An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 355

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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 355
Part 7. I Called Upon You (2)
Vrroooom.
Inside the moving car, Shin Yoseph and Kang Hyung-seok wore the faces of corpses.
Anyone would be troubled, but these men faced particular complications—discovering a body could only spell disaster if word reached the Company.
They needed someone to help manage the situation.
Shin Yoseph had already summoned assistance, so the Attendant would be heading there now.
“I won’t let this harm you.”
Shin Yoseph muttered the words, and Kang Hyung-seok responded with a nod.
Then he gazed beyond the passenger window, where mountains and abandoned buildings dotted the landscape.
They had rushed here without even activating the navigation system.
A place distant even from Yeongwol.
Once, the coal mining industry had drawn many residents here, but as the industry withered, the population naturally dwindled.
Now it was a gray city like a school at midnight—houses standing empty, devoid of inhabitants.
Kurrrung.
Dark clouds heavy with thunder filled the sky, and after casting a brief glance upward, he exhaled quietly.
In that moment, Shin Yoseph steered the vehicle toward a very old Apartment Complex.
No one blocked their entry.
After all, no one lived in this Apartment Complex.
Uuuung.
Dandelions and nameless weeds grew profusely through the cracked concrete, and tiny black ants no larger than a pinky nail carried soil to build embankments across the Parking Lot where Shin Yoseph parked the car and immediately killed the engine.
He rubbed his face and roughly pulled out a cigarette, placing it between his lips.
Pop! Crackle.
He lit the cigarette with the driver’s door wide open, and one oblivious ant watched him from that low vantage point.
“Huuuh.”
Shin Yoseph shifted his gaze to Kang Hyung-seok, cigarette still in his mouth.
It was the look of someone wanting to ask what came next, and whether the Shaman’s eyes perceived something different about the scene.
“There was nothing particularly visible at the scene.”
“…A small mercy, then.”
Shin Yoseph murmured uncertainly.
“It’s no mercy at all.”
Kang Hyung-seok answered with a shallow sigh, his gaze fixed outward while his mind delved into memory.
‘A spirit that took its own life.’
There were no signs of external intrusion, and given the circumstances, it seemed highly probable that this person had ended their own life just as the one in the Forest had done.
Every religion in the world discourages suicide.
Shamanism held the same position, though its standards were looser than other faiths, it still described such endings as inauspicious.
Spirits that take their own lives do not easily abandon their place.
“Something essential is missing.”
As if someone had taken it away.
At least, that was how it appeared to Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes.
“Haaah—!”
Shin Yoseph exhaled a long plume of cigarette smoke and tilted his head back.
Though he said nothing, the heavy, damp air and atmosphere conveyed his thoughts clearly enough.
The situation was grave.
The Demon had taken him.
Shin Yoseph seemed certain of it.
“I need to make a call.”
Kang Hyung-seok pulled out his phone, and Shin Yoseph’s weary gaze followed him.
“Calling the Company?”
“No, I need to try something. I should dig deeper into this.”
I couldn’t stay in this desolate place indefinitely.
Rumble!
Thunder rolled again, as if urging me forward, and I found Yoon Sang’s contact and pressed the call button.
Beep.
(Hyung-seok!)
Unsettling—he picked up the moment the dial tone sounded.
“What? Why did you answer so fast?”
(I was setting up the broadcast.)
“Oh, I see.”
(What’s wrong? Are you doing something again?)
“Well… it’s…”
I expected the words to flow naturally, but something caught in my throat.
The word “shame” suddenly surfaced in my mind.
(What is it, Hyung-seok?)
While I fell silent, weighed down by guilt for so often asking for help yet neglecting Yoon Sang’s broadcast, he remained cheerful and unburdened.
“No, but fair warning—I won’t be able to come along this time.”
(That’s fine! You can just tell me about it later. What’s the situation this time?)
I glanced toward Shin Yoseph.
He knew Yoon Sang and understood what kind of person he was.
When Shin Yoseph nodded in agreement, I continued after a small sigh.
“I’ve gotten tangled up in a strange incident, but the perpetrator doesn’t seem to be human.”
(Oh…?)
“I’ll text you the location. If there have been any strange incidents in that area, could you compile and send them to me?”
(That’s easy! When do you need it by?)
“The sooner the better.”
(Then I’ll send it by tonight. I was in the middle of broadcast prep anyway. Is it okay if I mention to the viewers that you contacted me?)
I smiled faintly and nodded.
“Do whatever’s comfortable. And once this is all over, I think we can compile it and air it on the broadcast.”
(That would be amazing!)
“I’ll try to take some photos if the situation allows.”
(Huh, huh? Are you alright?)
Yoon Sang asked in bewilderment, as if receiving an unexpected gift.
“I can manage that much.”
(Hyung-nim! So, if you take photos with your phone, there’s something called EXIF data, right? Location tags and stuff—you can disable it in the settings. Just in case, if you could do this one thing, I’d be so incredibly grateful! Hyung-nim!)
“Got it. Is that enough?”
(How could I ask for anything more?)
Kang Hyung-seok smiled wryly, ended the call with a final request to take care of things.
