WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 546: One Ticket, Ten Dreams, and the End of the Line (2)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 0
Current Location: Gate Train
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
The world we live in really is a strange place.
That was what I thought as I listened to A-ri and Grandfather explain.
There were things I'd suspected, but plenty that made me realize how much I hadn't known.
After the long explanation ended, my companions naturally scattered throughout the train and sank into thought.
Like the Hotel itself, the Gate Train had an endless number of cars, so there was plenty of room for everyone to do so.
Thankfully, or perhaps unfortunately, no one was rushing us to get off just because we'd reached the final station.
It was as though we were being told that this was an important moment and that each of us should reach our own conclusion.
* * *
As I sat by the window, someone came over and sat beside me.
“What are you thinking about?”
“All kinds of things. What about you, Elena?”
“Something similar. What we heard today was the strangest thing I've ever heard.”
“...”
“Did you know the world repeats itself?”
“...”
“Since you and Sang-hyeon have both been outside...”
“I'd vaguely suspected it.”
A common theme in movies and other fiction: time loops.
This wasn't mere imagination, but reality itself.
The world repeated endlessly.
Birth and death were no more than the two ends of that cycle.
“Do you remember when we first met? You asked everyone what month and day it was in reality, and we all remembered different dates.”
“I remember.”
Why each of us remembered a different date in reality.
I'd thought it was simply because we'd been taken months, or perhaps years, apart.
In truth, we'd all been taken from different Loops.
“A-ri said that hiding the truth about reality wasn't her own decision. It was Management Bureau policy. Because...”
“Because learning the truth makes it easy to break down mentally.”
“... Right.”
My parents and younger sibling no longer existed in the world.
And I wasn't the only one who had lost family.
The others had too.
Their entire families had vanished in the course of the world's repeating cycle.
“A-ri... said it. That our families probably don't exist in the world anymore. Not because someone killed them, but because they were never born in the first place.”
“...”
“My parents were never born, and my older sister never existed... If I go back, it'll just be a person named Elena suddenly falling from the sky.”
It was a painful story, being left alone in the world.
Most people would find it hard to endure.
That was why Management Bureau agents participating in the Hotel hid that fact from the participants.
“I always missed the outside world... but now that it's time to leave, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.”
“... Didn't you say you wanted to be an actress?”
“I'm not sure anymore.”
She looked anxious.
So I pointed to the Dream she was gripping tightly in her hand.
“We have a way to get them back now.”
That seemed to comfort her, and Elena smiled softly.
Just before she left, she murmured, “But, Ga-in.”
“Yes?”
“When do you think the Loop begins and ends?”
“...”
If the world repeated, where did that repetition begin and end?
A-ri's answer to that had been simple.
「Has the universe been like this since the beginning?
Did the Management Bureau simply discover it late?
Maybe, but nobody knows the exact answer.
This question is similar to asking, ‘What existed before creation?’ or ‘What will happen after the End Times?’
Nobody can answer that.」
* * *
Not everyone had fallen into grief like Elena.
Some were hopeful instead.
“You look happy.”
“Of course! Pero, aren't you happy too?”
--- Squeak!
Song-i looked cheerful as she fed Pero premium macadamias.
“I've been thinking about how to use the Dream once we're outside.”
“...”
“There must be limits, right? Like, ‘Make me president of Earth!’ That probably wouldn't work.”
“I don't know.”
“Honestly, I haven't thought about it that much. I'll just layer my parents back in.”
“...”
“This time, I'm sure they'll love me.”
I'd heard that Song-i had grown up in a wealthy family but in an environment lacking affection.
For her, the Dream might have been hope for a more complete family.
“Oppa. Don't you have anything to say to me?”
“I do.”
“Huh?”
“When you layer things back in, make sure you create a big birdcage for Pero. Pero is a picky eater who only wants nuts, so prepare a whole sack of sunflower seeds coated in Capsaicin too.”
--- Squeak!
“Pfft! But oppa, birds can't tell that Capsaicin is spicy.”
I hadn't known that.
* * *
Was a family layered back into the world with the power of the Dream a real family?
It was a profound philosophical question.
Some, like Song-i, didn't care, but someone had reached the complete opposite conclusion.
Jin-cheol.
“My mother is dead.”
“...”
“Whew... She's dead. From her perspective, her big, healthy son must've suddenly gone missing one day.”
