Chapter 939

The hideout of the thieves.

After waking up, In Seon-o, who had been contemplating architectural laws, had breakfast and then immersed himself in other tasks.

In Seon-o read through the journalism logs of the Eungwang High School Newspaper Club.

He checked not only the logs posted on the school’s website but also the individual journal entries uploaded by the club members on their personal social media accounts.

The logs had accumulated over a year, and checking through all of the club members’ logs turned out to be quite a large volume.

But In Seon-o didn’t rest or give up and continued flipping through the holographic pages alone.

Then, In Seon-o’s finger abruptly stopped.

"Ah, I’ve talked to the person who wrote this."

"Do you know them?"

"Yeah."

From nearby, Gu Seul-bi, who was planning the "invasion of the last school dropout’s residence," suddenly spoke up.

Gu Seul-bi, unable to come up with a way to break through the strong barrier surrounding the residence, looked up and, by chance, found a familiar name.

The name that appeared in the log was none other than Moon Sae-ron.

In Seon-o had been reading a journal written by Moon Sae-ron.

"Ah, I know that reporter! Since we’re both notable figures within Eungwang High, we get involved in a lot of interviews. Moon Sae-ron was one of the club members who actively tried to interview us every time."

"When we fought the swordsman, we had a rather long interview. That person knew exactly how noticeable and special we were."

Moon Sae-ron, being someone who frequently interviews eccentric individuals and turns their stories into articles, knew how to quickly become friendly and strike up a conversation.

Having a deep understanding of the desire for attention from attention-seekers, Moon Sae-ron used this to get close to the two of them.

"Wow, not only does he cover a lot of topics, but he also writes detailed journals. That’s impressive."

"Writing down your daily routine can serve as a source of inspiration. When you look back on it later, things you didn’t think of at the time or didn’t remember suddenly come to mind! Reporter Moon Sae-ron really understands the importance of keeping records."

The habit of diligently writing journals was something that Ong Gil-dong, who strongly agreed with the statement, emphasized.

Hearing that Ong Gil-dong wrote journals made Gu Seul-bi wonder how his own records might be written.

Ong Gil-dong, who was very slow at catching on to others’ inner thoughts, somehow sensed this and responded with a very kind tone.

"Of course, I’ve also written about the day I met my partner."

Gu Seul-bi felt her heart race at those words.

Although Gu Seul-bi didn’t write journals, she had been repeating the events of that day in her head.

At the auction of the Fomor Demon Lord in the lonely castle, she had met Ong Gil-dong, who was wearing a white blazer decorated with a swan mask and crystal embellishments.

Ong Gil-dong, who had been spouting mysterious theories about thieves, had even given Gu Seul-bi a white rose as a gift.

At the time, she hadn’t paid much attention, thinking it was a tease about the Druidess outfit, but looking back, it was an exciting moment.

"I’ll never forget my partner, dressed in firewood and rags. Now, I think I’m fortunate to be able to provide an outfit and living arrangements that match my partner’s abilities and character."

Gu Seul-bi’s excited feelings were slightly dampened by Ong Gil-dong’s comment about firewood and rags.

The Druidess outfit that Gu Seul-bi had personally made at the time was indeed very shabby, so there was no way to argue with that.

Gu Seul-bi turned her head away from Ong Gil-dong and looked at the hologram In Seon-o was reading.

"So, what did he write that’s making you look at it so intently?"

"It’s about the Newspaper Club’s overseas reporting trip last summer."

Hearing that the club had gone on a group trip, the attention-seekers immediately thought of the other members of the club, not just Moon Sae-ron.

Class 0 had two members of the Newspaper Club.

"The Newspaper Club went as a group? Then our vice-president must have gone too."

"And that weird person from the big mansion must have gone too."

"Yeah, I think Uishin and Jiho went as well. It’s recorded that all members of the Newspaper Club attended."

Ong Gil-dong and Gu Seul-bi both read the page In Seon-o was showing.

The Newspaper Club seemed to have had a really fun time on their reporting trip.

From the very first day, they stayed up all night and on the second day, they played games with the King of Golden Speeches and ran around.

But some of them went to sleep, and Moon Sae-ron was one of them.

Although he woke up in the middle of it and joined the group of game addicts.

"Had a bad dream and woke up? Hmm, bad dreams do tend to disturb sleep."

"Dreams are very difficult to control. Even someone as great as a Druidess like me struggles with them! Unless you have special powers like Merlin, the teacher who inherited the blood of the Nightmare, no matter how excellent a player is, they’re helpless in the face of the dreams controlled by the unconscious mind."

As they discussed the dream incident, In Seon-o had finished going through all of Moon Sae-ron’s journal entries.

He had even searched the entire log for specific keywords.

In Seon-o had entered keywords related to dreams and was reviewing the journals.

However, the only entry related to dreams was from the second day of the overseas trip.

"Why is that?"

"Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just surprising that out of all these journals, the only mention of dreams is in that one."

Gu Seul-bi didn’t think much of In Seon-o’s response and easily came up with an answer.

"Must have been a really memorable dream if they wrote about it in the journal."

Eungwang High, Baekho-gun’s Eunsugwan (Silver Sleep Mansion).

Late at night, the sound of rain occasionally hitting the window could be heard.

In the hands of Maeng Hyo-don was the Dreamcatcher he had seen on the first day of his admission.

It was a precious item personally given to him by the leader of the Demon Horse clan, the Black Horse, but Maeng Hyo-don had hurriedly packed his belongings and ended up bringing it along with other odds and ends, making it more of a burden.

Though it didn’t seem to have any immediate use for the retreat, he couldn’t throw it away, so he had kept it in his memory.

But the appearance of the Dreamcatcher had changed greatly from what he remembered.

