An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 321

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 320
Part 2. What Was Done in Harsh Places (3)
Crrrrk!
The moldy chain unraveled heavily and sank.
Then Kang Hyung-seok reached out and grasped the Refrigerator door, pulling it open.
Squelch.
Whether because mold had taken root in the rubber gasket or for some other reason, the door opened with a sticky resistance.
A stench poured through the crack in the door.
The atmosphere created by the lantern’s light and the mold-filled environment.
It was just after Yoon Sang exhaled a groan, his mouth bone-dry, with nothing but dry heaves threatening to rise instead of saliva.
Thud.
The door opened wide.
“Yoon Sang.”
Yoon Sang was beside Kang Hyung-seok.
The fully opened door blocked his view, and Kang Hyung-seok’s voice came from beyond the Refrigerator door.
“You should put the camera away.”
“Y-yes?”
Flustered, Yoon Sang could neither advance nor retreat, staring at the Refrigerator door blocking his vision.
Terrified and frightened, but he couldn’t completely ignore that they were broadcasting.
[What the hell is this.]
[What is it really.]
[Don’t look. ㅠㅠ]
[Better not to see.]
[We came this far and you’re not showing us anything?]
[If Yoon Sang messes up even slightly and gets the broadcast shut down, it’s bad for him too.]
[The real-time rankings have shot up so much right now, the platform moderators are probably monitoring too.]
He couldn’t ignore the chat’s reaction either.
Yoon Sang breathed heavily through his nose and hesitated for a long while, then turned the laptop camera away from the Refrigerator and opened his mouth.
“Hyung-nim, would it be okay if I checked it myself?”
“Better not to look.”
“B-but still. If it’s not dangerous, I’ll look.”
Kang Hyung-seok nodded heavily, as if wondering whether merely seeing it could cause something strange to happen.
Squelch.
Yoon Sang approached Kang Hyung-seok, treading on the sticky floor that seemed to cling to him.
It was right after that.
Crash!
The dropped laptop hit the floor.
“Ugh! Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh!”
Yoon Sang’s startled screams rang through the Kitchen, and the chat filled with countless question marks and messages of concern for him.
But Yoon Sang had no time to check, retching at the contents of the Refrigerator.
A cow’s head.
The cow’s head, plastered with talismans, had been slashed by a blade and was grotesquely decomposing, its flesh writhing with maggots that devoured it relentlessly.
***
Click! Whoosh!
Kang Hyung-seok ignited the lighter.
Outside the school, the broadcast had ended, and thick darkness still hung heavy over the surroundings.
“Come here.”
As Yoon Sang, whose face had become half-destroyed in mere hours, approached slowly, Kang Hyung-seok swept the lighter across Yoon Sang’s body.
Yoon Sang stared blankly at the rapidly moving lighter and its flames, careful not to ignite his clothes, his eyes alone posing a silent question.
What exactly was he doing right now?
“It’s a purification ritual.”
Fire carries the meaning of purification.
So sweeping the body with lighter flames like this has the effect of washing away any impurities, malevolence, or misfortune with fire.
“Isn’t this normally done with salt?”
Yoon Sang asked in a listless voice, and Kang Hyung-seok smiled silently before bringing the flame close to his back as well.
“I don’t usually carry a lighter around.”
“Ha ha.”
Yoon Sang, the lighter’s owner, laughed weakly, and Kang Hyung-seok left the lighter’s flame burning as he set it down on the ground.
“Just jump back and forth over the fire like this.”
“Do I really have to do this much?”
“It’s not strictly necessary, but it’s good to do it.”
Purification rituals aren’t performed solely for their efficacy.
They also serve to calm the anxiety in one’s heart, and they provide psychological comfort to those who have suffered shock, just as Yoon Sang had now.
“So I just jump over it, right?”
Seeing Kang Hyung-seok nod, Yoon Sang jumped over the lighter three times in succession.
With that, the purification ritual was complete.
Kang Hyung-seok picked up the lighter, closed its lid, shook it several times to cool it, and returned it to Yoon Sang.
“How was the broadcast?”
“Oh, the broadcast?”
