Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 516

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 515: Room 207, Gate Room - Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (1)

──────

- Han Ga-in

...

I woke up in a quiet house.

There were no signs of anyone else, so it looked like I was alone.

The air was cool. When I looked outside and checked the clock, I saw it was dawn.

As soon as it began, a title flickered at the edge of my vision before disappearing.

“What’s with the title? It’s so childish.”

The Fallen King. Just hearing it made it sound like some kind of game term.

The Status Window, which had been working fine while I was on the train, was gone.

Had the Hotel sealed my Blessing?

A-ri had said that if the Hotel had any sense of business ethics, it would give us a chance to use the powers we gained right before entering Room 207.

She meant that A-ri and Grandpa Mook-seong would be able to use their Inheritances, while Elena would be able to use her Blessing.

It made sense, so I expected Inheritance Sealing. Surprisingly, it was Blessing Sealing instead.

Well, from now on, all I had to do was rely on the Grimoire and the Sacred Sun-

“What?”

Neither the Grimoire nor the Sacred Sun reacted.

As if it had been waiting, a notification appeared.

「Your Blessing and Inheritance have been sealed! Please check the table.」

My mouth fell open in disbelief.

Both were sealed, not just one?

I could’ve sworn I heard that only one would be sealed-

Then I remembered the Merchant’s exact words on the train.

‘First, at least one of your Blessing or Inheritance may be sealed.’

Not one. At least one.

As always, the Hotel hadn’t lied this time either.

“...”

Only then did I understand the meaning of the title, The Fallen King.

I had once thought the Hotel Party’s greatest strengths were trust and communication.

On the other hand, the greatest reason the party from the Hotel of the Deep Sea that Mi-ro ruled had failed was its lack of trust and communication.

What about me now?

I made plans alone, hid information however I could, and tried to move my companions around like chess pieces.

I was far from the democratic leader Sang-hyeon had hoped for.

I had my own reasons.

But by that logic, the Mi-ro of the past had reasons of her own too.

Before I knew it, I had become a secretive king.

Now that I had lost my Blessing and Inheritance, I truly was a fallen king.

Was the title mocking my current situation?

“That’s enough reflection.”

After ending my meaningless one-second reflection, I examined the small note on the table as instructed.

* * *

Reclaim your own power.

You may recover your Inheritance and Blessing at the designated locations.

1. School

2. Cult

3. Han Ga-in

* * *

School made sense, at least.

What the hell was Cult supposed to mean?

A church? A temple? Some kind of cult?

And the last one, Han Ga-in, wasn’t even a location. It was my name.

The note was so ridiculous that I let out a hollow laugh.

“...”

First, I needed to gather basic information about the current situation.

Fortunately, there was a computer, internet access, and a phone, so it wasn’t difficult to get a rough grasp of the world’s general knowledge.

The fourth trial took place in twenty-first-century South Korea, and this world’s Management Bureau was called the Holy See.

China was divided into South China and North China because, in Room 207, the Chinese Civil War had ended in a ceasefire.

There were other differences too, such as Alaska belonging to Russia and North Korea’s hereditary dynasty having the surname Park.

One particularly unusual detail was that, alongside the so-called four major religions of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, the Church of Horus also had considerable influence.

Would any of that affect the trial?

There was no way to know yet.

...

Maybe because Insight was gone, my mind felt clearer in some ways.

I carefully compared the plan I had made before entering with the current situation.

* * *

My companions tended to think of Insight as precognition.

It was probably easier to understand that way, but the Hotel distinguished between Wisdom, Foresight, and Luck.

All three were powers for making the right choice, yet they worked differently.

Wisdom meant choosing the right answer based on proper evidence.

Foresight meant observing the correct answer while ignoring the evidence.

Of course, no one had obtained Foresight, so I couldn’t be certain.

Lastly, Luck was when you chose without knowing either the evidence or the answer, then realized, “Huh? This was the answer?”

To interpret the possibilities I saw through Insight accurately, I had to consider what evidence had created those possibilities.

For example, every time I looked at A-ri, I saw a chaotic mass of possibilities shifting without pause.

I had mentioned three relatively clear images, but those three were only the tip of the iceberg.

Why were A-ri’s possibilities alone so chaotic?

My interpretation was that A-ri would live longer than my other companions and experience many different things.

What was the evidence for that?

Unlike the others, A-ri had been immortal from birth and had even worked as a Management Bureau agent.

That meant her chances of living a long life were far higher than those of the others.

Of course, it was ultimately a matter of probability.

In reality, a companion sent to Ancient Egypt might gain a power they never had before and endure for thousands of years.

A companion sent to the medieval era might gain a power they never had before and endure for hundreds of years.

But those possibilities were variables that neither Insight nor even the Owl could predict.

On the other hand, the possibility that A-ri would live a long life and experience many things was quite likely.

Once I put it all together, the conclusion was simple.

There was a high chance that A-ri was still alive somewhere in the world at this point.

...

Unlike A-ri’s ever-changing possibilities, Mi-ro’s possibilities were somewhat fixed.

An ambition she could never achieve from the start.

A plan that failed horribly.

Destruction awaiting Mi-ro within the clock as she bided her time.

