In the library, with the company of my hand and the book, I was making scribbles while thinking. I was concerned that this world had little similarities to the game I used to play than a complete similarity. So far, although the game hadn't started, I noticed several new characters, namely, my siblings.
The scribbles that I wrote was my attempt in connecting the event in this world to the event in the game. So far, the world background connected, but the character background wasn't. I was in the same exact world as the game with the same exact mechanism. There was magical energy, magical weapon, and magical creature, but still, I had my doubts.
Someone knocked on the door, "Cathleen, may I come in?"
"Sure."
The door opened. Beth entered the room. She walked towards my table. The first thing that grabbed her attention was my scribble. She shrugged it off then looked at the book that I was reading. The book was history, the history of Grantis Kingdom. Why did it matter? Well, maybe because of the fact that the lore of the game came from that.
"What are you scribbling there?" Beth asked. She pointed her hand at the handwritten notes with a doctor's touch, practically unreadable for regular eyes. It was my scribble on a piece of paper. It was the checklist of what connected with the world so far, but so far, not so good.
"Just some writings," I answered with that simple answer.
"Really? That's unreadable, don't tell me you can't write now, Cathleen."
"I still can write. It's just faster to scribble." More like, you wouldn't be able to read my writings, dear sister. I didn't want you to read it. "Where is Joseph?" I asked.
"Joseph is outside, with his friends from the last night party. Why do you ask?" Beth asked me back.
"He promised me to teach me more about magic."
"Is that so? What a surprise. Usually, you are more talented in magic than him, for some parts. Still, I guess there is something that you can't do, right?" She said.
What did she mean by that? I? More talented than Joseph, who was almost twice my age? I found it hard to believe, especially with how I could barely use the flashlight spell on my hand. Then again, I really didn't know much about this girl's past.
Searching through this girl's memory was like looking through an empty room you recognized. Still, you didn't see anyone or any object of importance. It was just what it was, an empty space of insignificance.
More like, if you enter a development room only to find an empty mansion interior with NPCs that don't do anything, it was like that in this girl's head. No context, no background, no clue, it was just that, empty. It was a little bit sad, to be honest.
"Cathleen, are you there?" My sister waved her hand at me, who was missing out.
I snapped myself out of it, "Sorry, I was missing out."
"Anyway, back to my point, it seems that the portion of your magical knowledge was shaved off from your head. Don't worry though, I think Mr. Herbert will be able to give you another lesson for that, don't you think?"
I just nodded. I didn't even know what I was nodding for. It was just my reaction. If I didn't nod, it wouldn't end well, I thought. Still, what did Herbert look like? Would it be a teacher with an attitude or just a regular teacher?
"I'll be happy to do so."
"Are you sure that fall didn't trigger some kind of personality change? You know, you seem to be a different person. Or is it just me?" Beth asked herself.
"Probably just you, sis. I think I am who I am. You seem to be acting weirder than usual," I commented. It was better to move on the offensive in this conversation.
"Is that so?"
I nodded.
"I think it's just you."
"I don't think so," I replied.
Great, now I had convinced that my sister was out of his ordinary behaviour. Honestly, I felt bad for it. Still, I was really the one who was out of her ordinary, and I was sure that my sister was right at this one.
She pulled the chair right next to me after she grabbed a book from one of the book racks in this library. She only read something light, not really something as heavy as the kingdom's history, both in weight and the content of the book itself.
I looked at the cover of the book. Every book in this world was typed using some kind of typewriter or some kind of old printing device. To be honest, I didn't really know, but it surely made everyone have easier access to books. Back to the cover, it was just a red thick paper covering the entire book.
The title of the book itself was "The King and The Maid." It sounded like a romance book of forbidden love, to be honest. How old was she anyway? She looked middle school-ish with her short stature. She probably was 13 or 14. Then again, I was nine.
I shrugged it all off. Besides, she was my sister, and she wouldn't do anything unwise with any information that she got from my end. Even if she told everyone that I was a different person, it would be shrugged off and said as my sister had gone nuts.
I continued reading through the book. The Grantis Kingdom was a separation from a bigger country called Indium Empire. Basically, it could be said that the Grantis Kingdom was Ukraine after the Soviet Union dissolved.
The Indium Kingdom still wanted Grantis, to be entirely honest. At least, that was what was written in this book with some spices of nationality. There was no war at this point, but military presence from both the Grantis Kingdom and the Indium Kingdom was rather immense, according to several books.
Heck, several history books had documented several skirmishes between those kingdoms. Vistula Defensive, Aliber Counteroffensive, Insula Siege, etc., were all documented in these books. That was just how much history was made between these two kingdoms.
