The library was a bastion of knowledge, but its hours were as rigid as the laws of physics. He could lend the scrolls, but the "insurance fee" for restricted materials was high enough to bankrupt him for three months.
"I'll have to be surgical," he decided. He focused on Year 4 and Year 5, his eyes darting across the columns with the speed of a man possessed.
He ignored the social gossip and the economic reports, diving straight into the "Public Safety" and "Anomalies" sections. Here, the tone was different. The journalists spoke of "unexplained atmospheric disturbances" and "unprovoked violence" in remote villages.
He found reports of superheroes using their powers to settle petty debts or terrify normal citizens—incidents that were a far cry from the "glorious" figures described in the earlier propaganda.
But the most chilling commonality was the closing sentence of nearly every incident report:
