WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 39: In This Case, We Adopt Option Six

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The demonstration game of "Judgment's Breath" continued.

"Now then, you have two actions available to you. One is 'adopt,' and one is 'verify.'"

Adopt if the testimony is true. Verify if it's false.

"Give it a try."

The top face of the dice currently showed 6, and Doi had testified that this number was "the first and most complete number," meaning the smallest perfect number.

So the testimony was true.

"Adopt."

Bang!

[Testimony x: "Kyaaaaa! What I saw was the first and most complete number!"]

[(Adopt) | x x]

Below the statement, a red stamp pressed down over "Adopt" and a cancellation mark was drawn through "Verify."

"Upon adoption, the truth or falsehood of the testimony will not be revealed. Even if you judged a false testimony to be true, the Breath will not pass judgment on you."

If I judged a testimony true and adopted it, I had no way of knowing whether I'd been right or wrong.

And no penalty even if I was wrong.

"Now try verifying."

Another statement identical to the previous one appeared.

"Verify."

Bang!

[Testimony x: "Kyaaaaa! What I saw was the first and most complete number!"]

[x x | (Verify)]

"Doubt not."

A solemn verdict fell, and from the toxin mask came a hissing sound, like air leaking out.

"Mm......!"

I panicked and held my breath, then instinctively tried to pull the mask off.

Predictably, it was useless.

The mask didn't budge from my face. Like it was skin.

"This is only a demonstration, so no harmful event will occur to you."

"God. Please say things like that in advance."

Whether I complained or not, Doi continued the explanation.

"Conversely, upon verification, the truth or falsehood of the testimony is immediately revealed. If you verify a false testimony, nothing will happen, but if you judge a true testimony to be false and verify it, the Breath will pass judgment on you."

"One sip and you're dead?"

"Judgment's Breath comes one sip at a time. Even that single sip will cause blood to pour from your eyes, nose, and mouth. The more sips of the Breath you take, the faster and heavier the bleeding becomes."

So a gas with hemorrhagic toxin properties was released.

Holding my breath wouldn't help.

With the mask impossible to remove, I'd be dead in roughly a minute anyway.

"After about three sips, the game will be over. Whether you die of internal bleeding or drown in your own blood first, I could not say."

"Ah."

So I could take up to two sips and survive.

Three if I was lucky.

"You really would make an excellent gambler."

Twenty-one pairs of eye corners, itching deep inside the eyeballs, curved as if reading my exact thoughts.

"There will be a total of six incidents going forward. If you remain alive for more than six minutes after closing all six, you win."

"I don't need to get the true or false exactly right?"

I just had to survive?

Regardless of whether I'd correctly adopted true testimony or correctly verified false testimony?

"Does accuracy matter? What you believe, and what you choose not to believe. That is what truly matters."

Something felt off.

If I adopted any given testimony.

Regardless of whether it was true or false, I would face no penalty and the incident would be closed.

But if I verified any given testimony.

If the testimony was false, fine. But if it was true, I'd inhale poisonous gas.

So didn't I win as long as I adopted everything?

I stared at the gambling-addict dice with suspicion.

There was no way it didn't know that.

There was no way it would offer a game that easy.

"There is no such thing as gambling without a trick."

Something about this game called "Judgment's Breath."

It wouldn't be easy to win.

Whatever the exact scheme was.

It was probably planning to stop me from adopting testimony somehow.

But I didn't think there was zero chance of me winning.

Every problem in the Labyrinth was always, in theory, solvable.

Assuming you didn't die while solving it.

"Well then. Let us begin Judgment's Breath."

The fact that Doi had proposed this game to me meant there was a possibility I could win.

So if I played well, I could win.

Win, and I could get Jeong Ji-ho straight out of the Labyrinth.

......I could get someone out of the Labyrinth alive. With my own hands.

"Fine. Start."

Clatter. The dice rolled and stopped.

Top face, 1.

"An incident has occurred. Testimony will now begin."

[Incident 1 - 1 Statement]

[Testimony a: ]

"I saw it clearly!"

A young man's voice followed, delivering the testimony.

"The number of eyes here is the same as the floor number where this Labyrinth's exit is located!"

"You little bastard."

I realized I had no choice but to lose.

* * *

A shock like being hit hard on the back of the head with a thick book rattled through my mind.

[Testimony a: "I saw it clearly! The number of eyes here is the same as the floor number where this Labyrinth's exit is located!"]

A game I couldn't win.

Given the Labyrinth's nature of respecting "doors," I suspected the exit was on the first floor, but confirmation would be nice.

The Labyrinth had guaranteed it, so no stronger proof was needed.

"This is......"

If I wanted to know the truth, I had to verify.

Adopting would leave the truth unknown; only verifying could reveal it.

And if I verified and it turned out the Labyrinth's exit wasn't on the first floor and I successfully verified that, great.

