WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 596: The Stolen World (11)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 226
Current Location: Searching....
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
The moment I tried to send A-ri into Eun-sol’s Dream, a thunderous roar rang out, as if heaven and earth were being crushed apart.
--- Rumble!
Unable to withstand the Stone Tablet’s pressure, the Kingdom of Dreams began to collapse!
“Eek!”
Had the harsh conditions over such a long time weakened A-ri?
A-ri let out an uncharacteristic scream, lost her balance, and staggered.
“Get in!”
“Y-you...!”
“Just get in!”
After hurriedly sending A-ri over to Eun-sol, I turned around and saw an absurd sight.
The entire Kingdom of Dreams, filled with gray fog, was being torn apart by pitch-black chains!
It was like some devil was ruining a painting by scribbling over it with a black marker.
Could I really return safely to my Dream in this situation?
More importantly, what would happen to me if the Kingdom of Dreams was destroyed while I was still inside it?
Clenching my teeth, I summoned the Sacred Sun.
If it came down to it, I’d fight that damned Stone Tablet just to get out!
“Ah?”
An unfathomable eye appeared before me.
...
I woke up in a pure white space filled with light.
* * *
“So after you sent me to Eun-sol, you met that eye again?”
“Maybe it was the consciousness of the Kingdom of Dreams?”
“And it sent you to the Ark too?”
“Probably.”
A-ri pulled the Kingdom of Dreams from inside her clothes.
“It doesn’t look good.”
Was it because of the Stone Tablet’s attack?
Or because it had expended its strength sending not only its user, A-ri, but me to the Ark as well?
Maybe it was both.
Either way, the Kingdom of Dreams was now half destroyed.
The painting was covered in black lines.
“Can it be used again?”
“Probably. It’ll need time to recover, though.”
A-ri gave a slight nod while looking at the painting.
“Thank you.”
“...”
“You too.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you feeling all right?”
“... Let’s rest for five more minutes. Old Blood should recover enough strength by then.”
“Okay. We have a lot to talk about anyway.”
A castle awash in pure white light.
That was my first thought upon arriving inside the Ark.
Considering its noble purpose of preserving humanity from the End Times, it almost felt like a heaven clumsily made by human hands.
The people who first created the Ark must have wanted it to become humanity’s pure and beautiful Salvation too.
--- Squirm!
“Stay still.”
“Be careful not to kill it.”
Sadly, the Ark itself was humanity’s First Corruption.
Knowing that, the Ark’s very existence felt like black comedy.
“A-ri, we’re free from the Stone Tablet’s pressure now, right?”
A-ri answered with a bitter smile.
“Not completely. Once the Ark is one hundred percent complete, the Stone Tablet will cross over here too.”
In the past, a member of The Silent who had been Clairvoyance’s husband said that if he endured until the End Times, he would be free from the Stone Tablet.
Thinking about it again after hearing A-ri’s words, it was simple.
Once the Ark departed, the Stone Tablet would disappear into the next Loop as well. That person, left behind in the collapsing world, would be free.
“Doesn’t that mean we’re safe for now?”
“That’s right.”
“Then that’s enough.”
--- Squirm!
“It’s doing it again.”
“Keep it alive. It’s useful.”
The questions that had confused me for so long were being answered one by one.
Bringing A-ri to the Ark had been a good choice after all.
“It’s pretty.”
A-ri absentmindedly ran a hand along the Ark’s inner wall.
After being promoted to The Silent, A-ri had learned the truth about the Ark, but this was apparently her first time seeing it in person.
The first question.
Why hadn’t agents like A-ri known about the Ark?
“Before you entered the Hotel, you didn’t know the Ark existed either?”
“Half and half.”
“What does that mean?”
“I thought there might be something prepared for the End Times. It wasn’t that someone specifically told me. If you work somewhere like the Management Bureau, anyone would think that much.”
Even ordinary people in premodern times preserved food in preparation for winter.
If an organization like the Management Bureau did nothing to prepare for the End Times, that would be a dereliction of duty.
“I didn’t know the specifics, like gathering ordinary people to create a pseudo-god or splitting them apart again to create an enormous number of people.”
A-ri had expected something, but didn’t know the concrete concept of the Ark.
“That’s what confuses me. The process of making the Ark causes all these huge phenomena, doesn’t it?”
A Rapture suddenly occurs, taking enormous numbers of people. It doesn’t happen just once, either. It happens dozens of times as the Ark travels around the world.
