The Enormous Ripple Effect Spreading Across the Empire

"Hyung-nim! You made it back alive! I believed in you the whole time!"

The moment Leos stepped into the cave, Bendict greeted him with loud, theatrical fuss. Herisia rose from her seat as well and walked over to speak.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Nothing worth mentioning."

Leos crossed to a corner of the cave, claimed a spot, and sat. Bendict immediately began pacing and chattering at full volume.

"Hyung-nim, I can barely handle a single monster that comes out of a Red Gate, let alone the Gate itself! How do you seal the whole damn thing by yourself? If I learn from you, could I do it too? Huh? Hyung-nim! Can you hear me?!"

Bendict finally earned a solid knuckle to the skull. He screeched and crumpled to the ground.

"You're giving me a headache. Shut your mouth."

Bendict looked thoroughly wronged.

"This is Bendict talking! I only want to be useful to you, Hyung-nim! How ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠can you not understand that? I can't keep sitting inside forever just taking help. I want to fight at your side!"

"You got a good memory?"

"No, sir. I can barely remember what I ate yesterday."

"Then you'd forget everything I taught you. With the monsters that come out of Red Gates—especially the mutants—remembering their traits is everything. Even if your combat sense is a little lacking, as long as you know what abilities they use and where they're weak, you can still go toe-to-toe with them."

"Come on, if I really try I can memorize it. How much do I have to learn? How many kinds of monsters even appear in Red Gates?"

"At least several thousand species. And since you've never seen them in person, you'll have to memorize their appearances too. Written down on paper, that would be hundreds of thousands of characters you'd have to commit to memory."

"..."

Bendict immediately clutched his head.

"This is Bendict... I'll do anything for you, Hyung-nim, but I've never in my life memorized that much information..."

"Just shut up and sit there."

"Yes, sir!"

The big man retreated to a corner and started chewing on a strip of jerky. Not long after, he pointed at Herisia.

"Hyung-nim, that girl is good with artifacts, right? If she modified one into something like a memo pad, even I could look things up and react, couldn't I?"

"...?"

Leos started walking toward him. Bendict immediately covered his head and shrank back, fully expecting another blow. Contrary to his expectations, Leos simply nodded, looking genuinely impressed.

"That actually makes sense. Why didn't I think of that? No—how did you think of that?"

"Haha! Hyung-nim! Even a broken clock is right once a day! I'm just glad I could help!"

Leos thought it over.

Right. This isn't some exam hall.

If they could modify an artifact so that information was perfectly categorized and instantly accessible, the knowledge he carried could be applied and used by other people as well. There was no absolute need for pure memorization. Using a cheat sheet was perfectly fine.

Of course, it isn't a method just anyone can use.

Someone like Leos, who knew the traits and weaknesses of monsters completely, was one thing. A half-baked set of notes from someone who only vaguely understood them would be worse than nothing. On top of that, some monsters looked almost identical yet belonged to entirely different species; only Leos himself could reliably identify which was which. Even so, the cheat-sheet approach would still be extremely useful.

"Herisia. Can you make it?"

"What kind of design are you looking for?"

"I want something like an encyclopedia built into a Distance. If I speak a specific keyword out loud, that information should appear on the Distance right away."

"Hmm... that much is definitely doable. If we combine it with a virtual-augmentation artifact, I can even project the information onto a pair of goggles."

"You're talking about something like AR."

"A...R? What's that?"

"Never mind. Just take care of it."

"Yes! Give me a moment!"

Herisia dug through her bag, pulling out one item after another—then produced an inventory as well.

"You had an inventory? Then why have you been carrying a bag around this whole time?"

"...Yes! I do have an inventory, but it's completely packed with artifacts."

True to her claim of being an artifact maniac, the pieces she began taking out one by one were enough to leave anyone stunned. It wasn't just the sheer variety—plenty of them were high-rarity pieces as well.

"Where did you even get all of this? Impressive."

"Hehe, I just collected them one by one and ended up like this. At first I only had a few... I told you, didn't I? I'm an artifact maniac."

