WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 32: The Unlucky Lucky One

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"Seon Yu-han-ssi. That was a gunshot just now, right?"

"Why is someone in here carrying a gun? Is it because it's a game?"

"Oh! Must be an agent the Labyrinth Management Bureau sent in!"

"They said they weren't going to do that anymore. Ten years ago, with Dalumul Village as the last one. Happyland was eight years ago."

I listened to Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon talk and forced my grip to loosen around my phone.

Those Labyrinth Management Bureau bastards.

Figures they'd never drop that habit.

Sending people into an invasive-type Labyrinth when they know full well those people are going to die, just to squeeze out a little data and rack up more bodies.

From what the film showed, at least they didn't seem to have thrown their own agents into Seonghwa High four years ago.

Oh.

Right. That was the incident where parents had snuck in on their own.

Remarkably, this had happened while the government agency's control had conveniently "loosened."

"Well, they probably just said that and sent people in anyway. Why else would there be a gun? From what the film showed, it wasn't a handgun or a rifle, it looked like a machine gun. That kind of weapon is barely seen even in the military, and you can't carry it solo in the first place. They sent someone in with full intent, that's what this is."

"Oh, really...? But then, after going that far... and no one ever even found out......"

Had those parents been led into infiltrating the Labyrinth without realizing it, then quietly covered up? Or had there been some kind of deal?

From the scattered scenes in the film, there was no way to know.

Either way, the Labyrinth Management Bureau had factored in the nature of a school as a location and sent in parents. Maybe they figured parents would actually have better odds than some out-of-place special agent who had no business being near a school.

Were we supposed to call that progress?

"I have some business connections with the Labyrinth Management Bureau."

The co-representative of Uiwi Guild offered this in a dry, self-deprecating voice.

"There are parts of them that aren't exactly forthcoming. They resemble a Labyrinth that way."

So they might try to send someone into this building too.

Given the nature of a guild building, it wouldn't be strange at all for Labyrinth Management Bureau people to come and go, which would only make it easier for them.

Not that it would matter. Any agents they sent would most likely be found as corpses. With the floors all scrambled the way they were.

【CONTINUE】

【EXIT】

"I'll keep going, then."

"Wait, no......"

Chae Jae-ha looked back and forth between my heelless right foot and my face, at a complete loss.

"Listen, I've been thinking. Honestly, even once was more than enough, no, it was already way too much......"

The accountant hung his head, looking ashamed, and spoke with visible difficulty.

"What I mean is, Seon Yu-han-ssi."

【CONTINUE!】

"You absolute lunatic."

【Wise one, you will not let a chance at happiness slip through your fingers.】

"I can't believe this, you lunatic!"

"No, why, why are you hitting me-"

"-Goodness, does it even hurt? Aren't you scared? One wrong move and you could die like that person just now! And even if you don't die, you might spend the rest of your life with a permanent disability!"

【However, happiness always comes at a price!】

Am I afraid? Of what? Dying? Living? Should I be afraid? Of what? Of becoming something "incomplete"?

"Ha, look at that expression. What is wrong with you? You're smiling right now? You're, you're really, not normal."

My honorary normal-person status had been revoked.

Back to square one, as always.

"You look perfectly fine on the outside and then you go and do something like this, it's genuinely frightening......"

"That's it."

"What?"

That was exactly the question I had been screaming at the world all my life. At this world. At this life.

But the world had never sent an answer back.

So I had none to give in return.

【Worry not! It won't hurt. A small contribution will bring you happiness: bronchial tubes】

"Huh, h-hk......"

It was the strangest sensation.

The breath I drew in passed through my throat vividly, like a breeze I could feel in full detail.

But my chest wouldn't expand.

"Hk, hhk......"

No matter how hard I breathed in.

No matter how desperately I gulped air until my mouth ran dry.

Like a thirst that could never be quenched.

"......What do I, how do I......"

"......Let it into your lungs......"

"......Yu-han, Seon Yu-han......"

There is a hollow deep as a well inside my chest.

And into that empty well, so many deaths......

* * *

"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

"H, hk......"

