WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 72: Room 101, Curse Room - ‘Common Sense-Altering Media’ (6)
──────
* * *
Fourth Attempt
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 23
Current Location: Level 1, Room 101 (Curse Room - Common Sense-Altering Media)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
* * *
---Bang!
Searching the upper floors was far easier than searching the basement.
---Bang!
It was almost absurdly easy when we just shot everything dead as we went. Song-i gave me the gun, and I fired as we moved forward. The more I fired, the more it felt like my aim was improving too.
I crouched down for a moment and refilled it with blood.
I learned something from this. We didn’t need to draw blood ourselves to refill the pistol magazine. The whole broadcasting station was full of corpses anyway, so there was blood everywhere.
“Oh my! Myunghu-”
---Bang!
“...”
“Ele-”
---Bang!
“...”
Since this was a broadcasting station, there seemed to be people Elena knew here and there. Still, they weren’t real people anyway. If they recognized Elena and approached her, that only made things more dangerous.
We had no choice but to shoot our way through. Elena only flinched each time and never stopped us.
Fine, we could shoot everyone we saw, but where exactly were we supposed to search?
“Miss Elena. Do you have any idea where we should investigate in ABS?”
“I think the clues might be in the information Ga-in found, rather than what I know about the broadcasting station.”
“The information I found?”
“Didn’t you find those ‘Precautions’ in the basement security office? There might be something similar upstairs too.”
The Precautions. Would there be more upstairs?
... Come to think of it, who even made things like those Precautions?
We went up to the second floor and headed for the offices. Maybe most people had gone down and died when the huge incident broke out on the first floor. There was no one in the offices.
Sure enough, when we entered an office, we found a laminated sheet titled ‘Precautions’ posted on the wall.
1. You may only select one floor at a time in the elevator.
2. There are no empty floors between the fourth and fifth floors. Do not enter strange floors. Go back down.
3. Always knock before entering the sixth-floor restroom.
4. Never go to the rooftop.
“There really are Precautions upstairs too. Let’s check them one by one by breaking them, like I did during my search.”
As I turned to leave, Song-i grabbed my arm.
“Ga-in.”
“Yeah?”
“Do we really have to do it ourselves? You said a monster appeared when you turned around on the stairs. There might be similar dangers this time too.”
I understood what she meant. I had been alone when I searched the basement, but there were plenty of employees on the upper floors besides us.
Did we need to put ourselves through something that dangerous?
Elena agreed.
“I think Song-i’s right! There are lots of cameras here too. Let’s “ask” an employee to wear a camera and do it. We can watch through a tablet linked to the cameras.”
... The Elena who had flinched whenever I shot a broadcasting station employee earlier was gone.
All that remained was someone suggesting we strap cameras to employees and let them die in our place.
Still, it was a good idea.
After about thirty minutes of fiddling around, we linked the tablet in the office to several cameras.
Now we just needed an employee to go somewhere dangerous in our place.
“How do we make them do it? Think they’ll listen if we threaten them with a gun?”
“Ga-in. In a world where people laugh off someone dying, do you think threatening their lives will work?”
“Let me try.”
Led by Elena, we all went up to the fourth floor. She had said she had visited ABS several times before, and unlike Song-i or me, she moved through the place without hesitation.
Had the chaos on the first floor not reached the fourth? The moment we arrived, we found a great many people there. Were we supposed to shoot them all? We needed someone to do the work for us, though.
“Ga-in. Shoot everyone except the person I point out. You can shoot everyone you see right now.”
I shot around four people.
It was strange to notice this only now, but the employees didn’t run even when someone beside them was shot dead. They just watched with fascinated expressions.
Then Elena caught my arm.
“Don’t shoot the person coming out now. Song-i?”
“Yes?”
“Put that mental protection on me now.”
Her bracelet flashed, and Elena stepped forward to speak with the man who had come out from inside.
I understood within three seconds of them starting their conversation.
That man, judging from what he said, had feelings for Elena...
That was enough. Everyone falls for someone unattainable at least once.
I didn’t know what Elena said to him, but the employee followed us with a flushed expression he couldn’t hide.
Once we were in the corridor, Elena attached one of the cameras we had prepared to him.
“All right, Jin-uk! Could you go to the elevator?”
“Of course. But Elena, may I ask what you have prepared?”
“Oh my! Wouldn’t it be less fun if you knew in advance?”
What Elena had prepared was probably an express train to hell.
“Ha ha ha! I suppose I didn’t think that through.”
After the employee entered the elevator alone, we decided to test the first upper-floor precaution: ‘You may only select one floor at a time in the elevator.’
“Jin-uk! Could you press the third and fourth floors together?”
The moment Elena said that, the employee froze.
...
“Jin-uk?”
“Whatdoyoumeanhaven’tyouheardwhatTeacherhassaidyoumustnever-----”
He suddenly blurted out the words without even breathing. Teacher?
The man who had been rambling like mad stopped, caught his breath, and slowly continued.
“Come to think of it, Miss Elena, you don’t know much about the broadcasting station’s Precautions. You must never press two floors at once in the elevator. Teacher has strictly forbidden it.”
