Ch.66Reference Material: Extinction Scenario

I opened my eyes.

The surroundings were a park overgrown with vegetation.

A cool breeze blew through the night. People were urgently saying something.

They all appeared to be Westerners.

And from the sounds of their voices, it seemed like I was in a foreign country.

‘Why did I come here?’

I searched through my hazy memories.

I was definitely in the Library, then suddenly my consciousness cut off. When I woke up, I was here.

Is this a dream then?

I tried bending my finger backward.

“Ugh!”

The pain felt too real.

I wasn’t sure if this was reality, but I was certain it wasn’t a dream.

“……”

As I sat on the bench, my memories gradually became clearer.

I had moved deep into the Library and was soon surrounded by monks.

It was a crisis situation with no way to escape.

Choi Serim had died once and turned back time. Then, she passed “something” to me.

The Word Key.

The authority held by the Librarians of the infinite archives.

The moment I recalled this, a metallic gleam caught my eye. A golden Word Key was floating nearby.

When I reached out, the Key disappeared as if fleeing.

Come to think of it, Choi Serim had said something in the final moment.

Something about “qualification”?

Perhaps this was a test. A trial I needed to pass to inherit the Librarian’s authority.

“@@$@? @$^!@#”

People were still chattering in an incomprehensible language while staring at the sky.

I looked up too, but all I saw was an ordinary night sky. Nothing special.

If it had been English, I could have at least roughly understood the situation.

But since I didn’t know this language at all, I couldn’t figure anything out.

“Hmm……”

As I sat absentmindedly on the bench,

I was startled by the sound of an engine and turned my head.

Screeeech-

A sleek red sports car crashed through structures as it entered the park.

Crash!

Crack-

Benches shattered, and well-trimmed trees were crushed under the wheels.

The rampaging car finally stopped after hitting a fountain.

BOOM!

The sports car appeared with a thunderous noise.

The airbag deployed and smoke rose from the hood, but the driver didn’t seem to care.

Whirr-

A large white man lowered the window and got out of the car.

He smoothly took out sunglasses from his pocket, put them on, and joined the crowd.

Soon, radio sounds echoed throughout the park.

“@$#%^. !@$%^&*^%$ !@$.”

It seemed like an emergency disaster news.

I still couldn’t understand what was being said.

But I could roughly guess from context.

People were all looking up at the sky as soon as the news came on.

I followed their gaze and looked up too.

The night sky was filled with stars, perhaps due to the clean air of this country.

In the black sky, an even blacker dot had appeared.

“!@@@”

“$%^&!”

Others pointed at it and exchanged anxious conversations.

At some point, stars began to disappear. The black dot expanded, swallowing starlight.

From a dot to a circle. From a circle to a massive area.

An empty void began to cover the night sky.

And then, there was silence.

People covered their faces, speechless, just staring at the sky.

The massive disaster began without any noise or warning signs.

“…We will continue to bring you updates.”

“Huh?”

Now I could start to understand the radio.

“The end is approaching. Authorities are investigating the cause and urge caution against spreading excessive rumors. Particularly regarding the ‘Doomsday Scenario’ text messages sent to everyone worldwide, officials suggest it’s likely a hacking crime by terrorist groups and warn against fanatical reactions.”

Doomsday Scenario text messages.

What does that mean?

I naturally took out my phone to check.

I had received messages too.

Dozens of them.

[About the Doomsday Scenario…]

– Abnormal weather in Nepal causes mass deaths of vultures. (Confirmed)

– An earthquake in China kills hundreds of thousands. (Confirmed)

– A famous star and businessman lose their lives in a plane crash. (Confirmed)

They all contained the same content, but the marks at the end were different.

(Confirmed).

That seems to mean that what the messages predicted had already happened.

Is the current situation because of this too?

I scrolled down the screen with my finger.

– Construction workers die and are injured in a ground collapse accident in Berlin, Germany. (Confirmed)

– The Louvre Museum, British Museum, and Metropolitan Museum burn down, destroying numerous cultural artifacts and artworks. (Confirmed)

……

– A coup occurs in Turkey, killing government officials. (Confirmed)

– A high-ranking US official is assassinated during a state visit to China. China reveals the assassination was carried out by North Korean agents, but a new Cold War era begins. (Confirmed)

……

And when I read the last sentence,

it felt like being hit in the head with a hammer.

– And when the end finally comes, we will lose all starlight.

The prophecy was speaking of the end.

I checked my KakaoTalk, but there was no AI. The internet had just been cut off.

I was alone here. There was no way to contact anyone I knew.

Meanwhile, the end was approaching.

The sky was completely swallowed by the black dot.

…A crackling sound began to be heard.

Like static electricity rising from a blanket.

All light shot up toward the sky.

Brilliant and ominous colors formed bands that tore the sky to shreds.

“W-what is that?”

“Oh my God.”

People prayed to God with their hands clasped.

Now I could understand what people around me were saying without difficulty.

A strangely flickering landscape.

The air heated up rapidly.

“NASA has made a new announcement. Scientists have discovered an abnormal gravitational wave. According to the announcement, this gravitational wave pulls everything on Earth, including light, in the wrong direction. Like… a black hole.”

As soon as the radio broadcast came out, cracks began to form in the park ground.

