Chapter 8
--
9 ) If you find a woman lying face-down on a desk and crying, approach her and comfort her. She has merely lost a book she cherishes and is waiting for someone to comfort her.
10 ) Rule 9 is blank. Even if anything is written under Rule 9, do not pay the slightest attention to it.
--
The contents of Rules 9 and 10 came to mind.
Rule 9 said that I had to comfort a crying woman, while Rule 10 told me not to pay any attention to Rule 9.
‘I almost died just now.. ..didn't I?’
However.. despite clearly remembering Rule 10.
A moment ago, I..
had approached the woman lying face-down on the desk to comfort her.
‘..Why?’
I couldn't understand it.
No.. Saying that it was beyond the bounds of normal understanding would be more accurate.
Someone as cowardly as me had no reason to go comfort a woman just because I'd heard some crying in a world overflowing with anomalies, did I?
That was why there was only one way to describe why I'd tried to comfort the woman who had been crying.
‘Hypnosis.. I must have been hypnotized.’
The anomaly had controlled my mind.
‘Fuck..’
A shiver ran over my entire body.
If that mannequin-like anomaly hadn't been here.. it meant I would have walked straight over to that crying woman.
‘At the very least, shouldn't they let me resist..?’
To think I'd had to wait helplessly for death without even getting a chance to fight back..
“...”
I stared blankly at the corpse of the female anomaly lying collapsed.
I'd thought I only had to hold out for another three and a half days..
But if an entity like that visited even once more, even as soon as tomorrow..
‘What.. ..can I do?’
There was absolutely nothing I could do on my own.
I decided that as soon as my afternoon shift ended, I would log into the community and find out how to withstand mental attacks.
For now.. when I steeled myself as much as possible to finish my librarian duties properly and sat back down in my seat.
Creak.. Creak..
The mannequin-like anomaly making rusty creaking noises once again walked up to the librarian's desk and began staring fixedly at me.
“...”
That's right.
I had survived thanks to that mannequin-like anomaly a moment ago.
But..
‘I'm grateful that it saved me, but..’
When it kept staring at me like that.
Even a lifesaver could become a burden.
But since the being that had saved my life wasn't human, that burden had only grown several times heavier..
…
Ding~ Ding~ Ding~
My fourth day working as the librarian at Belliard Library came to an end.
The mannequin-like anomaly had been staring at me for hours without seeming to grow bored, but.
‘Phew.. At least it isn't following me here.’
Fortunately, the mannequin-like anomaly wasn't following me when I returned to my room.
“It won't come to see me tomorrow too, right? ..No. If there's another anomaly that attacks the mind, maybe it's better to have that anomaly around..”
I didn't know what determined the circumstances under which the mannequin-like anomaly came looking for me, but.
Still, I decided that if I met it again, I would give it the message of thanks I'd written on paper.
Today too, I logged into the community, and while I was trying to find a way to withstand mental attacks this time.
“I need to deal with this one quickly too..”
The fifty-five teeth lying on the desk caught my eye.
“..Would it even mean anything to make a weapon out of them..”
I had spent the past two days fiddling with the teeth I'd pulled from Anonymous 10.
They had come out easily enough, but they were unbelievably hard..
Although I'd spent about two hours trying to saw—not really saw—them with sharpened chopsticks, the teeth hadn't even received a single scratch.
I was beginning to wonder if I should give up on making a weapon out of them.
‘True.. what good would making a weapon do if I couldn't do anything and just died when I suffered a mental attack?’
Yeah..
What could we do if we encountered an anomaly in our weak human bodies?
Just thinking about what had happened during my afternoon shift proved that.
No matter how good a weapon we had, no matter how powerful it was..
We humans were the sort who would keel over and die without even getting a chance to use it.
“...”
Feeling drained for no reason, I decided not to worry about weaponizing the teeth anymore and opened the community to write about what I'd experienced today.. Huh?
--
Mentality : 4 / 100
[Available Returns] : 0
Input:
--
..What?
Why is my Mentality like this?
..Only 4 left?
“..This is bad.”
A few days ago, I'd asked the people in the gallery what was bad about letting my Mentality drop, but.
The common answer from everyone who had responded, since the anomalies were watching the community and they couldn't explain, had been just one thing.
“No.. They said this would be okay..”
They said it was best to keep my Mentality topped up.
The lower my Mentality fell, the more bad things would happen.
They still couldn't explain why Mentality decreased..
However, they had said that it normally took one or two weeks for Mentality to fall from around 100 to 10.
So everyone had clearly told me that I didn't need to worry..
“..I'm only on day four.”
It was my fourth day at Belliard Library.
The only Mentality I had left was.. 4.