A pitiful girl swallowed by someone greater than herself.

What was the evidence for those possibilities?

The conversations I had with the adult Mi-ro on two occasions, and Mi-ro’s inner self I had seen through the Kingdom of Dreams.

Many thoughts came to mind, but one thing was clear.

She had to survive until the final moment, until the fourth trial.

Insight had foreseen the existence of Mi-ro in the clock, so the first party must have been able to use their Inheritances.

If so, I trusted that the me inside the Time Lender had adjusted things appropriately.

...

In the end, the most important possibilities were the ones concerning me.

A future where I was shattered into pieces and scattered across the entire planet!

Surprisingly, this miserable future was the most unshakable of all the possibilities I had seen, and it remained unchanged even when I used Insight repeatedly.

That meant the probability of it happening was incredibly high.

It felt odd to put a number on it, but it was over 99 percent.

To emphasize it again, the most important thing when interpreting Insight was the evidence.

What evidence had Insight used to foresee my terrible yet certain future?

I considered two things.

First, who was trying to harm me? In other words, who was the enemy?

Second, what would they use to harm me? In other words, what was the means?

...

Looking at the time periods of the first and fourth trials, Room 207 covered thousands of years.

Naturally, there were more variables than I could imagine, and neither I nor the Owl knew exactly how things would unfold.

With so many variables, what did it mean that my miserable future was certain?

It meant an entity whose existence was uncertain couldn’t be the cause.

For example, the National Intelligence Service or the Chinese Communist Party couldn’t be the enemy.

If South Korea had lost the Korean War, there might not even be a South Korea, let alone a National Intelligence Service. If Chiang Kai-shek had won the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party would have disappeared.

It sounded absurd, but anything was possible in Room 207.

Therefore, my enemy was a group that appeared every time history repeated itself.

Only a group that appeared every single time, even if Room 207 repeated hundreds or thousands of times, could promise me certain destruction.

Surprisingly, such groups truly existed.

Across Curse Rooms with completely different settings and histories, whenever the setting was Earth and the main species was humanity, one group always appeared.

The Management Bureau.

Its name changed to the Management Bureau, the Holy See, the Order of Reason, and so on, but an organization that suppressed Chaos Entities and protected humanity almost always emerged.

Therefore, the Management Bureau was the leading candidate for my enemy in Room 207.

Of course, it was also possible that a demon would suddenly fall from space in the twenty-first century, completely unrelated to any of this. But there was no way to prepare for something like that, so I excluded it from my plans.

...

I couldn’t be certain what the means would be yet, but I could infer one thing.

It wasn’t something developed by the Management Bureau, like Indomitable Reason or the Soul Furnace.

The speed of technological development differed every time, so it couldn’t create a certain future.

It had to be something that fell from space.

There was a high chance it had fallen somewhere on Earth by the time of Ancient Egypt.

Once they found something like that, they could use it.

...

In short, this was how I interpreted the future Insight had shown me.

A Management Bureau-like organization that naturally emerged in Room 207 would obtain a terrible Chaos Entity that had fallen somewhere on Earth, then use its power to shatter me and scatter me across the entire planet.

My goal was to stop that future and clear Room 207.

As for the detailed plan to do that...

I didn’t know yet.

Wouldn’t I find out by trying?

--- Ring! Ring! It is 7 o’clock!

“That alarm is loud! Is it already seven?”

* * *

It was seven in the morning.

A normal high school student should be putting on their uniform and leaving for school around now.

“...”

I was currently a student at Hotel High School.

The school name was ridiculous enough, but suddenly becoming a high school student?

I wanted to forget about school and proceed with the trial, but according to the note on the table, the place where my first power was hidden was the school.

It looked like I had to attend.

--- Click!

“Huh?”

An unexpected fact became clear when I saw the student ID that had fallen from my uniform.

Not only had my name changed, but my appearance had changed considerably too.

My build was similar, and I had been too busy sitting on the bed and thinking since dawn to look in a mirror, so I hadn’t noticed.

“Hmm...”

The name was one thing, but my facial features had changed a lot.

The Hotel had effectively given me a new identity, and once I realized that, the next thought naturally came to mind.

The enemy knew my real name and face!

Had the Hotel made this arrangement to stop the Holy See from launching a missile at my house the moment the trial began?

“...”

If they knew my name and face, they likely knew a great deal about my abilities too.

I had to be careful.

--- Ring! Ring! It is 7:30! Any later and you’ll be late! Late!

“...”

Time to go.

From now on, I had to recover the Grimoire, the Sacred Sun, and the Blessing of Wisdom scattered throughout the world, then challenge the final trial.

My new name was...

* * *

A strange space filled with mysterious radiance.

In this world, mystery was synonymous with chaos, so it was also a realm filled with murky chaos.

Amid an incomprehensible strangeness that ordinary humans could never understand even at death, a beautiful figure rose.

“Ah! You’ve finally come?”

It had been an endless wait.

An eternal preparation for someone whom the Holy Mother had waited for and who never returned.

Yet every wait came to an end.

She simply knew.

No one had told her, and no subordinate had reported it. She simply knew.

Perhaps it was because she, too, had gently stepped into the realm of fate.