Goblin Library - Chapter 54

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————

Chapter 54

Pot Goblin continued her explanation for Yu Tae-poong, who seemed confused by her words.
“Online serialization will be entertaining for the goblins. Even if we don’t gain many views, the simple fact that people read our work and leave comments gives us the pleasure of knowing someone has seen what we’ve written.”
“That’s true.”
As Yu Tae-poong nodded in agreement, Pot Goblin tilted her head and spoke.
“That means we must maintain discipline to enjoy ourselves.”
With those words, Pot Goblin withdrew a ring of keys from her pocket. She grasped a crimson key among those connected by a chain and shook it.
Whoooosh!
Immediately, chunks of gold came cascading down before Pot Goblin.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Watching the weighty gold pieces fall with their metallic sounds, Pot Goblin spoke.
“We can create unlimited gold whenever we wish. And the more gold we have, the more entertainment we can enjoy in the human world. But we don’t do it. The reason is simple—it would collapse the human economic system.”
“I’ve heard as much.”
As Pot Goblin shook the key, the gold vanished entirely.
“Ah…”
Yu Tae-poong let out an involuntary sigh of regret. Pot Goblin laughed at his expression.
“In any case, online serialization works the same way. Our purpose is to gain entertainment from serializing online. But if it could influence the protagonists, we must not do it.”
“Does that mean other goblins won’t do it either?”
“If I announce this rule to the goblin realm, most will understand and refrain from doing it.”
“Most? Then some goblins might still do it?”
“There will be. Just like Curiosity Goblin, there are goblins who do whatever they please.”
“Then what do we do?”
At Yu Tae-poong’s question, Pot Goblin’s expression turned cold.
“There was once a goblin who violated our rules and recklessly created gold. But… there isn’t one now.”
“There isn’t?”
“Any goblin who breaks our rules must face the consequences.”
“Then with the online serialization too?”
“If goblins start serializing novels about currently living protagonists one after another, people will begin to recognize them. That would create urban legends and all sorts of troublesome complications. Wouldn’t they have to pay a price for that?”
After hearing the explanation, Yu Tae-poong nodded. He thought the goblins would handle their own affairs well enough.
“Are you heading home from work?”
At Pot Goblin’s question, Yu Tae-poong nodded.
“Yes.”
Pot Goblin then sighed lightly.
“What a shame.”
“Why?”
“I was hoping to ask you how to serialize online while I had the chance.”
“You’re starting serialization right away?”
“It sounds fun. The thing is, I’m not sure where to post it online. I was wondering if you might know.”
“Curiosity Goblin is already serializing something. Why don’t you ask him?”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s casual remark, Pot Goblin’s brow furrowed. Seeing her expression, Dung Carrier Goblin fell silent with an “ah.”
He had belatedly remembered that Pot Goblin absolutely despised Curiosity Goblin.
At that, Yu Tae-poong spoke up.
“I can show you.”
“But you need to get off work.”
Yu Tae-poong smiled and pulled out his yellow key.
Then he held the key against the door and opened it.
Click!
Beyond the door, the interior of Tae-poong’s Apartment came into view.
“All I need to do is open the door to clock out.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Pot Goblin laughed.
“The seal on your club seems to have come undone… Who did that for you?”
“The Company President did it for me. Oh! If I’ve upset you by touching your club, I sincerely apologize.”
“Not at all. Connecting your home to the Goblin Library is hardly a problem, so there’s nothing to be upset about.”
At Pot Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong exhaled in relief and spoke.
“Please, have a seat. I’ll get you something to drink. What would you like?”
As Yu Tae-poong set his bag on the counter, Pot Goblin replied.
“I’ll have instant coffee.”
“Instant coffee, understood.”
Yu Tae-poong acknowledged and pulled instant coffee from a drawer. As he boiled hot water, he looked at Dung Carrier Goblin.
“What about you?”
“Same for me.”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s request, Yu Tae-poong took out two more packets of instant coffee.
