Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 557

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 556: Veteran Agent Kim A-ri, The Secret of the Esper 2 (1)

──────

- Kim A-ri

An abandoned hospital with such a bleak atmosphere that it felt as though the wails of ghosts might echo from somewhere at any moment.

Most people would be terrified just by the sight of the crumbling building, but there was no one ordinary here.

“The air is chilly.”

“Ha ha, shall we go in? According to the report, there’s a crazy doctor who...”

--- Creak!

Every agent had their own personality, but Agent Kim Ji-ho, who had come with me today, was particularly talkative.

Still, there was a reason I’d brought him along.

--- Crackle!

A dim corridor where electricity barely traveled.

The stench of blood mingled with rotting corpses stung my nose.

--- Click!

Watching him nervously check his Management Bureau-issued weapon, I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

The advance team had already swept through the abandoned hospital once, so I had a rough idea of how strong the Chaos Entity hiding inside was.

I didn’t need his help.

I hadn’t brought him along because I wanted help. I’d only heard he was teaching Cha Jin-cheol a few things and wanted to hear how Jin-cheol was doing.

“I’ll be done soon, so wait here.”

“Pardon? Senior, acting alone is strictly forbidden...”

--- Craaack! Rumble!

I split the ceiling open in one blow, and Kim Ji-ho’s eyes widened slightly.

“So it’s true that you gained a miracle from the hotel!”

His reaction wasn’t strange. Most agents had at least heard rumors about the hotel.

“Just stay put.”

After that, it was more or less crash, bang, smash.

I put the malformed monsters, supposedly created by twisting nurses and patients together, to rest before coming face-to-face with the doctor who had been entranced by a strange book.

“Hrrrgh...! As expected of a lapdog of the Management Bureau, you are quite skilled! Could you possibly imagine what I have seen beyond the veil of this world...”

As I listened to the mad doctor’s third-rate villain speech, I pulled the Living Camera from my pocket.

“I have seen the darkness! Humanity’s Corruption, the Original Sin everyone committed when they escaped the primordial sea...”

“Cheese.”

“What?”

--- Click!

I hadn’t been working in Chaos Entity Containment for just a day or two.

You could tell how dangerous small fry like this were just from the atmosphere around them.

One click of the camera, and it was over.

“Wow...! Senior, you charged in like a tank.”

“...”

“When you suddenly flew in, I thought you’d been caught by the doctor’s strange arts or something, but you’ve already finished!”

“It’s coming out.”

“Pardon?”

--- Bzzz!

Soon, a photograph popped out of the Living Camera.

It showed an elderly person trapped inside a dreary gray building that looked suffocating just to see.

“Oh! So this is that famous camera!”

“...”

“I’ve heard about it. Um, can I draw a line on it with a pen?”

“Go ahead.”

Kim Ji-ho took a pen from inside his Management Bureau-issued suit and drew a line across the photograph.

The line soon turned into a sharp awl and stabbed the elderly person inside.

Naturally, their face twisted into a horrible grimace.

“Whoa! Does that mean they’re dead?”

“No. Sealed beings don’t die.”

This Chaos Entity had killed more than fifty people, at least according to the Management Bureau’s records. There was no need to pity it.

* * *

After finishing the job, I got straight to the point and asked Agent Kim Ji-ho what I really wanted to know.

“Kim Ji-ho, that rookie agent who joined recently.”

“Ah! You mean Agent Cha Jin-cheol?”

“I heard you’ve been teaching him a few things.”

“That’s right. Ha ha, Jin-cheol’s built like a mountain, but he doesn’t know a thing!”

“... Is that so?”

“The moment he realized he was a Regressor, he bought lottery tickets, then used the money to buy cryptocurrency, stocks, and real estate until he got caught! Ha ha! Did he think he was the only one experiencing time regression? How innocent!”

“...”

“Well, it’s a good time for him, isn’t it? You probably remember, Senior. Everyone’s like that when they first realize they’ve regressed!”

