WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 443: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (8)
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- Kim A-ri
Five days had passed since Leon Kadyrov’s death was announced.
We had also received the grim news that the mayor had taken Mook-seong with him when he died.
Today, we gathered at Elena’s house early in the morning.
“The Progenitor acted just as the mayor predicted.”
Eun-sol was a Second-Class Director, so she could easily meet Song-i and get news quickly.
Even aside from that, she usually talked the most during meetings.
“The Progenitor went to see Song-i again not long afterward, as if nothing had happened.”
“It sounds like Song-i heard some groundbreaking information, right? The next scenario appeared!”
Ga-in’s Scenario Understanding had stopped updating for several days.
If the next stage had appeared, that meant we had cleared the previous one.
“Oh, really? What did it say?”
“It suddenly told us to visit Deep Paradise... Let’s hear Song-i’s story first.”
The Progenitor had spoken with Song-i for a long time and told her about Paradise’s history.
“Apparently, it wasn’t like a history lecture with a book in hand. It felt more like a very old person reminiscing. So all kinds of stories came up.”
“It would’ve been interesting if we could’ve all heard it.”
Some of the stories were interesting but fundamentally useless.
“They say Leon Kadyrov had quite a colorful love life before becoming mayor. Hard to believe, right?”
There were also insane stories about the Kadyrov Family, where children had been killing their parents for three generations.
“Oh, and the Progenitor supposedly pressured Song-i to find a husband quickly. Said she had to have children soon and carry on the family line.”
“Whoa!”
“Ga-in, it might be fun if you confessed again.”
“...”
It might matter to the Progenitor, but it meant nothing to us.
Of course, not everything said was trivial.
“There was also something about Deep Paradise. The Progenitor only mentioned it in passing, so Song-i wasn’t sure whether it was important. Scenario Understanding made it clear.”
Information rarely came to us in exactly the form we needed.
Usually, it gathered in a messy heap of confusing data, and we had to sort through it to identify what mattered.
Scenario Understanding was useful in that regard.
The moment we obtained the keyword Deep Paradise, it updated and directed us there.
“Ga-in, you said you saw Indomitable Reason during the first attempt, right?”
“Yes.”
“Deep Paradise, which the Progenitor mentioned and Scenario Understanding refers to, lies even deeper than where you saw Indomitable Reason.”
Indomitable Reason itself lay beneath the city, but there was something even deeper.
Below the city infrastructure that had served as the Demon King Cult’s base was the literal deep region.
A world of complete darkness, with no electricity and not even a basic map of the terrain.
The physically accessible place closest to the Demon King.
A land where miracles lived and breathed.
“They say Indomitable Reason can’t affect that place.”
“Hmm... That makes three places where we can use supernatural powers. The world outside Paradise, the Floating Mansion at the very top of Paradise, and Deep Paradise.”
The reason to go to Deep Paradise was clear.
“According to the Progenitor, there was once an organization called the Order of Reason. They built various facilities, including a Research Lab, on the Demon King’s remains that had fallen to Earth, then studied the Demon King.”
The Order of Reason, Room 206’s Management Bureau.
Ga-in nodded.
“Then there must be plenty of records in Deep Paradise from when the Order of Reason studied the Demon King. Is that why we’re supposed to go there?”
“Probably.”
Jin-cheol, who had been listening, raised his hand.
“What Order? Is that organization still around?”
“They were still functioning in Paradise’s early history. The researchers in Deep Paradise periodically contacted the city’s ruling class to secure supplies and personnel.”
“That makes it sound like they’re gone now.”
“According to the Progenitor, contact with Deep Paradise was cut off over a hundred years ago.”
Even if a few survivors remained, a hundred years was enough time for them to grow old and die.
“Good grief... Then what state is Deep Paradise even in?”
“I don’t know. Even before contact was cut off, Deep Paradise was a hellish place. It was close to the Demon King, and it was outside Indomitable Reason’s range.”
“Oh dear!”
“That’s why the city’s ruling class sealed off Deep Paradise from Paradise’s upper levels with superalloy and concrete.”
