2. Earthquake
“Oh, Mr. Seo Kang-rim. Are you here?”
When I suddenly came to my senses, I was standing in a bright place.
Looking around, it seemed like a cafe.
The demonic realm that had been covered in corpses and blood was nowhere to be seen, and only the neatly organized interior of the cafe came into view.
Was the regression successful?
As I stood there blankly, not knowing exactly when I had returned, a person approached me.
“Thank you for coming, I just suddenly contacted you. The person who was supposed to come today suddenly had a flat tire… … .”
“Punk?”
“Yes. Didn’t I tell you on the phone earlier? The person who read my fortune suddenly said he couldn’t come today, so… … .”
Hearing that, I remembered what time it was now.
Five years ago. A time when I was failing repeatedly in job preparation.
I was working part-time at a fortune telling cafe.
A day when someone suddenly left and I had to step in as a replacement.
It was a day I couldn’t forget.
I slightly bowed my head toward the cafe manager, who was looking at me strangely.
“Yes, I heard. Then I will go to work.”
If I remember correctly, I should have been here.
After the manager smiled and left, I glanced toward the cafe kitchen.
There just happened to be no one there.
After picking up a piece of fruit and putting it in my bosom, I went into the consultation room set up in a corner of the cafe.
After waiting for a moment, a couple soon came in.
While I was looking at the dry and dry fortune telling, three or four teams came in and out.
And then, without a moment’s rest, the next team came in.
“Hello, I’ve come to have my fortune told.”
Then a man came inside with a big smile.
A face with a somewhat hunched appearance.
It was a familiar face.
But he wasn’t the person I was looking for.
The man spoke to the person behind him.
“Ms. Suah, come in!”
Shin Soo Ah was standing there.
Without the blindfold, with a younger face than I remember.
That day was also the day I first met Shin Soo Ah.
As the man sat down with a grin, Shin Soo-ah sat down with a reluctant expression, keeping her distance.
“We had a blind date today, so we came to check our compatibility.”
There was a faint look of displeasure on Shin Soo-ah’s face.
My friend insisted on going on a blind date, and I got involved with a strange man.
I first held out a piece of paper in front of the two people.
“Please write down your names, date of birth, and time of birth.”
The two people filled out the paper and returned it.
The man glanced at Shin Soo Ah’s paper and said.
“Sua, would you like to go on a date on your birthday? I know a fancy restaurant… … .”
“I’m sorry, but I have something to do.”
When Shin Soo-ah immediately refused, the man was speechless for a moment.
He coughed for no reason and then looked back at me.
“Excuse me, before looking at my compatibility, please look at my fortune. I’ve heard that my fortune is really good, but I’ve never looked at it properly. They say I have a lot of luck with money and a good personality.”
The man said, giving a signal with his eyes.
Then and now, the same thing happened: bad luck.
I looked at the horoscope and told him the man’s fortune.
“You have good fortune. You will receive a lot of help from your parents.”
I saw the corners of the man’s mouth go up.
I continued to interpret the four pillars of destiny.
“But you’d better be careful.”
“why?”
“It’s a horoscope that will ruin the banquet table, so if you’re not careful, you’ll most likely end up ruining your family.”
The man’s face instantly turned red.
Shin Soo-ah looked at me with a slightly surprised expression.
I naturally changed the subject.
“Then shall I check your compatibility?”
“……is it so.”
The man spoke with a very uneasy expression.
On the other hand, Shin Soo-ah looked at me as if she was just now starting to get a little interested.
I started to solve it slowly.
“A person’s attributes are determined by the five elements based on their four pillars of destiny. They are divided into metal (金), water (水), wood (木), fire (火), and earth (土), and these attributes also have compatibility with each other.”
The man was staring at me with eyes that seemed to tell me to stop talking nonsense and quickly check my compatibility.
I thrust the piece of paper with the note forward.
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“The man’s fortune is the type with strong gold elements, and the woman’s fortune is the type with strong wood elements. In fortune telling, it’s called gold overcoming wood (金克木)…”
A look of anticipation came from the man.
I continued speaking, looking into his eyes.
“It is a compatibility that is incompatible because the axe cuts down the tree.”
In other words, stay away from these types of kids.
The man’s face hardened in an instant.
Shin Soo-ah blinked slightly in surprise, then smiled.
“I see. I can’t help it since we don’t get along well.”
At Shin Soo-ah’s words, the man glared at me as if he was going to kill me.
He jumped up as if he was going to grab me by the collar.
“Are you kidding me? If you’re not kidding me, what are you doing? Where’s the manager here?”
“It’s on the counter.”
As I answered calmly, the man’s face turned even redder.
“Ms. Su-ah, let’s go! Isn’t this completely crazy… …!”
“This person seems to be good at reading fortunes, so I’m going to go get my fortune told.”
Shin Soo-ah said with a calm face.
The man was dumbfounded by her reaction, then suddenly became angry again.
“You’ll regret it. Where do you think a girl like you can go and meet a guy like me?”
“I have no intention of seeing you, so goodbye.”
Eventually, the man got angry and went out.
