Chapter 57: Bibliomania (2)

The Hunters sat in a circle. In the center were hundreds of apocalyptic books. The Hunters and I had to choose from the pile, but no one dared to approach it. It was only natural—fifty fellow Hunters had only just been eaten by one of those books. Everyone was either scared or depressed. It would take someone truly insane to laugh in this situation.

“Hahahaha! It’s quite a loss to have fifty of us eliminated.”

Surprisingly, we had one such maniac among us. He had blond hair and looked like a boy. He was recognized as the Tower’s number-one madman: the Inquisitor.

The Inquisitor stroked his chin. “But marching forward comes with sacrifice. We shouldn’t let their sacrifice be in vain! Let us devote ourselves to clearing the floors! Pull yourselves together! We almost lost one hundred people. It was very lucky that it ended with fifty people. Instead of mourning what we lost, we should celebrate what we protected!”

The more the Inquisitor said, the more the mood dropped.

The bookmark maids continued to bustle around us, serving hot coffee and black tea that they had produced from somewhere. Of around two hundred fifty Hunters, the Inquisitor was the only one who gladly accepted the drink. As he sipped on the black tea, the Inquisitor tilted his head in confusion. “Is no one else having any? It’s pretty good.”

“First of all,” I interrupted—it was no good to let a psychopath talk for a long time. “Mr. Inquisitor, please shut up.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Your words dampens our spirits. We can’t let them drop any further, so please shut up until I say otherwise.”

“

Ah

, that’s a real problem.” The Inquisitor beamed. “Okay, Mr. Death King! I’ll gladly shut up!”

The Hunters looked back and forth between the Inquisitor and me. They shouldn’t look at me that way; I just got the hang of handling that weirdo.

I raised my voice, eager to change the mood. “Now, I’m sure all of you know by now that we shouldn’t attack the Constellation over there. Right now, we need to carry out the quest he gave us.”

The Hunters slowly turned their attention to me. I could feel the pressure in my gut, but I endured it.

I’m now the Rank 3 Hunter, which means I have the third-strongest say in this matter!

I needed attention to feel like a second skin.

“But the quest isn’t necessarily bad for us,” I said, feigning nonchalance. “Please take a look at the quest window, everyone.”

The Hunters looked at the air. They were probably looking at the same system window as mine.

Remake the World

Difficulty level: Undecided

Goal: There are many worlds and many dooms. Constellation Indoor Librarian calls this phenomenon the discontinued serialization. The worlds met discontinued serialization for an unfair reason, so the Indoor Librarian wants the stories to continue.

Pick one of the apocalyptic books in which serialization stopped! If you successfully save the world, it will be registered as the twenty-second floor.

※However, the twenty-second floor will not open if you fail the quest.

“Have you all finished reading it?” I asked.

The Hunters nodded. Some even answered, “Yes.” Perhaps it was because I successfully shut the Inquisitor up. For the time being, it looked like none of the Hunters would challenge my authority.

“The last part is the most important here. ‘If you successfully save the world, it will be registered as the twenty-second floor.’ Do you get what that means?”

The Hunters looked confused. They didn’t know how amazing that reward was.

“Our reward depends on which world we save. Let’s say we clear a world where a lot of diamonds are buried! Then it becomes our twenty-second floor.”

The Hunters’ eyes lit up.

“The world of diamonds is just an example. We’re in the Tower, so we don’t need some lumps of carbon. But what if the world we save is abundant with food, water, or minerals?”

“Self-sufficiency...” the Black Witch mumbled. “We really could be self-sufficient.”

“That’s what I’m talking about.” I stood up and walked toward the pile of apocalyptic books that the Indoor Librarian had selected for us.

“H-hey, Death King!” the Viper yelled behind me. “If you touch that, the tentacle monster will...”

I grabbed a book from the pile at random. The Hunters gasped and shut their eyes. Some even ran away, scared that the tentacle monster would show up again. One second... two seconds... three seconds... Nothing happened. The apocalyptic book sat in my hand like any ordinary book.

