Chapter 1: Point, Library and a Lens
Reality is a big canvas. It might as well be a vast ocean. Ocean of what...? A Canvas for...? Such existence and yet we don't really know the grand purpose of reality; reality - wherein our universe is just a part of.
Consciousness makes us feel bigger than the world and yet our awareness makes us smaller than we think we are. Ants might revere us like the sky, but we revere the sky regardless of it being an enigma to us. How fascinating to think that somewhere in a place where we can never reach, there might be someone looking at the grandness of everything as a mere point. There might be beings that perceive our reality as mere dust and yet such beings worship something much bigger than we could ever fathom. So how small are we? Well, It is a question only a reverend one could answer.
Ever since I woke up, this is what kept my mind busy. It is as if these thoughts were mine long before I woke up as an empty husk of a being. Along with my missing identity, it made me feel more like a mere existence of the unknown.
Apart from my identity, I could surmise that a lot of things are missing, and yet there is no way to pinpoint them. I know I lack something, but I don't know what I lack.
As my eyes wander - wait eyes? What are eyes? It seems to be a part of a system used to perceive visual stimuli. How the heck did I know what eyes are for? I can see! What is seeing? What is perceiving?
A plethora of visual stimuli labeled as colors entered my eye. My mind kept on perceiving something called shapes. The visual information kept on accumulating until it began to make sense to me. I am in a library!
For quite some time, as I wander in a place I call a library, I realized that I kept on absorbing information, labeling them, and making sense of them.
"This cuboid-shaped thing seems to be not hollow. It is compact yet the insides are composed of non-rigid sheets. It's not hollow therefore it's not a storage box. It has text and,,, Oh! It's a book!"
"This... a chair!"
"Th... a table."
Things that seemed to be misplaced in my brain, kept on resurfacing. This happened until all the things were accounted for... well... except for the content of the books.
Why is that? It's because I have lost the ability to comprehend the text or perhaps the syntax, language, and symbols written in these books are something I am unfamiliar with.
Time really passed slowly after I identified the objects around me. Now, no matter how good this place looks, stimulants will eventually lose their stimuli. I was bored to death.
I wandered all over the place and realized the vastness of this library. It could house so many books that I could no longer count them. The books here seem to be sorted excellently, though I could not read the words for each section and shelf.
When I was exploring, I did not feel any exhaustion nor perspiration. As if I was not walking, I never feel tired.
Wait- walking? No no no no! I am hovering!
For a human me, hovering is obviously abnormal. Human? Yes I was a human. That is what I think I was. I wanted to clench my chest in fear but.
'NOOOOOOO!' No chest? I was wrong. I have no hands! No limbs - I don't have limbs. Even my third leg is missing.
Suddenly my usually robotic and apathetic brain fluctuated. Well, I don't have a brain as well, but it is the first time that I became aware that I was thinking and also of my emotions. Oh! And regarding the brain, I think it is a metaphorical one? I never knew that one day, personification would apply to me.
What in the world am I? I feel like, having four- no, five limbs is a normal thing, and yet I am missing them right now.
I feel so small - like a point in the vast universe. Just a point in place but no place to go.
I could not say that I explored the whole library, but I'm quite sure I traveled so far. While at it, I kept on scanning the spines of each book that I see. I found out that even though I cannot comprehend the gibberish, I could still remember each symbol and where each book is located relative to the other. Perhaps, this is what eidetic memory feels like, but I know to myself that it is not.
Now that I think about it, in this library, no two books are the same. Each spine has different combinations of symbols. If I could only read them and understand them, I'm confident that each book and their shelves and also maybe their content will be ingrained in my consciousness.
After the long wait, finally, there is hope. With the ocean of books around me, everything which is not a book is hope for me at this very moment. I halted my metaphorical steps and looked at a particular spot in my sight.
'Isn't this a reception desk? No one seemed to man this desk for a long time.'
Same with the shelves, aside from the smell of books, one could inhale the dust. Dust accumulated for a long time and some coagulated. On top of the desk, are documents filled with the usual gibberish of this place. One needs to thoroughly dust it off just to see the contents of the document.
One might ask, how does a limbless freak pick up an object? Surprise-surprise! Telekinesis.
