Chapter 105
Once more, I glanced through the manual.
[Manual for Office Staff]
[Art Museum – Gallery of Love and Darkness]
1. First, die once.
In all my life, I’ve never heard a manual tell me to die, and indeed, life is something you have to live through to understand.
“Did everyone see the manual?”
“Who else would open the manual right after falling here besides you?”
“Then what should we pull out?”
Given the situation, obviously, we pull out the manual; when else would we pull it out?
As I looked at everyone around with a bewildered expression, Song Ah Rin sighed and glanced at me.
“Okay, spill it. What does it say?”
“Ah, well… you see.”
I informed Song Ah Rin of what I just read in the manual.
“…Die?”
Song Ah Rin muttered as if she found it disagreeable.
“Is that really untainted?”
“Not sure.”
“But how can we trust it?”
“Um.”
How do I even begin to explain this?
“Just?”
“What if the manual tells you to die next? Are you going to go along with that?”
“Isn’t that exactly what’s happening right now?”
“Do you seriously still want to joke around even after coming here?”
What was I always so pessimistic about in the past?
“First of all, isn’t there no other option besides this?”
With that, Song Ah Rin stared at me for a moment and sighed.
“What does the next item say?”
“Well…”
I turned the page of the manual to show it to Song Ah Rin.
“Aside from number one, nothing else is visible.”
“…”
Indeed, when I opened the manual, the first sentence I saw was the instruction to die first.
“If a manual doesn’t show the next item, there’s usually a good reason for it.”
“…So it means there’s nothing good to be learned yet.”
Or it could also be feeling a little irked.
But I nodded without saying that out loud.
“Agreed.”
“…Ugh.”
Song Ah Rin shook her head as if she was fed up.
“Then should we look at item T?”
“Oh, shall we?”
The part about suicide.
I opened the cover of the manual.
[T – Methods of Suicide]
[The individual does not meet the conditions to view section T.]
What in the world is this?
“It says the conditions aren’t met.”
“Same here.”
“Since when is there a condition for suicide?”
“The manual knows you better than I do.”
We murmured as we looked over the manual together.
Then Yu Da On, who had been watching us, raised her hand and spoke up.
“Or I could try dying instead?”
“…”
Song Ah Rin and I exchanged complicated glances.
“You don’t need to worry about it!”
Noticing the atmosphere between the two of us, Yu Da On smiled and shook her head.
“I’m fine! Honestly, I’ve died more than once so far.”
I felt a bit guilty hearing that.
“I’ll use myself while I can. Right?”
Yu Da On took a step forward, and I could only sigh and nod in agreement.
“…Then can I ask you to go through with it once?”
“Sure!”
Yu Da On beamed at me and got closer.
“Then I’ll ask Kim Jae Heon for this.”
“…Alright.”
Yeah. Shooting her with a gun is probably more humane than having Jang Chae Yeon twist her neck.
Although, it seems we passed a point where humane was even a consideration.
Yu Da On snuggled up to me and looked up.
“Well then, Kim Jae Heon, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Understood.”
I pulled out the pistol from my coat.
Aiming at Yu Da On’s temple as she closed her eyes snug against me,
– Bang!
The gunshot rang out, making Song Ah Rin flinch while Yu Da On slumped down, bleeding from her forehead.
Not long after, she groaned as she looked up at me.
“Are you okay?”
“Me? I’m always fine.”
Yu Da On smiled at me even as she spoke.
“…So, what’s the result?”
Song Ah Rin cleared her throat and intervened between us.
“Ah, um, it was a bit fascinating.”
“Uh?”
“I mean, I died, but it didn’t feel like dying, you know?”
What on earth does that even mean?
“No, I think you’d have to die first to know…”
Could it be that the manual has lied to me?
I hastily flipped through the manual.
[Manual for Office Staff]
[Art Museum – Gallery of Love and Darkness]
[1-1. Remain calm and inspect the walls. The manual is not deceiving you.]
The handwriting looked as if it had been hurriedly scrawled unlike usual. Yet, at the same time, it appeared carefully written.
“Wall?”
I turned to look at the wall.
“…”
Yu Da On’s picture was hanging there.
Her painting, depicting her with closed eyes and a serene smile.
I rushed over to inspect the painting.
<The Woman Who Cannot Sleep>
The title was displayed below.
“The Woman Who Cannot Sleep.”
Yu Da On, who had come beside me to look at the painting, muttered.
“I sleep just fine!”
That same smile as always.
“Hey.”
I was briefly put off by her brightness when Song Ah Rin’s voice directed my attention back to her.
“I want to shoot too.”
“…Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Still, I should be the one…”
“The moment you actually die here, you won’t be able to escape.”
Song Ah Rin took a confident step forward.
“Yeah, I might be fine dying first, but if there’s a next person to die, it should be me.”
“…”
“Don’t look at me like I’m pathetic. It’s a bit discouraging.”
“I wasn’t looking at you that way.”
I nodded, then pointed the gun at Song Ah Rin’s forehead.
“…”
She closed her eyes, tense.
Song Ah Rin always undervalued herself.
She would speak with confidence most of the time, but when it came to a moment of choice, she would belittle her own worth.
