Ch.97Memory Hunter (4)

[The closest elevator will pass through here in 3 minutes and 12 seconds based on the current time frame.]

[Please select “View Details” to obtain probability information.]

There isn’t just one elevator here.

Elevators from different time frames and worldlines exist, and they cannot affect each other.

Even if they happen to meet, they simply pass through one another. Like colliding with a ghost.

3 minutes and 12 seconds from now.

That’s when another elevator will appear here.

I recorded the time on my phone timer and dismissed the complex probability information. Even if there’s an error, it would only be at the quantum level. The probability approaches 100 percent.

About 7 seconds have passed, so 3 minutes and 3 seconds remain.

I firmly etched the time in my mind and deactivated my “Insight.”

Now I just need to wait here quietly.

Not that it looks particularly easy.

The shadows that had seemed to retreat were gathering again. This time, their numbers had increased considerably.

In contrast, my condition isn’t good. My arm is practically destroyed, and I have no strength left.

Unless I rest and recover, I can’t use the Librarian’s authority or Word Keys because they put too much strain on my body.

I’ll have to find my own way out of this situation.

I opened my bag’s zipper and rummaged inside.

There were a few more spare flashlights.

“Little girl all alone. Come this way.”

It seemed they hadn’t just increased in number; the shadows were now speaking to me.

A voice like someone with a stuffy nose buzzed in my ears.

“We are not alone. If we go around together, it will surely be fun.”

Nonsense.

I’ve already seen firsthand what happens when they catch you. You get dragged into the dark wall and only your silhouette remains as a shadow.

Losing your form and becoming a shadow.

There’s no way a life stuck flat against a wall, squirming, could be enjoyable.

“Walking around alone is dangerous. You know that, don’t you?”

I decided not to respond.

The fact that they were bothering to speak to me meant they couldn’t overwhelm me right now.

If I had to guess why, it’s probably because of the elevator light that still remains, however faintly.

But that light will soon disappear.

That elevator from another time frame won’t wait for me. It will soon fly back to its place.

“Just one step is all it takes. Come here and reach out your hand.”

Click.

Instead of answering, I turned on a flashlight and pointed it toward the wall where the shadows were.

“Arrrrggghhh!”

“Stop! Stop it!”

Voices filled with agony.

As if truly damaged by just the touch of light, the black forms couldn’t gather together and kept clustering and dispersing across the concrete wall.

The voices of men and women, the elderly and children, eerily mixed together and echoed.

Then finally, a very familiar voice reached me.

“Dabin.”

It was Choi Serim’s voice.

“Why do you keep wanting to remain as a shadow? Is there some reason?”

“Hey, Lim Dabin. You need to get out of there quickly!”

This time it was Heo Yoon.

“Brother. Please.”

“Trust us and reach out. Quickly!”

Even Yoon Daju and Seok Hyunmin.

Am I really mistaken again?

Could it be that I’m the one trapped in the shadows, and those forms I thought were shadows are actually in reality?

It was so convincing that I almost fell for it for a moment.

“……”

[Choi Serim: Inside the elevator.]

[Heo Yoon: Inside the elevator.]

[Yoon Daju: Inside the elevator.]

The Librarian’s Insight conveyed only accurate facts.

“Nonsense.”

Thud.

I took out another flashlight and placed it on the floor next to the first one.

The doubled beam tormented the shadows even more effectively.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Aaaah!”

Using the Librarian’s Insight in my terrible physical condition was putting more strain on my body than I expected.

“Urgh!”

I grabbed the moss-covered concrete wall and vomited everything inside me.

“Cough, cough.

Ha……”

The creatures living here all seem skilled at triggering fear.

They were reading my fears. They probably discovered them when they covered my face.

– Is where I am now really reality?

– Will I end up left behind all alone?

On top of these vague anxieties, specific incidents had been added.

The event on the 7th floor where everyone except me was struggling in “another reality.”

The encounter with the “Memory Hunter” when I took the elevator to resolve that situation.

The experience in the elevator with water pouring down from the ceiling had become a deeply rooted fear in my heart.

Shhhhhhhh-

That damned water sound.

I startled and checked the wall, but it was just another trick by the shadow creatures.

Time to add one more flashlight.

“Urrrgh.”

“I won’t do it anymore. Please put that away.”

“Ah! Ah!”

Even if they say that, I have no intention of putting it away.

The price for touching someone’s trauma is always steep.

That should be enough to push them back against the wall.

The elevator is gradually moving away. The light pouring down from above is slowly receding, so it’s only a matter of time before they become active again.

I reached deep into my bag and felt a smooth cylindrical surface. I gripped it firmly and pulled out the object.

A device I had prepared for emergencies.

Now I just need to press the switch to activate it.

But my physical condition is truly terrible. Even sitting still makes my vision sway, and I can’t perform even the simplest movements at will.

Pressing the switch itself is an extremely easy task.

However, timing is crucial here.

If I miscalculate the timing, I could get caught up in it too, so I need to be careful.

Before starting the main operation, I first increased the brightness level of each flashlight one step.

The shadows screamed.

But they seemed to be able to endure it much better than before.

In just a little while, they’ll start moving again and easily swallow three flashlights.

Still, for now, I should be able to at least block their vision.

Shortly after.

The last ray of light lingering in the air disappeared.

The shadows rushed across the floor, one after another. Their voices were filled with excitement and joy.

“Now we can move. We can devour everything!”

“Bring her over here!”

The flashlights placed on the floor were swallowed by the shadows.

They melted away exactly as they had been placed, as if sinking into a black swamp.

