Chapter 2: THE CABINET
DING.
[Where would you like to store this memory within the Memory Cabinet?]
The cold mechanical voice echoed endlessly through the dark void surrounding Noah Kurtz, vibrating across the infinite blackness. Noah stood motionless, unable to breathe despite clearly being conscious. His body felt strangely weightless, almost nonexistent, while the world around him resembled an endless abyss of darkness. The last thing he remembered was the burning city, the werewolf monster’s claw tearing through his chest, and his heart had stopped. He knew it had stopped. Yet somehow... he was still awake.
Noah slowly looked downward.
And froze.
Far below him, like a distorted reflection beneath dark water, he could see the city streets of Sector 19 once again. The roads were still burning. Smoke still filled the crimson sky. Civilians still screamed while distant explosions happened in buildings. And lying motionless beside the ruined supermarket...was his corpse.
Blood surrounded his body in a dark pool while emergency sirens echoed through the streets nearby. His pale face was completely still, lifeless gray eyes staring blankly. The wound across his chest looked horrifying, the claw strike having completely destroyed the left side of his torso. There was no possibility of survival. Noah knew enough about the human body to understand that much.
He was dead.
A cold sensation crawled across what remained of his consciousness.
"What the hell..."
His voice sounded distorted here, as though the void itself swallowed the words before they fully formed. Noah instinctively reached toward his chest, expecting agony, but there was nothing.
Then another notification appeared.
DING.
[Skill Activated.]
[The Memory Cabinet requires host permission to initiate the Archive.]
Noah stared blankly at the floating words glowing before him in pale silver light. His mind struggled desperately to process everything happening around him, but nothing made sense anymore. Skills were real. Systems existed. Hunters awakened supernatural abilities every day. Yet this... this felt fundamentally different.
The Archive?
What archive?
His thoughts became sluggish. Somewhere deep within his consciousness, panic began rising slowly. He had just died. Perhaps this was some final hallucination produced by a dying brain.
Yet despite that thought... something inside him instinctively responded.
Yes.
It was less a spoken decision and more a signal drifting naturally through his mind. The moment that silent acknowledgment occurred, the darkness around Noah trembled violently.
And then—
the void split apart.
A metallic sound echoed endlessly across space itself while countless glowing symbols lighted the abyss around him. Noah instinctively shielded his eyes as enormous structures slowly emerged from the darkness beyond.
Cabinets.
Towering shelves stretched endlessly into the void, forming a library so vast that Noah could not even comprehend its size. Rows upon rows of floating archives drifted through the darkness like ancient monuments abandoned by forgotten gods. Some shelves appeared expensive and golden while others looked broken, covered in chains or buried beneath black corrosion. Massive stairways connected impossible layers of the structure while glowing keys floated silently through the air like wandering spirits.
"...What is this place...?"
His voice disappeared quietly within the endless library.
Books filled every shelf around him.
Millions of them.
No.
Billions.
Some radiated faint silver light. Others pulsed with crimson energy. A few emitted terrifying pressure that distorted the surrounding darkness itself. Certain books looked ancient enough to crumble at a touch, while others possessed metallic covers engraved with symbols Noah had never seen before.
And somehow...
he instinctively understood this place belonged to him.
The realization sent chills through his entire being.
The floating system interface appeared once more.
[Memory Cabinet initialized.]
[Current Archive Status: Fragmented.]
[Access Authority: F-Rank.]
[FATAL ERROR DETECTED.]
The final line flickered violently before disappearing instantly.
Noah frowned.
"What... does that even mean?"
No response came. Only silence.
Carefully, Noah began walking forward through the endless archive. His footsteps echoed strangely despite there being no visible floor beneath him beyond drifting black reflections resembling glass. The deeper he moved into the library, the more overwhelming the atmosphere became. Some cabinets radiated suffocating pressure powerful enough to make his instincts scream in warning.
And others felt unbearably lonely. As though countless forgotten lives slept within them.
Noah stopped before one particular shelf containing a single golden book glowing brighter than everything else nearby. Its cover looked flawless, almost divine, engraved with symbols shifting constantly across its surface. The moment Noah reached toward it, however—
DING.
[Access Denied.]
A violent pulse erupted from the book instantly.
Noah staggered backward as unbearable pain exploded through his head for a split second. Strange fragmented images flashed before his eyes.
A burning sky. An ocean swallowing continents. Towering creatures larger than mountains. And countless people screaming beneath endless golden light. Then everything vanished.
Noah collapsed to one knee, clutching his forehead while breathing heavily despite lacking physical lungs.
"What the hell was THAT?!"
The golden book remained motionless upon the shelf.
Untouchable.
Noah slowly stood again, shaken deeply now. Whatever this place truly was, it clearly contained things far beyond his understanding. He forced himself to calm down before continuing deeper into the archive, observing countless shelves surrounding him from every direction.
Some books were chained shut. Others looked partially destroyed. A few cabinets stood completely empty. Time seemed meaningless here. Noah wandered endlessly through the infinite darkness until eventually... he found something strange.
A single book resting alone upon a lower shelf. Unlike the others, this one looked broken. It had no proper cover, no title, no glow.