I can't actually do some freaky stuff like make every object afloat. All I could do is control things according to the limit of the human body I believe I had.
With this, I scanned the contents of the documents hoping to find the light in this dark world of ignorance. I want to at least be able to read and comprehend the things surrounding me. All of the documents looked important. Sadly I can't read.
After a long time of scanning, My metaphorical eyes swept through the desk and found things that are different from the usual in this library. For example, there is a monocle.
The monocle covered with the coagulation of dust levitated in front of me. After a bit of observation, I noticed that the monocle is made with something sturdy. For what material it is, I don't know. The lens is intact and the chain is light but durable. As I was rotating it, my sight accidentally passed through the lens, and from there, I witnessed something amazing.
'The words are transforming into something readable!'
I couldn't help but exclaim in shock. If my guess is right, since the monocle could translate the gibberish, then instead of a language, these words might be a result of encryption. Encrypting a piece of information does not always mean that it will result in a systematic language.
Language aside from being systematic also considers cultural context as it evolves. If the hypothesis is right, then there is no use in trying to learn these symbols. Just use the glasses.
'That is if I am right. But, I think, I should still try to assess if this is a language I could learn.'
Now that I can read the letters, I could now say that I am partially literate.
---
Now that I have this monocle it's time to alleviate the boredom.
The passage of time is irrelevant. Instead of randomly picking up a book, I searched for the books pertaining to language. I combed through shelves and oh boy. Not one book is relevant. What amazed me the most is that all of the books I have seen here have names of people as their titles.
Are all books here biography books? Then how am I supposed to learn the language?
I don't want to depend on this monocle for eternity.
'Aside from bibliography books and documents, there's nothing here but chairs and tables. Sigh.'
'Wait! Documents! Yes, the documents. How could I miss that?'
I went back to the reception desk and looked at the documents. I am not familiar with the language so even if I remembered the letter combinations, I could not translate them in my mind. I picked up the documents one by one. The documents contained a list of missing and unaccounted books. It is weird to look at it at first due to the long list of people's names, but if you think critically, these are books. There are also books that are meant to be disposed of, but because of the titles, the list looks like an assassin's to kill list. Imagine seeing a list of human names for disposal. It will give you chills.
Aside from lists, there are also references for shelves and how the books are sorted. It's funny that there are genres in the category. It might be helpful, but sadly there's still no clue about a language book. Even so, I memorized the contents of these documents. Why?
Why not? Every bit of information is essential.
Since I have a monocle, I could've exploited it for eternity. It is more convenient that way, but understanding something with your own effort is something more rewarding and more sustainable in the long run.
I almost gave up when I saw a certain section in the sorting document.
'In genre, there is school category with 9 and millions of zeroes of books.'
That's just one genre and yet the number of books could easily fill up the galaxy. How am I supposed to find what I need? Also, I did say that I memorized the contents of the sorting document. How the hell did I confidently say, I memorized this document? Something is wrong with this library.
I did not notice it at first, but each document seems to contain an absurd amount of information. It feels like a paper could contain millions of words.
'Am I hallucinating?'
'How the hell did I memorize that overflowing information?'
Albeit being engrossed in the matter, I tested my own mind. I tried to recite the names of the books. It took a lot of time to recite the first thousand names and my memory did not fail yet.
'I really did memorize them.'
I was flabbergasted.
I gave up on uncovering the secrets of the universe and started finding the shelf for school genre books. Most of the names are damn unfamiliar to me, but some names are quite tugging the strings from past memories. I am sure, I don't know these people, but the names gave me a feeling of awe and reverence. It feels like, at some point, I heard of them even though I don't have memories of them.
'How pathetic for an entity that could memorize an almost infinite list to lose his own memories.'
Among myriads of books, I grabbed one and looked at its front cover. As expected, the title of the book is a name of a person.
'Aldenoah. This guy got no family name.'
Aldenoah is the main title of the book. Surprisingly, there is a subtitle.
'The man who transcended Babel's sky.'
Out of curiosity, I flipped the cover and began reading. As I engrossed myself on the first page, a life-changing event occurred. I, an entity as small as a point embarked on something I will never forget even in eternity. Huge strides indeed start from baby steps.
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