The Egg of the Land, the Mass That Lost Life

The man, who had expected none of what I said, flared his nostrils.

"Yes...?"

"Frankly speaking, I see no value in collaborating with a human as ugly inside and out as yourself."

"Haha... Brother, that's going a bit far..."

"Oh, I'm joking—actually, no. I mean every word."

Hit by a barrage of attacks, the man's face turned an unhealthy shade of blue. Unlike before, when he'd been awkwardly clowning around, he now looked thoroughly cowed.

"Besides, isn't the real reason nobody wants to include you something other than your looks or appearance?"

"What are you—"

"Who would want to team up with a man who does nothing but probe others while never once showing his own hand, a man who does nothing but lie?"

I'd had my suspicions ever since our first meal together back when we met.

'Have a taste. It's better than it looks.'

'...?'

Better than it looks—what kind of thing was that to say?

Hardly the phrase you'd pair with a lavish spread. It was the kind of comment a person makes when they already know what's underneath the skin.

'Sigh... I'm the only one who can't stomach this...'

'Oh, you might well be. I'm thick-skinned, so I can manage.'

Once that thought clicked into place, his composure while eating rotten fish suddenly made perfect sense.

"When exactly were you here?"

"...I'm not quick on my feet, so I keep making slip-ups. I practiced so much, and yet... I misspeak, and again, and again..."

"What am I supposed to do with that? I asked when you arrived here."

"......"

The man, muttering away about flaws of his own that nobody cared about, abruptly shut his mouth. His lips pressed firmly together—he clearly had no intention of answering.

Watching him like this, one thing was certain: whatever he was hiding, I needed to dig deeper.

"New turtle ministers. Welcome to the Dragon Palace..."

Just then, a voice rang out, urging us onward as we froze mid-step. A loudspeaker-sized voice reverberated through the palace.

Scuttle—

"Hey!!"

Ugh. This little bastard.

The man bolted headlong into the darkness.

For now, I had no choice but to hunt down the source of that voice.

"Turtle ministers. Come hither, quickly."

I pressed forward, pushing through the dark. The place where I'd first woken had vanished, and in its place stood an enormous dome.

The man hovered at its entrance, too unsettled to step inside. What on earth was in there?

'Hiik—'

When I saw what occupied the center of the dome, I screamed inwardly.

A Dragon King the size of a mountain sat enthroned. Too withered to be called alive, yet too intact to be called ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a skeleton.

"So you are the loyal ministers who shall cure Jim's illness."

"Come. Hither."

I cautiously approached the Dragon King. Craning my neck up at him left the back of my neck aching.

"Long have I waited... a very long time, for a true and faithful turtle minister."

'Long? You've waited straight into being a full-blown mummy, that's how long.'

The sight was far too grotesque to summon even the pity the Curator's interpretation had insisted on.

"Now, let Us see."

The Dragon King's gaze drifted slowly from the man to me and back again. Each time he moved, it sounded like stone grinding against stone.

"Which of you is the true retainer who will heal Jim's ailment?"

Swish—

The Leaflet materialized before the Dragon King. The Floor 3 quest had finally begun—and as expected, it was tied to the Tale of the Rabbit.

"Then We shall commence the first contest."

Gong—

A gong boomed with a heavy toll, and a single bowl materialized on the floor. Identical to the one that had sat upon the dinner table. Only this one held no food.

'That's...?'

The surroundings transformed into dry fields and plowed earth. Against a sweeping landscape of green mountains and rivers, black masses suddenly appeared and began spinning in place.

"Hyaaaah!"

The man drew a sickle from his own Leaflet—presumably a tool from Floor 2. Squeezing his eyes shut, he swung it down and cleaved one of the black masses apart. The forcibly dismantled lump shattered into fragments and vanished.

"Is it safe to attack them?"

"I don't know. Honestly, I'm just afraid something might attack me..."

The man trailed off uncertainly. Whether that was truth or a lie, I couldn't tell.

The blade ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the sickle in his hand gleamed. If that thing caught me, I'd end up a torso just like the Curator.

'I haven't even properly deciphered the quest yet—what do I do? Am I supposed to just follow his lead?'

