They Told Me to Build Good Karma by Selling Side Dishes - Chapter 55

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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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55. Bean Sprout Container Area (4)

***

Geul-seon-dae was born this way. Consuming light, seeping into darkness, mimicking everything that possessed form.

I lived as I was born. There was no other way, after all.

That day was no exception.

I wandered about hunting humans. Those who sought death always lost their light first, darkness descending upon them. It was my calling to consume the shadows of humans.

‘Hmmmmm….’

The scent of death hung in the air. That hollow smell one could detect just before surrendering one’s life entirely.

The child was a university student. Dust clung to their shirt, eyes swollen and ruined from prolonged weeping, lips drained of all color. And their heart—the resolve to surrender to shadow was unmistakably clear.

All I had to do was consume that child’s shadow.
I simply had to wait.

But then.

The child’s eyes met mine. They saw me—a tiny, faint fragment of shadow.

– …!

At first, I thought it was a mistake. Humans rarely perceived my form.

‘Gom-dol…?’

I did not move. I neither attacked nor fled. Not until the child rose and crumbled away like tissue soaked in water.

‘Gom-dol… a stuffed toy….’

The child had spotted the Gom-dol doll that had fallen beneath Geul-seon-dae.

‘A doll….’

The child, shrouded in shadow, gazed upon the Gom-dol doll and smiled. The shadow of death receded. No—it vanished entirely.

Why….
Why?

The child’s trembling hands clutched the doll tightly.

Geul-seon-dae felt irritation. I should have savored the child slowly. But I couldn’t.

The child’s weeping had ceased, their breathing steadied, light returning to their eyes—and I sensed dimly that the opportunity to consume them, which had been within my grasp, was slipping away before my very eyes.

Yet the hunger to devour had vanished.

‘…Even trampled like this, you endure. So must I. I must too.’

The warmth of living flesh, the scent of fragile breath, the sweetness that emanates from humans nearing death—all grew faint.

Still clutching Gom-dol, the child frantically pulled out a smartphone from their pocket.

‘Oh, Mom! You know what happened today…. I’m sorry. What? I’m just sorry. I just feel like I haven’t apologized to you….’

Geul-seon-dae was curious about the child. Had they truly found hope to live through nothing more than a small doll? So I surrendered myself to the doll.

‘No, Gom-dol, listen. Today my senior….’

From that day forward, the child never let the doll leave their hands. Like a talisman.

So Geul-seon-dae spent those days quietly observing the child from the darkness within the backpack. Occasionally, I would allow myself to be taken out.

‘Gom-dol! Today was so hard.’

The child held the Gom-dol doll close.

Slowly, the child grew older.

The child learned to force a smile. Under the name of society.

I knew it. I knew what nights that child endured to create that smile.

‘Sigh….’

From somewhere, it wavered precariously as if it might shatter at any moment.

‘Come on!’

There were many days when the child smiled again. Each time, I slowly grew my body to embrace the child.

‘…I wish you could live just once.’

The child touched the bear doll’s hand and spoke.

What was a long journey for the child felt like a brief afternoon dream to me. The seasons passed relentlessly, swiftly.

One thing was certain in that time. That child was living through me, and I had stopped ‘eating’ because of that child.

Then came that day.

The morning air was unusually cold, and the child’s breath remained the same. As always, the child placed Gom-dol into her bag and stepped out the door.

“Ugh… I don’t want to work.”

Those words were typical. But today, she looked even more exhausted.

Geul-seon-dae was in the process of moving the milk candy the child always ate to a position where she could easily reach it from her bag.

Crash—!

Suddenly, a sound like flesh colliding. At the same moment, I slipped out of the bag and saw outside.

I growled. The child lay collapsed on the ground, her eyes closed.

“….”

There was no response. It was silent. Was she alive? As I reached out my hand toward the child’s outstretched fingers, my small doll hand could not reach.

People hoisted the child and rushed into the ambulance. As the doors closed, I could hear the child’s labored breathing, almost like a whimper.

– This cannot be.

Geul-seon-dae seeped through the shadows of the ambulance. I could not afford to lose track of the child’s presence.

Inside the vehicle, the scent of life and the scent of death coexisted. Geul-seon-dae quietly touched the shadow above the child’s chest. I could sense how weakened the child’s breathing had become.

– The child could die.

When the ambulance arrived at the Hospital, the medical staff rushed the child away. Geul-seon-dae could only follow the child’s shadow.

– The child can survive.

The words of the medical staff did not reach Geul-seon-dae. There was only one thing that mattered.

– I must save them….

Snap.

A finger-flicking sound echoed, and time seemed to shudder irregularly before stopping. Then, before Geul-seon-dae, a figure appeared faintly.

‘That child was destined to die. But you changed it. Will you twist fate again?’

A silhouette—neither human, nor Evil Spirit, nor shadow. The being likely had no eyes or mouth, yet Geul-seon-dae heard it clearly.

– Twist fate?
‘Yes. But there is a condition for you.’

Would I intervene in the child’s destiny? Or would I let this flow continue as it was?

– I will do it.

Without even knowing what the condition was.

‘Good. Then, the deal is struck.’

The deal it proposed was simple. It wanted my ability.

‘Visit the Side Dish Shop. I will grant your wish.’

Geul-seon-dae could not comprehend it. Yet the presence had vanished, leaving no one to ask. And time resumed its flow. Doctors rushed about, and machines wailed.

The child breathed in again.

***

Geul-seon-dae hid beneath the bed, nestled in the thin crevice of shadow. The beef brisket and seasoned sprouts I had brought were left on the table.

