WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 122: Death Must Return to Righteousness
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What do you mean, you won't tell me?
“Fu.”
ck......
“Haven't you seen enough corpses already?”
Was one secretary not enough?
“Aren't you like that, Yu-han?”
I clenched my teeth before I could stop myself.
“I've...... had enough.”
Since before I entered this Labyrinth. Enough to make me sick of it.
“No, that's not what I mean. Isn't it no fun if you know everything already? That's how I feel.”
Ah. That was what Yu Mi-rae meant.
“I......”
No.
The words I was about to say on reflex died in my mouth. I clenched my fist tight, trying not to let my fingertips tremble.
No. That can't be. I'm not. I......
But I simply couldn't deny it.
That it was a lie.
That the moment those words left me, they would be irrevocably proven false.
......That after going around and around, I had become just like those children.
“I'll probably die too, right? Today. This place will become my grave.”
The other owner of Jaelae Building said it calmly.
“So wouldn't it be better to have a little more fun before I die?”
Life was a truly tiresome, exhausting phenomenon.
“I want to live a boring life.”
I wasn't someone entitled to have fun.
“Really? I'm still not telling you, though.”
Yu Mi-rae's manner was light, but I knew Yu Mi-rae's heart was too heavy for me to dare change.
Just as my own heart felt heavier to me than anyone else's.
My heart could never weigh more heavily on Yu Mi-rae than Yu Mi-rae's own.
“Please...... just stay here for a moment.”
“Hm? Okay.”
Clunk.
I hurriedly opened the emergency exit door and climbed as fast as I could, careful not to fall.
Tap, tap.
If Yu Mi-rae wouldn't tell me about this floor, I had to figure out at least something on my own.
If even one person had cleared it, maybe I could tag along with them and leave the floor together.
Just as I had only needed to fill out paperwork by myself in the Artifact Management Room directly below the company cafeteria.
Clunk.
“Did you open the door upstairs and come out?”
“Ha...... Yes.”
Right. I should've known.
“If it had been a floor cleared as a team, I would've just told you.”
No wonder Yu Mi-rae had listened to me and stayed put so easily.
“So the floor two floors ago worked that way? Haruda Dining was an individual challenge, so you probably wouldn't have thought of freeloading like that.”
Yu Mi-rae was frighteningly perceptive.
Just like Yu Hyun-jae, who could see eleven steps ahead from the one thing you told them.
“So this is an individual match.”
“That's what I said. Don't make me repeat myself.”
The amusement vanished from Yu Mi-rae's face and voice again.
That secretary...... must've had it rough.
“Anyway.”
The instant Yu Mi-rae reached out and came closer, I stepped aside on instinct.
Swish.
Yu Mi-rae's hand touched the emergency exit handle behind me, not me.
Clunk.
The door opened with a creak.
Tap, tap......
In light running shoes that didn't suit such an extremely formal outfit, Yu Mi-rae started lightly up the stairs.
Wait, was Yu Mi-rae seriously leaving like this? Leaving me here alone? Without telling me anything? Was Yu Mi-rae really going up alone?
It was so absurd that I stood wordlessly at the threshold, looking up at Yu Mi-rae. Yu Mi-rae stopped on the landing and looked back.
“......Representative, you can't just stand there-”
“Actually, this is a floor where you don't need any hints.”
Yu Mi-rae's voice hit the emergency stairwell and echoed down.
“I hope we meet again later. It was nice seeing you!”
Yu Mi-rae ended the greeting on her own and started walking again. She climbed with the leisure of someone out for a walk, but never remained in the same spot for longer than five seconds.
Clunk.
The sound of Yu Mi-rae leaving the tenth floor.
I stood there blankly for a while.
It felt like I'd just had a strange dream.
Yu Mi-rae hoped we'd meet again?
Yu Mi-rae really was a strange person......
Especially because Yu Mi-rae didn't seem to bear me any particular ill will.
It didn't seem as though Yu Mi-rae even understood she was leaving me behind. It was like entering a dungeon first while leaving behind a friend whose game was still loading.
Was that because Yu Mi-rae was addicted to games?
Yu Mi-rae did seem to like them, considering she had built an arcade in the company and held a gaming tournament every year to compete against the winner personally.
“Ha......”
Forget it. I didn't know anymore either.
It had already been thirteen years since we attended the same school, and after that, we had lived in completely different worlds. Maybe it wasn't so strange that Yu Mi-rae had changed this much.
[Strategic Planning Division｜PR Planning Team｜Legal Affairs Office]
I checked the directory again and headed down the left corridor.
Swish.
I opened the PR Planning Team office door.
“......”
A dim office with no one inside.
The ceiling lights and every electronic device had lost power, but one monitor alone emitted a faint glow.
When I approached, I found an open folder.
[Press Releases (Scheduled for Distribution)]
Inside were press-release files meant for distribution to news outlets.
Click.
I began opening them one by one and reading them.
[Uiwi Guild Plans to Produce ‘Red Thread Training Game’... Collaboration with ○○ Games]
A game?
