WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 62: One Coin

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"Come on, when is this going to end. We've been at it for over an hour, haven't we?"

"It will end soon."

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<𝚈𝙾𝚄> 𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙷𝙰𝚂 𝙸𝚃𝚂 𝙳𝚄𝙴 𝙴𝙽𝙳

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That moment.

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＊ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙷𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝙸𝚂 𝚄𝙿𝙾𝙽 𝚈𝙾𝚄

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

The character stopped.

The character's body swayed and lurched.

* * *

My whole body locked up.

It was finally trying to assert its life.

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＊ 𝙻𝙴𝚃 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙴𝙻𝙵 𝙾𝚄𝚃

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

* * *

Not yet me.

That's what I should have answered.

Now, at last, I have become me.

* * *

The pixel character split right down the middle.

Something crawled out through the gap, torn open like the skin of a pomegranate.

White roots, a stem, branches, draped in raw red flesh.

A ghost-pale tree ripped its way out, tearing that small body apart.

It trampled the body that had once held it and drove its roots down. Deep. Further still.

It spread its branches. High. Further still. As if it had been suffocating all that time, crammed inside.

Ravenously.

There was no malice in it. No goodwill either.

It was only budding into its own life.

* * *

The white tree on the screen grew larger, little by little.

Until the pixel art, impossibly, turned delicate and fine.

"Huh...?"

The great sapling swallowed the dim garden on screen in white and closed in until it was nearly bursting through the glass.

"Wait, is that it? That's how it ends?"

―――――――――――――――

𝚃𝙷𝙰𝙽𝙺 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚈𝙸𝙽𝙶!

―――――――――――――――

The screen cut to black, and the ending credits began to roll.

―――――――――――――――

𝙶𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴

𝙼𝚊𝚣𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝙴𝚈𝙾𝙽𝙳

𝙲𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙴𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙷

𝙰𝚛𝚎𝚊 𝟺𝟸 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐

𝙶𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝙳𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚂𝙾𝚄𝙻

―――――――――――――――

A solemn, faintly hopeful 8-bit melody played, something like a pipe organ.

I stared blankly at the screen.

It felt like something had peeled away from inside me.

―――――――――――――――

𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚜 𝚝𝚘

𝚂𝙲𝙷𝙰𝚃𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚂𝚃𝚄𝙳𝙸𝙴

𝙻𝙰𝙱𝚈𝚁𝙸𝙽𝚂𝙾𝙵𝚃

𝚊𝚗𝚍

𝚈𝙾𝚄

―――――――――――――――

Oh.

I was...

I was in there too. At the beginning.

Another me, split off like roots and branches growing in different directions, had been in there.

I had known exactly what the in-game me was thinking, what it was feeling.

That had been true.

I know it was true. In my head.

But even that knowing feels hollow.

Like waking up from a dream.

"So, who was 'I' in this game, anyway? And what was that white tree at the end? What was that 'root' thing even doing? Honestly, I thought it was Apollo and the main character was Daphne. Way too obsessive. Seon Yu-han-ssi, what did you think?"

I had known.

I think I knew.

What was I even supposed to know?

"...I'm not really sure. It was pretty hard to follow."

"Right? Honestly, who makes a game this unhelpful. Lee Jin-su-ssi, what do you think? You make games, what's your take?"

"Uh... well... it might have prioritized the experience over the story itself... Actually, no, more than that, this is a game made by a Labyrinth, not a person, so does that even matter...?"

Right.

I don't need to know.

None of that matters.

Just like a dream isn't reality.

That was just a game.

Nothing but a fake.

"......"

Clack, clatter!

"Oh."

A metallic sound rang from the coin slot at the bottom of the game machine, and a coin came tumbling out.

"Congratulations. Seon Yu-han-nim has completed one coin of 'Life.'"

A gold coin.

A symbol of 'opportunity,' of the chance to start again.

Right.

The things that actually matter, the ones worth knowing, are like this.

The things that keep me alive and moving.

I examined that small round gold coin closely.

It was larger than a 500-won piece, thicker too, with a satisfying weight to it.

"The dimensions look closer to a casino chip."

Both sides were embossed with raised engravings.

One face had laurel leaves curling around the rim and the number "1" at the center. It might have been a symbol shaped after the host's staff.

I flipped the coin over.

This side held an intricate maze carved in fine detail.

I wondered for a moment if it was the maze from the Garden of Psyche, but on closer inspection it was a completely different structure.

"Whoa, is this actually gold? Gold prices have been through the roof lately, we could get decent money selling this outside."

...Hold on.

"What did you just say?"

"Huh? Me? Are you talking to... me right now...? I was just, like, is this real gold... I thought it was interesting... I was just joking around, you don't have to make it a whole thing... Obviously I know it's worth less than a human life..."

Nobody said anything about that.

What's gotten into this person.

"I was asking the host. Say that again."

"Congratulations. Seon Yu-han-nim has completed one coin of 'Life.'"

Completed.

After hearing Hosoo's answer, I looked at the text on the dartboard one more time.

[Fragment of Life]

Fragment.

"Oh......"

"What's wrong?"

"This game reward."

I pointed at the dartboard and spoke to the group.

"The size of the reward seems to change depending on which game you play. The game I played gives out a whole coin, but some games give you exactly what it says, a fragment. Only a piece."

