Chapter 252
The internet.
A vast communication network spanning the entire globe.
A blessing of civilization, enjoyed as naturally as breathing by everyone living in the 21st century.
Even at this very moment, countless people were probably turning on their laptops and smartphones without a second thought.
Some for work.
Some for studying.
And some for entertainment, just to kill time.
That place, a vast Pacific Ocean of information where people swam about in their own ways.
A space where the majority of people, without even realizing it, were being reborn in real time as freshly minted turtle necks.
That place was called the internet.
And now, in the study of Frontera mansion, sat a man desperately missing that blessing of Earth’s civilization.
“……Uuuuuuuuugh.”
Lloyd let out a long groan as he slumped over the desk and dropped his chin onto it.
Then, moving like a machine, he opened another book.
How many had he gone through by now?
He didn’t know.
He was at least certain he had already passed a hundred.
‘I’m going crazy. This is insane.’
Lloyd shook his head hard, trying to chase away the sleepiness pouring over him.
Then he looked again at the mountain-like stack of books piled beside him.
A sigh escaped him without warning.
‘It’s already been three days and nights, and there’s still this much left.’
By his estimate, there were still about fifty books left to go through.
Most of them were philosophical texts about fate, or books related to magic.
Mixed among them were also works on astrology, astronomy, spirits, mythology, and folktales from various lands.
In other words, Lloyd was going through every single book he could find that might contain a clue to the future he had seen through the ending spoiler.
‘And I can’t even skim them carelessly, either.’
That was the real problem.
Honestly, he wanted to just flip through the pages and skim them quickly.
But he couldn’t.
The books here were completely different from the ones in modern-day South Korea.
Things like clean typography, paragraph layout, and readable page design.
In the modern world, if a publication lacked readability, it quickly fell behind in sales competition. That applied not just to novels, but essays, self-help books, informational magazines, and everything else.
Which was why they were all designed to be easy to read.
But the books in this study?
Readability was a nonexistent concept here.
There was no advanced printing technology, either.
Only the wildly inconsistent handwriting of scribes rampaging all over the page.
Sometimes there were books so full of tiny, ant-like letters that he practically needed a magnifying glass.
‘There’s no consideration for the reader at all!’
And on top of that, every bit of it was unfamiliar material.
If he skimmed too quickly, it felt like he could easily miss an important clue.
Because of that, Lloyd was half-forced to read the books here almost as if he were studying them line by line.
It was exhausting work.
‘The internet. I need the internet.’
He found himself desperately missing the blessing of civilization he had once enjoyed in South Korea.
What if the Lorasia Continent had the internet?
The changed fates of the people here.
The chain of accidents happening one after another as if that changed fate itself were pushing things back into place.
He could have searched for cases like that.
No, at the very least, he could have posted a question on a site like Naver Knowledge iN.
‘That would’ve been way better than burying myself in books for three straight days like this. I would’ve gotten more information or at least some kind of clue.’
Thud.
Lloyd shut the book.
When he lifted his head again, his mind felt hazy.
‘Even for me, this is too much.’
The misfortunes he had seen through the ending spoiler.
Trying to find clues to that bizarre phenomenon through books?
The more he thought about it, the more wrong it seemed.
And the moment he remembered Earth’s search engines, that conviction only grew stronger.
‘This isn’t something that can be solved with simple manual labor. If I keep this up, I’m not getting anywhere.’
After personally suffering through three straight days of this book-digging labor, that conclusion came naturally.
The reasons were simple.
‘First. There are too many books, and there’s no way to know which one might contain a clue. So I have to dig through them one by one by hand. But when I have to read each one individually like this, the speed is way too slow.’
He had shut himself inside the study for three entire days.
Aside from waking the Dragon King in the mornings, this was almost all he had done.
Just in case, he had even tried using his Surveying skill on the books.
But that hadn’t worked properly.
The Surveying skill could only scan things like the paper quality, thickness, and area of the pages.
It couldn’t recognize the letters written on them.
Which was why—
Even after straining his eyes for three days straight, he had only managed to investigate the contents of a little over a hundred books.
‘But if I keep doing this? How much longer is it going to take?’
Even if he spent every day like this?
A simple calculation told the story.
Thirty days to investigate a thousand books.
A staggering three hundred days to investigate ten thousand.
