Chapter 10
010 – Monkey Gallery (2)
「Monkey's Paw Site」
「Enter your wish: 」
The words on my phone screen looked utterly unfamiliar.
To think I’d traded something like this for ‘Neuron Clear.’
Of course I couldn’t help wondering if I’d been ripped off because I was a clueless newbie.
“What do you think, Bori-bori?”
Bori-bori had swiftly claimed the seat where the medicine buyer had been sitting and was busy eating the tiramisu cake with a fork.
Whether I asked questions or not, they were completely absorbed in getting their sugar fix.
The demon Bori-bori seemed to love desserts just as much as jjamppong and sweet-and-sour pork.
Maybe that suited Bori-bori’s appearance, which looked around the age of a sixth grader.
“A wish….”
I turned my eyes back to my phone screen.
The search-bar-like box reading 「Enter your wish: 」 seemed suspicious, but at the same time it made my heart flutter.
I wasn’t a complete idiot, after all.
Being told to enter a wish was basically the same as saying they’d grant it, right?
Of course, they might be petty and say, “We only told you to enter it, not that we’d grant it~.”
If that happened, I’d bawl like a neutered cat.
‘So what was my wish?’
It suddenly made me curious.
If someone said they’d grant me one wish, what would be the right thing to ask for?
I began to deliberate.
Even this morning, or even when I’d come to the café, I hadn’t imagined I’d be thinking about something like this.
‘I guess they’d only grant me one wish, right?’
I stared down the wish-entry box as if we were having a staring contest.
It didn’t say anything about a numerical limit on how many wishes I could enter, but.
The general impression was that I could only enter one.
In that case!
“Increase the number of wishes I can enter to… ten.”
Tap, tap-tap.
I tapped on my phone screen and typed the sentence above into the box.
Just as I was debating whether to hit enter.
Letters appeared beneath the empty search box.
「Risk: ■■■■■■■■■■」
Risk?
Was that the English word risk?
It meant the chance of loss or some negative uncertainty, right?
A word stock traders loved.
“Ah!”
At that moment, I realized the absurdity hidden in this ‘wish-entry box.’
Nothing in life was free.
Equivalent exchange.
Once I grasped the true nature of this 「Monkey's Paw Site」, a cold sweat ran down my back to my waist.
And Bori-bori finished off the tiramisu cake without leaving a crumb.
# # #
I went home and turned on my computer first thing.
Then I searched for something called the ‘Monkey's Paw Site.’
The site didn’t come up.
It seemed there was no way to access it through an external search or anything like that, unless you had the link or QR code the medicine buyer, ‘Oseonjok Exterminator,’ had given me earlier.
Instead, other things came up.
Things like the origin or history of this 「Monkey's Paw Site」.
The monkey’s paw.
The Monkey's Paw.
It was a talisman-like object that appeared in a short story by some British author, William-whatever.
Its effect was none other than granting wishes.
But the way it granted wishes was all wrong.
More precisely, it was infused with malice.
For example, what if I wished, “I want 1 billion won”?
Some misfortune would suddenly befall my family, and I’d end up collecting 1 billion won from their life insurance.
What if I wished to come in first in a race at sports day?
The other runners would probably have sudden accidents in the middle of the race and break their legs or something.
As far as I could tell, the lesson the ‘Monkey’s Paw’ offered was probably this:
There was no such thing as a convenient freebie.
Then what about the 「Monkey's Paw Site」?
The site’s name and principle were probably taken from the ‘monkey’s paw’ in that short story.
In fact, if I typed something into the wish-entry box─.
「Risk: 」 popped up to warn me of the danger.
It looked like this.
「Monkey's Paw Site」
「Enter your wish: 1 billion won」
「Risk: ■■■■■□□□□□」
The risk gauge filled up.
About 5/10.
Half.
Was there any way to guess what sort of risk that represented?
The short story ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ I’d just looked up seemed like a suitable clue.
The death of a family member and the insurance payout from their death.
Or I could expect some corresponding ‘danger’ to befall me, like being seriously injured and collecting insurance for it.
In that case?
What on earth would happen with the full ten bars of risk I’d seen when I asked to increase the number of wishes to ten?
My feeble imagination couldn’t come up with anything at all.
“Haa, I think I might’ve gotten something completely outrageous.”
I leaned back in my chair and gazed up at the ceiling.
As I rubbed my face with my palms, the face and demeanor of ‘Oseonjok Exterminator’ from earlier came to mind.
He’d said the link he’d given me was incredibly valuable.
That it wasn’t something just anyone could get.
What had he said?
He’d said it was like a limited-edition item you could only get after doing something for about a year.
From what I’d seen, there didn’t seem to be any lies in his expression.
If anything, his eyes and the way he snorted had radiated a certain ‘pride’ or something similar.
‘Even if there’s a risk, the possibility of having a wish granted is incredible.’
If I gave this to some wealthy collector, couldn’t I easily get hundreds of millions for it?
People like Warren Buffett, I mean.
People with enough money to reach the sky, but not enough time to spend it all.
Old oil tycoons.
Ruthless dictators.
If I gave this to people like that, they’d definitely wish for ‘youth and health.’
If I were terminally ill and going to die tomorrow, I’d want to get my hands on this ‘site’ no matter what it cost.
Yeah, this was definitely worth more than that ‘Neuron Clear.’
