Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 448

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 447: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (12)

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- Kim A-ri

The Sponsor said that the final Curse Room on each floor of the Hotel was especially difficult.

Why was Room 206 harder than the other Curse Rooms on the second floor?

Because the Demon King was an extremely destructive being that could not be communicated with.

Unlike Room 103, there was no Prisoner to help us, and unlike Room 202, there was no possibility of negotiating with the Prisoner.

On top of that, the Demon King was absurdly strong.

The Demon King was a being we could not avoid clashing with, yet had no chance of defeating in a fight.

And yet, there was a group that had suppressed this terrifying Demon King and built a city above it.

They were called the Order of Reason, the group that held Room 206's most important secret.

That was why I had come down to Deep Paradise.

First, to learn how they had originally sealed the Demon King and discover its weakness.

Second, to find Mi-ro and Pero.

* * *

“Over a hundred years must have passed up there. I guess things are finally starting to happen?”

“...”

“Don't worry. It's a little chaotic right now, but we'll put the Demon King to sleep soon enough.”

The Ruler of Time.

That was what the Order of Reason called the treasure that shook up time.

The original's capabilities were beyond comparison with the degraded version Leon Kadyrov had used in Paradise.

According to the Director, it could turn back time, slow it down, speed it up, and perform all sorts of miracles.

As a Management Bureau agent, I could say with certainty that the Ruler of Time was not something humans had made.

Of course, the problem at hand was not the treasure's identity.

“C-close District 8! The contained entity has esca- Agh!”

“District 3, the Demon King-”

Screams rang out from every direction in real time, but the Director remained calm.

As if these sacrifices meant nothing.

Had the overwhelming pressure from the Demon King broken this woman's mind?

No. Someone so weak-willed could not have earned the grand title of Senior Executive in an organization like the Management Bureau.

There was something she trusted completely.

Did she trust the Ruler of Time? Or some phenomenon created through it?

Very interesting.

I had to uncover that secret.

The problem was...

“You said you'd put the Demon King to sleep soon, right?”

“I did.”

“It seems you, no, the Order, still have some kind of final solution left.”

“... I'm very busy right now-”

“What is it? The Ruler of Time? Or some other method?”

“...”

This woman had no intention of sharing that secret with me.

She only wanted to reassure me. She would not give me any meaningful information.

Why?

At best, I was around Airavata's “rank.”

During the first run, the Progenitor did not recognize Mi-ro's face when she came up from underground.

The residents of Paradise were ordinary humans, so they revered her as the Progenitor or a hero. But to the Order, she was at best a mid-level executive, perhaps even lower.

I understood.

I never bothered explaining things to low-level agents when I worked for the Management Bureau, either.

And this was an emergency, so there was even less time.

But.

I knew that whatever this woman was preparing, it would definitely fail!

If there were time, I might have tried to resolve this through a peaceful conversation, but I didn't have time.

A great deal of time must have passed outside already.

“...”

“You said your name was A-ri? I'm very busy right now-”

“Sorry.”

“Huh? What-”

--- Bang! Bang!

“Argh!”

Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger and killed the two soldiers near the Director, then lunged at her.

--- Graaaar!

As if it had been waiting, Pero transformed into the Grotesque and let out a thunderous roar, blocking the soldiers outside from interfering.

“You crazy-”

Just as I tried to grab the collar of that foul-mouthed, nasty Mi-ro, her body suddenly became semitransparent, and my hand passed through empty air.

It was an application of the Time Lender that Midnight Mi-ro had shown before.

I'd wondered whether it was possible, but I can't believe the Director can actually use the Time Lender!

--- Click!

The sound of a clock hand moving.

“Robert! Get this crazy woman off me!”

Robert appeared as the air distorted around it. It was an entity that resembled a humanoid robot.

Should I call that fortunate?

Because Ga-in had not suddenly appeared, unlike when the real Mi-ro used it?

--- Thud!

The Grotesque charged like lightning and tried to knock Robert away with a headbutt, but it failed!

Absurdly, the cyborg stopped Pero's charge with one hand, then fired from its other hand.

--- Bang! Bang-bang!

It wasn't holding a gun and firing it. Bullets were coming out of its hand!

What kind of monster was that? Wasn't it some cyborg weapon rather than a human?

As the Grotesque was quickly left covered in blood and groaning, I clenched my teeth, tightened my grip around Mi-ro's neck, and met her eyes.

“Ghk! Let go-”

Stop resisting and fall under Suggestion already!

Tell me everything you know, and let the real Mi-ro wake up too!

“Ghk!”

“Stop resisting!”

“Y-you... ‘You cannot harm me.’”

You could even use Mi-ro's “Voice”?

“I'm not trying to harm you!”

“Ghk!”

Old Blood's Suggestion wasn't working!

Why?

Could she be using Immutable Blessing too?

But she couldn't use the Stage 2 Power of Immutability, could she?

Or was it a scenario power unrelated to a blessing or Inheritance?

Was her mental resistance simply strong because she was an officer in an organization similar to the Management Bureau?

For a moment, countless question marks flashed through my mind.

Either way, my only remaining choice was stronger Suggestion.

--- Crunch!

I bit down hard on the inside of my mouth, my tongue, lips, and cheeks. Intense pain filled my mouth with thick blood.

