WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 658: Room 301, Curse Room - ‘The Origin of Species’ (5)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 3
Current Location: Level 3, Observatory
Sage’s Advice: 2」
- Han Ga-in
“How do I look to you?”
“... What did you just do?”
“Nothing.”
Song-i smiled, as though she had regained her composure.
Afterward, she succeeded in enthralling her opponent with the power of her blessing.
Next was Eun-sol, who was speaking with a Management Bureau employee.
“This is the Management Bureau’s Seoul Branch. Is this Miss Lee Eun-sol? What is the matter?”
“Yes, I obtained information related to a strange Chaos Disaster-”
.
..
...
--- Whoosh...!
My mind, which had been observing Room 301, or rather, a very old Loop, separated from the telescope.
As soon as I came down, Elena, who was nearby, looked at me with concern.
“How are Eun-sol and Song-i?”
“Eun-sol reported it to the Management Bureau a little while ago.”
“Come on! Why doesn’t she know? We can’t trust the Management Bureau right now!”
Elena sounded frustrated, and the companions nearby sighed just as heavily.
Everyone felt anxious as they watched Song-i and Eun-sol after the two had entered Room 301.
At first, I felt the same way, but after observing them for a while, a thought occurred to me.
“The Management Bureau in Room 301 can’t be trusted.”
“Exactly. But she reported it to the Management Bureau! Why would she make that mistake-”
“The problem is that it would be very difficult for Eun-sol to realize that.”
“What?”
“How did we know the Management Bureau in Room 301 was suspicious in the first place?”
Elena fell silent. A-ri muttered in her place.
“Several Management Bureau employees had infiltrated Daeyang Group.”
“How did you know that?”
“I can tell just by looking.”
“Could Eun-sol tell just by looking?”
“Impossible. Maybe if she’d worked for the Management Bureau for thirty years.”
“The other reason we decided the Management Bureau was suspicious was information Song-i obtained. When the opponent’s identity was exposed, it openly said, ‘The Management Bureau won’t intervene right now.’”
“That’s information Eun-sol couldn’t know either.”
After talking about Eun-sol, we moved on to Song-i.
“Song-i’s situation is similar. After she got the gray cat, Gray, strange gazes started following her, right?”
“Right. Many of those gazes came from animals.”
“Could Song-i notice that? When we walk down the street, do we pay attention to where every pigeon is looking?”
“That would be hard. It’s not like we have ten eyes.”
Our perspective was different from Song-i’s. We could observe her entire surroundings at once, like third-person observers.
Human eyes were naturally fixed facing forward.
Sang-hyeon muttered quietly.
“You can’t see the whole picture from inside... I’m starting to understand what you mean. It would’ve been similar if someone else had gone.”
I thought the same.
Even if someone else had entered, it likely wouldn’t have gone much differently for them.
“Looking back on our past experiences, we always stumbled around during the first attempt. We weren’t sure about the scenario, or even who the enemy was.”
Sang-hyeon picked up the thought.
“On top of that, the two who went in aren’t just making the first attempt at Room 301. They’re making the entire third floor’s first attempt.”
Eun-sol and Song-i knew nothing not only about Room 301, but about the third floor itself.
They were at an even greater disadvantage than participants would be during the first attempts at Rooms 302, 303, and so on.
Why couldn’t they understand even when I warned them several times through poltergeist phenomena?
Because they didn’t even know such intervention was possible.
That was why the two either ignored my warnings or took them as ominous signs of unknown origin. It was a perfectly reasonable judgment.
Then Mi-ro muttered with a slightly gloomy expression.
“Would it have been different if you went in, Ga-in?”
“Me?”
“You have Sage’s Advice and Scenario Understanding! And, um, you’re smart too...”
“...”
“Doesn’t it seem like Seung-yeop picked wrong?”
“Mi-ro, Seung-yeop might make mistakes, but Heavenly Luck doesn’t.”
Apart from my trust in Seung-yeop, I had experienced Heavenly Luck’s overwhelming performance again and again.
Mi-ro probably knew that too, but after listening to nothing but gloomy talk all day, that seemed to be why she was acting this way.
“Then why do only those two have to go in?”
It was the question everyone had been carrying since yesterday.
