WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 475: Time of Choice

──────

- Kim A-ri

A nightmare that had seemed like it would never end.

My mind wavered like fog.

The Demon King's illusion was branded into my eyes like a mark of fire.

...

A refreshing energy wrapped around me like a soft feather comforter.

When I came to, I was in the comfortable first-class cabin of a passenger plane.

- The flight to the Hotel will depart shortly.

“... You really do see all kinds of strange things here.”

* * *

Everyone except Ga-in was in the cabin, which left me a little confused.

Ga-in was missing because he'd died, but shouldn't Mi-ro be missing too?

Then I saw Mi-ro in a flight attendant uniform and understood the situation.

She must have inherited the memories of the Director of the Deep Paradise Research Lab, so she was here to explain the Inheritance.

As if it were the Hotel's own form of comfort, there was a boxed in-flight meal.

“Looks like it's telling us to eat first, right? Let's eat!”

Jin-cheol said that with a bright smile, and at his signal, everyone started eating.

“...”

The moment I opened my lunchbox, I was taken aback by how simple it was.

Half was rice, and the other half was Vienna sausages covered in ketchup.

“What is this?”

“Aah! Cuckoo! Look at the Hotel's sense of humor!”

Song-i giggled beside me, and I felt oddly irritated.

It felt like she was making fun of me, but I didn't know why.

“Our A-ri has so many sausages she likes! Eat up!”

“...”

“Aren't you hungry-wungry?”

I did like them.

Still, having nothing but rice and Vienna sausages was kind of disappointing.

After finishing our lunches, everyone gathered around Mi-ro, who was clutching her head.

“Okay, former Director. You got information about the Inheritance in your head, right? Explain it to us!”

Unlike Eun-sol, who looked cheerful, Mi-ro still seemed flustered.

“Mi-ro, what's wrong? Are you confused? It's fine if you explain things one at a time. Start with the Ruler of Time.”

Only then did Mi-ro speak, but her first answer caught us off guard.

“... It's not the Ruler of Time.”

“What?”

“It's not the Ruler of Time. It's called One More Chance, though?”

“...”

A slight sense of disappointment passed through the group.

If I remembered correctly, One More Chance was an item modeled after the Ruler of Time.

After the Order obtained the Ruler of Time through an irreproducible process, perhaps it studied its principles and created an imitation.

Personally, I wasn't that surprised.

The original Ruler of Time had seemed like something that could never be given to us in the first place.

It could manipulate all aspects of time, including slowing it down, speeding it up, and reversing it, yet it didn't demand a brutal price like human sacrifice.

I'd never expected it to retain all that power, but it looked like they'd replaced it with the inferior One More Chance instead.

“Then tell us about One More Chance.”

“Okay.”

Everyone listened closely to Mi-ro.

“It's shaped like a coin, and using it can turn back time. I don't think applications like slowing or accelerating time are possible.”

“The Ruler of Time could do those things too, but One More Chance can only reverse time?”

“I guess so.”

It had no time-manipulation ability other than reversal.

That was fine.

Reversal was the strongest ability anyway.

“You have to designate the point you want to return to in advance, and the temporal range is one month. More precisely, thirty days.”

For example, if you used it on Day 31, you could return to a designated point between Day 1 and Day 30.

If more than one month passed from the designated point, the designation became invalid. You also couldn't reverse time without first designating a return point.

“Uh... There isn't a spatial limit at all.”

“What does that mean?”

“There isn't one. I think it's infinite. Maybe the whole planet goes back!”

Considering One More Chance's reversal range had been limited to Paradise, this aspect had become stronger now that it was an Inheritance.

“And about the price...”

“A price? Is it like a cooldown? Like you can only reverse time once a month?”

“...”

At that point, instead of answering, Mi-ro pressed her lips tightly shut again.

“...”

“...”

In the end, Mook-seong couldn't take it anymore and lightly poked Mi-ro.

“No, what's the price? Do you lose a hand every time you use it?”

“... Defying Heaven.”

“What? Defying what?”

Mi-ro muttered, unable to hide her confused expression.

