episode_0059

Crack, crack.

The bookshelf opens and red-hot pieces of paper fall out.

Pages that cool quickly and turn to ash.

Choi Se-rim watched quietly and slowly opened her mouth.

“Have you heard of the term metaphysics?”

I shook my head.

Saying “Wait a minute,” Choi Se-rim stands up. She tapped my shoulder, walked forward, and pulled a book from the bookshelf.

[Pataphysics, Plato, Idea]

It’s a khaki color cover.

According to the library’s manual, it is an information hazard (meme killer) that can be tolerated by those with a moderate level of anomalous tolerance. Still, it is the second most dangerous level in this library.

Also, Choi Se-rim’s anomalous resistance is not that good.

The last time I briefly saw a meme killer, I kept vomiting until my face turned white.

“Sister. Do you mind if I read that?”

When I ask worriedly, Serim Choi answers with a faint smile.

“Yes. It doesn’t matter now.”

It doesn’t matter anymore. What do you mean?

The book cover begins to glow, and letters swirl around it.

I could see some of the letters.

Unification Language Program: Babel

Know the language of your current readers

Automatically translating

The alphabet written on the leather cover began to change to Korean.

[Petaphysics: Philosophical considerations on pataphysics]

I look back at the countless books tucked behind my back.

Among the many books, Serim Choi found one that dealt with the topic she wanted.

“How did you find it?”

“I’ll tell you about this later. First of all, about metaphysics.”

Serim Choi opens a page from a book and shows it.

[On metaphysics and the descriptive layer]

The letters are lined up below the large subheadings.

Some information gives a gloomy and ominous feeling just by looking at it.

A letter from a patient with severe schizophrenia.

A diary written by a serial killer.

Even if you are not involved in a crime, when you look at pictures of haunted houses or dark alleys, you automatically get a chill running down your spine.

I felt exactly the same way back then.

Each letter is full of malice and emptiness, making me hesitate to read.

[Pataphysics was a term used to refer to a nonsense science that was popular in Europe in the past. They used nonsensical logic that makes no sense as the basis for their ideas, and quoted sentences in their thesis that were (claimed to be) taken from a non-existent book with a fancy name. As times changed and the era of militarism and colonial rule unfolded, metaphysics spread throughout the world. The word metaphysics is the Japanese translation of pataphysics. This bizarre science seeped into the back world of each country and took on a completely different aspect.

‘Creation Writers Association’, a doujin publishing company created by writers such as ‘Charles Martini’. ‘Jinrihoe’ was an affiliated organization of the World Occult Association. ‘OI’, an extremist paranormal research organization branched off from ‘Illuminati’.

They have become a kind of religious association and are in vain. Tragic fate. asserts a contradiction. One of the representative tenets is that the universe is made up of several layers of description, and that our world is nothing more than a report of someone’s observations from a simulation.]

– [On metaphysics and the descriptive layer], 112p.

As if that was even expected.

Serim Choi closes her eyes and waits for me to finish reading.

Tick. Tick.

The paper is burning.

I quickly took my eyes off the book.

“I read it all.”

“Good job.”

“I read it, but I’m not sure what it means. There are too many terms I don’t know.”

“Yes. It can happen.”

Choi Se-rim reaches out her hand to pat me, but stops the movement awkwardly and says.

“Then I will explain it easily. The idea that this world is a novel written by someone. Have you ever tried it?”

“Is that what you were talking about? What is metaphysics?”

Although the terminology is different, I already know similar concepts.

metafiction.

It refers to a genre in which characters in a creative work recognize the existence of the fourth wall and break through it. These characters talk to readers who exist in reality, or in the case of games, try to understand the system and use it.

then. Could it be that the world I am in is also a world in a novel?

Choi Se-rim tilts her head with a subtle expression.

“It’s not exactly true, but let’s understand it that way and move on.”

At the same time, he gently places his hand on the covered book.

She continues speaking in a quiet voice.

“Now, think about it from the perspective of the author who wrote the novel.”

The author believes that the story in his novel is a complete creation and fiction. Common sense dictates that this is inevitable.

If you say that the world in your novel actually exists, you will probably say that it is nonsense.

“But what if the author was also a character in a novel written by someone else?”

Serim Choi folds her palms on top of each other.

As if building invisible layers.

“What if the person who wrote the novel in which the author appeared was also a character in another novel?”

“The layers keep piling up.”

Let me sort it out, ‘Sure.’ Se-rim Choi nods while saying this.

“This is called the description layer.”

1. We can observe and describe the descriptive layer below us.

2. We cannot perceive the existence of a descriptive layer above ourselves.

then.

“Then the author who is writing our story… … There is also.”

“That may not necessarily be the case.”

Choi Se-rim firmly lowers her voice.

“No. Definitely not. When I saw it.”

“Yes? Sister, what you’re saying is that there is a story that goes on without a writer?”

“Yes.”

Her gaze moves away from me and down into the abyss.

Choi Se-rim’s eyes fall on the center of the star where information is scattered and broken.

“It didn’t happen at first, but something outside intervened and it happened.”

[seven]

A huge star that absorbs information.

Choi Se-rim also noticed his presence.

“It’s not just eating up surrounding information.”

Her speaking voice trembles slightly.

“Then what?”

“It is a monster that erases the narrative hierarchy itself in which it appears.”

