On a couple of chairs lined side by side, Ashley laid to sleep while her shape-shifter morphed into a white cat that snuggled in her arms for rest.
Liesl curled herself up on her master's desk. Her eyes were widened open, refusing to tear her gaze away from the red man.
Emmet couldn't find sleep with how constantly his mind was wondering back to the book he had read in the Omega's Path.
"Do you really think that this might just be a coincidence?" He turned his gaze to the black cat for answers.
"It doesn't seem like something I have answers to," Liesl replied. "It all lies on the writer."
"The answer lies with the writer," Emmet muttered and stood up.
"Where are you heading?" Liesl swiftly transitioned to sit on his left shoulder.
"I need to check something," He answered and made for the midst of the book shelves. He came to a stop once he was in front of the shelf for literature books.
' Inspect shelf for books written by Rain,' He thought.
[Inspect has been activated]
[Scanning shelf for books written by Rain]
...
[Books written by Rain have been detected]
The system immediately highlighted three books which were situated in different shacks of the shelf.
Emmet moved to take out the three highlighted books by the system and returned his desk. He placed the books on the table and opened the first one whose title was written as, "The columns of grey."
Just as the system had detected, the author's name was Rain.
The moment he flipped open to the first page of the book, his eyes went white and scenes he had never witnessed in his past or present life, flashed before his eyes.
The scenes were pathetic for the main character. He was the main character yet, his existence barely mattered. He didn't have a name but he knew himself as White head.
This lasted for a few seconds before Emmet was finally able to return to reality.
"What's it this time?" Liesl sounded alarmed.
"It's another story of White head," Emmet shut his eyes for a brief moment and pinched his forehead as though trying to absorb everything he had just seen. "It's different from the story of White head in the Omega's Path and so is it different from my past as White head. The only thing that remains is that we were nobody but White head."
"It appears that this Rain guy's books always throw you into a trance," Liesl pointed out. "Falling into a trance isn't something that just happens. It occurs mostly when you're are linked to something which explains that there is a connection between not only you and these other White heads but also you and the writer."
"None of these is making any sense," Emmet closed the book, pushed it aside, and reached for the second one whose title was, "Pathway."
"Are you sure it's going to happen the same way?" He looked at Liesl before thinking of opening the book.
"It happened the first and second time. There are high chances that it will also happen now," Liesl answered.
He nodded and returned his gaze to the book. Taking a deep breath, he opened it up and the same thing happened. White head remained the main character with a pathetic life.
"It's still the same thing," Emmet said to the black cat who seemed curious about the whole thing.
The third book was titled, "The walker." And white head was the main character with a pathetic life.
"Why in the world would someone create different tragic stories with the same main character?" Emmet gazed at all three books in frustration and confusion.
"It may be the case of ' What ifs?'," Liesl placed her paw on one of the books.
"What do you mean?"
"Technically speaking, some writers may tend to create various instances for a particular character on how he or she would fare in different circumstances or storylines. Perhaps Rain developed likeness for this quietly odd character, White head and decide to place him in different scenarios," Liesl explained.
Emmet proceeded to rub his chin.
"If I am somewhat linked to this character, does that mean Rain's books are all What if's which are all coincidentally related to my past?" He asked, unsure of what he was saying.
"Perhaps," Liesl yawned lightly. "Like I said, it all lies on the writer."
*.*.*.
[New daily quest]
[You have received a new quest]
[Clean up the Archive before opening it for the day]
[Smile and greet customers]
[Provide basic library assistance to customers]
[Reward for completing daily quests: +5XP]
[Main quest]
[You have received a new quest]
[Earn +300 customer points]
[Sell three books]
[Reward: 200 gold coins]
[Reward: +100XP]
It was as early as 6:00am in the morning and Emmet retired to the outlet behind the wooden shelter which served as his bathroom and dressing room.
A level structure barely had a comfortable style, basically considering the fact that it was free and he had not made even the slightest effort to attain it. However, it had provided him with a decent amount of clothes in the outlet.
He took up the broom which rested in the corner of the library while Liesl's smog form swarmed over the duster and motioned it towards the shelves for cleaning.
As he cleaned the wooden floor, he proceeded to open his quests available on the system once again as he had barely paid most of them any attention when he first woke up.
[Daily quests have yet to be complete]
[Clean up the Archive before opening it for the day - 20% complete]
[Smile and greet customers - 0% complete]
[Provide basic library assistance to customers - 0% complete]
[Main quest have yet to be complete]
[0/300 customer points earned]
[0/3 books sold]
"Seems like the work is finally getting started," He smiled at the screen. "By the way, Liesl why hasn't the system said anything about me being able to employ workers?"
"The option will be made available to you once you are in level 2. You must, however, note that employing workers comes with paying them so I suggest that you wait a little longer till you are properly established and decide to do so," Liesl's voice emerged from the smog as she took her time to swipe the duster up and down the each book in each rack.
"Very well," He nodded and resumed working.
There was silence as they worked, with the only sound in the room being the loud snoring from the black haired girl who had somehow gotten on the table rather than the arrangement of chairs she had earlier slept on. Her white cat was still in her hand sleeping peacefully, which made Emmet wonder if Arin was immune to her master's snoring.
"I wish to pay the system back in installments," He suddenly said to Liesl once he was done sweeping and was polishing the window panes. "I don't want to have over 5000 coins one day and suddenly lose 5000 to the system, especially when I might have had something planned out to use the money for."
"Understandable," Liesl responded.
The system screen immediately opened up.
[How much would you like to repay from the system loan?]
[Coins available in storage space: 377 gold coins]
The money available in his storage space was part of what he had made so far and decided to store them up.
' 177 gold coins,' He inputted after a minute of contemplation.
<177 gold coins have been deducted from storage space>
<177 gold coins have been paid back to the system>
In that moment of weakness, he shook his head.
"Damn, I'm so broke."
"Looking on the bright side, you have made a wise decision to pay in installments which has shown how well you have in plan for the future," Liesl sounded impressed.