Chapter 158: Early Coming of Age Ceremony (10)
Jinseong, having taken in what the stars told him, quietly returned to the living quarters and spent time in a corner.
The people from the military human rights center played Go-Stop with each other, watched TV, or used the slow internet, before all going to bed, perhaps due to fatigue.
When the lights went out, the living quarters, which had only ventilation ducts and air conditioning without windows to prepare for invasions of evil spirits and demons, became pitch black. Lying on the bed with its hard mattress, one could feel as if they had become a primitive person living in a cave.
People took their places one by one and fell asleep, while Jinseong waited for midnight, taking in the sight of everyone falling asleep.
And finally, when midnight came, Jinseong quietly came down from the bunk bed.
The living quarters were filled with complete darkness except for a single night light near the door, and Jinseong's place, located in the corner and deliberately piled with bedding, made it look as if someone was still there whether Jinseong had come down or not.
Unless daylight broke, they probably wouldn't easily notice that Jinseong had disappeared.
Jinseong put on the rags that smelled bitter and quietly went outside.
Then he shouldered the A-frame carrier he had left earlier and covered the entire carrier with the rags he was wearing. Then, as if hiding his body in the darkness, he stood still for a moment before looking north, as the stars had told him earlier.
They're sleeping.
There were two officers in the northern guard post.
But were they tired?
One was sleeping with his head down in front of the monitor showing the CCTV, while the other was also sleeping with his forehead pressed against the large telescope protruding from the gun port instead of his eyes.
After confirming that both were asleep, Jinseong used space-folding without hesitation.
Once outside the safe zone, Jinseong began to move without restraint.
Unlike his behavior inside the safe zone where he moved while hiding his body in the darkness, he moved as if daring anyone to look in this desolate place with nothing to hide behind.
This was because Jinseong wasn't too worried about being captured by satellites.
The cloth he was wearing had the function of causing noise that prevented electronic equipment from properly identifying his form.
This was similar to the characteristic of a 'powerful evil spirit' that damages electronic equipment and prevents proper observation, and considering the characteristics of North Korea overflowing with evil spirits and demons, no matter how much Jinseong strode around surrounded by noise, they wouldn't be able to distinguish whether it was an evil spirit or Jinseong who had secretly slipped out and was active.
Jinseong continued to use space-folding while surrounded by this noise.
And when he felt he had gone far enough, he stopped, closed his eyes quietly, and muttered:
"Om dona baara ha."
As he chanted the mantra, his body hair stood on end. Each hair moved as if it had a sixth sense, expanding his range of perception, and even in the pitch darkness, it planted hazy forms with shapes in his mind.
It expanded.
Each body hair stood stiffly like an antenna, trying to receive information from all directions, and created shapes by moving like drawing pictures with white afterimages in the darkness created by closing his eyes.
The irregularity of the floaters seen when closing one's eyes disappeared, and moved with uniformity to draw shapes.
The floating matter in the vitreous humor clumped together as if creating surfaces to form the shape of a human head, and the hazy forms that changed according to the intensity of light created spheres and drew out arms and legs to form the shape of a ghost.
And this work spread to the surroundings as his cognitive ability expanded.
It was as if he could see the world even with his eyes closed.
Or as if he was faintly peeking into 'another world' by closing his eyes.
To the right. Space-folding twice.
Jinseong turned his head towards the direction his expanded senses told him.
Then, after staring intently in that direction, he took out animal hair from his bosom, burned it, and made his body smell strongly of beasts. Then he plucked out his own hair, burned it with Samadhi fire, and sprinkled the ashes on his shoulders.
"Insects are born from the human body, and their form is similar to dots barely visible to the eye. The dots each have wings and fly around, sometimes laying maggots, and sometimes crawling around and turning things pitch black."
As he chanted the incantation, the dots that had settled on his shoulders began to move.
The tiny dots, like light pencil marks, began to move freely as if they were living insects as Jinseong had said, some sticking to the rags and turning everything black like mold spreading, while others floated in the air, circling around Jinseong.
And as they began to fly, the smell emanating from Jinseong's body also changed somehow.
What was simply a gamey smell before now began to emit a slightly rotten odor.
Smelling the rotten odor coming from his own body, Jinseong finally smiled with satisfaction as if it was done, and used space-folding.
