47: Is this the weight of knowledge? Player: Too heavy! Tear off the cover and take it with you!

"Brothers! It's time to loot!!!"

Li Qiang's deafening shout was like a clarion call for a charge, completely igniting the greed of all the players.

Hundreds of players who had just cleared the third floor and were still panting heavily charged toward the neatly arranged bookshelves emitting an ancient ink scent, their fanaticism even greater than when facing a Dragon, like aunties rushing into a supermarket to grab discounted eggs.

However.

When they actually rushed to the bookshelves, everyone was stunned.

"Holy crap, what's written on here? Is this some kind of gibberish?"

One player picked up a heavy tome with a cover made of some kind of beast skin and flipped to the first page, which was filled with twisted and intertwined Ancient Elven script that looked like earthworms crawling.

Forget about understanding it; he couldn't even tell which part was the beginning.

"This one... 'On the Thirteen Forms and Non-Steady State Transitions of Fire Elements'... Damn, I don't even recognize half the words in the title!" another player said, holding a book thicker than a brick with a bewildered look.

"Brother Qiang! There are too many books! Which ones should we grab?"

"Yeah! Backpack slots are limited! We can't just take them randomly, right?"

Facing this unprecedented, vast hall of knowledge, this group of boors whose average education didn't exceed high school felt the pain of having their IQ crushed for the first time.

It was like throwing a person who had been starving for three days into a royal banquet but telling them they could only eat one dish.

Decision paralysis set in.

Li Qiang was also in a bind.

He looked at the gilded, gem-encrusted books, some even bound with mithril chains, and fell into deep thought for a full three seconds.

Then.

He made an incredibly wise decision, one that perfectly suited his status.

"Don't worry about what's written inside!"

Li Qiang waved his hand and gave the order in an unquestionable tone.

"Just grab the ones with black or gold covers, or the ones with chains! Based on my years of gaming experience, these kinds of books are either forbidden spells or Divine Artifacts! They're definitely valuable!"

A word to the wise!

Exactly!

When playing games, who cares about the content? Look at the skins!

The flashier it is, the rarer it is!

"I get it! This cover is gold! It's definitely top-tier!"

"This one even has gems! We're rich!"

"Mine is even more badass! It has a lock! Haha, the developers must have hidden the treasure here!"

The players instantly found their guide to action and began frantically grabbing the books that looked 'expensive.'

But a new problem soon arose.

"Holy shit... Is... is this the weight of knowledge?"

A player had finally managed to drag a large black book with a metal cover down from the top shelf, but as soon as he held it, he stumbled under the weight, nearly throwing out his back.

That book weighed at least forty or fifty pounds.

"It's too damn heavy! If I put two of these in my backpack, I'll be overweight!"

"Yeah! This thing takes up more space than a power hammer!"

"What should we do? Did we work so hard to get in here just to take two books back?"

The crowd fell into a commotion again.

"Idiots!"

A player had a sudden flash of inspiration. Looking at the gorgeous book in his hand with its gold-embroidered cover, he suddenly thought of a brilliant idea.

"We can't read the content anyway! But the cover is valuable!"

As he spoke, he pulled out an entrenching tool from his waist and aimed it at the book's binding.

"We only want the covers! Not the books!"

Rip!

With a crisp sound of tearing cloth, that tome, which might have recorded some long-lost high-level magic, was cleanly skinned by him.

He carefully folded the gorgeous cover and stuffed it into his backpack, then casually threw the hundreds of pages of parchment filled with precious knowledge onto the floor.

The entire library went silent for a second.

Everyone looked at him with a 'Holy crap, you can do that?' expression.

Then, even more frantic imitation followed!

"Right! Why didn't I think of that? Just the skin, no shame! Wait, I mean no book!"

"Haha! This way I can take a hundred covers with me!"

"That's nothing! Watch this!"

One player pulled an industrial cutter directly from his backpack and sliced through a row of books on the shelf!

He only wanted the hard outer shell of each book's cover!

The pages inside?

What kind of trash was that?

"Hey! Save the illustrations in that book for me! I can understand pictures!"

"The binding of this book is made of mithril! Don't throw it away! Take it off and give it to me!"

