Chapter 171: Broken Gears (3)
Chapter 171: Broken Gears (3)
It had been about twenty minutes since the Librarian extended wires from his arm and connected them to the terminal.
I thought it would be over in a flash, as usual, but it was dragging on.
Since he wasn't making any agonizing noises, it didn't seem like anything was going wrong.
Seeing him with his eyes closed, his body twitching occasionally, I could tell he was concentrating.
Just as I turned my gaze toward the corner of the room, wondering how much longer I’d have to wait—
Click.
Along with the sound of a cable being unplugged.
"Phew."
I heard the Librarian let out a sigh.
"Finished?"
"For now… yes."
'For now,' huh?
"Did you secure the map?"
"Whether I secured it or not… is a bit ambiguous."
If you got it, you got it. What do you mean, 'ambiguous'?
Did the map shatter into pieces and scatter or something?
Well, whatever.
"Fine, map aside. Do you know where we need to go?"
"That is also… a bit ambiguous."
That’s ambiguous too? What the hell are you talking about?
You got the map, but you didn't?
And the path is ambiguous?
If you couldn't dig anything up, just say so. What’s with this 'ambiguous' crap?
"Sigh. What’s the problem? Explain it simply so I can understand."
I really wanted to grill him, but since the Librarian looked genuinely perplexed, I held my tongue.
"May I organize my thoughts for a moment? One minute will suffice."
I’ve been walking for hours; I can wait one minute.
"Go ahead."
I looked around the room to kill the remaining sixty seconds.
Cobwebs spun by a spider that was either biological or mechanical.
Thick layers of dust, except for a few square-cut spots where equipment had presumably been removed.
Various light fixtures that still gleamed with a glassy luster despite being turned off.
By the time I had finished another lap around the decaying, empty room—
"Shall we begin?"
Exactly one minute had passed when the Librarian spoke.
"Yeah."
"First of all, since that terminal is from the past, the map data was in an archaic format."
Is that why he said he couldn't find it?
"So, it took some time to re-interpret and decompile it…."
The Librarian paused, a look of clear bewilderment on his face.
"There was a slight problem with the interpreted data…. The timestamps recorded in the data were strange."
What, like from a hundred years ago?
"That’s common enough. Time distortion happens all the time, and discrepancies between actual time and records are—"
"It is not the past."
Huh?
"It was recorded as May 21, 2061."
"…Any signs of internal time acceleration?"
"The diagnostic tools within me are functioning perfectly."
"Then what about the Otherworld contamination level?"
"None detected either."
Then why is that data there? Is it broken?
Lost in doubt, I tried to branch out my thoughts like a STEM student, but that train of thought was quickly derailed.
"Still, I could understand if it were just that. Their recording system might simply be different from ours. After all, that bizarre penguin-shaped OS doesn't exist in our world."
"How much weirder can it get?"
What, are you going to tell me there’s a diary from the guy who used the computer too?
"Would you believe me if I told you today's map is also there? And it's dated for today."
"…What?"
Why would that be there?
No, wait. Let’s get the story straight.
So, from today's map to a map from nearly 40 to 50 years in the future—all of that is inside that piece-of-junk computer?
"Then, what about the maps of the past?"
"That is another suspicious point. All maps prior to this have been erased. To be precise, The System likely deleted them. I failed to recover them, but I found traces."
What kind of nonsense is this?
It would be hard to intentionally build a system like that.
I don't know the specifics since it's not my field, but maybe it's not a map, but a blueprint for what they plan to build?
Or maybe it's all a fake to deceive… but the data is too bizarre for that.
In the first place, why would something like that pop out of a random terminal in a room we found by chance?
Actually, can we even trust that map?
"Verification."
"Pardon?"
"That map. Have you verified it? Just match it with the path we took to get here. You should remember everything anyway."
Though his memory is selectively photographic, he wouldn't say he forgot something like this.
And just as I expected.
"Yes, I have already verified it. And I have the results."
The Librarian spoke about the verification results.
However, unlike his usual self, he sounded utterly hollow.
"From today's map to the map dated May 21, 2061… every location we have passed through is recorded exactly as it appears on the map."
"…Huh?"
What kind of bull— No, I don't even know how many times I've thought that today.
"Yes, I know what you are thinking. You are wondering what kind of nonsense this is. But it is the truth, so what can I do? As time passes, the map changes… but the parts we have already passed through remain unchanged even in the future."
So what am I supposed to do?
Does this mean I have to pick the 'correct' map out of forty years' worth of future maps?
"That map… what are the recording intervals?"
Please. At least say it's yearly.
"It is not in days."
Of course. It must be in years—
"It is in hours. Which means there are at least 350,000 maps."
Just my luck.
"Ah, as a side note… if this map is correct, this base is suspiciously vast. Even by the standards of 2030, the narrowest point, it is approximately 40 million square meters."
…I have no idea how big that is.
"What's that in pyeong?"
"Pyeong? Ah, the unique unit used in Korea. Let's see. It would be about 12 million pyeong."
Yeah. Still no idea.
I'll just laugh.
"Hahahaha."
"Ah, fortunately, the place we need to go is labeled as The Core,' and its location barely changes. Thanks to that, I know roughly where we need to go—"
Oh, is that why you said the path was 'ambiguous'?
"Hahahaha!"
Like I give a damn anymore.
