Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 608

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 607: The Stolen World (22)

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 229

Current Location: Searching...

Sage’s Advice: 0」

- Han Ga-in

Hotel Delight was turning into “Pioneer”?

Eun-sol muttered in confusion.

“What does that mean?”

“Mi-ro and Mook-seong didn’t seem to understand the situation either. Things must be really chaotic around them. They just said what they had to say, then abruptly hung up.”

“... If it’s Hotel Pioneer, maybe it’s only natural for things to be chaotic every second.”

After a moment of silence, Jin-cheol scratched his head and asked me.

“What are you going to do?”

“...”

“We got the Mirror, subdued the Holy Mother for now, and even found something close to an answer.”

“That’s true.”

“Do you have a plan for what comes next?”

“...”

When I first set all this in motion, I thought things would be resolved quickly.

I thought I only had to contact the Moon that awakened after the destruction, learn its weakness and how to defeat it, then turn back time.

Subdue the Moon with the Pillagers’ help?

That was worth thirty points at best.

The serious problem remained. There was only one world, but far too many Arks.

Eun-sol asked carefully.

“Are we going to return to the original time after gathering more information?”

“...”

Something felt stifling.

It was that feeling I had experienced near the end of almost every Curse Room.

There was plenty of fragmented information, but I couldn’t find the clue that would tie it all together.

“Let’s return to Delight for now.”

* * *

There was no longer any interference from the Pillagers on the way back.

After we subdued the Holy Mother, they were probably confused about who was on whose side.

The reaction from the other side was completely different.

“Ugh...! What the hell is this...?”

“Stick close to me! I’m going to keep playing the Flute from now on!”

“Gather around Eun-sol!”

The moment the sun set and a crimson light appeared in the night sky, a vicious pressure descended on us, almost impossible to endure.

I could feel it.

A voice was coming from that distant realm beyond the Boundary between reality and unreality, where the Moon’s throne lay!

「Traitor」

「Foolish and ignorant one」

「Fallen Holy Son」

「Have you been bewitched by the voice of a rebel?」

I could clearly feel that mass of will condemning, insulting, and denouncing me.

“Come over to Eun-sol!”

“Yeah, idiot! What are you hearing?”

“I’m fine.”

“What do you mean, fine?”

I really was fine.

It was thanks to Serena’s Enlightenment, which I was using for the first time since obtaining it in Room 207.

“I felt this before, but hearing it again makes it certain.”

“What does?”

“The voice isn’t just one voice.”

“What do you mean?”

“...”

The fact that I could hear several voices seemed important, but I didn’t understand what it meant.

A-ri changed the question.

“Will the Moon descend to take the Mirror?”

“Remember what Aedia said? If it could interfere that easily, it wouldn’t have sent us in the first place.”

“That’s true.”

“It’ll need time to prepare.”

“So it’ll come eventually.”

“We need to make a move before then.”

If necessary, we would have to turn back time before that happened.

“Ah! There! I can see Hotel Delight!”

As I raised my eyes while enduring the pressure that felt like a thousand-pound boulder resting on my head, I smiled without meaning to.

“Wow... That’s incredible. Congratulations, Eun-sol!”

Seoul had become a postwar ruin from the aftermath of the Transcendents’ clash.

In the middle of that hellscape, only one building was completely untouched.

It wasn’t a matter of the building’s frame somehow surviving despite everything being smashed apart.

It looked so pristine that anyone would mistake it for a building freshly constructed during postwar reconstruction!

“Wow! At this rate, it isn’t just Korea’s number one hotel. It’s the number one hotel on Earth. Congratulations, Eun-sol.”

Eun-sol smiled awkwardly and brushed it off.

By evening, we had returned to Hotel Delight.

* * *

「Current Location: Level 3 Connecting Passage, Under Construction...」

The moment we opened Delight’s doors, the confusion in my head immediately settled down.

This was no time for thoughts or worries!

“Ugh! What the hell is this?”

“S-So this is why they couldn’t answer their phones...”

“Ahh! You bastards! What are you doing to my hotel?!”

The building had looked unnaturally intact from outside, yet this was the mess waiting for us the moment we stepped in!

Concrete blocks floated around like living bricks as they rebuilt the place in real time?

Every room was being dismantled and reassembled, transforming into something entirely different?

No wonder the companions who remained in Delight couldn’t answer any calls!

“Hah, hahaha!”

“You’re laughing?”

