Ethan walked through the quiet hall, each step landing on tiles that echoed with whispers of history.
Despite the library's efforts to maintain ventilation, Ethan could still detect a musty scent, the smell of books.
He passed a group of tourists taking photos and went through the security check. Before him lay a seemingly bottomless maze of knowledge; he had never seen so many books before, and the sight was somewhat overwhelming. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into this world permeated with the fragrance of books.
Ethan wandered aimlessly here, where every book seemed like a world awaiting exploration. He randomly pulled out a book about ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but the dense academic terminology gave him a headache. He gave up on that book and tried a few more, all with the same result.
In fact, he had a clear goal. The expert he had contacted last night had sent him several reference books. The expert suggested that if Ethan couldn't share all the texts, he might as well look them up himself as it could be a clue.
But this was his first visit to such a vast library, and the novelty drove him to casually browse through the books.
However, after flipping through a few books, the specialized terminology and sleep-inducing paragraphs quickly wore down his curiosity. Ethan decided to start looking for those reference books.
How to find them? Should he ask the staff? While Ethan was pondering, he suddenly noticed a computer next to a bookshelf.
Ethan walked over and tried using the computer to search. Fortuitously, as soon as he turned on the computer, the history search displayed the name of the book he needed, "Hieroglyphs and Semiotics," indicating its popularity.
Following the computer's index, he quickly found the book, but it still filled with those soporific paragraphs.
"Ah, fuck me." Ethan thought to himself, already feeling a headache coming on.
Ethan decided to browse the internet while looking through books, hoping to find some clues. Or at least see if there was a summary of this book to help him understand it better.
After a while, he decided to give up; on one hand, it seemed the book wasn't really related to the symbols he was studying, and on the other, the book was indeed somewhat boring.
"I'll start with the simplest approach. It seems I might not find any clues today. In that case, I'll just collect all the books and borrow them to continue my research at home," Ethan resolved, heading back to the computer.
Just as Ethan was about to take out the third book, he noticed the system still showed this book had recently been borrowed and was out of stock. What was going on?
His heartbeat accelerated as he realized the first book on Semiotics was also listed in the history search. Could someone else be researching the same secret?
Ethan decided to search for the remaining books' locations and then quickly made his way to the next book's location. If his guess was correct, some of the books might already have been borrowed.
As he turned a corner into another area with giant bookshelves, a figure caught his eye.
It was a woman dressed as a student, with black hair and a backpack. Her attire was ordinary, but it couldn't hide her beautiful face and graceful figure.
Ethan wasn't the type to stare at a woman, but what caught his attention was that she was holding the very book he urgently needed!
Ethan approached her nonchalantly. He noticed he hadn't found this book on the shelf, meaning this book in the girl's hands was the only copy from that shelf.
"What a coincidence, you're interested in Semiotics too?" Ethan tried to strike up a conversation, lifting the books he had borrowed earlier to show he was also researching the topic.
"Yes." The girl responded indifferently, clearly not interested in having much interaction with Ethan.
"May I take a look at that book?" Ethan asked tentatively, out of options.
The woman looked up, her gaze firm and serious: "I'm sorry, sir, I'm researching something, and this book is very important to me."
Was that a rejection? Ethan found himself in a difficult position, "It seems this is the Minotaur," he thought.
Their gazes clashed amidst the light and shadow between the bookshelves.
Neither seemed willing to back down. Why was this girl also looking for these books? What was the important matter?
Ethan decided that he needed to collaborate with her, not compete: "Sorry, listen to me, I'm also looking for a very important clue, and your book might just be the key... If you don't mind, maybe we can look at this book together," Ethan proposed a bold idea.
The woman replied, "Obviously, sir, it's not polite to do this in a library. Please come back next week if you need, I'm sorry." She decisively rejected Ethan and hurried away with the book.
"Ah, was I really being impolite?" Ethan touched his nose, feeling a bit embarrassed by her words.
But what if my clue is in there? Ethan bit his lip, wanting to follow her, but at that moment, that strange voice inside him said, "Stop, go upstairs."
Upstairs? What situation was that?
As Ethan pondered, he suddenly noticed his vision darkening slightly.
Glancing up, there was a floating light point, seemingly his intended destination.
"So high-tech, huh?" Ethan mused, then whispered, "Who exactly are you?"
No one answered. That strange voice seemed to appear only when it deemed necessary.
"You make me look like a fool," Ethan shook his head, starting to look for a way upstairs.
Ethan made his way to the third floor, where the light point did not direct him towards the towering bookshelves but seemed to point somewhere behind.
Here, tourists became scarce, and Ethan quickened his pace, curious about what the light point indicated and also worried the girl might get there first.
"Here?" After turning left and right in the corridor, Ethan finally arrived in front of a door with no sign.
He found it was a sealed room, unassuming enough that tourists wouldn't notice it without looking closely, Ethan might even think it was just an office for the staff.
But as Ethan moved to view it from different angles, he confirmed the light point was inside this room.
What to do now? Ethan knocked on the door, but there was no response. It seemed this room wasn't easily accessible to the public, and there were no staff nearby. Ethan decided to squat by the door and try searching on his phone, thinking there might be some application mechanism.
But the internet yielded nothing.
Ethan was puzzled, guessing this might be some sort of archive room for ancient manuscripts, not easily open to the public, possibly containing precious original ancient texts.
Access might only be granted through a specific application, such as for academic research or a governmental order, none of which Ethan could easily obtain. Just as Ethan was about to leave the corridor to find a manager for help, he heard a commotion coming from downstairs.
What's happening?
The museum's hall was open to the ceiling, and from upstairs, one could see what was happening in the hall. Such noise was unusual in this quiet library, so Ethan walked towards the railing, curious to see what was happening,
Just as Ethan leaned over the railing to look downstairs, the ceiling above him exploded violently!
The shockwave knocked him down, and the loud noise left his ears ringing.