WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 586: The Stolen World (1)
──────
- Lee Eun-sol
An incomprehensible force seized my body and pulled me toward the sky.
Even Jin-cheol, who had tried to stop my Rapture, was rising alongside me!
In the middle of this desperate crisis, I almost couldn't help but laugh.
Grandfather, this isn't some kind of comedy routine, is it?
Pulling out the Hourglass so quickly was fine.
But then he suddenly lost his balance, fell over, and dropped it?
He panicked and flailed toward the Hourglass, only for a vase on the table to fall and knock it even farther away.
The misfortune piled up to such an absurd degree that a lightning-like realization struck everyone at once.
Park Seung-yeop: Heavenly Luck! Heavenly Luck!
The moment Grandfather tried to use the Hourglass to stop the Rapture, Heavenly Luck interfered with him?
It wasn't misfortune upon misfortune. It was Luck upon Luck!
Lee Eun-sol: Stop! Don't move-
Kim Mook-seong: I understand!
At that moment, Luck whispered to us.
It would be better for us to be taken away!
Why? I didn't know.
Luck wasn't a power that explained its reasons!
The moment we stopped resisting, the window shattered, and all four of us were hurled into the air.
Was this situation too much to endure?
In that instant, Elena's eyes glowed a deep blue.
Ominous Imagination?
Did her eye color change whenever she used that power?
More importantly, what was she trying to do?
Was she planning to summon some flying monster and follow us?
Mi-ro: You don't need to come! I can call you if we need you!
Mi-ro could call Elena?
Ah, so Elena must be in Mi-ro's Time Lender?
Then, just as Mi-ro said, Elena didn't need to follow us.
Mi-ro's words were our final communication with the companions left on the ground.
The Rapture had carried us beyond the Chat Window's range.
“Urgh...!”
The people on the ground already looked like crawling ants.
I wasn't afraid of heights, but the dizziness was so intense that I felt like throwing up.
I was still clutching the Flute with both hands and desperately blowing into it, so I thought my mind was still clear, but...
The three companions being taken with me had already drifted too far away to see.
At that distance, they had long since left the Flute's protective range.
“Ugh...”
Then I realized what the four of us undergoing Rapture had in common.
Lee Eun-sol, Park Seung-yeop, Mi-ro, and Cha Jin-cheol.
All four of us had connections to the Management Bureau.
Was that the criterion for Selection?
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 181
Current Location: Hotel Delight, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
...!
My consciousness, which had been perpetually hazy, suddenly cleared.
My body, heavy as waterlogged cotton, could move freely again!
「Participant Han Ga-in's Punishment has been lifted!」
That took disgustingly long!
Now that it was over, more than half of that suffering had clearly been Owl's fault!
It wanted me to stay still, but since I kept moving around, it forced me to lie down, right?
Then it should've just told me to stay still!
I cursed inwardly and focused my mind. At last, Scenario Understanding came into view properly.
「Scenario: The Stolen World
The End Times are approaching.
This tragedy arose from everyone's Original Sin.
Those who longed for continuity created the Ark with earnest desperation.
The awakened Ark has begun its Selection, and four Participants have been chosen.
You were not chosen.
Check the next part outside the hospital room!」
“...”
The End Times.
Everyone's Original Sin.
The Ark and its Selection.
Four had been chosen, but I had not.
Were those the key points?
For now, I needed to go outside.
* * *
It didn't take long to reunite with my confused companions.
“Ga-in!”
“Oppa!”
“You little brat! You're finally awake?”
“We have much to discuss.”
Eun-sol, Jin-cheol, Seung-yeop, and Mi-ro had been taken.
Interestingly, Heavenly Luck had interfered with Grandfather when he tried to turn the Hourglass.
Grandfather and Elena discussed it.
“So being taken is beneficial?”
“It seems that way. Could it be because of the Kingdom of Dreams? Um, if we use the Kingdom of Dreams, we can reunite with the companions who were kidnapped.”
