Translator: SourKimchi
-29YearOldJobless : what? you saying it's the day i die? fuck off!
In that instant, Ji-hun's vision warped once again.
The bloody stench of smoke and the ear-splitting screech of slammed brakes hammered his eardrums.
The number 905 bus, cutting across the crosswalk.
A large truck, swerving, plowed into its side.
Glass shattered, and people were thrown out.
In the dead center of it, a man lay collapsed, bleeding.
It was 29YearOldJobless.
"If I tell you not to go, then don't go!"
The moment he spat out the words, his head throbbed.
His eyes flooded red, and the skin beneath his nose turned hot.
-jmd1311 : whoa hes even getting a nosebleed now
-Bakeol : wait, is this for real?
-29YearOldJobless : i said quit messing around, fk
Ji-hun hurriedly ended the broadcast.
If he held out any longer, it felt like his body would really break down.
Click.
The instant the screen went dark, the Divine Sight snapped shut, as though it had all been a lie.
The cold energy that had wrapped around his body drained away too.
At the same time, the cold manner of speech that had lingered in his mouth seemed to recede with it.
The words I'd spat during the Spirit Reading felt foreign, as if they weren't mine at all.
But there was no time to feel relieved.
The recoil from having forced the Divine Sight wide open came crashing in all at once.
"Ah, ugh......!"
A pain like his whole body was being ripped apart forced Ji-hun to grit his teeth.
Just then, the phone he'd left on the desk rang noisily.
It was Kim Woo-sik.
Still clenching his teeth, Ji-hun answered the call.
"Yeah...... what?"
"Hey, I was gonna catch your stream but you were offline. What happened?"
"I had it on a bit ago...... but I'm not in great shape right now, so I shut it down."
At that, Woo-sik grumbled.
"Come on, I was trying to throw my viewers your way, I cut my own stream short and told everyone to go watch yours, and then you just kill it like that? Seriously!"
Normally he'd have said sorry, but right now even breathing was a struggle for Ji-hun.
His field of vision had gone burning red.
"I'm...... I'm really about to die......."
"What? Hey, what's wrong with your voice? Are you sick or something?"
"......Later. Let's talk later."
Without waiting for an answer, Ji-hun hit the end-call button.
The sensation was fading from his fingertips.
He barely managed to grab the edge of the bed and drag his body over.
But that was as far as he got.
And just like that, he collapsed, as though slipping into unconsciousness.
***
At that same moment.
The Internet Broadcast board of one of the country's biggest online communities.
It was the kind of place where anything and everything about Internet Broadcasts ended up getting posted.
And to that very board, a new clip had just gone up.
Title : (Clip) The streamer who predicted a viewer would die if he went to his interview
The clip covered a portion of the broadcast by PerpetualJobSeeker, who had gone live for the very first time that day.
Maybe the title stoked people's curiosity, because within minutes of being posted the clip rocketed onto the hot-posts list.
And comments poured in right away.
-asqq41 : look at him suddenly going wild-eyed and talking down to everyone lol if this is a concept he's got it locked
-Moreugul : is this real
-SeomyeonMaster : arent these two in on it together? they couldve known each other beforehand
-BonelessRamyeon : so did that guy end up going to the interview or not? no way id go
-agei : creepy as hell, is there a replay up
-SpaceClassroom : obviously a concept, how would he get all that right lol
-Paeris : ease up on the self-promo, why drag some no-name stream in here too
-SilentStream : next time hes live im gonna make him read me too lol
⤷Kkoka : hes probably gonna pretend he didnt see the chat and skip it lol
⤷SilentStream : fr
The reaction on the Internet Broadcast Gallery was mostly frosty.
Still, everyone was curious about one thing.
Would 29YearOldJobless actually go to the interview the next day?
***
The next day.
Park Ji-hun opened his eyes, as if slowly rising up from deep underwater.
"......Ugh."
He let out a small groan and pushed himself up.
He dimly recalled passing out the night before from a pain that felt like his body was tearing apart.
Maybe that was why.
He held his breath for a moment and checked the state of his body.
"......Huh?"
It was strange.
