Do Not Dare Peek Higher
As Jeong Sira had said, the higher world beings truly regarded Earth's inhabitants as nothing more than insignificant bugs or animals.
"Just who the hell is recording Earth like this?"
Go Heejae, who knew nothing of the higher world, put forth his own theory with a serious expression.
"Is the System the one doing the recording? If it's the System, that makes perfect sense."
"Y-yes... It does seem like the System."
Jeong Sira glanced at Seoya and chimed in agreement with Go Heejae to avoid revealing Seoya's secret.
"Then, all the other books in this library... they're records of other worlds too?"
Seoya recalled another book she had read aloud to Jeong Sira earlier. Thinking back, it had seemed to describe another world as well, though the details differed from Earth's.
"Ah, all these books..."
Jeong Sira stared at the hundreds of millions of books lining the shelves, murmuring in a trance-like state before suddenly covering her mouth as nausea hit her.
To directly realize that she was just a pathetic being living in a fraction of hundreds of millions of worlds... it was a massive strain on the mind.
"Wait a second, um, then... there's something a bit weird."
Ji Sein, who had seemed unable to follow the conversation, hesitantly spoke up.
"Earlier, when the princess read it, there was that part about their planet being destroyed and moving to another one. But Earth never had anything like that, right? What does that mean?"
Jeong Sira stared blankly at the book for a moment before flipping back to the very first page.
"Seoya, what did it say here earlier?"
"An incomplete book. Records are being added at every moment."
"Records are being added at every moment..."
Jeong Sira slowly nodded as if realizing something, her brown eyes darkening.
"The timeline in this book isn't fixed. It talks about the Neolithic era, then jumps to the World Wars..."
"Not fixed in time order...?"
"If this book is written with the past, present, and future jumbled up with no order..."
Finally catching on, Ji Sein widened her eyes and asked.
"So that part about the planet being destroyed and moving to another one... that's our future?"
"With current technology, it's impossible, so it could be a very distant future... a hundred years from now, or a thousand..."
"How the hell can a book like that even exist?"
Ji Sein's eyes glistened with moisture from her rejection of this vast world concept, accompanied by disjointed mutterings as she tried to organize her thoughts.
"If we assume a four-dimensional space with time as one axis, it's not entirely impossible... Four-dimensional worlds are a common topic of discussion. But I thought life couldn't exist in a four-dimensional world... No, maybe the laws of physics don't apply like they do for us..."
"Well, I can't wrap my head around it."
Go Heejae furrowed his brow slightly. A world that could freely spy on the past, present, and future without any order? For Go Heejae, who had never even considered the "higher world," it was impossible to accept.
"We never truly understood the System even for a single moment to begin with."
Jeong Sira spoke calmly without mentioning the higher world, then looked back down at the book and pointed to one spot.
"...Right, Seoya. Look here."
"What now?"
Seoya took the book from Jeong Sira and frowned slightly at the page she had opened.
New text had appeared on the book that hadn't been there before. Seoya translated and read it aloud for everyone.
"Observed exchanging goods created among their own groups through barter. They also enslave and exploit weaker groups. Strength of groups doesn't seem determined solely by physical prowess. Even among the same species, communication methods differ. However, they can learn each other's languages, so over time, they assimilate communication styles."
Text was being written on the book in real time. And it wasn't just that paragraph. Even though they were the ones holding the book, new paragraphs with various contents kept being added, as if someone else was writing them right now. Each in different handwriting.
"Records are being added at every moment..."
Jeong Sira murmured, recalling what Seoya had read from the first page earlier.
"It really was adding records at every moment... every single instant, continuously..."
Seoya could roughly guess what Jeong Sira was getting at. In the higher world, concepts like past, present, and future might differ from what she imagined.
"Mm, so the System's been creepily voyeuring us like this, huh..."
A bit off the mark, but Ji Sein, understanding it that way, widened her eyes and asked.
"So what do we do? When do we kill the monsters? We gotta do something to clear and get out, right?"
"Right, we need to find the monsters first."
The moment Go Heejae said that, Seoya flinched reflexively, sensing something with her mana.
"...Princess, what's wrong?"
Ji Sein, meeting Seoya's gaze head-on, asked with a start.
Seoya's eyes were glowing a fierce yellow, instinctively sensing danger.
"Those eyes... something's appeared?"
"What's going on?"
"S-something... something's here..."
Seoya focused her eyes and scanned the library interior. She felt no signs of life forms inside.
But this oppressive aura... it's definitely coming from inside the library.
Something was about to happen.
"W-what's that?"
Then Ji Sein spoke in a trembling voice. The hundreds of millions of books on the shelves were coming out.
"An attack?!"
"Those can't be the monsters, right?"
The sight of hundreds of millions of books launching out from the shelves all at once created an immense pressure. Everyone's breaths grew ragged with fear.
Instinctively, Seoya clutched the "Earth" book tight to her chest. That one alone remained unmoving in this place.
The books shot out from the shelves as if manipulated by something—or perhaps with wills of their own—but they didn't fly at the group. They simply hovered quietly in front of the shelves.
But that lasted only a moment. Suddenly, the hundreds of millions of books began moving in unison.
They surrounded the group, forming a circle, then a square, twisting into bizarre shapes as they spun round and round.
"What's about to happen?"
Ji Sein seemed to be panicking in this bizarre situation of being trapped by hundreds of millions of books, her breathing growing labored.
"Something inexplicable and strange."
Go Heejae murmured. It was what the hunter who had entered this place before had left behind.
"This is driving me crazy... Is this the monster, or am I just shocked?"
Ji Sein pulled up her System window to check her mental strength, but the unchanged value only confirmed she was truly suffering mental strain in reality, not from the System.
"F-for hyperventilation, a plastic bag helps..."
Ji Sein pulled a plastic bag from her backpack and deftly held it to her mouth like it was routine.
"What do you think would happen if we attacked those books?"
Go Heejae asked Seoya, trying to keep his voice steady.
"No idea, hmm..."
But Seoya thought it might work. They couldn't just stand there amid the spinning books waiting for a monster to appear or something to happen.
Resolved, Seoya summoned blue mana and hurled it at the books.
Pzzt-zzt-!
"Ah!"
Seoya yelped shortly, feeling a burning sting like fire, and quickly withdrew her mana.
"Ah, this... doesn't work?"
The moment her mana touched the books, they repelled it violently like a rejection reaction, and Seoya felt the backlash.
"Then what do we do?"
As Go Heejae tensed seeing Seoya's power fail, the spinning flow of books suddenly stopped.
The books still encircled them in a ring, but the ceiling above was wide open.
They all reflexively looked up at the ceiling.
And froze in place, unable to move.
"Ah..."
There was a glaring red eye.
Similar to the red eye Seoya had seen in the "History of Toda" dungeon Ibin had created before. But this was different from Ibin's creation.
This one's real.
The moment she saw it, Seoya thought Ibin might have seen a higher world being too. Ibin had seen it and put a replica in that dungeon so Seoya would know—but she couldn't replicate the real thing's overwhelming pressure.
Seoya felt her now-familiar mental strength drain. Nearby, someone's ragged breathing turned to a thud as they collapsed to the floor.
"C-can... can we talk?"
The moment Seoya addressed it, the "red eye" began to glow.
A massive, glaring red eye floating in the air, shining as it stared them down—the sight made their breaths catch, bodies stiffening with tension.
"No talking, huh...?"
Seoya murmured. And at the same time, something rapidly appeared before their eyes.
Do not dare to peek into higher places.
Do not dare to peek into higher places.
Do not dare to peek into higher places.
Dozens of System windows.