Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 636

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 635: The Oldest Wish (16) Fin

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 234

Current Location: Searching...

Sage’s Advice: 0」

- Han Ga-in

“You are my final trial!”

Aleph, displaying unwavering, resolute determination.

Feeling the sharpness in the other’s gaze, I considered what crack had turned “me” into “us.”

The greatest crack was probably A-ri, dying where she had fallen on the ruined floor of the Sacred Domain.

Put more simply, it was our view of companions that divided Aleph and me.

The more we understood the secrets of the Hotel and the world, the more endless emptiness tormented us.

What exactly was existence? What was the difference between a person and something that was not a person?

Think of the beings we called NPCs, beings we harmed without hesitation whenever we deemed it necessary.

Their bodies, minds, even their souls were not so different from those of humans.

Why were they not human?

Because their time to exist was short?

Then was someone with an incurable illness not human?

I knew.

Those questions were all secondary. There was another, real reason.

We had to think of them as NPCs. We had to be able to harm them when necessary to solve Curse Rooms.

We only believed it because we had to.

...

Our bodies, minds, and souls gradually drifting away from humanity.

If any last fragment of conscience or humanity remained in us, perhaps it was our companions.

I remembered Song-i saying we were the only real family left in the world.

Maybe I had secretly thought the same.

It was not just us.

Clairvoyance had asked for Ryan to be saved.

In a weakened moment, Elder Wisdom had sought an unknown companion from the past.

When my thoughts reached that point, Aleph smiled bitterly.

“You’re still trapped by hollow thoughts.”

“...”

“You are my final trial. The weakness I failed to overcome, proof of my lowly origins.”

Feeling something close to sorrow, I murmured, “You’re the one who failed to overcome weakness. You couldn’t overcome your fear, and you’re the unparalleled sinner who literally ruined the world.”

An indescribable fear.

That had been the beginning of everything.

When I first glimpsed the memories of my time as the Researcher, I did not know what that fear was.

Now I did.

“... If it can be overcome, fear is not fear. You’re pointing out a problem I’m already overcoming.”

I knew Aleph better than anyone in the world, and Aleph knew me just as well.

That was why, rather than deny the existence of fear, Aleph argued that it was already being overcome.

“Let’s see this through!”

--- Whoooosh...!

* * *

The clash of our powers began in earnest!

What did it mean that a Status Window had appeared for both Aleph and me?

It meant that, in the Hotel’s eyes, neither of us was fake.

The Sacred Sun and the Book of the Avatar, the two Inheritances, had reached the same judgment.

They floated at the center of our clash, each asserting its presence, but neither favored either of us.

A phenomenon I had experienced once in Room 207 appeared again.

The power of the Inheritances would be split equally between us.

Fight it out.

The winner would receive everything.

It was so much like the Hotel that I laughed without meaning to.

There was one thing that was not equal, though. The Crown.

The Crown was not an Inheritance to begin with, so it had no reason to follow the Hotel’s judgment. The Hotel had not bound the Crown either.

I did not know whether the Crown possessed intelligence, but if it did, perhaps it would say this.

‘The causality that put me in Aleph’s hands was created by Aleph.’

‘You are an illusion created by the Second Sentence of the Grimoire, nothing more than Aleph’s Inner Demon.’

--- Rumble!

The moment our clash began, I was driven back in disarray.

It was similar to when I fought another version of myself in Room 207.

The tools and principles we used were alike, but the differences elsewhere were far too great!

Before, I had been outmatched by the other side’s mental capacity. Now, it was the presence of the Crown.

To put it childishly, our levels and skills were similar, but only my opponent had infinite mana.

Aleph was constantly consuming the boundless souls swallowed by the Moon as a source of power.

How had it gone before?

Ah, the other side had realized it was a fake touched by the Practitioner and killed itself!

That ending was impossible this time.

Aleph was not fake, and they knew it.

Even though this fight was overwhelmingly disadvantageous to me, the outcome was not decided in an instant, because the essence of what was happening was not a question of who was stronger.

Aleph and I were not completely different people to begin with.

We were a tree grown from the same root, split apart for some reason.

To put it roughly, this was a noisy process of me persuading another me!

That was why Aleph shouted at me with something close to desperation.

“Look at this!”

The Sacred Domain had fallen into chaos again because of our clash.

