"What do we do now...?"
"What do you mean, what do we do? That headless bastard said we'd meet on the second floor. We find a way up."
"...Forget going up. Looks like it only plunges downhill from here?"
Just as people said, only a downhill path was visible in the distance.
On top of that, it was so dark ahead that we couldn't even tell what was out there.
Among the cowering people, I carefully opened my mouth.
"...Still, shouldn't we try walking? Standing still here changes nothing."
"Hey there, young man. You got the question wrong earlier — why do you keep trying to play leader?"
'What's with him? As if this situation isn't hard enough, now I have to deal with power games too.'
I nearly scowled at the grumbling middle-aged man, but managed to fix my expression in time.
Wasting emotions here would only waste time for nothing.
"I have no intention of playing leader. I don't have the caliber for it anyway. So, let's each go the way we want."
"......."
"But those with the same opinion would do better to band together and move as a group."
If this place ran on the same system as a real forest, then it was night — it could be dangerous.
And even just looking at what lay ahead of us, it seemed plenty dangerous already.
I set my feet moving and walked carefully forward.
The visitors all hesitated, rolling their eyes at one another, reading the room.
"Hey, the student's staying here too, you know!"
"I'm going to follow him."
When I looked back, Jang Si-woon had lightly brushed off a visitor's hand and was following me.
"...And what's your reason, student?"
"Well, in the end the Curator was that, you know.... Torso, was it? That part was right, wasn't it? It's wordplay, but honestly, it was the correct answer."
"......."
"I figure it's better to follow the side that seems to have a bit more knowledge and logic."
"So you're saying the rest of us have no knowledge or logic? Huh?"
Jang Si-woon's defense wasn't much help.
Whether it was her signature flat tone or her motionless expression — it was perfectly built for misunderstanding.
The gazes of the visitors who had grabbed at her turned sharp.
"The mouth on this one, honestly.... Hey, student, can you guarantee it?! If this is wrong, you die — you and that guy both!!"
"One way or another, if we're wrong, we all die the same. That's all."
'...So it wasn't a misunderstanding. She really is just this blunt.'
Curses were rising around us; at this rate, a fight would break out.
'With it this dark, of course they won't follow. But....'
"Still, I do have a reason."
The people who had been bristling and snarling at each other turned to look at me as one.
Everyone's gazes converging on me was a considerable burden.
Well, I'd brought this on myself, ever since the Curator's quiz.
"If you think back to what the Curator said."
[While you walk the forest, abandon all hope, and may you be with the torso.]
At my words, everyone recalled the Curator's parting words.
"At the very least, it gave us a hint: we have to walk the forest."
"...How do you figure? It told us to abandon hope."
"The torso is the Curator itself. So acting together with it shouldn't be the wrong answer — that's my thinking."
The middle-aged man's flatly narrowed eyes slowly relaxed.
It was thin logic, but right now, even this much thinking counted as a precious opinion.
All the more so when the forest had appeared so abruptly that everyone was too rattled to think.
"See? He has logic, doesn't he. And the way he was rattling off explanations all by himself earlier. He's got that... art otaku vibe."
Jang Si-woon tried to take my side, then seemed to catch herself, hastily tacking 'art' in front of 'otaku.'
As I'd thought — my overexcited rambling must have come off pretty strange.
"Anyway, he's an expert, so in a place like this, he does feel somehow dependable."
"Right. Art people are a bit peculiar to begin with, aren't they."
Odd compliments about me passed among the people around us.
Along with Jang Si-woon, more and more people were leaning toward my opinion.
I'd become a peculiar art otaku, but well.... As results go, not bad.
"I'm not an artist or an expert. I've just read a few books."
"......."
"I think this is a situation where no one can be certain of anything. I'm going to try this way."
Growing more and more embarrassed, I took Jang Si-woon and hurriedly set off.
There was no need to shift responsibility onto anyone else — everyone had to act on their own judgment.
To my surprise, four visitors, including Jang Si-woon, followed me.
Even the middle-aged man who had been hostile toward me from the start was among them.
"It's awfully dark though, isn't it?"
"Still, your eyes do adjust little by little."
