Chapter 182: Let’s act together quickly.
Pandora's hand slowly withdrew from the jar.
A collective sigh swept through the theater.
Just as the audience began to relax...
Pandora's soliloquy overturned everything they thought they knew.
"Why... did God tempt me?"
This was not the familiar Pandora.
Not the impatient fool who couldn't resist her curiosity, opened the jar without hesitation, and brought disaster upon mankind.
When every virtuous emotion and every dark emotion coexisted, and one began distinguishing them through conscious will...
Reason was born.
Armed with that reason, Pandora had begun to think.
"If God only wished for me to live in happiness without question, then perhaps He should never have shown me the jar.
No... perhaps He should never have given me the ability to think at all..."
But after carefully turning the angel's warning over in his mind, his thoughts branched in an entirely different direction.
"He said I would receive suffering equal to my happiness.
Isn't that simply the natural order of things?"
He questioned whether the angel's warning had truly been a warning at all.
"Isn't this world, where only happiness exists... the stranger one?"
He began doubting what had once seemed unquestionable.
"Living within the happiness I've been given...
Am I truly happy?"
And when he finally spoke the conclusion his own reasoning had reached...
A profound darkness settled over his face.
He entertained thoughts he believed blasphemous and was consumed by guilt.
Then he questioned whether they had truly been blasphemous in the first place.
Again and again, he cycled through doubt, guilt, and inquiry.
Watching from the shadows, the devil chuckled.
"Good.
Just a little more.
Let your curiosity grow.
Open the jar."
Then Pandora made his choice.
"Even if it brings suffering...
Even if I regret it...
Even if death itself comes for me...
I choose my right to know."
Without hesitation, he broke the seal.
Gray smoke hissed upward.
An eerie burst of laughter echoed throughout the theater.
The devil stood to one side, laughing triumphantly.
Many audience members instinctively turned to see the angel's reaction—
And froze.
Oh...
She failed.
The angel was frowning.
It was an expression so petty...
So vicious...
So filled with malice...
that anyone would have believed it belonged to the devil instead.
She... wasn't an angel?
At that instant, the same question flashed through every mind in the audience.
The shock was all the greater because it was Priaga.
Priaga, whose warm smile throughout Casting Boat had become synonymous with comfort and healing.
As the second act ended and the audience waited for the lights of the third to rise, tension filled the theater.
No one could predict how this story would end.
Derek, in particular, felt every ounce of anticipation he had been suppressing since postponing his chance to act alongside Yu Myeong explode all at once.
Where in the world can this possibly go...?
Pandora had opened the jar by his own choice.
That hadn't changed the fact that hatred, envy, rage, disease, death...
Every source of human suffering had poured into the world because of that decision.
How could the third act possibly convince the audience to accept Pandora's choice?
The lights rose again.
Pandora lay collapsed on the stage.
The devil approached and nudged him with his foot.
"Hey.
Wake up."
"Ah...
I opened the jar...
And after that..."
Smack!
The crisp sound rang through the theater.
The devil had slapped Pandora's other cheek.
Earlier, Pandora had shown no sign of feeling pain when struck.
This time...
Pain appeared on his face with startling clarity.
Alongside it came surprise.
Not merely surprise—
The exhilaration of someone who had just learned something previously unknown.
"So...
This is pain..."
"Well?
Do you regret it?"
"No.
So this... is what pain feels like..."
The devil smiled approvingly.
"You're quite something."
"I suppose I am."
After the devil departed, Pandora lived an ordinary human life.
The stage lights shifted through one color after another.
Each time he crossed from one end of the stage to the other, the young man in his twenties aged into his thirties...
Then his forties...
Then his fifties.
My God...
As the fresh green lighting gradually deepened into dark violet, Yu Myeong's performance created the illusion that wrinkles were actually spreading across Pandora's face.
It was the life of an ordinary human being.
Joy.
Sorrow.
Defeat.
Perseverance.
All woven together.
Eventually, beneath a dim light that seemed ready to vanish entirely, Pandora lay dying.
Old.
Diseased.
At the very edge of death.
The angel appeared before him.
"I told you.
You should never have opened the jar.
No...
You shouldn't have accepted the devil's dark emotions in the first place.
You regret it now...
Don't you?"
The scene that had awakened Priaga began.
"No."
Pandora's answer came without hesitation.
His body was worn down by age and illness, barely capable of moving.
Yet his eyes remained perfectly clear as he gazed into empty space—
Searching for something invisible.
"Because humanity experienced suffering and disease...
we never stopped pursuing truth in order to overcome them."
A brilliant beam of light pierced the dim stage.
"The ability to lie gave rise to endless hypocrisy.
Yet that same hypocrisy sometimes protected the weak."
Another shaft of light broke through the darkness like sunlight piercing storm clouds.
"Jealousy and hatred are feelings directed toward others...
but they can also become the force that drives us to improve ourselves."
The stage grew steadily brighter.
"And because death exists...
we have never ceased contemplating the nature of existence."
In contrast...
the angel's face grew darker and darker.
"And curiosity.
This quality possessed by no other living creature...
is what brings humanity ever closer to God."
"Blasphemy!
God?!
How dare you speak of becoming God!"
"What is blasphemous?
If we were given the intellect to aspire to become God, yet forbidden from desiring it...
is that not a contradiction?
Tell me...
Are you truly an angel?
Or are you perhaps the devil...
acting on God's selfish desire to prevent another god from being born?"
The angel screamed in agony.
She fled the stage.
Watching from behind, the devil burst into laughter.
"Magnificent.
A being created by God now dares to reach beyond God Himself."
