WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 617: The Stolen World (32)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 226
Current Location: Searching...
Sage’s Advice: 0」
- Han Ga-in
“Call Grandpa and tell him to ‘prepare’ now.”
As I spoke to A-ri, I mimed flicking a coin.
Elder Wisdom had displayed such elusive abilities that it seemed best to avoid saying One More Chance outright.
“... It should still be fine. The Ark isn’t complete yet.”
A-ri looked at my hand, nodded, and made the call.
--- Ring ring!
“Mook-seong.”
“Uh! A-ri! We finally escaped-”
“Ting~!”
The sound of her clicking her tongue.
Was it some kind of code A-ri and Grandpa had worked out?
Without another word, Grandpa answered.
“It’s done.”
Right now, One More Chance’s return point had been set-
...
...
...
Ah, I was back.
“Let’s go!”
“...”
“What are you doing? I’m fine now.”
“...”
“Ga-in, they’re still fighting in the Ark’s depths-”
“I already came back.”
A moment of silence.
Then A-ri’s eyes widened in undisguised shock.
“Don’t tell me this is-”
She pointed into the air.
Countless notes that hadn’t been there before now filled my Status Window.
“I already turned back time.”
“Th-Then what do we do?”
“Stay here, call Grandpa again, and get a grasp on the situation. Take care of Eun-sol too.”
With that, I ran alone toward the Ark’s depths.
“What about you?!”
I heard A-ri’s voice behind me, but I had nothing to tell her yet.
I still hadn’t finished reading the notes in my Status Window.
...
As time passed, I came to understand many things.
The Moon, Pillager, Elder Wisdom, the Holy Mother, the Prince, the Soul Convergence Entity, and the Crown.
I understood what the me from the past, or from a future that had vanished, had planned.
I also vaguely understood what the Owl had meant by “a board where everyone can win.”
Gathering information and making plans had been the vanished me’s role, and it seemed I’d done well enough.
My role from now on was to put that plan into action!
--- Thud thud thud thud...!
That was the sound of Elder Wisdom appearing.
* * *
By the time I reached the Ark’s center, the battle between the two members of The Silent and my companions had already died down.
An immensely powerful being radiating unfathomable magical power had entered the scene.
「You’ve come.」
A perfectly calm voice.
“...”
The moment I met Elder Wisdom’s eyes, my entire body froze.
A being that had fused with the Ark and gained strength beyond the realm of Participants.
A being that viewed reality as empty and longed for the Hotel’s third floor.
Several other pieces of information about Elder Wisdom were written down as well, but reading about something and facing it in person were completely different.
Elder Wisdom was overwhelmingly intimidating in person.
...
Ha! Intimidating, my ass!
Wasn’t it written right there in my Status Window?
Elder Wisdom might seem incredible, but couldn’t even withstand one of the Moon’s tongues!
I was aiming for the Moon. I had no reason to be intimidated by the likes of Elder Wisdom.
To buy time to think, I gestured to Seung-yeop and Jin-cheol.
Unable to understand the situation, both seemed flustered, but they nodded and stepped back.
“G-Ga-in! Mi-ro suddenly disappeared!”
“I know. She’s behind us.”
Mi-ro had suddenly disappeared?
No.
She hadn’t suddenly disappeared. She simply hadn’t returned from the Moon.
Mi-ro was a contingency reserved for the most important moment.
First concern.
How much should I reveal to the other factions?
The spacetime regression itself couldn’t be hidden.
Even One More Chance couldn’t restore souls the Evil God had devoured.
The Management Bureau would soon realize that tens of millions of people had suddenly vanished.
The Moon must have already sensed something was wrong, since it was full of food it had never eaten.
I figured Pillager’s side would soon learn of the anomaly through Elder Wisdom as well.
This situation wasn’t like the repeated runs we’d experienced in a Curse Room.
“...”
Elder Wisdom, currently crushing everyone beneath that overwhelming presence, silently observed me.
The attitude seemed to say, Do whatever you want. Or perhaps, I’ll watch what you do, then adjust accordingly.
Elder Wisdom couldn’t know exactly what I’d seen in the Moon, so caution was inevitable.
Should I hide the fact that we’d turned back time from the other factions besides Elder Wisdom?
Claim that no one knew who had turned back time while gaining an advantage for ourselves?
No. That would be treating them like complete idiots.
The next Loop beginning after the End Times was considered a kind of natural law, but that was clearly different from One More Chance’s spacetime regression.
The Moon, the Management Bureau, and Pillager or Elder Wisdom.
They had fought in reality for ages, but time had never suddenly turned back before.
They themselves knew best that none of them possessed the ability to turn back the universe’s time.
Turning back the universe’s time in the first place?
