UPDATE: THE NOVEL HAS BEEN MOVED TO A NEW LINK. https://www.webnovel.com/book/the-archivist's-ploy-a-tale-of-one-against-the-world_30443424005261205 Far above the horizon, beyond the clouds and the apocalyptic storms under it, hovered a yellow-haired old-looking man. His yellow eyes gave off a bright radiance, and countless books floated around him. Throughout history, the man was known by many names, (The Watcher - The Chronicler - The Historian - The Custodian - The Recordkeeper) But during this Era, he was known as The Archivist. The Archivist's perception inspected thousands of kilometers far and wide, Yet 'Nothing interesting is happening' His frustration grew 'What's the point of a worldwide perception if there's no apposite change to perceive?' 'The world has become mundane' 'And no one is doing anything about it' Ergo, The Archivist will take matters into his own hands 'I'll orchestrate a worldwide, All-embracing scheme against an oblivious individual' With a sinister smile on his face, he devised his plan 'Turn the entire world into a person's antagonist, Then enjoy the show' And he had the perfect plot for it 'First, Utter Despair that would cause immense Pain' 'Then, More Despair that would turn the Pain to Loathe' 'Then, As the Loathe grows, The Despair will transform into Rage' 'The Rage will make the Being Crave Revenge, and the intense Crave will result in Devotion to his goal' 'Finally, The Despair, Pain, Loathe, Crave, and Devotion will all be used as fuel for the Rage, Transforming it into an even extremer emotion' "WRATH" How would a single person unleash his Wrath against the entire world? 'That's what I'm going to find out' "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" The Archivist's maniacal laughter echoed loudly 'The world is about to be entertaining' He looked up and asked with a reverberating, Bleak voice "Who will be the unlucky one?"
Date: The Year 2000 of The Magic Era.
Location: The Northern Continent.
In the darkness of the night, high up in the sky, so high above the clouds and the chaotic snowstorm happening under it, a seemingly old man hovered.
The old man was wearing a long-sleeved, majestic white robe.
His hair was vibrant yellow, just like his eyes, but the difference was that his eyes gave off an interesting, bright glow.
The old man didn't look strong, but he didn't look weak either.
If we would disregard his luminous eyes, he'd look like a normal, well-built old man.
However, this "man" was as far from normal as it gets.
Six books were suspended in the air around the man.
He was writing with both his hands in the two books that were floating in front of him, while each of the other four books had a pen levitating above it, and each of the pens was writing in the book it was above as frantically as the old man was writing.
The old man was writing madly, filling tens of pages in each book in just a matter of seconds.
Within minutes, thousands of pages were filled, then suddenly ...
THUD ...
All the pens disappeared and the six books were loudly slammed shut.
The books moved on their own and aligned themselves on top of each other in front of the old man, then all of them vanished into thin air.
The old man looked around him in disdain.
The expression on his face was of extreme annoyance ...
'It's been so long, yet, nothing interesting is happening...'
'The Year 2000 used to be such an eventful year in every Era ... However, in this Era, it's no different from the previous year, or even the 100 years before it...'
He sighed
'Such a boring Era'
With a revulsive expression on his face, he soared with an incredible speed towards the southeast.
It didn't take long and the man was already at the edge of the Eastern Continent.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and his perception encompassed the entire continent ...
He tried to look for any interesting events or special occurrences throughout the continent but to his disappointment
'Nothing'
He opened his eyes and turned his face towards the west, then he took off.
A couple of minutes passed, and he was already at the other end of the world ...
Once again, his perception encompassed the entire continent ...
'Again, nothing'
The man's annoyance was growing by the second ...
He looked at the South and took off, and once again, he crossed millions of kilometers in a matter of minutes and reached the edge of the Southern Continent, the southern edge of the world.
Sadly though ...
'STILL NOTHING!!!!'
The old man gritted his teeth and looked back at the direction he came from, The North, then he blasted off.
While he was voyaging from the South to the North, his perception encompassed The Southern, Middle, and Northern Continents, yet, despite searching throughout nearly the entire world, he didn't find what he was looking for ...
Eventually, the old man stopped at the very edge of the Northern Continent ...
'NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING'
His face became red with anger ...
He turned around and his glowing yellow eyes gazed at a very specific point atop a humongous mountain.
At first glance, it looked like all the other mountains surrounding it, but if one looked closely, he'd notice that it had an extremely violent snowstorm above it, unlike all the other mountains with their normal snowfall.
The old man blasted off and instantly reached the summit of the strange mountain.
The summit was white and covered in snow, but interestingly, there was a place in the middle that no snow fell on or even came near.
The old man reached the middle of the crest in a couple of strides, then a small wooden shack appeared in front of him.
Basically, the shack looked just like a hut.
He walked forward and pushed the shack's door open, making a loud CREAK ...
As soon as the door opened the space around the man seemed to warp, like he was entering a different dimension.
Nonchalantly, the man entered the hut and the door automatically closed behind him.
The scene inside was phenomenal.
A vast place full of bookcases, each bookcase had 10s of shelves, and each shelf had 10s of books and tomes on it.
Books of all different colors and sizes were everywhere, the hut had thousands or even hundreds of thousands of books inside it, it was essentially an enormous library.
The man only kept walking forward.
Suddenly, six books materialized in front of him and each of them flew to a different shelf and placed itself among the other books.
As the man went deeper inside the gigantic Library, the books on the shelves became fewer and fewer, until eventually, the space in front of the man contained only empty shelves ...
Only when he saw that he stopped and started thinking
'Thousands and thousands of empty shelves...'
His expression turned solemn
'How can I fill the shelves if there's nothing to write about?'
'What's the point of a worldwide Perception if I can't find what I'm looking for?'
He sighed
'Perception is meaningless if there is no relevant change to perceive'
The man clenched his fists so hard that his nails punctured his palms, but instead of blood, sand came out of his wounds and fell on the floor.
He began loudly reciting the names that other beings associated with him throughout the Eras
"The Custodian, The Curator, The Librarian, The Preservationist, The Scribe, The Recordkeeper, The Watcher, The Chronicler, The Historian"
Then he said with scorn
"And in this boring Era, The Archivist"
The Archivist was furious
"In this boring Era, I'm the strongest!"
"I'm The Hegemon!"
But ...
"What's the point of being The Hegemon during the most boring Era? There's nothing to witness!"
According to the Archivist's standards, nothing of note happened in the last few centuries ...
"The Lords became complacent, The Kings are inadequate, The Royals are worthless..."
The Archivist witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations, and by far, this was the most mundane time in history.
"The world became stale"
He turned his gaze to the books he wrote during this Era (the last 2000 years) and sighed ...
"Ahhh ..."
As he thought about the matter, he realized something
"Actually, the world has been stale for too long, it's just that I was coping..."
When The Archivist came to this conclusion, another realization hit him
"If nothing changes, The world will remain stale forever..."
"Someone has to do something...."