Abandon All Hope (1)
"So what do we do now...?"
"Do? What's there to do? That headless thing said it'd see us on the second floor. We find a way up, that's what."
"...A way up? All I see is a road sloping straight down."
Just as the people said, all that stretched out in the distance was downhill.
Worse still, the path ahead was pitch dark, making it impossible to tell what might be waiting there.
Weaving between the huddled visitors, I spoke up carefully.
"...We still have to walk, don't we? Standing still here won't change anything."
"Hey, young man. You got the last question wrong too, so why do you keep trying to act like the leader?"
What's his problem? As if things weren't hard enough, now I have to waste energy on a pissing contest.
I started to frown at the grumbling middle-aged man, then barely managed to rearrange my expression. Getting emotional here would do nothing but burn time we didn't have.
"I have no intention of leading. I'm hardly cut out for it. So let's each go wherever we like."
"......"
"That said, it might be smarter for people who agree with each other to stick together."
If this place really ran on the same logic as an actual forest, then with night falling, it could be dangerous. Even just looking at what lay right in front of us, it seemed plenty dangerous already.
I moved my feet and started cautiously forward.
The visitors all hesitated, rolling their eyes and glancing around at one another.
"Hey, the student's going too!"
"I'm going with that one."
I turned around to find Jang Siwoon lightly brushing off a visitor's hand and following after me.
"...And why exactly, student?"
"Well, the Curator did say the thing—what was it, the torso? That was right, wasn't it? It sounded like a joke, but it was technically the correct answer."
"......"
"Seemed safer to follow whoever looked like they had a bit more knowledge and logic."
"Oh, so the rest of us are just knowledgeless and illogical, is that it? Huh?"
Jang Siwoon's defense didn't help much. Maybe it was her trademark deadpan delivery, maybe her utterly blank expression, but it was prime material for misunderstanding.
The eyes of the visitors who'd been holding her back turned sharp.
"The mouth on this kid... Student, are you sure? If this goes wrong, you die. That friend of yours dies too!!"
"Either way, if we're wrong we all die, so it's all the same to me."
...So not a misunderstanding after all. She's just brutally direct.
Cursing was rising from the crowd around us, and I figured a fight was about to break out.
It's understandable no one wants to follow into pitch darkness like this. But...
"Still, there's a reason."
The people who'd been growling at each other with bared teeth all turned to stare at me at once.
Having every pair of eyes in the room converge on me was considerably uncomfortable.
Well, I'd brought it on myself, starting with the Curator's quiz.
"Think back to what the Curator said."
"While you walk through the forest, abandon all hope — and stay with the torso."
At my words, everyone recalled the Curator's final statement.
"At the very least, they gave us a hint that we're supposed to walk through the forest."
"...How can you be sure? They told us to abandon hope."
"Because the torso is the Curator itself. So staying with it doesn't seem like it'd be the wrong answer."
The middle-aged man slowly relaxed the tension in his narrowed eyes.
Flimsy logic, sure — but right now, even thinking this much was a precious contribution. All the more so when everyone was too rattled by the forest's sudden appearance to think straight.
"See? He's got logic. Explaining things on and on by himself this whole time, too. He's got that... art otaku vibe about him."
Jang Siwoon was trying to take my side, then seemed to realize how that sounded and hastily tacked "art" onto "otaku."
So the rambling I'd done while swept up in the moment really had come off strange after all.
"Anyway, he's an expert of some kind, so in a place like this he feels... sort of reliable."
"True. Art people have always been a bit odd."
Oddly backhanded compliments about me began circulating among the group. More and more people were leaning toward my side of the argument, along with Jang Siwoon.
I'd been branded a weird art otaku, but well... the result wasn't bad.
"I'm no artist and no expert. I've just read some books, that's all."
"......"
"Right now, nobody can be certain of anything. But I'm going this way."
My embarrassment was mounting, so I pulled Jang Siwoon along and quickened my steps. Nobody needed to shift responsibility onto anyone else — each person should act on their own judgment.
Remarkably, four visitors including Jang Siwoon followed me.
The middle-aged man who'd been hostile to me from the start was among them.
"It's awfully dark, though, isn't it?"
"Our eyes are adjusting a little at least."
