WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 71: You Only See What You Know

──────

Chk.

A familiar sound came from inside the Project Delphi machine.

Click.

A small gold coin fragment slid out of the coin slot.

I'd only answered eight questions instead of nine, so even counting this piece, it would fall just short of one coin.

I glanced over at the person holding the quarter-piece.

"Now that I think about it."

If that person hadn't stopped me midway, I could have completed a full coin.

"Why did you stop me earlier? We could have finished it."

Even if it couldn't help Lee Jin-su, who was already dead, it could still be used for someone else. In the right situation, it might even save the person holding it.

So why do something that only hurts yourself?

"I'm sorry. I did it without thinking. A mistake."

Watching that clean admission made it feel oddly flat.

"I know it wasn't my place, but I thought it was... something we shouldn't hear. Not any further. Me. Us."

Is this person out of their mind.

"That's not worth more than a life."

Disappointing. To be spouting nonsense like that in a situation where any moment could be your last.

I hadn't thought of them as a bad person, but I hadn't believed they were quite this easygoing, either.

Whatever happened to the conspiracy theorist who said they'd lock a time-regression survivor back in a Labyrinth just to run experiments? That had sounded genuine.

"I know. I do."

Then how can you do this knowing that?

"I'm not sure I fully understand why I did it myself."

An unpredictable set of principles, all told.

That's exactly what makes dealing with them so exhausting.

Maybe there was some other angle I was missing and this was just an excuse. Wariness that my share in completing the "life" coin had grown too large.

"Well then. Use it however you all see fit."

What does it matter, this little coin fragment.

Thud.

I set the gold coin shard on the table. Not an official transfer, but a signal that I had no intention of claiming any further rights over this Fragment of Life.

"Once it's complete, I don't care who uses it."

That seemed to work as a cue. A clipped voice cut through.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi."

Hwang Ju-yeon had brought over a chair, apparently to move the game company employee's body. The same chair they'd used to move the accountant's.

"Give me a hand?"

"Sure."

Much lighter than I expected, as it turned out.

"Thank you. Let's go."

"I'll go alone."

"No. Come with me."

She seemed uneasy about something.

Refusing outright would look strange, so I nodded.

"......"

Not a word passed between us until we had the body tucked away in the restaurant's freezer.

Thud.

I closed the freezer door and was about to head out when it happened.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi."

Hwang Ju-yeon spoke for the first time.

"I'm going to be direct."

"Please."

"That game, the Garden of Psyche. Did something happen inside it? Something that affected you in a way we don't know about? In a bad way?"

"Pardon?"

Out of nowhere?

I thought she was going to bring up the coin.

The eyes in that fox-like face looked straight at me.

"I think you've changed. Because of that game. Ever since you played it, Ji-ho has been noticeably on edge, too."

I clapped a hand over my mouth and widened my eyes.

Hold it together.

"So, how do I put this. Something from that game took root in you, or it caused some kind of change in your mind or your state of being. Something like that..."

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh.

"So you're saying I've been acting strange 'since' that game...?"

That can't be right.

If anything changed, around that time it was more like I simply... let go of something.

"I honestly didn't realize. But I wasn't exactly a cheerful, upbeat person to begin with, so maybe there's been some confusion..."

"Right, I only met you today, so I wouldn't know what you're normally like. But it doesn't feel like that's all it is. Still, what's that, three hours? Almost four now? I've been watching you up close the whole time."

Hwang Ju-yeon's eyes and voice were steady.

It wouldn't be polite to laugh in that serious face.

But the fact that we had only known each other for three or four hours was so funny that I couldn't do anything except keep my hand pressed over my mouth.

"I can see that you're not someone whose emotions swing wildly to begin with. I get that. But since that game, you've been looking at us a little like..."

The magician's narrow eyes tightened slightly.

Discomfort. Hesitation. A faint tremor underneath.

"Like objects. Like we're just dolls that happen to be human-sized."

I hadn't thought it had gotten quite that far.

