Chapter 27

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Translator: True Detective

Chapter: 26

Chapter Title: The Clue That Came on Its Own

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A little past 3 a.m.

The dead of night, shrouded in its characteristic silence.

A small commotion broke out in the motel, where an ominous, quiet air had settled.

Thud... Thud... Thud.

A knock on the door, irregular in rhythm.

It tapped three times, then paused.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Then it knocked again, announcing its presence.

Who would come looking for us at this hour?

Whoever was outside the door wasn't just a casual visitor.

With no peephole, there was no way to check who it was without opening the door.

I stood silently at the entrance, arms crossed.

When I didn't respond, the uninvited guest soon started speaking.

"Seo-hyeon... it's me... Sister Shin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Seo-hyeon... It's me..."

A young woman's voice, one I didn't recognize. It was probably impersonating one of Sister Shin Seo-hyeon's acquaintances.

"Seo-hyeon... why... why did you abandon me...? How could you... I trusted you..."

It was likely trying to trigger Sister Shin Seo-hyeon's trauma and shake her mental fortitude. Unfortunately for it, she was in the shower right now.

No matter what it said, it was pointless.

"Seo-hyeon...? You're... there, right...? Seo-hyeon..."

With me staying silent and just listening, it now pitifully called out for Sister Shin Seo-hyeon.

The thing outside the door truly seemed unaware of my presence.

Could the demon still not sense me? I had no idea which mode was hiding my existence from it, but the situation was turning amusing.

"Sister Joanna... you wicked bitch... How can you... call yourself human...?"

When the woman's voice got no reaction, it switched to an old man's voice.

Judging by how the demon's minion was trying to seduce her with various voices, Sister Shin Seo-hyeon must have quite a few traumas.

"Um, Mr. Fixer. Is someone outside...?"

"No, it's nothing. Sister, take your time drying your hair."

The sister peeked out from the bathroom door, just her head.

I sent her back inside. No need to let her face this trauma-prodding creep.

With hair that long, drying it alone would take over 20 minutes.

Might as well deal with the intruder in the meantime.

"First..."

I drew an unbroken line around the room's edges with the signing pen I'd prepared.

When the pen met its starting point again, I wrote the character for "knot", then "seal" on the door, sealing the entrance.

With the barrier up and the door sealed, it wouldn't get in easily now.

"Gotta seal the window too."

I wrote "seal" on the motel room window as well. Finally, I taped the "Exile" talisman that Taoist Moon Seon-woo had given me to the back of my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right hand, securing it so it wouldn't fall off.

Preparations complete.

Sister Shin Seo-hyeon was tough, but she shouldn't waste her energy on trash like this.

No sense letting her mental strength drain pointlessly.

I'll handle the small fry.

Thud. Thud... Bang-!

I flung the door open on the final knock and lunged outside.

The pitch-black figure standing there scattered like mist in shock, repeatedly dispersing and reforming.

Not a single organism, but thousands—tens of thousands—of insects clinging to a human host, writhing.

A grotesque mass born from slimy, wet, many-legged things lumped together.

The ominous, quiet motel air now mixed with the stench of moldy rot.

My ears itched, my skin crawled.

"Who... are you...?"

The grotesque form made from bugs clustered on a boy's body recoiled in confusion at my appearance.

At that moment, the motel hallway lights flickered, then all burst at once.

Darkness flooded the motel in an instant, seething with malice. Countless bugs and rats poured from every corner of the hallway, filling it up.

Doors to closed guest rooms creaked open one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by one, spewing more pests.

Splash!

The wave of surging insects couldn't breach the entrance to the sister's room and bounced back.

The barrier's effect was solid.

Now to exterminate all the vermin gathered here.

"You shouldn't cling to people and do bad things."

To exorcise that monster, I needed to find and take down the coerced priest who summoned it, or kill at least half the bugs on the boy.

It'd take time and care to avoid killing the host boy with my attacks, but steadily killing bugs would make it vanish eventually.

Clap!

I clapped as hard as I could at the insect swarm.

The bugs covering the boy's head burst and scattered from the shockwave, raining dead onto the floor.

Direct hits would kill the host, so indirect attacks it was.

With most of the bugs on the host's head wiped out, the swarm shrieked in distress, convulsing like a trampled worm.

"You... who... are you...!"

Hundreds of bugs latched onto me, biting skin and injecting venom to kill. But this did nothing serious.

Pathetic. Their numbers were high, but the damage was way less than when those runaway kids bashed my head with steel pipes.

Bugs crawling into my ears and nose were crushed by internal pressure. Every swing of my arm swept away hundreds in the wind pressure.

Our matchup sucked for them.

They couldn't hurt me properly, and without any AoE skills, I had to pick them off one by one—tedious work.

A battle between a horde with AoE and a human without.

"Enough now. Go back to where you came from."

I swung my fist wrapped in the Exile talisman, wildly smashing incoming bugs.

