Chapter 109

■ Manual Production Meeting for 「Circulating Library」

Meeting Date: August 29, 20XX, 14:00

Number of Attendees: 12 total

Attendees:

Field Team 3 – Team Leader Kwon Mu-seop, Agent (deleted), Agent Cha Si-eon

Field Team 6 – Team Leader Mun Ho-san, Agent Kim Jun-beom, Agent Park Bedro

Research Team 1 – Team Leader Gu Bon-gyeong, Researcher Oh Tae-o, Researcher Hong Mi-na

Research Team 2 – Team Leader Jo Eun-bi, Researcher Kim Ji-an

■ Response Manual for 「Circulating Library」 (Draft)

1. 「Circulating Library」 is a zero-gravity space where two enormous bookshelves face each other.

The full scale of the relevant space has not been identified.

2. The books, or records, in 「Circulating Library」 are presumed to be “the life chronicles of every person in the world.”

Each 「Life Chronicle」 is presumed to contain the life information of one person.

↳ Mun Ho-san: Why is everything in this manual presumed?

↳ Jo Eun-bi: If you hate presumptions, go conduct a full enumeration survey yourself.

3. If one opens a 「Life Chronicle」, one enters the memories stored within it.

The entrant will experience the relevant memory with all five senses.

However, if the entrant is not the person to whom the relevant 「Life Chronicle」 belongs, they cannot interpret the fragmented and distorted memories.

↳ Kim Ji-an: Even if they are not necessarily the person in question, someone who understands the owner of the 「Life Chronicle」 well can interpret the fragmented memories.

↳ Cha Si-eon: I think it would be better not to include that content.

↳ Kim Ji-an: Would it not help in an emergency?

↳ Mun Ho-san: There is only one case where that worked. And that was done by Mr./Ms. (deleted). There is no guarantee that anyone can copy it, unniya.

↳ Kwon Mu-seop: It is a method that has not yet been verified, so let us not put it in the basic manual and attach it separately for reference.

↳ Kim Ji-an: Ah, yes. Understood.

↳ Jo Eun-bi: Team Leader Mun, please use proper forms of address.

4. The maximum number of people who can enter one 「Life Chronicle」 together, including the person in question, is 12.

↳ Oh Tae-o: But is it really 12 people……? Field teams have to ride elevators with fewer people than the maximum number written there too. We need to confirm whether the restriction standard is weight or head count…….

↳ Mun Ho-san: You are not making fun of us for being heavy right now, are you?

↳ Kwon Mu-seop: Let us move on from this. Unless it is a very special case, there will be no occasion for more than 12 people to gather there anyway.

↳ Oh Tae-o: Then for 12 muscle-pigs…….

↳ Gu Bon-gyeong: Oh Tae-o, your mouth……!

5. To escape from 「Circulating Library」, one must reach the “current memory” through a 「Life Chronicle」.

The escape process through a 「Life Chronicle」 is as follows.

* Next -

① Drop blood into empty space to find your own 「Life Chronicle」.

② If you have companions, connect your bodies to one another with a cord or similar item.

③ Open the 「Life Chronicle」 and enter the stored memories.

④ Reconstruct the fragmented memories. If one correctly recalls the space, time, characters, situation, etc., the broken memory will take on a complete form.

⑤ If memory reconstruction succeeds, one will move on to the next memory.

⑥ Repeat the above ④ and ⑤ processes, traveling along the memories.

⑦ The memories connect in chronological order, and when one reaches the current memory, one will emerge into reality.

※Precautions※

Those who have a past they have not yet overcome or trauma must not carelessly approach their own 「Life Chronicle」.

---

In other words, this place was a library where people’s 「Life Chronicles」 were stored.

And the range of “people” the Bureau presumed was all humanity.

It was unknown who had received whose permission and collected other people’s lives, then bound them into books.

Nor could anyone know through what process those books had been produced.

Everything was a mystery like this, but in any case, in this 「Library」, people’s lives were stored in the form of books.

And to leave this place, one had to find one’s own 「Life Chronicle」 and ride that memory.

There were 2 of us right now.

Since companions could join in 「Life Chronicle」 exploration, only one of us would have to suffer.

“Then whose 「Life Chronicle」 should we follow?”

I naturally thought Team Leader Cha should take responsibility.

Still, I asked out of courtesy, but Cha Si-eon looked at me as if asking what nonsense I was saying.

“Naturally, we will go through Mr. Seo Do-un’s memories.”

“Why is that natural?”

“Do you perhaps have memories or trauma you do not want to face?”

“……It is not exactly that.”

“Then it is right to go through Mr. Seo Do-un’s memories. That side will be easier.”

“So on what grounds are you asserting that?”

“Mr. Seo Do-un has excellent memory and cognitive ability, and good metacognition as well. So you will surely also do well at reflecting on your own past.”

That is true.

I felt a little proud, then came to my senses and argued back.

“Even so, an experienced person is better than a beginner. Team Leader, you escaped through here during the 「National Theater」 incident too.”

Previously, when Cha Si-eon had entered 「National Theater」 to rescue me and Baek Sa-ra.

At that time, Team Leader Cha had come outside with citizens through 「Circulating Library」.

So was it not naturally right for Team Leader Cha to lead this time too?

“The memory I rode out through at that time was another agent’s memory.”

What?

“Furthermore, in terms of experience with 「Life Chronicle」 exploration, there is not much difference between me and Mr. Seo Do-un. I have entered my own 「Life Chronicle」 only once, and that was 5 years ago.”

“Even so, someone who has done it once is better than someone with no experience.”

