WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 76: Room 101, Curse Room - ‘Common Sense-Altering Media’ - Final Trial (10) (Final)
──────
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 24
Current Location: Level 1, Room 101 (Curse Room - Common Sense-Altering Media)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
* * *
Fifth Attempt
* * *
We entered the hospital under extreme tension.
Contrary to expectations, the twisted nurses did not attack us right away.
Instead, they looked as though they were about to greet us, just like when we first entered yesterday.
Still, perhaps because Jin-cheol and Grandfather Mook-seong looked so threatening, the twisted nurses also began moving their hands inward -
"Both of you, put your weapons away!"
I snapped back to my senses. If we handled this right, we might be able to avoid a fight.
Only then did Jin-cheol and Grandfather Mook-seong seem to grasp the situation. They hid the Tonfa and gun behind their backs.
The tension eased.
...
What was this? Hadn't a notification appeared when we entered Room 101?
[The adversaries have detected the participant’s intrusion.]
Wasn't that why Kim Sang-min controlled the people infected by the curse and made them attack us?
I did not know why, but if this hospital was going to treat us like customers, that was a good thing.
Just in case, I asked for advice.
'What if I ask the hospital to treat Elena?'
[They will treat Elena for now.]
... An ambiguous answer. For now.
Could that change over time?
Ever since I started actively using Sage’s Advice, I had realized something.
This power was not an all-purpose guidebook that gave me every piece of knowledge I wanted.
It was more like a hint that connected the information I had already gathered, or took it just a little further.
There was no other choice. Carrying Elena, I could feel it more clearly than anyone.
At this rate, Elena would die.
"Patient! We have a patient! She's bleeding badly. She needs emergency treatment, now!"
Jin-cheol and Grandfather Mook-seong seemed startled when I suddenly rushed forward and held Elena out.
Three or four nurses approached, took Elena, and carried her away.
... Even through the Filter, the curse clinging to the nurses made my head spin in that brief moment.
Elena would be all right, wouldn't she? Justice was still active, so I believed she could endure the curse.
Jin-cheol spoke worriedly.
"I heard they'd treat us like guests if we came through the entrance, but would they really treat her? What if they're killing Elena?"
"If they wanted to kill us, wouldn't they have attacked the moment we entered the hospital? Besides, if they wanted Elena dead, they could've stabbed her the moment they took her. Why would several of them carry her to a hospital bed?"
"Stop talking and look over there."
I looked to the side. A nurse was pushing a tray full of blood bags, bandages, and other supplies toward Elena's room.
"It looks like they're really going to treat her."
"Well, you're the ones who figured out that coming in through the entrance makes it a normal hospital, right? An emergency patient came into a normal hospital, so of course they'd treat her. Let's go to that bastard Kim Sang-min's room."
Just as we turned to head upstairs, agonizing pain crashed over me.
"Urgh! Aaaagh!"
I dropped to the floor and rolled a few times.
I had half lost consciousness. When I came to, a clump of blood, teeth, and flesh spilled from my mouth. The disgusting sight made me want to throw up.
Once it became clear that I was not all right either, the nurses around me approached.
... If the nurses came closer, would my condition get even worse?
"It seems Elena isn't the only one who needs treatment. The house was where the curse had dug in the deepest, right?
"I have a gun, Song-i has her bracelet, and the wild boar is strong, so we finished the fight quickly. But while you were bundled up in clothes and fighting with a knife, it looks like the curse dug into you the worst."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're obviously not fine. Aren't your insides damaged too?"
"..."
Jin-cheol added, "Ga-in, I think you should rest too. In a way, you're our final insurance. Instead of getting yourself killed by rushing in half-prepared, it'd be better for you to use Descent if all of us fail."
"You can check whether we're alive with Companion Location Information, right? Check as soon as you wake up. If we're all dead, use Descent, get up there, and smash every last bit of that flesh mass."
"... I'll do that."
The nurses approached.
The curse was what had ruined my body. Did it make any sense for the nurses who spread that curse to treat me?
... My consciousness was fading.
I could not tell whether it was because of the curse or because my body had grown too weak.
That was my last memory in this room.
* * *
- Cha Jin-cheol
My heart felt heavy. There were only three of us now.
We were almost there.
... No matter how I looked at it, Song-i did not seem able to go on much longer either.
Her arm was something we had all seen while pretending not to notice.
Now, it looked less like a human arm and more like an alien life-form.
When we tried to go upstairs, a nurse monster approached and made strange noises. Song-i naturally stepped forward and said something about Kim Sang-min, and the nurse moved aside.
The Elder beside me spoke.
"This hospital."
"Yes?"
"It seems Kim Sang-min's control doesn't work here. This hospital must see that bastard as an ordinary patient too. When Song-i shot the flesh mass before and the nurses attacked, was it not because he controlled them, but because she was causing trouble in the hospital?"
"Then who's controlling this hospital?"
"The hospital director. That bastard. Something still feels off, even at the end."
After walking for about ten minutes, we reached the area near the hospital room where the culprit was.
"Ghk!"
I turned around in shock. One of Song-i's arms was choking her!
I tore off the lumps of flesh that could barely be called an arm anymore. When I pulled off one large mass, it split into three pieces and began stabbing Song-i's body.
