Chapter 180
The first ones to react to the light were the refugees.
They stared blankly at the light that stretched out from afar.
There was no way to avoid it by just looking at it.
They thought it was a strange phenomenon until the light brushed past their bodies.
“Uh, ugh!”
“Aaaah!”
But when the light seeped into their bodies and reached their minds, the fleeing procession came to a halt.
Everyone started to suffer in agony on the spot.
Some tore at their hair, some drooled and banged their heads on the ground.
Those with weak mental strength foamed at the mouth and fainted.
Such an event was happening all over the world of thought.
***
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia headed towards where Yu-hyun had called them.
Judging by Yu-hyun’s last voice that he sent to this side, something serious had happened. They thought they didn’t need any more exploration and ran at full speed.
Their destination was the place where they estimated that the assassination of Cheonma would take place.
It wasn’t far away, so they thought they could arrive soon.
Swoosh!
“Hmm?”
“Huh?”
The two who were running stopped in their tracks without knowing it.
They stopped and looked puzzled.
They didn’t understand why they suddenly stopped.
It was an instinctive reaction.
Their bodies felt an inexplicable sense of crisis that something very dangerous was about to hit them.
Swoooosh!!
The forest roared with a fierce wind.
At the same time, a swarm of white light that surged like a tidal wave from beyond the forest tried to swallow Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia.
The two opened their eyes wide.
They gathered their energy around their bodies in case of emergency. But that was not enough to stop the mysterious power contained in Jinsinsari.
“Huh?”
“Ugh!”
The swarm of white light swept past their bodies.
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia realized that they couldn’t stop it.
At first, they didn’t know what it was.
It didn’t look like a dangerous attack, as this light didn’t have any effect on their physical bodies.
But, the abnormal phenomenon happened right after that.
“…”
“…”
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia froze on the spot.
They looked like people who had forcibly stopped time.
The two had no reaction at all.
Their pupils were unfocused.
At this moment, the two were seeing different scenes.
“Where is this?”
Kang Hye-rim walked in the darkness.
She had a hard time adjusting to the sudden change of the world.
She only remembered that a strange light passed by her, and her memory after that was vague.
Kang Hye-rim eventually continued to walk in the dark space.
She didn’t know if she would find any answer by walking like this.
Was this action correct?
There was light in front of her. Kang Hye-rim ran towards the light, thinking that it was the exit.
Whoosh!
As she passed through the light, the scenery changed.
“Huh?”
It was a familiar sight.
The entrance hall with the sunset.
Kang Hye-rim’s face hardened.
This place was also in her memory.
“This is…the house I used to live in?”
Right after that, Kang Hye-rim looked at the other side of the hallway with trembling eyes.
Creak.
The closed door opened by itself with a creepy sound.
A red light that filled the room leaked out through the gap of the door.
The inside of the room was visible.
There, a corpse hanging from its neck was facing this way with its back against the sunset.
“…!”
She didn’t even have time to scream.
——————
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Kang Hye-rim instinctively opened the front door and ran outside.
She ran like crazy without looking back.
The image of her mother hanging from her neck stuck in her mind and wouldn’t go away.𝗻𝗼𝘷𝑒𝘭𝗯𝓲𝒏.𝓃𝑒𝒕
She thought she had forgotten it by now.
She thought she was fine now.
But when she actually saw that scene again, her head turned white with shock.
‘Idiot. A frustrating woman who can’t do anything.’
‘Geez. How can you be a collector like that?’
“Kang Hye-rim. You failed again. At this rate, you won’t be able to avoid failing.”
“You orphan bastard. Why did you come here?”
“No! No!!”
As she ran along the road, she heard the echoes of the words she had heard in the past.
No matter how much she ran away, the voices kept chasing her and tormenting her.
Kang Hye-rim clenched her eyes shut and screamed.
No. I’m not who I was back then. I’m a great collector now.
Kang Hye-rim wanted to say that.
“I am, I am Kang Hye-rim, the Black Knight. The proud… collector of Yu-hyun.”
“Really?”
The voice that came this time was completely different.
It was not the voice of the people who had torn her apart.
Rather, it was much more familiar and friendly. Kang Hye-rim’s footsteps stopped.
Someone was standing in front of her.
A familiar and friendly voice
Another self.
“Do you really think you’re proud?”
Another Kang Hye-rim blocked her way.
She looked exactly like her, but the smile that tore her mouth was somehow inhuman and creepy.
Kang Hye-rim glared at the fake.
