Chapter 123. A Night Stroll (2)
“It’s a series,” said Eun-Ho.
“What?” Ji-Eun blinked.
In the world of art, a series meant a collection of works created by the same artist, built around the same subject or theme. Just like Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, they were different paintings, yet sharing one continuous motif.
When you put them all together, they form one connected piece! Eun-Ho thought.
Up close, it wasn’t obvious. That was why Eun-Ho grabbed Ji-Eun’s arm and pulled her back a few steps, whispering softly,
“Look. From a distance, the colors link together.”
“The colors link together?” Ji-Eun repeated, her eyes widening.
Then they grew even wider in sudden realization.
“Oh. You’re right! They really do!”
Sarah crossed her arms, her eyes gleaming.
[Hmm?]
“Wait, look! Even the lodgings in the paintings, each one has slightly different hues. Like a gradient,” she remarked.
Bo-Ra stepped closer and said, “If we arrange them in order...”
Swoosh—!
She quickly grabbed the floating paintings and began rearranging them midair.
“There are a few missing pieces in between, but yes, they line up perfectly.”
“They said earlier that four were removed. That makes forty-six in total, right?”
“Ah, yes! Then that fits exactly.”
How could they have missed it before? These were not separate paintings at all. Instead, it was one enormous canvas, stretched out like a rainbow. That meant that the lodgings depicted inside each painting weren’t isolated either.
“Does that mean we can move from one painting to another?” Eun-Ho asked, turning toward the hostess.
The woman’s artificial cheer faded for a moment, replaced by a disbelieving smirk.
[Wow. You figured that out?]
“What?!”
“So it’s true!”
[The Morning Star from the Sales Department drops their jaw in disbelief.]
[The Druid from the Bureau of Investigation is impressed by your sharp perception.]
[The Newbie from the Bureau of Corporate Relations boasts that they already told everyone you were no joke.]
“Then...” Eun-Ho murmured.
Eun-Ho studied the paintings Bo-Ra had meticulously arranged. His gaze settled on a single canvas—a gentle, silvery white that sat nearest to the four silver pieces.
Then, he pointed to it. “I’ll choose this one.”
[Selection confirmed for the ROK District!]
[ROK District, all trials have been cleared for today.]
[The Eye is now closing.]
As the final system messages rang out, colors exploded in a swirl around them.
[Transferring to Moonlit Nap.]
[Please brace for impact!]
***
Eun-Ho stood on the open deck of a massive cruise ship, surrounded by an endless expanse of ocean. The moonlight reflected softly across the rippling surface of the water.
“It’s beautiful.”
“It really is...”
However, there was a reason this place was called Moonlit Nap and not Moonlit Sleep.
Swoosh—!
The ship rocked violently, and anyone on board could manage nothing more than a brief nap, constantly disturbed by the movement of the waves.
“Can’t we do something about this? It’s shaking too much!”
“Urgh!”
The deck was crowded with people suffering from seasickness. It spared no one, regardless of age or gender.
Among them, Bo-Ra sighed deeply, her voice strained. “I used to dream of living on a ship when I was little...”
Sol-Ah lifted her pale face to look at her. “R-really?”
“Yeah. But... I didn’t think it would be this hard.”
“Still, it’s kind of charming in its own way—urgh!” she groaned, barely suppressing another wave of nausea.
A nearby district member called out in concern, “Miss, are you all right?”
Sol-Ah wavered on her feet, seemingly about to collapse. Her seasickness seemed worse than expected.
“Sol-Ah, how about trying a healing spell for the nausea?” Eun-Ho suggested.
“Ah... I’ll try.”
With difficulty, Sol-Ah nodded and let a soft blue light that enveloped herself. Gradually, she steadied herself, regaining balance.
Whoosh!
“Hey! There she is!”
“We’re over here!”
Guided by Sol-Ah and Yeo-Jin’s shouts, Ji-Eun flew toward them through the dark night sky. “Ji-Eun! Did you really find another lodging here?”
“Yeah. I didn’t see any buildings, but when I kept going in that direction, a message popped up.”
“A message?”
“Yeah, it said, ‘Welcome to Silvery Blade.’”
“Wow, so he was right. I thought he was just guessing...”
Thanks to Ji-Eun’s scout, their task had become much easier.
“Shall we get moving, Hyungnim?” Jae-Hyuk asked eagerly.
“Y-yes... Let’s go, Young Man”
Perhaps it was the hope of escaping their seasickness, but everyone’s eyes lit up at the mention of Silvery Blade.
“Ye-Ji, aren’t you going to get ready?” Eun-Ho asked.
“Oh... I’m fine. Only about ten people can go at once, anyway.”
A few others hesitated, unsure what to do.
