Chương 10: Throw It In The Tray!

Bart and Gregor hit the hard stone floor of the Archive. Behind them, the heavy green metal door slammed shut and vanished into thin air. Bart rolled onto his back and let out a long, tired breath.. He held the heavy green book tightly to his chest. They had made it and were safe.

"Good fast walking, boss," Gregor panted, pulling himself up.

"Thank you, Gregor," Bart said. He stood up and walked straight toward the front desk. As soon as he stepped into the main room, the glowing blue System screen appeared. His connection to the Archive had returned. His body instantly felt lighter and stronger. SYSTEM ALERT: QUEST AREA EXITED Mana Restored Upon Successful Return: +20 Current Mana: 24 Bart did not want to waste another second. He wanted his coffee.

He walked to the stone table and placed The Guide to Forgotten Seeds gently into the glowing Intake Tray. The blue light swept over the green leather cover. Usually, the light flashed green, and the book flew to a shelf. But this time, the blue light stopped. It turned a dark, warning yellow. Then, it flashed bright red. SYSTEM ALERT: FOREIGN OBJECT DETECTED Warning: Parasitic seed waking up. Intake paused. Bart stepped back.

"Albert!" he yelled.

"What does that mean?" Albert the skeleton walked over, leaning on his broom. He looked down at the tray.

"Oh dear. It seems someone has planted a weed in your book, sir." On the cover of the green guide, a small black spot appeared. It grew fast, spreading like an ugly stain. Suddenly, thick black roots burst out of the leather cover. The roots grabbed the edges of the Intake Tray and pulled. The book ripped itself open. A tiny, shriveled black seed sat in the middle of the pages. It was glowing with a sick green light. As Bart watched, the seed began to eat the paper. It ate the pages and ink.

It continued to grow larger and larger. Then, the black roots shot out like whips. They wrapped around a pile of loose, unclassified papers on the floor. They grabbed an old leather map. They snatched two heavy books from a nearby shelf, pulling up some loose floorboards with them.

"Stop it!" Bart yelled. But the seed was too fast. It pulled all the paper, leather, and black ink together, folding and twisting them into a giant, living shape. In seconds, a monster stood on the stone floor. It was the size of a bear. Its body was made of hundreds of sharp, folded pages. Its claws were rolled-up scrolls, as sharp as knives. Thick black ink dripped from its mouth like spit. It was kind of an Index Beast. The monster opened its jagged paper mouth and roared. But it did not sound like an animal.

It sounded like a massive, deafening brass horn. BWAAAAH. The sound shook the floor.

"Why does it sound like that?!" Gregor yelled, covering his ears. Bart looked at the empty spot on the shelf where the roots had grabbed the books.

"It just ate a copy of Homer's Odyssey and a book about dramatic movie soundtracks!" Bart yelled back over the noise.

"Now it is just making loud, confusing movie sounds!" BWAAAAH. The Beast lowered its paper head and charged straight at Bart. Its scroll-claws hammered loudly against the stone floor as it ran.

"Watch out!" Gregor yelled. He threw a silver coin at the monster. The coin hit the Beast's paper head and bounced off. The monster swiped its heavy claw. The sharp pages cut right through the corner of Bart's solid oak desk, slicing the wood like butter. Black ink sprayed across the floor.

"Rule Number Three!" Bart pointed his finger at the monster.

"No open flames!" Nothing happened.

"It is not on fire, sir!" Albert pointed out calmly, safely standing behind a filing cabinet. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The Beast turned its glowing green eyes toward Bart. It scraped its claws on the floor, getting ready to charge again.

"Throw it in the tray, boss!" Gregor screamed, pointing at the glowing stone table.

"Throw it in the tray!"

"That is not how it works, Gregor!" Bart shouted, stepping back.

"The tray is for sorting documents! It is not a weapon!"

"It is made of documents!" Gregor argued, waving his dagger.

"It is a big book with legs! Throw it in the tray!" Bart looked at the giant monster. Gregor was right. The Beast was just a messy, violent pile of unorganized paper. BWAAAAH. The monster charged across the floor, running straight at Bart with its sharp claws out. Bart had one second. He needed a new rule. He needed to stop the monster from moving. He took a deep breath, raised his hand, and used his loudest, most firm Library Voice.

"Rule Number Four!" Bart shouted.

