WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 91: Room 102, Curse Room - ‘House of Horror’ Re (4)

──────

* 6 Hours Earlier

- Kim A-ri

Before the third attempt began, something had crossed my mind during the meeting.

Why had the hotel divided us into the ‘exorcist team’ and the ‘village team’?

It couldn't have been just because of our appearances. If the hotel wanted to, it could change a participant's physical age however it pleased.

Park Seung-yeop and I. The ‘village team’ must have had a role to play too.

If we were going to investigate anything, we'd first need to leave the house...

“Oh my! A-ri, didn't Mom tell you that you can't go outside?”

The moment I tried to step outside, ‘Mom’ appeared from somewhere and stopped me.

Four children had already gone missing. Families with children were guarding them as tightly as this one did.

Was I supposed to sit in the house and waste time forever?

---Ding dong!

The bell rang, and children entered the house.

After the disappearances began, the village had developed something like a shared childcare culture.

Adults had to protect the children, but they couldn't stop working either.

Today, it was our house's turn to look after the nearby children.

“A-ri!”

Seung-yeop and the other children came over, calling out loudly.

...

After sitting there blankly and staring at the ceiling for a while, the kids were already playing happily together.

Seung-yeop was pretty good at this too. Wasn't his mental age already that of a middle schooler? He was playing with elementary school kids, yet he didn't seem out of place at all.

After waiting a while, the boy in question, ‘Lee Si-woo,’ appeared.

“Big brother Si-woo! Come here!”

“Big brother Si-woo! Fix this for me!”

It looked funny from the outside, but like his father, that little brat was incredibly popular among the village children. He was like the neighborhood's big brother.

Kids his age normally left the village to attend middle or high school, but because of his health issues, he was homeschooled. That naturally made him the oldest of the village children, which was probably important too.

The adults seemed to feel they could leave the children with him. One by one, the adults watching over us left.

“A-ri! Come play with us.”

He called me over like an older brother looking after his younger siblings. I couldn't keep ignoring him, so I went closer.

Then he suddenly patted my head.

I nearly punched him! That little brat was asking to get hit!

I barely restrained myself, but someone else didn't.

---Smack.

Seung-yeop suddenly walked over and knocked Si-woo's hand away.

Si-woo seemed startled for a moment. He gave an awkward smile, then went back to playing with the children.

What were these two even doing? Seung-yeop? This was getting embarrassing for me too.

About twenty minutes passed before Si-woo spoke to the children.

“Kids, it's nap time now. Everyone, go to sleep.”

Putting aside how childish he sounded, nap time? They weren't young enough to need that.

!

At last, something strange began to happen.

As Si-woo made a light gesture with his hand, the children all started getting sleepy at once.

Si-woo carried the children one by one onto the mattresses and sofas.

Seung-yeop sensed the abnormality and immediately came over to me.

“A-A-ri noona, what is this...”

“Watch how you address me.”

“A-ri...”

“Don't worry. Just stay still.”

“Okay.”

Seung-yeop, don't worry! What could happen besides dying?

Just as I was about to open the Chat Window, I realized something.

We were too far away.

The exorcist team had said they'd stop by the mansion, then drive straight to the village so they wouldn't provoke Lee Se-hyeon. It seemed they were still at the mansion.

The Chat Window didn't activate.

Si-woo came toward us, grabbed Seung-yeop, and did something to him.

Seung-yeop began following Si-woo with a dazed expression.

I just had to pretend I was under the same spell, right?

Before that, I should at least leave a few clues behind.

* * *

... This was too much.

We walked for nearly two hours, from the village where the children had been playing to the mountain behind the mansion.

It hadn't seemed to take long by car, but with children's steps, it took a full two hours.

It was a distance children could barely endure, but Seung-yeop was under something like hypnosis, and I was pretending to be as well, so I had to walk without complaining.

Was it really right to keep following them? I was getting anxious.

The Chat Window still didn't work. I didn't think Mook-seong was dead. I could guess why.

When we were in the village, Mook-seong was at the mansion. After we passed through the village and headed for the mountain behind the mansion, Mook-seong went to the village.

We had passed each other and remained far apart, so Communication was blocked...

The ‘culprit’ seemed to be possessing the little boy ahead of us, but should I really keep following?

For now, I would. Even if I died, we needed information.

At the very least, I could find out where the missing children were going.

Nothing seemed particularly unusual.

At least, that's how it felt until we reached the middle of the mountain. Hiking in a child's body was hard enough, but I couldn't tell whether this mountain was any different from any other.

Little by little, I could hear and feel them. The countless lives filling the mountain. Mountains were places of fear and silence only to humans.

Only after reaching the middle of the mountain did I find something strange.

A massive door.

Had there always been a door like this? I didn't think it had existed in the future.

Then again, we hadn't searched the entire mountain back then. I couldn't be sure.

What should I do? Should I turn around and go back down from here? Could I even escape by going down?

I shook my head. If I retreated now, I would have learned practically nothing.

Someone had to go inside and find out what was there.

Don't be afraid. If I died, I'd just meet the others outside. It wasn't a big deal.

The moment I steeled myself and stepped through the door,

the world flipped upside down.

* * *

- Kim A-ri

I tumbled to the ground as the world spun around me like laundry in a washing machine, like a hamster in a wheel.

When I barely managed to stand and look around, I saw a world I couldn't understand.

There wasn't a single source of light in the sky. Not only the sun, but even the moon was gone.

Yet a faint light came from the ground. Countless flowers bloomed there, radiating light and giving the entire world a dim glow.

Where was this place? The door we had passed through was already gone, as if that were only natural.

“Don't be surprised. This is the Nebula Dragon's world. She is dead, but remnants of her world still remain.”

“Nebula Dragon? What is that?”

