WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 474: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (33) Fin
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- Yoo Song-i
About a year ago, around Days 579 to 580.
We woke up in an empty city where every human had vanished.
Even the Progenitor, who had survived by hiding in a special shelter during the cycle when Indomitable Reason sacrificed the entire city, vanished without a trace before the Demon King appeared.
Only seven survivors remained on the entire planet!
Yoo Song-i, Lee Eun-sol, Kim Mook-seong, Kim Sang-hyeon, Park Seung-yeop, Elena, and Cha Jin-cheol.
The only ones left were the seven of us, protected by the Hourglass that could withstand even the Demon King's rampage.
At the time, we didn't know exactly what had happened in Deep Paradise.
Something like, after carrying out the plan to drive the planet to ruin, everyone was killed by the resurrected Demon King?
Whatever the process had been, one thing was certain.
The Demon King was gone.
If you empty the bowl before the Demon King can eat, it'll leave for another hunting ground!
That ridiculous plan had actually worked.
So the day we woke up, everyone was in a festive mood.
...
Even though the Demon King had left Earth, no resolution notice appeared.
That was because the most important step remained.
Returning to the past and resurrection.
The reason we'd gone through all this in the first place was to create a world where the people of Room 206 could live safely.
In the end, it wouldn't be over until we brought the dead back.
At that point, everyone faced a serious question.
When should we turn back time?
This was what we discussed then.
“What does it mean that the Demon King came from space?”
“Doctor, you think the Demon King has an incredibly wide-ranging ability to search for souls, don't you?”
“Yes.”
“Um, Grandpa. The Demon King must still be flying through space somewhere without stopping, right?”
“Probably.”
“Then I think we should turn back time as late as possible.”
“... Probably.”
That was right.
If we turned back time too early, the Demon King, which had left for space believing there was no food left, might detect Earth again and return.
So we had to turn back time at the point when the Demon King was farthest from Earth, the latest point permitted to us.
That limit wasn't determined by us, but by the Ruler of Time.
“Mi-ro, who inherited the Director's memories, told us. The limit for returning to the past with the Ruler of Time is about one year.”
“Then that's our answer. We'll hold out for a year, then return to the past.”
The meeting ended quickly, but carrying out the decision was pretty grueling.
The city had been utterly destroyed by the ghost-story phenomena unleashed by the resurrected Demon King, and there wasn't a single human left on the planet.
It was the same kind of situation we had faced in Room 203, dropped into the Stone Age and trying to survive!
Still, it was much more livable than Room 203.
Because we had the king of survival among us, Doctor Kim.
“Doctor, can I eat this, this-”
“How many times have I told you? Every mushroom is poisonous, so don't even go near them. Yet Seung-yeop somehow only brings back mushrooms.”
“...”
“Hey, Sang-hyeon. It's not just anyone who picked them. Seung-yeop found them, so shouldn't they be fine?”
“Then I'll put them in your stew, Agent. Trust your Luck and eat them.”
“... Seung-yeop, you brat! Throw those away right now!”
I still don't know why Seung-yeop stubbornly kept bringing back nothing but mushrooms during that time.
Maybe they really were delicious and good for you?
Of course, poisonous mushrooms were too scary to eat on faith in Luck.
One day, as we spent our days in a daze like that, A-ri appeared from the sky.
She was in terrible shape.
One arm was gone, she was half-blind, and her skin...
No human could survive injuries like that without proper treatment.
Even if a human had somehow survived, they couldn't have fallen somewhere in the Pacific Ocean and made it back to us.
A-ri could return alive in that state because she was someone who could cut off an arm without shedding a single drop of blood, and because she had been wearing Wing Boots.
A-ri wasn't mentally well, either.
She had perceived the Demon King too deeply without the Hourglass's protection.
Even the Flute couldn't bring her back.
According to the Doctor and Yumi's analysis, months had passed while A-ri's mind was broken, and physical holes seemed to have formed throughout her brain.
As a result, our already miserable hotel village gained a girl with dementia.
...
Every few days, A-ri would regain her senses and tell us what had happened in Deep Paradise.
The Demon King had not left Earth as soon as it awakened.
Ipsissimus and Ga-in had acted as a kind of bait, leading the Demon King into space.
It apparently still seemed to be flying through space even now.
Listening to it made my head spin.
I think Room 206 was the first room that had unfolded in such a surreal and ridiculous way.
The others seemed to feel similarly, but the Doctor was so impressed by Ga-in that he even shed a tear.
At times like that, the Doctor was strangely emotional.
