Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 473

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 472: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (31)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 573

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

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

The moment Ipsissimus leaped into the Sacred Sun, I felt an absurd amount of spiritual mass.

“What? How many people are there?”

I'd put souls numbering in the hundreds of thousands into the Sacred Sun before, but the spiritual mass Ipsissimus forced into it while undergoing Unification with the Sacred Sun was shockingly immense.

How many people were there, really? This wasn't just a mere hundred thousand.

One million? Ten million? Or even more?

The number was so ridiculously huge that I couldn't begin to grasp it.

“... What? Something's a little strange-”

Something was wrong.

Ipsissimus’s ‘Unification’ was subtly different from the soul-devouring I'd carried out with the Sacred Sun.

If I'd had time, I would've checked what this bastard Ipsissimus had done, but-

There was no time to think.

--- Rumble!

“Ah! The Demon King is waking up!”

The underground city began collapsing in an instant, and A-ri staggered as she lost her balance.

I quickly moved to fly away with A-ri-

“M-Mi-ro! Mi-ro's on the ground!”

“...”

I'd controlled Mi-ro's body with the Power of the Avatar and manipulated the City Control Device in Deep Paradise.

Right now, Mi-ro was unconscious on the ground.

... There was no time.

“We'll meet Mi-ro outside. If the plan goes smoothly, we won't need Mi-ro anymore.”

“... Go.”

I immediately soared into the sky.

* * *

--- Rumble!

The underground city, which held all of humanity's efforts to stop the End Times, was collapsing.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the ceiling was also falling apart, so I didn't need to make a path myself.

As I performed acrobatic maneuvers to avoid chunks of concrete falling from every direction, I sensed that the flow of time had returned to normal.

The date changes that had been occurring every few minutes had stopped as well.

That meant we'd escaped Deep Paradise.

--- Gooooo!

A nightmarish roar echoed from the abyss.

The Demon King was surely climbing toward the surface now.

I resisted the urge to turn around and check, continuing to fly.

Upward, upward, higher!

By the time the collapsing landscape of Paradise came into view, A-ri, who had been flying nearby, approached me.

“C-Can you, huff! Can you see the others?”

A-ri sounded exhausted from the intense flight that seemed to be testing the limits of the Wing Boots. I looked around.

It wasn't difficult to find the others. They'd all turned into statues radiating golden light.

“They're over there.”

“Huff! Where? Where is over there? Ah, I can't see that far with my eyesight-”

--- Grab!

I quickly reached out, grabbed A-ri, and moved.

A moment later, something resembling a writhing, viscous liquid swept through the spot where we'd been.

“Uh, uh-”

The Demon King had begun to seriously affect the surface.

There was nowhere safe to rest.

“We have to go higher. Hold my hand from now on.”

We had to go higher.

Not just out of Deep Paradise or Paradise. We had to leave Earth itself!

As I soared toward the towering sky, an unavoidable concern seized me.

What about the plan we'd made on our fourth attempt?

Before the Demon King could devour human souls, we'd temporarily slaughter humanity. Once the Demon King realized there was no food left and departed Earth, we'd revive everyone.

There were too many logical gaps in that plan.

The others had pointed out problems from several angles too.

For example, what about the other cities beyond Paradise?

Those cities had also restricted entry and cut off the water supply, but there was no guarantee that no survivors remained.

What if the ruling class in those cities hoarded what water was left and held out?

Let's set that problem aside.

Even if some survivors remained scattered across Earth, the Demon King would still feel that prey had become extremely scarce. It wouldn't be a fundamental failure.

A tiger couldn't be satisfied just because a few rabbits remained.

The real problem was the Demon King's actions.

Would the Demon King truly leave just because Earth had run out of food?

I couldn't be certain about that part, no matter what else.

... Were the others alive?

「Companion Location Information(*)」

“They're all still alive.”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

Wasn't it obvious they were alive because we'd used the Hourglass?

Not at all!

The absolute inviolability of the week created by the Hourglass.

I could say with certainty that it was the ultimate wisdom and miracle humanity could never attain.

Cosmic despair that devoured stars in a single breath covered the surface, yet even the mighty Demon King couldn't break through the miracle created by a tool no bigger than a child's fist.

Only the Demon King? Of course not!

The Demon King was only being humiliated because the stage was Room 206. Any other Prisoner would have been the same.

The Director, the Nebula Dragon, the Devourer, the Lord, the Zero-Dimensional Eye, the Sea God, Adravita, and even that pitiful someone from Room 205.

No matter how great a Prisoner was, they couldn't break through the Hourglass's inviolability.

How was something like this even possible?

The answer was simple.

This place wasn't reality, but a kind of enormous simulation. Those who created the simulation had given the Hourglass that authority.

No matter how powerful a god inside a simulation was, it couldn't break through developer tools.

I needed to remember that.

As the absurd tool called the Hourglass proved, a Curse Room wasn't reality but a kind of high-difficulty test created by the Hotel.

What mattered was the Hotel's evaluation.