Leos's look of genuine surprise put Herisia in high spirits; she grinned from ear to ear. The man almost never praised anyone or called something impressive, so it felt less like empty flattery and more like the real thing. Her enthusiasm only burned hotter.

About an hour later, Herisia was dripping with sweat when she finally spoke.

"It's done! Want to try it?"

She held out a pair of transparent goggles. Leos took them and fitted them over his eyes.

"It's simple to use. While wearing the goggles, just say 'search,' then speak the document name you want from the database. I've only registered one entry so far, so try saying Herisia."

"Search, Herisia."

The document title and body text for "Herisia" appeared exactly as written. Leos spoke with open admiration.

"Truly impressive. To build something like this so quickly... When I worked at the Gatekeeper Management Headquarters I never even imagined using an artifact this way."

"Ahem... it's not something just anyone can do easily. Artifacts are extremely sensitive—touch them wrong even a little and they break immediately. It's like how you make clearing Red Gates look easy even though not just anyone can do it. My work feels a bit like that, I suppose."

"Excellent work."

"Hehe, you're too kind!"

"So how do I add more entries?"

"There's an app I installed on the Distance. Just open it and type. You can see the Document field and the Body field, right? When you're finished, hit Add. To remove one, delete the entry. You can also write by voice recognition, and any encyclopedia you create automatically syncs with the goggles I made. I prepared three pairs of goggles for now, but I can make more if you need extras—just say the word."

"Alright. I'll let you know if I need more later."

Leos looked at his Distance and used the voice-recognition function to register the names and traits of several monsters into the encyclopedia.

Leos spent a long while entering information into the encyclopedia app, then spoke to Herisia.

"Extremely convenient to use. Thank you. This is going to be a tremendous help to us from now on."

Herisia nodded with proud composure at the praise. Bendict, looking a little deflated, suddenly chopped a nearby stick of wood in half with his blade and declared,

"Hyung-nim! I'm good at using my strength! If there's any work that needs muscle, just say the word anytime!"

"Stop swinging that blade for no reason and stay still."

"Yes, sir!"

Bendict immediately retreated to the corner and crouched down. When Leos fitted a pair of goggles over Bendict's face, text began to appear in front of the big man as well.

"Ooooooh! The letters are alive and moving!"

"You can read, right?"

"Hyung-nim... what do you take me for..."

Bendict looked at him with a wounded expression. Leos answered without any change in his face.

"I'm joking."

Still wearing that pouting look, Bendict began checking the encyclopedia entries one by one.

"Whoa... Hyung-nim, do monsters really have this many traits? How do you even remember all of this?"

"Memories of nearly dying stay with you no matter how much time passes. From Low-grade all the way to the highest ranks—even though hunting them looks effortless now, back then I nearly died every single step of the way while learning them one rank at a time. Even if I don't want to remember, it stays in my head."

"I see... so even you had a weak period... If I'd met you back then I could have guided you onto the right path so your personality wouldn't go crooked—AAAAAAGH! Hyung-nim! It was a joke! My ear! My ear! It's going to tear off, Hyung-nim!"

Leaving Bendict rolling around on the floor behind him, Leos opened his Distance.

The administrator of the Leos Gallery. Come to think of it, the guy had said he might die soon from lack of food.

Even when the entire world turned its back on me, this one still believed in me.

Herisia was a Gallery member too, and the administrator—whoever he was—was also part of the Gallery.

Since I already made the encyclopedia, maybe I can help them out a little.

The Leos Gallery was a small, minor gallery. Because of that, Leos felt no pressure as he wrote the post.

He copied information on monsters that would be especially dangerous for amateurs to encounter straight from the encyclopedia and uploaded it to the gallery. He even highlighted the Debringer entry in red. If someone who didn't know its traits ran into one, they might try to hide, get detected, and die. Leos hoped that the people here who had believed in him would die just a little less. Even when everyone else pointed fingers and called him a criminal, these people had still trusted him.

After posting, Leos put the whole matter out of his mind. Fifty species was a drop in the ocean compared to the full range of monsters. There weren't even pictures. In a way, this was nothing more than hypocrisy to soothe his own uneasy conscience.

Even so, that tiny scrap of information began to unleash an enormous ripple effect across the entire empire.