Yoo Young-min thought that he had no equal when it came to the Collector Academy, even though he was too embarrassed to brag about it or talk about it anywhere.
Even though he knew that this realm was not the novel he used to write, but a realm that existed as a separate entity.
The settings he had written while working on his work were surprisingly similar to this realm, without any difference.
What would happen in the academy for the next four years, what kind of questions would come up in the exams, or how the practical tests would be conducted.
Yoo Young-min remembered all of that.
âIf only I had reincarnated as an ordinary extra student, I would have been confident of being the first in practical skills.â
But in the end, he reincarnated as a handyman who worked normally at the academy.
He was even an adult who was already old, so he hardly had anything to do with the academy students.
Yoo Young-min felt sorry that his knowledge became useless.
Who would believe him even if he went around talking about this, and if he did something wrong, there was a possibility that the future events at the academy would change.
He put his regret behind him and endured it.
âI never thought my knowledge would shine here.â
He felt proud that he was helpful as he watched Seo Sumin, who was checking all the test details he had written down.
Then he felt anxious.
âBut isnât this a leak?â
How long had it been since he made a vow to himself, and he had already done something that bothered his conscience?
Yoo Young-min wondered if he should tell Seo Sumin to forget it right now, feeling like this was wrong.
No, but he had already told her everything.
Yoo Young-min felt sorry for the students who might fall behind in their grades because of him.
âUm⊠Heavenly Demon-nim?â đłrđđwđbnđveđ.cođŠ
âHmm? What is it? And if youâre going to call me, just call me senior.â
âOh, senior? Um. I just thought about it. No matter how you look at it, isnât that kind of cheatingâŠ?â
At Yoo Young-minâs brave words, Seo Sumin took her eyes off the paper and looked at Yoo Young-min.
As soon as he saw her clear eyes, Yoo Young-min shrank his shoulders.
Seo Sumin chuckled.
âNot fair enough?â
âUh, um. Itâs not cowardly. But still, this is a bit⊠How should I say it? There might be one or two unavoidable victimsâŠâ
âHmm. I guess it could look like that.â
Seo Sumin understood what Yoo Young-min was trying to say.
âI thought he only knew how to be careful, but he had some backbone to say what he wanted.â
At first, she didnât like Yoo Young-minâs attitude, but after teaching him a few things and talking to him while bossing him around, she realized that Yoo Young-min wasnât a bad person from the root.
He himself was still afraid and couldnât even look at them properly because of what happened on the first day.
But she had to admit his backbone for saying that this was wrong.
âBut still, I canât help it. I have something I have to do.â
âSomething you have to do?â
In fact, Yoo Young-min knew. Seo Sumin was not an ordinary person.
She had a power that made her worthy of being an active collector already.
Was it fair and reasonable for her to be restricted in her activities just because she was not old enough?
It was a topic that Yoo Young-min had to think about carefully, and Seo Sumin had already found an answer.
âI have to enter the Mental Realm as quickly as possible by getting special benefits. In order for me to do my role as your senior and as the third collector of White Flower Management, I need that.â
âThatâsâŠâ
Yoo Young-minâs work was only about the four years of the academy.
The protagonist was Kim Joo-hyuk, an ordinary boy. He was now one of the A-rank students. That Kim Joo-hyuk was the protagonist of his novel.
Kim Joo-hyuk and Lee Pyeong-won, Park Min-woo, Seol Jia h and others.
The youth drama content that they experienced various things while doing was all he wrote.
Sometimes there were situations where the Mental Realm went out of control or problems outside the school erupted.
As far as he knew, the realm had always been peaceful.
âDid you really not know?â
Seo Sumin thought that Yoo Young-min was not an ordinary weirdo, but she was amazed by the fact that his knowledge was only focused on strange things.
âWell, I guess it doesnât matter if I tell him. Thatâs why that man brought him here.â
Is this annoying task my responsibility?
Seo Sumin smirked and decided to explain to Yoo Young-min why she was trying to enter the Mental Realm, and what the ultimate goal of White Flower Management was.