Yu Mi-rae definitely had a hand in planning this.
[......‘Dear Ariadne (working title)’ is a game combining a cultivation simulation with puzzles......]
Still, judging by the material, it seemed fairly plausible for something so clearly driven by personal interest.
[......Going beyond entertainment, it will help develop abilities indispensable to becoming an actual Red Thread......]
There were Red Threads in Uiwi Guild who had once been professional gamers.
There was even one Red Thread who had been famous as an escape-room café enthusiast.
Not every Labyrinth demanded physical ability.
Click.
I opened another press release.
[Uiwi Guild Pursues Headquarters Relocation to ○○ Next Year]
Forget moving headquarters, this whole building looked like it would collapse today......
Click. Scroll. Click. Scroll.
I continued reading the press releases.
After reading every single piece of another company's embargoed confidential information, nothing happened.
There were two possible conclusions.
Either a place would soon appear where I could use this information as clues.
Or this information was actually a time-wasting trap, completely useless for leaving this floor.
Swish.
I'd probably know the answer if I checked the Legal Affairs Office across the hall.
* * *
I sat quietly in a chair and looked around the Legal Affairs Office, where office chairs and desks had been arranged like a mock courtroom.
“Ha......”
I couldn't stop sighing.
Damn it.
To hell with the press releases.
“Actually, this is a floor where you don't need any hints.”
Yu Mi-rae had told the truth.
Nothing but pure, honest truth.
There was absolutely no need to look for clues on the tenth floor.
Rustle.
I read through the stack of papers in front of me once more.
There was nothing else I could do here.
Because I was trapped in the Legal Affairs Office.
―――――――――――――――
JUDGMENT
Case Murder, Theft
Defendant Seon Yu-han
VERDICT
The defendant is sentenced to 8 hours and 27 minutes of confinement.
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In other words, as a criminal.
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REASONS
CRIMINAL FACTS
The defendant and Victim A (female, 51), Victim B (male, 32), and Victim C (male, 28) were guests at the company cafeteria, ‘Haruda Dining’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘the cafeteria’), operating on Basement Level 1 of Jaelae Building. The defendant and victims were all strangers to one another.
The defendant, Victim A, and Victim C visited together the defendant's hotel room at ‘Everlook Hotel’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘Corridor of Unforgettable Memories’), operating in Agent Team 2 on the sixth floor of Jaelae Building. The defendant was dissatisfied at having to share precious memories with Victim A and Victim C.
While the defendant and victims were conversing at the cafeteria, Victim C mentioned the defendant's memories seen in Corridor of Unforgettable Memories and insulted the defendant. An argument then broke out between Victim A and Victim C, both enraged by this. The defendant ended the situation by paying for meal tickets at the cafeteria kiosk, but did not let go of the grudge held against Victim C.
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Some parts were subtly different from the truth, but that wasn't important now.
What was at least a little interesting was that the Labyrinth we had named Corridor of Unforgettable Memories had a Labyrinth-style name of its own.
I continued reading the judgment.
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While eating alone, the defendant became enraged at the victims, who attempted to stop the defendant out of concern over the defendant's overeating, and in a momentary fit, the victims......
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Below that, the carnage had been written in a judge's dry, impersonal language.
It described in detail whom I attacked first and how, who was caught while trying to run away, even the approximate length of the tool I had used.
......Those were things I did after losing my reason.
But I didn't think I had lost my sense of self, my “I,” back then.
I was always myself.
I did it.
Everything was done by me.
I knew exactly what I was doing.
Gripping their throats hard enough to suffocate them.
Taking every last trace of life from them.
Trapping them inside me forever, making them wander.
What I had been unable to do to that woman long ago.
―――――――――――――――
Satisfied with the feeling of happiness, the defendant cleaned up the scene, stole Victim C's bag, as well as two tops and one pair of bottoms previously removed from Victim B, changed clothes, and fled the scene.
―――――――――――――――
Ah. So that was why theft was included too.
I had taken Yun Geon-min's backpack to carry the Jaelae Diary.
Hyeon Je-won's black turtleneck had no pockets, of course, but neither did this oversized shirt. It was uncomfortable to keep the diary in my slacks pocket.
There was nothing I could do about it.
So honestly, I had nothing to say.
It was just my karma.
―――――――――――――――
GROUNDS FOR SENTENCING
1. Range of punishment under internal regulations: 1 minute to 8 hours and 27 minutes of confinement
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Eight hours and twenty-seven minutes.
An awkward amount of time.
Jaelae Building had undergone Labyrinthification at 3:29, and it would collapse at midnight.
That differed from the eight hours and thirty-one minutes given to escape the Labyrinth, so perhaps it had a separate meaning unrelated to the escape time.
One thing was certain, though.
The sentence of confinement I had received was exactly eight hours and twenty-seven minutes.
In other words, under the rules of this Labyrinth, I had received the maximum sentence.
Put another way, this loop would end with me buried beneath the ruins of this building.
Footnotes:
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