E.G.O Connected to the Brain, Alcohol Replacing Thought
Ayou returned to his floor.
He was idling on his floor, then looked at the books arranged inside.
He casually took down a book and opened it.
"? Hmm, why is this blank?"
After closing the book and putting it back in its place, he randomly opened the next one.
"Why are they all blank? This one has nothing, and that one doesn't either."
After flipping through almost every bookshelf,
"Why are these all new books?"
Ayou suddenly remembered.
The Tool-type Abnormality he had placed in the corner of his floor.
He started rummaging through it.
"Here, these are… this is Skin Prophecy, this is Giant Tree Sap, this is Laetitia. What on earth is all this?"
After rummaging for a long time, he discovered a book among the many Abnormality books that was different.
That book was different from the normal Tool-type Abnormality books. It felt somewhat old, just like an Abnormality that needed to be suppressed.
"This book… let me see what it's called. Portrait of Another World. But why does the book have cracks?"
"There's also an Express to Hell here."
There were two eyes directly on the book, looking around.
Then, they locked eyes with Ayou, giving off a strange and eerie feeling.
Ayou shuddered. He took down the two books and tried to manifest them, but there was no reaction at all.
After thinking for a while,
"Could it be that they need to be suppressed?"
He then took these two books and went to find Angela.
Arriving in the main hall, Angela was currently sitting on a pile of books, reading.
"Manager, do you have a moment?"
"I always have time. What is it?"
Angela closed the book in her hand and looked over, saying,
"I found these two on my floor. They aren't quite like the others, and I can't use them normally. Do they have different rules?"
Angela looked at the two books he handed over.
"After the Light was emitted, the Abnormalities all fell into a deep slumber, their bodies becoming dilapidated. I used the Light to connect them through the pages of these books, allowing them to be preserved until now."
"This also caused them to become somewhat unstable, which is why we need to suppress them. Most Tool-type Abnormalities don't have autonomous consciousness projections, so they don't manifest."
"That is why I stored them with you. However, there are two or three exceptions. Portrait of Another World changed on its own, while for Express to Hell, I personally injected consciousness from the Primordial River into it."
"Personally? Why?"
"Because it leads the dead to that place. We will need its help later; specifically, we need the conductor's help."
"Although I don't quite understand, I feel that you must have a profound reason for doing this, Manager. So, does it need to be suppressed now?"
"Yes. Portrait of Another World was always meant for you to go to. Express to Hell still needs to wait for a while."
"Hmm. OK, I'll take people in right now."
The book Portrait of Another World required at most two people to enter the Book World. Ayou was currently wondering whom he should bring along.
"Mars is currently helping on the History Floor; I'm not sure if he's finished his work."
"Forget it, I won't call anyone. I'll go in and try it myself."
Ayou entered the Book World alone. Angela saw this scene but said nothing; instead, she leisurely picked up that fairy tale book and started reading again.
Ayou arrived at a dilapidated cabin. In the middle of the cabin was a portrait, but the figure in the portrait was blurred and several parts had been torn away.
Beside it were paints and tools.
"How do I do this? Am I supposed to paint? I don't have that talent."
Afterward, Ayou walked up and touched the painting, and a recorded memory entered his brain.
After some time,
"Tsk, what is this? Is this the memory of someone painting? They committed suicide in the end and destroyed their own painting. So, I need to find these fragments?"
He looked up at the painting in front of him. The missing parts were a piece of the hand, a piece of the head, a piece of the foot, and a piece of the heart.
Afterward, behind the canvas, on the floor, he saw a fragment. Ayou walked over and picked it up.
"Found the first piece already. That's simple."
He then attached the piece that belonged to the corner. The moment he attached it,
Ayou felt a sense of weightlessness, then fell heavily to the ground.
"What the hell? What happened?"
He tried to stand up, only to find that his feet below the ankles had disappeared.
"What the hell is this situation? Where are my feet?"
"Damn, now I know why they wanted two people to come."
"In the memory, there was one on the ceiling. At the same time, there was one in the safe. Where is the last one? Where…"
As Ayou was constantly recalling, he touched his head without any clues. Suddenly, he felt something on his head.
After taking the thing off his head, it was clearly the fragment of the head.
"That's just ridiculous."
"So the head was really on my head."
After placing that piece to the side of the painting, he came to the safe.
"Wait, the password. I have to find the password too? I'm seriously done with this."
Ayou looked back at the dilapidated cabin. He had no idea where to start and no clues whatsoever. He then tried to search for clues from the memory.
"Damn it… it doesn't give me anything at all. Where the hell am I supposed to find the password?"
"Holy crap!"
In his desperation, he kicked the safe with one leg.
Why not a foot? Because his right foot was gone.
With a crisp click, the safe opened.
"That's even more ridiculous."
Afterward, he took out the heart piece from the safe. After placing it next to the portrait, he looked at the ceiling.
"Damn, that's high. How am I supposed to get up there? This is another problem."
Ayou looked at the dilapidated bookshelf, the old sofa, and a table with a missing leg on the side.
After stacking the three of them, Ayou stood on the bookshelf and reached for the ceiling, only to find he was still short by a large distance.
"Still not enough?"
He then looked at the floor, but there was nothing left on the floor.
"Why is it still not enough? It requires two people to enter, but entering with just one person doesn't work. What should I do? Start over?"
Ayou shouted at the ceiling.
"Hey, Manager, can you hear me?"
After a long while, there was no sound. Instead, the dilapidated table couldn't bear the weight and collapsed.
Ayou fell to the ground along with it.
Ayou lay under the ruins, grumbling.
"Clearly, you still can't hear me."
Just as he was thinking about what to do, suddenly, that piece of paper seemed to drift right in front of him.
Ayou looked at the paper in front of him in disbelief, then stood up and looked up at the ceiling.
"No way, this works too? It just fell down like that? Directly? You've got to be kidding me."
"Forget it, I won't worry about it so much."
He hopped over on his one remaining leg. After arriving in front of the painting, he picked up the two fragments together.
"Which one to place first?"
On the portrait, the head, left hand, and heart were missing.
"If this thing… when I put it on, the corresponding part of my body will disappear."
"So, shouldn't I place the left hand first?"
"Sigh, forget it, just finishing it quickly is all that matters."
E.G.O connected to the brain, alcohol replacing thought.
"Whatever, just put the left hand, heart, and head on directly."
While it was changing, the painting was restored, and at the same time, Ayou escaped the Book World.
"That was close, that was close. If I had been even a little slower, my head might have been gone."
Meanwhile, Angela was reading a book nearby, covering her mouth and giggling secretly.
???