Ch.173173 – The Snake’s Tail 2

# 173 – The Snake’s Tail # 2

There’s a story passed down in the Japanese archipelago like a myth or legend.

Long ago, there was an enormously large snake that devoured people indiscriminately.

“From the snake’s perspective, wasn’t it just eating people because it was hungry? Isn’t it a bit unfair to call it an ‘evil’ snake?”

Bong Jiyeon made a very reasonable point.

Jeongseok, who had a soft spot for Jiyeon, couldn’t respond and just mumbled before continuing his explanation.

“Anyway, the villagers summoned a powerful shaman to defeat the snake. The shaman fought endlessly with the snake until she eventually showed a weakness and had her lower body devoured.”

Despite losing her lower half, the shaman displayed remarkable skill as she continued fighting the snake.

But the villagers, believing the half-bodied shaman had no chance of winning, betrayed her and made a deal with the snake.

“The deal was: ‘We’ll offer the shaman as a sacrifice, so please calm your anger and stop eating the villagers.’ They even cut off her remaining arms to make it easier for the snake to eat her.”

“Why would they do something so cruel? She came to help them. I feel so sorry for the shaman.”

Kwon Sua was saddened as if it had happened to her personally.

They say women have greater capacity for empathy. In Sua’s case, that capacity seemed even larger.

She might have a special pouch somewhere in her body storing sensitivity and empathy.

“Eventually, the snake devoured the shaman and disappeared, and the village found peace. But that peace was only temporary, and one day people started disappearing. And their arms too.”

A shaman devoured by a snake.

That’s how the natural disaster called ‘Gandara’ was created—a fusion of the shaman and the snake.

“So Gandara appears as a woman half-eaten by a snake. She has multiple arms. Anyone who sees this form dies without exception. But we’ve only seen the upper body, right? We haven’t seen any snake part at all.”

That was true.

We never saw anything snake-like at the Buddhist altar on the third floor.

As I was trying to recall details, Jeongseok added more explanation.

“If you happen to see the shaman part, your survival chances are actually quite high. It might be because some of the shaman’s compassion or mercy remains in her like a whim.”

It seemed strange that Jeongseok, who had once died most horribly at the hands of Gandara, would speak of her compassion or mercy. That guy had died so terribly.

I found it hard to believe such a shaman could possess any mercy.

“There’s something that always appears in the Gandara shaman ghost stories: matchsticks. At the altar that seals Gandara, matchsticks are arranged in a winding snake pattern. If you damage this arrangement, you’ll be heavily cursed, but if you restore it, the shaman’s anger subsides a bit.”

Jeongseok concluded his explanation.

“I suspect that this ‘matchstick altar’ might be in the eastern section where the shaman is guarding the key. It’s likely been damaged.”

“So if we restore it to its original state, we might be able to defeat the shaman!”

Kwon Sua clenched her fist and stood up.

Her determination looked quite bold.

“She seems a bit pitiful.”

Bong Jiyeon made a comment.

When everyone’s attention turned to her, she shrugged.

“Being sacrificed to a snake and losing your life. If it were me, I’d kill all the villagers too.”

I see.

Soon, Teacher Hong Miri chuckled.

“Women offered as sacrifices are always like that. It’s not just someone else’s story. Even in Gaeryong City, there’s a famous legend about women from a certain family who were sacrificed to a tree to prevent floods…”

It was an eerie story.

It sounded even creepier coming from Teacher Hong Miri with her ghost expertise.

“Long, long ago, when Gaeryong was called by a different name, there was a massive flood that killed many people.”

People planted a tree and offered women’s blood to it. Somehow, they believed the tree would prevent floods.

“They sacrificed women to the tree once every 20 years. The tree turned bright red from drinking so much blood. It’s been cut down now, though.”

Teacher Hong Miri opened her narrow eyes slowly.

I thought it was quite primitive that human sacrifices had occurred in Korea too. And I realized this wasn’t just someone else’s story.

This is about Dahui’s family.

Dahui’s family was a lineage of sacrificial women offered for generations.

Didn’t they say the head shaman died suddenly when Yeongji High was established in Gaeryong?

That was about 40 years ago.

And about 20 years ago, Yu Dahui’s mother, Yu Inna, hanged herself at school. Now, Yu Dahui was the only descendant left.

I remembered what Uncle Kang Bada had said before.

—The water veins of Gaeryong have periodically burst and caused floods since ancient times. So right before a flood, the local shamans would hang themselves to calm it. Their blood closes the opened gate.

Does that mean Dahui should have died too?

Like the shaman sacrificed to the snake. I shook my head to dispel the frightening thought.

That won’t happen.

“Let’s take a break now. Today we’ll gather points during the day, and once the cooldown is over, we’ll enter the corridor to seal the onmyoji or whatever we need to do.”

# # #

“There are so many ghosts near my house!”

During our break.

As I was outside the building soaking up the sun, Kwon Sua was chattering beside me.

Sua had an extraordinary ability to see ghosts, and she said she’d been having a hard time lately because of ghosts wandering around her house.

“…I’m sure they’re targeting my father.”

“Your father? But your father is… a ghost.”

Sua’s father had passed away.

