Chapter 4
Sorcery was truly a strange discipline.
It was the oldest power, yet the least systematized.
It was the most widely used, yet said to be the most incomprehensible power.
This mysterious discipline, which may have been used since... perhaps the origin of humanity, had too few records to be called a discipline, yet was too familiar to humanity to not be one. Like a mirage blooming in the desert, it clearly existed somewhere but was unapproachable, and if approached, it was like a haze that shattered with light at the fingertips.
What was certain, however, was that this peculiar discipline fascinated countless people.
Wearing the face of good, the face of evil, an incredibly familiar face, or hiding its face more secretively than anything else under the name of esoteric teachings... it had bewitched people again and again, accompanying humanity.
That was why Jinseong was fascinated by sorcery.
Perhaps this magic became Jinseong's purpose and everything in his life.
The world of sorcery that he fell into, starting with a curse spell he accidentally encountered on the internet when he was being bullied by children in middle school, was more fascinating and beautiful to Jinseong than anything else in this world.
A curse where you carved a vegetable into a human-shaped doll, smeared it with the target's blood, and performed a simple ritual.
The curse he saw on the internet was a technique too low-grade and unsystematized to be called "magic". This curse, which seemed like it was made up in 30 minutes by someone who likes ghost stories, was mostly laughed off as a novel ghost story, but Jinseong, who was exhausted from bullying, eventually used this magic.
He mustered the courage to punch the main bully, causing a nosebleed, and smeared that blood on the doll.
Naturally, his first attempt at magic, used with such courage, failed.
No matter how mysterious sorcery was as a discipline, it was difficult for a hastily made-up spell to be effective. That ghost story was, as many people guessed, a spell made up by someone, and this fake spell called "a curse to make someone you hate eat shit" failed to exert any proper power and only instilled a sense of frustration in Jinseong.
But that frustration sparked defiance in Jinseong.
For the first time in a very long time, perhaps for the first time in his life, he mustered the courage to throw a punch, hitting the main bully hard enough to break his nose. As a result, he was lynched, his whole body covered in bruises, and even suffered a hairline fracture in his left leg.
After paying such a high price, to find out that the magic he used was fake?
Could he accept that?
After that incident, Jinseong began to collect things with "sorcery" attached to it while surfing the internet. From séances done for fun, to all sorts of sinister magic said to be used in Japan, ghost stories about magic, to childish "letter skills"...
Numerous stories floating around the internet filled Jinseong's head. And at that point, Jinseong became able to use real curse magic. Among the stories spread under the name of ghost stories, there were very rarely real ones, and Jinseong, whose perspective had naturally broadened, became able to distinguish these real ones to some extent.
Real magic was similar to but different from the fake magic that was circulating out of interest.
It was true that rituals were performed, but these rituals were ridiculously simple.
Instead of dolls made of vegetables or straw, any human-shaped doll sold in the market was sufficient.
Neither the blood of the curse target nor the blood of the curse caster was needed.
50,000 won.
Jinseong used magic for just 50,000 won without any effort.
He just bought a doll, ink, and well-trimmed pork.
The money spent on that was 50,000 won.
Just... that was all.
The doll covered all over with pork was abandoned somewhere in the mountains and rotted all by its lonesome. Strangely, however, no flies approached the pork that was decaying and turning black. Maggots that should have been swarming were nowhere to be found, and flies, though smelling the rotting meat, couldn't dare approach and just circled around it like satellites. Flies that approached after smelling the odor became hungry ghosts, unable to reach the meat before their eyes and only craving its smell, and eventually, unable to give up their attachment, they fell to the ground one by one, exhausted from hunger.
The fallen flies piled up and up, forming a shape...
It was the moment when a black circle was drawn around the rotten meat doll.
The black shape that was too distorted to be called a circle, but could only be called a circle as it was connected with no angles, became a cage for the rotten doll, and the doll turned black while being protected inside the fence. When time passed and passed until all parts except the magic text turned black, when only the part with the magic text formed a strange shape while retaining a red bloodiness.
The curse was activated.
One.
The main bully had an accident falling down the stairs.
It was an accident that often happens at a young age, and the main bully wasn't seriously injured. He was only hospitalized for a hairline fracture in his leg bone.
But for some reason, a severe inflammation occurred at the site of the fracture.
