Chapter 57
“What’s going on? What’s happening right now?”𝕟𝗼𝘷𝒆𝑙𝚋𝓲𝔫.𝘯𝖊𝑡
“Where did Geomhu go and why did Teller come up instead?”
The spirits sitting in the audience seats were restless.
They all looked alike, with white mannequin-like appearances, making it impossible to tell who was who.
But they all shared a common emotion: surprise.
“I heard that Kang Yu-hyun was a Teller who fought personally.”
“What? That wasn’t a lie? I thought he was just relying on Geomhu or something.”
The spirits who hadn’t seen his paintings in Yu-hyun’s library were skeptical.
The rumor that he gave up his protection and fought was quite famous, but even so, they didn’t have much fantasy about it.
How well could a Teller fight anyway?
That was the general opinion.
“Wow, this is crazy. The library master himself came out? I have to see this.”
“For real. If I miss this, I’ll regret it forever.”
On the other hand, the spirits who had stayed in Yu-hyun’s library for quite a long time were somewhat flustered by the unexpected situation, but they also had some expectations.
Originally, the existence of a Teller was not that big for the spirits. What they wanted was the collector’s story, and the Teller was just a messenger who provided a window for showing it.
But there was a Teller who shook the spirits’ thoughts from the ground up, and that was Kang Yu-hyun.
He was a Teller who fought with his own weapons, and unlike other Tellers, he got along well with his collector and showed a unique chemistry.
The spirits were interested in his different reaction from the Tellers who only regarded their collectors as tools or something else.
‘Hmm. As expected, they are all reacting as I thought.’
Yu-hyun, who came up on stage, could hear the buzzing sound from the audience. Of course, he couldn’t normally hear it, but now he could.
It was all thanks to Baekhyo, the celestial owl that flew over the colosseum.
‘Sharing of sight and hearing. Is this because he’s a celestial owl?’
Baekhyo had a special ability.
He could convey his own sight and voice to his master as well.
Yu-hyun was standing on stage now, but his eyes were looking down at the colosseum from the sky.
‘More than that, the spirits are looking forward to the Story Battle after a long time.’
The Story Battle was a system that Genesis Corporation recommended in some way, but it rarely happened in reality. It was because there were hardly any Tellers who wanted to fight with their everything at stake.
Even if they did, it was only an attempt by some unknowns to make an issue and gain fame.
But the Story Battle that was happening now was clearly different from what had been before.
First of all, Yu-hyun was a Teller who had been building his position at an incredible speed recently, and his opponent Jinpung was not well known himself, but he belonged to eight departments of the painting room.
The confrontation between the rising new star and the existing departments.
How many times would such an exciting situation happen?
Especially, in this colosseum where the battle took place, the spirits could freely say what they wanted without spending points for messages.
They could express their feelings in real time, which was like a breath of fresh air for the spirits who had some frustration with Genesis Network.
“Anyone can win!”
“To be honest, it would have been boring if he brought Geomhu.”
“Hey. But they say the opponent is a rookie pushed by the department. He won’t be ordinary.”
“So what? Can he beat Geomhu?”
The conversations that came from everywhere.
Some were on Yu-hyun’s side, and some were on Pentagram department’s side.
But their common mind was only one.
I want to see this death match as soon as possible!
“Wow. This is amazing. As expected, I felt it before, but you’re beyond my imagination again.”
One of the spirits sitting in the audience seats, Satan looked like everyone else, but he smiled faintly at Yu-hyun who came up on stage.
He had been busy dealing with Eden’s movements and his responses lately, so he came here after a long time, but he pulled off such a big event.
And when he looked closely at the relationship before and after that event, it even aroused his interest.
He is indeed a Teller who makes me not let my guard down.
“I didn’t expect him to come out himself in the Story Battle, though.”
He didn’t think Yu-hyun would do such a thing without thinking.
“Please, satisfy my expectations.”
With Satan’s small murmur, the other spirits sitting around him had to shiver with an inexplicable chill.
***
“This crazy bastard. He came out himself?”
Jinpung frowned at Yu-hyun who came up on stage.
His collector was also surprised, and he glanced at Yu-hyun on the opposite side and looked at Jinpung.
“Hey, mister. You said my opponent was Geomhu. But what’s that?”
“I don’t know.”
Jinpung’s eyebrows twitched at the word mister, but now was not the time for that.
“I don’t understand why he came out either. He’s supposed to be a Teller who made a contract with that bitch Geomhu.”
“Huh. A Teller? Geomhu’s? Then it’s even more surprising. Is it normal for a Teller to come up here?”
“…There was no rule against it.”
“But there’s no one who does that normally. Haha. This is fun. He even brought a sword, so it seems like he really came up to fight.”
The young man’s guess was correct.
He felt instinctively that Yu-hyun was his opponent as soon as he appeared.
Jinpung had mixed feelings about how to accept this.
“Ha, mister. Why are you so worried? It’s not like the opponent will change depending on what we do here.”
“That’s…”
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“He must have had some plan to come up here. And isn’t this a good thing? It’s easier to deal with him than Geomhu, at least.”
Jinpung nodded his head without realizing it.
