An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 50

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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 49
Part 8. Eastern Pavilion (3)
Crunch, crunch!
With each step up the mountain, an unsettling sensation welled up within me.
Kang Hyung-seok climbed the mountain, treading upon what could no longer be called a proper path.
Rocks jutting out haphazardly and stubborn, low-growing grass became traps, threatening to snag my feet.
Time was slipping away far too quickly.
When Kang Hyung-seok looked up at the sky, he was startled to see the sun already tilting sharply toward the west.
‘The remaining time…’
He held his hand horizontally beneath the sun.
Then he counted how many fingers fit between the sun and the horizon.
Each finger represented roughly thirty minutes.
In another hour and a half, darkness would fall.
“Huff!”
Exhaling hot breath, Kang Hyung-seok surveyed the path ahead and veered to the side.
Climbing in this winding manner, I would only reach the mountainside just before sunset.
‘More pressing than I anticipated.’
Still, I should be grateful that I had determined the correct direction.
Following the path the Monk had indicated, Kang Hyung-seok touched his phone.
This country truly was a good one.
Even deep in the mountains like this, the phone signal worked.
Tap, tap-tap, tap-tap.
「Chief, did you find anything? Are you in danger?」
The response did not come immediately.
In the moment I wondered if perhaps they were in a situation where they couldn’t send messages, my mind grew turbulent.
Zing!
A vibration sounded as a message from Shin Jung-ah arrived.
‘A photo?’
Kang Hyung-seok touched the photo Shin Jung-ah had sent and enlarged it with his thumb and forefinger.
The distant photograph expanded dramatically, the man at its center looming larger as if approaching.
“…Found him.”
The powerless Shaman.
The man who had shared drinks in my memories.
That man’s face matched.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
Kang Hyung-seok rapidly typed out a message and immediately pressed send.
***
Ding!
A text message chimed on my phone, but I’d anticipated this and dampened the vibration with both hands.
「Don’t get too close. Just send me your location.」
I tapped the map application.
I tried to send my GPS coordinates, but even I could see the location was completely off.
「This is maddening. Must be the Mountain interference.」
After confirming the man’s position, I shook my phone, but the location just jumped to another wrong spot.
「The GPS won’t lock.」
「Then just wait there.」
「Wait—he’s moving.」
I ducked behind a tree, peering out just enough to see.
I studied the man’s retreating figure with meticulous care.
Apart from slightly fierce eyes, he wasn’t particularly striking.
「But what’s he carrying?」
In the man’s arms was a glass bottle.
The kind of jar used for making infused liquor.
My gaze lingered on him, puzzled, before I turned my head.
Where the man had emerged from was a ramshackle wooden warehouse that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Tap tap tap.
「There’s a warehouse or something here. I’m going to check it out.」
「Just stay where you are.」
「Then come find me yourself.」
Unlike my immediate response, the phone fell silent.
I wore a smug expression—「Nothing to say, huh?」—before the delayed reply finally chimed in.
I’d thought the signal was weak and the message hadn’t come through, but the late response simply arrived on my phone.
「Just investigate, please.」
At Kang Hyung-seok’s request, I clenched my fists and scanned the direction where the man had been.
「He’s gone.」
Once I confirmed he’d moved far enough away, I crouched low and approached the warehouse.
Creak.
The rusted hinges groaned heavily as they opened.
Stepping inside, I activated my phone’s flashlight and surveyed the interior.
A pickaxe, handles, bags of dog food, traps.
「Hmm.」
The suffocating dust made me cover my nose and mouth with my sleeve as I swept the light across the space.
It looked like an ordinary warehouse filled with miscellaneous junk, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was definitely here.
I moved slowly toward the center of the warehouse.
That’s when it happened.
Creak.
The wooden floorboards groaned beneath my feet as I reached the exact center, and I felt my body beginning to sink. I looked down immediately.
There was a hollow space beneath my feet.
Shin Jung-ah glanced back toward where the man had vanished, then crouched down to examine the floor.
A dull thud.
My fingers slipped into the gap between the wooden planks.
Shin Jung-ah pressed her lips firmly together and slowly lifted the floorboard.
A prolonged creak—then a dull thunk.
A door that should never have been opened.
With that sensation, the floor rose upward, and a pitch-black darkness greeted Shin Jung-ah.
A sharp intake of breath.
Staring into the darkness, I swallowed hard against my dry throat.
Then, with movements as slow and deliberate as I could manage, I began descending into the space beneath the warehouse.
The sun, tilted sharply toward the west, watched over her through the window.
***
Crack!
Kang Hyung-seok stopped in his tracks after stepping on a dry branch and snapping it.
‘How is this possible?’
The sun was setting far more quickly than I had anticipated.
Shadows stretched long across the forest, and the creeping darkness was transforming it into something grotesque and alien.
“Haaah…”
With each exhale, I felt warmth and vitality draining away.
This was no good omen.
This sensation of drawing near to something I should avoid—it was not unfamiliar.
This feeling of approaching something wicked and treacherous resembled what I had sensed when visiting the Haunted House that had become the Abandoned Warehouse.
A hard swallow.
Kang Hyung-seok quickened his pace, his throat constricting.
That was when it happened.
A flutter of wings!
A Raven flew down and perched on a nearby branch.
Caw! Caw-caw!
As if mocking human laughter, the Raven cried out with an eerie, piercing call.
Goosebumps erupted across my skin, but I reached for the Shaman’s Bell.
Yet I could not bring myself to ring it.
‘I’m already halfway up the Mountain.’
I was nearly at my destination.
What I had to confront was not a spirit, but a person.
If I rang the Shaman’s Bell carelessly now, I would only reveal my presence.
Caw! Caw-caw-caw!
As the Raven shrieked like a malevolent spirit, I closed my eyes, then opened them and spoke.
