Chapter 57: The Library

I ended up forgetting to check my Quests tab to read about the new primary quest, but I had loads of time to do that. Two whole weeks, in fact.

The next day, when I woke up, Hina-nee was sleeping right next to me. It seemed that she had slid in here while after I had already fallen asleep. How sneaky. Thankfully, she wasn't completely naked, otherwise I may have lost my self-control.

Sighing, I pried her arms off of me and got off the bed. The movement woke Hina-nee up as well, but it was about time for us to get up anyway. I opened up my System and checked the time - 8:00 AM exactly. I kind of wished there was an alarm feature, but that wasn't very likely.

"Mm… Kaze-kun… I still want to sleep…" Hina-nee murmured, pouting unhappily.

"Too bad," I replied firmly. If I gave in to her desires here, she would just keep taking advantage of that fact.

"Ugh… Kaze-kun, you meanie…"

Despite those words, the first thing she did after getting out of the bed was pull me into a hug. She really needs to fix her strange obsession with hugging me.

"Oh yeah, by the way, A.R.X.A.," I called out to seemingly nothing as I was washing my face. However, a hologram then appeared beside me with the AI's familiar face on it.

[What is it, human?]

"Just to confirm, the natives of this reality plane can't see our holograms, right? For example, when players operate their Systems."

The reason I had asked her this question was because of a conjecture I've had for a while now. When I first entered this world, the blacksmith Ming Ye had taught me how to use my System, but he had never explicitly said he could actually see the hologram. Back then, he probably just determined I had succeeded from the expression on my face.

My suspicions were confirmed yesterday, when we were talking with the guards at the gates. When I had taken out the Monster Crystal from my inventory, they hadn't said anything or shown the slightest bit of reaction, even though holograms should've been a completely foreign concept to this world.

[Correct.] A.R.X.A replied. [To the locals of this world, it would just seem as if you are pressing on thin air. If you were to take something out of your inventory, it would also appear as if you had manifested it out of nothing.]

"Thought so," I said in satisfaction. "Thanks."

[…]

With that, the AI disappeared, though it seemed she had wanted to say something at the very end, but then changed her mind.

After we got ready for the day, we exited the inn. Overall, the quality of the stay was definitely a lot better than at Tianyin - if Tianyin's inn was a two out of five stars, then this place would be a four star.

Ichigo and Horiya were already waiting at the inn's entrance when we got there.

"Finally," they said as if they had been waiting for us for quite a bit.

"You two… wake up quite early," I noted.

"Heh, Jim gets up even earlier," Horiya said. "He's already at the library we were planning on exploring today."

"Without even eating breakfast?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He ate before logging on, apparently," Ichigo shrugged. "But hey, what's with the questions? Let's just go already!"

"Uh… sure."

He began walking off, but then stopped and turned back. "Wait, Igarashi, don't you have school?"

"I woke up sick," I lied smoothly. I had already prepared this beforehand. "I still feel fine in this video game though, since it's separate from my real body."

"Oh, I see," he chuckled. "Well, hope you get better."

Hina-nee and I allowed them to lead us towards Qilian City's library.

*****

After some walking, we arrived before a massive building near the gates we had entered the city from yesterday. It was extremely tall, comparable to the high-rise buildings back in Tokyo. On the way here, we picked up some food from one of the stalls - scallion pancakes, in particular. They tasted just like the ones in our old world.

At the very top of the structure we were facing was a sign that read 'Qilian Library'. This had been the first thing I spotted upon entering the city yesterday. I was hoping to find a library back in Tianyin, but they didn't have one due to size limitations. However, now, I could finally get some useful information on the world of Ascension - perhaps even the location of one of the eight tablets I needed to find, if I got really lucky.

Though, even if I did discover the location, I probably wouldn't be able to get it. A.R.X.A. did say that I would first need to unlock the 'Awakening', which could only be achieved by becoming incredibly strong. That was the prerequisite in order to begin acquiring the tablets.

We entered the library without any further ado. The inside was nice and cool, probably thanks to the autumn weather of September. Countless bookshelves lined the various floors of the building - I could get a glimpse of the upper floors, since there was an ascending staircase right in front of us.

"Wow… this place is like one massive directory of knowledge," I murmured in awe.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Really? I don't find this all that amusing."

"Fufufu, Kaze-kun's always liked books ever since he was young," Hina-nee giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "Isn't that right?"

"Uh… yeah," I averted my gaze, embarrassed.

"Well, I can't say I understand, but I respect the mindset," Horiya shrugged, then walked off. "Imma try and find Jim."

"I'll come with," Ichigo said, before taking off after him.

"Well then… Kaze-kun, let's go do our own thing," Hina-nee said happily, as if relieved the two were now gone and we were alone.

I nodded. "About time we find out more about this world."

*****

After browsing for a little bit, I picked out a few books that seemed like they would help our case: 'Ascentia: A Brief History', 'Atlas of Ascentia', and 'Ascentian Ancient Legends & Myths'.

The final one was a bit iffy, but it could provide some information the other two couldn't - though the credibility of such info was a different matter.

I went over to a free private room nearby that Hina-nee had picked out, and placed the books on the table inside after shutting the door. The establishment of private rooms like this one was nice. It provided a quiet, relaxing study environment that allowed people to read in peace. We had tested it already; the walls were completely soundproof, which was an added bonus.

"Alright… I can do whatever I want with Kaze-kun in here, hehe~"

I stopped my movements, and turned to Hina-nee. "What?"

"I mean, I can read peacefully together with Kaze-kun in here, haha…"

I wasn't convinced in the least, but it's not like I was especially afraid of Hina-nee or anything. The most she'll do is… I don't know, actually. I had no idea what she would do.

In any case, I flipped open the first book, 'Ascentia: A Brief History', and began reading. Hina-nee began reading the book about ancient legends and myths, saving the atlas for last since it was the thickest of them all.

"Hm… okay… I see…" I murmured quietly as I read. It may have been annoying to some people, but not Hina-nee. In fact, she seemed to enjoy my occasional subconscious whisper, since she liked my voice (she said it, not me).

According to what was written in the book, the island of Ascentia was formed approximately 13.8 billion years ago - around the same age as the Big Bang back in my old reality plane occurred, giving birth to the universe. The massive landform just rose out of the water one day, apparently. It was hardly believable with no science to back it up, but we couldn't take the physics of our old world and apply it here.

However, this did make me certain about one thing, and curious about another.

The first was that this reality plane calculated time the same way as Earth - years, months, days, et cetera. I didn't know if the month names were the same, but they most likely were. There also were probably twelve months in a year, seven days in a week, and so on. The resemblances between Ascension and Earth were slowly becoming more and more visible.

The next was mere conjecture, but… what if A.R.X.A. appeared 13.8 billion years ago? Who, or what, created this omnipotent supercomputer? I had no idea, and whether or not this theory was even true, I couldn't say for sure. However, there was no way the fact that my old universe and this one were both 'created' at the same time was just a mere coincidence.

I continued reading. And the more I read, the more I found out about the geographical resemblances between this world and my old one.

Naturally… this only served to further solidify my theory.