That was why the host had said I had "completed" one coin.

The system was to collect "fragments" until you "completed" one.

"Oh....... So you either gather coin pieces from different games until you complete one, or get a whole one in a single go like Yu-han-ssi did?"

"Wow...... that's brutal. But is this game actually just a one-coin game? It doesn't really look like it."

Chae Jae-ha sat down in the seat I had been in.

"Maybe I'll give this a try."

Should I stop him?

The thought surfaced somewhere at the back of my mind.

But I couldn't quite find a reason why.

We know how to wake up now, and getting gold coins easily isn't a bad thing.

About an hour of simple work and you get a free life.

Wait, actually.

Something feels off...

Since when was the Labyrinth this easy?

"Seon Yu-han-ssi, you memorized that maze, right? Help me out then."

[𝙶𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙿𝚜𝚢𝚌𝚑𝚎]

[𝙰𝚆𝙰𝙺𝙴]

While I was still mulling over that vague unease, Chae Jae-ha started the Garden of Psyche.

* * *

"I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I said I can't."

Chae Jae-ha's face was pale, slick with cold sweat.

Like the tree that had sprouted from the character I... controlled.

He couldn't sit still. He rocked back and forth, leg bouncing.

"What went wrong, I wonder. Seon Yu-han-ssi was fine."

"Wait, is it because he already cleared it? Like, knowing the solution counts as cheating? Hosoo-nim, can you only play this once?"

"Not at all! Everyone is given the chance to tend the Garden of Psyche."

"Really? Then what is it..."

"If something actually happens to him... there's no option to quit, right...?"

The rest of the group watched anxiously from behind.

"Chae Jae-ha-ssi, what are you doing. If you go that way, you'll die."

"Yeah, I'm going to die. I can't do this. I can't hold on. I feel like I'm dying. It's too, too awful. Please. I'm scared. I can't do this. I want to die. I'm stopping."

"You can't."

I grabbed both his shoulders as he rambled and tried to stand, and pushed him back down.

"If you quit now, you'll actually die. You have to see it through. You already started."

"I said I can't! God, let go of me!"

Oh.

He's in bad shape.

This isn't like him at all.

"Ah, Yu-han-nim, are you all right? Your face-"

"-I'm fine. Everyone, please step back."

I checked that the group had each taken a step back, and my eyes briefly met Jeong Ji-ho's.

Kids' eyes really are...

"Chae Jae-ha-ssi, calm down."

"Calm down? Do I look like I can calm down right now? I'm in there going through all of that..."

"No. What you're feeling right now is just an illusion. Same as what happened to me. And it's not you. Not yet."

"How are you even supposed to..."

Chae Jae-ha had stopped listening, trailing off mid-mutter. His mouth fell open, frozen.

Then he turned slowly to look at me.

Like someone who had just realized a terrifying truth.

"You, you...... you're actually a psycho, aren't you."

Chae Jae-ha is exactly like a clock running a minute slow.

"How. How...... can you do something like that without even blinking...... Get away from me! Don't touch me! If you can do that to yourself, what wouldn't you do to other people? You freak......"

Or a broken clock.

"You, how did you...... for that long......"

"That wasn't me. You'll stop feeling it soon too. It won't be long now."

I gripped Chae Jae-ha's shoulders again, hard, and held his gaze.

"You'll forget all of it. Forget it. It's for your own good......"

Clack.

Pop.

Thud!

"Ha......"

Why do people die so easily.

How do they all go so easily like that.

"Wh, whoa!"

"Chae Jae-ha-ssi!"

We'll have to keep everyone away from this game for now.

The middle stretch seems to be the wall for most people.

Get past that part and it's almost boring, it's so easy.

"I have a question."

I took out the gold coin and held it up toward the host.

"This. Can I use it on this person?"

"I don't follow. How could someone already dead make a transaction?"

So the coin, the "Life" itself, could be transferred, but it couldn't bring the dead back.

"Meaning it can be used on someone still alive."

I looked at Yu Hyun-jae in silence, then let it go.

The host didn't seem to read that as a question and didn't answer.

"Then......"

I lifted Chae Jae-ha's body where it had slumped in front of the machine.

"I'll move him somewhere and come right back. Everyone rest for a bit."

"By yourself? That'll be rough. Let me help-"

"-It's fine. I can drag him on a chair, so just... let me go alone. I'll be back right away."

Quietly.

I moved Chae Jae-ha's body toward the corridor on the far side where the restaurant stalls were clustered, sorting through my thoughts along the way.

Next time we get seven people together, we should go straight for the final game. Never mind the Fragments of Life.

At least now I have a rough sense of how those rewards accumulate.

Until we regroup with seven people again, all we can do is play these games and get used to things.

"......"

Click.

One of the freezer compartments in a restaurant kitchen happened to be empty.

That would do. At least sanitary enough to feel reasonably okay about.

Thud.

He was stocky, so getting him folded into the freezer compartment meant tucking the arms and legs in carefully.

Similar height to me, but heavier than I expected.

Click.

I could feel faint sweat beading at my hairline.

Anyway.

This man really is a lot of work...

* * *

17-2. The Gardener of Psyche is not you. It is only a character.

* * *

"Lee Na-hyun-nim. Would you like to try True Stories?"

By the time I got back, a new game had already begun.

Footnotes:

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