Gong-
"Come hither."
"Place the miracle cure upon the dish."
I bowed my head and pulled the hood of my clothes down low.
"Aren't you playing the beaten dog a little too openly?"
The one standing before me wore an air of considerable leisure.
A revolting creature, cheering at his opponent's despair.
Even in a world where killing is sanctioned, he cannot be without qualms beneath this terror that covers him.
"The Byeoljubu standing on the left, first."
"Declare what thine opponent's cure is."
"...A lump that has lost its life."
I recited the answer in a trembling voice. This voice, shaking as if in seizure, feels foreign to me.
Cold sweat ran down my whole body. Even my clenched fists were soaked through.
But of course — the moment pain descends is the moment fear is born.
"The Byeoljubu standing on the right."
"Declare what thine opponent's cure is."
"The egg of the land."
"......."
"Hff, hoo.... From here, it's free overtime. Try holding me off with that d—k-sized dagger of yours!!"
The man raised his weapon and took an attacking stance.
Likely, the moment overtime begins, this body and soul will be struck down.
"Though you have taken others' breath beyond counting, I have no standing to spit on you."
"...What's this, all of a sudden."
"For this tower is a world where one must trample others to climb. ...Yet even should it prove meaningless — even should it prove a contradiction."
"......."
"One must sketch out a way of one's own. So this soul intends to press forward."
My pain, steeped in absinthe. You who would use this outpouring as a mere tool.
Whether your contradiction proves noble in the end — I shall watch.
.......
.......
'...Ah.'
My mind, which had been sunk beneath the floor of consciousness, returned to its place.
Gong-
"The true and loyal vassal is the Byeoljubu on the left."
"?!!"
The man's expression warped in a flash.
He checked the leaflet floating in the air over and over, as if there might be an error in the judgment.
"Th-this is wrong...! Something's broken, isn't it...?!"
[Winner: Kim Ji-san]
As if telling the man to give it up, the writing on the leaflet thickened into bold strokes.
"I-impossible!!"
Only then did I wipe the sweat soaking my body with my right hand and let out a long breath.
And I tossed the small potato in my hand onto the ground.
The man watched the potato roll away, tumbling over and over, his mouth hanging wide open.
"What — how...?"
"Whew.... Because I put in a lump that has lost its life."
"Exactly! There was no way you could put one in — so how did you?!! F—k, isn't this cheating?!!"
The man shrieked and lunged at me.
With the desperation of a final struggle, he seized my collar and shook.
Even swaying limply in his grip, I let a deflating laugh slip between my lips.
"All that self-flagellating, all that fussing over others.... The moment you thought you'd won, you dropped your guard completely."
"What-"
"If you've made up your mind to kill someone, observe your target a little more carefully."
I pulled down the hood I'd kept drawn over my head all this time.
And the moment the man saw the face I'd hidden beneath the hood, his pupils quaked violently.
More precisely — his gaze went not to my face, but to my ear.
"Th-that's...."
"A lump that has lost its life..., wouldn't you say?"
Red blood dripped, drop by drop, from my left ear.
I'd sliced a strip off the T-shirt under my hoodie with the knife and packed it beneath my ear, so thankfully, no blood had touched the hood itself.
Past the man's shoulder, I looked at my own left earlobe resting on the dish — and my brow creased.
To think I'd come face to face with a severed piece of my own flesh.
[Perk - Soul Rental]
[Vincent Willem van Gogh]
[Time has expired.]
The leaflet floating in the air rolled itself up and vanished.
***
Even before the supplementary perk activated, my mind had already been made up.
'Even so — I'll go my own way.'
If a rabbit's liver and a rotten fish both qualify as a 'lump that has lost its life' — then so would my own body.
But contrary to my resolve, my hand kept hesitating.
'Do I have to cut off a finger? Through the bone, with this knife....'
I'm an office worker — of course I'm not used to carving my own body with a blade. Maybe if I were a yakuza.
If I died of blood loss, I'd be eliminated having accomplished exactly nothing.
[A path the others did not choose.]
