The great library fell silent. The Hunters with weak stomachs vomited; those with strong stomachs contemplated the quest window in front of them.
Only the Indoor Librarian spoke.
“Oh, please clean up your own vomit. That’s basic manners. Maintaining the library’s cleanliness is only possible with the cooperation of all visitors.”
He clapped, his five-meter-long sleeves fluttering. From the dark shadow behind the bookcases, mysterious entities approached. They had limbs, so at a cursory glance they looked like humans.
However, the Black Witch immediately furrowed her brows. “...Bookmarks?”
The mysterious entities’ torsos were bookmarks with weird drawings in the middle—an impression of a traditional maid’s uniform.
“Oh, you’re spot on. They are bookmark maids!” The Indoor Librarian stuck his nose in the air and pompously put his hands on his waist. “They’ll tend to you until you clear the thirtieth floor.”
The bookmark maids bowed.
“When you want to eat or go to the bathroom, you can tell the maids. They may not look like it, but they’re quite competent.”
“They’re... monsters, right?” the Black Witch queried.
“Hah.” The Indoor Librarian hid a grin behind his sleeve. “You can think of them that way.”
The smile on his face couldn’t be heard in his voice. It was a startling contrast to the cheerfulness he had shown so far.
“You have a few things to be careful of during your stay here,” the Indoor Librarian said. “First, don’t ever touch the books without my permission. Don’t even lay a finger on them. I shed blood, sweat, and tears to collect all of these books. There is only one of each of these apocalyptic books in this universe. Those yahoos who would put their hands on books without the owner’s permission—”
“Fuck!” a Hunter spat. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That just means you’re the boss!”
“...Hmmm.” The Indoor Librarian raised an eyebrow.
“Hey! Grab your weapons, you guys! Forget the quest, we’ll clear the thirtieth floor right away if we kill him! There are three hundred of us, so we can crush him if we attack together!”
The Hunters stirred. The Indoor Librarian didn’t really stop the instigator. He simply watched with a plastered-on smile. The Constellation’s silence made the instigator more confident.
“He’s just a kid! We can beat him!” the Hunter shouted. “If some boy cleared the twentieth floor on his own, there’s no reason we can’t do it!”
So he was dragging me in now.
People of all shapes and sizes looked at me. Their eyes were each different colors too. However, the emotions in them were the same: jealousy and greed. I was very familiar with these emotions.
“You should stay out of this! The guild leaders should stand down too! I already don’t like how you took all the credit from the eleventh floor up. It’s like you guys are the only ones who represent the Tower. And you find some boy and fabricate a new hero—did you really think nobody would notice your scheme?”
That set the Black Witch off.
“Don’t.” I grabbed her wrist.
“Death King, if you leave those brats like that—”
“Still, you should still hold yourself back,” I whispered. “Everything is being broadcast live now.”
The Black Witch blinked. “Live broadcast? What are you talking about?”
“We’re being aired on a hologram in the plaza.”
Before, I couldn’t set foot on the twenty-first floor because I had been without a title, yet I knew the stages and quests in detail.
“It’s like a television program. People in the plaza are watching everything we’re doing in real-time,” I added.
“The Constellation said that we’re characters from a book,” I quietly reminded her. “So there have to be readers.”
I had watched everything from the plaza before. I may not have been part of clearing the floors... but I had seen how the Hunters with titles had cleared the twenty-first to the thirtieth floors from beginning to end.
They should be able to see the hologram in the plaza right now.
Hundreds of thousands of “readers” were watching every word of our dialogue and each move in real time. We were truly on a stage.
“Don’t let your guard down because we’re the only ones here, Black Dragon Master. If you say or do something bad, people will remember it forever.”
The Black Witch immediately understood how scary that was. “...I see. Clearing the floors isn’t the most important objective here.”
I nodded. “Yes, what matters is how we clear it.”
We had to play our roles and look like real heroes from a book so people—no, readers wouldn’t find faults later.
“We’re already in a book named The Great Library of All Life.”
[Welcome, Death King.]
