I was punished for taking more than thirty seconds to eat. Had to work another thirty minutes."
"Rough day."
Soon, Pendleton, who had arranged the gathering, began speaking to everyone in a voice that was almost a whisper.
"Everyone, is Paradise as it is now truly the ideal land the Progenitor dreamed of?"
Of course not.
Tobier was certain of it.
Though Tobier had never experienced another city in life, living in Paradise was unbearably painful.
"The source of every problem is Mayor Leon Kadyrov. Kadyrov and his people turned the Paradise created by the Progenitor into hell for their own gain."
"Pendleton, then what should we do?"
"Good question, Peter. We need to drive out the mayor."
"I mean, how? Kadyrov's people have the Enforcers firmly under their control."
"... Everyone, listen carefully. Have any of you heard the Voice?"
The Voice.
The moment that word came up, Tobier nodded repeatedly.
A strange rumor had begun spreading among the city's lower classes.
Just as everyone pricked up their ears.
--- Click!
A cold metallic sound rang out.
"Third-Class Citizen Pendleton. You're under arrest for conspiring to commit treason."
"E-Enforcer! How did you-"
A man who realized what was happening too late tried to flee in a panic.
A massively built man blocked the entrance.
"Stop. Unless you want to die."
That ended the situation.
* * *
- Kim Mook-seong
I woke up as a Third-Class Citizen assigned the role of Enforcer.
Without a moment to catch my breath, I handled the relentless flood of excessive work and thought to myself.
Paradise was an incomprehensible hell.
Even the city's design was bizarre.
A hemispherical dome of unimaginable size covered the ground, and a city-state housing at least tens of millions of people existed within it.
The only time citizens could see the real sky was when the top of the dome opened for ventilation, at most thirty minutes a day.
The air inside was awful too. If I had a fine-dust meter, it would've flashed deep red and warned me to put on a gas mask immediately.
Still, there was one fortunate thing.
"Damn, old man. This is filthy hard."
"There's a ridiculous amount of work, isn't there?"
That fortunate thing was the presence of my colleague, Cha Jin-cheol.
He looked around as soon as he got into the car, then lowered his voice.
"Old man, something's been bothering me while I work..."
"Go on."
"Doesn't our job feel like we're puppets for some dictator? What if Pendleton, the guy we arrested earlier, was actually a pro-democracy activist?"
"I don't know if that bastard was a pro-democracy activist, but it's true that we're the dictator's weapon."
"..."
"Clear your head. Think realistically."
"What kind of city is this? I've never seen such a filthy world."
I'd thought Jin-cheol was a simple-minded guy, but after being worked to the bone for three days, even he had started to come to his senses.
"It's a system that practically encourages informing, infighting, and betrayal. At least for Third-Class and Fourth-Class Citizens."
"The intention is probably to keep you from baring your teeth at those above you and make you fight among yourselves."
"... The quality of life is too low."
"Because we're cogs."
Every person in the city was like a cog, each with their own role.
An Enforcer's role was to control the city as the mayor's hands and feet.
"Oh, this is the book I picked up earlier. There was one left in the corner of the Library."
After I went through the information we'd obtained through other routes and the history book Cha Jin-cheol had found, a rough outline, or basic premise, began to emerge.
About 180 years ago, the known world had been destroyed for unknown reasons.
Then the great hero called the Progenitor appeared, led the people, and built Paradise.
The people of Paradise were the last surviving humans on this planet.
"What do you think it's like outside the city?"
"Who knows... It doesn't look like there's any way out in the first place."
"Old man, what do we do now? Where are the others?"
Setting goals, huh.
I'd been thinking about that for the last few days.
"You know why we lost our powers, right?"
"I heard a strange voice when I woke up. Indomitable Reason, right?"
"Definitely. That unknown power suppressed the supernatural, weakening us too."
"Honestly, I was impressed. It didn't just block the Otherworldly Star. My power got reduced to that of an ordinary person who works out a little."
"No, not quite. How are you an ordinary person? It's more like the Hulk turning into a gorilla."
"Fine. I get it now. Indomitable Reason is the thing you, A-ri, and the Management Bureau want, right?"
"..."
"Isn't it obvious? You people would go crazy for it. Something that powerfully suppresses supernatural abilities?"
"It has been the Management Bureau's dream for a long time. Either way, we need to find a way to overcome Indomitable Reason."
"Overcome it..."
"If it's a tool, there must be a way to stop it too. Otherwise, we're just ordinary people who are a little stronger. We have no way to shake up the city."
Jin-cheol nodded in agreement, but raised one question.
"You don't seem very happy about it. It's what the Management Bureau has dreamed of, isn't it?"
"..."
"Old man?"
"I think I know the principle behind Indomitable Reason."
"What?"
"The Management Bureau researched it for a long time. Of course, we failed to develop it because we lacked the technology. But this world succeeded."
"If you failed, how do you know the principle?"
"It's heading in exactly the same direction as what we were trying to create."
"..."
"The result looks plausible, but in reality... it's an extremely evil thing."
"An evil thing?"
"I'm certain it's what caused this city to become like this."
"O-old man, explain it in more detail."
"If my guess is right, they must have killed an unimaginable number of people to create Indomitable Reason. And that isn't the end of it. Even after creating it, they have to keep sacrificing humans for it to operate."
