Aeren returned to the library again. He looked at the massive structure of this world, found a place to sit, took one of the books in his hand, and started reading.
Time flew by as day turned to night, but in this world, not much changed—it still looked like evening. In this realm, day and night didn't truly exist. It remained perpetually suspended between the two, half day and half night.
Aeren had noticed this before but ignored it, not letting it change his focus. He continued reading as days passed by.
While Aeren was still absorbed in his book, a monster approached him, looked at him with confusion, and asked, "Hey, boy. Why are you reading books here?"
Aeren glanced at the monster, ignored him, and resumed reading.
"Are you new here, or do you not know about the rules of this world?"
Aeren looked at the monster, understood his confusion, and asked, "World rules?"
The monster looked at Aeren with a grin. "Yeah, this world has rules."
Aeren stared at him and asked, "What are the rules of this world?"
The monster saw Aeren's innocent expression and laughed loudly. "HAHAHAHAHAHAH! I knew it! You don't know!"
The monster looked at Aeren again, went silent for a moment, then continued, "Okay, I'll let you know. It's more fun after that." The monster kept staring with his grin and said, "There's a rule that if you enter this world without permission, you become a knowledge monster. And I think you're a knowledge monster who came here without permission, just like me."
Aeren continued looking at the monster and asked, "Knowledge monster?"
The monster nodded at his question and explained, "We're called knowledge monsters because all your life's hard work and knowledge can be transferred to your killer. That means if I kill you, all the knowledge you've possessed in your entire life will become mine."
The monster expected fear from Aeren, but he was disappointed by the lack of reaction. He started laughing and said, "HAHAHAHHAHA! Do you understand why no one reads books here? They just need to kill others to get their knowledge. In this world, everyone is the same—they're all knowledge monsters, and all the books are created from our accumulated knowledge."
Aeren looked at the monster and asked, "What if someone killed all the monsters here?"
The monster looked at Aeren with slight surprise at his question. "I don't know. There are so many monsters alive and strong enough to destroy entire worlds, so killing all of them is almost impossible, but..."
Aeren looked at the monster and prompted, "But?"
"I've heard something like this—that if you're able to kill all the monsters in this world, you'll become the ruler of this place and can do anything you want here."
Aeren looked around the world and wondered if it was even possible for him to read all these books.
He looked at the monster and asked, "How did you know I came here without permission?"
The monster started laughing and said, "HAHAHAHAHA! Because we can't see those people who have permission, and they can't see us either in this world. If we can see each other, it means neither of us is permitted to be here."
Aeren looked at the monster again and asked, "Does that mean if I were outside this world, I could still be called a 'Knowledge Monster'?"
The monster looked at him with confusion but answered his question. "Yes, but no one has ever left this place."
Aeren looked at the monster and nodded.
The monster looked at Aeren and said, "Now that I've told you everything, it's time to die." The monster wanted to see Aeren's fear, begging, and tears, but to his surprise, before he could finish Aeren off, Aeren killed him. The monster didn't even understand what had happened before he disappeared from existence.
Aeren looked at the book he had been reading, sat back down, and continued reading. Through killing the monster, he had learned many things about this place.
He had absorbed the monster's knowledge, techniques, lifestyle, and goals. And Aeren pitied himself for what he had become.
Aeren didn't leave this place immediately. He discovered another aspect of this world—he didn't need to search for books. Just by thinking of any book, it would appear in his hands.
Aeren began thinking of thousands of books and read them all before finally leaving the place. A thought emerged in his head: I'm not even human anymore. I've become knowledge incarnate with no special qualities—but it's worse because others can gain everything by killing me.
He looked at the sky. This time, night had emerged, but it was still the same day when he had disappeared from the stadium. He thought, It's all about day and night. If you go to the library at night, you return in the morning. If you go during the day, you return at night—as if you slept through the whole period.
Aeren nodded to himself and started walking back to the academy.
When he reached his dormitory, he found two students there, speaking to each other with excited expressions on their faces.
Bale and Grivok looked at Aeren with slight surprise.
Bale stood up from his seat, approached Aeren, and said, "Man, you came at the right time! Haha!"
Aeren didn't understand their meaning but nodded.
"Man, we watched all the matches and learned so many things from the S-class students. We were talking about their fights and sharing our experiences," Bale said with a smile.
Aeren looked at them and said, "Hmm, I don't need it."
Grivok looked at Aeren with anger and thought, Is he looking down on us?
Bale felt a little anger too but controlled it, while Grivok said loudly, "Are you looking down on us?"
Aeren looked at both of them and didn't answer.
Both Bale and Grivok's anger increased, and Bale said calmly, "Let's make a bet."