People deliberately traded words with each other, afraid of the darkness blanketing the forest.
What if this is the road to death? If my mistake gets the people who trusted me killed...
Walking at the front, I kept my mouth shut, but my worry was anything but small. Just as I was wondering if all this creeping about would put us on the doomed-supporting-character route of a horror film—
"Hey. Quit stomping around so loud."
My rough breathing must have grated on him, because the middle-aged man grumbled from behind.
"Ah, sorry... The downhill grade is pretty steep."
"Honestly, I don't know how a gisaeng-orabi teacher gets to lead the pack."
"If your insides are that backed up, a teacher position might suit you just fine."
"......"
Jang Siwoon ribbed him on my behalf again. Whether it was my looks or what, I'd been called a gisaeng-orabi before, so it didn't sting much — but I was grateful she raised her voice for me all the same.
"Hold on."
Jang Siwoon suddenly gripped my shoulder and stopped me in my tracks.
"Kim Jisan. Do you hear something?"
"...Please don't say creepy things."
"No, really, my instincts are pretty good—"
Before she could even finish, she grabbed my wrist.
Awoooo—
"RUN!!"
A wild beast's cry.
At Jang Siwoon's shout, everyone panicked and sprinted like mad. Just then, moonlight filtered through the leaves and lit the path for us.
I ran blindly after Jang Siwoon and the others.
Why are they so fast?!
Jang Siwoon and the other visitors running ahead were gradually pulling away from me. Even the middle-aged man and woman, considerably older than I was.
"Damn it!!"
I should've exercised more!
While I was wallowing in self-loathing over my sorry stamina, I compounded it by catching my foot on a jutting root and went down hard.
"Aagh...!!"
My body crumpled, and I tumbled straight down between the trees.
"Agh..."
I clutched my back against the bone-deep ache. Dead leaves clung to me from head to toe. I was a wreck.
"Hiihk—"
I nearly fainted.
Countless fragments flickered up before my eyes, then merged into three masses. And those data-like clumps of fragments quickly took the shape of living creatures.
A leopard, a lion, and a wolf.
And of course the pain carries over too, because why not.
The beasts' fangs flashed. The low growling and the drool trailing from their jaws made my knees buckle.
Of all the ways to fail a quest, why did it have to be something this brutal?!
"P-please, spare me...!!"
Reasoning with beasts salivating at the thought of eating me was pointless, I knew. But these were data constructs made by the tower, so maybe — just maybe — it would have some effect.
Half-sobbing, I wrenched the words out of my throat.
"...?"
Then something strange happened.
The beasts stared at me blankly, turned their bodies, and scattered in different directions.
Watching the lion, leopard, and wolf vanish between the trees, I let out a long breath of relief.
"Holy crap, I'm alive...!"
So from the very first floor, absolutely insane situations were going to keep happening. Taking in just how brutal this climb would be, I wiped my damp face with my hand.
Wait a second.
A doubt surfaced in my mind.
It doesn't add up. Even if I'd run as fast as Jang Siwoon, no human could outrun a beast of prey.
Had the beasts never intended to kill us in the first place?
Feels like the tower was giving us a chance... A hint, maybe.
A hint.
I remembered the glittering eyes of the beasts.
They weren't hunting as a pack, and yet a leopard, a wolf, and a lion all showed up together. ...Wait, I've heard this story somewhere before...
"Jisan! Kim Jisan!!"
Just then, Jang Siwoon's voice reached me from far off. I scrambled to my feet and climbed back up toward the path. Mercifully, my ankle hadn't turned.
"What was that?! You just vanished, you scared the hell out of us. Thank god you're okay."
"Is everyone alright?"
"Everyone but you, Jisan. Goodness, you really do need to exercise."
"......"
Jang Siwoon and the other visitors gaped at my athletic ineptitude. I scratched my head, embarrassed but unable to argue.
"You're really not hurt anywhere? This young lady says she heard some kind of sound."
"Ah — it was a lion."
"WHAT?!"
"A lion, a leopard, and a wolf."
"...You're joking, right?"
The middle-aged woman treated me like a patient in the grip of a delusion. Whether they'd believe me or not, I shook my head with as sincere an expression as I could manage.
"When I begged for my life, they just... left."
