WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 460: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (22)
──────
- Mi-ro
I stayed perfectly still, without moving even a hair.
Now that the Power of Immutability protecting my body had run out, any careless movement was incredibly dangerous.
What if I moved fast enough to crack the concrete, like before?
Wouldn't my legs be crushed first?
Just thinking about it made my heart feel ready to burst.
It was amazing that I was still alive at all.
If I got technical, wasn't my heart beating at a hundred times its normal speed right now?
In that case, I should've died the instant the Power of Immutability ran out, but that wasn't happening either.
It was similar to how the person wearing them could move at a hundred times normal speed while their clothes remained intact.
Then again, even when Superman flew faster than light to turn back time on Earth, his tights were fine.
It seemed the Hotel overlooked little details like that.
Or perhaps the Power of Immutability protected clothes too?
I didn't know.
The important thing was that if I moved recklessly here, my entire body would be destroyed!
Think.
Think.
Think.
I'd never thought this hard in my life.
...
Forget thinking. In the middle of such an overwhelming crisis, only two faces came to mind.
Of those two, there was one person who could save me now.
--- Click!
Soon, my vision rippled, and a young man appeared before me.
* * *
- Kim A-ri
--- Rumble! Boom!
Everyone was stunned senseless by the thunderous explosion, as though the whole world were collapsing.
Jin-cheol, Seung-yeop, Elena, and I all stared at one another with our mouths hanging open.
The chaos didn't last long.
At most ten seconds, judging by how it felt. Maybe even less.
Then the deafening noise suddenly died down.
“A-A-ri, Sis!”
When Seung-yeop, still sprawled on the ground, pointed at my arm, I belatedly realized it was broken.
--- Crack!
“Done.”
“Ugh... Th-that fixed it?”
My body wasn't like an ordinary person's, so injuries like this regenerated quickly.
Then Cha Jin-cheol muttered, “I expected something like this, but this is excessive.”
I had already heard from Mi-ro that Immutability could resist time dilation.
So I'd considered the possibility that Mi-ro, freed from Sealing, might move extremely fast, but...
“I thought she'd be at most three or four times faster.”
“Yeah.”
It wasn't an unreasonable guess.
Medically speaking, the human body probably couldn't handle anything faster than that.
No matter how utterly clueless the Hotel's trashy idiots were, would they really let a sealed companion awaken only for that companion to die immediately?
Cause of death: the heart beating two hundred times faster?
That was ridiculous!
“Th-then, is Mi-ro okay right now?”
“...”
“We need to find Mi-ro as quickly as possible and-”
“She's coming. It looks like she solved something for now.”
Soon, Mi-ro appeared with the sound of footsteps.
“...”
There was something... something about her.
I knew it the moment I saw her.
“... Ga-in?”
“Wow! How did you know the moment you saw me?”
Everything about her gave it away.
Ga-in quickly explained what had happened.
He had suddenly awakened in the underground Research Lab, where Mi-ro was standing still with a face that looked ready to cry.
It seemed she'd fallen victim to an unknown curse and couldn't move.
“So you entered Mi-ro's body?”
“After I was in there for a while, the Grimoire told me.”
The temporary hyperacceleration had placed an immense strain on Mi-ro's body.
She had covered that strain with the Power of Immutability gained by strengthening her blessing, but all of that power had now run out.
“Are you okay now?”
“Seems so.”
Once the owner of Immutability had her body taken over, her blessing seemed to have temporarily stopped as well.
“...”
“...”
“...”
After a brief silence, Elena spoke.
“Most of the soldiers seem to have fainted or died.”
“Mi-ro swept through the Research Lab in ten seconds.”
“Wow... That's amazing!”
For some reason, Seung-yeop's pure admiration made me happy.
That aside, this situation was strange.
“I thought we'd receive a reward for awakening Mi-ro.”
“...”
“But Mi-ro went on a rampage by herself, then handed her body over to you.”
“Yeah.”
“Didn't you learn anything?”
When Ga-in, in Mi-ro's body, shook his head, Jin-cheol scratched his head and offered a suggestion.
“Can't you check the scenario? Ah, is that difficult since you're not in your own body? What if you return to your body for a moment... Could Mi-ro die while you're gone?”
