Chapter 17
What was inside the bundle were gold items.
They were gold ornaments and Japanese-style gold coins identical to those carried by Japanese beckoning cats (maneki-neko).
"A large size indeed."
Jinseong, thinking that the divination of the cursed object he had created was correct, took out one gold coin and lightly stroked it with his hand.
Swish.
The gold coin that Jinseong's hand touched trembled as if alive, then softened and changed its shape. Its wrinkled surface rippled like waves and gradually became smooth. In the process, the letters engraved on the coin seemed to melt and flow down, eventually becoming black droplets that fell to the floor.
"-."
Impurities were disappearing.
The gold coin rippled and waved many times, changing its shape, and in the process, things unrelated to gold fell to the floor in the form of droplets.
This strange process only stopped when what had been a coin turned into a sphere the size of a fingernail. The fingernail-sized sphere was emitting the characteristic shimmering light of gold, but peculiarly, it had a circular shape engraved on it that looked like it had been crudely drawn by a baby with a crayon.
Jinseong looked at the small sphere that gave a strange feeling and felt slightly disappointed.
"The purity isn't high."
Well, why would there be a reason to give excessive rewards to a pet dog?
Rather, if many high-value items had appeared, he would have felt a sense of discomfort.
Jinseong flicked the golden sphere with his fingernail, putting it back into the bundle.
Clink.
Landing with the sound of metal colliding, the bead rolled between the gaps of ornaments and coins, reaching the bottom.
"-."
The fingernail-sized golden sphere trembled at Jinseong's incantation.
"Gold is something that can flow and move. However, its form resembles a nucleus, having a hard and round shape, so its appearance is truly similar to a living thing."
With Jinseong's spell, the gold bead rippled like a water balloon, constantly changing its shape. Continuously undulating as if alive, the gold bead that was similar to but barely maintaining a circular shape completely collapsed its form at Jinseong's continued incantation.
"Like begets like."
The gold bead lost its shape and became extending tentacles. Except for a tiny core the size of a speck, everything moved like a living creature, extending its branches to other ornaments, and the caught ornaments were buried in the sphere as if being swallowed. This looked like a shapeless snake devouring and consuming prey, and it also resembled the form of slimes summoned by summoners.
Clink.
Thus, the gold bead increased its size. It enveloped incoming ornaments, absorbing the gold parts, and began to spit out non-gold parts in clumps.
Clink.
Clang.
In this way, all the gold items that a Japanese loan company had been keeping as emergency funds and slush funds were gathered into one lump.
Ripple.
The golden mass that absorbed all the gold items, shook its body while moving fluffily as if it were a real slime. Then, as if recognizing its master, it silently crawled towards Jinseong using pseudopodia and climbed up his body.
Swish.
Elongating and thinning its body, the golden slime moved like a snake, burrowing between the gaps of Jinseong's armor, and disappeared.
"Still, for a dog, it had collected quite a lot. Judging by the weight, this heavy thing will be very useful."
Jinseong smiled with satisfaction at the weight of the golden slime that had entered his bosom, then approached the president who was gasping for breath with light footsteps.
The president was still trembling, staring into space as if entranced by something.
"ॐ-."
Jinseong pressed the president's philtrum firmly with his sharply pointed fingernail.
Then the pupils that had been changing shape frantically regained their place, and emotions began to fill the previously blank expression.
Thud.
Jinseong grabbed the president's arm, which was repeatedly shrinking and swelling like a balloon, and whispered in his ear.
"Is it painful?"
Hearing these words, the president rolled his eyes to look at Jinseong, and seeing his appearance, his pupils changed shape again as if greatly surprised.
"Th-th-th-"
His voice changed to sound like the final cries of an old man on the verge of death, gasping due to numerous factors such as fear, shock, and pain, and Jinseong smiled seeing this.
"Don't worry. You will be liberated from that pain."
Meow~
As if agreeing with Jinseong's words, the unremarkable cat held in the man's arms meowed.
Meow-!
Even without being called, the cat escaped from the man's arms and reached the desk in one leap. Then, as if waiting for an order, it sat down obediently and stared blankly at Jinseong's face.
