The Main Characters That Only I Know

Chapter 36

The collectors who ran away were lingering at the entrance of the world of thoughts.

They had made an irreversible choice and had nothing else to do. 

But the reason they stayed in their places was because the world of thoughts had not completely closed yet.

‘Why is it still open?’

‘It usually closes around this time and then reopens after a while.’

They were puzzled by the situation that did not go as they thought.

They stared intently at the entrance of the world of thoughts that was spinning like a whirlpool.

“That sword master woman, she hasn’t come out yet, right?”

“Is she still in there? Is she dead?”

“Idiot. If she died, it would have been a failure and the entrance would have closed right away.”

“Wait, it’s still open. That means…”

It meant that Kang Hye-rim was still alive and fighting inside.

Some of the collectors felt a worry in their hearts as they thought of that.

‘She’s not really succeeding, is she?’

But most of them shook their heads and denied it.

“That’s impossible. There were 150,000 enemies. At least 150,000.”

“The walls were broken too. How could she stop that many enemies? There’s no way.”

“Even the top collectors couldn’t clear that.”

We couldn’t do it, so she couldn’t either.

They all had the same thought. 

If the spirits who stayed behind saw them, they would have turned their backs on them with a sneer. 

It was such a despicable sight.

But.

As time passed, the anxiety of the collectors waiting outside increased.

The clan members and managers who came to pick them up also sensed the tension of the scene and watched the situation quietly.

The world of thoughts was still not closed.

How much time had passed?

When everyone was tired and about to leave their seats, something happened.

“Wha, what?”

“The entrance is changing!”

The entrance of the world of thoughts that had no reaction for hours started to shake like a wave in a rough wind.

“Could it be?”

“No way.”

It didn’t look like the world of thoughts was simply closing. 

The collectors who were anxious looked at the entrance while some tellers who had contracted with them showed up in reality.

“Damn it!”

“You idiot! This is not the time for this!”

The tellers shouted at their contracted collectors as soon as they appeared.

“What, what is it? What’s going on?”

“Never mind that, where did you go until now?”

“This is not the time to ask that!”

The teller gritted his teeth. 

They had been watching what was happening inside until a while ago. 

And the reason they came out here was because they were forced out when the world of thoughts ended and the [integrated zone] disappeared.

That meant.

“The collector who stayed inside cleared the world of thoughts!”

His shout echoed to everyone on the scene.

“Wa, wait a minute. What are you talking about?”

“Damn. Are you deaf? While you guys ran away in fear, she stayed until the end and finished that damn world of thoughts!”

“What?!”

“No way!”

Distrust and shock filled the crowd. 

But the teller who told the truth was still angry and shrugged his shoulders. 

His collector looked so pathetic in his eyes.

“So she cleared that huge difficulty level world of thoughts by herself?”

“Not by herself. There were two.”

“Two? Two? There was no one left here except that sword master.”

“Damn! I don’t know either. I can’t believe what I saw. It’s unbelievable.”

The tellers who had seen the scene until the end had complicated expressions. 

How should they describe it?

A crazy act? 

A suicide attempt? 

Or a pioneering of a new path?

One thing for sure was that this incident would make a lot of noise in the mixed world.

“She’s coming out!”

Someone’s shout made everyone look at the entrance of the world of thoughts.

As the rotating entrance reached its limit, two people came out from inside.

***

[You have cleared the world of thoughts ‘Siege of Constantinople’.]

[You get 10,000TP.]

[The story of the world of thoughts is bestowed upon you.]

[You get the title ‘Knight without Training’.]

[The first awarding of knighthood!]

[You get 5,000TP as a reward.]

[You get the skill ‘Victor of Battlefields’.]

[You get the story ‘Apostle of God’.]

[Your stats increase.]

…

The countless rewards that poured on us as the world of thoughts disappeared.

We got the first clear achievement, plus the bonus for clearing it with just two people, and the points that the spirits gave us as extra support for our amazing success.

It was as if the previous four worlds of thoughts that we cleared were nothing compared to this. 

It was enough to make our eyes sparkle.

‘This is worth it for investing more than 80,000 points.’

We got back as much as we invested, no, more than that if we added the other rewards.

Above all.

‘My library has grown tremendously.’

[Current viewers: 1,438]

[Current subscribers: 1,006]

I had already achieved the difficult goal of 1,000 viewers for a regular member.

And I couldn’t believe that I had also reached the devilish barrier of 1,000 subscribers. 

Even some deputy-level tellers couldn’t attract that many subscribers. 

But I hadn’t even reached deputy yet.

That meant that the painting I showed them really appealed to the spirits.

‘The other library guys must be crying blood.’

But what can they do about it? 

This joint painting was like this from the beginning.

A competition to check each other’s libraries and grow one’s own. 

They were eventually pushed out and left behind, and I stayed until the end and gathered the spirits in their libraries.

But succeeding like this was not just because I had Kang Hye-rim.

I was also included in the target of interest for the spirits.

‘I did something crazy.’

A teller who gave up his protection and ran around on the scene himself.

No one would have believed it if they heard it. 

But this was reality, and I did it.

An act that was almost heretical against the norm.

It was more than enough to attract the attention of the spirits.

Thanks to that?

The support for my library was literally overflowing.

Some of them were not satisfied with subscribing and offered to be my sponsors or made a fuss about it.

How could I not know their feelings? 

I’m sorry, but no means no.

“The one who laughs in the darkest place.”

[The one who laughs in the darkest place widens his eyes.]

