Chapter 157:

Chapter 157:

Chapter 157

“Ah, what?!”

“What the hell...!”

The people who saw Yu-hyun’s sudden action didn’t know how to react for a moment.

That’s why Kwon Jia and Kang Hye-rim, who were close to him, couldn’t stop him.

“Yu-hyun!”

“Kang Yu-hyun! What are you doing!”

Yu-hyun didn’t answer.

He ran towards the gaping mouth of Moby Dick with a white lotus in one hand and a thousand-character gun in the other.

It looked like nothing but a suicidal act of giving up everything.

Moby Dick, whose mouth was burning, didn’t notice that Yu-hyun had approached him because of the pain.

‘Title activation!’

The title [Knight without Honor] was activated and wrapped around Yu-hyun’s body. Yu-hyun raised his power of story to the maximum to protect his body and engraved a seal on top of it.

He also turned the white lotus into a large round shield that covered his whole body and faced the front.

Whoosh!

The hot heat of the burning flames and the shock of Moby Dick’s roar shook Yu-hyun’s body.

It was as if the layers and layers of protection were nothing, and his muscles screamed as his whole body trembled.

His legs wobbled and seemed to collapse.

But still.

“...!”

Yu-hyun clenched his teeth and went inside Moby Dick’s throat.

Ignoring the voices that called him desperately from behind, Yu-hyun entered deep into the mouth of the giant beast.

***

‘Disgusting.’

The first sensation that Yu-hyun felt among the squirming masses of flesh was the stench that stung his nose.

It was a mixture of salt and rotten seafood.

The smell was more intense because it was dark.

As he passed through the throat that pressed hard on his body, he came to a wide open space and the smell got worse.

[Yu-hyun! Snap out of it!]

“I know.”

Yu-hyun answered like that and took out the water nature stone that he had used once before.

A blue light flowed out and softly lit up the surroundings.

Yu-hyun had arrived at Moby Dick’s stomach, which was made of wriggling chunks of flesh.

He changed the white lotus in his hand into a wide round shield shape and climbed on it.

“White Lotus. Can you hold on?”

[Do you think this kind of gastric acid can melt me?]

“That’s good.”

Yu-hyun rode on the white lotus and skimmed over the gastric acid.

There were decomposing fish everywhere.

It wasn’t just fish.

There were various kinds, from small fish to huge sharks that ate people.

All of them were melting together in one beast’s stomach.

“It’s like hell’s aquarium.”

Surprisingly, Yu-hyun managed to reach Moby Dick’s stomach without dying.

[The spirits are astonished by your survival.]

[The spirits are curious about what the hell is going on.]

“You’ll see.”

Yu-hyun casually replied to the spirits and rolled his eyes.

His busy gaze was looking for something desperately.

‘It must be here.’

If the last puzzle piece was what he thought it was.

Then surely, the answer would be inside here.

Yu-hyun carefully avoided the gastric acid that fell from the ceiling and slowly walked around the huge stomach.

After a few minutes, maybe?

‘Could it be that?’

Yu-hyun’s eyes lit up when he saw something faintly shaped by the blue light in the distance.

It was a small boat that had a blurry outline.

Yu-hyun immediately grabbed a plank that was floating on the gastric acid and used it as an oar to move.

‘I’m here.’

Yu-hyun stepped on a chunk of flesh that wasn’t covered by gastric acid.

In front of him was a small boat that was broken in half.

He wondered why such a boat was still intact in this place, but luckily it was in a spot where gastric acid didn’t touch it.

The boat had faded over time, as if it had been here for a very long time.

Yu-hyun found something in the center of the broken boat.

‘If my guess is right, this is definitely...’

Yu-hyun discovered ‘that thing’ that was placed in one corner of the half-broken boat.

It was made of wood, but it was the only thing that had a human shape.

A wooden puppet that was about the size of a child.

Yu-hyun opened his mouth when he confirmed it.

“Pinocchio.”

As soon as he said that, the message window became noisy.

The messages quickly disappeared thanks to Celine’s intervention, but I was sure that the spirits’ reaction was explosive.

[The spirits are asking what is going on.]

