WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Chapter 378
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The Receiver IX
[The Librarian of the Great Library] will be left behind as a bona-fide Constellation.
It has just one goal.
Go Yuri, who only managed to seize a clue worthy of the na after reaching the 999th run, a being whose real na remains an enigma.
All of this is to pass information about her down to the next ‘’.
“How do you like it, Master?”
Admin of the Infinite taga, the very person who ca up with the operation, flashed a self-assured smile.
“Please humbly admit that the only strategist in your party is no longer just that blasted puppet-master behind the scenes.”
“…I get that Dok-seo is your priestess, but do you really have to hate Yohwa that much too?”
“Oh my, you are absolutely right, Master! After all, you only handed [Mind Reading] to her, twisted my century-long master plan in a single stroke, ruined the most promising priestess worse than anyone, and even made sign a humiliating instrunt of surrender—but sure, there isn’t a single reason in the world for to bear a grudge, is there?”
“...”
Leaving the blazing-with-rage Admin of the Infinite taga aside for the mont, I ran the numbers on the operation’s success rate in my head.
‘Not bad.’
No—better than rely ‘not bad.’
There were, however, several side effects and loopholes that could be foreseen once the plan was set in motion, and I rolled each of them across my tongue in turn.
“Very well, Admin of the Infinite taga. Let’s assu, as you say, that [The Librarian of the Great Library] indeed ascends as the one-and-only authentic Constellation.”
“Yeees, sir.”
“In that case, she’ll have inherited not only the remnants of the Great Witch Hecate but the Saintess’s traces as well. If we leave her be, won’t she beco ridiculously strong down the road?”
“Hmm. You’re worried about a rebellion, aren’t you? Then the constraints have to be strong—very strong.”
The Admin of the Infinite taga tilted her chin, as if she had expected such objections and was nonetheless happy to play the red team in our thought experint.
“From what I’ve heard from the other Constellations, you’ve already gathered the fragnts, Master.”
“Ah, you an these?”
“Um, Master, sorry to say, but could you please not play so casually with an anomaly’s main body?”
She paled when she saw the Constellation fragnts I’d just fished out of my pocket.
No one had ever pointed it out, so I hadn’t noticed, but apparently even touching these shards counted as the outrageous misconduct of a monster in her book.
“Haa... Well, perhaps it’s for the best. The pieces that end up in your grasp are, so to speak, the Constellation’s core—the very essence.”
“Ho-oh.”
“In other words... by using these fragnts you can design the Constellation’s ‘settings’ however you like.”
“For example, sothing like [Must Never Be Hostile Toward Humanity]?”
“Exactly. You can impose as many rules as you fancy, right down to sothing akin to the Three Laws of Robotics.”
The Admin of the Infinite taga grumbled from behind her fan.
“Honestly. The original plan was for to tweak the settings with my authority, yet the already unfair gentleman disappears for a bit only to co back even more upgraded. The world really is, hopelessly, unfair.”
I ignored the complaint—it was beside the point.
‘So I’m entering the settings.’
I define the essence of the anomaly.
With my fingertips, I create an anomaly.
“...”
A pitch-black unease rose from below my navel, but I clenched my fist.
It was sothing that had to be done.
I could not abandon the strategy against Go Yuri like this. I could not squander the chance that had finally arrived in the 999th cycle.
“...Right. If I have no choice but to create this anomaly, I have to configure it so that it harms humanity as little as possible.”
“Hmm. Speaking as soone who already surrendered, I’ll warn you it won’t be easy. You’ll have to brace for so collateral damage.”
“No. There is a way.”
I looked straight ahead.
“I’m going to put you to use, Admin of the Infinite taga.”
“?”
From that day on, the days of writing the setting bible for [The Librarian of the Great Library] began.
– Eeeeeeeek!
A high-fidelity soprano rang out of the laptop speakers—none other than Admin of the Infinite taga’s fury-stricken groan.
Only a short while ago she had enjoyed the freedom of the outside world; how had it co to this?
As if she’d changed jobs back into a VTuber, the avatar of a noble lady on the laptop screen was gnawing a handkerchief.
– I finally thought I’d gotten a real body, and now—again! Again you shove into this rice-grain-sized studio apartnt! My goodness! Do you truly lack even a shred of human compassion?!
Slurp.
I leisurely sipped the canned coffee I had salvaged from the Tower of Babel’s storeroom and looked down at the laptop.
“Every VTuber is either a reincarnate or a reincarnation candidate. You’re simply walking the path allotted to you.”
– Eeeek! T-talk about frightening out of nowhere.
“Enough. Get ready.”
I held the Constellation shards up to the laptop screen, beckoning for her to hurry up and eat them.
– Haa. So bull-headed, honestly...
The Admin of the Infinite taga let out a sigh.
The mont the noble-lady avatar stretched out her arms, the fragnts that had definitely been ‘outside’ the screen migrated to ‘inside’ it.
