abcnovels
Chapter 153:
Chapter 153:
Chapter 153:
Chapter 153
Whoosh!
Three ships cut through the sea, advancing forward.
The one leading the way was the whaling ship Pequod.
Two other whalers followed closely behind.
Everyone on the deck looked at the front with tense expressions.
They were worried that even speaking a word would jinx their operation, so no one dared to open their mouths since the start of the mission.
-Senior.
‘Oh. Celine.’
Yu-hyun was silently watching the direction of the ships when he received a message from Celine, who was in the manager’s room.
‘What is it?’
-Nothing important. I just wanted to let you know that there are quite a lot of viewers coming in as we approach the end of this story.
‘Really? I was too busy to check. How many are there?’
-The number of viewers has exceeded 8,000. And it’s still increasing in real time. Maybe it’s because some of the libraries that showed the previous stories were closed?
‘Ah. Is that why?’
Eleven out of thirty collectors had died. Naturally, their tellers could no longer show their stories and closed their libraries.
Of course, the spirits who were staying in those libraries came to Yu-hyun’s library to see the end of this story.
-According to my calculations, if you successfully finish this story, you can reach up to 9,000 viewers. At most 9,000, and then you can maintain 8,000 on average.
‘If I finish it successfully, that is.’
-Let’s hope you don’t die. It would be troublesome for me if you do.
‘Even if you curse me to die, I’ll live.’
Yu-hyun ended his conversation with Celine.
He felt like the wind blowing on his face had become much stronger than before.
No, it wasn’t just his feeling.
“Captain! The wind is getting stronger!”
The crew members who had been keeping a nervous silence finally opened their mouths.
The wind had become a gale, and clouds had started to cover the clear sky.
The calm sea became rough and turbulent.
“Don’t mind it, just keep going!”
“Bu-but!”
As soon as someone tried to say something, a shout came from the lookout.
“I-it’s Moby Dick! Captain! He’s coming after us!”
There was no need to look back.
He could feel something huge approaching from behind with a tingling sensation on his skin.
The crew members swallowed their saliva and had no choice but to speed up their sailing.
Yu-hyun checked Moby Dick’s position through Baekhyo’s sight.
‘He’s coming with a frightening momentum.’
Moby Dick was different from before.
He showed his massive body above the water and chased them.
He didn’t bother to dive into the sea and spy on them.
He whipped his huge tail like crazy and splashed the water.
Every time Moby Dick swung his heavy tail, the water behind him turned white.
‘If we get hit by that tail, no ship can survive.’
He could see that Moby Dick was closing the distance between them little by little.
Yu-hyun tried to calculate how long it would take for him to catch up with them, but he was startled when Baekhyo’s sight flipped over for a moment.
‘The wind has gotten stronger.’
He could clearly feel it on his skin now. The waves that were getting higher hit the ship.
“Baekhyo, come back.”
Yu-hyun had no choice but to call Baekhyo back.
He was still a baby and couldn’t fly for long in a storm.
Baekhyo landed on Yu-hyun’s shoulder right away. Gweseon Bangsang, who was watching him from the side, reached out her hand toward Baekhyo.
Hoot!
Baekhyo was startled and moved to Yu-hyun’s other shoulder.
Gweseon looked at Baekhyo with a pitiful expression and stretched out her hand again.
‘Doesn’t she feel nervous at all?’
She wasn’t called Gweseon for nothing.
She looked relaxed even in this desperate situation.
She was truly a fourth-dimensional being.
Yu-hyun turned his head and looked at his teammates.
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia were also looking at him, and their eyes met.
They didn’t need to say anything more to each other. They just nodded their heads, wishing for the success of this mission and bracing themselves.
Thud. Thump.
Suddenly, dark clouds covered the sky, and raindrops started to fall one by one.
In an instant, a shower poured down.
It was accompanied by strong winds, and it was no exaggeration to call it a storm.
Splash! Swoosh!
The boat rocked violently once, and water splashed on the floor.
The waves soon turned into giant monsters that soared over 10m high.
The sailors clenched their teeth and ran around, pulling the sail ropes.
“Captain! Ahead!”
“I know! I can see it!”
Eihub answered the navigator’s shout. Everyone’s eyes turned to the front.
Thunder roared in the clouds.
The end of the thunder’s direction lit up white.
There, a rocky island that looked like the devil’s horns rose sharply from the water.
The island was surrounded by sharp reefs, and the currents were mixed up in a mess.
The remains of ships that had sunk long ago were scattered all over the reefs.
That was the final destination of all sailors, the graveyard of shipwrecks.
As their destination came close enough to be seen with the naked eye, the sailors swallowed their saliva.
At that moment, the voice of the sailor who had been relaying Moby Dick’s location in real time was cut off.
“Hey! Why aren’t you saying anything? Where is that bastard?!”
