Chapter 145
“Everyone, be alert! That’s the one the captain was talking about!”
“Snap out of it, everyone!”
There were five whaling ships, including the Pequod, but only the Pequod, a mother-ship type whaling factory ship, could play a serious role.
The other four ships were merely for assisting the Pequod.
The Pequod, with a length of 40m and a displacement of over 500 tons, far exceeded the standard of a normal whaling ship.
And this was the masterpiece of Captain Ahab, who put everything he had into catching one whale.
The meaning of the Pequod was not just the best and the biggest whaling ship.
It was also the crystallization of the endless hatred and vengeance of a human being.
The Pequod’s origin was Captain Ahab.
Ding ding ding ding!
The bell rang loudly and the sailors moved hastily.
A sailor who climbed to the end of the mast shouted as he saw a shadow in the distant ocean.
“It’s 500 ahead!”
“It’s not far away! Don’t dawdle and get to your positions!”
Yu-hyun and his party came out to the deck and looked over the railing.
The endless sea looked like a living creature in itself.
Beyond the crashing waves, a huge black shadow was caught by the collectors’ excellent eyesight.
‘That’s it!’
Yu-hyun looked at Park Cheol-oh. Park Cheol-oh nodded and picked up his radio.
“Ah ah. This is Park Cheol-oh. Can you hear me?”
-Team leader? What’s going on? You suddenly contacted me on a secret channel.
“Kim Myung-chul. Are there any Twilight Veil collectors on your ship?”
-Yes, two on my side. One on Agent Yang Seon-woo’s side.
“Tell them both. Be careful of their movements. They are dangerous.”
-…Understood.
They were well-trained collectors and did not ask why.
Park Cheol-oh was also a boss who received tremendous trust from his subordinates.
“Well, this is the best we can do for now. The first thing we need to focus on is the huge thing that’s coming towards us.”
“That’s right. Let’s get our weapons out.”
It was the moment when everyone grabbed their weapons.
“Captain!”
Someone shouted.
The eyes of Yu-hyun and his party all turned to the back, where the bridge was.
Captain Ahab, who had not shown himself until now, opened the door and revealed himself.
‘That guy…’
Yu-hyun saw him and his eyes widened. In the original novel, Captain Ahab was a captain who lost one leg to Moby Dick and burned with vengeance.
But his actual appearance did not suit that of a vengeful ghost.
Ahab was a man with neatly trimmed gray beard and sharp eyes.
His body, clad in uniform, showed his well-trained physique, and he was taller than any other sailor around him.
Considering that the sailors were also quite burly, it was impressive.
He did not look like a captain, but rather like an experienced mercenary leader.
Clang!
His one leg was made of iron.
Captain Ahab had cut off a harpoon and made it into his prosthetic leg.
‘He’s not an ordinary captain.’
As soon as he showed himself, the atmosphere around him changed in an instant.
He just stood there, but it felt like he was shouting that the sea itself was his own, with a madness in his eyes.
Snort.
Captain Ahab snorted as he breathed through his nose.
His shoulders twitched once.
“The smell of the sea. I can smell that hateful thing beyond it.”
As soon as he heard his heavy voice, Yu-hyun read the cry of a beast that was sleeping deep inside him.
Ahab did not show his vengeance outwardly.
It was condensed and compressed in the depths of his eyes.
To pierce through the heart of his target someday.
“Starbuck, first mate. Where is it now?”
“It’s 450 ahead. It seems to have noticed us too, and it’s approaching us.”
“Is that so?”
Ahab replied nonchalantly.
He was very calm for someone who had found his enemy.
He gave orders to his crew.
“Harpooners, prepare the harpoon guns.”
“Captain, are you really going to do this?”
“Why, Starbuck? Are you afraid?”
“Captain, that thing is dangerous. Do you know how many ships it has sunk so far?”
“That’s irrelevant. Do you think this Pequod will fall prey to it? And what about me, Ahab? You still don’t seem to understand why this ship was built in the first place.”
Starbuck, the chief mate, bit his lip.
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He knew Ahab’s thirst for revenge.
That’s why he didn’t like this whale hunt.
It was a monster.
How many sailors would have to sacrifice themselves to face such a monster?
But Ahab was a worse monster.
He wore a cloak of reason and pretended to be a great man, but inside he had a hideous side that made him nauseous.
“Starbuck, is that a mutiny?”
“No, sir.”
But Starbuck didn’t have the courage to disobey the captain’s orders.
This was the middle of the vast sea.
Ahab was the king of this kingdom built on the sea, the Pequod.
He bowed his head and left his post.
Ahab didn’t pay attention to him.
His indifferent eyes briefly scanned Yu-hyun and his companions.
‘He’s a scary man.’
Yu-hyun felt Ahab’s gaze and muttered inwardly.
He was not an ordinary human.
His eyes seemed uninterested at first glance, but Yu-hyun could feel it.
That Ahab, the captain, was not an ordinary human.
‘Well, this is a story world after all. There’s no way these characters made of stories are normal. There must be some kind of change in them.’
And that was proven by the existence of the Pequod itself.
The original whaling ship in Moby-Dick was nothing but a wooden ship. But the Pequod was not just a wooden ship.
It was not a steam-powered iron ship, but something in between, a hybrid ship of wood and iron.
A scientific level that could not be seen in the 19th century.
Yu-hyun knew well how much distortion occurred in the stories implemented as story worlds.
‘It’s rather a good thing. If the ship is sturdy, the danger will be reduced.’
The important thing now was Moby-Dick, which was slowly approaching them.
‘Baekhyo, how is it? What do you see?’