He'd definitely been in pain like he was dying, yet now, if anything, his body felt unusually light.
There was no headache, and the feverish, boiling sensation had vanished without a trace.
"What the......."
With a dazed expression, Park Ji-hun looked down at the back of his hand.
Because of the nosebleed the night before, faint, dried bloodstains still clung to the back of his hand.
It hadn't been a dream.
It had definitely really happened.
"Healed up completely in just one day?"
Muttering to himself, he got up from where he stood.
He moved his body this way and that, but there wasn't a single sore spot.
If anything, he felt better than usual.
His shoulders, always stiff, felt light, and his eyes, worn down by chronic fatigue, had cleared up.
"Is this even possible?"
Park Ji-hun sank into thought for a moment.
The night before, the instant he started the broadcast, something like Spirit Sickness had come over him. [TL Note: Spirit Sickness (sinbyeong), an illness believed to afflict those fated to become shamans.]
Then, the moment he read the chat, strange things had started to appear, and he'd read off other people's pasts, their presents, even something resembling their futures.
And then he'd collapsed from the backlash of overusing the Divine Sight.
But now he was perfectly fine.
"......Could it be."
A single hypothesis surfaced in his mind.
Park Ji-hun hurriedly threw on his clothes.
"If the Divine Sight's really awakened, then I should still be able to see now, shouldn't I?"
He hurried out of the house.
***
The air outside was fairly cold.
But his heart was pounding.
'Will it show?'
Now outside, he stared hard at a middle-aged woman from the neighborhood he passed in the alley.
But nothing appeared.
"......Why isn't it working?"
Park Ji-hun turned his head and looked at a part-timer standing in front of a convenience store with a vape in his mouth.
It was the same this time.
Nothing appeared.
Ji-hun furrowed his brow.
'But yesterday it definitely showed.......'
This time he deliberately went out to a busy main road.
The countless people crossing the crosswalk.
But no matter who he looked at, no visions like yesterday's came up at all.
"That's strange. Yesterday, for sure......."
The moment he'd looked at 29YearOldJobless the night before came back to him.
Strange scenes had layered themselves over the nickname in the chat window.
The accident, blood, screams, the faces of a family he didn't know.
He hadn't been imagining it.
But now, no matter how hard he looked, nothing appeared.
"Don't tell me."
A cold sensation ran up his spine.
"Does this only work on Internet Broadcast?"
In that instant, the puzzle came together.
The Spirit Sickness that had come the moment he went live.
The visions that had appeared beyond the people.
The Divine Sight that had shut once the broadcast ended.
"So I......I can only read fortunes if I turn the broadcast on?"
It was absurd.
A shaman who could only read fortunes by going live on an Internet Broadcast, of all things.
But then an even more horrifying thought struck him.
'And what if I don't go live......?'
If nothing came of it, that was a relief.
But what if Spirit Sickness like last night's came back?
Park Ji-hun swallowed hard.
For some reason, he couldn't brush off that possibility lightly.
"For now, let's head back."
He gave up on thinking any further and headed home.
Out here, there were no answers to be found anyway.
The Internet Broadcast.
In the end, he'd have to turn it on again.
***
Back home, Ji-hun headed straight for his desk.
He picked up his phone.
Luckily, the battery was fully charged.
He turned the power back on.
The moment it came on, it started buzzing one notification after another.
Bzzzt–
Bzzzt–
"......What the."
Ji-hun furrowed his brow.
His screen was full of missed-call alerts.
Most were from Woo-sik.
A few texts had come in too.
-hey why arent you picking up?
-you feeling ok?
-you're alive at least, right?
-im heading over to your place now.
Ji-hun immediately hit the call button.
It didn't ring for long.
"Hey!"
Woo-sik shouted the moment he picked up.
"What happened to you?"
"Sorry. I just collapsed and slept right through last night."
"What? How are you feeling? You sure you're alright?"
"I'm totally fine now."
"'Now'?"
"Yesterday I really thought I was a goner, but I slept it off and woke up fine."
"Listen to you talking crazy. Did you go to a hospital?"
"I don't need to. I'm fine."
