Chapter 58 - Bibliomania (3)

Find a hit.

That was what I had asked the hunters to do.

“Understood?” I said, making my rounds among the hunters.

“The difficulty can’t be too high. But it can’t just be too easy, either. An apocalypse with the right level of difficulty! And on top of that, choose one that offers suitable rewards.”

Following my instructions, the 250 hunters read the apocalypses. Since they chronicled the course of entire worlds, every single volume was enormous. Even with all the hunters engrossed in reading, there seemed to be no end in sight.

“Death King, something is strange.”

The only exception was the Inquisitor, who had not received a single book to read. The words ‘Fairy Tales’ were still written on the crazy psycho’s hand.

“What is?”

“I’m the only one not getting any apocalypses. Are fairy tales perhaps a niche genre?”

“Oh, surely not. Some people have never read fantasy, and some have never read romance, but I doubt there’s anyone who’s never heard a fairy tale. They’re as mainstream as it gets.”

“You’re quite right. Hmm, but why haven’t I received even one...?”

The crazy psycho tilted his head.

‘Because there’s no such thing as a fairy tale that ends with the destruction of the world, you born psycho.’

The words rose right up to my throat, but I held them back and pretended to know nothing.

“Who knows? Just wait a little longer. Surely there must be at least one fairy tale among all these books.”

“Hmm, certainly. I must have grown a little impatient. I’ll wait quietly!”

The crazy psycho trotted off and sat in a corner. I knew the day he received a fairy-tale book would never come. The Witch knew it, too, as did every other hunter.

“Hey, religious nut.”

Let me correct that.

Apparently, the emperor of light novels hadn’t known.

“Yes, leader of the Heavenly Martial Sect? Did you call me?”

“This looks like a fairy tale. It was mixed in with the martial arts novels.”

“Oho! Thank you!”

The Inquisitor accepted the apocalypse from Viper. His lips bore a radiant smile that looked as if it had been made by grinding up angels and saints.

It was a little frightening.

“Well then, Death King, I’ll start reading, too! Aha, I wonder what this apocalypse is about!”

“Oh, yes... Um, what’s the title of that apocalypse?”

“It’s called [Our Scapegoat and Mine]!”

The title was a little frightening, too.

And so, in the end, every group received a book. And read.

After who knew how long, it was time to eat.

“Ugh.”

“M-my eyes feel like they’re splitting apart.”

Pained groans rose from all around. It was bad enough that this time, everyone accepted the sandwiches and black tea from the bookmark maids without a word of complaint.

“Death King...”

The Witch, who led the [Romance] group, was no exception.

“I think I understand how that constellation feels.”

“What?”

“These apocalypses. Every last one was discontinued at the climax.”

She looked considerably more exhausted now.

“A meteor falls just as the heroine confesses to the hero. Aliens suddenly invade just as the two of them hold hands and lean in for a kiss. They’re all a mess! I mean, I can accept a meteor, but what on earth is an alien invasion doing in a royal-court romantic comedy?”

“And what’s worse,” the Witch continued, “is that they’re all incredibly entertaining right up until they’re discontinued like this. That makes it even crueler. The protagonists are charming, the stories are gripping... Only the endings are trash! It’s like a perfect full-course meal, but then you cut into the cutlet served as the main course, and what you find inside is...”

“No, you don’t need to tell me what was inside. Can’t you see I’m eating a pork-cutlet sandwich?”

“Oh, sorry, Death King. You’re right. That wasn’t very delicate of me while you’re eating... No, but I have to say it! What it feels like I found inside is—”

“This is all live. You’re live, Witch. Okay?”

The Witch made a small, strangled sound and shut her mouth. Honestly, between this and that time she was trying to hit the one-eyed giant zombie in the eye, she really did have a tendency to lose her temper over the strangest things.

Anyway, just as I took another relieved bite of my pork-cutlet sandwich, the Witch glanced around and brought her lips to my ear.

“What it feels like I found inside is...”

Were the people in Babylon’s central square holding their breath as they watched the Witch whisper in my ear?

After hearing what she whispered, I genuinely felt as if I might stop breathing. It was enough to make me not want to so much as look at a pork-cutlet sandwich for at least a month.

Oh, God. Please save me...

[Sparkle makes every effort to save you.]

I wished a god who couldn’t even save her own world would just keep quiet...

Naturally, the god of this Great Library didn’t save me, either. Instead, the Shut-In Librarian floated through the air with a grin.

“At last, you seem to understand my suffering.”