Then I poured my blood into Mi-ro's mouth.

“Ghhhh!”

The Director's body, which had been twisting and resisting with all its strength, went limp.

At last, I entered the Director's vast mental world.

* * *

It suddenly occurred to me that it had been quite a while since I had gone beyond simple hypnosis and entered someone's mind itself.

When had I last done that?

When Seung-yeop was consumed by a Nightmare Butterfly?

I thought I had done it to Elena once after that, too.

My memory was hazy.

Either way, I hadn't done this kind of thing for some time.

Ga-in was much better at entering other people's minds and extracting information.

...

I calmly examined the Director's memories.

“Graduated high school early, entered one of America's top engineering schools on a full scholarship-”

Impressive, but the Management Bureau had people like that everywhere.

“A paper written during undergraduate studies on Chaos Entity Containment caught the Order's attention-”

Was this a world where information about Chaos Entities had spread widely enough for people to write papers about them?

“Made frequent mistakes in the field as a low-level member, but produced exceptional results in research-”

Even with such a ridiculous Inheritance as the Time Lender, she had been terrible in a physical fight. I guess she had no talent for fieldwork.

She seemed worse than me at this!

Memories summarizing the Director's life flew past.

Most of them were worthless information.

Knowing that time was passing even now made me feel stifled.

This was why I didn't usually do this kind of grunt work!

If it had been Ga-in, he would have only needed to use Possession for about ten seconds, and the Grimoire would have found the exact memories he needed on its own!

That was the problem with Old Blood.

In terms of versatility, it was like combining five or six Inheritances, but when examined one by one, each ability felt like an inferior version of a specialized Inheritance.

I used to think that wasn't a huge problem because versatility was such a great advantage, but seeing Mi-ro's Time Lender made me feel like I was getting the short end of the stick.

Wasn't the Time Lender, which could use Inheritances through an Inheritance, the ultimate overpowered Inheritance?

As I stewed in frustration within the Director's enormous memories...

“Huh? A-ri?”

A voice rang out in a place where no one else's voice should have been possible.

It belonged to someone I knew very well.

“... Mi-ro.”

“Huh? Oh! A-ri released my Sealing!”

“...”

Like this?

I hadn't expected Mi-ro to come looking for me directly.

I thought I would have to spend time reshaping the Director's mind, or bring Eun-sol in during the next run and have her play the Flute.

“Mi-ro. Did a notification appear saying your Sealing had been released?”

“A notification? I didn't see anything like that...”

The Sealing had not been released yet.

I had only found Mi-ro, who was trapped within the Director's mind. The Director still held control of the body.

Let's handle the urgent matter first.

“Sit beside me and-”

“A-ri! A-ri!”

“... What?”

“My mouth smells weird! Did I drink something strange?”

“...”

“Agh! I-I just saw it!”

It seemed that as her consciousness woke up, she was beginning to vaguely sense the state of her body.

“Why was A-ri k-k-kissing me-”

“Be quiet and listen to me!”

“... Okay.”

“Shut up, sit beside me, and think about the Demon King! Then that memory should surface.”

Mi-ro was flustered, but did as I told her.

A moment later.

“The seed of the End Times fell from the sky.”

This must be what it feels like to pause a ten-hour-long video right as the highlights begin!

I focused every bit of my attention on the Director's memories.

I couldn't miss a single word from this point on!

...

Now I finally knew.

I knew how the Order of Reason had first suppressed the Demon King before building Paradise.

I also understood, roughly, what kind of being the Demon King was.

... But.

I still didn't know how to “resolve” the unprecedented disaster known as the Demon King.

The Order of Reason had been defeated because they didn't know either.

“We'll have to think about the solution after we get out. First, we escape.”

So-

“A-ri! A-ri!”

Mi-ro urgently shook me.

“What is it? If it's because of the Sealing, I'm sorry. I don't know how to take you outside.”

We needed a power specialized in the mind, like Eun-sol's Flute-

“No, that's not it! While you were looking through the memories, Nobert? That robot killed Pero and was about to kill you, but-”

Oh my goodness.

I had nearly died without even realizing it.

“...”

What Mi-ro said next was deeply shocking.

“Ga-in appeared!”

“Huh?”

* * *

I returned to reality alone.

I couldn't find a way to pull Mi-ro's self, which I had found within the Director's vast mental world, outside.

If I had time to study it slowly, there might have been a way. But I had no time.

“...”

While I struggled within the Director's mind, Pero had long since become a lump of red flesh.

The cyborg called Robert, summoned by the Director, was serving a new master.

“You, how did-”

My companion, Han Ga-in, was controlling Robert to stop other soldiers from approaching.

Countless questions flashed through my mind the moment I saw him.

How had he appeared here?

Had he entered late because we had not returned?

That made no sense!

He didn't have eyes that could see in the dark like Eun-sol, nor did Luck follow him like it did Seung-yeop. How had he found the Research Lab so quickly?

--- Grab!

Before I could even finish speaking, Ga-in grabbed my hand with a desperate expression.

“How did you get in-”

“Explanations later!”

He looked so tense that he seemed ready to throw up, completely unlike himself.

“A-ri! Please! You found something out, right?”

“Huh? Huh?”

“Do it now! Right now!”

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 479

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