WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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Chapter 119: The Labyrinth Comes After the Meal
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[#EmployeeCafeteria#UiwiGuild#Secretary#Mukbang｜◦ Live]
[⚉ Delicious｜⚇ Not Delicious]
[Currently 1,159■ watching Streaming began: 101 minutes ago]
Tap.
I skipped ahead to around fifty minutes after the stream began.
"Oh god, how could this......?"
Manager Kim's cheeks had hollowed out, and every patch of exposed skin revealed the contours of bone like a soggy, wrinkled sheet of paper.
He looked closer to a skeleton than a person.
His shrunken eyeballs looked ready to pop out at any moment, and his teeth and tongue seemed to be the only parts of him still functioning properly.
Judging by his condition, he didn't have much longer to live.
Scrape.
Thud......!
Manager Kim rose with a new tray in hand, swayed unsteadily, then folded forward as if collapsing.
「Urk, blegh......」
He vomited over his tray and the table.
Plop.
One eyeball, unable to withstand the pressure, finally pushed out of its eye socket.
The wrinkled sphere, like a half-dried cherry tomato, fell into the vomit.
"Ugh......"
Kim Hee-sook was the first to look away.
「Urgh, cough, blegh....... H-hungry......」
Having finally emptied his stomach, Manager Kim stared down at its contents with his one unfocused eye, then........
"Jesus, how could he eat that, urgh......"
Yun Geon-min finally looked away from the screen too, dry-heaving.
That left only Hyeon Je-won and me watching the video.
「Hun-g-ry.」
Manager Kim wiped the table without pause, until it was gleaming clean.
I couldn't hear Yu Mi-rae getting up.
It was as if Yu Mi-rae intended to watch everything happening before her without looking away. As though she meant to witness, all the way to the end, the horrific process of someone Yu Mi-rae had known for over twelve years losing his original form, his reason, and his life.
Tap.
Once there was no more "food" left on the table, Manager Kim, his bones even more clearly outlined, sniffed around and shuffled off like a zombie.
His remaining eye no longer seemed to work either.
Holding his tray with both hands, Manager Kim bumped into tables here and there before barely reaching the serving station.
Clatter.
He set down his tray in an empty spot at the serving station as though dropping it.
"That's......"
Hyeon Je-won briefly shifted their gaze to the real serving station.
The container of tomato spaghetti Manager Kim had been face-down in, and the empty tray beside it.
They matched exactly, including the tray's position on the screen.
"Manager Kim......"
The death of a man who had already died in the past came to us whole in the present.
Tap.
Manager Kim's trembling hand, now little more than bone, dropped the tongs.
Thump.
Crunch, crunch.
Manager Kim buried his face in a huge platter.
「Hun...... grrr...... ry......」
His head dug deeper, trying to eat even a little more.
His limbs flailed like those of a wooden puppet, as if he could barely support his own body.
Plop........
Then, silence.
At last, Manager Kim became what we'd first seen him as.
Scrape........
I heard Yu Mi-rae get up from a chair.
Soft footsteps gradually drew nearer. One step, then another, at a steady rhythm.
Rustle.
A hand appeared on the screen, which showed Manager Kim from behind.
A delicate left hand with subtly prominent knuckles rested gently on the secretary's back.
As if to comfort him, or check whether he still had any warmth left.
The silver ring on that slender pinky glimmered softly under the lights.
It was a thin, neatly designed ring set with a tiny red gemstone.
"Representative Yu Mi-rae......!"
There was no mistaking it. It was Yu Hyun-jae's younger sibling's hand.
Yu Mi-rae's hand remained on Manager Kim's back for a while before disappearing.
Step, step........
The presence moved farther away, then drew near again.
Clunk.
The emergency exit opened.
"Did Representative Yu Mi-rae leave like that, and is that why she isn't here?"
"It looks like Yu Mi-rae was checking whether one person eating themselves to death was enough to escape."
I liked that decisive judgment and choice.
Hadn't Manager Kim died for exactly that reason?
To repay the life he owed Yu Mi-rae from around twelve years ago.
......Though Yu Mi-rae had been a high school student back then, so I had no idea what could have happened.
Clunk.
The emergency exit opened again.
"Ah, did she come back......?"
It wasn't very good news.
At the very least, it meant having one person eat themselves to death wasn't enough to leave this floor.
"Maybe the condition is to eat a reasonable amount, then leave."
I gestured toward the tray return station.
"The problem seems to be that you can't eat a reasonable amount."
Clatter, tap.
Before long, I heard the familiar sounds of someone picking up a tray and tongs.
Scrape.
Then came the sound of someone sitting down.
After that, the faint sounds of chopsticks and a spoon tapping against a hard tray.
"Then......"
That meant Yu Mi-rae.
The Yu Mi-rae who wasn't in this cafeteria right now had eaten a reasonable amount and left.
Tap. Scrape.
Not long after, the quiet meal ended, and I faintly heard Yu Mi-rae get up.
Thunk........
A tray was set down at the return station.
"Hah."
I was genuinely impressed.
Yu Mi-rae had turned her back and left the most delicious food she'd ever eaten behind.
As expected, she had the mental fortitude befitting that person's sibling.
That person who had suppressed his body's instinctive resistance, forced down water, and drowned himself.
I listened so intently that I felt as though I might be sucked into the video.
Clunk........
The emergency exit door opened.
"......"
An endless silence followed.
「Ah! What the hell, it's Basement Level One.」
Until Yun Geon-min's quiet voice came from the video.
"See?! She escaped! Representative Yu Mi-rae......!"
"Huh?"
Yun Geon-min, whose stomach had recovered enough for him to look at the screen again, tilted his head.