“Huh? I can go twice and bring more people over!” Ji-Eun offered.
“No, that’s too much trouble for you, Secretary Kim,” Ye-Ji said quickly, waving her hands.
She seemed aware that she wouldn’t be much help in the next phase.
She’s right, though. There really are a lot of people, Eun-Ho thought.
Ji-Eun could only control about ten passengers per trip, while the volunteers wanting to hunt for Points easily numbered several dozen.
Still, having more people would make things safer.
As silence briefly settled over the group, Ye-Ji said again with a bitter smile, “I still have some Points left, so it’s fine. I’ll try to earn more sponsorship somehow.”
Eun-Ho frowned, thinking. There had to be another way for everyone to cross the vast sea together. Then, it hit him that he had been overcomplicating things.
“Let’s go together,” he said simply.
Ye-Ji looked startled. “That’s kind of you to say, but really, I’m fine.”
“Not just you,” Eun-Ho clarified. “Everyone.”
“What? How?”
“By ship.”
Ye-Ji looked up at Eun-Ho, frowning in confusion. “What?!”
Meanwhile, the others perked up their ears.
“Ji-Eun,” Eun-Ho asked calmly, “is it possible for you to move the ship with psychokinesis?"
“... Sorry? What?” she replied, startled.
The ship began to move not through psychokinesis, but guided by the skillful hands of a real navigator.
“Wow, that’s amazing! I’ve never seen anyone actually drive a ship before!” someone exclaimed.
“It’s not driving,” the navigator corrected flatly.
“Huh?”
“It’s piloting.”
“O-oh! Sorry!”
Eun-Ho couldn’t suppress a faint smile. He hadn’t expected to find a professional navigator among the survivors. Though with two thousand people, perhaps it wasn’t so surprising after all.
“But it’s kind of unfortunate...” he remarked.
“What is?” Ji-Eun asked, puzzled.
“You missed the perfect chance to train your Psychokinesis to the limit.”
“Wait, you didn’t seriously think I could do that, did you?” she said, half laughing, half horrified.
“I was serious. And I think you could. You’d just need a lot of practice.”
“... Eun-Ho, you have too much faith in me,” Ji-Eun muttered, ducking her head before glancing up at him with a shy, incredulous look.
“Anyway,” he said, smiling faintly, “We made it safely thanks to you.”
He gave the navigator a polite bow and headed down the stairs. A cheerful system message echoed in his ears.
[Welcome to Silvery Blade!]
So this is Silvery Blade, he thought, steadying his breath as he stepped forward.
After what felt like a long journey, they finally arrived at a beach of soft white sand that sank beneath their feet. Instead of a refreshing sea breeze, dry sand whipped up into the air, clinging unpleasantly to their hair and clothes.
“I think I see a house on top of that hill...”
“Ah, you’re right. Let’s head that way.”
They trudged through the sand that swallowed their ankles and climbed onto a patch of grass that rustled softly underfoot.
[You are entering Icy Blast Hill.]
The very name carried no hint of peace.
“Uh... Uh, uh!” Yeo-Jin, who had been confidently leading the way, suddenly trembled all over. Her face twisted, as if suppressing a scream. “A d-d-d-dead body!”
Across the grassy dunes dotted with short, twisted trees, there was a dead human body. A severed arm clung to a tree stump and a half-crushed head rested a few meters away. On the dirt where sand and grass mixed, chunks of torn flesh were scattered like discarded scraps of meat.
Everywhere they looked, the bodies were mangled, mutilated.
“It looks like something tore them apart. An animal, maybe...” someone whispered.
“Ugh...”
Several people covered their mouths, while others turned away. It was the same condition as the man they had seen that morning. Only, this time, the corpse was ripped so viciously it was barely recognizable.
“That’s horrible...” someone murmured.
Even if the details were different, the truth remained. A person who had run beside them just hours ago was now nothing more than bloody heaps.
The night air grew heavy, like damp cotton pressing down on them. Ji-Eun took a cautious step forward, then knelt to gently close the single remaining eye of the dead man.
Beside her, Yeo-Jin suddenly gasped.
“U-Unni!” She dropped to her knees, her outstretched hand frozen midair, trembling violently. “L-look over there!”
Everyone’s gaze followed the direction of her shaking finger. Then, one by one, people collapsed to the ground in shock.
“W-what is that!?”
They struggled to suppress their screams.
What is that? Eun-Ho thought.
On the hill above, in the yard of a half-collapsed house, stood monsters. Each creature stood three or four meters tall, its spine protruding grotesquely through stretched skin. Its limbs were long and skeletal. They moved with jerky, predatory motions.
Rustle—
Eun-Ho peered between the trees, being careful not to make a sound. However, stealth was unnecessary, as the monsters were too busy feasting to notice them.