“Ah, this is a difficult situation. Should I have checked the scenario as soon as I woke up?”
That wasn't it.
“No. Entering Mi-ro's body immediately was the right call. It may have been immediate by your standards, but it would've been very late by Mi-ro's. If you hadn't gone in right away and stared blankly at the scenario, Mi-ro would've died in the meantime.”
“Right.”
Seung-yeop asked, “Then what do we do now?”
“...”
“Do we m-move directly to the City Control Device?”
“No.”
There had to be a reward for releasing Mi-ro's Sealing.
There had to be.
We couldn't recklessly end Room 206 before obtaining it.
We put our heads together and thought it over.
Since Mi-ro had already demolished the Research Lab's soldiers, we had time to think.
Fortunately, every problem had an answer of its own.
* * *
- Mi-ro
...
...
...
I woke in darkness.
“Ah! I can't wake up! I'll die!”
“...”
I wasn't dead.
And in front of me stood a girl who looked like me.
“A-riii! I'm telling you, I'll die!”
I cautiously approached A-ri and gave her a small tap.
“... Look at you acting all cute.”
Then I heard A-ri's voice at a “normal speed.”
“Huh? Huh? How did you do that? A-ri doesn't have Immutability-”
A thin white finger darted toward me and pressed against my lips.
“Quiet. Talking interferes with thinking.”
“...”
“Think about it. You've already had a similar experience.”
A similar experience.
While half-awake, I had realized that time was passing rapidly for my body.
Yet I could still speak with A-ri and exchange ideas without any major difficulty.
Right.
I'd experienced something like this recently.
“This isn't reality.”
“It's inside your mind. Like last time, I entered this place using the power of Old Blood.”
“...”
“While you were asleep, I used your body to tamper with the various devices in the Research Lab.”
“Did you find anything?”
“No. There was nothing special. If there had been, we'd have found it last time.”
“...”
This wasn't the first time the companions had reached the Research Lab and secured the Director's body.
“When someone awakens a sealed being, the Hotel gives a reward. It always has.”
Ga-in, who awakened in Room 201, had practically solved the room alone.
Elena, who awakened in Room 202, knew many secrets concerning Lee Su-ho and the Sea God.
A-ri, who awakened in Room 203, had used authority beyond an AI's to uncover forgotten history.
Ga-in, who awakened in Room 205, defeated the Fire Cult Leader, and that had been a key element of the solution.
There had to be something for me too.
Even if it wasn't perfect, there had to be something at least loosely connected to solving this room.
“Think. Doesn't anything come to mind? Secret information even the Director had forgotten? Or something incredible you can do now?”
“...”
Secret information even the Director had forgotten.
For a member of the Order, forgetting wasn't the same as an ordinary person simply failing to remember something.
Sometimes they were forcibly made to forget because the information was more than they could bear, because they weren't qualified to possess it.
“... Ah.”
“Did something come back to you?”
“End-of-the-World Countermeasure Meeting.”
“What? End-of-the-World Countermeasure Meeting?”
It was a special memory.
An incomprehensible experience, even to the Director, who had encountered all manner of mysteries as a high-ranking member of the Order.
That was why the Director had forgotten it.
Had to forget it.
The Director's rank had been 9=2 Magus (Senior Executive), one step below the ultimate.
This information had been permitted only to the 10=1 Ipsissimus.
But the Memory Prohibition Technique cast on the Director meant nothing to me.
The Order's Memory Prohibition Technique could never withstand the authority of Immutability, which even resisted time distortion!
“Ah, ah, ah...”
Like a tightly knotted ball of thread suddenly unraveling, like a solid lock melting in lava, a terrible memory seeped into my mind.
A memory from long ago.
...
...
...
「End-of-the-World Countermeasure Meeting
I see a masked being seated at the head of the conference hall.
People have gathered in the hall, frozen in terror.
One of them is me. No, the “Director.”
The masked one opens their mouth.
“Dear comrades of the Order, as you know, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Our efforts to suppress the Demon King have failed.”
An old man cries out as though having a seizure.
“Th-that can't be! Indomitable Reason and the Ruler of Time, those great powers put the Demon King to sleep-”
“Don't say something even you don't believe.”
“Gah!”
The masked one calmly continues as if nothing had happened.
