WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 147: A Minor Change
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What you want␦
𝟣. Permanent deactivation
𝟤. Escape
𝟥. Access floor 3
𝟦. Access floor 4
𝟧. Download
𝟨. Export
𝟩. Refresh
𝟪. Unlock
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With Kim Hee-sook and me companionably wired up through our backs in the server room, I thought about what I wanted.
Permanent deactivation, Escape, and Refresh weren't choices available to me.
Download and Export only appeared when I entered with Kim Hee-sook, so they weren't for me either.
Unlock, which opened the General Affairs Team office, and Access floor 4 weren't what I wanted either.
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What you want.
｜Access floor 3｜
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The server accepted my signal and displayed a new window.
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Access to floor 3 granted.
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“Mm......? Seon Yu-han, didn't you say you came up from the third floor......?”
“Yes. I'm going back down.”
I'd come up to the twelfth floor in the first place to pick up Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min, then head back down to the arcade.
“Let's go together.”
There was no way I could escape the Labyrinth in one go this round without dying.
That was why I needed to take the long way around now.
To see how far I could go down this path with certain people, and how far I could go down that path with others.
Polishing the routes bit by bit.
* * *
“No, but it looks like all the floors might be mixed up. What if we go down from the third floor and end up on the roof or something? And can we really just go straight down from the third floor without doing anything? You said you did something in the server room earlier.”
Yun Geon-min's grumbling voice echoed against the walls of the emergency passageway.
“I think it'll be fine. I met the condition when I came up from the third floor to the twelfth.”
That was a lie.
The third and second floors were connected, so I didn't need to meet any special condition to descend from the third floor to the second.
I just couldn't be bothered explaining that.
Clunk.
“Huh? What? It's the second floor? Then maybe the floor below is the first floor...”
Swish.
Just then, familiar faces emerged from the daycare.
“Huh?”
“Ah......?”
The accountant, the freelance magician who also taught piano, and a child all looked completely drained.
It seemed Chae Jae-ha had set off the fire alarm by the narrowest margin before the elevator fell, allowing them to get off on the second floor.
A moment later, and he would have fallen to his death.
Adjusting things so they got off on the first floor seemed impossible, timing-wise.
Besides, the reason I'd fallen in the elevator at the beginning might have involved not only the Labyrinth's murderous blackout, but also the fact that I'd pressed the button for the first floor.
Chae Jae-ha had been heading down to the parking garage without pressing the first-floor button.
The timing was too coincidental to find out for sure.
“......”
A wary, awkward standoff followed for a moment.
It was only after their eyes landed on Kim Hee-sook that I noticed their guard had eased.
“Oh dear, there's even a child....... Hey, is everyone all right......?”
Fortunately, Kim Hee-sook was the first to step forward.
Partly because she was kind, but also because she was perceptive.
“Ah, y-yes....... But where did the three of you come from......?”
“Ah, um, we came from up on the twelfth floor....... Seon Yu-han came up from the third floor, then came back down here......”
“......What? Really?”
“Huh? How did you go back and forth like that......? By the stairs?”
Hwang Ju-yeon, Chae Jae-ha, and Jeong Ji-ho all stared at me.
“Ah.”
Only then did I come back to myself.
Seeing people who had never met gathered in one place had somehow amused me.
I'd lost focus for a moment.
“Yes. By the stairs. I think the rule is that you need to meet the condition on each floor before you can move to the next one.”
After I briefly explained the floors I'd passed through, Chae Jae-ha looked doubtful.
“Are you a Red Thread? Ah, you don't seem to be with Uiwi Guild, but I don't really know any Red Threads from other guilds.”
“No, I'm...”
“Seon Yu-han came to interview as an agent for our company.”
Yun Geon-min hurriedly added, cutting in.
For a brief moment, Chae Jae-ha looked baffled, then the expression vanished.
“Ah. I see. Um, then what are everyone's names......?”
......I'm sick of this.
“Uh, Seon Yu-han? Where are you going......?”
“The library.”
“What......? Alone?”
“Yes. It'll be better if I go alone.”
“No, but....... You don't know what might be in there......”
“Exactly. If I don't come out within ten minutes, just leave me behind.”