We had to walk into a place like that ourselves.
To obtain the Order of Reason’s research on the Demon King.
“Do you remember what I said before? What suppresses the Demon King is humanity itself within the city built upon the Demon King fragments scattered across the planet. But a city can’t be built overnight.”
Before Paradise was constructed, the Order had succeeded in suppressing the Demon King through other means.
“There must be something underground concerning a weakness of the Demon King that we can use. Mi-ro and Pero might even be there.”
“That’s possible. Mi-ro appeared when the Demon King resurrected in the first place.”
* * *
Song-i’s information had given us a destination.
That left the question of who would go to Deep Paradise.
At that point, Eun-sol hesitated slightly.
“This isn’t directly related, but Elder Mook-seong has fallen, so... I think Deep Paradise...”
So I spoke up.
“I think a large number of the people going down will die. Let’s assume half of us will.”
The room fell silent at my words, but no one objected.
After tackling Curse Rooms for many years, you naturally develop a sense for when a place is truly dangerous.
That sense was warning me now.
Deep Paradise was one of Room 206’s greatest obstacles.
Even without that intuition, logic led to the same conclusion.
A world of darkness without even a map of the terrain, let alone knowledge of what monsters lived there.
Land where neither electricity nor the bare minimum of public safety could be guaranteed.
A hell where even the Order of Reason, which had protected the world for so long, couldn’t endure.
If we all went there and came back alive, that would be stranger.
“You know how places like this work, right? Only some of us should go. Anyone sitting this one out should do it now.”
While my companions hesitated, unable to say they would sit out, I chose for them.
“Song-i isn’t here, but she obviously has to stay behind. She’s in a position like the king in chess.”
If Song-i died, there would be no way to control the city.
It was similar to the Emperor role Seung-yeop had taken in Room 205.
“Elena should sit this one out too. The enemies underground probably won’t be human, so Justice will be useless. Ominous Imagination is too large in scale by nature, isn’t it?”
Ominous Imagination was difficult to control precisely, which made it especially dangerous in a place like Deep Paradise.
It would be a disaster if she carelessly collapsed a building and destroyed the Demon King research materials inside.
“I-I can use my power carefully...”
“A-ri has a point, and Miss Elena is too famous. If she were to die, it could cause problems that would be difficult to handle aboveground.”
When Sang-hyeon said that too, Elena accepted it.
Still, I thought Sang-hyeon should stay behind as well.
“Sang-hyeon, you should remain above too.”
“Hmm? Are you serious?”
He wasn’t on Cha Jin-cheol’s level, but Kim Sang-hyeon was still a fighter.
Perhaps that was why he looked surprised that he was being left out of a dangerous place like Deep Paradise.
I looked around at everyone and emphasized it once more.
“There’s a high chance that many of the people going to Deep Paradise will die. That means our escape depends not on those going underground, but on those remaining above doing their jobs well.”
Ga-in nodded as if he understood what I meant.
“We need to leave plenty of strength above too?”
“That’s it. It would be a problem if both Jin-cheol and Sang-hyeon, who are good at physical combat, died underground.”
As a Second-Class Citizen, Sang-hyeon had more freedom to act in the upper levels.
Lastly, I looked at Ga-in.
“You’re staying no matter what.”
“...”
Perhaps he had already expected it, because Ga-in didn’t offer much of a response.
Ga-in’s greatest role in this attempt was charging the Sacred Sun.
If he recovered the power of Pseudo-Descent in the process, we might be able to escape once again in a way similar to the first attempt.
It was an irreplaceable role, and something that could only be done in Paradise.
What about Eun-sol?
I thought it over, but she seemed like she had to go down with us.
As a Second-Class Director and someone close to Song-i, she had plenty she could do aboveground...
More than that, though, Eun-sol was essential in Deep Paradise, where monsters would surely be everywhere.
There were likely monsters capable of shaking a person’s mind.