Other than that, well, Elena would look after A-ri, then stare blankly at the sky and say something cheesy like, “Do you think Ga-in is that star? Or that one?”
Every time, A-ri responded with an instant cute-girl headbutt.
Wow, this wasn't even some melodramatic movie from the '80s. Honestly, “Do you think Ga-in is that star?” was a bit much.
Even after Elena succeeded as an actress, she'd better leave her lines to the writers.
Life in the wilderness was brutal, and no matter their age or gender, no one had time to rest.
A person living in civilization could work one hour at a convenience store, earn about ten thousand won, and buy a decent meal with it.
A person living in the wilderness had to struggle for seven or eight hours just to prepare something vaguely resembling a meal.
I don't need to explain any further how hard things were for us.
If not for the little preserved food we had found in ruined Paradise, we might really have survived by eating nothing but bugs.
The harsh days flowed by like a river.
Based on the circumstances, most of humanity died sometime between Days 571 and 580.
We couldn't determine the exact point because we had been frozen by the Hourglass, while A-ri's mind was unstable.
Conservatively, if we set it at Day 570, then the latest point where we could turn back time with the Ruler of Time and revive everyone was Day 935, 365 days later.
Today was Day 930.
* * *
Early that morning, the Doctor, proudly sporting a thick beard, informed everyone.
“Let's leave today. It will be a problem if we wait any longer.”
Seung-yeop, whose shirt was half-torn but who kept wearing it because he had no clothes to change into, replied.
“Yaaawn. What day is it today?”
The answer came from Eun-sol, whose hair had become a complete mess.
“If we have calculated correctly, it's Day 930. Was there a mistake?”
“It is Day 930.”
“Right. We should leave now.”
Elena, whose hair was just as messy and whose appearance was equally filthy, let out a hollow laugh.
“We really do look like homeless people. Like refugees fleeing after their country collapsed.”
Refugees fleeing after their country collapsed?
It kind of sounded right.
And it made me strangely annoyed that Elena, who was still incredibly pretty despite her tangled hair and terrible skin, said something like that.
“Ahem, let's go. A-ri!”
“...”
A-ri still wasn't well.
When she had first returned, she spoke like a normal person once every three days or so, but the intervals gradually grew longer. These days, she couldn't even regain her senses once a week.
Everyone began gathering their things to return to ruined Paradise.
* * *
As we moved while avoiding chunks of scattered concrete, Grandpa muttered.
“It's been a while since I came to Paradise. We had no reason to return after searching everywhere for a few canned goods.”
“That’s right.”
While surviving outside, a few people had searched Deep Paradise.
They had been worried that the time dilation phenomenon might remain there even after the Demon King's resurrection.
If it had, calculating the date would become far more difficult.
Fortunately, that hadn't happened.
It seemed the time dilation phenomenon had vanished when the Demon King resurrected, so we needed to activate the Ruler of Time again.
“Just in case, the Ruler of Time can still work, right?”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Ahem, I said something pointless. Let's go.”
The Demon King hadn't destroyed the Ruler of Time when it resurrected, right?
Everyone was anxious about that, but there was no way to know until we checked.
We had to believe it was intact.
It wasn't completely baseless.
The great authority that turned back time across an entire planet.
According to the Management Bureau duo, the Ruler of Time had absolutely not been made by humans.
It must have been obtained from some cosmic being.
As proof, even the Demon King had spent hundreds of years caught in the Ruler of Time's time dilation.
“Here it is. Originally, Deep Paradise was down this elevator.”
At Eun-sol's words, Grandpa added, “Sang-hyeon and I checked four months ago. There was no time dilation, and no monsters either. The Demon King was gone. All right, tie the ropes.”
While tying the ropes that would replace the broken elevator, I remembered a familiar face and spoke.
“Mi-ro couldn't make it out in the end.”
“... Looks like she died when the Demon King resurrected. Well, we thought that was likely from the beginning.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s all right. You can do it. We've already confirmed it.”
“...”
I, Yoo Song-i, had to activate the Ruler of Time.
There had been a time when I thought, I’m not even a member of the Order. How am I supposed to activate the Ruler of Time?
There was a concept called a designated survivor, or an acting successor in an emergency.
If the president and cabinet members were wiped out by terrorism, war, or a natural disaster, that person would immediately inherit their authority and preserve continuity of power.
Governments around the world had adopted this system, and apparently the Management Bureau and the Order had it too.
Really, the Management Bureau was an organization where not just lower-ranking employees, but even executives died for all sorts of bizarre reasons. It might have been natural for them to have something like this.
