WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 74: The Sheep Don't Run

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"The night of awakening is a very peaceful night. No one harms anyone else."

Hosoo's warm, easy voice settled around the table like a curtain of darkness falling.

The arcade melted away. Only the round table remained.

But the people who had been sitting there with me were gone, like something out of a dream.

As if someone had cut only them out of the world.

"It is a night where everyone comes to understand who they are and how they will live. A night for thinking of no one but yourself."

Hosoo's calm voice reached me through a silence so complete it felt like I was the last person on earth.

It seemed to come from just behind my shoulder, then from someone standing on the tabletop and shouting. Both at once.

Even though he was standing perfectly still, directly across from me.

"Seon Yu-han-nim. It is time to understand who you are."

This too would be heard only by me. Everyone would be experiencing the same thing, I was sure. Each one sitting alone with the knowledge that they would have to kill with their own hands, whatever role they'd been given.

"Seon Yu-han-nim is a sheep."

Ha.

A sigh slipped out on its own.

"Those who cannot kill will simply die. Kill every species that threatens and exploits your life, and reclaim your free pasture."

Honestly, being a sheep was harder than being a wolf. A sheep could perform one identity check on a specific target to see if they were a wolf, but that chance came only once.

On top of that, there was a penalty for guessing wrong. I didn't know exactly what kind.

And even guessing right had its complications. If I correctly identified a wolf, I'd be given a single chance to protect one person, including myself, but that too could only be used once. I had to be careful.

Did I use it on myself that same night and guarantee my survival? Or did I trust that night to fate and save the protection for later, using it only after I'd already revealed the wolf I'd found?

Wolves, by comparison, were simple. Lie convincingly during the day so you don't get exiled, then succeed at hunting when night comes.

Of course, nothing in a Labyrinth was ever truly easy, so the wolves probably had penalties that hadn't been revealed yet either.

"Can I ask questions?"

"Yes, Seon Yu-han-nim."

"You said that if a sheep uses identity check once and correctly identifies someone as a wolf, they can choose any one person on any night to protect. Right?"

"Yes."

"Say I use it on myself. But what if a wolf already targeted me before I activated the protection? What happens then?"

"In that case, temporal priority does not apply. Seon Yu-han-nim will survive the night safely."

So at least there was no need to race against the clock. The wolves might feel pressure to target their prey before their packmates did, but that was their problem.

"How exactly does exile work? Just a show of hands, majority rules?"

"If you wish to exile someone, you simply tell me. At any time before night falls, freely. You may keep it short, such as, 'Seon Yu-han, exile.' The person with the most votes is removed from the pasture."

"Does it still count even if not everyone votes?"

"Yes."

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

What a vicious game.

"So if everyone agreed not to vote, and someone slipped in an exile call right before night fell, that person could be sent out with just one vote?"

"Yes, that's correct."

I couldn't stop laughing.

Rules this cruel.

Of course, that tactic was something I'd want to use but couldn't. Whoever tried it would be buried in votes the next day.

If it ever came to that, I'd need some safeguard first and save it for the late game.

"Anyway, voting isn't actually required, right?"

The host shrugged, flat and indifferent.

"Yes, that's right. Though I don't think you're the type to skip it."

I matched his expression, just as flat.

There was no obligation to answer.

"Is there any limit on how many wolves or sheep there are?"

"No."

"No one can be both wolf and sheep at the same time? And you're not secretly playing too?"

A Labyrinth could absolutely pull something like that.

"I don't understand. Wolves are wolves and sheep are sheep. I am the host."

The host smiled, the corner of his mouth lifting.

That smile irritated me. But if he was saying that combination didn't exist, fine.

He might mislead through clever wordplay, but he hadn't outright lied in a way that broke the game itself. Not once in everything I'd seen from him.

Was that just how game-loving entities were? That gambler die, Doi, was the same way.

"Hey, do you happen to know Doi? The gambling die on the eleventh floor, the one with eyeballs on every face instead of dots."

Hosoo's head tilted again.

"I don't understand."

So he didn't know.

Doi had imitated Hosoo's voice once, which meant Doi at least knew who Hosoo was. But apparently not the other way around.

Then again, if you were ranking by hierarchy, Doi's rules might sit a little higher. After all, Doi had the authority to actually let humans escape this Labyrinth.

Where would that other person's rules sit, then.

The one who caused glitches in Lost In HAPPYLAND to call my name, who sent messages through Project Delphi like the words of an oracle.

Maybe even having become part of the Labyrinth, they were still lost.

Lost enough that they couldn't exist by their own rules anymore and had to borrow the rules of yet another Labyrinth just to reach me.

"Anyway, the roles of people who get exiled or hunted aren't revealed afterward, right?"

"Yes."

"And when someone gets exiled or hunted, do they die immediately, or after the game ends?"

"If you're curious, you'll have to experience it yourself. What's the fun if you know everything in advance?"

"Ha."

I was past being annoyed.

"The dark night recedes, and a new day has dawned."

Between all my thinking, the night had ended without my noticing.

The darkness that had erased everyone lifted, and familiar faces reappeared around the table.

Going clockwise from me: Lee Jin-su, Lee Na-hyun, Hwang Ju-yeon, Jeong Ji-ho, Chae Jae-ha, Yu Hyun-jae.

Lee Jin-su on my left, Yu Hyun-jae on my right. Looking straight ahead, I could see Hwang Ju-yeon and Jeong Ji-ho.

Everyone's expression was dark.

"The night always lasts exactly twelve minutes, and each night is always followed by thirteen minutes of day."

