Chapter 143:

Chapter 143:

Chapter 143

Yu-hyun immediately opened the library.

In an instant, more than 5,000 spirits filled the library.

The rumor about the newly opened world of thoughts had spread, and although the momentum of the incoming spirits had decreased, it did not stop.

‘Celine. Please manage the message window. I think I’ll be quite busy in this episode. You can do it well, right?’

-Of course.

‘Good. I’m counting on you.’

-Yes, senior.

After saying that to Celine, who was waiting in the manager’s room, Yu-hyun looked around.

When he entered the first world of thoughts, he needed to figure out what kind of place it was and what kind of story it was composed of.

Yu-hyun was on a ship. And so were the other collectors.

There were five ships in total, and they were large.

The 30 or so collectors were evenly distributed among the five ships, six each.

The ship Yu-hyun boarded was the largest one among the five, located in the center.

Luckily, all three people from Baekhwa Management were together.

The other three were Gweseon Bangsang, Park Cheol-o, and a collector from an unknown management.

“What! Where’s the exit?!”

“It’s closed!”

“This is serious.”

It was bad enough that the power was dispersed, but as soon as they entered, the entrance disappeared.

That meant that they could not get out of this world of thoughts unless they met a certain condition.

“I didn’t expect this to be a world of thoughts that requires a condition.”

Park Cheol-o muttered with a sullen voice.

Usually, there is no condition for a world of thoughts.

The entrance is always open, so you can freely enter and exit the world of thoughts at any time.

Sometimes there is a rare world of thoughts.

That is, the place that requires a ‘condition’ as Park Cheol-o said.

“It’s still unheard of in Korea that something that has never been witnessed before has appeared this time.”

“Yu-hyun. What is the condition?”

Kang Hye-rim asked Yu-hyun quietly so that only he could hear.

She didn’t know much about the world of thoughts that required a ‘condition’.

“It means a place where the exit from the world of thoughts is created only when a certain condition is met.”

“A certain condition? What is it?”

“It varies depending on the world of thoughts. That’s why finding the condition is also an important task in such places. Usually, there are very few places like this even overseas, but it happens to be here now. We’re unlucky.”

Yu-hyun muttered as he quickly scanned the surrounding scenery.

There were sailors on the ship.

They were all fantasy creatures composed of stories.

They were busy moving around, winding ropes or spreading sails, preparing for something.

“Move quickly!”

“Don’t just stand there!”

Listening to the noisy voices of the sea men, it felt like they had come to a fishing village somewhere rather than a world of thoughts.

Yu-hyun stroked his chin and analyzed what he saw and heard.

‘The structure of the ship, the mast, and the appearance of the Western sailors indicate that this is not another dimension but a story of Earth. And what are those things attached to the front of the ship? Are they for shooting something? I was worried about being at sea, but having five ships is rather fortunate. But I still don’t have enough information to confirm exactly what kind of story this is.’

Yu-hyun tried to activate [Laplace’s Demon Fragment] just in case.

[You activate Laplace’s power.]

[Failure!]

[You do not have enough information at this time.]

[Current information acquisition rate 23%]

‘Doesn’t it work after all?’

He didn’t expect much since he just threw it out there.

Yu-hyun quickly gathered Kwon Jia and Kang Hye-rim and said.

“Both of you. Listen carefully. First of all, this place seems to be a world where a story of Earth is implemented. However, I don’t know exactly what kind of story it is that has so many ships and sailing.”

“Could it be some kind of naval battle?”

“That’s unlikely. Surely, they said in the briefing that there is a very huge monster-like fantasy creature here. If it was a naval battle, they wouldn’t have said that. There is one thing that comes to mind easily though. The Kraken.”

A kraken is one of the legendary sea monsters, a giant cephalopod creature.

It was so huge that it could wrap its tentacles around a ship and break it apart, causing it to sink. That was a possibility that could not be ruled out.

“Is there any story related to the kraken?”

“There’s no specific story about the kraken. It’s just a legend that has been passed down since the Age of Exploration. But it’s not impossible. A ship like this, and a voyage. A giant monster of unknown origin that the second exploration team saw.”

“Hmm. That makes sense. But do we have to face such a creature on this ship?”

“Well, at least we have the Thousand-Character Cannon, so I think it’s worth a try.”

The huge cannon was not something that was used in the old days. The weapon that contained the [story] of the era and history at that time only looked similar to the ones from the past, but its power far surpassed that of modern weapons.

“We should let the others know about this first.”

Yu-hyun immediately told Park Cheol-oh what he had found out.

It was foolish to hide information that only they knew after coming this far.

The more dangerous it was, the more they needed each other’s strength.

Park Cheol-oh nodded his head after hearing Yu-hyun’s words.

“Indeed, we had also suspected that. That it was likely. Seeing this ship, it seems that hypothesis is even more plausible.”

“How are the people on the other ships?”

“Well, radio communication is possible. The distance between the ships is not that far, so we can go back and forth if we want to. But we don’t know if there are any other clues on any of the ships, so we’re waiting for now.”

