A/N: Again, a new chapter. Is the story to your liking now? I wonder about it and like I said, this is but a slow developing one. Please don't raise your hope too high and the MC will not be OP before he learned the crucial thing in his life. Oh, but he will at some point in this 'First Shift'.

When Yuuya heard that voice, a sliver of chill ran down his spine. It was odd. The angry shout, the violence, and the chaos ignited by some people whom he did not know grabbed his heart as if like being embraced by death. This wasn’t the first time he was yelled at but this voice…

It was similar though not the same. Almost like a nightmare was haunting him back.

Indescribable coldness crawled on his skins. Yuuya’s body trembled without further ado and it was already his utmost efforts for him to not faint from the horror he last experienced. Still, he was gasping for air. Yuuya considered what the best option was for him, and he rested his body at the empty alley just before the crowded street full of chaos.

Leaning on the wall, reaching his chest as if trying to claw and gouge out his incessantly beating heart. From the sideline, he perceived various movements. Including shouts, pummeling and agonized screams.

“Damn, damn, damn you!” The angry voice once again shouted out, followed by the sound of beating at the flesh.

The air was filled with beaten flesh, shouts and screams from the victim.

Many people voiced commentaries or something and Yuuya saw some Voyagers having grim faces. They tried to interfere into the conflict but things dragged on. Not even after fifteen seconds, the town guards noticed and the crowds parted ways. Allowing Yuuya to see what was about to unfold.

“……what…”

However, he was speechless. It wasn’t that he found something unexpected. There was an abuse so obviously there ought to be blood and wounded person. But not like this.

Red. There was a puddle of blood and there was a small child lying on it. Limply, with the face drenched by the child’s own blood, it was a scene that could cause one to vomit.

Yet the child was not dead.

Even after the violent abuse. Even though the child’s bones protruding out from those broken arms and limbs dangling like crushed twigs. The child wearing rags as the sole clothes with black hair tainted by the crimson fluid…… was still alive.

“………….umph…!” there was disgust and the feeling of vomiting rising from the depth of his stomach.

Yuuya staggered. Still leaning on the wall, he clawed at it using his left hand and demanded himself not to faint. But deep down, he was now afraid. Scared. And the disgust feeling of seeing something which was for sure reminding him of something horrible.

It was the long forgotten dread. It was the long numbed trauma.

Instead of turning away or losing consciousness, Yuuya’s body persisted to know. To know more. More. More about the outcome of this tragedy.

And yet—as the saying goes. The world is never fair.

What Yuuya witnessed from the shadow was something incomprehensible. As an obese old man showing upset looks talked to the guards slightly further from the tragic scene, he was not scared of being caught. Instead, he flashed a truly evil smile as believed by Yuuya.

The old man glanced at the bloodied slave on the street. Then he scoffed, and he came closer to the guards. Next—hidden by all sights except one, he pulled out a small pouch from inside his gorgeous, gaudy noble uniform.

The pair of guards was handed with a pouch. Each for their own. Soon enough their firm expressions loosened and they smirked the same way as the old man did.

Before Yuuya could understand what had been going on, one of the guards entered the scene of crime, and he violently pulled the slave’s hair. Bringing the poor victim in the air, he then shouted.

“This slave is in charge of a heavy treason! For trying to steal Duke Vagni’s treasure and also attempting to assassinate him in the open, she will be exiled from this town! No Voyagers or townspeople may protect her otherwise we, the Knight Order shall accuse any as collaborators and shall brand them as criminals!!”

A ruckus occurred. Those who possessed sympathy wanted to rebuke the injustice, but when they realized they were against the knights, those who served to protect them and also having tremendous authority… they could never try to speak ill of them.

Even the bravest of the Voyagers, including the new players were against of resisting this so-called Knight Order. In the end, the slave was brought away and the crowds dispersed. Only the Duke laughed merrily as he went off into the distance accompanied by his escorts.

“…………………………”

What the hell is this?

Everyone ignored such violence, ignored this pool of blood, and instead of helping, they simply plunged the misfortunate into deeper despair.

“………What… the hell is this……?”

Amidst the nausea he felt. Amidst the stabilizing heartbeat he has. Amidst the emptiness and ignorance of the people who considered this incident as mere pebble in their daily life.

…….Yuuya, for the first time, realized that this world was less forgiving than his world. And it was the first time he tried to clench his fists out of hatred. For this—this cruelty….. was definitely unlike a game, and instead, one of the ever fucked up reality.

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Before he noticed, day grew old and it was about to be evening. Looks like I passed out unknowingly, Yuuya mused to his self. It was one of the few quirks that Yuuya—Steve had ever since he became a shut-in.

