Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: End of Misfortune
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'If you're going to ruin someone's life, you ought to put your own on the line too, right?'
I don't know who said it, but it perfectly captured the essence of human affairs.
If you're using your paltry power to crush someone...
...you must always remember that you yourself could be crushed by even greater power.
That's the unspoken 'rule' of the world we live in.
The hellish days at Gyeongdong High School were finally over.
Fiddling absentmindedly with the diploma in his hand, Seongmin murmured.
"Thank you..."
Jincheol, gazing out the window behind the luxury sedan speeding away with Seongmin aboard, spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"It was only right. Under the Supreme One, we're comrades who share every joy and sorrow."
At the words of Jincheol—the guild master of the colossal Unwoo Guild—Seongmin felt a lump rise in his throat.
It had been agonizing days, one after another.
Simply possessing divine power let him see things invisible to others.
Some called it a blessing, but to Seongmin, it was nothing less than a curse.
A curse that stole his parents' lives, tormented his grandmother, and turned the high school he'd once enjoyed into pure hell.
Just moments ago, nothing had changed—high school was still hell for him, exactly as it had been a week earlier.
But what about him now?
He was riding in a car alongside the Unwoo Guild master, a man with the power to crush even the immense authority that society revered and had forced him to bow to.
The guild master he'd believed was perched far beyond reach in the heavens was calling him a comrade.
Sniff.
Seongmin's life had been utter hell.
And the sole thing that had changed amid it all...
"Go ahead and cry. The Demon Dragon Commander said it himself—anyone recruited into Ghost Soul Annihilation or the Demon Dragon Corps must have been so lucky in their past life they saved an entire nation."
Ghost Soul Annihilation.
Just belonging to that group.
For Seongmin, who'd lived every day on edge, it brought the first true sense of relief he'd ever known.
Tears began streaming endlessly from his eyes.
"I couldn't agree more. Just walking alongside the Supreme One means we were born under a lucky star."
Jincheol's words brought back the shaman's counsel he'd dismissed at the time.
「It must have been excruciating. Carrying a body infused with divine power without ever hosting a god... a catastrophe would have befallen you and your family by now.」
Back then, he'd hated the shrine's atmosphere so much he'd only wanted to bolt. But looking back now, those words had laid bare every twist of Seongmin's recent life.
「Don't hold it against them too harshly. None of the misfortunes that struck you were their doing. If anything, the god who chose you cleared away the blocked paths of discord along the way, paving the road for your divine descent and granting you great fortune.」
One of Ghost Soul Annihilation's ghost souls reaching out to Seongmin as he awaited his hunter exam...
And whatever it was that compelled him to grasp that hand...
Wasn't it all the grand fortune orchestrated by the very god who'd selected him? The thought struck deep in Seongmin's heart.
「Worry not. Now that you've finally welcomed the god you'd long postponed, the walls of misfortune erected by that unclaimed divine power will crumble. All the great fortunes trapped behind them will come flooding your way.」
The shaman had been spot on.
For Seongmin, no greater fortune could exist.
The immense luck embodied in those four syllables: Ghost Soul Annihilation.
'Thank you.'
Seongmin shed quiet tears as he offered silent gratitude to the god within.
'I'm sorry. I knew nothing and blamed you for it all.'
In truth, the god had been striving to shield him from every calamity.
It was all so shameful—blaming the god for every woe without realizing it.
The god had offered protection without condition or expectation to one as ignorant as Seongmin.
Wipe.
Seongmin dabbed his tears with his sleeve, a smile blooming as he peered out the window.
In that moment, it felt as though the god whispered back in his heart.
It's okay.
A sleek black luxury sedan shot past Gyeongdong High School's main gate and tore down the road.
"Faster! Floor it!"
Yongman and Hanul, riding in the back, urged the driver with anxious faces.
"Yes, sir. I'll go as fast as I can."
The driver gripped the gear shift with a grim expression.
His aggressive driving was utterly unlike what you'd expect from the chairman's car.
Normally, Yongman would have chewed him out for the discomfort, but this wasn't the time.
'Gotta hurry. Get there and salvage this mess.'
Yongman distrusted everyone around him, so he'd arranged for all major documents to require the chairman's personal seal.
It gave him power to steer the company at will...
...but in a crisis like this, without the chairman, he was utterly paralyzed.
"Can't you go faster!?"
"I'm obeying the bare minimum signals."
"Screw the signals! Who cares about fines?! Every second counts!"
"Understood. On it."
"Hurry up!"
Yongman bellowed, yet he couldn't tear himself away from his phone.
"After all the cash I shoveled your way! You fucking bastards."
But no one answered.
Not the chairmen he'd been chummy with, nor the contacts he'd greased under the guise of sponsorships.
None of them.
"Damn it."
Yongman scowled fiercely and hurled his phone.
It smacked the headrest and ricocheted into Hanul's hand on the adjacent seat.
"Ow!"
Hanul clutched his stung hand in pain.
Yongman glared at him and scowled again.
"What's that?!"
He spotted something card-like gripped in Hanul's hand.
Yongman snatched it and yanked it free.
"A hunter license? Why the hell do you have this?"
"I-it's... that punk's from earlier. I was gonna keep it..."
Screeeeech!
"Wha—?"
Just then, the car slammed on the brakes, pitching the two men forward violently.
Stunned by the sudden jolt, Yongman scowled and smacked the back of the driver's head.
Crack!
"Ugh."
"Can't you drive properly!? You think I'm some punk you can fuck with?"
"It's not that... there's a cop up ahead..."
Only then did Yongman notice the traffic police motorcycle blocking their path.
The officer dismounted and approached the driver's window, rapping on it sharply.