But if not, I'd inhale poisonous gas.

Ha.

A game I could win by adopting six times in a row.

And it was blocking me from adopting like this.

"That's not fair. This is just too......"

Unfair.

The words surged all the way to the tip of my tongue.

"Then is it fair, in your mind, to escape this Labyrinth with only a single game?"

The dice's voice settled cold above my head.

Those huge pupils embedded in six faces, itching, itching deep inside the eyeballs, wanting to claw them out, were smiling at me.

"It is precisely because it does not make sense that gambling is possible."

A single game changing your life.

That kind of impossible thing was, indeed, gambling.

"Asymmetry. Irregularity. Irrationality. That is the essence of gambling. If it made sense, it would be nothing more than a transaction."

I knew that going in.

But still.......

"Decide. Do not mistake your time as infinite."

My teeth ground together.

"......Verify."

Bang!

[Testimony a: "I saw it clearly! The number of eyes here is the same as the floor number where this Labyrinth's exit is located!"]

[x x | (Verify)]

No matter how strongly I suspected the Labyrinth's exit was on the first floor, it was still only a suspicion.

On the off chance it wasn't the first floor.

If I passed by an exit on another floor without seeing it.

I might never get out.

No.

I don't want that.

I have to get out. I have to...

"Doubt not."

Hissssss.

"This damn... guh-hk!"

A coppery liquid surged up from deep inside and burst out.

Blood ran from my nose toward my lips, but inside my mouth I was already coughing it up in fits, and the expelled blood hit the inside of the mask and pooled there.

"Ugh, nnh......"

My vision blurred.

Blood mixed with tears dripped onto my pants.

My whole body shook.

Pain like a rake dragging through my organs.

Breath short.

A salty, metallic taste on the tip of my tongue.

"The incident has been closed."

* * *

13. Do not doubt. The Labyrinth's exit is on the first floor.

* * *

Rustle.

The statement slid to the side.

"Ngh......"

And this was only after a single sip of Judgment's Breath.

Three sips wouldn't just kill me, I felt like I could die right now.

Maybe that was unnecessary.

Maybe I should have just believed the Labyrinth's exit was on the first floor.......

No. No. I wasn't wrong.

In a Labyrinth where you can't be certain of anything until you've been there yourself, if I could turn a suspicion into certainty.

If I could pay for that with just a cup or two of my own blood.

Wasn't that a good deal?

"You seem a bit overwhelmed by the very first incident. At this rate, I wonder if the remaining five will even get closed."

"Shut your...... mouth......"

"Unfortunately, I have no mouth to shut. It would be troublesome if you lost your eyesight already."

"Damn it, can't let you...... have the last...... word......"

"I do not like losing."

Tap, roll.

The red-eyed dice rolled across the table and stopped.

Top face, 6.

"An incident has occurred. Testimony will now begin."

[Incident 2 - 6 Statement]

[Testimony b: ]

I checked the new statement placed before me and waited, heart pounding, for what came next.

"It's already been ten years."

This time, a woman's voice, someone in her seventies.

"That's exactly how many bodies you pulled out of Dalumul, wasn't it."

The fist I'd clenched shook.

"Acts of violence not specified in the game rules are prohibited."

Ah.

Ah.

I swear, you would never dare count that number. Not with a mere six-sided cube.

"Verify."

Bang!

[Testimony b: "It's already been ten years. That's exactly how many bodies you pulled out of Dalumul, wasn't it."]

[x x | (Verify)]

"A false testimony stands before you."

A heavy voice, like pronouncing a death sentence.

"The incident has been closed."

Rustle. The statement slid to the side again.

Tap! Roll, roll, roll.......

An ivory-colored dice that had spun several times in the air twirled in place and stopped.

Top face, 4.

"An incident has occurred. Testimony will now begin."

[Incident 3 - 4 Statement]

[Testimony c: ]

"Hey, you know I really thought of you like my own little brother, right?"

"Ah."

A voice. Young, so young. The same age I am now.

"Mom and Dad said so too. That it felt like they'd gained another son, and it made them feel so secure."

"Ah......"

I couldn't breathe right.

Grr, grind.

The mask.

The mask wouldn't come off.

"So if someone had asked how many people were in our family before it ended up like that, I'd have said exactly this many."

Why.

Why does it still hurt this much?

Why.

Why does it still ache this much?

I'd wrung it out, and wrung it out, endlessly wrung it out. I'd thought it had all dried up.

"Ngh, ugh......"

I stared at the four wavering red dots and tried to sort through the dizziness in my head.

This was incident three, so three incidents remained.

I'd already taken one sip of Judgment's Breath.

Two more sips and I'd die.

......So.

I could take one more sip.

So, just once.

Please, just this once.

"Verify."

Footnotes:

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