BXBX NOVEL Chapter 55: The Ultimate Fan (3)
Chapter 55: The Ultimate Fan (3)
When the white light subsided and I opened my eyes again, it wasn’t the voice of the goddess that welcomed us, it was the voice of a child of unclear gender. The child was up in the air, looking down at us abruptly summoned Hunters.
“I’ve been anxiously waiting for you. Every day was like three years to me!”
His clothes were airy and superficially resembled a traditional eastern outfit—however, they were completely different up close. Aside from his long sleeves, nothing about his clothes was traditional. Actually, his sleeves were far from ordinary too. They were five meters long.
“But that’s okay. A life is a journey that starts and ends an encounter. In the end, the meaning of life is in reflecting on who you met. Waiting is a spice that adds deep flavor to life!”
It was said that the finishing touch of fashion was the looks of the person who wore them. Even if clothes were very special, their appeal depended on who wore them. On that note, the child with five-meter-long sleeves was certainly special.
“Once again, let me offer you my sincerest welcome to the Great Library of All Life!”
[Constellation Indoor Librarian welcomes you!]
The Constellation, the manager and representative of the twenty-first to the thirtieth floors, spread his arms wide and smiled. Unfortunately, no one cared for his greetings. The Hunters were yet to understand the situation, so they were busy looking around at their surroundings.
“Uhhh... Uhhh...”
“What? Why was I suddenly teleported?”
“Where am I?”
Several hundred people were here, all talking in panic. Most of them were people who had been chanting the countdown together in the plaza. However, there were also those who had been spending time elsewhere.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Don’t l-look at us!”
Embarrassed screams erupted from all across the library. Some Hunters had been teleported in the middle of their showers. Several people who appeared to be lovers were naked. Those who were looking around with half-opened eyes seemed to have been teleported in the middle of their sleep.
Many Hunters’ privacy was jarringly interrupted and they were thrown out into the open, leaving them alarmed and confused.
“Oops. I believe I was a little inconsiderate.” The Indoor Librarian grinned and flicked his fingers.
Big book covers flew in from somewhere. They had holes for heads, arms, and legs, and went to the naked Hunters and used themselves to dress them.
“Ah...”
“T-thank god.”
The Hunters heaved a sigh of relief. The situation was a little awkward for me too, so I was equally relieved.
“What the h-heck is this...?”
The Hunters wearing the covers made long faces because they looked like they were in Gundam suits made out of cardboard. They were the minority opinion, however. After a mess of embarrassment, the Hunters finally regained their composure and their gazes gradually made their way to the Constellation.
“...Who are you?” the Black Witch asked on the Hunters’ behalf. “And what is this place...”
“Ah, I’m just a nobody who manages a somewhat large library, Black Witch. Compared to you, I’m a lot closer to an extra, so I would prefer that you pretend I’m not here.”
The Black Witch furrowed her brows and pursed her lips. She didn’t know who the kid was, but he knew her. That didn’t feel right with her. It was only natural—I was somewhat used to these Constellations after making the Demon King of Autumn Rain and Goddess of Protection my subordinates, but the Constellations were still mysteries to other Hunters.
“...A somewhat large library,” I remarked. “Well, it doesn’t look somewhat large.”
The twenty-first stage was one giant library. In fact, giant might be an understatement. We were surrounded by bookcases. I could see more bookcases far into the distance and the floor and ceiling also seemed to be made from bookcases. This place was like a world of endless bookcases.
The master of this world looked at me, his eyes sparkling like those of an innocent child. “I see. You’re the Death King.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Ah, you don’t have to be so guarded. I’m truly harmless, everyone. I sincerely want to welcome you. To me, all of you are like the heroes from the epics.”
I knew what he meant because I had regressed over four thousand days. This place was no ordinary library. But I pretended I knew nothing and asked, “Heroes from epics?”
“It’s like this.” The Indoor Librarian flicked his fingers.
Two hardcover books were pulled from the bookcases. They circled around the Indoor Librarian. On the covers were written Chronicle of the Aegim Empire and The Story of the City of Ascension respectively.
“My hobby is reading books, but the books in my library are far from ordinary. They are the records of your history—the history of the worlds where the Towers are built.” The Indoor Librarian stroked the spine of the book with his thin finger. “You all must be wondering why you were the only people summoned out of the many warriors. The reason is simple! It’s because you people are the only ones who have character names.”
“...Character names?”
“You call them titles.” The Indoor Librarian looked down at us with a gentle smile. “All 302 people here are warriors with titles.”
“Only the Hunters with titles were summoned?”
“O-other people...”
“Wait, so we have to clear the Tower on our own?”
Yes, he wasn’t talking about the real names that Hunters had been using since they were born. The tickets used to the twenty-first floor and onward were Hunter titles, which were given by the Tower.
...That’s why before my regression, I was stuck on the same floors after the twentieth floor was cleared.
The frontrunners were those who had titles and the latecomers were those without titles. The gap between the two groups would widen over time.
I touched the dagger hanging on my waist. It... was my little ritual to calm down.
I’m different from old me.
The loser without a Skill or a title had been stuck on the same floors after the twentieth floor had been cleared. However, that loser was gone. The person standing here right now was the new Rank 3 Hunter.
I won’t fall behind before I can even try clearing the floors.
Unlike me, not many Hunters were able to maintain their composure. Even the Black Witch was obviously perplexed.
“I can’t believe it,” she muttered. “Three hundred people? That’s too few to clear the Tower...”
“Don’t worry!” The Indoor Librarian waved the Chronicle of the Aegim Empire and laughed. “Three of you successfully protected the Aegim Empire, and there’s over a hundred times as many of you here now! I’m sure you’ll clear my stages very easily. Have some confidence!”