I should have a cup of instant coffee myself after all this time.
Fragrant ground coffee was nice, but sometimes the sweetness of instant coffee had its own appeal.
As the water boiled, Pot Goblin looked at Dung Carrier Goblin.
“Are you going to do online serialization too?”
“It sounds fun, so I’m thinking about it.”
“Do you have a laptop?”
“Ah… I don’t.”
“Do you have a computer?”
“I have one at home.”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s answer, Pot Goblin looked at him and spoke.
“You seem to be here quite often… Wouldn’t it be better to have a laptop here if you’re going to write?”
“You’re right… Should I buy one?”
Pot Goblin shook her head slightly and pulled out a key, waving it gently from top to bottom.
Whoosh!
Two laptops materialized before them.
“I’ll give you one of mine. Use this.”
“Do you have multiple laptops?”
“I switch between them depending on my mood.”
“Depending on your mood?”
“The keyboard feel is different, the display is different….”
“You must be wealthy.”
“You’re the only Goblin who doesn’t care about money. Most of us have enough to buy something like this.”
While speaking, Pot Goblin tapped away at the keyboard, tidying up the laptop.
“I’ll delete my files and give it to you. Just wait a moment.”
“Why?”
“If my files are on it, you could see them. So I need to clean it out properly before handing it over.”
After thoroughly deleting the laptop’s files, Pot Goblin held it out to Dung Carrier Goblin, then paused to look at him.
“Are you good with computers? Or, can you handle programs and that sort of thing?”
“Not really.”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s response, Pot Goblin pushed the laptop toward him. Dung Carrier Goblin laughed and fiddled with it this way and that before asking.
“But why are you asking?”
“I was worried you might recover it.”
“Deleted files can be recovered?”
“I don’t know how to do it myself, but in dramas they recover deleted files all the time. I guess deleted things can be recovered.”
Pot Goblin seemed to only know what she’d seen in dramas and didn’t understand it well either.
“I thought deletion was the end of it… That’s interesting.”
While the two Goblins were talking about computers, Yu Tae-poong returned with coffee in a paper cup.
“I was going to put it in a mug, but instant coffee just feels right in a paper cup, you know?”
As Yu Tae-poong set down the paper cup, Pot Goblin thanked him and took a sip of the coffee.
“It’s sweet and nice.”
After drinking the coffee, Pot Goblin looked at Yu Tae-poong.
“Alright, let’s get started now. What’s the name of the site?”
At Pot Goblin’s words, Yu Tae-poong moved to sit beside her and looked at the laptop monitor.
“Try searching for Munsin.”
“Munsin.”
Pot Goblin typed Munsin into the search bar and looked at Dung Carrier Goblin.
“If you’re going to serialize too, go into Munsin the same way.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Dung Carrier Goblin, planning to serialize as well, answered hurriedly and entered Munsin.
As the page loaded, Yu Tae-poong looked at the laptop and spoke.
“If you’re just reading novels, you don’t need to register, but if you want to serialize a novel, you need to create an account.”
Then Yu Tae-poong looked at both Goblins.
“You both have resident registration numbers, right?”
“Of course we do.”
Pot Goblin answered. Dung Carrier Goblin even pulled out his resident registration card from his wallet to show.
“Nowadays, all Goblins have resident registration cards. Otherwise, they can’t activate cell phones or internet service.”
I’d heard from Bamboo Sword Goblin before that Goblins possessed resident registration cards, but seeing one firsthand struck me as oddly remarkable.
‘Goblins with resident registration cards….’
Yu Tae-poong shook his head slightly and explained how to register for membership. The two Goblins proceeded smoothly through the registration process, confirming authentication numbers that arrived on their phones.
“But Goblins don’t age, right? What happens if someone’s officially sixty years old on paper but actually in their twenties in reality?”
“That’s why we renew every ten years.”
“That actually works?”
“It’s not easy, but it’s not difficult either. Registration’s all done. How do we start the serialization?”
At Pot Goblin’s question, Yu Tae-poong entered the writing section and spoke.
