Chapter 5
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Self-Moving Stone
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"So, what are we going to do about that guy?"
The dimly lit conference room had a projector screen displaying Kang Han-gyeol's blank ID photo.
Seo Hwa-rin propped her chin on her hand, clicking her ballpoint pen.
"Scouting was rejected. He claims to be a 'free spirit.'"
"A 'free spirit,' huh... What a convenient excuse."
The man seated across from her let out a hollow chuckle.
It was Park Dong-cheol, Director of the Ghost Gate Seoul Branch.
He stared gravely at the note beside Kang Han-gyeol's profile: [Estimated Rank: Immeasurable].
"I read the Bukhansan report. He incinerated a D-grade upper-tier Giant Silkworm in just ten seconds. Without leaving a single trace."
"Yes. Field analysis showed the flames used reached at least 3,000 degrees. Impossible for any standard shaman's Fire Arts."
"And a monster like that is living as a civilian..."
Director Park let out a deep sigh and clicked his tongue.
After the past catastrophe, there were only a handful of A-grade exorcists left in all of South Korea.
Each one was a walking nuke, the backbone of national defense.
And someone with power on par with them—or possibly greater—was rolling around in a Sinrim-dong rooftop room.
"Should we force him in? Slap some cuffs on him and drag him underground...?"
Director Park firmly shook his head at Seo Hwa-rin's icy question.
"Not yet. If we poke him recklessly and he goes berserk, half of Seoul could vanish. Plus, that 'chick' he carries around. High chance it's his true form or some insane spirit beast."
"A chick?"
"Yeah. High-level yokai often disguise themselves as small animals to hide their power. And Deputy Team Leader Seo."
Director Park's eyes sharpened.
"You know the sorry state Ghost Gate is in right now. Chronic manpower shortage, walking on thin ice with no clue when a major disaster might hit. We can't afford to mishandle a tactical weapon outside specs and turn him into an enemy. Forget cuffs—we should be rolling out the red carpet right now. That's an order as branch director."
"......"
"Keep him under close surveillance for now. Maintain contact without ruffling his feathers, and if he has demands, be ready to give everything we've got to bring him in. No time for pride. That's a direct order."
That was when it happened.
The conference room's red emergency lights blared noisily.
Gangnam-gu, Nonhyeon-dong new construction site. Yokai energy detected.
Rank: C-grade. Repeating. C-grade manifestation.
Seo Hwa-rin's eyes turned ice-cold in an instant.
C-grade.
Capable of smashing buildings like toys and causing mass casualties.
And right now, every available hunter above C-grade was tied up at other sites or on break—the worst possible timing.
As the director said, Ghost Gate's thin forces were painfully exposed.
"I'll go."
"Graaaah! Run! Getting grazed by that club means death!"
The site was hell.
A massive brute over four meters tall rampaged atop crumbled concrete debris.
Red-skinned with shaggy hair, a single horn on its forehead—a goblin.
The infamous evil ghost, Gwangmok.
Gwangmok cackled as it swung the massive rebar club in its hand.
Boom!
The defensive barrier set by Team 3 agents shattered like cracked glass.
"Team Leader! The barrier won't hold!"
"Exorcism rounds aren't working! Its hide's like steel!"
The Team 3 leader gritted his teeth.
Goblins were powerhouses.
This Gwangmok was a monster close to B-grade in raw strength alone.
Gwangmok raised its rebar club high.
Beneath it lay an agent whose leg was broken, unable to flee.
It's over.
Kaboom!
A thunderous roar echoed.
But the agent didn't die.
The agent, eyes squeezed shut, cautiously opened them.
"......Huh?"
The massive rebar club hung motionless in midair.
No—someone was blocking it.
A sleek-suited woman.
Her single scabbard effortlessly withstood that insane mass.
"D-Deputy Team Leader?!"
It was Seo Hwa-rin.
Her hair whipped in the wind pressure, but her expression remained glacial.
"A C-grade Gwangmok, huh. All brawn, no class."
Gwangmok snorted derisively.
But Seo Hwa-rin answered by drawing her sword.
Shing.
A razor-sharp blade wreathed in blue sword aura.
At the same moment, a massive phantom rippled behind her.
A lion's head with horns, covered in scales—a sacred beast.
The Haetae glared fiercely at the goblin.
Gwangmok's eyes wavered.
To yokai, the Haetae was an object of primal terror.
The judge that discerns good from evil and repels calamity.
