How to Die in the Office Labyrinth - Chapter 54

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 54: Farming Is Harder Than It Looks

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[𝙶𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙿𝚜𝚢𝚌𝚑𝚎]

[𝙰𝚆𝙰𝙺𝙴]

I kept checking the game screen for any ominous changes while I read through the Garden of Psyche FAQ.

―――――――――――――――

Q: "I can't find the light. Where is the sun?"

A: "Don't even bring that up."

Q: "Where is the light?"

A: "Beyond the shadow."

Q: "How long do I have to wait?"

A: "Not much longer."

Q: "Why are the leaves wilting and drying black?"

A: "Salt water is lethal. Don't sing that song."

Q: "The garden feels empty. Can I plant something else?"

A: "There is only one thing you can grow right now. Bring it to full growth and I'll let you plant whatever you like."

Q: "The tree ran away. What do I do?"

A: "Get it back. Prune it. Soothe it."

Q: "I'm lost. Where should I go?"

A: "Is there somewhere you need to be? Why?"

Q: "I'm lost. How do I find my way back?"

A: "<𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚝> will ask you a question. Give the right answer."

Q: "What is the black shadow that keeps following me?"

A: "Shadows are black by nature, and they follow objects. Or perhaps you're seeing something every time you round a corner?"

Q: "How do I get into Zone 42?"

A: "That is an incorrect approach."

Q: "How can I control myself?"

A: "It's for your benefit."

Q: "Is there a way to make it grow faster?"

A: "If you're lucky, you might find fertilizer somewhere."

Q: "I want to meet you soon."

A: "Same."

Q: "Who is <𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚝>?"

A: "What."

A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:A:"Is it flawless.""Is it without illness?""Is it without limit?""Is it without name?""Is it without color.""Is it without blood?""Is it without number?""Is it without self.""Is it without shadow?""Is it without boundary.""Is it without anything?""It is without end."

A¿: "֍"

Q¡: "֎"

A: Gardener.

A: Welcome to the Garden of Psyche.

―――――――――――――――

"This......"

Hwang Ju-yeon was the first to speak once we finished reading.

"It all looks pretty ominous......"

"Even so, at least it's giving us this much information in advance."

Honestly, this is downright generous.

Of course, there's always a reason a game gives you an open book. Same reason open-book exams are open-book.

"Maybe it's because you still can't solve it even knowing everything?"

Fair point.

But I...

"The Labyrinth never sets a problem that's truly unsolvable. It only sets problems that are hard to solve."

Knowing is enough. You can try again.

As many times as it takes. Until you're sick of it.

"It'll work out somehow. We cleared Happyland, didn't we."

Hwang Ju-yeon finally nodded at that.

Yu Hyun-jae gave my shoulder a brief, encouraging squeeze and let go. Lee Na-hyun looked a little tense, both fists clenched, muttering "fighting" under her breath over and over.

"Well then......"

[𝙰𝚆𝙰𝙺𝙴]

The moment I pressed it.

==========================

𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝚆𝙰𝙺𝙴

==========================

My consciousness split in two. Like two branches growing from a single trunk.

* * *

The pitch-black screen opened in a slow circle at its center, like eyes drifting open.

No. I was the one opening my eyes.

A new world lay before me.

It felt strange, like being inside a lucid dream.

I was clearly sitting in front of a game cabinet at the 5F Arcade of the Labyrinthified Jaelae Building.

That fact was vivid and present to me.

And yet, at the same time...

I existed. In this garden.

I was the gardener. Of this garden.

==========================

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝚆𝙾𝙺𝙴

==========================

A script appeared on the pixelated screen.

Text surfaced over a landscape rendered in sharp detail.

Two, but one.

Interlocking, seamlessly.

"It's a third-person game."

"Doesn't the character kind of look like Yu-han-nim? The hair, at least. The clothes are completely different, but......"

"Seon Yu-han-ssi, are you all right?"

From right beside me came the voices of the others.

From somewhere beyond, the same sounds reached me, faint and far away.

"I'm fine."

I turned my head from where I sat in front of the cabinet and answered.

==========================

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙸 𝙰𝙼 𝙵𝙸𝙽𝙴

==========================

At the same time, I stood still in a colorless space, my eyes roaming.

A ceiling rising to an unimaginable height.

The longer I stared up into that endless dark, the more it felt like falling into a bottomless pit. Ascension and descent carry the same kinetic energy.

Ivory marble flooring under my bare feet.

Cold and hard, the sensation traveled up through my soles. Even meaningless contact has its reaction.

A jet-black vessel in front of me.

Ink-dark liquid filled an enormous tank. The water divided into regret and hatred.

"What's that black square thing. Is it a shadow?"

Hwang Ju-yeon pointed at the dark tank on the screen.

On the flat, dot-graphic game display, it could have passed for an artificial shadow.

Through my other set of eyes, I could see black liquid swaying faintly inside a tall vessel.

