Bongsindang Is Fake

"Please, sell us more of the talismans!!"

Jian replied with a smile. "Ah, that purchase limit isn't something I set, you see. There's no way for me to lift it, either."

Lee Dojoon's expression laid his disappointment bare. He tried again. "These are the talismans written by that person who's always sitting beside you here, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"I knew it. Wow. That's actually insane."

The two men looked at each other, and their eyes lit up. "What do we have to do to get our fortunes told?"

"You can line up tomorrow morning. But the number tickets are up to... forty-five right now, so you'll have to wait a few days. He only sees four people a day."

"Can we start standing in line now?"

"Standing's fine, but I can't hand out tickets yet. See for yourself."

She pointed to a sign that read:

Which meant Jian was out the door before five in the morning.

"Ah... understood. For now, anyway!"

Fwoosh — and the two of them vanished.

And then,

Ding—

Ding—

Ding—

The sale alerts rang out, one after another without pause.

"Huh?"

Sold out in the blink of an eye. She pulled up the buyer list, and —

Every last one had been snapped up by the Cheonryong Guild.

This... tomorrow's batch would get swept the moment I listed it, wouldn't it.

Jian decided things couldn't go on like this. There was nothing in it for her, not a single coin — and yet, somehow, the thought of Bonghyuk ending up the loser left a sour taste in her mouth.

The next day. As Bonghyuk held out a fresh batch of ten talismans, Jian spoke up. "Bonghyuk. The talismans you listed yesterday? All sold out. In a flash."

"I'm sorry — what?"

Bonghyuk thought it over. The moment he wrote the talismans, she came running to list more? Which meant these things were no ordinary goods, either.

"Shall we raise the price?"

"Yes."

"Around 100,000 won...?"

Jian shook her head. "Sell them at 500,000."

Bonghyuk nearly jumped out of his skin. "Wh-what?"

Five hundred thousand won. She wanted him to sell those talismans — things that looked like idle scribbles on paper — for five hundred grand each? Had this woman suddenly come down with a case of greed? No. Selling the talismans earned her nothing at all, so why on earth...?

But Jian's eyes could not have been more serious. "The way I see it, 100,000 would be a bargain. They'll sell at 500, no problem. One guild swept the whole batch, so I can't say for certain what the effects are yet — but even at a glance, these are no ordinary items."

Bonghyuk was only half convinced. "You really think they'll sell at that price? Five hundred thousand? Potions don't even run 100,000."

"I'm only the middleman here, but I'd like good goods to fetch their proper worth. Trust me and try listing them once. You won't regret it." Jian's eyes glittered.

"Hmm... do as you see fit."

And if they sold — well. Easy money.

The Cheonryong Guild group chat.

The guild had been geared up to buy the instant the listing went live. Guild leader Seo Taeseok hesitated, his finger hovering over the purchase button — a hundred-odd members were all primed and ready to buy, and overnight the price had leapt to 500,000 won. Reading the post in the guild chat, Lee Dojoon hurriedly connected to the JAN Store to check the price himself.

"Huh? What's going on with this..."

The price really had jumped to 500,000.

At Dojoon's words, the replies came flying in, one after another.

With the A-ranks' testimonies — from people who had seen the talismans work with their own eyes —

Ding— ding— ding— one after another, they began hammering the purchase button. Sold out. Again. For Awakeners climbing the Tower, 500,000 won was barely the price of a few potions.

"Huh?!"

Bonghyuk was mid-reading beside her. Jian had just confirmed that the talismans had sold out in an instant, and she was starting to doubt her own eyes. The buyers were, once again, all Cheonryong Guild — though with yesterday's purchasers apparently capped by the purchase limit, it was the guild members who'd missed out the day before who'd swept up today's batch.

"Bought out every last one again, huh?"

The Cheonryong Guild had cleaned out yesterday's stock, and now they'd bought the whole lot once more — even after the price had gone up to 500?

The effects are real, then.

A product's true worth was, in the end, decided by the market. But she couldn't let a single guild keep buying up the entire supply. The fix? Simple. Advertise.

Jian tapped Do Yeon on the shoulder. Do Yeon, streaming at full tilt, turned around, and Jian gave her the short version of the Bongsindang talismans. She caught on in a heartbeat.

"Ah, everyone! Mid-reading here, but I'm going to plug something real quick. Bongsindang sells ten talismans a day. As for the effects — go check them for yourselves. They will not disappoint! Heheh. You can find them on the AwakenersNet JAN Store. The price is sitting at 500K for the promo period, but who knows when it'll skyrocket! New stock goes up every day at 2 PM, so show us some love — and there's a review event on too, so drop those reviews, plenty of them!"

The moment the plug aired, the comments came raining down.

Around the same time. A hotel suite with the lights off, in the finest super-deluxe hotel in all of South Korea. By the window sat a "Standard" sofa from the Italian maker Edra — a piece whose price tag made a foreign luxury car look like loose change. Someone sat at an angle on that sofa, itself worth more than the room it occupied.

Tomorrow, then.

It was Jeong Wooseok. After clearing Upper 1F with Shin Suryeon, he had shut himself back inside the hotel room.

Nutube videos played on his phone without end. Since that day, Wooseok had hunted down every last divination video, missing not one.

"Today, I'll be following the third client of the day through the gate after their reading!"

The streamer's voice. The more he watched, the fainter his doubts wore and the stronger his belief grew. His mind kept rejecting it, yet strangely, his heart kept pounding. This video was no exception.