Unable to ignore the signal, the driver slowly lowered the glass.
"You ran the light and were speeding. License, please."
At the cop's steady voice, Yongman bellowed from the back.
"We're in a hurry! We'll pay double later—just let us through now!"
The officer's face darkened as he shifted position.
He moved to the rear window and knocked again.
The back window slid down. The cop gave Yongman and Hanul a once-over.
"Do you know who I am? Let us go now, and I'll put in a word with Sergeant Kim to get you promoted."
Figuring the man was reasonable, Yongman flashed a smile.
But then the cop's eyes locked onto the hunter license in Yongman's hand.
"You've got your license right there. Hand that over and we'll wrap this up quick."
The cop pointed at Yongman's hand.
Yongman's face twisted in fury.
"Th-this..."
He stammered incoherently. Puzzled, the cop removed his sunglasses.
Yongman hastily hid the license behind him, but it was too late—the cop had confirmed what it was.
"Huh? You're a hunter?"
"Uh, well..."
"A hunter license works as ID too. Let me see it and I'll..."
Yongman jabbed the driver.
"Close the door."
"Pardon?"
"Close it and drive, you moron!"
As the situation turned sour, the cop reached for the window.
But the driver was quicker. He slammed the window shut, fired up the engine, swerved around the stationary bike, and peeled out.
"Incident in progress! Suspect confirmed possessing someone else's hunter license! Requesting backup!"
The cop hopped on his bike and gave chase behind Yongman's fleeing car.
He'd already spotted that the license in Yongman's hand belonged to another.
His words had been a test to draw them out.
"Backup requested."
Wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo.
The siren wailed from the pursuing motorcycle, right when Yongman could spare not a second.
「My aura of wrath runs deep. And you're clutching my possession. What happens when wrath draws near the throat?」
In the heat of the crisis...
Seongmin's eerie words resurfaced.
Hanul gnawed his nails, staring at Seongmin's hunter license in Yongman's grip.
'No way... it can't be.'
"The assassins report that side's been handled."
"Good work."
"Only natural. It was for our Ghost Soul Annihilation's own ghost soul, after all."
The dancer flashed a bright smile and winked at Seongmin standing beside Jincheol.
Then she melted into the shadows and vanished.
Jincheol pocketed his phone after checking something and gripped Seongmin's shoulders.
"It's all over."
"The loan sharks... they won't come anymore?"
"They're out cold right now. When they wake, they'll be hauled off for illegal debt enforcement."
"Then our debts..."
"Wiped clean just now. Even your grandmother's treatment costs—all settled."
Jincheol smiled warmly.
"It's truly done. Once her surgery's finished and she's discharged, just bring her home. We'll handle everything from there."
"It's over... now I'm finally human again."
The whirlwind of events felt surreal; Seongmin managed an awkward smile and bowed his head.
Every seed of misfortune had been uprooted.
The hellish high school. The loan sharks tormenting him and his grandmother.
Even the surgery he'd shied from for lack of funds.
All those discords had been swept away without a trace by the gale of great fortune.
"What a relief..."
Seongmin let out a sigh-tinged breath and lifted his head.
"Huh...?"
He'd only bowed and raised his head.
Yet Jincheol blinked at the shift in Seongmin's aura.
But only for a moment.
"What a relief. Everything's fallen into place."
Jincheol smiled and ruffled Seongmin's hair.
"Yeah, it's finished. If you feel indebted, just live your life for the Ghost Soul Annihilation ghosts who poured their hearts into helping you."
"That's exactly what I plan to do."
In the subtle atmosphere, Seongmin...
...curled his lips into a profound smile.
"Ghost Soul Annihilation..."
As he murmured the words like a soliloquy, tiny snowflakes scattered around him.
"Yeah, well done."
Snowflakes too small for even Jincheol to perceive.
The next day, in front of Gyeongdong High School's main gate.
The vice principal, who always checked students' uniforms for tardiness violations, stood there today with his arm in a cast for some reason.
"Teacher? What happened to your arm?"
"Even a tough guy like you in a cast?"
Basking in the students' attention, he brandished his baton and barked.
"Don't pry—you'll jinx it and get hurt. More importantly, got your belt on? Your tie's out of regs. Get over here."
Unlike usual, he was nitpicking the students left and right to vent his stress.
Yet even as he reamed them out, his gaze kept drifting elsewhere.
'Shouldn't have sat in that spot like the kid said... tripped on the damn stairs.'
It was payback for ignoring Seongmin's warning.
Of course, he had no idea Seongmin was a shaman bearing divine power post-divine descent.
As he scanned for that one student, two oddly dressed figures approached from afar.
"You two sick or something?"
Despite the mild weather, they were bundled up in puffy jackets.
"Feels weird... chills since morning, cough cough, keep coughing, head's spinning."
"Same here... so cold I couldn't skip the jacket, cough cough. Sorry."
It was two of Hanul's gang.
They looked so wretched the vice principal unwittingly stepped aside.
"You see a doctor?"
"Did... no fever, just sore throat. Might be a throat cold, gave us meds."
"Yeah, yeah—head inside. Take care of yourselves."
"Thank you."
Cough cough.
Hanul's cronies shuffled past the vice principal.
Gray energy clung to their shoulders, darting playfully across their bodies.
Cough cough.
Each time, the pair hacked violently like pneumonia patients.
As if delighted by the sight, the gray energy perched merrily on their shoulders.
"Ugh, freezing."
"That quack doc was full of it. This cold with no fever? Ain't no simple throat thing."
"Fuck if I know, I'm dying..."
As the gang trudged toward the main building, the gray energy danced over them once more.
Cough cough.