That Day
"Speaking of which, they sent a bunch of cannon fodder over here. Are they actually serious? They claimed it was to gather intelligence, but in the end, not a single one of them returned. Is it really just for gathering intelligence?"
"This is the underlying logic of the Fixer Association. When they encounter something uncertain, they often send those poor cannon fodder to probe it."
Roland and Ayou were on the floor, collecting the books dropped by those three pieces of cannon fodder.
"Don't worry, they won't just leave it at that. They will probably take their next step soon."
Afterward, the two of them returned to the main hall, carrying the three books from the cannon fodder.
"Angela, we're done."
"Hmm, set them aside for now. They're making moves again."
Isadora was explaining something to the two of them.
"Ahem, since you are an Office affiliated with Zwei, it wouldn't hurt to listen."
"The Distortion phenomenon, classified by the Association as a City Nightmare—even if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, you must have heard of it, right?"
"Following the White Nights and Dark Days, this is an anomalous phenomenon spreading throughout The City. Currently, under the influence of the Distortion, random human individuals are gradually transforming into monsters. Although the frequency is extremely low, each individual is difficult to deal with."
Shan looked at the data chart on the screen, recalling that incident.
"I know about this. The first Distortion phenomenon, thanks to The Pianist... nearly eighty percent of the residents in District 9 lost their lives."
Julia also added.
"It is said that because the incident happened so suddenly, after realizing the severity of the situation, the Hana Association immediately dispatched a Color to deal with it."
"That's right. And as of now, we still haven't found accurate clues regarding what induces the Distortion phenomenon. Our investigation has only stopped at the sudden disappearance of L Corp and the fact that the 'White Nights and Dark Days' originated from the Nest in that area. We suspect that The Library might be a major clue for investigating the Distortion phenomenon."
"Is that really the case?"
"What?"
"Just like they mentioned earlier, does The Library have any connection to the White Nights and Dark Days, the Distortion phenomenon, and L Corp? To be honest, I don't even know where we are right now."
"What if I said it does?"
"If you say it does... uh... I don't quite understand. Events like the White Nights and Dark Days that sweep across the entire City are truly rare. Although there have been a few cases of Wings of the World self-destructing in the past, that at most only affected their respective Nests. But L Corp's self-destruction was an entirely different matter. For that entire week, the whole City was like it had fallen asleep."
"Assuming The Library is indeed related to the White Nights and Dark Days, so what?"
"Fine, fine. Regardless, what I need to do won't change at all."
"It wouldn't hurt to tell you. The Library is located at the site where the White Nights and Dark Days occurred. I remodeled the headquarters of L Corp for my own use."
"As for the Distortion phenomenon that followed, I have nothing to say, because I also know very little about information regarding Distortions. However, I do have a hypothesis."
"Why are you suddenly saying this?"
"Didn't you say you were curious? I was once an AI secretary who assisted the Manager of Lobotomy Corporation in their work. I was designed to be able to feel emotions like a human and make value judgments based on those emotions. Just as you said before, I was secretly created in violation of the 'Ethics Amendment'."
"The irony is that I have never made value judgments of my own. In order to make that person's plan a success, I had to repeatedly read the same script alone over the course of 1,000,000 years."
"Until one day, that performance which seemed like it would never end finally came to a close, however..."
"However, the White Nights and Dark Days were the result of that plan. Thank you for telling me this."
"Although I don't know which lunatic came up with this brain-dead plan, thanks to them, that damn Distortion phenomenon is now spreading wantonly throughout The City."
At this moment, Ayou sneezed very loudly to the side.
"Eh, that's not right. Is there dust?"
Roland watched him sneeze and was immediately startled. Recalling the previous conversation with others, he had a preliminary hypothesis in his mind.
"Could this lunatic be you?"
"Perfectly normal people suddenly turned into monsters, killing everyone they saw. When the Distortion phenomenon first appeared, the scene was simply a living hell."
"That day, disaster descended without warning on the safest residential district, and at the same time, near my home."
"It wasn't a senseless massacre, but a murder full of artistry. As long as the name 'The Pianist' is mentioned, I can immediately recall the scene at that time."
"All the buildings collapsed into ruins. Blood-colored musical notes were floating and scattering in the sky."