Four Split Personalities

Double Leaf tugged at the corner of her mouth and asked dryly, "Are those farting kids nuts? Do they need to come here to read books when studying our world’s local knowledge?"

"If I’m not mistaken, those students are probably just passing time."

The Book Spirit, who was stroking a magazine that had appeared before her, said calmly, "Based on my observations, they don’t seem to like their current ’curriculum’. So unlike other students, they applied to the library through the cooperating institution to advance their studies, seemingly more inclined to pass the time and relax. Consequently..."

"Since those interesting ’Otherworlder students’ have no desire for knowledge, you can’t invite them. Yet, you’ve absorbed a great deal of knowledge from the other world through their idle chatter, ha."

The eyes behind the lenses narrowed slightly, and the girl lifted her right hand, using her slender index finger to brush aside a wisp of hair hanging over her shoulder, muttering softly, "Should I contact that bitch and play a little prank?"

An amusing thought surfaced in Double Leaf’s mind but was swiftly dismissed in the next moment. The reason was simple: no matter what she planned to do after logging out in the real world, the urgent task at hand was to complete a ’transaction’ with this Book Spirit in front of her.

This wasn’t a simple task, or else she wouldn’t have been here for over half an hour without leaving.

Nevertheless, it’s not that difficult either.

"Let’s put it this way..."

Double Leaf took a deep breath and slowly sat up straight. "As long as it’s something you don’t know, applicable to your world, qualified to be included in this library yet not included, it counts as qualified knowledge, right?"

The Book Spirit nodded slightly, reminding, "However, please note that literary works made up on the spot do not count, because I cannot verify their influence. So even if you spontaneously create a poetry collection that surpasses many of the works in the library, I cannot acknowledge it."

"Is that so? What a pity, I was initially planning to spontaneously write ’Two Hundred and Five Tang Poems’ for you here."

Double Leaf chuckled, though no expression of ’pity’ appeared on her face, and then she lazily said, "A whole stack of paper, a whole pen."

The next second, twelve exquisite pieces of parchment appeared before Double Leaf, with a beautiful feather pen lying horizontally beside them.

"I’ve already mentioned this, Lady Shuangye."

Despite fulfilling her request, the Book Spirit reminded once again, "Those unverifiable ones..."

"Don’t speak, and don’t question this lady’s comprehension skills either."

Double Leaf snorted softly, casually grabbing the feather pen that seemed never to run out of ink, and began to write furiously, "You’ll know soon if it’s qualified!"

...

Meanwhile

In the room where Frank Hughes and Double Leaf first entered

"Pleasure working with you, mate~"

A noticeable departure from his demeanor half an hour ago, Motan was now lazily leaning against the chair back, his long legs propped on the table edge, with a grin spreading across his face as he gave the Book Spirit across from him a thumbs-up. "That silly woman truly didn’t notice a thing."

Resembling the Book Spirit next door watching Double Leaf write arduously, essentially the same, the pudgy middle-aged man who was actually an avatar, shook his head and said meticulously, "I was merely executing the terms of our deal, Mr. Tan Mo. Apart from that, regarding you and Lady Shuangye..."

"Treated equally, unbiased, I get it, I get it."

Motan gave a wry smile and raised an eyebrow, "Relax, chubby, I didn’t intend for you to side with me. In fact, though contrary to my original intention, I slightly enjoy standing on the same starting line as that bitch. Can you understand that?"

The Book Spirit remained silent for a while before finally shaking his head and saying, "Based on the information you provided me earlier, you and Lady Shuangye do not have a healthy competitive relationship. In fact, your mutual wish is to kill each other. Hence, although I am not lacking in wisdom and possess a personality that those artificial auxiliary spirits find difficult to awaken, it remains challenging to comprehend the sentiment you expressed."

"Haha, that’s alright."

Motan laughed carefree, spreading his hands, "I think the issue doesn’t lie with you. After all, neither I nor that four-eyed flat-board are what one would call normal people."

"Even in your respective worlds?"

"Obviously."

"..."

After the brief dialogue, neither Motan nor the Book Spirit before him continued the conversation, merely letting time pass in silence.

Finally, after almost another half hour—

"She did it."

The Book Spirit suddenly broke the silence, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, "Admirable, impressive."

Motan wasn’t at all surprised, just casually putting on the glasses Frank Hughes never parted with and asked with interest, "How did she do it? Did I leave out knowledge of the other world?"

"No."

The Book Spirit shook his head, seemingly unbothered about chatting further with Motan as long as ’fairness’ wasn’t compromised, "During this time frame and including your last visit to Academy City, Mr. Tan Mo, your popular science or rather, blockade towards Lady Shuangye was quite thorough, and I also provided her with sufficient hints."

Motan raised an eyebrow, "Oh-ho, hints."

"Indeed, hints, for while I’m not a proponent of efficiency above all, I also don’t advocate wasting time."

Cheerful, the Book Spirit nodded, arduously standing up, "And Lady Shuangye quickly understood my meaning, so she chose knowledge from this world as her bargaining chip."

Motan’s smile widened, "Did she succeed?"

"Evidently."

The Book Spirit waved a hand, summoning several densely written pages of parchment, with their word count rapidly increasing, "The ’Isotopic Element Interaction Hypothesis,’ a paper accepted by the sixth joint laboratory of the City of Miracles months ago. Although identified as ’open to the public,’ until now, it’s still merely a title in the ’pending collection’ catalog."

Due to a long-time deliberate understanding of the mysticism domain and receiving a substantial amount of firsthand boasting from someone as ’Hei Fan’ through a friend’s report, Motan was not unfamiliar with this paper that held remarkable significance for Double Leaf, even serving as a stepping stone to the City of Miracles.

Of course, despite being familiar, he didn’t know the specifics.

Likewise, through the library’s ’pending collection’ catalog, the Book Spirit, naturally, didn’t know either.

While this paper titled ’Isotopic Element Interaction Hypothesis’ may not represent groundbreaking, epoch-defining knowledge, its presence on the library’s pending collection list indicates it undoubtedly meets the Book Spirit’s requirements.

Realizing this, Double Leaf didn’t hesitate to transcribe the paper and offered it as a wager to the Book Spirit.

Indeed, even without Double Leaf’s transcription, Academy City, typically on good terms with various forces, could obtain this paper months later and send it to the library. Despite that, the knowledge-hungry Book Spirit didn’t feel shortchanged.

So—

"Easy-peasy."

Returning to the initial invited space, Double Leaf tossed a seductive glance at a somewhat tense-looking Frank Hughes, "What, worried about me?"

The latter nodded earnestly, replying sternly, "Yes, quite worried."

"Busybody."

Double Leaf pouted, walked to Motan, and gave his shoulder a hearty pat, "Alright, with things settled, let’s head back!"

"Yeah."

Motan nodded smoothly, and stood up.

Then...

"Please wait, both of you."

Chapter 1168: The End

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!