WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 549: Hotel Delight (2)

──────

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 0

Current Location: Searching

Sage’s Advice: 0」

- Han Ga-in

The elevator, which had been rising nonstop, suddenly stopped.

It came to a halt as if the power had been cut, and the display dimmed. The last floor number I'd seen was 27.

Of course, this hotel didn't have a twenty-seventh floor.

“... Current location.”

“Ga-in?”

“Just a moment.”

Just in case, I checked Companion Location Information too.

「Companion Location Information

Lee Eun-sol: Searching」

“Damn.”

“Did you check our location?”

“Neither my location nor yours is showing properly.”

Searching?

I'd never seen a location like that before.

“W-what did it say before?”

“It said Hotel Delight, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul.”

--- Ding! Slide!

The doors opened.

I looked ahead amid the subtle tension and saw a dimly lit space.

--- Click! Click!

Eun-sol repeatedly pressed the button for the first floor.

Yet the elevator didn't work, as if the power had been completely cut.

“I think the power's out.”

“How does that make sense? T-the doors just opened!”

She was right. If the power had gone out, the doors opening made no sense.

Then again, the elevator rising above the twenty-first floor had been impossible in the first place.

“Should we check outside?”

“What about Seung-a?”

“It doesn't feel right to leave her here, does it?”

“... What if she's gone when we come back?”

“You woke up today, and you're already that close?”

“From her perspective, she's been serving me for six years.”

Oh, boy.

It looked like the Hotel had implanted another set of memories like that.

Either way, Eun-sol's timid secretary was still unconscious.

I could wake her, but she'd probably panic again once she understood the situation.

With no other choice, I transformed Pero into Grotesque and placed the unconscious woman on its back.

“Let's go.”

* * *

A floor of Hotel Delight that didn't exist.

The corridor was swallowed by darkness.

Small wall lights flickered faintly, but the glare hurt my eyes enough that it would have been better without any lighting at all.

--- Clatter!

Somewhere nearby, I could faintly hear a door opening and closing, as if wind from outside was blowing through.

“... I'll order a flashlight.”

Order?

Eun-sol operated her phone, and soon, there was a thud behind us.

When I went over to see what had made the sound, there was a flashlight.

“You can use HP Market in reality?”

“Apparently.”

“It could only be used in the Hotel, and it was useless in Curse Rooms.”

“This isn't that Hotel.”

True. There would've been no point in letting Eun-sol keep Wealth if she couldn't use it outside the Hotel.

--- Click!

The light made things much better.

Though this was supposedly a nonexistent floor, it still seemed to be part of the hotel. Room numbers like 2701 and 2702 stretched down the corridor.

--- Whoosh! Whoosh!

Strange sounds came from inside the rooms.

It sounded like there were guests inside, but I had no desire to open any doors.

“Eeeek... Where are we-”

“Sorry, but go back to sleep.”

The secretary seemed to have regained consciousness and opened her eyes in a daze.

Eun-sol immediately used Butterfly Dream and put her back to sleep.

Then she spoke in a whisper.

“Should we go to a window and jump?”

Jumping from the twenty-seventh floor would normally be insane, but I could fly, so it wasn't a problem.

Taking my silence as agreement, Eun-sol hurried ahead.

Before long, we reached a place that looked like an observation deck.

“This is where you can see Seoul at night. It's one of our hotel's proudest features... or it should be.”

The place was surrounded by transparent glass.

Normally, we would've been able to admire Seoul's dazzling nightscape, but the view outside the twenty-seventh floor was utterly grotesque.

“What... is that?”

It felt like I'd stepped into the nightmare of someone who had suffered from depression their entire life.

A dark blue vortex that made bizarre noises.

Purple manta ray-like creatures flapping their wings as they flew through the air.

Then there were malformed things with three glowing eyes.

Just looking at them made my mind go numb.

Eun-sol immediately summoned her Flute.

“Ahh... What kind of hell is that?”

We had escaped Hotel Pioneer, only to feel trapped in Hotel Delight, which was no less bizarre.

The absurdity of it almost made me laugh.

“Seriously, Eun-sol. Out of all the businesses you could've chosen, why a hotel? What bad luck...”

“How was I supposed to know this would happen?”

That was true.

“Let's think calmly.”

“I am.”

“We can investigate Hotel Delight's terrible secret later. First, we need to get out.”

Judging by the alien planet-like landscape outside, smashing through the wall to escape was out of the question.

“This feels like a hotel.”

“It is a hotel.”

“No, I mean it feels like Hotel Pioneer.”

“... You're right.”

Eun-sol nodded and explained further.

“Outside the first floor is the Korean sky, while outside the second floor is the inside of a Snow Globe in a private home. Similarly, Hotel Delight is reality up to the twenty-first floor, but from the twenty-second floor onward, it's somewhere like an alien planet.”

“Exactly.”

“The elevator connected the twenty-second floor and above, which are like an alien planet, with the twenty-first floor and below... So we should take the elevator again?”

“I think we have to.”

“But the elevator stopped. Should we go back and find a way to make it work?”

That seemed right.

After deciding to return to the elevator, we retraced our steps as quietly as possible.

The walk back was fairly long.

It was long enough that, at some point, the secretary woke up and started walking on her own.

When we finally returned to the elevator, everyone fell silent.

“...”

“...”

- Beep!

The elevator had gone down.

Come to think of it, it wasn't strange.

Would an elevator in a famous hotel, with people constantly coming and going, stay in the same place forever?

“... Was that our way out?”

We shouldn't have gotten out of the elevator.

Even if the power had gone out, we should've stayed inside and waited.

Until someone on a lower floor called the elevator again!

“Hic...!”

“Seung-a, quiet.”