Shin Soo-ah looked at me quietly.
“It seems like you’re good at reading fortunes. Please tell me my fortune for this year.”
“Yes. That’s right… … .”
ping-
At that time, tinnitus and dizziness came.
Her vision was shaking and Shin Soo Ah’s body was shaking too.
It wasn’t because of dizziness.
Kugu-gung-!
In fact, the building was shaking violently.
“Whoa, what, what is it?”
“Hey, it’s an earthquake!”
All over the store, the screams of people were mixed with the loud sound of dishes and bottles breaking.
At that moment, Shin Soo-ah shouted urgently.
“Get under the table quickly!”
It was like this back then too.
It was Shin Soo-ah who evacuated me from my panicked state.
As I ducked under the table, the building shook again.
It felt like a giant had put me in a barrel and was shaking me around violently.
And then darkness came.
Shaking, dark, splitting pain in my head.
In the meantime, a voice like tinnitus was heard.
[We are calculating your abilities based on your four pillars of destiny.]
Today is an unforgettable day.
It was the day of awakening.
As time passed, the surroundings became quiet.
There were no further auditory hallucinations.
The earthquake seemed to be over.
I crawled out of the consulting room and looked around.
The earthquake was over, but it was dark everywhere, as if the electricity had been cut off.
Meanwhile, the emergency exit sign was blinking a strange green light.
Soon the sound of people talking could be heard in a chaotic manner.
“What the heck?”
“Why can such a large earthquake hit Seoul?”
“I heard a strange announcement earlier.”
“Guidance announcement?”
“Uh. What kind of fortune telling… … . Ability? It was that kind of broadcast.”
At that moment, letters shimmered in the darkness.
[Checking your abilities!]
Something like a monitor screen was floating before my eyes.
Soon the letters disappeared and new content emerged.
═══════════════
[Name] Seo Kang-rim
[Grade] Insect Third Grade
[Five Elements] Fire
═══════════════
The ranks were no different in the past life or now.
Unfortunately, all the abilities I had gained through ‘stealing fortune telling’ had disappeared.
‘Regression’ also did not exist.
Instead, there was something I hadn’t seen before.
[You currently have accumulated karma.]
… … Is it karma?
It was also written in the description of ‘Stealing Sajoo’.
They say that using this ability will cause karma to accumulate.
I know that it’s not good to accumulate karma, but I couldn’t help it.
“Hey, get up. Let’s evacuate quickly.”
At that moment, I suddenly came to my senses when I heard Shin Soo-ah’s voice.
Shin Soo-ah’s face was faintly visible in the darkness.
A very calm looking face.
She probably hadn’t even seen her own horoscope yet, but regardless, she was cool and calm.
“Is there going to be another earthquake? Let’s get out of here quickly.”
“Where is the elevator?”
“It’s the 7th floor, let’s just go down quickly.”
People were leaving in a hurry.
Everyone must have heard the awakening message, but no one talked about their abilities.
It was a natural thing.
They won’t be able to see the Sajoo Chang.
[Only those with the ability to read fortunes can check their own four pillars of destiny.]
Unless you have a special ability like ‘fate reading’ like me, you can’t check your own fortune.
In times like this, it might be better not to see the Sajoo Chang at all.
In the meantime, Shin Soo-ah was trying to get mixed up in the evacuation procession, so I hurriedly dragged her out.
She was looking at me as if she was wondering.
“Why are you like that?”
“Please come down in a moment. There are many people evacuating now, so it is more chaotic.”
The lights went out and the stairs were dark.
There was an emergency exit sign so it wasn’t completely invisible.
Meanwhile, some people were going down, pushing people out of the way.
“Everyone get out! What are you doing blocking the road?”
“It’s so dark I can’t see well!”
The extraction was dark and I couldn’t see well.
Besides, the lower you go, the more crowded it will be with people from other floors.
Also, what’s important now isn’t the earthquake.
It’s about to start.
I took the knife out of my bosom.
Shin Soo-ah looked at me with surprised eyes.
Just as she was about to say something, a loud scream was heard.
“Eww!”
The sound was coming from below.
And after a while, people who had been evacuating were seen running upstairs in a panic.
“Run away! It’s a monster!”
“Huh? A monster… …?”
People were bewildered by those words, and then when they looked beyond the door, they were shocked.
A giant bug was crawling into the store.
A caterpillar that looks to be about the size of a medium-sized dog.
As soon as they saw a person, they immediately bared their teeth and clung to him.
“Get off, get off!”
“Ahhh, please save me!”
The caterpillar opened its mouth and bit off a man’s hand.
In the darkness, crimson blood spurted out and flowed down the stairs.
Just then, another bug was rushing towards Shinsooah, and I stabbed the knife I had into its body.
-Squeak!
A painful sound echoed through the air, but there was no time to pay attention to it.
I started slaughtering the rest of the bugs one by one.
After tearing the snail in half, he wiped the mucus off his cheek.
I looked back at the people.
The way they looked at me was quite strange.
The gaze that looked at me, a mere insect, as if I were something to be feared.
I said to them.
“If you don’t want to die, prepare to fight.”
