< 54. 21st Century Robin Hood (8) >
Ha Eun-seong obediently complied with the woman’s request. He was able to recite details that he would never have remembered if he were alive.
As I entered the entrance and moved around, I could easily recall the level of security I encountered, how the passageways were connected, where the cash was stored, and what items were stored in the VIP storage. It was as if I was replaying a video in my head.
It is common for ghosts to have improved memory after death. It was hard to conclude that it was because they spent most of their days observing and thinking. It was such a drastic improvement in function.
Thanks to such ghosts, most Earthlings now know that the memories of the soul are much more intense than those of the body.
=Rare… Can I think about it a little more and tell you?=
Instead of rushing, the woman answered with a leisurely smile.
‘Yes, take as much time as you want to think about it.’
Although the chances of being caught were close to zero, he was suddenly scared by the mention of the dragon’s rarity. He asked for advice from his only ghost friend, Ko Deok-hwan, who he could confide in.
=Hmm, that would definitely be a concern.=
Godokhwan thought for a moment and then asked again.
=What was it like at the bank?=
Ha Eun-seong answered, recalling the memory.
=It felt stronger than the exorcism in a normal building, but I was able to just pass by without any problems. The alarm didn’t even go off.=
=Yeah, that’s what’s important. It means I didn’t get caught anyway.=
He searched through his head the various knowledge he had gathered over the past 15 years since becoming a ghost. Most of it was preserved intact, without being forgotten or distorted.
=I said that the principle of exorcism magic is the same whether it’s used by humans or dragons. In other words, the difference is whether it works hard or weakly, but it doesn’t mean anything to you anyway, right?=
He said, pointing to Ha Eun-seong.
=So you’re, to put it simply, a munchkin ghost. You’re ‘out of specification.’=
In the end, the story was that even rare items are worth trying.
=By the way···.=
He said it with a hint of envy.
=Why doesn’t it work on you?=
=I don’t know. What about you, hyung?=
=Me, what?=
=No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out why I have to be special. Could it be that this isn’t just me, but a phenomenon that appears sequentially to multiple ghosts?=
=Are there any other ghosts who have experienced this kind of change besides you?=
=That’s right. My brother has been with me the longest, so if I change, my brother will probably be next···.=
=Ding. I’ve already tried it.=
It seems like he was curious after seeing Ha Eun-seong.
Godokhwan also tried to use a weak exorcist on his spirit body, but he said he felt the same pain as before.
=I don’t think you’ve changed much. You became a ghost with these unique characteristics to begin with. Ah, I envy you. You’re a ghost who can go wherever you want.=
He said, turning over the cases in his head.
=I wonder if the way one dies has any effect?=
His gaze briefly glanced at the knife stuck in Ha Eun-seong’s neck.
=Why, the ghosts that died horribly have stronger spiritual powers. The same goes for ghosts. If you listen to the stories of those who endure the exorcism a little longer and fly away slightly even when hit by a shock wave, there are no ordinary stories.=
=Where can there be an ordinary story when a person dies? They are all special.=
=Ah, well… I may be special, but in the end, I’m just a spiritualist.=
Ko Deok-hwan, who had become a spirit wearing only a pair of underwear, said with a bitter smile.
He lived the life of an ordinary Korean office worker for several years before his death. This means that he went to work while looking at the morning star and returned home after the sun set. He vowed that his working conditions could not get any worse, so he would endure, but surprisingly, the following year, things got even worse.
With the motto of organizational efficiency, the number of people continued to decrease, but the work remained the same. Every time someone was cut, Ko Deok-hwan breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately afterwards, he had to take on more work, including the share of retirees. There was no option to quit the company. The labor market was already in a severe state of decline.
It was a society where once you fell off the ladder, you couldn’t get back up. He knew that if he was pushed back a step, he would have to find his next room in the Orc community. That was the only thing he had to avoid. He had to be a better person than them.