Eun-sol kept pressing the button for the lower floors, but there was no response.

It wasn't simply taking a long time. There was no subtle vibration or sound of the elevator moving at all.

The only way to connect the twenty-first floor and below with the twenty-second floor and above had vanished.

I'd thought this was similar to Hotel Pioneer, but this part was completely different.

Had I ever experienced something like this in the Hotel?

I had.

“This reminds me of a similar place.”

“I know. Room 101? Or Room 102? The hospital from Common Sense-Altering Media-”

“That was similar too, but it also resembles the Far Room in Room 206.”

“The Far Room? Ah, the place fake A-ri supposedly created?”

“I heard there was a Far Room in reality too.”

“Is this it?”

“I don't know...”

It was similar, but I couldn't be sure it was the same.

“Hic!”

Seeing the secretary look like she was about to cry made me anxious too.

“...”

Even my heart trembled slightly.

I'd thought it was nothing serious. I'd fought all kinds of archdemons in Curse Rooms, so there was no way I would be frightened by some minor Chaos Disaster...

Yet my chest felt unexpectedly cold.

Why?

Because reality didn't have revivals like Curse Rooms did.

Even if I died, I wouldn't come back just because a companion cleared the room.

“I-it's okay!”

“...”

“A-ri said so, didn't she? Even if we die-”

“We wake up in the next ‘Loop’?”

“...”

Let's not think of any more ominous possibilities.

Instead, a realistic possibility came to mind.

“Eun-sol, you used HP Market to buy a flashlight, right?”

“R-right.”

“Can you use Greedy Hand too?”

“You want me to use Greedy Hand to call the elevator?”

“Let's do that.”

“...”

“There is another option. I can take all of you and descend through the elevator shaft myself.”

“... Would that actually get us to the twenty-first floor or below?”

“I can't be sure of that either, which is why I want to call the elevator.”

Eun-sol's expression darkened slightly.

“As you know, when I use Greedy Hand to create an event-”

“Something bad happens to the rest of us, except you.”

“... You're the only one around me.”

“It's better than this. Let's do it.”

Soon, Eun-sol closed her eyes.

Then...

--- Hummm!

Once again, we heard the elevator coming up.

An elevator that had started in reality was now heading toward the twenty-seventh floor of Hotel Delight in that grotesque world!

--- Ding!

The moment the doors opened, we all got on.

“Whew...”

The elevator still didn't respond no matter which button we pressed.

But now we knew what to do.

“Let's wait.”

We only had to wait.

Until someone on a lower floor called the elevator again.

The doors closed, the lights went out, and after a brief silence...

--- Ding!

The elevator started moving again!

Only then did everyone finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Eun-sol and I also looked close to tears, and even the secretary, who had been caught in a supernatural incident for the first time in her life, looked close to tears.

“Ahh... We're alive! We're alive! But Director, who is this eminent gentleman?”

I apparently didn't look like an ordinary person. The way she called me an eminent gentleman almost made me laugh.

“I'll explain once we're outside.”

Even while smiling, I kept my guard up until the end and focused on the floor display above the elevator doors.

Twenty-six, twenty-five, ... twenty-two-

“Huh?”

“Ga-in?”

「Current Location: Searching -> A-」

“...”

「Current Location: Hotel Delight, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul」

What incredible timing.

It was so perfect that it felt as if someone were mocking me.

The location of that bizarre place beyond the twenty-second floor had almost appeared, but the elevator descended to the twenty-first floor right before it did.

“Ah...”

“Ah?”

The strange world's location began with A.

That was all I knew.

If we went there again, would it show up right away this time?

Did we really need to go back?

--- Ding!

We arrived at the first floor.

When we finally stepped out, the familiar lobby of Hotel Delight spread before us.

Hotel employees bustled around, while families chatted happily.

In the middle of that warm scene, the three of us leaned against the wall as if our minds had gone blank.

“Hahaha!”

“Ahahaha!”

“Hehe!”

The three of us laughed like idiots.

Guests and employees glanced at us as if wondering what we were doing, but none of us cared.

--- Buzz! Buzz!

Text messages kept coming in nonstop.

Eun-sol, who had been giggling, checked her phone and snickered again.

“They're making a huge fuss about why I didn't come to the meeting.”

“Right, you said you had a meeting on the seventh floor.”

“It's already over.”

“Is that okay?”

“Why wouldn't it be? This is my hotel! They can quit if they don't like it!”

It was ridiculous, but not wrong.

Wasn't Eun-sol the chairwoman or CEO of this hotel?

Either way, what could anyone do if someone as important as her said she wasn't feeling well today?

And so, the bizarre event ended.

...

Or so I thought.

* * *

Thanks to Eun-sol's consideration, I was enjoying a luxurious 270,000-won dinner at the restaurant on the top floor of Hotel Delight.

Then my phone began ringing nonstop.

“Huh? Eun-sol? What-”

“Ga-in! Something terrible happened!”

“What?”

“Greedy Hand! H-has anything bad happened to you?”

“...”

I'd been wondering about that myself.

Wasn't Greedy Hand an ability that didn't recognize the concept of free?

Because of how the ability worked, Eun-sol wouldn't be harmed, but it wouldn't have been strange for disaster to strike me instead.

I'd prepared myself for it, yet nothing had happened even after dinner was over, which had left me puzzled.

“Nothing has happened yet-”

“People disappeared!”

“What?”

“A family of four has gone missing! They got on the elevator, but they never came down! The time they disappeared-”

--- Tap!

A sudden realization struck me.

As always, there was no free lunch with Greedy Hand.

The price of summoning the elevator to the twenty-seventh floor had to be paid by someone other than Eun-sol.

In reality, that someone didn't necessarily have to be a Hotel companion!

Footnotes:

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