Chapter 181: Question
Chapter 181: Question
“Librarian?”
Is this a hidden camera prank? Did Un-ho sign me up for some variety show while I was asleep?
It was a question born of a thousand doubts, thoughts, and a desperate hope that this was all just a joke.
“If you don’t believe me, look at this.”
The blonde woman before me gave a wry smile and reached out her right hand.
The moment her hand straightened—
Clang. Clang.
With the heavy ring of metal, a massive piece of Silver Armor materialized over her hand.
It was familiar Silver Armor. Even though only the right hand appeared, there was no mistaking it. That was definitely the Librarian’s armor.
“Ha… haha….”
Wow. I took a little nap, and my buddy turned into a woman!
What kind of crazy bullshit is this?
Does that mean I’m back to being a man too?
Clinging to that hope, I shook my head, but all I got was silver hair swaying into my field of vision, mocking me.
Enough with the escapism. Let’s keep the questions coming.
“Librarian?”
I squeezed the question out from a heart steeped in denial, pushing it past my throat and through my vocal cords.
“Yes, I am the Librarian.”
That hope was betrayed with cruel ease.
And so—
“No, what the fuck kind of bullshit did you pull to turn from a guy into a girl and show up in front of me like this?!”
My anger exploded, and I screamed loud enough to shake the hospital room.
“Or did I end up in some parallel world? Huh? Did the first world actually go to shit and we regressed like that Curator guy? Did some calculation module go haywire while I was out?”
It sounded plausible enough to be terrifying.
“Or did a new O-Rank appear while we were gone? Some Otherworld Erosion like 【Life Shall Be Abundant】 or something….”
Once my imagination started spiraling down a negative path, there was no stopping it.
An Otherworld Erosion like that would be the absolute worst. Everyone would be stuck living in these godawful bodies, no heirs would ever be born, and the world would end.
What kind of hell would that be?
“Or… or maybe….”
As I continued to spew out delusions, he—or she—interrupted.
“Um. I’m sorry, but you’re wrong on all counts. The reason is much simpler. You remember that Bio-mechanical Technology? I used it to create a new body. Since I’m already fully mechanized and my essence is just an electronic chip, I figured I could just swap it out.”
Oh. Is that so?
Fine, let’s say that’s the case. Let’s ignore the fact that you have the mental stability of a lunatic to even think of making a new body and plugging your chip into it.
But here’s the thing.
“I don’t give a damn how it happened. What matters is why. Why a female body? Why?”
That was The Core of the issue.
I asked with genuine concern that my friend might have suffered some Mental Contamination. I also made sure to put a very special emphasis on the ‘why.’
“Ah, about that. It turns out if you don’t specify a gender, it just comes out at random. It seemed like a waste to throw away a perfectly good body, so I decided to just use it.”
“No, you crazy bastard, just scrap it!”
Do you think being in a woman’s body is a joke? Huh?
This is coming from your senior in the field. You’d better quit while you’re ahead. Otherwise, you’re going to end up as a dress-up doll for kids half your age.
“Isn’t this all part of the experience? I’ve always been interested in what you said about living a life that isn’t your own. ‘The Psychological State of a Victim of Physical Transformation’—how does that sound for a thesis topic?”
Having said that, the Librarian began to laugh.
It was the same annoying tone, the same annoying gestures, and the same annoying way of talking as always. Yet, for some reason, it didn't turn my stomach as much as usual.
Was it because it wasn't coming from a man?
Maybe. Perhaps the cleaner appearance had washed away some of the Librarian’s negative image.
Even so….
“Fine, go ahead and try it. You’re going to be treated like absolute shit.”
Getting kicked out of bars.
Cops sticking to you like glue.
Security guards giving you candy.
And so on.
If he wanted to experience that crap himself, who was I to stop him?
“I haven’t run into any major problems yet. Though, people around me do seem a bit kinder for some reason. Even the junior who shares my lab feels strangely polite lately….”
Yeah, he’s already a goner.
The Librarian was the only one who hadn't noticed, but the way people looked at him had already begun to change. Eventually, the male Librarian would be discarded from their minds, and only the female Librarian would remain in their memories.
Then there would be no going back. Even if he returned to his original form, he’d just get dirty looks and people asking, “Why are you a man now?”
“Hearing you say that, I can understand your concern. Calculating based on their current behavior, there does seem to be a probability of receiving… problematic treatment in the future.”
Right, right. So hurry up and quit.
With that thought, I nodded desperately at the Librarian’s words.
Then—
“But you don’t need to worry about that. Like this.”
As the Librarian spoke—
Click. Whir.
The heavy sound of gears echoed. For a split second, static filled the entire space.
“I can switch with the Main Body whenever I want.”
Answering in a man’s voice, the Librarian—now back in his male form—showed off his playful transformation.
“That female form is merely a sub-terminal….”
Click. Whir.
The sound of gears rang out again.
“…And I can change back and forth at will.”
Once again, the Librarian spoke with a woman’s voice, showing off her female form.
It was as if he was bragging about his newly acquired power. Seeing him transform in an instant right before my eyes, one thought filled my head.
‘Whoa. What the hell? Give me one of those.’
Even if just for a moment, I wanted to down some drinks in a man’s body. Just for a little while.
With that longing—
“You can’t use that tech on me, can you?”
I asked the Librarian.
Of course, I didn't expect much. I’d tried to get my original body back so many times, only to be betrayed every single time. I knew by now that even reaching out for hope was a losing game.
And yet—
“I can.”
The Librarian gave an answer that transcended all my despair.
