An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 144

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 143
Part 2. Japanese Sorcery and Korean Shamanism (2)
Ding!
“Got word from Shin Manager. Travel safe and do your best!”
As I drove, I glanced at the text message that appeared on the navigation screen and dismissed it with a tap of my finger.
It was a message from Gwak Young-ho.
Shin Yoseph had mentioned he’d accompany me to the newly constructed subcontractor’s facility, and aside from the fact that I was traveling alone, there was nothing inaccurate about it.
‘Rokurokubi, huh…’
An unsettling feeling washed over me.
Until now, every entity I’d encountered had been rooted in Korean tradition.
The Goblin had been, the Tiger Spirit had been, and the malevolent spirits and flesh-eaters had been as well.
But suddenly, a Japanese yokai had appeared out of nowhere.
Vroom.
To calm my increasingly tangled thoughts, I sipped the iced Americano hanging from the cup holder and focused on driving.
“You will arrive at your destination shortly.”
I knew. I was getting closer to my destination.
Yet despite that, I hadn’t gotten any closer to understanding the truth, so I slowed my speed with a troubled expression.
The factory, my destination, was located in a decidedly alien place.
‘Why choose somewhere like this?’
It was remote enough to warrant such a thought, surrounded by mountains with roads barely cut through.
At first glance, it seemed like someone ignorant had simply bought a desolate plot because it was cheap and built a factory there. As I stepped out of the car, I slowly surveyed my surroundings.
‘This place has been geomantically selected.’
This had happened before.
There was that shaman—if you could even call him that—named Director Kwon who had colluded with a factory owner to sacrifice employees on the mountain.
That place had been built with careful attention to its topography, and this location carried a similar atmosphere.
Crunch.
I pushed the soil aside with my shoe and picked up a pinch between my thumb and forefinger, rubbing it.
There hadn’t been any rain recently.
Yet the soil retained moisture, and a faint fishy smell emanated from it.
‘Cursed ground.’
Unsuitable even for a burial site, a place where anyone living here would fall ill.
‘What in the world is this bastard doing?’
He’s partnered with someone who learned Japanese sorcery?
Someone entangled with a yokai?
He must value his own life, yet he’s building a factory—no small investment—in a place like this. What could possibly be his reason?
Pat pat.
As I brushed the soil from my fingers and gazed toward the distant construction site, running my tongue across my gums, it happened.
Soft.
A small sound of footsteps came from behind me.
The faint footsteps and presence I’d initially dismissed as my imagination steadily drew closer to me.
Someone was clearly approaching with some intention.
I exhaled slowly through the gap and waited for him to get close enough.
A beat.
And the moment his hand touched me,
Whoosh! A sharp whistle of movement!
I spun around simultaneously, seizing his wrist and collar, then slammed him down to the floor.
Crash!
“Argh!”
I raised my fist like lightning and looked down at him.
Then I released the tension from my knuckles and furrowed my brow.
“Why are you here?”
“Ugh, hyung.”
It was Yoon Sang.
The BJ who runs the horror broadcast.
And the same Yoon Sang who had helped me several times before and received permission to air the aftermath on his broadcast in return.
“Ow, that hurts.”
“…You should have just called instead of pulling a stunt like that.”
I extended my hand with an apologetic expression and helped him to his feet.
“Ugh…”
He must have been in considerable pain, as Yoon Sang grimaced and rubbed his back even after standing up.
“Hyung, what training did you receive? Your form was absolutely perfect.”
I clicked my tongue and dusted off Yoon Sang’s back for him.
“Sorry about that.”
“No, I’m asking if you trained.”
“A bit in the military. But why are you here?”
It was an attempt to change the subject.
Yoon Sang seemed to notice, but answered the question with an awkward smile.
“I came for the broadcast, of course.”
“The broadcast?”
I noticed that Yoon Sang’s clothes were particularly suited for active movement and nodded.
“You came for preliminary reconnaissance?”
“Yes. What about you, hyung?”
Yoon Sang’s gaze was quite burdensome.
His eyes were full of longing for something, mixed with a desperate hope that it would be true.
There was no point in deflecting, and even if I tried, I knew he was sharp enough that it wouldn’t matter much.
I clicked my tongue once more and exhaled through the gap.
“Something similar.”
“Hyung, then how about we do this together?”
Yoon Sang spoke with an almost frightening sharpness, his eyes pleading.
It wasn’t often that someone’s eyes looked so much like a rain-soaked puppy.
“Ugh, seriously.”
“Hyung-nim, I know I’m saying this now, but you never even contacted me, did you? And I helped you last time, and the time before that too!”
“I know. Me too.”
Kang Hyung-seok inhaled deeply, his expression hardening like someone with sensitive teeth as he regarded Yoon Sang.
My mind was already tangled enough, and now with Yoon Sang inserting himself into this, I couldn’t find any certainty about what to do or how to proceed.
“Hyung-nim.”
Was it really okay to involve Yoon Sang in this matter?
If I handled this alone, at least my mind would be at ease.
But since Shin Yoseph was entangled in this, and the Guardian Spirit had even given me a revelation, I hesitated about traveling with Yoon Sang.
Warang.
Suddenly, the Shaman’s Bell in my bag chimed.
‘What is this?’
The vibration from the Shaman’s Bell ringing was too distinct to dismiss as mere imagination, so Kang Hyung-seok shifted his gaze to the bag.
“Huh? Is something wrong?”
Yoon Sang spoke to me, but Kang Hyung-seok remained still for a while, his eyes fixed on the bag.
After such prolonged deliberation, he exhaled until his cheeks puffed out, then lifted his head toward the sky.
‘Is this what it means to be connected by fate?’
There are no trivial connections in this world.
Fleeting encounters, coincidental bonds.
