Chapter 157: Early Coming of Age Ceremony (9)

The safe zone was full of iron and stone.

Statues made of iron.

Statues made of stone.

From statues of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva to giant iron crosses.

It looked more like a place related to religion than to military affairs.

It seemed like this might be what a pantheon (Πανθεονας) gathering gods from East and West would look like.

However, a brief look around would reveal that it was a space prepared for survival rather than faith.

The ominous iron lumps placed here and there coldly shouted that weapons were needed here and that something had to be faced with weapons, and the people carefully selected and sent from various religions were wearing military uniforms.

Those acting under the name of military chaplains carried holy water and purified water in their ammunition belts, and the electric shock devices made in the form of chokers around their necks showed their determination to drive out evil spirits by sacrificing themselves if possessed at any time.

Perhaps it was because of this.

The faces of the religious people, which should have been full of faith and peace, were hardened with tension and fear.

The faces of the commanders leading the soldiers through their daily routines and the military chaplains checking exorcism supplies were full of a sense of crisis that 'something terrible will happen if we don't check thoroughly'.

But perhaps it was because the sun was still up.

The violence that people naturally display when their lives are threatened didn't seem to be showing yet.

"Welcome to SP-103."

Following the guidance of a commander who greeted them with a smiling face, the group was able to stay in a relatively clean living quarters, and with their kind guidance, they could eat meals prepared by the cooks and check various parts of the base.

Of course, by checking, they couldn't go to places related to military secrets like armories or warehouses, but rather spaces like living quarters, fitness rooms, and cyber knowledge information rooms.

The people from the military human rights center carefully checked through questionnaires and interviews whether the soldiers and officers were living properly, whether their human rights were being violated, whether they were being used as consumables, and whether they were exposed to harsh treatment. If there were any suspicious situations, they tried to determine the facts by digging through documents.

And while the people from the military human rights center were working hard like that.

Only Jinseong didn't join them.

When the group was distributing surveys, Jinseong was checking his A-frame carrier.

When the group was carefully examining the survey results, he was spreading salt in a sunny place to absorb yang energy.

When the group was conducting interviews, he was mixing holy water obtained from the military chaplains with salt and carefully filling it into PET bottles.

Only him alone.

Only he stood out.

Was it that they found it strange?

"What is that person doing?"

"We don't know either."

"Well, I heard that a big company pushed in one person... He's not sightseeing, not trying to build his resume, not playing around... What is he doing...?"

"Oh my... Don't mind him. You wouldn't want to be associated with someone doing strange things, would you?"

"But shouldn't we at least know what he's doing?"

"I don't know, I don't know. It's not like he's trying to commit terrorism... He probably heard some strange superstition. Well, since he was pushed in through connections from a big company, would he cause any problems?"

"Ahem."

The people in the safe zone also began to look at Jinseong strangely.

The commander openly asked the group what kind of person Jinseong was, and the soldiers, while curious to approach, couldn't bring themselves to speak to him due to his bizarre appearance.

And the military chaplains watched him with wide eyes, wondering if Jinseong was trying to do something strange by imitating sorcery.

"To my eyes, that young man's appearance looks very similar to the attire sorcerers wear. What do you think, Father?"

"He does seem to have a strangeness similar to the sorcerers I saw when I was in Rome. But if you ask if he's performing sorcery... Well, the sorcerers I know used to carry around more incredible things, not such trivial items, when they wanted to use sorcery..."

"Incredible things, you say. There's a large golden pyramid there, how can you call it a trivial object? Father, are you treating gold like stones?"

"Isn't treating gold like stones more fitting for a monk who has transcended material desires? Hahaha."

The blue-eyed foreign priest was suspicious that Jinseong was a sorcerer, and the 30-something monk who had fled from Tibet to Korea also looked at Jinseong's sorcerer-like attire with strange eyes.

The two whispered in Korean about Jinseong.