--- Rumble! Crash!

“Ah!”

“Haha! Jin-cheol, look after Eun-sol!”

Who would have thought I’d ever experience something this absurd?

I had once watched a famous movie about dreams, and scenes from that movie were unfolding right before my eyes.

“The Current Location changed to ‘Under Construction’... Aah!”

In an instant, a chunk of concrete larger than my torso flew at me!

For a moment, I thought it had targeted me.

It hadn’t.

The construction was simply so ridiculously complex that it didn’t care whether people were nearby or not!

Just as everyone fell into confusion and could only cry out in panic, the Chat Window began flashing wildly.

Kim Mook-seong: To the elevator! Now!

* * *

「Current Location: Level 1, Hallway」

--- Ding!

“...”

The familiar, all too familiar sight of Hotel Pioneer’s first floor.

“Ga-in! A-rii!”

“Quit dragging it out like that.”

A-ri grumbled, but lightly hugged Mi-ro anyway.

--- Screech!

Pero was even here.

Pero should have been at the company with Ictus. Had Pero come here before Seoul was destroyed?

Looking at the peaceful first-floor scene, my legs gave out and I collapsed onto the floor.

“Oh my! Ga-in!”

It felt like it had been so long since I’d heard Elena’s voice.

Soon, Eun-sol, A-ri, and Jin-cheol all sat down with exhausted expressions.

Grandpa watched us and spoke carefully.

“Um... Kids. I think we should eat dinner first.”

* * *

“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce!”

“What song is that?”

Jin-cheol answered instead.

“Cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun!”

“You even memorized the chorus?”

“Hey! When I was broke, Big Macs were my staple.”

Two grown men eating the Hotel’s hamburgers while singing the Big Mac song.

It was less funny than it was simply absurd.

Mi-ro leaned against the wall with a disgusted expression, while A-ri laughed as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Ah, it’s because the whole situation is absurd.”

“Why?”

“Outside, reality is a hell where the Moon is supposedly swallowing all humanity, and ten Arks are waiting to claim the safe world...”

“...”

“Then we come into the Hotel, and it’s a completely different world. This burger tastes insane.”

“The juices are just pouring out.”

Grandpa, who had been listening, smiled bitterly.

“Wasn’t our original goal to escape this hellish Hotel and return to reality?”

“...”

“Yet here we are, saying the Hotel is better than reality.”

It sounded like black comedy, but it was true.

“At least the Hotel gives us five chances.”

“That’s true.”

Eun-sol sighed and muttered.

“I never imagined Delight would turn into Pioneer as a result of the wish.”

“It really is the world’s number one hotel.”

“Is Delight turning into Hotel Pioneer’s third floor?”

It was a bizarre idea, but perfectly possible by Hotel standards.

The first floor was in the sky, and the second floor was inside a household Snow Globe.

The third floor being inside another hotel was no big deal.

Grandpa shook his head.

“Uh, I heard it’s a little different from that.”

“What?”

“They said it’ll become a kind of intermediate zone, or a passageway. In the larger sense, it might be part of the process of the third floor appearing.”

Delight itself was not becoming Hotel Pioneer’s third floor.

It was changing into an intermediate zone or passageway connecting the second and third floors?

“Grandpa, what does that mean?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Who explained that to you in the first place?”

Elena answered instead.

“Eun-sol, no one told us. There’s a booklet.”

--- Tap!

The booklet contained several notices, including what Grandpa had just explained.

“‘The Hotel is not responsible for anyone entering the construction area.’ When have they ever taken responsibility for anything?”

“It’s telling us to be careful when we go to the Delight area.”

“What’s this? ‘Instead of rice cakes’? What does that mean? This is a calendar... Ah? Ga-in! Look at this!”

The moment I saw the calendar, my eyes flew open.

“When did this appear?”

Elena looked flustered.

“Huh? There wasn’t a calendar when I checked yesterday...”

Mi-ro asked with a blank expression.

“What does ‘instead of rice cakes’ mean?”

“... When people move or do construction, they usually give rice cakes to their neighbors.”

“Because it’s noisy?”

“Yeah.”

The current date was marked, and ten days later, there was a drawing of a “red moon.”

There was no room for any other interpretation.

“... Does this mean the Moon will come to reality in ten days?”

“The Moon will come to reality? What does that mean?”

As Mi-ro and the others looked puzzled, A-ri carefully explained everything that had happened so far.

Once Grandpa understood the situation, he summed it up.

