In a certain corner of Snowdrift’s central area, three buildings stood together, each joined by suspended corridors of glittering silver sand. Of these buildings, the first was a square structure 3 floors high, the second was a rectangle with 5 floors, and the third was a large tower that stood high above all other buildings in the village. These buildings, and particularly the tower, were a symbol of both knowledge and the Sky-Blue Federation’s power. Even though the residents of Snowdrift considered themselves to be abandoned by the Federation, one only had to look at the library tower constructed from blue-gold bricks to remember the greater power looming over them.

In the shortest building’s second floor, there was a small group of library workers who were huddled together. They kept shooting looks at a particular part of the room while whispering to each other.

“He really does look like an astral with only two eyes.”

“Or like us without blue hair and a tail.”

“Since he's here on his own, was it a forbidden love?”

“There are plenty of subtle differences between our race and astrals. As long as we can get pictures of him naked…”

“Vilar, you talked to him before, right? Did he have a data package about himself?”

The large insectoid shook his head. “No. I asked him about it today and he said I could take pictures. But when I asked him to get naked, he seemed put off.”

“Ugh, a prude. Maybe he is part astral.”

“Falia, we need you to take one for the team. Here, hide this recording artifact before you proposition him.”

“Wait, I’ll also end up naked, right? Where can I hide it?”

While a petite blue-furred woman with antlers and a small whiteish deer tail looked herself over in a fluster, Vilar took another glance at Jayce. His antennae twitched as he watched screen after holographic screen pop up and vanish like bubbles in a boiling pot.

“Just how fast can this guy read?”

Vilar was actually mistaken. While Jayce was speed reading, he was only skimming each document before quickly moving on.

Sitting cross-legged atop a fuzzy cushion, Jayce stared at a dull blue screen projected by the information console in front of him. Unlike Marin’s giant obelisk, this IC was just a simple pole with some glowing veins. There were several other poles like it scattered throughout the library’s second floor with cushions beside them. It seemed that these poles were ‘children’ and their ‘parent’ IC was the large obelisk at the head of the room. From what Jayce had seen, there was always at least one librarian sitting beside it.

Light flowed into the large open room from its full-length windows, reflecting off a bronze circlet strapped to Jayce’s head. He still hadn’t figured out what this circlet was for, as he certainly didn’t need it to control the IC. Either way, Vilar had insisted that he wear it, so Jayce didn’t take it off.

Jayce finished skimming the document and closed it with a thought. Glancing at another holographic panel to his left, he added a new entry in his list before opening a new window. After getting his bearings navigating the IC’s data files, Jayce had started creating a priority list of things he needed to study. At the moment, there were too many things he needed to look into, and he didn’t even understand what knowledge he had access to—hence the need for a list.

This was the second location he visited after burying the masked man, which showed how much importance Jayce placed on the knowledge here. The first location was, naturally, the bathhouse.

Controlling ICs was extremely easy and intuitive since everything was handled by thought. He could also tap the screens if he wanted to, but they only reacted to touch because he subconsciously felt that they should. The interface of an IC was full of things like that. Aside from the information itself, nothing about these holographic boxes was fixed. Jayce was free to arrange things in whatever style he liked, allowing him to create his own GUIs based on familiar websites and word documents. These were by far the most futuristic devices he’d seen since coming to the Upper Bound.

And yet, despite this amazing technology, Jayce couldn’t help but frown as he searched through the library’s database.

Jayce turned towards the cluster of library workers and waved. A young deer woman among them saw this gesture and started fidgeting with her clothes, which confused Jayce greatly. She only calmed down once it was clear that he was calling Vilar over. The dark green insectoid’s legs clacked against the floor as he shuffled over to answer Jayce’s call.

“What’s up valued data—I mean valued guest?”

“I didn’t mention this earlier, but I was injured before I reached Snowdrift and lost some of my memories. Because of that, I was wondering…why are the library’s ICs only able to access Snowdrift’s local network?”

This was something Jayce had found very strange. Over 90 percent of the information on his IC came from stored data files and not any sort of internet. He could connect to residents in Snowdrift and read any public information they put up, like the job postings that Marin had shown him, but he couldn’t access anything beyond the village.

“All ICs are like that. An IC in a village can only connect people within the village. An IC in a city can only connect people within the city.”

“What? There’s no world-wide internet?”

