WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth
[Translator – Aren]
Chapter 47 - Backrooms within a Dream (3)
The dream Backroom, Bright Mind Psychiatric Hospital.
Director Yoon, or rather Director Yoon Tae-Oh, was not the owner or ruler of this world.
He merely possessed a special anomalous ability that allowed him to use Bright Mind Psychiatric Hospital to his advantage.
The hospital had determined that his treatment, which was actually brainwashing in disguise, was effective, and this allowed him to keep the position of director.
But even he was a being unable to escape this Backroom’s rules.
Especially Rule 2 of the hospital.
2. The director of this hospital can cure your sick mind with a 100% guarantee.
That 100% recovery rate was Director Yoon’s greatest weakness. If the treatment process failed, then the authority he held as director would inevitably collapse as well.
But such a thing had never happened before, and it never would.
Director Yoon nodded confidently.
'I gave him more medication than necessary. There won’t be any issue.'
The anomalous medication given to patients was powerful. Normally, people broke after 3 days. But Director Yoon had carefully observed the administration process for a full week.
'I was more cautious because he possessed the abilities of a God-class entity, but since he isn’t even an Awakened, he turned out to be nothing special. In the end, it really was just pearls before swine.’
Director Yoon smiled as he looked at Park Minho seated in front of him.
With his unfocused cloudy eyes, drool running out of his slightly opened lips, and his slumped posture and bent back, he looked exactly like someone whose sense of self had completely collapsed.
"Patient 704. I have a few questions.”
"Yes…Director.”
"Before arriving at our hospital, do you remember what you were doing outside? Is there anyone you’re still angry at?”
Park Minho’s dull eyes trembled briefly before he answered slowly.
“I was……definitely sick. I think I was trying to fight someone…but those were all delusions created by my illness. Right now…I’m not angry at anyone anymore…? Director, you cured me…”
Director Yoon was satisfied. Still, he wanted to verify things one last time. He opened the journal Park Minho had written himself.
Inside was nothing but praise toward the hospital and its director.
"Your treatment has progressed wonderfully. Look at what you've written yourself. I think it’s safe to use a recovery certificate.”
Park Minho stared blankly at the words in the notebook.
-Now I’m gradually coming to deeply understand the director’s teachings.
-Obviously I can feel my delusions and anxiety disappearing.
-Slowly I feel my mind becoming calmer and cleaner.
-I now realize all the problems I carried were caused by illness.
-Gratefully, from the very depths of my heart, I accept the hospital’s treatment.
-Naturally, I wish to continue to follow the director’s guidance.
As expected, his faith in Director Yoon and the hospital had not been misplaced.
"Park Minho-nim, then as the director, after considering everything comprehensively, I would like to issue an official recovery certificate.”
"Yes……Thank you…"
"Would you please sign here? It simply means you agree to the following procedures.”
"Understood...'
Park Minho gave a small nod and began writing his name into the blank space Director Yoon pointed toward.
Park...
Min…
Watching him, Director Yoon’s smile widened.
But then…
Park Minho frowned.
"Ugh......"
"What’s wrong?”
"Wait a second..."
As if something felt off, he looked back at the sentences he had written. Then he noticed something.
Taking only the first letter of each sentence formed an entirely different message.
[N. O. S. I. G. N.]
"...!"
At that moment, a violent headache struck him, and information smothered by the medicine’s effects suddenly surfaced.
"Uuugh......!"
Fragments rushed back chaotically about who he was, what his purpose was, and what danger he was currently facing. His head felt as if it were splitting apart.
"Park Minho-nim?”
Director Yoon sensed something was wrong and called out to him. Park Minho ignored him.
"Ah......"
He couldn’t say he remembered everything, but he recovered a significant portion. And then the two versions of himself, Park Minho the patient and Park Minho the original self, collided.
"Agh……"
But in the end, one side won. And when he opened his mouth, his tone had completely changed.
"I almost got screwed hard. Whew..."
“What are you talking about?”
“The vertical message thing. If you know about it, it looks ridiculously obvious. But if you don’t, it’s surprisingly hard to notice.”
The words “No sign” had become the trigger that restored Park Minho’s memories.
Of course, Park Minho hadn’t gambled everything in this dangerous situation on just a hidden message. He naturally had a plan B.
The complaint form.
He had already filed it out beforehand and folded it into his chest pocket. That was his ultimate failsafe.