While I deliberated, watching him, the mass drifting around me began slowly shifting into the shape of a rabbit. Watching the thing hop about in circles, I could only stare blankly.

"It should be in its true rabbit form by now, don't you think?"

"?!"

"Looking at you, Brother, you seem to be in much the same boat as me. You can't even bring yourself to touch your blade to it, let alone stab it, can you?"

Well, I had managed to sink a dagger into the Jangsanbeom's leg, for what it was worth.

"To find the real liver among these masses, you'd have to feel your blade pierce flesh about a million times, wouldn't you?"

The man, who had been swinging his sickle with such force, now bent forward and churned his hands through the empty air—a motion like someone digging.

'He can't tell whether what's near me is a rabbit or a mass that hasn't taken shape yet. And I can't check his information either.'

So things were hidden based on whichever territory I occupied.

According to him, we were supposed to attack these data masses shaped like rabbits. I called the quest back to mind.

A skull split upon the stone—that's a turtle. So of the two of us, whoever lied about the elixir gets eliminated. That seemed to be the meaning.

'The Egg of the Land, and a Mass That Lost Life...?'

I activated my Docent perk.

I had a vague memory of reading the Tale of the Rabbit back in elementary school—or maybe middle school.

Swish—

That wasn't what I was looking for. I needed to find the passage about the elixir that would cure the Dragon King's illness.

'I'll have to sift through the various manuscripts of the Tale of the Rabbit and extract only the lines about the liver.'

Swish—

'Right, it's explicitly a liver. If it were a metaphor, "Mass That Lost Life" would be the closer fit.'

Why the roundabout wording, then? And what on earth was the Egg of the Land?

I looked back at the rabbits spinning in place.

'Those rabbits must be made from Components. How is anyone supposed to slice open a belly made of that?'

And according to the man, you could even feel the sensation of stabbing them.

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head.

Swish—

'Damn it, I never drew the knife!!'

The Leaflet must have glitched—the tools window had opened on its own, and it sent a chill down my spine. It felt as though the Museum were laying out the board for me, urging me to attack already.

Forcing myself to ignore the blade, I knelt down in the field and frantically started tearing at the earth with my bare hands.

'The Egg of the Land.'

It was a long shot, but almost immediately my fingers struck something heavy.

'It's a sweet potato!'

As the buried sweet potato emerged from the soil, I let out a breath of relief. At least one of my two options was within reach.

'...?'

Only then did I notice the man's gaze drifting toward me. He kept sneaking glances this way, pretending not to look, eyeballs rolling sideways again and again.

'...He's checking on me. How long has he been watching like that? It almost feels like he's putting on a performance...'

It was an artificial kind of attention. Was he trying not to look while stealing peeks anyway? Or was he rolling his eyes on purpose, hoping I'd notice?

I couldn't tell which.

Gong—

"Come hither."

The first harvest was over. Apparently the round ended once both participants had gathered something.

"Place your miracle elixir upon the bowl."

I set a single sweet potato on the bowl. The man tossed his data mass on as well—its identity obscured, as though it had been wrapped in packaging.

Once the Dragon King confirmed the bowls were filled, he turned his head toward my side.

"We shall begin with the turtle minister on the left."

"Declare what your opponent's elixir is."

'Ha...'

I swallowed the sigh that threatened to burst out of me. So it was a task not unlike a coin-flip game.

'Now I understand why the Curator called it simple.'

The rule was that you couldn't lie about your opponent's elixir—not your own. In other words, it was a quest where you deduced the other player's item, and if you guessed wrong, you lost.

Even if the man couldn't see my bowl, what I'd brought would be obvious.

'I have to guess what he put in and end in a draw. No matter what.'

"F-faster, please...! The time will be gone at this rate."

The man rolled his eyes, urging me on. His voice trembled even harder than mine, as I anxiously racked my brain.

'To find the real liver among these masses, you'd have to feel your blade pierce flesh about a million times.'

I turned that line over in my mind—the remark the man had thrown out to rattle me. If it were true, then every attempt wouldn't necessarily yield a result.

In that case, he might have pretended to grab a liver he hadn't found, and secretly dug up an Egg of the Land instead.