"No running in the library!" The blue System screen exploded into the air. Rule Enforced: No Running. Cost: 20 Mana. (Mana remaining: 4) Action: Movement Restricted. ARTICLE I UPDATED: READING ROOM RULES Permanent Law Added: Rule Number Four … No Running in the Library. Future Enforcement Cost: 0 Mana. Instantly, the monster's legs completely stopped working. They froze stiff, locked by invisible chains. Because it was running so fast, the monster's heavy body kept moving.

It tipped forward and slid hard across the smooth stone floor, heading directly for the stone table.

"Now, Gregor! Push!" Bart yelled. Bart and Gregor ran forward. They grabbed the sliding, heavy monster by its leather back. The sharp paper cut Bart's hands, but he ignored the pain. With a loud grunt, they lifted the frozen beast and shoved it hard onto the glowing Intake Tray. The monster let out one last, loud BWAAAAH. Then, the blue scanning light hit it. SYSTEM ALERT: INTAKE SUCCESSFUL Item: Unorganized Paper Monster (Hostile). Action: Sorting... The blue light swept over the beast.

Instantly, the monster stopped moving. The magic of the Intake Tray took over. The blue light carefully and neatly pulled the monster apart. Zip. Zip. Zip. The sharp claws were flattened out and sorted into a neat stack of blank papers. The black ink was pulled into a clean glass bottle. The leather binding was folded into perfect, empty folders. In three seconds, the terrifying monster was gone. The stone table was perfectly clean, holding only a neat stack of office supplies.

Beneath the office supplies, the dark green guide slowly put itself back together. Torn pages flattened out, lost ink returned, and the leather cover sealed itself safely around the spine. Bart fell back into his plastic chair, breathing hard. He looked at his cut hands, then at the tray.

"You were right, Gregor," Bart laughed, shaking his head.

"We just sorted it to death."

"I told you, boss," Gregor grinned proudly. SYSTEM ALERT: QUEST COMPLETE Target: The Guide to Forgotten Seeds (Processed). Threat Neutralized. REWARD GRANTED: Premium Dark Roast Coffee. A beautiful, shiny black bag appeared on Bart's desk with a soft pop. Bart's eyes lit up. He forgot about the monster or about the cuts on his hands. He grabbed the bag and opened the top, took a deep breath. It smelled amazing. It smelled like heaven. It was the best coffee he had ever smelled. Bart reached his hand into the bag.

He felt small, hard, round shapes. Bart pulled his hand out. He was holding a handful of whole, solid coffee beans. He slowly turned his head and looked at his cheap, plastic coffee machine. The machine only took finely ground coffee powder. Bart stared at the hard beans in his hand. He had the best coffee in the universe, and absolutely no way to grind it.

"System," Bart whispered, his voice full of pain.

"You are evil." Management hopes you enjoy your coffee. ARCHIVE HEALTH INCREASED: 0. 0000007% RANK ADVANCEMENT Previous Rank: F- (Ruined) Current Rank: F (Barely Operational) New Capability Unlocked: Restricted Collection Planning Bart smiled slightly at the new rank. He was going to build that restricted section, just like he told the Curator.

"Boss," Gregor said. He walked over to the broken floorboards where the monster had pulled up the books. He reached down and picked up a glowing white piece of paper.

"Look. The roots pulled up a hidden file." Bart put the bag of beans down and took the paper from Gregor. It was not a blank page. It had blue System text printed neatly on it. It was a secret record. RESTRICTED METADATA RECOVERED Source: Archive Keeper Selection Index. Warning: Access should not have been possible at current rank. Security breach under investigation. Subject: Bart Sanders (Keeper #4, 092). Reason for Selection: Subject demonstrated willingness to trade own life for a single printed book.

Note: This specific trait is absolutely required to survive the Archive's true purpose. Bart read the words three times. He thought back to the day he died. He remembered stepping into the busy road to save a dropped library book from being destroyed by a city bus. At the time, it had seemed like one final, foolish decision. But the System had been watching. It had chosen him on purpose, exactly because he was crazy enough to die for a book.

"Albert," Bart said, his voice serious. He looked at the skeleton, who was slowly sweeping up the spilled black ink.

"What is the Archive's true purpose?" Albert did not look up. He just kept sweeping.

"I believe, sir," Albert said quietly, "that is a question for when you reach Rank E. And I strongly suggest you wait as long as possible to ask it."