The First Request (2)
The First Request (2)
"Who."
Puk! Puk!
"Told you to play pranks."
Puk! Puk!
I ruthlessly stomped on the guy who had collapsed.
Seeing this guy wasting electricity made my blood boil.
"Does electricity money grow on trees?!"
"Hi..hihik! Huik!"
I beat the hell out of the guy who was trying to crawl across the floor with his limp arms.
"Oh, you scared me."
It wasn't like some horror game, and I never dreamed he'd show up at that exact timing.
I smacked my lips while watching the ghost guy slowly turn translucent.
'It's a shame I can't loot him.'
If this were the Spiritual World, I would've gotten some trash loot and experience points.
Feeling regret, I went down to the 1st floor.
"I've attached it."
The expressions of the party members gathered on the 1st floor were deathly pale.
"The energy has become stronger."
"Ha... it seems the vengeful spirit is angry for some reason."
"Ugh...!"
Han Ye-rin even started retching.
"The stench..."
At the mention of a stench, I sniffed, but I couldn't smell anything.
Seeing even Park Gyu scrunching up his nose, it seems they can smell something.
'Am I just insensitive?'
No, wait, do I smell?
That can't be it; ever since I heard from a girl I liked in middle school that my feet smelled, I've scrubbed my body like a germaphobe.
I always spray deodorizer on my clothes too, so it can't be my smell.
I believed that.
The two put on masks and even sprayed perfume inside them.
"Assei-ssi, you should wear one too."
Park Gyu handed me a mask slathered in perfume.
"I'm fine."
I couldn't smell anything. If anything, the air felt refreshing.
"Leave him be, let's see how long he can keep up the bluff."
Park Gyu gave a bitter smile at Han Ye-rin's words.
"Now, since we've installed the talismans and sprinkled salt, we'll start searching in pairs. Let's split into the 1st and 2nd floors."
Park Gyu handed me a walkie-talkie and continued.
"You can use this to communicate. However, be careful, as it becomes useless in front of strong vengeful spirits or evil spirits."
I nodded and attached the walkie-talkie to my chest.
"Alright then, let's move out."
Monk and I decided to search the 2nd floor, while Park Gyu and Han Ye-rin searched the 1st floor.
'Will another one pop out?'
We started checking here and there.
"By the way, what exactly are we looking for?"
"The vessel that holds the vengeful spirit. Simply put, it's similar to remains. Sometimes the vengeful spirit possesses an object, but most of the time, they settle in their own traces, like a corpse or remains."
"And we're going to find it and perform an exorcism, right?"
"That's right."
Monk and I continued our search while talking about ghosts and vengeful spirits.
"A vengeful spirit just wants to resolve their grievances, but an evil spirit is different. They harbor endless, dark malice and try to harm all living things."
"I see."
I felt my knowledge increasing.
Just as we were about to continue searching.
Monk started tapping his wooden gong.
"Monk?"
"There is... something here."
At those words, I looked at the end of the hallway and saw something blackish.
"A vengeful spirit...?"
"Probably. It seems the vessel is somewhere around here."
Monk said that and walked toward the vengeful spirit.
"We should contact them. Tell them we've pinpointed the location of the vessel."
The scattered party members gathered on the 1st floor.
Park Gyu looked at the vengeful spirit and said.
"It's definitely standing there, alright."
"It was a bit sharper last time...?"
Just as Han Ye-rin said, the vengeful spirit's aura had been sharp before.
'What is it...?'
It had become so calm that you couldn't believe it was a vengeful spirit that had claimed victims.
What on earth is it?
Such doubts pierced my mind.
"It's scared...?"
What if it's scared of something that came to the mansion?
But who is it scared of?
As Monk approached the vengeful spirit while tapping his wooden gong, it lifted its head and walked down the hallway as if running away.
And it dispersed in front of a room.
"It seems this room is the one."
"I'll open it."
It had yielded the way so obediently that I doubted if it was the same vengeful spirit I had seen earlier.
-Huhihihihi...
The madman-like voice I heard when the Occultist was attacked.
What on earth was that voice?
"By the way, did you happen to see a corpse on the 2nd floor?"
Park Gyu asked just before opening the door.
Assei answered that question.
"I didn't see one."
A sense of incongruity.
It's a sense of incongruity. This is it.
Kkiik—
The door opened, and a room with traces of people was revealed.
Without even realizing the sense of incongruity, they entered the room.
"For a place that's supposed to have the vessel..."
"That's right. It's very clean."
Just then, Assei headed to the center of the room.
Ppikeok..!
"Something is bulging up here."
He said, pointing to a part of the floor.
The two took out a shovel and a pickaxe from their bundles and started digging up the floor.
"A coffin...? They put a coffin here?"
Han Ye-rin said with disgust.
"Looking at the Funerary Banner with the name written on it, this is..."
"It looks like Chairman Choi's coffin."
I heard Chairman Choi's coffin was buried in a famous auspicious site, so why is it here?
"It'll be a headache once midnight hits. Let's seal the coffin quickly."
The power of spirits became stronger at midnight.
They quickly attached talismans to the coffin, and Monk began to chant.
Characters flowing from Monk's mouth began to seep into the coffin. The sealing characters slowly wrapped around the coffin.
'The sealing is almost done... now it's just a matter of contacting them.'
