WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 572: The Management Bureau Is an Elephant (2)
──────
- Cha Jin-cheol
Kim Ji-ho approached Jang Seo-jin's residence. Seo-jin was Chairman Jang Min-cheol's youngest son.
“I can smell it. Can't you?”
“Let's go in.”
I couldn't smell anything.
Kim Ji-ho could sometimes detect signs of Chaos and Corruption by scent, but even he didn't know where that ability came from, or when he'd gained it.
There were plenty of agents like that, which was why my “superhuman strength” could pass without much notice too.
--- Creak!
Calling it a room was a stretch. It was an enormous space.
Rich kids on TV sometimes talked about things like “the pool in my room” or “the living room in my room,” making ordinary people clutch the backs of their necks in disbelief. This was that kind of place.
Various knives that seemed meant for sculpting, chunks of pure white stone, wet clay, and countless unknown dyes lay scattered around the room.
Jang Seo-jin, the youngest son of Taeseong Group Chairman Jang Min-cheol.
I'd heard he was famous as a genius sculptor. This seemed to be his studio.
A slender young man stood in the middle of the studio.
I'd heard he was over thirty, but he looked like he was in his early twenties.
Without even looking at us intruders, he spoke.
“Could you wait over there? I'm in the middle of working.”
I stepped forward again.
“Jang Seo-jin, quit talking nonsense and come with us.”
“I know you came because of my work anyway. Isn't it good for the Management Bureau if there's one more finished piece?”
His voice was unbelievably calm.
“It won't be too late to finish it after you're questioned at Headquarters. Listen while I'm asking nicely.”
Chairman Jang Min-cheol and his wife outside were tense enough for their eyes to turn bloodshot, but the person being taken away was completely calm.
Seo-jin knew.
He knew the Management Bureau coveted his ability and wouldn't kill him carelessly.
He wasn't completely clueless.
“Is that why you're so frustrating? Because you do physical labor?”
“...”
His subtly grating tone got on my nerves.
“Sorry, but inspiration is like a hazy afterimage. If I'm dragged away and questioned, my inspiration will fade too...”
--- Bang!
Before Seo-jin could finish, a gunshot rang out and the sculpture on the table exploded.
A gunshot out of nowhere?
We'd barely exchanged a few words.
Was Kim Ji-ho especially irritable today?
“Oh dear! The person in the back is quite impatient.”
“Hey, we don't have time either, so come along quietly...”
--- Crack!
The sound of stone crumbling.
The sound of stiff joints moving.
Vibrations and noise came from every direction.
“... This will be troublesome if you do this here.”
The moment Seo-jin looked flustered, a sculpture in one corner of the studio began to radiate an imposing presence, like a living person.
Creating “living sculptures.”
That was Jang Seo-jin's ability!
“Ah, damn it!”
“... Senior Kim.”
Did we really think someone who could make living sculptures wouldn't care about his own safety?
Of course he'd have some kind of guard nearby.
That was why we'd tried to bring him in peacefully.
“Argh! Can't we just smash it?”
At Kim Ji-ho's irritated words, Seo-jin gave a short laugh and retorted.
“Isn't that sculpture also ‘property’ the Management Bureau wants?”
“Shut up, you bastard.”
Kim Ji-ho rushed forward, holding a heavy weapon unlike the handgun he usually preferred.
If he'd expected guard sculptures, it was only natural that he'd prepared for fighting them too.
--- Boom! Rumble! Bang, bang! Crash!
Heavy rounds shot out like lightning and struck the sculpture one after another. A massive blast tore through the studio, and the guard sculpture was blown to pieces in an instant.
“Wow... That's incredible firepower. Does the Management Bureau have things like that too?”
“Have you never seen a grenade launcher? You must've at least thrown grenades in the military...”
“I didn't serve in the military.”
“...”
“I'm an American citizen. Did you serve on active duty, Agent? Ah, I see! It must've been hard!”
Ah, why did I want to punch this bastard so badly?
No wonder he'd sounded like someone who'd never served!