The mere possibility of being able to ‘enter a wish’ seemed priceless.
Until a little while ago, I’d thought I’d been scammed because he’d lowballed the price of the medicine.
But thinking about it now, it was as if I’d actually gotten an enormous ‘bonus.’
‘Was that Oseonjok guy really that desperate for the medicine?’
He had seemed a little uneasy.
He’d flinched at even the smallest gesture.
What had he gone through?
Would I end up like that someday, too?
But not right now.
I didn’t want to miss the chance to lie in bed as a new magician, my head full of excitement and curiosity, eagerly awaiting tomorrow morning.
“For now, I’ll save my wish and not enter anything.”
I needed information and knowledge.
It suddenly made me curious how and why I’d come to possess this ‘Monkey’s Paw Site.’
Oseonjok Exterminator.
Where had he said he’d gotten this?
He’d talked about it as if it were some kind of reward or compensation.
‘…An internet gallery.’
The monkey’s paw and the Gallery.
As I turned those words over in my mind, an idea suddenly flashed through it, like a collector finding a jewel in a trash heap.
“Monkey Gallery.”
# # #
“We’ve successfully retrieved MeTubers Yoon Hee-gon, Jang Geun-beom, and An Mi-young. I watched Jang Geun-beom and An Mi-young swallow the medicine, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
The man in a suit and glasses entered the office and said in a flat tone.
The employees looking at their computers glanced over at him, then each said something.
“As expected of the field team’s ace!”
“But why did Assistant Manager Kim take a Dusk-class assignment?”
“Well, the Thai witch we were tracking suddenly disappeared, right? With a huge hole in his schedule, he’s picking up all sorts of odd jobs to meet his quota.”
The murmuring grew louder.
Assistant Manager Kim returned to his desk, took off his glasses, and pressed his eyes firmly.
As he was trying to relieve some of his fatigue, someone set a folder down on his desk with a thump.
“Yoon Hee-gon? That Horror Story Unicorn guy? He didn’t take the medicine?”
Assistant Manager Kim glanced at the face of the woman who’d approached him.
A lively ponytail, a hoodie, and even sneakers.
In an organization where strict discipline was prized, her freewheeling nature itself was a privilege—and proof of her accomplishments.
Even Assistant Manager Kim, reflected in those green eyes, couldn’t help straightening his back.
“Yoon Hee-gon didn’t take it. That guy turned out to be a Monkey Gallery user.”
“Haa, again? There are so many people from those weird sites these days. What about the other two? What were their names, Kim I-ryeong and Yu Seong-u?”
“Ha Yu-seong. Those two had already escaped the Torii Shrine on their own before I could even get them out. I gave them the medicine, but I don’t know whether they’ll take it.”
“Oh, they escaped that Torii Shrine on their own? That’s interesting.”
“It is.”
Assistant Manager Kim gave his honest opinion.
Interesting.
The basement of Dori Building.
「Torii Shrine」 was home to an incomprehensible anomaly, but its measured threat level was no more than ‘Dusk-class,’ with one or two deaths a year.
Those trapped or caught up in it would simply wander around that basement.
As long as they didn’t provoke the unidentified anomaly, their ‘lives’ weren’t in danger.
A rulebook had been issued for that purpose.
People stranded there were rescued by people like Assistant Manager Kim after a set period of time.
That was why no instructions on ‘escape’ had been written in the rulebook.
It was a place from which escape by one’s own means was absolutely impossible without outside help.
But─.
There had been two people who escaped such a place by themselves.
Kim I-ryeong and Ha Yu-seong.
Assistant Manager Kim recalled what they were like and shrugged.
“Well, things like this happen from time to time.”
“True. Maybe they saw through some loophole we don’t know about in those rules. Were they from that Gallery, too? Or Originals?”
Interest welled up in the woman’s eyes.
But Assistant Manager Kim merely gazed into the past with tired eyes.
“I don’t think either of them was.”
“Oh? Then what?”
“One of them asked me this: ‘Are you a magician?’”
Assistant Manager Kim’s words plunged the office into silence for an instant.
But only for a moment.
“Pwahahahaha!”
“That’s one funny guy!”
“Total greenhorns, huh?”
“Kim I-ryeong seemed useful. She said she drove that thing in the basement off. Said it was thanks to her shaman experience or something.”
“Oh, she’s a former shaman? Interesting.”
Assistant Manager Kim was simply tired.
He sank deep into the back of his chair.
The woman asked him.
“So what was Ha Yu-seong like?”
“…Ah, you don’t need to worry about that one. This incident may have forced them to awaken, but as a magician, they were third-rate. I couldn’t sense even a trace of magical talent in them.”
“Really? Assistant Manager Kim, you judge people who don’t take the medicine unusually harshly.”
“It’s not like that.”
Rather than offer a lengthy explanation, Assistant Manager Kim thought of his prey, the ‘Witch of Isan,’ whom he’d been tracking.
It bothered him that the high-ranking magician had vanished without a trace.
Whatever the reason, the rock that had ruled through fear had suddenly disappeared.
New water would seep into the hollow left behind and gather there.
Everyone would clamor to claim that spot.
So Assistant Manager Kim put the papers related to that ‘transfer student’ through the shredder.
They didn’t have time to worry about someone this insignificant.
Besides, that ignorance had irritated him on a personal level.
“There are no such things as magicians in this world.”