WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 411: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’ (13)
──────
- Park Seung-yeop
I, Park Seung-yeop.
Fourteen years old. Male.
And I was facing the greatest showdown of my life.
--- Roar!
My enemy was the mightiest beast nature had ever produced.
A god of violence who shook heaven and earth with a single roar.
But who was I?
A martial prodigy destined to be recorded in the history of the Martial World, acknowledged by Yi Ja-seong, the Greatest Swordsman Under Heaven!
So I wouldn't back down from this fight.
As I faced this all-or-nothing battle, something from two days ago came to mind.
Was this what people meant by your life flashing before your eyes?
* * *
May was probably the Progenitor.
No one had explained it to me, but my experience in the Hotel told me so.
There had to be a reason the Hotel had made the orphanage my starting point.
At dawn the day after May vanished before me like dissipating foam, the orphanage director grabbed me and shook me.
“Mm... Why are you-”
“Follow me.”
The director led me to the stairs descending into the orphanage basement.
“...”
“...”
We went down for nearly an hour.
We had to stop and rest several times because it was so exhausting.
Then the director spoke.
“Did you meet her?”
“May?”
The director glared at me.
“Lady May?”
“That’s right. Did she say anything?”
“Nothing especially significant... She looked a little tired?”
“Phew.”
“Where are you taking me?”
The director walked in silence for a long time before speaking again.
“Outside.”
“What?”
“You’re a special child. You recognized her, so that much is certain.”
“But-”
“This city turns special children into ordinary ones.”
It sounded like the Indomitable Reason I'd vaguely heard about at the beginning.
“Go outside. Face your destiny there.”
With that, the director handed me a fairly large bag.
It was packed with things like chocolate bars and camping gear.
“If you follow the path for about 200 meters, you’ll reach a river. Follow the river upstream.”
“For how long?”
“A week?”
“Th-That long?”
“If you can't even endure that, then you don't have what it takes.”
“...”
* * *
A day had passed since then, and I had faced my destiny.
--- Roar!
The grizzly bear howled, and every hair on my body stood on end.
“Huff! Huff!”
Think.
How did a human fight a bear barehanded?
I knew this!
I definitely saw it somewhere online.
It went something like this, right?
「It might be hard against a gorilla, but bears are easy!
1. Wait for the bear to stand on its hind legs and attack.
2. An animal’s punch is obvious. Duck under its obviously telegraphed rookie punch, then move in.
3. Quickly circle behind it.
4. You know this, right? Bears have short limbs, so they can't reach behind their backs.
5. Put it in a proper chokehold. No matter how strong an animal is, it’ll collapse if you cut off blood flow to its brain.
Something like that. It should take about thirty seconds, maybe?」
Reliable information came to mind, and confidence immediately surged through my whole body.
--- Roar!
The bear roared and charged at me. Step one!
So if I ducked and dodged its punch-
[Heavenly Luck activated! The energy of the universe protects you!]
... I-I dodged it!
The bear’s hind leg suddenly buckled, and it fell over.
I dodged it by ducking, right?
Use this chance to move behind it!
“Hiya!”
Hah, this was the difference between the crown of creation and a wild animal.
There was no way a bear could hurt a human behind its back-
--- Roll!
“Aaaah!”
That fucking crazy bear started rolling on the ground!
S-Step four was wrong!
Whoever you are, asshole, that was wrong!
“Aaaah!”
--- Crash!
It felt like someone had picked me up and thrown me onto the concrete.
My vision blurred as pain, like my lungs were tearing apart, shot through me.
“P-Please!”
No! No no no no no!
This was too much!
Was I really going to die because I got tricked by some internet scammer?
As I wildly swung my arms through my blurred vision again and again...
Blood rising from deep within my heart heated my entire body as it raced toward my fingertips.
At the brink of death, Aksha’s Soul activated.
--- Screech!
When I opened my eyes, I realized that the explosive force created by Aksha’s Soul had crushed both the bear’s eyes and its brain.
“...”
Did that even make sense?
Even when I trained alone, staring at a wall in the Hotel, nothing happened four times out of five.