If it had, I probably would have already...

"Charitable assessment would be animals?"

So I was the clock running a minute slow.

I see people as people. Same as myself.

...It's a matter of scale.

"It happened earlier too. You were working so hard to answer the questions to save Lee Jin-su, but the moment he died, you checked the game screen like he was already out of your mind. And you were smiling at whatever you saw. Didn't that strike you as off, even to yourself?"

"Ah."

Genuine surprise crossed my face this time.

How does this person do it, this kind of straight-on confrontation?

If it were me, I'd never raise it directly. I'd be looking for angles to come at it from behind.

"I really think there was some kind of influence you weren't even aware of. I've heard those kinds of anomalies exist. You'd know better than me, probably."

She must have read my expression in whatever way suited her, because Hwang Ju-yeon let out a quiet breath and her face softened.

"I've seen how badly you want to get out of here, and how hard you've been working at it. And thanks to that, Na-hyun-ssi is safe. So if it was because of that game, I wanted to find a solution together."

And if it wasn't because of the game.

What then.

Were you going to conspire with the others and finish me off?

Did you think I wouldn't see it coming?

Here I was, taking a genuine concern and turning it into this right away. The kind of person I am.

"Maybe the gold coin can fix it too. Of course, anyone in real danger should use it first, but if there's room..."

"I understand what you're saying. Still, you really don't need to worry about it on my account."

No point in going out of your way for someone like me. No point in caring, either.

The smart move, when someone looks dangerous, is to deal with them quietly. That's what I would do.

...Though I do think, all else being equal, saving more people is better. Obviously.

That won't change.

But it can't come before my own survival.

My life can't weigh less than anyone else's. Not ever.

You can't mistake someone like me for someone who can "get better" just because they've stepped up and taken a few risks.

People like me never betray anyone.

Because we were never on the same side to begin with.

"Still... thank you. For saying that."

Something turned in my stomach.

Honestly, a knife in the back would have been easier.

Even now, half of me was waiting for Yu Hyun-jae and Lee Na-hyun to appear from behind me with rope and a club.

"...I've been talking too much. Let's go. Everyone's waiting."

But nothing happened.

We walked back side by side in silence, all the way to the arcade.

Very quiet. Very peaceful.

I'll have to be more careful.

Going forward.

* * *

Five people left now.

Me, Yu Hyun-jae, Lee Na-hyun, Jeong Ji-ho, Hwang Ju-yeon.

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

The host pressed us with the same words, parroting itself.

"Jeong Ji-ho-nim."

Those strange horizontal pupils landed on the child without warning.

The child's eyes went wide.

"I happen to know that Jeong Ji-ho-nim is a very fun playmate."

The kid, who had already been on the receiving end of pointed looks for not playing, started hiccupping.

"Does everyone really have to play a game...?"

"I don't follow."

Hosoo replied to what had been Hwang Ju-yeon's half-muttered question.

"Everyone here must enjoy the games."

"...That sounds like the final game. If everyone has to participate in that, there's probably no requirement for every person to play something before then."

The host didn't respond.

"Well then, I'd like to play one. Though I suppose that one's off the table."

Yu Hyun-jae pointed at...

[p r e s s　a n y　b u t t o n]

The machine running Project Delphi.

"Correct. The chance to receive Project Delphi's oracle is available to each person only once."

I wondered if dying and coming back would reset it.

And if it did, would that oracle, which had sounded like a curse, change too.

"Then this one."

Yu Hyun-jae turned away without apparent disappointment and pointed at a board game box.

Lee Na-hyun sucked in a sharp breath beside them.

"Yu Hyun-jae-nim. Would you like to play True Stories?"

"Yes. Skip the rules explanation."

It seemed Yu Hyun-jae had decided this was the most manageable of the games they already knew.

Of course they wouldn't want to play the Garden of Psyche or Puncture Darts, which had each claimed someone. But Idle Hamster seemed like it would suit Yu Hyun-jae well enough.

