Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 91

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 90: Room 102, Curse Room - ‘House of Horror’ Re (3)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 28

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

As I walked to the table, I considered three questions.

1. Why hadn't Lie Detection worked on Lee Se-hyeon?

2. Why had Lee Se-hyeon suddenly killed himself?

3. Why had an escape notification appeared just because Lee Se-hyeon killed himself?

Sage’s Advice was visible in my Status Window. I had to use it.

It couldn't give a proper answer when I knew nothing, but now I had gathered information and simply couldn't connect the pieces.

I needed its advice.

I calmly brought the questions to mind. Then the advice appeared.

[Free yourself from the prejudice that ‘Lee Se-hyeon’ is the Adversary.]

That single sentence resolved every question.

The moment I reached the table, I told them I'd used Sage’s Advice and began explaining.

* * *

“We'd misunderstood one thing from the start. We confirmed during the first attempt that the ‘Adversary’ had the ability to possess people, right?

Even knowing that, we fell into the mistaken belief that the Adversary was Lee Se-hyeon.”

Eun-sol cried out as she finally realized something.

“Lee Se-hyeon was possessed too?”

“That’s right. The real culprit, the one who possesses people through the Grimoire’s power, is someone else.

Whenever that person needs to, they can take Lee Se-hyeon’s body. Once you look at it that way, every question is answered.

First, how they resisted Lie Detection.

It’s simple. The ‘real Lee Se-hyeon’ who spoke with us genuinely knew nothing. He said he didn't know because he truly didn't know, so Lie Detection didn't catch him.

Second, why Lee Se-hyeon killed himself in the basement.

The answer lay in what he said. The real culprit, who had possessed Lee Se-hyeon in the basement, said this, didn't they?

‘Even if I kill you, the Holy See will only send more troops.’

The culprit gave up the moment we discovered them. Killing us would only bring more troops to subdue them, so they decided to hide and plan for the future instead.

To the culprit, Lee Se-hyeon was no more than a puppet. Their true identity hadn't been exposed. They used Lee Se-hyeon as a disposable pawn, then went into hiding.

Third, why the escape notification appeared.

As we already confirmed, an escape is recognized when you ‘get out of the current danger.’

Since the culprit discarded Lee Se-hyeon and went into hiding, there will probably be peace for quite some time. The culprit will likely hide for ten years, perhaps even longer.

Or they may scheme somewhere else entirely. Either way, we've escaped the ‘current danger,’ which is why the escape notification appeared.

Do you all understand?”

Everyone began thinking it over. Questions soon followed.

Unexpectedly, Seung-yeop asked the first one.

“Then who do you think the real culprit is? Could it be someone from the village?”

“If the culprit can move freely between human bodies, we can't determine their identity based on their ‘current body.’ Whether it’s Lee Se-hyeon or someone from the village, they're all just puppets to the culprit.”

Eun-sol added quietly.

“I understand what you mean, but wouldn't there still be an ‘original body’? If the Adversary is human, he couldn't have had the ability to possess people from the moment he was born.”

“That’s true as well, but I don't think we can judge that with the information we've uncovered so far.”

Jin-cheol raised a question from a different angle.

“About the suicide, isn't it possible they did it to increase our number of attempts? That was my biggest concern the moment we escaped. The second attempt was effectively forced to end.”

I'd had the same thought. A-ri immediately objected.

“I don't think that’s possible. The penalty of the fifth attempt is that the Adversary vaguely realizes the hotel’s true nature. Looking at it the other way around, they absolutely can't notice it before then.”

Jin-cheol asked, “Even if the Adversary can't realize it on their own, couldn't the Prisoner tell them?”

By then, I had an answer too.

“If the Prisoner could tell the Adversary about the hotel’s true nature, wouldn't the Adversaries kill themselves every time a room began and force us to escape? It would always benefit them to kill themselves and push us to the fifth attempt.”

“Hmm. I see. You're right. That kind of trick must be blocked.”

As we talked, another question came to mind.

“The Adversary seems able to move freely between human bodies. He seems to be an entity that doesn't die even when his body dies, so how are we supposed to kill him?