Seung-yeop and Mi-ro had fainted long ago. Swept up in the aftermath, they were slammed into things here and there. Seung-yeop’s arm was already broken.

Naturally, A-ri, who had been dying on the ground, looked as though she could stop breathing at any moment.

The only reason she still clung to life was the tenacity of Old Blood, but even the power of an Inheritance had its limits.

“...”

Had Aleph pointed to my endangered companions to threaten me?

That was not it.

Aleph believed I was their inner weakness, an Inner Demon.

What meaning was there in threatening oneself?

“What do you see?”

Aleph asked, and I answered.

“My companions look like they’re about to die.”

“And?”

“I see sorrow boiling inside your heart.”

Aleph did not hide that sorrow as they whispered, “I understand the part of you that cherishes your companions. I understand that you split away from me because you could not overcome that pain.”

“...”

“But this is only a process that ‘we’ must overcome. It is nothing but weakness. We cannot have weaknesses!”

The voice sounded as though Aleph were trying to persuade me, or rather, themself.

Aleph loved their companions too, but was convinced that anything that could become a weakness had to be erased in order to walk the noble path.

“You know, don’t you? You know better than anyone. Bonds on this earth are unbearably hollow. Remember the truth behind the memories of those we believed were family!”

What I learned at the end of the “memory trip” I took with Song-i and Mi-ro.

I had been a Regressor even before coming to the Hotel.

I had had countless parents and siblings, and naturally, they had been different people every time.

The people I thought of as “true family” were merely a mixture of memories of at least several thousand families.

Just as Sang-hyeon’s bond with Mama was, I had mixed together memories of repeated lives and mistaken them for one life.

That was why Aleph said this.

“You are one side of my life. A tiny fragment of the path I have walked, a momentary dream.”

Worldly bonds were no more than hollow dreams, and “Han Ga-in” was only part of that dream.

“It’s time to wake from that dream.”

--- Step!

One step, then another.

Aleph approached with a smile.

They looked proud, as though they had finally overcome even the final trial fate had brought before them.

I felt the desperate desire in Aleph’s heart.

The longing to escape a lowly fate and evolve into a Great One.

Because I felt that longing, I spoke with a trace of pity.

“I point at the moon, but you only look at my finger.”

For the first time, Aleph tilted their head as though they found that strange.

“I thought it was an auditory hallucination. Don’t tell me that was something you said?”

The first crack that divided Aleph from me, before A-ri woke me while bleeding.

Aleph’s small but irreversible mistake, or perhaps their limit.

The next words came naturally.

“You dreamed so much of Nirvana, wanted so badly to become a Great One...”

“What-”

“You do not understand the meaning of that path at all.”

As I looked into Aleph’s startled eyes, I thought about the purpose of the Hotel, and beyond it, of Buddha.

“Aleph, do you know what the Hotel’s purpose is?”

“...”

“You didn’t know before, and you probably didn’t care. But now you have a vague idea, don’t you?”

The mysterious experience I had on Jeju Island.

Someone, probably an Ascendant from the past, had told me this.

There was someone in the world who wanted to create heaven.

To make heaven, that person created one million hells.

It was an incredibly mysterious memory, one I could never forget.

Of course Aleph knew it too.

“... To create heaven.”

“One Who Weeps for the Three Thousand Worlds seeks the Salvation of all things. No one knows what that means, or how it can be achieved.”

“Why are you suddenly talking about this-”

Aleph looked as though they wanted to end the conversation.

But there was already a tremor in their voice.

Because Aleph was not a fool, they must have guessed what I was about to say.

That was why this conversation did not end.

“Aleph, what did you think earlier?”

A thought passed through both our minds in an instant.

* * *

As the First Sentence, I gained the ability to seize the bodies of all people.

As the Second Sentence, I overcame even the Uniqueness of the mind.

Then what was the Third Sentence?

I had surpassed the limits of body and mind, so the last would be devouring souls!

* * *

“Seizing bodies, surpassing the limits of the mind, then devouring souls? You’re only stealing everything!”

“...”

“How could there be theft on the path pursued by one who saves the Three Thousand Worlds?”

How could someone trying to create heaven have bestowed the principle of a thief?

Aleph argued back.

“Ridiculous! The Hotel is full of powers that harm others! Even Eun-sol’s Greedy Hand is an ability that harms others by its very nature-”

“They are only the hells in the middle of the process. To Buddha, hell is a process toward heaven, only part of the vast process of the Six Paths of Rebirth.”