No one followed me.
I liked that.
“Cough, ngh, kehek......”
Thanks to that, I was able to deal with the librarian without any trouble.
“Ah, Seon Yu-han's out......!”
“Seon Yu-han, are you okay?”
When I came back outside, though, the group made a fuss with worried looks on their faces.
“What's wrong?”
“Mm, no, it's fine if you're okay....... Nothing happened in there......?”
I had no idea what Kim Hee-sook meant by that, so I kept quiet and put on a puzzled expression.
Fortunately, Hwang Ju-yeon explained.
“Well, before I came out of the library, there was a librarian inside. Then after Seon Yu-han went in, I remembered that. But when I mentioned it, they said there wasn't any librarian here......”
Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min nodded along.
“Mm, there isn't.”
“You just scan the code yourself and borrow books. But seriously, nothing happened in there? There wasn't anyone inside?”
“Ah.”
I understood.
“Yes.”
I gave them a small, reassuring smile.
“There wasn't anyone. Not a person.”
They didn't ask anything else.
* * *
“Welcome, Seon Yu-han.”
I arrived at the 5F Arcade. Alone.
“I'm the host. Please call me Hosoo.”
After clearing the Happyland game, I'd parted ways with the others in front of Neosoft.
I'd had to retry a few times after getting body parts I couldn't afford to lose cut off.
“I want to play Easter Hamster.”
“Congratulations. Seon Yu-han has discovered an Easter Egg.”
I was only going to play this game before heading back up, so bringing the others to the arcade would have been a waste.
Of course, I didn't have some brilliant way to separate from them.
They were all people who had forced themselves to come down this far because they wanted to live.
It was hard to persuade them to trust me without knowing when I'd return, then change their plans by telling them I would go down alone while they waited here, or that they should go back up without me.
Not unless I told them about the loop.
It had been so difficult that I'd actually gone to the arcade with them once. Just last time.
I'd even played through The Silence of the Lambs to time it, only to die without making it to the next floor.
That Yu Hyun-jae, always dragging people down with them, saw me playing Easter Hamster and somehow figured it out again.
‘Try rolling the dice better next time.’
That was what Yu Hyun-jae said after leaving the arcade, on the emergency staircase.
Yu Hyun-jae forcibly held me in place for more than five seconds.
Until the stairs collapsed.
Yu Hyun-jae had realized that my failure to make a preemptive claim on 475, meaning Yu Hyun-jae, was fatal to them.
‘I actually have something to tell you.’
So this time, I told them in advance that I was caught in a loop.
While we rested for a moment as I gave first aid to the toes I'd lost at Happyland.
‘Seon Yu-han, um....... This might be rude no matter how I ask it, but are you mentally...... okay?’
Naturally, most of them, including Chae Jae-ha, didn't believe me right away.
The Uiwi Guild co-representative conspiracy theorist was only a little help then.
‘Uh....... Well, there were rumors that the representative believed that stuff too......’
The person who believed me ended up having their mental state questioned as well.
The Jaelae Diary was the only thing that really helped persuade them.
‘Take it. Either wait for me, or read this and go up first. Do whatever you want.’
I'd handed the diary over to them.
It would return to my hand wherever I was if I wanted it to.
‘If Seon Yu-han is going to return to us anyway, there is no need to follow them and become a burden.’
Still, Yu Hyun-jae unexpectedly didn't chase after me and obediently went along with what I wanted, which honestly helped a little.
From the group's perspective, the Uiwi Guild co-representative conspiracy theorist who believed time could be reversed seemed more trustworthy than an ordinary mentally ill person claiming to be a time traveler.
“......”
I shook my head to clear away my increasingly tangled thoughts.
“Start right away. You don't need to explain the rules.”
“Yes. Now, we will begin Idle Hamster Deluxe Edition: Easter Hamster.”
It was time to roll the dice.
* * *
Tap, clatter.
“Seon Yu-han, would you like to make a preemptive claim?”
“No.”
The numbers I rolled were 1, 6, and 4.
Rolling the dice thousands of times didn't mean I could always control them to get the numbers I wanted.
To control everything perfectly, I would have to roll them nearly infinitely many times. By then, I probably wouldn't even feel the need to roll the dice anymore.