Jin-cheol was speechless.
"The Management Bureau gave the thing we were trying to develop a name. The Soul Furnace."
* * *
- Elena
I was a Third-Class Citizen.
From what I'd learned over the last three days, every person in Paradise had a role for the city.
My role was that of an actress, relieving the public's stress through dramas and films.
It seemed I was a fairly popular actress.
Even the staff and director on set watched their behavior around me, so by real-world standards, I was a star actress.
What was an immensely popular star actress, anyway?
A so-called celebrity whose social influence surpassed that of most politicians.
At least, that was how it had been in the world I remembered.
It didn't apply in Paradise.
The reason the staff and director watched themselves around me was because they were also mere Third-Class Citizens.
No matter how popular an actress I was, I was still only Third-Class in Paradise.
So I had to endure things like this.
"Hmm... Miss Elena. You wrote some of the dialogue in this script yourself?"
"Yes. Isn't it good?"
"Pfft. Your face is pretty enough, but your head is completely empty."
"..."
"Well, what can you do when you lack a broad perspective? This is simply your level."
"..."
The Black Flame inside me... no, Black Elena! Hold back!
I'd been listening to this garbage for thirty minutes, and my fists had begun to tremble, but I still had to hold back!
I needed patience.
The trash in front of me, Patrick, was a High Enforcer and a Second-Class Citizen.
A Second-Class Citizen could kill a Third-Class Citizen whenever there was a suitable reason.
"You haven't answered for a while. Is it because you're not very intelligent? Do you think you can get through every problem by lowering your head because you have a pretty face?"
"Phew... I'll take the part about being pretty as a compliment."
"It is a compliment. If you didn't even have that face, you'd be shot the moment you came up with dialogue like this."
"..."
"You should thank me. I revised your garbage script appropriately."
With that, Patrick held out the censored script.
The first page had become this.
■■■, ■■■ Mayor's de■■■■■. ■■, ■■■.
T■■'s decision ■■■ ■■■■■■■.
Th■ decision ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■.
After gathering the strings of garbled letters that continued like this for quite some time, the following sentence emerged.
"The mayor's decision saved everyone."
"..."
"What do you think?"
"It's a very good line."
I thought even an ordinary dictatorship on Earth would look at a script censored to this extent and say, "This is a little much..."
The other actors, the director, and the staff all went blank after reading the script censored by the High Enforcer.
"W-what kind of dialogue is-"
The instant one staff member accidentally spoke up.
--- Click!
"Do you have a complaint?"
Patrick pointed his pistol at them.
"O-of course not! I was moved because the script is so excellent."
"Good. Continue filming."
They had complaints about the dialogue.
They just didn't have any complaints about the pistol.
* * *
At some point, everyone on set gave up and waited for quitting time.
At some point, the director stopped calling for another take even when an actor made an obvious mistake.
At last, the agonizing drama shoot was over.
I cared about the TV shows I appeared in and the roles I played.
Of course, I knew some dramas and variety shows didn't receive good reviews.
Even so, each one was an experience and a good memory for me.
Except for what we'd filmed today.
Just remembering the line I'd said earlier made my head throb.
「“Oh! Mayor, Mayor! Your wisdom has saved everyone!”」
Thinking about it again made me angry all over again.
Mayor Leon Kadyrov.
Wasn't that bastard a pervert too?
Did he really want to see dialogue like this in a drama?
"Phew..."
I stopped my stray thoughts and remembered something more important.
Where were the others?
I knew about Eun-sol. She was a Second-Class Director.
I'd never seen her myself, but the director of photography knew.
Could one of the others be First-Class?
From what I'd learned so far, Second-Class Citizens and above were the city's ruling class.
Among them, Mayor Leon Kadyrov and the core executives who followed him were First-Class Citizens.
Who among us could be First-Class...
Ga-in could be one, couldn't they?
If Ga-in were First-Class, wouldn't Ga-in be making plans to shake up the city by now?
Lost in that hopeful thought, I returned home and lay down on the bed.
...
...
...
--- Grab!
The moment I sensed someone's presence and tried to wake up, a soft hand covered my mouth.
"Quiet."
Fortunately, it was a familiar voice.
"Mmph!"
"Keep your voice down."
"A-ri! How did you find me?"
"Oh! Mayor, Mayor! Your wisdom has-"
"Ugh! Q-quiet!"
Come to think of it, it was too easy.
She'd seen me on TV.
"Elena, have you found any of the others?"
"Eun-sol is a Second-Class Director. I don't know about the rest. Do you?"
"Mook-seong and Jin-cheol are Third-Class Enforcers."
"What about Ga-in?"
"I don't know."
"And you?"
Then a question occurred to me.
If she wanted to meet me, couldn't she have just pretended to be a fan?
I had plenty of fans in my role as a popular actress, and I'd even signed autographs for people on the street.
"I don't have a rank."
"What do you-"
Paradise was a dystopia with one foot in hell.
Its setting wasn't quite science fiction, but a near future perhaps twenty or thirty years ahead of reality.
Then a word completely unsuited to that setting came from A-ri's mouth.
"I'm a Demon King worshiper."
Footnotes:
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