WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 129: [KnowledgeiN] A. It Is Possible. For Viewing, Visit labtube.com. For Purchase, Visit the Coordinates Below

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The product sold by the Sales and Marketing Division on the ninth floor of this Jaelae Building Labyrinth was “humans.”

I'd been sold here.

To the entity looking down at me with an eye as vast as the sky outside.

Then the same thing must have happened to Yu Mi-rae.

Had Yu Mi-rae come here too? Or had she been sold to another “customer”? Had she died after being sold and been thrown away? Would I die like that too, then return to that stark white Sales and Marketing Team office?

......Was dying the only way to return to Jaelae Building?

No.

No, that couldn't be.

The Labyrinth wasn't made that way.

There was always a way to get out of a Labyrinth alive.

‘You only call it a Labyrinth when it has an exit.’

A Labyrinth always held the possibility that someone could solve it.

The Labyrinthified Jaelae Building was no exception.

The same was true of every floor, each transformed into a different Labyrinth.

So there had to be a way to return to the building without dying.

Thinking of Chae Jae-ha, who had remained trapped in that white room all that time, there must either be a way out where one had to be sold at least once, or a way to escape without being sold.

I'd already been sold, so I had to figure out how to return from here.

How to be “returned” or “discarded” alive.

“......”

I quietly stared at the tray that had appeared on the table.

It was an extremely familiar-looking tray.

Colorful fruit sat on it.

Swish.

I picked up a yellow fruit about the size of an apple, striped like a watermelon.

It had appeared when I thought about “food.”

I could tell two things from that.

First, the “owner” who bought me could read my thoughts to some extent.

Second, the “owner” was willing to provide some of what I wanted.

It was a relief that it didn't seem inclined to abuse me, but honestly, its very existence was already tormenting my mind.

Crunch.

Still, if it gave me food, I should eat it.

Crunch.

Maybe if I did as it wanted for a while, then suddenly refused to listen and dug in my heels, it'd get mad and throw me away.

Of course, it might kill me before throwing me away, so I'd have to act cautiously while gauging its disposition.

Crunch.

Still, when I saw that thing, neither world nor sky, and tried to hurt myself without realizing it, it had immediately put me to bed.

It didn't seem to have sadistic tastes.

At least for now.

Crunch.

They definitely weren't fruits from Earth, but they tasted good.

The texture was similar to an apple, the flesh like a Korean melon, and the sweetness and flavor like a tangerine.

......Anyway, whatever my “owner” was, one thing was certain.

It wasn't very knowledgeable about the species called “humans.”

There hadn't been a bathroom in the house until I thought of one.

When I thought about food, it had immediately given me fruit instead of a meal.

And it had put the fruit on a school lunch tray meant for serving rice, not even a plate.

Right, and more than anything, this tray.

It looked exactly like the trays from the basement level one cafeteria.

[#UiwiGuild#Jaelae#Visitor#Mukbang]

It seemed my “owner” had watched a stream of me eating at Haruda Dining.

Or at least, it was an entity on par with those viewers.

Either way, the ninth-floor Sales and Marketing Division was definitely connected, however loosely, to the basement level one cafeteria.

It wasn't particularly surprising.

There had been a similar situation before.

‘Question: W skipped lunch because of stomach pain. X had school store snacks for lunch. Y skipped lunch because they had no appetite. Z ate lunch in the cafeteria. All four were found dead several hours later. What happened? (Question attempts: 21)’

Some of the questions in True Stories, the sea turtle soup game I played at Future Arcade on the fifth floor, had also been based on incidents from articles published by Singyae Daily on the fifteenth floor.

The difference between then and now was that my experience in the cafeteria didn't seem like a clue that would help solve this pet situation.

If anything, it might have gotten me sold faster.

Considering that Chae Jae-ha, who hadn't passed through the cafeteria, remained unsold until much later.

Tap.

I threw the tissue I'd used to wipe away the juice into the trash, then blankly looked up at the ceiling for a while.

At the entity that was probably looking straight through me beyond that sealed ceiling.

“......Can you hear my voice too?”

There was no reply.

Only my voice bounced awkwardly off the ceiling of the empty room and came back to me.

Maybe it had no auditory organs, or maybe it simply couldn't understand what I was saying......

Then.

Click!

The front door suddenly swung wide open.

Afraid something bad might happen, I quickly turned my head toward it.

At that moment.

I saw blue leaves rippling and dancing beyond the square doorway, framing the sight like a picture.

As though they were waving at me.

I heard the sound of blades of grass swaying in the wind and brushing against one another.

As though they were whispering to me.

“......”

For a moment, I was speechless.

No, I didn't want to say anything.

It was a moment I didn't want to shatter with my insignificant voice.

I slowly walked out of the house.