[Fascinating.]
[You have passed the Curator's special test.]
Then, with the Curator's voice, a leaflet unfurled before my eyes.
Fwish-
=================
[Granting supplementary perk.]
[Kim Ji-san]
Perk: Soul Rental
Acquired!
[Perk: Soul Rental]
-Rental of and possession by the soul of a 'real historical figure' connected to the museum (met in person and communicated with).
-The soul's scope of action is based on [Perk: Docent] knowledge.
-This perk may be used once per floor.
=================
'Soul Rental?'
The sudden grant of a new perk left me dumbfounded.
When I'd finished reading the leaflet, the writing erased itself, and new text appeared over it.
[Special event commemorating the perk grant!]
[One 'figure's' soul is provided free of charge.]
[Name the 'figure' you desire.]
'...The figure I desire, hm.'
It has to be connected to the museum — so I should choose a figure from art or history.
Perhaps because the situation was so dire, only the most one-dimensional idea would come to mind.
A figure with no hesitation about harming his own body.
'I've chosen to win by sacrificing my own flesh — so I want strength for this recklessness.'
I drew one deep breath and recited the figure's name in my heart.
'Soul Rental, activate. Vincent van Gogh.'
Fwish-
[Vincent Willem van Gogh]
[Renting soul.]
The Dutch-born painter, Vincent van Gogh.
His works, painted in those rough, urgent brushstrokes, are impossible to forget once seen.
'And he was a painter whose mind teetered on the edge — far enough to cut off his own ear.'
A brilliant light wrapped around my body, and then a new soul entered me.
In an instant, my own soul was pressed down to the very bottom of my consciousness.
"Whew...."
Van Gogh's soul had taken control of my body.
Without a moment's hesitation, van Gogh brought the dagger to my left earlobe.
***
"Aaaargh-!!"
I finally screamed out all the pain I'd been holding in.
When I'd turned away, pretending to dig potatoes, and severed the earlobe — I truly thought I would die.
Cutting flesh with the dagger was agony beyond words, but I'd had to keep any groan from escaping my mouth.
I'd clenched my jaw so hard to endure it that my molars had gone numb.
'Without van Gogh's impulsive nature, it would have been impossible.'
And holding back the scream — that was only possible because my own will lay beneath his.
Van Gogh had been about to shriek outright; the effort it took to hold him down and keep that mouth shut, to the very end.
"The quest never limited the cure to things created on this floor. So — it isn't cheating, is it?"
"You psycho bastard!!"
"Honestly, I'm inclined to agree."
If this is a board where I must face a madman, then I'll do a madman's deed to survive.
"Ah, hell, it hurts like crazy...."
My ear felt like it was on fire, and my head swam.
Still — I'd won the quest, so I had no regrets about the choice.
Once my wish is granted, I return to ten years ago anyway. An earlobe seemed a fair price.
'Even if it's just the tower's system — van Gogh, I am sorry for using your soul this way.'
"Please!! Big bro, spare me! Please?! I — I can't die here...!"
"......."
"I'm an only son with a widowed mother — I'm the breadwinner, my whole family is counting on me...!"
The man dropped to his knees, rubbing his palms together, pleading.
Watching the tears and snot stream down that face, a bitterness settled in my chest.
I'm sorry. But there's nothing to be done.
"My wish is too desperate for me to die in your place. I fight with what strength I have, and I win. That's all."
Speaking while barely holding my spinning head together, my voice came out trembling.
Belatedly, I tried wrapping my ear roughly with the scrap of T-shirt to stem the bleeding.
After going this far to win, I only prayed the ending wouldn't be death by blood loss or infection.
"I never should have..., come into this place.... An idiot like me...."
The man abused himself in a shaking voice.
The superiority he'd flaunted at me moments ago had vanished without a trace, and he'd returned to what he truly was.
RUMBLE-
Then a colossal boulder surged up out of the ground.
Knowing full well this boulder was as good as a guillotine, the man bolted, sprinting for the distance.
But the Dragon King stretched out an enormous hand and plucked him up with ease.
