WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 404: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’ (6)

──────

- Park Seung-yeop

“No, no! You idiot, how many more times do I have to explain it? I told you to pull Lever 3 toward you while pushing it! Don't even think about dinner tonight!”

The large man snapped and shoved the scrawny boy.

The boy toppled over like a bundle of straw and trembled, unable even to complain.

Life at the Little Hope Orphanage, where orphaned Fourth-Class children grew up, was brutally harsh.

Put kindly, it was vocational training from a young age. Put less kindly, it was child abuse.

This was frustrating.

There was no way out, and no way to gather information.

Why had the Hotel assigned me such a powerless role?

...

I thought I vaguely understood.

It was because of that girl.

“Waaah!”

“Peter, let me see your knee.”

“May...”

There was a girl named May at the orphanage. She was about three years older than me.

That made her something like a nanny who looked after the younger children.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason I was paying attention to her.

She wasn't even as pretty as A-ri or Mi-ro.

“There! It doesn't hurt anymore, right?”

“Yeah!”

May stroked his wound once, and it vanished as if it had never been there.

The children who knew no better simply laughed, but I couldn't.

It was clearly a supernatural ability.

That much was fine.

I'd seen countless supernatural abilities while climbing the Hotel.

What was truly strange wasn't that it existed, but how she could use it.

Indomitable Reason had blocked both my blessing and the Soul Box, so how could that girl alone use a healing ability?

“Seung-yeop, don't stare at her like that.”

“...”

I'd probably made it too obvious over the past few days.

At times like this, I regretted not being as good at acting as Ga-in.

* * *

Late at night, someone gently shook me awake.

“Want to come outside?”

“...”

May led me to the orphanage rooftop.

“What on earth...”

“Hmm?”

“What did you do? Where did the director and teachers go?”

“I made sure they fell asleep a little early tonight.”

“...”

May stood on the rooftop for a long time, silently feeling the wind.

“Sometimes there are children like you.”

“...”

“Suspicious, and strangely quick to catch on.”

“You use supernatural abilities openly. Does it really matter whether someone's quick to catch on?”

“Seung-yeop, the director and teachers never noticed at all. What do you think that means?”

That caught me off guard.

Come to think of it, this girl used supernatural abilities without caring whether a teacher was beside her or not.

Why didn't the adults know?

“Not knowing is normal. Most people don't know. You're the unusual one.”

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“Let's see. Kill you to silence you?”

I suddenly couldn't breathe and looked up.

May was smiling, the corners of her mouth turning upward. Only then did I realize she was joking.

“Y-you scared me!”

“You'll probably go to another orphanage.”

“...”

What was this girl?

One thing was certain.

I'd awakened in this orphanage to learn about her.

Then May muttered with a complicated expression.

“Sometimes I feel sorry for you all.”

“What?”

“The world is too harsh.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Listen. I did my best for a very long time.”

“... You must be older than you look.”

“That’s right. Anyway, I did everything I could to make things better.”

“...”

“But... when I looked back, the result was too horrible. I wanted to make everyone happy, but I ended up creating hell.”

“Why?”

“Good question. My answer is, ‘I don't know.’”

“You don't know?”

“I really don't. Was there something wrong with the choices I made? Even after all this time, I couldn't find what the problem was.”

“...”

“Even though I made most of the right choices, things still ended up like this... Were we destined to become this way?”

After saying that, May vanished as if a bubble had collapsed.

I thought I knew what she was.

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 264 (+32)

Current Location: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

Thirty-two days.

That was how long I'd spent since entering Room 206.

In most Curse Rooms, the Prisoner would have destroyed the world fifteen times over in that span, yet the Prisoner in Room 206 had yet to show so much as their face.

Instead, the political situation in the city was gradually coming to a head.

Sporadic protests by Fourth-Class workers had begun everywhere, and I had quietly become a focal point for them.

Judging by how reporters from various news outlets came to see me in secret every day, it was certain.

“The Enforcers are in an uproar because they want to catch you, Ga-in.”

The Doctor's point was something I knew well.

“It's fine. Information on those Enforcers reaches me every day.”

“Haha! It seems Jin-cheol and the agent are doing their jobs.”

“Eun-sol is helping too.”

The Doctor belonged to the Second-Class agents known as Leon Kadyrov's loyal claws.

Of course, that “claw” secretly came to see me and delivered every piece of information.

“Do you know how Kadyrov manages to control Paradise with an iron fist?”

“You mean ‘Vaporization,’ right?”

“Exactly. It's a punishment even more terrifying than a death sentence.”

“Vaporization.”

George Orwell's 1984 contained a dreadful term called “Vaporization.”

It wasn't simply killing someone, but a kind of erasure sentence that wiped out every record of their existence. It was a powerful tool Leon Kadyrov used to rule the city through fear.

“But this Vaporization is very strange.”

“What do you mean?”

“There have been about three cases over the past ten years. Everyone who remembers them says the person being vaporized suddenly disappeared.”

“Suddenly disappeared?”

