Chapter 106 – 16th Floor. Actually, My Dream is to Be a Film Director

Somehow, I ended up spending sticky, slimy days with the onaholes again, and before I knew it, the given week had quickly passed.

Now thinking about not being able to access the excellent civilization of modern society for another short week or as long as two months, my heart became severely gloomy.

Bye-bye, my pretty Netflix.

I won’t be able to spend two hours just surfing through menus wondering what to watch before falling asleep at night.

“I’ve packed everything I need…”

Though that said, all my weapons were broken during the fight with the Howler, and my armor was damaged beyond repair, so essentially, I was bare-handed.

All I could stuff haphazardly into the remaining space in my backpack and mimic were food and water.

That place isn’t an environment where humans can normally obtain things to eat and drink, so the more surplus, the better.

‘It wasn’t for nothing that I told Blue Tongue to prepare in the village.’

If she had gone ahead like before and waited for me to arrive by advancing forward for a week, both Albert and Blue Tongue would probably have dried up and died.

At best, only Blue Tongue would be blankly waiting, having become a half-elemental able to survive without eating.

Tick- Tock-

“Can’t they at least tell me when it changes…”

I’ve been standing here with my luggage packed by gut instinct for an hour already.

Boring time passes as the second hand on the wall clock moves forward one notch at a time without stopping.

“Haaawwn…”

Tick-

As the second hand reached the end of the circle, the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand formed a straight line, indicating the exact hour.

Simultaneously, my vision stretches as I yawn, showing the rift in dimensions like when entering the portal, with the sensation of my body in free fall to the ground.

But all of this is an illusion.

“Ahem… well~ arrived~”

The ground firmly supported my body, and there was no cliff that I might fall from.

What was stretched out was a corridor made of white marble bricks stacked to form walls with stained glass illustrations so colorful they hurt the eyes.

On the pillars supporting the ceiling, countless characters were engraved, glowing with blue light, and beyond the glass walls, like a library, an immense number of bookshelves were aligned with books.

If the places we’ve passed through so far were fantastical but could exist in reality, this place had an appearance that could only be seen in novels.

The name of this place is the Corridor of Infinite Knowledge.

It’s the starting point of the latter part of D.D, and also where I need to move busily to find what’s needed from now on.

‘They’re not here yet?’

Looking around briefly, I saw no traces of Albert and Blue Tongue.

They might be ahead doing the conquest, but given that they didn’t leave even small traces like trash or fabric scraps, it’s probably right to think I arrived first.

“Now that I see it directly… it’s overwhelming.”

This Corridor of Infinite Knowledge, spanning from the 16th to the 19th floor, unlike the procedural generation characteristic of the game genre, has a fixed form.

More precisely, the largest size and square shape are fixed, and the interior arrangement is random.

Due to this characteristic, to get what you want, you had to navigate the entire map, which made this an area where exploration took a very long time.

I can’t even guess where to start looking.

Because no matter where I look, all I see are bookshelves, bookshelves, and more bookshelves, making it feel like I’ve come to a hell for people who don’t return borrowed books on time, rather than a dungeon.

“Should I just burn it all down?”

Like Osiris’s Labyrinth, with all these things that could serve nicely as kindling with a crackle- crackle-, that doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

“What on earth are you saying?!”

Startled by my grand plan to cover the world in flames, Severa jumped out of the mimic, grabbed my collar, and shook me jingle-jangle.

My vision spins dizzily as I’m shaken back and forth.

At first, I was surprised by how they freely returned to their original forms and changed back into onaholes, but now I’ve adapted and just go with it. It’s good for anything to evolve.

“You’re going to burn down this great repository of knowledge just because it’s annoying? How will I face the pioneers who’ve accumulated knowledge all this time after I die!”

“Aren’t you already dead?”

“Ah.”

While stretching Severa’s soft, malleable cheeks as she made such novel remarks, I looked around.

‘First, I need to find some artifacts…’

The reason the 16th floor is called the latter part is that the number of artifacts appearing from this point increases dramatically compared to before.

Core components of a build or items that could be called final items with specs that are absolutely overwhelming.

Things like Asribe’s Staff, the last piece of the Asribe set that Severa uses effectively, or gimmick items like the Crown of Madness.

“Mmmmf!”

“For now, let’s look around and think.”

When judgment is ambiguous, moving is the best strategy. While kneading Severa’s cheeks like clay, I examined the books on the shelves one by one.