"What on earth happened yesterday?"
Park Ji-hun hesitated for a moment.
He couldn't gauge how much to tell him.
But there was no hiding it from Woo-sik of all people.
"While I was streaming yesterday, I saw something weird."
"Like what."
"People's pasts, presents, futures, that kind of thing."
"What?"
"I can't believe it myself, but I really saw it."
A brief silence followed.
After a moment, Woo-sik asked in a flustered voice.
"You seriously became a shaman?"
"No idea. I went out and stared at people, but I couldn't see a thing."
"Damn. So you can only see it when you're streaming?"
Woo-sik spat out a quick curse and pressed straight on.
"Well, there's your answer. Go live again today and find out."
"You think?"
"You've gotta make sure. And lock in a regular stream time if you can. That's how you keep new viewers coming in steadily."
Park Ji-hun bit his lip without a word.
"......Alright."
"Good. Good luck. I'll swing by your stream later too."
Ji-hun hung up just like that.
A little over 2 hours remained until the broadcast began.
***
The same time as yesterday.
His throat was bone-dry.
He was anxious, too, that his body might wrench itself apart again like the night before.
"......Let's just check, nothing more."
After muttering that, he pressed the start-broadcast button.
[PerpetualJobSeeker-nim's broadcast has started.]
That was the moment.
A cold energy swept up his spine.
A moment later, the look in Ji-hun's eyes slowly went cold.
'It's here.'
What lay beyond the monitor, ordinary just seconds ago, had changed.
As the chat poured in, the energies tangled around each person rose faintly into view beyond them.
-jmd1331 : oh hes here
-bvk0014 : the scammer bastards back again
-BratKid : no first-love story today either?
-SilentStream : please do a Spirit Reading for me, take 2
-Paeris : came over from the Internet Broadcast Gallery
-BonelessRamyeon : why did you say hed die if he went to the interview yesterday
-Sakwol : this is that no-name from yesterday right
-Kkoka : this the guy who said youd die if you went to the interview?
The chat was flying by like mad.
It was definitely faster than yesterday.
The viewer count had clearly swelled, too.
But his surprise lasted only a moment.
Along with a cold sensation grazing his mind, his lips parted on their own.
"Too loud."
A low voice went on.
"This chat's a damn racket. Only ask what you actually want to know."
For a second, the chat churned all over again.
-bvk0014 : here he goes again lol
-Paeris : wow he's at it again the second he goes live
-BonelessRamyeon : seriously though why did you say that guy would die yesterday
-Kkoka : yeah tell us that first
Ji-hun parted his lips.
"BonelessRamyeon. That's what you want to know?"
-BonelessRamyeon : yes! why did you say he would die?
Ji-hun fell silent for a moment.
In that pause, the vision he'd glimpsed in 29YearOldJobless the day before flickered through his mind once more.
Shards of glass, the sound of slammed brakes, a man collapsed and bleeding.
He opened his mouth to speak.
"Because if he's in that spot at that time, he'll die."
The chat stalled for an instant, then erupted.
-SpaceClassroom : damn thats savage
-jmd1311 : hes seriously saying stuff thatll get exposed by tomorrow?
-bvk0014 : told you this bastards a scammer
Brow furrowed, Ji-hun raised his voice.
"Too loud. If you can't believe it, get out."
That was when it happened.
Ba-bam–
An unfamiliar sound effect rang out across the broadcast.
[29YearOldJobless-nim has gifted 100 Water Drops.]
For a beat, the chat froze over.
-SilentStream : he's here!
-jmd1311 : huh?
-BonelessRamyeon : no way
-SpaceClassroom : did he go to the interview?
-bvk0014 : why's he sending Water Drops, this rigged too?
Beneath that, a message from 29YearOldJobless rose up.
-29YearOldJobless : there's something i need to say about what happened
The chat went into a frenzy in an instant.
-BonelessRamyeon : what is it?
-SpaceClassroom : what happened?
-SilentStream : did you go to the interview?
Park Ji-hun looked down at the chat without a word.
And, despite himself, he swallowed.
Just what, exactly, had happened?