“There are categories here—fantasy, contemporary, drama, and so on. Since the stories Goblins write are everyday tales, you’d want to choose either contemporary or drama.”
After a moment’s consideration, Pot Goblin selected drama.
“But how do you know all this, Tae-poong?”
“I came here in high school, read novels, and even tried serializing some.”
“Oh! You wrote novels too?”
“Just dabbled a little for fun.”
“Were they popular?”
At Dung Carrier Goblin’s question, Yu Tae-poong laughed.
“If they’d been popular, I’d be a writer now.”
Then, looking at the screen, Yu Tae-poong continued.
“You can write directly here, or if you have a manuscript prepared separately, you can copy and paste it. Usually, people upload five thousand characters per episode.”
At Yu Tae-poong’s explanation, Pot Goblin nodded and retrieved her manuscripts.
Several novels were stored there. Watching Pot Goblin deliberate over which to upload, Yu Tae-poong turned to Dung Carrier Goblin.
“You keep your manuscripts at home, right?”
“They’re on an external hard drive.”
When Dung Carrier Goblin swung his Goblin club, a smartphone-sized external hard drive materialized before him.
“I keep my manuscripts on the external drive in case my computer breaks sometimes.”
Watching Dung Carrier Goblin connect the external hard drive to the laptop, Yu Tae-poong spoke.
“Have you decided which novel to serialize?”
At Yu Tae-poong’s words, Dung Carrier Goblin paused briefly before speaking.
“This one… is really quite good.”
“Which one?”
“A pro-Japanese collaborator during the Japanese occupation period.”
“A…pro-Japanese collaborator?”
Yu Tae-poong’s eyes narrowed.
“Well….”
After hesitating briefly, he opened his mouth.
“Brother… by your standards, it might be a good character, but… wouldn’t making a pro-Japanese collaborator the protagonist be problematic?”
A pro-Japanese collaborator—someone even more despised than those who carried dung.
Of course, they could be a warm father or brother to their family, or a good friend to those close to them.
If that were the case, one might say they fit Dung Carrier Goblin’s tastes well. But… this wasn’t it.
Dung Carrier Goblin laughed and shook his head at the reluctance written all over Tae-poong’s face.
“If he were a true collaborator, I wouldn’t have used him either. I’m a Joseon Goblin too, so I fought plenty with those Japanese Spirit Servants back then.”
“You fought with Japanese Spirit Servants?”
“Just like we Goblins exist in Joseon, there are creatures like us in Japan. When the Japanese occupation began, they came into Joseon alongside the Japanese. Those times were… absolutely chaotic.”
Pot Goblin nodded in agreement at Dung Carrier Goblin’s words.
“Those days were truly… difficult.”
“I was so sad when the Baekdu Mountain tiger died.”
“Yes… the Jirisan tiger died too. Even though he was young, he was an excellent leader.”
Tae-poong, watching the two Goblins exchange a conversation that seemed difficult for humans to comprehend, spoke.
“That era must have been hard for everyone—both people and Spirit Servants.”
“Everything that belonged to Joseon suffered during that time.”
Then Dung Carrier Goblin smiled and continued.
“Back then, I saw this fellow… Bamboo Sword Goblin and I even fought over who would make him the protagonist.”
“The protagonist that the Company President wanted?”
“That’s right.”
If Bamboo Sword Goblin wanted him as the protagonist, he must certainly be a person of courage. And given what Tae-poong knew of Bamboo Sword Goblin’s nature, he wouldn’t have wanted a collaborator.
“And even if that collaborator wasn’t chosen, Bamboo Sword Goblin had plenty of other people worthy of being the protagonist. There were so many courageous people resisting the Japanese occupation.”
Tae-poong asked at Dung Carrier Goblin’s words.
“So what kind of person is this collaborator?”
I was curious. What sort of person was this collaborator who, despite being called a traitor, had been chosen as the protagonist by Bamboo Sword Goblin and Dung Carrier Goblin?
“He was a collaborator in life and remained one in history. But….”
Dung Carrier Goblin gazed into empty space for a moment, then opened a file.

【Lim Ok-beom】
Author: Dung Carrier Goblin

“Lim Ok-beom is an independence fighter not recorded in history.”

—————

This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

—————