"B, b, baaaa, sss-shhh...tahrd..."
"Eat."
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooo!
When permission was given, the cat's mouth split open to its ears. The cat's mouth expanded like a snake unhinging its jaw to eat prey, and its size grew, stretching like rubber.
When its size finally became large enough to easily swallow a human head whole.
Crunch!
The fruit attached to the neck disappeared in an instant.
MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII KRrrrrrrrrrr.
The cat dissolved the head instantly as if melting a tasty candy, turning it into its own flesh, and now looking much sleeker than before, it meowed in a low tone as if feeling good.
"Death is this empty."
Behold.
The body fattened by serving and being loyal to the enemy of the nation like a dog.
The life that seemed like it would enjoy longevity while remaining fattened for thousands of years was harvested so meaninglessly.
"But it is the fate of a dog to be boiled when its usefulness is over, so this too must be fate."
Jinseong muttered this while collecting the blood flowing from the torn neck and putting it in his mouth.
"Hmm. This isn't it."
The taste of the blood was greasy and sweet, perhaps from eating a lot of fatty and sweet things, but it was different from the blood Jinseong was looking for. What he wanted was not the blood of an ordinary pig-like human, but blood closer to garbage, closer to waste that had no use.
"Even in death there is no use, so it is a truly vain life. Therefore, I chant a spell, wrapping it in compassion, praying for the rest of spirit and flesh and ascension to heaven. Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum. Om mani padme hum (ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ)."
Jinseong chanted the spell while making a half-palm gesture with one hand (prayer hands with one hand only) as if he had become a monk.
Meow.
Jinseong, having sent the soul of the dead president to heaven, opened his closed eyes and turned his body to walk towards the man with a blank expression.
"Do you want the chair? When I make a lot of money later, I'll buy one and give it to you."
He spoke to Jinseong as if he hadn't seen the terrible thing that had happened right before his eyes.
"Om-"
Jinseong, half-listening to the man's words, went out of the president's office.
"Huh-uck."
"Huhk, huh-uck."
"Sa...ve...me..."
Having confirmed that the fruit had ripened, it was now time to harvest.
* * *
He said it time and time again.
Sorcery was truly a strange discipline.
It was true that it imitated nature and mimicked its power, but there was no way to know how this was achieved. That was why people say sorcery was an unformulated, unsystematized miracle and mystery.
Unlike other disciplines that use natural forces like mana, magic power, qi, etc., the energy used in each sorcery was all over the place. Some used natural forces, some used life force, and some even used earth energy, fortune, or lifespan.
Moreover, although sorcery was known to use symbols, in reality, there was an abundance of ones that didn't use symbols, and sorceries that used meaning and ones that didn't use meaning. As was well known to people, there were sorceries that imitated certain objects, and those in the form of summoning or possession like contractors or summoners do.
Thus, sorcery was so comprehensive and abstract that it was impossible to classify it into one category.
But because of this, sorcery was so diverse in its types that it was unpredictable what would come out. Unlike magic which was easy to predict as it was based on elements, or martial arts which always manifested based on the physical body since it was based on qi.
"Om-"
Therefore, unlike other supernatural abilities that needed to emphasize rules and frameworks, one could create novel and creative things.
Crunch!
There was something called Toxoplasma gondii.
This parasite, also called toxoplasma gondii or toxoplasma, was a parasite that lives in cats.
Crunch!
Parasites were truly mysterious, often making seemingly impossible things possible. This life form called Toxoplasma gondii also showed such an aspect.
This parasite, which used cats as its definitive host, invaded the cat's body through intermediate hosts, grew into an adult, and laid eggs. Toxoplasma gondii, which could only reproduce in a cat's body, exerted magical-like power for reproduction.
Host manipulation.
Toxoplasma gondii actually manipulated its host.
A mere parasite invisible to the eye controlled its host to be eaten by cats.
The main intermediate host of this strange parasite was the mouse.
After entering a mouse’s body, the Toxoplasma gondii would begin to control the mouse's brain. The parasite that moved to the mouse's brain would take over the amygdala, increasing affinity towards cats, and reducing attention, caution, and sense of crisis towards danger.
