Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 617

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 616: The Stolen World (31)

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 242

Current Location: Searching...

Sage’s Advice: 0」

- Han Ga-in

‘Know that beneath heaven, there is only you.’

Was it the shadow of the Unborn One left within the Grimoire that had spoken those words?

I couldn’t be certain.

What mattered was that everything around us fell silent immediately afterward.

The Moon said nothing. It stayed silent, focusing its entire mind.

It seemed unwilling to miss even a single second of this moment.

It would never forget a mere ten-character sentence, but the lofty truth it contained was hazy as a mirage.

If it let this moment pass, it might lose it forever.

It took roughly three seconds to unfold the Kingdom of Dreams and force my consciousness into slumber with the Sacred Sun.

If the Prince had wanted to harm me, he’d had more than enough time to kill me. Yet nothing happened.

Perhaps it was because he’d promised, ‘I will not stop your master’s escape.’ The Moon likely didn’t want to waste its moment of enlightenment either.

After nearly being destroyed by the Stone Tablet, the Kingdom of Dreams was slowly recovering.

At this rate, I should be able to use it normally soon, but not yet.

I couldn’t use it to bring my companions together. It could only serve as a meeting place.

That was enough.

Mi-ro and I had One More Chance as our means of escape.

* * *

I met Agent Mook-seong in a space filled with gray fog.

“Ga-in! Everyone was shocked when Eun-sol and A-ri suddenly died!”

“Focus!”

I hurriedly told him about the Moon and Soul Convergence Entities, the bizarre phenomena inside the Moon, and, most importantly, the Crown and securing the Holy Mother.

I spilled out everything that came to mind, so it was disorganized and confusing, but Grandpa seemed to understand quickly, just as an agent should.

“Is that everything? We turn back time, get the Holy Mother’s help, and take this thing called the Crown?”

“Probably.”

“What about the Pillager?”

“We have a plan for them too.”

“Then shall we turn back time? We’ve still got some time to spare.”

One final concern.

One More Chance’s time limit was thirty days, and the point we would return to was Day 226.

That meant Day 255 was the latest we could turn back time, while the current day was 242.

There was still some room.

“... Mi-ro is inside the Moon right now.”

“Right.”

“Normally, killing someone doesn’t mean you can absorb their soul.”

We’d discussed this several times.

There was a reason why the Moon, I, and even the Lord went through complicated processes, such as building a Cult.

“That’s what you said. Like how people need to cook before they can eat.”

“Using that analogy, Mi-ro is inside someone’s stomach right now.”

“If she dies inside the Moon, her soul will be eaten even if she doesn’t worship it?”

“...”

I didn’t know.

Even the Owl wasn’t certain about that.

Just because it was a lofty being didn’t mean it always had the answer to every problem.

Maybe it depended on the soul.

In that case, even the Moon itself might not know whether it could swallow Mi-ro’s soul.

I made my decision.

“Let’s do it. We’ve learned everything we needed to know anyway.”

One last thought crossed my mind.

The cost of One More Chance the Hotel had warned us about, the Price of Defying Heaven.

A-ri, Grandpa, and I had all deliberately avoided mentioning the Price of Defying Heaven.

All I could do was silently bow my head to Grandpa.

He answered with a light smile.

“You did well. Let Mi-ro know too.”

“Yes.”

Time turned back.

Toward Day 226, before the Moon’s Awakening!

* * *

- Mi-ro

“How long has it been since you woke up?”

“Maybe five minutes? I don’t know exactly.”

“Then somewhere, another me has been holding out against the Moon for a full five minutes.”

“Huh?”

I had only just realized that Ga-in from this time period had stalled the Moon for an incredibly long time when Summoned Entity Ga-in muttered beside me.

“Now’s the time.”

“Hm?”

“Time will turn back soon.”

Finally!

What I felt now was relief.

Ever since arriving inside the Moon with Ga-in, every moment had terrified me.

After realizing how horrible it would be to get eaten by the Moon, my fear had grown until it felt like it would consume my soul.

It was okay now!

We were going back to before the Moon’s Awakening, and Ga-in, who had found the excellent answer, would handle everything!

Just as I tried to smile with joy, I saw Ga-in’s expression.

He looked troubled.

Frustrated somehow.

As if something was still left, as if he was certain something remained, but he had no idea what it was!

“Ga-in?”

“...”

His gaze passed over the Hourglass and camera in my hands.

I remembered what he’d said earlier.

‘If we’re ending things like this, why did we bring the Hourglass and camera?’

I wanted to know too!

If we were just turning back time, why had we brought the Hourglass and camera into the Moon?

--- Boom!

As though it had been waiting, a massive signal rang out across the entire world!

When Ga-in said “soon,” he really meant immediately.

The ground, the sky, the entire world inside the Moon began to shake.

--- Rumble!

