I'll finally be able to see her again.
.
.
.
Soo Hyuk read the last passage and closed the book.
The white glow of the book disappeared, and a message appeared.
[Your satiation had dropped below 50%]
"Hmm?"
Soo Hyuk, who was expecting a wisdom increase, was left flustered at the sudden notice.
'Was the book too thin?'
His wisdom probably didn't increase because the book was too thin. Soo Hyuk stood up and went to lounge area to refill his satiation.
When Soo Hyuk arrived at the lounge area, he opened his inventory to eat his soft bread. As he brought out 2 soft bread, he thought.
'Looks like I have to buy more bread.'
In his inventory, there was enough bread left for one more reading session.
'I'll buy them tomorrow.'
He wasn't going to buy them today, as he was planning to just spend the day reading comfortably. Soo Hyuk started to eat the bread calmly.
When he finished eating the last crumbs, his satiation rose to to 90%. After he checked his satiation, Soo Hyuk exited the lounge area and went to a bookshelf.
Soo Hyuk thought as he pulled out a book.
'Is that person waiting outside?'
That stranger had followed him out the Central Spire and had also come to the library almost two hours later.
'It's likely from the way he followed me all the way here.'
Around 1 hour had passed since that strange man had come to the library and pestered Soo Hyuk, but Soo Hyuk still had a feeling that the man was still close by.
'Well, it doesn't matter.'
Soo Hyuk thought that it didn't matter anyway. Even if the man was going to harass him outside, rather than stubbornly not answering, he wasn't going to exit the library at all. Soo Hyuk pulled out six books from the bookshelf and returned to his desktop read.
"When is he going to come out?"
Adilo said to himself while frowning.
"It's already been an hour."
Adilo had patiently waited for an hour, yet there was no sign of the young man coming out at all.
"Is he just really slow at reading?"
Adilo wondered.
"Let's just wait a bit more."
Adilo decided to wait a bit more for the sake of the mysterious envelope.
30 minutes passed again. Adilo was still outside, waiting. But one could tell he starting to get irritated from his scary expression.
'He should've finished that book by now.'
No matter how slow he was, Adilo thought that it would be enough to finish that one book. Eventually, Adilo couldn't endure anymore and went inside again.
"Here you go."
Adilo slapped his token at the NPC and stomped inside the library. When he entered the library, he immediately spotted the young man, who was surrounded by books again.
Adilo approached the young man while trying to look intimidating. However, the young man didn't even glance at him again. Adilo had already sort of expected this, so he then checked the books that were piled up on the desk.
'This crazy bastard.'
They weren't the books from 1 hour and a half ago.
'He's reading again.'
They were new books. This made Adilo wonder about whether there were some important secrets in book.
'Is there something like a big secret in the books?'
The books did give you wisdom, but it was terribly inefficient. All the users already knew that the levelling was more time efficient than reading.
This man probably also knew about it as well, and yet, he was reading a book with five others piled around him.
'No, even if there were...he's reading too many books for there a to be a secret hidden in them.'
He had five books before, but now, there were six. Were they somehow all related?
'But the titles are all different.'
They weren't a series or even about the same topic.
'Then is it for the wisdom?'
Then there was only one reason left. The wisdom bonuses. (TL: But what about the reason why people read this book? Webnovels like this doesn't even make you smarter.)
'Isn't that pretty dumb?'
Adilo thought that it was too foolish.
'Argh...'
Adilo's face scrunched up. He thought that his head was going to explode from the sheer stupidity of this man.
'Such a waste of time.'
Adilo was waiting for the young man to come out of the library to get his envelope. He had waited for than an hour by now.
'I can't just give up like this.'
By now, Adilo wanted the envelope not because of Kim Hyuk, but to satisfy his own curiosity. He had never thought of being so close to the realm of the special class users until now. That was why he wanted to know so badly.
'He will most likely leave if I stop him from reading.'
Just because PK was impossible didn't mean that other aggressive actions were, so Adilo covered the young man's book with his hand again.
When his book was covered, the young man looked up with a hostile glare.
"What is it this time?"
The young man asked with a low voice.
"Tell me."
Adilo asked with a 'polite' smile.
"...No."
The young man then slapped away his hand and started reading again.
Adilo covered it again.
The young man looked up again with intense anger written on his face. He then questioned menacingly,
"Are going to keep doing this until I tell you?"
"Yep, are you going to tell me now?"
The young man didn't say anything for a while. After glaring at Adilo like he was his most hated nemesis, he just stood up silently.
'Is he leaving now?'
Adilo thought while smiling. Was he finally going to leave? But his smile quickly turned into a frown as he watched the young man. The young man was not going outside.
'...The private room?'
The young man was headed towards the private reading room. Although it charged 5 gold for 1 hour of use, they wouldn't get interrupted by other people.
'Sh*t. This f*cking son of a b*tch.'
Adilo swore crazily as he glared at the young man entering the private room. He couldn't even watch him now.
'Sh*t. I have to log out soon.'
It was almost time to log out. Although he could hold out for longer, the young man couldn't be interfered now, and he had to go to work early tomorrow.
'If only I didn't have to go to work.'
This was too unlucky.
'You better be here tomorrow.'
Adilo glared at the young man one more time and logged out.
* * *
[5 gold have been spent]
[Time left: 60 minutes]
Soo Hyuk was smouldering inside while he entered the room.