“I, I can’t see well because the waves are too high!”
A shout came from the mast. The waves had grown to over ten meters high.
Moby Dick, where is Moby Dick? The sailors’ eyes darted around.
That’s when it happened.
Boom!
A huge wave-like surge of water came from behind, and a giant whale burst through the center of it.
“It’s Moby Dick! He’s getting closer!”
“When did that crazy beast get so close?!”
Moby Dick fell back into the sea after breaking through the wave.
His massive body collided head-on with the stormy waves.
The waves that could sink a large ship could not even swallow half of Moby Dick.
“Everyone, get ready to fight back! We can’t let him catch up to us before we reach that island!”
The collectors who had been waiting at the sterns of each ship moved at Park Cheol-oh’s shout.
“Thousand-Character Cannon! Fire!”
The collectors from the association who had been on standby fired the Thousand-Character Cannon.
Bang!
A dazzling flash of light burst out from the barrel of the old-fashioned cannon. It hit Moby Dick’s back hard as he surfaced above the water.
Red flames exploded like fireworks.
Uwaaaaaaah!!!
Moby Dick let out a painful scream.
The cannon was specially made for giant phantasmal beasts, and its power was extraordinary.
Even in the storm, crimson flames rose up and shockwaves erupted.
One shot per ship, a total of three shots, was enough to damage Moby Dick.
“He’s going down!”
“Did we kill him?!”
The sailors hoped so, as the power of the Thousand-Character Cannon was too strong.
They felt relieved when they couldn’t see Moby Dick, who had been chasing them relentlessly.
The distance to the island was getting closer, and the currents were becoming more unstable.
That’s when it happened again.
“…Damn it!”
Eihab felt a foul smell piercing his nose from below. Before he could react and shout, he appeared again.
Crack!
Moby Dick soared up from the deep sea and rammed into the third ship.
Everyone’s eyes widened in horror at where the third ship had been.
The large ship that had been firing cannons a moment ago was shattered like sand in an instant.
Along with everyone on board.
The splashing water and debris, and in the center of it all, Moby Dick’s glaring eyes were looking this way.
“This, this crazy.”
Even Park Cheol-oh, who had a lot of experience, couldn’t help but mutter in fear at the sight.
There was no need to report the damage.
Everyone on the third ship was wiped out.
The only consolation was that they had minimized the number of sailors and collectors on the second and third ships on purpose.
But that didn’t make the loss any less painful.
“Miss Hye-rim! Miss Jia! We’ll buy you some time!”
“Yes!”
“Got it!”
If they were caught here, they would be done for.
They had to stop Moby Dick by any means necessary.
Moby Dick had revealed himself above the water after the previous strike.
They tried to fire the Thousand-Character Cannon again, but he cleverly hid his body in the trough of the waves and messed up their timing.
“We can’t shoot!”
“Damn, he’s using his head for a whale!”
They could see the sailors and collectors panicking at the stern.
The Thousand-Character Cannon was powerful, but it took a long time to fire one shot. Moby Dick took advantage of that.
The collectors clenched their teeth and summoned their power.
“Everyone, get out of the way!”
Kang Hye-rim shouted as she filled her sword with lightning and shot it at Moby Dick.
The force hit Moby Dick’s back and then flowed into the sea along his skin. Kang Hye-rim bit her lip.
“The attacks are not working as well as before.”
When he had a harpoon stuck in him, it acted as a lightning rod, but now in the storm, they couldn’t hope for that.
Kwon Jia also used a long-range attack that released power from her palm, but she couldn’t inflict much damage either.
At that moment, the ship shook violently and then dropped down.
“Yu, Yu-hyun, what’s going on?!”
“We’ve entered the whirlpool zone!”
Yu-hyun shouted in the wind.
At the same time, they saw Moby Dick hesitate behind them. He realized it too.
That Yu-hyun and his group were fleeing towards the island.
The whirlpool zone had shallower water depth than other places.
Moby Dick felt a repulsion towards the island instinctively.
But.
Uwaaaaaaah!!!
Moby Dick roared with rage and then threw himself into the whirlpool zone.
The sight of a giant beast over 200 meters long coming closer with water splashing on both sides was terrifying enough to appear in a nightmare.
He swallowed the sea with his mouth, and spat out the sea when he breathed.
He was the biggest nightmare alive in the world.
The sailors were stunned.
“Captain! He’s following us into the whirlpool zone!”
“That’s according to plan!”
Eihab shouted and then snatched the helm from the helmsman.
“I’ll take over from here! Speed up and raise the sail! We’ll ride on the surge of the whirlpool and move faster!”
Even in the torrential rain that made it hard to see an inch ahead, Ahab’s hoarse scream was heard loud and clear.
The Pequod and the second line entered the gap between the giant whirlpools one after another, with a slight time difference.
