"Uhh...?"
When I came to my senses, I was in the middle of a dark stairwell.
The library lights that had illuminated me just moments ago were nowhere to be seen, and I stood on stairs with no railing leading down.
Below looked like an unknown warehouse, with various tools and balls rolling about.
'What the?'
I was sure I had opened the door after hearing a knocking sound from the library entrance.
Before I knew it, I had entered a strange space.
"...."
Still, I'm not completely oblivious.
I realized immediately. That this space was a type of... mysterious space, like the Mystic Library.
But unlike the Mystic Library, which had been an exceedingly kind and warm place for me... this place was exceedingly dry, stuffy, and dark.
A space where it wouldn't be strange if someone were to die playfully at any moment.
I composed my expression.
Clutch.
All that I, who had left the library, was holding... was an old book and a pen.
Should I call it power?
The power my grandmother had directly passed down to me was something that could manifest only inside the Mystic Library.
From the start, if it was a different space, the Mystic Library's rules wouldn't apply.
So it wouldn't be strange if anything in this space tried to attack me.
"Hmph."
Click. Click.
I slowly descended, making the sound of low-heeled shoes.
Being in such a dark space brought back old memories.
The back alley where I had been dying when Grandmother saved me had been a similar scene.
Perhaps most dangerous places give off this kind of atmosphere.
'A warehouse...? But all the items are PE equipment.'
Having reached the very bottom, I looked around with an inorganic gaze.
Honestly, the fear this space gave off wasn't a big problem.
Had this been my old body, I would have trembled and fled, but perhaps because I had already experienced near-death once, I felt nothing at all.
Instead, I wanted to resolve that mystery.
The source of that knocking sound that had brought me to this space.
And one more thing.
None other than... the aura of a book felt from somewhere in this space.
Faint but certain. A book emitting an aura similar to those in the Mystic Library's stacks was somewhere in this giant warehouse.
"...Grandmother said that sometimes, new books are brought in."
Just as with a normal library, the Mystic Library too occasionally gets new additions.
Grandmother had said that books with all sorts of auras and forms from unknown authors occasionally come into the stacks.
If so... had the book in this warehouse invited me?
Even so, it might be too much of a leap to say a book invited me in order to enter the library.
For now, I opened the old book.
Rustle. Rustle.
I began writing, scratching the quill pen's nib against the old book's paper.
I can't write the novel I'm dreaming of well, but there is an area where I've received praise from the books.
Namely, essays.
To be precise, they say I write well when it comes to 'fact-based content.'
They say it feels vivid and plausible.
On the other hand, for content close to 'creation,' like novels, they say it's painful to read.
Hmm... Honestly, since I myself can't immerse well in creation, the readers might feel that way too.
And now.
This content being recorded right below the 'entrance stairs connected to ---' in the northeast 24A section of this 'Deep Warehouse' is a fact-based record.
From the perspective of humanity precariously continuing its life on modern Earth in the -th dimension, it is XX/XX/20XX.
The time difference between this 'Deep Warehouse' and outside reality can be considered nearly nonexistent.
Thud.
Rrrumble...
I could feel the surrounding balls trembling.
Realizing they were trembling, perhaps going mad, they began colliding with one another.
Despite having originally been one body, as if the Warring States period were unfolding, they frenziedly rushed to break and tear each other's bodies.
Perhaps they had become aware of reality. Or maybe they couldn't believe reality was flowing according to my narration.
Crack.
One bowling ball that had been holding out went pop and burst.
Actually, I had no particular interest in these ball lifeforms mimicking humans.
To be precise, they were 'balls mimicking the past,' but my interest was solely in the book I felt far away.
The book... what could its title be?
Ah.
[Elementary Physical Education Textbook - Grades 1–6]
It seemed the physical education textbook distributed compulsorily in elementary school had transformed.
"I'll have to find out properly."
I'll have to ask the Elementary Physical Education Textbook.
About whether it was truly the one that dragged me into this space.
Actually, the reason I intended to treat this fellow so harshly was less for my own safety and more for the sake of the other books.
They are usually mischievous and play lots of pranks, but in the end, they're good children who help me a lot.
Especially Swamp, Underground, and Unu Octopus.
So I have to return before those children realize.
Before their war play ends.
Click. Click.
I began slowly moving my steps toward where the book was, passing through the fragments of the burst balls.
* * *
Manager Lee, who had been passing through several sectors searching for an exit and other team members, gradually realized that this 'Deep Warehouse' was a highly unusual anomalous space.