"Golden pyramid, strange attire. There's a high possibility he's a sorcerer. I heard earlier that he's a second-generation chaebol... Since the safe zone is a space full of evil spirits, demons, and religion, they might have pushed him in thinking it would be of great help to a sorcerer."

"My thoughts are the same as yours, Father. Although this place is terribly frightening, it could be a place that psychics or sorcerers would want to visit at least once. Originally, hell depends on one's mind, and isn't it the way of the world that any place can become paradise if one can put their mind at ease and forget pain and worry? Namu Amitabha Gwan-se-eum Bosal."

"But judging by his pretty face and seemingly flawless body, he seems like someone who's just about to step into the path of sorcery. His achievements wouldn't be high."

"Or he might have shown interest in sorcery after exploring various paths. Originally, if one has money and power, they can make lavish investments even when just starting out."

"If that's the case, I hope he sees the reality of this safe zone clearly and abandons the path of sorcery. It's truly cruel for a young lamb to walk a path with nothing but pain, not even true sacrifice."

"Namu Amitabha Gwan-se-eum Bosal."

Many people talked about Jinseong.

Even during dinner time, soldiers and officers gathered in the cafeteria and chattered about Jinseong, military chaplains checking equipment discussed whether Jinseong was a sorcerer or not, and even the people from the military human rights center went around badmouthing him, saying, "I don't know which big company pushed in such a strange person."

But Jinseong didn't care what they were saying about him.

He just continued doing what he had to do.

He skipped dinner and repeatedly soaked the cloth he had brought in salt water and dried it thoroughly with samadhi fire. He continued until the salt water evaporated again and again, pickling the cloth itself in salt, and salt crystals formed all over it.

Then he carefully applied salt water to the iron A-frame carrier until there were no empty spaces, took off the rags he was wearing, finely ground several pills he had brought into powder, and mixed it with water to make a clay-like substance.

He scooped up the thick liquid that smelled bitter and of cinnamon with his hands and spread it well on the outside of the rags, and when it was all applied, he lit samadhi fire to dry it instantly. The rags then looked like a raincoat that had rolled in mud and been left as is, and when Jinseong put it on, he looked like a beggar you might see in a slum in a developing country.

With the rags finished, it seemed his indoor work was done, and he got up abruptly and headed outside where darkness had fallen, and began turning each piece of firewood he had brought into charcoal. The samadhi fire rising from his hands instantly dried the firewood, reducing its volume and turning it pitch black.

As he repeated this work, the volume of firewood he had brought was greatly reduced, becoming an amount that could fit in one sack with room to spare.

Jinseong placed the sack of firewood and the salt sack, which had been reduced to about two-thirds of its original volume, on top of the A-frame carrier and placed the golden pyramid on top. He then tightly tied them down with the cloth attached to the carrier so they wouldn't fall off, and looked up at the sky.

The sky where darkness had settled.

In the northern sky, free of pollution, stars were densely packed.

The moon, hiding its face behind clouds, sparkled small as if it had been shattered by a hammer and scattered as powder, and some formed groups while others shone scattered, trying to speak to him.

Jinseong looked at the stars.

The North Star.

The constellations forming shapes connected by invisible lines.

The scattered groups of stars that hadn't received symbols.

The stars that only had names given by scholars.

And the pitch-black space between those stars.

He just looked.

And as he observed, the stars also observed him, and as they recognized each other's existence through mutual observation, they gave him sufficient meaning.

The swaying clouds covered the stars, and the clouds buried in darkness and containing the colors of the universe became blank spaces organizing the scattered star groups. The stars peeking out from the clouds became dots, and connecting and reconnecting these protruding dots formed the shape of a rat.

Rat.

An animal representing water.

Corresponding to the north in direction, and representing deep night.

The rat was in a shape that didn't lean to the left or right, standing straight up.

This meant the middle of the rat hour.

Jinseong realized that this would be the appropriate time for him to slip out of the safe zone undetected.