Exorcism Specialist Company: Ghost Soul Trading - Chapter 1

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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 1

Late into the night.
Beneath a starlit sky where a slender crescent moon hung as if it might vanish at any moment, a two-story Abandoned School stood in solitary silence.
As a biting wind swept around the Abandoned School, fallen leaves scattered across the athletic field with a chaotic rustle.
And through the gaps, dark silhouettes flickered past the windows in swift succession.
Drip—drip—drip—
In the hallway, a sound echoed softly—whether it was water droplets or blood falling, no one could tell—while the classroom door creaked open and closed repeatedly of its own accord.
At that very moment, the headlights of a foreign vehicle blazed sharply toward the school gate.
Screech—
With the cacophonous sound of tires grinding against gravel, the headlights swept across the rusted chain that barred the gate.

[NO ENTRY]

Beneath the corroded chain hung an iron sign bearing the ominous warning against trespassing.
Creak—
As the vehicle came to a halt and the engine cut off, a bespectacled man emerged from the driver’s seat.
He grabbed something long and wrapped in cloth, then planted himself firmly before the gate.
Standing at roughly 180 centimeters tall, he wore thick horn-rimmed glasses and possessed a lean frame.
Despite his refined appearance, there was something distinctly awkward about him—the quintessential image of a “nerd.”
Creak—creak—
As he appeared, the wind intensified, and the iron sign swayed violently.
That was the moment.
Snap—crash—
The rusted chain snapped and hurtled toward the man’s neck like a boomerang.
Whoosh—
Thud—
The man twisted his body slightly to evade, and the sign embedded itself in the car window instead.
“Are you alright?”
As he turned back to ask, another man in the driver’s seat waved his hand reassuringly.
“Yes, I’m fine. Please, go ahead.”
“Ah, yes, yes.”
The bespectacled man waved back and then pressed a button beside his glasses.

[System booting]
.
.
.
[System initialization complete.]
[Recording activated.]
[Ghost Sensor engaged.]

Beep beep—

[Equipment synchronizing]
[Equipment synchronization complete]

Message windows cascaded across the lens of my glasses in rapid succession.

Whoooosh—

Moments later, the items I was currently carrying materialized in the lower portion of the lens display.

[Primary Weapon – Guichaldo (Equipped)]
[Secondary Weapon – Hyeolsudando (Equipped)]
[Flashlight – Battery: 98%]
[Document this location.]
[Mission commencing.]

Beep—
As the message windows scrolled upward and vanished, only the equipment list at the bottom and my heart rate display at the top remained, rendered in translucent form.
I unwrapped the object that had been bundled in cloth.
A crimson blade emerged into view.
Its form resembled a Korean hwarang sword far more than a Japanese katana.
In that same instant, the man’s previously gentle expression hardened into something sharp and resolute.
“Let’s give it a try.”
I spoke quietly, then drew the blade slightly to inspect its edge.
As the sword caught the pale moonlight, it gleamed with an ethereal radiance.
It felt as though the blade itself had become a substitute for the faint moonlight.

He lowered the blade’s tip slightly and strode through the school gate with unwavering confidence.
Thud—
The moment his foot crossed the threshold.
A presence stirred from the side.
As he turned his head, he saw a specter rushing toward him—matted long hair and a white burial shroud clinging to its form.
Its eyes bulged grotesquely wide, the whites exposed in their entirety while the pupils remained pinprick small, and its mouth was split ear to ear in a grotesque gash.
He leaped reflexively, sweeping his blade in a horizontal arc.
Shrieeeeek—
The sword’s light flashed against the moonlight as the specter’s head traced a perfect arc through the air.
Ssssshhhhh—
The headless specter’s body dissolved into black smoke, scattering across the night sky.
Thack—!
The swordsman landed cleanly amid the dissipating mist.

At that same moment, another specter rushed from the opposite direction.
It bore a similar grotesque form but moved with greater speed, unleashing a piercing shriek.