How could nobody know?
“The Ark isn’t normally made this conspicuously.”
“Huh?”
“Say the End Times are due in 2030. Normally, Selection would begin in 2020 and proceed slowly over a long period. Think about it. Doesn’t that sound much more efficient?”
“...”
“Moon’s Awakening is getting earlier and earlier. This time was especially bad.”
The End Times had been brought forward far too much this time, which was why the Ark had been made so conspicuously. Under normal circumstances, it would have been completed slowly over a long period.
Thinking of the massive disturbance caused by the Ark traveling around the world, I understood what A-ri meant.
“There would still be confusion. Too many people would go missing. The memories of the few who noticed would be erased. Maybe my memories too... I don’t know about that part. Records don’t remain that far back.”
“Why erase them?”
“Because the Ark’s existence itself is a means for The Silent to control the Management Bureau.”
“A means to control the Management Bureau?”
“The Management Bureau consists of Regressors and ordinary people who support the Regressors.”
Regressor agents and the staff who supported them.
“The latter, the ordinary people, are fairly jealous of the agents.”
“...”
It was something Eun-sol and Jin-cheol, who were both half involved with the Management Bureau, had mentioned from time to time.
Even Park Hyun-min, the head of the Korean Branch who had risen to the highest rank possible as an employee, sometimes couldn’t hide his jealousy of the agents.
“From the Management Bureau leadership’s perspective, agents are excellent weapons, but they’re also burdensome. As they repeat Loops, they often become too strong for the Management Bureau to control.”
Elder Wisdom’s faction was a good example.
“So they want absolute loyalty from the ordinary people, and subtly spread information among them.”
“...”
“There is a way for ordinary people like you to see what comes after the End Times. So devote your loyalty to us.”
In terms of actual history, it was similar to how royalty used commoners who had risen through the ranks to keep high-ranking nobles in check.
No matter how grand the scale became, weren’t relationships between people ultimately always similar?
“In short, ordinary agents like I used to be died without even knowing the Ark existed. They’d see civilians disappearing in huge numbers and wonder what was happening, then get hit by the Light That Calls the End.”
“The Light That Calls the End...”
The second question.
What exactly was the Light That Calls the End?
“I learned information about the Light That Calls the End in Room 207. The Mirror was the cause of that light.”
“Right.”
“I think reality is the same.”
“It is.”
“From the information I’ve gathered, the Management Bureau possesses the largest Mirror Shard and uses it to create the Ark.”
“Wasn’t it the same in Room 207? Aedia was the Mirror’s owner.”
Just as A-ri said, it had been the same in Room 207.
The Holy See owned the Mirror, and the Light That Calls the End was a phenomenon created by Aedia.
“...”
“Ga-in, I think you’re half right.”
Watching A-ri calmly agree, I had no choice but to voice a terrible hypothesis.
“Did The Silent create the Light That Calls the End?”
“It’s a little different. More precisely, it’s a phenomenon caused by the Ark.”
“...”
“Once completed, the Ark gains a kind of Self-awareness.”
The cause of the Light That Calls the End was the Mirror, and the largest Mirror was inside the Ark.
Therefore, the Light That Calls the End came from the Ark.
“... Why would the Ark create the Light That Calls the End?”
“To stop the Moon from growing.”
The completed Ark created the Light That Calls the End to stop the Moon’s growth.
...
The group led by Elder Wisdom, which spearheaded the Ark’s destruction, insisted that the Ark’s very existence was what caused humanity to become corrupt.
A-ri acknowledged that this claim was true.
Then shouldn’t those who wanted to protect the Ark have to find an alternative?
They had to find a way to suppress the Moon, the greatest problem caused by the Ark.
The answer was the Light That Calls the End.
The third question.
“Then what exactly is the Moon?”
“I think you must have vaguely guessed by now.”
“I have a rough idea, but I want the exact answer.”
A-ri answered with a gloomy expression.
“Do you remember when I appeared in your Dream and spoke in riddles?”
“I remember it as vividly as if it happened yesterday.”
There were three things A-ri had said.
First, there was something in reality that corresponded to the Demon King.
Second, the problem that regression stories often left out.
Third, the framed painting in the temple, the Ark moving forward with the Sun behind it.
I’d already interpreted much of it.
“Most of it was about the Moon.”
“...”
“The Moon beneath the Earth, corresponding to the Demon King.”
“What about the next part?”
