Translator: SourKimchi
Park Ji-hun sat in a cheap plastic chair outside the convenience store and checked his phone, heart pounding.
"Please!"
[......We regret to inform you that, despite your passion and excellent qualifications, due to circumstances on our end we are unable to move forward together.]
As of today, that made exactly 100.
By now it was a phrase he could recite with his eyes closed.
Park Ji-hun took a swig from his can of beer.
But the fizz was flat and flavorless.
"Seriously, when the hell am I ever going to land one!"
It was right as he poured out his grievances, face all twisted up.
Bzzzzzt–
The phone he'd tossed aside was buzzing away.
He checked to see who it was, and the screen read [Kim Woo-sik].
An inseparable friend he'd known since they were kids.
With no other choice, he answered.
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Sounds like your voice is dying, so you got rejected, huh."
"Hey. Did you call just to rub it in?"
"Quit whining. There's that Street-Tent Bar in the neighborhood, right? Come over. I'll buy you a drink."
"......Thanks."
Park Ji-hun dropped the empty can in the recycling bin and got to his feet.
His stomach, so empty it felt stuck to his spine, let out a low growl.
***
The Street-Tent Bar in the neighborhood.
They ordered grilled hagfish and soju and traded shots back and forth.
"Hahh."
He'd just thrown back a shot in one go and was wincing.
Woo-sik, sitting across from him, asked,
"So what're you gonna do now?"
"What can I do? Keep applying till one sticks."
There might be a tree that wouldn't topple after 100 swings of the axe, but surely the 101st would be different.
That was what Park Ji-hun told himself.
Then Woo-sik spoke up.
"You remember when we were kids?"
"What?"
"That old Mudang granny next door, remember what she said? That you were destined to be a baksu." [TL Note: A mudang is a Korean shaman; a baksu is a male shaman specifically.]
"Ugh, how many times do I have to tell you, that's all bullshit. If it were true, I'd have come down with Spirit Sickness and gone through a Naerimgut ages ago." [TL Note: A naerimgut is the initiation ritual that makes a new shaman.]
"Sure, but don't you think it's weird too? With credentials like yours, getting passed over by 100-some places? There's no way you wouldn't land a single Final-Round Acceptance."
Park Ji-hun let out a sigh.
He'd vaguely sensed it himself, too.
A top-ranked four-year university in Seoul, a GPA of 4.1.
Excellent language scores, plus a pile of certifications.
And yet, after applying to over 100 places, not one Final-Round Acceptance.
It was truly bizarre.
"Hey, but does it even make sense that I can't get an office job because I'm destined to be a shaman? It's not like this is the Joseon era."
As Park Ji-hun shook his head, Woo-sik said, almost casually,
"Then why not give streaming a shot?"
"What? Streaming? Like you do?"
"Yeah. Back in our school days you were always great at that advice-and-counseling stuff. Good at spinning a yarn, too. You just do that kind of thing in front of Viewers. It's easier than you'd think. And once your Viewer count climbs, the money's pretty decent."
Park Ji-hun answered, looking less than thrilled.
"That's only possible because you're a veteran who's been at it for years. I hear Internet Broadcasting's totally oversaturated these days too."
Just look at YouTube.
Veterans who used to rule their own fields were diving in fresh.
It wasn't for nothing that people said the bar for YouTubers had shot up.
"Don't worry. I'll give your stream a push."
At Woo-sik's words, Ji-hun's interest was piqued.
Going in completely from scratch was one thing, but with Woo-sik backing him, it was a whole different story.
"Is this why you wanted to meet up?"
"If you'd passed today, I was gonna treat you to a celebratory drink, but since you got rejected, I figured I'd kill two birds and put you onto it. Otherwise you'll just hole up in your room grinding games until your next Interview."
Park Ji-hun narrowed his eyes.
Maybe it was from growing up together since they were little?
If anything was a problem, it was that the two of them knew each other far too well.
"Fine. I'll give it a try. But the second I'm not feeling it, I'm dropping it."
"Just try it. Who knows? Maybe it'll turn out to suit you."
"I doubt it. Pretty sure that's not gonna happen......."
That was what Ji-hun was certain of, at least right up until then.
***
A few days later, sitting at his computer, Ji-hun shook his head.
The webcam clipped to the top of the monitor, the mic set beside the keyboard, and even a high-end headset.
Every bit of it was something Woo-sik had set up for him personally.
“Why the hell is he going this far for me?”
He was so curious that he asked.
And the guy's answer was a real piece of work.
"There's a tournament happening in 2 weeks, and I wanted you to enter it with me."
"What does that have to do with streaming!"
"Only Streamers can enter, see? So you've gotta put in at least 20 hours of streaming. Got it?"
"What? 20 hours?"
"Yeah. More is better. Anyway, when you go live later I'll throw a Cuckoo your way, so good luck." [TL Note: A "cuckoo" is a shout-out one streamer drops in another's chat to send viewers over.]
Click–
The call cut off.
Only then did Park Ji-hun realize why Woo-sik had been so good to him all this time.
"Well, I was kind of curious what streaming's like anyway."
Still, the moment any of it stopped feeling right, he intended to quit on the spot.