“What?” The Viper slowly opened his eye. “Nothing happened...”

“Haha.” The Indoor Librarian’s laughter floated down to us. “That’s right! Unless I use my ability, these are just ordinary books. Although there are some forbidden books that will endanger you as soon as you touch them, they are sealed very deep in the library, so don’t worry.”

I nodded. I opened the book in my hand and another system window showed up, displaying information on the book.

The Story of Sormwin Academy

Genre: Romance, fantasy

Difficulty level: D

Required challengers: 4~5 people

※Serialization is currently discontinued.

Description: Sormwin is a prestigious magic academy where friendship, healthy rivalry, love, and jealousy can be found just like any other place. This apocalyptic book could have remained an ordinary academy novel if only an artifact capable of destroying the world hadn’t been sealed in the academy’s basement!

Reason for discontinuation of serialization: The villainess loses her fiance, the Crown Prince, to a female student who has been given a second chance in life. This drives the villainess mad, so she unseals the artifact, releasing a great demon and bringing destruction to the world.

The reason for the discontinued serialization, the cause of the world’s damnation, was really sad. It would have been better if the world had been doomed because of a meteor strike or a tsunami.

I pity the world. It was doomed because of some children’s romantic squabble...

I could understand why the Indoor Librarian was mad.

The ice in the crown prince’s eyes cracked like blue jewels as understanding dawned. The long misunderstanding that had divided him and her melted away, though it took two lifetimes.

“Ahhh. My other half has been here all along. Lady Sylvia, you complete me,” the crown prince lamented as he dropped to his knee.

Sylvia, on the verge of tears, held her breath. It suddenly dawned on them that they would never be able to forget this moment.

And then the crown prince exploded.

Sylvia gasped, but she was the next one to blow up. As her consciousness faded away, the last thing she heard was screams coming from all directions.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

“It’s a demon! A demon is here!”

“We’re cursed.”

It was the end of the world.

If a romance novel I was enjoying suddenly ended like that, I would go crazy. Any readers would. It was annoying in novels, so it would be even worse for a real world to end like that. Well, that wasn’t important right now.

“Everyone, why don’t you come over here and look through these books?” I yelled at the Hunters. “Each book has a different difficulty level and story. We have to pick carefully! Their difficulty level needs to be within our capabilities, and their worlds should be as useful as possible!”

Some of the Hunters stood up, but most of them just glanced at each other.

—Idiot, it’s because you’re speaking politely to them. Do you still not understand that it’s impossible to reason with Hunters?

the Guardian said.

You currently have to handle two hundred and fifty Hunters. The only chance you have of getting through their heads is bossing them around, and even then your odds aren’t great.

Are you serious?

I asked.

—You hear [Your presence has become stronger] whenever you level up, right? Do you know what it means? It means [Your ego has become bigger.] High-level Hunters have extremely strong egos, so they just don’t listen.

He had a point, so I gathered my aura.

“There are hundreds of apocalyptic books, so how am I supposed to read everything? Get over here and start reading!” I roared.

The Hunters finally lifted their heavy bums.

“Split into groups!” I ordered. “Those of you who’ve read some novels or books on the left! If you know nothing about them, move to the right! Go, go!”

The Hunters quickly divided themselves as ordered.

“You hobby readers split into groups depending on your preferred genre! Like romance, fantasy, and mystery!”

They began to mill about. It finally looked like some work was going to be done in the library.

“We’ll all read books now!” I tapped on the apocalyptic book I was holding. “First, we’ll divide these books depending on their genres. The romance group will read romance novels. The rest of the groups will also read your designated genres! Read these books and decide if they’re good or bad.”

The Inquisitor waved his arm wildly, but didn’t say anything like I had told him to.

“...Yes, go ahead.”

“Mr. Death King! I don’t get what novels are bad! Can you give me a standard? Is it how good or bad the story is?”