Choi Se-rim lowers her head and sighs. Hair falls out, creating a curtain in front of the face.

“After that, it becomes like it never happened. Our world itself. The fact that we were there. Articles that mention us. Everything is erased.”

“I don’t really feel it.”

“Me too.”

Choi Se-rim gently pulls her hair back and makes eye contact with me again.

“So. We have to stop that.”

The letters are still rotating around the star.

Is it even possible to stop such a huge entity?

“Using the characteristics of the description layer.”

The story has become more and more complicated, but Choi Se-rim doesn’t seem to know that. Or maybe you don’t really care about it.

“The world always exists within the realm of possibility. Several cases overlap. However, a being from a higher description layer materializes reality by observing and describing one of those possibilities. That record remains in the form of ‘creation’.”

The latter is probably correct.

Choi Se-rim herself keeps interrupting and continuing. I get the feeling that I am randomly laying out the knowledge that comes to mind.

“Dabin.”

I nod heavily.

“I told you there would be a disaster in the future.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe that disaster is related to that.”

“That star below.”

“Yes. I’m sure it’s the cause.”

“On what basis?”

“I’ll tell you that too later.”

Se-rim Choi continues speaking.

“The future world will come to an end. This is a fact I have clearly seen, but we can change this. This too, using the characteristics of the description layer.”

And then.

Sigh-

Another book appeared in front of me. It was chosen by Choi Se-rim.

“It’s just a fairy tale. Is this a higher or lower narrative class than ours?”

“Because it is a novel, it must be low.”

“Yes!”

Serim Choi raises her voice happily.

Actually, I couldn’t understand much else than this, but that’s what I thought.

Sreuk.

Serim Choi slowly lifts the book.

“And now that Dabin has not read this, the possibilities are overlapped in the closed book. I don’t know anything except the title.”

The hardcover book cover glows in the light of the bonfire.

[When the sunlight breaks]

“It’s short, so would you like to read it quickly?”

“Yes.”

“Just read page 11.”

I took the book and opened it.

[At one point, Casey was lying on a park bench. Feeling that the seat was somehow uncomfortable, she got up and walked. Casey is now sitting on the landing at the entrance to Independence Hall.]

When I finished reading, my thin fingers covered the book.

Serim Choi looks down at me and speaks quietly.

“Now let’s try to find the middle sentence.”

Second reading.

[At one point, Casey was lying on a park bench. Casey is now sitting on the landing at the entrance to Independence Hall.]

It was as if the main character had teleported.

“This time, read the text backwards, sentence by sentence.”

[Casey is now sitting on the landing at the entrance to Independence Hall. Feeling that the seat was somehow uncomfortable, she got up and walked. At one point, Casey was lying on a park bench.]

“I tried reading it by deleting a few words in the middle.”

[Casey walked on a park bench.]

I looked up from the book.

Even though it was a short sentence, the content jumped around.

“The content is completely different depending on how you read it.”

“That’s right.”

Slowly, the puzzle pieces begin to fit together in my head.

Knowledge of how the world is.

I discovered something new, but I don’t feel like my knowledge has been filled. Rather, I feel empty.

The monks’ prayers, which I couldn’t hear anymore, lingered in my ears.

“If this is the writer’s role when writing a novel, I have a feeling for what it is. Writers can easily change future events. That’s because it’s up to the author to decide what kind of development he will write in the future. You can also change things in the past. All you have to do is publish a revised version and edit the article. ‘It can destroy causal relationships and probabilities.’ I think this can be understood as the story moving forward anyway, even if the author writes something that doesn’t fit the odds. However, if I do this, I will be somewhat criticized by readers.”

“Yes.”

“If it is the role of the writer, it is something that happens in the narrative layer right above us.”

I continued talking while tapping the floor with the back of my hand.

“My sister said. Interfering there can change things in our world. Is this it?”

“That’s right.”

“I have no idea, is there a way? It sounds like a character in a novel can take on the author’s position.”

“That too later. Let me explain.”

Choi Se-rim fell and woke up saying she had a headache, and it seemed like she found out a lot of things I didn’t know.

I had the feeling that maybe that ‘later’ wasn’t at least a few minutes or a few hours later.

As I was trying to turn my gaze to the warm flame, I remembered Choi Se-rim’s sleep talk.

– There is only one ending left.

And the things I said earlier.

– The story we live in is progressing without a writer.

– Many possibilities overlap in the world before it is described.

Combine three sentences.

There are so many facts I don’t know that it’s confusing in my head, but if I concentrate, I can do it.

One conclusion is reached.

“Then let me ask you one more question.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“You know what I said earlier. There is no writer.”

“Yes.”

“That means that in this descriptive layer we are in, there is no longer room for observation and description. You can understand it this way, right?”

We have come this far.

“And the reason is the star below. It’s because of a guy named Seven, and Seven is the story of where we are. In other words, the descriptive layer was almost completely erased.”

This is what Choi Se-rim herself said earlier.

“So the remaining possibilities. There is only one ending left.”

This is the content of Choi Se-rim’s sleep talk.

I finally organized my thoughts.

All the facts led to one question.

“Then the last one.”

So much so that it dispels all the emptiness that came with talking about metaphysics. It is a strong and central question.

“Why is that one thing left behind and not erased?”