That voice that didn’t belong to the Black Witch or the Indoor Librarian. It was the Tower, giving me a message that I expected whenever a quest was given.
[Your rewards for clearing the twentieth floor will be given now.]
I suppressed a smile. It was time to receive the prize for protecting the Aegim Empire and its world.
The Tower was cruel to the late runners, but the front runners were richly rewarded.
[You have received the God of Beauty’s blessing for clearing the normal stage.]
[You can now observe the affinities of characters on the twenty-first through the thirtieth floors.]
That wasn’t the only reward. I still had the reward for clearing the hidden quest.
[You have received the God of Serpents’ blessing for clearing the hidden stage.]
[You can now observe the state of mind of characters on the twenty-first through the thirtieth floors.]
Good! These rewards are just what I need! I thought.
The key to this quest was how well I played my role. However, I couldn’t do it perfectly on my own; acting was a team exercise. I needed to know the mental states of other people, the characters.
Show me my status window.
Before I began working on the quest, I examined my status.
1. I Want To Be Like You(S+)
2. Returner’s Clockwork(EX)
3. Sword Constellation(A+)
4. High Society of Goblins(F)
5. Monster Legion Reincarnation (SSS)
※The God of Beauty’s blessing is active.
※The God of Serpents’ blessing is active.
Okay. I quietly looked at the Black Witch. Only then did I realize that I was still holding onto her wrist and had to let go of it as naturally as possible. I tried to command the system in a manner that sounded somewhat legitimate. Show me the character window.
A new, totally unfamiliar kind of system window showed up in the form of a hologram.
Disliked genre: History
Liked characters: Prince Charming, younger men, wild men, naive men
Disliked characters: Psychopaths, soldiers, politicians, incompetent female lead
Liked plot points: Repay gratitude, sacrifice for the greater good
Disliked plot points: Amnesia, betrayal, female leads’ misunderstanding
State of mind: If what we’re doing here is being broadcasted in Babylon... I have to act noble for the future. Clearing the floors is a secondary goal. Yes, I need to be strategic with every move. The wisest tactic is...
I was at a loss for words. My silence made the Black Witch grow more serious, fearing that I was having a problem.
“N-no, it’s nothing.”
“...That’s fine, but please tell me immediately if there’s other information I should know. I’m working on a plan right now.”
The Black Witch turned away and lost herself in thought. She looked very serious. As I looked at her from the side, indescribable guilt hit me.
What? I... feel like I peeked at someone else’s diary...
As the Guardian and I shared my consciousness, he was already rolling in the air, laughing.
—HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Prince Charming! Prince Charming...! Hahahaha! Her elixir of eternal youth is the only reason she can hide how old she is! But she still wants her Prince Charming! Zombie, get a fancy horse from somewhere and ride it in front of her! You’re a so-called hero, right? And a hero with a crown is a prince! Wow, you guys are perfect for each other!
I stared at the Guardian.
—Hmm? What’s with that look? Don’t give me that.
Show me the character window.
—Huh? Hey! Kim Zombie, what are you doing?! Hey! Hey! The Guardian, flustered, waved his hands. However, it didn’t stop the system. The Guardian’s long character window exposed his very soul to me.
Disliked genre: Everything else
Liked characters: Machoes, rivals, mothers
Disliked characters: Weak people, pushovers
Liked plot points: Victory, refreshing moments
Disliked plot points: Defeats, frustrating moments
State of mind: Fuck! Don’t tell me it works on me too!
I almost burst out laughing. M-mothers. Mr. Sword Emperor, I didn’t know you were a mama’s b—
—I’ll kill you! The Guardian glared at me. He was actually losing it. I’ll kill you! Fuck! Turn it off right now! Erase it from your memory, you little shit! I’ll blow your head off if you don’t! I will literally kill you! I won’t be your friend!
It had been a while since the Guardian and I first met, but I’d never seen him panicking . Well, the more pressured someone was, the more they would run their mouth.
Unlike him, I was very relaxed.
