Chapter 181: Pandora.
The people attending today will be watching four performances.
Each audience member held a gold ticket and a green token.
"And as you leave, please drop the green token you received at the entrance into the box for the performance you liked the most. The audience vote will not affect the selection of the finalists, but the team that receives the most votes will receive a special reward."
What kind of reward?
"Vogue magazine has agreed to recreate the winning team's performance concept for a fashion editorial. The photo shoot will appear on the cover of the next issue of Vogue, and the actors will, of course, be paid modeling fees!"
"Woooooo!"
The audience erupted into cheers, and backstage, greed flashed across the contestants' faces as they heard the announcement.
The cover of the most influential fashion magazine...
It was an enormous opportunity to engrave their faces into the public's memory.
"Then let's begin! Even though this is a competition, it's still a proper performance, so you all know the rules—please remain quiet during the show."
Jerry winked before disappearing behind the curtain.
The first team was directed by George Housley and featured Kai and Antoine.
Three gangsters with completely different personalities clashed as they tried to capture a single "important figure," creating scenes that balanced frantic tension with perfectly timed comedy.
The role of the gangster who leisurely toyed with his opponents suited Antoine unexpectedly well, while Kai drew attention by playing the most sinister character with an innocent expression that practically screamed, I don't know anything.
He's improving unbelievably fast...
Watching Kai perform, Yu Myeong couldn't help but admire him.
Just as expected of someone with the potential to conquer the world stage in a few years, he was growing at an astonishing pace.
And Antoine...
He's simply born to be a star.
There was something magnetic about him. Even his unhurried movements kept the audience hanging on every second.
Kai had improved tremendously, but he still wasn't yet at the level of an actor who had already earned recognition for his craft in France.
Applause thundered through the theater.
The first team's performance came to an end.
During the ten minute stage change, the audience excitedly discussed what they had just seen with the people who had come with them.
Then came the second and third teams.
One presented a romance, the other a thriller, and both performances were remarkably polished.
Casting Boat had earned a reputation for having contestants who far surpassed the standards of ordinary audition programs. It had begun because of one exceptional actor, but now the others, inspired by him, had elevated themselves by leaps and bounds.
{He raised the standard of the entire audition...}
Miho laughed gleefully as she floated in midair from the angle where the stage was most visible.
"The fourth team's performance will begin shortly."
And finally—
Yu Myeong's performance began.
Derek sat in the royal section reserved for the judges.
He could see audience members nearby glancing toward him and whispering.
"It's Derek!"
"That's Derek McCurdy!!"
Accepting those all too familiar looks with practiced indifference, he sank into thought.
Shin Yu Myeong... and Hugo Viadra...
He had met Hugo Viadra several times at film industry events.
They said it took one madman to recognize another, and Derek had never particularly liked Hugo.
Even so, personal feelings had nothing to do with talent. He fully acknowledged Hugo's abilities as a director.
The title is... Pandora.
So it would be a story based on Pandora's Box.
The myth of Pandora, from whom all of humanity's suffering was said to have originated.
He was dying to know how they had interpreted it.
It wasn't as though he had lacked opportunities to find out beforehand, but Derek had deliberately restrained himself.
He wanted to experience the finished work without any preconceived notions.
The house lights dimmed once again.
The fourth blackout of the evening.
By now the audience could easily have begun to tire, yet the atmosphere inside the theater was more taut than ever.
Everyone sensed that the actor they had been waiting for was finally about to appear.
Without realizing it, Derek leaned slightly forward.
Shhh—
A faint light seeped onto the stage.
At center stage stood a single barefoot figure.
His face remained hidden in shadow, but his build was unmistakably male.
Behind him stood two staircases.
Beginning from the center of the stage, they rose higher and higher toward opposite ends, spreading outward like a pair of unfurled wings.
And atop the highest step on each side stood the silhouettes of two people.
Flash—
Light poured down over their heads.
The backlighting came on as well, outlining their forms with an almost holy radiance.
Derek knew both of them well.
Priaga wore a dazzling golden dress that shimmered brilliantly.
Marta was enveloped from head to toe in matte black latex.
Anyone could tell at a glance.
An angel.
And a devil.
Then... Shin Yu Myeong is Pandora?!
The Pandora Derek knew was female.
That alone made it obvious this performance was not a straightforward retelling of the myth.
A voice resonated through the theater.
"God created mankind."
"And before sending humanity into the world, bestowed many gifts upon them."
Bathed in light, the two figures were almost identical in height and build, like twins born with opposing natures.
After each speaking a line, they opened their mouths together.
"Pandora, God's gift."
"Pandora, God's gift."
One extended a right hand.
The other, a left.
Together they pointed toward center stage.
A spotlight descended.
And at last Pandora's face was revealed.
It was...
almost unnervingly devoid of expression.
The angel floated gracefully down the stairs.
"Pandora. Creature most resembling God.
I can give you many things.
The joy of a gentle breeze brushing your ear.
The sweetness of first love.
The charm that makes others long for you.
The delight of taking the very first bite of a perfectly ripened harvest.
All of that happiness shall be yours."
The creature looked back at her with eyes as clear as glass, unable to understand.
"First, I bestow upon you joy."
The opening scene was mesmerizing.
Pure joy blossomed across the angel's face.
Then, as though transplanted, that joy slowly appeared upon Pandora's expression while gradually disappearing from the angel's own.
