episode_0071

May 4th.

21:30.

Late at night, a black Starex was driving on the highway.

There were one woman and two men riding the Starex. They were currently moving to the abandoned Haedong factory in Gyeongwol-ri, Gyeongsangnam-do.

Haedong Abandoned Factory.

This was the place where the curse auction would be held tomorrow.

The three men and women riding the Starex were merchants going to sell goods at an auction house.

They could be said to be the organizers of the curse auction.

Heejin, the only woman among them, was checking the curse tools to be put up for auction in the backseat of the car. Of the three, Heejin was the most knowledgeable about the occult. In fact, if it weren’t for Heejin, the other two men wouldn’t have thought of selling the dangerous curse tool as a commercial product.

The names of the other two men were Chansu and Jeongho.

Chansu, who was sitting in the passenger seat, spoke to Heejin in the backseat.

“Senior Heejin! How are the things? You can sell it tomorrow, right?”

Heejin, who was looking at the curse tools, answered.

“Things are okay. None of them are ineffective, and they can all easily kill at least one person.”

“Really? If that’s the case with the senior, then that’s probably the case.”

The reason why they called Heejin by the name of senior was because Chansu and Jeongho were Heejin’s juniors in college. The three men and women were history students who graduated from the Department of History. After graduating from college, the three of us worked together to sell curse tools.

What they were dealing with were curse tools powerful enough to kill people. Although they were selling murder weapons, all three had let go of any guilt a long time ago. The profits from selling curse tools were too great for me to quit because I was weighed down by guilt.

There were surprisingly many people in the world who wanted to curse others, even if it meant paying a large sum of money.

Curses become money.

‘Devil doll’

‘African fertility doll’

‘Tiger’s Eye Ring’

‘Pearl Necklace of Death’

It was a list of items they would sell at the auction house tomorrow. Originally, these four items would have been the entire product. However, due to the items Heejin suddenly acquired recently, there was one more product to sell.

In the back seat of the vehicle, there were other items besides dolls and accessories.

Old book.

It was a book with an old-fashioned feel, with a silk cover and an ocher-colored binding that looked like it was stained with dirt.

Chansu glanced at the old book reflected in the rearview mirror and opened his mouth.

“Do you think the book will be sold tomorrow? It’s something that wasn’t in our original plan.”

It was the moment when the story of the old book was brought up.

Heejin, who was in the backseat, said with a smile.

“Of course it will sell! It’s a precious item. This is on a different level from the items we have handled so far. It has great magical value. Are there enough customers waiting in line to pay money to buy something?”

“Is that book that great?”

“It’s not just a book, it’s life and death! It was originally a book carried by the grim reapers.”

The true identity of the old book was a book of life and death.

A book about the Grim Reaper that appears in Eastern legends.

Hee-jin happened to acquire a copy of the Book of Life and Death that was lost in this world while the Grim Reaper was guiding the dead. Heejin considered obtaining the fortune of life and death as if she had won the lottery.

“Do you see the grandfather here? I am destined to die today.”

Heejin opened the Saengsabu and showed the contents to Chansu and Jeongho. In the book of life and death, each page contained a person’s portrait, their name in Chinese characters, and their date of death. When you turn to the next page, you see another person’s lifespan.

The page Heejin opened now contained a portrait of an old man full of wrinkles.

Coincidentally, the old man was destined to die today.

The date of death written in Chinese characters under the portrait was today.

“How do you die?”

“I don’t know that either. There is no cause of death, only the date of death is simply written. Still, it’s awesome stuff. You have to sell it as expensive as possible.”

Hee-jin’s eyes twinkled greedily as she looked at the living and dead. Chansu and Jeongho became excited after hearing her words. It was an opportunity to make a fortune. If the auction was successful tomorrow, the three people might have become wealthy parents.

The Starex they were riding passed on the highway and was getting closer to their destination.

The coordinates of the closed factory in the navigation were slowly getting closer.

In a car driving on a dark road, the three people were filled with dreams.

*

Monday morning, May 5th.

Sarah and I took the KTX and arrived at Goseong Station. It was the closest station to Gyeongwol-ri, where the Haedong abandoned factory was located. I came out near the road and had to wait for a while while trying to catch a taxi.

We were wearing the suits we made yesterday.

It didn’t feel awkward at all for both of us to be wearing suits. I just changed my clothes and it felt like I instantly transformed into a young office worker.