'Even if I accidentally signed the recovery certificate, Professor Kim said that if the complaint form was written beforehand, I could still challenge that thing.’
Professor Kim had been the one to tell him that as well. Though how he knew so much about brainwashing and this psychiatric hospital remained a mystery.
Anyway, Park Minho’s reckless, hole-ridden plan had only become workable because Professor Kim had refined it.
Park Minho took his pen and violently scratched out the two characters he had written for his name.
"I believe there seems to be a problem with the treatment progress, Director.”
"...What?"
Park Minho pulled something from his chest pocket.
It was the complaint form.
“I believe you attempted to obtain the patient’s consent while treatment was still incomplete. I would like to formally raise an objection regarding this issue.”
For a moment, Director Yoon’s mind went completely blank.
The hospital reacted immediately.
Because from the hospital’s perspective, successful recoveries were the greatest achievement possible. Whether Director Yoon force-fed medicine or brainwashed patients didn’t matter to the hospital itself. Results were all that mattered.
But now a patient had refused to sign and formally submitted a complaint.
From the hospital’s perspective, a problem had just occurred.
The warm sunlight pouring into the director’s office suddenly turned blood-red. Then ominous footsteps echoed from somewhere down the hallway.
-Thud, thud.
The office door burst open, and something utterly beyond common sense revealed itself.
".......!"
Director Yoon’s lips trembled. The being known as the Inspector possessed a truly bizarre appearance. Dozens of yellow-stained psychiatric restraint jackets had fused together with flesh into an abominable shape.
Its mouth was attached directly to the center of its chest. The Inspector bared its yellow teeth and growled.
[Director Yoon Tae-Oh…We demand an explanation regarding this complaint report……Has the treatment failed…?]
Director Yoon hurriedly tried to explain himself.
“It’s nothing more than a minor error, Inspector. I’ll correct it immediately…”
Ignoring Director Yoon entirely, the Inspector turned toward Park Minho.
[What does the complainant desire…?]
Hearing that, Director Yoon shouted.
"Park Minho-nim! Withdraw the complaint! If you do, I’ll give you anything you want once we’re out of here!”
Looking at Director Yoon desperately trying to negotiate, Park Minho made a request guaranteed to strike fear into the man’s heart.
“Inspector, Director Yoon is suffering from delusions of grandeur. He genuinely believes he can cure patients with a 100% success rate.”
[And……?]
“I believe he needs to undergo treatment at this hospital himself before anyone else. I request his admission. This is not the hospital’s problem, but Director Yoon’s personal issue.”
[An excellent proposal……]
The inspector began loosening the straps wrapped tightly around its body one by one. They writhed like living snakes.
Then the Inspector shouted at Director Yoon in an even more distorted voice.
[…Our Bright Mind Hospital……! Will take every possible measure……! ……To ensure patients can always be admitted……!]
Director Yoon felt as though his mind had gone completely blank. He had never imagined that the psychiatric hospital, which had always been such a useful tool for him, would end up tightening the noose around his own neck.
'No! If I get caught, I’m done for!’
If they caught him, he’d be forced to take those horrifying pills every single day. He was the one who had designed the treatment process that way in the first place.
He had no idea how Park Minho managed to endure it, but even as a high-ranking Awakened, he wasn’t confident he could.
In the end, he made a split-second decision.
'I’m getting out of here!'
He decided to abandon his position as director of the psychiatric hospital and escape back to reality. He’d never be able to use this kind of brainwashing method again, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
"Kuwaaaaagh!”
Sparks erupted from Director Yoon’s eyes, and as expected of a high-ranking Awakened, his telekinetic ability activated.
-Booom!
In an instant, the giant Inspector was slammed violently into the wall. Bookshelves toppled over and the office descended into chaos.
Director Yoon couldn't let this opportunity pass. He had only succeeded because he caught the Inspector off guard. It wouldn’t work a second time. He immediately dashed out of the director’s office.
'The emergency exit…!'
He already knew how to escape this psychiatric hospital, a Backroom that existed within dreams. And as a high-ranking Awakened, while he couldn’t defeat the hospital itself, escape was still possible.
[……Restrain the patient…!]
At the Inspector’s furious roar, blaring sirens suddenly erupted throughout the hospital. At the same time, the nurses standing beside patients all raised their fingernails into blade-like claws and charged toward the fleeing Director Yoon.