I took in the roughness of the ground beneath my bare feet, the tickle of grass against my fingertips, and the coolness of the wind against my cheeks.

“......”

It was a truly beautiful thing.

For someone to respond so happily just because I'd spoken to them.

That was why it was so revolting.

To presumptuously take in an animal that couldn't even communicate properly, then dote on it because it was cute.

“Hello.”

If my “owner” could read every one of my thoughts in detail.

If it could understand every word I said perfectly.

If it knew everything about me.

Then you'd throw me away.

“Let's get along.”

* * *

I didn't know how much time had passed.

This was a world with neither sun nor moon, no, nothing that could be called a “sky.”

The scenery was always the same, so my sense of time had grown hazy.

Even if I tried to judge the passing of time by my body clock, I had no way of knowing whether my body here was exactly the same as my body in reality.

I walked across the grassland with my eyes closed.

“Ppyok-Ppyok.”

The wind brushed over my hair as though stroking it.

Ppyok-Ppyok.

I didn't want to keep calling it “owner,” so I'd given it that name for convenience.

Honestly, it didn't seem to properly understand or respond to what I said either.

People answered when their dogs or cats barked or meowed, didn't they?

Even though they didn't know what those sounds meant.

Even though they knew their pets wouldn't understand what they said.

Even so, they felt that some mysterious understanding faintly lingered in the gap between two languages that could never quite meet.

I thought this was the same kind of thing.

“Is there any way to find out what happened to the others? Like who Chae Jae-ha or Kim Hee-sook were sold to. Or did you buy Yu Mi-rae too? Did you kill Yu Mi-rae?”

Though I knew it wouldn't understand, I still spoke to Ppyok-Ppyok about this and that, while Ppyok-Ppyok whispered all sorts of wind sounds back to me.

It was a good “owner.”

Except for the fact that I didn't need an “owner.”

Ppyok-Ppyok found me, or perhaps the human species, cute.

I thought it was an odd preference.

I could feel that affection in the cautious yet lively wind that tickled my cheek.

“You monstrous bastard.”

No matter how much I insulted it.

The wind only gently stroked me and made the grassland dance.

It wasn't only because it couldn't understand me.

It was because I wasn't a threat.

No matter what I did.

Not even in the slightest.

The feeling of finding something cute inevitably had that quality.

No matter how great the affection was.

“Are you still having fun playing with your doll?”

Ppyok-Ppyok kept popping new clothes into existence for me, and sometimes remodeled the inside of the house with new designs.

“Haven't you played with me enough to get sick of it?”

The food it gave me was always delicious, and the books on the shelves were filled with new, entertaining stories.

“Isn't it about time you sent me back? Not to that toy box.”

Whenever I went too far away, it would send me back onto the bed as if it were worried about me.

“......”

It was quiet, but not desolate.

I was alone, but not isolated.

“Ppyok-Ppyok.”

I didn't know how much time had passed.

With my eyes closed, I couldn't know anything.

Whenever I collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep, a blanket covered me.

Whenever I got hungry, food fell down over my head.

Ppyok-Ppyok no longer returned me to the “house.”

I walked through the grassland, still with my eyes closed.

So I wouldn't look out at that distant horizon and sky.

I walked and walked.

To find the end of the grassland that seemed endless.

“Humans aren't very good pets. Not good companions, either.”

To be abandoned by someone.

“Capricious, shameless, sensitive, vile, cowardly, timid, suspicious, greedy, sly, frail, stupid.”

To be left alone again.

“Selfish, and they die......”

To return to where I belonged.

“I. I again......”

To slowly rot away in that awful life.

Because that was the rule I'd set.

Because that was the promise I'd made them.

“Sniff, hng......”

Before I knew it, I was sitting on the ground, curled up.

The heavy scent of earth and the fresh scent of grass filled my lungs.

The dirt and grass against my face weren't wet only with dew.

“Please......”

I gritted my teeth and covered my mouth.

It was unforgivable.

How dare I.

To think I didn't want to follow the rule.

To think I wanted to break my promise.

To think I didn't want to live......

How was I even alive?

How did I.

Alone......

I covered my ears.

“......”

Silence came.

And as always, I wasn't allowed complete silence.

The voices of those who didn't exist came to me.

“Stop. Stop......”

Then.

A fierce wind pulled my hands away from my ears.

The muffled world became clear.

I heard the world through open ears instead of closed eyes.

The clear sound made as dancing blades of grass brushed against one another.

......My name.

I knew that sound was my name.

“Ah......”

It always called me that way.

With all the earth, air, and world, it called my name.

I sat in the field.

Until my name stopped.

For a long time.

With my eyes closed.

“......Hello.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar eye.

“I'm sorry.”

For making you kill me with your eye.

Footnotes:

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