Aksha’s Soul activated despite having less than a twenty percent chance, and it struck the bear’s eyes with perfect accuracy.
...
Wouldn't the bear have died if I had just used Heavenly Luck and stood still?
Let’s think about it positively.
This was a kind of talent too!
My master would be impressed if he could see me now.
I kept following the river after that, but nothing special happened for about three days.
I occasionally encountered small animals, but honestly, they were no big deal.
Then the meaning of what the director had called the reality outside was revealed.
“...”
Another Paradise appeared before me.
The last city of humanity wasn’t actually the last city.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 273 (+41)
Current Location: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
A day passed.
How many humans had Indomitable Reason devoured in that time?
I didn't know. The important thing was that the extinguished furnace had begun heating up again.
--- Aaaah!
During that time, I resolved several questions through my conversation with the Progenitor.
The reason the mayor hadn't used One More Chance, even until his death, was simple. He didn't have it.
One More Chance, the item the Progenitor casually called the Coin, originally belonged to her. She had only lent it to the Kadyrov family.
After returning to the past, she had reclaimed the Coin from the mayor.
--- Please... Please save me!
“Indomitable Reason alone isn't enough, but if One More Chance is added, it can suppress the Demon King in the early stages of resurrection. You're sure?”
--- You devils! Hell awaits you!
The Progenitor muttered with an endlessly tired expression.
“You're missing the most important part. Someone has to beat the awakening Demon King and force it back underground.”
“Okay. It looks like we can overpower it somehow in the early stages.”
“Didn't you hear me? Someone has to beat the Demon King!”
“Should I start getting ready to go up...”
“No, do you think a Demon King in the early stages of resurrection is on the same level as those monsters up there?”
--- Ah... God! Deliver Heavenly Punishment upon these monsters!
The Progenitor couldn't understand how I intended to stop the Demon God, freed from its shackles, even for a moment.
I had no way to explain Descent either.
Then, at last, a faint spark appeared within Indomitable Reason.
[Descent: 1 -> 0]
Now.
The instant before Indomitable Reason fully exerted its power!
If I missed this moment, I couldn't use Descent.
Heavenly Wave tore through Paradise's ceiling in an instant and fell upon me.
The Progenitor stared at me in shock.
“You... What in the world...?”
“Do you understand what I meant now?”
* * *
This was already my fourth Descent!
I thought I'd get used to it as the number of uses piled up.
I didn't.
Every time felt new.
My endlessly expanding, sharp senses greedily devoured the information held by the world.
In the process, my frail brain screamed as it failed to endure the storm of information.
I couldn't possibly control the force boiling through my entire body like an active volcano.
The sense of omnipotence, as though a single twitch of my finger could cause an earthquake, squeezed my soul.
Still, as before, the moment of pain didn't last long.
Descent didn't just bestow power. It also bestowed a vessel capable of enduring that power.
One second, or perhaps less.
I tore through the dome in an instant, rising above Paradise and looking down upon the city.
Indomitable Reason seemed to have begun working again in that brief moment. The bizarre demons filling the city melted away like thin ice exposed to sunlight.
“Come out. Indomitable Reason will become a burden to you over time too. Even if you're not ready, shouldn't you come out?”
--- Boom!
At that moment, the dome ahead shattered, and Mi-ro rose above it.
「Ga, in, ah.」
“You still can't properly control a single human body?”
「Ga-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-inGa-in」
“...”
It was an unsettling display, like someone playing with a toy.
A question came to mind.
What exactly was Mi-ro in Room 206's scenario?
At first, I thought Mi-ro was the Progenitor, but the Progenitor had appeared in the body of a brown-haired girl with short hair.
I didn't know.
There was no grand role in Paradise's known history that Mi-ro could have played.
I subtly probed the Progenitor, but she appeared to know nothing either.
That meant Mi-ro's identity was something even the Progenitor, who knew most of the city's secrets, didn't know.
There was too little information about Room 206.
--- Rumble!
At last, the Demon King's hand appeared, collapsing the center of the city.
* * *
I didn't have even a second to waste.