One late night, after working overtime for months without receiving a single penny in overtime pay, he returned to his studio apartment. If he had just laid down and slept without turning on the computer, would things have been different? In any case, he felt it was unfair to sleep like this, so he decided to have some time to himself.
And a few minutes later, he collapsed with a terrible pain running through his head and dizziness.
In a hazy state of consciousness, he desperately pulled up his underwear. At that time, he could not even imagine that he would die, and he simply thought that if 119 found him, he would be embarrassed. Ko Deok-hwan crawled towards the computer while lying down, but he eventually died without being able to turn it off.
A few days later, the bereaved family members who came to clean up the room could not help but look very bewildered when they saw the monitor, and Go Deok-hwan, who witnessed this as a ghost, was already dead but was tormented by the feeling of wanting to die again.
‘If only it weren’t 2D… No, at least the characters were a bit more normal…’
Godok-hwan, who had barely escaped from the recurring regret, asked Ha Eun-seong.
=But, did they catch the criminal who killed you?=
=I don’t know. I don’t even look for it these days.=
He looked closely at the knife stuck in Ha Eun-seong’s neck, or rather, its handle.
=No matter how you look at it, it’s not an ordinary sashimi knife···.=
=After all, a sashimi knife is a sashimi knife.=
=Where on earth do they sell sashimi knives with these carvings on the handle?=
Ha Eun-seong frowned. It hadn’t been long since he had faced death, and the memory was still a terrible trauma.
=And when you died, the sword was removed. But why is it still in your spirit body?=
=I don’t know either.=
If Go Deok-hwan regrets that he should have just slept that day, Ha Eun-seong regrets that he should not have gone to work as a puppeteer that day.
It was a bitter irony that he was now able to provide more support to his siblings than he had when he was alive. He muttered to himself, with self-pity.
‘He makes more money dead than alive. Poor kid.’
Ha Eun-seong felt unpleasant right after saying those words. Emotions surged up faster than memories. He could quickly understand why his mood had suddenly changed.
Because I remembered what someone whispered just before he died.
‘You’ll be more useful dead than alive, right?’
It felt like I had goosebumps on my skin that wasn’t even there.
=Ugh!=
He made a pledge, shaking off the bad memories.
=Yeah··· Whether it’s a dragon or a demon, if you don’t get caught, it’s a jackpot!=
Ha Eun-seong made a decision.
——————
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Let’s go rare.
So let’s find that poor ghost, help Red Star rescue him, and get some extra money so that your little brothers can live comfortably!
Let’s make a killing by taking advantage of both the name and the substance!
=Brother, I’ll go first!=
Godokhwan said calmly
=I’m rooting for you.=
***
The lair of Changcheon is located underground in Namsan.
In other words, it means that on her rare roof, there are luxurious restaurants, entertainment facilities, and some of the best hotels in Seoul. From Changcheon’s perspective, it must have been annoying that people of insignificant races were coming and going on top of it day and night, but Namsan’s development did not stop.
The reason was simple: the entire site was Changcheon’s private property.
Even the dragons were amazed at her greed, using the land where her sanctuary is located as a means of making money. Even if it is a dragon’s instinct, there were people who said that they did not know where she was going to use the money she collected.
‘I told you it’s crazy no matter when you come here.’
Ha Eun-seong dug into the ground, piercing through the dazzling lights of tall buildings and towers and the heavy sound of music. The spirit, completely free from material resistance, penetrated the ground and sank.
As we went deeper, the scenery continued to change until we finally reached an empty space.
‘Now, our ghost compatriot. Where on earth are you···.’
At first, I was very nervous, but after I passed through the exorcism circle surrounding the barrier with ease, my timid heart melted away. Godeok-hwan was right. Even if it was a dragon’s magic, it would not react to Ha Eun-seong’s spirit body.
Then all that was left was to eat cold porridge.
‘Should we go this way first?’
The more I poked around in the rare, the more I realized one thing.