"Second, I bestow upon you love."
This time, innocent love filled the angel's features.
As it faded from her, it settled upon Pandora's face beside the joy already there.
The joy of love.
By that point Derek could already predict where the performance was heading.
No way...
They're going to keep layering emotions...!
His suspicion proved correct.
Three emotions.
Then four.
Displaying complex emotions in itself wasn't astonishing.
Derek was one of the world's finest actors.
But every emotion belonged to the same bright emotional spectrum, yet each remained perfectly distinct.
And whenever another feeling was added, the subtle transformation of Pandora's face...
It was unbelievably natural.
For a brief moment, Derek simply stared.
If someone gave me a task like this... how long would it take me?
He didn't think it was impossible.
He was Derek McCurdy.
But even he wasn't sure he could perfect something like this within a single week.
His fingers clenched the armrest of the judge's seat so tightly it looked ready to crack.
"Ah..."
The angel let out a soft sigh.
With every whispered blessing, the first human accumulated another layer of positive emotion until, at last, his face became so radiant and beautiful that it seemed to shine with its own light.
The angel gazed upon the being she had created with gentle admiration.
Then—
The devil descended the staircase on the opposite side.
Approaching Pandora, he casually shoved the angel aside.
"I'll give him a gift as well."
"Leave. A blessed being has no need for curses."
"Quiet. That isn't your decision to make. He is a higher being who inherited God's authority. He may choose for himself what he receives. Pandora... will you accept my gift?"
The devil spoke with honeyed sweetness.
At that signal, every positive emotion filling Pandora's face disappeared one by one.
Returned to emptiness, he quietly studied the devil's face.
Then he nodded.
"No, Pandora...!"
"A wise child. The choice has been made. You no longer have the right to interfere. Begone."
Derek let out a quiet breath.
This time... they'll layer dark emotions the same way.
Just as goodness had accumulated in its purest form...
Now evil would.
For the first time in his life, Derek found himself this eager to watch another actor perform.
He pressed a hand against his pounding chest.
"I shall first grant you the ability to lie."
A hypocritical smile appeared on the devil's face.
A false smile concealing malice.
Pandora copied the expression.
Like the first black brushstroke across a pristine white canvas.
"Second, I bestow upon you flattery."
Now a cringing servility was added.
The mixture of deceit and cowardice made his face so hideous that it was hard to believe it belonged to the same person from moments before.
"Third, I bestow upon you hatred."
At those words, hatred settled beneath the oily mask of hypocrisy and flattery.
The smile that remained upon that hatred filled Derek with awe.
It was...
so unmistakably human.
"Fourth, I bestow upon you curiosity."
Finally, curiosity was layered atop the face already consumed by evil.
With those final words, the angel and the devil glared at one another before exiting together.
Pandora looked around.
Left alone onstage, the human curiously examined everything around him.
Now every good emotion and every dark emotion coexisted upon his face.
He had become...
simply human.
After searching every corner of the stage, he finally lowered his gaze to his own hands.
The final object of his curiosity was himself.
He touched his shoulders.
His knees.
Examining his body piece by piece.
Then, for the first time, he spoke.
"I am... human."
Scene Two.
Pandora walked onto the now empty stage.
Gone was the pure white robe from before.
He now wore colorful clothing bound with a sash, and countless emotions intertwined across his face.
In one corner of the stage, he discovered something he had never seen before.
A sealed jar.
Curiosity shone brightly in his eyes.
Just as he was about to open it, the angel rushed in.
"No, Pandora! You must never open that jar."
"I mustn't?"
"You mustn't. If you open it, unimaginable misfortune will befall humanity. You have to endure the temptation."
"Why?"
The angel's eyebrows rose at the simple question.
She fell silent for a moment before speaking gently again.
"Because it is God's will."
God's will.
Faced with those absolute words, Pandora had no answer.
He closed his mouth.
After giving him one final stern look, the angel departed.
But even after being scolded, Pandora couldn't tear his eyes away from the jar.
This time the devil appeared.
"Aren't you curious, Pandora? You were given curiosity."
"I am."
"Then follow your own will."
"But she said God's will is for me not to open it."
The devil clicked his tongue in disappointment before looking down at him.
"So that is all your will amounts to.
How disappointing."
The devil also left.
Pandora crouched before the jar.
His hand hovered above it, rising and falling again and again.
The angel returned once more, her voice stern.
"No, Pandora. You'll regret it."
"Why? What's inside?"
At that moment—
Still smiling—
The angel slapped him across the face.
Smack!
A collective gasp swept through the audience.
It had been a surprisingly fierce blow.
A red mark bloomed across Pandora's cheek.
But knowing nothing of pain, he simply stared blankly at the angel.
"You know nothing of suffering.
Nothing of jealousy.
Nothing of illness.
Nothing of death.
Nothing at all."
"What are those?"
"They are the countless misfortunes you have been spared because you are God's chosen child. God loved humanity and granted only happiness. But if you defy God's will, He will give you misfortune equal to that happiness. So you must never open that jar."
Leaving one final warning behind, the angel departed again.
Pandora turned his back on the jar.
But curiosity was as impossible to resist as an unbearable itch.
Just as the north pole of a magnet is drawn inexorably toward the south, his body kept turning back toward it.
At last, Pandora placed his hand upon the jar once more.
The instant his fingers grasped the edge of the paper seal...
Every member of the audience silently screamed.
No... don't...!