“Internet…” Vilar repeated the word as if it were foreign. “There are rumors that higher-ups in the Federation and members of large groups like the Ascia clan can communicate instantly from anywhere in the world. Of course, there are plenty of slower ways to send messages.”

‘Only the 1% has access to world-wide internet? What kind of dystopia is this?’ Jayce subconsciously slumped his shoulders.

“Alright, let’s move on from that. Most of the data files on here are from the Federation, right?”

“Yes. Every library curates data packages that the Federation provides to teach their population.”

“Why are there so few data files from the village or anywhere else? I don’t believe that the Federation’s packages cover everything a person could know.”

Jayce was absolutely sure of this, since one of the first things he’d done was look up information on humans. The data files from the Federation did have information about the Lower Bound but it was outdated and had absolutely nothing regarding the human race. Humans had only become known to the Upper Bound in the past 6-7 months. Without world-wide internet, it made sense that the villagers couldn’t make heads or tails of Jayce’s race.

As he continued to search, he found that there were many other things the Federation didn’t teach. Special classes, like Jayce’s Bloodrager and Soul Forger, were an obvious example, but there was precious little information about artifact refining and other technical professions. On Earth, Jayce could easily find detailed tutorials for almost any activity. This was not so on Caelum, and it was because those tutorials were normally made by average people who wanted to spread information about their craft. Instead of billions, Snowdrift’s local internet only had slightly over a thousand users. Even then, most of the local information he found existed for the benefit of the poster rather than the reader. They were advertisements, information about the village’s history and rules, a short biography glorifying the three elders and so on.

Vilar explained, “We all collect data packages by either buying them from traders or compiling them ourselves but obviously we don’t put them up on the local network. It’s like that quote from the first supreme being in recorded history. Information is the most permanent form of power, controlling your contemporaries, their children, and their children’s children.”

“But, hypothetically, if everyone shared their personal data packages, you’d be able to learn a lot more.”

Vilar shook his head. “That’s crazy talk. Even though the villagers trust each other, we wouldn’t hand over our knowledge like that. It’s even more absurd to think of outsiders doing it. Data about our professions is something slowly accumulated through generations of hard work. For many families, it’s their greatest heirloom.”

Jayce opened his mouth and then closed it. That had been an extreme example, but Vilar’s reaction was very telling. Jayce realized that sites like Wikipedia simply couldn’t exist in this world. Sharing and curating information for everyone’s mutual benefit…Here, that concept seemed to have been strangled in its infancy. Of course, when some information could decide whether one became a god or not, it was easy to see why people were more cautious. Snowdrift was a fairly calm and quiet place, but the Upper Bound as a whole was far from peaceful.

Thanking Vilar, Jayce turned back to his console and kept updating and revising his priority list.

A while later, he stopped to digest everything.

Regarding classes and the Nexus system, there was a lot of useful information for Jayce. The Federation’s data had next to nothing about promoted classes or merged classes, but there was plenty to learn about the five basic classes. How to reliably unlock each class, how to stimulate them through combat, basic descriptions of every possible class ability, all of this information was like a deluge of rain pouring on Jayce’s parched mind.

He also investigated the tests for opening gates, but he didn’t find much that Marin hadn’t already told him. There was nothing about that mysterious tower or his ability to willingly challenge both stages. Following that, there was also no mention of an empowered version of Essence Appraisal.

Jayce was slightly disappointed to find almost nothing regarding the fourth gate or anything beyond it. It seemed there was a major gap between gates three and four, but the data files danced around the subject.

In any case, there was more information about sciences, history, geography, philosophy, mana and aspects, classes, and other things than Jayce could possibly ever read in one lifetime.

Stretching, Jayce decided to stop there.

“Well, I’ll be visiting this place a lot in the future. There’s no need to rush.”

Although he said this, from anyone else’s perspective, his rigid form and the way his eyes darted rapidly as he scanned each data file showed a clear picture of someone who was frantically rushing.

Now, Jayce had to worry about how to save or print the information on this list. He also wanted to print a map of the village that he’d found. Looking over the file options, Jayce didn’t find anything related to printing on paper, but he found an ‘imprinting’ option. Curious, Jayce accepted it. The bronze circlet that had been dormant suddenly lit up and a formless pressure accumulated between Jayce’s brows. Jayce felt he could block the pressure easily, but he chose to let it in. Within a few seconds, Jayce’s priority list was imprinted into his mind. He could recall it with a thought, but it hadn’t truly been memorized. Jayce also had a vague sense that he would lose this list if he didn’t review it every once in a while.