Shrieeeeeeek—

Without breaking his landing stance, he drew the short blade at his waist—the Blood-Thirsty Dagger—and hurled it toward the charging specter.
Whirrrrip—
The spinning blade flew in a straight line, embedding itself perfectly between the specter’s eyes.
Thud—
Its head snapped backward as its form dissolved into black smoke.

Ssshhhhh— Waaahhhhh—

The black smoke from the dissipating specter coiled around his body.
He slowly raised his head.
Moonlight reflected off his blade flickered in his eyes.

His name was Kim Tae-woo.
A manager at the Guihon Trading Company.

* * *

He hadn’t always worked at Guihon Trading Company.
Guihon Trading Company was listed as a trading firm on various job recruitment sites—a field entirely divorced from Kim Tae-woo’s academic background.
His expertise lay in programming and game development.
From childhood, he’d demonstrated an almost supernatural aptitude for computer programming and coding, allowing him to graduate with honors and win numerous competitions and awards, making him coveted by every major corporation.
As a result, he’d secured a position at Siren, South Korea’s largest gaming company, with an impressive salary.

But there was one fatal flaw preventing him from living an ordinary working life.
He could see ghosts.

As a child, he’d assumed everyone saw the same things. But as he grew older, he realized he was the only one.
He’d visited hospitals, but the doctors found nothing wrong with his eyes or brain.

‘This doesn’t make any sense…!’

Kim Tae-woo refused to accept that he was different from everyone else.

Ever since childhood, he’d favored logical, orderly explanations, so he’d always convinced himself that what he saw must be caused by something science simply hadn’t yet explained.

But even if he refused to believe in ghosts, he couldn’t help startling when they appeared.

During all-night shifts, a gray-faced specter would suddenly lurch out from beneath his desk; phantom hands would rest on his mouse; dozens of ghosts would dangle their long hair from the ceiling, staring down at him.
When one or two ghosts appeared, he could brush it off, but when they poured out like this in a space where he was being paid to work, it was enough to drive him mad.

And that soon reflected in his performance reviews.

Eventually, he was forced to resign.
He was angry, but from the company’s perspective, it made sense.
After leaving, the only thing Kim Tae-woo could do was create games.
He kept submitting resumes to gaming companies, but whether word had spread among HR departments or not, he kept failing the document screening phase.
Even when he made it to interviews, a ghost would inevitably appear, rattling his nerves and causing him to stumble.

Then one day.
He received news of a death.
His paternal grandfather had passed away.

I lost my parents early and was raised by my grandfather.
Growing up under my grandfather, who was a mudang—a shaman—I left my hometown the moment I graduated high school.
I resented him because he was the reason I could see ghosts.
So many years had passed since I stopped contacting my grandfather, whom I had come to despise.
Then, out of nowhere, his death notice arrived.

I headed back to my hometown in Gangwon Province for the funeral.
There, I watched my grandfather’s funeral being conducted by his disciples from start to finish.
Not a single one of them blamed me for being an ungrateful grandson who abandoned him.
They simply proceeded through the funeral rites in silence, offered prayers, conducted a memorial service, and offered me their condolences.
When all the funeral proceedings ended, the eldest of my grandfather’s disciples handed me a large box.
“Your father instructed us to give this to you. Please come back here by 10 a.m. tomorrow with this box.”
Along with the box, he also handed me a business card.
I could tell that the disciples referred to my grandfather as “father.”

–
[Guihon Trading Company]
234 Saeildae-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
CEO Kim Hong-seok
010-****-****
[email protected]
–

I tilted my head as I looked at the business card.
“What is this? Where is this place?”
“It’s the location where you’ll have your interview, Kim Tae-woo.”
“An interview? I never submitted a resume.”
“Your father submitted one on your behalf. The conditions are quite favorable, so he insisted you attend the interview.”
“Favorable conditions?”
I stared down at the business card with a blank expression.

I found myself heading home with the box and the business card in hand.
On the bus ride back, I searched for “Guihon Trading Company.”

