The next day, I got to work on my next job at once.
I did not want to waste money and time at this cheap motel, and….
《Child…. I am hungry.》
The new Divine Spirit's whining was growing more frequent.
The soul of Slender Man, which he had eaten recently, apparently had not been enough to satisfy him.
‘I'll perform exorcisms, earn enough to find a place to live… and feed the Divine Spirit.’
I opened an old laptop I had bought at a nearby antique shop.
TAP-TAP-TAP! TAP-TAP!
My fingers moved deftly over the keyboard.
I plunged into the middle depths of the dark web, an abyss no ordinary browser could reach.
I bypassed complex encryption protocols and hopped through virtual IP addresses three times.
A red eye appeared on the screen, followed by a site with a bizarre interface.
Underworld Board, the black market for American exorcists.
‘If I just walk into an exorcist office or association, they're hardly going to welcome an unlicensed Asian.’
Unknown experts gathered there to carry out dangerous jobs for a minimal commission.
It was precisely the sort of place that suited my situation.
When I had first planned revenge against Blue Tile and Lee Seo-jin, the bastards who had stabbed me in the back, I had expected it would take at least a year before I could take a job here.
That wait had been cut drastically short.
I scanned the list of jobs and applied to bid on them.
But….
“Hmm. No one's biting because I don't have a track record?”
Most of the posted requests went to accounts with a history of completed jobs.
All that remained were poorly paid jobs or tedious work clearing out minor ghosts.
Those would not even cover my room.
As Do-jun scrolled to the bottom, a listing against a black background, stamped with a skull, caught his eye.
───────
【Area: Abandoned Psychiatric Hospital District, Outskirts of Brooklyn】
【Details: Dozens of suicides have occurred here without letup. An evil spirit is suspected. The client requests an exorcism for personal reasons.】
【Reward: $100,000】
【Special Notes: Four people who accepted the job in the past three months have gone missing or suffered mental breakdowns. The job has been accepted more than five times, but every exorcism failed. Exercise caution.】
───────
One hundred thousand dollars.
About one hundred and fifty million won. Not bad pay.
But the reason it was still on the list was obvious.
‘They've taken this job five times and failed every time.’
That could mean one of two things.
Either it was that dangerous, or there was something the listing did not disclose.
That made it even better.
‘If I use this right, I can steer things according to my plan.’
I tilted one corner of my mouth upward and clicked ‘Accept’ at once.
Then….
【‘I'll Die’ sent you a message.】
【I'll Die: …Are you really going to take this job?】
A message arrived immediately.
***
On the outskirts of Brooklyn, the psychiatric hospital beyond the rusted iron fence looked like the entrance to hell.
Waverly Hills, Brooklyn Branch.
Since its closure after an unsavory incident in the 1950s, it had become a final stop for the homeless, drug offenders, and people who dreamed of ‘suicide.’
Grotesque graffiti covered every wall. Through the broken windows, frayed curtains fluttered in the wind like ropes from which someone had hanged themselves.
“Are you the client?”
Do-jun asked as he got out of the car.
A hooded man emerged from the dark, waving a smartphone as he approached.
“…You're here. You, uh, you're Asian?”
“Why? Is that a problem?”
“No. I don't care who you are as long as you can perform the exorcism.”
“Then leave it to me.”
His username was ‘I'll Die.’
He said his real name was Jack and launched into a long, rather hackneyed story. He and a friend had been streaming a ghost hunt here when the friend died, and he had hired Do-jun to avenge him.
There was a faint, suspicious whiff of a con artist about him.
Exactly the feeling I had expected.
“Revenge? On a ghost?”
“Why? Is there something wrong with that?”
“Nine times out of ten, people who charge into this business looking for revenge die for nothing. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it.”
“So… you can't do it?”
“No, I can. As long as you pay me.”
I answered as I pulled up my mask.
I did not mind being filmed, but it would be a nuisance if my face was exposed and the bastards at Blue Tile found a way to track me.
“Then shut up and come along…. You'll get your money.”
“Yes, sir!”
As we entered the building, a sharp, musty smell of mold and an unidentified stench struck my nose.
Jack fastened a body camera to his chest and began hanging gadgets from both hands.
‘Hmmm…. Looks like I was a hundred percent right, doesn't it?’
You're making it too obvious, you bastard.
Whether I stared at him or not, Jack began talking excitedly.
“All right, viewers. No, this is for the record. Current EMF reading: 1.2. It's quiet so far. Let's scatter some salt and move on.”
BEEP-BEEP, BEEP.
Jack shone a UV light around, sprinkled salt on the floor, and waved a frequency meter through the air.
I watched his antics with disdain, then asked casually,
“Why are you using those things? Are they toys?”