When I gave him a signal, Satan responded.

He scanned my library and naturally the spirits who were shouting to be my sponsors shut their mouths.

Satan’s existence was that huge. 

How many spirits could even raise a flag against him?

As long as he existed in my library, there would be no spirits who would volunteer to be my sponsors.

[The one who laughs in the darkest place supports 1,000TP!]

[How about I become your sponsor so that no thief cat can come?]

“Haha. You have a good sense of humor. I refuse.”

When I refused with a smile, Satan seemed disappointed.

But my attitude of confidently rejecting his offer made the other spirits gasp in awe. Satan was such a being. 

Even other spirits feared him, the primordial evil.

“Let’s go. Miss Hyerim.”

“Ah, yes.”

We left the cleared world of thoughts and returned to reality.

The scenery changed and we saw the vacant lot where we first entered. 

And the people who filled it up.

Their eyes toward us were complicated.

‘Of course they would be. They ran away because they couldn’t do it, but we did it as if to show them.’

In the end, those collectors proved their incompetence and made us stand out instead.

“What, what is this…”

“They came out alive. They really cleared it.”

“Is this a scam?”

“Who is that next to her? I’ve never seen that face before.”

Kang Hye-rim and I ignored the people who were murmuring emptily and left the vacant lot.

There was no one blocking our way. 

The other collectors moved aside by themselves at our appearance that showed signs of fierce battle.

The same was true for other tellers. 

They just looked at me with complex eyes.

Among them, I saw some who had scolded me before. 

They turned their heads away when they met my eyes. 

I sneered at them.

Some felt anger toward me for stealing their viewers.

Some felt pity and astonishment toward me for giving up my protection.

Some felt envy toward me for hitting a jackpot with my painting.

I was one being, but there were many eyes looking at me.

Did anyone know how much I suffered for this?

At least there was no one who looked at me properly. It was so funny that I chuckled.

***

The world became noisy.

The rumor spread that someone had cleared the world of thoughts ‘Siege of Constantinople’ that no one had ever cleared before. 

And it was not with many people, but with just two.

The protagonist was Kang Hye-rim, the sword master who had been raising her stock price lately.

There had been rumors about her before, but this time it was not just that.

The World of Thoughts, which no one had been able to clear and was rumored to be practically impossible.

They had finished it with just two people, not even fifty, so naturally their names became famous in the world.

But there was one thing that people were curious about.

-They say there were two people who cleared it, but if one of them is the Sword Master, then who is the other one?

Of course, they wondered, but there was no answer.

The collectors didn’t even know about Yu-hyun’s existence. 

Conversely, the tellers who knew about Yu-hyun didn’t bother to open their mouths and reveal his information.

It was their own way of trying to prevent Yu-hyun’s name from spreading even a little bit.

Naturally, there was hardly any mention of Yu-hyun’s name in the lower world. 

Only a faint rumor of a mysterious man who moved with the Sword Master spread.

But the middle world and the upper world that surpassed it were different.

-A teller gave up his protection and fought with a collector!

This rumor had already spread among the tellers who showed their stories on Earth.

And it also reached the ears of the spirits who enjoyed the stories of Earth.

The spirits’ reactions were very hot.

The Genesis Network, the spirit bulletin board, became noisy.

[What? A teller who fights himself? Is that even possible?]

[He gave up his protection himself, and fought with his life on the line.]

[He’s crazy. He’s really crazy. So who is he?]

[There was such a fun thing happening on Earth? Is that true right now? I stopped watching it at the beginning because it was boring, but what’s going on?]

Originally, Earth was not a space that the spirits paid attention to.

The first generation spirits had provided the ‘seeds’, but considering the amount of stories buried, the level of collectors was low and the stories they showed were not satisfying.

As a result, the interest of the spirits in Earth’s stories faded away and quickly cooled down.

But because of what Yu-hyun did this time, the spirits’ attention was focused on Earth again.

[Among all the same farming repeats, there is only one collector who is conquering one World of Thoughts at a time.]

[And he has amazing talent, and his appearance is outstanding, so he is quite popular.]

[The teller who fought this time is also this collector’s contractor.]

[A combination of a collector with crazy talent and a crazy teller. It makes me drool.]

[But you can’t act rashly. That Kang Yu-hyun? There are sponsors lined up for that teller, and it seems like he has already caught the eye of Pandemonium.]

[Is that true?]

[I saw it then and it was true. One of the seven lords of Pandemonium, ‘The Darkest’, appeared. I was shaking.]

[Wow, that Deep Dark? He’s famous for not caring about any stories.]

[The funny thing is that he wasn’t even the sponsor of that library. And do you know what’s more surprising? Deep Dark offered to sponsor him, but the teller refused.]

[Crazy;; Is that teller still alive?]

[He even laughed and said it was fun? Anyway, if Deep Dark is interested, it’s over.]

The topic of the spirits went from Yu-hyun’s library to the story of Satan.

Satan.

The name means the one who laughs in the darkest place.

Who was he? 

One of the seven lords of Pandemonium, the great army, and a spirit who had a high eye for stories, enough to judge the quality of stories.

This was the first time he had shown interest and even offered to be a sponsor.

Of course, the spirits were also interested in the footsteps of this giant.

It was the same within Pandemonium. 

The heavy-assed Satan moved? 

Naturally, the number of curious spirits increased.

There was one place that reacted more fiercely than that.

The old enemy of Pandemonium and the one who restrained them the most.

Eden had moved.