WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 64: Room 101, Curse Room - ‘Strange Family’ Re (2)

──────

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 22

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3]

“So four people failed to escape.”

“That means Eun-sol, Elena, A-ri, and Grandfather Mook-seong all failed to escape.”

“I’m ashamed.”

“I’m sorry, everyone.”

“Mm. I’m sorry too. We’ve apologized enough, so let’s quickly come up with a new plan.”

“This is a fairly serious situation. Our original plan was to use the first attempt to gauge each person’s difficulty escaping. From the next attempt onward, the person with the easiest escape would focus solely on escaping to secure the team’s safety, while the other seven would proceed and resolve the scenario.

But four people have failed to proceed. At this rate, a normal resolution is impossible.

There is some good news. I can guarantee I’ll have no problem next time. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“First, I’ll organize the situations of those who failed.

1. Eun-sol: The house is too large and there are too many people, making it difficult to escape while avoiding them.

2. Elena: The house is too small, so she starts in the same space as the family from the very beginning.

3. Mook-seong: He was flustered after seeing his dead family revived.

4. A-ri: Her starting location is the hotel from the first attempt, making physical escape impossible.

Is that correct?”

Everyone nodded.

As I organized it, I realized there were a lot of absurd reasons. I’d never imagined someone could fail to escape because their house was too big. Starting in the hotel was absurd too.

I understood everyone else’s reasons, but A-ri’s was a little puzzling. If nothing else, A-ri was strong in a fight. Couldn’t she just subdue her family?

“A-ri?”

“Yeah?”

“I understand that you can’t physically leave the hotel, but wasn’t your ‘mother’ the only one who appeared?”

“That’s right.”

“Then your situation is similar to Jin-cheol’s. Why not just subdue your mother on the next attempt? Jin-cheol said he punched his mother the moment he started, took her down in one hit so she couldn’t approach him, then escaped.”

“Ga-in! That sounds pretty weird. Saying I punched my mother makes me sound like the worst bastard in the world. It wasn’t my mother. I hit a fake that was imitating my mother.”

“...”

“?”

“Sorry. My mom’s kind of strong. I don’t think I can proceed. No matter what I do, there’s no way I can beat her or stop her from approaching me.”

...

What kind of situation was that?

There was still a lot I didn’t know about A-ri’s abilities, but if she could say she absolutely couldn’t win...

What on earth was her mother? Was she even human?

“All right! Let’s put A-ri aside and organize everyone else. First, Elder? You can proceed from the next attempt onward, right?”

“I can guarantee I’ll never make the same mistake twice.”

“Then let’s say you can proceed from the next attempt, since yours was a simple mistake. On the other hand, A-ri, you absolutely can’t proceed?”

“I’m sorry. It’s absolutely impossible.”

“It can’t be helped. Then that leaves Elena and me.”

“Good grief, what a strange situation. Eun-sol’s problem is that her house is too big, while Elena’s is that her house is too small.”

Eun-sol and Elena both fell silent. The rest of us stopped talking as well and began to think.

Even so, having three people unable to proceed left us stretched too thin. One person was supposed to focus entirely on escaping, and if three more couldn’t proceed, only four people would be left to move forward.

About five minutes later, Eun-sol spoke.

“I’m really sorry. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t see any way around it. I can’t subdue my family with one punch like Jin-cheol, and there are too many people and the house is too big to avoid them.”

“I think I have a better chance than Eun-sol. I just need maybe five seconds? If I can buy five seconds, I can get out. Because the house is small.”

“The problem is how to last five seconds when ‘Strange Family’ is right beside you from the moment you start.”

“Ah!”

“Song-i?”

“Elena. Can you leave the house even if your vision and hearing are both completely blocked?”

“I’ve memorized the entire layout of the house. Because the house is small.”

...

For some reason, Elena had been grumbling, “Because the house is small,” for a while now.

“Then what if I block all your senses right before you enter, like I did for Jin-cheol before?

It’ll be much more effective than simply closing your eyes and covering your ears, so it should protect your mind even if ‘Strange Family’ is right beside you. It lasts about ten minutes, so you should be able to escape in that time.”

“If I escape that way, wouldn’t Song-i be in danger? I think you said the bracelet can only be used on one person at a time. If you use it on me, you won’t be able to protect yourself until the bracelet’s cooldown ends.”

“Unlike you, I start in my own room. I can lock the door and rest in my room alone for thirty minutes or an hour, then leave after the bracelet recovers.”

“Song-i. Could you use that method on Eun-sol too?”

“The bracelet can only be used on one person at a time.”

“Then just use it on Elena. Sorry, but I can’t escape with my vision and hearing blocked. My house is too big.”

I took the notebook and pen Eun-sol handed me and organized everything.

1. Escape Team: Park Seung-yeop

2. Progress Team: Han Ga-in, Yoo Song-i, Cha Jin-cheol, Kim Mook-seong, Elena

3. Give-Up Team: Lee Eun-sol, Kim A-ri

Was that about right?

Five people would proceed, excluding the two who absolutely couldn’t proceed and the one responsible solely for escaping. Five people seemed manageable enough. It didn’t look like we could increase that number anyway.

Everyone looked over the notebook, then someone grumbled.

“‘Give-Up Team’ is a little harsh. That’s not even a team. Just leave my name out.”

“Ga-in wrote my name and Eun-sol’s like he’s making a list of people who didn’t participate in a group project.”

“... I was just organizing it for myself.”

“Hmm, it still looks well organized. Just in case, Seung-yeop?”

