Chapter 149
‘Tsk. Are they making their move now?’
Yu-hyun had told Park Cheol-oh when they would act. His prediction was right. Moby Dick had attacked faster than expected, and retreated even faster, leaving everyone in confusion.
Now was the best time for the spies sent by the Twilight Curtain Clan to act.
‘Are they moving together or separately?’
Yu-hyun looked around.
There were three whaling ships left, excluding the Nautilus.
And there were three of them left.
Considering their skills, he didn’t think they would stick together on one ship.
‘One person per ship, then…’
Yu-hyun glanced at Kang Hyerim and Kwon Jia, who were close by.
‘The numbers are perfect.’
Yu-hyun called them over and opened his mouth.
***
Thud thud.
A man walked in the dark cabin where the sunlight didn’t reach.
He was a middle-aged man with a long beard.
He moved slowly, looking around with a blank expression.
His destination was the bottom of the ship, where the dragon bones were.
Thump.
He stopped walking and stood still.
Someone was blocking his way, leaning against the wall.
“Where are you going?”
The teller in a neat and tidy suit, Kang Yu-hyun, asked him.
“I got lost.”
“You seem to be quite deep and have a clear purpose for someone who got lost.”
“…”
The middle-aged man, Kim Junbae, narrowed his eyes.
He turned his head slightly and checked the way he came.
He didn’t feel anyone chasing him from behind.
It was the same for the surroundings.
His senses, which he had expanded as much as possible, told him that there were only him and Yu-hyun in this area.
Kim Junbae’s eyes changed in an instant.
Snicker.
Yu-hyun saw that and pushed himself off the wall, holding his sword.
“Well, there’s no need for words then.”
Kim Junbae was a collector sent by the Twilight Curtain Clan, but his actual job was different from that of a normal collector.
Assassination and terror of factors.
He was someone who was secretly raised by the organization to do dirty work.
‘He’s a bit different from Kim Hanjung.’
Kim Hanjung was raised to be a famous collector on purpose, but Kim Junbae and the other two were raised to do tasks for the organization.
Naturally, unlike Kim Hanjung, Kim Junbae had no self-awareness or goals.
The only thing he did was to carry out the orders he received, no matter what happened.
Even if it was a suicidal mission.
‘Even Hanul wasn’t like this.’
A human who had his emotions cut off as if his brain had been tampered with.
Could he really call that a person?
From Yu-hyun’s perspective, Kim Junbae was nothing but a living doll.
“Cheonche Corporation teller Kang Yu-hyun.”
Swoosh.
Kim Junbae drew his weapon from his waist.
It was a dagger that didn’t match his fierce appearance.
“I don’t know how you figured out our purpose, but it’s too late.”
“Is it really?”
“Two of our agents have already infiltrated the other ships and are destroying the dragon bones. This mission in the World of Ideas will fail. You will sink with the ship and become food for that white whale.”
Kim Junbae spoke calmly as if he was reciting an obvious fact.
Yu-hyun didn’t hide his sneer at that sight.
“Yeah. There were two more of you. The short kid and the big black mixed guy. But aren’t you forgetting something? Just like you three, we’re also three.”
“…”
Kim Jun-bae seemed to have realized something at last.
His eyebrows twitched slightly, revealing a hint of emotional turmoil for the first time.
His expression quickly returned to normal, but Yu-hyun did not miss that small change.
“It doesn’t matter what happened. The outcome won’t change.”𝒏օν𝔢𝙡𝙗ì𝖓.𝑛𝙚ｔ
“Do you trust your team?”
“Rather, you were unlucky. You shouldn’t have met me here. You brought this trouble upon yourself.”
Kim Jun-bae was confident that he would win.
They had been undergoing special training and brainwashing for a long time, receiving support from the Pentagon department and embedding stories into their flesh.
They did not train to fight against phantasms.
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Rather, they lived to kill people, especially collectors.
They were different from the ordinary collectors who just gained power and lived mediocre lives.
