WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 57: 𝙴𝚈𝙴 𝙾𝙽 𝙼𝙴

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I had marched into the arcade full of confidence, ready to clear Garden of Psyche, but trouble started the moment I finished clearing Neosoft's Lost In HAPPYLAND.

【Don't worry! It will hurt. A minor curse will make you miserable: Eyes】

"Ugh, aaagh...!"

When I came to, my head was wrapped in gauze covering everything above my right eye.

"Hey? Seon Yu-han-ssi. Are you okay...?"

"How are you feeling? Here, take these."

Hwang Ju-yeon handed me a water bottle and some anti-inflammatory painkillers.

Looked like she had picked through the entire Neosoft office.

"Ah, thank you."

"Representative handled almost all of the first aid. The rest of us didn't know what to do..."

I turned my head slowly and saw Yu Hyun-jae patting Jeong Ji-ho, who was sitting in his lap.

"Thank you."

"It's nothing. There was a time when first aid kits were never far from hand."

I understood the shadow that sentence carried, and I had no desire to drag it into the light.

"Well... let's head down now. We've wasted too much time."

"Hey, you... Normal people don't call that a waste."

The oversized accountant flinched as he said it.

Like someone who had been about to slap a patient on the back right after that patient lost an eye and passed out.

"Right. Let's go."

"Haah... Figured as much. Here."

Chae Jae-ha shook his head and held out an arm.

"Grab on and get up. We decided to take turns supporting you."

I blinked my left eye for a moment, dazed.

Losing one eye that suddenly would throw off anyone's sense of balance.

Srrk.

I scratched absently at the rough gauze with my fingertips.

"Thank you."

I took the offered hand and got to my feet.

My stomach felt off.

"... Lee Jin-su-ssi. What are you doing just sitting there? Come on."

Lee Jin-su, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, flinched at my gesture.

Aside from being a few fingers short, Lee Jin-su was fine. It had been removed cleanly and painlessly, unlike mine, so there was nothing much to worry about.

"He who defeats me in a wager may leave the Labyrinth."

And just like that, we had run into that gambling die again, the one with twenty-one eyes.

The passively suicidal one, who had drifted along with the mood and followed us without really meaning to, now stood before a life-or-death gambling table wearing the face of someone who had just found a new lifeline.

It seemed Lee Jin-su had not heard a word of my attempts to talk the group out of gambling.

"I-I'll do it--"

"--Lee Jin-su-ssi."

I caught Lee Jin-su and blocked the way.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't gamble either."

Lee Jin-su clamped their mouth shut and stared at me. Their face flushed slightly, emotions rising to the surface.

"Even this I can't decide for myself...? And just what right do you have..."

"Do you need rights to save someone's life?"

I understood the desire for an easy, comfortable death.

But did I have any obligation to accommodate that desire right now?

I can't die here. I have to get out. And for that, I need Lee Jin-su alive. That's all.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't die here, Lee Jin-su-ssi."

So playing the part of a saint was something I could manage, as much as needed.

As long as it meant getting out of the Labyrinth alive.

* * *

Ha.

I finally convinced Lee Jin-su and brought them along, and then.

[Drunk driver crashes into utility pole, causing damage... 2 students electrocuted, 'DUI penalties must be strengthened' | 20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 20:45 saved | Published 12 minutes ago Failed]

Lee Na-hyun was already dead again this run.

This always happened when first aid took too long.

Bring one person, lose another.

Seven was not an easy number to fill.

* * *

"Here, hold on to me."

When we left Singyae Daily and headed down to the fifth floor, I accepted Yu Hyun-jae's support. I had intended to stop leaning on people, but having two eyes inside the game and then suddenly going back to one had wrecked my balance all over again.

"Welcome back, Seon Yu-han-nim, Yu Hyun-jae-nim, Lee Jin-su-nim, Jeong Ji-ho-nim, Chae Jae-ha-nim, and Hwang Ju-yeon-nim. I am the host. Please call me Hosoo."

Hwang Ju-yeon was making that subtly complicated expression again, probably thinking of whoever Hosoo reminded her of. Standing beside her, I watched the entity called Hosoo in silence.

"Host? Host of what...?"

"Why, games, of course."

"Um, so, what kind of games...?"

"I host every game that needs a host."

The lines were identical every time.

Not just the greeting, but the answers to questions too. It was like there was a fixed script. Less like a person, more like a machine.

Even Doi, for all that he was a cube with twenty-one eyes, had seemed far more alive.

"Ha, we're still one short..."

"Someone from below might come up."

I had been half-listening to the others when I looked over at Hosoo.

"Can we wait until one more person arrives?"

"Please enjoy the other games I've prepared while you wait for your friends to join."

Hosoo smiled pleasantly and repeated what he had said before.

"It seems like a rules violation if nobody's playing anything. So..."

I moved from the lounge into the arcade, looked around briefly, and sat down in front of a machine.

"I'll go first on this one."

[𝙶𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙿𝚜𝚢𝚌𝚑𝚎]

The game had to keep going.

This was better than those damned Puncture Darts.

Hitting a dartboard spinning so fast the numbers blurred was basically luck, but Garden of Psyche's maze was different. Eliminate the wrong paths one by one and only the right one would remain.

"Hey, Seon Yu-han-ssi."

Chae Jae-ha was looking at me like I'd lost my mind again.

"I'm asking because I'm genuinely worried, but you haven't forgotten, have you...? Your eye right now..."