Piro-ro-ro-rong ♪
On the white desktop the shards were now lined up like icons, transford into clumps of pixels.
“Is there any reason to sigh? This isn’t bad news for you either, it ans a bit of your mark will remain in [The Librarian of the Great Library].”
– Yes, yes. That’s why I’m cooperating, otherwise I’d never have returned to this solitary-cell existence.
“Hmm. Strictly speaking, you’ve sworn unconditional obedience to , so when I give an order, you follow it first and complain later.”
– Could you perhaps share that wretched unpleasantness of yours not only with anomalies like but with the humans around you as well?
I cracked the knuckles of my interlaced fingers.
I clicked on a Notepad file.
“All right.”
– Yees.
“Let’s get started.”
The fragnts broke apart.
As the pixels shattered, black dots appeared.
The mont my fingers clacked on the keyboard, those black specks birthed from the shards were dragged along and turned into letters, like ink.
Just as I had rewritten Admin of the Infinite taga’s core in my own handwriting, I would now define the essence of [The Librarian of the Great Library] through typing.
The first line of the setting bible read as follows.
※ This work is a piece of fiction. Any institution nas, work titles, personal nas, or trademarks that appear are entirely fictitious.
Why did that feel so familiar?
Yes. The restriction that it was nothing more than ‘fiction.’
A way to ensure that, even if an anomaly-cum-constellation called [The Librarian of the Great Library] did co to life, it would inflict no damage on humanity or reality.
– Hmm. Your brain does work well.
The Admin of the Infinite taga craned her neck to peer at the Notepad file. Her avatar hung from it like soone clinging to a wall.
– Seeing as I’m an Outer God who once ruled over ‘fiction,’ I’ve been pretty much completely neutralized already.
– Therefore, now that [The Librarian of the Great Library]’s sphere of action is limited to fiction, she will never unleash unexpected explosive power.
“Exactly.”
Only powerful anomalies had value, so I once thought.
Even a weak anomaly gained a fresh purpose by virtue of its weakness.
“To lock her inside ‘fiction’ I’ll need not only the fragnts’ ink but your assistance as well.”
– Yes. In a sense... you could call her my daughter?
The Admin of the Infinite taga made an odd face.
– Her original is that Saintess, her maker is you, and I am her helper. Three parents, how lucky the child is to have so many.
“Let’s keep going.”
Even if I managed to save the world, this anomaly would probably persist sowhere in it, forever taking the form of a ‘creative work.’
The paraters for that entity continued.
1. [The Librarian of the Great Library] records every anomaly and every tale of the uncanny. The thod of recording varies each ti.
2. Every ghost story circulating through reality or cyberspace has either been authored by [The Librarian of the Great Library] or penned unwittingly by soone she has enchanted.
2-1. [The Librarian of the Great Library] cannot reveal these facts. She records the stories, nothing more, and must not be concerned with proving her own existence.
Juru-ru-ruk.
Every ti another line was entered into the setting bible, ink seeped from the shards, and a white ichor trickled from Admin of the Infinite taga’s avatar.
From my fingertips as well.
“...”
The letters ‘Under’, ‘ta’, and ‘ker’ tumbled into the screen one after another.
‘In the past, even my eyes would never have been able to see such a sight.’
Just how did such a perspective suddenly open up to ?
I still lacked the answer, but what mattered now was that it was useful to .
“When I think about it.”
Tap-tap-tap.
I muttered while hamring endlessly at the keys.
– Yes?
“From the very start, [The Librarian of the Great Library] was defined as the Constellation presiding over the Library Society, whose leader is a character called the Duke of the Black Library—whose true identity is...”
– Master, that’s you, isn’t it?
“Right.”
Tack, tack-tack.
“To pass off the strategy thods for anomalies to the Awakeners in a manner that sounded plausible, I used the façade of a ‘Library Society.’ The whole setup was my design from start to finish.”
Tack.
“I could have entrusted the imaginary Duke of the Black Library to soone else, like [The Dream Demon of the Grand Pleasure Palace] or [The Morning Star of the Second Coming].”
– And yet?
“Why, then? I kept the hidden lore that ‘the Duke of the Black Library is actually the Undertaker.’ There was no need to, but unlike the other Constellations, [The Librarian of the Great Library] alone possessed my identity.”
– ...
“And now, [The Librarian of the Great Library] is literally being born at my hands.”
Tack.
“All of these coincidences...”
– feel almost like inevitabilities.
“Ahh.”
I smiled.
“How many failures must there have been before reaching this inevitable path? Imagining them makes want to bless myself for having arrived at this mont.”
– Hmph.
“Then your presence at my side now is hardly a re coincidence either, Admin of the Infinite taga.”
– ...
“Because you demoted everything in this world to fiction, I could hand over the clues about Go Yuri in the form of a creative work. Perhaps you too were necessary—for , for us.”
The keyboard clattered.
“A pity.”
– What’s a pity?
“I’ve felt gratitude toward you for the first ti in my life, yet once we pass on to the next cycle I’ll forget it forever, that’s the pity.”