“What are you talking about!”
“Look at that if you don’t know.”
The fake pointed to one side.
As she moved her gaze, she saw a woman there.
A woman who was so beautiful and so strong.
A colleague of White Flower Management who she thought she could never follow.
It was Kwon Jia.
And next to her was Yu-hyun.
The two were together.
They didn’t show it on the surface, but they felt bound by an invisible bond in their eyes.
Kang Hye-rim’s pupils trembled.
“…”
A shadow approached Kang Hye-rim, who was standing blankly.
“You know it too. You’re still lacking and inadequate. Look at that. You think you’re amazing now, but can you really be more amazing than Kwon Jia? Do you think you really deserve to stand by his side?”
“I, I…”
“You’re still a loser. You were before and you are now as a collector. Black Knight? Don’t make me laugh. That’s not your real self. It’s just a shell you want to imitate.”
The fake’s face melted away.
Her eyes disappeared, and there was only black darkness there.
The fake turned into black ink and slowly swallowed Kang Hye-rim’s body.
“Accept it now. Your darkness.”
Your obsession.
Kang Hye-rim’s consciousness was cut off there.
***
“Where is this?”
Kwon Jia walked through the darkness.
She too couldn’t accept the sudden situation that had happened. But she kept walking, trying to find a way somehow, when she saw a light.
Kwon Jia silently approached the light.
At the same time, the light washed away the darkness and showed her a scene.
No. It wasn’t one scene.
“…”
It was hundreds of rounds of memories that she had experienced.
The terrible traumas that she really didn’t want to remember were mixed up like nightmares and unfolded.
-Why me? Why do I have to go through this?
-Let’s die. Just die. Keep dying until this hell ends.
-Die! Die all of you! Everyone in this world!
She saw herself killing in agony, dying betrayed by someone she trusted, choosing suicide after giving up everything, and failing miserably after trying her best.
They were all endless failures of a fool.
“How is it? Your past.”
A shadow that looked exactly like Kwon Jia appeared and said that. She approached Kwon Jia slowly with a sneer.
A normal human would lose their mind when they face their own obsession. How about Kwon Jia?
She had lived a harder life than any other human being hundreds of times.
Painful memories, traumas, and even obsessions.
Hundreds of times more than others.
“You are ultimately that kind of person. A person who can’t do anything and can’t do anything, only repeating failures. You thought it was different this time, but is it really? You’re always the same. You’ll fail again this time, and repeat another meaningless round again. When will this endless hell of life end?”
The voice of the fake Kwon Jia got closer and closer. She stood right next to Kwon Jia. She looked confident of her victory.
“So now… cough!”
But she couldn’t finish her sentence.
Because Kwon Jia had stabbed a sword into her mouth without warning.
“It’s so noisy.”
“How did you…?”
“Did you think this kind of mental attack was a rare occurrence in my life? If you had peeked at my episodes…”
Kwon Jia’s cold voice pierced through the fake’s body.
“You should have known all that.”
Slash!
Her sword cut through the neck of the delusion.
The delusion vanished like black mist.
The scenery changed again.
It was the forest path where she had fainted when she first saw the light. Kwon Jia realized that she had returned to reality.
‘I have to hurry to Kang Yu-hyun…!’
At that moment.
“Ugh!”
She felt a burning pain on her cheek.
Kwon Jia thought that it was pure luck that she dodged that attack.
She saw something flash in the corner of her eye and instinctively twisted her body.
That saved her life.
A white flash grazed Kwon Jia’s cheek and passed by.
She stepped back slightly and saw that the attack came from Kang Hye-rim.
“Hye-rim.”
“…”
Kwon Jia cautiously called her name.
Kang Hye-rim did not answer. Her unfocused eyes told Kwon Jia that she was not in a normal state.
Kwon Jia bit her lip.
She fell for it.
Kang Hye-rim pointed her sword at Kwon Jia.
Her will was unreadable, but her hostility was clear.
Kwon Jia understood what state she was in.
Inner rampage.
The unknown light had shaken Kang Hye-rim’s mind.
Judging by her condition, it was not something that could be solved by a few shouts of ‘snap out of it’.
Kwon Jia also drew her sword. She could not ignore her.
The moment she turned her back, a blade would fly and stab her in the back.
There was no choice but to fight Kang Hye-rim now.
‘This is bad. I can’t believe I’m being held back by this situation.’
She had to go and save Yu-hyun as soon as possible.
Her mind was urgent, but her reason was cold.
