WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 686: The First Wish, Yoo Song-i (3)
──────
Whenever I look at cities filled with gray concrete buildings, I often find myself thinking this.
I'm glad I'm not human.
Just look at the residence I occupied until moments ago.
Wasn't it nothing but a collection of bland square boxes without the slightest hint of aesthetic appeal?
The sight of hundreds, thousands of individuals living packed together like insects in such cramped little spaces...
Honestly, it was a little disgusting.
What was even more absurd was that those ugly square boxes called apartments were the lifelong goal of ninety percent of this country's humans.
Even after grinding away their entire short lives of around eighty years, many humans could never obtain one of those bland rectangular residences!
By that standard, the owner of the body I currently inhabited was quite a capable human.
They had obtained one of those hideous square boxes at a fairly young age!
Veterinarians seemed to be among the more well-off humans.
“...A veterinarian.”
Thinking back, the problem was the Transference target's occupation.
Because the target was a veterinarian, there were many animals in the house, and the child seemed familiar with animals too.
I had accumulated enough data on the behavior of human Transference targets, but I knew nothing about the behavior patterns of dogs, cats, or birds.
As a result, I failed to respond appropriately to the animals' strange behavior, and the child saw through the disguise.
Disguises being exposed during an operation had happened from time to time throughout Yith history.
Usually, though, it was some being with special powers that saw through us.
For the disguise to be exposed by an ordinary human girl like this?
It wasn't a serious problem.
It was embarrassing.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, I saw my “daughter” walking toward me in the distance.
“Song-i.”
“Dad! Huh? You're off work already?”
What to do about the daughter still hadn't been decided.
My “partner” seemed embarrassed that an ordinary human had seen through the disguise and appeared to want to kill the girl painfully, but...
“There was no helping it today. Management Bureau employees suddenly barged in, investigated your mother and me, and caused a huge commotion at the clinic. I was under investigation from this morning until just now.”
“...”
How was she going to answer?
Would she lie and say she hadn't reported us?
Just as an inward laugh was about to escape me, the girl lowered her head, slipped a hand inside her clothes, and suddenly pulled out a gun.
?
??
???
What was that?
Had I just seen that wron-
“Song-i...”
Bang!
My body lost its balance and collapsed in an instant.
Bright red liquid pulsed from my chest!
So that girl had suddenly pulled out a gun and shot me?
A string of data flashed through my mind.
Transference target: Yu Jeong-ho.
Transference area: Republic of Korea.
Due to regional characteristics, public safety was excellent and firearms were not available to civilians.
The probability of combat occurring was low...
It was all bullshit!
Stay calm. First, I had to leave this body.
This was an emergency. There was no time to worry about the disguise!
I immediately left the Host's body.
My next Transference target was the “daughter” before me!
I wanted to know why she was doing this, and she was also the closest Transference target.
Fwoooosh!
Just as the power of Transference shot out and was about to touch the girl's body, her body suddenly crumbled like a sandcastle struck by a wave.
W-what was this!
It wasn't easy to stay calm through this chain of unimaginable events.
Before I could even take a breath, the Host died, and the next Transference target scattered like dust!
Quickly. I needed to find another Transference target quickly.
Our essence had surpassed the flesh, so we were often given the modifier “Great,” but...
That meant we could enjoy immortality by changing bodies. It didn't mean we could exist without bodies!
As I frantically extended my power to find another Transference target nearby...
Gooooo...!
I heard the sound of despair echoing throughout the world.
It would have been better if it were an unidentifiable sound!
I, we, knew exactly what this sound was.
This sound, this phenomenon, this vibration: no member of the Yith race, no matter how foolish or weak, could fail to recognize it.
We knew it too well. There wasn't even a chance we had mistaken it for something else.
Ah...
Grace. It was Grace.
The King had begun Grace!
Thoughts surfaced through a shock that nearly stopped my soul.
When we first learned that the King had gone missing on Earth, several Dukes considered the possibility of Grace.
Soon, we reached the conclusion that the King would never attempt Grace.
After arriving on Earth and examining the humans, every member of the Yith race reached the same conclusion.
There was no chance Grace would succeed.
There were far too many humans, and most of them were far too lacking in stature.
So...
Again, again!
Even after getting hit once, I was getting lost in useless thoughts again!
Once I'd been shot, the information that firearms weren't available to civilians in the Republic of Korea was meaningless.
Once Grace had begun, the information that the King would never attempt Grace was meaningless too!
Grace. Failure. Price. Descent, Descent!
Terrifying words rose in succession.
If I Descended into some insignificant creature on this wretched star...
I was afraid. So afraid that...
It was hard to endure the fear and pain.
N-no time!
I had to find a body as soon as possible, find a body and...
What would I even do after finding one?
The price of Descent would affect the entire star. What was the point of finding another body?
There was nowhere to run.
On this tiny star, I...
