WeTried Translations

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 544: Room 207, Gate Room - Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (30) Fin

──────

「User: Han?in (?hye)

Date: Day 1,872

Current Location: California, Santa Monica Beach

Guidance: ∞」

- ?

I tapped 「Guidance: ∞!」

I didn't know whether it was a momentary whim or an instinct born from the distortion process.

The answer was unexpected.

「Should you not preserve the Enlightenment you gained with such difficulty?」

“...”

“What is it?”

The Guidance hinted at one important fact.

I might not be able to take Serena's Enlightenment outside Room 207.

Looking into A-ri's slightly worried eyes, I gave a simple answer.

“Do you happen to have a pen?”

She pulled out a ‘familiar pen’ with a confident look.

“Of course. It's your pen, found in Korea two years ago. Want it?”

Like the Protective Suit in that random location, the Anywhere-Writing Pen must have been in a strange place as well.

“No. Let the ‘winner’ handle the troublesome work.”

I suppose it was a small act of spite, a small rebellion.

This was enough.

--- Bang!

* * *

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 2,008,924

Current Location: Room 207, Gate Room - Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’」

- Han Ga-in

My consciousness returned.

It felt as though I'd had a very...

long dream.

As my mind cleared, the first thing I did was check my body and Status Window.

Han Ga-in's body, and a flawless Status Window save for the empty ‘Advice’ field.

“... I won.”

“Are you okay? What do you mean, you won?”

Seeing the concern in A-ri's eyes made it sink in again.

I had...

won the coin toss.

Before the wheelchair lay the body of the girl who had shot herself with a pistol.

“...”

It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Still, she must have become much like ‘me’ in the end.

“A-ri.”

“I'm listening.”

“Tell me what happened while I was gone.”

“Okay.”

* * *

It had all unfolded across years anyway.

Another day's delay wouldn't change anything, so I went over what had happened.

After realizing the similarity between Room 207 and reality, A-ri recovered from Room 207 the treasure that had vanished from reality.

Inside the insulated bottle that would normally contain A-ri's blood was something grotesque.

“What is this?”

“It'll only make your head hurt if I explain it here. It isn't directly related to resolving Room 207, either. I'll tell you once we're out.”

Midnight Mi-ro had sought to overcome the unstable existence that depended on the Time Lender.

It seemed she had achieved her own goal as well.

“... Mi-ro, you're really okay, right?”

“Mm-hm. Honestly, I don't really understand why you all look so worried.”

As always, Pure Mi-ro could not accurately understand the situation.

Since she was no longer connected to the Time Lender, the name Midnight Mi-ro was no longer appropriate.

As A-ri said, Ghost Story Mi-ro suited her better.

She had paid a harsh price.

While listening to my companions' stories, I finished what my duplicate had handed off to me.

I added Serena's Enlightenment, a unique way to use the Grimoire, to the Book of the Avatar.

Could I use this power simply by adding a sentence?

It would've been impossible when I first obtained the Grimoire, but I felt like it was possible now.

If not, there was nothing I could do about it.

Once I was nearly finished, A-ri asked cautiously.

“We analyzed your plan among ourselves.”

“Did you?”

Room 207 was another possibility for reality.

A world locked in an endless battle against demons, monsters, and aliens that attacked without pause, collectively called Chaos Entities.

Aedia had tried to solve that problem through the Mirror, but her answer had been a disastrous failure.

“One More Chance couldn't solve it. It was probably because Mook-seong woke up too late.”

“That is unfortunate.”

“So you caused a worldwide catastrophe. You were probably trying to erase Aedia's wrong answer. Is that right so far?”

Most of it was right.

They didn't know about my hidden purpose, ‘growth,’ but there was no way they could have known that much.

Grandfather asked curiously.

“In the end, you erased most of the wrong answer. But erasing the wrong answer doesn't give you the right answer, does it?”

The wrong answer was gone, so the page was blank again.

Having returned to the beginning, it was time to write ‘my answer.’

I told my companions what my answer was.

“Ugh! So that was what you were thinking!”

Grandfather looked dumbfounded.

“...”

A-ri's reaction was more subtle.

“Do you think it won't work?”

The two exchanged complicated looks at my question.

A-ri's answer was simple.

“... It might work, surprisingly. I don't know if the Hotel will accept it, though.”

Grandfather ended the day with one final remark.

“Fine. We'll leave tomorrow. To write your answer, we'll have to return to the Moon.”

The next day, we set off for the Moon once more to bring about the ending.

* * *

The Moon, a land covered in gray-white rock.

I tried something I hadn't had the peace of mind to do before.

“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

I took a light step.

