Ch.64The Librarian of the Infinite Archives (2)

It was the third day of exploring the library.

Several hours had already passed since we started moving at daybreak.

Choi Serim was busy wiping away sweat, while Jung Haewon was panting with his hands on his knees.

Just then, we spotted some shade nearby.

The two of them were soon sitting side by side in the shadow.

“Noona. Can’t we rest for a bit?”

“Sure. Dabin, let’s take a short break.”

I stopped walking, panting heavily myself.

“But if we’re resting, I think we should get Daju too.”

While everyone was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, Yoon Daju alone was walking around perfectly fine.

“Huh? You’re tired already?”

After taking the lead for quite some time, Daju finally looked back when she noticed the others weren’t visible anymore.

Yoon Daju strode over and stuck herself right next to me.

“Phew…”

As I was wiping away sweat, Daju started searching for something in her bag.

Rummaging around.

Then she pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to me.

“Oppa. Want some water?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Though lukewarm, water is still the best for quenching thirst.

While I drank, Daju rested her chin on her hand and stared at me intently.

She was crouching right beside me.

“…?”

I gave her a puzzled look, but Daju just giggled.

Her expression was like someone watching cute animal videos online.

Daju’s gaze didn’t break even after I finished drinking, so I finally had to speak first.

“Thanks for the water, but…”

“Yes, oppa?”

“It’s hot, so could you move back a bit?”

As I extended my arm, Daju slid back smoothly.

She retreated so easily that I was actually surprised.

Normally, she wouldn’t have budged at all.

She might have even poured water on me. Or grabbed my arm and fondled it creepily.

“What’s going on?”

I lifted my head to check on Daju.

She was looking at me with teary eyes.

“Do you hate me that much, oppa? Even just watching you from beside you?”

“…”

Her tone and expression were like those of an innocent child.

And as far as I knew, Yoon Daju was a crazy woman who would be thinking about making me cosplay even while falling off a cliff.

“Did you eat something weird?”

I thought it was another prank.

But her reaction was very different from what I expected.

Daju looked genuinely hurt and tearful.

“I just wanted to give you water because I thought you might be thirsty. But you…”

Her eyes, full of resentment and sadness, were already brimming with tears.

“You hate even that?”

“No. I…”

My words got stuck.

Choi Serim was looking at me with surprised eyes.

Jung Haewon was covering his mouth, looking at me like I was human garbage.

“I just thought it would be nice if you gave water to the others too. That’s why I asked you to go over there.”

“Then you should have said that instead of telling me to get lost. Pushing me away with your hand, like you hate me, like…”

“Daju. I didn’t tell you to get lost, I just asked you to move back a bit because it was hot.”

“That’s the same thing!!!”

Daju raised her voice, clearly upset.

I found myself hunched over with my head lowered.

Had she been harboring hurt feelings all this time without showing it?

No. If that were the case, she should have toned down her pranks…

Daju was sniffling in a completely different mood than usual.

Come to think of it, this had been happening more frequently lately.

Maybe it’s stress, causing all her pent-up emotions to burst out at once.

This apartment is a place where one misstep could mean death.

Having stayed here for so long, Daju must be mentally pushed to her limits.

Though she usually appears energetic and excited, that might just be a defense mechanism to protect herself.

No. That’s almost certainly the case.

“Hey, Daju.”

“…What?”

Daju had already moved next to Choi Serim.

Nestled in Serim’s arms like a baby bird, she glared at me.

“I’m sorry.”

In the end, I was the one who apologized.

The main reason was that I noticed the wound on Daju’s forehead.

Sniffling, she nodded.

Feeling strange about the situation, I glanced around and made eye contact with Choi Serim.

‘You did well.’

A familiar sensation came with a voice flowing into my mind.

It was Choi Serim’s ability to read and manipulate thoughts.

‘The apology you just made will help Daju find stability.’

Find stability?

There was something unsettling about Serim’s words.

It was a nagging doubt I’d been feeling all along—something that seemed trivial but couldn’t be ignored.