Ultimately, we'll need to kill him to resolve the room and obtain the Inheritance.”

I posed the question to everyone, but my gaze was really fixed on A-ri and Grandfather Mook-seong.

Wouldn't experts know best about something supernatural like this?

Just as I expected, Grandfather Mook-seong began to answer.

“I've dealt with plenty of ghostlike beings that transcend the flesh. There are all kinds, but in the end, it comes down to how you stop the possession.”

“How do you usually stop it?”

“It differs every time. Sometimes you destroy the source of their magical power, and sometimes you temporarily block the possession by other means before killing them. There are cases where you have to do all of it.”

Destroy the source of their magical power, or kill them while blocking possession.

“When you say the source of their power, you mean the demon in the mansion basement, right? Can we deal with the demon itself? And is there a way to stop possession?”

“I can't be certain at this point. Still, I don't think we'll be the ones dealing with the demon. We didn't even meet the Prisoner in Room 101, and wasn't the Devourer our ally in Room 103?

Looking at the pattern so far, there’s no need to fight the Prisoner. There’s probably a link connecting the demon and the Adversary. It could be the Grimoire, or there could be a contract or an Altar. I think destroying something like that is the answer.

I have no idea how to stop the possession. We don't know anything about the limits or range of that bastard’s possession ability, do we? To put it in extreme terms, if he can possess every human in the world whenever he wants, stopping him would be impossible.”

As we spoke, my thoughts gradually fell into place.

For the first time in a while, A-ri concluded the meeting.

“During the next attempt, we'll focus on two major goals.

First, uncover the Adversary’s true identity.

Second, find a way to kill him and a way to suppress his possession ability.”

I added one warning.

“Until we find a way to block possession, let's not recklessly provoke Lee Se-hyeon. Provoking him led to the forced escape during the second attempt. The Adversary is more cautious than we thought.”

The next day, we entered Room 102 again.

* Third Attempt

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 29

Current Location: Level 1, Room 102 (Curse Room - House of Horror)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

After entering Room 102 again, we revised our plan slightly. Holding out in the mansion and provoking Lee Se-hyeon could easily provoke the ‘culprit behind it all’ and lead to a forced escape.

So, as soon as we arrived at the village, we went to the mansion and briefly greeted Lee Se-hyeon. Then everyone left the mansion except Eun-sol, a believer playing the role of Lee Se-hyeon’s younger sister, and Jin-cheol, a priest kept there in case of emergency.

The core event of this scenario, the ‘children’s disappearance case,’ was taking place in the village after all.

We needed to investigate the village more closely. First, everyone headed to the church.

...

“You're saying you haven't gathered any information at all about the disappearances?”

“I apologize, Cardinal. I thought reporting it to the police would resolve it quickly.”

“Did you think the Holy See stationed you here just so you could dial 112 whenever something happened?”

---Smack!

“I-I’m sorry.”

... Why was that cardinal taking it out on an innocent priest?

Twenty minutes into the conversation, we all realized something.

That priest, who seemed to be a much younger version of the suspicious butler we'd seen during the first attempt, was truly an ordinary person.

The information he knew about the disappearances was no different from what any villager knew, and his eyes widened when we brought up the Grimoire and demons.

If he was really an ‘ordinary priest,’ being scolded by the cardinal like this was unfair in itself.

What could an ordinary clergyman do when people went missing? Report it to the police.

But Cardinal Mook-seong seemed to have more to say.

“Didn't you hear when you were appointed here? This church wasn't built here without reason! There must be old records or something!”

‘Old records.’

Once he put it that way, the priest seemed to recall something.

The priest went inside the church. Had the cardinal remembered something?

“Cardinal Mook-seong, did something come to mind?”

“No. If I had information like that, I would've told you long ago.”

“What? Didn't you say, ‘This church wasn't built without reason, there must be old records’?”

“I was just making an educated guess. Think about it. Isn't it strange that a place with such a damn low population density has a decent-sized church?

Now that I think about it, isn't this world’s Holy See basically an organization like our Management Bureau? Thinking of it as the Management Bureau gave me a sense of it.”