“No, not at all.” I showed him an apocalyptic book. “This is an example of a bad novel.”

Survive from a Volcano!

Genre: Survival, romance

Difficulty Level: D

Required challengers: 2 people

※Serialization is currently discontinued.

Description: The world is devastated by a nuclear war, but the humans have amazing resilience! The protagonist and his lover survive the nuclear war and overcome various trials and tribulations. After that, they decide to become humanity’s new Adam and Eve.

Reason for discontinuation of serialization: The place where the protagonist couple camps is near an active volcano. The volcano erupts at night and its volcanic ejecta strike and kill the protagonists. Humanity ended.

After a long sigh, I said, “This isn’t just bad. This is the worst kind of book we could pick.”

“Why?” The Inquisitor tilted his head in confusion. “It’s the new Adam and Eve. Isn’t it romantic?”

“There’s no use saving this world since a nuclear war already took place.” I closed the book. “The world is filled with radiation, so what use do we have with it? We don’t want to die from radiation poisoning.”

“Aha.”

The way the Fire Emperor had cleared this library floor was unbelievable. He had only chosen the worlds with lava or volcanoes.

He’s nuts,

I thought.

He had immunity to fire. Even if the apocalyptic books had outrageous hazards like lava lakes and multiple volcanic eruptions, they were a walk in the park for the Fire Emperor. His only standard had been how easy it was to get to the ending. He had given absolutely zero consideration to which apocalyptic books would benefit those in the Tower.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

This is a chance to have eight treasure vaults.

This was why a guy who was full of himself was no help to other people living in the Tower.

I’ll pick only the apocalyptic books that we can make the most out of.

An apocalyptic book full of monsters would be good for Hunters to gain actual combat experience. It would also be good if we could get rare minerals, weapons, or equipment from them. The apocalyptic book of fried chickens and porks[1] running through the forests and fried shrimp dancing in the ocean... No, that last one didn’t seem like a good idea. It would be scary if there was such a world.

Anyhow! I distributed books to the Hunters.

“Remember! The protagonists might be incredibly frustrating, and the plots may not make any sense at all. How crappy the storylines are doesn’t matter to us! Don’t think about that! Just read them from beginning to end! Think about how this world can benefit us all...” While I was passing out books, I met one Hunter’s eyes and paused. “...Black Dragon Master?”

“Yes, what is it?” the Black Witch answered.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“...This is the mystery group.”

I couldn’t see why the Black Witch was standing with the mystery group. Her character window had shown me earlier that she was a romance fan.

The Black Witch nodded as if she was right where belonged. “I know where I’m sitting,” she said.

“

Uhh...

I didn’t know you like mystery novels.”

“Of course. I’m an intellectual.” The Black Witch elegantly sipped her black coffee.

What the heck? Why was she suddenly acting like this? It was obvious that she was absolutely crazy for romance dramas.

I suddenly realized something.

Wait, is it because she doesn’t want others to know she’s a romance fan...?

Come to think of it, there were particularly few Hunters in the romance group. Not a single man was there either. Although I wasn’t sure why, the

murim

group was full of men even though I could say with confidence that only a handful of them were truly

murim

readers.

Wow, they’re pretending to be someone they’re not at a time like this?

My head went blank.

—I told you,

the Guardian said sulkily.

High-level Hunters will die to protect their pride. And all of them have titles. They would rather die than lose their swagger. Didn’t you just see fifty Hunters forming a suicide squad? They’re nuts.

I was going to go nuts.

“Black Master... Still...”

“What do you mean?” the Black Witch nonchalantly asked. She resembled an impregnable fortress, somehow.

I desperately tried to figure out what to say.

“...I thought you were a very romantic person, so it surprised me that you chose the mystery group...”

The hand holding the coffee cup stopped moving.

“Is that so?” she asked, her voice even. “Do I look like a romantic person?”

