Ch.53The Wanderer’s Library

It’s one of the hypotheses explaining the origin of life.

Lava flows across the earth, and the sea is empty. Lightning strikes relentlessly in the primordial atmosphere. Enough energy to synthesize the first organic compounds.

Very simple amino acids mix with rain and fall to the ground.

The seeds of life collect and accumulate in puddles.

The primordial soup.

This is where life began.

In the puddles, only amino acids with stable structures survive.

Those that aren’t stable scatter and become materials for others.

The competition continues.

As organic matter concentrates, increasingly complex organic structures form.

Nucleic acids, the genetic material, appear.

Adopting a complementary spiral structure creates a more stable state.

They gather surrounding organic matter to create protective membranes.

Above all, when genes replicate themselves to create identical offspring, they flourish endlessly.

Clank!

Since leaving the 7th floor, the elevator had been moving constantly, as expected.

“Dabin.”

Choi Serim suddenly calls me. We were in the middle of discussing genes.

“That’s how the term ‘meme’ was created. Information, like genes, survives through self-replication.”

Her voice is calm, showing no sense of crisis.

Me, Jung Haewon, and even Daju. While everyone else was tense about the upcoming exploration, only Choi Serim was talking.

“More interesting and valuable information is preserved longer. But information that isn’t valuable disappears as it’s forgotten. Like organisms that can’t adapt to their environment becoming extinct. It resembles natural selection in evolutionary theory.”

I unconsciously repeated the word.

“Meme.”

Jung Haewon, who had been staring blankly at the mirror, reacts.

He seems more excited about recognizing something than feeling tense.

“Oh? I’ve heard of that too. On the internet.”

“What is it?”

Choi Serim asks, then looks at Jung Haewon, waiting for his answer.

“It’s often on YouTube. Things like Eom Junsik or Sakuranbo. When something becomes popular, countless variations appear. And internationally, there’s Sonic, or Uganda Knuckles, though that one’s pretty much dead now.”

“I see. That’s right.”

Jung Haewon is excitedly talking about everything, while Choi Serim responds with an emotionless voice.

Ah. This is embarrassing to watch.

“Right. So things that attract people’s interest or amusement can become a survival strategy too.”

She seems to get along well with Yoon Daju, though.

Daju, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, approaches Jung Haewon and acts familiar.

“Oh, then do you know Yellow City too?”

“Yes.”

“Fire Man?”

“Yes!”

“Mudeungsan World Tree. Haunted House Experience. Do you know all these too?”

“Of course I do!”

I have no idea what they’re talking about.

It seems to be internet broadcast memes, but I don’t really know.

Watching them quietly, it’s nice to see them getting along.

Yoon Daju excitedly asks about various things, and Jung Haewon answers with sparkling eyes.

The downside is that the two of them are extremely loud.

They keep shouting someone named Park Jong-woo’s name and giggling.

The upside is that the tension has eased considerably.

Even though it’s just two people, that’s half of everyone here.

Earlier, except for Choi Serim, we were all too frozen to speak properly, but not anymore.

The elevator is now filled with lively energy like a classroom during break time.

There’s something else I’m looking forward to.

That troublemaker Yoon Daju has crossed the line with me more than once, but I hope she’ll find a different target this time.

Go bother Jung Haewon instead of me.

Leaving the two to play, I approached Choi Serim.

As if she expected me to come, she moves slightly in the corner to make room for me.

“Is it okay not to bring your laptop?”

“Yep! I just left it behind!”

Huh?

“Why are you suddenly talking like that?”

It’s a voice I’ve never heard from Choi Serim before.

She always spoke quietly with little facial expression, so this sudden change is… well, not just a little, but extremely surprising.

Seeming embarrassed herself, Choi Serim hangs her head and mutters.

“…said.”

Her voice trembles with lack of confidence.

“Pardon?”

“…you said.”

Trembling.

Serim grips the hem of her clothes tightly with both hands, then suddenly raises her head.

“You told me to be cute!”

“Well, that’s…”

I turned my head to check the other side.

Daju and Haewon seem too busy chatting to hear anything else.

“You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to.”

When I answered,

Swish.

Choi Serim also checks once, then casually brushes her hair back and says.

“No. It’s confusing.”

“Yes. This level is fine.”

“Hm? What level is that?”

“The level that suits you.”

Not too cringeworthy, not too emotionless.

I said it without much thought, but then realized.

“…”

A pair of eyes silently stares at me.

Thin, closed lips quiver slightly, repeatedly.

After much deliberation, Choi Serim’s response was just one word.

“Dabin.”

I didn’t answer.

Choi Serim can directly receive other people’s thoughts.

She can feel the emotions of completely unrelated people as if they were her own.

Then what is “me” and what is “others”?

The “self” that should have formed in childhood doesn’t exist for Choi Serim.

