abcnovels
Chapter 296:
Chapter 296:
Chapter 296:
“Thank you for watching the stories today.”
Yu-hyun smiled and said his line, and some of the Divine Spirits left the library with a bit of regret, while some left with joy.
Yu-hyun, who was left alone, opened his personal message box and checked the letter that had just arrived.
[First of all, seeing this note means you’ve succeeded in attracting my attention.]
The tone was light.
The first emotion he felt from the first sentence was that the other person was casual and free-Divine Spirited.
Yu-hyun’s eyes read the next sentence.
[I’ve been watching you for a while, but I wasn’t sure. But I was convinced when I saw your actions that called me in reverse. So I decided to meet you too. I can’t mention that book through the Genesis Network right now, but I think you know why. So let’s meet and talk for now.]
And what was written behind it was a rough address of where Yu-hyun had to go.
[Come to Cosmo Market. Among them, come to Sector 7 of the Free Market on the 5th floor, deep inside. I’ll come out to meet you.]Cosmo Market.
At the words telling him to come there, Yu-hyun raised his eyebrows once and then nodded his head in agreement.
It was too much to send messages from a distance comfortably, as the Foundation-operated Genesis Network had too many drawbacks.
Satan had warned Yu-hyun with his own actions.
The Foundation cannot be trusted.
Anything through the Genesis Network will be sanctioned.
‘Then is it dangerous for me to show it as a stories using the Genesis Network?’
But nothing had come to Yu-hyun yet.
‘The Genesis Network is not perfect either.’
It could recognize it if it directly mentioned the Book of Genesis, but even if it showed the real Book of Genesis through the painting, the Genesis Network did not recognize it.
The Genesis Network was not an absolute rule in the first place. He thought of how Chulapantaka had bypassed the system when he descended into the lower world, so there were gaps.
But there was a limit to solving something by only bypassing and talking around it.
The place to prevent that was Cosmo Market.
‘Cosmo Market. It’s been a long time since I heard that.’
Cosmo Market was the largest market representing the mixed world.
All kinds of catalogs and dimensional store items that Tellers showed to Collectors were all remotely sold in conjunction with Cosmo Market.
The place where one world itself bought and sold all stories became a place where most stories flowed in and out.
Yu-hyun had to visit there now.
‘Who is the other person?’
It wasn’t that he couldn’t find him on this side just because he hid his identity. Yu-hyun immediately activated Laplace’s power to see the future.
If he met someone in the future, he would be able to recognize who they were right away.
However, as he went further into the future, Yu-hyun’s expression became more subtle.
‘I can’t see it.’
He saw the future when he arrived at Cosmo Market, but what he could see was only up to there. After that, it looked like something was hidden.
Yu-hyun had a similar experience when he saw the future of someone who had a fragment.
The difference between them was that the fragment was like a faint light that dazzled and obscured it, while this time it was like being hidden by thick clouds and fog.
‘Because they don’t have a fragment? Or because they are so huge that I can’t measure them casually?’
Whatever it was, he had to meet them anyway.
The fact that they contacted him meant that they had something they wanted to some extent.
Telling him to come to Cosmo Market was a kind of talking around.
Let’s trade with each other.
The unidentified person was telling Yu-hyun that.
‘Then I have to accept it.’
He couldn’t just collect fragments forever.
What the Book of Genesis really meant, who made it, Logos, and what exactly would happen when he collected all the fragments.
‘I have to find out everything.’
The next day.
Yu-hyun gathered the four contractors in one place.
“I called you here for a reason. I have somewhere to go for a while.”
“Where? Where are we going?”
“Bro. Are we going overseas?”
The first thing that came to mind was an expedition to clear the mental realm in a foreign country.
Collectors usually headed overseas after making a name for themselves in Korea.
Yu-hyun lowered his head and pointed to the sky with his finger.
“We are going much farther than that. We are going to the celestial market beyond the universe.”
“Celestial market…”
Kwon Jia was the only one who knew about the celestial market in this place. She gave a brief explanation of what it was when she saw the attention on her.
Everyone was excited by her explanation.
“Wow, really? If that’s true, we’re going on a space trip right now?”
“Well, if you want to put it that way.”
“Hmm. But how are you going to get there? Do you have a way?”
