by N. Heller
After she had gotten some paper and pencil from a luxury good store, it was much easier for her to communicate. The siblings nodded, looking a little panicky.
The direction that Lin Sanjiu was referring to was an area covered with trees and grass. Through the greenery, they could only catch a glimpse of a building which seemed rather large. When they walked out of the shopping lane, they crossed a few roads and finally saw the building in its entirety.
"Ah, it is a library!" Rena said, sounding surprised when she saw the building. "There are no libraries in Twelve Worlds Centrum. I wanted to see one long ago. So, it is this big!"
Even compared to the normal worlds, the library before them was large and grand. From its exterior, the building had four wings. Each of the wings was two stories tall. There was an elegant large central hall in the center. After climbing up a stairway of about seven meters, the team pushed open the heavy glass doors of the library.
The siblings' heart raced for a second but they quickly became disappointed. After standing at the entrance for some time, looking into the quiet, dim library, they did not notice anything unusual.
"I think this isn't…" Reno mumbled and turned to pull the door, however, the door no longer budged.
"Are you here to borrow some books?" a mechanical voice suddenly rang out, breaking the silence.
Chapter 249 - Kisaragi Library
When they first entered the library, there definitely wasn't a person in the central hall. They looked at each other and clenched their fists a little nervously as they took a few steps forward. The central hall of the library was huge. The arched ceiling hung high above their heads as it was not segregated into two floors. The light from the setting sun barely lit the dim central hall which was divided into a few vague sections. On their left side, about six meters away, there were rows and rows of bookshelves. Each of the bookshelves was about three meters tall, and as the light could barely reach that spot, it was dark.
There was a computer section near the glass windows a little further inside. Light reflected off the black monitor screens of the computers. The sound came from the administration section just in front of the computer section.
"Are you here to borrow some books?" the voice asked again. This was followed by the sound of a chair shifting. A head popped up from behind the dim light of the administration section. They saw a pale-looking woman with mediocre looks. She was wearing a light-blue woolen cardigan sweater, and a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles hung from her beck.
"Is it a… a duoluozhong?" Rena was a little uncertain. She hoped, more than anyone else here, that this was a mutated building. However, she was also afraid that they would be disappointed once more. "Doesn't this duoluozhong look a little too nerdy?"
The librarian obviously heard Rena's comment, but it did not evoke a single change in her expression. The woman's voice was still monotonous; it was as if she had been programmed to answer the questions she received with an artificial human voice. "I am not a duoluozhong. I am a librarian."
Lin Sanjiu had a sudden thought and quickly wrote something on a piece of paper. She showed Reno what she had written. Reno looked away and shouted skeptically, "We are here to borrow books, so what do we do?"
"Are the three of you here together?" The female librarian seemed to only have a single expression. She spoke with a flat tone, enunciating every single word.
"Yes!" This time, Rena replied first.
"Okay, please stand here. I will explain the borrowing rules here," the female librarian sat back on her chair in the shadows after she said that. The three of them exchanged glances. If this wasn't a mutated building, the woman before them must be a very, very intelligent duoluozhong. However, considering their current circ.u.mstances, they had to take this risk. With Lin Sanjiu leading the way, the three of them cautiously approached the desk at the administration section. However, they were not attacked, despite their suspicion even after a few seconds. The female librarian seemed busy with something on her computer and did not even look up to greet them. Instead, she just said, "Please wait a moment."
Lin Sanjiu shoot a quick glance at the gold-plated nameplate and saw the name "Siri". Just when she was feeling a little confused, the female librarian suddenly stopped working and spoke to them in the same tone she used previously, "Hello. I am the librarian of this library. My name is Siri. Welcome to this library. Your team is the fourth group of guests here. Please read this information for the specific borrowing rules." As she said this, she turned her monitor screen and showed the display to the three people.
At that moment, Lin Sanjiu could more or less believe that the woman wasn't a duoluozhong, perhaps because of her name. After extending the scanning range of her higher consciousness, she quickly looked at the screen along with the siblings.
[Notice: Borrowing in Kisaragi Library]
To provide a better reading environment for the users, our library specially created an "Open Day" event. During the Open Day, we will only allow five teams of readers to enter. The five groups of readers have a wonderful mission. They will need to find five specific books the librarian among the thousands of books in the library. Of course, this definitely isn't because the librarian had misplaced them.
The first team of readers to collect all five books and have them verified by Siri can bring the five books back home to read, and they can also each gain 25 lives as a reward. When all five teams of readers have arrived, Siri would announce the names of the books. Our library does not have any restrictions or rules regarding how the five teams of readers compete.
After Team A have verified their books with Siri, Team A would get the reward even if Team B snatch the five books from them. While searching, the numbers on the readers' back will not be used up no matter how many days have passed outside. After a team verifies all five books, the number of days spent in the library would be deducted from the readers all at the same time. For example, if the five teams spend 3 days searching for the five books, and the winner is Team A, each of the members in Team A would receive 25 lives. After subtracting 3, they each would get 22 lives. The remaining members from other teams can leave the library after 3 lives are deducted from their original number.
