Chapter 4521: The Blackest Night (56)

The library of All Souls College preserves quite a lot of mysterious classics. Outsiders are usually not allowed to enter here, and only well-known mystery scholars can come to borrow them. But this is not because of the superiority of mystery scholars, but just to protect ordinary people from the interference of mysterious forces.

"I have a premonition," Jason stood in front of the bookshelf and said, "what we are looking for is that kind of hidden book that is not valued, preferably the kind that is regarded as nonsense and placed in the corner. Doctor, do you have any clues?"

"Most of the classics here are very classic. If you want to find gossip, you might need to go to the Cat Getan University library. However, there are indeed some documents here whose value has not been proven. If you want to see them, go to the room on the left upstairs and look for them."

Jason nodded and skipped the bookshelves below, going straight to the second floor. He didn't conduct a large-scale search, just stood at the door for a while, and then went straight to one of the bookshelves.

Jason remembered what the old man who was about to retire said to him when he applied for the job of librarian at Cat Getan University.

"Being a librarian here doesn't require memory or patience, but a special kind of intuition. Words have power, and what you have to do is feel this power without seeing the words. Only in this way can you help those who don't know what they are looking for at all find the books they want."

Jason didn't understand this at first. In his view, this was just an ordinary part-time job, no different from working in a fast-food restaurant. But soon he understood that Cat Getan was always different from other places, and the importance of the librarian's job here was unimaginable.

People who came during the day were all fine, most could find books by themselves, and after finding them, they would sit quietly on the side to read, or come over to handle borrowing. But at night it was different. The first time he encountered those strange guys who were talking to themselves, Jason thought they were drunk. If it weren't for the fact that the guy could still mumble on the counter after taking a shotgun blast, Jason would have thrown them out as ordinary drunks.

Since then, he had seen the colorful other side of Cat Getan. You know, he was a native Gothamite, and a citizen who climbed up from the bottom. But even so, this city still had infinite secrets for him, and there were too many new things he hadn't seen.

Gradually, Jason learned how to use his intuition to help those strange visitors, figure out what they were looking for, provide them with help, and even occasionally make new friends.

This job was full of danger, but also had quite a few opportunities. Jason stood in front of the bookshelf and took out a special pair of glasses from his pocket. This was something one of his "friends" gave him, which could help him isolate cognitive contamination, especially effective for words.

Although it looked like that kind of very cheap 3D glasses in a movie theater, and it wasn't comfortable to wear, Jason had already relied on these glasses to be immune to several beatings from mysterious texts in the Cat Getan University library. This time it was equally effective.

Jason flipped through the bookshelf and soon found what he wanted—a bookmark tucked into other books.

This bookmark was very strange, looking like it was forgotten in the book by some unlucky person who came to borrow books. But in fact, this was impossible, because the experts who came here to borrow books couldn't make such low-level mistakes, and books had to be checked when they were recycled, leaving no room for them to leave bookmarks.

But this bookmark appeared here abruptly. The moment Jason picked up the bookmark, he knew he had found the right one. There was no reason, just a kind of intuition.

He picked up the bookmark and looked at it. This was just a yellowed piece of paper, sealed in a plastic film, looking nothing special, but Jason found that the plastic film could be torn open. After tearing the film open, he found that the paper was folded. After unfolding it, a few lines of text appeared in front of him.

Bang!

Jason's back of the head hit the shelf behind him. He let out a scream. Jim and Dr. Nyarlathotep rushed over and helped him up.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, underestimated this thing." Jason gasped for a few breaths, took off his glasses, held the paper tightly in his hand, and began to retrieve the information he had just seen in his brain.

The brain protection mechanism had originally made him forget these things, but in order to obtain clues, he had to force himself to remember. Fortunately, he also often organized his memories, and the brain protection mechanism wouldn't forcibly delete information, but just move it to the recycle bin. He could move it back bit by bit.

Sitting in the seat next to him, Jason drank some hot tea and felt much better. After trying hard to decipher the information for a while, he opened his mouth and said: "Solar eclipse."

"What?"

"It's related to a total solar eclipse. The 'Day of Etching' mentioned here must refer to a total solar eclipse."

"What will happen during a solar eclipse?"

"Something will descend during the solar eclipse." Jason said, "This is my guess. In addition, it mentions the Brown People, which might refer to Latinos or Indians."

"It seems we have to check the legends in this regard," Dr. Nyarlathotep said, "I'll check the folk legends. You go investigate the solar eclipse."

"No problem," Jason said, "in addition, it's best to let Brainiac check who put this bookmark here. I suspect that there might be a group of people who know what exactly is going on."

"You mean believers?"

Jason nodded: "I think there are believers, otherwise there wouldn't be so much information left behind. In addition, remind everyone not to look out the window toward the Atlantic Ocean."

