Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 595

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 594: The Stolen World (9)

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 225

Current Location: Northern Territory, Australia

Sage’s Advice: 0」

- Han Ga-in

The Management Bureau watched over all humanity, punished Corruption, and destroyed demons.

The Silent were the leadership who controlled the Management Bureau from within.

In that sense, The Silent could be called humanity’s overseers.

At this point, any wise person had to ask a question.

There was an old saying dating back to ancient Rome.

Who watches the watchers?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Humanity was watched by the Management Bureau, and the Management Bureau was watched by The Silent.

Then who watched The Silent?

The answer to that problem was the Stone Tablet.

Revealing the secrets of the world learned from one’s position among The Silent.

Rejecting decisions reached in council meetings and running wild as one pleased.

The Stone Tablet existed to thoroughly monitor such deviations by The Silent and maintain order by crushing violators, soul and all.

That was why Grandpa Mook-seong had strongly opposed destroying the Stone Tablet.

...

To save A-ri, we had to neutralize the Stone Tablet, but destroying it would cause problems.

What were we supposed to do?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, there was a plausible answer.

As we had experienced once before, Elder Wisdom possessed an unknown power that suppressed all supernatural phenomena.

* * *

「Teacher」

「Mage」

「Researcher」

「Traitor」

「A self-righteous person」

「An incomprehensible person」

As I walked toward the Stone Tablet amid the endless discordant voices, Ryan called out from behind me.

“Ah! Ah! It’s time. It’s time now.”

Sang-hyeon nodded slightly.

“Your boss is going to use their power?”

“Yes. And that old-timer and I aren’t in a superior-subordinate relationship.”

“Understood. Let’s call you colleagues, then.”

Ryan seemed to believe he stood on equal footing with Elder Wisdom, but honestly, none of us saw it that way.

Ryan did not know Elder Wisdom’s name or face, had never actually seen Elder Wisdom, and simply obeyed and followed a voice and power coming from somewhere.

What kind of colleague was that?

Where was Elder Wisdom in the first place? Was Elder Wisdom even in reality?

The more I thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed.

Then that familiar Voice spoke to me as well.

‘It has been a while.’

“It has. As promised, please suppress the Stone Tablet.”

‘Do not be in such a hurry.’

“...”

‘Ryan must have told you, but I cannot suppress the Stone Tablet for long. Therefore, I cannot be certain that your companion can be saved.’

“I know.”

Elder Wisdom could not suppress the Stone Tablet for long.

Once that time passed, the Stone Tablet would pursue A-ri again.

So, during that brief window, we had to contact A-ri and move her to a separate, safe place.

“Then let’s begin-”

‘I have something to say.’

“Now, of all times?”

‘If I say it now, you will listen obediently, will you not?’

That was true, so I found myself speechless.

‘First, do not listen to the Moon’s Voice. Those who, like you and me, come into contact with great wisdom must keep their distance from untrustworthy whispers.’

“...”

‘Second, it is time for us to speak honestly.’

“Speak honestly...?”

‘About our purpose.’

When we reunited with Ryan, he had tried to tempt us by bringing up his family and suggesting that we seize the places on the Ark.

I had not believed him for a moment.

Even Song-i would not consider family created by Dream to be her real family.

Would those who had gone through far more Loops than Song-i still be bound by their Mortal families?

It would be stranger to fall for such a flimsy lie.

If the purpose they first revealed was an obvious lie, then they had another, true purpose.

Why did Elder Wisdom’s faction want to recruit us and attack the Ark?

‘You must have tried to understand me through Ryan. I have also observed you.’

“And what did you think?”

‘I learned that your judgment is not so different from ours.’

“Huh?”

‘Had I known that from the beginning, I would not have lied to you all in the first place.’

My judgment was similar to Elder Wisdom’s?

‘You have learned much about the Ark. In the process, you began to believe there was some sort of trap within it. Am I wrong?’

“... No.”

It was true.

I believed the Ark was a trap.

‘Listen carefully. What I am about to tell you may be unfamiliar...’

Elder Wisdom began explaining the Ark.

‘The Ark’s foundation combines the Soul Convergence Circuit, designed in ancient times, with the Mirror excavated beneath the Iberian Peninsula. The former can gather human souls into a single point and create a pseudo-divinity. You understand this principle better than anyone.’

Now I understood why Elder Wisdom had immediately seen through the Sacred Sun.

Elder Wisdom knew of the Soul Convergence Circuit, which operated on a similar principle.

‘The Ark’s principle is to endure the End Times in that state, then use the Mirror’s power to turn everyone human again. Do you understand so far?’

“I do.”

I already knew this much, but it was not bad to have my suspicions turn into certainty.

‘Logically, there appeared to be no problem with the Ark’s principle. The Forerunners who first designed it must have thought the same.’

“Was there a problem in reality?”

‘There was. Humanity’s distant ancestors, whose records no longer remain, only discovered it long after awakening in the next world.’

They had created the Ark to escape the coming End Times and awakened in the next world.

Only after a long time had passed did they learn that the Ark had a fundamental flaw.