"Who has tape? I'll tape these pages with magic circles together and take them!"

The scene spiraled completely out of control.

This was no longer a sacred hall of knowledge.

It had turned into a massive, inhumane scrap yard.

The players used all the survival skills they had honed in the Wasteland.

Ripping, pulling, dismantling, cutting.

They treated priceless ancient magic books like recyclable trash.

Some skinned them, some pulled out the 'tendons' (the binding), and some even just pried off the gems embedded in the pages.

In a corner of the library, a white-haired elderly elf wearing a simple linen robe was trembling all over as he watched this Hellish scene.

He was the Librarian of this library and had been guarding it for eight hundred years.

He had seen scholars obsessed with knowledge, mages craving power, and even traitors trying to steal forbidden spells.

But he had never seen... this swarm of... locusts.

"St... stop..."

The old elf reached out a trembling hand, his voice hoarse and filled with despair.

"That's... that's a unique copy of the 'Theory of Stellar Trajectories'... How... how can you rip it up like scrap paper?!"

A player heard his voice, walked over holding half a book cover, and asked curiously, "Old man, is this thing worth money?"

Looking at the torn cover that recorded the secrets of stellar magic, the old elf's lips turned purple with rage.

"Worth money? Its value... is more than all your lives combined..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

The player's eyes lit up: "Oh! Then it must be very valuable! Thanks, old man!"

After saying that, he stuffed the half-cover into his shirt like a treasure and turned back to join the 'looting' army.

The old elf's vision went dark; he couldn't take it anymore.

"Blasphemers... you bunch of blasphemers..."

He muttered, falling straight backward and fainting on the spot from anger.

Just as the library was in total chaos.

"Stop grabbing! Look what I found!"

Rich Woman Hungry (Lin Xiaowan)'s voice suddenly rang out amidst the confusion.

She was standing in the deepest part of the library, pointing at a black book tightly locked onto a pure obsidian bookstand by countless magic chains as thick as arms.

The book was pitch black, its cover made from some unknown scales, emitting a heart-palpitating aura of evil.

Just looking at it made one feel like their Soul was being sucked in.

"It's definitely another treasure!"

Li Qiang's eyes lit up, and he rushed over with his power hammer: "Move aside! Let me do it!"

Boom!

The power hammer slammed hard against the chains, sending out a shower of blinding magical sparks.

The chains didn't budge.

"There's a defensive array!" Wang Wei shouted from behind.

Lin Xiaowan was about to warn everyone to be careful.

Too late.

The entire library's defense mechanism was completely activated by that violent hammer strike!

Buzz—

In an instant, all the books on the shelves began to tremble violently!

One by one, they flew up automatically, their pages flipping open like blades, emitting multicolored magical light!

"Holy crap! The books are alive!"

"The books have health bars now! Brothers, get them!"

Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!

Tens of thousands of books, like an infuriated swarm of bees, turned into lethal 'magic missiles,' sweeping toward the players in an overwhelming wave!

"Damn it! A measly book dares to fight back?!"

Li Qiang roared and aimed his 'Shotgun Fireball Spell' directly at the swarm of books.

"Burn! Burn them all!"

A war against 'knowledge,' the likes of which had never been seen in human history, broke out violently.

Half an hour later.

The ground was covered with the charred, tattered remains of book pages.

Although the players suffered heavy casualties and respawned several times, they ultimately emerged victorious.

Li Qiang stepped on a still-smoking copy of the 'General History of the Elves,' wiping his sweat while panting.

"Damn, reading a book is more exhausting than fighting a Dragon."

They finally broke the chains and obtained the black forbidden book.

[Forbidden Knowledge: Undead Scourge Summoning Art (Fragment)]

Just as the players were happily dividing the 'cultural heritage' and preparing to dismantle the bookshelves to take them away as well.

A terrifying, suffocating pressure suddenly descended from the top of the tower without warning!

That power was stronger than any boss they had encountered before; even the air seemed to solidify.

Then.

A roar filled with endless rage and killing intent came from the top of the high tower, echoing through the entire night sky.

"Who is it—!!!"

"Who dares to desecrate my temple of knowledge!!!"