Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 449

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 448: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (13)

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- Kim A-ri

According to the information we had obtained from the mayor and the Progenitor on the surface, two main forces had kept the Demon King suppressed until now.

The first was humanity itself, living within cities built atop Demon King fragments scattered across the world.

The second was the Indomitable Reason the Order of Reason had created beneath all those cities.

The first, the cities, could not have been built in a short time. They could not have been the force that initially suppressed the Demon King.

How had the Order of Reason put the Demon King to sleep before building the cities?

I had entered Deep Paradise to find that answer, and at last, I learned it within the Director's mind.

The Order's true strength, something even the Progenitor or mayor on the surface had never known existed.

A great miracle that treated even the mayor's One More Chance, which had shocked us by turning back time, as an inferior product.

The Ruler of Time was the answer.

According to modern physics, even black holes, which have the longest lifespans in the universe, are mortal beings that will one day evaporate.

The interesting thing was that a black hole's lifespan was relative.

To an outside observer, a black hole could endure for eons, so long that even hundreds of billions or trillions of years might feel like an instant. Yet from the black hole's own perspective, it was a different story.

That was because black holes created the most extreme time distortion in the universe.

From a black hole's perspective, it might explosively evaporate in just ten minutes.

The extreme time distortion simply turned those ten minutes into eternity for those outside.

A black hole's ten minutes could feel like eons to us.

An explosive event for a black hole could appear to us as the slowest phenomenon in the universe.

That was time distortion.

And that was also the principle behind how the Ruler of Time had initially suppressed the Demon King.

Suppose they offered one hundred thousand people to the Indomitable Reason every day.

It sounded like an enormous number, but humanity at its peak on Earth had reached eight billion, and around three hundred thousand people were born each day.

To an organization like the Management Bureau or the Order of Reason, it was a number they could manage.

The problem was that one hundred thousand human sacrifices a day had been far too few to suppress the Demon King.

According to the Order of Reason's calculations, they needed to offer at least fifty million people every day.

Fifty million people a day?

Humanity could never bear that unless it had conquered the galaxy and reached a population of around one hundred trillion.

So the Order of Reason distorted time around the locations where the Demon King fragments had fallen.

Just as a black hole's ten minutes could become eternity to us, what if one day for the Demon King became ten years for humanity?

What if the pressure created by one hundred million souls sacrificed by humanity over ten years could be inflicted upon the Demon King in a single day?

The Order's wish to somehow preserve humanity had been fulfilled.

Of course, the Ruler of Time was not an item that could be used endlessly, so this method only provided temporary peace.

The Ruler of Time had bought the Order time to build the cities.

* * *

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

“Huh? What?”

“Do it! Right now!”

The moment I heard Ga-in's desperate voice, I realized it.

Time in the outside world was passing much faster than I had expected.

What day was it now?

If it were around Day 80, he wouldn't be this terrified!

It had to be Day 90, no, sometime after Day 95. Maybe-

Ga-in suddenly opened his eyes wide and fixed his gaze on empty space.

Had the Owl given him some advice?

Then Ga-in's body collapsed to the floor.

“What the-”

--- Squeeze!

Soft and warm.

The smell of blood was unfortunate, but there was also a faintly sweet scent-

“Eek!”

“Argh!”

“What the hell is this?!”

“Th-the Sponsor told me to enter Mi-ro's body right away-”

“Why did you touch me?!”

“I-I grabbed whatever I could while trying to stand up, and it happened to be-”

C-calm down.

This idiot had panicked because of the advice, entered Mi-ro's body in a fluster, and started struggling around.

“... Let's just go.”

Ga-in, inhabiting Mi-ro's body, and I headed for the City Control System the Order had built in Deep Paradise.

For some reason, I wondered whether that embarrassing incident from earlier had happened between Mi-ro and me, or Ga-in and me.

* * *

“Aaagh! D-District 17...”

Order researchers screamed from every direction.

In the middle of it all, Ga-in, who had been running down the corridor, gaped.

“No... This is ridiculous...!”

“You've already read the Director's memories?”

It had only been about ten seconds since he had used Possession to enter the Director's body, yet Ga-in had already begun to understand.

The Grimoire was specialized for this sort of thing, but the gap in speed compared to Old Blood was so great that I felt a momentary pang of jealousy.

Ga-in spoke urgently.

“I know how they initially sealed the Demon King.”

“That was fast.”

“They used the Ruler of Time to create time dilation and put the Demon King to sleep, then built the cities. After that, the mass of the billions of people gathered in those cities could suppress the Demon King, so the Ruler of Time stopped operating.”

“That's right.”

The Ruler of Time was not something that could be used endlessly.

According to the Progenitor, there had been exchanges between Deep Paradise and the cities until roughly a hundred years ago by outside standards. There probably hadn't been any time distortion then.

Ga-in continued, his expression desperate.

Time was running out, and this was no time for conversation, but there were some conversations that absolutely had to happen now.

