WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 138: Believe It or Not
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Everything happened in an instant, so nearly at once that it was hard to tell what came first.
Crack.
The tree to No. 46's right split vertically.
Swish.
I felt him let go of my arm.
Thud.
I threw myself forward, grabbing No. 46 and pulling him hard toward me.
Tug...
I felt No. 46 resist in the opposite direction, as though trying to shake me off.
Slice, splat!
With a sickening sound, hot liquid poured over my face.
Thump, thud...
The body of No. 46 in my grasp suddenly became lighter, and I fell backward.
I hurriedly got up, backed away, and stared blankly at the scene.
Swish, crack...
A massive blade slid back into the seam of the tree, and the gap slowly closed.
Looking closely at the trunk, I saw an unnaturally straight vertical mark running down it.
Even its leaves were shaped differently from those of the surrounding trees.
"Ghk, gurgle..."
No. 46 let out a final, blood-filled breath, as though he hadn't realized he was already dead.
Flutter.
A crow flew away, and silence fell.
"..."
I looked down at the corpse, cut diagonally from its right shoulder to its left waist.
Near the man's right foot was a small rectangular button.
It was gray, making it hard to distinguish from a stone.
"Ah."
This bastard had been trying to kill me.
Well, he'd arrived in this forest long before I did. It wouldn't be strange if he knew about traps like this.
So he'd pretended to stumble, stepped on the button, let go of my arm, and tried to escape alone.
But because I'd pulled him toward me to help, he ended up dying instead.
No wonder he'd been trying to shake me off.
...Did he hate me that much? Because I blew off his ankle?
What was he planning to do with that leg by himself without me?
Did he think I was going to kill him...?
The stray thoughts went no further.
Swish, slither, rustle.
As always, vine-like stems covered No. 46's bisected corpse like a shroud and joined it back together.
Disgusting holes formed in the stems again, and flower buds like new shoots rose from within them.
It was an awe-inspiring sight, even the second time.
A being that silently flourished while swallowing dead bodies whole.
A predator.
That might be the title best suited to plants.
Swish.
I roughly wiped the blood off my face and turned away.
That monster would bloom before long.
It would seek out the wounded and thrive.
And I had no intention of becoming its nourishment.
* * *
At first, there were four of us. Then three. Briefly four again, then two, and in the end, only me.
I was alone again.
Flutter.
When I looked up, a crow sat on a branch, watching me.
Ah.
Strictly speaking, I wasn't alone.
Especially when I considered the beings watching me from beyond those red eyes.
"..."
I turned back to the dim forest ahead.
The trees were far denser here than along the path I'd traveled so far.
Their leaves blocked the sky, letting in almost no light.
I was debating whether to go in when...
Caw!
My assigned crow suddenly opened its beak wide and cried out.
Flap, flutter.
The crow twisted its head in an oddly grotesque way, then abruptly flew forward...
Crunch.
Crack.
"...Huh."
It slammed its head into a tree and dropped to the ground.
What was that?
I carefully picked up the limp crow.
Its black eyes, now stripped of their red glow, held no warmth.
Its neck appeared to have snapped instantly.
No, why...?
It didn't look like it owed me any favor.
And it wasn't even a magpie.
The fact that the surveillance crow assigned to me had committed suicide by smashing its head into a tree didn't seem like a good sign.
I had no idea what was going on, but just as I was about to drop the crow and run...
Bzzzz...
An odd sound came from inside its body, accompanied by a faint vibration.
Like a machine starting up.
Plop.
The moment I opened its beak to see what it was, something like a bright red piece of flesh popped out.
I examined the lump of flesh that had fallen into my palm and saw that a thin membrane was rolled up like a scroll.
With a sinking suspicion, I unfolded it.
"...What the."
A note.
A note made from the membrane inside the crow's body.
The words were engraved neatly, as if printed in type.
―――――――――――――――
1 When a Shadowpeak Flower blooms from a corpse, feed your blood to its stamen. Then it will mistake you for a female flower it has already pollinated.
2 My fate depends on you. If you don't win, I'm completely screwed too. You should conserve that hand flashlight.
3 I know you haven't found water yet, but don't just drink something like dew because you're thirsty. The safest thing is to find a stream and drink from it, okayy.
4 If fluorescent liquid starts falling from above, avoid exposing bare skin to it for too long. That rainstorm is an event meant to reduce the number of contestants.
5 The most dangerous-looking places are the ones worth something. The dark area in front of you is the heart of the forest. Don't do anything stupid like turning back or trying to go around it.
6 Once the nocturnal traps begin moving after sunset, don't make any loud noises. They have very sharp hearing. Please be careful. We've bet on you. You want freedom too, don't you?
―――――――――――――――
I read the suspicious note over and over.
Several parts bothered me.
Should I... believe this or not?
Even if I did, whose words was I supposed to believe?
If all of this was a lie, where did the lies begin and end?
Was the message saying the stream was dangerous a lie too?
And Brother...
"..."
No. Forget it.
