Library Trouble?

The two walked far behind the man, trying to find any other suspicious things with him. Along the way he continued looking down at his cart and staring at the piece of paper. 

After a minute, he stopped, just in front of the library door. The two stayed a good distance away, seeing if he would turn around or try something, but the man stood still.

He took a large box out from the cart, visibly struggling to even lift it before walking into the library.

"Now's our chance!" Ella whispered.

"You check the guy, I'll check the cart." The two split up, Jacob felt a tingle on his back, creeping around and following someone like some tailing mission in a game. 

While Ella rummaged through the cart, Jacob went inside the library. The air was colder than normal, and a flowery scent hit his nose. 

The library was huge, with dozens of pillars and metal shelves containing books or info-tablets containing countless information on many topics. Many researchers were also present, studying on tables or just standing around with tablets.

'Wonder if there's a book on gacha guides.' Jacob snickered. Next to him was the librarian's desk, and talking to the librarian was the man, still holding the box.

Jacob quickly walked forward, stopping near a table while waiting for the man to move again. From where he was standing, he could hear the two talking.

"A box?" 

"Just a delivery, needed to be brought here quickly and I was the only one there, so yeah."

"Alright then, we do have a shelf that is still empty that you can bring it to."

A few minutes passed, and boredom started to fill Jacob's mind while watching the two continue talking. But to his fortune the man finally stopped talking and walked down the library, passing shelves, pillars, and researchers in the process.

Jacob followed from behind, grabbing a nearby tablet to help disguise himself.

"Best builds for all your gacha characters!" Jacob read out the title of the tablet he was holding.

'Huh neat, maybe if I had my phone this would be useful.' He thought. The man continued down, still carrying the box with him and not stopping.

As they went farther, the amount of researchers became smaller, and the place felt more eerie.

The man stopped, and walked to one of the shelves, placing the large box on the floor next to the shelf. 

The man turned around, and Jacob immediately moved away from view, walking to a nearby shelf of books while burying his face in the tablet.

'Hmm, this guide is actually decent- No, focus on the task at hand.' Once the man was far away enough, Jacob left the shelf and walked towards the box.

It was larger than a normal one, and wrapped in tape. He noticed there was a tag stuck to it.

"Books". Was the word written on the tag. A large amount of disappointment hit Jacob, but he remained hopeful. If he learned anything from rpg games, there must be something else going on, something much worse.

He tried pushing the box, to no luck, it was as if the thing was glued to the floor.

'It's probably just books then.' In frustration, Jacob groaned and kicked the box. But to his shock, he felt a sharp pain as his foot just smacked something hard in the box, something metallic.

"What the?" Jacob knelt down, tapping the box with the bottom of his scythe, he noticed that something solid and metallic seemed to be inside the box.

'Odd, books aren't made of metal right?' He raised the blade of his scythe up in an attempt to try and cut the top open, but before he could, footsteps echoed behind him. 

'Oh crap!' He quickly rushed out of the shelf, moving to a nearby pillar to see who arrived.

The man had returned, this time carrying another large box with him, placing it next to the other. He stood still after dropping the box down, looking around and checking a piece of paper with him. 

A few minutes pass and Jacob realizes that he can't return to it anymore.

'Guess this is the most I can get for now.' Jacob started to make his way back to the entrance, away from the packages and from that man.

—---

Along the way he spotted two familiar faces sitting silently on a table. Jacob walked towards them, standing to the side with the tablet still in hand.

"Ah Jacob, you also prefer reading?" Zeph asked, still looking at the tablet in his hand.

"No, just saw something suspicious and went to check." Jacob replied.

"Gacha guides? Why was that expected?" Zeph remarked, seeing Jacob's tablet. Next to him, Rin stared blankly at the table, quiet and stiff, as if he was sleeping with his eyes open while the staff rested on his shoulder. 

"I'll see you later." Jacob promptly left the two, heading for the entrance.

—--

Outside, Ella was still busy rummaging through the cart. She stopped once she noticed Jacob leaving the library.

"Found anything?" She asked.

"Just a box with something metallic inside, the guy brought another after a while." Jacob replied.

"Something metallic in a box…" Ella put her hand to her chin, as if thinking deeply.

"Anything else?" 

"A guide for gacha games." Jacob handed the tablet to Ella, seeing it to have more use in her hands than his. 

"Found anything on your end?" Ella looked down with a saddened expression.

"Not much, just an ordinary cart with tools and stuff, and a bunch of weird small bags, and wires. Normal for maintenance workers anyway." The two sighed in sync, but their despair ended abruptly as they saw the man walking towards the door. 

The two scattered away from the cart, moving farther into the hallway and out of sight.

Walking to his cart, the man began to move it back to where he came from. 

'Where is he going now?' Jacob asked himself. Ella and Jacob both slowly walked from behind, tailing him to see where else he would go.

—--

After a while, the man reached the end of the hall, and passed a door. 

"Going outside, well, guess this was just a dumb chase out of suspicion." Jacob sighed again, but Ella kept her optimism and took out the map. 

"Beyond that door are some utility rooms like power and water, you know Jacob, this is rather interesting, even if it's a dead end, let's see this little mystery to the end." She smirked, rekindling some motivation within Jacob to keep moving, they were already too far into the search, why stop now?