Midnight, no different from any other day. I left the house for my part-time job, only to frown at the delivery box sitting in front of my door.
“……What is this?”
I didn’t remember ordering anything in particular, yet there it was, a lone box that seemed to contain something fairly heavy.
Thinking it might have been delivered to the wrong house, I tried to check the invoice number, but for some reason there was nothing attached to the box at all.
‘Is it some kind of illegal package?’
I couldn’t tell. But I was certain it wasn’t something I had ordered, so I carefully placed the box in front of the door next door and went on my way.
It was better to avoid it than risk getting tangled up in something by sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.
Not long after I set out, I arrived at the convenience store. After being briefed on various points of note by the part-timer on the shift before mine, I put on my vest and sat down at the counter.
“……Phew.”
With winter here, the convenience store’s heater made it warmer than my own room. It was a little dry, but anything was better than being cold.
I sat there blankly for a moment, then checked the stock of the goods and returned to the counter.
I refilled the empty cigarette slots. I paid for and set aside a pack of the cigarettes I smoked.
Cigarette prices these days were insane, but that didn’t mean I could quit.
‘I’ll probably quit if the chance comes.’
It seemed that chance hadn’t arrived yet. I let out a pointless little laugh, took out my phone, and killed time until customers came in.
I watched Shorts to get my dopamine fix, then logged into a community and skimmed through posts.
The gallery I mainly looked at was the “Mystery Gallery.” It was a place where people shared stories or information about all sorts of mysterious happenings, but most of the stories were unrealistic, so it was pretty entertaining if you read them like novels.
Aliens, anomalies. The methods for dealing with those things when you encountered them even sounded plausible sometimes.
[Title: How to Exterminate Aliens]
[ㅇㅇ]
What should our good little Mystery Gallery folks do if they encounter hostile aliens?
The answer is to stab them with wood. Wood is a rare resource in space, so if you stab their bodies with it, they often freeze up and die.
So all you good little Mystery Gallery folks should keep this fact in mind and make use of it when you meet an alien.
(frog giving a thumbs-up emote)
[Comments]
-Wow, that’s so informative. If I meet an alien that looks like your kid, I’ll be sure to stab it with wood!
ㄴAn alien that looks like me would be too handsome, so it has to leave descendants…… spare it…….
ㄴ(Then die emote)
[Title: How to Become a Magician]
[SevereMagicAddict]
In order to become a magician, you must either become a magician’s disciple or obtain a grimoire.
Grimoires are divided into two types. One is a grimoire written by a magician, and the other is a grimoire written by an Outer God.
The difference is difficult to distinguish by sight. If you’re a magician, you can tell at a glance, but if you’re not, you absolutely have to read the contents inside. If the grimoire belongs to an Outer God, you will be exposed to the Outer God’s knowledge and lose your mind. At that point, there’s no turning back. You’ll have no choice but to become a mad magician.
If you think you may have picked up a grimoire, make sure to leave me a comment first. I’ll check it for you and let you know.
[Comments]
-I think I picked up a grimoire? Check this for me.
ㄴSevereMagicAddict: Send photos to [email protected].
ㄴSent.
ㄴSevereMagicAddict: You goddamn son of a bitch, this is just some low-grade BL smut. You must be dying to get killed.
ㄴ(You fell for that? emote)
ㄴSevereMagicAddict: Don’t let me catch sight of you.
I burst out laughing at the conversation in the comments.
Tap tap tap.
I tapped the screen and left a comment of my own.
-How do you know whether what you picked up is a grimoire or not?
ㄴSevereMagicAddict: First of all, the cover is unusual. Any ordinary person can tell it isn’t a normal book. Basically, it has the feel of an old tome.
In the case of grimoires, due to their nature of choosing their own master, they suddenly appear before that master. So if a book you’ve never seen before suddenly appears near you, that’s a grimoire.
“Pretty solid worldbuilding.”
I was about to send a reply, but a customer suddenly came in, so I put my phone down and got to my feet.
After that, I didn’t have the leisure to go back to the community. Just dealing with troublesome customers completely drained me.
Everything about the early-morning convenience store was fine, except dealing with drunks was a real headache. There weren’t many customers to begin with, but a few people ate up all my time, which somehow made the exhaustion feel even worse.
If I could, I wanted to quit, but this was the only place nearby where I could work part-time, so I had no choice.
I had to earn my living expenses, at least. I had to grit my teeth and endure.
“Thank you.”
Wearing a business smile, I saw the customer off.
The dark sky was slowly beginning to brighten again. I wrapped up what needed to be wrapped up and waited until the next person came to relieve me.