They were the ones who had a clear goal and repeated bloody training to achieve it.
“I know you’re confident in your own abilities.”
Yu-hyun smiled and drew his sword, taking a stance.
“Kim Han-jung, was it? Did you not hear what happened to him when he faced me?”
“I heard that Kim Han-jung lost to you. But he was an immature one, chosen by some kind of face-matching algorithm. He can’t compare to us.”
“Is that so? Then how do you compare to Kim Han-jung?”
“…”
Kim Jun-bae did not answer and gripped his dagger in both hands, readying himself for battle.
Yu-hyun did not expect an answer anyway, so he did not feel disappointed.
“Come on. Mr. Killing Machine. I’ll give you the first move.”
“…”
Kim Jun-bae moved.
Swoosh.
His body blurred as he ran at a fast speed through the narrow corridor.
He ran on the floor and then suddenly climbed up the wall, running vertically, and then kicked off the ceiling.
His movement was like a ball bouncing irregularly in a tight space.
It was a confusing attack for someone who faced him for the first time.
But.
“That’s quite an interesting trick you have there.”
For Yu-hyun, who had lived for ten years after the apocalypse, it was nothing more than a mediocre skill.
He blocked the dagger that aimed at his head from the ceiling with his sword-shaped sword, and then quickly changed his sword into a spear and stabbed Kim Jun-bae’s shoulder.
Clang!
Kim Jun-bae twisted his shoulder and deflected Yu-hyun’s spear with his dagger.
He passed by Yu-hyun and created some distance between them, landing on the ground.
“A spear in this narrow place? Are you mocking me?”
“You’ll see.”
Yu-hyun said that and thrust his spear again. Kim Jun-bae took a stance.
He knew about that weapon.
It was a weapon that could change its shape freely.
Even so, the reach of the spear was not enough to touch him.
Whoosh!
Kim Jun-bae bent his body and felt a chilling sensation as the spear grazed over his head.
‘It definitely fell short, but it touched me. Not only does it change its shape, but it also freely extends its size and length?’
A weapon that could change its shape so freely seemed tricky at first glance, but its power depended on the user’s skill level.
A novice who wielded the sword would not be able to use its full potential.
‘But this guy is different.’
Yu-hyun used any shape of weapon freely.
According to the information, he was a teller.
And he was the first teller who fought.
He had heard stories about him, but he didn’t expect him to be this good.
Yu-hyun’s ability was far superior to any ordinary collector.
‘If we only look at his skill level, he is one of the top among the mid-tier collectors?’
But this fight was not something that could be decided by skill alone.
Kim Jun-bae unleashed his power.
White letters flowed through his body and gathered on his dagger.
‘If I can’t win with skill, I’ll crush him with power.’
Kim Jun-bae thought that if he could cut down Yu-hyun and his strange weapon, it would be over.
He gathered the power of stories in his legs and amplified his strength for a moment.
Boom!
Kim Jun-bae’s body shot out like an arrow.
His footsteps seemed light but fast like the wind.
Yu-hyun widened his eyes as he saw him.
Kim Jun-bae thought it was because of his unexpected move.
‘How naive. It’s already too late.’
The moment he approached Yu-hyun’s side and swung his dagger.
Kim Jun-bae realized that what Yu-hyun was surprised at was not him.
Yu-hyun was looking behind his back.
‘Behind me?’
Kim Jun-bae turned around without knowing.
‘What?’
The thing he saw right after he turned his head was an axe flying towards his forehead.
Thud!
“…”
Kim Jun-bae’s body fell to the ground.
Blood flowed from his forehead where the axe was stuck.
Yu-hyun glanced at the fallen Kim Jun-bae and looked up at the direction where the axe came from.
“This is a bit surprising, isn’t it?”
From beyond the dark corridor of the train, a woman wearing a mask with four eyes appeared.
Gweseon Bangsang-ssi.
The collector who had been sending strange glances at Yu-hyun from before suddenly showed up.
“You didn’t have to help me.”
