Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 004
Chapter Title: Man-Eating Sorcerers Live in Reality
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The Tyrant Shrine Maiden, gripping her crescent blade sword, fixed her piercing gaze.
The Vacant Shrine Maiden, who served Hitler, met her murderous glare with one of her own and spoke up.
"I told you clearly. I saw the MacArthur Shrine Maiden fall into a corner of Hell."
"How can you believe a lunatic raving in agony? And even if that bitch has heavy karma, it's not on the level of the century's greatest evils."
"According to the guards' account of her crimes, she wasn't judged properly after death, and she lusted after the flesh of the living."
"The first one's just her lingering in Purgatory, but lusting after the living's flesh? How could someone who can't even send a single flake of dandruff out of Purgatory manage that?"
Everyone in the group acknowledged the MacArthur Shrine Maiden's combat prowess.
With ill intent, she could paralyze national administration as a malevolent spirit, at least temporarily.
If she weren't completely bound to Purgatory, the government would have performed her soul ascension rite long ago.
To send the MacArthur Shrine Maiden to Hell, everyone here would need to prepare seriously for at least a week.
She was never the type to vanish suddenly without any contact.
"She lusted after the flesh of the living from within Purgatory. If that's true, there's only one implication, right? She found living flesh. In Purgatory."
"That makes sense!"
The Tyrant Shrine Maiden shouted.
It was that absurd. Yet in her eyes—and in the eyes of the other shamans present—a flicker of hope and longing had begun to bloom.
"I delivered the message clearly."
The Vacant Shrine Maiden stood up.
Shamans who had accepted gods they shouldn't have as their Body Deities.
The karma accumulated from their shaman work was no small thing.
The greatest good deed among good deeds was righting wrongs, and a shaman who corrected the world's distortions would have all sins forgiven and ascend to heaven.
The presence of a living being in the realm of the dead was a distortion of the world. Resolving it would cleanse all sins. It was immense power that could wash away any crime.
It was bait that would make everyone living on the world's underbelly drool.
The Tyrant Shrine Maiden didn't take her eyes off the departing Vacant Shrine Maiden.
'You idiot. Foolish, foolish friend. Blinded by madness and karma. Are you really going down that path?'
Civilization was dying, and the bizarre place called the Purgatory Surface had emerged, bringing the living world and the afterlife closer.
Information about the afterlife that no one knew before was leaking out in droves.
Even in Purgatory and Hell—places straight out of myths and legends—there were rumors treated as legends.
'When Purgatory shatters and Hell flips, it will be the doing of the living. He is the king, the son.'
Something even a nobody like MacArthur couldn't reach.
A saying that only circulated among the sinners in Hell's deepest pits.
An Young-hee gathered information first.
He used the wiki only as a supplement.
Wikis and dictionaries had a fatal flaw.
You needed prior knowledge to use them.
Someone who didn't know about superconductors couldn't search for them.
You needed at least basic knowledge of conductors to reach superconductors.
An Young-hee knew nothing about Purgatory.
He was an ordinary guy who'd just been dragged there during the day and come back.
He knew his body was special, but he had no idea of its true value.
The most urgent issue was the one who'd cursed him, but he had no way to catch them.
His top priority was finding his mother in Purgatory.
Surprisingly, he didn't have to search hard for ways to enter and exit Purgatory.
A beginner's guide had a friendly explanation of how to go back and forth.
Sorcery to enter the realm of the dead turned up over ten results on the regular internet, and dozens on the Purgatory Wiki.
The real sorcery on the Purgatory Wiki was true to form: lots of ingredients, complex methods.
An Young-hee suddenly had a thought.
'Do I really need complicated methods?'
He looked at the living room floor.
Purgatory was visible on the other side.
The casual forum was full of excited posts from people who'd just opened their spirit eyes.
Men obsessed with the surreal overlapping reality didn't mention the Purgatory visible through the floor at all.
An Young-hee pressed his hand firmly into the living room floor.
The key was the sorcerer's own will.
Breaking through the real floor into Purgatory.
Crack.
His hand sank into the living room floor and crossed into Purgatory.
Then his arm, head, upper body.
Only his lower body remained, flailing like a ghost.
He twisted his upper body in Purgatory, pushed off the floor with his arms, and pulled his lower body through.
Now fully in Purgatory, An Young-hee looked out the window.
Purgatory's sky.
The image of the MacArthur Shrine Maiden approaching, puffing on a cigar, flashed in his mind.
"...Can't stay long."
The MacArthur Shrine Maiden had taken interest in him because of this body.
Living flesh in the world of the dead. It was bizarre no matter who saw it. It shouldn't exist.
'The officials didn't notice.'
But those who could see would see.
If a big shot like the MacArthur Shrine Maiden caught him, it'd be horrific.
An Young-hee punched through the Purgatory floor and returned to reality.
"Correction. Sorcery is necessary."
This body couldn't be shown to others—it would only attract covetous stares.
Even the MacArthur Shrine Maiden, who'd spent over twenty years washing away karma in Purgatory, couldn't resist it.
It must have some use.
But that was beyond what An Young-hee could handle right now.
Ask the internet?