When I frowned slightly, Seo-jin grinned.
“Didn't your sculptures hurt a lot of people?”
“I know.”
“Don't you feel guilty?”
“Agent, if someone kills a person with a kitchen knife, is it the fault of the person who sold the knife?”
“A kitchen knife doesn't have a will of its own and run wild like your sculptures.”
“I'm saying I never ordered them to kill anyone.”
“...”
Should I just smack the back of his head once?
“I'm scared. I can endure pain, but if that ridiculously huge hand hits me, I feel like my inspiration might disappear.”
Before we left, Kim Ji-ho put the restraints he had brought from Headquarters on Seo-jin.
A set of handcuffs, a restraint suit, and a mask covered in strange drawings and letters.
I'd seen the Management Bureau's custom-made equipment several times before. They said it possessed quite powerful Chaos-suppressing properties.
Having worn it myself, I knew it wasn't enough to affect Hotel participants.
It just made your body feel heavy, that was all.
“Junior Cha. He's fully restrained, so let's go!”
* * *
About five minutes after we left, I was focused on driving when Seo-jin and Kim Ji-ho began talking in the back.
“Are we going to Headquarters?”
“Yeah.”
“What will happen when we get there?”
“You'll have to atone.”
“By atoning, you mean I'll be making sculptures for all of you from now on, right?”
“You catch on fast.”
“Can I ask more questions?”
“... Go ahead.”
Headquarters had instructed us to bring him in quietly, without conflict if possible.
They probably thought it would be troublesome if he grew too resentful when they intended to use his ability in the future.
Kim Ji-ho had fired quite a few shots, but let's just say they were meant to scare him.
Looking at Seo-jin's attitude, he didn't seem scared at all. I also doubted Kim Ji-ho had thought that far ahead.
“There are lots of remote-controlled drones in the Management Bureau, right? I've seen them on TV many times.”
“There are.”
“If my sculptures can do the job, can't you just have drones do it instead?”
“...”
It was a question any ordinary person might have.
Why did an organization overflowing with remote-controlled drones need “living sculptures”?
And why did they have to send people into dangerous situations?
“First, drone performance isn't as reliable as you think.”
The Management Bureau in Room 201 had punished the rebel forces using drones alone.
The Management Bureau in Room 202 had been able to punish even the half-revived Sea God using a ‘Terminator.’
The Management Bureau in reality fell short of those Management Bureaus technologically.
For example, mass-produced combat drones could operate for less than an hour.
They said the biggest reason was battery technology, but let's leave it there.
I couldn't understand the explanation after that because I didn't know much about science or engineering.
“What other reasons are there?”
“... Drones lack Spirituality.”
“What?”
Drones had no souls.
Drones had no life.
Drones lacked something on the opposite side of Chaos.
It might sound vague to some people, but to the Management Bureau, this was a very practical reason.
“That's enough. You'll understand once you work at Headquarters.”
This too was one of the facts kept from the general public.
“Oh, I think I understand one thing without you explaining any further.”
“Enough, so be quiet...”
“So you have no choice but to sacrifice real people instead of robots, right?”
“... I said be quiet.”
I sensed a trace of panic in Kim Ji-ho's voice.
His opponent had struck at the heart of the issue.
I should probably help my senior, who was suffering because of this arrogant guest.
More than that, considering our real objective, this direction of conversation wasn't good.
“All right! You're distracting the driver, so both of you be quiet.”
“I'm touched. Humans really are the most precious beings in the world, aren't they?”
“Jang Seo-jin, you might not know this, but I'm very inexperienced at driving. So shut up.”
There was one fact that might surprise some people.
For a long time, the Management Bureau had worked to reduce casualties.
Minimizing the number of people exposed during the Containment of hideous Chaos Entities and deploying advanced robots and drones whenever possible were part of that effort.
Through that process, the Management Bureau had realized something.
Some things could only be resolved by people.
Some things could only end when people died.