Just by smelling cat urine, a mouse that used to run away with its tail between its legs would suddenly act as if it had nothing to fear, and even when there was a cat nearby, it would move calmly instead of hiding.
Meow!
Crunch!
Thus, the mouse was eaten by the cat.
True to its name, which meant "bow-shaped" (to′xon), it shot the mouse like an arrow to reproduce.
But there was another surprising point about this parasite.
It was that it could parasitize all vertebrates.
Although it couldn’t lay eggs as it could only reproduce in cats, it could use all vertebrates as intermediate hosts.
Of course, this applied to humans as well.
This was called toxoplasmosis.
Humans also had their brains affected when infected.
Meooow!
Crunch!
Like mice, they became more adventurous, less attentive, and less likely to avoid danger. And like mice, they developed an affinity for cats, which usually manifested as liking the smell of cats.
This sorcery that Jinseong used utilized these properties of Toxoplasma gondii. Having created himself in the form of primitive sorcery rather than excavating it from somewhere, this used Toxoplasma gondii as a medium to make people chosen as intermediate hosts similar to mice.
Meow?
Of course, biologically, it was impossible to make people similar to mice. Unless one conducted biological experiments, humans couldn't have mouse genes.
Instead, it overlaid the symbolism of mice onto people.
Like begets like.
It bound together the commonalities that both humans and mice have, made people resemble mice, and overlaid their symbolism as well. This was an application of the "Blessing of Starlight Ritual", the magical ritual through which he gained enlightenment in the past.
Mice had whiskers.
Humans had whiskers.
Mice had front teeth.
Humans also had front teeth.
Mice had excellent vitality.
Humans also had strong vitality.
Thus, commonalities were bound together, and mice and humans were also bound together. As a result, people didn't become exactly like mice, but gradually came to resemble them.
Whiskers grew thin like a mouse's.
Front teeth continued to grow like a mouse's.
Just as mice had strong vitality, people's vitality also strengthened. Muscles developed, body size increased, the body became energetic, and reproductive ability was enhanced.
And as they gradually came to resemble mice, people were given the symbolism of mice.
Mice had symbolized wisdom, fertility, abundance, fortune, and calamity since ancient times.
Regardless of East or West, mice appeared as clever animals, sometimes helping someone with their wisdom, and sometimes appearing in comical situations where they fall for their own tricks. Therefore, people who came to resemble mice became smarter like mice and became skilled in speech.
Mice appeared where there was a lot of food to eat, so the presence of many mice was interpreted to mean that there was plenty of food and abundance in the house. That was why in old stories, mice were often depicted as rich people who had piled up grains. Thus, people who came to resemble mice had their lives become more abundant, their stomachs didn't go hungry, and their luck opened up.
On the other hand, mice appeared when plagues broke out, always showed up when calamities struck, and always appeared when wars broke out and corpses piled up like mountains, so it was as if they would appear because they smelled the scent of disaster. Hence, they were also animals that signified calamity.
And this aspect of calamity was precisely what Toxoplasma gondii represented.
The targets of this spell had their brains infected, becoming more courageous and less likely to avoid danger. Moreover, as the spell strengthened, they started seeing illusions. Although these illusions couldn't be precisely controlled and couldn’t compare to the illusion magic cast by wizards or the witchcraft performed by witches, they were sufficiently usable.
Shaaak! Ha-ak!
That was why the man thought the unremarkable, smelly cat was cute and carried it around. And through that cat as a medium, Jinseong's sorcery had spread to others in the loan company, neutralizing everyone.
However...
Kak!
It seemed not everyone was neutralized.
Jinseong looked to one side.
"Huh-uck! Gasp!"
What he saw there was a well-trained man holding a sword and a cat cut in half.
The man was holding what looked like a solid wooden sword, leaning against the wall and gasping while glaring at Jinseong, and at his feet was the corpse of a cat, its neck and body separated, revealing a cross-section covered in white mold.
"Judging from your ability resistance, you must be a martial artist."