WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 34 - Manager's Office (5)

Seol Suyeon felt like she was going insane.

Something had gone terribly wrong. Originally, only the Cleaning Supervisor was supposed to be sent up in the elevator, but Park Minho had been dragged along with it.

On top of that, Lee Yumi’s condition wasn’t good either. Her rampage had ended, and the bleeding had stopped, but she was completely limp.

"Unni......"

Lee Yumi looked like all the strength had drained out of her body.

"Yumi, it’s okay. I’m right here with you.”

She said that, but Seol Suyeon had no idea what to do in this situation.

'Get it together. I can’t just freeze like this. The elevator’s going to come back down.'

She didn’t even want to think about it, but if the Cleaning Supervisor was still inside, she had to be ready. Gritting her teeth, Seol Suyeon shoved rounds into the magazine.

-Click, click, click.

Her fingers trembled so badly she nearly dropped the bullets several times.

-Ding.

At that moment, the elevator that had reached Floor 4 began moving again.

-Whirrrr.

She could hear the cable pulling, feeling the faint vibration under her feet. Seol Suyeon steadied herself and aimed her gun at the doors.

'Please......'

If Park Minho came back alive, she felt like she’d do anything.

-Ding.

The moment the doors opened, Seol Suyeon’s pupils widened. The first thing that hit her was the smell of blood.

It churned her stomach.

There was someone sitting inside. The sight nearly made her heart stop.

"Ah......!”

It was Park Minho. His face was so swollen and torn apart he was barely recognizable. When he staggered to his feet, she saw that there was a hole punched clean through his abdomen, and one arm was hanging at a grotesque angle.

He looked no different from a corpse. If zombies existed, this is what they would look like.

"Suyeon."

Seeing him step out of the elevator, Seol Suyeon finally broke down.

"Oppa…This! Hic! Oh…Ugh!”

"...I’m fine."

He said something completely absurd.

"Totally fine.”

"Are you…out of your mind…? Hic.”

Park Minho shrugged off the rifle that was getting in his way, then pulled out the key.

"Let’s go to the manager’s office. We need to hurry.”

"Oppa…Hic, sob! Are you really okay to move?”

“Yeah. We need to take Yumi too.”

"I’ll carry her.”

They picked up Lee Yumi and immediately headed for the Manager’s office.

But then, something rare happened. A building-wide announcement echoed through the goshiwon.

[Kzzzt! Kzzzzzt!]

And then, a chilling, grotesque voice followed.

[All occupants…remain in your rooms…]

[The Manager will be conducting……inspections in person. Any occupant not in their room…will be dealt with according to regulations……]

Hearing it mentioned that they were going to be dealt with according to this place's rules sent a chill down their spines. It seemed the Manager had realized something had happened to the Cleaning Supervisor and was now going to check every occupant one by one.

"It still hasn’t figured out who took down the Cleaning Superviosr. We need to hit the safe while we still can.”

The goshiwon felt colder than usual, heavy with tension. But the two of them didn’t stop running. Thankfully, the Manager’s office was empty.

Inside sat an old, crude metal safe. Park Minho inserted the golden key he had taken from the Cleaning Supervisor and turned it.

-Creeeak!

It didn’t turn smoothly and resisted stubbornly as if the safe itself didn’t want to open.

"Kgh...!"

Park Minho’s eyes reddened as he forced it, ignoring the pain of his wounds tearing open.

-Click!

The thick metal door swung open, and a musty smell poured out.

And inside was what they had been looking for.

The administrative memory stick capable of temporarily containing ghost records.

About 15cm long, it looked like an oversized USB drive, crudely stretched out, with a simple switch on it. It’s simplicity made it all the more unsettling.

Park Minho picked it up. A cold sensation crept up through his fingertips, making him frown.

"Suyeon, lay Yumi down here.”

"Okay."

Yumi’s condition was horrific. The tips of her fingers and toes were already breaking apart like pixels.

"Mister..."

Lee Yumi had barely regained consciousness. Lying there weakening, she looked up at Park Minho, and her eyes filled with tears at the sight of him.

"You’re a mess…because of me……”

Park Minho started to say it was fine but stopped himself. Right now, he didn’t want to tell even a small white lie.

"I’m quite a mess, huh?”

He wiped the blood from his face with his wrist and forced a smile. Not wanting to make things harder for him, Lee Yumi didn’t press further.

Instead, her gaze shifted to the stick.

"What…is that?”

"I’m going to…hide you for a bit.”

“Hide me……? Like in a vent?”

Seol Suyeon, standing beside her, gently held Yumi’s hand.

"This time, it’s somewhere even safer, Yumi……”

"Safer…?”

Lee Yumi repeated the word softly, then asked in a fragile voice,

"Then…you’re really taking me with you, right…?”