“Oho! So after making a huge mess, Ga-in, you found an answer worth thirty points?”

“Yes.”

“You got the Management Bureau Ark’s Mirror, and you sealed that dangerous person watching you, the Holy Mother or whatever?”

“That’s right.”

“As a result, you became enemies with the Moon, and the Moon will appear in reality in ten days to take your Mirror?”

“I think so.”

The room fell silent again.

A-ri spoke in a murmur.

“Ten days gives us some room. Let’s rest for now and think about what to do starting tomorrow.”

* * *

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 230

Current Location: Current Location: Level 1, Room 105, ‘Rest Room’

Sage’s Advice: 3」

Late at night.

The date changed, and my number of Advice uses refreshed.

I lay blankly on the bed and thought.

What should I do starting tomorrow morning?

Gather more information again?

I had already obtained every piece of information I could reasonably get.

And the result was an answer worth thirty points.

The Owl had said to arrange the board so everyone could benefit.

Step away from the essence of a game of musical chairs?

Force several people to sit in one chair?

Make more chairs?

“This is frustrating.”

Wasn’t there something that could just sweep this messy board clean?

No, this felt like stuffing two hundred sweet potatoes into my mouth.

Where was the cola that could wash it all down in one go?

「Advice: 3 -> 2」

‘What do you think of this situation?’

I asked politely.

Even I could see it was a vague question. If I wanted a perfect answer, I felt I had to ask like this.

「Do you know why we give you periodic rest?」

“... I do.”

Why the Hotel created Room 105 and gave us breaks between Curse Room attempts through things like Party Time.

Because good judgment required rest.

If you ran around in a frenzy, your judgment would run around in a frenzy too.

In that context, perhaps the Owl’s advice was telling me to rest and think.

* * *

Early in the morning.

The moment I met my companions, I told them about the advice I had received at dawn.

A-ri tilted her head and asked.

“You think the Owl told you to rest and think?”

“I think something strange will definitely happen if we return to reality now.”

“Probably.”

“So let’s stay in the Hotel for a few days.”

“... Until when?”

“Well, we need to leave before the Moon descends at the very least. One day has passed, so there are nine days left.”

Naturally, we decided to stay in the Hotel for a few days.

Around lunchtime, I was sitting at the refreshment table when I ran into Eun-sol.

“Isn’t it strange?”

“What is?”

“Why did Delight turn into Pioneer at this exact moment?”

“Because you made a wish...”

“No, no! I mean the timing.”

“The timing?”

As the person who used Greedy Hand, she seemed to have noticed a difference no one else had felt.

“Greedy Hand isn’t a power that grants wishes several months later.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

Like Eun-sol said, a change occurred the moment Greedy Hand was used.

It granted the wish immediately, or at least opened an event needed to obtain what was desired.

“Could you ask with your Advice? It might be a meaningless question... but it might mean something.”

Questions concerning another Participant’s blessing consumed Contribution.

Still, what did Contribution matter when I had already received my fourth enhancement?

「Advice: 2 -> 1」

‘Participant Lee Eun-sol used Greedy Hand several months ago. Why is Delight only changing now?’

「The third-floor Connecting Passage forms when its conditions are fulfilled. Greedy Hand only designated the passage’s location.」

“What did it say?”

“It said the third-floor Connecting Passage forms when its conditions are fulfilled, and Greedy Hand only designated its location.”

A-ri, who had been listening nearby, answered.

“That means the conditions were fulfilled independently of Greedy Hand, so the third-floor Connecting Passage is forming.”

Eun-sol asked again.

“Then did my wish designate Delight as the location of the third-floor Connecting Passage that would form someday?”

“I think so.”

There was something else I wanted to know.

“If Delight is only changing now, that means the conditions were fulfilled recently, right?”

“Probably.”

“What are the conditions?”

“... Ask that too.”

“Hmm, that was basically a two-part question.”

I hoped it would be worth it.

「Advice: 1 -> 0」

‘What are the conditions for forming the third floor?’

「When it appears that you are qualified to challenge the third floor.」

“...”

It was a meaningful answer.

It clearly revealed the difference between the first and second floors and the third.

If the first and second floors were places participants had to overcome if they wanted to live, regardless of their wishes...

The third floor was a place only participants who wanted to could challenge after proving their qualifications.

“What did it say this time?”

“... It forms when we appear qualified.”

“Wow! Does that mean we’re doing something right?”

