Just One Day
Maybe it was because I'd suddenly been left all alone, but my heart was pounding fast.
Still, the tower surely wouldn't harm the other two while I stood here doing nothing.
I took a deep breath and activated my Perk.
“Docent, activate. Search: Jangsanbeom.”
Fwshhh—
[Jangsanbeom]
A tiger-like yokai from a modern Korean urban legend.
— Characteristics
Mimics the human voice.
That's it?
Where were its weaknesses, a more detailed description of its appearance?
Was the information on the Jangsanbeom stored in my brain really this sparse?
I should have read up on modern ghost stories, not just classical art. But even so, how could it be this empty?
Just then, new text appeared at the bottom of the Leaflet.
— Associated with white fur, bells, and caves.
That's what Mr. Go told me earlier.
[Perk: Docent]
— Converts 'information' scattered across the brain into structured data.
— Stores newly acquired knowledge in the tower in real time.
This is the kind of information I could memorize without the Leaflet spelling it out for me.
Sighing, I closed the Docent skill window.
At least I had confirmed one thing for certain: the Jangsanbeom mimics the human voice.
Then—
“Ugh… hnn….”
“…?!!”
From within the passage that had swallowed Jang Siwoon, I heard sobbing.
A voice drenched in water, pitched slightly higher than her usual blunt tone.
There was no doubt about it. It was Jang Siwoon's voice.
“Jisan…. Jisan, are you there?”
“……”
“Something suddenly, dragged me down…. Ugh…. I think my ankle's broken….”
“……”
“This was the Jangsanbeom's doing, wasn't it?”
Should I not answer at all?
My knowledge of the Jangsanbeom was too thin, so I had no choice but to hold my silence.
The moment the Jangsanbeom was mentioned, Jang Siwoon had vanished into the darkness — and now her voice was calling out to me. It was a situation I couldn't help but doubt.
“KRAAAGH—!!”
“AAACK…! It hurts, it hurts!!!”
Then came the sound of a beast howling as it tore into flesh.
Jang Siwoon groaned in agony. I couldn't hold back any longer — I opened my mouth, which I'd kept clamped shut until now.
“Siwoon!!”
Fortunately, nothing happened.
Was Jang Siwoon really being mauled by the Jangsanbeom?
Should I go save her?
Think rationally, Kim Jisan. You came here to fulfill a wish.
This was no time to do something stupid like throw myself into danger for someone else's sake.
With a trap all but certain, I was about to leap willingly into that darkness.
And besides, we weren't anything special to each other. We'd only met while climbing this tower.
But setting aside whatever benefit or value she might have for me….
Jang Siwoon and Go Gyumin were the ones who had acknowledged me.
They made me realize that even my insignificant knowledge could be useful — that I could be praised.
We weren't close, nothing extraordinary bound us, but ours was a relationship with meaning.
And judging by the quest details, it's the Skeleton Monster that has the visitors by the throat. The Jangsanbeom is just a mid-boss.
After the sun set three times, the boss that would remove visitors from this map was the Skeleton Monster.
The Jangsanbeom might injure them, but it wouldn't completely eliminate the two of them.
Fwshhh—
Name: Unbending Dagger
Description: Its blade shall cleave falsehood.
Tool equipped.
I summoned the Leaflet in my mind and drew the Unbending Dagger from the item window, gripping it tight.
It was, after all, a knife — yet no text about increased attack power appeared.
“It hurts!!”
“Hoo.”
After weighing emotion against reason, I finally moved my feet.
I leapt into the hole that had swallowed Jang Siwoon.
Darkness briefly engulfed my body, and then my surroundings brightened again in an instant.
And the scene that unfolded before my eyes was—
“Siwoon…?!”
…
Jang Siwoon was nowhere to be found. Instead, out of nowhere, the Curator stood at the center of the room.
Looking at me, the Curator gave a light round of applause.
“Grrrrr….”
So that's what the Jangsanbeom looks like.
Beside the Curator, an enormous Jangsanbeom crouched with its body coiled.
A mass of white fur writhed and raised its head.
Its skeletal structure and the shape of its head were strikingly similar to a tiger's.
If the Jangsanbeom was already this big, just how enormous was the house-sized beast from the quest?
…What's that?
White powder scattered around the Jangsanbeom.
Too finely ground to be shed fur….