However, unlike in the game, I couldn’t read the script, so to me, they were just bundles of alien-language paper.

‘This area had an abnormal amount of text, so I didn’t really like it…’

The Corridor of Infinite Knowledge, where different text appeared with each interaction as I moved one square at a time.

Even a project to organize the types of text with DunGal’s collective intelligence emerged, but it was abandoned, perhaps because AI processed and generated sentences each time.

Strangely, there were many sentences that connected in content, but at the time, I thought it was just coincidence, but now I could think it was based on actual content, showing just a part of it.

The problem is that it was Too Much Information—TMI for short.

‘No, fuck. Who even delves into the world-building in a dungeon roguelike game in the first place?’

In a game with storytelling that barely hints at nuances rather than a grandiose world view, let alone why this place was created, why would anyone do that?

Even the research facility in the beginning had fixed text and not much of it, which led to discussions, but who would like it if they threw such an enormous amount of information at you?

‘I should have remembered a bit more.’

The spreadsheet that organized data from searched materials as if from memory had been terrorized and destroyed long ago, and no one was interested in recovery, so it remained abandoned.

‘Fucking asshole Youden…’

Swallowing a tear that dripped from my heart, I opened the map for exploration.

Crack—!

Ball joints of indeterminate material shatter beyond their range of motion, scattering fragments.

An arm that completely turned and dangles, but still a faceless puppet swinging a dagger to kill me.

“Oops.”

Simply tilting my neck backward, I briefly pulled the grabbed arm to easily escape its trajectory.

After seeing the dagger cutting through empty air with a woosh sound, I immediately extended my palm and struck the puppet’s chin upward.

Bam!

With a heavy impact, the puppet’s head, featureless and smooth without eyes, nose, or mouth, shoots into the air.

Only the round joint sphere that fixed it remains where the neck should be.

[You have defeated the Puppet Librarian.]

After giving a few pats to the zero-durability defective product that broke down and sprawled on the floor, I looked at the other puppet librarians approaching me, joints creaking.

Each wearing somewhat luxurious clothes like people, with books they were organizing and sharp daggers in their hands—spherical joint dolls.

Librarians who guard this endlessly stretched library, the Corridor of Infinite Knowledge—I licked my slightly dry lips, having been marked by them.

‘I don’t have weapons right now, and using the onaholes seems wasteful.’

===========================================

Name: aaaa

Level: 20

Health: 330/330 ■■■■■■■■■■

Magic: 131/131 ■■■■■■■■■■

Hunger: 116/130 ■■■■■■■■■■|■■□

Thirst: 120/130 ■■■■■■■■■■|■■□

Temperature: ◁■■■■■■□□□□▷

Strength 15(+4) | Dexterity 15(+3) | Constitution 15(+3)

Mental 08(+5) | Perception 09(+3) | Charm 15(+4)

《Possessed Skills》

『Warrior’s Valor』『Thief’s Luck』『Vanguard’s Momentum』『Battle Command』『Elite』『Hero III』『』

《Blessings》

『Mental Barrier』『Magical Nature』

《Possessed Magic》

『Onahole Creation』

===========================================

My specs, with 『Elite』that raises all abilities by 2, 『Hero III』that ultimately pumps up basic abilities, and special skills for the three physical stats—strength, dexterity, and constitution—were by no means a level that could be ignored.

Although it would inevitably be lacking in melee combat compared to a close-combat all-in build, it had long since far surpassed the level of feeling threatened by ordinary enemies.

‘Is bare hands enough?’

The number of puppet librarians who had identified me and were approaching was three.

They’re creaking their joints fiercely as if angry that one of their companions was just broken.

“Let’s work together on something. You’d be perfect as horror movie props.”

To think I could create mannequins that move by themselves without even using CG.

With that realism and vivacity, my movie will receive the Academy Award for International Films and dominate the film industry.

Creak- Creeeeak—

“Hmm… excellent.”

I easily avoid the puppet librarian’s attack, which doesn’t know the art of waiting and immediately thrusts its knife at me, by lightly spinning half a circle to the side.

“Work for my retirement!”

Crack—!

The piercing impact felt in my fist.

The surface of the puppet librarian, which feels close to hard pottery, is crushed by my fist and flies away, unable to withstand my strength.

Thud-clang!

The puppet librarian, crashing head-first into the floor and rolling greatly once.

Its reaction is quite excellent.

There’s no worry about the action scenes in the movie.