Chapter 55
For over ten minutes, I listed personal details while pretending to be hypnotized by the Seoul hall master.
“A two-month rookie from the Gwanak Branch Field Response Team, who knows nothing about the person he came with except his name….”
The hall master thrust the SoulOrb in front of my eyes again. That made twelve times already.
“The strong incense certainly seems to be working. Management Bureau bastards are bound to have their souls shaken at least once or twice.”
I had experienced too much by now to panic over something like an old man whose face kept changing.
When it came to fear, I was an emotionless psychopath who felt nothing, so surely that was fine.
Human adaptability was terrifying.
As I rolled various idle thoughts around in my head to maintain a dazed expression, the next question came flying.
“What ability do you possess?”
“I can communicate with several dead Management Bureau employees through my terminal.”
“Don’t lie! I’ve never heard of Management Bureau bastards communicating with the dead! There’s no way other shamans would stand by and do nothing…!”
Despite the hall master’s words, the SoulOrb did not move an inch.
When there was no sign that it would move at all, the hall master was left speechless.
It was understandable. When the unbelievable happened to be true, a lie detector became useless.
It wasn’t as though interrogations became more serious for no reason when the information obtained was the truth.
“M-Master, the SoulOrb isn’t ringing….”
“Damn it! I have eyes, too!”
Crash!
Perhaps he found it difficult to accept the sudden truth, because the hall master picked up a teacup from the table with his left hand and threw it at the musclebound bruiser.
The scent of blood mingled with the smell of incense.
“Whether this is brainwashing or the truth can be tested! You!”
“Tell me how you’ve used this ability until now.”
“Yes.”
It took quite a while to explain everything that had happened after I joined the Management Bureau.
Although I hadn’t spent much time in the field during those two months, so many of the entities I had encountered had been major ones that it was difficult to shorten the story.
“That’s enough.”
When I began explaining my fifth day in the Backrooms, the hall master waved his hands to stop me.
I hadn’t even revealed one five-thousandth of what had happened to the Korean Express in Los Angeles.
“Has it been confirmed?”
“Yes. The video he described is still on NewTube.”
“If he can communicate across dimensions, he must be the host of a high-grade entity. And if it can affect reality as well….”
Having failed to hear the entire explanation, the hall master began fitting the pieces together however he pleased.
One was supposed to read a manual properly from beginning to end.
If he had only listened patiently for another two hours, he might have learned about WhiteHacker and the secrets of the Management Bureau Gallery.
That was because I was answering honestly, exactly as the note had instructed.
“Use your ability to tell them where they are now. Tell them where their souls are wandering. If they’re in Seoul, we should be able to drag most of them here if we push ourselves.”
“Yes.”
I turned on my terminal and opened the Management Bureau Gallery.
The team leader and my seniors had already proven that, to everyone else, it looked as though I was tapping on a blank screen.
“Master, he’s tapping on his phone’s home screen!”
“Leave him! The Great Shaman emphasized that we must not believe only what we can see! How can apostles be ignorant of something so basic!”
I had no idea when the muscular men in black suits had stopped being called guards and started being called apostles.
The hall master himself dealt with things like spirits, so he seemed to have a vague faith in what could not be seen.
I had to be honest here, too.
[No, it looks like you old folks didn’t understand.]
Author: GalleryingIsEasy
[If you don’t answer my question, I’m not getting out of here alive, you know?]
[You said you’d tell me! Where the fuck do you live, you bastards?]
[You old fucks are acting like you’re the ones in charge.]
[I should’ve known when you were buddying up, saying, “Let’s be neighbors.”]
[You bastards, I’m about to die because I got mixed up with you.]
[I really feel like incinerating you and spraying your ashes over the Han River.]
[Just try showing your faces while pulling a handcart. I’ll punch holes in all your wheels.]
ㄱ
[Comments]
Hound: Your old man’s spine
AutoSaveIsMandatory: The top of Namsan Tower
WhiteHacker: Mwahaha, my house is the Management Bureau.
BlackMagicSurgerySurgerySurgery: I told you it was Immortality General Hospital, dumbass.
SettingFanficModder: Seoul’s soul real estate prices went up, so I moved. I’m in the provinces.
DadIsAMurimPerson: Behind you.
.
.
.
They really must have been people who had gone through the wringer before dying.
It was beautiful to see them recognize an acrostic anyone could figure out and cooperate.
Fortunately, it looked like nearly everyone who was active had replied, meaning they had realized how serious the situation was.
“Everyone has answered.”
“Good. Read them.”
I clearly recited the usernames and comments to the hall master without changing a single syllable.
The hall master’s face, which had been puzzled by the usernames, began turning bright red as he heard what followed.
That was understandable, since everyone except a few had filled their comments with primal profanity.