* * *
In the end, the Librarian must have realized that reviewing every single map was impossible, so he chose the most effective method.
Overwhelming power.
A frontal breakthrough using just that.
If a wall appeared, break it. If ground appeared, dig through it.
If space was distorted, smash the surroundings to figure out the coordinates.
I thought these were perfect conditions, but…
"Ah, you must not break that part. If you break that, about 100,000 things will change."
God dammit, seriously.
Shockingly, that damn 'data' map had the bizarre characteristic of changing in real-time whenever we did something.
We realized this about ten hours ago.
I still remember it vividly.
* * *
"Hmm? Not a single map matches anymore."
"All 350,000 of them?"
"That is correct."
"…Then do we have to go back?"
"…I suppose so?"
* * *
After finishing about ten hours of excavation and returning to the room, the Librarian checked the map and delivered the shocking news that all 350,000 maps recorded in the terminal had changed.
The place we had dug into had become easier to build in, turning into a new passage. Or the ground had weakened, forcing a detour.
The location of The Core remained the same, but the positions of the indestructible barriers had shifted.
Thanks to that, our maze exploration entered a new phase.
"Destroying that wall will change the map by approximately 20%."
Zap. Zap.
The Librarian’s voice, spouting bizarre probabilities, mingled with the sparks flying from the junk computer.
"Can't you do something about that static noise from the computer?"
It’s giving me a nervous breakdown.
Every time I hit something, it whines and buzzes so loudly.
"That is why I told you to be gentle when you were ripping it out."
"You said you couldn't rip it out with your strength! You bastard!"
This was the situation we were in.
It was ridiculous to return to the room where the terminal was every time we broke a wall.
We looked for other terminals and found some, but the map was only found in the terminal in that specific room.
We tried to disassemble the terminal and transplant it into the Librarian, but that plan failed, of course.
Whether it was some bizarre Otherworldly security technology or not, The System failed to boot due to the hardware change.
Consequently, the method we chose was the most efficient yet idiotic one.
We ripped the entire terminal out of the corner, carried it around, transplanted power from the Librarian into it, and reviewed it in real-time.
A truly moronic yet perfect method.
Of course, there were minor issues—like the cluster of wires dangling from it or the cracked monitor.
But compared to our situation, those were trivial problems.
"Ah, let's dig there. It only changes by 1%."
"Aye, aye."
It went like this:
Pick the spot with The Lowest map fluctuation rate, destroy it, and head straight for The Core.
I don't know what kind of madness this is.
Honestly, I feel like just blasting this place with my S-Rank Technique.
No, even if not that, maybe a pseudo-nuclear explosion packed with power.
…Actually, borrowing a Thermonuclear Weapon sounds good too.
Right now, I’d give a standing ovation even if that bastard Al’shel dropped a black star here.
Anything, as long as it blows this shitty place to kingdom come.
I’ve been through all sorts of headache-inducing places, but this is the first time I’ve had an experience this stressful.
"This is worse than the Otherworld!"
"That is the fifth time you have said that. Though I do agree."
Yeah, at least in the Otherworld, there’s an order to the chaos.
This place is just ordered madness.
All because of this one damn 'map.' What a mess.
But we couldn't just ignore the map because this base was absurdly huge.
According to the Librarian’s calculations, if we were to walk to The Core, it would take a month even if the map didn't change at all.
The fact that we could finish in a day or two thanks to my strength was just an added incentive for manual labor.
As I reflected on the past, mindlessly and vigorously swinging my hammer-pickaxe—
Clang.
A strange sensation pushed back.
Specifically, the feeling of hitting space itself.
I knew this one.
A Spatial Compression Barrier.
In other words, it was hard to break, and if I did break it, the map would change on a massive scale, and we’d be screwed.
It also meant our navigation had led us astray.
"Hey, you said we could dig here."
"Yes, please destroy it."
The Librarian said this with a refreshed expression.
Even so, I quietly leaned on my hammer and spoke.
"Didn't you say the same thing three hours ago?"
"I believe I did."
"What happened then?"
"I do not recall."
Oh, you don't recall? My Soviet Hero Comrade with selective photographic memory?
"If you don't recall, let me tell you. It was, 'I seem to have miscalculated.' You bastard. And I was the only one who took the brunt of the resulting explosion while you hid behind a barrier."
It didn't hurt, but it was annoying.
It felt like hundreds of thousands of children poking my body with their fingers.
It wouldn't kill me, but it was a bizarre sensation that spiked my stress levels to the max.
"It will be fine this time."
And if it's not, are you going to 'forget' again?
"Sigh."
Fine, I’ll endure it.
Anger welled up, but since I had no other choice but to listen to the Librarian, I quietly took my stance and continued pickaxing.
Clang. Clang.
The tunnel that used to open up with a single drill or pickaxe swing was gone.
The metal plates began to give way slowly, as if a real miner were digging through the earth.
Because I was striking something so hard, a powerful recoil traveled through me.
The pain of my own strength hitting back at me.
On top of that, the shock generated as the spatial compression unraveled slammed into my body.
It wasn't painful, but it was a multitude of stinging sensations.
How long had I been striking it while enduring that?
Thump. Thump.
Along with a new sound.
A red light began to leak through The Hole.
"…We have arrived."
At those words, I brought down my raised hammer.
BOOM!
With the sound of an explosion, The Hole widened.
A new place.
Our destination.
We had reached The Core.