The Truth Revealed (3)
The Truth Revealed (3)
I quickly contacted Bupali.
-Occult Newbie: Bupali-nim, Bupali-nim!
-Talisman-selling Girl: Wh-What? Sending me a direct message?
-Occult Newbie: (Pic of Monster Bird's Heart) With this, you can make a Yangban-grade curse-breaking potion, right?
-Talisman-selling Girl: Hey, don't tell me you...
-Occult Newbie: Just answer whether you can or can't.
At those words, Bupali, who was silent for a moment, replied.
-Talisman-selling Girl: I can.
-Occult Newbie: Let's make a deal. The deal is for you to make that... Yangban-grade curse-breaking potion.
-Talisman-selling Girl: Fine. But you know that, right...? That Back Mountain Spirit guy is being hunted down?
-Occult Newbie: Yes, I know. It's fine. At least he won't die at the hands of the curse practitioners.
-Talisman-selling Girl: How do you know that?
-Occult Newbie: Because it just left.
Night was approaching. Baek Cheolsu leaned on his staff and lifted his rock-like body.
His head was already burning with pain, and the wounded area was rotting away due to the hex.
[ Baek Cheolsu... Where are you going! If you do that... ]
Myoryeong couldn't continue her sentence. Because she intuitively sensed that he was on the verge of death.
"It's alright, Myoryeong."
Baek Cheolsu comforted her and walked out.
The outside was slowly sinking into darkness.
"These bastards... came in swarms again. If I knew this would happen, I should have received a divine possession initiation ritual or something."
Signs of presence felt from here and there.
Watching the curse practitioners slowly climbing up the hill, he gripped his staff tightly.
'Come to think of it, Newbie said he would help with something.'
Although he had sent his map location in a daze, what could a newbie possibly do?
Maybe the newbie was just angry at this absurd reality.
Because Baek Cheolsu himself was like that at first, too.
He was grateful for the thought alone.
They looked at Baek Cheolsu and opened their mouths.
"Someone used a cursed tool imbued with a hex. Was it that urgent?"
"Subdue him quickly before the hex swallows his soul."
Baek Cheolsu raised his staff with all his strength and slammed it onto the ground.
Jjeo-eok—
Along with the sound of the ground splitting, a cloud of dust scattered.
"Don't think I'll go down easily. I'm putting my life on the line here."
At Baek Cheolsu's massive, sharp aura, the curse practitioners flinched.
"My name is Baek Cheolsu! Successor of the Great Power Deity's true legacy! A 1st-grade occultist! If you don't value your lives, come at me!!"
He shouted while holding his staff. His spirit was truly like that of a general.
[ Che...Cheolsu-ya... ]
Myoryeong called out to him while he was striking a cool pose.
"I feel it too."
Deep in those mountains, something was moving slowly. The hairs all over his body stood on end.
Instinct sounded an alarm bell.
Soon, a pain like a large nail being jabbed into his temples washed over him. It was the price and warning of facing something that should not exist.
That thing can absolutely never be beaten.
"Ugh... Bleh!"
Some of the curse practitioners held their mouths and threw up.
[ That presence... even if I were to manifest... ]
Even Myoryeong, a Dokkaebi, trembled in fear.
'What on earth did those bastards bring with them?'
Did they summon a Great Youkai that had lived for a long time?
Just as that thought crossed his mind.
"You bastard Baek Cheolsu!! What on earth did you do!!"
"Me...? Are you asking me?"
Baek Cheolsu shouted in utter disbelief.
"I asked what on earth that presence is!!"
Wasn't it you guys who brought it?
Then who...?
While they spoke, that entity slowly revealed itself.
A beautiful woman with black hair, wearing a tight-fitting red dress on her red body and a red mask over her mouth.
She was walking through the deep mountains, her red high heels clicking away.
"An Anomaly...?"
Ghosts are entities composed of human remnants and faint spiritual power.
Evil spirits are calamities born when human malice grows strong and draws in surrounding spiritual power.
Anomalies are beings created by human imagination and rumors.
At least, that was what the Gallery members assumed.
So here is the question.
Are Anomalies made of spiritual power too?
"Fuck..."
The answer is yes.
Spiritual power, endlessly condensed and clumped together, was moving with a will of its own.
Spiritual power spewing endlessly from her chest area formed her body.
It felt like watching a massive waterfall of gushing lava.
'If it's an Anomaly wearing a Red Mask...'
He had seen a picture in the Gallery once before. He had been lucky enough not to encounter her because he never stumbled into the back alleys.
A roaming boss, a veteran killer that took down several high-level users, and now the roaming boss turned into the Newbie's summoned beast.