Simply put, if the Order's first-ranked member died, the second-ranked member took over.
If everyone from first through tenth died, the eleventh took over.
What if even the entire leadership died?
What if there were barely any survivors?
Even if you had been a low-level employee until yesterday, from today onward, you became the new head of the Order and had to hold up the world.
Every surviving Order member in Deep Paradise had died, and so had the Progenitor.
I was the heir to the family of city Administrators founded by the Progenitor.
...
After walking for half a day through the dark ruins lit by three or four torches, we finally reached that damn Research Lab.
Some of us had already been here several times, so finding the way wasn't difficult, but this was my first time.
Gulp!
“Relax. Once you prove that you are the Kadyrov Family's heir, the Ruler of Time will surely acknowledge you.”
What if I couldn't prove it?
The Research Lab didn't know much about what had happened on the surface!
When A-ri insisted she was the Progenitor's heir, it had just accepted that!
“...”
Pushing aside my pointless worries, I checked the means of proving my identity that we had brought from Paradise.
The Kadyrov Family's seal, One More Chance, which the Kadyrov Family had inherited according to Room 206's setting, and my bracelet.
At least one of these would work, right?
--- Click!
“This should be it. According to what Miss A-ri said when she was still mentally sound... Miss A-ri, that's right?”
“I’m hungwy.”
“...”
“I want sausage.”
“... Miss Song-i, let's proceed.”
A-ri had gone strange, and now she acted exactly like Mi-ro!
Come to think of it, wasn't that funny?
Or did Mi-ro act like A-ri with dementia?
“No sausage?”
Once we got outside, I would smack both of them with sausages-
“I’m hungwy.”
A-ri clung to my back so adorably that I held back.
Maybe it would be fine if she stayed like this forever-
“Ah! Ah! Aaaaah!”
“W-What is it? Song-i, are you okay?”
“... Ah.”
“Song-i? Did you feel something?”
An indescribably warm energy enveloped me.
Guided by something unknown, I opened a secret passage hidden in the Research Lab's wall and descended.
And then...
I saw a round object shining like a lamp illuminating a cold world.
The moment I saw it, I knew.
“You are the Ruler of Time.”
There was no need to restore Deep Paradise's control device or computer facilities.
Those were all secondary matters.
Only one thing mattered.
The Ruler of Time recognized me.
It had found the last descendant of the Order remaining on this planet.
At that moment, I knew what I had to say.
“Give us one more chance! Start over from the beginning!”
Then there was light.
That was my final memory of Room 206.
.
.
.
「You have succeeded!
Paradise, where the words human rights feel like a childish joke. How ironic is its very name?
A world where everyone lives not as humans, but as cogs for the city.
Sadly, the victims of this unspoken tragedy were not only the workers.
The Progenitor, the mayor, and the Director: they too were only somewhat larger cogs.
The cause of all suffering, the source of all evil in the truest sense.
The Demon King.
A being that cruelly drove humanity into a corner, a despair that could not be defeated by force no matter what you did.
How should you deal with it?
Perhaps...
If you can't beat them, join them.
Someone believed that was the only hope.
You found another option.
After understanding that the Demon King was closer to a natural disaster or a beast than an intelligent being, you led that monster away from the planet.
In truth, it was a plan with quite a few gaps along the way.
You know that if this had been reality, it would likely have failed in the end.
Still, rather than criticize your lack of fine detail, we will evaluate you based on the broader picture.
You understand what that means, don't you?
Congratulations!
.
.
.
A Final Resolution has occurred among your companions! Congratulations!
A Final Resolver has appeared. All members will return safely.
Please decide for yourselves what treasure you will receive and who will receive it.」
Evaluate us based on the broader picture?
That was a good thing, right?
It meant we would get a Ticket, right?
Instead of answering my question, the Hotel displayed another notification.
「Participants! Congratulations once again on resolving Room 206.
Those who have survived thus far and-」
There was no need to read every name, because all the survivors' names were there.
The person with the highest Contribution was probably Ga-in, who had taken the Demon King into space, but it seemed Ga-in was already dead at this point.
With Ga-in dead, the Hotel must have judged the other survivors' Contributions to be roughly equal.
I thought it had already been decided who would receive this Inheritance.
The Inheritance of Room 206, the power to save the world.
We had agreed on who would receive it before entering the room.
But...
Another Ticket had been completed.
This time, rather than resurrection, it would likely be exchanged for another Inheritance.
Whose hands would that Inheritance fall into?
Footnotes:
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