The main bully, who led a gang to severely bully others, was extremely sensitive to his own pain. It's said that a thorn in one's own finger is worse than another's fatal illness, but the main bully was too extreme in this regard, and his parents, unable to resist the child's tantrums, arranged for pain-numbing magic and painkillers so that the child wouldn't feel pain.
But this consideration turned out to be poison.
Because the main bully couldn't feel pain, he couldn't notice the inflammation, and because it was a simple injury, he didn't even think to examine the injured area closely. Strangely enough, the inflammation didn't show symptoms until it became as serious as cancer...
Thus, the main bully had to undergo major surgery to directly scrape the inflammation off the bone with a scalpel. Moreover, it was clear that there would be aftereffects from undergoing major surgery at such a young age, so it could be said to be perfect karma.
Two.
The main bully had supporters.
The supporters, consisting of three boys and one girl, bullied Jinseong, who was depressed after losing his parents at a young age, and their bullying was so sinister and violent that Jinseong had reason to hold a grudge.
The boys got food poisoning.
They showed abnormal symptoms after eating school lunch and were taken away, but the strange thing was that only these 3 out of the whole school were affected. Those taken to the hospital writhed in agony, and when they vomited because they couldn’t bear the way their stomachs were flipping inside out, what came out were disgusting things like spiders and earthworms.
They suffered.
They were constantly hungry but couldn't properly consume food, and had to suffer like that until they recovered, relying only on nutrients injected into their veins. Moreover, every time they tried to eat, they were reminded of the insects they had vomited, leading to eating disorders.
This too was karma.
Three.
As tormenting the mind can be more difficult than tormenting the body.
The curse visited the girl equally.
The curse that came in the name of hormonal imbalance shattered her relationships. Due to excessive secretion of testosterone, beard started growing on her face, her shoulders broadened, and her face was full of acne. Thick, curly hair grew on her legs, and later she even became the subject of ridicule among children, nicknamed "furry".
The power of hormones was amazing, giving her superior physical abilities as a trade-off, but for a girl who enjoyed leading people around and doing sinister things rather than achieving something, it would have been the most terrible thing.
Thus, all processes paid their due price, and it came back as retribution in the form of a blade named curse.
And lastly.
Jinseong cut off half of his stomach as the price for the magic.
It was a tragedy that occurred because he didn't know that magic required such a price, especially in the case of curse magic, where one had to consider the price to be paid and the reversal effect.
But even though half of his stomach suddenly rotted away, and he had to have a knife put to his belly to remove half of his stomach, Jinseong couldn't escape the charm of magic. Perhaps the fact that he had to cut off half of his stomach made it even more impossible for him to escape.
At a glance, the price of magic resembled the nature of gambling, which made it even more so.
I caused pain to five people with just half a stomach, truly lucky.
In poker terms, it was a full house, in lottery terms, it was about second place.
Especially considering that he used curse magic without any thought and only paid that much of a price, there was no other way to express it than to say he was really lucky. Simple curses often backfired and killed the caster, and usually, the price of a curse was received back several times over what was done.
And luck followed again.
Usually, when such things happened, they naturally investigated whether it was retaliation due to supernatural abilities. Five children were hurt, and all of them were involved with Jinseong, so he naturally became a suspect and was investigated.
But luckily, the magic he found and used was the kind that left no trace. Unlike other curses that leave deep residual effects, this magic only created minor injuries and trauma in the children and most of its traces disappeared. The low-level and unmotivated public official couldn't find these traces and just concluded the case as a coincidence.
What happened to the main bully was rare but not unheard of, and what happened to the girl was also uncommon but not impossible. After all, weren't there many female athletes competing in the Olympics who secreted a lot of testosterone?
Moreover, regarding the boys who were taken away, there were rumors that they might have taken drugs, drunk alcohol, or eaten something strange, as they were known to indulge in alcohol, cigarettes, and even glue sniffing.
Later, when Jinseong was hospitalized, rumors circulated that it might have been curse magic, but because the price he paid was too small compared to what the children suffered, and because Jinseong had been continuously bullied by the children and was under tremendous stress, the matter was concluded as an illness due to stress.
He was lucky in every aspect.
As if magic was trying to draw Jinseong in.
Everyone who comes into contact with magic must be like this. No, all karma in the world comes like fate and connects, so I will call this a profession.