No.
In the old days, some really believed in anonymous boards' anonymity, but nowadays, anonymity isn't anonymous.
Beyond tracking by board owners, there were crazies analyzing writing patterns to identify each anonymous user.
Writing about his body's condition could come back to bite him later.
'In the end, it boils down to one method.'
He had no choice but to get used to Purgatory step by step as a novice sorcerer.
An Young-hee searched for ingredients needed for traditional sorcery.
Dried sea cucumber, bird's nest, bear paw, dried seahorse, date palm seeds. A skein of thread soaked in water from some mountain's holy spring.
"...Isn't this cooking ingredients?"
Especially the dried sea cucumber.
He'd seen cooking shows call it a top-grade ingredient in Chinese cuisine.
A quick search showed 100g of dried sea cucumber cost about 20,000 won.
The sorcery required 10kg at once.
That's 2 million won.
Even mobilizing AI, bear paws were outright illegal to trade.
This is easy sorcery...?
Outraged and unfairly frustrated, An Young-hee posted on the casual forum.
Community rule number one: sensational titles.
I was shocked by that at first too. Have you opened your spirit eyes? Do a few gigs near Seoul City Hall.
The Seoul City Official Account caught his eye.
It was the first account he'd seen with special characters next to the name.
Proof it was really Seoul City, probably.
The link from the Seoul City Official Account led to another site.
The content was straightforward.
As more people entered Purgatory recently, the nation was subsidizing Purgatory settlement.
He liked that it let you try helpful settlement sorcery and provided ingredients for free.
On the other hand, suspicion crept in.
"...Is this legit?"
The nation supporting people stepping into the world's shadows?
Wasn't the movie cliché that the government trying to control ability users sparks riots?
He posted another thread on the casual forum.
A new nickname appeared.
Seocho Tyrant.
Seocho Tyrant Xiang Yu? A shaman serving Xiang Yu?
Below that, multiple comments said official accounts were generally trustworthy.
He also learned it was an irregularly held event that had run several times.
Searching the casual forum turned up after-action reports from past participants.
Reviews were mostly positive.
'I'll go check it out.'
No need for a separate application—just show up at the specified place at the specified time.
The date was the day after tomorrow.
An Young-hee headed to the bedroom and flung himself onto the bed.
He landed back-first, cool and refreshing.
"...?"
He was in Purgatory.
An Young-hee, lying on his bed in the Purgatory version of his room—on the opposite side of reality—stared blankly for a moment before muttering.
"Wasn't dropped into Purgatory by the curse?"
He recalled the situations when he'd gone back and forth between Purgatory and reality so far.
First trip to Purgatory.
Hit by a truck and fell backward.
Second return to reality.
Subdued by the MacArthur Shrine Maiden and collapsed to the ground.
And now.
Threw himself onto the bed.
An Young-hee got off the bed, then belly-flopped onto it this time.
After several tests, he figured out how to cross between Purgatory and reality.
Falling backward took you across the boundary visible on the floor to the other side.
Falling forward didn't work. Nearly broke his nose.
"...Having an emergency escape method isn't bad."
Sorcerer Kim Cheol-su was in a very awkward position.
Three years ago, on a business trip to Japan, he'd picked up a sorcery book.
The sorcery book, written by someone from 300 years ago, contained highly advanced sorcery, and Kim Cheol-su eagerly learned it, thinking it was great.
Problems arose when he reached the latter half.
This wasn't just any sorcery book.
It was a trap set by a dead sorcerer.
The sorceries inside formed a massive possession ritual combining dozens of spells.
Master all the sorceries in the book, and the dead sorcerer's soul would push out Kim Cheol-su's and seize his body.
Kim Cheol-su mobilized all his money and connections to find an exorcism method.
The exorcism required rare ingredients and ten pure sacrifices untouched by Death Qi.
He'd scraped together the ingredients by emptying his savings and prepared nine sacrifices.
Only one sacrifice left.
The bait he'd cast finally got a bite, so he rushed to the scene.
The sorcery had activated, but there were no traces of an accident.
He checked the pre-installed camera.
What he saw was bizarre... Even Kim Cheol-su, a 13-year sorcerer veteran who'd faced all sorts of supernatural horrors, had never seen anything like it.
The man hit by the truck touched the ground and vanished.
It happened occasionally.
Humans born with very unique abilities.
Using such a human as a sacrifice elevated the sorcery several levels.
"This is the place."
He tracked the man's home with tracing sorcery.
'A young punk living in a place like this?'
Thick life energy lingered inside—one presence.
The guy lived alone. Had been here at least ten years.
"If he's got a special constitution, I need to work more thoroughly. Pyromaniac, set it on fire. You bondage freak, seal the room."
The two ghost servants under Kim Cheol-su's command flew into the officetel, set the place ablaze, and blocked escape routes.
Confirming smoke rising from the building, Kim Cheol-su pulled out his smartphone.
He wanted just one person, not to burn down the whole officetel.
Dozens of vengeful spirits would get the government's attention immediately.
Ahem. Clearing his throat, Kim Cheol-su shouted urgently.
"Is this the fire station? There's a fire here!"