“Eek!”

“Hold my hand tight!”

A massive whirlpool.

A current of power I couldn’t see, but could definitely feel!

The authority of time began swallowing everything around us at once.

Then.

--- Whooooo...!

An overwhelming presence shook the entire dream world inside the Moon. A gigantic eye whose gaze was too terrifying to meet! The moment I looked at it, unbearable malice and rage burst from it. 「■◯★▷◖!」 My head felt like it would burst. Countless voices reached me all at once, yet I couldn’t hear any sound at all. Multiple minds tried to make contact with my mind at the same time, as if a million writhing tentacles were trying to tear me apart. Countless fragmented minds. One light trying to awaken among them. A form that had only just begun to sprout! A collection of infinite possibilities that had overcome all chaos and pain! Just as my breath nearly stopped from fear, someone covered my eyes.

“Don’t look. It’ll disappear soon.”

“G-Ga-in!”

“You don’t need to understand. It’s only a final death rattle.”

It would disappear soon?

To me, it looked like it was resisting One More Chance’s power!

The Demon King from Room 206 had resisted the Ruler of Time too, in its own way!

Even when Indomitable Reason and the Ruler of Time combined their strength, the Demon King eventually awakened when the time came.

That meant the Ruler of Time alone couldn’t do anything to the Demon King!

Could One More Chance really turn back even the Moon’s time?

A calm voice, as if to settle my anxiety.

“It’s fine. It’s collapsing. It might have been different after completion, but it can’t do it at the seed stage.”

“W-What is that?”

“The Ultimate Self. The Mind of a God.”

“What?”

“The me from this time period took an incredibly dangerous gamble. He nearly sent a being that had stood before the wall for countless years beyond it for real.”

The next moment, I felt a will that seemed ready to swallow the entire world.

「If I ◯ad ■ust a little more ti★e▷!」

This time, I thought I could understand what that thing was trying to say.

If that monster had only had a little more time, if it had completed its Ultimate Self!

Then it might truly have become impossible to turn things back.

--- Rumble!

The Moon’s will faded.

The vortex of time summoned by One More Chance swallowed even the Moon!

At last, I felt completely relieved.

I let my shoulders slump and even shed tears.

“Ha! Hahaha! This was it?”

I looked at Ga-in, who was laughing as though he couldn’t believe it.

“What-”

Ga-in pointed at the Hourglass.

“Turn it over! Now!”

“Th-The camera-”

“This isn’t when we use it. We use it here! Turn over the Hourglass!”

As I frantically turned over the Hourglass, I thought:

Ga-in had learned through Insight that the camera and Hourglass had to be used inside the Moon, so he had brought both tools.

The time to use the Hourglass was now, while the camera wasn’t for now, but for here?

My head hurt!

We were using the Hourglass at the moment One More Chance turned back time?

Then what on earth would happen?

Golden dawn light.

That was my last memory.

* * *

- Kim Mook-seong

--- Ting!

With the sound of a coin flicking through the air, the entire world stopped.

It was like the calm at the center of a typhoon...

Soon, time’s power would swallow all things.

I remembered Ga-in bowing respectfully in the Kingdom of Dreams just before this.

It didn’t suit his usual confident manner.

The reason was obvious.

It was because of the Price of Defying Heaven, which everyone had avoided mentioning.

A few companions seemed to want to avoid using One More Chance because of it...

What a foolish thought!

If you couldn’t use an Inheritance because you feared the cost, why obtain an Inheritance in the first place?

The moment you decided to use it, you had to accept the cost.

That was why the hand that flicked the coin held not a trace of hesitation.

--- Boom!

Still, there was one thing I wondered about.

What was the Price of Defying Heaven?

The last time I used it in Room 207, I aged roughly thirty years.

Would it be the same this time?

... A conversation I’d already had with A-ri after using it for the first time.

The Price of Defying Heaven was thirty years of aging?

Then someone like A-ri, who didn’t have a biological lifespan limit, could use it endlessly.

That couldn’t be right.

If that were all, they would have simply called the cost “thirty years of aging.” There would have been no reason to grandly call it the Price of Defying Heaven.

Thirty years of aging wasn’t much in reality, even if it mattered inside a Curse Room.

With the Management Bureau’s help, we might even be able to move a brain into another body!

I believed the true cost was a limit on the number of uses.

The point was likely to prevent us from using it over and over whenever we wanted.

I would pay a heavy price.

Perhaps this would be the last time I could use One More Chance.

When I lowered my gaze, I saw my hand trembling.

Ha ha, would you look at that?

Mook-seong, you bastard. Were you really going to act this pathetically at such an important moment?

Didn’t you say you were ready to accept your fate?

If so, even if the cost was instant death, you should accept it with a smile!

Then, cosmic authority reached out from a distant realm and seized my soul.