The Jangsan Tiger Is Bored
The Jangsan Tiger is bored.
“What do I do? What should I do about this, Sanbeom?!”
Yeongchun spun around the room like she was possessed, clutching her head.
“I had to pick the one thing the senior would see! How am I supposed to explain this? If I say I did it because I was bored, they’ll definitely dump all their work on me while calling me ‘Yeongchun must be really lazy’.....!”
“It’s too much, so sit down and calm down.”
“Y-yes, right. My calming medicine!”
Yeongchun suddenly lunged at me and hugged me tightly.
I wonder if it would have been better to just let her keep spinning.
“Sanbeom, you’ll protect me, right? Right?”
Because of this guy...... No, in the end, it’s because of me for letting this guy appear on the broadcast? Either way, I’m going to get caught in the crossfire too.
The grim reaper who came and went could expose everything I was scheming with this guy.
Just don’t broadcast today and play games instead.....
BRRRRING!!!
A loud engine sound echoed from outside.
“Heeik! It’s here, it’s here!”
Yeongchun’s nervous symptoms intensified, and in reaction, she grabbed and patted me even more intensely.
“Y-you, is this the Jangsanbeom’s house?”
(S-s-Ssanbeom, no, Jangsanbeom! Please save me!)
Yeongchun whispered to me in a low voice.
This situation was familiar to me.
A situation where I was blocking the conversation with a curtain.
Usually, I was the one calling the other out from outside with my voice, but this time it was the opposite.
“Eh...? What? My ears are getting dull because I’m old.....”
Since phantom beasts don’t live as old people, I used the voice of an old man who was at least 80 years old.
“Ah, sorry. I must have come to the wrong place.”
He was fooled. Perfectly! My talent for fooling even grim reapers.....!
“Strange....? You said it was a woman.....?”
The man outside muttered a few words and then disappeared.
“Wow, I barely made it.... Thank you.”
Yeongchun let out a sigh of relief.
“As expected, it was a woman. Yeongchun, get inside.”
“Ah......”
Yeongchun let out a short whine at having brought the disaster upon herself that she could have avoided.
“Master, open the door. It’s work.”
She fell for such a cliché trick. Yeongchun, how can you be a grim reaper like this?!
Should I lock the door and endure?
Using the Soul Glove to smash them open would be easy..... Well, let’s just open it.
I pulled the door handle with my trembling hand.
And what appeared was a middle-aged man in his early 40s with a scruffy beard.
That face looks familiar from somewhere......
“You’ve been using the body I recommended well.”
It was the guy who recommended this body to me.
The one I wanted to tear apart every day like breathing.
“Why are your eyes vertical.....?”
“Clench your teeth...!”
Thud, crack! Crunch!!
“What the! Why are you suddenly here?!”
“Do you know how much pain I went through because of the body you gave?!”
Crunch, crunch, KIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!
The opponent was a grim reaper official, but in my reversed eyes, it was invisible.
As long as I can return the pain I received! That’s all, another record? It’s fine!
.
.
“So, the senior Gwak Min-cheol...... gave the body to Sanbeom?”
“Yeah.”
The grim reaper called Gwak Min-cheol held an ice pack to his swollen cheek.
Was it too harsh.....
No, thinking about how this guy made me get caught in a boring part-time job at the convenience store and only the weirdos came during my working hours, even if I forced one of his arms into the afterlife, it wouldn’t be enough.
“Yeongchun, you appeared on the broadcast....?”
“Um..... It was to catch the escaped ghosts. If I say I was doing fortune-telling on the broadcast, even shamans and such would see it.....”
Yeongchun rolled her eyes fiercely, doing evasion maneuvers.
She was trying to avoid saying she was doing fortune-telling on the broadcast because she had no work to do.
“But why was Senior Gwak in that broadcast?”
“That..... That is.....”
“Is it because he was ‘bored’?”
This time, Gwak Min-cheol started desperately avoiding eye contact.