After I finally tore them all away, Song-i started screaming, unable to bear the pain.
... It hurt me too.
The Elder approached with a gun.
"Song-i, you can't keep going either. Shall I put you out of your misery?"
Her other arm, the one with the bracelet around it, moved weakly and touched me.
A white flash instantly filled the entire space!
A faint aura began radiating from my whole body.
When I looked at Song-i in surprise, her eyes were already closed.
"Looks like she scraped together every bit of strength she had and poured it into you. She's put an incredibly powerful mental shield around you, hasn't she?"
"I-I think so."
"Then run already! While it lasts, you need to tear that stupid flesh mass to pieces! I'll keep the nurses from getting in here."
Bang!
I flung the door open and entered the hospital room.
It was the bizarre sight I had already heard about. The space had become less like this world and more like an alien planet.
Then a giant over three meters tall appeared.
Had this been prepared in advance because our arrival was anticipated?
Before I could think, the monster's arm came down at me.
...
First, I had to create some distance. Since it had a human-like shape, I could predict the paths its attacks would take.
Three steps back.
The huge arm brushed past me.
The moment I darted inside its reach, it raised a knee as large as my torso to stop my approach.
I used that knee as a foothold.
Bang!
I put everything I had into an uppercut with the Tonfa, aiming for its head.
Its head snapped back.
The blow was strong enough to burst a human head, but the monster's head only bent backward.
It tried to grab me with both hands.
I reached out with both hands and grabbed its hands too.
A test of strength.
Looking at our builds, it should have been impossible, but I could tell from our brief exchange.
I could do it!
"Uraaaah!"
With a shout, I pushed away the arms trying to crush me.
Little by little, my strength overcame its strength and forced its arms back.
The monster's expression twisted, and the moment its stance wavered, I swung out my right leg and kicked its leg hard.
Unable to hold on, the monster tumbled across the floor.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Kyaaaagh!"
It would have been stranger if the hospital had not reacted to this much chaos.
Monstrous roars, screams, and gunfire sounded behind me.
Then a faint golden light seeped into the hospital room.
Elena must have woken up!
Outside the room, Elena and the Elder seemed to be fighting the nurses fiercely.
Finish this quickly.
Without even stopping to breathe, I ran at the giant and pounded it like a madman.
Had ten seconds passed? The giant's body went limp.
I had gotten only one proper use out of it, but the Tonfa could not hold up and broke.
Well, it was strange enough that a sturdy wooden stick had lasted this long in a fight against monsters like these.
"Sang-min! You bastard! There's nothing between you and me now! Get ready to die!"
I could see the flesh mass.
A resonating thump, thump, thump reached my ears.
As I approached, a whiny voice seemed to linger in my ears.
He seemed to have lived a pitiful life in his own way. Someone had bullied him, he resented someone else, and so on.
"Ah, this kid won't stop whining. Shut up. No matter what was done to you, if you turned the world into this, you deserve to get beaten to death by me."
... But how was I supposed to kill him?
I could just beat him to a pulp.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With every blow, I thought about how I would have become a world champion in combat sports if I had even part of this strength outside.
Ah, maybe not. If I had this kind of strength, the Management Bureau might have dragged me away as a monster first.
My fists could break concrete. There was no way a flesh mass could endure them.
By the time the flesh mass had scattered and only pieces of flesh remained here and there, I found a glowing stone.
...
The moment I tried to pick it up, my fingers reaching toward it split apart and underwent a violent mutation.
This was the source. The root of everything that had happened.
Ignoring my torn fingers, I pulled the stone from among the pieces of flesh.
Once the stone came out, the flesh masses scattered as though collapsing.
Everything began to collapse.
The hospital room, the hospital, and the broadcasting station disappeared one after another, as though they were melting away.
When I turned my head, the Elder and Elena were standing some distance away with stunned expressions.
A notification window appeared.
/You have succeeded!
A family steeped in madness. A world steeped in madness! Everything began with the small act of school bullying that everyone had heard of before. Still, suffering cruel treatment can hardly excuse revenge that turns the entire world into this.
Companions falling away one by one, enemies so well hidden that it was difficult even to guess where they were! You endured every trial and finally reached the final ending.
By successfully eliminating a victim who became a perpetrator, you have resolved the Source of the Curse. Congratulations.
.
.
.
.
A companion has achieved Final Resolution! Congratulations! Since a Final Resolution achiever has appeared, all members will return safely.
You have acquired the Inheritance, ‘Otherworldly Star Fragment’./
It was over now, right? It had been so hard. There were moments when I was too ashamed to face everyone, but this time, I was the one putting an end to it.
Please, let me rest now. No matter how strong I was, this kind of thing was too hard.
...
Why wasn't it ending? What was left?
/Participants! Congratulations once again on resolving Room 101!
Those who have survived thus far and contributed to the final battle are qualified to obtain the Inheritance.
The qualified participants are as follows.
1. Elena Ivanov (Justice)
2. Cha Jin-cheol (Courage)
3. Kim Mook-seong (Communication)
However, only one person can obtain the Inheritance!
The ‘Time to Choose’ will begin shortly!/
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
