WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 525: Room 207, Gate Room - Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (11)
──────
- Han Ga-in
“It looks like some kind of Mirror Shard. What is this -”
--- Tiiing!
The moment the chilling sound rang out, we both widened our eyes and tensed.
“Huh? An ambush?”
Then silence fell.
“...”
Something horrible and incomprehensible clearly seemed about to happen...
But nothing happened.
“What? I expected at least some demon to jump out. Nothing happened?”
I tilted my head and looked behind me. Min-a was still lying on the floor, struggling.
She seemed to have been caught in the bizarre magic Hong Go-hak had sprayed everywhere like a suicide attack just before his body was taken over.
“I’ll wake Min-a.”
As I moved to wake Min-a...
“...”
For the first time, I felt something was wrong.
I’d only been hearing my own voice this whole time.
Min-a was unconscious, and Hong Go-hak’s body had been taken over, so that was understandable. But there was still another me here to respond.
By the time I sensed something was wrong and turned back around -
A realization struck me like lightning!
“What is this...!”
After obtaining the Second Sentence of the Grimoire, I had escaped the constraint of Uniqueness.
That didn’t mean he and I had truly become separate people.
We were neither one nor two.
If I had to compare it to something, it was like loosely connected left and right hemispheres beginning to think independently.
Independent thought mattered, but the loose connection mattered even more.
Yet at that moment, the connection between him and me was cut.
“Gasp!”
In an instant, a dizzying flood of information rushed into me.
It was an incomprehensible experience he alone had perceived before our connection broke!
This was the final sharing of consciousness between us.
The Upper Realm, soaring endlessly high.
At its center sat one immersed in eternal penance that would never end.
Only a single step lay between that being and truth.
Another me stood before it.
Then a great hand caressed that other self.
What had just happened?
I was fine because I had kept my distance, but he had touched the Mirror directly and been taken by a transcendent being like the Prisoner?
And in the process, his connection to me had disappeared completely?
“...”
I could barely breathe.
If even our loose connection was gone, that thing and I were no longer we!
Then he opened his eyes.
“To think Hong Go-hak himself was a trap.”
“You...!”
“The enemy wanted this from the beginning. As the trial continued, it was bound to be revealed that I was Horus. At that point, the apostate would inevitably make a sudden move, if only because he feared I would purge him.”
“...”
“Of course, Hong Go-hak would die by my hand. The enemy didn’t expect him to inflict any meaningful damage on me. They simply hoped the Mirror Shard would create a variable while I dealt with him. Just like this.”
I agreed with his analysis, but Hong Go-hak, who was already finished, wasn’t the important part.
Another me had been created with all my memories and identity intact, with only our connection severed?
It was a horrifying variable!
The moment I tried to summon the Grimoire again, something strange happened for the first time since obtaining the Book of the Avatar in Room 102.
--- Crackle!
The Grimoire trembled as though it were a living creature, then appeared in the distant empty air.
As if it didn’t know who its owner was!
A park as desolate as could be, a being staring at me with gloomy eyes.
The Grimoire fluttered in the space between us.
Amid the mounting tension, he spoke.
“I hate you. More than anyone else in this world... I can’t stand you.”
His tone was calm and empty of emotion.
That only made his sincerity clearer.
There was no need to tell me.
I felt the same way.
“Same here.”
“We overcame Uniqueness. Then why do I hate you?”
“...”
Overcoming Uniqueness through the Second Sentence didn’t simply mean gaining supernatural power.
The Inheritance, the Book of the Avatar, had altered our minds.
Normally, simply copying a mind shouldn’t have given us reason to hate each other this much.
“This isn’t natural hatred. It’s a heavenly punishment laid upon us by One Who Failed to Become a Buddha.”
“...”
It wasn’t a natural emotion.
It was a vicious curse imposed by the incomprehensible being beyond the Mirror.
Even after realizing that...
We couldn’t avoid clashing.
--- Crackle!
The Grimoire convulsed again.
The foolish book, unable to decide who its owner was, lent power to both of us.
As though the victor would become its true owner!
* * *
- ???
It was a memory so old that it had become hazy.
In the Gate Room on the first floor, I fought the Witch, Arima, for control of the mental world.
I had been afraid when the fight began.
The Witch was a master who had trained in black magic for at least several decades, while I was a beginner who hadn’t even possessed the Grimoire for a week.
Surprisingly, I won.
Something similar happened in Room 205.
My opponent then was the Phantom Demon, someone far stronger than Arima.
After honing the Soul-Shifting Demon Art for hundreds of years, he had reached the point where he could toy with human minds like playthings.
The result was the same.
No, it was even more shocking.
After a single clash, the Phantom Demon accepted that he could never defeat me, no matter what, and submitted completely.
To be modest, those victories came not from the difference between Arima, the Phantom Demon, and me, but from the difference between the Book of the Avatar and black magic or the Soul-Shifting Demon Art.
The Book of the Avatar, created by the Unborn One, the firstborn of the Nebula Dragon that ruled the vast universe, after pouring immense mental power into it!
Compared to that, magic or martial arts created by clever humans were nothing more than cheap tricks.
When there was an overwhelming difference in the quality of tools, the difference in skill between their users could be overcome.
What happens if both sides use the same tool?
The more skilled person wins!
--- Crackle!
An invisible bloody battle for control of the mind and body.
I projected my power again to reclaim my body, while the one remaining in my body continued futile resistance.