Based on this warfare-based history, the weapons used in this world were rather magically operated than mechanically operated. For example, both sides used magical artillery, magical cannons, magical ballista, etc.
To be honest, if I took the mercenary route according to the book, it was rather easy to understand why these two kingdoms were in conflict. More conflict equals more money. And it was not like mercenary work was easy work. It was just rather profitable in comparison to the academic route.
In the academic route, the way to survive involved a lot of skill checks and a lot of speech checks. Basically, one was a route filled with active combat, while the other was for a storyline-based story. For first time players, it was recommended to use the academic route.
It had its own fair share of action in the shape of dungeon explorations and tutoring activities. Still, for the most part, it was all story-based progression. Fail a speech check, and you'd be banished, or worse, dead. That was just how extreme the game was.
I really wished I had completed the academic route, to be honest. I would have known what I'd face in the future because right now, I didn't have any idea what went beyond the first grade.
"History of our country, eh?" Beth commented as she looked at the cover of the book that I was reading.
"More or less. Why do you ask?"
"Why don't you read something more suitable for a girl like you?" Beth asked.
"What? History isn't suitable to be read? I don't think so, to be honest."
"From a mischief girl to a academical maniac." She sighed, whooshing hot air from her nose. What? I used to be what? I didn't even know the demeanour of Cathleen in the first place.
I only knew her after she spawned in the middle of an inn as an adventurer. She was probably around 15 or 16 when she arrived there without any background whatsoever. The tutorial began at that phase. The game would give basic mechanics and so on. After it, some quests would appear for us to take.
"Cathleen, I need to do something, is that ok if I leave you alone?" Beth asked.
"No problem."
Beth left the room with her book in her hands. She probably wanted to read the book in her room or something. I continued reading the book. Still, I wondered how many romance books my sister had probably read.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
'Finally, it's done. What a thick book.' Five hours later, I finished reading the history of this country. I had to say, it was rather interesting considering I rarely finished a book more than six hundred pages thick in under one day.
I closed the book and put it back on the book rack. The sky outside had turned darker. It might be six already. As I put the book at the back of the rack, something caught my attention, something that wasn't there before.
On the far side of the library, a dim yellow light appeared from one of the books. I didn't see that before. Its dim light shone the brown bookshelf, attracting anyone curious enough to open it, including me.
The urge to approach the book was increasing. I approached that book carefully if it was a trap or a magical spell prank that someone pulled on me. The book didn't look different from an ordinary book.
I put my index finger on the book, nothing impressive was happening. Like, there was nothing more than a glowing book in front of me. Why should it even be interesting in the first place? I grabbed that book, nothing happened.
"Technological Advancement?" What a weird name for a very thick book, probably a thousand pages thick or something. Well, whatever worked, I guessed. So far, there wasn't anything too interesting for me anyway. Romance book wasn't really my interest. Besides, I was suck at it.
The book stopped giving the dim yellow light, immediately losing my interest in opening it. It just looked like an ordinary book at this point with its thick cover. Still, I had picked it up, might as well read it at this point.
I put that book on the table. I turned on the flashlight in my hand to read the book. The book felt old, almost like nobody ever opened it for several years. And the smell, damn, the smell of an old book, smelled like piss.
I opened the book. The first page was nothing out of the ordinary. It was another copy of the cover but on much thinner paper. Even the first page smelled this bad. How the middle page would be? Urgh.
I opened another page. It felt like reading a research paper at this point. This page contained the author's background. Still, there was something odd for a book written with research style. The author's background had the author's motivation. That was the weird part.
To quote a few sentences.
"Survival is a major skill that every single being in existence has learned ever since its creation. While its importance has degraded overtime from development and advance in technology, this book would provide basic guide to rebuild a civilization from scratch."
While the first sentence wasn't that surprising, the last sentence had too many hyperbolic words for its own good. Like, rebuild a civilization? What kind of 1,000 pages book would provide the means to do so? I meant, I knew several people would put that in the opening of their research book to intrigue their readers. However, still, the expectation was too high for this book.
"With the current states of the world, I am intrigued to write this book alongside with several colleagues from different scientific background to compile every single bit of data that we can find into the size of a regular book with the hope that anyone who finds it will be able to rebuild civilization."
Every data? You know, at this point, the author of this book probably only wanted to exaggerate the importance of his book. I could feel it. I had done the same in my own research paper. Why would this author not do the same for the same exact reason? But still, every single bit of data? What kind of book was this?
I wasn't exactly prepared for what came next. It felt similar to what I was coming from, the military. Yeah, this book was issued in a limited number for the military, but man, this thing touched the realm of science fiction.
"Due to the request of Project Calamity, this tool is created for the exact purpose of rebuilding Paramount World based civilization from scratch using the available tool provided in this book."