“That’s…pretty cool.”

After imprinting the map as well, Jayce was tempted to push an entire textbook into his head. He ultimately decided to wait until he was used to what he’d already imprinted.

Standing up, Jayce found Vilar again and asked him where he could sell his talismans. Jayce wasn’t planning to trade all or even most of his talismans away, since they were precious refining materials, but he still needed spending money.

“Hmm, the simplest way would be to hand them in to the village head or one of the elders. Snowdrift doesn’t have a branch of the pathfinder guild, so the village head was appointed as an honorary branch master.”

“Pathfinder guild? What is that and what does it have to do with selling talismans?”

“Oh right, amnesia. The pathfinder guild is the Federation’s take on Elysia’s warrior’s society. The words ‘path’ and ‘pathfinder’ have a very special meaning to astrals, hence the name. Teams of fighters can register at the guild and be paid to collect talismans, mana cores and other materials. Even if you aren’t registered, you can still sell talismans at a fair price.”

“What do they need so many materials for?”

“The guild is owned by the Federation. So, you can think of it as the Federation collecting materials. Every six months or so, a so-called official visits Snowdrift to check up on things around here and collect materials.”

‘Only once every six months?’ Jayce mused. ‘From Vilar’s dismissive tone, it sounds like they’re just a lackey who was stuck doing a job no one else wanted.’

“It’s almost time for afternoon training,” Vilar continued. “One of the elders will always be there to supervise, so you should come with me.”

“Sure.”

Jayce had already been planning to visit the village’s twice-daily training sessions. Going there to sell his materials was killing two birds with one stone.

While they walked through the library, Jayce quietly used Essence Appraisal on Vilar as an experiment. The green insectoid didn’t react as Jayce’s ability activated successfully. Jayce only learned what he already knew, that Vilar had opened the first gate and was somewhere between level 20 and 40. This ability also gave him a subtle feeling that Vilar was on the lower end of that scale.

Outside the library’s shortest building, Jayce glanced at the two adjacent structures curiously. Before Vilar got too far ahead, Jayce moved to the side and took a look through the windows of the taller rectangular building. Inside, he saw kids sitting on mats with ICs in front of them. There was also an adult standing at the head of the room who was speaking to everyone.

“A school?”

“Yes. Just like everywhere else, children in Snowdrift receive compulsory education before the system deems them mature,” a fair voice answered behind him.

Jayce whirled around and saw the petite deer girl from earlier. She was dressed in a warm leather coat lined with white fur and boots that resembled Uggs, which was such a ubiquitous style in the village that Jayce was convinced the materials must have come from a local monster farm. Looking up at him, she tilted her head while her blue ponytail swayed to one side. Her hands were clasped behind her back and her chest was thrust forward at a calculated angle, making Jayce wonder if she was deliberately striking a pose.

“They…The kids only learn until they’re 16?” he asked, consciously shifting his gaze elsewhere.

“After they mature, they’ll either be apprenticed to someone or become full-time workers,” the deer girl smiled, and a look of wistfulness entered her eyes. “A third option would be the in other parts of the Federation. Kids who dream about leaving the village to raise their level always talk about entering an academy. I guess it’s much more reasonable than getting adopted into a clan, especially for our race.”

‘Considering the way people guard knowledge here, I guess an apprentice system only makes sense,’ Jayce thought to himself. ‘That aside, I may need to stop trusting the system’s translator so much. The concept of libraries in Caelum is very different from libraries on Earth, and I can assume academies are the same.’

“Oh, my name’s Falia, by the way.”

“Jayce.”

“You’re going to afternoon training with Vilar, right? I’ll come too.”

Once he heard her mention training, Jayce’s shifting eyes became focused again. There was a sharpness in his gaze that carried an unnerving quality, something Falia recognized from when he was compiling notes in the library. Although Jayce had an easygoing posture, there was wisp of fatal determination in his aura that made Falia feel like he was going to a dungeon rather than daily training.

Jayce walked quickly to catch up to Vilar while Falia shook her head before falling into step beside him. She stepped a little too close, allowing her small tail to brush up against his waist before they separated. Jayce blinked and apologized before walking up to Vilar’s side. Meanwhile, Falia started to trail behind them. Her head drooped as she quietly muttered to herself.

“I touched him with my tail, but he rejected me without even considering it. Maybe he’s just dense? Ahh, no, that was the clearest possible sign. Seriously...what part of me doesn't he like?”