‘Ah... The Mirror. The Mirror was the problem. What was the Mirror in the first place? Countless questions were asked of heaven, yet no one ever gave an answer... Young Wisdom, do you know anything about the Mirror?’

“...”

‘Remember this. The Mirror does not return things to their original state. It absolutely does not.’

As I listened, I thought that perhaps we knew more about the Mirror than even the Management Bureau or Elder Wisdom.

Room 207 was reality’s distant past, and the Mirror had been its central keyword.

Still, because of Room 207’s nature, each party’s method of progression must have differed enormously.

The Mirror did not return things to their original state.

Anyone who had ever seen their reflection in a mirror knew that left and right were reversed.

A more convincing explanation was that the Practitioner beyond the Mirror twisted the subject.

‘The First Corruption occurred. It was because humanity had stepped one pace away from its original purity.’

From the First Ark came the First Corruption, the first distortion.

It was not as though all common sense collapsed at once.

Humanity did not suddenly transform into cephalopods, nor did tentacles sprout where hands should have been.

The world’s common sense slowly melted away, like ice exposed to sunlight.

Some were enchanted by voices from distant worlds and summoned bizarre monsters.

Some rose from their graves after death, seeking to settle the grudges they had held in life.

Some leaped into the sea, only for fins to grow from their backs.

...

Only after such things repeated over hundreds of years did the Forerunners accept it.

Humanity had strayed a little from its original purity, and because of that, the world’s common sense had changed a little.

‘At first, no one thought it was such a serious problem. Minor monsters could be dealt with without much difficulty. So they made the Ark once again.’

The first little change had not been a serious threat, so they made the Ark again.

One little change became two, then three.

“Have we repeated that process countless times to reach the present?”

‘Yes. I need not explain what the world is like now, do I?’

The Moon, which should have peacefully illuminated the night sky, had become a demon at some point and burrowed beneath the earth.

Today, we lived in a strange world where common sense had completely collapsed.

By then, I had begun to understand Elder Wisdom’s purpose.

‘It is Defying Heaven. We are paying the Price of Defying Heaven...’

“...”

‘We made the Ark because we feared the End Times, because we feared that the sandcastle called civilization would collapse... But think again. When summer comes, it is the Natural Order for ice to melt. When waves crash, it is the Natural Order for a sandcastle to collapse.’

“...”

‘It was also the Natural Order for the sandcastle to collapse when the End Times came. We should have let it fall... Instead, we tried to preserve it by force, and disaster followed.’

The Management Bureau had created the Ark because it wanted to avoid humanity returning to a primitive state after the Loop and rebuilding civilization from the beginning.

Elder Wisdom said that very idea was itself an act of Defying Heaven.

“Then what is your purpose?”

‘The Ark must be destroyed. The sandcastle must collapse, and the ice must melt...’

“...”

‘Believe me. This is the path that truly serves humanity.’

“Do you think destroying the Ark will solve the Moon’s problem too?”

‘Not immediately. Think of environmental pollution. Does destroying a power plant make a river clean at once? Yet after enough time has passed, clean water will flow again.’

“...”

‘You will find it difficult to believe me. I understand. Seek an answer from someone you can trust.’

Soon, a mysterious radiance began illuminating the sealed underground space.

A mysterious light, a power believed to be Elder Wisdom’s Inheritance that suppressed supernatural phenomena, gathered at a single point on the Stone Tablet.

‘Ask the companion who rose to the pinnacle of the Management Bureau. Ask whether there is even the slightest error in what I have told you.’

I vaguely realized that I had been given my first path toward an ending: the destruction of the Ark.

I simply did not know whether that ending would be a happy ending or a Bad Ending.

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

I thought back to what had happened moments earlier.

The being who had darkened the entire corridor and displayed an ominous presence was a member of The Silent.

The figure had appeared in a suit, as though trying to imitate a person, and attempted to persuade us.

You are humanity’s guardians.

You are shepherds who must protect the lambs that will awaken in the next world after escaping the End Times.

Why, then, do you reject that duty and run wild with violence?

The Summoned Entity Ga-in, whom Mi-ro had called forth, answered that the Ark was a trap.

The being asked why he thought so.

Ga-in said the Ark was something akin to a demigod made by gathering human souls, and he could not believe that the Management Bureau had created such a thing.

Then the figure extended a hand and revealed the Ark’s greatest secret: the Mirror.

The figure said the Ark could be made because ancient humanity had excavated a great treasure beneath the Iberian Peninsula.

At the moment everyone fell into a daze beneath the Mirror’s overwhelming presence, the figure cried out in a desperately earnest voice.

“You must believe me!”

Ga-in could not hide his confusion.

“What exactly are you telling us to believe?”

“You outsiders are being manipulated by the wicked one.”

“The wicked one-”

“Wisdom! Wisdom! I know that you have joined hands with the fiend who acquired Evil Wisdom at the Hotel. Am I wrong?”

“... Are you talking about Elder Wisdom?”

“Elder Wisdom will deceive you with a serpent’s tongue and lead you down the wrong path. Elder Wisdom’s purpose is to destroy the Ark!”

I was as confused as Ga-in, so I asked back.