“...”

Ah...

I’d barely worked with Kim Ji-ho before, so I hadn’t known he was this kind of person.

“Ha, I’m honestly jealous of him. Can he even begin to understand the weight of the great evil crouching over this planet?”

“...”

“He’s lived in the Paradise of Ignorance. I plan to teach him about the darkness of this world.”

I was embarrassed just listening to him. Couldn’t he tell?

Kim Ji-ho himself was completely drunk on the so-called pride of becoming an agent!

It wasn’t that strange.

Until recently, he’d been an ordinary unemployed man. Then somehow, fate chose him, and he became a Regressor.

On top of that, he’d been summoned by a mysterious organization called the Management Bureau and learned the world’s secrets.

It would’ve been stranger if he hadn’t developed a sense of superiority.

Besides, he really was a chosen human, so it wasn’t entirely a delusion.

“Can Jin-cheol even imagine it? How many people the hospital director hiding in that sinister hospital killed! Ha, he’ll be lucky if he doesn’t vomit from the smell of blood!”

“...”

No matter how I looked at it, this rookie had only gone through the Loop two or three times at most.

His gaze was directed downward, toward ordinary people, so he was intoxicated by his own greatness.

Once he went through enough Loops and turned his gaze upward, he would eventually realize it.

That even an agent was only a slightly larger gear, and above them lay something unknown with no end in sight.

“Silence, huh...”

“Senior?”

If I became part of the Management Bureau’s leadership, would I be able to answer my long-held questions?

Could I stop the End Times that, according to the hotel’s warning, would truly begin in a year?

“Ha ha, Senior...”

“Why do you keep laughing for no reason?”

He sounded like a cheap villain.

Did he really think this was cool?

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Keep talking.”

“Ahem, I only say this because you seem interested in the rookie, Senior, but Jin-cheol may be big, though he’s hopeless at everything else.”

“...”

“Lately, I’ve been coaching him in basic martial arts. An agent must be someone who can show Courage even when firearms and Magical Artifacts are neutralized! To become a hero, one must prove they possess such qualifications...”

Ah, I couldn’t take this anymore.

--- Smack!

“Ow! S-Senior! Why did you suddenly...”

“Shut up.”

I could only hope Cha Jin-cheol wouldn’t see only this side of the Management Bureau.

* * *

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 24

Current Location: 405 Hangang-daero, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Seoul Station)

Sage’s Advice: 3」

- Han Ga-in

It was already Day 24.

What had the Merchant said when we escaped?

Spend the first six months simply resting, then gather information during the next six months.

We only had six months of pure rest, yet it already felt as though around fifteen percent had flown by.

After returning to reality, we tried not to interfere in one another’s lives.

That didn’t mean we had no idea how everyone was doing.

Someone had created an ordinary life where they could live with the person they loved.

Someone wanted to uncover more of the world’s secrets.

Someone hadn’t used their wish.

...

And two people had built a strange amusement park and begun enjoying wealth and glory.

One of them, Elena, sent me an invitation.

--- Ding!

The other person who had built the amusement park appeared.

The coffee shop door opened, and a girl with a fresh smile walked in.

Murmurs soon rose around us.

It was easy to understand why once you saw Song-i as she was now.

She had a charm that would make not only men, but women too, stare in admiration.

“Ga-in! It’s been so long!”

“It has. We’ve video-called and exchanged messages plenty of times, but this is our first time meeting in person, right?”

“That’s right.”

“You’ve been well?”

“Of course.”

As we chatted about this and that, I swallowed back the words rising to my throat.

... Song-i.

I’ll only ask in my head.

So...

For some reason, you seem to have gotten a little taller.

For some reason, your proportions seem a little better too.

For some reason, your features seem a little more defined.

Could one of the Empty Wishes you made with a Dream be plastic sur-

“Cough!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

-gery?

If I carelessly said something like that, Sage’s Advice might immediately tell me, “Bow at the waist.”