“What do you mean, it gave you a sense of it?”

“I'll tell you after we see more of the situation.”

About ten minutes later, the priest came out of the church carrying a pile of files.

The cardinal took one look at them and said, “Have you ever read these?”

The priest didn't answer, but his expression said it all. Today might have been the first time he had even touched them.

It looked like we were in for a long examination of complicated documents.

The cardinal ordered Yoo Song-i and Sister Elena to look around the village, then began examining the documents with me.

* * *

After about two hours, I had gone through a great deal of material with the cardinal.

---Thump!

“Just as I expected.”

“What is?”

“This church is, simply put, like a Management Bureau branch that hasn't been properly maintained for a long time.”

“Please explain further. I know as little about the Management Bureau as I do about this world’s Holy See.”

“It’s simple. When this church was built, there were extremely dangerous supernatural phenomena in this area.

So they established a branch and probably stationed capable people here.

Then, those phenomena suddenly disappeared and things stayed quiet for decades.”

“Like what happened during our second attempt?”

“Something similar, probably. Back then, the ‘real culprit’ likely figured he had lifespan to spare thanks to his possession ability and decided to wait for decades.

Just like now, waiting for the system humans had prepared to become useless over decades of time.”

“Still, these documents describe quite a few troubling signs. How did they end up assigning such a completely ordinary priest here?”

The cardinal suddenly fell silent.

After a moment, he began explaining with the air of a civil servant making excuses to an ordinary citizen.

“To an ordinary person, demons and monsters sound like enormous incidents, but to an organization that manages the entire Earth, creatures like that are everywhere, if I exaggerate a little.

Try dealing with a monster toad that slaughtered two thousand people yesterday, or a cult that’s running wild because it wants to move an entire city into the Otherworld.

It becomes hard to devote resources to minor things that have hidden for decades and only make one or two people disappear at a time.

That’s how this branch stopped being properly managed, and an ordinary human ended up in charge.”

... A toad that slaughtered two thousand people yesterday? A cult that wanted to move an entire city into the Otherworld?

Those examples were awfully specific.

What kind of world had I been living in?

Leaving the digression aside, the documents they had gathered were simple in content.

They were records collected about Room 102’s Prisoner, the ‘Underworld Demon.’

Once we brought together the scattered materials, a single myth emerged.

Somewhere in the universe, there had supposedly been a transcendent being called the Nebula Dragon.

That transcendent being died while carrying a child. It didn't say why it died.

Had they been an ordinary mother and fetus, both would have died at that point.

But because the mother was a divine being, the fetus was also already divine.

Though his mother died, he did not.

Cursing the fate that prevented him from ever being born, he spread curses filled with malice throughout the world.

“Could this Unborn One be the ‘Underworld Demon’ A-ri saw?”

“Probably.”

“They said the place where the demon was sealed looked like the insides of an even larger creature... He wasn’t sealed. He had never been born. Rather than the insides of a creature, it was his mother’s womb.”

“You weren't far off, were you?”

“I suppose not. Is there any way we can use this information?”

“I don't know. The next part interests me more.”

The story of the demon’s origin wasn't as long as I expected.

The people who collected these documents decades ago probably saw it as a myth from too distant a past.

Far more documents discussed the disappearances from sixty years ago.

“This isn't the first time people have gone missing.”

“No. It seems the ‘real culprit’ isn't from this era.”

“Could he be someone from sixty years ago?”

“Considering the nature of his ability, it wouldn't be strange if he were from a hundred and sixty years ago. By that point, he isn't even human anymore.”

“This is getting more and more troublesome. We still don't know his true identity or the limits of his possession ability.”

“Still, we haven't come away empty-handed.”

“Did you find something?”

The cardinal abruptly stood and looked toward the mansion through the window.

“Deacon, do you remember the mountain behind the mansion?”

“... The place where I wrestled with you, Cardinal.”

“It looks like there’s something in that mountain.”

* * *

---Thump!

We had found everything worth learning from the church.

Just before leaving, I habitually opened my Status Window and checked Seung-yeop and A-ri’s status.

[Companion Location Information(*)