“The user must bear the Price of Defying Heaven.”

“...”

When the cabin fell silent for a moment, Mi-ro added, “That's the only sentence in my head. I don't know the details.”

“... Price of Defying Heaven.”

Jin-cheol scratched his head, then spoke.

“Let's hear about the next one. Indomitable Reason, right? What about that?”

“Indomitable Reason is similar to what we already knew. Um, it's small enough to carry now?”

The original one beneath Paradise had been closer to a facility than a tool. At that size, we wouldn't have been able to use it properly.

Maybe shrinking it was the Hotel's way of being considerate?

That was the end of its consideration, and everyone fell silent at Mi-ro's next words.

“It suppresses supernatural power within a certain range. Its range, strength, and so on depend on how many sacrifices you offer.”

So it still had the brutal trait of requiring sacrifices to use it.

Now that we understood the traits of the two Inheritances, it was time to decide who would take what.

There was a slightly awkward point here, so I stepped half a pace back and watched everyone's reactions.

“...”

According to the information Ga-in obtained at the Hotel Cinema in Room 204, Room 206's Inheritance was, together with the Hourglass, a “tool to save the world.”

That meant it was the fundamental purpose Mook-seong and I had entered the Hotel for.

So there had been an unspoken agreement that someone from the Management Bureau would receive this Inheritance.

Still, it was hard to say Mook-seong and I had contributed much in Room 206.

“...”

It wasn't exactly fortunate, but Ga-in, who had contributed the most, had already been eliminated.

Compared to those who remained?

“...”

Among those left, Song-i stood out by far.

She'd controlled the city by suppressing the Progenitor and the mayor's rampages ever since the first run.

Even Ga-in couldn't compare to Song-i, apart from the final run.

The others seemed to think the same, because their gazes naturally turned to Song-i.

Then the sleepy-eyed high school girl spoke.

“What's wrong? These items already have a designated purpose, don't they? Shouldn't we just choose between Grandpa and A-ri?”

“Ha ha, this is a little embarrassing.”

Song-i smiled at Mook-seong, who was scratching his head.

“When have we ever taken an Inheritance in order of who suffered most?”

“Then what should we take?”

We reached a brief impasse.

We had obtained a Ticket through resolving Room 206, but this was something we had to discuss again with Ga-in included.

As always, Eun-sol organized the situation clearly.

“These are items with a clear purpose, right? ‘Save the world.’ Which Inheritance seems more suitable?”

“...”

Which was the more appropriate tool for saving the world, One More Chance or Indomitable Reason?

To discuss that, we first had to consider what problem the world was facing.

“So, A-ri, tell us more about what you said before. It feels like something we'll have to face soon anyway. What exactly is happening to the world?”

At Eun-sol's question, every companion turned to look at me.

“... Mook-seong, why are you looking at me too?”

“Oh! Senior, no, A-ri. It just brought back old memories.”

I wanted to avoid needless misunderstandings, so I gestured for Elena to use Lie Detection.

“Listen carefully. I've hidden quite a lot of information from you, and I'm still hiding things now. But I haven't hidden anything about the crisis in reality.”

“What? That vague explanation from before wasn't you hiding something?”

It seemed Eun-sol thought I'd concealed information back then, but not about this issue.

“I'll explain it again. At a certain point in time, an incomprehensible, strange light descends from the sky.”

“And?”

“That's all.”

“...”

“Really. That one thing alone ends the world. I know absolutely nothing about what the light is, what happens after it appears, or what kind of devil could be behind something like this.”

“...”

Everyone looked confused and thought for a moment.

In the midst of all that, something faint stirred inside me. Elena had seen my gesture, yet she hadn't used Lie Detection.

Then Cha Jin-cheol made an unusually sharp observation.

“How do you know the world ends?”

Oops, my mistake!

“If the world ended, wouldn't all of you be dead too? Ah, is it some parallel-world thing?”

“...”

When I kept my mouth shut and acted like I didn't know, everyone seemed to accept it and move on.

At times like this, I was grateful that popular culture had spread the concept of parallel worlds so widely.

