WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 41: Room 104, The Cursed Room - ‘Hotel High, the Prestigious Entrance Exam School’ (1)
──────
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 16
Current Location: Level 1, Room 104 (Curse Room - Hotel High, the Prestigious Academy)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
There have been many attempts to define what music is in terms of the specific att- If we examine the meaning of this sentence through the surrounding context --------
I hate this so much.
(A) The number of distinct real roots of the equation f(x) - x = 0 is 2.
(B) The number of distinct real roots of the equation f(x)x = 0 is 2.
Then f(0) is ---------
Please stop.
(A) In exchange for supplying goods to the royal court or government offices, they were granted exclusive selling rights for certain products. According to the Six Codes Regulations, published in the mid-nineteenth century ----------
I already took the college entrance exam, you bastards!
* * *
Ah. What the hell was this?
Why was I trapped in this absurd “boarding school” called Hotel High, studying for college entrance exams again when I had already taken them?
Room 104, which we had just entered, was truly hellish.
We had apparently been divided into student and teacher teams based on age.
The teacher team prepared entrance exam lessons, while the student team was assigned to study.
Han Ga-in, Elena, Yoo Song-i, Kim A-ri, Park Seung-yeop -> Students
Kim Mook-seong, Cha Jin-cheol, Lee Eun-sol -> Teachers
That was the situation.
The absurd part was the student team's situation.
The insane hotel had ignored our actual ages, adjusted our physical ages, and made us all high school seniors.
In other words, it had forcibly “grown” Seung-yeop, who was only in his second year of middle school, into a high school senior!
Thanks to that, Seung-yeop, who had never seemed academically inclined, sat across from me with a grown body and lifeless eyes.
What exactly was the danger in this room?
At the moment, this damned entrance exam studying itself felt revolting, but difficult classes probably would not physically kill us. The danger was likely something else.
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Learned anything?
Han Ga-in (Student): Class difficult
Park Seung-yeop (Student): Yeah
Yoo Song-i (Student): T_T
Elena (Student): T_T
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Daily tests. Writing language questions now
Cha Jin-cheol (Teacher): Seems there’s also some sort of sports festival the day after tomorrow.
Han Ga-in (Student): Sons of bitches
Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): Something unusual. School rules. Says students lacking academic ability will be disciplined in the Old School Building
Han Ga-in (Student): Old School Building?
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Abandoned building behind school
Yoo Song-i (Student): Why?
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Don’t know. No explanation. Everyone treats it as normal
The Old School Building.
It was definitely strange.
Scolding students for poor test scores was common enough, but sending them to another building for punishment?
I had never heard of a school that would go through that much trouble.
And daily quizzes, too. What an incredible school. Just what one would expect from a prestigious entrance exam school!
* * *
We all completely ignored class and focused every bit of our attention on the chat window in our heads. Then an angry reprimand rang out.
----Thwack!
A piece of chalk cut through the air.
“Argh! T-Teacher, what is this-”
“Park Seung-yeop! You’re not paying attention in class! What are you thinking about? Do you think this is the first time I’ve seen brats like you? The kind who don’t study during class, wasting their lives on pointless fantasies in their heads. Come out here!”
Seung-yeop, who had been the worst at controlling his expression, was summoned. What were we supposed to do?
More importantly, what was the teacher planning to do? Was the teacher going to send him straight to the Old School Building?
“N-No, I was listening. You must have seen it wrong.”
“What? You little brat! Then answer this question! We’ve been discussing King Yeongjo. If you were paying attention, you’ll know. When did Yeongjo’s reign begin?”
What? It wasn’t even asking about a historical event, but when a king began reigning? What kind of-
“1724.”
...
The teacher, who had been yelling, fell silent.
...He got it right?
The teacher asked another question, voice noticeably smaller than before.
“What year was Crown Prince Sado executed?”
“1762.”
...
The teacher fell silent again.
He got that right too? How was that possible? When had Seung-yeop memorized an entire Korean history textbook?
“Ahem. So you were listening after all. It seems your teacher was slightly mistaken. Still, you should hold your book properly, open your eyes wide, and look at it with your heart and soul! Your gaze kept wandering around all blankly, so wasn’t it natural for your teacher to misunderstand? Now! Everyone, focus on class.”
Yoo Song-i (Student): What what?
Han Ga-in (Student): Are you secretly a genius?
Elena (Student): Do Korean students normally memorize even the years?
Han Ga-in (Student): He’s not even the top student in the country. What kind of madman does that?
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Save characters. What happened?
Yoo Song-i (Student): Seung-yeop got a history question right
While the excited conversation continued, Seung-yeop, who had suddenly become suspected of being a genius, said nothing.
Kim A-ri (Student): Looks like he used his Blessing
Park Seung-yeop (Student): Yes...