I gasped for breath.

Like the first breath of my life. Like breathing in the world for the very first time. Like I would never be able to breathe in again. Like the last breath of my life.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi? Are you all right? What happened just now? Can you speak?"

"Yes...... Yes."

I grabbed the Interview Administrator, who had moved closer to check on me, and pulled myself upright.

"Interview Administrator-nim. This building has become a Labyrinth."

* * *

After clearing away the librarian's shell from Chaekbang Ollae, and before heading to Uri Saennal Daycare where Hwang Ju-yeon and Chae Jae-ha were already waiting.

I took a moment to check the Jaelae Diary.

[∃, 2, ⒝5, 14]

[㉳ Bae Seo-woo]

"This thing is really something else......"

Well. It certainly had its ways.

The TARAE keeper's horrible mechanical voice played back in my head.

'YourSeonYuhanSeonYuhanSeonYuhancustomerwhateveryoudesireitisoursyourswheneverwhereverhowevercustomerhoweverthesomewhatspecialdeliveryprocessmaycausesomeverynaturaldamageandTARAEdoesnottakeresponsibilityforpleasebuynowright?'

It said the delivery process might cause damage.

The text on the pages had warped slightly, the letterforms bending little by little.

The 'Lost In HAPPYLAND' game script I'd recorded separately in a section at the back of the diary was the same.

Of course the handwriting had changed. That was only natural.

It looked like something inhuman had studied my handwriting and then "drawn" each letter to imitate it.

At least I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing it and demanding to know why the handwriting looked exactly the same.

"Ha."

I closed the diary and headed for the daycare.

There was a long way to go.

* * *

"Wow, so the floors written in that diary were actually right...... It really is basement 5...... Wait, so next is the 14th floor?"

Right after pulling Jeong Ji-ho out of the daycare on the second floor, I had shown Hwang Ju-yeon and Chae Jae-ha the Jaelae Diary.

I needed to show them in advance for when we reached Neosoft.

There wouldn't be a natural moment to "discover" it later on.

"This. It's quite the unusual artifact."

When we found Yu Hyun-jae retching in the parking garage as always, I introduced myself and showed him the Jaelae Diary too.

"You found this in Chaekbang Ollae, you said."

"Yes. I went looking for the librarian, and when I got there the library was completely empty with only this lying on the floor, so I thought it might be some kind of clue and picked it up."

I gave him the same explanation I had given Hwang Ju-yeon and Chae Jae-ha.

"A librarian?"

Yu Hyun-jae's eyebrow lifted slightly.

"Our library doesn't have a librarian."

"What? There's no way......"

Hwang Ju-yeon's voice cracked.

"There was definitely someone there. We even had a conversation......"

"Was there a librarian before the Labyrinthification? If so, that's the more frightening scenario for me."

"Uh, well...... Now that I think about it, no. At first there was no one at the desk, but when I came back after hearing the fire alarm there was someone there, so I just assumed they'd stepped away for a moment. Naturally."

And with that, a small mystery that would only have been unsettling to someone who didn't know the full story was quietly resolved.

Chae Jae-ha died in the parking garage.

Never even got to see Bae Seo-woo's urn.

"...... Brother-in-law?"

This time it wasn't the niece, it was the brother-in-law.

He'd been rambling so much I couldn't make out exactly why, but he'd worked himself into a blind fury and no amount of trying to calm him down made any difference.

[The Late Bae Seo-woo]

Whoosh.

I watched four chrysanthemums burn themselves away in silence.

Counting the white chrysanthemums that had never even had the chance to burn.

* * *

[Neosoft]

The atmosphere of the game company, dim with the power out, was not much different from last time.

Except.

"Oh, over there......"

Lee Jin-su was very different from last time.

Instead of a shaved head, he had a full head of thick, unkempt hair, and one ear that had been fine before was now missing.

"He's...... dead, it seems."

And most significantly, he was dead.

We had arrived at Neosoft around the same time as before, but Lee Jin-su had lost a completely different body part, which confirmed that the penalty was entirely random.

Fwoom!

