WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 63: Room 101, Curse Room - ‘Strange Family’ Re (1)

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* * *

Second Attempt

* * *

- Kim A-ri

I had to say something. Otherwise, she was the kind of person who would break down the door just to get in.

As I approached the door, then Mom, I felt my blood slowly being consumed to protect my mind.

Just as I thought. Room 101’s curse took effect as I approached “family,” even if I only heard their voice.

It was a shame I did not have a mental protection filter like Ga-in.

“Mom! I’ll be out soon. Go ahead and eat first.”

---Thud! Thud!

“I’m hungry! I don’t want to eat alone!”

What should I say to get her away from the door? What was she like again?

I remembered. I had to speak to her more like she was a child.

“I prepared a present for you, Mom. Could you go somewhere farther away for a little while?”

“A present? A present! Okay! I’ll be waiting really, really excitedly~”

Mom moved away again with the sound of hurried footsteps. That kind of childish lie still worked on her.

Mom was childish herself. She did not have much patience, so she would be back soon. Let’s think. How exactly was I supposed to escape?

The others had decided to leave their houses and escape, but my home was configured as the hotel itself.

There was no way out.

If this were the hotel we were currently in on our second attempt, I could shut my eyes, jump from the front entrance, and slow my fall. I might die of blood loss before reaching the ground, but there would be a chance of escape.

But outside the hotel’s front entrance during our first attempt was the deep sea. If I went out, I would be crushed by the water pressure. The escape tool back then had not been Wing Boots, either, but an “air bubble.”

I could not leave through the front entrance. There was no way to recreate the escape method I used back then.

If I could not get out...

Then I had to at least neutralize that thing imitating Mom so it could not approach me.

There was one major concern.

To what extent had the hotel recreated my mother?

If it had not recreated Mom’s blessing, I was confident I could beat that fake mother now.

If it had recreated her blessing too...

For now, I’d fight her and see.

---Click.

When I opened the door, the familiar dining room appeared. Mom sat some distance away, covering her eyes with her hands.

It felt a little like I was praising myself, but she really was cute.

She would have been an even better mother if her mind had been sound.

I took a deep breath.

Considering the blood I would use during the fight and the blood I would need to resist mental contamination, I did not have much time.

Closing my eyes, I turned my attention inward. I felt the blood pumped from my heart pulsing through my veins. Ancient power, or perhaps a curse, beaded within that blood.

I activated Old Blood.

A blast of cold erupted from my fingertips like a flash of lightning and tore through the air.

One strike. It was an ambush, so Mi-ro could not even react.

“Ahh! A-ri? Why would you...”

Sorry.

No, actually, I was not sorry. You were not even my real mom, were you? I’d just call you by your name now.

I unleashed another gust of cold, striking Mi-ro twice. She screamed and rolled across the floor. Two red lines cut across her body. Blood seemed ready to burst from them, then froze solid.

Still, it was not enough.

I wanted to finish this from a distance because of the mental contamination, but my attacks lacked force.

Maybe it would work against an ordinary person, but it was difficult to finish off another blood witch from afar.

The instant I sprang forward with power gathered at my fingertips...

A flash gleamed from beyond the table.

---Thunk!

A hole opened in my shoulder in an instant.

I rolled aside, releasing cold in a spiral as I checked Mi-ro’s position.

The situation was not bad.

Mi-ro’s wounds were healing slowly. Continuously launching gusts of cold from the start had worked. The cold seeping into her body slowed her blood and began interfering with her use of power.

I closed in again, gathering power at my fingertips before thrusting at Mi-ro.

---Clang!

A sharp metallic sound rang out.

Our hands, hardened like metal through Old Blood, collided.

“A-ri! What are you doing? Mom’s going to punish you!”

“Sorry. But I’m stronger now, aren’t I? I’ve trained for longer than you were ever alive.”

“What do you mean Mom died? A-ri, did you have a strange dream?”

For perhaps ten seconds, our metallic hands collided more than thirty times. We fiercely exchanged attacks, linking and severing each other’s blood power. By the time I had driven a breath of cold into Mi-ro’s body about five times...

We both realized it.

I was overwhelmingly stronger.

My mastery of Old Blood and my fighting skills were on entirely different levels. Even while using over half my blood to resist the mental contamination Mi-ro released in real time, I could beat her easily.

“What? This is strange! A-ri, why did you suddenly become so strong?”

“I told you. I’ve trained for longer than you were ever alive. Sorry, Mi-ro. Just sleep for a little while.”

She was not my real mom, but seeing her in pain still made my heart ache. It was almost over.

If I used Suggestion one last time, I could put her into a deep sleep without dreams. Our eyes met. The moment my power entered Mi-ro’s mind...