“Jin-uk. Who exactly is this ‘Teacher’?”
...
Instead of answering, the man began trembling all over.
He suddenly tore at his clothes, thrashed around wildly, and burst out of the elevator.
---Bang!
It seemed we had touched something we shouldn’t have.
Silence hung between us for a moment.
“Elena, is there anyone else you can lure out like that?”
“There are plenty. But it seems the employees have some kind of restriction that prevents them from ever breaking the Precautions.”
“Bring one more. I’ll trick them this time.”
Through a similar process, we brought out another man.
... Just how many broadcasting station employees had Elena charmed? She said she was an aspiring actress. If she had been in the real world, she probably would have become famous soon.
This time, we didn’t tell him to break a Precaution at all.
We pressed one elevator button in advance, then sent the employee inside. Tricked by the bracelet, he pressed another button without hesitation.
The elevator doors closed, and we quickly watched through the tablet.
... The inside of the elevator turned pitch-black.
Did he realize what was happening? The employee suddenly collapsed and began howling.
“I-I-I’m sorry! Teacher! Director! I’m sorry. I made a mistake. This stupid bastard made a mistake!”
He suddenly began slamming his whole body against the elevator walls like mad.
The camera broke in an instant. Just before the connection cut out, we saw numerous white figures appear by the elevator doors.
...
“Should we try again?”
“Let’s bring someone else. And change the camera position.”
After that, we broke the Precautions one by one to see what happened.
* * *
1. You may only select one floor at a time in the elevator.
“It looks like it stops somewhere full of nurse monsters, doesn’t it?”
“If you look at the footage, you can see other rooms in the distance. The monsters don’t kill the employee right away. It feels like they drag him somewhere.”
“What do you think they do after dragging him away?”
“...”
* * *
2. There are no empty floors between the fourth and fifth floors. Do not enter strange floors. Go back down.
“This place is really strange. Nothing happens when they just go down or up.”
“After repeating the trip down and up a couple of times, an empty floor suddenly appears in between.”
“What is this empty floor? Miss Elena, do you know?”
“I’m sure there aren’t any strange floors like this in the broadcasting station.”
“Could this be somewhere in the ‘hospital’ too?”
“It’s a strange space. There’s nothing there, and it’s incredibly large. The employee seems to be kneeling and crying, though I don’t know what they’re so sorry about.”
“What, what is that? In the right corner!”
“It’s an enormous eyeball.”
...
The gigantic eyeball was looking at us. Not the employee, but the camera.
...
Feeling sickened, I immediately disconnected from that camera.
“... Things are getting more horrifying.”
“Let’s move on, Ga-in.”
* * *
3. Always knock before entering the sixth-floor restroom.
“Ah, fuck! Sorry. It startled me for a second.”
“It tore off an arm and is eating it?”
“Miss Elena, you can sure watch something that horrible without a problem.”
“Watching through the tablet makes it feel like a movie.”
“If you knock before entering the restroom, a person just appears and leaves. If you enter without knocking, a man-eating monster appears. Remember that, Ga-in. Let’s check the last precaution.”
* * *
4. Never go to the rooftop.
“Song-i?”
“Wait a moment.”
...
“Is it not working?”
...
That was strange. Song-i had controlled people’s movements quite easily with the bracelet so far, but ever since we decided to send an employee to the rooftop, it wasn’t working properly.
No matter what Song-i did, the employees wearing cameras only lingered near the door to the rooftop on the top floor. They never opened it.
“This is strange.”
“What exactly does it feel like?”
“It feels like they absolutely can’t recognize the door leading to the rooftop. This feeling is familiar...”
“Familiar?”
“When I used the bracelet on Elena before, no matter what I did, I couldn’t make her move the way I wanted while Athanasia controlled her. It feels exactly like that.”
“What did you end up doing to me then?”
“...”
Song-i didn’t answer. Why would Elena even ask that now?
“I think I understand the situation. Back then, Athanasia controlled us with a stronger power than Song-i’s. Maybe something is using a stronger power to prevent us from going to the rooftop now?”
“What should we do?”
“If it’s hidden this thoroughly, that’s all the more reason to go. We’ll go ourselves.”
In the end, after killing the remaining employee, we decided to go to the rooftop ourselves.
...
All three of us stopped in front of the rooftop door.
We didn’t say it aloud, but we all had the same idea.
What happened when we broke the Precautions earlier?
The employee who pressed two elevator floors at once was dragged away by nurse monsters to a hellish hospital.
The creature that entered the floor between the fourth and fifth floors collapsed after encountering an unbelievably huge eyeball.
The employee who entered the sixth-floor restroom without knocking was eaten.
...
There would probably be another horrific place on the rooftop. And now we were going to enter one ourselves.
“Ga-in.”
“Yes.”
“Once we’re inside, if it feels like we’re about to die...”
“... I’ll make it easy for you. If possible, it would be better if all three of us died by gunshot.”
“Please do the same for me.”
“Right. If we keep saying things like this, we’ll never be able to go in. Let’s go.”
After encouraging one another by agreeing to shoot each other if possible, we stepped onto the rooftop.
Footnotes:
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