“…I told you. There's… an evil spirit here.”
Jack fumbled his answer, but I could see it.
His hands were far too practiced with the equipment, and the way he directed his gaze was remarkably natural.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!
As we passed down the corridor and entered the intensive care floor, Jack's EMF meter began shrieking wildly.
Its red light flashed down the dark hall, lending the place an eerie air.
“It's here…. Close! The evil spirit's here, right here!”
Jack hurried ahead, excited.
At the end of the corridor stood the VIP intensive care room, its heavy iron door firmly shut. Do-jun stopped and said,
“Wait. Stop.”
“Why? Having second thoughts now?”
“There seems to be a particularly vicious evil spirit behind that door. You'd better stay out here.”
In an instant, the corners of Jack's mouth, on a face that had looked terrified, twisted grotesquely.
Like the face of a murderer.
“I know that, you bastard!”
WHAM—!
Jack shoved me hard in the back.
I stumbled into the room, and the iron door slammed shut behind me with a crash.
“Go on, then! Let's see you perform your exorcism! Ahaha! Ahahahah!”
I heard a lock click into place outside.
Without panicking, I looked around.
State-of-the-art high-definition CCTV cameras had been installed in every corner.
Jack must have put them there.
“So that's what this is.”
I gave a faint laugh and looked ahead.
In the center of the room floated an evil spirit like a huge lump of flesh, formed from dozens of souls crushed together into one.
Countless eyes rolled grotesquely, each looking in a different direction. From between the rotting pieces of flesh came voices.
《I want to die….》
《Kill me, please!》
《You'll become one of us tooooo….》
The cries of the vengeful souls poured out like a waterfall.
This was the cause of the suicides here.
An evil spirit that lured people into taking their own lives, absorbed their souls, and swelled in size.
It was not hard to tell what the thing was.
‘Legion.’
Legion.
In Korea, these beings were called Collective Spirits. They were formed when entities bearing negative emotions or vengeful souls fused together and built up their energy.
The Rat King, which sometimes appeared in Western urban legends, and the crawling mass of flesh and The Flash occasionally mentioned on Reddit lately were types of Legion, too.
With that much malice and energy, killing a few people would be easy for it.
‘So he brought me here as an offering to that evil spirit.’
What a rotten piece of trash that streamer was.
I let out a sharp sigh and drew a talisman from inside my clothes.
Then….
FWIP-FWIP!
I threw it, sticking it to one of the CCTV cameras.
《SKREE! SKREEEEE!》
Just as the evil spirit's body stretched toward me,
I rolled aside to avoid it, formed a hand seal, and touched the floor.
“Bind!”
Blue chains sprang from the floor and cinched tightly around the evil spirit's body.
It struggled and screamed, but I addressed my spirit jar as if it were nothing remarkable.
“Elder, your meal is served.”
《…Thank… you.》
Then….
The phantom of a huge beast with streaming blue fur appeared behind me.
The Divine Spirit manifested its claws and snatched the evil spirit's body in one swift motion.
“Elder, now that dinner's served, may I ask you for one favor?”
《What is it…?》
I grinned and spoke.
***
“Damn it! Hey, why isn't this working?”
Jack hammered at the monitor in a frenzy.
All four high-definition infrared cameras he had installed in the VIP room of the abandoned Brooklyn psychiatric hospital at a cost of tens of millions of won had gone dead at once.
Only crackling static and an unpleasant silence filled the screens.
The chat for the live stream he ran on the dark web had already erupted.
───────
[Blood_Fan]: Hey, are you kidding? I paid to get in. Why is the screen black?
[Snuff_Master]: You said we'd watch that Asian bastard kill himself. You scamming bastard!
[Hell_Gate]: Jack, refund me or I'll track you down and bury you.
───────
“Just wait! Give me a minute, you bastards! Don't leave!”
Jack screamed and snapped open his telescopic baton.
His eyes were charged a bloodshot red.
‘Damn it! This has gone wrong.’
Jack, whose real name was Smith Wither, was a murderer posing as a streamer.
He used the evil spirit in the suicide zone to lure people in, then broadcast snuff footage of them taking their own lives in terror on the dark web and collected vast sums in Bitcoin.
This exorcist was just another offering for it.
“Damn it, that Asian bastard…. Did he actually manage the exorcism? No one's ever done that before.”
Jack checked the power on the GoPro attached to his chest.
If the main CCTV system was out, he would have to go in himself and film the ‘corpse,’ at least.
Only then could he calm the refund uproar from those ravenous viewers.
CLICK.
Jack drew back the bolt on the firmly locked iron door and stepped inside.
“Hey! You in there? If you're dead, at least answer me….”
The room was silent.
No, it was too clean.