It was an irritating paradox.
“Would you like to make a calling?”
Now the only issue left was the customers.
“Yes. The Jailer.”
I'd called every customer while rolling the dice so far, but I could only barely guess at a few, like The Jailer, who made the maze-prison. I still hadn't secured the full list of actual buyers, excluding window shoppers.
There was no choice but to keep visiting the ninth floor, figuring it out one at a time through elimination.
Going back and forth, dying over and over.
“Yes. Seon · Yu · Han has called The Jailer.”
......It would be a long and tedious process.
‘Wait for me. I'll be there soon.’
I thought about the foolish desire to protect a child I barely even knew.
I hoped it would all end before that feeling faded.
Everything.
* * *
“Did you enjoy the games I prepared?”
It wasn't a very satisfying result.
I could do better next time.
“Goodbye, Seon Yu-han.”
With the host seeing me off, I left the arcade.
Clunk.
[15F｜Singyae Daily, Moment O'Clock]
Clunk.
[11F｜Strategic Planning Division]
I checked the floor number every time as I went up one floor after another.
I needed to see whether I would have to meet the conditions again on the way back up.
Fortunately, the mannequin at Singyae Daily and the gambler at the Strategic Planning Division seemed to let me pass without trouble.
Clunk.
[14F｜Neosoft]
No one was there. The others must have gone up without waiting for me.
Clunk.
[B5｜Parking Garage]
Clunk.
[2F｜main auditorium, Uri Saennal Daycare, Chaekbang Ollae, TARAE]
Clunk.
[3F｜main auditorium, Conference Room]
“Oh my, Seon Yu-han......!”
I ran into the group again on the third floor.
Kim Hee-sook. Yu Hyun-jae. Jeong Ji-ho. Hwang Ju-yeon.
Yun Geon-min had his heart taken in the parking garage earlier, and Lee Na-hyun had already died at Moment O'Clock because the timing didn't work out, so it made sense they weren't here.......
“Where are Chae Jae-ha and Lee Jin-su? Don't tell me they're both inside? I haven't checked whether more than one person can enter at once.”
I gestured toward Conference Room D, where the others had gathered.
[ Special Seminar
〈The Secret to Well-Being〉]
“No. Chae Jae-ha went in about ten minutes ago, and Lee Jin-su went in right before him......”
Hwang Ju-yeon, with a carnation badge on her collar, shook her head with a dark expression.
“It seemed he was deemed unqualified. The door opened on its own, but Lee Jin-su didn't come out.”
Yu Hyun-jae, who wore the same badge, spoke.
“More importantly, we're wondering what to do about Ji-ho. Like you said, we don't know whether someone can go in with him.”
“......Ah.”
I hadn't thought of that.
That was why they were still here.
For me, it usually took fifteen to twenty minutes to finish the lecture and come back out.
Naturally, that time would multiply by the number of people.
The fact that Jeong Ji-ho couldn't speak because of his trauma and would have trouble giving a lecture was actually a secondary problem.
“Is it a waste?”
Yu Hyun-jae asked quietly, almost whispering, as though they'd caught up with my thoughts.
“......Yes. We're wasting too much time.”
“Don't people like you have time to spare?”
Was Yu Hyun-jae making fun of me right now?
The conspiracy theorist smiled softly and continued.
“Give yourself a little more room. You won't know until you've thrown it all away.”
It irritated me, but Yu Hyun-jae was right.
If the exit was somewhere above us, then the others wasting time on the seminar one by one was an unavoidable process.
So I decided to wait and see.
“God, damn it....... Some guy was wearing Lee Jin-su's clothes! It was so creepy, seriously......”
“Mm, but then only Ji-ho is left....... What do we do?”
I needed to see what would happen to Jeong Ji-ho, too.
“Then, should I go in with him......?”
“No.”
I stopped Kim Hee-sook.
“Mm? Ah, Seon Yu-han, are you going in with him......?”
What was she talking about?
“No.”
There was no way I could escape the Labyrinth in one go this round without dying.
“I'm sending Ji-ho in alone.”
There was no need to fear sacrifice right now.
Footnotes:
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