“I guess so.”

As I watched Eun-sol laugh as if the thought was ridiculous, I wondered.

It was a question that felt new, though it really shouldn’t have.

Why did the third floor exist?

* * *

「Date: Day 231」

I spent the entire morning lying in the Snowfield, admiring the snowy scenery.

Then I suddenly wondered what had happened outside the Snow Globe.

Around evening, I went up to the Delight area, which was still under construction, to check. There, I saw something strange.

“A sculpture?”

Jin-cheol, who had been carefully inspecting the surroundings, reacted as though he had no idea what I meant.

“What are you talking about?”

“Can’t you see that?”

“Isn’t it just a rock?”

I was about to make a joke about his eyesight getting worse when the sculpture turned back into a rock.

“...”

Only then did I realize that it was still a rock.

The Insight that had manifested unconsciously had shown me that the rock would later become a sculpture.

Strangely, the sculpture resembled “someone.”

I also knew that the identity of that “someone” had not yet been decided.

“It still depends on what we do.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Then don’t say anything in the first place, idiot.”

* * *

「Date: Day 232」

Around evening, Eun-sol approached me with a slightly anxious expression.

“Ga-in, have you found any clues? I don’t know...”

“Try to think positively. Even Regressors who have rotted away for thousands, even tens of thousands, of years couldn’t find the solution. It would be stranger if we found it right away.”

“... You’re using Advice, right?”

“Every day.”

“You really don’t know anything?”

“I learned one thing.”

“As expected of you, Ga-in! What is it?”

“The old Participant’s true goal.”

“The old Participant? Ah, Elder Wisdom? His goal is for the Pillagers to win...”

“Even that is only a means.”

Elder Wisdom’s true goal was, in a sense, very simple.

“Does knowing his true goal matter at this point?”

“We have to make it matter.”

* * *

「Date: Day 233」

While I was drinking cola at the refreshment table, I heard A-ri’s cheerful voice.

“Ah, forget it!”

“Huh?”

A-ri gave a short answer to the startled Mi-ro, as though it was nothing.

“At worst, the world only ends once! What’s the big deal?”

“...”

“Yeah! Even if reality gets wrecked, the Hotel will be fine!”

“... Should we all just stay in the Hotel after turning back time?”

I was afraid the Hotel might throw us out.

More than that, I had said we should rest while thinking, but everyone seemed to be under tremendous stress.

* * *

「Date: Day 234」

Time passed like the wind, and it was already the evening of the fifth day.

I was eating jajangmyeon when I looked up because it was so quiet. Everyone looked utterly miserable.

We had spent five days worrying and holding meetings, but my companions apparently had not found another method at all.

Someone gloomily suggested that perhaps we should at least try the thirty-point answer.

A-ri sat with her head lowered, then asked me.

“... What do you think?”

“Hm?”

“Do you really not know at all?”

“I reached my own conclusion.”

“A conclusion?”

“I said this to Eun-sol the day before yesterday. Think about it. Even monsters that went through dozens or more Loops in reality couldn’t find an answer.”

“... That’s true.”

“Does it make sense for us to solve such a difficult problem in one go?”

“...”

“It can’t be solved with a human mind. It’s impossible.”

Grandpa sighed.

“Good grief, you brat! We said we should rest on the first day, but did you really just stop thinking completely? The point was to think in a comfortable environment...”

“Tomorrow.”

“What?”

“I confirmed the date with the Owl. Tomorrow, we’re going outside.”

Elena answered in confusion.

“Huh? B-But tomorrow isn’t the day the Moon is supposed to appear in reality, is it? You said it was ten days, so there are still five days left...”

“I’m not going to meet the Moon.”

“What?”

I smiled at everyone.

“I told you, didn’t I? This seems like a problem a human mind can’t solve.”

“What does that...”

“We need wisdom beyond humanity. Wisdom great enough to instantly find an answer that the smartest person in the world couldn’t obtain even after thinking for a thousand years!”

Jin-cheol muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

“Is there even something like that?”

A realm beyond wisdom, touching the very edge of madness!

I had once grasped the edge of that realm in the past.

I had only grown distant from it after returning to reality.

* * *

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 235

Current Location: 1 Uisadang-daero, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul

Sage’s Advice: 3」

I returned to reality from the Hotel that had felt like heaven.

As I walked near the National Assembly, surrounded by acrid smoke, the fact that reality had literally ended finally felt real.