Apparently, the word ‘bored’ is taboo among grim reapers.
“Rather than bored..... Yeongchun did it as part of her work, you know.”
Work? I wanted to ask what kind of work it is for a grim reaper to watch a broadcast, but I held it in for now.
“By the way, Yeongchun, you came to investigate the woman.”
Ugh, now it’s my turn for evasion?
“Y-yes, but there are no miscellaneous spirits here. This is enough to pass as legitimate.”
Is this grim reaper blind? There must be at least four miscellaneous spirits doing forced labor in this house right now? What is this?
“If I investigate more closely, I might really die here, so let’s quickly finish and go.”
Gwak Min-cheol said while glaring at me.
“Eh? I was planning to stay here today?”
What....? This is my (rented) house, when did the landlord change? Did I say it was okay for Yeongchun to stay over?
Yeongchun’s bold declaration that she was staying here made me suspect I had forgotten to give permission after saying it was fine.
“Oh, I see. Then I’ll go first.”
Gwak Min-cheol stood up hurriedly.
Where are you going! Take your junior with you!!
But before I could say anything, Gwak Min-cheol left the house first.
“Now it’s just the two of us..... Hoo hoot!”
Is this fear? Am I feeling fear right now?
I finally understood why humans fear hearing ghost stories.
“Sanbeom! Thank you, really thank you! I almost died of fear, but thanks to you I barely survived. Because you beat up the senior, the senior left without saying a word! If they had caught me stealing the Soul Glove too, I would have really died....!”
“Even though you’re already dead, you say you’re dying again...... And stop grabbing my head and pulling it around.”
“Y-yes.”
Yeongchun wiped her tears and snot with tissue.
“So, we’re going home?”
“Eh?”
Yeongchun asked with a face that didn’t understand the meaning of my words at all.
“You’re not going home?”
“I’m staying here today.”
Was it not just a lie to avoid the senior’s interrogation, but sincere?!
“Get out of here right now before I put you to sleep forever!!!!”
.
.
Even though my command to leave was ignored, Yeongchun eventually backed down for my phone number.
She was extremely persistent, to the point of confusing whether she was a grim reaper or a ghost.
Because of that, I used up all the energy I would have used for the next day or two.
“Ah, the mattress is the best.”
Since I didn’t even have the energy to sit on the chair, I just lay down flat.
“I want to become lazy...... Humans can become lazy as much as they want if they have money....”
Even the day after being investigated for 24 hours for attacking a grim reaper while living on Jangsan, I had to go hunting.
The hunted things couldn’t be stored because they would rot.
In winter, they didn’t rot, so I could store them, but at that time, I didn’t even have enough to put in my mouth.
So, I had to live diligently like a working salaryman.
Lying down doing nothing like now is a luxury only a human can enjoy.
“Blanket is good. Bed is good. I want to live like this!”
Actively doing nothing. Because I don’t want anything, I don’t lose anything. Attachment disappears.
Is this the realm of nirvana as spoken of in Buddhism?
“Humans really hate being lazy.”
Humans always try to accomplish something within their given finite time.
They swim like a school of sardines without knowing what they are trying to achieve, feeling at ease in belonging to the group.
They swim hard to not be left behind by the group.
They see the ones who fell behind exhausted and laugh, feeling superior.
Then, to not be laughed at, they swim with renewed strength.....
“This is the hell of endless suffering.....”
There is no end or beginning in the vast sea. The destination is also not the end.
“Humans are told to achieve anything. I will find the fun to enjoy eternal life.”
For me living eternal life, there was no goal.
Up to now and in the future.
I lived by doing what I wanted, drawn by interest.
Even becoming human now was just drawn by interest.
“Bored..... Am I ADHD?”
That’s not possible. Beings who live eternal life easily get bored.
Same emotions.... Especially boredom is felt thousands of times during life, so feeling bored easily was a characteristic.
Ring ring ring ring!
Perfect timing since I was bored! The guy who called at this time from the East, whose guts are hanging out!