Why don’t you be more polite until I clear the thirtieth floor? Or else I might just pull up your character window whenever I have a chance.
The Guardian huffed and puffed. The blasts from his nostril were amazing, but meaningless. He couldn’t beat me or stop me from using the ability on him.
—You’ll see! Someday, it’ll all come back to bite you!
I laughed. His threat wasn’t scary at all.
While I tested the new ability, the Hunters had divided into two sides. One side was made up of extremists; they and the instigator wanted to hunt the “boss monster” together. The other Hunters were cautious and were waiting to see how the situation turned out. There were about one hundred extremists, and the rest were in the cautious group.
“How foolish,” the Sword Star sneered, the first thing he’d said since arriving. He watched the extremists contemptuously. “Have you already forgotten what the Constellation just showed us? If he wanted to, he could simply throw us into one of those worlds and walk away, yet you still want to pick a fight with him. You’re all crazy. Well, I won’t stop you if mass suicide is what you’re aiming for.”
Half of the extremists immediately broke away from the group, leaving behind fifty Hunters.
“Hey!” the instigator yelled. “Don’t chicken out! The Death King cleared the tenth and twentieth floors on his own! That’s how all boss monsters are. The Five Guilds are trying to monopolize the trophies! If you want to wag your tail to the Five Guild all your lives, then fine! Get lost!”
The instigator seemed to hold quite a high ranking, judging from the fact that fifty people were still hooked by what he was saying.
He may lead a decent guild even though it’s not one of the Five Guilds, I thought.
However, I couldn’t recall his face or his title. The Fire Emperor, Master Alchemist, Black Witch, Sword Star... I remembered all of the High Rankers and had fanboyed over every one of them. If I didn’t remember the instigator, there had to be a good reason for it.
“Hmm... Have you settled on your stance?” The Indoor Librarian looked down at the fifty extremists. Hundreds of books were circling around him like planets orbiting the sun.
“Yeah, you boss monster shit! Fifty people will be enough to crush a kid like y—!”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t really like cliches.” The Indoor Librarian grabbed a book titled The Epic of the Sealed World. “I’ll make it quick.”
He opened the book, lighting up the library with a flash of light. It was quickly followed by a mass of dark tentacles crawling out and striking the extremists.
“In this apocalyptic book, only one wizard survived the fall of humanity,” the Indoor Librarian narrated. “Well, after multiple trials, the wizard became closer to a tentacle monster, than a human. Still, I protagonist quite a lot. He’s my ninth favorite protagonist.”
The tentacles took hold of the extremists and held them up in the air one by one.
The Epic of Sealed World soon swallowed the extremists.
The extremists who had been lucky enough to dodge the tentacles began to run, but it was no use. More tentacles, ten times as many as before, shot out of the book. They grabbed the Hunters by their wrists, waists, and ankles.
“This wizard, my ninth favorite character, specializes in sealing magic, and I’m like his customer. I occasionally provide him with “materials”, and the wizard will readily do my commissions.”
The fifty extremists were eaten by the book in no time.
The Indoor Librarian grinned. “Like so.”
With its gluttony sated, The Epic of Sealed World started vomiting something out. We watched it with tightly held breaths. I couldn’t see them from here... but the crowd in the plaza was probably doing the same.
The book vomited out bookmarks. They were as tall as humans and had limbs.
“Oh, yes. The wizard’s hobby is dressing up his artwork in maid uniforms.”
The bookmarks had drawings of maid uniforms in the middle.
“He’s a little bit of a pervert. Well, he’s humanity’s last survivor, so it would be more odd if he’d kept his sanity.”
The Hunters looked around and saw fifty bookmark maids quietly standing at attention. To the Hunters’ dismay, a little farther away, thousands of bookmark maids were working, with mops or cutlery. That was what we could see right now, but the great library stretched beyond the horizon. How many bookmark maids were in this entire library?
The Hunters were utterly silent.
“Yes, it’s a lot cleaner now! The useless extras have been taken care of.” The Indoor Librarian closed the book. “Do you feel like becoming protagonists now?”