“I do, that’s why I brought it up to you. Look at this.”
Yu-hyun took out four tickets from his pocket. They were round-trip train tickets that could go between Earth and the celestial market.
They looked like ordinary tickets, but as soon as they were torn, they were given the right to board the space train.
“With these, you can visit the celestial market too.”
“But, is that possible now?”
Kwon Jia was the one who asked that question.
“Earth hasn’t finished separating from the material world and the mixed world yet. At best, it’s half now. That means we’re still half in the material world. On the other hand, the celestial market is a representative market of the mixed world. It’s not a place we can visit while we’re still in the material world.”
“That’s true, if it were normal. But it’s not completely impossible either. If Earth had only been affected by the mixed world by 10% or 20%, it would have been hard. But now it’s almost half, or rather, a whopping half, isn’t it? There will be some restrictions on our power there, but it’s not impossible to enter.”
“Even if our power is restricted, we won’t have to fight there anyway. So, as long as we get permission, we can visit too?”
“That’s right. And I have four tickets. I think you know what that means.”
“You got them somehow.”
“It was nothing.”
He didn’t need to mobilize his connections to get these tickets. The entrance to the celestial market was always open.
Anyone could freely come and go to that place with round-trip tickets, which were easy to get by paying a small amount of points.
Of course, Yu-hyun had some benefits from being a teller of the Celestial Corporation.
He was like a space civil servant.
“Today’s trip will be a wonderful experience for you. Is there anyone who thinks they can’t go because I’m really busy?”
No one answered. Even though they were a bit nervous or worried, their eyes were filled with intense curiosity and anticipation.
“Good. Then let’s go.”
Yu-hyun handed out tickets to each of the four people.
Boom!
A train ran through the dark emptiness with a horn sound. Even though there was no sound in space, the passengers heard it all.
Kang Hye-rim, Seo Sumin, and Yoo Young-min, who were riding the space train for the first time, just stared at the space scenery outside the window with their mouths open.
Throughout human history, only a few people had ever gone to space, and they only landed on the moon.
But they were now going much further, beyond the solar system, to a completely different world.
Even if they were collectors who had transcended ordinary humans, riding a pre-modern train that roamed the space was a first-time experience.
“It’s been a while.”
Kwon Jia said that as she sat on the seat opposite Yu-hyun and crossed her arms.
“Have you been there before?”
“A long time ago. I don’t remember much, but I went there once when the earth was completely doomed.”
Kwon Jia smiled bitterly and added ‘Actually, I was more like running away.’
She glanced at the three people who were still amazed and asked Yu-hyun quietly.
“So why are you taking us to the celestial market?”
“I want to introduce it to you at least once.”
“You don’t expect me to believe that cliché, do you?”
“Of course not.”
When Kwon Jia sent him a sharp look that told him to speak clearly, Yu-hyun shrugged his shoulders.
“To be exact, I have someone to meet.”
“Someone to meet?”
“Well, not really a person. Rather, a bigger and more amazing being. Anyway, I have an appointment with them.”
“Can’t you tell me why?”
“I wish I could, but it’s not that kind of matter.”
“Is it something I know? Or something I shouldn’t know?”
“I don’t want to lie to you, so I’ll answer honestly. It’s the latter.”
Kwon Jia made a slightly annoyed expression at that. It was quite humiliating for her to hear that she couldn’t know the clear reason and shouldn’t know it.
But she didn’t argue about that part. It was her virtue.
Kwon Jia twisted her hair with her right index finger. Her lips were slightly protruded unlike usual.
“I see. I guess there’s no choice. Unless I can fully restore my old memories.”
The memories she was talking about were her earliest regressions.
The books that spanned from the first to the tenth cycle, which were almost forcibly sealed.
She still had regrets about her forgotten memories after being sealed again.
Yu-hyun was worried that she might try to awaken her memories by another method.
He needed to cut off her regrets before that.
“Ahem. Miss Jia.”
“What is it?”
“Well…”
“Wow! Look over there!”
At the moment he was about to say something to her, Kang Hye-rim’s exclamation burst out from the next seat.
Kwon Jia and Yu-hyun’s eyes naturally turned that way. Beyond the large and transparent window of the space train, the celestial market they were heading for showed its majestic appearance.
“We’ve arrived.”