I had no choice but to shrivel up like an earthworm drying to death in the sunlight.
...
Just before my consciousness faded, I heard a strange voice.
“Be grateful.”
?
* * *
- Kim A-ri
“Be grateful.”
Around the time Song-i's chilly voice reached me, the mist that had been endlessly writhing melted away like ice exposed to sunlight.
It seemed the member of the Yith race had finally died after failing to find a target for Possession.
“What am I supposed to be grateful for?”
Song-i's answer was a little chilling.
“I ended it quickly enough. ‘Dad’ helped me out a little, so I decided to let it off that easily.”
Then what was she planning to do with “Mom”?
...
Stop thinking useless things.
I didn't care whether Song-i roasted the alien or ate it raw.
More importantly, I was curious how she had killed the member of the Yith race so easily.
“Ga-in was right.”
What Ga-in had said after fighting the Yith race in the World After the End Times.
“The whole race is made of ghosts? How do you kill something like that?”
“You just need to make sure there are no bodies nearby to possess.”
That statement contained one important fact.
The Yith race really had transcended the flesh.
But that meant they could change bodies, not that they could exist without them.
The Yith race would also die before long if there were no bodies to possess.
Afterward, Ga-in proved it by actually killing a Count-class individual in a place without any Transference targets.
“I understand the theory, but I don't know how you made it happen.”
Ga-in's method had been simple.
The battlefield itself was a wasteland, and Ga-in personally killed any higher life-form the Yith race could use for Possession.
Song-i and the rest of us couldn't use that method.
This was a major city where ten million humans lived, so there were countless targets the Yith race could transfer into.
If the Yith race were mold, Seoul was a petri dish full of sugar water.
But...
A moment ago, the enemy left Song-i's father's body on its own, writhed on the ground like a bug, then dried up and died.
What was that?
As I tilted my head, Song-i sat down with a tired expression.
“I'll rest for a moment. Just five minutes.”
“You used Diverse Perspectives on the member of the Yith race just now, didn't you?”
“Yeah.”
“You could use it even after it left the body, while it was in soul form? Was that the kind of Inheritance it was?”
Song-i fell silent for a moment, then muttered with a slightly puzzled expression.
“After realizing my First Wish...”
“After that?”
“I felt like I could do something.”
“What?”
“A thought suddenly came to me. Does the distinction between soul and body really matter? No matter what form it takes, there has to be some kind of exchange of information for it to perceive and take in the outside world, right?”
“Right.”
“The bracelet's power distorts that exchange of information itself, so it might not matter whether the target has a physical form or not...”
“...”
“I just had that feeling, so I tried it. It worked.”
“How exactly did you do it?”
Song-i waved a hand with a tired expression, but I firmly raised my hand toward the sky.
“This is an important moment, so Ga-in must be watching too.”
“...”
“You need to explain it for Ga-in to understand. Then maybe Ga-in can make some kind of plan outside. You're resting anyway.”
“I showed it an illusion of shooting Dad, so it would leave his body.”
“And then?”
“I made it unable to perceive me or anyone else. So it couldn't find a target for Possession.”
It was an interesting method.
Let's say the power of Transference was a sword wielded by the Yith race.
Song-i had no way to remove the sword or block it.
To remove the sword, she would need an Inheritance like Indomitable Reason that suppressed supernatural power. To block it, she would need the Flute of Rest.
But a sword wasn't swung at empty air. It was a power that found a target and stabbed it.
Diverse Perspectives couldn't neutralize the sword itself, but it could interfere with the process of “finding a target.”
“So you made the Yith race unable to find a target for Possession?”
“...Something like that.”
“It was only writhing weakly at the end. It looked like it had completely lost the will to resist.”
At that moment, Song-i looked a little pleased.
“I let it hear the sound the Yith race fears most.”
“What?”
“I saw it in a memory from the past. The sound those arrogant beings who call themselves ‘Great’ fear most!”
So she had driven the member of the Yith race into despair by making it hear the sound it feared most as an auditory hallucination?
“What is it?”
“I don't know exactly, but...”
Right then.
Gooooo...!
A deafening roar shook heaven and earth.
At the same time, I felt a strange wave lightly tap against my skin.
“Th-this is the sound!”
For a moment, I couldn't understand the sudden change in the situation.
“?”
“?”
“What do you mean, this is the sound?”
“I-if you hear this sound, the world ends...”
“...”
“Ahhh! Why am I hearing it for real?!”
Reeling in shock, I thought as my whole body swayed.
This was definitely some bizarre event happening on Eun-sol's side!
“What the hell is Eun-sol doing?!”
At that very moment, Song-i started running toward the apartment with a determined expression!
“W-where are you going?!”
“To see Mom! I should be a good daughter!”
“Has she really lost it?!”
“It's not like there's anything else we can do! At a time like this, we have to send her somewhere nice!”
Gooooo...!
Footnotes:
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