Its transparent pages appeared cracked like shattered glass while fragments of faded memories drifted weakly around it. Compared to the terrifying books surrounding the archive, this thing looked pitifully fragile.
Yet the moment Noah looked at it—
he felt drawn toward it instinctively. Slowly, he reached out. This time, no warning appeared. His fingers touched the transparent surface. And instantly the world exploded into memories.
Noah’s vision blurred violently as countless scenes unfolded around him all at once. His childhood apartment appeared before him. The smell of cheap instant noodles. Endless nights studying beneath flickering lights. Debt collectors banging against apartment doors. Then came the awakening ceremony. Noah’s breathing slowed. He remembered that day perfectly.
The massive awakening hall filled with teenagers years younger than him. Students excitedly discussing future academies and guild invitations while he stood awkwardly near the back of the line at twenty-two years old, already considered a failure by society’s standards.
The moment his hand touched the Awakening Stone...
everything changed.
He still remembered the silence afterward. The officials staring strangely. The glowing letters above the crystal.
F-Rank Talent Detected.
Skill Acquired: Memory Cabinet.
Then came the whispers.
The laughter.
"Twenty-two years old for THAT?"
"Bro waited four extra years for an F-rank."
"What kind of useless ability even is Memory Cabinet?"
"Pathetic."
Noah clenched his fists tightly while watching the memory unfold before him like a cruel movie. He remembered every expression. Every mocking stare. Every ounce of humiliation. Even the awakening examiner looked disappointed while handing him his registration card.
"Unfortunately, your skill has no recorded combat value."
That sentence still burned painfully inside him. The memory shifted again.
Noah saw himself returning to his tiny apartment afterward, staring silently at overdue bills stacked across the table while wondering how life had gone so wrong. He remembered forcing himself to smile despite feeling utterly hollow inside.
Then the monster attack happened two weeks later.
And now...
he was here.
Inside some impossible infinite archive after dying. The transparent book slowly closed itself. Silence returned once more. Noah stood motionless for a long time. Then, suddenly a new option appeared before the broken book.
[Continue?]
Below it, two symbols floated quietly.
[YES.]
[NO.]
Noah frowned deeply.
"Continue... what?"
No answer came. The archive remained silent. But somehow... he knew like this choice mattered. After several long moments, Noah slowly pressed the glowing YES symbol.
Immediately—
the transparent book began vibrating violently.
A strange buffering sound echoed through the library while countless glowing lines spread across the shattered pages. Noah instinctively stepped backward as the entire archive suddenly trembled around him.
Then something grabbed him.
No—
something pulled him.
A terrifying force suddenly wrapped around Noah’s consciousness before dragging him violently backward through the endless darkness. The entire infinite library distorted instantly while books flew across the void like collapsing stars.
"What—?!"
Noah’s scream vanished halfway through.
The world shattered.
Darkness consumed everything.
And then—
pain.
Violent pain exploded through Noah’s body as air suddenly slammed back into his lungs. His eyes snapped open instantly while his chest rose sharply in panic.
White ceiling.
Bright lights.
Sterile smell.
Noah gasped heavily while sitting upright on instinct.
"Easy! EASY!"
A startled nurse rushed toward him immediately while nearby medical equipment beeped loudly. Noah stared around frantically, struggling to process his surroundings. Hospital beds lined the room around him while curtains separated injured civilians nearby. The faint smell of disinfectant filled the air.
An infirmary.
Noah’s breathing became uneven.
"I..."
His hand instantly shot toward his chest. His chest was completely normal. Noah’s pupils trembled violently.
"That’s impossible..."
The nurse looked confused. "Sir, please calm down. You suffered severe shock during the Sector 19 incident, but the Hunter rescue squad brought you in before the monster wave reached your area."
Noah stared at her blankly.
"...Shock?"
"Yes. You collapsed near the evacuation zone."
Collapsed?
No.
That was wrong.
He died.
He remembered dying.
The claw piercing his chest. His heart stopping and most importantly the blood. Every second of it felt horrifyingly real. Yet now his heartbeat sounded perfectly normal beneath his ribs.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Alive.
Noah slowly lowered his gaze while cold unease settled deep inside him. Something impossible had happened.
Hours later, after giving reports to the Hunters overseeing the rescue operation and describing the werewolf monsters he encountered, Noah finally left the infirmary under the pale evening sky. Emergency vehicles still filled parts of the city while smoke drifted across distant sectors from the earlier attack. Civilians crowded evacuation zones while Hunters moved constantly between streets carrying weapons stained with monster blood. But Noah barely noticed any of it. His mind remained trapped inside that endless library.
Eventually, Noah returned to his apartment complex near the lower residential districts. The building looked old and worn down, paint peeling from cracked walls while dim hallway lights flickered weakly overhead. His tiny one-bedroom apartment greeted him with familiar silence the moment he unlocked the door.
Bills still covered the kitchen table. Laundry remained unfolded near the couch. Nothing had changed. Noah slowly stepped inside before locking the door behind him. Then quietly, he whispered:
"Memory Cabinet."
Silence.
For one brief second, nothing happened.
Then—
DING.
A pale silver screen appeared before his eyes.
[Archive Available.]
Noah’s heartbeat slowed instantly.
The system was real.
And whatever existed inside that infinite library... was now waiting for him.