A short while later, a woman with her hood pulled low entered the convenience store. With exhaustion written all over her face, she looked at me and let out a drawn-out yawn.
“Anything unusual?”
Her name was Lee Yubin.
She was the one taking over after me. I took off the vest I was wearing, stretched widely, and answered.
“No. The delivery should arrive soon, so you just need to receive that.”
“Ugh, I hate it because it’s heavy. Can’t you help me?”
“No.”
“What an instant answer. That’s harsh~”
Yubin giggled as she took the vest I had been wearing. After telling her to have a good shift, I smoked a cigarette and walked home.
The morning streets were full of people. Cars began filling the road, and people in suits or school uniforms appeared one by one. I looked at them for a moment before heading to my rented room.
‘Come to think of it, he called it a grimoire, didn’t he?’
By the time I had climbed all the stairs, the post I’d seen on the Mystery Gallery suddenly came to mind.
If you obtain a grimoire, you can become a magician.
It was a thoroughly fantasy-like post.
If everything he said was true, that meant there were quite a few people in the world who became magicians by chance. It also meant Outer Gods existed.
‘I wonder if Outer Gods all look like Cthulhu.’
Thinking such idle thoughts, I stood in front of my room.
The delivery box I had seen before leaving for work was nowhere to be seen nearby. It seemed the original owner had taken it.
I didn’t think much of it as I opened the door and stepped inside. I turned on the light in the dim living room, roughly took off the padded jacket I was wearing, and tossed it onto the bed.
At that moment, our eyes met. That was how it felt.
“…….”
On the bed stood a beautiful book with a pure white cover embroidered in silver.
Nearby lay a box torn to shreds. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was undoubtedly the delivery box I had seen at midnight.
“What the fuck.”
With cold sweat running down my spine, I immediately checked whether the windows were locked.
None of them were open. There weren’t even any signs of damage.
The door was the same. There was no indication whatsoever that someone had forced it open. The firmly shut iron door looked no different from when I had first come to this room.
It was enough to make a ghost wail.
There were no signs that anyone had entered the room, yet the box I had definitely placed in front of the next-door neighbor’s door had been found in my room? Torn wide open, with only an unfamiliar book left sitting there?
The more I thought about it, the dizzier I became. For the moment, I ignored the book on the bed and checked whether anything in the room had disappeared.
But nothing seemed to be missing.
Not that there was much worth taking, but there was no way someone would go through the trouble of breaking into my room and not take anything. Then what would have been the point of suffering through all that to get in?
But even after searching the room for a long while, I couldn’t find a single thing out of place. Far from signs of intrusion, the only things present were the box torn to shreds and the ornate book.
At this point, I had no choice but to admit it.
“……This thing teleported into my room on its own?”
I glared at the book on the bed and muttered.
I knew full well that it made no sense.
It was something impossible by common sense.
Even if you brought in the most renowned scientists, they would click their tongues and say they couldn’t pull off this kind of nonsense, but as far as I was concerned, this was the most plausible explanation.
Otherwise, there was no explaining it at all.
“What are you?”
Just in case, I brought over a backscratcher and lightly tapped the book.
At that moment, instead of toppling backward, the book blazed like mad, scattering pure white light all around.
“Holy shit.”
I couldn’t even think of running away and simply watched the sight unfold. It felt as though my ability to think had been paralyzed by a mystery beyond comprehension.
When the light vanished, the book was still lying there alone.
A book with a pure white cover embroidered in silver.
It was as thick as a hefty philosophy textbook or law book. And yet the scent it gave off was not the distinctive smell of paper, but closer to the fragrance of flowers.
An enchanting scent. I unconsciously reached toward the book, then froze as a thought came to mind.
The post I had seen on the gallery flashed through my brain.
‘An unusual cover. The feel of an old tome. Suddenly appearing before its master. If a book you’ve never seen before suddenly appears nearby.’
That is a grimoire.
The moment something I had thought absurd, something that belonged only in novels, surfaced in my mind, the book floated up into the air as if agreeing with my thoughts.
Then it came right before my eyes and softly turned a page.
The pure white book opened, and at last, the title and the author’s name were revealed.
[Hand of Re-creation]
[Author: Reconfiguration of All Things]
[This grimoire was written by the Outer God “Reconfiguration of All Things,” hereafter ■■■■, and contains methods for re-creating inorganic and organic matter. Various forms of alchemy and magic are also recorded herein. As no previous master exists, access to memories is impossible. Therefore, rejoice. You are this book’s first master.]
“Ah.”
Holding the book, which for some reason read as Korean, without even realizing it, I sat on the bed and clutched my head.
It seemed the post I had read on the gallery was true after all.