“He’s alive. He’s alive….”

The child’s parents wept with joy and rushed out of the Hospital Room.

– …I suppose I can leave now.

The child’s eyes opened. Still not fully conscious, his gaze remained unfocused. Very slowly, he turned his head toward the shadow cast upon the wall.

“Gom-dol….”

In that moment, Geul-seon-dae truly wished to speak. The child’s lips curved upward—a smile as thin and precise as a line drawn by pencil.

“…Gom-dol.”

But I knew. The child was looking at the Gom-dol doll atop the table, not at me.

– Live well.
“….”
– Now, live happily. Live well.

Geul-seon-dae bent down and gently stroked the child’s head.

– The world is not easy. It is harsh. But if you simply live through that world as it is, you will come to understand. Then it will not feel so burdensome.
“….”
– I am sorry I could not be by your side to help you bear that heavy world.

Geul-seon-dae looked down at my own form. This body made of shadow. But now the belly was hollow and empty, like a bowl that could hold nothing.

Hollow.

An empty resonance echoed.

Thump.

Breath began to flow in and out.

Thump.

All sensation vanished.

– You showed me something beautiful, when I thought all I had to do was simply live out my life.

For the first time, the corners of Geul-seon-dae’s mouth lifted. Only the corners of his mouth, in an otherwise expressionless face.

Geul-seon-dae felt this moment weighed far more heavily than the price of losing his abilities. In a life that had seemed utterly meaningless, he had lived something with purpose.

– The next chapter of your life will always be a little brighter than this moment.

Geul-seon-dae gazed down at his hollow belly, felt himself growing hazy, and closed his eyes.

– Farewell.

As Geul-seon-dae disappeared entirely, the shadow that had draped across the Hospital Room vanished with him. The small bear doll resting on the table suddenly dropped—thud—to the floor.

The ears began to swell gradually, then tore open, and stuffing leaked from within the doll’s body.

And then.

Pop.

White stuffing burst upward as the Gom-dol doll split down the center, cleaving into two pieces.

In that instant.

“Ugh…!”

The child slowly lifted his body as though drawing in breath. On the bed sat a dinner tray that had just been delivered.

Warm steam rose faintly, and beyond the rectangular plastic lid, a side dish brimmed with white, elongated marbled bean sprouts.

“…my Gom-dol.”

But the child’s trembling gaze searched frantically beside the pillow. The stuffed toy that had been left on the table was gone, and the anxiety was evident in their movements.

“What’s wrong? What are you looking for?”

The parents, who had just entered from outside, approached upon seeing the child’s expression.

“My Gom-dol….”
“Gom-dol?”

The parents scanned the Hospital Room. Soon they discovered torn fabric scraps and scattered cotton stuffing on the floor.

“This?”
“Oh… why is it like this….”

Gom-dol had lost its form, as if all warmth had drained away.

“It must be old—the seams probably burst. It’s okay, I’ll sew it back up for you.”
“No, that’s not it….”

The child gazed endlessly at Gom-dol and shook their head softly.

“It’s just… torn….”

The child’s small fingers traced the ripped fabric.

“It feels like it died instead of me….”

Anyone could see it—Gom-dol appeared to have lost its body. The child pressed their lips together tightly, then placed a hand where Gom-dol’s chest had been.

“It’s okay. I’m okay now.”

Whether the child’s small voice was meant to comfort Gom-dol or to speak to themselves remained unclear. But one thing became certain.

“I’ll live well from now on.”

The moment the child finally expressed gratitude that had been buried for so long, a soft rumbling sound emerged from their stomach.

“Come on, let’s eat.”

Only then did the child lift his head to check the dinner tray placed on the bed.

“Who brought the seasoned sprouts?”
“Who knows? Maybe the doctor.”

Despite my words, the child steadfastly picked up chopsticks and took a strand of beef and seasoned sprout into his mouth.

“….”

The child chewed slowly.

“Does it taste good?”

When I asked, the child nodded.

“I’m not sure where it’s from, but it tastes good.”

In that moment, a gentle breeze slipped through the slightly open Hospital Room window, causing a torn scrap of Gom-dol fabric to flutter.

***

Days passed, and morning arrived as it always did. Perhaps that’s why—today the Alley in front of Hyang-suk’s Side Dish Shop was particularly bright with the morning sunlight.

“Ughhhhhh….”

I opened my eyes before the alarm and pushed the shop door wide open. As the metal shutter rolled upward with a great stretch.

“Hup!”

A single autumn leaf drifting down lightly brushed my face—as if to shake me awake. Then I headed toward the praise sticker board. There, beneath the shadow cast by the fluorescent light on the floor, a hand suddenly emerged.

As always, a seasoned sprout-shaped praise sticker appeared in my hand. It was pressed perfectly into an empty space on the sticker board.

“Oh… they’ve arrived at the hospital.”

I picked up the fallen autumn leaf from the floor and looked up.

[You have obtained Karma Points and unlocked the detailed shop information.]

The detailed information unlock window appeared.

‘Unlocked!’

The shop’s detailed information panel fully expanded.

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[Ji-gu]
– Local Reputation 130 (Hyang-suk’s Side Dish Shop is being discussed among neighborhood officials.)
– Divine Reputation: 65 (The Divine Beings are busily urging someone to prevent something catastrophic.)
– Karma Points: 13 (Reward unlock conditions not yet met)
[Business Status]
Today’s Customer Count: 0/70
Regular Customers: 113
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‘What’s going on?’

I scanned the information once more with a puzzled gaze.

‘Could it be connected to the Side Dish Shop somehow…?’

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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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