... Don't tell me the Management Bureau had a hand in that too.

It was my workplace, but it scared me sometimes.

Thankfully, Elena shared an opinion in the meeting for the first time in a while and changed the subject.

“Um, then shouldn't we endure that unknown light once?”

“I think the Hourglass is the tool for that.”

When the light that ends everything descends, use the Hourglass to endure it once.

Maybe that was why the Hourglass was the first tool to save the world.

“What about One More Chance?”

“... After experiencing what happens after the light of destruction descends, we return to the past and solve the root problem?”

“That sounds subtly Hotel-like. Learn the cause, then start over and solve it.”

“Right.”

“What about Indomitable Reason?”

“... Suppress the light of destruction and endure it?”

“Then doesn't that overlap with the Hourglass? They're both for enduring.”

Would they give us two tools for the same role?

That didn't seem likely.

It had a different role, but we didn't know what that role was yet because we knew nothing about the crisis in reality.

--- Clap!

Mook-seong lightly clapped his hands.

“I've thought about this from time to time too, and it's similar to what A-ri thinks. The Hourglass is a tool to endure that light once when it descends, and One More Chance is a tool to learn the cause and return to the past.”

Everyone seemed to find the reasoning sound, and they nodded.

“Indomitable Reason must have some use too, but at this point, I can't guess what it is at all. Enduring the light of destruction? That seems like the Hourglass's role.”

We could guess the use for One More Chance, but we didn't know about Indomitable Reason.

“So let's choose One More Chance. If there's something we don't understand at all and something we understand even vaguely, we should choose the latter first and think later.”

Mi-ro muttered with an anxious expression.

“... What about the Price of Defying Heaven?”

“Ha, Price of Defying Heaven or whatever! The world's ending without this. What does it matter what the price is?”

As the group reached a consensus on One More Chance, Sang-hyeon brought the discussion to a close.

“I also think Agent Mook-seong taking One More Chance would be best. Indomitable Reason, ahem, seems useful for someone who isn't here.”

The only person absent, Han Ga-in.

“... Indomitable Reason would be good for Ga-in?”

What he said next was a point the others hadn't considered.

“Doesn't Indomitable Reason require sacrifices to use?”

“That's right.”

“Miss Mi-ro, is Indomitable Reason charge-based like the Sacred Sun?”

“Huh? Th-there's no information like that...”

“If it isn't charge-based, that means sacrifices must be offered every time it's used.”

“Probably?”

The Indomitable Reason in Room 206 had been that kind of Inheritance too.

“If we want to use it immediately whenever we need it, we'll have to keep ‘sacrifice candidates’ beside us.”

“Ah.”

“Oh?”

“Oh no!”

Oh my god, that was true.

To use a tool that required sacrifices whenever necessary, we'd have to keep sacrifices with us at all times.

And the sacrifices were people.

“Isn't it an Inheritance that's difficult to use properly unless the user is Ga-in, who can ‘charge’ sacrifices inside the Sacred Sun?”

“...”

“Of course, from the Hotel's cold perspective, it would probably wonder what the problem was with brainwashing a few sacrifices and bringing them along. It wouldn't be difficult for Miss Song-i or Miss A-ri, either.”

“Eek, Teacher. That's a bit...”

“Let's have the person who can use it efficiently take it. Of course, whether we'll use the Ticket on Indomitable Reason is something we'll have to discuss again after we leave.”

Once the discussion wrapped up, the cabin fell quiet.

- The flight to the Hotel will land shortly! Chosen one, please rise from your seat.

As if it had been waiting, a cheerful announcement sounded, and the old man who had served humanity for so long rose to his feet.

“Ha, now that it's time to receive it, I'm a little scared. Price of Defying Heaven... Ah, whatever! It's not like this is new! Give it to me, One More Chance!”

The moment a golden coin fell into Mook-seong's hand, space began to shake.

...

The real end of the second floor was approaching now.

Only the Gate Room remained.

Of course, I thought there would be a few events before then.

Shouldn't we visit the Sanctuary of Blessings too?

Footnotes:

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