Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 54

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 53: A Day at the Campsite, Meeting a Strange Merchant (3), Entering Room 106

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 21

Current Location: Level 1, Room 105 (Rest Room)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

The box A-ri had brought was still sealed.

“Sorry, but I haven't opened it yet. I heard it might contain a ‘violent weapon.’ Wouldn't it be better to open it together in a safe room?”

“Good idea. I should be the one to open it.”

Jin-cheol immediately held out his hand and took the box. Like me, he must have felt uneasy all night. He probably wanted to do something, at least now.

The box opened easily.

Inside was something far too familiar.

“A gun?”

“Isn't that a little too ordinary?”

Jin-cheol pulled out the pistol with a bewildered expression.

“No, a pistol is obviously a good weapon, but what are we supposed to do with this? There's no way to get bullets! Eun-sol, just in case, does the HP Market sell ammunition?”

“Have you ever seen Coupang sell bullets? This is ridiculous. Check the magazine. Is it loaded?”

Click.

“Wow! Aren't these bastards complete scammers? They cut off and took that kid's limbs, and then...”

“Now, both of you, quiet for a second. There's an instruction manual underneath.”

As A-ri said, there was a small manual beneath the pistol. Its contents were extremely simple.

Filling the magazine with blood produces bullets.

...

“This place really is full of nothing but perverts. Did they really have to give us a gun that drinks blood?”

“Well, at least it's a gun we can reload. Let's test it.”

The moment A-ri took out the syringe she had shown us before, Jin-cheol snatched it away.

“We can just use someone else's blood for this.”

A-ri didn't bother stopping him. Jin-cheol drew a good amount of blood and pushed it into the magazine.

“Hmm. There could be hygiene problems if we keep drawing blood from several people with the same syringe. Not that we're going to transfuse this blood into anyone, of course.”

“...”

“It's fine. The HP Market should sell syringes.”

“Now that you mention it, I should buy some right away. You all carry on. I'll order the syringes.”

About a minute after he inserted the magazine, now soaked in blood and starting to stink horribly, there was a sudden click.

“Sounds like something happened. I'll try firing it.”

Bang!

It had the unmistakable power of a gun. One shot left a clear mark on the wall.

It finally felt like we had a proper weapon.

Strictly speaking, we did have the bracelet, equipment on an entirely different level from the gun, but it wasn't really made for combat. It had no direct killing power.

For the first time in a while, we had gained something useful from the hotel. Everyone ate in high spirits, fired the gun another shot or two, and passed the time laughing and talking.

We decided to enter the next room after lunch, then scattered to our own spaces.

* * *

Lee Eun-sol walked toward her bed.

It hurt quite a bit. She had acted as though it was nothing in front of everyone, and her hands really did move properly, but the pain hadn't disappeared completely.

Still, this was bearable.

She had eaten breakfast, and they planned to continue exploring rooms after lunch, so she intended to rest lazily until then. Sometimes she thought that, purely in terms of rest time, she had actually gotten more of it since entering the hotel.

Outside, she had been worked so hard that days when she slept more than five or six hours had been rare. Yet at the hotel, hadn't the days when she ate and slept well increased, one way or another?

As she rolled around on the bed and turned her head, she spotted a small scrap of paper.

Ah, she hadn't thrown that away.

It would have been a problem if someone had come to the bed during their shared mealtimes and found it.

The scrap was the bottom portion of the “secret letter,” carefully cut off with a knife.

She had gone through a lot of trouble to cut it off without making it obvious. Even then, worried someone might notice, she had put it away as soon as everyone read the contents. Thankfully, no one had caught on.

Before getting rid of it, she looked at the scrap one last time.

3. One of your companions knows about Escape Route 1.

She tore the scrap into the smallest pieces she could, dropped them into the toilet, and flushed.

* * *

After lunch, everyone mustered their energy and headed into the first-floor corridor to explore a new room. That was when they realized something had changed.

“Huh? What's that? A door appeared?”

“The door to Room 107 appeared? Can we challenge that ‘Gate’ already?”

“That's strange. We haven't even entered Room 106 yet. A-ri, do you know anything?”

“I don't. I know the conditions for a Gate Room are different every time. Sometimes you can attempt one just by escaping another room, while other times you need to achieve several Final Resolutions.”

“Should we check out Room 107 first? It looks like we can go to Room 107 even if we skip Room 106...”

After thinking it over for a moment, I stepped forward first.

“I'll just try touching the doorknob. If we're lucky, Sage’s Advice might tell us something.”

The moment I carefully approached and grabbed the knob, a notification appeared for everyone, separate from Sage’s Advice.

/Warning!

The Gate Room requires participants to pass numerous trials without rest and is extremely difficult.

Minimum requirements: Achieve Escape or better in all Curse Rooms and acquire at least one Inheritance.

Recommended requirements: Acquire at least two Inheritances.

...

Participants meet the minimum requirements and may attempt it, but it is not recommended.

Would you like to attempt it?/

I immediately stepped back. Seung-yeop responded at once.

“This really feels like a game. The dungeon's entry requirements are achieving Escape or better in all the Curse Rooms and obtaining one Inheritance. But that won't be enough to clear it, so we need at least two Inheritances.”