“I-Iiiii…! Damn it!”
Crash!
Another cup flew toward my back. The smell of blood mixed with the incense grew a little stronger.
“What kind of question did you ask for the answers to look like this? Tell me!”
Since I absolutely had to answer honestly, I told him this as well without changing a single syllable.
I made sure to connect the sentences properly so he wouldn’t notice the acrostic.
The note said to answer honestly, but it never said not to put an acrostic in the question, so this should be safe.
“Why would you communicate with such vulgar speech and names?”
“Because the medium of communication was modeled after an internet community for young people.”
The hall master’s already-red face turned a blazing scarlet.
If his face had resembled a drunkard’s before, it now looked like that of someone who had been hung upside down for several hours.
Jingle! Jingle!
Instead of releasing the anger that had risen to his throat upon the world, the hall master shook the SoulOrb.
Of the five souls that had been radiating their presence from the hall master’s face moments earlier, three were sucked backward into the SoulOrb.
“It may be wasteful to throw away souls meant for the great undertaking here, but….”
Jingle! Jingle! Jingle! Jingle!
Three white forms burst out of the violently shaking SoulOrb.
The souls, whose expressions had already been quite pained when they were drifting around the ceiling during the ceremony—
Aaaaaaaaaah—.
—were now circling the hall master with their faces twisted so badly that it was almost impossible to recognize their original forms.
“I can’t lay a hand on the host of a high-grade entity, but three high-purity souls should be enough to drag over one soul from the living world.”
The three souls merged into one and crumpled into an unrecognizable shape.
Soon, the thing took human form again, its once-transparent body dyed pitch-black, and stood beside the hall master.
The problem was that it looked extremely similar to something I knew.
A pitch-black gat, a pitch-black sobok, pale blue skin, and a black book in its hand.
It was the Korean traditional grim reaper who led the souls of the dead to the afterlife.
Judging by the way it had been created, it could not be a real grim reaper.
But the ghastly aura I felt from it proved that, even if it had been created, it was no trivial thing.
The hall master thrust the SoulOrb in front of my face again.
“I’ll ask you one more time. Is there not a single lie among everything you’ve told me so far?”
“No.”
Naturally, the SoulOrb remained silent.
“Hmph.”
When the hall master heard my answer and jerked his chin, the musclebound man behind me brought over the incense burner from the corner and held it in front of my face.
This was bad.
I had thought the red pills had made me completely immune to mental effects.
Little by little… little by little, my head began to grow foggy.
“I’ll ask again. Have you mixed even the slightest lie into your answers to my questions?”
“No… I… have….”
The slurred pronunciation slipped out of my throat against my will.
“M-Master! If you make him inhale any more, his mind will be completely ruined!”
“Take it away.”
The incense burner, which had been right on the verge of touching my face, vanished from my view.
“Haa… haa… haa….”
As the incense burner moved away, my mind, which had been growing hazy, gradually returned to normal.
“If I asked it to bring back something that doesn’t exist, its divine power might be damaged, but….”
The hall master, whose three faces—including his own—kept changing, stared at the SoulOrb.
“The Great Shaman told me not to doubt his divine power, so this man cannot be lying.”
The hall master’s gaze shifted toward the grim reaper.
The grim reaper, staring silently at me with a ghastly face, seemed to sense the hall master’s gaze and looked at him.
“Bring me as many souls of dead Management Bureau employees who communicate with him as possible.”
[The price?]
“Ten fresh souls.”
[You know what happens if I fail to achieve my objective before all the souls burn away.]
“I do not doubt the Great Shaman.”
[Good.]
After those words, the grim reaper disappeared without leaving a trace, as though it had never existed in the first place.
“The Great Shaman will be pleased if I learn about the entity the Management Bureau is hiding.”
After the grim reaper vanished, the hall master’s eyes, which had been brimming with intelligence moments before, grew somewhat cloudy.
Not only that, but his back also bent slightly, and his sturdy fingertips began trembling noticeably.
“Assign surveillance personnel to him and send him out. He’ll be useful.”
“Do we not need to give him more incense?”
“Don’t. The Great Shaman said to approach the Seoul Management Bureau cautiously.”
The hall master snatched the terminal from my hand.
“Once you leave this hall, you will remember nothing about what happened today. You lost the terminal through your own carelessness, too.”
“Yes.”
“Tell the man who came with you that this was the work of Unquestioning Obedience, not the Entity Liberation Headquarters.”
“Yes.”
When the hall master shook the SoulOrb, the scent of incense grew slightly stronger.
“Use the enemy to defeat the enemy. Let them die fighting among themselves. Send him out.”
***
By midday, Yoo Se-chan still had not been able to return to the Management Bureau and was hiding near the hall.