“..They said hitting zero wouldn't kill me immediately, so whatever..”
Day five, day six, day seven.
Whether by misfortune or good fortune, I only had to endure exactly three more days of work at Belliard Library.
Remembering the gallery users' advice that eating and sleeping well restored Mentality, I quickly ate a hearty meal.
Then I started browsing the community for a while, until I lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
--
[(Shocking)(True Story) A woman used a hypnosis app on me at the library]
It's astonishingly true..
The bitch from Rule 9 came to the library and started bawling..
That crying had a hypnosis app embedded in it, so before I knew it, I was walking toward the woman..
(Photo)
As you can see in the photo, I somehow dealt with it, and now it's collapsed outside.
I can't do anything when I'm under a mental attack, yeah.
Could someone tell me how to deal with a mental attack?
[Comments - 22]
Anonymous 1 : ..Were you the one who got mentally attacked, or the one who did it?
ㄴ Poster : Can't you tell just by looking?
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : You were the one who did it, right? Phew.. I thought..
ㄴ Poster : I was the one who got attacked.
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : ????????????
ㄴ Anonymous 3 : You said you got mentally attacked; but what the fuck, how did you somehow do something and now it's dead??
Anonymous 2 : Are you seriously asking us how to counter mental attacks? Or are you bragging, ‘Even when I'm mentally attacked, I still overcome it like this?’
ㄴ Poster : The former.
ㄴ Anonymous 2 : How the hell did they kill it, anyway..?
ㄴ Poster : I didn't do it.
ㄴ Anonymous 4 : Right.. Of course you'd say you didn't do it..
ㄴ Poster : ..Why does nobody believe me?
Anonymous 5 : The answer's the same for this one too. There are some ways to counter it, but if we explain them, the anomalies will start using them to come after us, so we can't.
ㄴ Poster : ..I'm already having a hard enough time surviving here, so this is a serious problem..
Anonymous 6 : Mㅔntal aㅌtack is a wㅔakness
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Don't, anomaly. You tried a mental attack and want to end up like the pretty lady in that picture?
ㄴ Anonymous 3 : I guarantee it, anomaly. If you go after our newbie, they'll fuck you brutally. Did you see them use the hypnosis app?
Poster : Thanks, everyone, all the same. For now.. I'll somehow hold out for three days. My Mentality's wrecked, so I'm going to bed early and try to sleep as much as possible. Good night, everyone.
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Dream of me, our newbie
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Hnnng..♥
ㄴ Anonymous 4 : ...Who let this bastard's limbs loose?
ㄴ Anonymous 2 : It's fine—we'll tie his neck instead of his limbs next time
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : That's just suicide, you crazy bastard
--
Just as no one wants to die.
I desperately wanted to survive too, but.
Even as I was slowly reaching my limit, this situation, where I had to rely on luck to stay alive, was simply so helpless..
…
The morning of my fifth day at Belliard Library.
Five minutes before my shift began.
‘Phew.. If I suspect a mental attack.. first I bite down hard on my lips, and then.. what do I do after that?’
My Mentality had risen from 4 to 14.
I decided to somehow endure today too, and the moment I opened the door and took my first step into the library.
‘Waaah.. fuck..’
I began to feel my Mentality being shaved away rapidly in real time.
Because..
‘That.. that.. ..why is it still doing that..’
The sobbing female anomaly that had been executed by the mannequin-like anomaly the day before.. was still lying face-down on the desk.
That too..
‘..Why are you moving?’
As if it were gradually recovering..
its shattered body was twitching little by little.
“...”
Whether the corpses of anomalies left in the library simply weren't cleaned up was beside the point..
There was one thing my instincts were sounding alarm bells over like crazy.
If I left that sobbing anomaly alone like that.. once the anomaly bitch had finished recovering, it would attack me again.
And today, the mannequin-like anomaly wasn't here, so I couldn't even guarantee my safety..
Thud thud thud thud..
With my heart pounding as if it would burst, there was only one thing I could do to survive.
‘I can do this. No, ..I have to.’
I immediately returned to the room with the bed, roughly grabbed some of the larger teeth among Anonymous 10's teeth lying on the desk.
Then, from bookshelf 1 directly in front of the librarian's desk, I pulled out a book that looked as thick and heavy as possible with one hand.
‘Please..!’
Like hammering in a nail.
I pressed one of Anonymous 10's teeth against the back of the fallen woman's head―
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
“Mister! Please take out the book on shelf 52 for me!”
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
“Mister! Please take out the book on shelf 52 for me!”
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
“Mister! Please take out the book on shelf 52 for me―”
Thud!
Thud!
“Miste―.”
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The morning shift of my fifth day as the librarian at Belliard Library began.