The image of the rotting cow’s head had faded somewhat from Yoon Sang’s mind, and he asked back in a clearer voice, opening his phone to access the administrator page.
“Wow.”
He then looked at Kang Hyung-seok with wide eyes, his expression saying everything.
“If it went well, that’s fortunate.”
“Wow, wow. Wow wow wow.”
Yoon Sang blinked repeatedly in disbelief, looking at the administrator page again and again.
“It’s a massive hit. A complete massive hit.”
Kang Hyung-seok smiled, pulling his lips upward, and Yoon Sang excitedly showed him the peak viewer count and the comments flooding in on the live broadcast.
“See this? I broke the peak viewer record, and comments are still pouring in in real-time right now!”
“I wouldn’t understand even if I looked.”
“Come on! Hyung-seok, do you know how incredible this is?”
It seemed like it really was something remarkable.
Yoon Sang scrolled through his phone screen with an expression of genuine emotion, wiping it repeatedly.
“Insane. Really. Of course, not everything’s good—there are people saying it’s fabricated or whatever, but that’s unavoidable. Most of the reactions were incredibly positive. Insane. That’s what it’s like. And there are tons of comments about you too, hyung!”
“I see.”
It was at that moment, when Yoon Sang offered an awkward smile in contrast to Kang Hyung-seok’s composed reaction.
“I’m going back in now. What about you?”
“Huh…?”
“I said I’m going back in.”
When Kang Hyung-seok pointed at the Abandoned School with his thumb, Yoon Sang’s jaw fell slack.
“W-what are you saying? Why would you go back in there again?”
“There’s leftover meat. I need to clean it up properly so nothing goes wrong.”
“Ugh….”
“Besides, it wasn’t anything worth broadcasting anyway. Just stay here.”
When Kang Hyung-seok gave off the distinct impression that he was truly about to enter the School alone, Yoon Sang quickly shoved his phone into his pocket.
“Hey, hyung! Wait a moment.”
“What?”
“Um, ah! Ah! L-let’s go together. Let’s go together, hyung.”
Kang Hyung-seok sent a questioning look, and Yoon Sang nodded vigorously despite his pained expression.
“I don’t need to watch. But it looks like you’re planning to clean it up alone, and how could you manage that by yourself?”
I’ll help with whatever needs doing.
At the intense message Yoon Sang conveyed through his expression and eyes, Kang Hyung-seok offered a bitter smile and nodded.
Thud.
And so the two of them entered the Abandoned School once more.
Naturally, the broadcast wasn’t running, so Yoon Sang’s attire was considerably lighter. He had no laptop, and the only thing hanging from the strap across his body was a lantern.
Crinkle, crinkle.
The large plastic bag Yoon Sang was clutching tightly to hold the cow head caught Kang Hyung-seok’s attention.
“Do you usually carry something like that around?”
“Huh? Oh, yes. It’s for cleanup purposes.”
Yoon Sang added in a meek voice, “Though I never thought it would be used like this.”
Indeed, Internet Broadcasting didn’t seem like an easy profession.
Kang Hyung-seok stood before the Kitchen, thinking that perhaps someone like Yoon Sang would be conscientious about cleanup precisely because of his nature.
Creak.
It was the moment he was about to open the door.
Suddenly, Kang Hyung-seok’s hand froze as if he’d turned to ice, and Yoon Sang, who had been watching with a puzzled expression, went rigid.
“Why, why are you like that?”
Kang Hyung-seok didn’t respond, only moving his eyes as he surveyed his surroundings.
Something felt off.
Certainly, in this Abandoned School as the sun set, there was no one besides the two of them, and there were no signs of anyone having intruded.
The lock that had fallen to the ground remained undisturbed, and there were no other footprints.
But the feeling was wrong.
Clang-clang-clang!
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell and signaled Yoon Sang to retreat, then opened his mouth.
“Bae-cheong-bon-sa-wi o-chuk-yeom-mi jo-sa-wi o-chuk-yeom-mi chil-jo-seon-sa-wi.”
Then he recited the exorcism chant to drive away the Malevolent Spirit.
“O-chuk-yeom-mi ok-nyeo-wi o-chuk-yeom-mi yeom-hwa-dong-jong mi-hwa-cheol-ja hyung-shin-ak-sal.”