"How much bread is five gold?"
The main reason he couldn't do the skill quests was because of gold. After all, he didn't need to spend gold on a skill that he wasn't going to use now.
Soo Hyuks stingy about gold that way. But now, he was spending gold for a completely nonsensical reason of hiding from a stalker in a game. Soo Hyuk flipped open the first book and thought.
'That weirdo wouldn't still be outside, right?'
But what if he was still there?
'I can't just stay in here forever...'
It was impossible to stay in here for long. It was possible for one or two hours, but he needed to pay an unbearable amount of gold that could be used for buying more bread.
'Do I have to read next to the NPC?'
The private reading room wasn't the only way to be uninterrupted. Users wouldn't be able to be violent around the librarian. In that situation, the librarian's eject ability will be activated and that person won't be able to enter the library for a month.
'What if he comes back after an hour?'
There librarian wasn't completely foolproof, because he didn't always stay in one spot. The librarian would be wandering around the library most of time, and now was one of those times.
'No, let's not worry about it. He can't keep waiting for me. Let's just read.'
Getting rid of his worry, Soo Hyuk dived into the book once again.
* * *
– Kim Hyuk: I'm busy today so I won't be able to log on today.
"Nice!"
Park Kyung-Ho exclaimed.
"I'm free from that nightmare today! HAHAHA!"
Park Kyung-Ho laughed crazily. The reason Park Kyung-Ho was so excited was because he didn't have to teach that little bastard today.
"Now, he should be at the library, right?"
Park Kyung-Ho had something to do. He had thought that accompanying Kim Hyuk in Pangea would complicate his schedule, but it looked like his worries were unfounded.
Park Kyung-Ho put down his smartphone and climbed into his capsule. He thought while he connected to Pangea.
'Will he still be at the private room?'
When he logged on to Pangea, Park Kyung-Ho no, Adilo went straight away to the library. When he entered the library, Adilo dashed straight to the private rooms and checked if they were available.
'He's not here?'
The young man wasn't in the private room today. After checking the private rooms, Adilo headed to the common reading area to see if he was here.
Adilo found the young man not long after.
'Where is he going?'
Adilo had just caught him walking outside the library. Adilo didn't know where he was heading, but that wasn't important right now. What mattered was the fact that he was heading outside. Adilo followed the young man outside at a distance. When they came outside, Adilo quietly closed the distance while planning his next move.
'An electro ball should be enough to one-shot him.' (TL: think pokemon)
The young man's level was not that high. The reason Adilo thought that was because the young man's equipment only consisted of common clothes and a low-grade leather armour.
It was the gear that you got from the tutorial village. Literally no one except the newbies would wear them.
Adilo thought that no matter how high his level was, it was level at most. Level 40 coupled with a Magician's low vitality and his low-level equipment would be instantly killed with just an electro ball from Adilo.
"Electro ball."
Adilo conjured an electro ball as soon as he was close enough. When the electro ball was fully formed, he dashed madly towards the young man and threw the electro ball.
'What will he drop?'
Adilo wondered with a sinister smile as he watched the electro ball fly towards the young man. In his mind, the young man's death was already guaranteed.
'He better drop envelope.'
[You have attacked user 'Soo Hyuk'.]
[Your relationship user 'Soo Hyuk' has fallen to 'hostile'.]
The electro ball exploded.
'So, his name is Soo Hyuk.'
Adilo found out Soo Hyuk's character name from his attack.
'What will he drop?'
Adilo stared at the explosion while he tilted his head in thought. What items would he drop?
"...?"
But when the dust cleared, Adilo could still see Soo Hyuk safe and sound.
'What? He didn't die?'
He was convinced that the attack had hit Soo Hyuk. But he didn't die.
'How...?'
Adilo quickly shook his head to clear his mind and activated electro ball again.
"Electro ball."
Although he didn't know why Soo Hyuk didn't die, he quickly aimed the electro ball at Soo Hyuk again.
The spell cackled with electricity as it flew through the air. But as it was nearing Soo Hyuk, something completely unexpected happened.
As the electro ball was about to hit Soo Hyuk, green gas filled the air instantly. The electro ball exploded at the moment it hit the green gas, but the explosion was nullified by the gas.
'...What is that?!'
Adilo panicked at the sudden appearance of the mysterious green gas. When he was desperately trying to figure out his next action, the green gas engulfed Adilo and messages started to appear.
[You have been poisoned by the Blood Troll's Poison.]
[You have been inflicted bleed for 1 minute.]
[You have been poisoned by the Red Snake Kapouri's Poison.]
[You have been paralysed for 5 minutes.]
* * *
The Tower of Poison.
"He still hasn't arrived yet?"
Pavian asked.
"...Yes."
Kale answered. He was at a loss as well.
"Didn't he get the envelope?"
"Yes, he did."
"Then why isn't he coming?!"
Kale was trying to come up with reasons as to why the new talent still hadn't arrived as Pavian fired off question nonstop.
"Well, he did leave the Spire..."
The Central Spire had contacted them and said that the new talent had left already. Did something happen on the way?
"Haa..."
Pavian sighed deeply.
"The Central Spire isn't even that far from here. Enough time should've passed for someone to arrive at the tower with plenty of time left over. So why wasn't he here yet?!
"Wait,"
'Could it be...'
Pavian suddenly froze. It was like he had been struck by lightning.
"Kidnapped?"