Chapter 405
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“Is this the truth?”
[I cannot know how to interpret it. However, interpreting it as a Neapolitan Urban Legend that exists in Korea is somewhat of a stretch.]
“A stretch?”
[This urban legend might actually exist in reality, but there is no reason for that elf to leave behind a record office where such an urban legend would originate.]
“Didn’t you say it was a trash can?”
[The more it is, the better it must be managed.]
“So you’re saying I have to interpret it the Elf way.”
It’s complicated.
I did think about just ignoring it and moving on.
But actually trying to ignore it and find an exit like that feels uncomfortable.
I feel like I need to figure this out to be able to leave.
[Yes. For reference, Elves are beings with a tremendous desire for knowledge. Among Elves, there are many cases where a married couple lives completely immersed in books together, to the point where it’s said they are having an affair with books. Of course, there are also cases where they abandon their families and run wild.]
“Then the Elves would covet you if they saw you.”
[I am certain of it, because I possess all the records that are here as well.]
As expected, you possess every kind of knowledge.
Should I then interpret it in that direction?
Let me rack my brain well then.
This place is the ruins of the Elf Kingdom. Elves are a race with a civilization outstanding in knowledge and magic, by setting.
It might be different if this were pre-Cataclysm Earth where even magic didn’t exist. This can be interpreted like this.
1. The closed bookshelf is said to have disappeared. In other words, it was closed as scheduled, but it reappeared due to a malfunction in the control room. This means you should not approach it without reason, or you will suffer a terrible fate. Or, a highly skilled intruder who can restore the disappeared bookshelf has entered.
2. In short, an outstanding Kkanpe bastard who can hack the magic gear and even send voice messages was whining because there was no record of the traitor Ralph. Since it’s not just once or twice, let’s close the bookshelf where the intruder is and achieve justice realization.
3. It means the Book Fucker Kkanpe bastards intruded and died while burying their noses in the records. Just in case more are found, inform other workers not to be surprised when they see a corpse.
4. This archive is so fucking complicated that the corridors are a maze where you can end up walking in circles in the same spot. If you get lost, don’t do anything useless; just stick yourself in a corner and wait until the next worker patrols in the morning.
5. The nose-burying Elf bastards are doing dangerous things touching the bookshelves, so keep your head down. If they get crushed to death by the bookshelves, call a cleaner to handle it. Since we don’t know what those nose-burying bastards will do to the safety rules after this, this is as far as you need to be careful. The clauses from the next one onwards might be written by someone else.
The problem is from here on. From number 6 onwards, it’s the fake safety rules of those nose-burying intruder bastards. First, I have to interpret it while keeping in mind that it’s a trap by the nose-burying bastards.
6. It’s a shady trick by dirty perverts trying to pretend to start a fire on purpose so they can comfortably and leisurely bury their noses for 2 hours, even though there’s only one security guard on duty. Pretending to start a fire to kick out all the users means that the nose-burying bastards are either thinking of monopolizing the records among themselves, or they don’t even know that it’s an archive with only 1 manager in the first place. In other words, they are meatheads.
7. In short, this is “Only I will fuck the books.” It’s a phrase that earnestly shows their desire to monopolize the records. It’s also a phrase that reveals their ulterior motive is a bullshit attempt to monopolize the archive rather than just being meatheads in number 6.
8. The purple magic gear has a call function and also provides magic power supply. The nose-burying Kkanpes took measures so that the security guard couldn’t contact the outside with the magic gear.
9. The wife of one of the nose-burying Kkanpe bastards might come looking. It’s not just once or twice. She is bloodshot with the single thought of destroying her nose-burying husband. So this means sending that woman to where her husband, the nose-burying bastard, is. That nose-burying bastard who would be diligently fucking the records in that closed bookshelf that supposedly disappeared intrudes into the archive on rainy days, and this clause was written by rival nose-buryer 2.
The guy named Maxim Western is the one who made up clauses up to clause 4, but because the remaining space was too empty, the nose-burying Kkanpe bastards made up clauses as they pleased. And finally, the 10th clause was written by a person named Raina Silverryuk, and Silver-Ryuk is the surname of the Elf Kingdom Royal Family.
10. Fuck, they wrote it so confusingly and shittily. As a royal, I cannot tolerate this. Let’s just destroy it all. It means this.
11. This means that if the archive is closed, the nose-burying Kkanpes are fucked, so it’s their indomitable will to restore the control room again after the royal has left to let it be known that the archive is fine, and to continue their shady acts. They added credibility by writing the manager’s name, Maxim Western, here.
When interpreted, it really seems right that this place is used as a trash can.
Since it’s this kind of bullshit, it must have been adjusted to block intruders from the original record office.
“Then I guess I need to find the so-called back door.”
Anyway, Kkanpes really has a knack for making even ruins annoying for people.
And.
I was able to find it.
Find what? The control room.
It’s the control room that was mainly mentioned in those safety rules.
It was dark at the moment, so I floated a few white fireballs.
There were a whole bunch of red handprints near the control room door.
“Why the hell is something like this in an archive?”
I thought about just ignoring it and moving on.
A loud noise was heard from inside the control room.
Going ring ring, honestly it was an alarm I hadn’t heard before, but it seemed to be crying hard, asking me to come in quickly and check, so I couldn’t ignore it either.
Following that sound, I found a magic gear.
Thanks to the Akashic Record, I handled it familiarly.