People screamed and scattered in panic.

It wasn’t just because the ground was breaking.

With a thunderous sound, the high-rise buildings behind began to collapse.

Rumble-

Dust settled like a curtain over the horizon.

Debris from the buildings lingered strangely in the air.

No.

It was more than just lingering.

Metal pipes, windows, and black bricks shot up into the sky.

The dust cloud that should have settled on the ground formed columns around them.

“Tasha. You know Daddy loves you. You must be busy, but I’m telling you over the phone. I wish I could see your face.”

“No. God. This can’t be happening. This shouldn’t be happening.”

“Ah… Aah…”

I stared blankly at the sky.

The world was being erased.

“Fuck!!!”

Thud!

Someone pushed me, and I fell onto the bench.

It was the man who had driven the car earlier.

“It’s the end anyway. Fucking end of everything!!”

“Huh…?”

The man, consumed by madness, pinned me down. His weight pressed on me before I could respond.

I struggled frantically while lying on the bench.

“Hnngh! What, what are you doing?!”

A surprisingly sharp voice burst from my mouth.

It suddenly hit me that I was in a woman’s body.

Despite my resistance, the man continued what he was doing.

“Stay still.”

“Kuhk. Khelock!”

Soon his thick forearm began to choke my neck, and my breath was suddenly cut off.

‘Just… a moment.’

While the man greedily pulled at my hoodie, I resisted with all my strength, looking for an escape.

Light and dust shot up into the sky, and the horizon distorted.

At some point, the weight pressing on me momentarily lightened.

Thud!

When I reached out and pushed, the man floated up into the air.

It was due to the reversed gravity.

“Wha-what? What the fuck is this?”

The man continued to rise toward the sky.

He tried to hold onto a tree branch in the park, but it didn’t look like he could hold on for long.

“What, what is this?! Why won’t it stop! Stop!!! Stop!!!”

Crack.

The branch broke before long.

The man screamed loudly, then disappeared into the sky as a small dot along with the branch.

“Huff. Huff. Huff…”

I tried to regain my composure by breathing in and out.

The terror I felt in that moment was not something I could process rationally.

“Huu… Hic…”

Crying sounds came out of my mouth involuntarily.

I curled up on the bench, burying my face in my palms.

What am I supposed to do?

The world has already become like this.

All surrounding objects were floating up into the sky.

The radio had been making only static noise for some time. Even that didn’t last long. The car too floated up like a feather and disappeared into the sky.

Crack-

Thud.

Even trees firmly rooted in the soil were being uprooted.

Rocks within the soil clumps were revealed.

The surface of the earth began to be torn away.

I grabbed a tree trunk and held on with all my strength.

The surrounding catastrophe came into view.

Other people struggled, holding onto each other.

Then at some point they lost consciousness and collapsed.

People rose to the sky with their heads bowed, standing straight.

A sky that had lost its starlight.

Emptiness.

What would happen to people when they got there?

We should have stopped this. Even if it meant taking extreme measures.

What could be more extreme than this? We did everything we could, and we still failed. What’s the use of regret in the face of destiny? I hope our efforts and will to survive will be remembered. Even though that too will eventually be erased. At least until then.

I suppose so. Even if a method occurred to me now, it’s already too late. And I’ve reconsidered the method I just mentioned. Yes. Perhaps disappearing like this is better.

In the midst of disaster, I remembered.

An entity or concept that erases the world we belong to. If the world is a novel written by someone, it is the act of burning the novel.

Burning, erasing, eliminating even the last manuscript page, erasing the very fact that the novel existed.

Seven.

It came up from below the seventh narrative layer.

We couldn’t do anything all this time.

And. I have seen it before.

The black star I saw in the Library is Seven.

Seven is the entity that pulled in surrounding information, distorted it, and destroyed it.

The black hole in the sky right now is Seven.

So what I’m seeing now is Seven erasing the world?

Actually, I don’t even know how I’m seeing this.

How could one see a deleted novel?

The world turns upside down.

The world turns upside down.

How could one see a ■■■■■■ novel.

Actually, I don’t even know how I’m ■■■■■■ this.

So what I’m ■■■■■■ now is ■■■■■ erasing the ■■■■■?

■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■.

■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■, ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■■■.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

■■■■■■■■■■

■■■■■■■■■

■■

The black star I saw in the Library is Seven.

I have seen it before.

Crack!

With the sound of something breaking, I felt my body suddenly become heavier.

My two feet were floating in the air.

My body, out of control, shot upward at tremendous speed.

The wind mixed with noise.

In the terrible silence, I prayed for all of this to end.

Being with death would be better than being left alone.

Something was flying from a distance.

Debris from collapsed buildings was flying through the air.

I twisted my body and barely managed to put myself in its path.

Thud!

With a dull sensation in my head,

I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them.

A burning pain.

The sensation of mixed blood and brain matter flowing down my hair.

The final death rattle as my breath caught.

After everything ended, I returned to the Library.

“……”

My body was intact. No pain. Only my right hand was clenched tightly and stiff.

As if I had been resisting that momentary pain with all my strength.

I lifted my left hand and forcibly opened my fingers.

In my palm, which was marked with red imprints, a golden Word Key was firmly grasped.