WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 73: Room 101, Curse Room - ‘Common Sense-Altering Media’ (7)
──────
* 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]
Ding dong!
A cheerful bell rang out.
The moment we opened the rooftop door and stepped through, we arrived at the entrance to a completely different place.
It was dirty, as though it hadn’t been properly cleaned in a long time, and the air was stale.
It wasn’t hard to recognize where we were.
A place everyone had visited dozens, if not hundreds, of times in their lives.
A hospital.
There was just one problem: the nurses’ appearance.
... The twisted nurses we had already seen several times stood at the front desk, as though trying to imitate ordinary nurses.
“Kweeeeh-raaaak.”
What was that supposed to mean? If I had to guess, it was probably a greeting like, “Hello.”
They clearly weren’t hostile. Going by their actions, they were even bowing to us.
The sight of the twisted nurses made my hand move instinctively toward the gun at my waist.
Song-i grabbed my arm.
“Ga-in, I don’t think we need to provoke them for no reason.”
She was right. Be patient. I thought I roughly understood the situation.
We had entered through the hospital’s entrance. That was probably why we were being treated as guests.
Don’t provoke them. Observe first.
Under the twisted nurses’ watchful gazes, we slowly began walking through the hospital.
Could a hospital like this really exist?
As we went farther inside, patient rooms began to appear.
The scenes inside were familiar. We had already seen them once, when we opened the car window in the broadcasting station basement and glimpsed those strange places.
Those had been patient rooms. Every room was packed with steel beds, and deranged patients were bound to them.
The patients groaned without pause. Every now and then, a nurse entered one of the rooms.
... I didn’t want to imagine what happened next.
As we wandered through the hospital, one nurse approached us.
We were badly startled, but the nurse came close enough, stopped, and made another strange noise.
Let’s think calmly.
They had treated us as guests until now. They wouldn’t suddenly attack us.
All we had to do was think of this as an ordinary hospital. What would a nurse say to visitors wandering around the halls?
Probably something like, “Are you looking for someone?”
Unsure, I called out anyway.
“Kim Sang-min! We’re looking for a student named Kim Sang-min.”
Please understand me.
The twisted nurse jerked its head around, then seemed to understand and walked away.
Naturally, Song-i, who had the bracelet, and I, who had the Filter, took the lead while Elena brought up the rear. We followed the nurse in a triangular formation.
After that, things were easier. Once we had a nurse guiding us, the other nurses didn’t approach. Keeping a reasonable distance from our guide, we followed for around fifteen minutes.
As I watched the hospital around us, I realized that the strange places that appeared whenever we broke the broadcasting station’s Precautions had been parts of this hospital.
Only after walking through the fourth-floor corridor for quite some time did the nurse stop.
A huge patient room in the direction it pointed.
... Was that it?
The target we had suffered through all this to find since yesterday.
Just before we entered, I desperately asked the Advice.
‘What should I do?’
[Hand the gun to Song-i.]
... I understood what that meant.
Without a word, I handed Song-i the gun.
We all steeled ourselves.
“Everyone ready? Song-i, the gun is fully loaded.”
“I checked. I can use the bracelet anytime.”
“If he’s human... I hope he’s human, so I can use my blessing too.”
We entered Kim Sang-min’s patient room.
* * *
What was this place?
I had seen countless cruel and horrific scenes, but...
This place was unlike anything I had seen before.
It was a completely different world. Beyond whether it was cruel or not, it was fundamentally unlike Earth.
The landscape resembled a cave on an alien planet.
Massive, translucent, crystal-like stones of unknown origin rose up all around us.
There was no visible light source, yet the whole space was bright. It was as though microorganisms that emitted light were mixed into the air itself.
And then...
The curse’s power became overwhelmingly stronger.
No entity had even appeared, yet a splitting headache tore through my head.
Strange common sense I couldn’t possibly resist seeped into my mind.
I forced myself to turn my head. The only one who seemed remotely fine was Song-i, who had used the bracelet the moment we entered.
Elena had already collapsed.
...
Song-i looked pretty tasty. Come to think of it, doesn’t her name sound tasty too?
Song-i mushrooms. I really liked song-i mushrooms.
They were expensive and hard to get. If I did get some, how should I eat them?
The better the ingredient, the more amateurish it was to carelessly add seasonings and spices.
If I was lucky enough to get high-quality song-i mushrooms, the best way was to brush off the dirt, lightly roast them in the oven, and dip them in salt.
I heard some celebrity got criticized for putting those expensive song-i mushrooms in ramen, but honestly, I was very jealous.
Throwing outrageously expensive ingredients into ramen without holding back, then taking a bite of the best ramen ever. Wasn’t that the dream?
Apparently, in Japan, they usually put them in a teapot and eat them as a teapot-steamed dish. They said it was an incredible delicacy. Ever since I saw it on TV, it had been one dish I really wanted to try.
Song-i would probably be similar, right? Even her name sounded delicious!
But come to think of it, Song-i was too big to fit in a teapot. Should I buy a bigger teapot? Or make Song-i a little smaller...
Bang!
... My consciousness was fading.
Even the Filter couldn’t handle this place.
I had expected it, but the Advice’s meaning in telling me to give Song-i the gun was simple.
‘No matter what you do, you have no answer here.’
* * *
- Yoo Song-i
Bang! Bang!
...
I had no choice.
I didn’t mind shooting people cursed by the hotel, but I really didn’t want to shoot my companions.
Why did I keep ending up with this role alone?
But what else could I do?