[A Global Network United as One]
[Trade with Guihon Trading Company]

From the very banner on the homepage, the copy made it abundantly clear that this company had absolutely nothing to do with me—it was a trading company through and through.
“Did Grandfather not know what my major was? Did he really not understand at all?”
I figured that since he was elderly, he probably didn’t understand terms like “programming” or “games,” which is why he’d recommended such a company.
I tilted my head in confusion and quickly opened the box as well.
Inside lay a single book that appeared to have been created during the Joseon Dynasty, a long sword, and a short blade.
Startled on the bus, I glanced around nervously before carefully opening the lid for a closer look.
“What is this? Some kind of ritual implement?”
I wondered if these were the tools Grandfather used to perform shamanic rituals, so I examined them more carefully.
The book’s cover bore the Chinese characters [鬼察錄] (Record of Ghost Observation), the sword was engraved with [鬼察刀] (Ghost-Slaying Blade), and the short blade bore the characters [血數短刀] (Blood-Counting Short Blade).
“Record of Ghost Observation?”
I quickly flipped open the book.
In that instant, I found myself reading with genuine fascination.
Though it was filled with Chinese characters and Middle Korean, I could decipher it without difficulty using a smartphone app and AI translation.
And the contents were utterly astonishing.
According to the text, my ancestor had been the greatest swordmaster of Joseon, but at some point married a shaman, mixing the blood of a spirit-seer into our lineage, and thereby gained the ability to slay spirits.
Building on this foundation, the book was a record of how my ancestors, generation after generation, actively served as exorcists throughout the Joseon Dynasty, documenting how spirits and ghosts were constituted and how they brought harm to humans.
It was literally a “record of observing ghosts,” hence the title “Record of Ghost Observation.”

And based on these observations, the book contained a detailed chronicle of how exorcisms were performed.
….
Since Grandfather had been a shamanic practitioner, I could understand why such ritual implements existed.
But I couldn’t fathom why he’d left all this to me.
And I had no idea what this record truly meant.

“What is this content? Is this a fantasy novel?”

I returned to browsing the company homepage on my phone.
And there I discovered something absolutely shocking.

–
Guihon Trading Company Founder
Representative Director Kim Jun-mo
–

Kim Jun-mo was the name of Tae-woo’s grandfather.
Not only that, but his grandfather’s photograph was plastered right beside the passage introducing the founder.
Moreover, the annual revenue of Guihon Trading Company was a staggering 750 billion won!
Seeing this, Tae-woo’s head suddenly began to spin.
The grandfather he’d thought was merely a shaman turned out to be the founder of a corporation with 750 billion won in annual revenue!
“What the—”
Tae-woo stared at the website in stunned bewilderment when he spotted a box containing a sword.
It was because he suddenly recalled the instruction to bring that box when he came for the interview tomorrow.
“750 billion won.”
The annual revenue circled endlessly in his mind.
The fact that he was being summoned for an “interview” suggested his grandfather’s will was meant to secure employment for his only grandson, or perhaps transfer the company itself.
Or possibly hand over the company.

“What on earth is this?”
At this point, Tae-woo found himself utterly unable to comprehend any of it.
From the revelation that his grandfather—whom he’d believed spent his entire life as a shaman in the rural countryside of Gangwon Province—was actually the founder of a trading company with 750 billion won in annual revenue, to the fantastical records left in his grandfather’s inheritance, nothing made sense.
It defied all logic and reason.
The one thing he could say with certainty was that his grandfather had instructed him to take the Guihon Trading Company interview before passing away.
From Tae-woo’s perspective, this was precisely the kind of will his grandfather would leave if he truly were the founder of Guihon Trading Company.
“Unbelievable.”
Regardless, Tae-woo had suddenly achieved a kind of “social elevation” as the grandson of the founder of a company with 750 billion won in annual revenue.
Thinking back on how distant he’d been from his grandfather made him feel somewhat embarrassed—but given that he’d been fired from his job and was struggling to find employment elsewhere, this seemed like it could be an incredible opportunity.
Not just a good opportunity, but an extraordinarily good one!

Exorcism Specialist Guihon Trading Company Episode 1

Author
Cha Woo-rens
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yoon Tae-ri
Cover Design
Lee Chi

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260318158.0001

ⓒ2026, Cha Woo-rens

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or entirety of this work may be reproduced or modified in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

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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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