The Hotel was the only place in the world where anyone could obtain such an absurd miracle.
And everyone knew a party had recently escaped from the Hotel.
A newly joined faction could create a variable that hadn’t existed before.
Conclusion.
It was better to openly reveal that we had turned back time than tell a flimsy lie.
After all, only we had the exact information!
When I looked up, Elder Wisdom gave me a meaningful look.
It felt as though Elder Wisdom were asking, Have you finished thinking?
“Everyone, listen.”
The eyes of my companions, Elder Wisdom, and the members of The Silent, who had looked as though they were dying of curiosity, all turned to me.
“I saw the future and came back.”
Elder Wisdom, who already knew through the Status Window, and my companions, who knew about One More Chance, weren’t surprised.
“What are you suddenly-”
“What nonsense!”
Dominion and Osdork, however, couldn’t hide their shock.
「It is true.」
Elder Wisdom calmly confirmed my words, but couldn’t persuade the Management Bureau.
“Silence! You demon, I don’t know what scheme you’ve hatched this time, but-”
「Foolish...」
Just from Elder Wisdom’s chilling gaze, I could guess what Elder Wisdom was thinking.
There were plenty of questions, but idiots were wasting time. Elder Wisdom probably wanted to beat them to death and talk to me.
Still, my plan needed the Management Bureau too.
“Dominion, I’ll give you about thirty seconds. Get a report.”
“What-”
“You have a phone that can contact the outside, don’t you? It should be ringing right about now.”
A large portion of the Management Bureau’s core had gathered at the Ark, but that didn’t mean there were no lower-ranking members outside.
The underlings who didn’t even realize they had been abandoned would be diligently reporting to the Management Bureau that tens of millions of people had suddenly gone missing all over the world!
Dominion pulled a smartphone from inside his clothes with a stiff expression, then soon gaped.
As Osdork watched, he had somehow returned to a human body.
“This... What...”
“Those people were eaten by the Moon.”
Dominion spoke in a daze.
“Even after turning back time, we couldn’t save those whose souls had been devoured by the Evil God.”
“You truly turned back time? How could such power exist in this world?!”
“You know where I came from.”
“...”
I could tell from his eyes that Dominion, Oswald, had privately accepted what I said.
As a former Hotel Participant, he must have thought I could turn back time.
Why?
Because he had experienced similar phenomena several times in Curse Rooms!
Osdork was different.
“A lie! Don’t be fooled, Oswald! Their con trick-”
“Then die here.”
“You think I’ll yield to threats?”
“I’m not threatening you. I’m only telling you the truth.”
“What?”
“The Moon will awaken soon, before the Ark you trust and rely on can even be completed!”
“What-”
“I told you, didn’t I? The Moon absorbed tens of millions of souls. Thanks to that, the timing of its Awakening has been brought forward.”
Osdork’s expression stiffened.
He, too, thought there was some sense to my words.
Seeing his wavering eyes, I deliberately struck harder.
“I don’t know if you’re aware, but Hotel Delight is already turning into Pioneer.”
Another shocking revelation.
It was information that couldn’t be hidden anyway, so when I openly revealed it, everyone around us stirred.
Even Elder Wisdom, who should have already known through the Status Window, made that entire jade-blue body writhe.
As a being that had pursued the third floor for countless ages, it must have been even harder to endure.
“Osdork, if you don’t want to talk, fine. We’ll just return to Pioneer. Watching the Moon win from there sounds pretty entertaining too, doesn’t it?”
Now that I thought about it, was that really possible?
Could we just ignore the world ending and live in the Hotel?
Hmm...
The Hotel had prepared the Hourglass and One More Chance for reality.
Also, one of the requirements to challenge the third floor was the salvation of reality.
The Hotel wanted reality’s problems resolved too.
Or perhaps it didn’t want Participants to avoid their trials.
That meant it probably wouldn’t allow us to flee into the Hotel and avoid the problem while ignoring the End Times.
What did it matter?
No one knew what decision the Hotel would make, so I could say whatever I wanted.
Sure enough, Dominion stepped forward with wide eyes.
“Osdork! Don’t take this problem to extremes! Young Participant, calm down. Osdork isn’t from the Hotel, so his experience is limited.”
“How strange. The person with the most eyes, despite not being human, has the narrowest experience.”
I mocked them a little to test their attitude, but neither Dominion nor Osdork answered.
At this point, the initiative was firmly on my side.
“Young Participant. If you’ve seen the future and returned, I assume you have a plan?”
“First.”
In an instant, the entire room fell silent.
“Let’s dismantle the Ark that’s being built. It’s still possible, right?”
Something the Management Bureau couldn’t accept.
Sure enough, Osdork, who had been shrinking back, freaked out.