Hoot.
Baekhyo kept his altitude and shared his vision with Yu-hyun so that he could see the whole situation at a glance.
Yu-hyun saw Moby-Dick’s huge figure through Baekhyo’s eyes and hardened his face.
‘How can it be so big?’
The Pequod was almost twice as big as a normal ship, but Moby-Dick was much bigger than that.
The black shadow that barely surfaced on the water looked about 70m long.
‘Well, that explains why it made such a mess of the first and second expedition teams.’
When he thought about it, the sturdiness of the hybrid ship Pequod faded away.
It was said that even this ship sank when it faced Moby-Dick.
‘Can we fight it now?’
As Yu-hyun wondered, Moby-Dick’s movement changed.
The creature that had been coming towards them suddenly turned its direction.
“Wha-what?”
A sailor on the mast shouted.
“Captain! It’s changing course! It looks like it’s running away!”
“What?”
Ahab raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath before yelling.
“Follow it───!!!”
Some of the sailors unconsciously covered their ears with both hands at his loud roar.
Even Yu-hyun and his companions who were far away frowned at Ahab’s voice.
A voice and charisma that matched his huge body.
His skin tingled.
Splash!
The ship’s rudder turned.
Moby-Dick had turned its back and fled through the sea, and five whaling boats followed it.
A sailor on the mast shouted again.
“Distance 350!”
The gap between us and Moby Dick was closing rapidly. Ahab had no intention of letting his nemesis escape.
Even the wind was on our side, blowing strongly in the direction of the beast.
“Distance 250!”
Soon, Moby Dick’s shadow became visible to the naked eye.
Some of the sailors turned pale at the sight of its massive body.
[The spirits marvel at Moby Dick’s size.]
[Some of the spirits wonder if we can catch it.]
“Yoo-hyun, do you see that?!”
“Yes, I see it.”
Kang Hye-rim asked me with a slightly trembling voice.
I glanced at her as I answered.
She was not afraid.
On the contrary, her eyes were filled with excitement at the prospect of facing that giant monster.
I could see her grip on her sword tighten.
“We should get ready too.”
“I…”
That’s when Bang-sang spoke to me.
I was surprised that he would talk to me at such a moment.
I widened my eyes.
“Are you Mr. Gweseon? Do you need something from me?”
“Well, that’s… No, it’s nothing.”
Bang-sang shook his head and backed away.
His voice was also altered somehow, making it hard to identify him.
I felt a strange suspicion about his attitude, but I decided to ignore it since I sensed no hostility from him.
Besides, the distance between us and Moby Dick had shrunk to less than 200 by now.
“Distance 150!”
“Prepare the harpoons!”
At Ahab’s command, the harpooners moved near the railing. 𝑛𝗼𝘃𝖊𝑙𝗯𝔦𝔫.𝘯ℯ𝒕
They held the harpoon guns mounted on the front of the ship.
“Fire!!”
Boom!
From five ships, six harpoons each, a total of 30 harpoons were shot like cannons. The harpoons, connected to sturdy ropes, arched through the air and rushed towards the white beast.
Clang!
“Wha, what?!”
“Not a single one hit?!”
The harpooners’ eyes widened in disbelief.
The collectors, including my group, who were watching the situation were also astonished.
They couldn’t believe that none of the many harpoons had pierced it.
Even more surprising was the sound that was heard when the harpoons bounced off.
It sounded like hitting metal.
They couldn’t believe that Moby Dick’s skin was that hard.
“Ca, captain! What should we do?!”
“Tsk. Inexperienced fools. Move aside.”
Ahab stepped forward in frustration.
He stood at the very end of the ship and glared at the shadow that was getting closer.
“Hmm?”
A hint of doubt flashed in Ahab’s eyes as he looked at Moby Dick.
I didn’t miss it.
I noticed that Ahab hesitated for a moment.
‘What’s going on? Didn’t he want to catch it?’
Ahab’s reaction seemed a bit strange. But soon he seemed to shake off any doubts and grabbed a harpoon with one hand.
“Ca, captain!”
He was going to throw the harpoon himself.
It was obvious that throwing a harpoon by hand instead of using a harpoon gun was reckless.
“Hmph!”
But Ahab brushed them off and threw the harpoon with all his strength.
And then something amazing happened.
Swoosh!
Bang!
The harpoon flew straight through the air and pierced through Moby Dick’s tough skin.
The sight of a hand-thrown harpoon being faster and stronger than a harpoon gun was unbelievable.
“Hmm. As expected.”
Ahab’s reaction was not satisfying after hitting the target.
As everyone was puzzled by his response, Moby-Dick started to change.
“Wha, what? It’s turning around!”
“It’s coming this way!”
Everyone was flustered as Moby-Dick swiftly approached us, cutting through the water.
The harpoon stuck on its back was like a marker, moving on the surface of the water.
It was terrifying.
The sailors were all tense, and the collectors also prepared for the imminent battle with their weapons.
Splash!
Moby-Dick, who had narrowed the distance to 30 in no time, performed an unexpected feat that surpassed everyone’s expectations.
“Wha, what?”
“It, it stopped?”
Contrary to what they thought, that it would soon charge with its head in rage, Moby-Dick stopped near the Pequod.
Rather, the creature that only looked like a black shadow began to slowly surface.
Whoosh!
The collectors’ eyes widened as they saw Moby-Dick emerge from the water with a fierce splash.
“What is that?”
“That’s not a whale…”
What appeared from the water, splitting the sea, was not the white sperm whale that everyone had thought, but a spiral-shaped submarine.
