Tap—tap—tap. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel•fire.net The sound of leather boots echoed across the silent library floor. No one moved at first. Every student was waiting for someone else to trigger the danger, to see what happened when the Librarians gave chase, before committing to any strategy. Then a sharp piano note rang out above Rita’s head. She didn’t waste a second wondering who had played it, didn’t glance upward, and certainly didn’t gamble on whether the Librarians would see her or not. She bolted in the opposite direction, body shrinking mid-run into a five-centimeter Orchid Mantis, landing lightly as a flower petal. The dagger at her waist shimmered into nothing, leaving a faint mark carved across her petal-shaped leg. She had made the right call. Because the instant the piano note sounded, eyes sprouted all over the surface of the bookshelves. The Eyes of the Library had opened. Every concealment skill failed at once, and students lit up with glowing halos of white. Even Rita, who had just used Hide-and-Seek, shone like a firefly scurrying across the shelves. A whip cracked down where she had been a moment ago, slicing the air with afterimages. One of the suited women slid into a perfect lunge where Rita had just stood, whip already recoiling for the next strike. The woman’s eyes flicked upward toward the source of the piano note—only to abruptly twist and lash her whip sideways at a closer target. NightFury, stripped of her stealth, tumbled into a roll and darted away. That single piano note had been the signal. Like the opening of a concert. As students scattered and ran, instruments chimed across the library in waves. Rita quickly discovered where the sounds were coming from. Squeezing between two tomes, she brushed a book whose spine read "Third Person." A piano note in the key of C burst from her, and a glowing "3" materialized in her consciousness. On the book’s spine, the numeral dulled and went dark. The Orchid Mantis skittered upward, climbing the shelves. On every floor, students were running and searching. The second level resounded with drums, another with violins, another with horns, another with pipa. Rita’s floor was dominated by piano, with the occasional zither plucked. The library had become a strange symphony. The crack of the Librarians’ whips was the conductor’s baton, striking the rhythm, while the random instrument notes from collected numbers wove the melody. The Librarians hardly had to move. Their whips were long, precise, able to strike anywhere within sight—even the ceiling. They never damaged books or shelves, only the students themselves. And whatever punishment those whips carried, no one would say. The few who had been struck only screamed, then clamped their mouths shut. Students turned on each other. With stealth stripped away, they shifted into all sorts of alternate forms—small bodies that could squeeze between shelves, animal forms that could dodge and scurry. The aisles crawled with tiny figurines and toys come to life, darting silently, shoving one another toward the Librarians’ attention. Betrayal was the only rule. Rita searched book spines for numbers. She had already used Waste Guide once, not to grab digits but to scout. She had checked every vending machine, every floor entrance, every hidden number. Everything in this library required numbers. Vending machines only accepted numbers as currency. Stairwells demanded a displayed number as a ticket. But the moment she touched a number, her time stop had ended. Interacting with a number directly affected the game state for everyone, forcing the system to reset her temporal pause. Luckily, she had anticipated it. She had spent over fifteen hours in time stop scouting this floor, memorizing every number’s location before ever touching one. Now, all she had to do was collect them. Still, she had shadows clinging to her trail. Another number secured, Rita crawled from between two books and hissed upward, "How long do you plan to follow me?" On the shelf above, a crab the size of a fingernail was scuttling madly, chased by a bouncing grape-sized NightFury and a stuffed toy shark the size of a doll. They were NightFury and Frenzied Shark, using some low-tier transformation skill. They could only hop clumsily in place, but the small forms made hiding easy. Crab scrambled, claws flashing, shouting between dodges: "I just want to know! That time-stop of yours, is it from your divine relic?" Rita snarled, "If I say another word to you, I’m a pig." She leapt to another shelf. She remembered a "9" here. The vending machine she had seen required a "27." With her "3" and "9," she could cobble something together. But what would it dispense? Just then, the library’s system voice boomed across the floor: [On the 2nd floor, a student has damaged library property. The Librarians on that floor will now enter Riot Time for 15 minutes. Any student struck by a Librarian during this period will have their maximum HP permanently reduced by 10% for this match. During Riot Time, damaging library property carries no penalty.] Rita instantly lightened her steps. But behind her came a growing clamor. She turned—and her heart sank. A horde was chasing. Crab, NightFury, the shark plush, and a gaggle of students in bizarre miniature forms, all rushing her. Every last one of them wanted the same thing: her relics. And during Riot Time, they could attack without fear. Crab clearly wanted someone to share the target lock with him. But speed was the Hunter Form’s specialty. Even as Rita paused now and then to snatch a number, no one could keep up. A swarm of toys and animals bounded after her through the shelves. Rita cut sharply, leading them straight toward the Librarians. But these weren’t rookies. Anyone daring to gamble for a divine relic had the confidence to face it. Not one of them slowed. One of the suited women cracked her whip back, then turned her head toward the ring-shaped aisle encircling the central rotunda. Dozens of tiny figures thundered along in a line, heels tapping and paws thumping. With a hiss, she vanished in a blur and struck. The whip lashed out. Rita vaulted straight up, barely clearing the sweep beneath her feet. Behind her, the horde of figurines saw it too, and at the same instant, they all jumped.