‘The netting is all torn, and the color has turned black. If this was an item that could be carded, it would require a lot of energy to change its form.’

The netting of the Dreamcatcher symbolized a spider’s web, but unlike ordinary webs, it was made of extremely strong and durable material.

At the current retreat, any player could destroy it if they wanted to, but no one seemed to have that intent.

And the problem was the color.

The crystals, along with the unicorn feathers, had also changed color.

It didn’t seem like someone had just painted it; it looked like its properties had actually changed.

‘It’s the same black as the color of my ability.’

According to Seodol’s doctrine, there are different types of black, and my ability’s color is said to resemble the black of the night sky.

And now, the Dreamcatcher had been dyed in a color that looked like the night sky.

No, it seemed to have been dyed in the exact color of my ability.

But strangely, the energy of the ability was absent.

There was no trace of the ability having stayed there, so someone unfamiliar with it might think that this was the original color of the Dreamcatcher.

"When we packed up at the entrance, it was white. What happened?"

"…"

When Maeng Hyo-don was asked, he hesitated, looking like he was wondering whether to speak or not.

After a long pause, Maeng Hyo-don finally spoke.

"I woke up and found it like this."

"If there had been any use of an ability strong enough to turn the unicorn feathers black, I would have woken up."

"...I didn’t wake up while it was changing like that either."

Maeng Hyo-don’s words seemed to imply something else, but it didn’t sound like he was lying.

It was clear that both Maeng Hyo-don and I hadn’t woken up while the Dreamcatcher was changing.

To gather more hints, I asked him further.

"You woke up earlier than me every day for the past two days. Did you notice anything else unusual besides the Dreamcatcher changing?"

"Anything else? Hmm..."

Maeng Hyo-don’s gaze wandered around the room.

Other than the Dreamcatcher’s transformation, there didn’t seem to be anything else wrong with the room.

No traces of any ability or physical disturbances stood out.

Then, Maeng Hyo-don’s gaze froze on the window.

"Every time I woke up, the window was open. Did you leave it open when you went to sleep?"

"No."

"The screen was open too."

The window had always been closed, both before going to bed and after waking up.

Did someone play a prank?

There seemed to be no reason for such a foolish prank.

And this place was the Silver Sleep Mansion managed by Baekho-gun.

If someone had been making careless movements, Baekho-gun would have noticed right away.

‘If that’s not the case, then it’s possible Baekho-gun himself touched the window.’

I asked a few more questions to Maeng Hyo-don but didn’t receive any satisfying answers.

The only thing that was certain was that something had happened while Maeng Hyo-don and I were sleeping, leaving almost no trace.

And Maeng Hyo-don seemed to be holding back something important.

‘Maeng Hyo-don is honest and perceptive. I have a feeling he wants to say something, but it’s something he feels is a forbidden topic.’

If I pushed him to talk, he would, but I didn’t want to do that.

I trusted Maeng Hyo-don’s instincts.

Even though he couldn’t say anything definite, I had gathered a lot of clues.

Having thought about it too much, I realized I needed to act before Maeng Hyo-don’s patience wore thin.

"Is it hard to talk about? If it is, you don’t have to say it."

It seemed like my assumption was correct, and Maeng Hyo-don visibly relaxed.

It seemed like he really felt like he shouldn’t say it.

Before we wrapped up the conversation, I asked the most important question.

"But are you really okay? Does this have anything to do with your recent condition?"

"Well... it is related…"

As I asked, Maeng Hyo-don’s eyes gradually became clearer.

Maeng Hyo-don spoke firmly, with strength in his voice.

"Even though it turned out like this, I’m fine. Really, I’m okay. Vice-president, do you understand?"

Maeng Hyo-don kept emphasizing that he was fine.

Hearing those words, I became a little dazed.

After nodding several times to indicate I understood, I got ready to leave.

"I’m going to study at Ju Su-hyeok’s room tonight to check something. But remember, I’m fine."

"Okay, understood."

His insistence still bothered me.

It felt as though he was saying he wasn’t fine but now was fine, which made me uneasy.

After ending the peculiar conversation, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

‘This feeling, I’ve felt it before.’

Something is clearly happening, and the other person knows what it is, but they’re reluctant to talk about it with me.

I’ve had this subtle feeling before.

‘It happened when I talked to Baekho-gun. It’s happened a few times, but I didn’t press for answers.’

I trusted my last playable character, so I didn’t probe further.

But now Maeng Hyo-don was saying similar things, and I wondered if it was okay to keep not asking.

‘What happened while I was asleep?’

Now that I thought about it, Maeng Hyo-don was the first person I had ever shared a room with in a confined space since coming to this world.

When staying in the retreat, there were many nights where I stayed up late, and when resting, I usually used single rooms.

Most of those single rooms adhered strictly to the building regulations for player accommodation.

The only exception was when we went on the overseas reporting trip.

Overseas accommodations didn’t follow the same conservative regulations as those in Korea.

‘It’s not just a facility problem. The location too.’

This was Eungwang High, right in the middle of the Ho-jok’s sacred district.

And it was the Silver Sleep Mansion managed by Baekho-gun.

It would be very difficult for a problem to occur in a place like this, wouldn’t it?

‘If such a being exists, the Jin-jok society would be on high alert. That entity must have the kind of power that could alter the Dreamcatcher given by Black Horse without leaving any trace.’

The Jin-jok, the most formidable beings, would certainly be cautious.

Recalling my numerous experiences dealing with the Jin-jok, a certain thought surfaced.

After considering all the factors, I became confident that the answer was within reach.

Click.

I opened the window, and the thick raindrops splashed into the room.

I didn’t mind and called out beyond the rainstorm.

"I need to talk. Come out."

A few seconds later, a white shadow suddenly appeared in front of the window.

It was Baekho-gun.