WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Tower at Hell Difficulty ◈
Episode 112
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The third night on the 13th floor.
After confirming that the Night Watcher had moved away from the door, I let out a sigh.
They checked each house about once a night.
Maybe our timing had been good, but they seemed to inspect this place only just before sunrise.
Once the sun came up, Sang Hajun reported in.
"Team Leader. I've finished counting."
"How was it?"
"Same as yesterday."
There was still one thing bothering me.
The number of people entering the factory didn't match the number coming out. And the difference was pretty large.
I'd assumed the difference was because the number of workers changed depending on the day of the week. Apparently, that wasn't it.
When the others looked confused, I explained.
"More people enter than leave?"
"No, it's the opposite. More people leave than enter."
"... What? What do you mean?"
Their confusion was understandable.
For example, one hundred people entering and fifty people leaving was entirely possible. You could assume the other fifty were still inside the factory.
But fifty people entering and one hundred people leaving...
That was physically impossible unless people were entering from somewhere else.
"Couldn't they be workers who were already in the factory? Maybe there are different numbers of day and night shift workers... or separate sleeping quarters?"
"That's what I thought at first too. So I decided to watch for another day."
Yet the result was the same after another day of observation.
No matter how I looked at it, the numbers didn't add up.
"I also checked the number of workers in the manufacturing and warehouse areas. They don't match either."
"Then... there must be another route we haven't found?"
"That seems likely."
The sewer route I'd found yesterday wasn't something workers could use.
It bothered me, but...
It probably wouldn't interfere much with the operation. Ordinary workers rarely entered the vault area.
"What about the operation? Are we continuing?"
"We'll carry it out tonight."
Dragging things out wasn't always wise.
The money stored in the vault could be moved elsewhere. Money was meant to circulate, after all. If it was spent on factory materials or real estate, we'd be left empty-handed.
After eating a hearty breakfast, we began the briefing.
"The infiltration team will be Yuki, Yuna, and me. The three of us will go in."
Firmament Veil could conceal a maximum of three people, including me.
"Hajun, keep watch and provide cover from the roof of that building over there."
"Got it."
"Then what about me?"
"Juwon, you'll wait in ambush by this... stream. Basically, you won't take part in the operation."
Han Juwon would take on the role of our team's non-criminal.
If our identities were exposed, Juwon could handle dealings with City Hall or the Black Market.
"The stream is the final stage of our escape. If we're pursued, cover us with the machine gun."
"All right."
The plan was to rob the factory and escape immediately.
We'd have to enter again later to exchange the loot.
"The infiltration team will climb the factory's outer wall and enter through the vent on the roof above the vault area. We'll deal with the guards within a minute, then head straight down."
I drew the layout of the vault area and showed them.
It was a strange section where an enormous iron door took up more than half the space.
"Is there nothing much outside the vault?"
"Just guards and transport equipment... I didn't see anything special."
The problem was the vault itself.
It had repelled all my search skills, so it wasn't ordinary. Breaking through it with Teleportation or Reconstruction wouldn't be easy either.
"How are you planning to get through the vault?"
"I'll combine Reconstruction and Desperate Strength."
It was a combination that forcibly drove equipment performance beyond its limits.
Using both together, I could make the vault collapse on itself.
Still, combining those two skills placed a considerable burden on me.
"If I use it, I won't be able to use Reconstruction or Desperate Strength for a while."
"Oh, really? Like a cooldown?"
"Something like that."
Once we broke through the vault, we'd take as many Nightmare Coins as possible with the Subspace Backpacks we'd brought.
We'd bring the backpacks with the best capacity, but... we probably still couldn't take everything. There were supposedly enough coins to fill five carriages. How could we possibly carry all of that? They were coins too, so they'd be heavy.
"What about our escape?"
"Plan A is to move to the warehouse area and find the hidden underground passage. The one connected to the sewer."
Thanks to yesterday's scouting, I had a rough idea where it was.
"Plan B is the vent... going back the way we came. I wouldn't recommend it."
The coins would be heavy, but if the alarm didn't go off, it was still worth trying.
"Plan C is escaping through the back door in the direction Hajun will cover. That's our last resort."
"Sounds doable to me."
"Of course it does. You're the one waiting at the final escape route..."
"If there are no objections, the operation begins at midnight."
It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was the best we had.
We'd had no income for three days, so I was starting to want a big score.
"We should eat well tonight."
At midnight that day, we reached the vent on the factory roof without incident.
"Three guards on the left, four on the right."
"Yuki, come with me to the left."
"All right."
Click.
Even when I opened the vent with Reconstruction, none of the guards noticed.
The factory's noise and vibrations were intense. Work was in full swing despite it being midnight.
We landed soundlessly on the iron walkway beneath the roof and began taking out the nearby guards.
Pop!
It was easy enough to make me feel a little guilty.
But they were guards, not civilians. Who else should be held responsible for failing at their jobs?
[Left side cleared.]
"Hajun, Juwon. How are the radios?"
[Working fine.]
[No problems here either.]
"Good. Continuing."
Before long, we stood right in front of the vault.
I tried using Reconstruction first.
I didn't think it would work, but there was no harm in trying.
Crackle...
It was slowly deforming, but far too slowly.
The vault walls were too thick. There was no way we could do this in time.
"Just as tough as I thought."
I immediately activated All Currents.
I combined Reconstruction and Desperate Strength.
Crunch!
It was noticeably faster than before.
Rather than collapse the entire vault, I focused the skill on one section.
The wall initially became much harder, but it soon gave way and crumbled.
"It, it worked..."
"Good. It's in a corner too."
There was a fairly large structure in front of the hole.