The instant the hand emerged, I understood.
If the Demon King’s entire body came out after that horrible hand, I could never win, even if I gained power far greater than Descent.
Even if the Lord of Room 104 came in person, the Lord would struggle.
Ever since I was young, there was something I thought every time I watched cartoons or movies.
Why did they always give their opponents a chance?
It was a given that they would risk their lives fighting, yet still say everything they wanted to say.
They mocked their opponents and missed their chance to land a fatal blow, or pulled something like, “I'll let you go for today,” making the viewer clutch the back of their neck in frustration.
I had no intention of doing that.
This wasn't an opponent I could afford to be lenient with in the first place.
So I used the strongest move I had from the very beginning.
The greatest power of Descent, which the Nebula Dragon had taught me long ago.
Words of Power.
“I declare that the Lord has granted you three chances.”
...
“I-I declare! The Lord hath granted you three chances!”
No, if I shouted something that dramatic, there should at least have been some reaction!
Why wasn't the Judgment contained in Words of Power responding at all?
The moment my strongest card failed from the start and I stood speechless, the Demon King's hand seized me.
* * *
The city collapsed.
The city that had endured by burning humans fell into the bottomless pit.
I saw the endless hole from which devils crawled out.
I saw malice mocking every effort made by the mayor and the people of Paradise.
thebloodredsightthejoyofseeingitthroughsvahaflamesscatteredonthewindfather'slovecrushedmotheritoreoffalegbecauseiwasstarvingandmyyoungersiblingateitaleopard'scryinthechaosburnedthemoonlightableedingspeartoreopenacreature'sthroatanddevouredthefetusinitsbellyohiloveyouwithyouevenamideternalsufferingtheimmortal
Amid madness that gnawed at my mind, I opened the Grimoire.
Are you insane? The Demon King's power is melting you down even now.
Fool. Madness is not a set, but its complement. The Grimoire's madness can become salvation.
What does that even mean? Who are you to be so arrogant?
The Demon King pulls us northward. Even Descent cannot withstand the force, so we're being dragged along aimlessly.
Then shouldn't we add the Grimoire's power and pull southward?
You call such a delusion a plan?
Just try something, asshole. It's better than standing still and dying.
--- Flutter!
Amazingly, I came to my senses.
The fragments of my mind, which had been splitting in every direction, barely regained their balance.
...
Was this hell?
Or somewhere even more horrible?
We were small, faint, and weak: me, Descent, and the Grimoire.
Everything felt like a feeble candle in this bottomless pit.
Only moments ago, I had thought I possessed power close to omnipotence...
Now, even pouring out both powers was only enough to resist the urges crashing in from every direction.
Urge.
Urge.
Urge.
I felt endless urges surging like whirlpools from every direction.
I saw a black eye writhing in the depths.
It was the Demon King's eye, and also the flames of evil that had congealed over countless eons.
Was I stopping that existence right now?
Could this truly be called a fight?
I didn't know.
I only endured and endured again.
There was no time to use any technique or supernatural ability.
I simply released the power bestowed by Descent again and again.
I thought of a star burning in the empty universe.
To stars, even tens of thousands of years were like an instant, so they truly burned through eons.
Did that endless nuclear fusion make the universe warm?
The universe's temperature was -270.42452°C.
Wasn't this place too cold and too vast to warm with the power of a mere star?
I was a star, and this place was the universe.
--- Boom!
I felt a great wave shaking space and time.
When the clock of all things finally began turning backward, I understood that the painful time had come to an end.
「You have succeeded in escaping! Killing the mayor without properly understanding his role was clearly a mistake, wasn't it? In the end, you failed to prevent the Demon King's resurrection, and destruction approached. But Descent, Descent... What an absurd power. Still, obtaining Descent was a fortune and blessing for all of you. In the Hotel, luck is skill, isn't it? Remember this. You will receive no further Descent. And now, you must repay your debt. ... You have escaped the curse. However, you sense that the Source of the Curse still remains. A companion has successfully escaped! Congratulations! An escapee has appeared, and all members return safely.」
Footnotes:
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