Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 622

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 621: The Oldest Wish (2)

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 232

Current Location: Northern Territory, Australia

Sage’s Advice: 3」

- Han Ga-in

7:00 a.m.

All the major forces had gathered in the Great Australian Desert.

Though the sunlight should have been blinding, darkness covered everything around us.

The Pillagers that had revealed themselves in reality were unimaginably enormous.

「Demon」

I heard Song-i and Elena talking behind me.

“Wow...! The internet’s going crazy!”

“What are they saying?”

“I keep seeing the words ‘first contact’!”

“First contact?”

“People around the world seem to think those things are alien spacecraft, Elena.”

「The Corrupted One」

Alien spacecraft?

That wasn’t entirely wrong.

「Mage」

“The Management Bureau is putting out a ton of articles saying it’s nothing serious.”

“Will that matter? I don’t think anyone will believe them.”

“Of course not.”

「Enemy」

The cleanup would probably be chaotic even after everything ended.

Not my problem.

Honestly, I doubted the Management Bureau cared much about the aftermath either.

「The Arrogant One」

If we couldn’t defeat the Moon this time, there would be no need to consider what came “next.”

「Traitor!」

“Urgh!”

“Ga-in, are you okay?”

“Ga-in!”

We were currently near the Moon Sealing Facility in the Great Australian Desert.

This was the place closest to the Moon in the world, though not in a physical sense.

The Moon had yet to awaken.

Still, the entire area was already filled with the curses and rage it spewed out.

“I think it’s too dangerous to keep listening to the Moon’s curses.”

“Yeah! Ga-in, I think you should just stay beside Eun-sol.”

“I’m fine.”

If I accepted the Flute’s protection, I couldn’t hear the Moon’s Voice.

That was why I endured a little pain and tried to listen to what the Moon was saying.

I thought understanding what it was thinking might help us defeat it, even a little.

Like now.

「What is this golden doll?」

「Not a doll. A living thing.」

「There is no biological response at all.」

「It may have used powerful magic...」

「No magic beneath the sky can create a phenomenon like this.」

「It is the Hotel! The Hotel!」

Several voices spoke at once.

The more I listened, the more distinct even their ways of speaking became.

Every one of them was confused.

What did the Moon, stripped of its memories from before time had been turned back, think Mi-ro inside it was?

A supernatural phenomenon beyond all comprehension?

Around 10:00 a.m., A-ri appeared with a tense expression.

“It’s about to begin.”

“Soon?”

“Now!”

Right afterward, the entire world began to shake violently, from the sky to the ground.

The Pillagers in the sky and the Management Bureau on the ground were suppressing the Moon with every ounce of strength they had!

The Moon’s curse-filled voices, which had been ringing out without pause, gradually grew quieter before turning incomprehensible.

Its last voice said this.

「I will prepare a hell for you.」

* * *

If what was happening now were compared to a siege, the Pillagers and the Management Bureau’s role was to breach the fortress’s outer wall.

Breaking through that wall was the first stage of the plan and, depending on how you looked at it, the most important one.

After all, we, the infiltration team, could only act once they made even the slightest breach in the wall!

4:00 p.m.

Elder Wisdom, who had appeared for the first time in a while, wasn’t in a good mood.

It was strange to say this now, but after seeing this “being” several times, I had begun to vaguely sense its emotions and thoughts.

「Negative opinions are already emerging from the Alliance.」

“It’s only been a few hours. They’re already making a fuss?”

「The calculations conclude that, at the current pace, it will take roughly twenty-three years and one hundred eighty-two days to make even a small hole in the outer wall.」

“...”

「Time is on the Moon’s side. Twenty-three years is more than enough time for everything to fall apart. Did you not discover an easy way to enter the Moon before turning back time?」

The records left by my vanished self said nothing about breaching the Moon’s outer wall.

Back then, the Moon had probably opened the door itself, come out, and invited Mi-ro.

This time, we hadn’t been invited, so forcing our way in was this difficult.

「Did you not say one of your companions is inside?」

“She hasn’t awakened yet.”

「Hmm.... What do you intend to do once she awakens?」

“...”

「Hah...! Do you still have information to hide? Fine, it matters not. I will trust that you have something left up your sleeve.」

Elder Wisdom mistakenly thought I had some plan to do “something” through Mi-ro inside the Moon and was hiding it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly what that “something” was either.

It seemed my past self had seen something through Insight and left Mi-ro inside the Moon, but perhaps things had been too urgent. There was nothing about it in the Status Window.

As I stared into space, I realized Elder Wisdom was thinking the same thing I was.

「Did you use Advice?」

“Have you tried using yours?”

「I am about to.」

“I was about to as well.”

「...」

“...”

After a brief silence, Elder Wisdom laughed loudly for the first time.

「Haha! The Owl must be busy too.」

‘We need help entering the Moon.’

「Advice: 3 -> 3」

“...”

The number of uses remained the same, and there was no answer.

It was as though the answer to this question had been given to someone else.

“What answer did it give you?”

「Nothing can be achieved without sacrifice.」

“Sacrifice?”

I couldn’t understand what that meant.