“Many regression stories don’t show the world after the Regressor goes back.”
“...”
“What happens to the world left behind after the protagonist regresses? Does it vanish immediately because the protagonist is gone? Or does time itself turn back for the world?”
“...”
“It depends on the story. In truth, most regression stories leave that part out.”
“...”
“Even after the Ark departs, countless people remain in the world. The Ark isn’t something that confronts the End Times. It’s something that runs away before the End Times.”
The problem of the world left behind after a Regressor regressed.
Even after the Ark left to escape the End Times, countless people still remained in the world.
What happened to them?
“Everything from here on is speculation. Since it happens after the Ark leaves, the Management Bureau couldn’t possibly have records about it.”
“...”
“Some incomprehensible harmony occurs...”
“...”
“And the Moon devours every soul of the people abandoned after the End Times.”
“...”
“You don’t understand, do you? It isn’t something that can happen just because you want it to. We’re not talking about one or two people. We’re talking about gathering the souls of billions of abandoned humans in one place.”
“...”
“But it seems to be happening. The souls of billions of abandoned humans gather at one point, toward a center called the Moon.”
Just as the Ark had, the Moon Demon had also been born from countless human souls gathering together.
That was the meaning of the painting of the Ark moving away from the Sun.
The Moon’s essence was similar to the Lord of Room 104!
“It’s funny, but we didn’t discover this information. The Silent came up with the theory after seeing how the Ark reacted once it gained Self-awareness.”
“What do you mean?”
“At some point, completed Arks began releasing the Light That Calls the End across the entire Earth right before leaving.”
“...”
“The god created by the Management Bureau realized the moment it was born. It realized that the people it left behind would become nourishment for another disaster.”
“It kills them all itself before the Moon can devour them?”
“That’s it.”
My head started to hurt.
The Ark was created to escape the End Times, but the people abandoned by the Ark gathered together and gave birth to the Moon.
Then Arks were made again and again to escape the Moon, and each time, more people were abandoned in the process.
The Moon devoured those abandoned people and grew stronger.
Having realized this much, the Ark began slaughtering those who would remain on Earth with the Light That Calls the End to stop the Moon’s growth.
Its growth slowed, and the Moon began bringing its Awakening forward, knowing it now had to settle things.
“...”
The Ark was created to escape the Moon.
The Moon was born because of the Ark.
What was the cause, and what was the result?
“This doesn’t make any...”
“The causality is strange, right? It really feels like something’s missing, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s the Management Bureau’s greatest mystery.”
“...”
“Everyone feels the contradiction, but nobody has found an answer. Still, we can think about one thing.”
“...”
“There must have been another cause for the first Ark’s creation. The Moon Demon must have come into being after the Ark was born.”
By recovering A-ri, I had received answers to many questions.
The secret behind the Ark and the Light That Calls the End.
The Moon’s tragic and bizarre true nature.
Yet answers to questions gave birth to new questions.
Was the Moon the cause of the Ark?
Or was the Ark the cause of the Moon?
Or was there another original cause that everyone had forgotten?
I asked one final question.
“Why put agents who don’t know the exact truth into the Hotel?”
“They say things in the most muddled way possible, then expect the Hotel to understand perfectly.”
“What?”
“The agents who enter don’t even know what the real problem is, but they trust that the Hotel knows the truth and will give them the right answer.”
“... They trust the Hotel that much?”
“They do. A lot of problems have been solved this way in the past.”
Answers the Management Bureau couldn’t find.
The right answers the Hotel had provided.
My mind, clearer than ever, reached one realization.
The more complicated a problem became, the more we had to return to the beginning.
Hadn’t the Hotel given us a hint?
That by borrowing the power of the Hourglass and One More Chance, we could solve reality’s problem.
Everyone had guessed how to use the two tools long ago.
Endure the moment of destruction with the Hourglass, see what happened afterward, then use One More Chance to return to the past.
Therefore, the answer lay after the End Times.
That was why the Management Bureau hadn’t found the answer even after so much time had passed.
The Ark left before the End Times every time, while the answer was hidden after the End Times.
No matter how endlessly the Management Bureau repeated regression, it couldn’t find the answer.
Only we, who had the Hourglass and One More Chance, could find the right answer.
That must be why we appeared in reality.
--- Squirm!
“This thing sure squirms a lot for someone who’s only a head now.”
“Be careful. Basilio has incredible vitality, but if even the brain melts, Basilio will die.”
Footnotes:
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