"I know perfectly well. Whether I have two eyes or one, I still have to get out of here."

What did it matter whether I was hurt?

Was I supposed to set up camp in the Labyrinth and never leave because I got hurt?

I still had to get out even with a broken arm or a severed leg, didn't I?

Wasn't that obvious? Like an itch somewhere deep behind the eye socket?

"Ha, yeah, I guess you're right... Then how about one person stays beside Seon Yu-han-ssi to help, and the rest of us look around at the other games..."

What was this guy doing.

He wasn't like this when I lost the ear last time.

Had losing an eye really hit him that hard.

"No, don't do that."

"Why? Wouldn't it still be better to try? There are so many machines here..."

I understood what he meant, and his concern came through, but I only had one eye now. If they went off and fumbled around on their own, I wouldn't be able to keep track of what they were doing.

"Can you win these games without making a single mistake?"

"Huh?"

"I lost an eye."

I pointed to my right eye socket, covered in gauze, and Chae Jae-ha flinched.

Srrk.

My right side was completely blind and my hand drifted to the gauze without thinking. Just a little further in and...

"Seon Yu-han-ssi, if you keep touching it, it'll get worse."

"Ah."

I put my hand back down and looked at Chae Jae-ha.

"I cleared the game without a single mistake and still ended up like this. If you make mistakes on top of that, what do you think happens then?"

If these people died somewhere I couldn't see?

I'd lose the information and that would be the end of it.

Wouldn't that just be a pointless death?

Not feeling fresh grief over these people's deaths didn't mean it was fine for them to die carelessly.

"Let's not rush. One at a time. There's no time limit."

If they were going to die, I wanted it to happen in front of me.

Within reach of my hands.

Within reach of my eye.

"... All right."

Satisfied with Chae Jae-ha's response, I pressed the button on the machine.

"Then, let's begin."

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

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝚆𝙾𝙺𝙴

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

* * *

The moment the game started, a script I had never seen before appeared in the lower right corner.

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

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗬𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗣𝗦

𝘖𝘯𝘦-𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘥, 𝘋𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦-𝘴𝘁𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘁𝘩

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

The Blessing of the Cyclops?

Ah.

One-eyed right now?

"Um, that's like... an achievement or something... Sometimes games give you a buff when you hit a hidden condition..."

The Neosoft employee said it without much energy.

The Blessing of the Cyclops seemed to be a buff that doubled your strength when you only had one eye.

Click, tap.

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

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙲𝙻𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙴𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚁𝚄𝙸𝙽 𝚃𝙾 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙻𝙰𝚂𝚃 𝙿𝙸𝙴𝙲𝙴

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

It did make clearing that stone-covered courtyard faster and easier, thanks to the buff.

Though that wasn't entirely a good thing.

"Oh, well, at least the buff helped... no. Obviously it would've been better if none of that had happened in the first place. Anyway."

"If there's a blessing, it means there's a curse."

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

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙽𝙾 𝙲𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙴 𝙽𝙾 𝙱𝙻𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙸𝙽𝙶

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

The conditions for triggering that curse were completely unknown.

"Ah... right."

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

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚁𝙴𝙳𝚄𝙲𝙴𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚁𝙴𝙼𝙰𝙸𝙽𝚂 𝚃𝙾 𝙰𝚂𝙷𝙴𝚂

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

Besides, it seemed unlikely they would have handed out double strength just to make clearing a courtyard a little easier.

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

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝙽

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

The character with their right eye covered by white cloth stepped into the maze to the left of the front garden.

Walking down the long horizontal corridor, another three-way fork appeared ahead.

Last time I had gone left, so this time, the middle.

I kept going straight without turning.

Crunch, crunch.

Only my footsteps spread through the narrow passage.

A wall appeared before long.

"Oh, another fork..."

Not a dead end, but another split in the path.

This one had two ways.

Turn left or turn right.

On screen, that meant down or up.

My finger moved toward the button, then I pulled back sharply.

I stopped and looked at the left corner.

"What's wrong? Do you see something different over there?"

On the wall where the path bent at a right angle, there were small indentations.

Irregular, uneven little marks clustered together into a curve.

"There are bite marks on the wall."

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

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙰 𝙱𝙸𝚃𝙴 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙺 𝙾𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙻

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

And not the bite marks of some unidentifiable animal, either.

"Human..."

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

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙰 𝙷𝚄𝙼𝙰𝙽 𝙱𝙸𝚃𝙴 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙺

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

Human teeth marks.

As though someone had twisted their neck sideways, clamped their mouth onto the corner of the wall, and held on.

Hard enough to leave marks in solid stone like that.

"Wait, so shouldn't we not go that way?"

"Hard to say."

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

<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙲𝙰𝙽𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝚃𝙴𝙻𝙻

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

No way to know which path was right.

Not without going.

So left it was.

To find out whether it was the wrong way or not.

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

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙱𝙰𝙲𝙺

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

The moment the character on screen turned and took the downward path.

Shhk.

A faint shadow flickered into existence behind the character as they rounded the corner, then vanished, like a trick of the eye.

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

＊ 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙵𝙾𝚁𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙳

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

I turned back quickly, but all there was to see was dust drifting through empty air.

"..."

Still, I could feel it clearly. Vivid against the skin.

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

＊ 𝙰 𝙿𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙵𝙸𝚇𝙴𝙳 𝚄𝙿𝙾𝙽 𝚈𝙾𝚄

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

Something was watching me.

Footnotes:

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