Morning light crept into the library's upper windows, spreading thin beams across rows of dusty books. Rin stood at the entrance, holding the small wooden token that granted him temporary work access. The librarian, an old man with fading silver hair, barely noticed him. He simply waved Rin inside and returned to sorting scrolls.
Rin moved quietly between the shelves.
The library felt different from the rest of the academy. The air hummed with soft currents of Flux, as if every book carried a sleeping voice. Even the dust motes seemed to float with purpose.
System.I am here, the familiar voice replied inside his mind.
Rin kept his head down, pretending to read the spine of a book while speaking mentally.
Analyze everything here. Slowly. We take no risks.Understood. Beginning passive scan. No alerts currently.
Rin took a breath. This was the start.
He wasn't hunting answers blindly anymore he was building a map, piece by piece. And the library was the safest place to begin.
A World Too Small
He started with basic books geography records, cultivation manuals meant for beginners, academy rule archives. Nothing unusual. Everything looked normal on the surface.
But the system whispered subtle notes.
Record mismatch found. Cross-referencing historical timeline… 7% inconsistency detected. Continue gathering.
Rin frowned.
"Only seven percent?" he muttered quietly.
For now.
He pulled out another scroll, pretending to study it. It spoke of the five known regions of the continent, each governed by a Council Root.
But then the system projected faint text inside his vision:
Derived data: There should be six. Missing region classified as 'locked.'
Rin's pulse quickened.
A missing region?Why would the world hide an entire land?
He wanted to ask more, but the system gave a soft warning.
Do not dig deeply yet. Your presence is still monitored. Take it slow.
Rin nodded. Slow was fine. Slow meant safe.
The First Clue
By noon, Rin had sorted nearly twenty stacks of old manuals. He moved them to the back shelves, where fewer students walked around. The silence back here was different—thicker, almost heavy.
As he placed a stack down, something caught his eye.
A book wedged deep between two shelves, covered in dust. It wasn't labeled. It didn't even match the academy bindings. It felt older, out of place, like it didn't belong to this world.
Rin reached for it.
The moment his fingers touched the cover, the system jolted.
Warning! Unknown encryption detected. Source… Engine-related.
Engine.
That word made Rin pause.He had heard it before, whispered by teachers when they thought no one listened. The Engine was the academy's "central system," the core that powered the Root Seals, controlled communications, and regulated cultivation techniques through the VR network.
But why would a random book trigger an Engine warning?
Rin gently opened it.
There was no text just diagrams. Circles within circles. Something like a large sphere with layers, each labeled with symbols he couldn't read.
But the system could.
Analyzing…
Rin waited, pretending to flip pages.
Then the system spoke again:
This is not a cultivation diagram. It is a containment structure. Your current world is represented in the third layer.
The third layer?
"How many layers are there?" Rin whispered.
Seven.
Rin's breath stopped.
The world he lived in wasn't the only one. It was one of many.
Not a revelation to act on. Not yet. But it planted a seed and Rin understood now why he needed to go slow.
This world was not simple. It was built. Designed.
Shadows of the Forbidden Zones
Later in the afternoon, more students entered the library. Rin acted normal sorting, shelving, reading easy books.
But in the quiet moments, he kept searching for unnatural patterns.
And slowly, they appeared.
A map that looked incomplete.A cultivation manual with pages removed.A monarch's history that abruptly ended mid-chapter.A volume referencing a forbidden place simply called The Hollow Ridge.
He tried to flip to see more, but the page had been ripped out long ago.
System, Rin called.Scanning fragment… negative. No stored data exists.
Which meant the information wasn't simply lost.It had been erased.Deliberately.
Rin placed the book back.
The academy wasn't just a school.It was a filter letting only certain truths pass through.
Working the Shelves
By evening, Rin finished his assigned tasks. The librarian nodded without speaking, approving Rin's silent work ethic.
Rin headed toward the exit, but before leaving, he glanced at the highest shelf where only restricted archives were stored. Heavy seals and metal plates locked them away.
He stared for a moment.
Not time yet.He had no access.No strength.No clearance.
His steps continued forward, but his mind lingered on that shelf.
One day.
System spoke again.
*I have compiled a list of information types we must gather:
Regional history anomalies
Engine-related documents
Erased cultivation methods
Reports on Forbidden Zones
Ancient civilizations pre-Engine
Any document referencing spherical layers or containment worlds*
Rin nodded slowly.
This was how the investigation would begin.Not with a loud discovery, but with careful threads woven over time.
Nightfall and the VR Echo
After returning to the dorms, Rin sat on his bed, staring at the crystal orb used for beginner VR communication. It glowed faintly.
He placed a hand on it.
The world shifted softly, and Rin found himself standing in the academy's virtual lobby a neutral space meant for announcements and messaging.
But something felt wrong.
Only one lantern flickered here.Usually there were dozens lighting the hall.
The system whispered:
The Engine is performing a silent maintenance cycle. This is an opportunity.
Rin swallowed nervously.
"Opportunity for what?"
To observe. Not interact. I will mask your presence.
The hall darkened, and thenA massive circular formation appeared on the floor.
Runes rotated, forming a diagram that looked strikingly similar to the one in the strange book earlier.
Seven layers.Seven worlds.
In the center, a larger symbol pulsed with harsh light.
The system dimmed Rin's vision before the light could burn through.
This is the core map of the Engine. Your world's position is confirmed: third layer. A parallel development sphere.
Rin's hands shook.
He wasn't supposed to see this.No student was.
We leave now, the system ordered.
Rin felt the VR space crumble around him, and suddenly he was back in his room, breathing heavily.
So the book wasn't lying.The Engine wasn't just a school regulator.It was part of a much larger structure.
And Rin somehow was connected to it.
A Hint From the Past
Before sleeping, Rin opened his window. The academy was quiet, only the moon illuminating the stone paths.
He touched his chest unconsciously.
Sometimes at night, he felt sensations like he was floating in liquid, warm and weightless. The memory was faint, dreamlike. As if he had once been somewhere else, submerged, waiting.
A pod.A chamber.
He didn't know why he remembered that.But the system knew.
Memory fragments are surfacing faster than expected. Keep observing, but do not attempt recall yet.
Rin exhaled.
More mysteries.More shadows.
But now he had a starting path:
He would learn the structure of this world.He would uncover the Engine.He would find the layers.And he would discover who he truly was.
Not today. Not tomorrow.
But slowly.Piece by piece.
His journey had only just begun.