"Impossible! Is that part of the quest too?"
"Yes, I think so."
I begged for my life, and the beasts withdrew... Where was it I read a story just like this—
"This isn't some fairy tale. Can things like that actually happen?"
Ah. Right.
Not a fairy tale, no.
"Oh — I know what it is now."
"Really?!! What? You've figured out what the quest is?"
"We have to keep walking first."
"Are you insane?! You said beasts showed up — how can you walk after that?! Have you lost your mind?!"
The burly young man snapped at me, his voice hoarse with strain. I understood exactly how he felt, but right now, walking was the only way forward.
Because only by walking would that appear.
"The passage to the second floor — no, at the very least, the quest for reaching the second floor — I've found it. So please, walk with me."
"...Damn it all!!"
The young man was clearly frustrated, and the curse burst out of him. Still, he must have decided to come along after all, because his face settled into resignation.
"There's an epic poem called Dante's Divine Comedy."
"I've heard of it..."
"I only read the most famous parts myself. The book is enormous, after all."
By now the night path had grown fully bright under the moonlight, as if guiding us forward.
"The protagonist, Dante, is walking through a forest at night when he's threatened by beasts of prey."
"!!"
"Those beasts are a lion, a leopard, and a wolf."
Predators gathered together unnaturally. And without devouring me, they had simply turned back. A situation that matched the Inferno, the first canticle of the Divine Comedy, exactly. This was no coincidence.
It had to be a planned production on the Museum's part.
"And then he comes upon the Gates of Hell."
"Gates of Hell? Isn't that after crossing the river — meeting the three-headed dog and all that?"
Jang Siwoon rolled her eyes, dredging up some faint memory.
"You're mixing that up with Greek and Roman mythology. The river and Cerberus come after the Gates of Hell. Different order."
"Oh... is that right?"
"The beasts in the forest are from the opening of Dante's Divine Comedy, the Inferno."
My memory wasn't crystal clear either, but on this point I wasn't wrong. With thick books, it's always the beginning and the end that stay sharpest in your mind.
"The passage — the quest for the second floor — will be connected to the Gates of Hell."
"Beasts could just show up on their own. Could tie into a completely different work, for all we know."
"True. It'd be absurd if you had to know Dante's entire body of work just to clear one quest."
The middle-aged visitors scowled, muttering that even thinking about it gave them a headache.
Right. Even so, they wouldn't make it this convoluted from the very first floor.
They'd scatter layered hints we could interpret — but design the quest so that even a one-dimensional reading would let us progress.
"You remember what I said before we entered the forest. That strange thing the Curator said at the end?"
Everything they say is strange, but still.
"While you walk through the forest, abandon all hope — and stay with the torso."
Jang Siwoon still didn't get it, and shrugged.
"Why would they gather us here to make wishes, then tell us to abandon hope?"
BANG—!!
The moment her words ended, something surged up from the ground right in front of our feet.
A door.
"G-Good heavens. Something actually happened!! Maybe the young man was right!"
"But then — what on earth is that...?!"
The middle-aged woman and the young man, who'd been clapping me on the shoulder in grudging admiration, stood with their mouths hanging open.
Because the door rising from the earth kept climbing higher and higher without end. Only when the colossal door had fully ascended did the ground finally fall still.
The people gathered in a circle around it.
This is—
Forged from dark bronze, the door stood more than three times my height. Two door panels flanked by two pillars, covered in bas-reliefs carved with countless human figures.
"I've seen that — in a school textbook! It's the Gates of Hell!"
"Rodin. It looks like Auguste Rodin's The Gates of Hell."
I added the artist's name to the young man's cry.
It's a little different, but there's no doubt it was modeled on the Gates of Hell.
Facing the massive door, I swallowed hard against the crushing weight of its presence.
On the lower portion of the panels, an Italian inscription was carved — accompanied, helpfully, by a Korean translation.
The command to abandon hope... that was the signal.
There had been a reason the door reacted to Jang Siwoon's words.
A famously famous phrase from the opening of the Inferno in Dante's Divine Comedy.
And with that, a notebook bearing a sketch of the Gates of Hell unfurled itself into a Leaflet.
It was a page from one of my old notebooks, the kind I used to scribble in while gazing at works of art.