“We don't have the Kingdom of Dreams right now, though...”
The Kingdom of Dreams had originally belonged to A-ri, but A-ri went missing after visiting my Dream.
“Doesn't that mean we should save A-ri and retrieve the Kingdom of Dreams?”
After hearing Elena, Sang-hyeon replied.
“Then the captured companions won't die immediately.”
“Right!”
I thought so too.
‘The awakened Ark has begun its Selection, and four Participants have been chosen.’
That wording didn't sound like they had been kidnapped to be killed.
To reassure everyone, I used Advice just to be sure.
「Advice: 3 -> 2」
‘Are the kidnapped companions safe?’
「This is not an urgent situation. Remain calm and act carefully.」
Maybe it was because I hadn't used it in a while, but it was being kind.
Then again, I had already been half certain of the answer based on other evidence.
“Everyone, calm down. The Sponsor says this isn't a major crisis either.”
Knowing no one was in immediate danger, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
After telling them about the Scenario, I asked a question.
“Could the Management Bureau have created the Ark?”
“What?”
“If you think about the people who were kidnapped, they're all connected to the Management Bureau.”
Jin-cheol was an agent. Eun-sol was nominally an agent. Mi-ro was treated as an agent with lost memories.
Even Seung-yeop had ties to the Management Bureau because he had been beside Mi-ro from the beginning, and the Bureau's reach had touched him.
Sang-hyeon nodded.
“With the End Times approaching, the Management Bureau created the Ark and took the four people it considered to be on its side?”
“When we talk about the End Times, two things come to mind.”
“Two? One is the Moon Demon at the center of the Earth, correct?”
That was information A-ri had told us.
“What is the other?”
“Hyung, you forgot. The greatest danger in reality was originally the Light That Calls the End, wasn't it?”
A-ri and Grandfather had repeatedly spoken of it as reality's greatest threat.
According to what had been revealed in Room 207, the Light That Calls the End had a deep connection to the Mirror.
“The Moon Demon, the Light That Calls the End, the Ark... So many things are tangled together that it's confusing. It feels like we have many fragments but can't find the link between them.”
Grandfather muttered with a sigh.
“The more I listen, the more it makes me sigh.”
“Grandfather?”
“If you two are right, the Management Bureau created the Ark to avoid the Light That Calls the End or the Moon Demon... Why do I, an agent, know nothing about it?”
It was probably information beyond an ordinary agent's security clearance.
A-ri had become one of The Silent, so A-ri knew about the Ark.
Still, Grandfather's words raised a question.
“I heard that A-ri and Grandfather had experienced the Light That Calls the End several times before.”
“I experienced it once. A-ri, more often.”
“Didn't Rapture happen then, like it is now?”
“If it had, I would've told you.”
“...”
The past A-ri and Grandfather remembered differed from what was happening now?
As that thought occurred to us, everyone's eyes naturally met.
“Um-”
“Could it be-”
“I think we're the cause.”
“...”
Had something changed because ten Participants escaped the Hotel and intervened in the world for various reasons?
Song-i, who had been silently tapping away at her phone, spoke up.
“The internet's going crazy too. People are saying the End Times have begun, that God is taking only good people, things like that. It looks like the Rapture has stopped for now.”
“Stopped for now...”
“Doesn't it feel like it'll start again soon?”
“I feel the same way.”
The phenomenon of the Ark taking those it had selected seemed likely to continue for longer than expected.
“More precisely, I think it'll continue for about six months.”
“Because the Merchant said they'd start gathering information in six months, and things would get crazy after a year?”
“Right.”
Interpreting everything we had learned so far led to the following conclusion.
The End Times were approaching, and the Management Bureau had created the Ark.
The Ark was selecting those worthy of being saved, and this process would occur periodically over the next six months.
At that very moment, the next part of Scenario Understanding appeared!
「Scenario: The Stolen World
The first Selection has ended.
The entire world, having witnessed a genuine miracle, is boiling with confusion.
Greedy thieves are approaching you!