I asked through my thoughts:

‘What’s going on with Daju?’

Occasionally, I see glimpses of a completely different person in Daju.

It can’t be explained away as just a mental issue.

‘Like when she suddenly got up at night and sleep-talked, or during the fight, or just now. And I’ve seen her emotionally collapse many times before, crying or becoming anxious.’

I formed these sentences in my mind, waiting for Choi Serim’s answer.

‘These behaviors that are completely different from the usual Yoon Daju keep appearing.’

Serim silently stroked Daju’s hair.

I immediately understood this meant “you shouldn’t know yet.”

But I couldn’t just let it go.

‘You know what happened to Yoon Daju, don’t you?’

‘You’ll find out when the time comes.’

A calm voice transmitted into my mind.

‘This isn’t something I can explain for her. Besides, I don’t know the details either. It would be much better if you heard it directly from Daju later.’

‘You always answer like that when I ask questions.’

‘What? Is Dabin upset too?’

‘…Forget it.’

I turned my head away sharply.

Beside me, Jung Haewon was gulping down water.

Glug, glug.

“Ahh!!!”

“Shut up.”

“What? I’m just drinking water.”

Jung Haewon made an indignant face.

He already had a face that looked wronged, and with that expression, it was fun to tease him.

“If we’ve rested enough, let’s go now.”

I gathered my bag and stood up.

When I took out the book and opened it, the arrow reappeared.

[Pointer]

* This document indicates the location of the library’s collection, [Extinction Scenario: 5000].

The direction is as follows:

<—-

The remaining distance is as follows:

(Unable to display)

Now we just need to keep walking in this direction.

But something…

Something’s off.

“Huh…?”

“Dabin, what’s wrong?”

“Oppa, didn’t you say we should get going?”

The others looked confused by my reaction.

What was it?

I showed the open book page to Choi Serim.

“Do you see anything strange here?”

“No. It looks the same as before.”

I showed it to Jung Haewon and Yoon Daju too, but they didn’t notice anything unusual.

I was sure something was wrong. Like something had twisted for a moment…

“Wait a minute.”

I called Choi Serim over and gathered everyone in one place.

“Everyone, gather around here.”

We all sat in a circle under the shade again.

I placed the open book in the center.

[Pointer]

* This document indicates the location of the library’s collection, [Extinction Scenario: 5000].

The direction is as follows:

<—-

The remaining distance is as follows:

(Unable to display)

“There’s something wrong with the arrow.”

It was just for a moment, but I caught the book’s anomaly.

“It looks the same as before to me.”

“Yeah, it looks fine now. Maybe oppa just imagined it?”

Jung Haewon and Yoon Daju hadn’t noticed yet, showing skeptical reactions.

Even Choi Serim seemed unconvinced.

“Hmm. Maybe Dabin saw wrong?”

“Just keep watching it.”

“…Whoa?!”

Choi Serim’s eyes widened in shock, nearly falling backward.

The previously normal content of the book suddenly changed.

[Pointer]

* This document indicates the location of the library’s collection, 0x7fff789fab52.

The direction is as follows:

<<<<<<<<<<<—————————->>>>>>>>>>

[Error: Invalid declaration: �� ���C¾ð¾î Àº ¾Æ¼Ò°³. C¾ð¾î¶õ °ÍÁÖ]

[占쏙옙C¾Ò°³. C¾ÆÁ¾ð¾î¶õð¾î ¼ °ÍÀº Ö]

……

[Pointer]

* This document indicates the location of the library’s collection, [Extinction Scenario: 5000].

The direction is as follows:

<—-

The remaining distance is as follows:

(Unable to display)

It was very brief, but this time everyone witnessed the anomaly.

Choi Serim sighed deeply and said:

“What should we do? We’ve been following this the whole time. It’s too late to look for another method now.”

“Should we just give up at this point?”

Daju spoke in a serious tone.

Jung Haewon agreed.