It wasn’t that, but he was persuaded by his collector’s words.
‘Yeah. Come to think of it, there’s no need to be surprised, right? Him coming out means it’s easier to deal with him. And my goal is to win this battle anyway.’
More than that, his collector didn’t seem to dislike it.
No, he wanted to fight as soon as possible.
“Ahaha. I didn’t expect to fight a Teller, but this is an unexpected opportunity. I wonder how it feels to kill a Teller.”
He had committed several murders before.
They were all murders committed with the prestige of the Pentagram department on his back.
The main targets were various, from ordinary people to collectors.
Especially recently, he had brutally slaughtered a collector of rank 7.
The more he did that, the more curious he became.
How would it feel to kill a Teller who had protection?
This was the chance.
“Alright, good.”
Jinpung decided to accept this situation. No, it was more than that.
It was a loss if he didn’t enjoy it.
His goal was Yu-hyun’s complete destruction.
There was nothing more perfect than him being mercilessly killed by this secret weapon on this stage.
Besides, this battle was a death match.
The most stimulating way that didn’t hold anyone responsible for killing either side.
This was the only opportunity to legally get rid of him.
“You have to make sure he dies.”
“I’m thinking of doing that even if you don’t tell me. Don’t order me around.”
“…”
Jinpung wanted to say something back, but he held back.
***
[Hey. Are you sure this is okay?]
‘It doesn’t matter.’
I answered Baekryeon like that as I checked the guy who came up on the other side.
[He doesn’t look like someone you can ignore.]
Baekryeon’s eyes were accurate.
I thought so too when I saw the guy who the Pentagram department had been hiding.
The book floating above his head.
It was silver, which symbolized being in the top 10%.
‘And there’s a bit of gold mixed in the light coming from the book.’
The contents inside were even worse.
Name: Kim Han-jung
Trait: [White Chapel’s Murderer]
Title: None
Stories: [The One Who Returned from Hell] [Perception Impairer] [Nine-Tailed Fox Sword]
Skills: [Murderer’s Sword] [Blood Ecstasy] [Sensation Maximization] [Fog Stealth] [Darkness Ambush] [Excessive Bleeding]
‘He’s a crazy murderer.’
I could tell what his personality was like just by looking at his skills and stories.
More than that, his trait of White Chapel’s Murderer caught my eye.
‘Is he Jack the Ripper?’
The White Chapel here was literally translated from Whitechapel, one of the place names in England.
And this Whitechapel was the area where the famous killer in London, Jack the Ripper, operated.
One of his stories, [The One Who Returned from Hell], was also from Ellen Moore’s ‘From Hell’.
What surprised me most was his name.
‘Could it be that the serial killer who caused a stir later was the collector that the Pentagram department secretly raised?’
About a year later.
South Korea would be swept up by a noisy incident.
Several collectors were killed by an unidentified killer.
It wasn’t just that they died in their worldviews, but they were killed in reality, so the impact of the incident was huge.
Especially since the dead collectors were decent enough to be called middle-class.
‘In the end, the culprit was never caught.’
The identity of this crazy killer was not revealed until the end.
It was revealed after the end of the world.
Not because someone found out, but because he himself revealed it and ran amok.
Maybe he thought he didn’t need to hide anymore since the world had changed like this.
His end was nothing special.
He had a strange desire to kill strong people and messed with Choi Do-yoon.
His end was obvious, but the important thing was that he had killed thousands of innocent people until he died.
I never thought I would face such a bloodthirsty guy here.
‘The department that secretly raised such a guy was Pentagram.’
I was more and more convinced that the Pentagram department had something to do with the end of the world.
‘As expected, I did well to come out myself.’
I should have sent Hyerim, but I insisted on going out instead.
There was also a reason to hide Hyerim’s skills, but I needed to make more issues here.
‘Still, some are skeptical about my skills.’
The image of a Teller who fought with his collector was strong.
But some spirits doubted my skills.
They thought I was just hiding behind Geomhu.
So this was the stage that I had prepared to show them.
To show them how wrong their prejudices were.
[The battle begins.]
More than anything, this was also a warning to the others.
The bastards from the Pentagram department who were hiding somewhere and secretly watching me.
I was going to show them how tough I was, and what would happen if they messed with me.
[The field is formed.]
The stage of the Colosseum changed in an instant.
Model buildings sprang up everywhere, and black shadows in human shapes rose up and walked around endlessly like pedestrians.
The clock tower in the center and the faint fog surrounding it.
‘How ironic.’
I couldn’t help but smirk when I realized where this was.
We didn’t decide what environment we would fight in, but I didn’t expect them to pull this off.
‘Whitechapel, London. The perfect environment for Jack the Ripper to operate.’
It seemed too coincidental to be a coincidence.
It wasn’t Jinpung who did it, but someone behind the scenes who secretly manipulated it.
‘Well, it’s not cheating. The field wasn’t that important in the first place.’
The spirits didn’t object either, so the battle went on as planned.
Kim Hanjung, who was standing in front of me, had already disappeared into the crowd.
Just then, the hour hand and minute hand of the clock tower pointed to 12 o’clock.
The fight began with the bell ringing through the fog.