Once.
Twice.
After using space-folding twice, instead of the desolate space, a village full of collapsing houses appeared, and an eerie air that seemed to sharply pierce human senses greeted him.
Creeeeak-
Had the ominousness permeating the entire village announced Jinseong's visit?
The door of a dilapidated house that had half collapsed began to open slowly with a chilling sound.
The door, barely hanging by a single hinge, opened with the sound of wood tearing and scraping the ground, and from there, an emaciated foot stepped out.
[ Who's there? If you're there, give me even a spoonful of rice scraps. ]
And starting with the foot, then the arm, then the head, and finally the body was revealed.
Its form was truly repulsive.
A hungry ghost (餓鬼).
It was a hungry ghost, an evil spirit that repeats eating until its stomach bursts and it dies.
The hungry ghost had skeletal arms and legs that reminded one of tree branches, and was wriggling fingers with only one joint.
Its arms seemed unable to stay still, swinging through the air and then repeatedly hugging its stomach that was swelling up to the size of Namsan, while its head, buried in flesh and barely recognizable in shape, moved around searching for food.
[ If not rice scraps, then give me even some rice dust. ]
The hungry ghost stumbled out and walked up to Jinseong.
As it walked, its gradually swelling stomach drooped almost touching the ground, and its belly, filled with who knows what, dragged on the ground making disgusting gurgling sounds.
Gurgle-
Crunch.
The sound of the contents of its stomach mixing.
The sound of intestines writhing and screaming.
A bizarre sound as if something alive inside was trying to get out.
All of these mixed together, confusing Jinseong's ears.
[ Oh, alas, there's nothing to fill my stomach? ]
As its stomach twisted, the hungry ghost tightly squeezed its throat with its own hands as if even the gas trying to escape upwards was precious, and approached Jinseong step by step.
The hungry ghost, approaching like that, slowed its pace as if something was strange, and fixed its gaze on Jinseong while moving its head left and right.
[ That's strange. I thought there was something warm and fresh, but looking now, comrade, you're not it? ]
The hungry ghost tilted its head strangely in front of Jinseong.
It sniffed, carefully examined Jinseong from head to toe with its hollow eyes, and even swallowed the things flying around Jinseong like insects by stretching out its tongue. Then, as if disappointed, it drooped its body and started walking back to the house.
[ No snacks either, oh I'm hungry, so hungry. Oh, I'm hungry. Oh… ]
As the hungry ghost disappeared like that, Jinseong started moving again.
He passed by the house where the hungry ghost lived and started moving towards the center of the village where a skeletal tree stood, and when he finally reached the tree, he could see the dead tree that once played a role in protecting the village and the remains of house sites that had completely collapsed, barely leaving traces.
In what was once a yard, something that looked like a woman was crouching, scratching the ground vigorously with fingers caked with rotten blood, her head bowed. Then, as if sensing Jinseong's arrival, she suddenly raised her head, and her appearance was truly bizarre.
Eyes that had rotted and collapsed leaving only holes, an appearance like a skull with skin barely clinging to it, and a mouth protruding long like a mosquito's.
At the end of the mouth that jutted out like a thorn, dried-up lips were barely attached, and it made a sound by moving those lips while looking straight at Jinseong.
[ Kuuuu- ]
It was a sound similar to that coming from a completely broken instrument.
It made a sound as if barely blowing wind with shrunken lungs, and crawled towards Jinseong while scratching the ground. As it approached Jinseong on all fours, it would occasionally collapse on the ground as if its arms and legs had lost strength, and whenever that happened, it would move by wriggling its body like a larva and then crawl again with arms and legs that had regained strength.
And every time it moved, there was a scratching sound as if its nails were scraping the ground, which, combined with the bizarre kuuuu sound, was enough to make one's soul leave their body.
And finally, when it reached Jinseong, it tried to stretch out its skeletal tree branch-like hand towards him.
But just as its hand was about to touch Jinseong, it tilted its head as if smelling something and moved its lips and nose a few times. Then, as if disappointed, it drooped its body and collapsed right there, and in that position, it curled up and started scratching the ground again.
Jinseong stared at this sight for a moment before turning and passing by the tree.
And he kept walking, and walking.
And finally.
Ding-a-ling----
The sound he wanted to hear rang out.