"Kieeeeeh!”
"Keeh! Keeeeeeh!”
Park Minho also took off after Director Yoon. A chase had suddenly broken out throughout the hospital. As he ran, Director Yoon looked back at Park Minho and hurled curses at him.
“You little piece of shit! Once we get outside, I won’t let this slide! I’ll bury you no matter what, so you’d better be ready!”
If he could, he would’ve killed him on the spot, but he couldn’t kill his opponent inside this dream.
Once they escaped to reality, however, it would be a complete victory for Director Yoon, or rather, Executive Director Yoon. No matter that Park Minho possessed Reality Manipulation and Reality Collapse abilities, he was still just a rookie who could only use a tiny fraction of those powers. Meanwhile, Executive Director Yoon was one of TBU’s heavyweights. There was no way this would be a fair fight.
From Park Minho’s perspective, he absolutely had to stop him from escaping back to reality. But Director Yoon possessed abilities worthy of a high-ranking Awakened.
-Boom! Bang!
The nurses blocking his path were caught in his telekinesis and sent flying without mercy. Park Minho chased after him alongside the Inspector, but at this rate, it felt like they were going to lose him.
'If he gets away, I’m screwed.'
In the end, Park Minho decided to use his trump card.
'I didn’t think I’d end up using that thing like this…’
It was the Front Bell Badge with which he could summon the hotel’s crow hotelier.
Before he fell asleep, Professor Kim’s insider had secretly slipped it into his hand. Maybe because he had fallen asleep while holding it, he still had it even inside the dream.
Park Minho flicked the badge with his finger.
-Ting!
A sound like a front desk bell being rung echoed through the air. At the same time, the hospital sirens that had been tearing at his ears abruptly stopped. Then the space inside the hospital touched by the bell’s sound began to ripple grotesquely.
Even Director Yoon, who had been desperately fleeing, stopped in confusion.
“What the hell?!”
He grabbed the door in front of him and tried to force it open.
-Click. Click.
But it wouldn’t budge at all. It was as if nothing inside this distorted space was allowed to escape.
-Click, click.
The sound of dress shoes echoed through the chaos. And the closer it came, the calmer the rippling space became. Then the figure carrying an elegant cane revealed itself.
It was the crow Hotelier, the Spirit Rodbearer.
"Guest, have you requested service? My, what a dreadful environment.”
Director Yoon’s eyes widened at the sudden appearance. As one of TBU’s upper executives, he immediately recognized what that anomalous entity was.
"A Spirit Rodbearer…!"
He had definitely checked that he didn’t have the Front Bell Badge, so he couldn’t understand what was happening.
"Sir Hotelier, could you catch Director Yoon over there? He completely botched his treatment of a patient, and now he’s trying to run away and pretend nothing happened.”
"That presents no difficulty to me, dear Guest. While I cannot interfere with the rules of this level, catching a rat is well within my capabilities.”
If Director Yoon had still retained his position as hospital director, then even the Hotelier wouldn’t have been able to interfere. But now, he was nothing more than a fleeing patient.
The real issue was how the Inspector would react. Park Minho briefly wondered whether a fight might break out, but after the Hotelier spoke a few strange words in an incomprehensible language, the Inspector instead stepped back politely.
[……As you wish……]
It seemed the standing of the Spirit Rodbearer race was far higher than Park Minho had imagined.
"D-don’t come any closer! Get away from me!”
Director Yoon desperately clawed at the door with bloodshot eyes, desperately trying to force it open somehow. The Hotelier ignored him and simply kept walking. In the end, Director Yoon decided to activate his telekinesis as he was given no other choice.
-Crackle!
-Booom!
The telekinetic force was so powerful that sparks burst from Director Yoon’s eyes.
Just how powerful was it?
Even things that weren’t the target got caught in its influence. The entire hospital corridor was torn apart. Tiles peeled off like sheets of paper and flew into the air, windows exploded all at once, and the walls crumpled inward.
But the Hotelier merely lightly raised the tip of his cane in response.
-Tap.
A small, crisp sound rang out. And the telekinetic force vanished.
Everything that had been hurled upward as if caught in a tornado came raining back down to its original place.
"...Huh?"
Faced with a reality he simply couldn’t comprehend, Director Yoon stared blankly with his mouth hanging wide open.
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