“This is the general manager of the Archive of Records, Yongyong-i. Who are you?”
-This is Ku-Rak of the Marita Fortress! The human bastards have betrayed us! The bastards have colluded with Demonkind and invaded! I am requesting backup!
“Why are you requesting backup from an archive?”
-It’s urgent! If this place falls, the path to the Royal Capital will open! I request backup!
“…”
Ring! Ring!
Urgent backup request! I beg of you! If anyone hears this news, report it to the queen!
Queen?
Does a being like a queen exist too?
“queen? What kind of queen?”
-Our Elf Queen, of course!
“Is she beautiful? Is she a married woman? Or is she a girl?”
-Of course she is a beautiful married woman -
“Oh, that definitely makes me want to save her.”
If I corrupt the queen and put all the Elves in my grasp?
That’s really tempting.
It’s a matter of making an entire world mine.
-Guaaaagh!
I was going to find out a little more, but this Elf’s desperate scream rang out.
It seems it will be difficult to hear any more than this.
“Akashic Record. Is this a record? Or is it really an outside contact?”
[The Archive of Records itself is an archive that harbors various possibilities. It could simply be the record of the ruined Elves, or in an other world, an Elf named Ku-Rak might have actually requested backup.]
Hmm. It’s quite complicated, but in short, this place is like the Akashic Record that contains the knowledge of all worlds.
Does it mean it’s connected to all worlds?
I don’t know exactly, but I get that it’s that kind of feeling.
“Then it could be a contact from a parallel world. That’s what this is.”
-My body. My body is burning! My body. My body!
“When is that snout going to burn?”
-Look over there! Adolf Hitler, the art school applicant from the Nazi Class, threw the first punch at Stalin from the Communist Class!
-Hitler was beating up the guys from the Frog Class just a while ago!
-My heart swells with majesty!
This magic gear is also hearing stories from other parallel worlds.
These stories feature Hitler of the Nazi Class and Stalin of the Communist Class.
Maybe Hitler and Stalin, reincarnated in a school with a Nazi Class and a Communist Class, are fighting each other.
This is a fight between school-lunch Hitler and Stalin. My heart swells with majesty.
“Ah, that sounds kind of fun.”
First of all, this control room was quite unique.
There was a rough map of the archive on the wall.
Straight ahead, there were various controller devices.
Seeing how each one is labeled as some zone, I guess it can be controlled from here.
In particular, it seems you can look at the bookshelf layout and individually set the paths of this maze-like, complicated archive.
“What kind of archive even has a map? This is crazy.”
Right. Well, it has to be at least that much to be called a trap.
If I accidentally move the controller wrong and the bookshelf movement goes wrong, I’ll just match it to this original map.
This has pretty good technology, doesn’t it?
If this place was swayed until the end by the Elf bastards, the bookshelves would probably be arranged haphazardly.
I decided to try fixing it according to the map for now.
Screech, screech.
Along with a heavy mechanical sound, I thought a vibration from outside rang out, but it soon became quiet.
Probably quite a lot of things outside might have changed.
It’s too dark to see properly anyway.
First, I came out of the control room and floated white fires all around.
“Let’s see just what kind of records are here.”
I picked up a random one among the things dropped on the floor.
[Lewd Lizard Maid Volume 1]
Suddenly, a book with a bizarre title caught my eye.
Lewd Lizard Maid Volume 1.
Anyone could see it was an erotic novel. A lizard erotic novel.
“Ah, fuck. Huh?”
Lewd Lizard Maid.
Without realizing it, I was drawn to the title and started devouring it.
This was a book with quite plausible entertainment value.
It was a story about a lizard beastfolk maid who got a job with a noble Family / Clan, and made the Young Lady and madam she served lewd and stole them away.
There was only Volume 1, but at the end of Volume 1, the duke, who was the husband and dad, found out.
“Where is Volume 2?”
If it’s at this level, it’s something those Kkanpes would find entertaining.
Come to think of it, Rayna also read a wide variety of things.
Sometimes I’d see her reading a lot of useless things during break time.
-Surviving Hell Joseon? Why such a book?
-A true intellectual does not discriminate against books.
-Why on earth would you do that?
She definitely did. She especially watched a lot of overly patriotic Korean content.
In the past, there were all sorts of overly patriotic Korean videos on video upload platforms in pre-Cataclysm.
After the Cataclysm, a lot of overly patriotic Korean books came out under the leadership of Ha Jeongseok.
They made a variety of books, things like 10 Korean Inventions That Astound the World or Why Ethiopia is Enthusiastic About the Taegeukgi.
And Rayna got a taste for that extreme patriotism.
Rayna was extremely proud of being an Elf of Korea.
How long did I walk after coming out of the control room?
Unlike Hansel and Gretel doing the wasteful act of throwing cookies or breadcrumbs on the ground, I floated a Pure White Flame.
The path to get here was already being illuminated by the Pure White Flame like a map.
Grrrrr.
A sound that obviously shouldn’t be heard in an archive was flowing out.
It was the voice of something extremely heterogeneous, like boiling phlegm.
Looking quietly ahead, I saw something dried and twisted under the white fire walking over.
Clack, clack. It was making a very unpleasant sound of creaking joints. I know very well what this is.
These are the undead monsters you can occasionally see.
“Right. Skeletons.”
As expected, the safety rules are useless.
If there were things like that, they should have revised the safety rules earlier.