“This place.”
When I went closer and looked, I was certain.
The soil itself was glowing bluish.
‘It feels like Mana and Spiritual Energy are mixed together.’
The Mana emanating from this island itself had always been strong.
That was why I might have simply passed it by, but the energy here was clearly different from other places.
It was then.
<The skill Eye of Truth has discovered a target.>
FLASH—!
Soon, a Status Window appeared together with an intense light.
<Traces of a collapsed Tower discovered.>
<Guide 1 has been completed.>
<Death’s Oath will be engraved upon the seed.>
FWOOOSH—!
I felt a warm energy, as though something were wrapping around my heart.
<Generating Guide 2 according to causality.>
<Causality confirmed. The region where Guide 1 was completed is Korea.>
<Guide 2. Find and eliminate the spirits scattered when the Tower collapsed ten years ago.>
-Distribution Areas
Uninhabited Island, Ganghwa-do, West Coast.
-Reward upon completing Guide 2: Entry into a Tower Event Stage.
-Hint: Tower-affiliated monsters.
A Tower Event Stage?
This was the first time I had heard that there was such a thing as an event stage.
But if it was being given as a reward, it was naturally better than a normal floor, was it not?
If I entered the Tower, the spirits at home would automatically be brought along as well.
And our next destination happened to be Ganghwa-do.
When I thought about it, it made sense.
The distribution areas of the scattered spirits were the same as the areas damaged by the Tower.
If I failed to find them today, I could come back over the weekend with Cha Jun-hyeok and Chae Seon-hwa and search again.
When I closed the Status Window, the bluish glow vanished from the soil.
“This soil should do.”
Soil suitable for a memorial ceremony.
I did not know why, but that was what I thought.
I had put the soil into a zipper bag and was returning toward the flagpole when I heard voices.
“What is this, making us work on a public holiday?”
“You idiot. Since when did Hunters get public holidays off?”
“Hey, but we are civil servants now, are we not? Is leaving work on time not the basic rule for civil servants?”
They were smoking as they looked at the distant coastline.
It was the same trio from the Hunter special recruitment.
But there was one thing they were misunderstanding.
Things like this needed to be corrected immediately.
“Contrary to what one might think, civil servants often work on holidays.”
“Uh, uh...?”
I continued speaking to the new recruits, who turned around and hurriedly stubbed out their cigarettes.
“During national disasters, various commemorative ceremonies, events, festivals, elections, and even when there is heavy rain or snow...”
In particular, if there was a weather anomaly, civil servants affiliated with local governments had to report to work somehow and help handle the situation.
In other words, civil servants were, unexpectedly, people who had to stay on good terms with the Korea Meteorological Administration.
Even after doing all that, if the damage grew worse, they might end up receiving a lifetime’s worth of insults all at once.
Even though I had not held a rainmaking ritual to make the rain pour down.
While the trio stammered with blank expressions, an apology came from elsewhere.
“I apologize.”
It was Administrative Officer Choi, the Section Officer candidate.
With a troubled expression, he stepped in between us.
“We will be careful from now on.”
At that, the other three also apologized along with him.
“We apologize!”
“We did not know!”
“We are inexperienced because this is our first time.”
“It is fine. However...”
No matter what they thought, it was not something they had to apologize to me for.
However, repeatedly making such remarks in public places was a problem.
Moreover, the place we were heading to next was the site of the Ganghwa-do memorial event.
Even if it was not us, there would be many eyes and ears there.
As a more experienced superior, I needed to warn the new recruits.
“Please be careful with your words and actions from now on.”
“Yes, understood!”
And there was one more thing.
Something had been bothering me for a while.
“Administrative Officer Choi.”
“Yes, Section Officer.”
Administrative Officer Choi stared at me.
But he was not what was bothering me.
Rather, the thing I had business with was right behind him.
‘There is a ghost behind you, Administrative Officer Choi.’
...But I could not suddenly say something like that directly to someone’s face.
It was clearly a ghost I had not seen when I met him at the Hunter Management Agency before.
Had something happened in the meantime?
“......”
“Why did you call me?”
“It is nothing.”
Later.
If he was still like that after we returned to Seoul, I could remove it separately, whether through Exorcism or some other method.
JINGLE—
A gloomy bell sound came from somewhere.
It was the sound of the blood-red bell around the ghost’s neck.
I gave a cold look to the child ghost that kept staring at me, then turned away.
It was a kind of warning not to think about doing anything foolish for the time being.
“Is everyone gathered? You all dug up the soil, yes? Then we will take the helicopter to the next location.”
The site of the Ganghwa-do memorial ceremony.
The forces of the past and the forces of the future met in one place.
“Good day, Commissioner.”
“Chairman.”
The chairman of the Hunter Association and the Commissioner of the Hunter Management Agency shook hands firmly with amiable expressions.
Their clasped hands showed no sign of parting for quite some time.
The reporters worked hard to capture that sight on camera.
Today, the Ganghwa-do memorial ceremony was filled with representatives from the Hunter Management Agency, the Hunter Association, each Guild, and figures attending on behalf of the government.
