Administrator

"Administrator"

"Mm..."

An unconscious murmur echoed through the silent space.

Azer felt as though he had returned to the womb, his entire body immersed in warm water, his body and mind utterly at ease.

Just as Azer was about to lose himself in that comfort and fall into a deep sleep he never wanted to wake from, a wave of intent suddenly descended upon him.

A person matching the selected target has been chosen and successfully admitted into the Library.

You have become the Library's administrator.

It was an incredibly pure intent.

Like a voice sounding directly in his mind, it appeared without warning and jolted Azer awake from his unconscious state.

Splash!

As Azer instinctively sat up, water surged around him.

Only then did Azer realize that he really was soaking in water.

Strangely, though he was submerged, his clothes were completely dry. Even his hair and body felt fresh, without the slightest trace of dampness.

"W-What is going on?"

Azer looked utterly bewildered.

"Splash, splash..."

The sound of water still echoed clearly in his ears, forcing Azer to temporarily set aside his confusion and doubts as he looked around.

The moment he did, Azer could not help but be drawn in by his surroundings.

A vast space entered his view.

The entire space was cylindrical, with a diameter of at least several hundred meters and an equally impressive height. Yet it did not feel empty at all. Instead, it felt just right.

That was entirely because countless bookshelves had been arranged throughout the space in a particular pattern.

Some shelves stood on the ground, while others were stacked upward along the cylindrical walls. Books were neatly lined across them, creating an atmosphere of mystery, tranquility, and intellect.

Beyond that, deep crimson carpets covered the floor. Corridors extended along the walls and through the air, while the ceiling was open to reveal a brilliant starry sky outside, where countless stars glittered and shone with breathtaking beauty.

Azer stood at the very center of it all, within a sunken area enclosed by wooden railings.

This place seemed to have been arranged as a leisure area. Not only was there a large fountain, but there was also a pavilion, a lawn, and even a vine-woven swing bed, making it resemble a paradise from a fairy tale.

Azer was inside the fountain, soaking in its crystal-clear water. Streams of water continuously sprayed from the center and struck his body, yet still failed to wet him, as if it were all an illusion.

"Where is this?"

After being captivated by the beautiful sight for quite some time, Azer finally came back to his senses and began to care about that question.

Then—

"Buzz—"

That earlier intent descended upon him again.

Azer was immediately enveloped by it and involuntarily closed his eyes.

Several minutes later, when Azer opened his eyes again, the confusion in them was gone, replaced only by realization and acceptance.

"Library of Fantasies... So I've come to such a magical place?"

It was a space formed from the world's fantasies, curiosity, longing, aspirations, regrets, disappointments, and countless other emotions and spiritual impressions regarding other worlds—a space independent of reality.

It existed nowhere, yet connected reality and fantasy.

Every book here was another world imagined by someone else.

Every page in those books was a life formed from someone else's imagination.

The Library of Fantasies collected those lives and those fantasies, storing them here upon its countless bookshelves.

That was the Library of Fantasies' function: to collect fantasies, turn them into books, transform illusory worlds into reality, and create countless diverse and wondrous universes, countless dimensions.

However, there was a problem.

"To turn a fantasy world into reality, a real life must experience it."

"The lives imagined by others are ultimately insubstantial. Without real people to experience them, fantasy will remain fantasy, forever unable to become reality."

"Thus, from the moment the Library of Fantasies took shape, it was destined that someone would become its administrator and live through those imagined lives, experience those imagined worlds."

And so, Azer had been chosen.

He had become the first administrator of the Library of Fantasies.

"...Does this count as finding my true calling?"

Before coming here, Azer had been a bookstore clerk.

His family had not been a happy one. His parents divorced when he was young, and his grandparents had worked tirelessly to raise him. After he entered university and gained the ability to support himself, they passed away one after another, having lived out their natural lives.

His parents had each started new families. He felt uncomfortable no matter which side he went to, and he was the least welcome person in either household. So, he simply worked while studying. After earning a rather unremarkable degree, he became a fresh graduate who was unemployed upon graduation. Later, he found a bookstore and applied to be a clerk, finally settling down somewhat.

Azer remembered that just last night, he had been organizing newly arrived books in the store. When he finished, it was too late, so he had simply lain down and fallen asleep in the store's book storage room.

Who would have thought that when he woke up, he would be chosen by the Library of Fantasies and become its administrator?

"So be it."

Azer stepped out of the fountain, still without a single damp mark on him. He raised his head toward the starry sky beyond the open dome, the starlight reflected in his eyes.

"Since reality has been so unsatisfying, I'll cast it aside."

"From today onward, I am the administrator of the Library of Fantasies."

"To travel through countless imagined worlds and experience real lives... that should be quite exciting, shouldn't it?"

Years of living independently had given Azer a fairly good ability to adapt and accept things.

As a result, he quickly adjusted to and accepted his new identity, then began considering what he should do and how he should act.

"Buzz—"

At that moment, the invisible intent descended for the third time.

Having received a certain degree of knowledge and learned the nature of the Library of Fantasies, Azer knew that this intent was actually the Library of Fantasies itself.

The Library of Fantasies possessed no will, intelligence, or emotions. Like the rules themselves, it would only send down invisible power when its administrator required it, imparting the necessary knowledge to him.

It manifested as something like a voice directly ringing inside his mind. In truth, Azer heard no sound at all, nor did any words appear in his thoughts. It was simply that when the Library of Fantasies' power descended, he received it in a form he could understand.

And now was no different...

You have become the Library's administrator.

As the administrator, you may receive one gift from the Library and obtain a power most compatible with yourself.

When the administrator completes a life experience, the Library will grant additional rewards based on the brilliance of that experience and the degree to which that world has become real, in conjunction with the power granted this time.

Beginning the bestowal of power...

In an instant, the entire Library of Fantasies began to stir.

The ground gave off faint glimmers of light. The books on the shelves began to glow in shades ranging from dim to bright. Even the starry sky beyond the open dome shone, each star becoming incomparably radiant.

Bathed in that light, Azer felt something within him expanding.

Before long, that swelling sensation burst from his body and formed into a single page that flew out of him.

"This is...?"

Azer stared blankly at the sight.

Under his gaze, the page floating before him began absorbing the light emitted by the entire Library of Fantasies, then burst into flames.

Once the page had burned away completely, golden patterns formed in midair.

The gilded lines linked, converged, and traced themselves together, eventually forming an immensely complex and mysterious geometric pattern. It then flew toward Azer and entered his body.

At that moment, Azer instinctively understood exactly what he had obtained...

A new book is out! Back to the original style!

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