The sailors all gripped the railings tightly, bracing themselves for the imminent collision.
Crash!
Two huge whirlpools, and a small path between them.
The moment they entered, the Pequod shook violently.
The currents that hit from both sides were rough and powerful, as if they would make a hole in the ship.
Some of the sailors screamed and bounced off the railings, rolling on the deck.
“Aaaah! Help me!”
“Aaah!”
“Hahaha! Yes! This is it! This is fitting for the final battle!”
Captain Ahab laughed crazily, enjoying the screams.
The captain, who often showed a simple and brute appearance, moved the wheel with all his might.
He read the currents that he roughly estimated with his eyes in real time, and played a game of tug-of-war in the gap of the whirlpools.
It would have been easier to ride a motorcycle on a tightrope than this.
[The spirits are amazed by Ahab’s skill in steering his ship.]
[The spirits are dazzled by Ahab’s unexpected side.]
It was enough for the spirits, who knew that he was made of stories from the world of ideas, to take interest in him.
“That’s it! Just keep going like this!”
The second line followed the Pequod and entered the gap of the whirlpools soon after.
Moby Dick, who was chasing them fiercely from behind, seemed to panic when he saw that, and showed his face that he rarely revealed above the water surface.
Yu-hyun’s face hardened when he saw that.
“Captain Ahab! Moby Dick is going to do something!”
“What?”
Right then.
?????!!!
Moby Dick opened his mouth and roared.
The sound that burst out of the giant sperm whale’s mouth turned into a shockwave with physical force.
Splash!
The raindrops that were pouring down around Moby Dick were pushed away in a dome shape.
The sound wave that expanded in an instant hit the back of the second line that had entered the gap of the whirlpools.
“Wha, what?!”
“Oh, no!”
The second line was hit by the shockwave and swayed greatly. Even though they were far away, they felt the ship shake from Moby Dick’s roar.
Fortunately, except for some damage to the hull, the ship was fine.
The problem was that the second line lost its balance.
The second line, which had barely been wrestling in between the whirlpools, tilted to the left like a broken doll and was sucked into the whirlpool.
Whoosh! Splash!
Aaaah!
“Help me!”
The screams of the people in the rainstorm echoed pitifully and disappeared into the mouth of the giant whirlpool.
Yu-hyun clenched his fist at the horror. The same was true for the other survivors. They never expected that there would be an attack that spewed sound from its mouth.
‘How could he hide such a skill until now? Isn’t it cheating to have such a body and such a move?’
They had already lost two ships. The only one left was the Pequod!
Moby Dick didn’t seem to be satisfied yet.
There was no turning back now that they had come this far. He seemed to want to finish it off, too, and pushed his body into the gap of the whirlpools.
Moby Dick amazingly resisted the whirlpools with his strength and accelerated his pursuit.
The distance that they thought had widened was soon narrowed to less than 100 meters.
Yu-hyun shouted urgently.
“Captain!”
“We’re almost there!”
The Pequod escaped the whirlpool and sped up for the last time. The sail was fully spread, using even the storm wind to enter the gap of the reef pile. It was the only narrow way to approach the inside.
Clang!
The side of the ship scraped against the rocks in the narrow space.
Moby Dick followed closely behind. Moby Dick, who had been chasing after them, smashed the narrow reef with his bare body. It didn’t even buy them any time.
The remaining distance was 50 meters in no time.
“We’re almost there!”
They saw the rocks that rose high in front of them. They had entered the land area of the shipwreck graveyard for real.
And at the same time, Moby Dick, who had been chasing after them, jumped towards the Pequod with his last strength.
“This crazy!”
“With that size?!”
Moby Dick chose to throw his body boldly in shallow water at the last moment.
A huge shadow loomed over the Pequod. The sailors and collectors all looked up at the sky with pale faces.
Only.
Only Yu-hyun quickly took out an item from his inventory.
It was a natural stone of water that glowed blue.
“I didn’t want to use this here, but!”
It might be different if it was a giant whirlpool area, but it should have some effect in this narrow waterway.
He didn’t expect this far, but he couldn’t avoid a bold investment given the situation.
Rumble!
A bright light flowed out of the water’s natural stone, and as the unstable current stabilized, it pushed the Pequod even harder.
The sailors who had given up on the deck rolled over as the speed increased in an instant.
Yu-hyun’s decision was risky, but it paid off. The Pequod barely escaped from Moby Dick’s range just before being crushed by him.
Crack!
The mast broke as it was pressed by Moby Dick’s jaw.
Even though it was just a graze, the ship was breaking apart from the point where it touched Moby Dick.
An unknown force that destroyed the ship. It had been activated.
“Everyone hold on tight!”
As soon as Ahab shouted.
Boom!
A huge shock rocked the ship.