Think of the million hells born for the final heaven.

If this was Buddha’s principle, the Hotel’s principle, then so-called “lower-ranked powers” could readily be evil.

They were only part of the process of reaching heaven.

But.

“If the principle you and I have gained is truly something close to the ultimate...”

“...”

“Then it should show at least a fragment of heaven.”

If it was a higher power, a power close to the destination Buddha sought...

It should show at least a trace of heaven.

“At the very least, that path cannot be theft.”

Aleph took a step back.

“... No being knows Buddha’s will! Even the Prisoner does not know it, so how can you speak as if you know everything?”

A common agnostic argument.

Still, it made sense.

“You’re right. Everything I’ve said about Buddha is only my speculation and delusion. Then let’s change the subject from Buddha to the Lord.”

“What?”

“The Lord of Room 104! A Great One who reached Stage 3 as a Soul Convergence Entity. A being that reached the pinnacle of the path you longed for. Are you going to deny that too?”

“...”

“What kind of being was the Lord? Do you think it looked anything like us now?”

The Lord of Room 104.

A Stage 3 Soul Convergence Entity, an incomprehensible Prisoner who had swallowed a near-infinite number of souls.

Even the concept of self was different from that of a human.

If it tore off a piece of itself, it considered that piece itself.

If something similar to itself was born, it considered that, too, itself.

An incomprehensible idea, an incomprehensible principle.

The reason that was possible.

--- Whoooosh!

The scenery of the Sacred Domain began to change.

Was it because I was stronger than Aleph? No.

It was because Aleph was being persuaded by my words as well.

Whether they wanted it or not, our hearts slowly gathered into one point and, for an instant, touched a truly distant realm.

A vast vortex.

A single Singularity that drew in the world itself!

Looking at that distant scene, I whispered to Aleph.

It was the Enlightenment I had vaguely gained long ago, and the story of the “weakness” Aleph also knew deep down but had tried to run from.

“Why did the Demon King of Room 206 act like a god?”

“...”

“Why does a god act like a god?”

People did not protect ants, so why did the Demon King care for believers?

It was not calculation.

It was not a transaction.

Just as ants could not help humans, mere human believers meant nothing to the Demon King.

“Because it cannot distinguish them from itself. Because there is no meaning in doing so.”

“...”

“Why distinguish between myself and what is not myself? Because there is a Boundary between them.”

The Boundary separating self and non-self.

“Once you cross that Boundary, there is no longer any other.”

To a true Great One, there was no other.

All things were either itself, or something becoming part of itself.

The only difference was whether they were closer to the Singularity or farther away from it.

--- Rumble...!

From the Singularity that drew in all things came the distant sound of the Starry Heavens.

Some called this a “god” or a “Great One” and worshipped it.

There was no you and me.

There was no self and non-self.

Even the distinction between body, mind, and soul was worthless.

Desire, thought, even will, were nothing but temporary illusions.

“Do you understand now?”

“...”

“Seize bodies with the First Sentence? Devour minds with the Second Sentence, souls with the Third?”

“...”

“That is not it. The true meaning is-”

For the first time, Aleph answered.

“The disappearance of the Boundary.”

“...”

“There is no Boundary between your body and mine. There is no Boundary inside the mind or outside the mind. Therefore...”

“Know that beneath heaven, there is only you.”

There was only one Singularity in the world.

When I vaguely understood this principle in Room 206, I thought of it this way.

A true god was a phenomenon.

Motion. Gravity. The law of the universe.

If that was greatness, it was probably not what I wanted!

“What I know, you know too. You already knew everything I’m showing you now, didn’t you?”

“...”

“It was not that you did not know. You did not want to know. You longed to become a Great One for eons, but the true nature of a Great One, which you vaguely understood at the Hotel, was too different from what you imagined.”

“...”

“So you turned your head away. That is your weakness.”

I gave back the words Aleph had spoken at the beginning.

“Overcome your weakness. And accept it. I am not part of your life, nor am I a hollow dream.”

“... Then what are you?”

“Your goal. Your ideal. The being you wanted to become. Therefore, I am your Singularity.”

Then I smiled softly and whispered to my attachment to the past.

“Aleph.”

“...”

“Do you still want to become ‘that’?”

I heard the sound of someone’s resolve breaking.

I heard the oldest dream fading away.