"There's a related video here. It wasn't there before."
As Yun Geon-min said, this page had originally shown only Manager Kim's livestream.
[#EmployeeCafeteria#UiwiGuild#Secretary#Mukbang｜◦ Live]
[⚉ Delicious｜⚇ Not Delicious]
[Currently 1,189■ watching Streaming began: 109 minutes ago]
But a small section had appeared beneath the screen.
[Related Videos]
Along with a black-thumbnail video that was fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds long.
[#JaelaeBuilding#Cafeteria#Mi-rae#Representative#Mukbang]
[29K views]
Tap.
When I immediately tapped the video, Yu Mi-rae's face didn't appear.
[⚠Unable to play video⚠
Ended broadcasts cannot be played.]
There was only a black screen bearing a message that the video couldn't be viewed.
"Did it end because she escaped......?"
"Looks that way. Manager Kim over there is still filming, after all."
"But didn't she use some kind of artifact or something?"
Yun Geon-min spoke with a sullen expression.
"No, think about it. The secretary scarfed food down for almost an hour, then ended up like that...... But the representative took, what, fifteen minutes? Then it was just over? Isn't that weird?"
"That isn't weird. Representative Mi-rae is simply exceptional!"
What was he talking about?
Of course it was weird.
Wasn't it strange enough just listening to Yu Mi-rae's conversation with the secretary?
Yu Mi-rae had been a high school student, yet talked about whether someone should live or die, and mentioned watching other people eat while needing surgery.
On top of that, Yu Mi-rae could calmly watch her personal secretary of over twelve years die so horribly before her eyes.
Other than that brief moment at the beginning when Yu Mi-rae struck the table and lost her temper, her attitude was far too casual or composed.
With that much mental fortitude, escaping a single floor would be easy.
"And Representative Mi-rae doesn't carry artifacts around, and if there were an artifact with that sort of function, I would've known about it right away......"
"Hold on."
I interrupted before Hyeon Je-won lost their breath again.
"Artifacts or not, that isn't what's important right now....... The problem is that we have to eat in order to get out of here."
Hyeon Je-won, who had been about to shriek that artifacts were important, shut their mouth. Yun Geon-min's face darkened as well, and he fell quiet.
Kim Hee-sook, who had remained silent until then, slowly opened her mouth.
"Um, what if we set an order for this......?"
"You mean we try eating one at a time?"
"Mm-hm, yes, one at a time. There are four of us, so maybe the other three could try to stop them......"
"Come on, ma'am. Do you really think someone can be stopped? He kept eating even when he was shriveled up like a corpse......"
"Yun Geon-min."
When I called his name, Yun Geon-min looked at me like a student who had been talking in class and gotten called out by the teacher.
"Then what do you suggest? Whether we knock out whoever's eating or try something else, it's worth attempting."
"No, well....... Even so, some things just aren't right......"
Yun Geon-min muttered something under his breath, trailing off, then suddenly raised his eyes.
"Ah. I was wondering why you were taking this lady's side so much."
One corner of his mouth lifted in a sneer, trembling slightly.
"What, is this lady like that lady from your memories too..."
"Yun Geon-min!"
Kim Hee-sook cut him off with what sounded like a scream.
As though she were the one who'd been hurt.
"Are you even human? Huh? How can you watch that and say something like......"
"Ah, what? Did I say anything wrong? Ma'am, this isn't the time for you to take that bastard's side either. Honestly, how many weird things are there about that person? The way they keep correctly identifying artifacts even the researcher doesn't know, for one. That person might not even be human."
"Oh, please. Why are we suddenly talking about that? You're the one getting your pride hurt because somebody called you out. You were the one who kept picking fights over every little thing whenever I said something!"
What a complete mess.
Hyeon Je-won, who had never entered my room in the Corridor of Unforgettable Memories and had been left confused alone, began shrinking back anxiously as the atmosphere grew more heated.
The shouting seemed to be stirring up bad memories.
"Hah......"
I breathed out deeply and looked at Yun Geon-min, who was barking at Kim Hee-sook as they fought.
Maybe I could do this.
I could remind Yun Geon-min of every single thing, how badly he had failed to adapt to life at this company, how he had ended up being encouraged to resign, how unlucky he had to be to get trapped in a Labyrinth on his final day of work, how many of his coworkers' belongings he had stolen and stuffed into his backpack as revenge in that situation.
Or maybe I could do this.
I could tell him what expression his mother wore when she last heard her son's barbed words on Fissure Day, then watch the expression on Yun Geon-min's face.
Or perhaps I could do this.
I could pin Yun Geon-min down and stab spoons into his body one by one, in the same order his mother and my Aunt had been tortured in The Executioner’s Stage.
It was true that my stomach had boiled up in that instant, enough for me to imagine things like that.
So I certainly could have done it.
If only I were certain his suffering would bring me joy. I would have done it gladly. Without hesitation.
But I........
I wasn't sure he was worth going to that much trouble for.
If I wanted someone dealt with, wasn't it better to just leave them to die on their own?
It was a Labyrinth, after all.
"You disrespectful little bastard. Is that how your parents raised you?"
"......Ha, fuck, seriously. Ma'am, are you done tal-"
Screeeech.
"Uh......?"
The strange sound made Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min snap their mouths shut.
They had been glaring at each other, both still fuming, but their eyes turned toward me.
"It's nothing. Please continue what you were doing."
Hyeon Je-won, who had crept after me while the other two were fighting, was also looking nervously at my hand.
"I'm going to eat."
More precisely, the meal-ticket receipt I had just printed after paying.
Footnotes:
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