"Judgment begins."
Seo Hwa-rin kicked off the ground and leaped.
Blue light swirled around her blade.
Haetae Sword, Form 1 - Judgment.
Splat!
A single strike.
The rebar club Gwangmok swung cleaved like tofu.
The blade didn't stop, plunging into its shoulder.
The goblin's scream echoed across the site.
Its steel-tough hide tore like paper.
"Evil is severed."
Seo Hwa-rin shook off her blade and landed.
Behind her, Gwangmok's massive bulk crashed down with a thud.
In a single exchange.
The overwhelming might of a B-grade exorcist.
The agents cheered, but Seo Hwa-rin frowned down at her hand.
'...This isn't enough.'
She merely borrowed the Haetae's power to cut.
But that man's flames, Kang Han-gyeol's—they were different.
An overwhelming force of total annihilation, erasing existence itself.
"That man... What the hell is he?"
Even she, a B-grade, had felt intimidated by that power.
She couldn't let Kang Han-gyeol go.
No—she needed that dangerous power under her control to feel safe.
"Just you wait. I'll drag you onto my team no matter what."
Meanwhile, blissfully unaware that Seo Hwa-rin had her eyes on me, my life had hit rock bottom again.
"......"
I stared blankly at the empty fridge.
No Hanwoo left—just one lonely container of ssam mu broth.
It had been packed full just two weeks ago.
"Peep."
Fry pecked at my foot.
He pecked his empty food bowl in protest.
"Hey... Aren't you eating too much?"
With trembling hands, I opened my banking app.
[Balance: 12,500 won]
3.5 million won.
The biggest sum of my life—and it vanished in two weeks.
The culprit was obvious.
This yellow lord who wouldn't touch anything less than 1++ grade Hanwoo every meal.
"I must be crazy. Spoiled him with gourmet tastes."
At first, I bought it gratefully, but now he acts entitled.
Yesterday's imported beef? Incinerated it and flipped his bowl.
Unbelievable.
Am I the owner or the butler?
"Peep!"
"Alright, alright. I'll go earn some money."
I sighed and opened the Alba Heaven app.
Back to unloading cargo?
That's when my phone buzzed.
Bzzz—bzzz.
Unknown number.
010 mobile. I'd ignore it normally, but the timing was perfect.
I answered, just in case.
"Hello?"
[Huff... huff... Is this Kang Han-gyeol?]
Urgent voice. Familiar. Who?
"Yes, speaking. Who's this?"
[Oh man! Master! It's me! Kim Foreman from last time, the one who guided you at the abandoned orchard in Bukhansan! Remember? You torched that Giant Silkworm!]
Ah. My life's VIP. Kim Foreman from Cheonji Manpower.
The guy who shoved 3.5 million at me and bolted.
No contact since—I'd forgotten.
"Ah, yes. Foreman. Long time no see. What's up? Not calling for a refund, I hope?"
[No way! Listen... Please help us one more time!]
A rumble and screams echoed through the phone.
Something was wrong.
Another construction site?
[We're on a big villa build in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi-do. While digging... Something came out again!]
"Again? What this time? Earthworm?"
[No! A rock! Looks like a millstone, but it's moving on its own, grinding everything! Forklifts, everything's getting shredded!]
"A millstone?"
[Asked a passing shaman—she called it 'Self-Moving Stone'... A yokai rock that moves itself. She bolted the second she saw it!]
Self-Moving Stone.
First I'd heard of it.
A rock that moves itself.
[If we report to the Association, site's shut down, our company's ruined! You're our only hope, Master! 5 million a day! No, 10 million! Please come!]
10 million.
My eyes lit up.
10 million covers Fry's meals for 3 months.
No, 6.
I looked down at Fry.
He tilted his head at '10 million,' ears perking.
"Hey, Fry. Let's go smash a rock. Earning Hanwoo money."
"Peep! (Call!)"
Once more, we headed to the battlefield summoned by capitalism.
The site was a wreck.
A clearing carved into the mountainside, thick with dust, visibility low.
"Master! Over here!"
Kim Foreman spotted me and came running, pointing frantically.
In the center of the site loomed a massive black rock boulder, easily two meters across.
Shaped like an old grain millstone.
But that boulder... floated in midair by itself.
Vrrr—vrrrr.
Emitting a mechanical whine, it spun furiously.
Like a giant living blender.
A chilling scrape like stone on stone.