"The treacherous vassal who spoke falsehood. This terrapin wretch."
"No. No, no!! Money — I don't need the money. You don't have to give me anything, just let me live. Please...!"
"Shall have his head split upon the boulder-"
THOOM-! THOOM-! THOOM-!
"...!!"
The sound of the man's head striking the boulder three times.
I squeezed my eyes shut at an end I could not bear to watch.
When I opened them again, the man had already dropped to the ground, sprawled in a heap.
His feet and fingertips were staining black, beginning to splinter apart. ...He was turning into this tower's data.
"Still.... having no one precious — how much...."
The man stammered on, trying to finish the words — then crumbled into black powder and vanished completely.
"Hah...."
Only then did the tension drain from my whole body, and I sank to the floor.
And at last, the final notification I'd been waiting for rang out.
Fwish-
=================
[Floor 3 Exhibition: The Loyal Vassal Byeoljubu]
-Procure the Dragon King's miracle cure.
-One is the egg of the land.
-One is a lump that has lost its life.
-At the end of three trials:
The treacherous vassal who spoke falsehood
Shall have his head split upon the boulder.
=================
[Visitor Kim Ji-san]
[Floor 3 Quest.]
[Success.]
"The loyal Byeoljubu has saved this sovereign."
"......."
As the gleaming leaflet unfurled, the Dragon King let out a booming laugh.
'And this thing calls itself a ruler.'
I clicked my tongue, looking at the bloodstains stamped into the boulder.
Then again — this Dragon King is only another piece of the tower. No point wasting feeling on it.
"Byeoljubu. I shall open thee the road to the land above."
RUMBLE-
The Dragon King swept his arm, and the ground rang out.
This time a wall split open and a new door appeared.
"The road is long, long indeed — follow thou the shining star."
"The shining star...."
Light blazed from the doorway so fiercely that I couldn't see inside.
Follow the light — that much, at least, was clear.
I hurried past the Dragon King and threw myself through the door.
Praying that beyond it, on the fourth floor, there'd be an item to restore my health.
"Haah, urgh-"
Maybe because my mind was fogging, my feet kept tangling as I pushed forward.
If I fell now, I might never get up again — so I forced my eyes wide and walked.
Passing through the door, the pouring light finally faded and my surroundings came into view.
Unexpectedly, the inside was a cramped white room.
No Dragon Palace unfolding. No cats appearing.
"What is this."
I looked back — the door had already vanished, and there was nowhere left to go.
Was I to be locked in this room, bleeding, until I died?
I pressed a hand over my cloth-wrapped ear, panting.
[You are feeling pain, I see.]
"...Curator."
By now, its sudden appearances no longer surprised me.
The Curator shrugged, as if mocking my agony.
"Yeah. It hurts like death. So hand over something to treat it."
[Which path will a visitor choose, when the pain is fierce enough to blur the mind?]
"What?"
[This is the fourth floor. The space of choosing. There are two paths.]
The Curator swept its robe hem fluttering wide and waved both arms.
At that, doors formed on either side of it.
Both were worn old wooden doors without a single distinguishing feature between them.
'Is the fourth floor nothing but a passage?'
[The left door is the level road. You may pass through one floor with no quest at all.]
"...I can pass straight through the fifth floor?"
[However. From the sixth floor onward, I can guarantee nothing about the presence or absence of quests.]
"Then the right door."
[The right door is the shortcut. You may ascend from the fifth floor to the tenth in a single climb.]
"?!!"
Floors five through ten, in one go.
A chance to close the distance to that dizzying goal of one hundred floors that much faster.
[However — while you walk that shortcut, your health may run out entirely.]
"How long does the shortcut take compared to passing through the left door?"
[Visitor Kim Ji-san.]
[Dropping your courtesies whenever you are pressed or angry is not a beautiful way to speak.]
"If I speak politely, will you tell me?"
[No.]
Of course not.
I hadn't expected it to answer honestly anyway.
Every drop of blood spent deliberating was a waste. I immediately raised my finger and pointed at the door my heart was set on.