1 Chapter 1: Interlude Of A Man

Humans are tenacious animals. They evolved to become intelligent enough to rival the viciousness of the world. They conquered the tumultuous continents, the vast blue seas, and the endless white skies. Their conquest didn't stop there as they set their eyes to the faraway planets and stars beyond the horizons.

In less than ten years, they managed to colonize the star system of their homeworld. After achieving such magnificent feat and having a taste of abundant resources, their ambitions finally become unprecedented as a golden age of exploitation ushered and prospered.

In just two centuries, they expanded and covered half of the Traiso galaxy. Scientifically and logically speaking, such high-speed development is impossible yet in the end it somehow became a reality.

The credits are all attributed to the texts called Jirhen. Every single person, no matter the standing, status, or mentality, the day they reached their adulthood, mysterious books will appear in front of their presence. They are called the Jirhen, meaning 'gift' in ancient Osrolosparkal.

They are literal gifts as the context found inside is mystical. It's not free giveaway nonsensical powers like magic manipulation, cultivation skills, and fire-breathing jutsu. They will give knowledge instead. Blueprints of a photon pulse rifle, schematics of a quantum nuclear power plant, plausible factual theories about the parallel universe, and accurate information regarding evolution and even understanding of combat skills unheard before.

It is a myriad collection of information that until now, they couldn't still record everything. Its origin is unknown because one day, all these books came to them out of nowhere. All of it varies in size, shape, and color. It could be a notepad or a big book record or a personal diary. One special characteristic of Jirhen that totally marked it special is the fact that anything can be recorded in these books.

The science behind communication, the general nature of psychopaths and sociopaths, practical skills in combat, how to control giant mechs, and creating bombs using cooking ingredients. It can be anything existing or yet to exist skills.

Furthermore, stagnation is not included in the vocabulary of the Jirhens. When time passes and some conditions are fulfilled, new pages are mysteriously added which meant new things to learn.

An era where the Jirhen is one of the factors that shape the geopolitical stances of every human nation in the universe.

This is the simple world of this reality.

But in an age like this, how could it be so simple.

...

"Do not ever come back to this place! You piss of troublemaker! Motherfucker!" The cursed remarks of that man, the guard, is a blessing to his ears. Lon was happy that he won't be returning to the awful orphanage. If it is really considered an orphanage, where are the children and where are the real guardians right now? There was none, to begin with. It was all a façade done by someone.

He was the final and genuine orphan of Star Child Homes. The rest of the kids were adopted somehow and the workers were fired overnight. In the span of an entire week, he was the only one left.

What was left behind is nothing but irresponsible people and a group of human clones that will never grow. However, it was not his business anymore. It was never his in the first place.

Without any baggage, Lon started to wander the metropolitan city of Giogio. He looked around practically everywhere. It even brought him to the noisy chatter of one of the busiest streets in the northern sector.

"Artificial intelligent androids that you can marry and impregnate to have your own family. We guarantee you that they will be obedient to you. No warranty included."

"One hundred percent realism in the virtual reality that disturbs your perception of reality due to how real the environment and sensations feel like is harmful! Study shows that it could lead to being brainwashed! I say people we support the Universal Regulation Bill!"

"Terraform uninhabitable planets and let the dinosaurs freely roam on your very own planet! We also accept requests from our clients! Come on now, try our services and make your own dream paradise become real!"

"WW3 Gunships? Japanese swords? Or the most erotic novels in history? Come inside and buy our limited authentic merch that is on sale! 12% discounts on selected items!"

Mostly, it is the advertisement on the giant screens that grabbed the attention of people. Some are agents of certain companies to try and hook up possible clients. And amusingly, there is someone that is rallying people for a good cause.

After he got bored, he toured the other places. Window shopping in skyscraper malls, trespassing school grounds and even napping in the park.

His actions have no particular aim and direction. He just drifted along with the constant flow of the people. Observation of the daily lives and everything. Probably because he has nothing.

No education, no friends, and no relatives. In this mess, he was all alone. Not that he cared about it in the first place. He did all sorts of things until minutes before midnight.

The gentle ambiance of the light produced by the high tech lamp posts illuminated his surroundings. It dispelled the stale darkness of the park. A little far away, he could glimpse the massive billboard featuring the cute and youngest princess, Niya Ola Natilian, of the Natilian Empire. It was a promotional advertisement for any aspiring people to join the army. Yet, Lon was too lazy. He could have joined the army of the empire in order for him to have food and shelter. The intensive training discouraged him, however. That training regiment even teaches auxiliary and reserve forces on how to drive a spaceship and disassemble a grenade. It was also a big no for him especially that most of the personnel are sent to fight on the battlefield.

His mind daydreamed of delicious foods and a life of no responsibilities. Even back then as a child, he was the lazy one that won't do anything at all. The proof to prove that he is really guy that is no good. He is labeled by society as a person with no future but he has brewing plans to create a future he wanted.

In the end, he wouldn't care as he placed his hands beside his lap. That is when he touched something peculiar. To his right side, a black book has somehow been placed. Its surface, thickness, color, and shape are nothing special. It even looked the same as the other people's Jirhen.