“...”
“I can only feel sorry.”
“It wasn't your fault.”
“What does fault matter?”
To Jin-cheol, his mother was already dead.
“Layer my mother back in with the Dream? I have no intention of doing that. It would only insult my dead mother.”
“Hyung, just in case...”
“Don't worry. I'm not going to say something like that to Song-i. Do you think I'm an idiot?”
“That's a relief.”
“I used to dream of becoming a fighter.”
“I heard.”
“When I get out this time, maybe I'll work for the Management Bureau.”
“The Management Bureau will be interested in us anyway.”
“That's true.”
A brief silence followed.
Then he asked carefully, “Ga-in, are you thinking of climbing to the third floor too?”
“I don't think that's something we need to decide now. Going out into reality comes first.”
“I'm a little worried.”
“About what?”
“Look. Quite a few of us have already gained incredible power and treasures.”
“We'll have to see how much of that we can use outside.”
For example, if Jin-cheol lost his Blessing, Regeneration, his Inheritance would be virtually useless too.
Elena's Ominous Imagination would also be nothing more than a tool for self-destruction without Clear Mirror, Still Water.
In the past, I couldn't properly use the Book of the Avatar without the Status Window either.
I'd overcome that limitation to a large extent, but the others hadn't.
Would we be able to use our Blessings in reality?
According to A-ri, some people could.
“What I'm saying is, if we climb the Hotel and fail, hell is guaranteed. Why would we come back to such a dangerous place?”
“Right.”
Treasure or not, the Hotel was hell without exaggeration.
We already knew how horrific the fate after failure was.
Why would anyone return to a place like this?
“But people do return. There's even a third floor prepared for them.”
“... You're right.”
“That's why I'm worried. Reality...”
Because it felt like it might be even more terrible than the Hotel.
Because it felt like there might be a reason to return.
Hadn't the Management Bureau duo said so from the start?
The Light That Calls the End existed in reality too.
* * *
Eun-sol reacted cynically.
“It was funny.”
“...”
“A grand story like the world repeating itself didn't really hit me that hard. The scale was so huge that it just left me feeling blank.”
“...”
“Finding out my family had disappeared was far more shocking.”
“I can understand that.”
“Ga-in, here's the kicker. What emotion do you think I felt next?”
“...”
“I thought, ‘What a relief.’ I was wondering what I'd do about that bastard of an older brother and my greedy younger sibling once I got outside...”
“...”
“Oh? I don't need to do anything? They already disappeared from the world? What is this?”
A vague memory from Room 101 surfaced.
Eun-sol had grown up as the daughter of a wealthy conglomerate family, and I'd heard she didn't get along with her family.
Hearing her speak like this, they must not have merely been distant. They must have been enemies.
“What is this? A Dream? Make your wish come true? Bring back someone you love? I don't have anyone like that. Ga-in, do you want it?”
“Noona, calm down.”
Eun-sol didn't look happy as she said it was fortunate that her family was gone.
No matter how strained the relationship was, nobody could say such things cheerfully.
“... Sorry. I got worked up while talking.”
“It's okay. Everyone's been coming to me one by one since earlier. I feel like I've become a counselor.”
“Pfft!”
She laughed as though she found that amusing, then answered simply.
“I get it. I guess you'd give good advice. Everyone feels this way. So, don't you have anything to say to me?”
“You don't have to use the Dream to layer back in someone you love.”
“...”
“If you don't intend to bring back your family, use it for something else. Didn't you have something you loved too?”
“...”
“If that helped...”
“Thanks. I think I know where to use it.”
* * *
Some people, like Mi-ro, didn't have many thoughts about it at all.
“I don't knooow~!”
“Really?”
“The world's cycle and all that, it's amazing, but it's so amazing that I don't really get it.”
The others had reacted similarly to this part.
The scale was so huge that it was hard for it to feel real.
More people had been shocked by the fact that their entire families had disappeared than by the cycle or the Loops.
Even that didn't apply to Mi-ro.
Before hearing A-ri's explanation, Mi-ro had already known she'd skipped at least several decades.
The shock and fear of her parents' deaths were something Mi-ro had experienced long ago.
That was why Mi-ro was focused on another problem.
“Look. See this hand mirror?”
“...”
“I was looking in the mirror in the bathroom... and someone spoke to me. At first, I got startled and was about to call A-ri, but then I realized!”