The surroundings became completely dark.

Click.

I pressed the switch to activate the device.

Much weaker than a flashlight, but still enough to illuminate what’s right in front of me, an LED light came on.

“What should we do? Should we go around it?”

“No. We can swallow that quickly.”

“It’s much dimmer than before. No problem at all.”

Being careful not to cause any major impact, I slowly placed the device on the floor.

The red LED light drew a straight boundary between the shadows and me.

“I’m still suspicious. Is it really okay?”

“I told you there’s no problem! Look!”

Indeed. Part of the shadow touched the light, but nothing happened.

Before shadows swimming through the darkness, the brightness of a small LED is hopelessly inadequate.

Eventually, the last light was feebly swallowed.

Shadows approaching in the darkness.

“Now come this way, Dabin.”

One of them tries to persuade me.

“Yes. Even if you don’t come now, we’ll swallow you anyway.”

Among them, some were threatening,

“Did you think a few light bulbs could drive us away? Huh?”

And some were openly mocking me.

But none of their words reached me.

They were just the last words of creatures about to disappear.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted from the concrete wall.

The explosions continued without stopping.

A homemade bomb.

Made primarily from butane gas canisters, with improvised pressure control devices attached to maximize explosive power.

BOOM!

BANG!

KABOOM!

Even for a homemade bomb, it incorporated quite professional knowledge. Finding such knowledge in the Library was no challenge at all.

In terms of power, it could blow up an entire classroom. If detonated inside a bus, it could overturn the vehicle.

A double-edged weapon that could involve me too if I wasn’t careful.

Yet despite activating such a bomb, I felt no impact on my side.

The chaos was happening inside the shadows.

Like watching a movie on a screen, flames burst and smoke rose across the flat surface.

They were torn to pieces and collapsed, never to move again.

All that remains now is to catch and board the elevator from another timeline.

Right beneath my feet, an intense light that could burn my retinas was gradually growing larger.

SCREEEECH-

An elevator approaching at tremendous speed.

Being hit by something like that would leave nothing of my bones, but colliding with it now wouldn’t be a problem.

As entities belonging to different timelines, we would naturally pass through each other.

The real problem would be failing to collide at the right time.

Can I do it?

The longer I stayed in this wretched place, the worse my condition became. Using the Librarian’s authority had become even more difficult.

With all my might, I used the Librarian’s authority, and slowly the form of the Word Key appeared in my palm.

[Implementing the Librarian’s power, the Word Key.]

[You can modify worldlines to change the flow of the story.]

[Warning: Excessive intervention may cause destruction of plausibility, loss of order, and ultimately irreversible destruction of the narrative layer in which the world exists.]

Just a little more.

Holding onto my fading vision, I reached out toward the elevator.

BOOM!

A massive impact like being hit by a truck.

But my body wasn’t crushed, and no bones were broken.

[Librarian’s Authority: A minimal ability to protect yourself in the infinite bookshelf environment. Greatly reduces external impacts to protect your body.]

“…I did it.”

The sentences that appeared next informed me that I had succeeded splendidly.

[Narrative Modification: Modified the elevator’s timeline.]

[Narrative Modification: Modified the elevator’s route.]

Only one thing remained. That thing was still up there.

The “Memory Hunter” whose life I hadn’t managed to end earlier.

If I let it live, it would continue to interfere with our exploration, so I needed to eliminate it now.

I climbed onto the elevator ceiling and looked up.

The creature, which initially appeared like a fog cloud, now seemed to have lost strength and taken on a beast-like form.

If that’s the case, I don’t need to take special measures. I can just physically crush it. I just need to adjust its position a bit.

“You come here too.”

I pointed at the creature’s body with the hand holding the Word Key.

[Narrative Modification: Adjusting the Memory Hunter’s position.]

Drip.

Something warm flows down my mouth.

Blood.

Judging by the intense pain coursing through my body, I might need to be unconscious for at least a week.

I have nothing to say, having abused the Librarian’s authority to this extent.

Clank!

Clank!

Noise from nearby.

The elevator I initially jumped from is now getting closer.

Toward Serim, Daju, and… anyway, where everyone is gathered.

At the same time, it was also moving toward the Memory Hunter.

The creature hanging from the ceiling, catching its breath, belatedly noticed the anomaly. It seemed flustered and prepared to jump, but it was already too late.

“Ha.”

In that brief moment, I felt relieved.

I’ve been through a lot, but I won’t have panic attacks anymore.

Who would be afraid of something like dried squid?

“You’ve had a hard time too.”

I looked up at the monster’s face one last time.

Water continuously flowed from around its body, which was densely covered with short navy blue fur.

The water streaming down from the elevator ceiling had terrified me so much. Now it looks like it’s crying.

Shhhhhhhh-

And just before the newly summoned elevator collided with the Memory Hunter,

I threw myself from the ceiling toward my original position.

Whoosh. The wind cut past my ears. A heavy sensation struck my spine.

What followed was a sensation I’d never felt before. It was as if all the blood in my body was boiling, surging upward like a cricket boiler and burning.

Is this what hell feels like?

BOOM!

Belatedly feeling the impact, my consciousness slowly sank below the floor.

Still, there was one thing that comforted me.

Just before losing consciousness, I heard the voices I had so desperately wanted to hear buzzing in my ears.

“Wh-what! Brother?”

“Dabin!!!”

“Hey, Lim Dabin. What’s going on with you!”

Daju. Serim. Heo Yoon and Seok Hyunmin. AI. Jung Haewon.

Everyone seems safe as they check on my condition first.

I’m glad.

That I found my way back to them.