Unfortunately, sound doesn't carry through space.

--- Crackle!

We could still communicate through our helmets.

“That isn't much of a giant leap, is it?”

“...”

“That line means that humans walking on the Moon itself represents a victory for civilization, right? But you flew here using the Sacred Sun.”

“...”

“It has nothing to do with science. Your step is a small step for Han Ga-in and a tragedy for mankind.”

“A-ri, you...”

“What? Try arguing with me!”

“The fact that you even know that quote is ridiculous. You come from a world without a Moon.”

“Oops!”

Don't give me that “oops”!

I had a rough idea of what kind of organization the Management Bureau was, and I expected to learn more in reality once we finished Level 2, but...

This woman had gotten far too careless around me!

I sighed and looked up.

The Mirror above the Lunar Base revealed its magnificent form.

“It has almost been restored.”

It had been shattered while I was split apart, but it seemed to have been restored over five years.

Yumi and A-ri had been split apart as well, so there had to be a way to restore the Mirror even after Division.

“Let's go in.”

* * *

The moment I stepped into the Lunar Base, the same thing as before happened.

Five-colored light filled my vision, and I was left alone.

“...”

I had expected this might happen again, so it didn't surprise me.

As before, I simply walked down the endless path leading underground.

At the end of the corridor.

The door where Aedia waited.

--- Creak!

* * *

Our first greeting after so long was simple.

“You been well?”

“More or less.”

The Holy Mother didn't fire a flash at me as she had before.

She simply leaned against the gray wall with an exhausted, worn-out expression.

Her body was thinner than before, and her expression was empty.

It looked like she had lost heart.

“I thought you'd interfere at some point, but you didn't.”

“Interfere?”

“What was happening on the surface. You were watching, weren't you?”

“Ah, you mean how you ruined my Paradise. Would you have listened if I told you not to?”

Her voice was a little sharp.

Aedia hadn't interfered with my erasure of the wrong answer.

That meant she had accepted it too.

The fact that she had written a disastrous wrong answer.

“I didn't ruin it. I only returned it to the beginning.”

“What changes when you return it to the beginning? The endless battle has simply started again!”

Aedia said it herself.

What meaning was there in ‘returning to a blank page’?

That was why I had to tell her the answer I would write on that page.

“... Ah.”

An indescribably powerful intuition struck me.

For an instant, it felt as if the attention of the entire world had turned toward me.

It no longer felt like a private conversation between Aedia and me. It felt like the whole world was listening to every word I said.

Not only the Hotel, but even Yaldabaoth beyond the Mirror was watching me.

Was it just my imagination?

「Advice: 3」

Apparently not.

Advice had returned only at the final moment.

For the first and last time, I almost asked the Owl a question, but stopped myself.

My answer would only have meaning if I decided it on my own, without anyone else's interference.

“Aedia. I've seen countless possibilities for the world in places you cannot imagine.”

I'd seen them in the Hotel.

“Some had civilizations far more advanced than the world you and I experienced.”

Aedia snorted.

“What, did you see some sci-fi civilization?”

“Exactly.”

The possibility of Room 203, where humanity had left Earth and built an interstellar civilization.

The possibility of Room 206, which created Indomitable Reason, a force that could suppress the Evil God, if only temporarily.

“... Once civilization develops that far, does it become free of Chaos Entities?”

That was the hope of the Holy Mother, whose love for humanity was boundless.

“No. Even after advancing that far, strange things kept happening.”

“Then-”

“But it was nothing like this. Even beings capable of toppling the heavens with a single movement, monsters people today would call gods, could be brought to the negotiating table.”

Adravita, the Prisoner of Room 203, had agreed to a pact with humanity, which had built an interstellar civilization, and participated in colonizing new worlds.

“...”

The Holy Mother fell silent.

“Aedia, as you said, this world will suffer through an unending battle against demons... but that doesn't mean we have lost.”

A sneer soon appeared on her face.

“Ha ha, Horus. Since you say you ‘saw’ it, I won't deny it. Let's say there is a glorious future where we leave Earth and build an interstellar civilization. What are the odds?”

The odds...

I didn't know either.

As far as I could tell, this was a question even the Owl, the source of Insight, couldn't answer.

Still, they had to be extremely low.

The Hotel had collected far more scenarios where civilization had been destroyed in the twenty-first century or earlier than scenarios with even science fiction-level technology.

Perhaps she had gotten her answer from my silence, because the Holy Mother sighed again.

“In the end, what meaning was there in you destroying my Paradise? The world has returned to what it was, and we have lost hope. Are you saying we should just accept our fate now? Give up on change, pray to heaven, and-”

“Change is necessary.”