The Hunters exchanged nervous glances with each other. In the center of this great, seemingly endless library, a little over three hundred Hunters looked like a speck of sand on a beach.
“Let’s get on with it, Mr. Librarian,” I quickly said before the anxiety could get out of control.
“Hmm?”
“I get that you’re excited to meet live people after so long, but we want to climb up the Tower quickly. And you didn’t even give us a quest yet. Can you please keep moving?”
“Haha. Hahaha.” The Indoor Librarian laughed quietly. “I see! I was so happy that I didn’t even give you the quest. But explaining every detail isn’t really my thing...”
He flicked his finger again and hundreds of hardcover books began to circle him.
“Let’s see. Which one will make you feel it right in your bones...? This apocalyptic book is too dull. This apocalypse is too quiet... Ah, yes! This one will be the best.” The Indoor Librarian grabbed a book and opened it, bathing his face with white light. “Keep in mind that this is just a preview. Don’t be too surprised.”
The wave of light struck us.
***
All of the Hunters were teleported somewhere. I didn’t know where it was, but it was clear that it wasn’t our world. I had never seen buildings in this style—they were like a forest of termite mounds that had been magnified hundreds of times.
The Hunters and I were high in the sky. Below our feet were buildings that they had never seen or heard about. Someone screamed; maybe they feared heights. The Hunters weren’t falling one bit, but they instinctively clung to each other.
The Indoor Librarian watched them and smiled. “Like I mentioned, the records that are gathered in my library aren’t ordinary history books or novels. It’s a little—no, a lot more sophisticated than that!”
The Great Library of All Life was where the worlds were stored in the form of books.
“This is the world you cleared.” The Indoor Librarian tapped the book titled Chronicle of the Aegim Empire. “And that is your world!”
He pointed at The Story of the Ascension City.
There were hundreds of other books flying around the Indoor Librarian. The childish-looking Constellation gazed at his books endearingly.
“These books are known by many names. While some call them epics, I’ve also heard people calling them chronicles or sagas—but there’s one name I prefer the most.” The Indoor Librarian turned back to look at us.
“Apocalyptic books.” His peculiar laughter danced through the sky. “Your apocalyptic book is... being serialized, if I may. The long prologue is over, and now you’re climbing the Tower in earnest. That’s the part where that gets fun. But not all apocalyptic books make it smoothly to serialization like yours.”
At that moment, something descended from the sky. No, that was too docile a description of what it was doing—it was tearing the sky apart.
“It’s tragic, but there are apocalyptic books which stopped publishing.”
Burning meteors rained down on the mound-like buildings. With a thunderous boom, the world shook. The land cracked and the sky split. The city where other intelligent beings had lived was destroyed without a trace.
The clouds of dust created by the rain of meteors hit us. The Hunters screamed. In the impenetrable darkness that followed, the only thing we heard was the Indoor Librarian’s voice.
“This isn’t the only book. There are a lot of them.”
I heard the sound of a book being closed. At the same time, the clouds of dust, the destroyed city, the cracked land, and the torn sky vanished. New worlds unfolded below us.
“The apocalyptic book just now was discontinued because of stones... but now it’s water!”
A tsunami that could drown the sky devoured the city. In truth, that was too massive to call it a wave; however, it was too destructive to be even a tsunami. It was more than a disaster. As the tsunami was right in front of them, the Hunters burst into screams again.
The Indoor Librarian sighed plaintively. “Ahhh. How tragic is that?”
All humans in one world died from a plague. Due to losing every drop of water, sand covered an entire world. Volcanoes erupted in another, and their smoke clouds blocked the sky. There was even a world where a zombie virus was rampant.
“All of them are humans like you. They were alive and were writing a story of their own. However, everything ended before they could pen their majestic ending. No, it was before they even met a proper ending. It all happened because of a very unfair reason.” The Indoor Librarian closed the book. “I call that discontinued serialization...”
Hundreds of books still circled him.
“But you would call that doom.”
We were now back in the giant library.
“Bl-blargh...”
“Blarghhhhhh!”
All across the library, Hunters began vomiting. They had just witnessed the fall of dozens of worlds. Although they weren’t injured physically, many Hunters were mentally driven to the breaking point.
The Indoor Librarian watched us.
“The quest I’m going to give you is simple: pick eight discontinued apocalyptic books.”
Pick eight doomed worlds.
“I want to finish reading the discontinued apocalyptic books!”
Help him continue reading the stories of the doomed worlds.
“Go into the eight apocalyptic books.”
Enter the eight worlds.
“Save the books from getting discontinued!”
Save them from their doom.
“This is the quest I give all of you.”
Those were the quests of the twenty-second to the twenty-ninth floors. As they continued to vomit, the Hunters heard the voice.
[Initiating the twenty-second floor’s quest.][1]
A window of letters showed up in front of them.
Remake the World (Book 1)
Difficulty level: Undecided
Goal: There are many worlds and many dooms. Constellation: Indoor Librarian calls this phenomenon the discontinued serialization. The worlds met discontinued serialization for an unfair reason, so the Indoor Librarian wants the stories to continue.
Pick one of the apocalyptic books in which serialization stopped! If you successfully save the world, it will be registered as the twenty-second floor.
※However, the twenty-second floor will not open if you fail the quest.
That Constellation was a bookworm and fanboy of all worlds.
“So...” I slowly opened my mouth. “...you don’t like the ending and you would like us to rewrite the books?”
“That’s right!” The Indoor Librarian smiled sheepishly. “I do so hope you’ll satiate my reading tastes!”
Our mission was to rewrite the endings of the worlds for this bookworm.
1. It seems the twenty-first floor is a lobby for the twenty-second to the thirtieth floor. ☜