A bizarre contest of magical power beyond human comprehension continued.
The opponent’s vanguard broke in the first clash. Forced onto the defensive in the second, they retreated again and again.
When the third clash came, they began groaning as though they couldn’t endure it any longer.
“Only three clashes? The skill gap is way too wide.”
A laugh escaped me.
Now all I had to do was leave this cumbersome old man’s body and return to my real body!
The one in my body spoke in confusion.
“How are you... so strong...?”
“Why? Is the skill gap too wide?”
“...”
“Accept it. If you were stronger, I would be the one disappearing instead. One of us was going to disappear anyway.”
“...”
I approached the opponent, who wore a vacant expression.
Of course, I was ready to respond at any moment in case they made one last desperate struggle -
--- Bzzzing!
The moment a strange sense, neither sight nor hearing, detected the distortion of space, I rolled backward at once.
An incomprehensible slash flew through the spot where I had just stood.
“...”
After dodging it, I felt not surprise or anger, but disappointment.
She was supposed to be my companion, so why was she attacking me?
The reason was obvious.
I was inside Hong Go-hak’s body, so she had judged me to be the fake.
I wasn’t fake.
The one remaining in Han Ga-in’s body wasn’t fake either.
We had been one until moments ago, and the touch of a great sculptor had given me new breath.
If I regained Han Ga-in’s body, I could convince her.
As I took another step forward, the one remaining in the body muttered as though he had given up.
“In a way, this is fortunate.”
“...”
“For some reason, you’re incredibly strong right now. I felt it during our fight just now, and I felt it again when I saw you dodge A-ri’s Spatial Slash. Maybe it’s right for you to swallow me and clear this room...”
I was stronger than the other.
The same human mind had been split in two, so there shouldn’t have been any essential difference between us...
Yet I was overwhelmingly stronger.
That wasn’t normal.
“...”
The moment I realized that, I stopped walking.
* * *
- Han Ga-in
I accepted defeat.
The fight had ended in an instant, but I knew I could never win even if we fought again.
We had clearly fought using the same Grimoire, yet the gap between us was unbelievable.
To put it jokingly, if I was Homo sapiens, the other was something like Homo godpiens.
It felt as though his brain was at least thirty percent more capable than mine.
He had even dodged A-ri’s Spatial Slash.
How could anyone dodge an attack from the Irregular Polyhedron when it couldn’t be seen or heard?
It was clearly a new sensing ability that couldn’t even be explained by the extrasensory perception I occasionally displayed.
At this point, giving up was the right choice.
The other was, in a way, Han Ga-in Mk 2.
...
It was a little embarrassing, but I was secretly happy that A-ri had taken my side over that thing in the end.
Well, should I think of some cool last words?
Even if a man had to go, he should leave behind at least one cool line.
“A life without regrets -”
“This was the enemy’s plan.”
“... Huh?”
He no longer approached me.
“Me swallowing your mind and taking your body was the enemy’s design!”
“What are you talking -”
When I looked up, I was deeply startled.
An indescribable despair filled his face.
“Why am I stronger than you?”
“What -”
“Why? The same person was split, so why am I this strong?”
“...”
“Because we aren’t the same. The monster beyond the Veil, One Who Failed to Become a Buddha, strengthened me. It wants me to defeat you and seize your place!”
I couldn’t breathe.
“I thought I’d won. I thought if I reclaimed that body, if I became the real one, that would be victory.”
“You...”
“This isn’t the path to victory. It’s the opposite. You’re real, and I’m real? No! We can’t think like that if we want to win. There can only be one real one.”
For a moment, I couldn’t follow the conversation.
It was as though he was denying the realization we had gained through the Book of the Avatar itself.
Then he ran toward me, gripped my shoulder, and pleaded.
“Remember this. The enemy can corrupt you. Transcending Uniqueness is normally your greatest strength, but in this trial, it’s also your weakness.”
At some point, he had stopped using the word “we.”
“There must be a larger Mirror somewhere, and this will happen again. You’ll be split again and again.”
The future that he and I had seen through Insight.
“Will you fight every time? Will you let the stronger one win? If the same person is split, is it normal for one side to be clearly stronger? No! That side is simply the twisted one.”
When we were split, we must not fight.
If we competed through strength, the one who received more power from the being beyond the Mirror would win.
“Listen to me carefully. I’m persuading you right now, while also persuading another me who will be born someday.”
“... Go on.”
“When the Mirror shines, it’s a coin toss. If you’re lucky, you’ll be in Han Ga-in’s body. That’s fortunate.”
“...”
“If you aren’t lucky, you’ll be in some unfamiliar person’s body. The moment you wake up, you’ll think this. Now that I have the Second Sentence of the Grimoire, there’s no such thing as a fake. I’m real, and that thing is real too. All I have to do is take Han Ga-in’s body.”
“...”
“You can’t think that way. You can’t win. The victor must always be you.”
I couldn’t believe it.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand his words. I couldn’t believe he had accepted such logic!
Soon, he walked over to Min-a, who was panting behind us.
He looked at her with genuine pity, picked up the pistol she held tightly, and looked back at me.
“So, Ga-in, remember this.”
“...”
“When the coin is tossed, the one who isn’t real commits suicide.”
“You...”
“That’s the only way to win. You understand, right?”
--- Bang!
Once again, only one Han Ga-in remained in Room 207.
Footnotes:
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