People deliberately traded words back and forth, afraid of the dark-shrouded forest.
'What if this is the road to our deaths? If my mistake gets the people who trusted and followed me killed....'
Walking at the front, I kept my mouth shut, but my worries were endless.
Just as I was wondering whether we'd creep along like this straight into a horror movie side-character route.
"Hey. How about not stomping along, huffing like that."
My ragged breathing must have grated on him — the middle-aged man grumbled from behind me.
"Ah, I'm sorry.... The downhill slope is steep, so."
"Honestly, don't know if some pretty-boy bookworm should be the one leading the way."
"If it frustrates you that much, you're more than welcome to walk in front of the bookworm."
"......."
Jang Si-woon delivered the jab in my stead, once again.
Maybe it's my looks — I'd heard the pretty-boy line before, so it didn't particularly sting.
Still, I was grateful she spoke up for me.
"Wait."
Jang Si-woon suddenly grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.
"Kim Ji-san. Do you hear something?"
"...Please don't scare me."
"No, my intuition is pretty good—"
Before she could even finish, Jang Si-woon seized my wrist.
Awoooo-
"Run!!"
The howl of a wild beast.
At Jang Si-woon's cry, everyone bolted in a mad dash.
Just then, moonlight slipped in between the leaves and lit the path.
I ran desperately after Jang Si-woon and the others.
'Why are they so fast?!'
Jang Si-woon and the other visitors running in front slowly pulled away from me.
Even the middle-aged man and woman, both far older than me.
"Damn it!!"
'I should've exercised regularly!'
While I was busy berating my feeble stamina, to make matters worse, I caught my foot on a jutting rock and fell.
"Aagh...!!"
My body pitched forward and tumbled straight down between the trees.
"Ough...."
I clutched my back at the bone-rattling pain.
Fallen leaves clung all over my body. A complete mess.
"Hiik-"
I nearly fainted.
Countless fragments rose up before my eyes, then merged into three masses.
And those data-like masses of fragments quickly took the shapes of living creatures.
A leopard, a lion, and a wolf.
'They even built this place so pain feels real, so if these things maul me....'
The beasts' sharp teeth glinted.
The growling and the drool dripping from their jaws turned my legs to jelly.
Even if this is how quest failure works, what a merciless way to go!
"S-spare me...!!"
What good would human words do against beasts drooling to devour me?
Still, these were data constructs made by this tower — I hoped it might have some small effect.
Half-wailing, I forced the words out of my throat.
"...?"
But something was strange.
The beasts stared at me intently, then turned away and scattered, each in a different direction.
Watching the lion, the leopard, and the wolf vanish between the trees, I let out a sigh of relief.
"Holy hell, I'm alive...!"
So things this absurd start happening from the very first floor.
Feeling the real difficulty of this climb, I wiped my damp face with my hand.
'Wait.'
Then a doubt rose in my mind.
'It makes no sense to begin with. However fast you run — even as fast as Jang Si-woon — you can't beat a predator's speed.'
Did the beasts never intend to kill us in the first place?
'It feels like the tower is giving us a chance.... A hint, maybe.'
A hint.
I recalled the beasts' glistening eyes.
'They didn't come as a pack — it was specifically a leopard, a wolf, and a lion. Ah, this feels like a story I've heard somewhere....'
"Ji-san! Kim Ji-san!!"
Just then, Jang Si-woon's voice carried from far away.
I sprang up and climbed back toward the path.
Thankfully, my ankle wasn't sprained.
"What was that! You disappeared out of nowhere — you scared me. I'm glad you're safe."
"Is everyone all right?"
"Everyone except you, sure. Goodness, you really need to exercise."
"......."
Jang Si-woon and the other visitors were appalled at my athletic ability.
Sheepish but unable to argue, I could only scratch my head.
"Are you really unhurt? The young lady here says she heard some kind of sound."
"Ah, it was a lion."
"What?!!"
"A lion, a leopard, and a wolf."
"...You're lying, right?"
The middle-aged woman treated me like a compulsive liar.
I didn't know if they would believe me, but I shook my head with the most truthful expression I could muster.
"When I begged them to spare me, they just left."