We didn't need to find a perfect answer to receive a resolution judgment in a Curse Room.

It wasn't possible to begin with, and we'd never found such an answer.

Looking back, even the answers we'd found in other rooms had been ambiguous or left anxiety about the future.

Of course they had.

Could a few mortals with some supernatural powers perfectly prevent the End Times after only a few weeks or months of thought?

Wouldn't that mean the natives of that world, who'd failed to prevent the End Times, were complete idiots?

“...”

It didn't have to be perfect, but it needed to be plausible.

Even if there were gaps, the direction had to make sense. It had to be something like, ‘For people at your level, this was good enough.’

Were we writing a plausible answer on our test paper?

“Huff! G-Ga-in...”

A-ri's panting voice.

She'd seemed to be struggling for a while, but now she really seemed to be at her limit.

“I... I think... this is my limit.”

I was sorry to say it, but A-ri didn't seem like she'd be much help at this point.

The same would have been true of anyone else, not just A-ri.

“Hold on a little longer. Just a little longer.”

Even so, two people were better than one.

--- Raaaaa!

Earth was no longer humanity's domain.

Incomprehensible majesty and waves filled with impulse swept over the entire planet.

A mad Creator, a starving beast, had risen.

“A-ri, I'll carry you on my back now, so close your eyes.”

If she looked directly at something like that, A-ri, weakened as she was, might die immediately.

I flew higher.

Beyond Deep Paradise, beyond Paradise, beyond the sky-

「Companion Location Information(*)

Kim A-ri: Space」

“Ah.”

Her location had changed to ‘Space.’

I had, in other words...

Flown into space with my bare body.

“...”

At that moment, I forgot everything.

The suffering I'd endured at the Hotel, my longing for my family, my worries about the Grimoire and the Sacred Sun, what we should do about Room 206, what the Demon King even-

The thoughts that had crowded my mind until a moment ago vanished in an instant.

“A-A-ri! We, we made it to space! I-I flew into space with my bare body!”

Unfortunately, A-ri had long since passed out from lack of oxygen and couldn't share this overwhelming feeling.

“Ah, ah, ah...”

From the highest place in the world, I looked down on the planet.

Its condition was far from the Earth I knew, but that didn't change the fact that I'd reached space.

Only after arriving in space with my bare body did I realize that I'd truly reached a great realm.

An indescribable sense of omnipotence soaked into my soul, one that even the despair brought by the Demon King couldn't take away.

Without realizing it, a tear rolled down my cheek.

Then I heard a voice in space.

“I'm envious.”

“... You.”

“I can feel how you feel right now.”

“...”

“I'm truly envious. What does it feel like?”

“...”

“As far as I know, no human has ever reached such a realm. No, the word human feels inadequate for you.”

“...”

“You are a Taoist immortal, a Buddhist bodhisattva, and a Christian angel.”

Absurdly, the moment I realized Ipsissimus had revealed the final move, my awe shattered and I returned to reality.

“I knew you had some kind of scheme, but are you finally going to reveal it?”

“Ha ha! A scheme?”

I said that, but I didn't think Ipsissimus was truly trying to harm me.

I didn't trust Ipsissimus, but I trusted the Owl, who'd advised me to accept Ipsissimus's proposal.

Still, I was curious.

What could Ipsissimus possibly be plotting in a situation like this?

“Wow, what a view. Let's look down at Earth. You can see the Demon King.”

“...”

“Can you tell what is troubling the Demon King I serve?”

“The Demon King's concern?”

I looked at the Demon King, like a wave of infinite impulse.

It had clearly once shown an intelligent side, communicating with its believers.

“...”

Personality, reason, intelligence.

In other words, the Demon King's mask, wrapped in the word ‘rationality,’ was slowly coming off.

Endless emptiness and hunger filled the space it left behind.

“What do you see?”

“It's hungry.”

“Is there nothing else?”

“Only hunger and emptiness. That's all.”

“My god has cast away the mask used to tempt humans and returned to its primordial form.”

“...”

The primordial form Ipsissimus spoke of.

It was, in fact, a form I knew too.

It was the form I'd seen when I used Descent to face the Demon King on my first run.

“What must you do now?”

Ipsissimus's attitude, as though the being understood everything, was rather amusing.

“You said you couldn't even imagine this method before we told you about it.”

“I admit it.”

“Then why are you acting like you know so much?”

“Ha ha! Isn't an empty cart always the loudest? Put simply, it's this. I knew a great deal about the Demon King, but I'd never considered it from a completely different perspective, like all of you did.”

“...”

“Once I adopted your perspective, I came to realize-”

“Ah. Don't tell me-”

Understanding came in an instant.

According to the Owl's advice, this bastard's goal was ultimately survival and salvation too.

And I'd once again realized the Demon King's essence.

I sensed what was about to happen.

I knew what final touch our deeply imperfect plan needed!

--- Whoosh!

It blazed.

The souls that had undergone Unification with the Sacred Sun shone as though they would fill the empty universe!

Soon, the Demon King's gaze turned toward space.