His expression softened.
Just as the angel had revealed a devil's face...
The devil now smiled like an angel.
"Splendid."
"So...
You truly were the angel after all."
"No.
Just as the one who fled is God...
I too am God.
Like every god, we possess both goodness and wickedness."
Just as humanity contained both good and evil...
So did the divine.
"I merely believed that every being should decide its own potential.
I simply allowed you to choose your own path."
"I see..."
His breathing became increasingly labored.
"And yet...
You still don't regret it?
You have suffered.
Now you're about to die.
Had you never opened the jar, you could have lived forever."
"I have no regrets.
I would rather be a hungry god than a well fed beast.
If the truth I pursued continues to accumulate and be passed down...
then perhaps one day my descendants will become gods."
Pandora reached into the now unsealed jar.
From its depths, he withdrew the only thing left inside.
Hope.
"Oh...
So hope remained."
God gently closed Pandora's eyes.
"You have grown weary after a lifetime of struggle.
Rest now."
Joy blossomed across Pandora's face with his final breath.
A requiem began to play.
One by one, the lights faded.
Even after Pandora's life had completely left him...
The audience remained utterly still, watching his body until the requiem finally came to an end.
Clink.
Clink.
Clink.
Tokens piled into the voting boxes near the theater exit.
One box overwhelmingly outpaced the others.
Team Four's.
"I thought the editing was what made it work...
Turns out the broadcast didn't even capture a quarter of it..."
"Wow...
That gave me chills.
Isn't there a separate fan site just for Yu Myeong?
I'm signing up today."
Listening to the excited chatter as people streamed out of the theater, Sojin fought desperately to keep herself from crying.
So this is what people mean when they say happiness brings tears...
Entertainment Studies.
Late Goryeo, Early Joseon.
Peter Pan.
Every time she watched one of his performances, she became convinced that no actor could possibly go any further.
Every single time...
Yu Myeong proved her wrong.
And this performance...
After this...
I don't think anyone will ever dare play Pandora again.
Barely nine months had passed since Peter Pan.
Yet her favorite actor had shattered his own limits once again.
She couldn't even begin to understand how.
Does he have some extraordinary teacher...?
No...
There couldn't possibly be anyone in this world capable of teaching an actor like him...
Without realizing it...
Sojin had arrived at exactly the right conclusion.
Still...
My mouth is itching to tell someone.
The performance had been so incredible that keeping quiet was harder than speaking.
She decided she would keep what she had witnessed a secret until the episode aired.
If the other members of the fan community found out she'd seen it live, they would desperately try not to ask for spoilers.
And she'd feel guilty for refusing to tell them.
Click.
Instead, Sojin snapped photographs and listened carefully to the conversations around her.
Once the episode aired, she planned to reconstruct the atmosphere of the venue in meticulous detail for the online community.
"Sojin, come over here."
"Huh?
But I still need to gather reactions..."
"You'll regret it if you don't come right now."
Yu Seok grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her along.
Reluctantly, she followed.
"Director—"
But when they rounded the side of the theater...
A room came into view that made her eyes widen.
Waiting Room 4
No way...
Inside the open doorway...
Sat the person she had dreamed of meeting.
"Huh?
Chairman, what are you doing in America...?"
"Actor Yu Myeong!!!"
Sojin let out a piercing scream.
"Whew...
Now it's time to announce the results."
Preparations for judging had been completed.
Several familiar faces once again occupied the judges' table.
Eva.
George.
Natalie.
Derek.
Eva looked utterly dejected.
"Um...
What am I supposed to do?"
"What's wrong, Eva?"
"Hugo...
I've become a fan.
I suddenly have no idea how I'm supposed to write a script capable of drawing an even better performance out of Yu Myeong than this..."
At her words, Hugo proudly lifted his chin.
Yu Myeong, meanwhile, visibly flinched.
This is bad.
Eva has no idea that if Mr. Hugo starts praising her, she'll float all the way into the clouds...
George cleared his throat.
"Ahem.
Since one of the productions was mine, it's difficult to remain completely objective.
Pandora was about as good as ours...
No, perhaps just a tiny bit better.
The other two productions were excellent as well, though naturally not quite on our level...
Ahem..."
Natalie simply spoke her mind.
"Whew...
I'm honestly still in shock.
Every performance tonight was outstanding...
But Pandora was overwhelming.
The idea that Pandora chose to open the jar was brilliant in itself, but what truly brought that theme to life were the actors.
Good and evil.
The complex emotions created by both...
Today, I believe I witnessed the highest level of acting a performer can possibly reach."
Then it was Derek's turn.
"..."
"Derek?"
"Yu Myeong."
"Let's act together.
Immediately."
Yu Myeong looked at him in surprise.
He had long hoped to perform with Derek in class, but it was Derek himself who had continually postponed the opportunity.
"I can't wait anymore.
Just hold on a little longer.
I'm preparing something."
In the end, Derek accidentally spoiled his own surprise.
Jerry hurriedly cut him off.
"Ahem! Then let's announce the audience vote first.
The winner is...!"
A dramatic drumroll echoed through the theater.
"Team Four, directed by Hugo, with Pandora! Congratulations! Ah... though I have to admit, that announcement didn't exactly build much suspense, did it?"
The result had been so obvious that Jerry's joke finally earned a round of laughter.
"And now...
The moment you've all been waiting for...
The finalists!"
This time everyone truly held their breath.
"But before that..."
Jerry abruptly interrupted the momentum with a clap.
"Let me first explain how the live finale will work!"
He had mastered the art of keeping everyone in suspense.