âListen carefully and open your ears wide.â
There were no reports of Unleashed activity since their terror attack was neutralized.
Yu-hyun had ordered Seong Yu-chan to look for their traces, just in case, but even Seong Yu-chanâs information network could not catch their movements.
If even Seong Yu-chan had a hard time finding them, it meant that no ordinary person could find them.
Unleashed was suppressing their activity and hiding more deeply.
âItâs definitely a good thing, but itâs somehow annoying.â
As if they were retreating one step to advance two steps.
They were surely planning something more carefully in the unseen places, there was no doubt about it.
Otherwise, they wouldnât be so quiet after coming to Korea.
âBesides, they blatantly watched me. They must be trying to restrain me as much as possible.â
[Are you overestimating yourself?]
âI wish I was.â
The problem was that they werenât.
Unleashed was not a brainless organization that only did terror. They were more orderly and systematic than expected, and their organizational power was also quite high.
It was evident from the results of interrogating the terror suspects who were arrested this time.
They were idiots who didnât know much. Even when he skimmed through the books they tried to hide, he got nothing.
âJun Cheng-woon knows how to use his talents in the right places. And heâs diverting his attention and doing something else somewhere. They know weâre chasing them. Theyâll probably do something to lure us in next time.â
[Then what? If you know, you wonât fall for it.]
âI would dig a trap that I would fall for even if I knew it.â
[How?]
âBait.â
[Bait?]
âYeah. A very big bait. A bait that makes us bite even if we know itâs a trap.â
[What is it?]
âWho knows. Youâll find out soon enough.â
Yu-hyun was about to say something more, but he shook his head.
âItâs something youâll find out later anyway.â
[Hey! How can you stop talking in the middle! What is the bait!]
âNope. I wonât tell you.â
[Hey!]
Yu-hyun ignored Baekryeonâs words and flipped a black mask over his face.
Baekryeon kept yelling at him and asking him questions, but Yu-hyun had already left reality and saw another realm.
[The Eye of Laplace]
Yu-hyunâs right eye, covered by a mask, shone brightly.
No matter what kind of bait the enemy used, and no matter what kind of trap they set.
It was all useless because he could see the future.
He couldnât see all the possible futures, and he couldnât even see very far ahead. The information was limited, and he could only see one certain outcome among the countless branches.
But that one crucial piece of information could change the fate.
Eventually, Baekryeon, who had been talking to himself, closed his mouth as he got tired.
âHeâs finally quiet.â
The time for silent meditation came before he knew it. Yu-hyun focused his mind and activated the power of Laplace more strongly.
However, compared to what he had expected, there were hardly any clear scenes that he could see.
âWhatâs going on?â
The power of Laplace was a cheat-like ability that could read almost anything that would happen in the future.
The condition was strict, and it consumed a lot of energy to activate it, so Yu-hyun in the past rarely used it unless it was really important, and that was the same even now that he had risen to a much higher level.
But once he decided to activate it, it was also a very reliable skill.
âBut this time, itâs blurry and hard to see.â
The future was opaque, as if there was fog in front of his eyes.
The more he strained his eyes to see, the more it seemed like some kind of force was blocking him from seeing any further.
âWhy canât I read it? Is there someone in Unleashed who has the power to block that?â
Yu-hyun immediately thought of Jincheongunâs name.
And he was sure that the man had the golden fragment of the Book of Genesis.
âThe golden fragment. Thatâs whatâs blocking me from peeking at his actions.â
Did he also have some faith in that thing?
Yu-hyun smiled slyly as he felt the situation was getting more interesting.
Then, with a loud noise, Yu-hyunâs door opened.
The one who opened the door and came in was Baek Seo-ryeon, who was too flustered to control his emotions and was panting.
âSeo-ryeon? Whatâs going on? You didnât even knock. Thatâs a clear violation of privacy.â
âYu, Yu-hyun! This is not the time for that! Thereâs a guest outside!â
âA guest?â
How could Baek Seo-ryeon, who didnât get surprised by anything, be so panicked by just one guest?