“Yes, so it’s rather weird if you’re somewhere other than the romance group... It’s like you’re wearing clothes that don’t suit you...”

“

Phew.

” The Black Witch put down her coffee cup and stood up. “I’ll give it a shot if you say so. I’ve never read romance novels in my life, but I’ll use this chance to explore new things. After all, a Hunter should always seek new challenges.”

“That’s very true...”

“Okay, I’ll try.” The Black Witch headed to the romance group with lighter steps, like a cowboy from a movie walking toward the moors.

I stared at her back with mixed emotions.

“That was amazing, Mr. Death King!” The Inquisitor looked up at me with sparkling eyes. He was also in the mystery group for some reason. “Once the Black Dragon Master sets her mind on something, she rarely changes her mind. Haha, you’re truly incredible, rookie!”

“...Mr. Inquisitor, do you read mystery novels too?”

The Inquisitor smiled like an angel. “I know Sherlock Holmes! Oh, I know Doctor Watson too.”

Show me the character window,

I quietly said.

Name: Inquisitor

Affection: 50

Liked genres: Fairy tales, myths, legends

Disliked genre: None

Liked character: Humans

Dislike character: None

Liked plot point: The greatest happiness of the greatest number

Disliked plot point: None

State of mind:

I know Sherlock Holmes! Oh, I know Doctor Watson too.

I had goosebumps.

What the heck? He’s the same on the inside and outside.

On top of that, he had no dislikes.

Is he really human?

It was utterly horrific. He was a natural-born psychopath.

“

Hmm?

What’s wrong, Mr. Death King?” The natural psycho tilted his head in confusion.

I briefly pondered how I should deal with this before I pulled out a marker and wrote “Fairy tale” on the back of the Inquisitor’s hand.

“Mr. Inquisitor,” I said with a serious expression.

“Yes!”

“You’re now in the fairy tale group.”

“I see!”

“You’re the only one in this group, so you have to read and evaluate all the books assigned to this group.”

“Wow! That’s a lot of responsibility!” the psycho exclaimed with a sparkle in his eyes.

I nodded. “Yes, it is a lot, so I’ll trust you with it.”

“Hahaha. Don’t worry, Mr. Death King. I’ll do my best to evaluate them!”

There wouldn’t be a single fairy tale among the hundreds of apocalyptic books though.

I searched from top to bottom to see if any Hunter was pretending to be someone they weren’t. The results were amazing. One hundred of the two hundred fifty Hunters were lying about their reading preferences.

All of them are crazy...

In the end, it took three hours just to settle groups and send 112 people to the right places. However, even after that... I was at a loss for words when I found the last person.

Name: Viper

Affection: 32

Liked genres: Portal fantasy

Disliked genres: Political fiction, crime fiction

Liked characters: Older women, sisters, married women, innocent characters, tsunderes, pretty boys disguised as women...

Dislike characters: Mafias, gangsters, tanned mafia, and gangsters with blonde hair

Liked plot point: Overpowerness, protagonists wreaking havoc, system cheats, take on the world alone, harem, I guess there is no other choice but for me to step up, I’m a hero summoned from another world but it turns out I’m an overpowered character inherited the pure blood of the strongest dragon and demon empress so I’ll show how to take on the world on my own, is there a problem...

Disliked plot point: NTR

State of mind:

What the fuck is Nine Sects? Seriously, what is wrong with murim? The Beggar Gang, the Secure Agency... There’s sweaty men in every line. Shit. These novels aren’t considerate of their readers at all.

The man with an eyepatch, was the swordsman leading the OJP Sect and... also the king of light novels.

“Huh?” The Viper looked at me over his shoulder. “What are you looking at? I’m busy reading books.”

I tried to find something to say but eventually just gave up.

“Nothing...sorry I interrupted you. Please keep reading...”

“Alright.”

I staggered away. On the twenty-first floor, it became clear that all High Rankers were crazy—and now it was my problem.

1. The raw is ???.

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