“You crazy bastards! I knew this would happen! I’ll-”
“Alien, shut up and think. What’s the point of an Ark that can’t be completed before the Moon awakens?”
“...”
“You’re gathering souls together so the Moon can eat them in one bite? Ah! Was the purpose of building this Ark to make soul hamburger steak?”
While Osdork floundered, Dominion asked a question.
“Why dismantle the Ark?”
“To remove the Mirror.”
“Why remove it?”
“Because the Mirror is a useful weapon against the Moon.”
“...”
“You didn’t know that either? Or did you know up to that point, but didn’t want to give up the Ark?”
“The Mirror’s power... isn’t enough to face the Moon.”
That was true.
“With only the Mirror, yes.”
“There are other means? And you found them?”
“That’s right.”
“What are they?”
“Do I have to say? There’s someone here from another faction.”
When I pointed at Elder Wisdom, Dominion flinched too.
Elder Wisdom cut in, as though the situation were amusing.
「I am curious as well.」
“... We’ll hear the details later. Fine, we will follow your wishes-”
“O-Oswald! You really intend to dismantle the Ark as these bastards want?”
“Is anything this person says wrong? If we can’t finish the Ark before the Moon’s Awakening, there’s no reason to finish it. Dismantling it and using the Mirror as a weapon is logical.”
“The timing of the Moon’s Awakening being brought forward is only this bastard’s claim!”
“Tens of millions of people disappearing is reality. And it seems true that the Moon ate them.”
“...”
Why Dominion was persuaded by my words.
1. A massive number of people had disappeared.
2. The timing of the Moon’s Awakening had been brought forward.
3. The Ark couldn’t be completed before the Moon awakened.
He accepted that three-part logic.
But had the timing of the Moon’s Awakening really been brought forward?
Honestly, I didn’t know either.
They said that in the previous run, Sang-hyeon’s laser had instantly awakened the Moon.
Without a special event like that, even the Status Window didn’t say exactly when the Moon would awaken.
Still, it didn’t matter whether I knew or not once Dominion felt my words sounded plausible.
“It’s a lie! There’s a gap in your logic! There’s no guarantee the Moon ate the missing people, and even if it did, that doesn’t necessarily mean the timing of its Awakening would be brought forward-”
Osdork was going to be hard to persuade.
Just as I was about to sigh, Dominion gave Elder Wisdom and me a chilling look.
As if to say, Stop wasting time!
“Osdork, s t a y s t i l l.”
An odd rhythm spilled from Dominion’s mouth.
Perhaps he hadn’t expected his companion to ambush him, because Osdork froze like stone.
Elder Wisdom’s attack flew in as though it had been waiting.
--- Crunch!
That was enough to silence the one being who disagreed.
It really was a very “democratic” decision-making process.
“If the Moon’s Awakening is imminent, we have no time. Let’s go.”
At that moment, Elder Wisdom asked with interest.
「Dominion, do you not consider such an act subject to the Stone Tablet’s judgment?」
“Then I’ll die. Did you think I was as obsessed with Ascension as you are, no matter if the world ends?”
Had Dominion guessed Elder Wisdom’s goal all along?
At this moment, Dominion truly seemed like a leader of a secret organization that had protected the world from the shadows.
Right before we moved to where the Mirror was, Dominion suddenly asked a question as though he had just remembered it.
“One thing has me curious.”
“Go ahead.”
“You said the Moon’s Awakening was brought forward because it ate tens of millions of people before you turned back time, correct?”
“Exactly.”
“If that’s true, why did the Moon awaken earlier than expected in the original timeline before you turned back time?”
“...”
1. In the original timeline, the Moon awakened early.
2. The world ended, and the Moon ate an enormous number of human souls.
3. Time was turned back, but the consumed souls remained. The timing of the Moon’s Awakening was brought forward again.
Number 2 could be the cause of number 3, but it couldn’t be the cause of number 1.
That meant there had to be another reason the Moon awakened early in the original timeline.
There really was another reason.
Sang-hyeon had fired Final Flash into the ground.
“Elder Wisdom...! It was because of that man’s magical power! I can’t say more here!”
“Of course! That monster really did bring about the end of the world!”
「Me...?」
Elder Wisdom looked at me as though puzzled.
* * *
At the final moment, the Young Ark had rejoiced rather than despaired.
It seemed reassured by my words: “I’ll stop the End Times, so it isn’t time for you to be born yet.”
I persuaded the Management Bureau and obtained the Young Ark’s Mirror.
To think all this had happened in barely a couple of hours!
It made me realize anew just how incredible the power to turn back time was.
“...”
The next force I had to draw in was Pillager.
--- Click!
Footnotes:
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