The jade-blue demigod, on the other hand, looked up at the sky with a complicated expression.

Unlike me, they seemed to have realized something.

「When exactly will your companion awaken?」

“Probably tomorrow morning.”

「Tomorrow, I will use everything I have.」

Now I understood.

It seemed Elder Wisdom had one move left.

A consumable measure that demanded an extremely heavy sacrifice.

The Owl had just told Elder Wisdom to use it.

「In exchange, you will tell me as well. What means do you have left that might be useful in this siege?」

“... There’s something called Final Flash.”

* * *

Late at night, I met Sang-hyeon.

He was frantically studying how to operate an extremely complicated machine, the Atlas System.

After we passed information about Final Flash to the Pillagers through Elder Wisdom, they had sent it to us.

“How is it?”

“Well, I’m still not sure.”

His words were indifferent, but his eyes were full of curiosity. He even looked like he was enjoying himself.

“Elder Wisdom said the Atlas System could significantly strengthen Final Flash.”

“Greater power through concentration, increased range, improved accuracy. In theory, all of that seems possible.”

“In theory? What about in practice?”

“I won’t know until I use it, but I can’t guarantee anything when I haven’t had a chance to practice.”

“...”

“That’s unfortunate. If every force had cooperated from the beginning, we could have practiced with support equipment like this in advance.”

“Everyone cooperating from the beginning? That’ll be impossible until the world ends.”

“That makes it sadder because I can’t deny it.”

Sang-hyeon seemed completely occupied with his research, entering numbers into the control panel and checking the instruments.

“Ga-in.”

“Yes?”

“Cha Jin-cheol seems to have fallen into an unusual dilemma.”

It seemed Jin-cheol had spoken to Sang-hyeon about his concerns over growth as well.

“He’s researching how to achieve supreme enlightenment.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Well, listening to him gave me a thought.”

“What thought?”

“Isn’t Jin-cheol thinking about growth too much like it’s something out of a martial arts novel?”

“...”

“Getting struck by lightning in a snowfield during a blizzard and going, ‘Aha!’ isn’t the only kind of enlightenment or growth. What I’m doing right now is growth too.”

“What you’re doing now?”

“Studying the Atlas System, which can support Final Flash.”

Even if there was no way to improve Final Flash itself, that didn’t mean there was no way to support it from the outside.

With the Atlas System’s powerful assistance, the Inheritance’s practical power would increase greatly.

“This is growth too. Growth isn’t just falling off cliffs, then eating a half-rotten book and damp, unsanitary mushrooms.”

Grandpa would probably clutch the back of his neck and collapse if he heard that.

Still, I understood what Sang-hyeon meant.

To him, “growth” was an extremely broad concept.

“Did you say that to Jin-cheol?”

“I didn’t use the Atlas System as an example because I didn’t know about it then... Anyway, I did tell him to interpret the concept of growth more broadly.”

“...”

I understood Sang-hyeon’s intentions.

I was just curious how Jin-cheol had taken those words.

“There’s only one thing I regret.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to participate directly in the final battle against the Moon.”

“It can’t be helped. The Atlas System is very delicate, so it has to remain in a special position.”

“I’ll trust all of you.”

* * *

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 233

Current Location: Searching...

Sage’s Advice: 3」

Day 233, the day Mi-ro inside the Moon would awaken.

If my past self had made some kind of arrangement, it was time for the results to emerge.

That morning, three Pillagers floated over the Great Australian Desert, emitting strange light.

We watched the ground through screens from a position closer to space than the sky.

“The location changed to Searching.”

A-ri nodded with a grave expression.

“Encroachment is underway around the Sealing Zone.”

I didn’t know exactly what Elder Wisdom intended to do, but they were going to force a hole through the Moon’s outer wall.

It would surely be an attack of unimaginable power.

Unleashing that much force indiscriminately in reality?

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say the entire Australian continent might become ruins.

Elder Wisdom wasn’t the sort to care whether ten million or one hundred million civilians died.

But it would all be over if the Sealing Facility beneath Australia were destroyed by the attack’s aftermath.

That was why preparatory work was needed, so the Otherworld, rather than reality, would bear the backlash.

As the Encroachment progressed, the sky turned violet, and a bizarre silver storm that could not exist on Earth appeared in the desert.

At the storm’s center, its so-called eye, was something like a massive wormhole. Beyond it, I could see the Moon.

Then, as even the boundary between reality and nightmare blurred, Elder Wisdom appeared in the sky.

They radiated overwhelming light from their entire body, as though they were a blue star. The mere aftermath of their power distorted the atmosphere.

“Were they always that strong?”

“No way!”

Absolutely not.

Elder Wisdom was monstrously strong, but even so, they weren’t that powerful!

The current Elder Wisdom was like...!

“A supernova!”

At the end of its life, a star releases energy comparable to an entire galaxy for just two seconds before returning to cosmic gas. That was a supernova.

Like a star meeting its final moment, every ounce of power contained in the Ark that had undergone Unification with Elder Wisdom transformed into a single attack.

I understood what the Owl meant by Elder Wisdom’s “heavy sacrifice”!

A single slash.

Every light on the airship went out.

The light vanished, and no sound could be heard.