“Yum... It’s tasty.”
“Not really...”
What are they eating? he wondered.
In the middle of the yard, a massive heap was piled high. At first glance, it looked like garbage, but then realization hit.
Humans?
The heap was a mountain of bodies, stacked together, waiting their turn to be devoured.
“Are they all dead?” someone whispered.
No one answered.
“No way... This can’t be happening...”
[0.0%]
[0.0%]
[0.0%]
Every corpse was drained of life, their skin turned an unnatural shade of blue. There were hundreds of them, limp and motionless.
[Defeat the Icy Blast Gaki!]
As if huddled around a campfire, sixteen monsters sat in a circle around the mountain of bodies.
Slick! Crunch! Splash!
They clutched the flesh with both hands, tearing and gnawing at it. Then, they chewed with a terrifying, almost gleeful intensity.
“W-what is that?! Why are people just floating in the air—”
“Aaah!”
“Sh! Be Quiet! Something’s there!”
Panic rippled through the survivors.
[Due to your title Ghost Slayer, you can sense the presence of mid-tier Ghosts.]
Ghosts?
“Does that mean it’s Ghosts again?” Eun-Ho muttered.
[You will deal 20% increased damage when fighting mid-tier Ghosts.]
Mid-tier Ghosts... Eun-Ho thought.
That explained the chaos. To the others’ eyes, it must have seemed as though invisible hands were lifting people into the air, tearing them limb from limb.
“W-what did you just say?” Jae-Hyuk stammered, his face twisted in fear.
He was terrified, understandably so.
“Ghosts,” Eun-Ho replied quietly. “Those things are ghosts.”
Jae-Hyuk took a sharp breath. “G-Ghosts?”
Before Jae-Hyuk could speak, a stranger behind him asked, trembling, “S-so, you’re saying there are huge Ghosts over there?”
“Yes,” Eun-Ho said honestly. “About fifteen or sixteen of them.”
If they were afraid, they could turn back. It was better than freezing in terror during the fight. A panicked person in battle only dragged morale down.
I’ll take those who could overcome it with me.
With that thought, Eun-Ho raised his hand.
“Summon.”
[Would you like to activate the Capital Beacon Torch?]
[Choose between Beacon Fire and Beacon Smoke.]
He chose smoke. Then, in the pitch-black night, a faint wisp of smoke spread through the group, like the smell of food to the starving.
“Everyone, please listen carefully,” Eun-Ho said.
[Empowered by the Beacon, your voice projects with unnatural clarity.]
He felt awkward speaking like a commander, but there was no choice, as he was the only one who could see them clearly.
“There are invisible Ghosts out there. They’re called Icy Blast Gaki. You can’t see them, but they’re feeding on people.”
“G-Ghosts? Eating people?”
“Then, there’s no one alive out there?”
“D-does that mean w-we have to kill invisible monsters to get our Points?”
“What? How can we do that without seeing where it is? They wiped out all those people!”
Most were paralyzed by fear. Even those still capable of speaking glanced at the heap of corpses, their eyes filling with tears, anger, or pure dread.
However, Eun-Ho’s voice cut through the panic. “You have to trust me.”
[Due to your skill Leadership(Lv. 2), your influence over the survivor group has increased.]
“We can kill them.”
“Are you sure? D-do you have a plan?”
“Yes, of course.”
[Multiple survivors are awaiting your command.]
Many were trembling and barely standing. Therefore, to lead them, Eun-Ho needed conviction or something strong enough to move others.
“We’ll split into two teams,” he said firmly, his voice carrying through the darkness like an arrow. “Those who can tank, follow me. Jae-Hyuk and you, sir, you’re coming for sure.”
“Yes, sir!”
“And... Do we have anyone who can attack from range?”
A dozen or so raised their hands, including a blond young man. There were not many, but enough to crush a Gaki’s skull.
“You guys will work with Ji-Eun. Focus your attacks on the upper areas like their heads, if you can find them. I’m not sure where the weak point is, but that’s a good start.”
“But we can’t even see their heads,” Ji-Eun pointed out, raising her hand.
“Ah.” Eun-Ho blinked as he’d forgotten an important detail.
“Bo-Ra,” he said, turning toward her, “You can play with mud, right?”
“That’s kind of my specialty, why?”
Using Bo-Ra’s ability to mold and shape earth, Eun-Ho was ready to make the Ghosts visible.
“I’m going to have you cover those Ghosts with mud.”
“... Huh?!”
Eun-Ho thought that if they couldn’t see them, then they'd just make them visible.
“Everyone, back to the beach!” he ordered. “Bring seawater and soak the ground!”
“W-what?”
“There might still be survivors out there! Move, now!”