Chapter 1881: Chapter 1878: Different Treatment
“Wanderer in the Dark”
The book’s cover is a translucent black gelatinous material, with a shadow flickering within.
The spine is made from a tentacle wrapped around a skeletal structure.
Of course, this isn’t a particularly valuable book; if you searched some neutral markets, you might find similar styled books.
What Han Dong values is the attributes of this book and the story hidden within.
The moment the cover is opened.
It’s as if the highest-grade lubricant is applied all over the body, not just the surface, even the gaps between flesh and bones are filled with lubrication.
A complete soul body easily detaches from the physical form… entering the “Soul Port” constructed by the first page of the book.
A sound resembling the yellow robe echoes between the soul.
“Please choose the perspective from which you will read this book: First Person/Third Person.”
Han Dong seems to have already made up his mind and without any hesitation—’First Person.’
“Which character do you wish to experience the book through:
1. Protagonist (Highly restrictive, requiring key decisions and actions as per the book’s set storyline. Deviating from the main line or violating character design will result in forced end of reading, affecting your soul, or even destroying it.)
2. Supporting Role (Moderately restrictive, automatically selects the supporting role whose attributes closely match yours. While interacting with the protagonist, you must follow the pre-set main line; otherwise, you will face punishment and soul impact.)
3. Bystander (Low restrictiveness, randomly landing in the body of a passerby. You can freely act as long as it doesn’t affect the protagonist or the main storyline of the world, and even explore the book’s world.)”
“Protagonist.”
Without hesitation, Han Dong decisively experiences the entire book as the protagonist.
Actually,
From Han Dong’s “soul state” one can understand… the soul detached from the body is in the pure form of the Faceless One.
The so-called ‘restrictions’ aren’t an issue at all,
The stronger the restriction, the higher the imitation requirement,
Han Dong can just use the opportunity to hone his [Faceless Myth].
When in the Chaos Abyss, Han Dong already found the answer about the ‘self’… to truly comprehend the essence of the Faceless One, other answers beyond the self need to be found.
The Seraino Great Library can conveniently provide a direct method to find this answer.
By immersing the soul into the book’s protagonist, completely abandoning the “self,” living as another identity, even the fundamental species, personality, and habits are entirely changed.
This “Wanderer in the Dark” mainly narrates the story of a “Dark Denizen” who, due to congenital defects, suffers exclusion from the same race and is framed and forcibly exiled from the city.
When Han Dong regains consciousness, he’s in a pitch-black nest, unable to solidify his body, unable to function like other tribe members, surrounded by ridicule during childhood.
Yet he wears a strange smile on his face, quickly adapting to this identity, even forgetting the names ‘Han Dong and Nicholas’ completely.
He starts a dark life in the depths of a gloomy valley.
…
Another section of the library, the area where Pope ascends the staircase,
is designed as an astronomical reading room.
The top is a completely open “skylight structure,” with a height of nearly a hundred meters, and reflective panels on both sides for ‘visual magnification.’ Just look up to observe the chaotic celestial phenomena among the shattered dimension.
When Pope first arrives at the reading room, he is captivated by the design, yet he focuses more on the books.
The astronomical section holds two-thirds fewer books than Han Dong’s area, but their quality is a notch higher.
Containing famous anecdotes or epic biographies created by renowned demons, the books here are considered [classics].
Even excluding the soul modification attributes, the books themselves are priceless.
“I see, this is the library’s secret. It’s the root cause why the teacher deems it the First Library… this is fascinating! The Yellow Robe King truly deserves the title of the unparalleled supreme in the soul field.”
Pope almost synchronously completes his understanding of the library with Han Dong, simultaneously opening the books as well.
The first book he reads is named “The Noisy Place.”
Different from Han Dong’s choice to feel the diverse lives of various demons through small stories,
Pope selects famous classics that inherently contain deeper philosophies and artistic conceptions.
He opts for the “Third Person” in addition to the bystander’s identity,
forming a pure ‘audience perspective,’ using the protagonist as an axis to observe the entire book’s world direction, the flow mode of space and time,
while meticulously understanding every character’s inner activities and emotional interweaving.
…
While Han Dong and Pope take full advantage of the library’s features, immersing themselves in the book’s world,
what awaits Eugene is an entirely different ‘reading experience.’
The descending staircase is extraordinarily long, giving a sense of never-ending… When Eugene steps down the last step, he doesn’t even know how many days and nights have passed, as if reaching the deepest part of the library.
There’s no direct display of books here, and it doesn’t resemble a reading room at all down here.
Instead, the air is filled with an ancient, deathly stillness, and a severely decayed odor.
“Underground prison?! Could Nicholas have sold me out from the start?”
Eugene summons a stone spear, cautiously walking through the narrow tunnel.
When passing by a cell, the interior scene leaves him stunned.
An extremely decrepit, mummified demon, hunching severely, sits at a small wooden desk creating something.
Who knows how long he’s been creating, his shriveled skin and body have fused with the wooden stool, the lower limbs even rooting into the ground… leaving just a faint breath.
The head is full of tentacle boreholes or scars clawed out by sharp objects.
The brain is almost shriveled, with hardly any inspiration to squeeze out.
However, if the creation isn’t completed and the collection standard isn’t met, one can only continue creating.
The most terrifying thing is,
from the minuscule aura emitted from him, it can be judged that he is originally a Mythic Body.
As Eugene cautiously continues his exploration of this underground area, another issue is discovered.
The prisoners here are under strict restrictions, their souls fixed inside the cells, entirely unable to leave.
But Eugene is unrestricted,
even able to freely enter and exit each cell,
observe the state of creation,
browse through the articles they created,
and even tamper with their bodies however he pleases.
“Hmm, did this guy write himself to death here?”
Eugene finds a fat and black corpse over a small wooden desk, died while writing, advancing to check, buzz!
The “Scripture of the Corpse Eating Cult” carried with him responds, sparking Eugene’s excitement, instantly altering his attitude and understanding of the library, viewing it as a rare opportunity.
However.
What Eugene doesn’t know is,
due to the library system detecting his attributes, it’s deemed more suitable for handling corpses, waste, and debris than reading books, resulting in his assignment here, greatly reducing the library’s ‘waste management’ workload.