Lon was not surprised either. Today, August 28 of the year 3718 of the Galactic Calendar, is his birthday. Coincidentally, he was now a homeless bum, celebrating his birthday alone because he was kicked out by those corporation dogs. There's not even a single person that will join his non-existent birthday party. The sadness he felt was quickly washed away with excitement because he has finally gotten it.

These books, the Jirhen, would only come out when a person reached adulthood. Someone at the age of twenty years old. It will be delivered by Santa himself or the Easter Bunny because there are no traces recorded in history on how they could appear around its owners.

His' hopes are not high enough for him to be extremely thrilled. There is no set of patterns in the generation of what can be inside. It was completely random like number generators in games. The cover was opened and he was stunned upon what is written inside.

'How to create a corpse puppet, the easiest way'

This era is advance, technological advance, literally and figuratively. Humans can even be cloned, genetically immunized, and implanted with machines without causing any complications. The title can be sometimes misleading in the Jirhen but the data below it can never be wrong. That is the reason for the confused Lon to read it several times.

It describes how to create a literal unhackable robot. The main material for the body is a human cadaver, the codes are numerous symbols arranged in a different sequence and its activation key is a long string of unknown language.

To make sure he was not dreaming or hallucinating at all, Lon began to skim the titles and its contents.

'Introduction to Soul Studies'

'Comprehensive Summoning Of The Dead'

'Tome Of Creation: Golems, Constructs And Monsters'

'Dangers Of Negative Feedback'

'All About Embalming'

'Composition Of Spell Matrix'

Tap!

The four fingers thick book was closed. Sweat was unknowingly produced and trickled down his forehead. There was no one in the nearby vicinity. He knew that things are getting complicated. He never heard a Jirhen storing knowledge about the fictional world. Since all of it is inside his Jirhen, that meant all of them are real and will work if he tried out!

Logically, such conclusions without any hard evidence to back it up would end up as a hoax. However, history truly repeats itself. It is the best reference material regarding experience. The legendary Alixer that has a blueprint of a junk engine and spearheaded a successful deep-space exploration 1,300 years ago, Lannihab, the ruthless pirate, obliterated half a billion people using the skills of unorthodox biochemistry on her diary 1,100 years ago and Ronan, a musician that captured the hearts of countless people using mysterious notes 300 years ago. There are even other cases more intriguing than these famous people. The common point among them is that anything on the Jirhen can be done and realized.

In that case, Lon ran faster than a fleeing inmate. The excitement made his legs carry him to the public library that never closes. Information can travel freely and faster at this age. Yet somehow the custom of erecting libraries in every city is preserved. A symbolic landmark is known by every human in the universe.

Sadly, the galactic internet is widely used nowadays because of practicality and connection speed. No one usually comes to this place anymore. Unless that person is a bookworm who has a special love for books.

It is the perfect place for him as no one would pay any special attention. In fact, it is beyond perfect. Who in their right mind would come to a library in the middle of the night? There could be still some suspicion points left behind but at the very least, this place is the greatest one he could think of, where he won't be connected to any future disasters.

Despite his excitement to read it and his slight worry of the government possibly finding out, he kept a natural face and unsuspicious actions. If this kind of news were spread, powerful organizations will flood this city, racing to be the first to know and obtain this kind of knowledge. It will be a forceful one and could lead to a 'dark' war. A war between spies, agents, and other henchmen of those organizations. Hence his worry about the discovery.

After grabbing two dozen books and finding a secluded corner where there is no one around and surveillance, he sat and began to read. The books are a distraction of what truly he really is reading. It will be used as a barrier to hide the contents of the Jirhen.

Besides the usual informative stuff, there is also an encyclopedia of monsters he never heard before, experimental journals of a magus, and diary entries of an adventurer. This stuff is only products of the fictional universe at first thought. Nothing more than products of human imagination. One of the things that really integrated this into reality is that some texts are unreadable but Lon recognizes them as the languages of other galactic races and ancient civilizations.

'Crux of soul transfer'

'Herbal medicine 101'

"Highborn Arts: Space Slash Technique'

A roller coaster of emotions. At first, he was excited, panicked then now his ugly expression revealed that things are bad. Really bad. Inside his, Jirhen is nothing but records of unknown things. Anything related to the commonly included sections like technology, science, art, or business tips aren't included at all.

"What now?"

After studying and reading other books to perfect his cover, Lon is lost on what to do. A homeless orphan like him that never attained any educational degree, no social connection, and no living healthy relationships are destined to be poor. The best he could among his choices do is drift in the city like a true hobo, doing weird assorted jobs. People would be mistaken if he has no plans for life yet he had.

The original plan was to live off his Jirhen, studying it, and work according to the things inside it. Now, he could not even have practical applications of these things.

"What to do?" He bit his lips as he looked around. There was the brown wallpapers, the simple light installations, and the towering bookshelves. It was his only way of gaining clarity on his current predicament. A habit that he always practiced. When stuck in a corner, look for any other ways to solve the problem by looking around.

'It's hopeless'

A sigh was all he could as he prepared to leave and wander the streets once again. That is when he noticed one of the titles of the books he picked up earlier. It piqued his interest as he picked it up from the pile.

'History XL: Guide To The Layout Of Cities'