The beings of the Labyrinth couldn't be trusted in the first place.
Caw!
A crow flew in from far away.
It was probably my new surveillance crow.
Thump, squish.
I threw away the flesh note and stepped on it.
Maybe this whole thing was just a nasty prank.
Something meant purely to complicate my thoughts and make me wander this forest longer.
Of course, I could verify whether it was true myself.
The problem was that I'd have to risk my life, but that was only a serious problem for ordinary contestants.
Step, step.
Slowly, I crossed the boundary of shadow.
Into the dark area where the trees crowded together and blocked the sky, which the note called the heart of the forest.
* * *
The forest was enough to drive anyone neurotic.
No matter which way I turned, the scenery looked exactly the same.
Even though I marked the bark as I passed, I felt as though I'd lose my sense of direction.
Grass and insects tickled my skin.
Wind whistled through the trees.
Things that might have been people, monsters, or nothing more than my own hallucinations tormented all five senses.
"Seon Yu-han. What are you doing there? Aren't you coming?"
No. Don't go. That's the way I came.
"Yu-han, this way. We're almost there."
No. That direction smells like flowers.
"Seon Yu-han..."
Longed-for voices called to me.
My name echoed through the forest.
"Yu-han..."
No. You don't know that name.
Step, rustle...
I went in the direction where no one whispered.
By the time I found myself wishing that anything with a physical form, even a monster, would just leap out at me...
I heard a small sound.
Water.
The sound of a little stream trickling along.
―――――――――――――――
3 I know you haven't found water yet, but don't just drink something like dew because you're thirsty. The safest thing is to find a stream and drink from it, okayy.
―――――――――――――――
I had an opportunity to find out whether it was true or false.
* * *
What? Was it actually true?
The moment I found the stream, I hid behind a tree and watched it for several minutes.
Nothing happened.
I threw a stone into it. Even when I cautiously approached one step at a time and finally reached the water's edge...
Nothing happened.
Dip.
I dipped only the end of the hand flashlight in and pulled it back out.
It hadn't melted, and there was no strange smell.
Then this time, just my fingertips.
"Hmm..."
Other than the cold making my hand ache, nothing was wrong.
That didn't mean I could relax completely, but since I'd come this far, there was no choice but to drink it and find out.
Splash...
I scooped up water with both hands and took a mouthful.
I could clearly feel the cold liquid pass down my throat and through my body.
I drank several more mouthfuls, and thankfully, nothing unusual happened.
"Ha..."
Had I been too suspicious?
Scratching the back of my neck, I began walking along the stream.
If I didn't know where to go anyway, following the watercourse was at least better than wandering aimlessly.
* * *
Ah. No, maybe following the watercourse wasn't a good idea.
"Gurrr..."
What was that now?
By the water in the distance was some... no, I didn't know how to describe it.
I scratched around my neck and thought for a moment.
There was an identification tag hanging around its neck too.
If you stripped a contestant naked except for their identification tag, ripped out every hair from head to toe, starved them for several days, then slashed their entire body with giant claws...
Would they look roughly like that?
"Grrr..."
And if that person somehow didn't die because of the Labyrinth's mysterious tricks and became something like a monster?
"Ghk?"
Ah. We made eye contact.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
Tap tap tap tap!
Its blood-soaked, raw-chicken-like body began charging at me like mad.
"Ha, ah..."
I ran instinctively, then suddenly stopped as though nailed to the spot.
Turning around, I watched it approach.
...Just as I thought.
The face was familiar, though altered somewhat.
I didn't want to call its name.
"Kyaaaah!"
Every time it ran, strips of skin dangling from its body flapped around, and swollen lumps of flesh jiggled everywhere.
That grotesque appearance gave me a familiar kind of chill.
So familiar that it made me calmer instead.
The human body in its natural state was disgusting and strange.
At least, it had always been that way to me.
Swish.
Scratching beneath my chin, I took out the hand flashlight.
The note said to conserve it.
Still, there were times when I had to use it.
Click, I flipped the power switch down.
Whirr, I turned the ring around the bulb.
Click, I pressed the button.
Boom!
"Gkeeeek...!"
Splat!
Red fragments splashed over the surroundings.
The brown trunks and dirt ground. The green brush. The gray pebbles.
My cheek too.
Swish.
For some reason, my cheek itched, so I wiped my face and scratched it.
Scratch.
"Ah."
Something hard caught beneath my nail, and a stinging sensation ran through my cheek.
I must have torn off the scab from a wound without realizing it.
"Grrr..."
Crunch, crack.
The instant I finished off the thing that still hadn't stopped breathing and turned away, my body went rigid.
...Wait.
Had I had a wound on my face?
Then I saw something faintly glittering on the ground.
"..."
The back of my neck itched again. My neck itched. The area beneath my chin itched. My cheek itched.
No, my whole body itched.
Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
Everywhere my nails passed, thin pieces that glittered faintly fell one by one.
I slowly examined one of them.
...Damn it.
Scales.
Scales had begun growing on my body.
Footnotes:
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