WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 467: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (26)
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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 554
Current Location: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
According to Sang-hyeon's experience, the Sacred Domain was filled with copies of us with distorted blessings and Inheritances.
Given the circumstances, perhaps the Demon King had recognized us and manifested them according to its own whims.
If its goal was to shake our minds, I'd say it was half successful.
Like now.
“Cough! Kgh! H-hyung... Ga-in hyung...”
“...”
--- Crack!
Looking at Seung-yeop as he grew cold, I felt conflicted.
I knew the real one was outside, but that didn't make it easy.
The real problem, though, wasn't that bitter feeling.
“Seung-yeop with the Status Window and Old Blood right from the start...”
The Sacred Domain's trials differed depending on who entered.
According to the Ipsissimus waiting at the end, specially tailored trials had been prepared for us.
Sang-hyeon had experienced trials far more difficult than those faced by the Demon King Cult.
And it seemed the Demon King had prepared something even more exhausting for me.
Why the hell was it doing this?
“...”
Sang-hyeon had said he spent a long time figuring out what abilities the copies in each room possessed before clearing them.
I didn't have that kind of time.
Hadn't A-ri told me to return within a day or two if possible?
* * *
The moment I came to my senses, I examined my surroundings.
A chaotic, vast plain filled with dust.
Half-collapsed concrete buildings stood in every direction, and there were even fighter jets in the sky!
Was the setting a battlefield?
Then I was-
[Advice: 3 -> 2]
[Get down.]
Before I could even think, my body was already pressed against the ground.
As if it had been waiting for me, a sharp sound tore through the battlefield.
--- Bang!
“What the hell? A sniper shot as soon as I arrive?”
Wasn't this a little too much, you Demon King bastard?
Even the Hotel's real Curse Rooms didn't start shooting at you the second you entered!
--- Bang! Bang, bang!
I crawled frantically across the ground and took cover behind a partially destroyed wall.
Who was the enemy in this room?
Judging by the way they could shoot with ghostly accuracy from a distance where I couldn't even see them, it wasn't someone like Seung-yeop or Song-i.
It had to be one of the three Kims: Kim Mook-seong, Kim A-ri, or Kim Sang-hyeon-
--- Whoosh!
As I watched an anti-tank rocket soar toward me as though it intended to blow away the entire wall, I decided that from here on, I needed to stop holding back.
--- Fwoosh!
The moment flames ignited, the flow of everything slowed.
The rocket suddenly looked like a balloon drifting lazily through the air.
Then my outstretched hand casually struck its side.
--- Boom!
“Ah.”
I'd meant to swat it away with my hand like a superhero in a movie, but instead of being deflected, it exploded.
Reality and movies really were different.
Of course, even with a rocket exploding right in front of me, all I felt now was a slight sting in my eyes, so it wasn't a big deal.
--- Whoosh!
I kicked off the ground and rose into the sky, observing the world below.
“...”
The Sacred Sun's power was fundamentally similar to Descent.
After all, both powers had been created by the same being.
The difference was that its output was much lower, but it could be used continuously through charging.
“...”
My perception expanded endlessly in real time, examining every corner of the surroundings.
I sensed landmines buried in the dirt.
I knew the speed of the bombers flying far overhead.
I saw the greed of termites gnawing through an old wooden building.
At last, the drifting feather and the subtle eddies around it seemed to settle at my fingertips.
“Found you.”
I discovered a human hiding between matchbox-like concrete buildings, directing hostility at me.
--- Rumble!
It took less than three seconds to close a distance of more than five hundred meters.
Perhaps he spotted me through binoculars, because he tried to flee in surprise. It was as pointless as a turtle trying to avoid a hawk.
Soon, the identity of the enemy who had so generously gifted me bullets and rockets was revealed.
“No wonder you handle weapons so well. It was you, hyung.”
For both our sakes, I had no intention of dragging this fight out, so I held out my hand.