Yoon Sang’s face twisted further with terror, but Kang Hyung-seok did not stop the incantation.
“Gwang-gwi-cheon-ri-geo cheon-sal-gwi cheon-ri-geo ji-sal-ji-dang hyung-shin-ak-sal.”
He felt it had to be done this way.
The moment the door cracked open, a smell brushed against his nostrils.
It was a foul stench, a fishy reek—but not the smell of rotting ox head.
The stench of a ghost.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
“Gong-gwi-seo-bang-ap-song toe-shin-chul-oe-bang shin-byeong-shin-jang-hwa geup-geup yeo-yul-ryeong sa-ba-ha.”
It happened immediately after.
Crash-bang-bang!
A tremendous noise erupted from beyond the closed Kitchen door.
“Hrraaagh!”
Yoon Sang covered his ears and stumbled backward, while Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell with fierce intensity and repeated the exorcism chant once more.
The exorcism chant had to be recited three times in total.
“H-hey, hyung-nim, here’s the salt!”
Yoon Sang, quick to catch on, handed over the salt bottle, and Kang Hyung-seok unscrewed the cap and poured salt from the crown of his head downward.
Then, after sprinkling salt around Yoon Sang and the door frame, he recited the exorcism chant one final time.
Crash-splash! Crash-bang!
The moment the incantation ended, a loud noise erupted from inside once more.
Kang Hyung-seok grasped the door handle again, and despite Yoon Sang shaking his head in desperate protest, he carefully opened the Kitchen door.
The ghost’s stench had vanished.
Whoooosh.
Instead, a cold wind that they had not felt before came rushing in, engulfing them.
“H-hey, hyung-nim.”
“…Follow me.”
Unable to leave Yoon Sang alone, Kang Hyung-seok slowly entered the Kitchen with him.
A sticky floor, the smell of mold.
It suffocated the breath and clouded the mind.
Clang-clang-clang!
Driving away all manner of malevolent energies with the Shaman’s Bell, Kang Hyung-seok stood before the Refrigerator, took a deep breath, and yanked the door open.
And his face contorted immediately.
“Why, why? Hyung-nim, what is it?”
To Yoon Sang’s question from behind, eyes clenched shut, Kang Hyung-seok shook his head and spoke.
“We came here too late, it seems.”
He found himself wishing he had not left this place vacant.
Kang Hyung-seok gazed down at the cow’s head rotting and crumbling away on the refrigerator shelf.
Less than an hour had passed since I’d left this place.
Naturally, the cow’s head should not have changed drastically, yet the one inside the refrigerator was undergoing rapid decomposition.
Ting, ting, ting.
The Shaman’s Bell chimed like the ticking of a second hand.
Kang Hyung-seok glanced briefly at the Shaman’s Bell before shifting my gaze back to the cow’s head.
The maggots were all dead, the flesh had liquefied, and the bone—charred black as if scorched by flame—refused to release my stare.
What in the world could have done this?
‘Curse, ritual offering, cow’s head, mannequin.’
Kang Hyung-seok, whose eyes hadn’t blinked once during this contemplation, twisted my lips.
An ominous thought had lodged itself firmly in my mind and would not dislodge.
“…Backlash curse?”
When cursing someone, one must be prepared to suffer the consequences oneself.
An imperfectly executed curse invariably returns like an arrow, striking down the caster.
That is why curses are so dangerous.
What if someone’s curse performed in this abandoned school had failed, and they’d been struck by backlash?
What if that vengeful spirit was hiding here?
The moment my thoughts reached this conclusion—
“Aaaaahhhhh!”
Suddenly, Yoon Sang behind me let out a scream, and Kang Hyung-seok immediately turned my gaze toward him.
“H-hyung! Over there, over there!”
Yoon Sang was pointing out the window.
Kang Hyung-seok quickly looked in that direction and soon caught sight of the entity beyond the broken glass pane.
“…A Vengeful Spirit.”
A monkey-like thing radiating such intense resentment that even Yoon Sang, who possessed no spiritual sight, could perceive it, clung to the window frame with its head poking through, its lips twisted in a grotesque, malevolent grin.

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