Thanks to the talisman, far more bugs were dying.

Thousands exploded, piling up on the floor. Soon my body was sticky with bug fluids and corpses.

Then the staggering swarm screamed at me in rage.

"I wasn't told...! Master said... nothing about you...!"

The bugs on the boy's body were mangled beyond recognition. The hallway pests and rats, killed by the hundreds, fled outside in fear.

The malice-packed swarm was routed.

In the end, it was a fight won by dropping that grotesque thing's favor to -120%.

Easy when you could see the enemy's HP.

I stomped the collapsed bugs and picked up the fainted boy from the swarm.

Tapping the unconscious boy's chest, a single black beetle crawled out of his mouth.

This must be the beetle that touched the inverted pentagram in the abandoned building. The crystallization of sin for climbing the bug tower to become the demon's minion.

"Ugh... Aaaah...!"

"Hey now. No screaming in the middle of the night."

"Mmph...?!"

Crushing the beetle killed it, and the boy regained consciousness, screaming in shock.

I clamped his mouth shut and calmed him down.

Now I had a guy who might know where the coerced priest was. Time to extract info.

"Who sent you here? Answer well, or you might get taken over by bugs again like before."

Telling him he could be swarmed and lose consciousness again, the boy paled and stammered what he knew.

"I-I don't remember exactly... Some uncle said he'd pay me to eat bugs..."

"He paid you to eat bugs? And you did?"

"Y-Yeah... He gave a lot of money... I ate it, but planned to spit it out? But it crawled in on its own, and I blacked out after."

How desperate for cash do you have to be to eat bugs?

"Any other kids? Kids who took money and jobs from him."

"Lots. That weird uncle... started approaching runaways last month, giving money for weird jobs. Kids called him a crazy perv, but the pay was good, so they obeyed."

Not just one or two, as expected.

He'd already made many runaways commit sins.

"Where can I find that uncle now?"

"I-I don't know... Can't go until he contacts first..."

"Don't you remember where you ate the bug? Think hard. If you don't, other kids are in danger."

"Wait... Memories fuzzy. It was a complicated place? Dark, with shuttered shops... Met where no people. He made me eat the bug there, gave money in envelope. That's all I remember. R-Really..."

"Complicated place with shuttered shops? Come on, think. It was in Incheon, right? Match it to your neighborhood."

The coerced priest's range was narrowed to Incheon.

So somewhere in Incheon, a complex spot with closed shops. With that hint, I could pinpoint it.

"Oh... Yeah... Bupyeong! He called me to Bupyeong Underground Mall... If I had my phone, I could show the message..."

"Bupyeong Underground Mall? That's where. Good job remembering. Now head home. Want me to walk you?"

"N-No, I can go alone. G-Goodbye."

I offered to escort him home, but he bolted outside before I could stop him.

Got all the basic info. The clue rolled right to me, revealing the location fast.

Otherwise, I'd have to hunt runaways for intel. Lucky break.

Now just head to Bupyeong Underground Mall and take out the culprit...

"Sigh. What a mess."

After grinding the dead beetle completely, I surveyed the post-battle scene.

Total disaster. No clue how to clean up.

Hallway lights all shattered, most windows broken.

Even cracks in the walls. How much would repairs cost?

Just clearing dead bugs and rats would take days.

I couldn't afford the damages.

"Mr. Fixer?"

"Ah, Sister. You're out."

"Yes... What on earth...?"

The sister, hair now dry, opened the door and stepped out.

She scanned the wrecked hallway, then looked up at me expectantly.

Demanding an explanation.

"Well, an intruder came. Things got crazy in the fight."

"I see... We'll bill the church for all this. Don't worry about the money. I know you were protecting me."

She tried patting my back reassuringly but pulled her hand away upon seeing bug legs stuck there.

"Mr. Fixer, you need a shower first."

"Yeah. Good thing I packed spare clothes."

Today's outfit was trash. No way it'd come clean.

After showering, I briefed the sister on my hypothesis from the clues so far, including that the runaway kids were in danger.

I explained the coerced priest's likely spot and the demon's goal: sacrificing sin-committing humans to complete itself. Her face grew grave.

"Not content with possessing the coerced priest... It wants to fully descend into this world."

"Exactly. It'll use the runaways to target you to the end. Only then can the sins complete, letting it ascend further."

"Can't sleep on this."

The sister rummaged in her bag and donned her habit.

Even tired, she wanted to end the demon before dawn.

"Mr. Fixer... Can we head out now...?"

"I'm fine, but you're tired."

"I'm okay... Can't sleep knowing the kids are at risk."

She urged finishing it before it got worse.

Every delayed minute meant more demon schemes. The runaways were in peril.

"Alright. To Bupyeong."

Rain still poured outside. Pre-dawn darkness.

The sister and I braved the downpour and hopped on Bongbong.

Hurry to Bupyeong Station Underground Mall.

The possessed kids and the demon-possessed coerced priest were probably there.