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Details
Park Seung-yeop (Student): When the question came up, it showed 100% and asked if I wanted to use the Blessing of Luck... I thought, use it! But nothing changed, so I just shouted out random numbers, and they were all answers
Kim Mook-seong (Teacher): Are you in your right mind? You used a Blessing with a long cooldown on something so trivial?
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): No, this is important
Eun-sol was right. This was not simply Seung-yeop wasting his Blessing.
Seung-yeop had not used the Blessing whenever he wanted.
Before that, a message must have appeared first.
“Would you like to use the Blessing of Luck?”
There was no way a message like that had appeared by chance.
It had appeared because this was a dangerous situation!
What if he had gotten the question wrong? He probably would have been disciplined in the Old School Building.
We had confirmed one fact. Going to the Old School Building was dangerous.
* * *
After that, we all at least pretended to look at our books, and the painful class period passed.
At lunchtime, the entire student team gathered.
“Hyung! Noona! What are we really supposed to do? I looked at the book, but I didn’t understand a single word!”
“Seung-yeop, it feels strange hearing you call me noona with that body... But seriously, what do we do? Ga-in-oppa, do you have any ideas?”
“First, since an alert appeared asking if he wanted to use his Blessing right after he was questioned, I think going to the Old School Building itself is dangerous.”
“So for now, everyone needs to study hard~”
“Hmm, A-ri, you seem pretty confident.”
“Oh my! Confident? I’m just saying that’s the situation.”
What was that? It felt like sparks had just flown between Song-i and A-ri. Was I imagining it?
Elena, who had been silent, spoke.
“For now, the test after class is the problem. I’ll be honest. I don’t think I can solve it at all. I don’t understand almost any of the subjects. It’s understandable that language and Korean history are difficult for me, since I’m not Korean, but I can’t even begin to handle math or English. Is Korea normally like this?”
“No. I... Well, I seem to be the only one here with experience taking entrance exams, but the class level here is beyond even a specialized high school. Even Korea’s top students would barely be able to keep up. At this level, the test after class will probably be nearly impossible to even attempt.”
Everyone fell silent.
No one had ever asked about grades after coming to the hotel, but I had a feeling Song-i and Seung-yeop were probably not good at studying. Elena was a foreigner.
What in the world were we supposed to do?
At this rate, the student team would be wiped out after the test, leaving at most me alone.
Seung-yeop spoke first.
“What if we all just run away? Like how I escaped after running away from the Strange Family.”
“That was a residential area connected to the outside, but this is an isolated boarding academy. The security guard controls the gates thoroughly, so escaping will probably be difficult.”
“Then my body got bigger too, so Ga-in and I can beat up the teachers-”
“Wait, wait. You need to be quiet for now. Did you learn nothing from the ranch? The teachers here aren’t some abnormal phenomenon. They’re just teachers at a prestigious entrance exam school.”
A-ri snapped at him, and Seung-yeop shrank down with his head lowered.
He still couldn’t do a thing in front of A-ri...
Of course, this was not the time to think about that.
Still, I understood what Seung-yeop meant.
At this rate, we would take impossibly difficult tests, fail in huge numbers, and get swept away in the dangerous area called the Old School Building!
In the quiet atmosphere, A-ri spoke.
“I don’t think we need to take the straightforward approach.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s cheat.”
Everyone fell silent again.
“What? Did you all really intend to study for the college entrance exam in a place like this?”
“No... That’s not it, but how are we supposed to do it?”
“How else? Why are people with chat windows in their heads even worrying about this? The teacher team said they’re writing the questions, right? They can just post the answers.”
Ah. I had returned to the classroom and put on a school uniform, so perhaps I had unconsciously mistaken myself for a real high school senior again.
A-ri was right.
Why were we studying in a place like this?
We just had to cheat.
As everyone came to that realization, A-ri swiftly gave her opinion.
Kim A-ri (Student): Teacher team, attention
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): ?
Kim A-ri (Student): Old School Building judged dangerous. Need to pass tests. Please post answers to questions being written.
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): OK, but cannot post all
Han Ga-in (Student): Meaning?
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): I have language, Cha has physical education, Kim has Korean history. So only know answers for language and Korean history.
Kim A-ri (Student): Please post those at least
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): OK
With the warped teachers actively cooperating in cheating, the situation eased somewhat.
There probably would not be a written test for physical education, and we would receive answers for language and Korean history.
Yet a serious problem still remained.
What were we supposed to do about math, English, and the other subjects?
As I sank into thought, A-ri stared straight at me.
“What? Do you have something to say?”
“I think it depends on you now.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The only one among us with entrance exam experience. A prospective university student who took the college entrance exam. Someone accepted to K University. I’m counting on you.”
Everyone looked at me with eyes full of dreams and hope.
I grabbed my head.
Footnotes:
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