Only I Am A Reader

Extracting the White Tiger from the ground, Leo adjusted his position before peeking into the opening he made.

He had pressed his weight into this attack, so instead of forming a thin slit, part of the area around it completely caved in. The ground had also completely lost its glow.

'Just what are you trying so hard for?'

A far larger Core was indeed shattered from the middle. However, even in the state it was in, it was trying to push out the smaller Core that was conjoined to it.

Obviously, this was how the golems were being created, but Leo didn't understand what its driving force was…

Even the Monsters that attacked Murim had more than destruction in their mind, they always made sure to devour as much food and resources as they could.

Their omnivorous palate that ranged from humans to grains just allowed them to cause unlimited damage in the process.

'What do Anomalies desire?'

On the other hand, the golem that Leo was just facing didn't even seem like a living thing. From the looks of it, all it needed for self-maintenance was rocks, something that Earth had an unlimited reserve of.

Yet, before Leo and Yulia even proved themselves a threat to their lives, the golems spontaneously attacked them as the Source behind them created more and more.

They even went as far as changing their form and acting like exploding kamikazes just to exterminate Leo and Yulia…

Did Anomalies possibly desire pure destruction, attacking whatever they come upon? Or was this Core somehow sentient enough to realize Leo and Yulia's purpose?

If it had been left on its own, would it go outside and start attacking normal people? Or was its target solely restricted to Roleplayers?

Had normal humans come in their place, would the golems have ignored them? Or was their true objective just protecting the area they spawned in?

Leo couldn't find the answers to these questions without reading the Core's mind… If it even had something like that.

'They probably know.'

The only other way of getting an answer was through the World Reservation Council. Unfortunately, Leo was still yet to obtain a way of accessing their knowledge reserves.

'Hopefully, they won't get cheap on us.'

Had this been a normal Initiation Mission, it would have been understandable if they received nothing. After all, the free mission information, supervision, and protection already outweighed the effort that the newcomers would put out.

In this case, however, where the Council's Roleplayers failed to perform their part, it only made sense for Leo to get something in return.

"Snow… It's already over."

Leo still had many things he wanted to inspect, but the area around them continued getting colder. It seemed like Yulia had lost her focus again… Well, almost.

"Right!"

Although Leo could still see his breath, the temperature slowly started to rise thanks to the mild heat that was still being emitted by the area where the Source broke.

"Great! You did it! You are both okay!"

Rubin finally went in, her eyes almost shining from excitement as she hugged the sitting Yulia. Things like seniority of familiarity didn't matter at this moment!

Leo took one step back in case they did something sudden in their excitement. Thankfully, Rubin restored her composure pretty quickly.

"Right, we need to destroy all the other leftover Cores so that the Anomaly doesn't get recreated later."

'Oh?'

Was their ability to preserve that strong?

Although the Source Core could no longer function, it seemed like its 'offsprings' could evolve to take its place just like they evolved into Lava Golems. It just took far longer to do so.

"Get back." 𝘪𝑛𝑛𝘳𝑒𝘢𝘥.𝑐𝘰𝘮

With how desperately the Source Core tried to produce more golems, there were likely many cores contained under the previously glowing floor.

Trying to remember how many arms he hacked off while searching for the Source Core, Leo raised the White Tiger once more and started slashing.

"... I'm sorry I'm not much help."

Now that the Cores lost their function alongside the one that produced them, sensing them was no longer as easy.

Rubin was confident in pinpointing every one of them, but by the time she did so, Leo would have already destroyed the cave in its entirety.

"It's okay, there is no way you could predict this would happen."

Despite having to do all the labor, Leo maintained Arthur's cheerful persona. It wasn't a bad idea to score brownie points with someone pretty useful like Rubin. This could also help him get a better reward in the end.

To begin with, this was more like his or Yulia's fault. Both of them had pretty high protagonist energy, so it was only expected that something like this would happen.

'I'm not even sure what I'm at this point…'

His constantly changing world made Leo even more confused about his role and identity in reality. Was he still just a Reader here? Or was he also a protagonist?

Things were still reasonable now since he was still a fledgling, but with enough time, his Role was quite the cheat in comparison to the simpler ones.

'Not sure about her though.'

Although Yulia's performance was quite lackluster with her arsenal consisting of only stronger and stronger freezing, how far she went this time made her potential unlimited in Leo's eyes.

She definitely fit the 'infinite power but shaky control' characteristic of some protagonists…

"I can take some, right?"

After finishing his last task, Leo took out a plastic bag from his pocket, attempting to collect the scattered Core shards.

"Yeah… Just not the Source Core, we need to make sure it's properly disposed of."

"Sure."

Since he was still the ignorant one in this situation, Leo didn't mind taking a step back… Granted he received something in return.

'You better pay me well.'

Naturally, Leo wasn't aiming for cash. His target was as many books as the Council could lend him in exchange!

"How is it going?! Someone is already on their way with…"

Just as Leo finished dealing with the aftermath, Alex finally came back with hopeful eyes… Perhaps a bit too late.