'As much as this is a game of mutual deception, would he really have had the presence of mind to check on me when he hadn't found anything yet?'

Right. For now, I had no choice but to trust my gut.

"The Egg of the Land."

"......"

"Turtle minister on the right."

"Declare what your opponent's elixir is."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Once my answer was done, the Dragon King pointed to my opponent this time.

"The Egg of the Land."

The man's answer was only natural. The odds that I—shaken out of my wits after watching him swing that sickle—had attacked a rabbit were vanishingly low.

'Please. Please...'

Gong—

"The true and loyal minister is the turtle minister on the right."

Every ounce of strength drained out of me. A man who'd had terrible luck his entire life, relying on instinct—it was, as always, a foolish choice. I'd gambled once on a hunch since it was the first round, and my chronic bad luck simply outweighed my intuition.

"Whew. I thought I heard a nice, heavy thud land in a bowl, but I suppose that was just my imagination."

"A thud...?"

The man tilted his chin toward the bowl. Only then could I see with my own eyes what he had placed inside it.

...A black data mass, shown in its original form. A rabbit's liver.

"—!!"

As I recoiled in horror, the rabbit's liver shattered into fragments and vanished cleanly away.

"Ha."

Try as I might, the sighs wouldn't stop now. No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't see the answer.

'What do I do? He's already seen through everything—I can't bring another Egg of the Land.'

Though it was contradictory, I'd already stabbed the Jangsanbeom with a knife. I hadn't wanted to attack anything physically, deep down, but I'd done it to survive. How was this any different? ...It was different, actually.

'Unlike the Jangsanbeom, this is a Component that never harmed me. And cutting it open with a blade—'

Maybe I should try faking it—going through the motions of swinging a knife.

"Planning to put on an act?"

"What?"

"Spare yourself the effort of performing. You can just dig at your own pace."

Damn it. He's reading my mind—what the hell is this?

The acting gambit was useless now. So what move was left—

"Be honest with me."

The man lowered the sickle he'd been brandishing and urged me along, just like before.

"...What are you talking about?"

"I mean to propose we stop killing each other and climb to Floor 3 together, that's all."

It wasn't a thought I'd never entertained. It was the most peaceful way to complete this quest, after all.

"If we piece the answers together, we can both reach Floor 3."

And yet.

"There's no chance in hell you'd actually do that."

I'd already figured out why he'd been probing me, anyway. He meant to sync up our answers and then stab me in the back.

At that, the man flailed both hands wildly, protesting his innocence with his whole body.

"No! You have to believe me."

"Then explain why you lied earlier. Since when were you here?"

"The Curator had already shown us the food's true form before you arrived! Naturally, I'd already thrown it all up by then, too."

'The Curator did?'

It was hard to believe the man's account, but there was a possibility the Curator had done something like that deliberately, to throw us into confusion.

Still, I let no emotion reach my face and quietly pressed him.

"What about the quest? From the look of it earlier, you already knew all about stabbing for livers and such."

"The Curator explained that in advance, too—even let us try it out firsthand."

"...Tried it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out?"

"The stabbing, with a tool. You wouldn't know this, Brother, but attacking a rabbit doesn't always produce a liver. It's random."

Well, I'd more or less guessed that much already...

The man told me everything he knew. Watching him strain to win my trust, my mind grew tangled.

"I don't know why the Curator explained the quest only to me."

"......"

"Maybe it figured I was such a pathetic loser I'd botch the quest with you, and wanted to keep things from ending too easily."

Come to think of it, the man had looked genuinely anguished whenever he swung that sickle at the rabbits. He'd even talked about his own personality and mine.

"But I figured you'd think I was in league with the Curator, so I couldn't bring myself to be honest."

"......"

"I mean it...! That's the whole truth!"

'Did the Curator deliberately withhold the explanation? To make me suspect this man?'

To the man's tearful pleading, I could give no answer at all. Inside this Museum, which exists to test the hearts of its visitors, such a scheme was entirely plausible.

And yet, still. If I believed him like this and got swindled for my trouble—

"The second contest. Begin."

Gong—

Without even a moment left to think, the second contest unfolded before us.