There was not even a trace of the Asian man Jack had shoved inside.
“Where'd you go? Where are you hiding, you yellow bastard?”
Jack looked around in panic and shouted.
“Calling me yellow, sir… that's racist.”
The voice came from overhead.
Before Jack could lift his head, transparent strands of light poured from the air like snakes.
“W-what is this? Ugh!”
Spirit-Binding Snare, an application of the Spirit Descent Art.
Thick ropes mimicking the energy of a serpent spirit coiled tightly around Jack's entire body.
In an instant, Jack became an insect caught in a spiderweb and slammed to the floor.
“What are you doing? Let me go, right now! I'll call the police!”
“The police? The man broadcasting murders on the dark web wants the police?”
“What?”
Do-jun strolled out of the darkness.
His eyes were cold above his mask.
He grabbed Jack by the hair and hauled his head up, then took a talisman covered in vivid red writing from inside his clothes.
“W-why are you doing this to me? I'm the client… aren't I?”
“If you don't know, I'll refresh your memory.”
Do-jun slapped the talisman onto Jack's forehead.
FWOOSH!
As it burst into flame, Jack's eyes rolled back.
-Save me, Jack! Please open the door!
-Aaaaagh! My eyes! I can't see!
The last moments of the people he had lured here to die sliced through Jack's mind like a panorama.
The screams of innocent victims. Jack foamed at the mouth and writhed under the noise ringing in his head.
“How many people died because of those garbage broadcasts of yours? You filthy bastard.”
“Nnnngh…. P-please spare me….”
Tears streamed from Jack's eyes.
In a voice gone cold, Do-jun patted Jack's cheek and said,
“Hand over all the money you have. The hundred thousand dollars you promised. Otherwise, die by my hand.”
An icy blue light leaked from Do-jun's eyes, and his body looked like a hideous evil spirit.
It was an illusion, but it was enough to frighten Jack.
“E-eek! I'll give it to you! All of it! Please, get that thing away from me!”
With shaking hands, Jack took a tablet from inside his clothes.
His finger quivered as he pressed the payment approval button.
BEEP.
A notification appeared on Do-jun's phone confirming a transfer to his Bitcoin wallet.
One hundred thousand dollars. No, an amount with a generous extra sum for the fees.
“Payment confirmed. Thank you for your business, sir.”
Do-jun turned toward the door without a backward glance.
“Hey! You have to untie me before you go! Untie me!”
“I only promised not to kill you. I never said I'd untie you.”
“What? Hey! Heeeey!”
Do-jun left the room, ignoring the curses behind him.
CLICK.
The bolt slid back into place. His voice came through from the other side.
“Oh, and… enjoy your time with your friends.”
“What?”
Inside the room,
Cold air began to gather around the bound, screaming Jack.
Black shadows seeped from the cracks between the floor tiles and the vent in the ceiling.
As the shadows took on translucent forms, despair spread across Jack's face.
They were the people who had died at his hands.
***
On my way out of the abandoned psychiatric hospital, the night air still carried a fishy tang, but my steps felt as light as feathers.
A red ember glowed at the tip of the cigarette between my lips.
“Huuuh.”
The smoke I exhaled in a long stream scattered into Brooklyn's humid air.
Then it happened.
A desperate scream tore through the still night, so loud that the whole old building behind me seemed to shudder.
“Aaaaaagh! Please! Save me! Please!”
It was Jack's voice, the man who had tried to offer me up as a sacrifice moments ago.
Their grudge ran so deep and dark that what I heard behind me sounded truly dire.
I let out a bitter sigh and said,
“I hope you all pass on in peace.”
I took out my phone and looked over the payment record once more.
A hundred thousand dollars in crypto.
With the cash I had earned earlier added to it, I would not have to worry about going hungry for a while.
And besides….
‘The Divine Spirit seems pleased with the offering.’
I patted my lower abdomen and felt the energy of the Divine Spirit, asleep after feasting on the evil spirit.
I'd gotten both the pheasant and its eggs.
‘I'm starting to like America.’
This was work in a gray area, too, but I felt as though I was earning money tens of times faster than I had as a shaman in Korea.
Just a little, I even wondered whether getting exiled might have been a blessing.
‘Those bastards should be here soon….’
I walked slowly, whistling.
Then a voice came from the dark.
“Wait.”
“Hmm.”
I turned my head. Three shadows stretched across Do-jun's path, blocking his way.
They were men dressed from head to toe in black priestly robes and tactical vests, without a gap in their gear.
And their bodies gave off that distinctive Christian energy.
I tossed the cigarette from my mouth to the ground, ground it out, and said,
“What brings exorcists all the way out here?”
It looked as though the suckers who would help with my plan had arrived.