NPC Code: Red Riding Hood

The world surrounding us made a tremor, causing the already mixed and matched books to shuffle once more. We did not even have the chance to view the insides of the library as Match and I barely maintained our balance.

I reached out for Match's hands and held her tight, not wanting to slip her from my sight. We stayed intertwined with each other for a couple of minutes, waiting for the sudden shake to die down.

But as soon as the library turned silent, another problem emerged from the surface of the cavern.

"Find NPCs around this forest!"

"Leave none alive!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Those voices came from the sounds of the soldiers marching through the woodland, hunting down our kind. Although it was impossible for us to perceive their conversations, Match and I heard the players with ease. It was as if the library itself made it possible for us to pry in their goals.

Match snuggled her arms around my waist. I was the only comfort she had, so the little girl stayed by my side.

"What are we going to do, Red?" Match asked. Even though she was a smart girl that could solve puzzles and riddles, she was still a youthful lass.

"We should finish the puzzle. We only have one riddle to answer. Let's answer it before the guards find this cave," I answered.

I did not know how the players already reached this place, but their presence only meant one thing. We needed to make things happen right now, or else those soldiers would kill us.

I slid my hands over and opened my monitor. The system understood my gestures and revealed the last riddle for the entrance.

"[Fourth Riddle]," I read. "[What can you keep after giving to someone?],"

The riddle was unbelievably difficult to answer. Match, who paved away the answers for each riddle, glared at the monitor at our fore. She, too, did not know what to answer for that riddle.

However, the two of us had a clue. From all the ten options that we had from each book, only one remained answered.

"We need to find the book with the title 'your word'," I instructed Match.

"That's what I am going to say," Match seconded my statement, and flashed me a smile.

We turned our focus back to the library and discerned the entire room. But as soon as our eyes wandered around the book room once again, another floor emerged from above.

The library created another storey, storing more bookshelves and books that we needed to find. Match and I did not have any time for this ridiculousness, and this labyrinth still refused to help us in the end.

It always exceeded its trials, as if someone was pulling the strings behind this madness.

"You search the entire first floor. I will search the second and the third floors!" I commanded Match, and headed out to the stairs.

Match couldn't react fast enough to my instructions as she accepted what I told her to do. The little girl rushed straight towards the shelves and fiddled with her hands between the dominoes of books.

I had the exact job, but I needed to browse two floors. It only meant that I had twice the effort than the girl below me. However, that trivial thing did not matter to me, since I had a more agile body than Match.

I activated my right eye to heighten all of my senses for this quest. That glowing eye that my system activated would improve my reaction time, eyesight, and reaction time.

But not in combat. Match and I did not encounter monsters inside this labyrinth, so readying my weapon was out of the options. These small upgrades would help me find the book around these shelves.

As I dashed through the cabinets, all my eyes could discern were the volumes we already found and used before. Those books meant nothing to us, considering their unrelated concepts for the latest riddle.

"'Your word', where are you?" I murmured to myself while jolting at one shelf after the other, scanning every nook and cranny of this place.

But alas, the book that had the title "Your word" did not appear at the second level. I could only guess that the volume was at the upper storey. If Match and I missed such a hardbound book… we would look for it again before the soldiers would seize us.

I leapt from the ground and went to the third floor. Just like the second and the first storeys, the third floor filled itself with books and documents. There was nothing out of the ordinary besides stacks of papers lying in the cabinets.

I shook my head from staring at the mountain of papers and looked for the book.

It usually took me around thirty minutes to an hour to finish browsing half of the floor's contents. But because of activating my right eye, I could control my body more than I used to, making it effortless for me to roam around. My eyesight also got enhanced, giving me a full vision of my surroundings.

Those lengthy times got shortened as I finished looking around the entire third floor. It took me around fifteen minutes to circle the place instead of thirty minutes.

However, despite the trimmed time, I still couldn't locate the book.

"Match, did you find something yet?" I shouted, while I gazed below ground at the verge of the rails.

Match, who heard me from above, shook her head and replied, "Nope. I found nine of the books, but not the ones we need. And I found all of them peaking through on the board! I don't even need to find those books, Red."

It was ironic that all of those worthless volumes stuck around on the first floor. According to Match's claims, those books also hid in plain sight. It meant that they were in front of her all along.

"That's strange," I remarked. "How come I've seen no books on the second and third floor? If I'm playing with chances, the book that we need should be right here. Why can't I find that stupid book!"

I almost cussed out loud after pondering my rhetorical question. Nobody could give me an answer, since I was the only one present in the third storey.

Before I could even continue my monologue, the ground and the ceiling rumbled again, with debris falling from above. Marching sounds reverberated through the room, with the voices of the soldiers squeezing through the walls.

All the players instructed their teammates to search the area. Judging by the directions of their sounds, these soldiers already found the cave. It would be a matter of time before the players could enter the library and kill us with their guns.

My system and map also warned me about the soldier's presence. The red buttons revealed themselves on my map, colouring half of the place with the player's numbers. Match and I could never fight the soldiers head-on.

The only way we could escape with our lives was to find the book with the title "your word."

"What are we going to do, Red?" Match asked.

"I will find the book here on the third floor. Match, you stay just where you are, and tell me if you notice something strange," I answered.

"But, Red, I want to help too!"

"I know, Match. But I have heightened senses. Trust me on this."

After our exchange, I roamed around the shelves once again. I circled every space that the book could've fallen off, trying to find clues about the whereabouts of misplaced books. I also peered my eyes at the fore of every cabinet, hoping to see a book sticking its pages outside.

However, that was not the case. No matter the amount of energy I exerted, the book we needed never appeared in front of me… Not until now.

"Why am I looking for a book when it could've been the documents!" I whispered, and flicked my fingers on the stack of papers lying on the cabinets.

It did not take me some time before finding the bunch of papers with the title "your word" on the front page. Although the texts had a different size, it was still the answer to the riddle.

"Red, the players are coming!" Match shouted, and warned me about the intruders entering the cavern.

The soldiers took their time and finally entered this place. Match and I needed to rush towards the pedestals and place these documents on the empty slot.

"I will push the players. Red, please do the honours," Match said, and fired a ball of fire in the entrance's direction.

She had her left eye glowing. I could already feel Match's powers intensifying because of the spell's activation.

"I will leave those bad guys to you, then," I answered, and sprinted my way towards the protruding altar.

"I hope this works."

Although Match and I knew that the phrase "your word" was the answer, we had no explanations for it. We just accepted that line by eliminating all the options. We could only hope that our answer would unlock the secret passage and lead us to the dwarven kingdom.