“We amplify Indomitable Reason with the Ruler of Time to put the Demon King to sleep. During the time we gain, we build a city and suppress the Demon King with humanity's spiritual mass. Every part of it is only a stopgap measure.”
Those gathered in the conference hall, even the Director, tremble and shrink back.
The Order of Reason had fought demons, gods, cultists, and monsters that had threatened humanity for ages.
Even for the high-ranking members of such an organization, the fear of the End Times was difficult to endure.
And the Ipsissimus's words revealed a truth.
The Order had known from the beginning.
The Ruler of Time, Indomitable Reason, and even building the city were all temporary measures.
They could buy time, but they couldn't fundamentally resolve the problem of the Demon King.
“So I have made a decision.”
“A-a decision? What are you saying? You made that decision without telling us beforehand!”
And -
Ah, ah, ah!
My head hurts.
That man, that woman... no, that thing?
People suddenly scream and collapse.
I hear a voice.
“Everyone, I have already been saved. So pray.”
Beep---!」
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 538
Current Location: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 3
Mi-ro Awakening. City Control Device secured.]
- Han Ga-in
“How much time has passed?”
At the Floating Mansion, Sang-hyeon, who had been looking through documents in my place for quite some time, asked me.
“Day 481, was it? About fifty-eight days have passed since we entered.”
“Then roughly forty days remain. When do you intend to end this room?”
“... I'm not sure.”
End this room.
It was a strange way to put it.
As though we could stop Room 206's progress and leave whenever we wanted.
Yet it wasn't wrong.
Not long ago, someone had manipulated the Status Window to convey important information.
‘Mi-ro Awakening. City Control Device secured.’
At this point, our escape was assured.
If we activated the device and fed all surviving humanity into Indomitable Reason, the Demon King's rampage in the depths would be halted for quite a long time.
“It's reassuring to hear that the City Control Device has been secured.”
“... Yeah.”
“It seems Mi-ro down below summoned you, Ga-in. You can communicate with her in real time by manipulating the Status Window, correct?”
“The flow of time is different, so it's inconvenient, but it is possible.”
“Then you only need to signal that it's time to end this.”
“That's right.”
“The Sacred Sun's charge is almost complete too, isn't it?”
“... Yes.”
“That's fortunate.”
For some time now, Sang-hyeon had been gently suggesting it to me.
We had learned enough information and gained a rough idea of the solution.
The Sacred Sun was nearly charged too, so we should wrap this up and move on to the next round.
“Let's wait a little longer. Oh, I have somewhere to be, so I'll head out for a while.”
“Understood.”
Sang-hyeon saw me off with a light nod.
* * *
When I reached the garden outside the Floating Mansion that Song-i liked, I saw Grandfather.
“What is it all of a sudden? You even pressed the emergency contact button.”
“... I wanted to see you without the people around me knowing.”
“People around you? Is there someone suspicious around you now? Is one of the servants a spy for the mayor?”
“No.”
These days, there was only one person around me.
“If you suspect someone, tell Sang-hyeon. Do you know how varied that guy's experience is? Sang-hyeon can size up most people at a glance-”
“It's him.”
For a moment, the garden fell silent.
“Explain in detail.”
“...”
Something was strange.
I couldn't say exactly what it was, but something was strange.
For example...
“I recently called Sang-hyeon ‘uncle.’”
“...”
“He hated it and said he'd rather I called him ‘sir.’”
“You think that's strange?! You idiot! Of course that'd make him feel bad!”
“I-Is that so? So next time, I called him ‘big bro.’”
“Much better. Don't tell me that's why you suspect Sang-hyeon?”
“Uh...”
That wasn't all.
There was something else...
“He wants to end the room soon?”
“Hmm. I'm getting tired too, but every run through Room 206 is awfully long, isn't it?”
“Um...”
“He openly says things like we've learned enough already and done everything we need to do?”
“Oh! That is a little unusual. We usually avoid saying things like, ‘We're almost finished,’ because it feels like bad luck.”
“...”
“Have you used Sage’s Advice?”
“I only started thinking something was strange today. I'll use it now.”
[Sage’s Advice: 3 -> 2]
‘Is Kim Sang-hyeon's current condition normal?’
Footnotes:
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