“I think most of you here know about Pinocchio.”

Pinocchio is a fairy tale that is so famous that no one on Earth doesn’t know it.

Even though it is a simple and childish work, it is a ‘story’ that has spread worldwide, so there was no way the spirits didn’t know it.

“This is Pinocchio.”

“Really? He’s really dead?”

They couldn’t believe it.

The white monster that wouldn’t die no matter what they did, the devil of the sea that they thought they could never defeat.

He was dead.

Splash. Thud.

The dark clouds cleared up.

The rain that had been pouring down as if the world was ending stopped.

The waves calmed down and the wind stopped.

Everyone felt like they were dreaming in the peace that came after defeating the devil.

“Look over there!”

Someone’s finger pointed at Moby Dick’s open mouth.

Yu-hyun was slowly walking out of there.

“He’s alive!”

“Did he go inside his belly and kill him?! How is that possible?!”

Everyone murmured in disbelief, but only Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia silently welcomed Yu-hyun.

“Yu-hyun. That is...”

Kang Hye-rim opened her mouth carefully as she saw the wooden doll in Yu-hyun’s arms.

Yu-hyun answered with a gesture instead of words.

He hugged Pinocchio and walked toward Nemo’s corpse.

Nemo’s corpse, who had a peaceful smile on his face, was accompanied by Ishmael who never left his side.

Ishmael looked up at Yu-hyun.

“Brother.”

“You did well. Ishmael.”

“I didn’t do anything...”

“You’re alive. That’s enough.”

Yu-hyun praised Ishmael, who was sobbing, and sat down next to Nemo’s corpse.

“Captain. You’ve worked hard until now. Thanks to you, I could come this far.”

Yu-hyun gently laid Pinocchio next to Nemo.

And he moved their hands to overlap each other.

Without any time to enjoy the joy of victory.

Everyone silently watched the sad scene.

“Please, go to a good place with your grandson.”

Yu-hyun stood up from his seat and bowed lightly.

“Nemo. No, Captain Geppetto.”

Ding!

[You have cleared the Thought World ‘The Giant Monster of the Ocean’!]

[You have acquired 100,000TP.]

[The Thought World you cleared was a place where three stories were mixed.]

[You have acquired an additional 50,000TP.]

He killed Moby Dick and saved the people who should have died.

The story of this world was over with this.

Swoosh

As if the waves that came in went back out.

The scenery of the Thought World scattered into pieces of white letters.

The graveyard of shipwrecks on Devil’s Island, the sailors who cried and rejoiced.

Ishmael, who waved his hand at him for the last time.

‘I did it.’

He ended the story that no one thought he could succeed in with his own hands.

But he felt nothing but a heavy feeling rather than joy.

There were too many sacrifices to reach this end.

Nemo and Ahab, and the sailors and collectors who followed them.

If they weren’t there, could he have come this far?

‘I’m still lacking.’

Yu-hyun felt his own weakness.

He had come back from the future and achieved many things, but he was still lacking.

‘I need to become stronger.’

So that he wouldn’t lose anyone.

So that he wouldn’t be crushed by any world.

Fwoosh!

Right before the world of thought completely scattered, Yu-hyun’s vision brightened and a scene appeared.

Swoosh!

It was a ship cutting through the sea.

The sailors were doing their roles on the deck, and the inexperienced ones were learning from their seniors.

A man appeared on the deck with a light step.

Everyone’s eyes turned to him, and they straightened their backs and saluted.

It was an action that came from their sincere respect for him.

“Everyone, salute to the captain!”

Someone shouted.

The man who was called the captain had a confident smile and eyes full of hope, as if they contained the bright starlight of the night sky.

He was the owner of the New Pequod, the ship that was sailing now, and the one who was called the romantic of the sea.

He explored the continent beyond the ocean, and left his mark on the world along with the unknown world.

Yu-hyun widened his eyes when he saw him.

“He’s not the captain.”

Shedding his immature appearance completely, and now becoming a man who could command a ship, he lowered his head and said that.

“Everyone, call me Ishmael.”

The boy who longed for the sea and dreamed of the world.

He had grown up like that.