“I see.”
The celestial market was the best space-grade market in the genesis system, and its size rivaled that of a planet. In fact, it was a planet that was turned into a market.
The Celestial Market looked like a huge planet that was sliced thinly horizontally.
The divided discs formed layers and were spaced apart at regular intervals, and very thin pillars connected each disc minutely.
From afar, they looked like thin pillars, but up close, the thickness of those pillars would easily exceed tens of km.
‘I’ve seen this before, but it’s really amazing.’
He was captivated by the overwhelming sight.
Above the cut surface of the planet, dense buildings rose up. They looked like specks from here, but each building was so gigantic that it could not be compared to those on Earth.
In the world of the discs divided into nine layers, there were billions of life forms that could not be seen.
“Can you believe that all those sections are markets?”
“What a massive scale.”
Kang Hye-rim and Seo Sumin murmured.
The Celestial Market consisted of nine layers in total, and each layer had its own products or features.
The Divine Spirit-only market, the teller-only market, the contractor and collector-only market, etc.
Of course, not all areas were markets.
The top of the celestial market, which could be called the highest point of the nine layers, was more like a tourist or residential area than a market.
What caught his eye was the first layer, which received the most brilliant light from the distant star.
In the center of the top layer that rose obliquely, shining buildings soared high like a crown, and that place was [Stellaris Optatum], where only important guests stayed.
‘On the other hand, the bottom of the Celestial Market planet.’
Yu-hyun’s gaze moved to the ninth layer of the celestial market, the lowest point.
The floor opposite to the top. It was dark down there where the light did not reach properly. There was a structure that looked similar to [Stellaris Optatum], but had a different essence.
A huge spire.
It was not made by someone, but by discarded trash that piled up one by one over a long time.
Unlike the refined Optatum, the spires looked very restless and grotesque. They sometimes looked like hands reaching desperately for the sky.
That place was [Debris Catacomb], where useless stories were buried.
The eighth layer, which could be called right above the landfill, was a slum where those who had lost their place in this genesis system stayed.
And from there up, markets were located by layer.
‘The place I have to go is the fifth layer.’
The widest disc and the center of all layers.
The fifth layer, where anyone could freely come and go, was the core of the celestial market: the free market.
The space train ran fast and soon arrived at the station of the celestial market.
“Let’s get off.”
If you had to pick the most active area in the Celestial Market, it would be undoubtedly the free market.
This place, where all kinds of strange civilizations blended and mixed together, was where all stories in space flowed in and out.
The party who got off the train and went outside could see a more proper scenery.
What greeted Yu-hyun who came out of the station was a huge entrance leading to the free market.
It was about 300m wide and over 2km high. On both sides, huge statues with crossed arms stood tall.
It was truly an overwhelming sight.
“Wow.”
“Oh my.”
“Awesome.”
Kang Hye-rim, Seo Sumin, and Yoo Young-min couldn’t hide their excitement and muttered. Kwon Jia also pretended to be calm, but she seemed to enjoy visiting the free market for a long time.
Beyond the huge entrance, various races of the genesis system were busy moving around.
There were buildings with oriental designs and buildings with western styles. They harmonized and created a mysterious beauty.
“Hey! It’s cheap here!”
“Look here! There are many stories here! Come and see!”
“How much is this?”
The sounds of bargaining and exchanging information were mixed in a noisy crowd. The warm light that could be felt on the skin added more vitality to the free market.
Whoosh!
Above the sky, airships flew and soared in the air. Not only airships, but someone also rode a giant flying worm and flew away to the other side.
On the stalls, there were all kinds of various items, and different races were sitting and selling goods and ‘stories’.
“Hey, how much is this Lento swordsmanship story?”
“1,500TP. Don’t even think about haggling, that’s the lowest I can go.”
“I’m selling the most popular Black Wind Spear Technique from the second martial world! The price is only 1,200TP! It’s cheap!”
“What? The story of the Heroic Swordsman of Nine Heavens is so expensive? Please give me a discount.”
When visiting this noisy and complicated place, one would unknowingly get swept away by the atmosphere and end up browsing and shopping, but Yu-hyun only thought of one thing.
‘There is someone who invited me here.’
A being who knows about the Book of Genesis.
Yu-hyun had to meet him.