‘At that point, I’d basically have to consider it the same as digging through all the relevant materials in the Royal Central Library in the capital.’
But even then—
If he really invested three hundred full days.
If he thoroughly combed through the Royal Central Library in the capital.
‘Would I even find the materials or clues I’m looking for?’
There was no certainty at all.
And what if no relevant materials came up?
Then that would mean he had wasted three hundred precious days for nothing.
‘And even if I’m unbelievably lucky and I do find some clue, there’s still another problem.’
Finding clues or materials wasn’t the end.
That information still had to be gathered and analyzed.
Then the conclusion drawn from that analysis had to be cross-checked to verify whether it was correct.
And only after that could he start looking for a countermeasure.
‘That’s the problem. There isn’t enough time.’
Lloyd recalled the diary he had seen in the ending spoiler.
The records of disaster written there.
The very first of those incidents, Count Frontera’s horseback accident, would happen in only three years.
‘Finding materials, analyzing them, reaching a conclusion. If I try to do all that, three years will vanish in an instant. That won’t work. By the time I find a countermeasure, the incidents will already have started happening. It’ll be too late.’
Lloyd shook his head hard.
As expected, doing the math made the answer even clearer.
Trying to investigate this through books was hopeless.
The time loss was just too great.
‘I need another method. Not this manual-labor style investigation. Ah, if only there really were an internet. If I could just post a question like on Knowledge iN, the sages there would answer. How great would that be. If only there were some existence here that could answer questions that readily like those sages… Wait?’
He stopped.
Just as Lloyd was about to let out a deep sigh, his eyes widened.
That’s right.
Come to think of it, there was.
No, more than that—
There really was one, and it was very close by.
‘The Dragon King!’
Lloyd shot to his feet without realizing it.
‘What an idiot. Why didn’t I think of that? The Dragon King might know something about this phenomenon.’
A possibility had appeared.
Come to think of it, there was someone besides the Dragon King who could also take on the role of his own personal ‘Knowledge In.’
‘And if the Dragon King doesn’t give me a satisfactory clue… then I’ll have to ask the King of Hell.’
Fortunately, he knew how to get to hell.
The Hellgate he had left open in the polar region.
He could enter through there.
And after crossing into hell like that, he could fly straight to Hell Castle.
‘Of course, if I want an answer from the King of Hell, I’ll have to pay an equivalent price.’
And it probably wouldn’t be an ordinary price, either.
So first, he decided to ask Dragon King Verkis.
At the very least, asking him would cost nothing.
‘And it’s almost dawn anyway.’
From that moment on—
Lloyd shut his eyes for a while.
Using the book he had been reading as a pillow, he rested.
Soon, dawn arrived.
He sprang up.
And headed straight for the guest room in the annex.
As usual, he woke Dragon King Verkis.
“Um, Dragon King? It’s time to wake up.”
“Mmmnyaah……”
“If you don’t wake up, I’ll sing.”
“Uh, I’m awake.”
“Congratulations. You’ve achieved an impressively sharp awakening.”
“……Huaaam.”
Verkis barely managed to crack open his eyelids, heavy with sleep.
Still half-asleep, he traced a magic formula in the air.
Then he cast a communication spell toward his wife.
But the result was the same as yesterday.
Pachut!
“……Ha.”
Once again, the call had been rejected.
It seemed her sulking had not yet subsided.
Still, if he kept contacting her faithfully like this, then eventually her anger would probably ease.
Thinking that, Verkis lay back down.
‘Anyway, today’s homework is done!’
Just thinking that made him feel delighted.
His heart pounding happily, he pulled the blanket up over himself.
But something was strange.
“……You, why aren’t you leaving?”
Unlike usual, Lloyd Frontera wasn’t going anywhere.
Normally, once things were set up like this, he would say he’d come again tomorrow and quietly slip out of the room.
Today was different.
Far from stepping outside, he stood there watching him, carefully gauging his reaction.
“You, what is it? Why are you looking at me like some puppy that needs to poop?”
“Um, may I ask you just one question, Dragon King?”
“No, you may not.”
“……”
“Sleeping. Snore!”
“……”
Dragon King Verkis fell asleep within 0.1 nanoseconds of finishing his sentence.
Lloyd was left speechless.
After that, no matter what he tried, it was useless.
Even boldly poking his shoulder.
Even dancing beside the bed like a lunatic.