Heat was coming from inside.
Was the ventilation poor?
"Will there be enough space to bring the backpacks through?"
I took the lead and checked the interior.
For a place with such thick walls, the inside was surprisingly spacious.
Still... something felt strange.
Hot air had been blowing out for a while now.
Was there a furnace inside?
'Hm?'
Feeling uneasy, I lifted the lantern and froze.
An unbelievable number of soul lights were shining inside.
Most were faint, like newborn children.
But there were also a few souls as powerful as hunters.
'What the hell? This was supposed to be a vault storing Nightmare Coins.'
The operation was already going off course.
I had a bad feeling about this.
We stayed low and maintained Stealth.
The people inside were moving somewhere down the stairs leading underground in a continuous line.
I took out several people I assumed were guards first.
Pshht!
After climbing to the elevated spot they had occupied, I finally saw the whole vault.
The source of that terrible heat was a furnace.
Nightmare Coins poured down in heaps over the blazing furnace.
'W-What?'
The Nightmare Coins melted in the furnace and flowed down into a mold.
I wondered what they were making by melting the coins...
Then the mold opened, and a blank-eyed resident stepped out.
The souls within the Nightmare Coins had been bleached in the furnace and forged into residents.
'Oh no!'
This was bad.
It felt like we'd seen something we weren't supposed to see.
The residents mindlessly followed the people ahead of them underground.
Would they receive further processing down there before being sent outside?
That was why more people came out of the factory than went in.
'This is insane... This facility is far beyond anything I imagined.'
We'd only come to steal some coins and leave, so this was deeply unsettling.
Thinking about it, the residents here were constantly being consumed.
They were killed by Nightmare Monsters or hunters, or transformed into Night Watchers.
They had to be replenished somehow.
I'd assumed residents appeared naturally, like Nightmare Monsters.
But that wasn't the case.
This place produced residents.
The distorted souls of Nightmare Coins were bleached in the furnace and reborn as decent residents.
That was how the structure of the 13th floor could be maintained.
'No wonder there were so many coins.'
Kim Yuna and Yuki reached the same conclusion and exchanged shocked looks.
What should we do now?
No, the answer was already decided.
Don't waver. Stick to the plan.
"There's a pile of coins over there."
Seeing the enormous stack of Nightmare Coins eased some of my worries.
Then another factor appeared and shook my resolve.
From inside the thick iron-barred enclosure beneath the coin storage containers, a voice called out.
"Uh? You guys... Wait! Look over here!"
"Hm?"
Familiar Orc hunters were locked behind thick iron bars.
Naturally, all their equipment had been confiscated.
They were the veteran hunters who had given us those helpful tips in front of City Hall.
"Oh, seniors? How did you get caught?"
"How did you get in here?"
Come to think of it, we'd asked what happened to hunters handed over to City Hall.
It seemed their souls were recycled just like Nightmare Coins.
If we left them here, wouldn't they be thrown into the furnace and reborn?
They clearly didn't want that.
'Ah, this is a headache...'
The operation had become completely different from what we'd planned.
On top of that, we had to decide what to do with them.
They banged on the bars.
"Get us out of here! You said you'd save us once if you got the chance!"
"Seniors, you sure remember that well."
We could just ignore them and leave.
But as they said, I'd already made a promise. If possible, I wanted to keep it.
Besides, we couldn't take all the coins in front of us anyway.
They would definitely be left behind.
Freeing them and using them as a diversion if necessary wouldn't be a bad idea.
After thinking for a moment, I said, "I'll let you out if you promise to listen to me."
"O-Of course we'll listen! You're the human Death Priest, right?"
"We had the wrong idea about you. What senior? Treat us like juniors from now on."
They were surprisingly good at reading the situation for hunters.
I told Yuki and Kim Yuna to gather the coins, then said, "The coins will be left behind anyway. We can't take them all. So everyone will be able to grab a share and get out."
"R-Really? That would be great!"
"I've marked a few possible exits. When you were brought here, did you see the warehouse area or the underground section?"
"I don't know about the warehouse, but we went underground. That's where those people go."
They pointed at the newly produced residents.
I nodded and easily broke the lock on the iron bars.
"Act like gentlemen, all right?"
"Yes, Boss."
They had no equipment or plan.
There was no way for them to escape except by relying on us.
Temporary cooperation wouldn't be bad.
"Team Leader. The backpack is full! Ugh..."
Yuki staggered slightly under the enormous weight of the backpack.
"Can you carry all of that out?"
"Of course. Give me your backpack too, Team Leader."
"... I'll carry that one. Only take as much as you can without it affecting your movement, Yuki."
"All right."
It looked like our profits had already exceeded all expectations.
The Orc hunters also widened their eyes and grabbed handfuls of coins.
"How much is all this?"
"Is there anything we can use as a backpack? Ah, this will do."
They skillfully made makeshift coin bags out of clothes and scraps of fabric.
As expected of a textile factory, fabric was everywhere.
"Death Priest, I'll never forget this kindness."
"Save that talk until after we escape."
The moment I finished speaking...
Beep, beeeep!
A loud alarm rang throughout the factory.
The newly produced residents didn't react at all and continued walking mindlessly.
"W-What? Did they catch us?"
"Could it be because of us..."
I judged the direction the alarm was coming from and shook my head.
"No. It's because of the guards outside. Head to the basement! Plan A!"
Residents were Spirit Bodies by default, so they didn't leave corpses behind.
But it looked like we'd been discovered because they were missing from their posts.
We had spent more time than expected because of this unexpected facility.
Still, it wasn't too late yet.
Without anyone needing to say it first, we ran for the basement.
Footnotes:
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