"Guess I'll go live, then?"
Park Ji-hun went to the Ocean homepage and pressed the Start Broadcast button.
[PerpetualJobSeeker-nim's broadcast has started.]
The instant the alert popped up, something he never could have expected happened.
All at once, his whole body shuddered with chills.
Cold sweat ran down his forehead, and a fever spiked in an instant.
Ji-hun knew it on instinct.
That this was no ordinary bout of sickness.
For the first time since being born after being told he was destined to be a shaman, the Spirit Sickness he had never once experienced flared up.
But only for a moment, as Viewers began trickling into the chat one by one.
-jmd1311 : firrrst
-bvk0014 : nanha, came over from Woo-sik hyung's stream
-29YearOldJobless : nanha
-Ajukara : what kinda stream is this?
-WildChild : is this a storytime stream?
Nanha was short for "refugee hi".
Woo-sik had kept the promise he'd made last time at the Street-Tent Bar.
Just as he was about to greet the Viewers flooding in,
his head kept swimming and the fever raged hotter and hotter.
Then, at some point.
Whoooosh–
He could feel an uncanny energy being drawn down into his body.
"Ngh."
Ji-hun could hardly keep his wits about him.
That was when it happened.
The raging fever suddenly dropped away, clean as if it had been washed off.
At the same time, in a daze, Ji-hun stared at the monitor as if something had taken hold of him.
-jmd1311 : uh, no hello or anything?
-Ajukara : hey, you ok man?
-29YearOldJobless : why's his face like that, creepy
The rowdy chat window was sheer chaos.
Unable to bear it any longer, Ji-hun parted his lips, but the voice that came bursting out was not his own.
"Quiet!"
A low, heavy voice flowed out through the mic.
"Enough pointless chatter. Only those who intend to watch should stay."
Normally, he would never have spoken like this.
But from the moment the broadcast went live, the words leapt out ahead of my will.
Shorter, colder.
For a moment, the chat window was wrapped in silence.
But only briefly, before angry messages came pouring up one after another.
-bvk0014 : the fk is this
-29YearOldJobless : is this the Concept lol
-WildChild : no stories then?
-jmd1311 : first time here and he's talking down to us already?
-BaekMurin : do it by yourself then, fk
-Shalala : came cuz they said he's Woo-sik's friend, the hell is this
Viewers poured out in droves.
Then one Viewer asked,
-Ajukara : so what kind of stream is this anyway
Ji-hun, who had been watching the chat, answered.
"This is where you come to have your fortune read."
And then, naming a specific handle, he spoke.
"You there, 29YearOldJobless. This is hardly the time for you to be laughing, is it?"
***
In an instant, the chat was plastered with question marks.
-Ajukara : oh so it's a fortune stream?
-bvk0014 : Woo-sik's buddy is a shaman? lol
-29YearOldJobless : me? why?
-Kkwatturuturu : already acting all deep and mysterious
-jmd1311 : here we go again lol
-BakEol : if he actually nails it, respect
As though he had no interest whatsoever in their jeering, Ji-hun fixed his gaze solely on the fate of the single person hidden behind the handle 29YearOldJobless beyond the screen.
And then, strange scenes began to layer themselves over Ji-hun's field of vision.
A boy of about 10 is riding his bicycle when a van that ran a red light slams into him.
A moment later, a middle-aged man hoisted the boy with the shattered leg onto his back and broke into a frantic run.
And then, the emergency surgery that followed at the hospital.
Ji-hun spoke in that low, heavy voice.
"You were in a car accident when you were 10, weren't you? Your leg nearly ended up crippled back then, and it was your father who saved it."
The chat window faltered for a beat.
-jmd1311 : wait, is this for real?
-BakEol : that's chilling, creepy af
-Shawol : he can see the past too?
Then 29YearOldJobless typed in the chat.
-29YearOldJobless : quit your bullshit
-jmd1311 : guess he's actually right?
-bvk0014 : morons getting sucked in again, gotta be staged
-29YearOldJobless : bullshit, nope
As 29YearOldJobless raged on, something else came into Ji-hun's view.
"Oh? This little shit's an unfilial son, isn't he. Your mother's knees are bad, but you barely even call her, do you? You ought to do little self-reflection."
-29YearOldJobless : who the hell are you to drag my mom into this?
"Doing what? Giving you your Spirit Reading, obviously. Oh, and when you take her to the hospital, have her stomach checked while you're at it. Because something's going to turn up there."
-29YearOldJobless : you son of a bitch! leave my mother out of it!
But Ji-hun had no intention of stopping.
There was still one more thing he hadn't told him.
"Tomorrow. 2 p.m."
Ji-hun spoke.
"Don't go to your Interview."
The chat window faltered for a moment.
Because 29YearOldJobless had never once said anything about having an Interview.
-jmd1311 : he's really got an Interview tomorrow?
-BakEol : what accident's gonna happen to make him say that?
-29YearOldJobless : wait how do you even know i have an Interview tomorrow and why are you telling me not to go!
Ji-hun drove the point home at the man crying out in protest.
"Because if you go, tomorrow will be your Death Anniversary."