It is impossible for a living being to infiltrate and explore this place.
‘Ah… This place is so wide!’
The dragon lair he had expected was more like a cave with a larger size. A cave large enough for a giant dragon to lie down in. A hollow space where the tips of its wings or horns would barely touch the ceiling or walls when it spread its body out. In other words, it was only imagining the habitat of a beast with a larger size.
But that kind of rare room was similar to a goshiwon room for humans, barely big enough to fit a single small bed.
And of course, the chaebols don’t live in places like that.
The mansion of Changcheon was a large mansion with hundreds of rooms, comparable to a human’s. Of course, this mansion was built with consideration for the case where the residents were not humans but dragons. It was large enough for hundreds of dragons of similar size to Changcheon to gather and hold parties, and there were countless spaces isolated by thick walls and barriers.
Ha Eun-seong couldn’t understand how such a huge underground space could survive without collapsing.
‘This is going to take quite some time.’
As Red Star had previously figured out, Changcheon had emptied the lair. It was rare for him to return before completing his set schedule, so Ha Eun-seong was able to search relatively leisurely.
It was just after he absentmindedly passed by the thirty-fifth treasure house, where all sorts of gold and silver treasures were piled up, that he heard the familiar mental wave.
‘Why is this room so small?’
The interior of the room attached to the treasure vault was probably a space to welcome outside visitors, with the furniture and other items arranged according to human standards. I took a quick glance and tried to move on to the next room.
=······Give it to me!=
Ha Eun-seong stopped moving.
Now, I heard it clearly!
‘Found it!’
It was clearly a spiritual wave sent by a spirit being that did not have a physical body.
Ha Eun-seong did not respond because he was worried that there might be someone with clairvoyance nearby. Instead, he moved in the direction of the faintly flowing waves.
Every time I broke through a wall, my vision would change. For a moment, it would be covered in darkness, then a vault filled with glittering artifacts would appear, then for a moment, it would be dark again, then a library with books piled up as high as a building would appear. As I broke through dozens of walls like this, the mental waves became clearer.
=···It’s hot!=
Ha Eun-seong finally arrived at the source of the waves. The ghost’s distress signal was unstable but also full of emotion. It was heartbreaking to imagine how dire the situation must have been.
‘Just wait a moment! Once I confirm the location, the Red Star people will do something about it…’
The moment he broke through the last wall.
=······!=
Ha Eun-seong’s spirit body froze.
Hurrruk!
The first thing I felt was a suffocating heat.
Material phenomena cannot affect him, so this was not the heat caused by real fire. It was a spiritual phenomenon.
=Save me!=
Ha Eun-seong couldn’t take his eyes off the scenery unfolding before him.
The barrier here was exactly the same as the one placed at the bank’s headquarters. In other words, the most powerful exorcism that Changcheon could mobilize was there.
However, unlike a bank, there is no physical barrier, so the inside is completely visible.
Inside the giant magic circle, a spirit was writhing as if in pain.
It wasn’t the exorcism that was torturing him. Ha Eun-seong saw the spiritual flames surrounding him. The flames swept wildly like wild beasts.
‘That’s… not magic!’
Many spirits recreate the exact appearance they had at the time of their death.
And the stronger the spiritual power, the more precise the reproduction becomes and the stronger the influence it can have on the surroundings.
Ha Eun-seong thought that if a living person were to approach this place now, they wouldn’t feel even a little bit of heat, but most spirits wouldn’t be able to last long.
=It’s hot… It’s hot… Save me…!=
Ha Eun-seong was able to be certain after hearing the clearer mental waves.
Ghosts like him and Ko Deok-hwan do not say ‘please save me’ when sending out distress signals because they know full well that they are already dead and cannot come back to life.
The spirit that spits out such words is ultimately···.
=It’s not a ghost… It’s a phantom, right?=
Even though he was not the target of the rescue, Ha Eun-seong could not leave the place because the appearance of the ghost was so bizarre.