And I disliked that about her.
“Now that I think about it, I really don’t want to.”
“What?”
Song Ah Rin opened her eyes,
– Bang!
I moved the gun to my temple and pulled the trigger.
There was no pain. Just a brief break in my memory.
I felt something inside me slip away for just a moment.
“…Oh dear.”
I don’t know how much time passed. When I opened my eyes, Song Ah Rin was looking at me with concern.
“You.”
“How long was I out?”
“Twenty seconds.”
“Well, the manual was right.”
I brushed off the dust and stood up, and Song Ah Rin glared at me and muttered.
“What if you had really died?”
“There’s no hierarchy in life or death.”
“…”
I aimed the pistol at Song Ah Rin’s forehead.
“I’m not particularly fond of comparisons of who’s worth more or less.”
“Seriously.”
Hearing my words, Song Ah Rin smirked and pushed her forehead against the barrel of the gun.
“Well. How can I overcome you?”
I pulled the trigger.
– Bang!
*
“Chae Yeon.”
“Yeah.”
Jang Chae Yeon stared quietly at me.
“Are you alright?”
After leaving Song Ah Rin in Yu Da On’s care, I looked at Jang Chae Yeon.
“No.”
“I think so too.”
Unlike usual, she breathed unsteadily, and her gaze seemed lost.
“First…”
“…Yeah.”
I aimed the pistol at her temple.
“It’s alright. We’re all here.”
“…I know.”
“I’m about to shoot.”
“Okay.”
She nodded gloomily, and
– Bang!
After shooting Jang Chae Yeon one last time, I turned to look at the painting on the wall.
First, I examined Song Ah Rin’s painting.
She was gazing down at the ground, surrounded by many shining people.
Only she was not shining.
I turned my head to check the title.
<The Solitary Gaze>
“…”
Such an awful title.
The model for the painting seemed to think so too, furrowing her brow.
Next, it was Jang Chae Yeon.
She was smiling brightly as she accepted the congratulations from others.
An older woman in glasses and a kindly-looking old man.
I checked the title.
<Days That Will Never Return Again>
Jang Chae Yeon, with her eyes wide open, gazed at her painting.
“White Hair.”
After seeing that painting, Song Ah Rin turned her gaze towards Jang Chae Yeon.
“…Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
For the first time, Song Ah Rin asked her in a voice filled with concern, and Jang Chae Yeon responded weakly to her question before looking away.
Now that I think about it, my painting is…
I turned my gaze towards where my painting hung last.
There were countless versions of myself.
Me, bleeding from the forehead and dead, me standing against a backdrop of a burned landscape, me crying while holding someone’s corpse.
And in the midst of all those versions of myself,
“…”
The me in the present was depicted.
With a resolute expression, holding a manual and a pistol as I stared forward.
I glanced at the title.
<The Final Choice>
That completely sounded like nonsense.
– Rattle…
[Manual for Office Staff]
[Art Museum – Gallery of Love and Darkness]
2. If you have successfully registered your work, you have now gained the privilege to wander this place.
3. The museum is fundamentally quiet. Minor noises won’t greatly disturb the attendant’s mood, but if a loud noise continues, the attendant will come to warn you.
3-1. One warning is fine. However, if you receive two warnings, the attendants will restrain you and drag you to the stabilization room. Currently, there has been no record of survival for individuals taken to the stabilization room.
4. The Gallery of Love and Darkness is divided as its name suggests, into the Gallery of Love and the Gallery of Darkness.
4-1. The combined data of survivors shows that the probability of moving on to the next gallery alive is higher in the Gallery of Darkness.
5. The path to the Gallery of Darkness is easy to find. Follow the dark road. The Gallery of Darkness will appear.
“That’s what it says.”
“But seriously, the names ‘Gallery of Love’ and ‘Gallery of Darkness’ have such terrible naming sense, don’t they?”
She seems to be an aestheticism aficionado, I thought, as Yu Da On muttered while walking.
This might irritate an aestheticism aficionado, perhaps.
Following Yu Da On, I walked along the only dark path I could find.
Art pieces hung on the walls, but all were covered with cloths, making it impossible to discern what the works were.
“Uh?”
As Yu Da On walked, she suddenly stopped and leaned forward, sniffing the air.
“It smells.”
“What kind of smell?”
“Hmm…”
With her eyes closed, Yu Da On murmured.
“An awful perfume smell…?”
Once she finished that sentence, the pitch-black road in front of her unfolded like a panorama, not allowing any vision ahead.
– Rattle…
The manual unfolded with a loud noise.
[Manual for Office Staff]
[Art Museum – Gallery of Love and Darkness]
6. The Gallery of Darkness is a place to enjoy art in the darkness. The survival rule here is but one.
7. No matter what happens, no matter what you see, no matter what sounds you hear, never step out of the darkness.
– Click.
In the dark, light shone down to spotlight one piece of artwork.
A person sculpted in agony.
It was carved from wood.
– Aaaah…!
The sound of someone screaming seemed to emanate from the statue.
I looked closely to read the title from afar.
<Spoken Words>
“…”
– Click.
Light poured in, illuminating an empty space as if inviting me in.