'Red Mask..'
Suddenly, the Newbie's words came to mind.
-Occult Newbie: I'm going to send a mercenary. A very pretty and scary mercenary.
"You crazy Newbie bastard... Who the hell sends a boss..."
*
You cannot run away from Red Mask.
The moment she captures a target, she pursues relentlessly.
What Talisman-selling Girl said was not a lie.
Because in reality, she could teleport anywhere as long as darkness was present.
Red Mask's crimson eyes moved. Those caught in her gaze couldn't move a muscle, only trembling at the shoulders.
Because if they got on her nerves, they would be ripped apart without discrimination.
"Who is the Back Mountain Spirit?"
At her first words, everyone swallowed hard.
The curse practitioners intuitively knew that the one she was looking for was Baek Cheolsu.
And Baek Cheolsu was terrified, even if she had been sent by Occult Newbie.
The corners of Red Mask's lips curled up.
"Nobody? If there's nobody, then I can just kill everyone, right?"
Wearing a bloodcurdling smile, her figure blurred, and in an instant, the heads of several people flew into the air.
"Now, wouldn't this mouth suit you well?!"
Before the shock of their comrade's death could even fade, Red Mask grabbed the corners of a curse practitioner's mouth and ripped it wide open.
Her fingernails gleamed with a bloody shine.
"Kyahahahahaha!!"
Accompanied by a chilling laugh, she tore through the midst of the curse practitioners. Every time her sharp claws slashed, human limbs flew.
"Crazy..."
Baek Cheolsu muttered as he watched the scene.
It was impossible not to swear.
Because she was handling the curse practitioners—who were extremely tricky opponents—like mere children.
Right then, a notification from the Gallery entered his vision.
When he opened the Gallery, there was a direct message from the administrator.
-Spiritual Master: Show us what you're seeing.
-Back Mountain Spirit: What do you mean? You can't stream in reality, can you? At best, you can only upload photos.
-Spiritual Master: Not anymore. I bought the Reality Broadcast Rights. For a whopping 10,000,000 Spiritual Rubles.
-Back Mountain Spirit: What...?
A new wind began to blow through the Gallery.
[ The broadcast has started. ]
-Talisman-selling Girl: Wow... Red Mask is actually real? I honestly thought it was photoshopped.
-Gumi Miho: Looks like those guys getting sliced up by her nails are the curse practitioners~ Ah, so satisfying.
-Monk No. 24: Those devilish fiends...!
-Occult Newbie: shiver Wow, this actually works?
His tone sounded as if even he, the person responsible, hadn't expected it to actually work.
"You crazy Newbie bastard."
-Occult Newbie: Calling a growing sprout of a newbie a crazy bastard, really?
"Keuk... Kuhaha... Fine, if we meet in the Spiritual World, I'll give you a deep kiss."
-Occult Newbie: Ugh, that's a bit much;;
Watching Occult Newbie recoil in absolute disgust, Baek Cheolsu burst out laughing.
-Spiritual Master: I think it'd be better if you stopped watching and ran away?
-Talisman-selling Girl: And hey, accept Newbie's trade!
"A trade?"
At the mention of a trade, Newbie typed in the chat.
-Occult Newbie: I've been sending trade requests for a while now. Guess you didn't see them.
When Baek Cheolsu checked the trade window, there were over ten notifications.
He seemed to have missed them amidst all the chaos.
He immediately clicked accept trade and saw an unexpected item.
[ Curse-Breaking Potion (Yangban-grade) ]
The lost hope began to bloom once again.
A lifeline dangling right before his eyes.
Baek Cheolsu was not foolish enough to let it go.
-Occult Newbie: Bupali said this easily goes over 10 million Rubles though.
-Back Mountain Spirit: I don't have that much. My total fortune is around 8 million Rubles.
-Occult Newbie: Fine. Let me do a cool deal with you. Give me your entire fortune that you accumulated over the years.
-Back Mountain Spirit: Are you serious?
-Occult Newbie: I am buying the time you accumulated, Sansinryeong-nim.
Those words touched Baek Cheolsu's heart deeply.
'This guy... He really was a good guy after all.'
-Occult Newbie: And please hit the upvote button a lot on my posts.
SO THAT WAS YOUR GOAL...!
Having become Newbie's cheap Upvote Slave No. 1, Baek Cheolsu placed his entire fortune into the trade list.
[ 8,000,000 'Spiritual Rubles' ]
Seeing the overwhelming number made his heart ache, but if he didn't let this go, his heart would literally rot to pieces.
He immediately pressed the accept trade button.
'Bye-bye, my pretty Rubles that I earned... Farewell...'