The fire burning inside the magic circle is so hellish that it’s scary to imagine how the opponent died.
No, it was more like a flash than a flame. A ghost trapped in the heat that was constantly collapsing its form. The ghost that was violently twisting its smoky body was not the human that Ha Eun-seong was looking for.
The body is about 3 meters long. The horns on the head are strangely curved. The membranes on both wings are completely burned away, leaving only the skeleton, covered with shriveled skin. The scales are half-fallen off, revealing the burnt flesh.
They were much smaller than what I had seen on TV, but there was no way I could mistake them for that species.
=······Dragon?=
Why is there a dragon’s ghost in the lair that Red Star sent to find the human ghost?
Ha Eun-seong first learned that dragons can turn into ghosts after they die.
While he hesitated, the ghost, who had clearly died young even for a dragon, let out a scream of mental waves.
=Save me! Please, it’s hot···.=
The ghost screamed pitifully at someone who wasn’t there.
=It’s so hot··· Please······ Please, me······ Heaven!=
***
“Evaporated? The moment it touched the ghost?”
Minjun was dumbfounded after hearing the Red Star executive’s words.
“These kids are telling ridiculous lies···.”
“Oh, really!”
Minjun snorted and asked several people in a more harsh manner, but the testimonies he spewed out with a scream were all consistent.
A high-ranking official who is not present at the moment has joined hands with a ghost, and the ghost has shown a strange ability to not react at all to exorcisms.
It was hard to believe.
‘I definitely never imagined a ghost would happen.’
It is not good reasoning to assume another abnormal situation in order to find out the cause of an abnormal phenomenon, because if you approach it that way, you have to imagine all sorts of strange phenomena that do not exist or have never been proven.
A ghost that doesn’t respond to exorcisms? That’s a bizarre fantasy that would never be mentioned when writing down a list of hypothetical suspects.
Does such a concept exist?
“So, who are you? Where are you now?”
As he listened to the statements, he learned that the information the police had given Cash was not 100% accurate.
They thought this was the Red Star base, and it was true that it was where most of the organization’s members were gathered. However, the high-ranking officials who could be called the core were not there.
Among the executives that Minjun was interrogating, one mentioned the existence of a certain woman. They said that she was a top executive whose current whereabouts were unknown to them.
“This, this operation… it’s practically as if that woman carried it out alone!”
He spoke with difficulty, his tongue frozen with fear and pain. They also knew fragmentary information. It was a fortunate thing for both of them. However, Minjun, who was listening to the description of the ghost’s characteristics, felt embarrassed once again.
‘A penguin with a knife in its neck?’
Still, I guess it’s fortunate that it’s unlikely to be confused with another ghost.
“So where are you now?”
The answers that came back were so instructive that one wondered if these people were really crazy.
“By now, we have arrived at the lair of the ancient dragon, Changcheon…!”
Minjun sticks out his tongue inwardly. The group has lost their fear.
He didn’t believe in the concept of ‘perfect immunity to exorcism magic’ that the executives had mentioned. There had to be some kind of trick. And he thought that no matter what method was used, they would eventually be caught.
And I didn’t believe the rumor that all the talents had evaporated.
‘The barrier inside the vault was functioning properly. A million evaporated at once because one spirit touched it? That’s ridiculous. And even more so···.’
The most convincing evidence that it had not evaporated was the traces at the scene.
There was no sign at all of a breakdown in the wall between the material and spiritual worlds. If it had been taken out of the vault instead of evaporated, there was a high probability that it would have been preserved well until now.
In the end, the words that the executives truly believed and appealed to contained lies that they themselves were unaware of. It was Min-jun’s job to figure out how much of it was true.
After calling and asking the immigration office to sort things out, Minjun got moving right away.
‘That ghost, whatever it is, I guess I’ll have to catch it first before I start.’
The next destination is the Lair of Changcheon.
< 54. 21st Century Robin Hood (8) > End