* * *
- Kim A-ri
After receiving a text that morning informing me of my promotion, I arrived in the middle of the Australian desert under the Korean Branch Head's guidance.
There was an elevator inside a structure that looked like a tower.
“...”
I'm supposed to get in, right?
What if I press the wrong button and it suddenly pushes me into lava or something?
No, wasn't that too paranoid?
If the Management Bureau intended to purge me, they wouldn't go through such a complicated process...
“Ah.”
My thoughts had kept drifting toward the possibility that the Management Bureau would purge me.
In the past, I wouldn't have even thought such things.
“...”
I was becoming paranoid because I wasn't completely innocent.
Because I thought the Management Bureau had reasons to purge me.
The few choices I'd faced since returning to reality.
At those moments, had I been a Management Bureau agent?
Or had I been a member of the Hotel Party?
I didn't know.
That doubt and confusion took root, and a fear emerged in my heart.
The fear that the Management Bureau might kill me.
--- Ding!
The elevator doors suddenly opened.
A hooded man stood inside.
“Well? Are you going to come in or not?”
“...”
“I've been waiting, Agent A-ri.”
I knew the moment I saw him.
This person was a member of The Silent.
Then, was he a Former Participant?
“Come in already, will you?”
“Sorry.”
“Speak casually. From the moment you received that message, we're equals.”
“Okay.”
Perhaps he liked my answer, because the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
It felt like being praised by a grandfather, which wasn't especially pleasant.
When I looked around the elevator, my eyebrows rose slightly without me realizing it.
“What do you think?”
“... I've never seen interior design like this before.”
“What is unusual about it?”
“The shapes of the numbers are strange, and the control panel is unusual too.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“I don't like riddles. I got plenty of those at the Hotel.”
“Haha! I understand how you feel. Those Hotel bastards can be pretty unhelpful.”
“...”
I'd suspected as much, but this person was a Former Participant too.
“Well, the answer is simple. This structure wasn't made in this world.”
“...”
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
This structure hadn't been made in this world?
It had been made in a past Loop?
Didn't that mean it was a structure capable of surviving the world's reset caused by a Loop?
“Just as there are people who can endure the End Times, there are facilities that can endure the End Times too. You know that, don't you?”
“... I know you use several Otherworlds as storage.”
“It's similar. Though this isn't an Otherworld.”
“...”
--- Ding!
A number I didn't recognize was pressed.
“It'll take about an hour to reach our destination, so make yourself comfortable.”
“An hour?”
What kind of elevator moved for an hour?
“How far away is the destination?”
“It isn't because it's far. It's because it's slow.”
“What?”
“The elevator has already started moving.”
“...”
It really was slow.
It moved more slowly than a person walking.
“Why is it so slow?”
“I read a report that said you possess a kind of x-ray vision.”
“...”
X-ray vision?
Given the circumstances, he seemed to mean the spatial awareness I developed while mastering the Irregular Polyhedron.
The ability I used to send Mi-ro to the exact location at the Lunar Base in Room 207. It wasn't x-ray vision at all.
Still, it would probably look like x-ray vision to an outsider.
“And?”
“From now on, try to sense the space outside. If you want, I could make the outer walls transparent, but that would be too dangerous.”
“... I asked why the elevator is moving so slowly.”
“I was answering that question too.”
There was a brief silence.
Following his words, I concentrated and tried to sense the space outside the elevator.
Then I felt a strange wall.
“What is this?”
“What do you feel?”
“A massive wall...”
“Sense it more carefully. It isn't a wall. It's a curved surface, not a straight line.”
“A curved surface?”
“It seems too large for you to sense the curve, so focus harder.”
“...”
Once I focused after hearing that, I really could feel the curve.
A sphere. A round sphere.
The sphere was so huge that at first I couldn't sense its curvature and mistook it for a straight wall.
And then...
“...”
My breath stopped.
“Stay calm. It's safe.”
“...”
“This structure was built a very long time ago.”
“...”
“It was made in an era when we were far greater than we are now. It can never be recreated.”
Footnotes:
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