Even connections that sometimes leave only scars—all of it is prepared by heaven, and at some moment, their true value reveals itself.
So perhaps Yoon Sang, whom I met by chance, is also a meaningful connection.
“…You’re confident you won’t get in the way?”
“I swear to the heavens! Truly! Just give me the order, Hyung-nim, and I’ll keep my mouth shut and follow like a shadow. I absolutely won’t be a hindrance!”
Yoon Sang patted his chest emphatically as if pleading for my trust.
Since Yoon Sang had never actually been a hindrance, Kang Hyung-seok drew his lips inward once, then parted them.
“Just answer me this. How did you end up here?”
“Oh, that’s… um….”
“You weren’t just wandering around randomly looking for broadcast material, were you? Don’t tell me you came looking for me?”
“No! What are you talking about?”
Yoon Sang waved his hands in alarm and pulled out his phone.
“Since you’re a Shaman, Hyung-nim, I was a bit hesitant to bring this up.”
Then he typed a familiar name into the search bar and showed me a familiar image.
“Rokurokubi. It’s a Japanese yokai, right?”
Damn it all.
As if heaven itself had woven their connection, Yoon Sang shared the exact same purpose as Kang Hyung-seok in a way that was almost absurd.
“Huh? Why are you like that?”
“…Do you know anything about this?”
“Of course! How hard do you think I prepared?”
Kang Hyung-seok urged him with just his eyes to speak, and Yoon Sang hesitated, fidgeting oddly before speaking.
“Why?”
“Hey, hyung, would you do me just one favor?”
“Anything but appearing on your broadcast.”
Yoon Sang, having his greatest wish rejected, let out a pitiful sound and gazed at me with such a sorrowful expression that there was truly nothing I could do about it.
“I’m a company employee, and a salesman at that. If I appear on your broadcast, it’ll make things difficult for me.”
“Then what if I wore a mask or something….”
“I don’t want to go that far.”
Broadcasting felt awkward to me.
Not only did it expose my existence, but when I questioned whether such an act was truly right, the answer was as obvious as fire—it wasn’t.
“You don’t really need my help, and there’s no one desperately in need of it either, so I don’t want to step forward.”
“….”
Yoon Sang chewed on his lower lip, lost in deep thought, and the silence stretched on.
“I understand. I won’t push anymore.”
Despite his resigned tone, something else seemed to be on his mind, so I raised one eyebrow, and Yoon Sang shook his head and continued in a firm voice.
“I genuinely think you’re amazing, hyung. I’ll respect whatever you decide, no matter what.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“No! But I have something I’m thinking about separately too, so don’t change your mind later, okay?”
It was the moment I was about to ask what that was.
“And about Rokurokubi—it may look bizarre, but it’s not actually as terrifying a yokai as you’d think.”
Yoon Sang urgently steered the topic back to Rokurokubi, even showing me search results on his phone as he continued his explanation.
“The basic form is female, and it seems to be a being caught between human and yokai. The only peculiar thing is that its neck stretches at night? It’s rather ambiguous, really.”
At first glance, a harmless yokai.
Based solely on Yoon Sang’s explanation, Rokurokubi certainly seemed that way.
But it wouldn’t be.
Yoon Sang’s expression suggested otherwise, and above all, the fact that a Japanese yokai had appeared in Korea bothered me.
“And?”
“There are several other strange things. One is that its form isn’t standardized.”
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the image displayed on his phone screen.
It had a form.
It was recorded in illustrations.
Yet if the form wasn’t distinct despite that, it meant this was just one of several possible forms.
“You can think of it as two main types. There’s the Nukekubi, where the neck completely detaches, and the Rokurokubi, where the neck stretches. Nowadays both are called Rokurokubi, though.”
“…Really?”
That was information I didn’t know.
Yoon Sang, who rattled off such details so smoothly, looked rather pleased with himself as he continued his explanation.
“Yes. And here’s the kicker—there’s also a theory that Rokurokubi was artificially created as a yokai.”
“Created?”
I asked, wondering if it was something like Korea’s Taeja-gwi, and Yoon Sang answered immediately.
“Yes. Its image overlaps quite a bit with that of maiden ghosts, so I think that’s where the legend came from. It seems to be because of characteristics like ‘it only becomes a yokai at night’ and ‘it only moves at night.'”
The explanation was sparse, but comprehensible enough.
It only acted at night.
It might be an image bestowed by this characteristic.
So I cannot ignore the nature of that era, which was forced upon people.
“You did quite a bit of research, didn’t you, hyung?”
Yoon Sang’s eyes sparkled.
Looking as if he awaited praise, Kang Hyung-seok met his gaze and nodded.
“You prepared a lot?”
“It’s basic diligence, hyung. I’m already proving quite helpful, aren’t I?”
“Yeah.”
In truth, anyone could find information at this level with a simple search.
Still, Kang Hyung-seok readily acknowledged his gratitude toward Yoon Sang, who clenched his fist and drew it up to his chest in a gesture of accomplishment.
“Now that we know the name, let’s take a look for ourselves.”
“Huh? Look at what?”
“Let’s see if it’s Rokurokubi or Nukekubi.”
“What? Really? We’re actually going to see it?”
Kang Hyung-seok said nothing and shifted his gaze toward the construction site where the factory was being built.
Yoon Sang had said it was a yokai whose neck lengthened at night.
If that were the case, its true form would manifest at night.
“If it exists, we’ll see it.”
Kang Hyung-seok clicked his tongue silently and looked up at the sky.
The sun still hung at its zenith, yet after hearing Yoon Sang’s explanation, a certain form seemed to overlap with the sky.
A human head circling through the air, tracing endless loops.
An expressionless head shooting through the murky night sky like a goblin fire—a grotesque and haunting vision.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————