Ga-in suddenly came over and patted my head.
At first, I was startled. What was that for? But then...
‘If I just remove her head, wouldn’t she fit in a teapot?’
That was as far as I let him get before I shot him.
Elena suddenly grabbed onto my leg too.
‘If I slowly cook this part with beef...’
That was as far as I let her get before I shot her.
... I had no idea why both of them were thinking about eating me.
The curse’s power really was incredible.
Not only Elena, but even Ga-in, who had the Filter, absolutely couldn’t endure it in there.
Honestly, I didn’t really know. I didn’t feel any particular change.
Maybe the bracelet’s power was stronger than almost every mental attack in the hotel.
Still, if everyone except me collapsed this easily, what were we supposed to do the next time we came here?
... I didn’t know. Once we got out and talked, I trusted the others would come up with smart ideas.
For now, I had to go as far as I could on my own.
...
It didn’t take long. Three minutes? When I reached the end of the cave, I saw something like a huge lump of flesh.
What was it? The source of everything? It just looked like a giant throbbing heart.
Next time, could I protect Jin-cheol’s mind while he punched this thing until it burst?
I had the gun anyway. Should I try shooting it once?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
When I fired three shots in a row, it finally reacted.
‘It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Y-you’re hu-hurting m-me t-too.’
A voice stabbed into my mind.
I heard something rushing toward me. When I turned around, nurses were running at me.
Aha, so it really was this thing. It seemed we just had to destroy it somehow.
I’d done enough, right?
I was scared to do any more.
Still, I should say one thing before I left.
“It’s nowhere near as bad as the trouble you caused the world.”
Then, leaving only one bullet for myself, I fired every remaining bullet into the lump of flesh.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
‘Aaaah! Teacher! Where are you? Someone came to torment me again! Teacher!’
Teacher? I knew one Teacher too. But who was your Teacher, Sang-min?
The nurses began pouring in.
... This was enough.
Bang!
... My consciousness was fading.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 23
Current Location: Level 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 2]
- Han Ga-in
Thud!
I woke in the corridor, feeling as though I had hit the ground harder than usual.
As I clutched my head and looked around, everyone rose with exhausted expressions.
It was roughly evening. We had gone in that morning, so we had used up almost the entire day.
The moment everyone came to their senses...
Several pairs of eyes naturally turned toward one person.
The biggest man among us lowered his head, looking nearly dead.
* * *
When several people worked together, things like this happened sometimes.
If someone made a minor mistake, everyone scolded them, teased them, and lectured them.
But when someone made an enormous mistake, it could become harder to say anything at all.
Often, everyone was too busy cleaning up the mess to scold anyone. Other times, unless the person was shameless, they were already shrinking under crushing guilt, making it hard to reproach them.
This became even more pronounced when you had to keep working together.
They were suffering already. Would adding a few more words really improve anything?
It was more productive for everyone to comfort them and think about what came next.
That was exactly where we were.
* * *
“Hey! Hey! Anyone watching would think we all died. Why aren’t you eating?”
“...”
“You just did a little filial duty. Why are you hiding like that? I was on the rest team, the give-up team, from the start, so I had lots of fun playing with Mom. I’m totally relaxed.”
A-ri, I thought you should feel at least a little sorry.
“Hey! My fake father died, so I held a funeral, fought my family in a battle of wills, and got buried alive as a funerary sacrifice. I’m not joking, I really was buried alive. Why are you shrinking back so much?”
You were buried alive as a funerary sacrifice? What kind of family did you have?
“Jin-cheol, you still have the Red Pill, right? Then it’s fine. I went all the way to the end, and I think it’ll be resolved if you take the pill and destroy that lump of flesh.
“But what were you thinking about at the end?”
The attention suddenly shifted to me. Ever since Song-i came out of Room 101, she had asked me three times what that teapot business was about.
...
Pretending to have amnesia was easier than explaining Japanese-style teapot-steamed song-i mushrooms.
“I really don’t know. I lost my memory the moment I opened the patient room door.”
“Hmm...”
She clearly didn’t believe me. I should keep my distance from Song-i today.
That was how our chaotic dinner ended.
* * *
“Now it’s time for the final strategy meeting. Of course, I can’t guarantee it’ll really be the final one, but I think this is it. We know who the target is, where he is, and roughly what power he has. If we drag this out any longer, we’ll be incompetent.”
“Eun-sol. Our next attempt will be the fifth...”
“Right. That’s the biggest problem. If we had saved even one attempt and this had been our fourth, I think we would’ve cleared it with no problem, one hundred percent. But the next one is our fifth. A-ri, do you remember anything at all about how it changes?”
“I’m sorry. During my first time in the hotel, I was really young mentally. I barely remember anything.”
A-ri had been born in the hotel. That meant she had been a real child during the first run, so she probably didn’t have many clear memories.
“So, the first item on today’s agenda is this.
1. Should we keep challenging Room 101?
Depending on how you look at it, maybe the answer is to skip Room 101, which will probably get harder, progress through Room 102 or 104, then return to Room 101 after we become stronger.
Of course, there’s another way to look at it. Would moving to another room make things easier?
Our basic capabilities haven’t improved at all. Would blindly challenging another room in this state really mean we’d clear it easily? What if we struggle in the other rooms too and bring all of them to their fifth attempts?
Wouldn’t it be better to try Room 101 one more time, since we’ve learned so much about it?
There’s no way to know. We don’t even know how it changes, so it’s hard to make a rational decision.
The rest of you, share your thoughts too.”
Footnotes:
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