Yu-hyun didnât even ask who it was before Baek Seo-ryeon said he would prepare to greet the guest and left as quickly as he came in like a wind.
Apparently, someone very impressive had come, so Yu-hyun also got up from his seat.
**
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia wandered around the Mental Realm when they had nothing to do.
It was important to train on their own, but if they didnât run on the field regularly, they would lose their sense of reality.
The Mental Realm they entered this time was a Joseon-era village filled with sinister energy.
The village was full of faint fog, and the ground was dead with purple color.
The smell of death pervaded the village.
[We are looking forward to what kind of story you will tell us this time.]
The Divine Spirits who came to watch their performance under Celineâs lead were full of anticipation.
To not disappoint those audiences, the two bravely entered the inside of the village.
There were no survivors.
I heard that the collectors who had entered before to clear this place never came out, and judging by the bones scattered on the street, it seemed like they all died here.
âWhat on earth is here that made this happen?â
âWhatever it is, it must be dangerous if it killed a level 60 collector.â
And not just one, but five of them.
Whatever the case, this was a place where I could never let my guard down.
Sob sob sob.
Then I heard a girl crying from afar.
âA childâs cry?â
âThe direction is, over there.â
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia headed towards the source of the sound.
It was coming from a half-destroyed tile-roofed house. Passing over the shabby gate full of weeds, they saw a woman in a white dress sobbing on the floor of the house with her back turned to them.
Sob sob sob.
She didnât react at all to Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia, who were blatantly showing their presence, and continued to cry.
ââŠIt seems like that illusion is looking down on us too much, donât you think?â
âThatâs right. Itâs trying to push its cheap act until the end.â
In the center of a dead town with no survivors, what could be more suspicious than a woman crying out loud?
However, even though they thought so, they felt strangely drawn to her.
âThis isâŠâ
âEnchantment. The cry itself has a power that shakes the other personâs heart.â
Perhaps the collectors who had entered before had fallen for the enchantment and met their doom.
Bewitchment was a particularly effective skill against the opposite sex.
âBewitchment, huh. You donât think Iâll get that as a reward, do you? Hmm. Itâs kind of tempting.â
âStop talking nonsense. Letâs go.â
Kwon Jia said that and threw a dagger from her inventory at the woman in white.
Before the dagger pierced her back, the woman suddenly soared into the sky and dodged it.
âAs expected. Youâre showing your true colors.â
The woman landed on the roof of a straw house and glared at Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia.
âOhoho. This time, Iâve got some interesting prey. My bewitchment didnât work on you.â
The woman was beautiful. Her elegant and somewhat innocent appearance was enough to make anyone want to protect her unknowingly.
If she didnât have blood on her lips, that is.
Squish.
The womanâs body started to change with a strange sound. Her size grew bigger, and white fur grew all over her body.
Nine large tails swayed behind her back.
She opened her long mouth, still stained with blood, and smiled.
âA mere two of you. Youâll be perfect for a snack after my meal!â
At her arrogant words, Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia exchanged a brief glance and chuckled.
The nine-tailed fox didnât like their reaction.
âHuh? Whatâs so funny?â
âWell, just that.â
âWe donât even need to use the three items we prepared in advance.â
Kwon Jia said that and took out three small pouches and dropped them on the ground.
The nine-tailed fox knew what those pouches meant and frowned.
âHow dare you show me those things from that bastard?â
Instead of provoking the two people, the nine-tailed fox was provoked by them and showed her anger.
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia got ready.
As they were about to start fighting seriously.
A message from Yu-hyun came flying to Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia.
âWhat? Yu-hyun, what did you say?â
âWhat?â
The content was shocking enough to distract the two people who had an enemy in front of them.
âMilitary GodâŠâ
âThat guy, he came?â
The undisputed rank 1 collector in Korea.
Military God Wi Muhyuk.
He visited White Flower Management.