A set of scales appeared.

Ah. I was screwed. This stupid hotel had recreated Mi-ro’s blessing too.

The instant I saw them, I retreated. I could never win.

---Crash! Boom!

Something exploded. In an instant, the dining room furnishings shattered, and overwhelming force capable of crushing a human swept toward me. I barely hid among the surrounding debris and escaped Room 103.

When was it?

I remembered what Seung-yeop said when we read the description of Elena’s blessing, Justice, at the Sanctuary of Blessings.

The reason Elena’s blessing had so many restrictions. Seung-yeop had guessed it was probably for “balance.”

Seung-yeop, sorry, but that was not it at all.

This hopeless hotel did not care about balance in the slightest.

The blessings granted by the hotel had no restrictions, only limitless potential.

Restrictions were created by the human mind alone.

The three restrictions on Elena’s blessing.

1. The target had to have committed an evil act.

2. Elena had to recognize the evil act.

3. Once enforcement began, it could not be stopped.

There were also legal concepts like “self-defense.”

An ideal criminal law applied to people who committed evil, punishment required evidence, and whether someone was punished could not be decided on the enforcer’s whim.

Did the hotel really establish the blessing’s restrictions by taking human laws into account? Those restrictions were simply created by Elena’s sense of justice.

Still, even if someone else had gained the blessing of Justice, it probably would not have been very different. Most people’s sense of justice shared broad common ground.

In a way, it was only natural that Justice developed restrictions reflecting real laws. Weren’t laws formed in the first place because ordinary people shared a sense of justice?

What if someone who did not share that common sense of justice gained the blessing of Justice?

Someone who believed they could punish not only people, but animals, monsters, and even objects if they wanted to.

Someone who believed every action they disliked was evil.

Someone who believed punishment was entirely up to them.

Long ago, Mi-ro created me, and in return, she lost her reason.

The childish ego that formed when she lost her reason erased every restriction on Justice and became overwhelmingly powerful!

That hopeless result was now chasing me, destroying everything with a single gesture.

---Screech.

A noise like a broken radio filled my head.

The sound was so loud that my hearing had gone bad.

---Boom!

A deafening impact rang out, as though a bomb had exploded in the ceiling.

---Screeeeeech!

A sharp force tore through the marble floor as though it were paper, and cracks began spreading through the hotel corridor as if an earthquake had struck.

Thump!

Stones poured from a torn-open wall and struck my back. I was really having a rough day.

The reason I could keep running even in this chaos was that Mi-ro still could not find “me” because of the imperfect Suggestion I had used earlier.

That made it even more absurd. She could not even recognize “me,” yet she was destroying everything around her.

It meant she was using the power of Justice not on me, but on her surroundings.

What kind of standard did Mi-ro’s “Justice” have for her to use it like that?

Was the corridor beside me evil because I was annoyed and it had the nerve to be there? Was the door evil too?

Let’s stop thinking about it.

...

About ten minutes of pursuit.

Now I knew it too. There really was nowhere left to run.

I flew, ran, and darted around in a frenzy, but Mi-ro looked ready to bring down the entire hotel. It was destruction comparable to when Ga-in broke the hotel after obtaining Descent.

I gave up.

I stood quietly beside the front entrance and looked outside. Strange-looking fish swam here and there. The hotel during our first attempt had been in the deep sea.

---Click. Click.

As I watched the fish, time passed, and Mi-ro appeared after Suggestion wore off.

“You came.”

“...”

“Ah, my head is starting to throb. I guess I can’t endure it much longer.”

“A-ri was really strange today. I don’t know why you’re doing this to Mom.”

“I know.”

“Are you mad at Mom?”

“I wonder.”

“If you’re mad, Mom’s sorry. Mom got really angry earlier and broke everything... I’m so scared when I think A-ri hates me. Okay?”

...

Ah. Even this fake mother loved me, just as I loved my mother.

But fake Mom.

The fact that you love me right now is about to contaminate me.

“But A-ri knows she shouldn’t do this to Mom, right? I’m going to cut off just A-ri’s head and carry it around for a week! A-ri needs to reflect too, okay?”

I would have been better off not hearing that last part.

The saddest truth was this.

My mother was not like this because Room 101’s curse contaminated her. She had always been like this since I was born.

I felt my consciousness growing hazy.

/You have failed!/

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 22

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3]

Wow!

The moment I escaped Room 101, I thought:

This was seriously too easy! We suffered so much before because we did not know this?

It was so easy that there was no way anyone could fail to escape. All you had to do was close your eyes, cover your ears, and run. How could someone fail that?

I turned around, believing everyone must have already emerged with happy expressions.

Then I realized something was wrong.

Footnotes:

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