Wait, this is no time for that. Was the Jangsanbeom really the one making Jang Siwoon's voice?
Yes. That is correct. Visitor Jang Siwoon is not here. The Jangsanbeom merely imitated her voice.
Visitor Kim Jisan acted with courage, born of a beautiful heart.
We are impressed.
“……”
The Curator's words — complete the quest with a beautiful heart — echoed in my mind.
So it had prepared this test chamber deliberately.
You are worthy of a special opportunity.
“An opportunity?”
Here.
When the Curator extended its hand, two branching paths appeared on the wall just as before.
Take the right path, and you will meet the house-sized beast at once.
In other words, you will be able to defeat the Skeleton Monster.
“And if I take the left path?”
You will meet Visitor Go Gyumin and Visitor Jang Siwoon.
However, you will have to find the path to the house-sized beast all over again.
“……”
Either path will take one full day to reach its end.
Then after finding Mr. Go and Siwoon, I'd have only half a day left to solve the quest.
Half a day — at most — to search for the house-sized beast after locating Go Gyumin and Jang Siwoon.
No, it could be even less than that.
“If I take the right path and go find the house-sized beast, what happens to the two of them?”
You did not witness it, so you cannot know the outcome.
“……”
Now, make your choice.
The Curator claimed not to know the outcome, yet its answer was oddly vague.
Was everything the Curator was saying even true? I doubted that too.
Still, it said I could clear the quest right away, and despite myself, my heart was tempted.
This is a tower that tests people. If anything, shouldn't I steel myself and choose the good in my heart?
But what if that was exactly what it was counting on — what if there was a trap laid along the path toward Go Gyumin and Jang Siwoon?
The dilemma gave me a headache.
…It had only been moments ago that I'd felt grateful to the two who had acknowledged me.
I despised myself most of all for how quickly my heart leaned toward the right-hand path.
The will to survive is only natural. But I didn't want my heart to flip this easily.
Tangled in conflicting feelings, I bowed my head and clenched my fist hard.
Hard enough to make the dagger in my hand twitch.
In that instant, the blade's edge flared and gleamed.
…? Wait….
Something. On the blade.
Visitor Kim Jisan?
If what I just saw is real….
Studying the blade intently, I tilted the dagger at various angles once more.
The blade was so transparent it was like a mirror.
Using it as a mirror, I scanned my surroundings.
I wasn't seeing things.
“Ugh—”
Then dizziness washed over me, so violent I nearly retched.
My brain and pupils spun together.
Pressing a hand to my forehead, I somehow stayed standing and forced my mind to focus.
Let's think this through again, Kim Jisan. Something — something I've overlooked.
If you do not choose soon, the entrances to both paths will close.
The Curator pressed me, piling on the pressure so I could no longer afford to doubt.
Ignoring it, I retraced my memories of everything so far.
What bothered me most was… the memory of searching for the Jangsanbeom with my Docent ability.
The reason the entry was so thin was because that's all I know about the Jangsanbeom.
Because that was all I knew….
“Docent. Search: Jangsanbeom!”
The Leaflet immediately unfurled before my eyes.
Fwshhh—
[Jangsanbeom]
A tiger-like yokai from a modern Korean urban legend.
— Characteristics
Mimics the human voice.
The Jangsanbeom entry in the Leaflet was as brief and hollow as before.
This time, I swung the Unbending Dagger and angled it so the Leaflet was reflected in its blade.
“I knew it.”
Text that hadn't been there before appeared in the blade's reflection.
And once I understood the truth, I could see those words with my naked eye even when staring directly at the Leaflet.
— Characteristics
Mimics the human voice.
Induces confusion through illusions.
Illusions.
The illusions had never appeared in the blade's reflection.
So that's why it doesn't show itself in the blade. It's falsehood itself.
Kim Jisan?
I leapt straight at the Curator — fwump!
“HYAAAH!!”
Wham—!
I struck the flat cross-section of the Curator's severed neck with the pommel of my blade.
The Curator toppled lightly and dissolved into smoke.
And then the true scene — invisible to me all this time — unfolded before my eyes.
The Jangsanbeom had both Go Gyumin and Jang Siwoon pinned under its paws, unable to move.
“Mr. Go! Siwoon!”
The moment I shattered the illusion, the Jangsanbeom flinched, caught off guard, and squirmed.