However, before there are all five teams, and before the search starts, the normal rate of reduction still applies. While in this library, "gaining lives by attacking" still applies. There is no limit to the amount of time you can spend to find the book.
This are all the rules. Let's jump into the sea of books enthusiastically! Because once you finish reading the rules, you can't quit!
Kisaragi Library, July 6th, 2333.
After they finished reading the rules, the three of them were in a daze. After taking some time to process what they have read, they gradually got the sense of it and their expressions soured.
"You mentioned that we are the fourth group…" Reno said with a moody face as his eyes swept their surroundings, "Then, the people before us…"
"Yes, there are three teams of readers in the library right now. They have already waited for two days," Siri said calmly.
"Why didn't you mention that earlier!" Lin Sanjiu cursed in her mind and extended her scanning range to the maximum radius. However, she didn't spot anyone, perhaps because there were too many hiding spots in this library.
When they thought about the fact that three teams of enemies were watching them, their expressions became even bleaker.
"But, according to the rules, before the next team of readers arrives, the daily reduction rate would still be the same…" Rena said with a pallid face. Before she could finish her sentence, Reno tugged her arm lightly. She immediately realized her mistake and kept quiet. If the other posthumans found out that she was an easy target, it would be bad.
Her worries were indeed justified. If the next group of posthumans didn't arrive…
Surprisingly, the next team came very quickly. After Lin Sanjiu and the siblings hid, two people pushed open the front door. One of them
was someone Lin Sanjiu knew.
Chapter 250 - The Five Books
Under the looming shadows of a tall bookshelf, there were three people crouching silently. They stayed motionless as they stared in Siri's direction. They stuck so close to the bookshelf that they almost seemed to have merged with it. It was difficult to even detect their breathing. They were indeed Lin Sanjiu and the siblings.
"Well, that is all the rules. You are the fifth and last team of readers today. When you reach the bookshelves, I will announce the names of the five books that you have to find." Siri's calm voice did not change even one bit despite the people in front of her. She simply spoke in an almost inorganic tone, "Now, please enter the books section."
When she said that, the three people staring from the bookshelves immediately became tense.
As they had decided very hastily, they were now hiding among the bookshelves directly facing Siri. They were less than twenty meters away from Team 5. If they walked in their direction, a close-quarters battle would be unavoidable once the book search event started.
Team 5 only consisted of a man and a woman. When the man heard those words, he turned to look at the bookshelves behind him. The faint yellow light from the waning sun peered through the window, illuminating him. As he turned, light reflected off his golden blond hair. Yet, the golden rays on his hair were not as eye-catching as the man's looks.
Silvan looked behind and smiled at Siri, "I got it. Thank you. It must be tough to work here alone."
Siri returned to her seat expressionlessly and wore her gold-rimmed spectacles.
"You don't have to be this polite to her," the woman beside him commented, sounding a little unhappy. She had dyed flax-colored hair and they couldn't see her face, "That is just a robot. She won't understand your kindness. Hurry, let's go." After that, she touched Silvan's arm lightly as if she couldn't help herself.
Silvan was very tall. When he heard what the woman said, he lowered his head and looked into her eyes. Then, he said to her gently, "Okay."
Lin Sanjiu noticed the tips of the woman's ears turning red. It took a long while before the redness faded.
"You have another five minutes. After five minutes, I will announce the names of the books." Siri said monotonously. Silvan tugged the woman once and they both ran for the staircase at the east wing of the library. Lin Sanjiu and the siblings quickly let out a sigh of relief.
"That is the guy your mentioned previously, Silvan?" Rena's voice trembled a little when she asked that question after the two people left. "You didn't tell us that he looks... looks so…" She didn't have a word to describe what she saw because "good-looking" and "handsome" just wasn't sufficient to describe even a tenth of his looks.
"Nothing bad happened to me, why would I even bring that up? Is it really that important to know if someone is good-looking?" Lin Sanjiu said critically in her mind. Even though she did find Silvan handsome, she didn't find the relevance in the matter.
However, even Reno was apparently "conquered" by Silvan's looks.
"He seems like a nice guy. I hope we don't have to fight against him," the teenage boy concluded. He seemed to have come to this conclusion just judging the man by his looks.
Lin Sanjiu was speechless. " These two kids are probably just temporarily spellbound? " she thought to herself. After all, they were now in a life-and-death situation and she knew that they were aware of their priorities. Her mind was occupied with a fleeting question about the whereabouts of the other members of the Munition Factory for a second and then she didn't think about it much longer.
They discussed their book searching strategy for some time but they really didn't have a clue. In the end, they just exchanged information about the Special Items they had and accepted that as the end of their discussion. As Lin Sanjiu's possessions were all locked within her corpse, she was naturally the 'poorest'.
Five minutes passed quickly and Siri's voice suddenly sounded from the speakers without any warning. "I will announce the names of the five books now. The first book is A World History of Art."