That’s why Choi Serim once relied on her laptop. She wrote down all her thoughts and meticulously categorized them by nature, trying to maintain a faint sense of self.

Now that target has changed to me.

Instead of answering, I just quietly looked at her and closed the distance.

Clank!

The elevator shakes violently once more.

“Right. Where was I in my explanation, Dabin?”

“You were explaining what memes are.”

Muttering “that’s right,” Choi Serim gently places her fingers on the elevator handrail and continues.

“So memes, like genes, evolve to survive.”

As she starts speaking in a mysterious voice again, Daju and Haewon, who had been chattering away, focus back on the conversation.

“As Haewon said, they can evolve for entertainment, but what’s even more powerful is ‘anomalousness.’ Some information, in its endless pursuit of self-replication, can acquire supernatural qualities.”

In the silence, only the small clanking noise can be heard.

Choi Serim closes her eyes gently and continues.

“They might use people as hosts to spread themselves endlessly. Or they might quickly imprint themselves in people’s minds with just one look, never to be forgotten.”

I recalled Choi Jun-gi’s final appearance. The image of Park Sungjin, who could never return to normal, also flashed before my eyes.

The memetic kill agent that killed both of them was probably information created through the evolutionary process Serim described.

“Information has reached that level.”

The elevator arrived at its destination.

The doors opened with an unpleasant noise, and dry air rushed in, but Choi Serim stood in the corner of the elevator, just staring at the darkness outside, continuing her explanation.

“Ordinary information as we know it won’t develop anomalous properties. No information is preserved that long in reality. Most is discarded, or edited and completely rewritten as needed. That’s how it works.”

The wind blows in.

Choi Serim walks out from the corner of the elevator, blocks the entrance, and turns to face us.

“Remember how I talked about how life was created?”

The wind is strong.

Through the sound of wind, something seems to whisper.

But Choi Serim’s voice comes through much more clearly.

“A puddle of newly synthesized organic matter. The primordial soup. That state continued for hundreds of millions of years.”

And then.

Light begins to seep in.

“This is such a place.”

What filled the space outside the elevator wasn’t dark emptiness.

With a tremendous roar, shaking the air,

The black door begins to open.

“A place where all information gathers.”

Mixed with the wind, a completely different voice whispers a name.

Choi Serim still stands at the entrance.

Her long, slightly curly hair scatters in all directions.

Eventually, Choi Serim speaks the same name.

The Wanderer’s Library.

Wandering Library. Library that Wanders. Some people’s homeland and place of worship. Or LEMMA-7.

It has many names.

One thing is certain: no one can stay here forever.

We left the elevator and headed toward the library.

Our flashlights barely illuminated what was right in front of us, so we relied more on the light flowing through the gap ahead.

“It’s really dark here.”

“Ah, don’t grab me, Yoon Daju.”

I shook off Daju’s hand.

“Oppa. Ah, no. Unni is so cold.”

“Get lost.”

Why did I let myself get manipulated into wearing a maid outfit when I could just do this?

Thinking about it, there are several strange points.

Keeping Yoon Daju at a distance, I quickly approached Choi Serim and confronted her.

“You need to take responsibility.”

“Huh? Dabin?”

Choi Serim looks surprised, and I push forward, pouting my lips.

“You made me act weird. Like I couldn’t think properly.”

It must have been Choi Serim’s fault.

She said she manipulated my thoughts, trying to make me like a doll.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Then you should wear a maid outfit too. Later.”

“What!?”

She’s clearly older than me, but her surprised reaction is cute.

“Did you just say ‘what’?”

“Um, no. Dabin…”

Choi Serim hangs her head and rolls her eyes around.

It’s a shame I can’t see properly because it’s dark, but I can make out enough thanks to the flashlight.

“…Okay. When we get out of here… but only when we’re alone…”

After beating around the bush for a while,

Choi Serim closes her eyes tightly and struggles to speak.

“I’ll wear it.”

“Good. I’ll take pictures too, so be prepared.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“I took pictures of Daju too. We have to be fair.”

After tapping her flustered arm once, I walked forward.

The surroundings were completely black.

My body walking forward was invisible, and even my palm held right in front of my face was buried in darkness.

But the world seemed split in two.

Light poured out vertically from a gap not far away.

“…”

One more thing.

No matter how much I looked up, I couldn’t see the ceiling or the end of the gap.

How big is this door, really?

I was only joking with Serim for a moment, but now I felt overwhelmed by something enormous.

The surroundings gradually brighten as we walk.

Like dawn breaking, the color of the entire sky slowly changes to a brighter shade.

As the scenery became completely bright,

That’s when we discovered the first structure in the distance.

Drrrrrrrrrr-

A rumbling sound from behind.

Looking back to check, I saw the door closing.

“We won’t be able to go back easily now.”

Choi Serim quietly says beside me.

“We have to find the information here no matter what.”