It swept the ground, devouring everything in reach.
Rebar, bricks, even stray hardhats.
The instant they touched its underside, they powdered into fine sand and scattered.
"That's the... Self-Moving Stone?"
"Yes! Shaman said it's from the Samguk Sagi—runs wild without an owner, grinding everything!"
Kim Foreman looked miserable.
Definitely dangerous.
Grazed? Dead.
"Everyone, fall back! Dangerous up close!"
I pushed the workers back and eyed it.
Couldn't charge blindly.
That spin would deflect anything thrown, and close range meant I'd be boneless fillet too.
Rumble!
The Self-Moving Stone moved.
It charged a pile of rebar in the corner.
Kaboom!
Dozens of rebars powdered instantly.
But its reaction was odd.
It stuttered its spin, then turned.
This time toward a dump truck's tire.
Rubber shredded, acrid smoke rising.
I swallowed hard.
Not just smashing randomly.
It was searching for something.
"......Softer?"
As I muttered, it moved again.
Faster this time.
Zigzagging, sweeping the ground.
Like a hound scenting prey.
And where it stopped.
A bloodstain from an escaping worker earlier.
Vrrrrr!
Smelling blood, its spin accelerated wildly.
Its body shuddered in excitement.
"Shit."
Chills ran down my spine.
It wasn't after rebar or rocks.
Blood and flesh.
Life.
"Foreman! It's targeting people! Everyone run!"
As I shouted, it pivoted.
Its axis locked on the container where Kim Foreman and the injured hid.
"Aaaah! It's coming!"
The workers screamed and fled.
Too late.
It was much faster.
They'd be blendered with the container like fruit.
'Gotta stop it.'
But how?
Fire?
Just heats it up.
Physical attack?
Shredded.
I desperately observed it.
Fast. Powerful. But... not perfect.
It had a pattern.
[Charge] → [Stop (Search)] → [Micro-spin] → [Charge Again]
Every direction change, a split-second dip in spin force.
That was the window.
'And the weak point...'
I scrutinized its form.
Smooth round body.
Anywhere else slips or bounces.
Need a protrusion or indentation.
There—its top, amid the frenzy, an oddly still center.
A recessed hole. The handle slot for a millstone.
'Eye of the storm.'
A spinning object's core doesn't move.
There.
Jam something in that hole, twist the axis, and it might self-destruct.
Possible?
Miss the timing by a hair, and my arm goes first.
No other way.
"Hoo..."
I steadied my breath.
Grabbed a thick rebar from the ground.
Heavy.
"Hey, Fry."
I whispered shakily to my pocket.
"About to do something insane. Fail, and we're both millstone juice."
"Peep?"
He poked his head out.
No time to explain—I ran.
Just before it hit the container, that fleeting pivot.
"Now!"
I dove sideways, thrusting the rebar at its top with all my might.
Target: one spot.
The central hole.
Screeech!
Horrid metal-on-stone scrape.
Sparks flew.
Wrist nearly snapped from impact.
But it went in!
Rebar tip lodged in the core with a metallic clang.
Grind!
"Nngh...!"
I gritted my teeth, gripping tight.
Spin wobbled for a moment.
But...
Crack!
"...Damn it!"
Not enough.
My strength couldn't overcome its rotational energy.
The jammed rebar bent like taffy, starting to shred.
The Self-Moving Stone recovered, roaring faster.
This way, my hand gets pulled in next.
"Ah, we're screwed."
Let go?
What about the people behind?
In that do-or-die moment.
"Piyak!"
My pocket burst open—a yellow blur shot out.
Fry.
Instead of fleeing, he springboarded off my shoulder into the air.
And lightly landed on the quivering rebar end, about to snap.
"Hey! Dangerous—"
My shout drowned out.
Fry's eyes sharpened.
He got it.
This rod his owner jammed in.
Drive it deeper, and it's done.
He focused on his beak.
Hard, sharp—overwhelming physical strike.
"Peep!"
Fry slammed his beak into the rebar head like a massive hammer.
Thud!
A heavy impact rang out.
The shock through my hands felt different.
The bending rebar pierced straight through the millstone's core on that one hit.
Crunch!
Axis pierced, its spin halted dead.
No—twisted.
Vast rotational force lost direction, colliding internally.
Crack!
Fissures spiderwebbed like lightning across the black stone's surface.
Fry tilted his head down at me.
"Peep."
I muttered blankly.
"...You do physical attacks too?"