I Was Once a Legend, Chapter 15: Chaos Library

After stepping into the refrigerator, there was a moment of weightlessness. But soon, the hazy disorientation disappeared, and the scene in front of them cleared.

In front of them was a short corridor that led to a hall. The walls on both sides of the corridor were lined with a wooden fence about 1.2 meters high. On top were many signs with symbols—it might not be appropriate to say that they resembled humans. After all, some of the images didn’t look human at all.

Although he couldn’t understand the text, Dong Zheng could still use his intuition to guess that the script above was the name and the images below were the biographical sketches of a “person.”

A library corridor.

The door they’d walked out from was at the other end of the corridor. It was half opened, and behind it was another hall, where the corner of a tall bookshelf could be seen. The scene of the coffee shop was completely gone, as if the box’s entrance had completely closed the moment they walked through.

“Chaos Library?” Cui Zuojing had requested that Dong Zheng released him from the prisoner’s space the moment they entered the box. The teen frowned and murmured, “The library’s the one that opened the Labyrinth of Time, right?”

“Chaos?” Dong Zheng repeated the word that derived from the Greek word khaos, meaning chaos and disorder.

Victor walked ahead and then turned back. “The library has always been very low-key and won’t easily appear in people’s sight. This time, it had directly called the Labyrinth of Time. It must have encountered trouble.”

Dong Linhai looked at the signs on the wall. Although he couldn’t understand the text, the information conveyed could be easily understood. The image in front of him had an octopus forehead…the gentleman’s nose seemed to have collapsed into just two nostrils. Growing over the upper lip and covering the mouth was more than a dozen tentacles, which seemed to have extended beyond the scope of the camera.

If one disregarded this strange appearance, the person did indeed look like a very well-mannered and famous scholar.

“This is Cthulhu,” he said in the end.

“You won’t say this when you see it with your own eyes,” Cui Zuojing said. Three people and one cat walked to the hall at the end of the corridor and gradually heard loud voices.

It sounded like a lot of people were there.

When they walked into the hall and saw the crowds inside, Dong Zheng and Dong Linhai were both startled.

How could there be so many people?

For whatever reason, many people who came to the Pure White Realm would naturally think that there wouldn’t be too many people in a box. Before entering the realm, Dong Linhai was a normal 17-year-old boy who liked to play games and read novels. In order to pursue thrills and dangers, he’d also read many unlimited flow novels, such as Thriller Park, Clown Game, and Hell Cinema, along with 404 classics like Gazing into the Abyss….Basically, the most popular titles in the genre.

Of course, it was also possible that the books he’d read were inadequate, making him ignorant and ill-informed.

There were more than a thousand people present, with a steady stream of people still coming in through the corridors connected to the hall. After being stupid for a short period, Dong Linhai touched Dong Zheng and whispered, “What’s going on? Is there a meeting?”

“It looks like it.” Dong Zheng wasn’t sure either. “Let’s find a place to sit down first.”

The hall was like a large conference room. There were dozens of rows of chairs set up like an auditorium classroom and were slightly curved to surround the main lecture podium at the front of the high platform.

Similar to lecture halls during school days, no one was willing to sit in the front rows at all. Everyone squeezed in the back, and the three people could only sit in the empty space on the edge of the middle front row.

Victor feared being inadvertently stepped on. He jumped on Cui Zuojing’s knee, sat down, and looked around. Everyone’s expressions were confused, and they whispered with their companions. Meanwhile, those without companions could only look around.

Obviously, everyone was less nervous with so many people present. A single glass of water may be conspicuous, with an increased risk at being drunk at any time. But, when this glass of water was integrated into an ocean of water, it was also another form of safety.

The current collective mentality was: Anyway, if there are so many people together, it may not necessarily choose me, right?

Cui Zuojing and Victor had long known that any box with the title of “Labyrinth of Time” wouldn’t be simple and so they were the most calm in the entire hall.

Dong Zheng asked in a low voice, “Do you know what’s going on?”

Cui Zuojing said, “Probably the library is in trouble. But, the people here don’t seem to have a lot of experience. They probably limited the box to only newcomers, thus preventing more powerful pilgrims from participating.”

Victor nodded. “So, this is probably a box that is open at the same time in multiple areas, meaning that this hall currently has people from various areas.”

To tell the truth, Cui Zuojing and Victor’s explanation only made Dong Zheng and Dong Linhai even more confused.

Due to having made several inquiries in the past, Dong Linhai had experienced being laughed at by Cui Zuojing. He quickly learned that it’s better to try to use his brain instead of asking questions. If he really didn’t understand, then he should ask his brother and must definitely not provoke that brat.

He was obviously only fifteen or sixteen years old, but he was just plain crazy. Before his brother had even spoken, that person would come over and lecture him. Really annoying.

After another five or six minutes, no one came in from the corridor anymore. The vast majority of people found a place to sit down. There seemed to be thousands of them, and almost everyone was talking, creating a messy cacophony of voices.

Just as the voice of discussion was gaining momentum, something suddenly fell from the ceiling.

Yes, it just fell down.

