WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 58: Engine Room

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『Conversation? With death right before your eyes, you wish to talk?』

“I thought you might be willing to.”

『Why would you think that?』

I answered the conductor’s question.

“Were you not the one who killed the judge in Car 2?”

『Correct. As a judge, attempting to mention the judges’ rules to a sinner was a grave sin, so I beheaded him.』

“You have the remarkable power to behead and kill a being in another car from a different car, yet you did not kill me.”

『……』

“You want to judge me. Or, as you said earlier, you want to make me know my place. Is there a better means than conversation? Through conversation, you can judge me or make me know my place.”

『For an insect, you speak too much.』

Something invisible crushed my left leg. Fortunately, it did not break, but it seemed intent on causing unbearable pain.

『I think I know what you are relying on.』

“What do you mean?”

『You are an insect borrowing a tiger’s might.』

He pointed at my eye.

『That right eye was bestowed by the ill-omened Blue Moon, was it not? Are you acquainted with it? Is that why you demand to speak with me as an equal?』

It appeared to be talking about Blue Moon.

『And that gaze watching over you belongs to the Sole Venerable One. You intend to survive by talking to me under their protection and mentioning that fact. I can know it all without experiencing it.』

Was the Sole Venerable One The Girl with Her Eyes Closed?

“That’s troubling. I had no intention of doing that.”

Socrates said one should know one’s own ignorance. The conductor was the opposite.

『No intention? Then why did you dare run wild here? You must have believed in those two. You believed you would survive no matter what as long as they were there. An insect could not openly run wild without such backing.』

Those who did not know what they did not know would never admit their ignorance.

It was blind certainty in one’s own opinion, stubbornness that refused to accept a new perspective. No matter what conversation we had, the conductor’s opinion would not change.

『Even with them present, I have no intention of letting you leave this place. Here, I am the sky. Your shallow tricks have already been revealed to all.』

“Hmm.”

Therefore, conversation was useless. If anything, bringing it up first had hurt his pride and completely cut off any path to dialogue.

“So this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I truly had no intention of borrowing a tiger’s might.”

I entered a number into the smartphone I had taken out with my cigarettes.

[666-666-666-666-666-666]

“As a final excuse, I truly had no intention of running wild. As you know, humans die easily, and you are like natural disasters. I only wanted to talk, and the judges were all violent, so I simply put them in a state where conversation was possible.”

『A pathetic excuse.』

“Just because I’ve become a little stronger, I never once thought I could physically fight and defeat beings like you.”

I pressed the call button.

“Of course, I can deal with the weaker ones among you. But before beings like you, whom I must truly face, I am less than a firefly before the sun. How could I possibly think such a thing?”

A very slow dial tone continued. The conductor watched, but perhaps he considered it the futile act of an insect and paid no attention.

“You are natural disasters. Natural disasters that human strength cannot confront head-on. Yet there are three ways humans respond to natural disasters. One is to flee from them. Another is to worship them. And the last is……”

The dial tone stopped.

“To use whatever abilities and technology they have to protect themselves from natural disasters.”

“Oh, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, you finally called for me.”

“That is how humans live. In this case, that means another natural disaster.”

Baal was suddenly standing beside me.

“My, you are in quite a state.”

“That’s how things turned out.”

“But……”

Baal gave an awkward smile.

“You’ve called me to a very troublesome place.”

“Is it troublesome?”

“Yes, it is. I’ve encountered someone who works in the same field as I do. You could say we’re rivals. We don’t get along very well.”

『……Why are you here?』

“It has been a long time, being of the Desire Realm.”

Baal named the conductor’s affiliation.

“So, why did you call me, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon? I doubt you called because you wish to join our company.”

“I hoped the two of you might have a conversation. While you were at it, I hoped you would leave me out of it for a moment and free the passengers trapped here through dialogue.”

“Certainly.”

Baal smiled as he looked at the door beyond the conductor.

“There certainly are a great many of them. It’s quite interesting to see them all suffering.”

『Do you enjoy human suffering? As expected of debauched wretches, your tastes are vulgar as well.』

“To inflict suffering without any meaning, how truly wicked. What meaning is there in suffering without purpose?”

『Suffering is punishment. It is a truth of the world accepted by all of the Three Thousand Worlds, and only you deny it.』

“What? What are you talking about? I heard your side recently changed its policy as well.”

『I have nothing to say to a vulgar wretch. Begone.』

“I can’t do that. Our promising prospect wishes it.”

Baal stepped forward. His back looked broad.

“Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, do as you wish. I’ll deal with that one.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, are you going that way?”

Ignoring the pain in my leg, I ran toward the place behind the conductor that appeared to be the engine room.

“This is truly troublesome. Escaping should be your priority……”

『Wretch! How dare an insect attempt to enter that sacred space!』

“I’m sorry, but please spend a little time with me.”