Among them, the person who stood out above all was this man.
“Thank you for joining us on this meaningful occasion.”
The President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Yeong-su.
After exchanging brief greetings with key figures, he went to his seat behind the platform and sat down.
With that, the 10th 821 Tower Disaster Memorial Ceremony began.
“...We will now observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims who perished in the Tower Disaster.”
When the master of ceremonies stopped speaking, the military band began playing the memorial song.
Slow and sorrowful music in a minor key.
Among those who had closed their eyes, the sobs and sighs of the bereaved families began to leak out.
“Chang-hyeon! Chang-hyeon...!”
“Mother! Father!”
They shed tears as they called out to the beloved people they had buried in their hearts.
In the meantime, the people from the Hunter Management Agency had something to do.
“One person at a time, come out in order and pour the soil into this incense burner.”
Behind the altar, white chrysanthemums were arranged without a single gap.
The large incense burner placed before them was full of soil accumulated over the past ten years.
“May you be reborn in paradise.”
One of the Hunters who had entered through special recruitment poured in his soil, then pressed his hands together.
However, the soil he had brought looked somewhat strange.
It was dark, muddy, and seemed full of moisture. From one perspective, it looked like soil scooped from a swamp.
The soil brought by the other special-recruit Hunters that followed was the same.
They carefully poured the soil directly beneath where the incense sticks had been placed.
What in the world was their intention?
Finally, it was my turn.
I sprinkled the soil I had dug up earlier directly on top of the soil they had poured in.
Then the ceremony continued.
An event staff member came forward and tried to light the ten incense sticks placed in the incense burner.
However, the incense would not catch fire.
There was only silence, without so much as a wisp of smoke.
I could hear people murmuring after seeing that.
“It has always been like this.”
“Their resentment has not been resolved yet.”
“Damn. I have goosebumps! Look at the chills on my arms!”
“This is a haunted spot. A real haunted spot.”
“How wronged must they feel? They died overnight without knowing anything.”
“I thought it would be different this time.”
“Different, my foot. The Hunter Association and the Hunter Management Agency are the same.”
“Hyeon-seok! Hyeon-seok!! Are you here? Are you here? It is Mother. Mother is here!”
“Mom, stop! It is not him! I told you it is not my brother!”
“Viewers! Did you see that? This is proof that ghosts truly exist!”
“You cannot livestream here!”
Amid the commotion, a monk with a serious expression and a shaman wearing a white conical hat stepped forward to the altar.
They stood side by side and pressed their palms together in prayer.
Beside them, there was also a priest holding a rosary and a silver cross.
However...
“......”
I could see them.
Three bluish goblin ghosts.
They were clinging tightly to the incense burner.
And every time people brought the candle flame close to light the incense, they repeated the same action.
[Hooo!]
They puffed out their cheeks, fixed their eyes on one place, and then blew forcefully toward the candle flame.
The chairman of the Hunter Association looked at the scene of the 821 Memorial Ceremony, which had become a pandemonium as always, with satisfaction.
‘Just in case, I had wondered.’
But as expected, nothing had changed.
There was no anomaly.
No matter what method the Hunter Management Agency used, that incense would not light.
He did not know why.
It had always been that way.
Still, just in case, he had taken one precaution in advance.
He briefly stared at the garbage who had entered the Hunter Management Agency through special recruitment, then turned his gaze elsewhere.
‘Vermin-like bastards.’
Those men had had their weaknesses caught by the Hunter Association.
They had committed crimes against ordinary people and, naturally, had been caught by the vigilante group operated by the Association.
Even so, the Association, with its long and honorable history, had shown magnanimity.
Just this once, with broad-minded mercy, it had decided to let the matter pass.
In exchange, they were to spend some time in self-reflection.
For example, by engaging in spy activities.
Today, he had designated in advance the places where that garbage was to scoop up soil.
Specifically, the swamp on the uninhabited island.
And he had instructed them to sprinkle the soil from the swamp into the incense burner.
So that the incense would absorb the moisture and become damp.
So that the incense could never catch fire.
He had prepared such a safety measure in advance.
‘This is more than those men deserve.’
In the chairman’s eyes, this was honorable work.
A noble activity to sustain the Hunter Association, an organization with a long history.
Such work required people of dignity.
Not street thugs like those men, the sort one could find anywhere.
The person who perfectly met the chairman’s standards was A-Rank Spearman Choi Hyeong-woo.
‘And yet he is merely a Section Officer candidate?’
On top of that, he was currently said to be an Administrative Officer.
When the chairman had first heard this, he had been dumbfounded.
Those ignorant fools at the Hunter Management Agency, not knowing their own place, were acting as though they had the right to be selective.
And a public service aptitude evaluation, at that.
A sneer escaped him.
“Arrogant.”
Who was evaluating whom?
Did they truly not understand their own position?
This was why new agencies were no good.
Their perspective itself was different from that of the Hunter Association, which had experienced every sort of hardship.
To make a proper judgment in anything, one first needed an objective assessment of one’s own current capabilities.
In other words, this was the point at which they needed to know their place.
But those people had been wrong from the very beginning.