"Could this... perhaps not be a newborn?"
For an anomalous space maintained for a mere three days... its density was too high.
Of course, demanding normalcy from an anomalous space that transcends normal physical laws was a strange thing in itself.
But separate from that, this 'Deep Warehouse' contained complex and vast contents.
An anomaly's influence and its information are proportional.
The longer the period and wider the range of its influence, the more information increases proportionally.
This was often the case with religious anomalies.
When an indigenous faith in a rural area transforms into an anomaly, it sometimes easily receives a high-risk classification; this is because several hundred or several thousand years of human faith accumulated in one region strengthens the anomaly's influence.
But for a mere elementary school's PE warehouse to possess that degree of influence is difficult.
As for the space, it was all just a small iron door beneath the platform.
Only by passing through there does the true influence of the 'Deep Warehouse' begin.
Then that would mean it had exerted a lot of influence in the temporal aspect...
Then, the sound of gunshots echoed from afar.
Someone from Field Response Team 3 must have fired.
"It's chaos."
Manager Lee shook off the balls' offensive and headed there.
Deputy Lee Kyung-sung and a new team member were fleeing, getting hit by balls.
"Deputy Kyung-sung!!"
"...!! Manager!"
Bang!
After shooting the ball targeting Deputy Lee Kyung-sung's head, Manager Lee led them into a storage locker not far away.
"Huff... huff... where..."
"It's a bit safer here. Catch your breath."
"Thank you."
"What's wrong with Staff Choi Il-du?"
"A ball hit my waist. It was a golf ball, but at a speed close to 400km/h."
400km? At that speed, even wearing the Management Bureau's suit, which provides some defense against physical impact, one couldn't avoid injury.
"So that's why you've been supporting him. What about the other team members?"
"I don't know."
Lee Kyung-sung and Manager Lee caught their breath for a moment and shared information.
"Ball humans. They're anomalous entities. Those balls seem to imitate dead people. They imitated Q from Emergency Support Team 4."
"Staff Choi Il-du said he seemed to see a human figure from afar; that could have been a ball human."
"Probably. No, it's practically certain. The two teams ahead of us are already all dead. Ah, but I found two elementary students."
"Where are they?"
"I left them unconscious in a locker not far away. When I persistently asked about one remaining elementary student, they began showing signs of mental contamination."
"...Then that remaining one."
"Yes. It's probably an anomalous entity."
Hoo.
Manager Lee let out a long sigh and opened his mouth.
"This space is too large for something only three days old. Don't you think so?"
"...Does that mean you're considering an 'anomalous composite'?"
"Huh? No, not to that extent. If it went that far, we couldn't not know. Rather than that, it's a guess that the anomalous entity's domain extends beyond just the 'Deep Warehouse.'"
"I see."
Lee Kyung-sung, mulling over Manager Lee's words, gave an answer.
"...Then the entire elementary school?"
"Probably. However, seeing that two elementary students are relatively normal, the possibility of the elementary school being an anomalous space is low. To be precise... it would be an 'anomalous phenomenon.'"
"In the manner of school urban legends?"
"Yes. A statue of Sejong the Great moving, the school's second-ranked student killing the first-ranked, things like that. I suspect that anomalous entity might also be an urban legend derived from something like a child who listens well to adults."
"That must be relayed to the follow-up team as well. But if Manager Lee's guess is correct, haven't we already been moving within the area of influence?"
"That's exactly right. I wonder if we'll be able to communicate even if we leave the Deep Warehouse."
Lee Kyung-sung tried imagining the worst-case scenario Manager Lee had in mind.
One where the entire elementary school literally became an anomalous space, and bizarrely transformed elementary students and teachers stopped class to try to kill them as they attempted to escape.
"If it's an urban legend type, wouldn't there be a way to resolve it?"
Not management or handling, but resolution.
In a way, it could be seen as the most direct method to either eliminate the anomaly from this world or escape it.
After all, management involves expedients and handling involves force.
"Hey, would I be like this if I knew that? It's already been over forty years since I graduated elementary school."
"...I'm sorry."
"If you take that seriously, what does that make me."
Trying to lighten the mood, Manager Lee, who had been chatting casually, rose from his spot.
"Now, then, let's first look for an escape..."
But then.
Manager Lee felt an indescribable shudder envelop his body.
The sensation of having his existence erased in that library from before and restored from the other side of the universe to return alive.
His body reacted as if from trauma, trembling.
"What..."
Manager Lee instinctively realized.
That some being had entered this 'Deep Warehouse.'