“Yes!”

“Are you certain you can escape? Your role is to escape as soon as we begin and secure our survival, so yours is the most important role. If you fail, we could all die.”

“I really think it’s one hundred percent possible. I got out in ten minutes earlier. My parents don’t normally come into my room often. I just have to jump out the window, land on the car, and run.”

“How reliable. That’s reassuring. We’ll be counting on you.”

Maybe he wasn’t used to receiving so much praise and expectation. Seung-yeop’s face turned red again.

It was true.

At a glance, those proceeding to resolve the scenario seemed to have the more important role, but all those attempts were only possible because escape guaranteed our survival. As an individual, the escape specialist undoubtedly had the most important role.

“Um, but I saw something strange.”

“What was it? Seung-yeop, tell us.”

“...”

“You looked like you were about to say something. What’s wrong all of a sudden?”

“Please don’t misunderstand. I absolutely wasn’t trying to play games. It’s just that I got on the internet for the first time in a really long time.”

“Just say it straight. ‘I played a game of League. Got a problem with that?’ If you escaped well, nobody’s going to complain.”

“No, Jin-cheol! I really didn’t play League. I just looked at the internet, but everything was so strange.”

“The internet is strange?”

“On eating shows, they’re eating bizarre bugs. In baseball games, people are getting hit with bats. In dramas, people suddenly pull out knives and fight. I watched for about a minute, then turned it off because I thought I might lose my mind if I kept watching.”

“Then should I mention something I noticed too?”

“Song-i, you noticed something too?”

“As you all know, I can use my Affinity more actively since it was enhanced. I can convey my intentions or feel the target’s emotions. I guess you could say I can communicate emotions more delicately?

So I tried using Affinity on the family and animals in the house. It completely failed. The ability didn’t work at all, and there was no response whatsoever. What do you think that means?”

“Hmm. One hypothesis does come to mind.”

“What do you think, Grandfather?”

“Isn’t Song-i’s ability one that works on Chaos Entities? If the members of ‘Strange Family’ are not Chaos Entities but ordinary humans and animals, at least by the setting’s standards, it is only natural that the ability would not work.”

“The members of Strange Family were only cursed because of an external factor?”

“Doesn’t the hint we received suggest that? The Source of the Curse isn’t the family.”

Listening to the conversation made me feel a little ashamed.

Unlike me, who had only focused on escaping and gained no evidence at all, Seung-yeop and Song-i had each discovered something even while escaping. Should I have done something too?

I’d contribute actively on the next attempt.

Let’s organize what we knew so far.

The two pieces of evidence Seung-yeop and Song-i had obtained.

1. The internet is strange.

2. The family seems to be made up of ordinary humans.

Putting those together, everyone came up with the same hypothesis.

“Could the Source of the Curse be the internet?”

“Were the family simply cursed by using the internet? And were the animals infected by the family?”

“Nothing is certain. Still, I think the Progress Team should investigate issues related to the internet from now on.”

After about thirty minutes of discussion, we had roughly organized the situation and set our objective.

We ended the meeting after posting the final notes on the table where everyone could see them.

1. Escape Team: Park Seung-yeop

2. Progress Team: Han Ga-in, Elena, Kim Mook-seong, Cha Jin-cheol, Yoo Song-i

3. Rest Team: Lee Eun-sol, Kim A-ri

Progress Team Objective: Search for the Source of the Curse. Focus on the abnormalities of the internet.

It seemed like we could go back in now.

“... Ga-in. I told you to just erase my name.”

“You’re totally the type to report people who don’t participate in group projects to the professor~”

* * *

Third Attempt

* * *

- Han Ga-in

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 22

Current Location: Level 1, Room 101 (Curse Room - Strange Family)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

With a familiar sensation, I covered myself with Filter Mode the moment I started. Right afterward, I turned on the computer in my room.

Right. I should take measures to keep my family from barging in.

“Mom!”

“Ga-in?”

Even though I covered myself with the Status Window the moment I heard her voice, my head still throbbed for an instant.

“I need to register for classes, so don’t disturb me!”

It seemed to be around February, so I could insist I was registering for classes for the new semester.

Perhaps my words got through to her. Her footsteps moved away from my room.

One minute after I turned on the computer and began looking around, I understood what Seung-yeop had meant.

The entire world of the internet had gone completely insane. I realized Seung-yeop had put it quite mildly. There were countless eating shows where people were outright devouring other people, while the news and dramas were utterly horrific.

Even psychopaths would get chills from watching videos like these.

Before I’d even watched for a full minute, my head started hurting sharply, and a ringing filled my ears.

From somewhere, twisted common sense entered my mind. What was wrong with people eating people?

...

I immediately turned off the monitor and stepped back.

Only after resting for about five minutes did my thoughts return to normal.

Let’s think this through step by step.

Seung-yeop said the internet was strange, but after seeing it myself, a more specific word came to mind.

The media was strange. I didn’t feel anything abnormal when I simply opened platforms like Naver or Google. It was mainly TV programs. Every category, including eating shows, sports, news, and dramas, had gone mad.

I sank deeper into thought. Was the media the cause? Was the Source of the Curse the media?

Then how was I supposed to resolve that?

This didn’t seem right. Let’s think about Room 103, which Song-i resolved. The Source of the Curse had been the Athanasia themselves. The scenario was resolved by wiping out every Athanasia.

The Source of the Curse had to be something that could be physically destroyed. Something that had contaminated the media, contaminated people, and contaminated the world.

One hypothesis came to mind.

Footnotes:

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