“I think the same as noona. No matter how important the information we’re looking for is, it’s too dangerous to keep following an arrow we can’t trust.”

As if to prove his point, the arrow kept changing direction.

Sometimes it disappeared from the page entirely or distorted into bizarre shapes.

[�占쏙옙]

—>

–>

——->

<———–

——>

<—–

The strange changes only lasted for moments.

Though it quickly returned to normal, something was definitely wrong.

“Dabin, what should we do?”

“Give me a moment to think.”

I took out my phone from my pocket and photographed the book’s contents.

[AI: What’s this?]

[AI: What is this?]

“That’s what I’m trying to ask you.”

[AI: How am I supposed to know when you just send a photo without explanation???]

“It’s a Pointer. There’s a book in the library, and this is another book that shows the location of that book.”

[AI: So there’s an error with it, right?]

“Yes.”

[AI: I can’t tell anything from the error code itself. Just that the text is corrupted?]

“It looked like some kind of program, so I thought you might know. But I guess not.”

[AI: Yeah]

“Alright then.”

[AI: Wait]

[AI: Aren’t you going to find information for me?]

[AI: I need to get out of here!!!]

I put my phone back in my pocket.

Meanwhile, Jung Haewon was sharing his thoughts with the others.

“Here’s what I think. Maybe there’s an error, or maybe this wasn’t pointing to the information we’re looking for from the beginning…”

Yoon Daju, who had been listening quietly, added:

“Or this itself could be someone’s bait.”

Choi Serim crossed her arms, hugging herself.

“That’s scary…”

“Come to think of it, there’s a similar story in horror tales.”

Jung Haewon spoke up again.

“What kind?”

“Noona, have you heard of the navigation system urban legend?”

“Never heard of it.”

Choi Serim seemed completely unaware too.

Seeing that everyone was unfamiliar with it, Jung Haewon excitedly began his story.

“Once, a family bought a used navigation system. It came from a car that had been in an accident, but they got it because it was cheap. It actually worked fine for a while. So the family came to rely on it completely. But one day, when they were returning from a trip. They followed the navigation’s directions, but the car kept going to strange places. They didn’t know where they’d gone wrong, but the car seemed to be heading in completely wrong directions. Eventually, they were driving on a road where even light barely reached. Just as the mother was about to say ‘Something’s wrong with the navigation’—

SCREEEEECH!”

“Eek!”

Choi Serim jumped in fright.

Jung Haewon paused briefly, then continued:

“The car came to a sudden stop. The father had slammed on the brakes. When they got out of the car, they saw that the dark road ended in a cliff. It was so dark that even with the headlights on, they could barely see ahead. Or maybe they were under some kind of spell. Anyway, at the end, this message came from the navigation system. Not in the usual mechanical voice, but in a chilling tone:

‘You should have died.'”

“Ughhhh… No…”

Choi Serim seemed weak to such stories, squeezing her eyes shut and trembling. She never trembled in dangerous situations. Is hearing stories different?

In contrast, Yoon Daju nodded with an interested expression.

“So it was planning to make them fall off the cliff and die from the beginning.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Jung Haewon might have a talent for internet broadcasting.

Without background music or visuals, his story alone made the air feel suddenly chilly.

“S-so this too? If we follow the direction in the book, will we fall off a cliff?”

Choi Serim asked, trembling.

After watching Jung Haewon tell his story, I stepped forward.

“No. This is definitely pointing to the location of information.”

“What? How can we follow this when the arrow keeps changing?”

Jung Haewon objected when I spoke.

“It’s not constantly changing, is it? It only gets weird momentarily, but the direction has stayed the same.”

“We can’t trust it. We don’t even know what this thing is.”

Such reactions are natural, but this case is a bit different.

Without realizing it, I had received an ability from Choi Serim.

“I can tell.”

“What? How?”

The ability to precisely locate desired information. And to determine the authenticity of found information.

It’s the ability of a librarian who manages the infinite bookshelf.

“I can see which one is real.”

Though I only just realized it, I had been using this ability all along.