Kwon Jia knew how strong Kang Hye-rim was.
She was strong.
Even Kwon Jia could not guarantee victory now.
So she had to do her best against the opponent in front of her at this moment.
The moment she let her guard down, she would lose her life.
‘I hope he’s safe.’
All she could do was hope for Yu-hyun’s safety.
Right after, their swords clashed.
***
The delusion of True Spirit Seed also swept over Yu-hyun’s side.
He was trying to somehow continue the conversation with the illusion of Heavenly Demon, when he suddenly saw a bright white light engulfing the world.
‘What is this?’
He saw a hallucination in his painful head. It was very faint, but it was surely an old scene that he did not want to remember.
It was the moment when the delusion of True Spirit Seed tried to swallow him up like everyone else.
[User’s danger detected.]
The fragment of Laplace’s Demon, the power that Yu-hyun possessed, reacted to it.
[Hallucination analysis. This is all a false image made of past memories. Retrieving and excluding data from 「TYPE: Descartes」.]
The world that was about to be created shattered like a mirror.
As his sunken consciousness surfaced, he heard Baek Ryeon’s voice.
[Yu-hyun! Hey! Wake up!]
‘Phew. Don’t worry. I’m awake.’
Yu-hyun got up.
He barely regained his balance and avoided falling down, then recalled what had happened just now.
‘Type Descartes? Laplace’s fragment reacted? And what about that light just now? A mental attack?’
Yu-hyun’s thoughts could not go any further.
The light did not discriminate against anyone by itself. It swept over everyone who was gathered here.
Seo Sumin, Kang Yura, and Heavenly Demon too.
“Sumin!”
Yu-hyun called Seo Sumin, but she did not answer.
She was having a nightmare right now.
It was useless unless she realized it herself.
More than anything, the most dangerous thing here right now was Heavenly Demon.
[Krrrrrr!!]
Surprisingly, Heavenly Demon was resisting True Spirit Seed.
If she had been in her best condition, she could have overcome it even if it was an illusion.
The problem was that Heavenly Demon was mentally exhausted by the betrayal and the war right now.
It was at the moment when his mind became weak that True Spirit Seed’s delusion broke in.
He resisted instinctively because he faced a transcendent being, but it was only a matter of time before he gave in.
‘What should I do? Should I kill the Heavenly Demon here and now?’
If the Heavenly Demon, who had barely regained its senses, went berserk again, it would lead to an irreversible disaster.
Yu-hyun was conflicted. Should he kill the Heavenly Demon?
‘Would everything be solved by killing it?’
That was Yu-hyun’s only hesitation.
This place was Seo sumin’s past, but also a different world.
It was a world of thoughts.
A different reality that was created but no less real than the original.
Yu-hyun had seen various futures of different fantasy beings in it.
He could achieve what he couldn’t in this place.
He could undo the mistakes that were riddled with regrets.
By a different method than killing and being killed.
That was what fueled Yu-hyun’s hesitation.
-Senior! We have a big problem!
‘Celine?’
Celine’s urgent voice called him.
‘What’s going on?’
-Collector Kang Hye-rim and Collector Kwon Jia suddenly started fighting each other! The Spirits don’t know what’s going on either…
‘What?’
They suddenly started fighting?
It was the light.
The light that swallowed the world a moment ago was definitely the cause.
There was no way that a light that devoured people’s minds would occur naturally.
Someone did this on purpose.
That someone was…
Whizz!
Something flew at him like a bullet with a sound that tore the air.
Yu-hyun barely deflected it with Baekryeon.
Clang!
Sparks flew in the air, and Yu-hyun frowned.
‘An arrow?’
What he deflected was an arrow made entirely of metal.
His wrist tingled.
The power that flowed through Baekryeon’s blade was not ordinary.
‘Where did it come from?’
Yu-hyun couldn’t see the enemy in his sight. Not even the book.
That meant that the arrow came from a very far place that his sight couldn’t reach.
A long-range sniping that couldn’t be confirmed even with his enhanced vision.
Yu-hyun realized that the enemy was not an average person, and his expression hardened.
At the same time, three books appeared from inside the dense forest.
Along with their owners.
Rustle.
The opponents revealed themselves naturally as if they had no intention of hiding their identities from the start.
Yu-hyun narrowed his eyes as he saw them.
Those appearances.
They were the same people that Seong Yuchan showed him in the data.
“Baekyahoe.”
“You know a lot about us.”
Lao Chen, the leader, said with a smile.
“Then you must also know what will happen now?”