Lin Sanjiu quickly scribbled the name on the paper she prepared.
"The second book is A Girl's Sorrow."
The siblings stood up a little nervously when they heard this. They started scanning the books around them. "What if the books are just nearby?" they thought to themselves.
"The third book is A Detailed Guide to Forensic Reconstruction of Dinosaur Fossils."
Reno, who had started looking through the shelves of books, suddenly froze and immediately drew out a book in a fl.u.s.ter. When he took a closer look, he was very disappointed. The book he took was "A Sorrowful Girl."
"The fourth book is The Heart-Stealing Consort Escapes With a Baby."
Lin Sanjiu's bony fingers paused for a moment and one of her words nearly became crooked. "There is quite a variety of books in this library. "
"The fifth book is How to Render: The Fundamentals of Light, Shadow and Reflectivity."
Siri spoke very quickly and when she had finished reading out that entire long title, Lin Sanjiu had only written: "How to—". She wasn't slow at remembering things but she had not heard a single English 1 word in almost three years since she found herself in these apocalyptic worlds!
The siblings stopped all of a sudden. They looked at each other in dismay, a little stunned by the situation. They heard some disturbance from some unknown spot in the library. The noise became soft echoes from the ceilings. Apparently, the posthumans from the other teams also had the same trouble.
"What did she just say? Should we go over and ask Siri…" Before Reno finished his words, Siri's voice rang out, "The book titles would only be announced once. It will be announced again during verification."
That is to say, they had no choice but to try to remember that extraordinary long title of that English book. Lin Sanjiu tried to recall what Siri said over and over again, trying to identify the words. She did managed to grasp a few words but she really couldn't be sure if it was right.
"Regardless, don't we already have the titles of four books? Why don't we just look for the four books first?" Rena said anxiously before looking through the titles of the books on the particular shelf she had been searching.
Lin Sanjiu sighed and quietly copied the book tiles for the siblings on two pieces of paper. The bookshelves were very tall and they were at least 15 meters in length. There were at least 20 shelves and every shelf was packed with books. The top of the bookshelves almost reached the ceiling.
"There are so many books…"
"Please start searching now," Siri said. This is obviously a Chinese novel, so let's assume all the titles are Chinese except this one.
Chapter 251 - Sudden Vocalization
The books in Kisaragi Library were not properly categorized by type, perhaps to make the "readers" task more challenging. When Reno saw a few "Lost Dreams of the Red Chamber", "Rural common disease prevention and treatment guidelines", "Advanced Mathematics" and all other books arranged in a jumble, he already gave up on the idea of searching the books by type.
Even though the books were not classified by types, the shelves were sorted by the 26 letters of the English alphabet. They were hiding within the "W" section, between bookshelves 27 and 28 in the many bookshelves under that letter.
At the start, none of them could fully grasp the concept of "millions of books" mentioned in the rules. Once a number is too huge, its true meaning is hard to process, making it hard for people to get a proper impression of the numbers.
They were only compelled to fully make sense of their current situation when they had finally searched the entire bookshelf 27. "How many bookshelves are there in the "W" section?" Reno asked innocently. It was a reasonable question as the three people spent more than an hour before they finished searching through bookshelf 27—and that was primarily because their speed and reaction were much faster as posthumans. There was a rough estimate of about 1500 books in bookshelf 27, and there seemed to be about th
e same number of books in the other shelves.
The answer to his question was actually on a "Reader's Guide" pasted at the side of the bookshelf.
They read the "Reader's Guide" quickly and their face turned pale.
"There are 100 bookshelves under each letter section? Is there something wrong with this?" Rena had the worst impression out of them, and continued muttering, "There are 26 letters, so there are 2600 bookshelves. If there are about 1500 books on each bookshelf… There are close to about 4 million books?"
She couldn't help raising the pitch of her voice as she spoke, her voice even started sounding quite ear-piercing. This was a simple arithmetic problem. Even if they don't sleep and rest. Considering that they need one hour to check a single shelf, they would need 2600 hours to check all the shelves.
That was 108 days.
Even if they included the total number of lives that everyone in the building had, it might not even come up to 108...
"No, this isn't right. There must be another way to tackle the task in this library," Reno stuttered slightly, "It goes without saying that searching through each and every shelf is the stupidest method. Let try to examine the situation and think about what other methods we could use to finish this quest."
With a pale face, Rena froze for a moment before uttering, "Rob others?"
The problem right now was that they didn't know where the other teams were, let alone if they had found the required books. Reno evidently didn't think too carefully about the situation as he was tongue-tied after hearing what Rena said. He looked down and started thinking hard.
The central hall was square-shaped. Siri's service desk was on one side of the hall. The multimedia section was in the center and there was a working area with tables and chairs. On the other side of the wide hall, were the bookshelves of 6 sections, from "U" to "Z". A total of 600 bookshelves, or 900,000 books, filled half the central hall.