Floor 3 - Archive (2)

**

“Tell me what the answer is.”

I asked the question directly. The Librarian answered without so much as changing his expression.

“My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”

As expected, that wasn’t going to work…
I hadn’t expected much. I’d only tried it on the off chance.
I moved straight on.

“What’s the title of the answer book?”
“My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”
“Who’s the author?”
“My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”
“Where is it shelved? Even a rough location is fine.”
“My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”
“What category is it? Fiction? Nonfiction? Something else?”
“My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”
“…”

What was with this guy?
No matter what I asked, I got the same answer. His mechanical voice remained firm.

“…My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”

He refused to give me even the slightest clue. I stared at him in disbelief.

‘He won’t even tell me that?’

Fine, maybe the title and location were too much, but couldn’t he at least tell me the category?
At this point, a reasonable suspicion occurred to me. After thinking for a moment, I tried a different kind of question.

“Does an answer actually exist?”
“Yes. A book has unquestionably been designated as the answer.”

He answered without hesitation.
Now he was perfectly willing to tell me. Then why had he refused all of those other questions?

‘Don’t tell me…’

A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

“How many books are there here in total?”
“There are currently around 150,000 books catalogued in the Archive.”
“How are they classified?”
“They are arranged by category according to a decimal classification system and shelved in alphabetical order.”

The Librarian answered.
A hundred and fifty thousand?
The number was staggering, but that wasn’t the important part.
He’d been dodging my questions like some stupid AI until a moment ago, but now he was answering without resistance.
The difference was obvious.

“Does the title of the answer book begin with the Korean letter ‘ㄱ’?”
“My apologies. I cannot answer that question.”

After a few more exchanges, I was certain.
So that was it.
My guess had been right.
I’d figured out the catch in the game.

‘This guy…’

He refused to provide any information whatsoever about the answer.
There was no room for negotiation.
If a question had even the slightest connection to the answer, he refused to respond.
It was probably one of the Tower’s rules.
No wonder they were so generous with the time limit and number of questions…
There was a reason for it.

Wait.
Then was there even a way to identify the answer?
The question suddenly occurred to me.
Floor 3’s game was supposed to be Twenty Questions. The whole point of asking questions was to narrow down the answer.
But he refused to answer.
That made the entire question-and-answer process practically meaningless. It was basically Twenty Questions without the questions.

That made no sense.
What kind of game leaves out the one thing in its own name?
I looked at the Librarian.
He stood there expressionless like a wax figure. I couldn’t read him at all.

“Is there a problem?”
“…None of your business.”

Get a grip.
There had to be a way.
Every game had some method of breaking through it.
This one had to be the same.
There had to be some loophole I hadn’t noticed yet.
He’d said it himself earlier.

-Are you a robot?
-No. I am human.
-Do you have emotions?
-They exist.

When I’d first questioned him, he’d introduced himself as human.
If he was a human being with emotions, that meant he wasn’t perfect.
Sooner or later, he’d let his guard down or leave an opening.
Exploiting that had to be the key to this game.

‘Let’s see how long you can keep acting so confident…’

I’d knock him down a peg.
I checked the hourglass. There was still plenty of time left.
But since all I could see was sand piling up at the bottom, I had no idea exactly how long had passed.

“How much time has passed?”
“Approximately ten minutes.”

So he was useful for things like this too.
No need to rush.
The important thing was how I used the time I had.
I casually started walking through the Archive. The Librarian immediately followed close behind.

“Where are you going?”
“To investigate. I should at least look around and see what’s on Floor 3.”
“That is a wise decision. Upon arriving on a new floor, determining the nature of the location serving as its setting should be your first priority.”

What incredibly useful advice. I ignored him and kept walking.

“Why are you following me?”
“To provide assistance to the user. If you truly prefer, I can remain behind.”
“No, forget it… I’ll have plenty more questions for you. Just stay with me.”
“Understood. If there is anything you wish to know, please ask at any time.”

He sure was talkative.
With the Librarian tagging along, I continued forward. No matter whether I looked left or right, the view was the same.

…Books everywhere.

An endless feast of books.
Shelves packed without a single gap.
They stood in long rows like dominoes, arranged in perfect order without so much as an inch out of place.

‘He said around 150,000…’

The number was staggering even the second time around. Looking at the Archive, it certainly didn’t seem like an exaggeration.

“How exactly is this place laid out?”
“There are four sections extending in each direction from the center.”
“Sections?”
“They are sections in name only. There are no meaningful differences between them, and the bookshelves are arranged identically in each.”

The layout was simple.
Simply put, it was one enormous library stretching out in four directions.

“Pretty simple layout.”
“Yes.”
“Any hidden rooms or concealed areas?”
“No. What I have described constitutes the entirety of Floor 3.”
“And how am I supposed to believe that?”

I abruptly challenged him to see how he’d react.

“There’s no guarantee everything you say is true. You could slip in a lie here and there.”
“…”

The Librarian fell silent for a moment.
Then he nodded as though he understood.

“That is a reasonable argument. From your perspective, the Floor 3 Administrator has not earned your trust. It is only natural that you would doubt my words.”

He continued in the same flat tone.

“However, allow me to offer one piece of advice. If you choose to dismiss my words as lies…”

He stared directly at me with empty eyes.