Park Gyu picked up his phone to contact the client.
They were hired for an exorcism, but now that Chairman Choi, the client's blood relative, had been found, they had no choice but to contact them.
Tturureu...
The phone dialed by itself even though he hadn't even turned it on.
Goosebumps rose at that moment.
If you are near a vengeful spirit or an evil spirit, communication devices become useless.
They can even become devices that they can use.
"He...hello?"
-It's underneath.
"What..?"
-Underneath... it is...
A dull, decaying voice continued.
-It's underneath... Huhihihihit!!
An unpleasant laugh followed. Park Gyu grabbed the phone and threw it onto the floor.
'It's underneath?'
But we already dug up the coffin?
Come to think of it, it was strange. If they sealed it, the stench and energy spreading through the mansion should have faded.
"Move the coffin right now!!"
Assei moved immediately.
He lightly grabbed the coffin, which was soaked with moisture, and flipped it over.
"What the... fuck is that..."
Before they could even be surprised by Assei's monstrous strength, Han Ye-rin, having seen something, spat out profanity.
Under the coffin.
There was a coffin buried vertically. It looked like it had been tied up haphazardly with blood-stained cloth.
"Double Burial...!!"
"Amitabha..."
At the same time, a nose-stinging stench spread out.
'I've never seen a vengeful spirit attack directly.'
The vengeful spirit appeared, and the Occultists were attacked.
Perhaps it was trying to warn them.
That there was a being behind it that shouldn't be there.
That it was dangerous.
"This is no good... this isn't something we can handle."
Park Gyu's face twisted.
Ding—! Ding—! Ding—!
The grandfather clock chimed, signaling midnight.
At the same time, something raised its body in the middle of the room.
"Gather!!"
With Monk's shout, they moved immediately.
A golden sphere grew from the center of Monk. Once it was large enough to fit all three of them, the sphere stopped growing.
"Malice so strong it chills to the bone... that is an evil spirit."
The evil spirit looked as if it were made of pitch-black ink, with not a single ray of light visible.
A skinny body with nothing but skin left, and sharp, long arms and legs.
Instead of the head that should naturally be above the neck and mouth, it was laughing while spewing black smoke.
The three, excluding Assei, felt as if all the nerves in their bodies were standing on end.
It was like the sensation of facing something that shouldn't exist.
Nausea washed over them, and pain like sharp blades slashing their heads covered them.
The price of facing an evil spirit was high.
Its head slowly turned toward them.
In the blink of an eye, it reached out its hand.
Tung-!
The sharp claws were blocked by the golden sphere.
Kagagagagak!!
It scratched the sphere with its nails, but Monk opened his eyes wide and shouted.
"Gal!! You have no ties to remain here. Lay down your obsessions and go the path you are meant to take!"
The evil spirit didn't care about Monk's shout.
Realizing its attack wasn't working, the evil spirit reached out to Chairman's coffin, which was on top of its own coffin.
The talismans attached to the coffin and Monk's sealing ceremony burned up.
"Ughhh..!!"
It shoved Chairman Choi's vengeful spirit, which had been dragged out of the coffin while its head was being held, into its mouth. The sight of it chewing up the vengeful spirit whole.
Even at that grotesque sight, Park Gyu spoke calmly.
"Now...!!"
Just when the guy was distracted by Chairman Choi's vengeful spirit, they quickly left the room.
"This is a mission that at least a Class 2 should handle! First, we must run..."
Run.
The moment he spat out that word, Park Gyu realized.
"Damn it..."
Hallways leading in all directions and stairs visible without any distinction between up and down.
This place was no longer the mansion he knew.
Park Gyu took out knuckles wrapped in talismans from his pocket and equipped them.
"It seems... we have no choice but to fight."
"Fuck... fuck... why did I have to take on a mission like this."
Han Ye-rin also took out a ritual tool that looked like a brush.
"Hey! Newbie, come here too! It's a protection spell!"
Even while annoyed, Han Ye-rin drew pictures on Park Gyu and Assei's bodies to apply the protection spell.
"Amitabha... it's here."
The evil spirit, which had appeared from somewhere, swung its hand.
Kuung—!!
Unlike the first attack that had been deflected, the sphere rang heavily.
"Keuheok...!"
At the same time, blood gushed out of Monk's mouth.
"Monk!!"
"Calm down, I can hold out a few more times."
Monk tapped his wooden gong without even wiping the blood.
Park Gyu said with a hardened expression.
"I will be the bait."
"What?! Are you crazy?! If you're going to use bait, you should use that newbie!"
"Even if Assei becomes the bait, how long do you think he can hold out? At most a few seconds. It's right for me to do this."
Park Gyu, having rejected Han Ye-rin's words, loosened up his body and headed to the edge of the golden sphere.
"Wait a second."
Assei grabbed him.
"So, you're saying we just need to take care of that guy, right?"
Assei walked out of the sphere as if it were nothing.
"Hey..! Wait a minute!!"
"That crazy bastard?!"
The evil spirit moved as if it had been waiting, and in the blink of an eye, its hand touched Assei's neck.
To be precise, it only touched.
Its hand stopped without even piercing Assei's skin. It was as if it had hit a giant steel wall.
"Where do you think a beast like you is baring your teeth at a human?"
Assei, holding a talisman in his hand, struck the evil spirit's jaw.
"Hihihik!"