"Yeah, that’s why we’re doing all this. To take you with us somehow.”

"Thank you……But you said I’m fake, right……? Is it really okay for me to come with you?”

Park Minho’s chest tightened at those words. He reached out and gently patted her head.

"That doesn’t matter. The only Lee Yumi I know is you. So just rest in here for a bit.”

"...Mister."

"Yeah."

"My memories…even if they’re fake… I still want to know. My mom. My dad. My white puppy……I want to know. If I get out…will they come back…?”

Park Minho couldn’t bring himself to say yes. So instead, he made a different promise.

"I’ll find a way somehow. And…we’ll go eat tteokbokki together. For sure.”

At that, Lee Yumi gave a faint, happy smile.

"Okay……”

Soon, her head slumped weakly to the side.

Park Minho immediately flipped the switch on the administrative quarantine stick.

-Whiiiiiiiir!

A cold, blue scanning beam burst out, sweeping over Yumi’s entire body. Then, her body broke apart into data, dissolving and being sucked into the stick.

-Fsssssh.

It looked like polygons disintegrating piece by piece. Just like that, Lee Yumi vanished without a trace. The stick fell to the ground.

"Oppa…this is safe, right? Yumi will be okay, right?”

New text had appeared on the stick.

[Ghost_Record_01: Error_Code_Lee_Yumi]

[Safety Mode Activated]

Park Minho hated the words Error Code so much he covered them with his thumb and nodded.

"I’ll make sure she’s okay. Don’t worry.”

He tucked the stick into the inner pocket over his chest, as if to hold Lee Yumi close. The cold sensation of it rested clearly over his racing heartbeat.

"...Let’s move."

After that, the next most important thing was the elevator master key. With that, they could freely use the elevators in the goshiwon.

After that were the gold and silver coins.

Both were stored in white sacks, but there were too many to carry, so they decided to only take the gold ones.

‘Just how much is this……?’

There were easily twice as many gold coins as Park Minho already had.

"Let’s go. Now.”

"Oppa, what about our stuff?”

Room 303 was filled with their phase-compression backpacks and supplies.

"No time. You’ve got the coins, right?”

"Yes. I packed them separately, like you said.”

"That’s all we need. We can get the rest at the hotel.”

All that remained was escaping via the elevator. Park Minho wrapped sound-dampening tape around both his and Seol Suyeon’s shoes.

He didn’t know how much it would help, but they needed to stay as quiet as possible.

"Let’s go!”

The moment they stepped out of the Manager’s office, a siren blared loudly through the building.

-WEEEEEEOOOOOH―!

A chilling sound. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered wildly, then began shutting off one by one. The announcement resumed.

[Warning…! Warning! A critical security breach has occurred… Initiating immediate execution protocol…]

"O-oppa……!”

Seol Suyeon grabbed his hand rightly. Her grip trembled violently.

“It knows we opened the safe!”

"Stay sharp. We just need to make it to the elevator!”

They ran blindly through the darkness. But the lights above them were going out faster than they could run. It felt like something was swallowing the entire space whole.

"I think something’s chasing us!”

Seol Suyeon wasn’t imagining it. From beyond the darkness, something was following right behind them.

There was no doubt about it. The Manager had caught on somehow.

"Run. Keep going…!”

There was no choice now but to keep running. At last, they reached the hallway where the elevator was.

Thankfully, the lights here were still on. Maybe, just maybe, they had managed to shake off the Manager.

Park Minho quickly reached for the elevator button, but then he noticed a pitch-black shadow in the reflection of the polished stainless steel doors.

Crouched like a spider about to pounce on its prey. Park Minho reacted on instinct.

He spun around and shoved Seol Suyeon away.

"Move!”

At that exact moment, something dropped from the ceiling.

-Booooom!

A tall, humanoid entity with a grotesquely twisted body. It was the Manager.

At some point, it had been crawling along the ceiling, tracking them from above.

Thanks to Park Minho, Seol Suyeon barely avoided the attack.

But Park Minho wasn’t so lucky. The Manager’s hand filled his entire vision as it came crashing down.

"Aaaaagh!”

Its long, grotesque arm crushed into his already shattered ribs, forcing a scream out of him.

The Manager howled,

[Severe violation…! Severe violation! Occupant! I will not hear excuses…!]

Fearing what might happen if he looked at its face, Park Minho shut his eyes.

Then the Manager’s hand wrapped around his throat.

"Kgh...!”

He felt like he could die at any second. The only reason he was still holding on was the mysterious blue substance the Hotelier had injected into him. With sheer willpower, Park Minho gripped the Gastrolith and triggered another Noise Phenomenon

-Bzzzzzzzzzzt!

However, unlike the Cleaning Supervisor, the Manager endured the electric shock.