In truth, the chairman had not felt any sense of crisis over the launch of the Hunter Management Agency from the start.
There was only one thing that bothered him.
‘The Tower buff.’
As soon as the Hunter Management Agency had been established, a buff increasing Attack Power and Defense had been applied only to Korean Towers for the first time in the world.
That was why he had wondered, just in case.
But this, too, had turned out as expected.
‘It is unrelated.’
It was merely a coincidence.
Like a crow taking flight and a pear falling at the same time.
Now, it even seemed laughable.
To think he had held even a slight expectation toward such insignificant people.
Therefore, what remained to be done was...
Find the person responsible for the Tower buff and recruit them into the Association first.
Naturally, if they had a head on their shoulders, they would accept the offer from the Hunter Association, which better matched their level.
This offer had both justification and practical benefit.
Because behind the Hunter Association...
RING-RING-RING—!
An international call came at just the right moment.
That person was certainly watching this scene through a live broadcast.
“Yes, this is the chairman.”
He quietly rose from his seat and blended into the crowd of excited people.
For a moment, he had to hide the truth within the chaos.
However...
“...What? Who... who died...?”
He asked again to confirm.
But from beyond the phone, the same words still came through.
“No, is that true...?”
Something that should never have happened had occurred.
“Young Choi’s younger sister... No, why on earth!!”
Arrows appeared above the goblin ghosts that were blowing out the candle flame.
At the same time, a Status Window appeared.
<The skill Eye of Truth has discovered a target.>
FLASH—!
<A spirit scattered from the first Tower has been discovered.>
They had appeared through self-service like this without my having to go looking for them directly.
Did that mean there were that many spirits that had flowed out of the Tower?
In any case, I just had to catch them with a skill, right?
‘The skills I have are...’
Summon Spirit, Exorcism, Materialization, and Eye of Truth.
Among them, the skill I could use right now was Exorcism.
However, it may fail.
The success rate varies depending on the level difference between the spirit and the caster.
Restriction: Can be used once per day.>
Level difference?
I looked at the goblins for a moment.
Three ghosts who were still cheerfully blowing out candle flames while laughing among themselves.
“......”
They did not look very different from the goblins that appeared on the 1st floor of the Tower.
If anything, they seemed slightly more carefree.
Exorcism.
That should be enough.
The memorial ceremony site was still chaotic.
Some people were cursing the Hunter Association and the Hunter Management Agency together.
‘That will not do.’
My stable public service life was already beginning to shake from the very start.
“Commissioner.”
“Ah, Section Officer Lee. I should be used to this by now, but I still cannot get accustomed to it. It will probably continue to be like this from now on.”
The Commissioner looked so troubled that he was even breaking out in a cold sweat.
“I will try lighting it once.”
“The incense? Can you do it?”
“I think I know a way.”
“All right, Section Officer Lee. Do not feel too burdened even if it does not work.”
Soon, I received a new candle and incense stick from a member of the organizing committee.
When I approached the incense burner, there was a goblin drawing near like a moth to a flame.
“Stop.”
The goblin’s feet came to a halt.
Then the goblin stared at me.
[Kiiek?]
“What do you mean, kiiek?”
[Kehhek???]
The goblin spirit’s eyes widened.
The other goblin ghosts all looked this way as well.
“I am warning you. If you put out this candle...”
[...?]
“I will make sure you disappear from this world as well.”
[?!]
In truth, I could have simply taken care of them immediately, but there was a reason I warned them first.
I did not know how many targets the Exorcism 1 skill could affect at once.
[Kikiki.]
[Kekekek.]
But of course, the goblins did not listen immediately.
Fine.
I had expected that.
They would need an example.
“Exorcism.”
<Exorcism can only be used once per day. If you use the skill now, skill usage will be restricted until tomorrow. Would you like to cast Exorcism?>
“Cast it.”
1. Goblin Ghost
2. Goblin Ghost
3. Goblin Ghost>
A red arrow with a number written on it appeared above each goblin’s head.
As expected, it worked like this.
“Number 1.”
<Target has been selected.>
<Casting Exorcism.>
WHOOOOO—!
The sound of a typhoon blowing came from somewhere.
Then a black space formed beside the incense burner.
But the people showed no reaction at all.
It seemed this, too, was visible only to my eyes.
And soon, from within that space...
[Grrrrrrr...]
A demonic beast that looked as though it had crawled out of hell appeared.
Its entire body was pitch-black, with only its eyes and mouth red, and the moment it saw the goblin ghost, it began dripping crimson, lava-like saliva.
[KRAOOOOOO!!!]
[Ki... eek, keng! Kekek!!]
A massacre unfolded in an instant.
The demonic beast sank its fangs into the goblin’s back.
The flesh of the goblin ghost tore like rags, and soon, with a gulp, it vanished without a trace into the demonic beast’s mouth.
The remaining goblins who saw that sight froze on the spot.
I leisurely placed the new incense stick into the burner and lit its tip.
And then, the alert I had been waiting for rang out.
<A spirit scattered from the Republic of Korea’s first Tower has been eliminated.>