“You don't need to know. She went to sleep before recorded history. This world began to collapse with her...”

As the boy spoke, he looked around with an expression full of emotion.

“You knew I was awake?”

“Did you think I wouldn't notice even that much?”

“... Why did you bring me here?”

Instead of answering, the boy sat among the flowers and carefully stroked one.

“Isn't it beautiful? This flower field.”

“They look like evening primroses. It's strange that they actually give off light.”

“They can't be compared to flowers on Earth. Every single one has a soul within it.”

A horrible thought came to me.

I immediately backed away from the flower field and asked, “You didn't make these flowers by killing people, did you?”

“They were people living worthless lives. Yet through death, they gained true value.”

This was starting to feel familiar. I hadn't met just one or two lunatics on Earth. I might as well ask what he wanted.

“So what, are you planning to resurrect your god by slaughtering people?”

“You think I'm trying to resurrect the Nebula Dragon. You're mistaken. How could someone like me revive a dead god?

“My duty is only to complete the birth of her firstborn son. Even now, he devours his mother's remains and grows.

“But it isn't enough. Consuming the remains of a dead god isn't enough for a complete god to be born.

“It needs more help. You probably think I've committed some grand massacre, but I haven't. I simply helped with ‘immigration.’”

“Immigration?”

“The people who became flowers will become residents of a world that will one day be born. They'll surely gain a shining fate far beyond life on filthy Earth!”

After that brief conversation, I understood.

This lunatic believed the demon was an ‘unborn god,’ and thought human sacrifice was a process of relocating people to another world.

“You intend to fight me.”

“Did you think I could be persuaded?”

“You aren't ordinary people, are you?”

An unexpected question. What did he mean by ‘ordinary people’?

“It's strange. Today is a truly strange day. I was shocked when I saw you and Seung-yeop. Your souls are of a far higher order than ordinary people's. You aren't even exorcists from the Holy See, so what are you?”

... I roughly understood the situation.

We thought the Adversary was possessing people, but from the Adversary's point of view, we were the ones suddenly possessing the people here!

Because it could perceive souls themselves, it was startled by the souls of participants, which were far more elevated than ordinary souls.

Exorcists from the Holy See were special beings to begin with, so when it met the exorcist team, it must have accepted that much.

But Seung-yeop and I had been ordinary humans until just yesterday from that bastard's perspective. That was why it was so shocked.

“I was sent down from heaven to capture and kill you.”

“Really? Were you sent by the being worshipped by the Holy See?”

Sorry. I was just saying whatever came to mind. It wasn't heaven, it was the hotel that sent me.

I didn't feel any need to talk further.

I drew on Old Blood.

---Whoosh!

I closed a distance of at least ten steps in an instant and lunged at him. An icy force blooming from my fingertips flew toward his upper body.

The boy stepped back and shouted something strange.

The next moment, black chains burst out from every direction, blocking the icy force before rushing at me.

I spun my entire body in a spiral, kicked off the chains, and leaped. In midair, I lightly snapped my fingers.

---Boom!

Blood burst from the boy's chest. Si-woo collapsed with a groan of pain.

The moment I was about to drive my knee into him with the weight of my falling body,

chains rose from the ground again and bound my legs.

Without hesitation, I cut off my legs.

Perhaps he hadn't expected that, because his expression filled with shock.

Then a hand as hard and sharp as steel pierced Si-woo's throat.

.

.

.

Did I win?

The opponent was a being beyond the physical body. This ‘Si-woo’ was surely just a puppet, so there was no way it would end here.

First, I needed to reattach my legs. I had torn them off as cleanly as possible, so I could put them back on. As I reattached them and used Old Blood to seal the wounds,

“Noona!”

Seung-yeop, who had apparently woken up long ago and been hiding, screamed.

---Boom!

A sharp chain lashed across my back.

I endured the pain and stood up. Across from me was a being with a mysterious appearance.

It looked like a young boy.

Its skin was so thin, almost like paper, that I could vaguely see the blood vessels and organs moving beneath it.

Instead of pupils, something spun like a vortex in its eyes, radiating light. Its facial features were large and distinct.

At a glance, it looked like a mysterious boy. Looking closer, though, it gave off the unsettling revulsion of something that wasn't human.

Was that the culprit's true form? A resident of the world created by the Nebula Dragon, the demon's mother?

A languid voice reached me.

“You fight incredibly well. Are you truly an angel sent down by Earth's god, beautiful Miss A-ri?”

“Don't say creepy things like that. I'm much older than you think.”

“That's funny. I'm much older than I look too.”

“You think the second round will go differently?”

“I admit it. Honestly, I can't defeat you with my power alone. Watching you tear off your own legs and reattach them gave me chills. Still, this is my homeland, so there is someone who protects me.”

With those words, an unfathomable power boiled across the entire world. The demon began pouring out an overwhelming amount of power!

I immediately drew blood containing my Suggestion into a syringe and handed it to Seung-yeop.

“Run.”

“What?”

“Use your blessing and just run. Keep running, and you'll find your way outside.”

Our experiences so far hadn't been for nothing. Seung-yeop didn't waste time asking questions. He immediately began running, syringe in hand.

A mocking laugh came from the distance.

“That boy has an extraordinary soul too, but isn't he ultimately an ordinary boy? Do you think he can leave this place?”

“Yeah.”

“Hearing that answer makes me curious. What is your basis for it?”

“Would the grave of a dead god really be perfect without a single flaw? There must be plenty of holes somewhere. Isn't that how you keep traveling between here and Earth in the first place?”

“You aren't wrong, but how would he know where to find one...”

“Wherever it is, he'll find it.”

The luckiest boy in the world would surely find an exit somewhere in this hell.

So...

You and I will settle this today.

Footnotes:

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