I did not know how Baal had done it, but I succeeded in getting past the conductor.

“Twenty minutes. Perhaps even less than that.”

The sound of fly wings buzzed beside my ear.

“With this, you owe me one.”

Owing a demon a favor was frightening, yet interesting.

＊＊＊

『……』

Lee Seung-hoon entered the engine room. The conductor had narrowly missed Lee Seung-hoon, and Baal was facing him to prevent him from giving chase. Baal was smiling, but he was not truly smiling.

‘He’s very angry.’

The opponent was a being of the Desire Realm. He was not the ruler of the Desire Realm, but an existence that held a throne beneath that ruler. Still, he was clearly above Baal.

‘Really, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon should have just run away. I stepped forward so confidently because I thought he would.’

If Lee Seung-hoon fled, Baal could flee as well. That much was entirely possible, but confronting him head-on was another matter.

“Still, I’m truly curious. As far as I know, not only the Desire Realm but all of your affiliates changed their policy. From severe punishment to reconciliation and rehabilitation, was it not?”

『How dare you.』

The conductor’s black shadow gradually consumed the space.

『How dare you, before me, the master of this Temporary Hell personally appointed by the Heavenly King of Freely Enjoying Others’ Emanations. How dare you defy my will and allow an insect into the engine room. How dare you insult the entire Desire Realm.』

The world was swallowed by darkness. Within it, even Baal was no more than a tiny fly.

『How dare you, before me, one of the Three Māras!』

『How dare you, before me, the master of the Three Poisons!』

『How dare you, before me, a being of the Three Sufferings!』

Stars glittered in the darkness. Every star was supreme suffering, an ocean of every emotion, and the afflictions of the entire world.

『How dare you invade my domain before me!!!』

Cold sweat ran down Baal’s face.

‘As expected, this requires someone at the president’s level……’

A bitter smile accompanied the thought.

‘Twenty minutes? Ten minutes might be pushing it.’

＊＊＊

‘So this is the engine room.’

It was my first time entering the engine room. The game had revealed the existence of the engine room itself, but it had never specifically mentioned what was inside or what happened within.

‘There were only theories that there would be a mechanism that used the passengers as fuel.’

Occasionally, people who put their ears to the door leading to the engine room heard countless screams. That was all the foreshadowing there was. True to Creepypasta, the details had not been revealed.

“So this is what it looks like.”

The engine room was a space containing a colossal furnace fit for a colossal workshop.

‘An endless space with no walls in sight.’

Before coming in, I had considered several plans. One was to control the train, return to the present world, and free all the passengers at the same time, but I could not see any controls anywhere.

‘Then I’ll cut off the fuel.’

The furnace seemed to be where fuel was supplied, so I approached it. Then I heard countless people screaming.

“Please save me!”

“Argh!”

“Just kill me instead!”

Even with the senses enhanced further by 「Friendship」, I had not been able to hear them from far away. The fierce flames of the furnace had swallowed all their screams.

‘I can’t tell whether they’re alive or dead.’

Their bodies appeared to regenerate, so perhaps they were alive and being subjected to eternal pain.

Or perhaps they were already dead, endlessly regenerating as the dead.

‘Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that I have to free them.’

If they were alive, it was only right to save them. Even if they were dead, it was only right to free them from eternal suffering.

“How do I stop it?”

I carefully examined the area around the giant furnace, but I could not find anything useful.

“?”

Then I found writing as enormous as the furnace itself on its rear side.

[WK Custom Permanent Power Device - Avici]

“WK……”

I never expected to find the logo of a multidimensional conglomerate stamped on it.

“They have impressive salesmanship.”

A good idea suddenly came to mind.

“Could this be possible too?”

After taking out my smartphone, I held down the power button. Five seconds later, Sarang-i woke up for the first time in a while.

『Did you call for me, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon?』

“Sarang-i, do you think you can hack this too?”

The furnace was a simple analog tool, not a digital one.

It was the size of a park, but it was still only one enormous furnace.

‘But what if it’s a specially made furnace rather than an ordinary one?’

It could not be ruled out that the furnace itself was a kind of computer, capable of supplying fuel to and operating the train.

‘Just as Sephirot is a multidimensional computer despite taking the form of a tree.’

Anomalies must be inferred beyond what is seen, using the available information.

『According to my search results, this product appears to be an automatic fuel generation and operation device manufactured by WK Corporation, based on transdimensional AI circuitry.』

“Just as I thought.”

『It appears that the manufacturer did not consider the possibility of hacking, as its security system is extremely weak. It should be easy to hack.』

I made a request of Sarang-i.

“Please do it. Stop the fuel supply, stop the train, and find out information about the product.”

Sarang-i’s cheerful voice came from the smartphone.

『I’ll begin immediately.』

Footnotes:

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