Ta-raran, tan, tadan......

【Lost In HAPPYLAND】

【ENTER】

My phone screen came on, along with Hwang Ju-yeon's and Yu Hyun-jae's, and a handheld game console dropped in front of Jeong Ji-ho.

【Enter your name】

【________】

"This really does match what was written in the diary......"

Lee Jin-su, who would have explained things, was dead, but the explanation he had given in the previous run was something I had already written down at the time.

"'Play order is determined by name input order?' There's a question mark here."

Yu Hyun-jae read it with what seemed like genuine interest.

"Seems to mean they weren't entirely certain. For a Labyrinth artifact...... it reads almost like a person wrote it."

That was because I had no way of knowing what order things had gone in after I died, and because a person had genuinely written it.

"For now let's assume it's input order, and I'll go first. We'll put Ji-ho-gun last."

"You're going first, Representative-nim? It'll be dangerous."

"Better to take a hit sooner than later, if you're going to take one regardless."

Honestly, I was grateful. Quietly surprised, too.

"Then I'll go second."

I had assumed I would be going first again this time.

There was no way to put Hwang Ju-yeon or Jeong Ji-ho in an early slot, and it hadn't occurred to me that Yu Hyun-jae would volunteer to go first himself.

"Oh. So it really is by input order."

【Welcome to the Land of Happiness, Happyland!】

The game started for Yu Hyun-jae, who had entered a name first.

* * *

【Worry not! It won't hurt. A small contribution will bring you happiness: arm】

Thud...... clatter!

A ring that probably cost more than my monthly salary and a wristwatch that probably cost more than my annual salary fell to the floor.

"My."

Yu Hyun-jae picked up the ring as it rolled away and slid it onto his right pinky finger. Managed it with one hand.

Yu Hyun-jae's left jacket sleeve hung limp from the wrist to the elbow.

"Are you all right? Your watch here...... Shall I fasten it for you? The glass face is cracked, but......"

"No, it's fine. Thank you."

Yu Hyun-jae set the wristwatch Hwang Ju-yeon had picked up onto the desk beside him.

"It doesn't feel real. Since it doesn't hurt."

He stared at the empty space where his left arm had been for a long moment before murmuring that.

"That's exactly what makes it more dangerous."

【You have finished resting and risen. Now, it's time to be happy again!】

Yu Hyun-jae's game restarted.

* * *

Boom! Splash!

【Oh dear! A trap hidden in the water has gone off. You are no longer in a state to enjoy happiness. Even so, you can continue to be happy.】

"Must have had a booby trap set up."

Yu Hyun-jae shook his head, looking at his phone screen.

He had dodged the machine gun in the Haunted House only to run into a booby trap on the Waterfall Ride.

I wrote it down in the diary quickly.

Because it would be my turn next.

【CONTINUE】

【EXIT】

Yu Hyun-jae confirmed that I had finished writing, then brought the index finger of his only remaining right hand close to the screen.

【CONTINUE!】

"......Huh?"

Yu Hyun-jae had chosen to continue. Not to exit.

"Why. No, how, why would......"

"Because, naturally."

【Wise one, you will not let a chance at happiness slip through your fingers.】

"I want to live."

A declaration. Bone dry and desperate at once.

He wanted to live that badly.

Even after losing half an arm. Even knowing he might lose something even greater.

"I want to get out."

That badly. The Labyrinth was a place you wanted to escape that badly.

"I'm not particularly good at these kinds of games."

"Then why not quit, why would you......"

I had assumed Yu Hyun-jae would stop here. Obviously.

Honestly, going first and playing through one round before the rest of us already seemed like more than enough.

"But I do like gambling a little."

Ah.

Only now did I vaguely understand why Chae Jae-ha had smacked me on the back.

"This feels like a gamble worth taking."

【However, happiness always comes at a price!】

"I tend to be lucky, myself."

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Yu Hyun-jae's mouth.

【Worry not! It won't hurt. A small contribution will bring you happiness: bone】

In that instant.

Yu Hyun-jae's body crumpled.

Footnotes:

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