“…you will never escape Floor 3.”

His expression and voice were as mechanical as ever, yet there was a faint pressure behind them.
His dry, rigid delivery made the words especially unsettling. He’d been giving me useless advice this whole time, but…
for once, that was actually helpful.
I reluctantly accepted it.

“Fine, fine…”
“A wise decision.”

I’d tried to test his reaction, only to have it turned back on me. He probably really wasn’t lying.
For now, I was better off believing him.
For my own sake.

‘Whew.’

Either way, there were no hidden areas on Floor 3. The center and the four sections branching from it made up the entire Archive.

‘Then the answer has to be hidden somewhere among all of this…’

I stopped at the nearest shelf and examined it. Looking closer, I could make out the titles.
The Librarian added an explanation.

“This section contains Italian literature. One recommended title is Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron…”
“Don’t need it.”

He pulled a book from the shelf and held it out as a recommendation, so I waved him off.
This wasn’t the time for leisurely reading. Looking over the shelves, I asked him,

“Let’s say there’s an answer book, but there’s another identical copy of it. Would either one count as correct?”
“There is no need for concern. There are no duplicate books catalogued in the Archive. All approximately 150,000 catalogued volumes are unique.”

Thorough as hell.
So every catalogued book here had only one copy.
That eliminated one troublesome variable. There was only one answer.
One out of 150,000.
The odds were atrocious.
Trying to find it blindly was practically impossible.
I walked through the Archive and carefully examined the shelves.
Eventually, I reached a conclusion.

‘…I have no clue.’

Not a single clue.
Forget the answer…
All the books looked the same to me. I needed to know something, anything, about the answer before I could tell them apart.
That convinced me.
There really was only one method left.
Questions.
I silently worked through the problem and changed my approach.

‘He refuses questions about the answer. So what if I phrase things indirectly and trick him into answering?’

He might let something slip without realizing it. If he was human, he was bound to make a mistake eventually.

“Let me ask you something.”
“Certainly.”
“Do you like books?”
“Naturally. A love of reading is a basic qualification for any Librarian.”

I see.
I stopped in the middle of the aisle, faced him solemnly, and unleashed what I thought was my finishing move.

“Tell me the title and location of the book you most recently thought of.”
“Understood. Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron…”
“Except Italian literature.”

The goal of Floor 3’s game was to find the book designated as the answer.
Who had chosen the answer?
Obviously, the Administrator.
The rules even said I had to present the answer to the Librarian.
That was what I was exploiting.
He had to know which book was the answer.
But this alone wasn’t enough.
He might have all kinds of unrelated books running through his head.
So I added another condition.

“Make it the book you personally think I need most right now.”

The logic was simple.
The book the Librarian had most recently thought of, and the book I needed most right now…
There was only one book that satisfied both conditions.

‘The answer book.’

I was leading him toward the answer.
Instead of asking for it directly, I’d gone around the restriction. This was the strategy I’d devised for clearing the game.

Now, what would he do?
I confidently watched his reaction. The Librarian remained silent, deep in thought.
He rubbed his chin for a moment before slowly speaking.

“…Understood. Please follow me. I will guide you to the book you described.”

He readily nodded.
Then he started walking somewhere.

‘Got him…!’

I celebrated inwardly. My plan had worked exactly as intended.
The Librarian strode across the Archive while I obediently followed behind him.
A short while later, we stopped in front of a shelf. Without hesitation, he pulled out a book and handed it to me.

“This is the one.”

I took the book.
Then froze.

[Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People]

A self-help book?
I stared blankly at the book in my hands, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me.
It wasn’t even some obscure title.
It was a famous bestseller whose title I’d heard at least once before.

This was the answer?
It wasn’t impossible, but it felt far too unnatural.
When I glanced up, the Librarian added an explanation.

“Judging by the fact that you came to Floor 3 alone, I surmise that your relationship with the other participants is strained.”
“…”
“I recommend this book to help improve your interpersonal relationships.”

I was speechless.
He really had recommended a book that might help me.
I mean, he wasn’t wrong about me having problems with the others…
But why had he brought me this instead of the answer?
It was absurd. Was I missing something?

“Okay, I do need this book… but isn’t there another book I need even more?”
“Another book you need more?”

The Librarian tilted his head as though he didn’t understand.

“Aside from this, the only other one would be the book designated as the answer.”

What an obvious thing to say.
He’d mentioned the answer outright.
He clearly understood what I’d been getting at.
So why was he acting like this?
He paused as though he’d encountered a system error, then asked,

“Were your previous questions intended to determine which book had been designated as the answer?”
“…You figured it out.”

There was no point hiding it anymore, so I nodded. The Librarian responded firmly.

“Unfortunately, I cannot tell you.”
“Well, obviously. Because of the Tower’s rules, right?”
“No.”

The Librarian shook his head.
Something about that felt wrong. His refusals weren’t because of the Tower’s rules?
As I stared at him in confusion, he gave a small shrug.

“The reason is simple.”

What he said next was genuinely shocking.
The Librarian spoke with the same unconcerned expression.

“Because even I, the Floor 3 Administrator, do not know which book here has been designated as the answer.”
“…”

What?