WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈
Chapter 70: Should Have Thrown It Away
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[𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝙳𝙴𝙻𝙿𝙷𝙸]
If you learn the future, you will become bound to it.
Whether that oracle is an immutable truth, or nothing but a trap and a lie.
You will trip yourself up.
And yet I want to know.
Whether I can change the future.
Whether I can overcome this Labyrinth.
Whether my rules can take precedence over the Labyrinth's rules.
"You're going to do it."
"Yes. With a little luck, I might be able to complete it, that gold coin."
So in the end, it comes down to self-satisfaction. No matter what I say about it being a waste.
I want to win.
Not to let these people win.
In the end, I use even the lives of others. As an excuse to keep surviving.
"Seon Yu-han-ssi, you need to get nine questions right. If you want to finish it in one go."
Nine questions in twenty-one seconds.
A little over two seconds per question.
Can I do it?
Yu Hyun-jae only barely managed five.
And there were some I hadn't even been able to answer.
"Still...... I have to try."
Click.
【Answer the Question.】
Green letters surfaced against a pitch-black screen.
【Question I】
【What is the first book she ever threw away?】
Ah.
Memory is a strange thing.
【𝟸𝟷】
'Ha! That's not even funny......'
It always drags me back to that moment.
And once it does, I'm helplessly trapped there.
For the span of a single blink. Like an eternity.
【𝟸𝟶】
It was over twenty years ago now. The day we cleared out the house we'd lived in with our parents.
I was young enough then, but there were picture books from even younger days still lined up in the living room. Someone pulled one out, read it quietly for a moment, and sneered.
'What's the point of someone reading this, when they don't even know how much they owe their older sister......'
Then it was the first thing tossed into a box.
That book was definitely...
"The Sun and the Moon."
【Correct!】
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
No time to linger.
I was glad, actually.
Glad that Lee Jin-su was on the verge of losing consciousness at any moment.
Because no one was asking me about any of this.
【Question II】
【What did you use the price of silence for?】
"......"
【𝟷𝟿】
...... Life?
That's probably not the answer they're looking for.
The question asks where I "used" it. They want something more concrete than an abstract answer.
【𝟷𝟾】
"University tuition."
【Correct!】
Right. In the end, I did the math too. Even then.
The one thing that ruled my head at the time.
Survival.
I have to live. I have to keep living somehow. I have to make it through this world.
My life was no longer mine. I had no right to claim it as mine.
It belonged to them. Something I had no right to throw away.
'I'll sign. And for the name......'
So that was the plan my half-formed brain came up with.
Follow the path that most people choose.
Then I could......
Pretend to be a "normal," "fine" person.
No one would know I was a "pitiful," "unfortunate" survivor.
I could hide it so no one could look inside. The part of me with no way out.
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
【Question III】
【What were her last words?】
Time moves slowly.
I think I understand now how Yu Hyun-jae answered so quickly.
【𝟷𝟽】
Why do they keep giving questions like this.
Questions that are hard to answer.
【𝟷𝟼】
"...... I'm waiting. I'll be right back."
【Correct!】
The silence is absolute in every direction.
Not only because I was concentrating too hard.
I don't want to turn around.
Too many eyes are pressing in on me from behind.
If I'd known it would be like this, I wouldn't have played this game. Not in front of other people, at least.
I thought about how I might erase their memories, then shook my head.
It would be faster if I just died.
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
【Question IV】
【The one who welcomes those who enter and sees off those who leave. Who stands between the beginning and the end?】
【𝟷𝟻】
I'm grateful they finally gave me a question that isn't about me.
But the question is too long. Deliberately, so it takes time just to read.
Always with the cheap tricks.
【𝟷𝟺】
Earlier, when Yu Hyun-jae played this game, the riddles with twisted phrasing were all tied to mythology.
The one who watches those who come and go......
The boundary between beginning and end......
That would be a "door."
And in mythology, there happens to be a god of doors.
【𝟷𝟹】
"Janus."
【Correct!】
Janus, who faces both ways, is also seen as a god who looks back on the past and peers into the future.
...... Come to think of it, even if I string together the first letters of my answers so far, it doesn't seem like it would add up to any kind of oracle.
Something like 'SuPJf'?
Maybe it's getting tangled because I already understand how the oracle system works.
Though at the rate questions are flying at me, I don't even have time to think about first letters anyway.
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
【Question V】
【What was it that you were originally supposed to verify?】
I almost turned my head without thinking.
【𝟷𝟸】
But I can see it without looking.
Those small, round eyes.
Still frightened of me.
Eyes that found something in me.
I did something unforgivable to that child.
【𝟷𝟷】
'The number of people who did not die in the Dalumul Village Labyrinth ten years ago.'
'Verify.'
If I had only said those two words, "adopt," back then.
That child could have left the Labyrinth for good and never ended up here.