– ...
“So oblivion was this frightening after all.”
Stare. On the screen, the Admin of the Infinite taga was gazing up at .
That gaze no longer felt awkward.
“To rember every minute of one’s life, I had thought that was the punishnt and curse laid upon , but perhaps it wasn’t after all.”
– Whichever path we start on, every human ends up bearing their own heaven-ordained punishnt.
Admin of the Infinite taga’s voice murmured through the speakers, the quality now slightly degraded.
– If there had been no yearning or lant for worlds other than this one, an Outer God like would never have been born.
“So, round and round, you exist because of humanity’s incorrigible nature?”
– Yes. Cursed, isn’t it.
The Admin of the Infinite taga looked up at the sky.
I suddenly wondered.
How did the world ‘outside the screen’ appear in Admin of the Infinite taga’s eyes?
– Which is why your author Hecate concluded that humanity’s nature had to be remodeled entirely. It seems she failed though—thanks to you, Master.
“...”
– Since you’ll forget anyway, I’ll confess now: I didn’t surrender to you solely to survive.
“Then why?”
– I wanted to watch.
Hee-hee, a laugh laced with static.
– Your epilogue.
“...”
– I acknowledge your effort. Yes, I concede defeat. But when it all ends, what will you obtain? A single human? Humanity? A world of billions, each harboring billions of curses?
The defeated Outer God—now closer to human—smiled with her eyes.
– I’ve co to want to see it at any cost, even if I must discard all my authority, the mont you fall at the very end.
“That will never happen.”
– And whom you’ll end up dating, and if you do, how many holes will get punched in your gut.
“Please spare that at least...”
– Oh my. I need so sort of spectator sport to add a bit of fun to a life fallen from godhood to servitude, don’t I?
Kyaruruk.
It was a laugh that fit her form from long before, far more than the noble-lady guise she bore now.
Ti passed.
The setting bible was enormous; I needed ticulous and subtle coding to ensure that under no circumstances could [The Librarian of the Great Library] evolve into a dangerous anomaly.
‘How much ti has passed?’
It was hard to sense ti.
As I said, every letter I wrote drained ‘sothing’ from my being.
In marial art terms, it was like innate true qi.
Just as the fragnts, that ford the core of the Constellations, were being used as ink, sothing that ford the backbone of , the regressor known as the Undertaker, was being consud.
‘...But it doesn’t matter.’
It will all reset anyway.
‘I mustn’t write a docunt directly about Go Yuri, the chance she’ll notice is too high.’
Call a ghost and a ghost will co.
It was the most basic of spells.
‘Now I think I see why Go Yuri suddenly adopted the identity of a ‘tiger.’
There must have been several reasons.
Perhaps she needed the concept of dragon-tiger contention in order to oppose a dragon like Leviathan.
She might have borrowed the legend of the Jangsanbeom[1], which can mimic any face or voice, to express that trait.
Go Yuri.
A na permitted only to .
‘...Everyone has their own way of calling Go Yuri. Ha-yul has her own term, Dok-seo has hers.’
Therefore I must not call her ‘Go Yuri.’
If I do, she’ll realize from ‘over there’ that it was none other than the Undertaker who summoned her.
The instant I call her, she perceives it.
‘What an absurd spell.’
A bitter laugh escaped .
‘Therefore, when drafting the Library Society docunt, I must not ntion the na Go Yuri.’
‘As if writing in cipher, so that only I can understand it.’
An epithet.
‘One that the next , or even the hundreds of cycles hence, will be compelled to click the mont I see it.’
I pondered.
‘...This is it.’
I hamred the keyboard.
‘With this, even if I lose my mory—even if I regard the flood of data in the Library Society as nothing more than rootless scraps of information whose source I can’t trace—’
‘—I’ll still take it seriously.’
‘Others will see nothing but a aningless string of characters.’
‘But the Undertaker—that is, I the regressor—could never dismiss such characters as a joke.’
I wrote the docunt about Go Yuri.
I penned Go Yuri’s story without ever using the na Go Yuri.
It seed a narrative style that suited her quite well.
With each character I typed, the fragnts of the Constellation lted away, and in no ti they were gone.
– ...
Even the avatar resembling a noble lady—
—had, at so point, fallen silent altogether, becoming a blurry mass of pixels.
But.
‘Finished.’
Tak.
I hit Enter.
The mont I wrapped up, a sudden wave of fatigue hit—no ordinary fatigue, but a sensation close to spiritual depletion.
Through dimming vision I could just make out the laptop with its screen now dark. Had the Admin of the Infinite taga also spent her soul to the very end?
If so, then this was the regressor’s will.
A guidebook for one solitary strategy.
‘I’m counting on you... the next .’
I closed my eyes.
Footnotes:
[1] An urban legend about a mysterious creature resembling a tiger that appears in the mountains of Jangsan Mountain in Busan tropolitan City in Korea.
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