Only the instruments, flickering faintly in black and white, told us that an attack of literally astronomical power had just occurred.

--- Clang!

Violent metallic screeches and engine noises soon rose from every direction.

The airships prepared for the infiltration team were departing at once, determined not to miss the opening Elder Wisdom had created!

* * *

After a short time, we stood on the Moon’s “extremely thinned” surface.

For a moment, I let out a hollow laugh at the thought that standing on the Moon’s surface while still being on Earth made no scientific sense.

Of course, if we were going to care about science, the Moon being inside Earth made no sense to begin with.

“Hyung, what do we do now?”

The complicated siege process from yesterday through today had apparently become too much for Seung-yeop to follow.

He seemed to have given up trying to understand it at some point.

All he was thinking about was what we would do inside the Moon.

“Wait ten seconds. We got here before Final Flash.”

“Ten seconds?”

“Three seconds.”

“What? Then, now...”

--- Rumble!

An intense flash pierced through the pale mist and struck the Moon’s surface.

Elder Wisdom had sacrificed the Ark to unleash an attack of astronomical power, and Final Flash followed within a minute!

--- Crack!

Finally, at last, now!

A fissure spewing ominous energy opened up.

“Run!”

Everyone in the area, from the Hotel Party to Ryan and The Silent, rushed frantically toward the fissure.

* * *

The inside of the fissure was like constantly writhing flesh, as though it were a living organism.

“It’s closing!”

“This way!”

There was no time to hide anyone’s abilities when we had no idea when the opening would seal itself.

The usually cunning Ryan, his face bright red, kept detonating his Inheritance, ‘Noble Guardian,’ as he cleared a path.

An unnamed black-haired woman in Chinese-style clothing suddenly pulled out a Dagger. When the jewel-studded blade cut through the air, blue flames erupted.

Then an aberrant being that I couldn’t identify as either robot or person fired bombs from its right arm. It was a spectacular sight!

“Wow...! Did every superhuman with some real power gather here?”

“This isn’t the time to admire them! The fissure keeps closing!”

As A-ri said with a desperate expression, the writhing flesh was constantly filling the empty spaces.

If the Moon were compared to a gigantic creature, this was its wound regenerating.

And by that comparison, what were we?

We were like insects cutting open the skin of an enormous creature and trying to crawl through the wound into its insides!

“Young Wisdom! Don’t tell me we’ve already arrived? Is this the Moon’s interior?”

An unnamed powerhouse sent by the Pillagers asked me with a worried expression.

“Not yet. If it were a living creature, we’re still at something like the skin layer...”

“Argh!”

“Oh dear, it looks like there are white blood cells too.”

“Is this funny to you?!”

I wasn’t trying to laugh.

I was just so dumbfounded that a hollow laugh slipped out.

How much effort had it taken to make this tiny passage?

The Pillagers and the Management Bureau, Elder Wisdom’s near-suicidal special attack, and even Final Flash had all been needed!

After pulling all this shit, we were still only at the “skin”?!

Something more was still needed to reach the insides.

“Young Wisdom! If you have some plan, bring it out now!”

“I’m waiting.”

“For what?!”

“Something.”

“What’s this ‘something’?!”

“I don’t know either.”

Even I thought that sounded insane, and everyone around me looked ashen.

Their expressions clearly said, ‘We trusted you enough to come in here, and that’s your irresponsible answer?’

I didn’t know what came next either.

If these people had entered believing in me, I had entered believing in my past self.

My past self’s arrangement, turning the Hourglass at the last moment and leaving Mi-ro beneath the Moon!

Past Ga-in, you did leave Mi-ro there with some kind of plan, right?

Everyone gave this everything they had, and it feels like we’ve reached our limit!

I’m counting on you!

“Let’s pray.”

“You crazy bastard!”

“Does anyone have an ability that grants wishes...”

At that moment.

「Companion Location Information(*)」

The Status Window told me Mi-ro was nearby.

“You bastard, you’ve truly driven everyone into despair...”

“Move! Everyone! Break through roughly beneath this spot!”

I immediately summoned the Sacred Sun and fired a heat ray.

Without asking a single question, Ryan put his third and final sphere into the fissure and detonated it. A-ri immediately summoned the Irregular Polyhedron.

Then a transparent membrane appeared.

“Something came out!”

“If we tear through that, won’t we be inside the Moon?”

“Move aside!”

The old-timer who had been cursing me a moment ago abruptly pulled out something like a huge awl from their back. It radiated strange light as they stabbed the membrane.

“Urgh!”

“It won’t go through!”

“Hasbach’s ‘Spear of Annihilation’ has enough power to pierce a concrete building in one blow!”

“Don’t you have anything stronger?”

--- Writhing!

As if mocking us all, the surrounding space gradually narrowed.

The Moon’s wound was regenerating!

“Young Wisdomeee!”

“Stop calling me, you bastard!”

Please, something, anything, happen!

Just as everyone was about to suffocate to death, Mi-ro appeared beyond the transparent membrane.

A beautiful girl appearing in such a hellish place made everyone’s eyes widen. Mi-ro also looked startled as she saw the people beyond the membrane.