The Librarian looked like a child. But the smile on the constellation’s face was not remotely childlike. It was the smile of a gourmet who had endured so many sweet-and-salty combinations in life that they had lost their sense of taste.

“Why conceal it? The 683 apocalypses I have permitted you to read are demonic manuals of particularly bizarre destructive power, even within my Great Library.”

“Demonic manuals?”

“Indeed. They are so entertaining, so gripping, that readers cannot help but love them.”

The Librarian’s laughter sounded sinister.

“But that is where it ends! Entertaining though they are, you will never find happiness. No, the more entertaining they are, the more miserable you become! For every one of these demonic manuals met an ending as worthless as dog shit!”

The Witch swallowed.

“Don’t tell me you deliberately picked only stories like that. To put us through the same suffering...?”

“You may think of it that way.”

“I can’t think of it any other way...”

“Come! Fall into the hell of discontinuation yourselves. Writhe in eternal torment, just as I do! Go on! Hurry up and suffer!”

The Librarian burst into hearty laughter.

Some of the hunters trembled in fear.

“Is that a demon?”

“Making us read nothing but discontinued masterpieces on purpose. That’s insane.”

“They’ll be struck down by divine punishment for this...!”

I later learned that those hunters had always enjoyed reading novels. I didn’t really understand it, but apparently, the Librarian’s declaration was utterly terrifying to novel lovers.

That was when it happened.

“Ah, M-Mr. Hunter.”

“Hmm?”

A familiar voice reached me from somewhere.

I turned to see a woman in the [Fantasy] group waving. For a moment, I wondered who she was and why she was waving at me, but then I remembered her face.

“Oh, it’s you, boss!”

The hunter who would one day become the Alchemy Ministry Head.

The apothecary who had made my elixir was there.

“You received an epithet, too?”

“S-somehow. Though it’s just the terribly unexciting ‘Apothecary’... Hehe.”

The apothecary who had become the Apothecary laughed sheepishly.

I was a little surprised.

‘The Alchemy Ministry Head already has an epithet?’

However successful she would become, the woman before me had been drifting through the slums until recently. An epithet. It was a little early for her to have accomplished something worthy of the Tower’s recognition.

Even I had only barely earned mine after arming myself to the teeth with overpowered skills and repeatedly doing insane things. Did the truly promising really stand out from the very beginning?

“Boss, you really are incredible. How did you earn an epithet in such a short time? I knew my eye for talent never fails. I could tell at a glance you were going to succeed. My investment was worth it.”

“N-no! I’m not incredible at all!”

The apothecary waved her thin right hand.

“Really. I’m not just being modest... I was simply minding my own business when I got an epithet.”

“What?”

“I-I don’t know what happened, either. A few days ago, I suddenly heard a voice saying [An item you crafted is contributing to saving a world], and then it just gave me an epithet. Ugh. I’m sorry. That really makes no sense, does it...?”

‘Oh.’

Even after saying it herself, the apothecary looked as if she had no idea what it meant. But I was different. The moment I heard her explanation, the truth dawned on me.

‘It’s because of the elixir she made for me!’

The cause was the very elixir I had taken while fighting the Demon King.

It had worked wonders during that bloody battle. Thanks to the elixir maximizing my senses, I had been able to observe the Demon King’s sword strikes in slow motion.

‘Wait. Then...’

In other words.

‘Have I been power-leveling her all this time?’

I had inadvertently carried someone.

Whether she knew that or not, the apothecary fiddled with her fingers.

“Y-you’re the one who’s truly incredible, Mr. Hunter, not me! Oh. I should call you Death King now... You really are amazing, Death King. Until just a few days ago, you weren’t even in the rankings, and then you jumped straight to third place! I’m so, so honored to know someone like you! I really wanted to tell you that!”

“Oh, come on. It was all just good luck for me, too...”

As I awkwardly scratched the back of my head, the apothecary giggled and clasped her hands behind her back.

“Death King, please tell me if you need anything! If it’s something I can do, I’ll help with anything!”

Wow.

What was with this woman?

Was she an angel?

“Zombie, can’t you raise the bar for calling people angels just a little?”

‘Mr. Sword Emperor, I simply believe in people. No matter how often I’m betrayed, I can’t stop believing in them. It’s hardly my fault I have such a passionate heart.’

“Your bullshit’s especially hot today. Hot dog-shit, you might say.”

Let’s pretend I hadn’t heard that last bit of bullshit.

On the fourth day of reading, we finally finished every volume of the apocalypses.

Every hunter declared their reading complete.

“The romance group recommends four books in total.”

“The science-fiction group recommends two.”