Why had Heavenly Luck selected only Lee Eun-sol and Yoo Song-i?
“...”
First, the disadvantageous situation where the first people to enter were bound to suffer.
Second, despite that, Heavenly Luck’s choice to send in only two people.
It seemed contradictory at first glance, but what if I looked at it from another angle?
I thought I knew the answer.
* * *
- Lee Eun-sol
While reporting a Chaos Disaster involving animals that had gained sentience, the employee abruptly cut me off.
“Miss Lee Eun-sol, we have received your report. This is a serious crisis. It would be dangerous to act carelessly, so please wait. We will dispatch a suppression team shortly.”
--- Click!
The call ended in an instant.
At first glance, this was a common process for reporting a Chaos Disaster, whether in reality or in a Curse Room.
Then what was this sudden feeling of unease?
“...”
I never said I was in danger.
And as the Daeyang Group chairman’s daughter and an executive director, I had plenty of guards nearby.
I held an honorary Management Bureau agent position in reality and had watched their work from the sidelines. Something about this felt wrong.
For a low-risk situation like this, sending one or two employees was the usual response.
It wasn’t because the Management Bureau lacked a sense of urgency.
They simply didn’t have the manpower to deploy force to every report that came in from around the world.
Yet they were sending a suppression team immediately?
I never even said there was a talking animal next to me, so what exactly were they going to suppress-
At that moment, a chill ran down my spine!
--- Rattle!
“Damn it!”
I needed to change locations first and think later.
* * *
I quickly grabbed my car keys and left my office.
“Oh, Executive Director. What is the matter?”
“Secretary Kim, something urgent came up. Cancel the afternoon meeting!”
“It has already been canceled.”
“Thanks-”
What?
It had already been canceled?
The moment I raised my brows in surprise, Secretary Kim, who had served me for five years, smiled.
“Executive Director, you need to wait. Didn’t you hear them tell you to wait?”
“You...”
I took a step back, gripped by intense wariness.
--- Tap, tap, tap!
With loud footsteps, employees in suits began gathering around us.
Every one of them wore the same smile.
Every one of them walked in step, their right and left feet perfectly synchronized.
Not only their steps, but even the rhythm of their breathing was identical.
They looked like a crowd of marionettes controlled by a single magician.
“...”
It had been, at most, three or four minutes since I spoke with the Management Bureau.
Could this many members of a “suppression team” have arrived in that short time?
Had Management Bureau employees been in the company from the start?
“Executive Director.”
“...”
“Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director. Executive Director-”
It was broad daylight, yet I felt a cold so intense it seemed to stop my breathing.
At that moment.
“What is going on here?”
It was my father, Chairman Lee Seok-hwan.
Before I could say anything, Father came up beside me and whispered in my ear.
“Eun-sol, stay still. I’ll handle this.”
“...”
What was going on?
As I tried to understand the situation, Father spoke to the employees giving off that bizarre atmosphere, or rather, the strange being controlling them.
“Baron, I don’t understand why you are suddenly acting this way. There seems to be a misunderstanding.”
“Your daughter just tried to leak information about the Transference to the outside. This is a serious act of betrayal.”
“I will explain everything. I have handled all dealings with you, and my children know nothing about the Transference. My daughter must have witnessed the process by chance. So-”
A rough outline began to emerge, the link between talking animals and my suspicious father.
The people suddenly trapped in animal bodies had been affected by a phenomenon called the Transference.
There was an unknown group behind it, and Father was dealing with them?
“I warned you long ago, didn’t I? Merit earns rewards, and transgression earns punishment.”
“This isn’t a transgression, just a simple mistake-”
“There is no difference. Still, it was not your mistake, so I will end this by punishing your daughter.”
This was not an equal relationship.
The other side held absolute power, while Father was completely led around and forced to obey.
The moment I understood that much, around fifteen employees raised their hands at once.
“I sentence you to three years of confinement.”
The instant I heard it, I understood exactly what “three years of confinement” meant.
How could I not, when I knew about people whose souls were trapped in animal bodies?
At this rate, I would be trapped in the body of a dog or cat for at least three years!
The air trembled, enough to stop my breath.
An unknown hand approached, bringing a chilling sensation that seemed ready to melt my head.
The moment I moved my hand, the employees smiled.