"It's a tank."

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<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚂 𝙸𝚂 𝙰 𝚅𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙴𝙻

==========================

"How do you know?"

"Are you seeing something different from inside, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

"It feels like I'm in there too."

==========================

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙸 𝙵𝙴𝙴𝙻 𝙿𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙴𝙽𝚃 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴

==========================

"That sounds dangerous. Don't ignore anything that feels wrong."

I nodded in the real world.

"There's something like a door at the bottom of the screen!"

Lee Na-hyun pointed to the wall along the bottom of the square display.

Along the center of that straight wall, there was a faint golden line.

FORWARD

LEFT　✛　RIGHT

BACK

I pressed the down button on the cabinet's cross-shaped panel, the one corresponding to BACK.

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＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙱𝙰𝙲𝙺

==========================

It was a deeply strange sensation.

The moment I pressed the button, my in-game self immediately turned around, putting the vessel behind me and facing the door.

Holding BACK down, I moved steadily toward it.

I was controlling myself.

There was one other odd thing, smaller than that.

My in-game self was walking forward. On the third-person screen, I was moving downward. And my out-of-game self was pressing the BACK button, meaning backward.

So the controls were oriented to my perspective watching the screen from outside, not my character's own viewpoint.

Step by step, I made my way toward the door.

Torches mounted on the walls to either side lit the path.

Step.

Reaching the door, I let go of BACK and pressed the round button on the right side of the panel to interact.

My in-game self reached out and opened the door.

==========================

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙳𝙾𝙾𝚁

==========================

Creak.

The faded golden door swung slowly open.

"Oh wow, don't tell me they want us to actually farm here."

"Some kind of post-apocalyptic setting, maybe?"

A wide open lot stretched out ahead.

Completely parched. A bleak, utterly desolate ruin.

The floor looked like it had once been paved with white marble, but it was shattered beyond recognition, dark soil exposed beneath, chunks of broken stone like fragmented grave markers jutting out here and there.

This must be the front yard.

If the place I'd just come from was home.

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＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙲𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝙸𝚃 𝙷𝙾𝙼𝙴

==========================

A deep violet sky, neither blue nor clouded, no sun, no moon, no stars.

Beneath it, the ruined front yard.

And surrounding it all, walls as tall as a concrete building's exterior, enclosing the property like a fence.

A kind of barrier.

Nothing about the flat game screen conveyed any of that.

This was what I had to work with: a prison of ruins where I needed to till soil, find water, find light, and grow something.

Click, clack, clack.

I started tapping the directional buttons in every direction to get a sense of the yard's actual size.

"Wow, this place is pretty big."

I hadn't gone far before I stopped.

"Oh, what's wrong?"

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＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃

==========================

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙱𝙰𝙲𝙺

==========================

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙻𝙴𝙵𝚃

==========================

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙳

==========================

Direction-change messages were flooding the bottom of the game screen and my field of vision all at once, which was already a problem, but...

"I'm going to be sick."

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<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙸 𝙵𝙴𝙴𝙻 𝚂𝙸𝙲𝙺

==========================

Dizzy and nauseated. My in-game self, that is.

Every time my real self jabbed the directional buttons at random, my in-game self had no choice but to spin and lurch helplessly in every direction.

No person should have to endure that.

"Ah. Right, that would be a problem......"

So I decided to be careful with my movements going forward. Straight lines only, as much as possible. Minimum direction changes. Shortest route.

"Is that a well?"

Yu Hyun-jae pointed at a black circle with a gray rim.

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＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃

==========================

Closer up, it was indeed a well.

Not stacked from rough stones, but carved smooth, each surface cut and polished.

No pulley, no rope.

Those might be things I'd have to find elsewhere.

But was there even any water in it?

Click.

The moment I pressed the round interact button to look inside.

"Huh?"

The dot-sprite character jumped straight into the well.

Without any input from me.

"Shi-"

My feet moved on their own.

==========================

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝚂𝙷𝙸

==========================

I was falling.

Down into a well with not a drop of water in it.

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＊ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙴𝙻𝙻 𝙸𝚂 𝙴𝙼𝙿𝚃𝚈

==========================

Thanks for the timely update.

* * *

"If you could turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

The sound of every bone in my body shattering and bursting through skin rang in my ears, then faded like a phantom.

Farming really is rough.

The cascading A: series in the FAQ (무결입니까, 무강, 무극, 무명, 무색, 무혈, 무수, 무아, 무영, 무제, 무엇, 무한) plays on the Korean prefix 무 (without/none/nothingness) combined with various nouns and attributes, building toward 무한 (infinity/without end), which also contains the protagonist's name 유한 (Yuhan). The series is rendered to preserve both the litany effect and the wordplay of ending on "without end" (무한입니다), as the name Seon Yu-han contains 유한, meaning "finite" or "limited," making the final 무한 (infinite/without end) a pointed contrast.

Footnotes:

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