But due to the aftermath of opening the door on the third floor, he appeared as a ghost by Sua’s side.

Although they couldn’t communicate, Sua said she liked being with her deceased father. That’s why we didn’t exorcise Sua’s father to earn points.

But ghosts targeting Sua’s father?

“What do you mean? Explain in more detail.”

“I discovered that thing… not long ago.”

Sua said she discovered it yesterday.

Something terrifyingly hideous was standing in front of her house, which frightened her, but fortunately, it didn’t seem to notice her.

“It looks absolutely horrifying. I think I’ve seen many ghosts, but I’ve never seen anything like this before. It crawls on all fours like an animal. Sometimes it attaches itself to people and moves around that way.”

A female ghost crawling on all fours.

That’s what was wandering around Sua’s house.

“But it doesn’t seem to harm people. Rather, it was catching ghosts that were wandering around my house with its long hands and eating them.”

A ghost that doesn’t harm people but only eats other ghosts? I’d never heard of such a thing either. Is it like an antivirus that catches viruses?

I thought if such a being really existed, it might be good for us, but Sua was very worried.

“My dad goes out these days! It would be terrible if he gets caught and eaten by that tree monster! I tell him not to go out, but he doesn’t understand. And since he’s a ghost, I can’t keep him locked up.”

Sua seemed extremely worried about her deceased father’s ghost. I imagined what it would be like if my mother died and appeared before me as a ghost.

Mom’s ghost.

Would it be scary?

It would be scary, but also somewhat comforting, I think. If I thought someone was eating my mother’s ghost… I could understand Sua’s feelings.

‘We have about a day left until the next corridor anyway. If we can gather points, it’s good to gather as many as possible. If it’s a ghost that eats other ghosts… wouldn’t it give a lot of points?’

“Alright. I’ll tell everyone and we’ll go together.”

“Really? As expected, only Yeongwon understands my feelings!”

With a sudden movement, Sua hugged my arm.

The pressure against my arm was so intense that I couldn’t gather my thoughts.

Sua has a talent for taking people’s breath away, just like those terrifying ghosts.

Being a genius idol isn’t something just anyone can do, it seems.

So we decided to visit the area around Sua’s house.

It was to gather lots of points.

“Let’s take Giganoto too.”

First, we stopped by my house to pick up my pet dinosaur, Giganoto.

With Giganoto, we could easily chase away and defeat minor ghosts.

That would trigger point duplication.

Vroom—

On the way to Sua’s house in Teacher Hong’s car.

Sua smiled as she looked at Giganoto clinging to my shoulder.

“I thought I was afraid of reptiles, but this one is so well-behaved and cute. Don’t you need a leash or something to keep it from running away?”

“It doesn’t run away.”

One day, my mom took Giganoto out for a walk. I didn’t know why she’d take a lizard for a walk, but mom said, “Don’t animals need walks?”

My mom didn’t finish high school, so there’s a lot she doesn’t know. But while walking in the park, mom said she lost Giganoto.

“After searching for a long time without finding it, she finally came home late at night, and Giganoto was already there.”

It was an amazing dinosaur that could find its way home on its own.

It’s fascinating that this creature used to cling to Jeongseok’s childhood friend, Jin Seoyeon.

Then I suddenly became curious.

“Jeongseok, how’s Seoyeon these days? Is she doing well?”

“Well, more or less.”

Oh. So Jeongseok still keeps in touch with Seoyeon? Are they doing well together? I wanted to ask more, but I felt conscious of Bong Jiyeon.

Of course, Jiyeon wasn’t paying attention to Jeongseok and was looking at her phone with Yu Dahui.

“Dahui, look at this. It’s a new tint that just came out. The color is pretty, right? Let’s go buy it together later.”

“Where?”

The car stopped.

Now it was time to release Giganoto in the ghost-infested area and earn lots of points. With that thought, I was startled when I encountered the giant ghost.

“So that’s the ghost.”

It looked scarier than I had imagined.

As Sua had said, it was crawling on all fours and prowling around, seeming more beast than human. It was muttering strange things.

“Hello? Hello? Lunch joyful rooster’s gratitude.”

Its black hair was so thick it looked like fur growing all over, and its glass-like broken eyeballs were grinning, looking in different directions.

Teacher Hong Miri said:

“Ghosts that crawl on all fours are as frightening as dancing ghosts or laughing ghosts. They’ve lost even a shred of humanity, making them completely unpredictable.”

An unpredictable ghost.

It sounded very eerie, but it seemed true that it didn’t harm humans.

People were walking around it, but no one noticed its presence, and it remained still.

However, Teacher Hong Miri spoke as if tense:

“To think such a thing is wandering openly on the streets. This isn’t good. Creatures like this are usually found only in the depths of haunted places like Japan’s Jukai Forest. Or perhaps on the second floor of Yeongji High School…”

An evil spirit comparable to the Rhythm Ghost.

It was concerning that such a being was roaming the city.

But Teacher Hong Miri wasn’t finished speaking.

“What’s more serious is that this ghost seems like an artificial curse deliberately released by someone. There’s a practitioner controlling this ghost. Whoever it is, they can’t be normal.”