"Impossible! Is that part of the quest too?"
"Yes, I think so."
'I begged for my life, and the beasts left.... I remember reading this story somewhere too—'
"What is this, some fairy tale? Is that even possible?"
'Ah. That's it.'
Not a fairy tale, but.
"Ah, I know what it is."
"Really?!! What is it — you know what the quest is?"
"First, we need to walk."
"No way! You said beasts showed up — how are we supposed to keep walking here?! Are you insane?!"
A young man with a large build snapped in a gravelly voice.
I understood how he felt, but right now, walking was our only option.
Because only by walking would 'it' appear.
"The passage to the second floor — no, at the very least, I've found the quest that leads to the second floor. So please, walk with me."
"...F—k!!"
The young man spat a curse in frustration.
Still, in the end, he made a resigned face, having apparently decided to come along with me after all.
"There's an epic poem called Dante's Divine Comedy."
"I've heard of it, at least...."
"I've only read the most famous parts myself. The book's enormously thick, after all."
By now, the moonlight had turned the night path completely bright.
As if guiding us onward.
"The protagonist, Dante, is walking a forest path at night when he's threatened by wild beasts."
"!!"
"Those beasts are a lion, a leopard, and a wolf."
Predators gathered together unnaturally. And they turned back without even devouring me.
A situation that matched the Divine Comedy's Inferno exactly. This couldn't be coincidence.
It had to be the museum's planned staging.
"And then he comes upon the Gates of Hell."
"The Gates of Hell? Isn't that the one where you cross a river first, and then meet the three-headed dog and all that?"
Jang Si-woon's eyes rolled upward as she retraced hazy memories.
"You're mixing it up with Greek and Roman mythology. The river and Cerberus come after passing the Gates of Hell. The order's different."
"Oh, is that right?"
"Beasts appearing in the forest is from the early part of Dante's Divine Comedy — the Inferno."
Of course, my own memory wasn't crystal clear either, but I wasn't wrong about this part.
With thick books, the beginning and the end always stay sharpest in memory.
"The passage to the second floor — the quest — will be connected to the 'Gates of Hell.'"
"Beasts could just show up on their own. It could tie into some other work entirely."
"Right. Come on — a quest that requires knowing Dante's works to solve? Really?"
The middle-aged visitors grimaced, saying the mere thought made their heads ache.
'True. Even so, they wouldn't have twisted things too cruelly on the very first floor.'
Scattering complex hints while leaving room for interpretation.
They would have built the quest so that even a one-dimensional reading could still move things forward.
"Before we walked into the forest, I mentioned it — that strange thing the Curator said at the end."
'Though everything it says is strange.'
[While you walk the forest, abandon all hope, and may you be with the torso.]
Jang Si-woon shrugged, still not following.
"They gathered us here to make wishes — so why tell us to abandon hope?"
THOOM-!!
The instant her words ended, something surged up from the ground right at our feet.
A gate.
"G-good heavens. Something actually happened!! The young man was right after all!"
"No, but — what is that...?!"
The middle-aged woman, who'd been patting my shoulder in approval, and the young man both gaped.
The gate that had erupted from the earth kept climbing up without end.
When the colossal gate had fully risen, the ground fell still.
People gathered in a circle around the gate.
'This is-'
Cast in dark bronze, the gate was easily more than three times my height.
Two door panels and two pillars flanking them. A relief carved with countless human figures.
"I've seen that! In a textbook! It's the Gates of Hell!"
"Rodin. It looks like Auguste Rodin's 'The Gates of Hell.'"
At the young man's shout, I added the artist's name.
'It's a little different, but it's definitely modeled on the Gates of Hell.'
Facing the enormous gate, I swallowed hard at the pressure bearing down on me.
On the lower part of the doors, Italian was carved alongside a considerate Korean translation.
'Abandon all hope — that phrase was the signal....'
There was a reason the gate had responded to Jang Si-woon's words.
A famous line that appears early in the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'intrate.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
And so, the notebook drawing of the 'Gates of Hell' soon spread open as the leaflet.
It was a drawing from my old notebook — the one I used to scribble in while looking at artworks.