The next part will be revealed ‘after negotiations.’」
“Greedy thieves?”
“Oppa?”
Just as someone came to mind, pop! Someone appeared in midair.
“Hey! Long time no see, young friend.”
“...Ryan.”
Song-i and Elena jumped in surprise. Sang-hyeon's expression hardened as well, and he raised a hand, ready to fire a beam at any moment.
Grandfather also reached inside his coat with a grave expression.
“Ha ha! Calm down. If you think about it, aren't I your senior? I'm not saying you have to respect me, but we can at least talk, can't we?”
“...”
“You there, were you Mook-seong? I apologize for what happened last time.”
“Shut up.”
“Don't be like that. If you think about it, that scary girl carved my body to pieces, so I suffered much greater losses, didn't I?”
Since they had clashed before, it was difficult for kind words to pass between them.
“Ryan, let's get to the point.”
“Friend, the ‘old man’ said it when we parted, didn't he? We'd meet again in five months. This is that time.”
“If you have something to say, say it now.”
As the conversation began, Elena quietly activated Lie Detection. Her eyes glowed as she hid behind Grandfather, while Ryan spoke.
“Fine. Let's get straight to it. Do you know what's happening right now?”
“The Management Bureau is creating the Ark to avoid the End Times.”
Ryan looked slightly flustered.
“Uh... Ahem, you already know the most important part. Then do you know why they're creating the Ark?”
“To survive the End Times?”
“Don't forget. Agents have another life even without an Ark.”
It reminded me of a conversation I had shared with Grandfather long ago.
“Because it would be difficult to rebuild the Management Bureau if only agents survived.”
If you gathered a thousand agents in one place, could they even make a single car?
That assumption also required the agents to awaken in the same era. In reality, they awoke in different eras, making it even more impossible.
“You already know quite a bit. It makes this conversation easier. As you said, the Management Bureau can't be rebuilt with agents alone. It needs the survival of far more facilities and specialists.”
“...”
“For that purpose, the Management Bureau keeps several Otherworlds for preserving information, but... most of them are terribly incomplete. The Ark is the most perfect answer to this.”
A tiny number of agents and a few books hidden in the Otherworlds weren't enough.
To ensure the Management Bureau's continuity, it needed to preserve countless people and facilities on the scale of massive factories.
That was what the Ark existed for.
“If the Ark's construction fails for some reason, civilization from the old era will be almost entirely lost. In the worst case, humanity might reach the twenty-first century after a Loop and still be in the medieval age.”
“Has that actually happened?”
“It has. More than once. Thanks to that, current civilization is greatly diminished compared to its peak.”
“...”
I had gained a great deal of meaningful information about the Ark.
Still, I didn't understand why this man had come to us.
“I understand the matter of the Ark. But I have one question. Ryan, why did you come to us?”
“I'll be blunt. Friends! We've been abandoned. You know that, don't you?”
The Scenario had told me, ‘You were not chosen.’
“What does that matter? We can maintain our self-awareness without the Ark in the first place.”
“You and I can. The people here can too.”
“Then-”
Then Ryan Reynolds shook my companions to their core.
“Let me ask one thing. Has anyone here revived their family through Dream?”
In the silence, Ryan whispered again.
“Try contacting them. Who knows? If they're lucky, they may have been chosen by the Ark. But... what if they aren't? The End Times are already right around the corner.”
“...”
“You there, my doctor friend! Didn't you say you had a wife and son?”
“...”
“My junior in Communication! I apologize again for what happened last time. But are your son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren doing well right now?”
“...”
“You there, cute young lady! Have you contacted your parents?”
I finally understood why Ryan had come to us!
“I'll say what none of you can say aloud. I intend to save my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson no matter what.”
“...”
“That means securing places on the Ark.”
Even if it meant driving someone else out when there weren't enough places!
“Oh, right! If you don't care whether those fake families created by Dream die, feel free to sit this out.”
None of my companions answered.
Footnotes:
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