Then again, the fact that those "hamsters" weren't real hamsters was the problem. The cards had been said to affect the originals "almost" not at all, not not at all.

"Now, the first incident!"

At the request, the host skipped the rules and laid the top card on the table.

"Oh? That's..."

Lee Na-hyun, who had been craning forward with the most interest, blinked.

[Problem: A man opened a refrigerator door, then closed it again. A few minutes later, the man was dead. What happened? (Questions remaining: 21)]

That problem again. Lee Na-hyun's first incident.

"Wait. It runs the same problems in the same order? I assumed it would shuffle them...!"

That was exactly what made this game interesting.

It didn't shuffle the incident cards. Everyone got them in the same sequence.

The host let non-participants watch freely and even allowed spectators to learn the answers to questions a participant failed to solve.

Which meant the more people had already played before you, the fewer questions you'd need to spend, and the more incidents you could solve.

"Isn't that unfair to whoever goes first? Not that I'm criticizing you, Representative, I just..."

In other words, if you worked the room right, you could let earlier players take the hits and breeze your way to a full coin with minimal effort.

And since losing an incident didn't seem to kill you outright, it would only be easier.

"Correct."

The co-representative of Uiwi Guild announced the answer, again without a single question.

"Yes, Yu Hyun-jae-nim. Please give your answer."

"The man had been kidnapped and was inside a refrigerator. When he came to, he opened the door and got out. It was a place like a warehouse, and inside the other refrigerators there, the man found various bodies. He realized he had been meant to arrive dead as well. As he searched his surroundings for a way out, he eventually accepted that escape was impossible and that being found alive would only mean a brutal death. So he climbed back inside a refrigerator and closed the door. A few minutes later, he was dead."

"A perfect answer. Yu Hyun-jae-nim has resolved the first incident."

The answer written on the back was, naturally, the same. Only the phrasing of certain details differed.

It was as if they had memorized the contents entirely.

"Yu Hyun-jae-nim. Would you like to continue to the next incident, or stop here?"

"Continue."

"A wise choice. Now, the second incident!"

[Problem: A woman drank the same tea every single day. One day she drank a different tea for the first time and then killed herself. Why? (Questions remaining: 21)]

"Correct."

"Yes, Yu Hyun-jae-nim. Please give your answer."

The incident that Lee Na-hyun had failed after running out of questions was resolved the same way.

"...And so, the woman realized she had lost her will to live to the point where she could no longer even long for her family, and she killed herself."

"A perfect answer. Yu Hyun-jae-nim has resolved the second incident."

"Mmm..."

Lee Na-hyun whined beside them like a puppy that needed to go out.

This wasn't a competition, but something about having it taken from her seemed to sting. She looked a little dejected.

"Yu Hyun-jae-nim. Would you like to continue to the next incident, or stop here?"

"Let's continue."

"A wise choice. Now, the third incident!"

From here on, though, things would be different.

A new problem none of us had seen before.

[Problem: W skipped lunch due to a stomachache. X had snacks from the school store for lunch. Y skipped lunch because they had no appetite. Z ate lunch in the cafeteria. All four were found dead a few hours later. What happened? (Questions remaining: 21)]

Four students in uniforms, each drawn separately.

There were no bloodstains or similar markings, probably to avoid revealing the cause of death.

The letters W, X, Y, and Z were printed in red over the differently posed students.

W, leaning against a wall.

X, collapsed on the floor.

Y, in a pose similar to X.

Z, slumped facedown over a desk.

"Four people? Didn't the difficulty just shoot up out of nowhere? I guess I was always fated to get this one wrong..."

"Come on, you would have done fine if you'd had the chance, Na-hyun-ssi."

...Wait a moment.

A deeply unpleasant sense of deja vu.

Could this be.

'▓▓ Middle School Entire Student Body and Staff Found Dead, Authorities Launch Large-Scale Investigation.'

Wasn't that the article that had been edited in the Singyae Daily?

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried