There were many maps, books, etc.
There were books about the history of Nieria, how it came to be, and about some kind of aliens.
I searched here and there to see if there were any hidden doors or some sort of hidden passages. Why would I do that, you ask? It's simple, who wouldn't love an early exit? I was thinking of opening random books and keeping books in and out, arranging them in the order of their letters, but as time passed, they arranged themselves in their order without any being's help, as if they floated and kept themselves back in their position.
I saw a book.
What the hell is going on? What kind of black magic is this?
"..."
As I began to observe the situation, it pulled me towards them even more as I saw the environment. More and more questions began to pile up in my brain, like about these books, about how they were brought here, and are there any secrets in these books? At this point,
Soon, I came to discover that there were several books missing, or there were gaps as if waiting for something to fill these empty holes, but nothing was getting filled in those spaces. Maybe these books were abandoned, or someone took them.
As I walked away from the center, not touching the food, my stomach grumbled due to hunger. I paid it no heed and continued to watch and read the titles of the ongoing books to see if there was a history book for this world. Maybe that would solve my questions about what happened, why everything is as it is. Maybe that might help me discover what truly is happening, or read any books that stored all their strategies.
There, while walking, I saw a glow. As I got closer, it was blue-colored dots of sparks coming off the book, as it was transparent. That was a pretty unique book.
Due to my curiosity, I took the book from the shelf. Even as I held it, it was getting fainter and fainter.
"2102 New Calendar 1002"
It was the heading. As I turned it to its back:
"WE humans adapt and survive; we live thanks to the heroes..."
As I was reading the book, it disintegrated in my hands. Should I even call it disintegration if something suddenly disappears?
I truly felt baffled by what was going on. At that moment, I couldn't find a word for what was happening. My brain couldn't comprehend it.
'Was it them doing this?'
That was the thought in my mind. If they did this, then obviously they could've easily done that too, I thought.
Soon though, I came to the staircase and I went up to the upper floors. They are, to say, unique. Mostly, the above 2 to 3 floors were empty. Nothing was there. I searched everywhere on those floors to find some kind of hidden keys until I got tired.
Now though, the nervousness of the start had finally stopped, and now I felt a bit, what do you say, relaxed. Like a person on an edge would feel nervous, but if he is there for hours on end, he would just feel numb. Now I felt like that.
I slowly went down to the ground floor to prepare myself and fill my belly. I was hungry, to say the least.
I approached the snack counter, making myself instant ramen and hot tea, which was the most time-efficient option. Now, there were other snacks such as pizza, burgers, chips, and many more, but I didn't feel like eating unhealthy food for now, or else I would get an upset stomach due to this tension. For now, all I wanted was to have some relaxation.
While waiting for this ramen to get ready, I started to take deep breaths one by one, and soon it turned into some meditation. I prepared myself for what was to come on the coming floors, and in this process, I entered into deep thoughts, not knowing how much time passed, feeling my brain relax. I poured some hot water into the tea and started to sip carefully and watch the timer drop down to 30 seconds for my ramen to get ready.
Now there were only a few more seconds to wait, and that's what I did.
.....
"Dring dring."
At the sound of the alarm, I put my tea cup aside and opened the ramen. Due to it being hot, the smell made my mouth water. My vocabulary wasn't enough to describe the scene, as my hunger at this moment was greater than ever before.
The taste of the food was divine. Every slurp of the broth with the noodles, while the steam entered my nostrils, was making me more and more hungry while eating it. That was something that could now fulfill my hunger, and I felt truly relieved that I came to eat something, you know.
"Is this what it feels like living on the edge and coming to terms with it?" I said to myself, reminding myself to eat only till half of my stomach was full. While I took out the photo of my family, and after I was done eating half, feeling satisfied, I left the rest and looked at the photo, in which stood many people, one of whom was Uncle and another was my father, and then left that area.