A delicate flame blooming at my fingertips burned through the air as it flew forward.
A small question suddenly came to mind.
What principle allowed me to fire flames like this?
“...”
Like most Inheritances, I could use the power without understanding how it worked.
If I had to describe it, it felt like breathing hot air out through my fingertips and using my nose to control its direction.
It sounded absurd even to me, but I couldn't explain it any better.
The flames that would turn a protein-based human to ash before they could understand what had happened reached the building.
--- Flash!
A pure white flash instantly cut off all five of my senses!
“Urgh! Don't tell me he had the bracelet-”
I'd often noticed while watching Song-i that the bracelet's range wasn't very long.
That meant when I entered its range, the fake should have already been moments away from being struck by the flames!
So that fake would die soon, and the illusion would be lifted-
--- Click!
“Fuck!”
Oh my.
I'd stepped on a landmine in that brief moment?
--- Boom!
As the deafening blast sent me flying into the air, I had a thought.
I was pretty ridiculous myself, walking away from all this unharmed, but did it make any sense for there to be a landmine in exactly this spot?
How could anyone possibly predict where I'd move after briefly losing control in flight because of the bracelet?
No matter how unlucky I was-
“Ah.”
As I looked at Kim Sang-hyeon's copy, now a half-charred lump of flesh, I realized it.
That bastard had Luck in addition to the bracelet.
...
A door leading to the next trial appeared.
I was starting to get nervous, because even a moment's thought brought a very troublesome combination to mind.
* * *
--- Whoooosh!
Everything around me was white.
A blizzard raged so fiercely that I could barely see ahead.
“... Anyone is fine, so please just show up already.”
Every step sank into the snow, making movement painfully slow.
I considered summoning the sun again and flying, but it wasn't an easy choice.
“...”
The Sacred Sun was ultimately a consumable resource. How could I use it recklessly when I didn't even know where the enemy was?
Then again, using the sun would make finding that enemy easier too.
“Should I just use the sun...?”
--- Rustle!
Someone was nearby!
And very close.
“Achoo!”
A silver-haired girl, Mi-ro, appeared.
“...”
Seeing the silver-haired, red-eyed girl emerge from the blizzard, it truly looked like a scene from a dream.
Any man with ordinary sensibilities would stare at that sight as though bewitched.
“Ugh... It's cold! Ga-in? You’re Ga-in, right?”
“...”
She was only a fake copied by the Demon King.
There was no reason to let my heart be swayed over something so pointless.
Without hesitation, I opened the Grimoire.
“Huh? Huh? What’s that... Hngh!”
Since she wouldn't have Immutability anyway, there was no need to use Possession. I held the Grimoire before Mi-ro's eyes.
Soon, with the sound of the fake Mi-ro's retinas rupturing, the girl trembled and collapsed into the snow.
“... What?”
I expected her to resist me by using some blessing or Inheritance, but she had nothing.
She died like an ordinary civilian with no power at all.
“This can't be right.”
Was her blessing or Inheritance something unsuited for combat?
For example, the blessing of Wealth?
“...”
I lightly touched her body to check, but she was definitely dead.
She had looked at the Grimoire without resisting, so there was no way an ordinary body could survive.
Just as I tilted my head, unable to understand the situation-
--- Raaaaa!
A golden tide burning white swept away the blizzard in an instant and engulfed me!
“Argh! What a dirty trick!”
She appeared alongside endlessly spinning Scales.
The real enemy of this trial was Justice Mi-ro!
“The first Mi-ro was just a trigger to activate Justice?”
If I'd known this would happen, I shouldn't have killed her!
Ha, there was no point thinking that.
If the same situation came again, I would definitely kill her again.
--- Fwoosh!
The sun ignited once more.
This time, I chose to run.
* * *
The blizzard was harsh enough to freeze an ordinary human to death in moments, but it couldn't stop the one pursuing me.
