WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 56: The Boss Has Lost It

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"Huh? It's not dead?"

"Wait, isn't this just... bones?"

"If we had planted directly in this soil, that would have caused problems."

I stared at the remains for a moment, my mind going blank.

A self-contradicting existence, rotting and yet still breathing.

A life that had once spread those vast wings now lay bare on the earth.

Everything that had been tucked beneath those feathers, fully exposed.

Like a shipwreck stripped to its frame, washed ashore.

A body that could not die even in death, barely flickering.

Something strangely beautiful radiated from that tenacious, exhausting will to live.

And at the same time, a shame and humiliation too profound for words.

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* 𝚂𝙾𝙼𝙴𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚁𝙾𝚂𝙴 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽 𝚈𝙾𝚄

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Click.

Crack.

The character on screen brought the pitchfork down.

I tore through the organs with the pitchfork, raking them apart.

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* 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙴𝙽𝙳𝙴𝙳 𝙸𝚃𝚂 𝚂𝚄𝙵𝙵𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙽𝙶

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Black, viscous fluid seeped out and soaked the earth.

This land would grow richer for it.

A fitting cycle.

"Ah. You killed it."

"Yes. It needed to die."

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<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙳𝙴𝚂𝙴𝚁𝚅𝙴𝚂 𝙸𝚃𝚂 𝙳𝚄𝙴 𝙴𝙽𝙳

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"That's right. Well done."

Yu Hyun-jae nodded at the screen.

"But what exactly is this bird? Doesn't everything in a game like this mean something?"

"Well, in some games things are meaningless, but... this isn't exactly a typical game, so it probably does mean something."

Never mind what kind of bird it was. While I was busy worrying about how long it would take to clear all this away, a debate broke out among the group.

"It would help to know what species it is..."

"Difficult to determine from the remains alone. It is, after all, a size that would be impossible in reality."

I ignored them and kept going. The me inside the game was separating the joints of the remains one by one, clearing them away, when it happened.

"Oh! A swan! Isn't it a swan?"

Clap!

Chae Jae-ha's hands came together and I froze.

The sharp crack of air splitting between his palms rang clear in my left ear.

In my right ear, the sound came through small and muffled, as if underwater.

The me outside the game hearing reality with perfect clarity, and the me inside the game hearing it as something distant.

"Oh, that actually sounds right. Wow, it was worth sitting down to read along with my nephew. That was fun."

The accountant shook his head with a murmur, apparently impressed with himself.

"Chae Jae-ha-ssi, maybe take it down a notch... Seon Yu-han-ssi is trying to play..."

"Ah, right, right. That Psyche and Eros couple. They had a complicated thing going with Apollo, right? Apollo means swans."

At Chae Jae-ha's casual stream of information, Hwang Ju-yeon blinked the same way she had when she asked what an instanced dungeon was.

"Um... I don't really follow."

"Huh? You never read the Greek mythology manhwa as a kid? Ji-ho, you have it at your place, don't you? Most people read it growing up..."

"Mm. My parents go to church, and they were particularly strict about that sort of thing."

Not exactly the same as Hwang Ju-yeon, but I was similar.

My family weren't people who bought things like that.

"Well, to explain the bad blood between Apollo and Eros you'd really have to start with Daphne."

That said, I hadn't let it stay unknown to me forever.

Not since learning that the Labyrinth had its origins in Greek mythology.

"Anyway, they eventually get married and it ends happily, but... you could argue that Apollo giving a grim oracle about Psyche's husband is what made everything spiral. At least, that seems to be how this game's creator interpreted it."

And with that, Chae Jae-ha's three-minute summary of the Psyche myth was finished.

"The issue is that the swan is an animal with deep ties to Apollo."

Swans appeared at Apollo's birth and circled around him; Apollo rode a chariot drawn by swans; and his son, who died by his own hand, was said to have become a swan.

"Different versions of the myth have different details, of course."

But one could at least guess that Apollo held the swan in particular regard.

Footnotes:

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