And I wouldn't have needed to be pierced by those eyes, sharp as ice picks.
【𝟷𝟶】
"False testimony."
【Correct!】
But I won't regret it.
I would make the same choice any number of times.
Regret would be an insult, if anything.
To that child.
To myself.
And to that person.
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
【Question VI】
【"How often do you need to water it?"】
Ha.
【𝟿】
How could I not know that.
How long did I spend in that garden...... controlling the character.
【𝟾】
"Whenever you hear the cry of thirst."
【Correct!】
"Jin-su-nim......"
"Lee Jin-su-ssi......"
Distant voices, trying somehow to rouse Lee Jin-su back to consciousness.
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
【Question VII】
【Who is the eternal owner of a ship that changes endlessly yet never changes?】
Another question twisted into strange metaphors.
If this one also has to do with mythology......
【𝟽】
A ship that changes without end.
And yet a ship that does not change.
Everything changes, sooner or later.
After all that time passed, was I still myself?
After all this time passes, will I still be myself?
Am I still becoming myself?
Should I be?
Why?
【𝟼】
I don't know.
What matters isn't me.
That tiresome argument about change and essence never ends.
But that name will always be placed at the ship's prow.
【𝟻】
"Theseus."
【Correct!】
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
Click.
【Question VIII】
The eighth question now.
【What was the first and last question that the one who only wanted liberation for everyone ever asked you?】
A question asked of me? The first and last time?
Someone who wanted liberation for everyone......
【𝟺】
Ah.
Could that be referring to that time.
【𝟹】
"Want to take a sip?"
【Correct!】
That's it.
Someone I'd barely ever crossed paths with showed up out of nowhere one day, paper cup in hand, and said exactly that.
I politely declined, thinking it was alcohol.
It was the period when people were starting to fall apart, one by one.
That said, it was the first time I'd encountered someone in bad enough shape to have made a plan that extreme.
A plan to kill everyone and be free.
Of course I didn't know it at the time, but there were some rather unusual outsiders mixed in among us, so the plan never came to fruition.
It's hard to get swept up in the scheme of someone that unstable anyway, someone who hadn't even thought to gather people in one place, just drifting around offering "drinks" to anyone they passed.
Though I think they did end up helping the next person's plan become a little more meticulous......
【Press right on the cross (✛) button to proceed to the next question.】
I sometimes imagine the world where their plan had succeeded.
Click.
【Question IX】
Green letters rise against a dark screen, empty as that imagined world.
The ninth question at last.
Answer this one and I can complete one coin of "Life."
【What are the words of the lullaby that used to come to you so readily on sleepless nights?】
Ah.
A voice I can never forget.
A voice I will never hear again.
The voice I miss most of all.
【𝟸】
"You too."
Don't stop. Don't hesitate. Not now.
【𝟷】
"Die with me that day--"
"--Seon Yu-han-ssi, stop."
Why?
I haven't finished yet.
【𝟶】
"That's enough. You can stop now."
Why?
I wanted to let you all hear it too.
【Incorrect!】
Everything I am is inside those words.
That voice changed everything about me.
The deepest root breathing inside me.
"I know. I know how hard you've been trying."
The representative of Uiwi Guild, who had rested a hand lightly on my shoulder, gave one soft pat and let go.
Ah.
Dead. What a waste.
"I wish I'd been faster."
I stood still and looked down at the body.
"I'm sure Lee Jin-su-ssi knows too. That you gave it everything."
He had been considerably lighter than Chae Jae-ha, as far as I could tell.
Even accounting for the missing body parts, his frame was on the lean side to begin with, so moving him out of the Neosoft office seated in a chair had been straightforward enough.
Come to think of it, was there a spare spot in that restaurant freezer from earlier.
The slot where I'd put Chae Jae-ha, I think I could probably squeeze him in there just fine.
【...Receiving oracle...】
"Ah."
I'd almost forgotten.
I turned my eyes back toward the arcade machine.
Moving the body could wait a little.
【Oracle received!】
The brief loading screen finished, and the display shifted at once. Green oracle text came down.
【▾ Thus speaks the oracle to Yu-han ▾】
"Ha!"
I read through the oracle slowly, went back to the beginning, and finally let out a laugh.
"Seon Yu-han-ssi?"
I only managed to stop when the expressions of the others began to change.
No wonder the questions had seemed easy.
Always pulling pointless stunts.
This isn't the oracle I was hoping for.
Not some fate I could push back against, either.
Just a simple message.
Nothing more, nothing less.
【I | The Sun and the Moon】
【II | University tuition】
【III | I'm waiting. I'll be right back】
【IV | Janus】
【V | False testimony】
【VI | Whenever you hear the cry of thirst】
【VII | Theseus】
【VIII | Want to take a sip?】
【IX | Die with me that day】
...... But.
Yeah. I'll be waiting.
Footnotes:
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