Chapter 180:

Chapter 180:

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.

Kang Hye-rim instinctively opened the front door and ran outside. The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.

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.

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.

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?”