Today is April Fool’s Day.
As we didn’t have anything special to do, we gathered in my room as usual and started drinking beer at random.
Since it was April Fool’s Day, we were bored and came up with a game.
We would tell a lie and talk about it. And everyone listens to it and makes it a snack.
It’s a silly game. But I liked the silliness of it.
I was the first one to tell the story of a woman I picked up this summer who got pregnant and is now the father of a child.
I had never heard of this before, but when asked to lie, one can never lie 100%.
In my case, I didn’t pick up any girls that summer, but my girlfriend at the time got pregnant and
I am not the father of a child, but I have a water baby on my back.
It is hard to tell which of us is lying. It is precisely because I can’t see through them that I enjoy them.
In this way, the lies proceeded in order, and the baton passed to the last one.
He took a sip of his beer and said apologetically, “I’m sorry.
I can’t lie as deftly as everyone else, so I’m going to make up a story.
What’s that? That’s not the point.
‘Well, just listen to me. I won’t bore you.
He straightened his posture and began to talk, muttering, “Well, then.
I woke up in the morning and found myself in an empty white room.
I have no recollection of why I was there or how I got there.
I just woke up and there I was.
I was stunned for a while, unable to grasp the situation, when suddenly I heard a voice echoing from around the ceiling.
It must have been an old speaker, because it was a strange, noisy voice. The voice said
The path you are on is the path of life, the path of human karma. I give you only choices, anguish, and decisions.
The path you walk is many and one, never walking in contradiction.’
And. And that’s when I first noticed there was a door on my back side.
With sticky red letters on the side.
“Move on.”
It was written on the wall.
When I opened the door, there was a TV on my right and a sleeping bag with a person in it on my left.
On the TV were images of starving children, probably from Africa.
The sleeping bag on the left was probably filled with someone, but it was zipped up tight.
I had no idea what kind of people were in there.
I entered the room. I found a piece of paper on the floor in the middle of the room.
It said
I give you three.
One. Break the TV on your right.
Two. To kill a person on your left.
Three. You die.
If you choose the first, you will be closer to the exit.
You and the person on your left will be released, and in return they will die.
If you choose the second, you will be closer to the exit. Instead, the path of the person on your left ends.
If you choose the third, the person on your left is liberated, and congratulations, your path ends.
It’s a mess. No matter which one you choose, it’s just too hopeless. It’s ridiculous.
But I couldn’t think of the situation as ridiculous.
On the contrary, I was shaking with fear.
The atmosphere there was so bizarre that I couldn’t say whether or not it was true.
And then I thought.
A large number of stranger lives somewhere, a single stranger life nearby, or the nearest life that I knew well?
If I did not proceed, I would surely die. Would that be the “third” choice? I didn’t want to.
I don’t want to die without knowing anything. One life or many lives? Such things don’t need to be compared.
Beside my sleeping bag was a large machete. I quietly picked up the machete and slowly raised it.
He swung the machete at the sleeping bag like a motionless caterpillar. Geez. A dull sound, a sensation, is felt.
No sign of the next door opening. He swung the machete again. Gucha.
The anonymity of the faceless paralyzes my sense of guilt.
Just as I raise the machete again, I hear a crack and the door opens.
A brat with colorless eyes peered back at us from the TV screen on the right.
When I entered the next room, there was a model of a cruise ship on my right and a sleeping bag on my left as well.
On the floor was also a piece of paper with the following words.
I will give you three.
One. Break the passenger ship in your right hand.
Two. Burn the sleeping bag on your left.
Three. You must die.
If you choose the first, you will be close to the exit.
You and your left hand man will be released, and in return the passengers of the cruise ship will die.
If you choose the second option, you will be closer to the exit. If you choose the second option, you are closer to the exit, but instead the path of the person on your left ends.
If you choose the third, the person on your left is released, and congratulations, your path ends.
The cruise ship was just a model. Under normal circumstances, there was no way that people would die if they destroyed it.
But at that moment, I knew that what was written on that paper was absolutely true. There was no reason.
I just thought so.
I poured kerosene from my sleeping bag until it was empty.
I rubbed the match that had been prepared and released it into the kerosene.
I heard a pop and my sleeping bag was instantly engulfed in flames.
I stood in front of the ship, staring at the model, and waited for the lock to open.
After about two minutes, I had no sense of time, but it was time for people to die.
Maybe two minutes. I heard a clunk, and the next door opened.
I didn’t check to see what was going on to my left, and I didn’t want to.
When I entered the next room, this time there was a globe on my right and another sleeping bag on my left.
I quickly picked up a piece of paper and there it was.
I gave him three.
One. Break the globe in your right hand.
Two. Shoot the sleeping bag in your left hand.
Three. You must die.
If you choose the first, you will be closer to the exit.
You and the person on your left will be released, and a nuke will fall somewhere in the world in return.
If you choose the second option, you are close to the exit. Instead, the path of the person on your left ends.
If you choose the third, the person on your left is liberated, and congratulations, your path is over.
Thoughts and emotions were now completely numb.
I half mechanically picked up the pistol by my sleeping bag and raised the firing pin, and immediately put all my strength into my index finger.
I heard a dry sound. Pang, pang, pang, pang, pang.
The revolver pistol was empty after six rounds.
The first handgun I ever handled was easier than shopping at a convenience store.
When I went to the door, the lock was already open. I didn’t even want to know how many shots had killed the sleeping bag.
The last room was empty. I let out an involuntary “huh?
It was a bit of a relief to think that this might be the way out. I could finally get out. That’s what I thought.
Then I heard the voice above my head again.
The last question.
Three people and the rest of the world. And you.
If you had to kill, what would you choose?
Without thinking, I silently pointed the way I had just come.
Then again, I heard a voice from above my head.
Congratulations!
You have chosen your path without contradiction.
Life is a series of choices, and behind every anonymous happiness is an anonymous misfortune.
For every anonymous life there is an anonymous death.
One life weighs no more than the earth.
You proved it.
But that in no way denies the weight of life.
At the end of the day, you will feel how heavy each life is.
The way out is open.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
I heard the voice and felt a sense of relief, a sense of emptiness.
Anyway, my whole body was drained at once, and I opened the last door, feeling dizzy.
As I walked forward, dizzy, into the dazzling room, drenched in light, I felt a tap on my foot.
There were three images of the deceased.
My father, my mother, and my brother.
That’s it.”
When he finished, we were so nervous we couldn’t even swallow our spit.
What was this guy talking about?
What was the unexplainable power of his speech?
Everyone there had a slimy, creepy feeling.
I gulped down my beer and said with gusto
“……, don’t give me any of that creepy stuff! Let’s have some fun and talk about lies!
Come on, you’ve got to lie about something after all!”
He then gave an eerie smile that just fished out the corners of his mouth.
The expression on his face made me feel a shudder of fear from the bottom of my body.
Then he opened his mouth.
I’m already here.”
What?”
I’ll make one thing up.”