“...”
“It was my voice. In the mirror, there was another me who wasn't me! This is the thing you and A-ri talked about...”
“Ghost Story Mi-ro.”
“A ghost story! Scary! Ga-in, can you get rid of it?”
“I don't know.”
I really didn't know.
Present-day Mi-ro was something even more mysterious than a formless ghost.
“I-I heard it from Eun-sol!”
“...”
“She said there's something pale layered over me! I'm not possessed by a ghost, am I?”
“That's how it looks to me too.”
“Aaaah!”
“It's okay. Nothing will happen.”
“R-really? Do you know that for sure? Or is it a lie to trick innocent me?!”
“Really. Nothing will happen.”
That was true as well.
“Nothing will happen to you.”
“Huh?”
“Mi-ro, when we return to reality, stay close to A-ri.”
“I already do that.”
“Keep doing it.”
“Pfft! I thought of another way.”
Hm?
“Can't I stay close to you, Ga-in?”
Mi-ro often caught people off guard.
* * *
Of course, someone had sunk into deep thought too.
Sang-hyeon was one of them.
“A great mystery has been solved.”
“What is it?”
“Mama. Do you remember?”
Sang-hyeon had grown up in a somewhat unfortunate environment, and he'd said that a woman called Mama who served as the village matriarch had helped him while he was growing up.
During A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sang-hyeon had gone to reality and returned, just as I had.
Mama recognized Sang-hyeon.
She hadn't just recognized him. She also remembered his alma mater, which had vanished as the Loops repeated.
“To think Mama had the aptitude to become an agent...”
“More precisely, they said it was an ‘incomplete aptitude.’ If an agent needs a ten, she seemed to have around a three or four.”
What aptitude did someone need to become a Management Bureau agent?
Intelligence high enough to graduate from a prestigious university?
Physical ability comparable to a professional athlete?
Or supernatural power strong enough to throw a car with a flick of the hand?
None of those.
Those were abilities needed to become a Management Bureau employee. There was only one aptitude needed to become an agent.
Recognition of the Loop.
An agent was someone who could preserve their sense of self even as the world repeated.
“According to Miss A-ri, we'll gain the aptitude to become agents as well.”
“So she says.”
“We'll be able to preserve the continuity of our selves even after a Loop... What came after that was even stranger.”
In some ways, the story about agents was more bizarre than the story about the world.
“You live while working for the Management Bureau, then die after being attacked by a horrific Chaos Entity. You lose consciousness, then at some point, you come to.”
“...”
“The time you wake up is different every time. Sometimes it's the 1900s, sometimes the 1980s. Of course, sometimes it's the 2000s.”
“It is a strange story.”
“Forget how strange it is. Does it even make sense?”
“...”
“For me to exist, I need my parents' genes. That's science. If my parents disappear, I shouldn't be able to be born.”
“I suppose so.”
“An agent is an existence outside that natural rule. My parents are gone, but I am born again. With the same body, the same mind!”
An agent was like a piece of solid glass that never crumbled, even within an endlessly collapsing sandcastle.
“It makes no sense.”
“Hyung, if we're judging what makes sense, the Hotel itself makes no sense.”
“That is true, but...”
After a brief silence, he asked one last question.
“... Since getting the Dream, I've had this thought.”
“Go on.”
“Could I bring my wife and son into reality?”
“I think you can. That's what it's for in the first place.”
“... Do you think family brought forth by a Dream would be real family?”
“Is there an answer to a question like that? Still, I do think this much.”
“I'm listening.”
“If identity is determined by the sameness of genes, then the family brought forth by the Dream would be real beings.”
“...”
The Hotel should have that much power.
There was nothing more I could say.
What remained was his own choice.
* * *
Just as I was thinking it was time to end Professor Han Ga-in's counseling class, two people appeared together.
“Wow, Ga-in, you've been busy today!”
“There's still counseling left?”
“Oh my, we're not the last ones.”
“What?”
“Seung-yeop should be after us.”
It looked like I would have to extend the counseling class.
“I'll skip the long explanation. See this?”
A-ri took out a thermos.
“Do you know what I put in here?”
“It looks like some strange object made of machinery and flesh.”
“It's a camera. A Living Camera.”
“...”
“I want to take a picture of you with this. What do you think?”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