“That would be true if the 5 years accumulated afterward were ordinary experience. My 「Life Chronicle」 will contain scenes of people exploding to death in Special Zones and such.”

“…….”

“And while exploring a 「Life Chronicle」, there are frequent cases where the person to whom the memory belongs falls into panic. To respond at that time, it would be better for me, the experienced one, rather than Mr. Seo Do-un, the beginner.”

“…….”

“If Mr. Seo Do-un’s past memories are more fatal than bloody incidents inside Special Zones, say so now. I will judge.”

Damn it, I have nothing to refute…….

Whatever my past was, compared to the memories of Cha Si-eon, who had rolled around in Special Zones for years, it would be very peaceful.

“And as Mr. Seo Do-un also knows well, everything seen and heard in a 「Life Chronicle」 will be completely forgotten the moment we exit 「Library」. So there is no need to be ashamed or worry about what happens later.”

Team Leader Cha kept saying only correct things.

So I had nothing else to say.

---

■ Response Manual for 「Circulating Library」

6. All contents of a 「Life Chronicle」 cannot be carried outside 「Circulating Library」.

A person will forget everything they saw and heard, and this memory cannot be revived even through hypnosis or other means.

Records such as writing and audio recordings will also be erased when one exits 「Circulating Library」.

The same applies even if one uses expedients such as codes.

---

Yes.

Whatever I saw here would not remain anyway.

Considering practical benefit, it was also right to view my memories.

And now was not the time to bring up my personal discomfort.

“Whew…….”

When I let out a sigh as a sign of acceptance, Cha Si-eon took the notebook and pen from my vest.

This brat, he has treated my pockets like his own for a while now.

“Records will not remain anyway, will they?”

“What is erased is only the contents of the 「Life Chronicle」. Our reactions to those contents can remain if we write them in a well-circumvented way.”

“So you are saying you will record my reactions?”

“That way, we can at least report whether Mr. Seo Do-un’s 「Life Chronicle」 exploration was easy or difficult. I will not write private content, so be at ease. I do not do such useless things.”

That last sentence sounded like he said it for me to hear.

While I bristled, Cha Si-eon scribbled something in the notebook.

Then he pulled even a knife out of my vest and looked at me.

I sighed again and held out my arm.

Sssrk—

Cha Si-eon made a light wound on my forearm with the knife.

Along with a stinging pain, drops of blood formed on the wound.

I pressed on the wound so my blood could float into empty space.

Then a fingernail-sized drop of blood swelled up and rose, leaving my skin.

The freed drop of blood immediately began flying in one direction.

A drop of blood moving at a speed slightly faster than a running person.

Cha Si-eon and I used the bookshelves like ladders and followed that drop of blood.

Had we moved like that for about 30 minutes?

The drop of blood that had been leisurely navigating the passage suddenly entered one compartment of the bookshelf.

“That compartment.”

“Yes.”

We went in front of the compartment where my drop of blood had entered.

But I could not see a drop of blood or any blood trace, so I squeezed the wound again.

The drop of blood that rose again headed toward one book.

Then it seeped without a trace into the spine of that book.

That book is my 「Life Chronicle」.

I took out the book my blood had found.

Was it my imagination? That book entered my hand with a very familiar feeling.

From the size and weight that seemed to fit into one hand, to the touch of its moderately soft cover.

I wondered why this book felt so familiar, then saw the jet-black cover and realized.

My 「Life Chronicle」 had exactly the same format and volume as Na Bit’s first work, 「One Day After Twelve Days」.

Even the color and material of the cover were the same.

……The Special Zone acknowledged my fan devotion.

Should I be proud of this, or ashamed?

While I felt a strange emotion at the form of my 「Life Chronicle」, Cha Si-eon urged me.

“Begin.”

“Yes.”

I adjusted the book to open it.

“…….”

But when it came time to actually open the book, it was not easy.

Some people open photos from their past happily.

But some people do not.

And I belonged to the latter side.

Because I generally thought of my past with regret.

So I did not particularly like looking into it alone, nor exposing it to others.

They said we would forget everything once we got outside anyway, but the hardship before forgetting was hardship in any case.

So to me, my 「Life Chronicle」 was no different from a poisoned cup.

“I have no interest in other people’s pasts.”

Cha Si-eon seemed to notice my hesitation and spoke.

“I also have no intention of reacting to illusions that will not even remain in memory. So focus. What is important right now is escaping from here.”

At Cha Si-eon’s coldly rational encouragement, I nodded.

Then I opened my 「Life Chronicle」.

“……!”

The moment I opened the book, something poured out from inside it.

With my vocabulary, I could not define what it was.

Something resembling fog, waves, ash, the Milky Way, or darkness surged out of the book.

And in an instant, it swallowed us.

---

We were inside a broken world.

Would it feel like this if one lived inside a broken computer?

Fragmented forms floating in disorderly darkness.

And static in which all kinds of things were mixed.

Faint presence, but a terrible distortion interfering so that one could not recognize what it was.

This is my memory…….

“Is this memory thing originally this difficult to understand?”

“In previous explorers’ reports, it is written that ‘the beginning passed easily.’”

“…….”

“Mr. Seo Do-un, does anything come to mind?”

Something that comes to mind?

I looked at those forms blinking dizzily like the screen of a broken LCD.

Looking closely, they seemed like people.

A person lying in bed.

And the bitter smell of medicine brushing the tip of my nose.

No way.

A familiar smell awakened an old memory.

Half in doubt about what I had recalled, I awkwardly moved my lips.

“……Mother?”

At that moment, the distorted form before my eyes regained its complete appearance.