“Taisho yaku kōten chi a, kōji sai a, ichigetsu chōa, seisin ei a.”
It was the best I could do.
“Jae-seon-geo-a, Sa-myeong-yeong-a, Tae-eul-rim-a, Ok-sin-do-a, Sam-gwan-bo-a. O-u-je-a, Buk-sin-sang-a, Nam-geuk-u-a, Geum-dong-si-a, Ok-nyeo-bae-a.”
Protected by the Tae-eul Scripture, Kang Hyung-seok stared at the Raven and extended the Shaman’s Bell as if to display it.
“Yuk-gap-jik-a, Yuk-jeong-jin-a, Cheon-mun-gae-a, Ji-ho-tong-sa, San-taek-yong-a.”
With merely this, the Raven closed its beak.
At the same time, the air around us felt slightly lighter.
Kang Hyung-seok glared at the Raven and began to move forward, while the Raven shot high into the sky and flew westward.
After walking for another three minutes or so.
Thud.
Kang Hyung-seok had to stop once more.
What appeared this time was a dilapidated wooden structure.
The single-story building, which resembled a Warehouse, had no windows.
To be precise, there were openings, but they were covered with blue tarps, making them as good as nonexistent.
‘This Mountain was said to be the Ancestral Mountain.’
From my exploration of this Mountain so far, there weren’t many signs of others passing through.
Yet it wasn’t a Mountain sacred enough for Shamans to visit for prayer either.
Since it wasn’t a Shaman’s prayer site and wasn’t built by outsiders, this structure must be connected to the Mountain’s owner.
Gulp.
My mouth had grown inexplicably dry, so I swallowed hard before approaching the structure with cautious steps.
Then I tried to push aside the tarp covering the window to peer inside.
Damn it, I can’t see anything.
The surroundings have already grown far too dark.
As I tried to examine deeper inside, I hastily turned my face from the window and stifled a gag.
A putrid stench assaulted my nose.
‘The smell of a ghost.’
The scent of a spirit.
Fishy and foul, mixed with other vile odors—the stench was so overwhelming it was difficult to maintain consciousness.
There was definitely something inside this building.
Kang Hyung-seok looked at the sunset turning crimson and moved toward the door.
Creak!
Fortunately, the door wasn’t locked.
It was after Kang Hyung-seok held his breath against the stench that came rushing at him along with dust.
“Seok-woo… hey.”
A hoarse, phlegm-laden voice reached my ears.
It wasn’t the voice of a young man.
A voice far older than that.
Faced with an unexpected situation, Kang Hyung-seok peered inside with a stiffened face, and the voice continued.
“Stop, now… please, just stop.”
That pleading voice was damp and trembling.
“Stop it…. Seok-woo, stop now. You have to stop. Stop. You’re going to get in serious trouble. You fool.”
Kang Hyung-seok moved only his eyes to examine the interior.
The waterproof tarp was dark and thick enough to obscure what lay beneath, but inside, talismans were plastered all over.
They didn’t all come from the same Shamanic Temple—their designs varied—yet I could discern what kind of talismans they were.
‘Talismans to ward off spirits?’
I also discovered salt and glutinous rice flour scattered across the floor.
This made no sense.
Who was this man lying here?
And why did he fear spirits so intensely?
“…Who are you?”
When I spoke, the Old Man lying on the floor flinched.
But his movements seemed restricted—he couldn’t sit up or even lift his head.
“W-who are you? Who are you?”
The Old Man’s terror-stricken words somehow made my confusion deepen.
After standing in silence for a long moment, I spoke in a low, measured voice.
“I came because of the alcohol.”
It had all begun with alcohol.
A single bottle delivered to my Uncle.
That bottle—the one that shared misfortune—had led me here.
I waited quietly for the Old Man’s reaction.
And moments later, he began to weep like a child.
“U-uh-uh-uh-uh, uh-uh-uh-uh! Uh-waaah-waaah-waaah.”
A low, labored sobbing—difficult to hear.
The sound of an infant’s cry echoed through the narrow, ancient building.
And in that moment, I became certain.
The reasoning and evidence were still incomplete.
Yet my instinct spoke powerfully—I had drawn near to the truth, and the end was close.
“Uh-waaah-waaah-waaah! Uh-waaah-waaah-waaah!”
Inside the Warehouse, the Old Man’s sorrowful weeping continued without pause.
***
Clang!
The moment Shin Jung-ah descended into the darkness, the floor hatch slammed shut, swallowing her whole into absolute blackness.
“Eek!”
Startled, Shin Jung-ah’s eyes glistened with tears as she frantically fumbled for her phone.
Using the flashlight to illuminate above, she confirmed the hatch was sealed, then surveyed her surroundings with a distressed expression.
“This is truly terrifying. Mother.”
She murmured almost in sobs, but soon found herself unable to speak. With a rigid face, she shone the light on shelves thick with accumulated dust.
The shelves were densely packed with bottles.
There appeared to be well over two hundred of them.
Clink.
As she reached toward a bottle, her face a mixture of fear and curiosity, she wiped away the dust coating its surface.
The dust cleared, revealing what lay within.
“Gasp!”
Shin Jung-ah dropped the bottle, and as it shattered against the floor, the acrid stench of alcohol mixed with the sight of a blackened serpent, preserved in spirits, rolling across the ground.
“No, no way. This… this means…”
Hundreds of bottles—all of them contained animals preserved in alcohol.
Shin Jung-ah trembled violently as she beheld the overwhelming array of bottles surrounding her.
I should not be here.
That thought struck with overwhelming force, and her legs shook.
Mugho.
In other words, isolation.
Powerful entities confined within vessels, their energies suppressing and intoxicating one another.
This Underground Chamber was a massive Mugho.

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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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