“Yes. They disappear while walking down the street or while eating. Once someone disappears like that, every related record vanishes too, starting with their birth registration.”

“... So it isn't an ordinary political scheme.”

“Absolutely not. It's a kind of supernatural power. The problem is that it happens even while Indomitable Reason is active.”

I was somewhat confused, but the mention of supernatural power reminded me of something.

“Recently, Song-i invited me to Kadyrov's Floating Mansion.”

“Did you meet Leon?”

“No. I only met Song-i.”

At the time, Song-i had asked why I was doing all this, then made one important proposal.

“She told me to take over Leon's body.”

“That sounds like an attractive choice. Why did you refuse?”

“He isn't some shut-in philosopher. He's the mayor. He spends more than half his day in the city, doesn't he?”

“Ah!”

“The moment he comes down to the city and Indomitable Reason activates, the Possession might break.”

“That certainly is a serious problem.”

“Right. But Song-i told me something interesting. She said the Kadyrov family has a supernatural ability passed down through the generations. Only the head of the family can use it.”

“A supernatural ability passed down through the family?”

“Yes. Because they have that power, Leon Kadyrov and Song-i live at the very top of Paradise, beyond the area where Indomitable Reason suppresses supernatural phenomena.”

“So they can use that ability whenever they want? That's complicated. What exactly is that ability?”

“I don't know. Song-i didn't know either.”

“Hmm...”

After thinking for a moment, the Doctor brought up another topic.

“There's something strange. It concerns the Demon King worshipers.”

“Demon King worshipers?”

“You've met them, haven't you?”

“I don't know if they worship the Demon King, but I've met a kind of cultist.”

“Do you know what's most bizarre about them?”

“What?”

“The fact that I'm watching them.”

After thinking for a moment, I understood what the Doctor meant.

The Doctor was a Second-Class Citizen and a Secret Agent.

A Secret Agent’s mission was to monitor Demon King worshipers?

Didn't that mean Paradise's leadership already knew they existed?

“Someone like Leon must know all about the Demon King worshipers.”

“Of course.”

“Then why doesn't he get rid of them?”

“That's exactly my question.”

“...”

Silence settled over the dark room.

The “Vaporization” the mayor used to control the city.

The supernatural ability supposedly inherited by the Kadyrov family.

The fact that the Demon King worshipers were known to exist, yet had not been purged.

Once I thought that far, I felt as though I was close to understanding something, yet I couldn't reach a definite conclusion.

“This is difficult.”

--- Tap!

The Doctor lightly tapped the table and moved on.

“Let's talk about the city itself. Thanks to the grand spectacle you've created, it looks like something big will happen soon.”

“It isn't because I caused a scene.”

That was the truth.

“This city was already primed for this kind of shit. The citizens' anger, including that of the Fourth-Class, reached its limit long ago.”

“You only provided the spark? That's true, but sparks are important too.”

“Maybe so.”

“Do you have a plan for the ‘next spark’?”

I did.

After hearing my explanation, the Doctor's mouth opened and closed wordlessly for a moment before the Doctor sighed.

“Whew... Fine. Do as you wish. Oh, this isn't confirmed information, but...”

“What is it?”

“It seems Seung-yeop has gone missing. I found his name on the orphanage list, but he was already gone by the time I went looking for him.”

* * *

- Kim Mook-seong

“Explain yourselves! Explain yourselves!”

The chants of protesters filling the entire square began to shake the city.

“Leon Kadyrov! Leon Kadyrov!”

People had begun calling out the name of Leon Kadyrov, a First-Class Citizen regarded as sacred within the city.

Naturally, thousands of Enforcers had been summoned, but even they were frightened by the enormous scale of the protest.

At that point, Jin-cheol cautiously asked, “Old man, are you really going to do it?”

“Of course.”

“You're really doing that crazy thing?”

“I have to. Ga-in told me to.”

“Ugh...”

“Does it bother you because of your personality? I'll do it anyway, so stay out of it.”

“...”

Then a young man leading the protesters approached, speaking passionately.

“The entire history of Paradise is the history of class struggle!”

It was such a famous line that I nearly laughed.

Sure enough, after waiting a little longer, another famous quote came out.

“Workers of Paradise, unite!”

“Waaaaah!”

The momentum rising like a wildfire stirred the protesters into a frenzy.

It was a truly critical moment.

And then...

--- Click!

A rifle appeared in Mook-seong's hand.

The other Enforcers nearby cried out in alarm and tried to stop him.

“Gasp! Mook-seong! Put that down right now! If you shoot now...”

If I shot now, all hell would break loose.

That was the goal.

--- Bang!

A single gunshot cut through the air.

It had clearly been fired into the air.

The young man leading the protest coughed up blood and collapsed.

The protesters and even the Enforcers were stunned by the shocking scene.

Then another famous quote reached my ears.

“Do not... let my death... be known!”

“Uwaaaagh!”

The balance that had been as thin as ice collapsed in an instant.

Footnotes:

“Do not... let my death... be known!” alludes to Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s famous last words.

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