What was Room 207's answer?

“What-”

“Change is necessary. As you said, if things continue like this, everything will collapse before we even make it through the twenty-first century, let alone build an interstellar civilization.”

Something better than what existed now was needed.

“We need a person.”

“Pardon?”

“Someone who can endure the eternal struggle required to prevent destruction.”

“...”

“Someone who still has a sense of belonging to humanity, who retains their humanity.”

“...”

“Yet someone already halfway down the path of shedding their humanity, enough to understand Chaos.”

One step.

Then another.

I walked toward the center of the hall, where light streamed in through the broken ceiling, and thought of something A-ri had once said while explaining the Management Bureau.

If the world was a complex machine, humans were nothing but gears inside it.

Every gear could be replaced as needed.

At times, even ‘the largest gear’ had to be replaced.

“What are you talking-”

At first, the Holy Mother hadn't understood what I meant.

Then her eyes widened.

“Aedia. The world needs change. One person has to change.”

“...”

“You need to be replaced by me.”

A quiet silence followed.

Aedia was neither angry nor sad.

As before, she simply leaned against the outer wall with her head lowered.

At last, she asked a question.

“What makes you better than me?”

The Sacred Sun.

The Book of the Avatar.

Insight.

I didn't want to explain every last one of those things.

“My personality?”

“Your personality didn't seem all that good to me.”

“That's the point. I've realized something lately. I'm not very good at self-reflection.”

“Is that a strength?”

“I'm right in nearly every situation. So there's no need to reflect.”

“That sounds rather dictatorial.”

“There is an important difference between a dictator and me.”

“What is it?”

“I know that I'm right.”

For the first time, the Holy Mother smiled brightly.

“Ha ha! Ha ha ha!”

“...”

“Go ahead. Do well in my place. That would be fine too.”

--- Thud!

With the sound of knees hitting the floor, I heard a ‘prayer.’

“For the first and last time, I will pray to you.”

“...”

“May the resolve you spoke of before me today never break, even after a thousand years, no, even after ten thousand years.”

--- Crack!

A chilling sound of rupture stabbed into my ears.

The Guardian who had sustained humanity for thousands of years accepted her replacement and drew her last breath.

I stood in the center of the hall and looked outside.

Beyond the Lunar Base stretched space, filled with darkness.

Beyond it shone a pale blue dot.

The Model Garden I would have to sustain from now on.

“This is my answer.”

At the final moment, I had one small doubt.

I had expected Yaldabaoth to intervene somehow along the way. Apparently, he had not.

[Advice: 3 -> 0]

[He has already achieved his purpose and will no longer concern himself with this. Await the ending.]

“...”

Advice, which I hadn't heard in a long time.

‘Yaldabaoth has already achieved his purpose.’

It sounded vague, but I thought I understood what it meant.

His true nature wasn't some ‘false Creator,’ as Dean Lucas believed.

Hadn't A-ri said so?

The true nature of the being beyond the Mirror was a Practitioner!

A Practitioner's duty was to pursue Buddha, not concern himself with the Lower Realm's End Times or Salvation.

--- Rumble!

「Congratulations!

You have passed the final trial prepared in the Gate Room!

How was your long journey, spanning thousands of years?

You must have been surprised to learn that the progress of earlier trials affects later ones.

Participants undertaking Curse Rooms often run wild whenever things do not go their way.

You likely think it does not matter because the room restarts from the beginning after you escape, correct?

Correcting your bad habits is also one of Room 207's purposes!

An endless battle against demons.

Countless human lives sacrificed over eons.

In the end, even the great Holy Mother lost heart and relied upon an unknown object called the Mirror.

‘You’ decided to sustain the world in her place, correct?

To become the dictator sitting upon the throne of the Management Bureau.

An interesting answer.

Some considered it an insufficient answer, since there is no proof that anything would improve if you replaced the Holy Mother.

Others considered that you are in fact superior to the Holy Mother, so they could acknowledge the direction of your answer.

The latter opinion was stronger, so we recognize that you have passed.

However, we would like to ask one important question.

You considered Room 207 a ‘mock exam’ before leaving for reality, correct?

Participant Han Ga-in, did you give this answer only to resolve Room 207?

Or do you intend to give the same answer in reality as well?

Think about it yourself.

Once again, congratulations!」

At last, the entire universe of Room 207 began to collapse!

“Ha, finally-”

At the final moment.

Even the boundary between the material universe where humans lived and the lofty Upper Realm crumbled away, and the form of the Practitioner came into view.

The Practitioner was facing Ghost Story Mi-ro.

“Huh?”

That was my final memory of Room 207.

Footnotes:

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