Of course, the same went for me, running from that damned Justice Mi-ro!
--- Raaaaa!
I was moving faster than most light aircraft, yet the distance between us didn't grow.
Should I just fight her head-on?
The blessing of Justice had demanding conditions, but once activated, it was incomparably stronger than other blessings.
Even so, couldn't I fight her as I was now?
--- Rumble!
As I twisted my body to avoid a shockwave that seemed capable of splitting the sky, overwhelming force struck the ground.
The sight of a massive avalanche erupting at once left me breathless.
It wasn't a question of whether I could win through force.
Let's say I could.
How much of the Sacred Sun's power would I have to use?
I'd spent two precious Curse Room attempts charging it with unimaginable difficulty!
I couldn't waste that precious power on some puppet made by the Demon King, not the Demon King itself.
“...”
I turned my head slightly and looked at the fake Mi-ro.
Her expression was stiff as stone, one the real Mi-ro could never make.
“...”
The blessing of Justice was greatly affected by the user's mental state.
She was trying to kill me because she'd seen me murder an innocent civilian.
Not even my real companions knew yet that I'd understood The Second Sentence.
--- Crackle!
The moment I manifested the Grimoire and Sacred Sun at the same time, a tremendous headache struck me.
Soon, another Ga-in, blazing brightly in midair, appeared.
There was no need to explain what to do.
We were beings born from the same root, after all.
He grinned so evilly that even I almost laughed, struck my body down into the snow, then flew into the air.
“...”
I lay still in the snow.
It was so damn cold that my entire body felt like it would freeze, but this was the time to endure.
A performance filled with soul always came with a little pain.
“...”
A little noise came from the sky.
The other me had put up a token struggle before vanishing as if he had no choice.
And then...
Along with crunching footsteps, I felt her approach.
“...”
A performance filled with soul!
Until a moment ago, I had been controlled by an evil spirit.
The one who killed the innocent Mi-ro was the evil spirit that had just left my body!
I was a victim controlled by the evil spirit.
I wasn't an evil person who deserved to be punished by Justice.
“Ga-in! A-are you okay? Aren't you cold?”
Her voice held no hostility.
Still, I couldn't let down my guard yet.
“Uugh...”
“Ga-in!”
“What... happened...?”
“Are you okay? A strange monster was hiding in Ga-in's body!”
“... A monster?”
She fell for it, right?
Then it was about time-
[Advice: 2 -> 1]
[Lie Detection in progress.]
She was more thorough than the real Mi-ro?
“Ga-in, tell me honestly what happened.”
“... A strange, strange room. When I entered it, bizarre things I'd never experienced before started happening.”
“And?”
“At some point... I think I split in two. Sometimes it feels like another me is controlling my body.”
I told her only the truth, exactly as it was.
“... It's true. What could've happened? Get up for now. Don't forget that Mi-ro saved you!”
The girl helped me up with a triumphant expression.
Having finished using both Justice and Lie Detection, she resembled the Mi-ro I knew quite a lot.
That was because every copy in the Sacred Domain retained a considerable portion of the original's memories.
This was a being who knew me and believed herself to be Mi-ro.
So she would definitely have feelings for me.
“It's a little cold.”
“Huh? C-cold?”
“Mi-ro, won't you come over here? It might be warmer if we stick together.”
“Argh! W-what are you saying? A-ri would be shocked if she heard you-”
“Come on! A-ri isn't here right now.”
“...”
Her face instantly turned as red as a carrot, and she came closer to me.
“J-just for a moment! It's only because it's so cold right now...”
“... What was Mi-ro's Inheritance again?”
“My Inheritance? Ah, it's the Otherworldly Star Fragm-”
--- Flap!
A book covered the girl's eyes.
With that, the confusion in the Snowfield came to an end.
“There can't be an enemy worse than Justice Mi-ro, right?”
The door to the next trial opened.
Judging by the number, it was probably the final trial.
Footnotes:
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