Or it might say, “Just let her slap you once!”

I had to hold it in.

“Where’s Eun-sol?”

“She said she’ll join us separately. You know she’s a busy businesswoman, unlike us.”

“Huh? I’m living a really busy life too, you know?”

“Being busy playing and being busy working are different.”

“Hehe! That’s true. Oh, do you know how much trouble you caused me because of this?”

“...”

“I went to the site listed on Elena’s invitation. When I was choosing the room you’d use, only your bookings kept getting canceled!”

That was because of my wish.

People outside the Hotel Party quickly forgot me or any information about me.

When I made the wish, I only wanted to be free from the Management Bureau’s interference.

I’d achieved that goal, but it made daily life quite inconvenient.

For example, if I signed up for a website under my own name and ordered something, the order would keep getting canceled.

To ordinary people, would it look like the purchase record of someone who didn’t exist? In simple terms, a system error?

I didn’t know exactly how it was judged either.

“It’s fun, though. You’ve met Seung-a, Eun-sol’s secretary, right?”

“Yes.”

“She gets startled every time I enter Eun-sol’s office. Seung-a forgets me every time.”

“I heard from Eun-sol that you’ve gotten addicted to teasing Eun-sol’s secretary, so you use Teleportation to enter every time.”

“...”

“Are you in middle school? You’re not even Seung-yeop.”

“...”

It was oddly irritating to hear Song-i, of all people, call me childish.

If you thought about it, Song-i was the one who had used a Dream to create a life like a manga protagonist.

“Song-i, can you see this next to me?”

When I pointed at the cages I’d placed on the chair, Song-i nodded.

“I’ve been wondering since earlier. One is the box with Pero in it, right?”

--- Chirp!

Pero cried out as if it had been waiting.

Song-i soon reached into the cage with a delighted expression.

“Oh my, oh my! So cute! Does it still have to live in a cage? Because it’ll get attacked by Laser Turrets if it’s exposed outside?”

“No. It has an Identification Anklet now, so it’s fine.”

“Huh? Then why did you lock it in a cage?”

“Just because. It’s a hassle to let it out.”

“...”

--- Chirp!

It’s not a dog. If I walked around with a parrot on my shoulder, it would draw too much attention.

Song-i looked slightly flustered, then pointed at the next cage.

“What’s this?”

“A gift for Elena.”

“Oh! You have that kind of sense? Ah! Don’t you have anything for me?”

“...”

Ah.

I hadn’t thought that far.

Song-i saw my expression and immediately scolded me.

“Wow... You’re seriously awful.”

“...”

“So what’s the gift for Elena? I should at least take a look!”

“Uh, uh! Don’t touch it.”

“Why, is it expensive? Is it a ring or... Aah!”

“...”

“You’re insane! You’re insane! Han Ga-in, you jerk, you’re seriously insane, insane! You’re insane, you’re insa-”

“Q-Quiet! People are looking!”

“Who gives something like this as a gift?! You don’t need to give me anything either!”

I hurried to calm the horrified Song-i.

“No, no. It’s not what you think!”

“What do you mean, it’s not? A horrible animal carcass... Mmff!”

I covered Song-i’s mouth. If she said any more, the café owner might call the police.

“This was just bad luck.”

“What?”

“I said I recently started working as an exorcist, right? I happened to obtain it during that. A moment ago, while you were observing it, one of its overlapping possibilities manifested in a dead state.”

“... What on earth does that mean?”

“I should return it to a state of superposition.”

--- Click!

Song-i looked at me with an increasingly bizarre expression.

“Since I started doing something like exorcist work, all sorts of horrible things have gathered around me.”

“...”

“That probably means this world is badly warped. Once the rest the hotel promised us ends, something serious will happen, so stay alert too, Song-i.”

“...”

“We should get going. It’s almost time for the KTX.”

* * *

Around three in the afternoon, Song-i and I arrived at Busan Port.

An enormous cruise ship was already docked at the harbor.