Paramount? What was that? On second thought, I wouldn't even know it. This thing must have been super duper fiction if this was the case. It just looked so weird. And Project Calamity? What happened here? What happened in this world? Who got killed? And why?
"If you read this information, it means the writer of this book has probably passed away or gone missing. This book is equipped with enough nanomachinery and attomachinery to construct a construction drone and update reader's neural machine."
And that was the end of it. What a weird introduction for a book. I flipped open the next page. And bam, the next page was coloured in red with a big red text in bold. "WARNING! HEADACHE AND SYSTEMATICALLY INDUCED COMA INCOMING!."
"What?"
The book dissolved into metallic sand. The metallic sand flew to my nose. I tried to swat those metallic sand from my nose, but it kept flying towards my nose. I felt uncomfortable. It was like a bunch of pepper dust flying to my nose.
In a split second, an intense headache appeared on my head. It was even more intense than the headache previously. It felt like someone was eating my brain. I couldn't move my hands anymore. What was going on?
The headache became more intense and intense. I wanted to scream for help, but I couldn't. My mouth was shut. My vision turned into tunnel vision. I blacked out. Eventually, my consciousness drifted away in black emptiness.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
[Induced Coma Initiated. Remaining Duration: 7 Days]
Wait, what? When did this screen appear? Most importantly, where I was? It was dark here, even darker than the back of my closet back on Earth. I couldn't see my hand, nor I could feel it.
[Initiating Autonomous Function]
Autonomous function? What the hell?
[Displaying Welcome Message]
"Sorry for the rough welcome. Right now, your brain is being put on stasis state as the machinery eats away your brain and replace it with a more advanced part. This will take awhile so the nanomachinery would put a halt in several vital functions of your body. Basically, anyone with plain eyes would see you as in falling in a very deep sleep."
And who is this holographic person in front of me?
"My name is Robert, I am the lead researcher of Project Calamity. If you are listening to me, this is only an autonomous message from my research team to guide you in this neural guidebook that we created. If you have any question, please refer to the guidebook."
I asked the hologram back like a crazy person, "What book?"
[Accessing Internal Database…]
[Beginner Guidebook Accessed]
A virtual book appeared in front of me. It just appeared out of nowhere. Tutorial book, to be exact. I opened the first page. It looked like a guideline for any tool, with the first page containing the list of contents.
[Identifying Federation Military Rank…]
[Rank Not Found…]
[Searching Federation Civilian Database…]
[Name Not Found…]
[Searching General Database…]
[Name Not Found…]
[Searching Classified Database…]
[Entity Found: Human, Regular Human. Homo Sapiens]
[Anomaly Detected: Soul Transfer]
[Changing Database]
[Entity Found: Human, Dual Soul Human. Homo Dubium]
[…]
[Initiating Default Protocol…]
[Accessing Neural Database…]
[Inputting Database…]
Name: Cathleen De Carre
Age: System Error
Gender: Female
Federal Military Rank: Private
[Database Inputted]
[Displaying Progress]
[0/10,000 Reputation Point]
"Eh… What?" The screen was too much, but one piece of information stayed in front of my eyes. It was my name, my age, my gender, and my federal military rank. Whew, what a shitton of information screen just for the sake of finding my information.
Name: Cathleen De Carre
Race: Dual Soul Human; Homo Dubium
Age: System Error
Gender: Female
Federal Military Rank: Private
[0/10,000 Reputation Points]
Ok, that seemed to be important, to be honest. Well, I might be the private of federal military, but which federation and which country? As far as I knew, there was no federal government in this world.
It was just an RPG combined with a dating simulator, not a civilization builder. Well, it might come in handy, I guess? I meant nothing bad would happen if this was the case. In fact, if this thing actually helped me against those bloody speech checks, I'd be grateful.
[Detecting Rank…]
[Rank Confirmed: Private]
[Adjusting Technological Level…]
[Technological Level: 1]
[Basic Construction Unlocked. Basic Weaponry Unlocked. Basic Furniture Unlocked. Basic Farming Unlocked.]
I opened the content list and looked around for anything connected with [Technological Level: 1]. I found it. I skipped to the conclusion page and found a definition list, but it was rather useful and less wordy.
Basic Construction: Ability to construct walls and roofs made from wood, steel, or concrete.
Basic Weaponry: Ability to craft weapons from steel or woods. Limited to medieval age weaponry.
Basic Furniture: Ability to construct a basic bed
Basic Farming Unlocked: Ability to sow land and plant plants.
"Damn, this ability is overpowered. But still, I already have all of the things that this ability could do. I meant I have nice house, nice parents, nice sword, and everything. What could possibly go wrong?"