“…It looked… dangerous…”
Bangsang-ssi said that.
It was a very calm tone, considering that she had split a person’s face in half with an axe.
It even sounded like she was embarrassed.
Yu-hyun lost his interest and put Baekryeon on his waist.
“So, um. Should I call you Bangsang-ssi? What is your purpose for me?”
“That is… Well…”
“Don’t beat around the bush or anything, just tell me straight.”
Yu-hyun recognized that Bangsang-ssi was not an enemy.
He had doubted her actions at first, but she had helped him just now and also acted strangely before.
‘What does she want from me?’
He couldn’t help but think that.
Bangsang-ssi approached Kim Jun-bae’s corpse and pulled out the axe from his face.
Some of the spirits clapped their hands as if they found it amusing.
[Some of the spirits are curious about Bangsang-ssi’s existence.]
[Some of the spirits are curious about Bangsang-ssi’s story.]
‘Huh, really.’
He was about to lose his guests to this side.
‘Well. It’s not for nothing that collectors become more eccentric as they go up.’
The middle-class ones were less so, but the upper-class collectors were all weirdos without exception.
Either their trait power was too strong and they were consumed by it, or they deliberately acted out a concept to attract the attention of the spirits and citizens.
As far as Yu-hyun thought, it was more likely that they were absorbed by the story they showed rather than deliberately aiming for a concept.
Bangsang-ssi was no exception.
“Are you… hurt anywhere…?”
“As you can see, someone helped me in a dangerous moment.”
“That’s good…”
“So, um. Bangsang-ssi, do you have any interest in our Baekhyo?”
“Oh, his name is… Baekhyo…?”
“Yes. It means a white owl, so I named him that.”
“That’s a good… name…”
Yu-hyun scratched his head.
He roughly saw what her purpose was.
“Do you… like owls?”
“I like anything that’s cute.”
For the first time, Bangsang-ssi spoke without dragging her words and said it straight.
Her face was hidden by the mask, so he couldn’t see it well, but she seemed a bit excited.
The reason why she had approached Yu-hyun was because of the white fluffy baby owl that often sat on his shoulder.
‘This is something. A person who splits a person’s head with an axe, acts like a normal person in this aspect.’
It was from this that the saying that collectors were beyond control from the middle-class and above came from.
Kim Jun-bae was a villain, and he tried to sink the ship in this situation.
Of course, he had to use force to stop him.
Yu-hyun fought because he knew the reason. But Bangsang-ssi was different.
She had never told him anything in the first place. But she killed Kim Jun-bae right away.
‘No. Never mind. It’s better this way.’
At least she was a woman who had stood shoulder to shoulder with Geomhu Kang Hye-rim in her previous life.
It was rather a good thing that she was not hostile to him, and even friendly.
“First of all, let me thank you for helping me.”
“You’re welcome…”
“Um. So you want to see our Baekhyo?”
“Yes…”
She said that, turning her head slightly as if she was shy.
“Can I… pet him… if possible?”
“Uh, um. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Baekhyo might be scared.”
“Yes…?”
“No. That mask, it’s Bangsang-ssi’s disguise, right? That’s what owls are most afraid of.”
“…!”
Bangsang-ssi looked surprised as if she didn’t know the origin of the mask she was wearing.
Yu-hyun scratched his head while looking at her.
But this was not the time for that.
He needed to check what was happening on the other ship.
‘Jia-ssi. Hye-rim-ssi. Can you hear me? How is the situation over there?’
-This is Kwon Jia. If you mean that black mixed-race guy, I took care of him. He tried to kill me out of nowhere, so I knocked him down.
‘What about Hyerim-ssi?’
-Ah, yes. I also dealt with him here. But… there’s one problem.
‘A problem?’
-Ah, no, it’s not that serious.
Kang Hye-rim hesitated a bit and then said.
-The captain of Ahab, he tried to kill him instead of me.
Yu-hyun was puzzled when an unexpected name came up.
‘Why is the captain’s name here?’