“I don't think it usually gave us instructions like this.”

“It openly says it's ‘extremely difficult,’ so it must be warning us because we'll never clear it if we go in unprepared. Let's put it off for now. Like the warning says, I think we should try after getting at least two Inheritances.”

“There's one strange part. The minimum requirement is ‘Escape from all Curse Rooms.’ Room 103 was a Final Resolution, a higher-level result than Escape, so it would naturally count, but we haven't even entered Room 106.”

“That's not strange. It's clear. Room 106 isn't a Curse Room.”

“Let's go to the tea table and sort this out first. My knees ache in my old age.”

* * *

“Shouldn't we check out Room 106 first? If it isn't a Curse Room or a Rest Room, then what is it? Is it safe because it isn't a Curse Room? What do you think, Eun-sol?”

“Who knows? I don't think there's any guarantee it's safe just because it isn't a Curse Room. The basement is full of dangerous things, but it isn't a Curse Room either.”

“Ga-in, check all the room information with that Terrain Information thing first.”

I checked the Terrain Information through the Status Window.

Room 101: Curse Room (Strange Family) - Escaped

Room 102: Curse Room (House of Horror) - Escaped

Room 103: Curse Room (Athanasia's Human Ranch) - Resolved

Room 104: Curse Room (Hotel High, the Prestigious Academy) - Escaped

Room 105: Rest Room

Room 106: ???

Room 107: Gate Room - Entry Available

“Room 107 showed up too. ‘Gate Room - Entry Available.’ We already knew that, though.”

“There are two major things we need to do on the first floor. First, retry at least one of Rooms 101, 102, and 104 to obtain an Inheritance. Second, find out what Room 106 is.”

“Let's do the second one first. Just hearing about the first one is exhausting.”

“Okay. Let's check Room 106 first. Before making another attempt at resolving a room after Room 103, I think we need to take a day off, thoroughly organize the power and information we have, then make a solid strategy before we go in. I have a lot of thoughts, but let's check Room 106 first and go from there.”

At this point, we had two goals to deal with on the first floor.

First, obtain at least one Inheritance.

Second, discover the identity of Room 106, which wasn't a Curse Room.

We decided to start with the second goal.

Everyone rose from the table and headed to Room 106.

As usual, I grabbed the doorknob first, but no notification appeared. Sage’s Advice had plenty of weaknesses, but that should at least mean no danger would strike the instant we opened the door.

We opened it and entered together.

* * *

/Welcome, guests, to Hotel Land of Hope!

Hotel Land is filled with incredibly fun attractions.

From now on, you can experience seven types of attractions!

If any survivors remain after experiencing all seven types of attractions, an amazing reward awaits!

However, participation in Hotel Land is not mandatory. You can still leave. As with Curse Rooms, if there are survivors who make it through to the end, those who died up to that point will be revived.

# Mission Room: Would you like to begin Hotel Land of Hope?/

...

Silence filled the room as everyone tried to understand.

“So, we go through seven attractions in order, and if we clear them, we get a reward? Then why call it ‘Hotel Land of Hope’ and proudly add something like ‘if any survivors remain’? It sounds like they're openly planning to kill us. Ga-in, can you check the room information with your Status Window?”

/Room 106: Mission Room - Hotel Land of Hope/

“It says Mission Room, Hotel Land of Hope. According to the notice, participation in this room isn't mandatory. That's why the Gate Room in Room 107 activated even though we hadn't entered Room 106. It looks like we can still leave.”

“The door really is still here. Usually, the space changed the moment we entered.”

“I think it's time to make a decision. Are you all thinking of going further?”

What should we do?

We had attempted several Curse Rooms so far, but this was the first time we could choose whether to attempt one at all. The fact that the Gate Room activated even if we simply ignored Room 106 meant we could leave the hotel without ever dealing with it.

“It depends how you look at it. You could say there's no reason to take a risk clearing a room we don't need to clear, or you could say we should attempt it for the ‘amazing reward’ and improve our capabilities. I don't think there's much point in agonizing over it forever. Let's just vote.”

Since we had no idea what the reward was, it was hard to logically weigh the risks against the benefits. Still, I had a vague feeling it wouldn't be an Inheritance. Wouldn't it offer a different kind of reward from a Curse Room?

The vote was more one-sided than expected. Everyone except Elena chose to take on the challenge. After surviving here for weeks, dying and reviving countless times, we had long since begun to take the danger of death lightly. Our anticipation for the reward outweighed it.

How were we supposed to signal that we accepted the challenge?

There was no need to think about it. True to the hotel, which was always watching us, the notification naturally appeared as we all stood up and walked forward.

/Hotel Land of Hope! The challenge begins.

Real-World Bumper Cars

1! 2! 3! Start!/

Real-World Bumper Cars? What kind of title was that?

* * *

As the space shook and everything around us changed, I understood the meaning behind that insane title.

We appeared in a massive arena, about three times the size of a soccer field, each of us seated in a car.

Wait. Several of us didn't even know how to drive, and it put each of us in a separate car?

Vroooooom!!!!!

A deafening roar shook heaven and earth.

Startled, I looked toward the center of the arena.

There was a monster truck the size of a house.