“The mystery group...”

Each group announced its recommendations.

Suitable difficulty. Suitable rewards.

They presented books that struck an exquisite balance between the two.

“My fairy-tale group recommends this one! Though it is the only one we have!”

[Our Scapegoat and Mine]

Genre: Fairy Tales

Difficulty: Rank A

Participant Limit: Two or more

※Currently discontinued.

Introduction: The humans of this world succeeded in creating a utopia. But maintaining that utopia required a special source of power: the screams an innocent child who had committed no sins let out while suffering. It’s unfortunate, but for the perfect happiness of seventeen million people, surely one innocent child ought to endure it? Thanks to carefully developed torture techniques and life-prolonging treatments, they could extract approximately five years’ worth of screams from each child. How efficient!

Reason for Discontinuation: 118,000 years passed after the creation of the utopia. Eventually, all the innocent children were used up. Deprived of its power source, the utopia came to a halt.

Hmm.

I would have to visit that apocalypse regardless of its difficulty or rewards.

For now, however, another apocalypse caught my attention.

“The martial arts fiction group strongly recommends this work,” said the Sword Star.

The Sword Star led the martial arts fiction team. Unlike a certain someone who only looked like an avid martial arts reader but was an emperor of light novels at heart, the Sword Star truly knew the genre inside out.

The old man opened an apocalypse for us to see.

“This is the book.”

[Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon]

Genre: Martial Arts Fiction, Fusion

Difficulty: Rank B

Participant Limit: Two to four

※Currently discontinued.

Introduction: Murim. A world of those who revere martial prowess, wield martial prowess, and attain martial prowess! The Heavenly Demon appeared here and sought to unite Murim. The Demonic Cult rallied around the Heavenly Demon, while other forces opposed it. They clashed over the fate of the world... Or they would have.

Had a super-plague not suddenly broken out.

Reason for Discontinuation: An unidentified plague swept the world, killing the Heavenly Demon. The Demonic Cult was annihilated. All other forces were destroyed as well. The end.

“The reason I recommend Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon is simple,” said the Sword Star.

“There is a person called the Heavenly Demon in this world. A martial artist who collected every martial arts manual in the martial world. As a result, a vast secret repository of martial arts... Hmm. In short, a place like a library was built at the Demonic Cult’s headquarters.”

He looked sheepish. Everyone outside the martial arts fiction group had reacted with, “Martial arts manuals? Secret repository? What’s he talking about?”

In the end, he abandoned the genre’s terminology and used words that were easy to understand.

“You can think of martial arts manuals as books containing the secrets of skills. If we succeed in saving this world, we will gain a library housing the greatest skills under heaven, free of charge. It is an opportunity for us hunters to grow even stronger.”

The hunters’ eyes lit up.

“Martial arts, huh.”

“So we’ll get new skills?”

“Well, opportunities to learn skills really are rare...”

“A chance to learn the ways of the martial world!”

The general mood was that it wasn’t a bad idea. Those who valued individual fighting strength, like the Sword Star, responded particularly favorably. Becoming stronger was our immediate priority. That argument was gaining traction.

Of course, it sounded good to me, too.

‘Sounds good, doesn’t it?’

I stroked my chin.

‘A Murim world should have plenty of masters who can literally fly around. If I let each of them kill me just once... Wow. Surely I’d get at least one Rank A skill?’

“Zombie, do you have to live up to your name by thinking of nothing but getting something for nothing?”

‘There’s a world I want to smash to pieces now. But I can’t do it with the strength I have.’

The Sword Emperor quietly shut his mouth.

Instead, another being spoke up.

[Sparkle reports that she has detected a presence.]

The sword at my waist suddenly began humming.

‘A presence? What presence?’

[Sparkle says that her sister is very close by.]

‘Her sister?’

Sparkle... The constellation known as the Goddess of Protection had been split and sealed into five swords. The holy sword at my waist was one of them. Hadn’t she said that even she didn’t know where the other swords had gone?

Yet now she could sense a sister sword nearby.

‘Where? Where do you sense her?’

I looked around.

The Great Library of Myriad Thoughts. Bookshelves stretched beyond the horizon. Each one was enormous, towering overhead when I looked up.

Naturally, I could see nothing but books.

[Sparkle suggests that you stop looking in the wrong places and focus on what is in front of you.]

‘In front of me? There’s nothing in front of me but the Sword Star... Wait.’

An apocalypse.

A book containing an entire world.

‘Is she inside that?’

The holy sword hummed.

[Sparkle affirms, “Yes, Hero.”]