Dong Zheng, who was observing the environment of the hall, clearly saw the whole process. A humanoid figure with an octopus head suddenly penetrated the ceiling, leaked into the hall, and finally landed in front of the main platform.

“Eh! That’s what I just saw from the wall earlier!” Dong Linhai said immediately.

The moment this thing appeared, the entire hall grew quiet. Then, panicked cries began to break out.

After all, it looked so… terrifying.

If one had to use one word to describe it properly, one can only use “Cthulhu”.

Humans naturally have strong hostility and resistance toward the unknown and toward things that do not conform to their cognition. Many people stood up directly and made fighting stance, as if preparing to resist the moment the monster made a move.

“Everyone, please be quiet.” The low voice resembled the resonance of 10,000 accordion bellows, easily reaching everyone’s ears. Although the octopus’s mouth didn’t move, everyone “heard” its voice.

Hundreds of mouths that were ready to shout all snapped shut at the same time, and those who stood up quietly sat back in their seats.

In the absolute silence, Dong Zheng tried to open his mouth but found that he could not make a sound at all.

It was definitely a powerful method of mind control.
Brother Octopus was very satisfied with the current atmosphere in the hall. It looked around for awhile. Although its eyes were mild, everyone within its roving line of sight shuddered with fear.

“Welcome everyone, welcome to Khaos Library. I am librarian S172 here. Because my name cannot be understood by humans, you can temporarily call me Karls,” Brother Octopus said slowly. Two attached soft scales on its cheeks seemed to be flowing with a thick liquid that didn’t drip.

[All the administrators in the library have unimaginable power. ] Cui Zuojing’s voice suddenly sounded in Dong Zheng’s brain. [Their consciousness contains the richest knowledge of the entire universe, which is itself a living book in the library.]

Dong Zheng was silent and could only nod his head and asked: [Can’t it control interfere with the prisoner contact?]

[It should be said that it is impossible to interfere with me.] Cui Zuojing took it lightly in one sentence. [This box is not ordinary, pay more attention to it.]

“I apologize for calling you all in haste, but the situation is urgent and we have to do it at once. Before 1.72 dimensional clocks, an unknown force suddenly attacked the library, and the books in the library were badly affected. Although we have driven out the invading force, we still lost a considerable part of the classics.”

“Because the library is located in the center of chaos, when the intruder took the books out, these classics were turned into fragments that scattered in various time and space. As administrators, we librarians cannot leave the library.”

“In order to retrieve the classics, we have to borrow the Labyrinth of Time and open the entrance to invite everyone to enter, hoping to use your power to find the lost things.”

The octopus paused and said, “The Labyrinth of Time was sealed as one of the forbidden areas of the Pure White Realm due to the overflow of space-time energy. There are many relics and treasures from different dimensions, but also, there are many exiled, evil monsters.”

“When you are looking for the fragments of the classics, you must pay attention to your own safety. If you face a danger that you cannot deal with, call my name Karls in your heart. I will try my best to help you.”

“After finding the shard, you will hold it for a while. Once the labyrinth is closed, I will call everyone back here, and then you can deliver the shards to me.”

“Well, this is the case. Every second the shard is lost, the greater the possibility of it being lost to the past. The time is urgent, and you are invited to start as soon as possible—”

Bang—!

Before Brother Octopus could say more, there was a burst of explosion, and the whole hall shook wildly!

But even so, all the frightened people were still unable to make any stressful responses.

The moment the explosion sounded, a massive pair of wings snapped out from behind the octopus. It roared. The tentacles on its upper lips grew wildly and extended nearly a hundred meters before suddenly piercing the void. It was as if the tentacles had directly and violently struck something in another dimension, killing it!

“▇▇▇▇, here they are!”

Another low voice sounded in everyone’s mind, with words that were incomprehensible. Brother Karls Octopus flew into the air suddenly. He fanned his wings, his wide robe fluttering, and the floor of the auditorium was suddenly flooded with a white light.

“Only knowledge and the unknown are immortal. I wish you good luck—”

As the words fell, the floor suddenly shattered piece by piece. The pieces seemed to be attracted by a powerful energy and were sucked into the endless void below. People who couldn’t move in their seats could only watch themselves fall into it. But no matter how crazy they screamed in their hearts, they couldn’t make any sounds at all.

Victor grabbed Cui Zuojing’s coat with his two front paws, while the teenager held the cat tightly in his arms. Along with the crowd, he slowly rolled and fell into another time and space.

Down.

Down.

They fell.

A garden-like green labyrinth gradually appeared below, so large that it could be seen from high in the sky.

The seats disappeared, and people spread out, falling at a speed that completely violated Newton’s laws of motion. They only began to automatically slow down when approaching the ground.

Dong Zheng stumbled, then stood firm and subconsciously reached out to help Cui Zuojing, who had landed on his back. Cui Zuojing took his hand and allowed himself to be pulled up like a heavy weight.

The cat in the youth’s arms jumped along his arm to his shoulder and landed lightly.

Dong Linhai got up.

Two thousand people were blocked by high walls and scattered in different corners of the huge maze.

The sky above was still the sky, though the blue was washed out and the octopus head Karls was missing.

With over a thousand people in this instance, the Labyrinth of Time had officially began!