“The kid’s got a good heart.”
Shortly after, Shin Yoseph pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit it, striking up conversation.
“He does.”
Kang Hyung-seok replied while searching through the camera settings for location information, and Shin Yoseph lit his cigarette before adding to his words.
“I looked into it myself, but surprisingly there’s nothing of you two broadcasting together. Some stuff seems to have been deleted during live streams too.”
“Really?”
“He must’ve filtered it out. Probably worried it might cause you trouble.”
“Huh.”
“Take good care of him. There aren’t many people like that around.”
Kang Hyung-seok knew this well.
Meeting someone like Yoon Sang in this world was genuinely a rare thing.
And that’s precisely why he felt a deeper sense of guilt.
“Don’t worry about it. Once this situation wraps up cleanly, he’ll have plenty to broadcast about anyway.”
Shin Yoseph, reading his true feelings with uncanny precision, spoke in an indifferent tone, and Kang Hyung-seok let out a small laugh and shook his head.
“I’ve asked him to investigate. Let’s move forward on our end.”
“Whoosh—!”
Shin Yoseph exhaled cigarette smoke like a sigh and looked up at the overcast sky.
Then, in a voice as gray as those clouds, he answered quietly.
“Yeah.”
***
Whirrrrr.
Kang Hyung-seok and Shin Yoseph moved with diligent purpose.
Not that they were chasing any immediate, visible objective.
The area was so sparsely populated that there weren’t even proper restaurants, which meant they had to make the trip all the way to the city center just to grab a meal.
Clatter, clunk!
The new car glided smoothly along the road, but the unrepaired pavement was a disaster, causing the luggage stacked in the back seat to rattle and clang.
Kang Hyung-seok glanced back, while Shin Yoseph silently took a sip from the coffee he’d hung in the cup holder.
The air was humid, yet his throat felt parched.
There was no helping it.
From here on, we had to head toward the Mountain, toward the Forest where someone had died.
Whirrrrr.
The car passed what looked like a memorial building and continued toward increasingly desolate terrain.
When we reached our destination, the scent of the Forest greeted us first through the crack in the passenger window.
The smell of the Forest.
The moisture-laden air hanging low felt like a massive barrier.
Whoooosh.
Shin Yoseph brought the car to a complete stop, lit a cigarette, and stepped out; Kang Hyung-seok also exited from the passenger seat.
Flutterrrr!
A jet-black bird took flight above the gray sky as if wary of them, and I retrieved a bag from the back seat and slung it over my shoulder.
“Take this.”
I rolled up the black raincoat Shin Yoseph handed me and tucked it under my arm.
Time was short but there was much to do.
Even at this hour when the sun seemed about to set, we had to move; so Shin Yoseph was preparing more thoroughly than usual.
Clink, clink.
Fully dressed in his raincoat, Shin Yoseph attached a small bell to his wrist, then picked up a lantern and handed one to me as well.
Then he turned his gaze toward the Forest while smoking his cigarette.
“Ominous. In every way.”
I nodded in agreement.
“It’s where someone died, after all.”
It was hard to imagine.
That someone had trudged all the way up to such a desolate Mountain and ended their own life there.
There was no explanation for it other than that something had possessed them.
And I had a suspicion about what that something was.
A Demon.
Rustle, rustle. Jingle, jingle.
With every slight movement, Shin Yoseph’s raincoat and bells chimed; he placed myrrh into the incense burner. But he didn’t light it—instead, he made the sign of the cross and stepped forward toward the Forest.
Crunch, crunch.
Our feet moved steadily, yet neither of us spoke.
There are times like this.
Times when even drawing breath feels wrong.
It was instinct warning me.
That unsettling, dangerous sensation—as if even the air itself shouldn’t be drawn into my lungs.
“Huff, huff!”
But perhaps because Shin Yoseph wore a raincoat, he soon began breathing heavily, and I followed behind him, occasionally glancing up at the sky.
Jingle, jingle, jingle.
I couldn’t tell if the bells ringing with each step were a natural phenomenon, or if the Guardian Spirit was sending me a warning.
But one thing was certain.
We had entered a place we shouldn’t have.
Rumble!
Thunder roared again, and soon thick raindrops began to fall.
I started putting on my raincoat while Shin Yoseph stopped and waited for me.
Throughout this entire process, only rustling sounds filled the air.
Thus chaos and silence coexisted simultaneously.
Rustle.
It was the moment I threaded both arms through the raincoat sleeves and reached to fasten the buttons.
Shin Yoseph’s head snapped around so sharply that water droplets flew from his raincoat, and my eyes moved as well.
“Did you hear that?”
Whoosh.
I signaled for silence, and just as Shin Yoseph exhaled roughly through his nose, the sound came again.
Pad, pad.
Footsteps.
And faintly mixed within them—the sound of a beast.
A creature’s cry that shouldn’t exist in such a desolate forest.
Crack, screech, crack.
“Follow me!”
I bolted forward first, and Shin Yoseph rushed after me with all his strength.
Flap flap flap!
Birds scattered into the air as if startled by our plunge into the deeper forest.
It was remarkable how many birds there were, considering how well they’d been hidden.

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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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