[It is useless…! Is that how you violated the regulations…? It is useless! Useless! Useless!]

"Ghk......"

Park Minho’s vision began to darken. As the pressure around his throat tightened, his consciousness started fading.

Seeing that, something inside Seol Suyeon snapped. That monster was tearing Park Mino apart again.

"I won’t ever let you!”

Seol Suyeon, who had always been gentle and calm, had never felt rage like this in her life.

Her mind was filled with a single thought. To destroy the Manager no matter what. Then something caught her eye. It was the pool of Park Yumi’s blood spread across the floor.

The same blood that had spilled during her earlier rampage.

'Yumi, please help me…’

Seol Suyeon pulled out a full magazine and dipped it into the thick pool of blood. The sticky, dark fluid soaked into it completely.

She slammed the magazine back into place.

-Click!

Blood splattered onto her face, but she didn’t flinch. Her expression was closer than ever as she raised her rifle and aimed.

At that moment, the Manager sensed the threat. It lowered the file it had been using to cover its face and looked directly at her.

Their eyes met. She saw its face directly. Normally, that alone would shatter a person’s mind, tearing them apart piece by piece.

And it did hit her. A horrifying sensation as if thousands of grotesque eyes were staring straight into her soul.

But she endured it. Because of her anomalous trait, Strong Mind. It only lasted a second, but that was enough for her to pull the trigger.

-Ratatatatatatatata!

The magazine was slick with blood, but the spring pushed the rounds up without issue, and a full 12 shots were fired.

Her vision was gone. Unable to look at the Manager any longer, she blindly emptied the rest.

-Ratatatatatatatatata―!

Many shots missed, fired purely on instinct, but some hit.

The Manager screamed in agony.

"KWWaaaAAaaAGH!”

Thanks to its ‘administrator status,’ it had never experienced pain like this before. Unable to withstand the shock, it collapsed to the floor.

“Kweeeek…Kugh……!”

It looked almost like it had entered a stunned, groggy state, its head lowered and gasping.

Park Minho seized the moment and forced himself up. He staggered, nearly collapsing again, but managed to steady himself and rushed to Seol Suyeon.

"Suyeon!”

"Oppa...!"

Seol Suyeon fumbled blindly, unable to see. Park Minho quickly supported her.

"Come on, grab my arm.”

They pushed past the fallen Manager and desperately made their way into the elevator.

"We’re here! Suyeon! Just a little more.”

"Uwaaaagh!”

Seol Suyeon cried out in pain. They barely managed to get inside. Park Minho jammed the master key in, hit the button to the 4th floor, and then slumped down.

-Thud.

The heavy doors began to close, and all seemed to be over.

But in that moment, a grotesquely long gray hand forced its way inside through the narrowing gap.

"KWEEEEEK!”

The Manager wasn’t done.

Its clawed hand flailed wildly through the air. Park Minho and Seol Suyeon pressed themselves against the wall, barely avoiding it.

“Kweek! Kweeeeek!”

It thrashed desperately, trying to grab them.

But the elevator had already started moving. Its arm got caught and began to crush.

"Kweeeeh!”

The Manager convulsed, as if trying to tear the elevator itself apart. The cabin shook violently.

But in the end, it couldn’t overpower the mechanism. With a spray of black blood, its arm was severed.

-Thud.

The grotesquely long limb dropped at Park Minho’s feet. Then with a heavy mechanical hum, the elevator began descending deeper.

-Whiiiiiir.

* * *

The Hotelier was still waiting.

For someone as busy as him, this was quite unusual. That was how important the request from his superiors regarding Park Minho was.

'I have high hopes, but…is it really possible?’

Honestly, the chances of that ordinary human coming out on top didn’t seem very high.

-Click.

The Hotelier took out a pocket watch from his vest and checked the time, deciding to wait just a little longer.

But then the elevator began moving again.

-Whirrrrrr.

The Hotelier couldn’t help but be surprised.

"Don’t tell me…?”

He waited anxiously. And when the doors finally opened, his black beak hung open in shock.

Inside were a man and a woman, both unconscious and drenched in blood. Nearby lay a sack filled with gold coins and the severed, stretched-out arm of the Manager.

“Good Heavens…you actually did it? How in the world…?”

Even more astonishing, the man hadn’t even awakened yet, contrary to his expectations.

So how had he defeated that monstrous Manager?

There was no time to dwell on it. He quickly issued orders.

“These two are esteemed guests under the Young Lady’s protection. Move them to the infirmary immediately.”

"Understood!”

The mannequin Facelings' moved in perfect coordination, placing them onto stretchers.

Silently observing the scene, the Manager came to one clear realization.

'So that’s why someone like him caught her attention. There was a reason after all.’

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