Normally, he would suddenly fall asleep once every month. No reasons could be given and even if he was told to have Narcolepsy, that didn’t mean he was a drug addict or having sleep disorder.

But considering the things he went through on the first day in BWO, Yuuya was sure he gotten himself overwhelmed. As soon as the nasty recollection returned, he shook his head and shrugged, telling himself that it didn’t matter.

(That’s right. My objective is Permanent Death. I have already done what I could and all I need is to wait for my demise. I don’t need anything else to stop my death.)

For the time being, Yuuya had plenty of times to launch his suicide. He wasn’t going to stab his heart in some random forest or letting himself falling from this floating island, but he planned for something different. And he needed something. Something which could affect his life both in this Virtual Space along with Real World.

And Yuuya needed one crucial task to do.

“The Library… is here, huh?”

After wandering all around the town (obviously using small alleys to avoid people and refusing to ask for guides), the black haired Voyager was standing in front of a rather rundown building. The library has the sign ‘Weinford’s Local Library’ hung up above the door and the design was well……

Like a gym? Bland color, semi-circular roof and there were round windows rather than wind vents. Yuuya approached and opened the wooden double doors and he found himself—staring in astonishment.

“Whoa…… what is this?” He uttered loudly.

The library was in fact, larger than he thought. From the line of his sight, there should be around 12 shelves of books. Not only that, there were floating candles in the air and they seemed to move around as if lighting the whole place up readily when needed.

Yuuya was also surprised that there was a second floor. He could see a stair at the corner of the library and it led above which was a U-shaped floor full of bookshelves.

“Hey! Don’t you speak so loud in library! This is a sacred place for the eyes to read, not for the mouth to blabber!!”

“Uwaaa!? I-I’m so sorry!!”

Involuntarily backing and hiding himself using his arms, a few seconds passed and the Greatest Coward heard a giggle.

“Ahah, your reaction is exceeding my expectations! How do you like being admonished by a librarian, Mister Voyager??”

“H-huh…?”Yuuya conveyed his surprises and when did, he was flabbergasted.

In front of him was a woman. She has magenta-colored hair combed into small braids and she has quite a playful expression on her face. The woman was three heads shorter than Yuuya so she should have been average when it came to height, but the biggest concern—was definitely her figure.

Wrapped neatly with a striped shirts and long black skirts, there was a veeerryy erotic body with the breasts size as big as melons. No, I’m sure those are watermelons, the Devil inside Yuuya spoke with which he readily agreed on. For the first time, they somehow talked and compromised but anyway.

There was a nametag on the left side of her chest. The name ‘Margaret Stuart’ was clearly carved on the tag made possibly from glass and Yuuya was no longer certain whether he should look at it closely or not.

“Oh my, is something the matter, Mister Voyager? Do you feel so shocked that your heart dropped down and coming out from your nether region?”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

Yuuya involuntarily shouted. Obviously, as he has never expected a woman to insult him after two to three lines after they encountered each other. Well, there were many that scorned him but this woman’s ridiculous!!

“Heheheh~ That’s good! In fact, it’s the best way to answer a question without hesitancy! You’re definitely a great man then, Mister Voyager!”

Without waiting, Miss Margaret went to the counter located right at the side after the double door. It must be the reception desk otherwise there would be no use for a librarian to have no counter to help them to register the people who would borrow and returning their books.

Not that Yuuya could worry about such thing but the woman finally introduced herself.

“Good evening, Mister Voyager. Welcome to Weinford’s Local Library. My name is Margaret Stuart and I am the 45th Head Librarian in charge of assisting my customers. Do you have any business in this humble backwater cobwebbed bookstore?”

“……For the time being, please quit your job as a Librarian. You’re blatantly insulting your own workplace, Lady Margaret.”

“Oh my, is that so~” the huge-breasted woman snickered. Her alluring smile was no doubt sexy and Yuuya nearly thought of her as some sort of widow. Well, whatever he said wouldn’t affect her hyper personality as she’s just an AI. A programmed NPC with definite knowledge and limited humanity.

But he didn’t want to be sidetracked any longer.

“My name is Yuuya. Can I borrow some books?”

“Straight to the point, eh? I like your style, ‘Yuuya.’ But first, you will need a library card for you to carry around should you desire to read, especially borrowing my books.”

Yuuya finally frowned. This woman literally called him using no honorifics and he was sure as hell his mental maturity was above Margaret. At the very least, he tried to be polite and yet the librarian was trying to be over-familiar.

“Then, can I have one ordered immediately?” he inquired.