"Regular weapons won't work in there. Enchanted weapons are a must — bring one for each attribute."

He had gotten that very reading — and, astonishingly,

Fire. Lightning. Water. Earth. Darkness. A stage where golems of all five attributes had appeared in an endless procession.

"Ha. Does this even make sense."

Jeong Wooseok breathed the words out, hollow. Why, then, had he suffered so much all this time — preparing, dungeon by dungeon, for whatever might appear, reorganizing his understocked inventory over and over?

"Everyone, launching the drone! Skill — Drone Camera!"

The view cut, and a bird's-eye shot straight out of a movie filled the screen. A circular laboratory whose ceiling stretched up into darkness. Magic circles and specimen tanks packed the walls edge to edge, and shattered magitech relics lay scattered across the floor. The colossal golems sealed inside woke one after another, each glowing with the light of its own attribute.

"Whoa, the attribute golems are waking up!"

"Let me explain this once more. If I intervene in combat or coach a clear, I'm booted out on the spot. So please, understand the nature of the streaming profession. No asking why I don't call out directions like last time."

"Oh, and if you donate with your name on it, a buff goes in — so shower me with donations, folks!"

Wooseok, without a flicker of expression, donated 10,000 Star Candies. A sum approaching five million won.

"Whoa?! A whale has surfaced! That's insane — thank you! Buff incominggg!"

Do Yeon's reaction landed with a crisp snap, and the chat window flooded upward. Then, blooming beneath the screen, a glittering donation message appeared.

He had written it for no good reason at all. Because he didn't want to believe. And yet, somehow, the belief kept creeping back anyway. What was he supposed to call this? His heart was a hopeless tangle.

Tch.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Come tomorrow, everyone would know.

And then — the 7th floor of Hell. Could he get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there? Thump.

Wooseok found he couldn't quite bring himself to close the video.

The Bongsindang booth had gone up in no time. Apparently it hadn't been much of a challenge — the moment Bonghyuk finished his readings, Jian had called in a few people and had it knocked together, quick and tidy.

"Whoa."

Bonghyuk marveled. A single old tree, every branch hung heavy with brass bells and strips of five-colored cloth. A mat spread neatly on the ground, a small low table set upon it. Even a teepee tent standing at the back. Compared to yesterday — one bare, forlorn chair — it was heaven and earth.

"It actually looks like a real shrine."

"Not bad, right?"

Jian folded her arms and gazed over the booth with quiet satisfaction. Bonghyuk settled into the seat. The backrest was comfortable, and the shade the tree offered lent a strange steadiness of its own.

Though no wind blew, now and then a bell gave a soft jingle.

"You really had this made in no time?"

"Booths go up fast. I used to blow money on interior design back in the day. Had the tree hauled in through a landscaping contact, and I picked out the bells and the cloth myself. What do you think? Nails the atmosphere, right?"

Just then Do Yeon, who'd been circling the booth with her tripod, erupted into a fuss. "Wow, Shaman Bong! This shot is unreal?!"

Click, click — she snapped the booth from one angle after another. "This has to be the thumbnail."

"R-really?"

"Absolutely! It looks even better on camera."

Jingle. The bell rang once more.

Bonghyuk sank back into his seat, dazed. Have I... actually become a shaman?

At last, the day arrived. April 24th. The very date Bonghyuk had given Shin Suryeon to enter Upper 2F.

Dozens had gathered and were murmuring among themselves before Bonghyuk had even shown up for the day, marveling at the outdoor shrine that had sprung up out of nowhere. Bonghyuk himself had come thirty minutes earlier than usual, and Do Yeon was deep in her streaming preparations.

Shin Suryeon stood before Bonghyuk, anxiety written all over her. And everyone was waiting — for Jeong Wooseok and no one else.

12:50.

12:55.

One o'clock, sharp.

At last, Jeong Wooseok showed himself.

"Ooooh."

The crowd buzzed.

Do Yeon's Tuit channel was live. 2,132 viewers — and climbing by the second.

Wooseok glanced once at Bonghyuk out of indifferent eyes, then spoke. "I go in, and I pull out Shin Suryeon's dad. That's all I need to do?"

"Of course. Get in there. The timing's razor-thin."

Tch. Whether those words are true. Whether this is even the right move. I have no idea. But Upper 2F would be child's play for me regardless. Fine — I'll trust him, just this once.

Wooseok gave Suryeon a small signal, then took his place before the Upper Gate. "Going in."

"Y-yes!"

Wooseok, Suryeon, and Do Yeon with her camera in hand stepped through the gate as one.

Krrzzt— krrzzt—

The stream cut to black for a breath, and then the landscape rose to fill the screen.

Broken ramparts crumbled away as though they had given up halfway through holding up the sky, and through the gaps dry thornbushes crept upward. Of what must once have been a magnificent colonnade, only a row of pillars remained, and across the ground the bones of enormous beasts lay half-buried in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dirt. Grey mist drifted, slow and thick, between the ruins, and from somewhere a parched wind swept through the emptied castle.

It was desolate. And it was silent as the dead.

From somewhere beyond Do Yeon's stream came something like an empty laugh. "Huh..."

The camera's framing swung toward the sound's owner.

"So it really is the Forgotten Beasts' Castle Site..."

Astonishment. Emptiness. Expectation. All of it mingled across Wooseok's face — and the screen caught every bit of it.

© KAY™#13lul