Constantine sat in his study, staring at the manuscripts piled in front of him. Many obscure knowledge was recorded on it. After a while, he picked up his pen and wrote a letter, sealed it in an envelope, and handed it to Zatanna.

Zatanna looked at the address and then said: "That mysterious Pen Pal Club again? Will they know the clues?"

Constantine shook his head and said: "Only by asking will we know."

After Zatanna left, she soon returned and said: "That address no longer has a mailbox, only this."

She left both the letter Constantine gave her and another letter. Constantine took the letter and looked at it, and just as he was about to open it, Zatanna stopped him and said: "Are you sure you want to open it? What if it's a trap?"

"Won't be, there is a mark on this," Constantine said, "that mysterious Pen Pal Club has a way to distinguish true from false and whether the letter writer is still rational. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out long ago."

Constantine opened the letter, his face changing again and again. Zatanna looked at him, and Constantine said: "It's the 'Hidden Ones'."

"Hidden Ones? The name sounds a bit familiar... oh, wait. Is it that group that almost wiped out the Pen Pal Club in the Southern Hemisphere with a contaminated manuscript last time?"

"You actually remember," Constantine said with some surprise.

"How could I not remember. You almost read that thing," Zatanna said, "if I hadn't reacted quickly, your brain might have exploded too. I'm not saying, you've become even more dangerous since you stopped being a magician."

"Isn't there still you?" Constantine laughed, and then he narrowed his eyes and said, "This group of people who call themselves the Hidden Ones are thorough surrenderists and madmen. They hope every day for the Outer Gods to descend to Earth, regarding those forbidden knowledge as the standard, and even regarding us, these pen pals who communicate privately but don't join them, as heretics. It's not strange that they are the ones making trouble."

"Is it them again this time? What are they trying to summon?"

Just as they were talking, Zatanna heard movement outside. She leaned over vigilantly, but saw the mark on the mailbox standing up.

"The pen pals can't sit still," Constantine said, "I hope they can give me a specific target. Without the librarian, too vague a target can't be found at all."

Zatanna walked to the mailbox and took out the letter. Constantine identified it and opened the letter. After reading for a while, Constantine said: "Sure enough, there is one."

"What is it? Do we need to let Amanda run another trip?"

"No need, this time it's a book, as long as you don't open it, it's fine." Constantine stood up and said, "Can't let Amanda get involved too deeply. Her stupidity is also limited, it needs to be used on the blade."

Before dawn, Constantine came to the Cat Getan University library. Zatanna looked at the empty counter and said: "Why is there no librarian? It's been so long, can't they recruit another one?"

Constantine shook his head and said: "Becoming a librarian at Cat Getan University Library requires special talent. Not just anyone can do it. After the previous one left, there was no suitable successor, so it naturally became vacant."

"Then why did the previous one leave?"

"Some people don't intend to get too involved, just treating this as a job. It's normal for work plans to change."

"Then how did the previous one do?"

"A bit better than the one before him." Constantine thought for a while and said, "He was very strong, and his marksmanship was not bad. More importantly, his inspiration was much stronger than the one before him. He found books very accurately, if he were here, we wouldn't have to go through this trouble."

Saying that, he began to rummage. Zatanna asked: "What book are you looking for?"

"Don't know yet, will know only after finding it."

"This again," Zatanna rolled her eyes, "you are even more mysterious than when you were a magician."

"In fact, this is the real mage." Constantine shrugged, "Don't know who you are, don't know who you are dealing with, don't know what you are looking for, and don't know what's the use of finding it. Everything is very mysterious, that is the real mystery."

"Then you at least have to give me some characteristics?" Zatanna said, "What does it look like?"

"Only know it's an appendix to a classic. That classic is very famous, but it's definitely not here. Its appendix is very likely left here. It might be Greek or Hebrew..."

"Oh, spare me," Zatanna said while flipping, "I don't understand a single word of these two languages."

Suddenly Constantine's movements stopped. Zatanna leaned over and saw him holding a few thin pages, as if they had just been torn from some book.

"My god, why did you tear it down..."

"I didn't tear it down." Constantine's tone became weird, "It found me... window. Window, Xiao Zha..."

In the end, Constantine's pronunciation had become very vague. But Zatanna reacted extremely quickly, she suddenly turned around and pointed. The reverse magic took effect immediately—"Seal the window!"

All windows were sealed. The moment Constantine looked up at the window, it was like being beaten by someone, and he took a few steps back and fell to the ground.

Zatanna rushed over and helped him up, Constantine wiped his nosebleed, and then said: "That was quite powerful."

"How is it?" she asked.

Constantine looked down at the few pages in his hand and said: "It's fine now. I take back my praise for the previous librarian. He must have let those Hidden Ones mix in." ===== CHAPTER 4522 =====