Twelve minutes to decide who to hunt. Thirteen minutes to decide who to exile.

Twelve minutes. Thirteen minutes.

In a normal mafia game that would be long, almost dull. In the Silence of the Lambs, it might not be enough.

Because being hunted or exiled meant actually dying.

We would have to decide, with our own hands, who to kill. In barely twelve or thirteen minutes.

"Of course, you are not required to exile anyone. Though I wonder whether there is reason to refrain."

Even the sheep, the prey, could vote to drive someone out of the pasture and kill them during the day.

Everyone knew how many lives hung on every word they spoke, so no one opened their mouths easily.

"Um, so..."

The one who broke the silence first was someone I hadn't expected.

I kept my expression neutral and turned left.

"Should we maybe introduce ourselves? Like in mafia games, people usually do..."

Lee Jin-su. Employee at Neosoft, the game company on the fourteenth floor. A passive suicide case, someone whose dead face was more familiar to me than his living one.

"So, I'll go first, I guess. I'm a sheep. Not that it means anything since everyone will say that..."

Whether that was true or not, I couldn't tell.

Lee Jin-su was deeply introverted and rarely made eye contact.

"Then I'll go next. Let's go around in order like this."

Lee Jin-su had worked to open the conversation. I couldn't let that fizzle out for nothing.

I gestured in a circle counterclockwise starting from myself, sitting to the right of Lee Jin-su, setting things up so Lee Na-hyun, who sat to Lee Jin-su's left, would go last.

"I'm also a sheep."

Appropriate expression. Appropriate tone.

Even while telling the truth, I had to be careful not to sound like I was lying. Getting caught on something trivial could make me look like a wolf.

After my introduction, Yu Hyun-jae glanced at me once, then slowly looked at each person in turn before speaking.

"Sheep. Me too."

The co-representative of Uiwi Guild finished his introduction in the same dry, steady voice he always used.

I stared at him for a moment, caught off guard.

The rapid double-blink. The exaggerated bob of his throat. The almost imperceptible tremor at the corner of his mouth.

All the signals of a lie. Right there, clear as day, from where I was sitting beside him.

I thought you were good at mafia games. Supposed to be great at this.

Said it was no different from what an entrepreneur does.

Anyone with eyes can see you're a wolf, you idiot.

I carefully let my gaze drift around to check the others' expressions.

Don't tell me I was the only one close enough to catch it.

The accountant sitting right next to the representative, I hadn't expected anything from him.

But I'd expected something from the magician across the table.

Even a watch running a minute slow.

I mean, if you actually need to know the time, a watch that's a minute slow is still more accurate than a broken one. Obviously.

But being directly across from him, the distance must have made those tiny muscle movements harder to read.

Anyway, if I kept watching and didn't find anyone else who seemed like a wolf, I'd use my identity check on Yu Hyun-jae tonight and earn myself that protection.

"Ahem. I'm also a sheep."

After Chae Jae-ha's short introduction, Jeong Ji-ho held up a notebook.

[I'm a sheep]

I had bought him a notebook and pen at the convenience store on this floor when we stopped there to eat.

For a kid who couldn't speak because of trauma, this was an absurdly unfair game.

Though what game could possibly be fair for a child surrounded by adults.

I had to win.

To win, I needed to drive out every wolf, at minimum.

If Ji-ho was a sheep, that was one thing. But if he was a wolf.

Eventually, no matter what, I would have to exile him.

"I'm a sheep, too."

"Me too!"

The round completed, finishing with Lee Na-hyun.

I had watched everyone's expressions and tone of voice carefully, but the short introductions hadn't given me much to work with.

Something ambiguous, where I almost understood but not quite.

The fact that lives were genuinely on the line made everyone's faces hard to read.

I couldn't tell whether the look on someone's face came from the fear of dying soon or from knowing they might soon kill.

"Are we really going to... die? For real?"

The youngest among us aside from Jeong Ji-ho, Lee Na-hyun.

The corners of her eyes had been red when the night of awakening ended earlier.

"Probably..."

"I suppose..."

Everyone here knew they were inside an invasive-type Labyrinth. They had all seen at least one body on the way here.

Even if they had been forcing themselves not to think about it, somewhere in the back of their minds they already knew.

That they could die too.

"Is there no other way?"

But knowing wasn't the same as being prepared.

Whether it was the readiness to die. Or the readiness to kill.

"Hey, Seon Yu-han-ssi, do you have any... ideas?"

Chae Jae-ha leaned forward slightly and looked at me with anxious eyes.

"I mean, you kept figuring things out right away. Even from when we first met."

Six pairs of eyes. Twelve abysses as deep and dark as wells, all converging on a single point named Seon Yu-han.

"Ah..."

Keeping the right expression on my face wasn't hard.

"I thought I was pretty good at this too."

Saying the right things wasn't hard either.

"But some things, there's just nothing I can do about them. Nothing at all..."

I let a faint, self-deprecating smile settle on my face and pointed under the table to remind them of what was there.

"Oh."

"Yu-han-ssi..."

What I had lost when I cleared the Happyland game this time.

My right big toe.

Which was why I'd been sitting down by myself since we arrived at the arcade.

"Honestly. I'm a little scared too. Right now. I don't know who anyone is, and I don't want to make careless guesses."

I dipped my head slightly, then raised it again and met their eyes.

"But there's one thing I do know. That at some point, I have to exile the wolves."

So I was ready. Ready to kill.

"Because I don't want to die either."

And that, as always, was the hardest truth to say out loud.

Footnotes:

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