Seizing that opening, Go Gyumin and Jang Siwoon half-crawled out from beneath its body.
“HYAAH!!”
Jang Siwoon quickly summoned her Leaflet and drew out her tool — the bell.
Then she slammed it hard against the Jangsanbeom's leg.
The blow landed with a heavy thud, and the Jangsanbeom drew one leg slightly back.
Go Gyumin and Jang Siwoon hurriedly wriggled the rest of the way free.
“Quick on the uptake, aren't you.”
Murmuring in a low voice — in my voice — the Jangsanbeom fled into a cave mouth.
Its body rattling, it slipped inside the right-hand path.
So the claim that the right path led to the house-sized beast had been a lie all along.
“Jisan!”
“Kim! We were trapped under the Jangsanbeom and couldn't move an inch, and you were just standing there like you were hypnotized! I thought it was all over!”
I held the blade up to reflect Go Gyumin and Jang Siwoon as they called my name.
They appeared in it, clear and distinct.
So this is why it's called the dagger that cleaves falsehood.
“Striking with the flat of the blade. That's just like you, Jisan.”
“Isn't hitting a yokai with a bell funnier?”
“I'm already out of the Jangsanbeom's grip, so there was no need to waste my ability, was there?”
None of us had the energy left to force a laugh, so we all slumped down where we stood.
“Seeing the Jangsanbeom show up on its own, walking all that way would just make our legs ache for nothing.”
“Should we follow it now?”
“I think we should think things through a bit more before we go. It'll be easy to track where it went, anyway.”
Go Gyumin nodded.
I stared down the path the Jangsanbeom had taken.
Like Hansel and Gretel's pebbles, white powder lay scattered behind it.
“Does the Jangsanbeom normally shed powder like that?”
“No? I've never heard of anything like that.”
“Hmm. Maybe it's a setting unique to this floor….”
Something about it felt off, but I didn't have the presence of mind to dig into it now.
Jang Siwoon stared fixedly at the bell in her hand.
“Apparently, just whacking its head with the bell doesn't count as success.”
“To count as 'defeating' it, I suppose its will to approach again has to be broken.”
— Past the beast in white fur's mantle, down comes the beast the size of a house.
“So it won't work if we mere humans fight it ourselves. We have to summon that thing — the beast bigger than us, the one the size of a house.”
“…So we've got exactly one day left.”
At Go Gyumin's words, I looked up at the sky.
The sky visible through the hole punched in the cave ceiling had grown dark and dim.
The second sun had set.
Damn it. We don't even have time to nap. We need to clear this quest fast.
“Let's draw up a plan and move immediately.”
“I'll block the Jangsanbeom's voice with my ability, and then we hit it with everything we've got.”
When Jang Siwoon pumped her fist, Go Gyumin clicked his tongue.
“Siwoon, no matter how strong you are, brute force alone won't cut it.”
“Who said anything about brute force only?”
Jang Siwoon shrugged, insisting she wasn't that kind of person.
“I suppress the Jangsanbeom's ability, Jisan holds it down, and then Mr. Go summons the house-sized beast. Right?”
“How?”
“That fan of yours is a hundred-percent, surefire finishing blow.”
Jang Siwoon's logic was still full of holes, but everyone was on board.
An obscure meaning. A short explanation.
This plain, unadorned folding fan would play the decisive role in completing the quest.
Name: Chirping Fan
Description: The yardbird cries. Each sings its song in its own way.
“Ha. Pansori again, in the end.”
“We call the beast with song?”
At Jang Siwoon's question, a flash lit Go Gyumin's eyes.
Something had come to him — he blinked rapidly, intensely.
“The first floor's quest was a mix of art and literature.”
“Right. It's a museum, so it probably doesn't confine itself to a single genre.”
“Hmm… the yardbird…, and the beast the size of a house comes down….”
Go Gyumin mumbled to himself, racking his memory.
“If the yardbird is what I think it is, then I have an idea what the house-sized beast is too.”
“Really?!”
“If it's from our side of things, there's no way I wouldn't know it. Though the painting side is confusing me a little…. I'll need to run it by you, Kim.”
“Of course. Ask me anything!”
One more sunset, and the Skeleton Monster would come to take us away.
Even so — we could do this before then.
Watching the resolve on Go Gyumin's face, hope blossomed inside me too.