Even singing at the top of his lungs.
Dragon King Verkis didn’t so much as let his breathing falter.
But Lloyd couldn’t give up that easily.
‘Of course not. If I don’t get an answer here, I’ll have to go all the way to hell again.’
And for some reason, going to hell felt unsettling.
Especially because the King of Hell didn’t understand the meaning of ‘free.’
The thought made it even worse.
He might end up paying an enormous price just to get a single clue.
‘If I can, it’s better to get help from the Dragon King.’
And so, from that day onward—
A battle of wills between Lloyd and Verkis unfolded every single morning.
“Dragon King! I have something I need to ask!”
“Yeah, see you tomorrow. Snore!”
“……”
The Dragon King dropped into sleep refreshingly (?).
But Lloyd refused to give up.
Each time morning came.
Each time he woke the Dragon King.
He stubbornly threw out questions.
“Dragon King! Can a fate that has been changed for some reason also affect present events?”
“Don’t know. See you tomorrow. Snore!”
“……”
His questions were still being ignored.
Even so, morning kept arriving without fail.
“Dragon King! I’m from another dimension, and somehow I ended up changing the fate of this world!”
“Yeah, is that so?”
“Yes!”
“Got it. See you tomorrow. Snore!”
“……”
And then yet another morning came.
“Dragon King! In the original novel, people who were supposed to die are still alive because of me, and it seems like a disastrous situation is coming where they’re all going to die one after another!”
“Wow, you’re amazing.”
“Thank you!”
“Right. Then see you tomorrow. Snore!”
“……”
As expected, morning came again.
“Dragon King! Do you even remember all the questions I’ve asked so far?!”
“No, don’t know. See you tomorrow. Snore!”
“……”
The planet kept spinning, tireless and indifferent.
“Dragon King! Please answer me today!”
“No. I’m sleeping. See you tomorrow. Snore!”
“……”
Then once again, the laws of nature brought another dawn.
“Dragon King! If you still don’t answer me today, tomorrow I’m waking you with a kiss!”
“You, have you finally gone insane?”
“Yes, I’ve gone insane!”
“……”
“So please. Won’t you answer my question?”
“Yeah, no. I have absolutely no intention of answering. Go away.”
“But you’re already answering me, aren’t you?”
Lloyd plopped himself right down beside Verkis’s bed.
Then, with teary pleading eyes, he stared at the Dragon King.
That sight made Verkis jolt.
‘Should I kill him?’
For a moment, he really considered it.
He honestly wondered whether this bastard was insane.
But soon, he withdrew the urge.
Instead, he let out a long sigh inwardly.
‘Can’t kill him. I decided to let this guy help me. In exchange for waking me every morning, I agreed to stay in this territory. That’s a promise too.’
So he couldn’t simply kill him.
If he broke a promise he had made with his own mouth—
There was a chance he could lose the power of the Dragon’s Word.
‘So killing him is out. Then should I just seal his mouth with magic? No. Then he won’t be able to wake me properly in the mornings. Tsk. Annoying.’
Verkis felt genuine irritation.
Lloyd, who had been hurling nonsense questions at him for days now.
The man couldn’t have been more bothersome.
But Verkis couldn’t keep ignoring him forever, either.
If he did, this guy looked fully prepared to keep clinging to him and pestering him forever.
‘I should just throw out some random answer and be done with it.’
Then that guy would be satisfied and stop raining questions on him.
That seemed like the better option.
Having come to a conclusion, Verkis asked,
“Tsk. So you’re from another dimension?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And this world was a novel in your dimension?”
“Yes. That’s the truth.”
“Got it. No need to stress it so much. Anyway, the dimension you used to live in is also just a tiny fragment of a hard drive sitting in some warehouse in another dimension.”
“……Yes?”
“Why are you so surprised? That’s how dimensions work. Anyway, to sum up the questions you’ve been asking so far—you came from another dimension, and you twisted the original fate of this dimension. Right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“But because that fate got twisted, the people who should have died are still alive, and from now on they’re going to die one after another. And you want to stop that. Right?”
“Yes, exactly that.”
“Then it’s simple.”
Verkis chuckled.
“Have you ever heard of the Phenomenon of Fate’s Restoration?”
The persistence that had finally made even the great Dragon King throw up his hands.
At last, that persistence was beginning to produce results worthy of an internet Knowledge In search.