“Oh my, I’m sorry but I already have a husband~ I can’t accept your arousing order~!“

Damn it! This one is annoying to deal with!! And she has a husband!? Yuuya scratched the back of his head while growling as low as he could. His patience was being tested here and though he bode well with anything unrelated to Real Human, he was mortified to be played around by a computer.

No, erase the computer part. He was against involving himself with women for they brought bad lucks. As spoken with him entering this fucked up world in a day’s notice.

“Jokes aside, if you want to register for a library card, then it will cost you a few coins, Yuuya.”

“…How much is it?”

“3 gold coins for a White Library Card.”

Holy shit! Now it’s highway robbery!! Yuuya cursed inside as he was basically carrying no good amount of money. His equipment did not include a weapon and all he has were 30 pieces of rye breads and 5 gold coins as starting funds.

Should he create a library card, he will have only two gold coins and that won’t solve his shabby equipment trouble. He did window shopping the weapon stores and the cheapest was a dagger with measly damage at 40 silver coins. Either there was inflation going or perhaps the developers liked to pwn the players so much for being external sources in this world.

Also, that meant he must do many Quests, killing mobs and exploring dungeons to regain his wealth. And it definitely would cost him a lot of time.

“Hm—? Wait a second, what’s this ‘White’ Library Card?” suddenly noticing the subtle wording, Yuuya asked Margaret.

“Ah, that. You see, in this library, we have a Rank System for the readers. When you started with ‘White’ Library Card then your Rank is classified as beginner. This causes you to only be able to read simple books such as children stories and/or basic teaching books about a field of subject. The card itself will record how many books you have read and borrowed, and then combined with your Intelligence Stat, you will gain experiences for your card to rank up. The rank goes from white to gray, blue, green, yellow, red and finally black”

“…what kind of benefit will I have by gaining experiences as a reader?”

“You will receive more accesses to our books, and if you become so nerdy enough to read, I may give you something even better~”

……the Voyager thought up for a while. As he did so, he gazed at the ceiling and then a thought came to him like a hammer.

(Oh, so that’s it. Hidden quests are extremely related to relationship with NPCs, and I may receive Hidden Class as well using this belief.)

Still, the only possible class related to this librarian would for sure be another librarian. Save for some that reached the position of being called History Keepers, Yuuya has a feeling that it wouldn’t do well to become so close with Margaret.

Also, I am going to die anyway so why do I have to bother myself to make friends?

“Hm…… then…”

It was true that he needed to know more. About the things this world could offer and about the things he could use to achieve his dream. He’s desperate enough to even ignore his rule of ‘Do not talk with other Humans (or in this case, Voyagers)’ and it was definitely because of what he saw today.

He must be quick on the uptake. After three years, BWO possessed millions of players logging in everyday. And Yuuya was true beginner when it came to using Virtual Space. He was not athletic, he has little stamina and he has no experience when it came to fighting. If he undertake the mage route, he was sure he could achieve his objective even faster, but to become one, he needed knowledge.

Massive knowledge to fuel his desires. I need to know everything to even overturn the law of life and death.

“……I…” Yuuya raised his hand. It trembled and it went down, picking the most precious thing he has in this foreign world. Then, he slowly brought it to the counter and he said with determination foreign to him for five years.

“……Please let me register.”

*KA-CHIN!*

“Oh my, thank you for your patronage~~! Sir Yuuya, please wait for a few moments~~!”

……indescribable as it seemed, Yuuya felt like he was crying a river of blood. No, his eyes were already like stained glass full of tears as he surrendered the majority of his initial funds to the wickedly whimsical kyonyuu Head Librarian.

(Damn it! I will surely make this worth of my troubles!! If not, then I am so going to resell that piece of a junk capsule before committing suicide!!)

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He barely noticed. There was an oddity among the lowly commoners and immortals today.

It was strange. It was as if feeling the glare of an eagle. He shuddered but he experienced such hateful glares all the time. Instead of being scared, it would do well for him to let those who dared to glare at him to suffer greatly. Using his ingenuity, he twisted the laws and he gained profits, women, power, and even entertainment.

After the exile of his latest slave, he chose to have his talented servants searching for his cause and it seemed he discovered one thing important.

“A new Immortal, with black hair and a scar around his neck. Ah, splendid. So it was him that dared to point those annoying glares at me.”

Duke Vagni Goldsmith could never be so tempted to make a new prey to suffer. Even if it were Voyagers, they still could feel pains. As long as he gave them more pains, no one would never beg for mercy. It’s the sole way for all people, those born in Daedalus could achieve from conflicts against these Trespassers.

It’s too bad that I lost a rare slave but oh well, I can entertain myself using him, the Duke whispered with a broad wicked grin under his nose.