“Recently, maybe around a hundred and twenty years ago by Paradise time but recently by Deep Paradise time, the Director used the Ruler of Time again. Why?”

“The Demon King must have started acting up again. So they used the same method as before.”

It wasn't difficult to understand.

Just as before, they had turned decades in Paradise into one day for the Demon King, then inflicted the suppressive force the Indomitable Reason had generated over those decades upon the Demon King in a single day.

Ga-in spoke even faster, even more urgently.

“Fuck! I don't know!”

“Don't swear through Mi-ro's mouth. What don't you know?”

“Why is it failing? I've torn through every last part of the Director's memories, but I don't know!”

Ga-in had obtained all of the Director's memories, yet he did not know why it had failed.

Thinking about it, that was only natural.

The Director had firmly believed they could put the Demon King to sleep.

The Director had expected success. How could searching through those memories reveal a reason even the Director had not known?

That meant we had to figure it out.

The Order's plan to suppress the Demon King through time dilation had succeeded the first time. Why was it failing now?

How had real history, the history we had not intervened in, played out?

A variable that had already occurred, one the Order had failed to consider, flashed through my mind.

Mayor Leon Kadyrov, who had not even known that he was terminally ill.

In the original history, he must have died suddenly, causing the Indomitable Reason to stop.

That was no longer a problem.

Song-i had inherited the position of mayor and should be handling it well.

Then what was the problem-

“Kyaaaaaah!!”

As if it had been waiting, a piercing scream that seemed ready to tear through my eardrums erupted right beside me!

“Argh! M-Mi-ro?! No, Han Ga-in!”

Ga-in suddenly dropped to the floor, rolled his eyes back, and let out a monstrous howl!

Only then did I remember what had happened during the first attempt at Room 206.

Ga-in and Elena had seen Mi-ro underground, transformed into a servant of the Demon King.

Could Mi-ro be turning into the Demon King's servant because of this phenomenon?

Then this was the process of the Demon King taking control of Mi-ro-

The Grimoire appeared, black as tar.

Ga-in gripped the Grimoire with his eyes wide open, radiating a sinister aura.

In that fleeting instant, an invisible battle that no one could interfere with unfolded.

By the time foam began spilling from Mi-ro's mouth, the outcome of the incomprehensible struggle that had turned Mi-ro's body into a battlefield had been decided.

“Hoo... It's done.”

“A-are you okay? Are you really Han Ga-in?”

“I am. Let's go again.”

The Grimoire's power had driven away the Demon King's power, which had been trying to seize Mi-ro's body!

... Black blood poured nonstop from Mi-ro's eyes, nose, and mouth.

She probably would not live long.

At this point, it did not matter.

Just before, the Director had nearly had their body taken by the Demon King.

In the original history, the rampaging Director must have destroyed everything with their own hands.

This was also a second variable the Director had not known about.

But even that was not the fundamental cause of failure.

* * *

At last, we arrived at the place in Deep Paradise that could control the entire city.

“...”

We had read the Director's memories. We knew what we had to do.

We had come prepared.

Even so, the moment we stood before the control device, both Ga-in and I stopped walking.

“... A-ri. I think I'll have a lot to say when we get out this time.”

“Probably. It's good that we obtained so much information.”

“Yeah.”

As everything from the second attempt drew to a close, I could say it with certainty.

We had learned so much during this attempt.

Except for one thing.

“There is one thing I just can't figure out.”

Ga-in nodded as well.

“How are we supposed to resolve this room?”

“... Exactly.”

The Paradise control device before us was the Order's final measure.

It was their last hope for when even the Ruler of Time failed to suppress the Demon King.

It was also the only path for us to escape this horrible Room 206.

But.

“This can never be the way to resolve Room 206.”

With this method, we might escape, but it would never be a solution. Never!

Looking like he did not understand it either, Ga-in approached the control device.

Soon, a gloomy voice seeped from Mi-ro's blood-soaked body.

“I, Hierarchy 2=9 of the Order of Reason, command under the authority of a Senior Executive.”

--- Hummm!

In response to the voice of the Director, the Research Lab's highest decision-maker, the final measure began to activate.

“There will surely be painful sacrifices. But the price will be humanity's continued existence... For that, no matter how many people die, it will never be an excessive sacrifice.”

It did not sound like something Ga-in had come up with on the spot.

It was probably an activation phrase the Director had prepared for a horrific future that might one day arrive.

--- Rumble!

The Order's final measure was nothing special.

It was not as though some unimaginable third method would suddenly appear.

If such a method existed, they would have used it long ago.

If they could not suppress the Demon King even after amplifying the Indomitable Reason with the Ruler of Time, there was only one option left.

‘More sacrifices.’

Then the cursed declaration rang out.

“I hereby carry out the death sentences of all 2.34 billion people who have survived until this point. We will begin everything anew...”

Everything was over.

Still, some among us would be given a little time.