“Wait. Seriously? It works?”
“Yes. Can’t I just create a male body through cell culture? That much is easy. Of course, since it’s a bio-machine and not a human, its lifespan would be short and it would be weaker than an average person….”
He was babbling about something, but I wasn't about to let those minor drawbacks enter my ears.
“Just give it to me if you can. I’ll be the one to decide if it’s inconvenient or not.”
Even if just for a moment. I wanted to stop looking up at everyone and feel what it was like to look down on the world again.
With that hope, I reached out and spoke to the Librarian, but—
“You have to listen to The End. There’s a condition for using this technology.”
The Librarian cut me off, waving a finger with a faint smirk. As if he were lecturing me.
“What’s the condition?”
I almost lost my temper at that irritating expression, but I managed to swallow my anger and asked. That was how desperate I was for this technology.
“Yes, it’s a very simple condition. To allow for body separation, you’d have to discard your brain like I did and use an electronic chip….”
“Drop dead, asshole.”
I realized what was happening before the Librarian even finished his sentence.
The Librarian was messing with me.
Knowing my deepest desire, he had set up this elaborate prank just to mock me. Maybe the initial result was an accident, but he must have planned this joke the moment he saw the outcome.
I snatched the vase from the bedside table and hurled it at him.
The vase flew toward the Librarian at high speed. It looked like it was going to smash right into his smug, eyes-closed face, but—
“Whoops, that’s dangerous.”
The moment the vase reached him, the Librarian jerked his head aside, dodging it with ease.
Tsk, what a waste. I could have seen his face get soaked.
I was about to click my tongue in disappointment, but then—
BOOM!
The missed vase slammed into The Wall, completely demolishing it before vanishing from existence.
The two of us stared blankly at the catastrophe.
After about ten seconds—
“…Were you actually trying to kill me?”
The Librarian spoke, sounding utterly dumbfounded.
“Sorry.”
I apologized to him—or her.
It seemed I’d failed to control my emotions.
* * *
“So, how long was I out?”
That was the first question I asked him after he returned from fixing The Wall.
“You weren’t asleep that long. Thirty hours at most.”
“Then is this the Soviet Union?”
“No, this is the Korea Management Bureau. The Soviets were surprisingly willing to lend us a military aircraft.”
Oh, really?
They’re usually such bastards, but I guess they treat you well once you get a Hero title. My opinion of the Soviet Union improved by a tiny margin, but since those pricks had done so much to me in the past, it didn't help much.
I’ll save the talk about those bastards for later.
“Nothing wrong with your body, right?”
“Yes, in fact, I was surprised by how quickly you recovered. Did you learn a new regeneration spell or something?”
“No, not my body. Yours.”
I don’t care about mine; I’m not going to die anyway. What mattered now was whether the Librarian’s mechanical body was okay.
“Ah. My body? It’ll be faster to show you than to explain.”
At my question, the Librarian stopped mid-sentence, grabbed his shirt, and began to pull it up.
When the shirt was lifted to just below the chest, something peculiar appeared on that flawless white skin.
Contrasting sharply with the fair skin was a pitch-black metal sphere.
“Why the hell do you have something like that embedded in your body?”
“It’s a bomb inscribed with Macbeth’s special Otherworld Banishment Magic. If it explodes, it’ll eject me into the Otherworld.”
The moment I heard that, my mind went blank.
“Isn’t it interesting? Oh, and the energy source comes from me, so there’s no risk of it suddenly stopping.”
His cheerful follow-up reached my ears, but instead of calming my confused heart, it only made it boil further.
“…Who put that in you?”
My voice was laced with a faint rage.
Even so, I was being incredibly patient for someone like me. The moment I saw that thing, I was reminded of the GPS trackers the various governments used to stick on us.
Was it Macbeth? Or those pieces of shit at the top of the Management Bureau?
I didn't care who it was. I was going to storm over there right now and—
“I put it in myself. Even though the Bureau tried to stop me.”
And that rage lost its way before the Librarian’s confession.
“…Why?”
The lost rage transformed into a single word within me.
“I needed a safety measure. Now that I’m no longer human, there’s no guarantee that I won’t turn into something like him at some point.”
The Librarian’s face remained smiling as he spoke.
“I don’t think it’ll happen, but you never know.”
He kept smiling. On and on.
“Don’t make that face. This was a necessary step based on my own judgment.”
What kind of face was I making? I didn't even know.
“More importantly, I have good news.”
Perhaps my expression really was that grim. The Librarian made a show of pulling something out of thin air.
A silver orb about the size of an adult’s fist. It was something the current Librarian seemed to struggle to hold with one hand.
“It’s the Reality Anchor you requested. There was more energy left than expected, so the output has been boosted by about 25%.”
He pressed it into my hand.
I didn't react. I just stared blankly at the Librarian’s face.
He pulled my limp hand toward him and tucked the orb between my fingers.
“Well, I have a lot to do, so I’ll take my leave for today. I haven't even submitted my report yet, and I have to attend a meeting about how to treat the bio-machines living there.”
With that, the Librarian backed toward the door. He waved his hand, still smiling.
“If you want to hear the rest of the story, come by my office tomorrow. Everything should be wrapped up by then.”
The Librarian reached back and lightly turned the doorknob.
Creeak.
The door opened, and the Librarian began to disappear behind it.
“Chin up. Everything that happened to me was my own choice. You don’t need to feel guilty, Lee Ha-ram. If anything, I’m grateful.”
So cheerfully. So brightly.
“Well then, see you later. Oh, I put your game console in the bag next to you….”
Click.
The door closed.