His body, after taking the curse meant for Park Seong-bin in his stead and using the Inferior Tightening Headband several times, was close to a wreck, but….
‘This is the answer given by the Roster Revision Tape to how many scheduled deaths within three years were canceled after Mr. Park Seong-bin joined the Management Bureau.’
The determination to somehow save the junior who held hundreds of thousands of lives in his hands kept him there.
But having the will to do something did not mean everything would go smoothly.
Yoo Se-chan had no choice but to simply wait for Seong-bin to emerge as he watched the blank notebook rapidly fill with more content.
++++
If Park Seong-bin hesitates when the emcee points him out — Park Seong-bin and Yoo Se-chan die. (Cause: SoulOrb)
If Yoo Se-chan accompanies Park Seong-bin after the ceremony — Park Seong-bin and Yoo Se-chan die. (Cause: SoulOrb)
If Management Bureau support forces enter the hall — Park Seong-bin, the support forces, and Yoo Se-chan die. (Cause: Great Shaman)
If Yoo Se-chan re-infiltrates to rescue Park Seong-bin after escaping the basement — Park Seong-bin and Yoo Se-chan die. (Cause: Great Shaman)
If Park Seong-bin fails to escape alone — Park Seong-bin and Yoo Se-chan die. (Cause: unidentified high-grade entity)
If they enter the final room in the basement — ■■ people, including everyone at the Gwanak Branch of the Management Bureau, die. (Cause: Great Shaman)
++++
Park Seong-bin died in every case in which Yoo Se-chan intervened.
With his half-baked regression ability, which revealed only the cause of death, he could not determine what the trigger was.
The information brought back by 251 Yoo Se-chans amounted, at best, to the conclusion that Park Seong-bin had to be left alone.
Once today ended, he would have to bear the pain of 251 deaths as a side effect of regression, as always.
But if he could exchange that pain for 720,000 lives, it was the choice a Management Bureau employee ought to make.
As he thought that while staring at the hall’s front entrance,
“Well then, Member. We look forward to your next visit.”
“Of course. I’ll visit whenever I have the time and participate enthusiastically.”
Park Seong-bin emerged alongside the emcee, who was wearing an ill-fitting oversized beanie.
He looked a little haggard, but fortunately, he did not seem to have suffered any serious external injuries.
That much should fall within the range that the capable counselors and entities at Gwanak Branch could treat.
“It’s unfortunate that your terminal broke.”
“What can I do? It went into the toilet because of my mistake. The contract had just expired, anyway.”
“Then take care on your way.”
“Yes.”
After finishing their farewells, Park Seong-bin spotted Yoo Se-chan and began approaching him.
“Hyung, what brings you here during lunchtime?”
“I called to ask when you’d be finished, but you didn’t answer. I thought you might still be at the hall, so I came to check.”
“Perfect. I’ll just send one text.”
Yoo Se-chan handed him the terminal, and Park Seong-bin deftly tapped out a message.
“Why isn’t it the Cheonjiin layout?”
“That’s a keyboard only old fogeys use.”
“I’m not an old fogey. Anyway, thanks for letting me use it.”
“Where did you send it?”
“The company.”
Park Seong-bin handed back the terminal and casually took the lead, saying, “Let’s go eat!”
Yoo Se-chan responded just as naturally and looked at the terminal screen.
[Surveillance personnel present. They roughly know what we’re up to. We need to act appropriately wary until we get into the Management Bureau.]
Impressed by the youngest member’s competence, Yoo Se-chan’s expression brightened a little despite the pain growing worse.
Perhaps this kid was worth more than 720,000 people.
***
A week later.
[This just in. Mr. Lee, the Seoul hall master of Bonhyang Haewondang, which has recently surged in popularity as a new religion, was found dead at his home.]
[Police stated that Mr. Lee was found dried up to the point of desiccation, clutching a broken bell in his right hand, while the word ‘price’ had been written on the floor in a liquid believed to be the victim’s blood.]
[The investigation is continuing with the forensic team, but no traces of outside intruders or other unusual circumstances have been found.]
[Thousands of believers are currently gathered at Bonhyang Haewondang’s Seoul hall, creating an atmosphere of mourning.]
[Mr. Kim, known as Bonhyang Haewondang’s Great Shaman, reportedly claimed that the incident was the work of another religion jealous of their salvation and ordered a massive protest in Busan.]
[Religious groups other than Bonhyang Haewondang are strongly protesting, saying that their delusions have gone too far.]
“Huhhh….”
“What’s wrong, oppa?”
“I think I understand why misunderstanding stories are so popular.”
“What’re you talking about… Just eat your apple.”
This should be described as ‘a dead Management Bureau employee killed a living hall master,’ right?