It was as though the unknown being behind them were speaking to me.
Was I planning to pull out a gun? Did I think that would make any difference?
Of course, what I summoned was nothing like a gun.
“A Flute?”
--- Laaa...!
The instant a beautiful melody spread through the hall, the ominous energy that seemed ready to rip open my skull vanished as if washed away.
For the first time, the opponent seemed startled.
“... A mysterious power. I did not think you could prevent the Transference.”
Then the Butterfly Dream brooch above my head released countless butterflies and began subduing the employees around us.
The opponent spoke not to me, but to Father behind me.
“You will certainly pay the price for this.”
* * *
The hallway had grown quiet.
Father and daughter stared at each other without speaking.
I was the first to open my mouth.
“Father.”
“Eun-sol... W-where did you get tools like these?”
“I think we both have a lot to say. Father, you want to know the source of my power, while I want to know what this ‘Transference’ is and what relationship you have with them-”
At that moment, the lights in the hallway began to go out one after another.
“What is-”
“Ghhh...!”
A groan came before I could finish.
“Ah, ah...! Eun-sol, Eun-sol!”
“Father.”
“Y-you should have accepted the punishment! Until just now, it could have been called a mistake, so it would only have meant suffering for a few years!”
“...”
“I-it’s too late now. You were disrespectful to the Baron-”
Chairman Lee Seok-hwan, my father, was rambling in terror.
The emotion I felt at that moment could not be expressed in a single word.
I had experienced countless mysterious events at the Hotel and in reality, so I knew this already.
No matter how rich or powerful a conglomerate chairman was, to beings who truly stood above them, he was insignificant.
At best, he was no more than a beetle among a colony of ants.
If he encountered a devil, a monster, or a lord of chaos, it would not be strange for him to collapse to the floor and cry like a child.
I knew that in my head.
My heart could not easily accept it.
The chairman of Daeyang Group, a leading businessman, the father I had looked up to all my life, had this weak side to him.
“Father, answer my questions. Is Baron the rank of the being that threatened us just now?”
“...”
“Now that the charge of resistance has been added, a stronger being will come to punish me. Is that what you mean?”
“...”
“What ranks above a Baron? Count? Marquis?”
Then, from beyond the darkened hallway, I heard a distant whisper.
I could not tell where the sound came from.
The voice did not speak, yet its flawless resonance conveyed everything.
It was a warning. It was a threat. It was a promise.
The scenery of the company warped, and the hallway was no longer straight.
It became a place like the endlessly coiled stomach of a beast.
The doors were no longer doors.
They were mouths. They opened and closed as though they meant to swallow someone.
The windows were no longer windows.
They were eyes. They did not look outside. They looked in.
A formless touch brushed against me.
A cold, soft, heavy touch pressed down on my shoulder.
At that point, I accepted it.
This was a being I could not handle.
Put another way, I had lost.
The first attempt had failed.
As I closed my eyes, overcome by a distant, fading feeling-
A notification from the Hotel appeared.
* * *
- Yoo Song-i
“...”
I thought things were going well, but they weren’t.
I thought charming the being occupying Park Ji-ho’s body would somehow work out...
It didn’t.
The real thing had simply appeared after sensing the distortion in one of its underlings.
As I lowered my head beneath indescribable pressure-
A notification from the Hotel appeared.
「You have failed!
You charged into enemy territory while pursuing only the strange phenomena before your eyes!
Weren’t you closer to a foolish wild boar than a great hero?
Of course, considering this was your first attempt, some of that was unavoidable.
You have failed to resolve the Source of the Curse. What a shame.
But there is still a chance. Wait for your companions.
Soon, the ‘World After the End Times’ will begin!」
“... What?”
World After the End Times?
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 3
Current Location: Level 3, Observatory
Sage’s Advice: 2」
- Han Ga-in
When the space around us began to tremble, a notification appeared before everyone.
「You have failed to resolve it. Therefore, the ‘World After the End Times’ will begin!」
“Argh! W-what is this?”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Listening to my companions’ panicked voices, I thought.
This was why Heavenly Luck chose only Eun-sol and Song-i for the first attempt!
The first attempt was guaranteed to fail anyway, so it wanted as few people as possible to be tied up!
Footnotes:
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