The only Inheritance capable of properly protecting companions vulnerable to mental attacks, like Cha Jin-cheol, was Eun-sol’s Flute.
That settled who would go underground.
Jin-cheol seemed happy to finally have something physical to do after so long. He stood and clapped his hands.
“So it’ll be me, A-ri, and Sis? Let’s get ready! Song-i and Sang-hyeon can get equipment like night-vision goggles...”
He forgot one person.
“Seung-yeop has to go too.”
“What?”
“Excuse me?”
Both Cha Jin-cheol and Seung-yeop beside him were startled.
Maybe it was because Seung-yeop had often been naturally left out of anything that seemed dangerous.
Or perhaps it was because Seung-yeop had barely participated in anything during the relatively recent Room 205.
“Think about it. What’s a kid without parents supposed to do if he stays above? He needs to be our living canary underground. Don’t you know what an early-warning system is?”
In a dangerous place where we had no information, no ability was as important as Luck.
Three days later, we descended into Deep Paradise through a mechanical lift in a hidden place once used by the Order’s researchers long ago.
Fortunately, nothing absurd happened, like the lift breaking during the descent and wiping us all out for no reason.
* * *
...
...
...
A world where the electricity had gone out and every light had vanished was full of darkness.
At least, it must have been before we arrived.
Now, four lights were driving back the darkness.
“Jin-cheol.”
“A-ri.”
“Eun-sol.”
“Seung-yeop.”
Periodic survival check.
Fortunately, everyone still seemed fine.
When planning, we had agreed to reduce light and noise because there would be many bizarre entities, but we realized the moment we came down that it was impossible.
It wasn’t just that there was too little light. There wasn’t even a trace of it, so the night-vision goggles didn’t work properly.
As a result, we had to turn on the lamps mounted on top of our helmets.
And since the four of us were already stumbling around and bumping into things as we walked, talking about reducing noise was meaningless too.
“W-What is this?”
“... Isn’t it a car?”
The thing Seung-yeop pointed at was covered in slimy moss, or something similar.
Still, the shape of the rusted mass of metal clearly resembled a small car.
Then Eun-sol warned us.
“Jin-cheol, three steps back.”
“Huh?”
Jin-cheol stepped back and shone his headlamp on what Eun-sol had pointed out.
A rusted mass of metal, something resembling a trap.
“There are things like this by the roadside?”
“That means something worth trapping used to wander around here.”
“...”
Eun-sol fell silent for a moment as she looked around.
She was the only one among us not wearing night-vision goggles, yet she saw more than anyone else.
“This is... a strange place.”
“In what way?”
“The whole place resembles an underground city.”
“It must have actually been an underground city.”
“It feels like it was destroyed not long ago.”
“Sis?”
For a moment, I couldn’t understand what she meant.
According to the Progenitor, Deep Paradise had been cut off from the upper levels for over a hundred years.
“There are corpses hanging everywhere. Not bones, but bodies with flesh still intact.”
“...”
Flesh on a corpse shouldn’t last even a year, let alone a hundred.
“Up ahead, around two hundred meters away. There’s something like a streetlamp, and a person is hanging from it like they’re on a cross. Judging from the expression, it looks like they died... painfully.”
Even with our headlamps on, Eun-sol’s eyes were astonishing. She could read the expression on a corpse two hundred meters away in this darkness.
“Beside it... No. Anyway, I’ll take the lead from now on.”
“Sis, is anything moving? Any huge buildings?”
“I don’t know... Let’s look a little more. I can’t tell yet. Seung-yeop.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know where we should go.”
“Excuse me?”
“Pick.”
“U-Um...”
“Don’t think. Pick.”
“R-Right!”
“Fine. Let’s go right.”
While the others talked, I crouched down and brushed the floor with my protective glove.
A slick, mucous-like liquid.
It seemed to have been secreted from some creature’s body.
And...
“Everyone, be careful.”
Was my sense of smell a little sharper than the others’?
I’d been catching an unidentified sour smell for a while now.
Suddenly, I wondered how many of us would make it out of here alive.
Footnotes:
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