“Will you use the Thousand-Character Cannon right away?”

“Not right away. It takes time to prepare, since it’s so powerful. That’s why we brought the net. If a monster appears, we have to tie it up with the net and then finish it off with the Thousand-Character Cannon.”

“So we still have some time left before the monster shows up.”

The spirits watched quietly as Yu-hyun and Park Cheol-oh exchanged words.

There were eight more libraries opened here, excluding Yu-hyun’s library. Even if they excluded the more than 6,000 spirits who had gathered in Yu-hyun’s library, the total number of spirits who had come to see this world of thought was over 20,000.

That meant this world of thought was quite important.

If it were Yu-hyun as usual, he would have considered this part as well, but unfortunately, collecting information about this world of thought was his priority right now.

“The sailors seem busy.”

“They do. They ignore us when we talk to them. I wonder what’s so urgent.”

“There must be an important character if this place is a manifestation of a story.”

“Let me try something.”

“Miss Jia?”

“Yes.”

I nodded my head, having no other choice.

Kwon Jia approached the sailor I had just spoken to.

“Can I ask you something?”

“No, this guy has been bothering me since...!”

The sailor turned around with a scowl, but when he saw Kwon Jia, his eyes widened.

His mouth dropped open, then he quickly looked around and lowered his voice.

“Ahem. Well, miss, what can I do for you?”

“Huh.”

I sighed in disbelief as I watched him.

[100TP donation!]

[LOL of course he doesn’t care about this guyᄏᄏ]

[100TP donation!]

[Honestly, I would be happy too if a beauty like that talked to meᄏᄏ]

The spirits laughed and giggled at me.

I frowned but couldn’t say anything back.

The sailor’s reaction was indeed very different when he faced me and Kwon Jia.

‘...Why do I feel wronged?’

I felt annoyed, but decided to accept it.

He was a sailor after all.

He spent his days on the ship, sailing.

It was natural for him to be crazy about women.

And Kwon Jia was a stunning beauty that made anyone’s eyes sparkle.

The sailor whispered to Kwon Jia what he knew.

I noticed from his attitude that he was very cautious about something.

“So that’s how it was.”

Kwon Jia nodded her head and ended the conversation with the sailor. She came back to me.

“He surprisingly told me easily. That’s strange.”

“No, that’s... Sigh. Never mind. It’s just that good things are good.”

“...?”

Kwon Jia was a bit confused by his friendly attitude.

She didn’t rely on her appearance to talk to him, so she didn’t realize why he was so cooperative.

I felt more defeated by her obliviousness.

“So, what did the sailor say?”

“The captain gave an order. Don’t mingle with the guests.”

“The captain said that? The sailor looked very careful when he spoke, so the captain must be a scary person.”

“Yes. He secretly told me that much, but he said we can’t even talk to the deck officer or anyone else in important positions.”

“It’s harder to get clues now.”

I guessed from the sailor’s attitude that there was something about the captain. But I couldn’t see him anywhere.

He must have been holed up somewhere inside the ship.

“Baekhyo, let me know if you see anything from the sky.”

Hoot.

I sent Baekhyo to fly in the sky.

It was hard to get information from the ship, so I needed to watch out for other external factors.

“Hmm?”

I felt a gaze on me and turned around.

It was Bang Sang-shi, the strange woman who wore a mask. She was staring at me intently.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“...”

She didn’t answer my question.

She wore a mask, so I couldn’t read her expression.

And I couldn’t tell why she kept looking at me like that.

Before I could ask her anything else, she turned her body and left her seat.

“Mr. Yu-hyun, what’s wrong? Did she say anything?”

“No. She just kept staring at me and then left. She was weird.”

“Did you look at him because you were curious?”

“I don’t know.”

Yu-hyun thought he needed to check the book to see why Bang Sang was acting like that. It was then that he felt a cautious presence approaching him.

Yu-hyun, Kang Hye-rim, and Kwon Ji Ah turned their eyes to that direction.

“Excuse me.”

The one standing there was a young man who looked naive. He was clearly a crew member of this ship, but judging by his innocent and lively eyes, he seemed to be a newbie with little experience as a sailor.

“What do you want?”

“This place is a bit conspicuous, let’s go somewhere else.”

Yu-hyun nodded at the sailor’s words.

He had no reason to refuse. He had met someone who was friendly to him for the first time.

So they moved to the inside of the ship, where people’s eyes were not easily reached.

“This should be fine.”

“So why did you call us here?”

“You’re from the outside, right?”

The outside?

Yu-hyun didn’t bother to deny it and nodded his head.

“I knew it! You were from the outside! I was so curious about you!”

The young sailor’s eyes showed curiosity and excitement. Yu-hyun thought he could easily find out what he wanted to know from his friendly attitude.

“I see. I’m Kang Yu-hyun. This is Kwon Ji Ah, and this is Kang Hye-rim. What’s your name?”

“Oh. You’re Yu-hyun.”

The sailor said his name shyly.

“I’m Ismael.”

At that name, Yu-hyun’s expression hardened.