I turned my head and looked at Sarah.

Sarah was seen wearing a white shirt, a formal skirt that reached down to her knees, shiny shoes, and her long hair tied up with a string. If I had seen her for the first time, I would have mistaken her for a foreign beauty working at a foreign company.

As she was staring, Sarah made a puzzled expression.

“What is it? What’s on your face?”

“That’s not true, the suit suits you better than you think. Isn’t it okay to quit your job as a shaman and get a job at a company?”

“How can I quit my job as a shaman when I even received divine help? I have to keep going.”

“Are you going to continue working as a shaman when you get older?”

“Yes.”

Just because you received divine help doesn’t mean you have to become a shaman.

There was also an option to stop attending the spirits by holding a exorcism and live a normal life. However, Sarah seemed to want to continue working as a shaman even after graduating from school and becoming an adult.

“Why? Because shamans make more money than salaried workers?”

“Not necessarily… Jinwoo. Do you think I can lead a normal office life? Think about my relationships.”

After listening to Sarah, I can understand why she avoids working at the company. Sarah just felt burdened by working among people. Even if you look at it objectively, Sarah’s sociability wasn’t that good.

“It will probably be difficult.”

“I think so too.”

Sarah said while shrugging her shoulders.

“It is absolutely impossible to work while being surrounded by other people. Besides, I don’t want to work while being told to do this or that by my boss. I don’t want to be criticized at work, and I don’t want to hear gossip from people in the same department. I just want to live as a shaman.”

“You mean being a freelancer is good?”

“Good.”

Are you avoiding work because you have difficulties with interpersonal relationships?

Well, that could be possible.

“Hey, there comes a taxi.”

At that time, I saw a taxi driving on the road.

We raised our hands and hailed a taxi.

“Chief. Please go to the defrost factory.”

“Yes.”

The taxi we took departed for an abandoned factory in Gyeongwol-ri. We took out party masks from the briefcase we brought with us and put them on beforehand. After about 30 minutes, the taxi arrived at the entrance to the abandoned factory.

“Good luck.”

We paid the fare and got out of the taxi with our masks on.

The current time is 1:50 PM.

The auction started at 2pm.

I arrived at the agreed upon location about 10 minutes early.

“I have a car?”

“I guess there are people here.”

As I looked around, I saw cars parked near the abandoned factory. These are not junk cars, but cars that can run vividly just by turning on the engine. This probably means that there are people who drove those cars to the abandoned factory.

Haedong Factory was an old abandoned building that had been closed for 10 years. This means that it is a place that people do not normally visit. However, today there were people who came to the abandoned factory in Haedong to participate in the curse auction.

We went inside the factory.

Inside the large building, people wearing masks like us were gathered together.

When I counted them with my eyes, there were about thirty people.

However, not everyone was wearing masks, and only three people were showing their bare faces without masks. It was a woman with short hair and two large men. They stood out because they were showing their faces in a place where everyone was wearing masks.

A woman with short hair walked forward and spoke to us.

“You are here to participate in the auction, right? Please show me the invitation.”

Two large men were standing on either side of the short-haired woman.

I asked a question to the short-haired woman.

“Who are you to show me the invitation?”

“We are auction organizers. We were the ones who sent the invitation,”

“Were you the organizer? Somehow.”

Sarah and I each took out an invitation and showed it to the short-haired woman.

The short-haired woman checked the invitation and nodded.

“This is the invitation we sent you. welcome. My name is Yoo Hee-jin, and I sell curse tools. You will be referred to as Customers 29 and 30. It is determined in the order in which they arrive at the auction house.”

Because the auction was conducted anonymously, customers like us did not have to reveal our real names. I was called customer number 29 and Sarah was called customer number 30.

“It’s nice that I don’t have to reveal my name. But why conduct the auction anonymously?”

“That way, many customers can come with peace of mind. You know what kind of products we deal with, right? These are cursed tools that can kill people. Many of our customers do not want to keep transaction records.”

Why are curse auctions conducted with anonymous customers?

The reason was that customers purchasing curse tools were reluctant to reveal their identities.

Even if you kill someone with a curse, you will not be arrested, but it does not change the fact that you committed murder. Wouldn’t it be possible for the relatives of the victim killed by the curse to seek revenge? So, it seemed like the curse auction was being conducted anonymously to protect customers.

After checking the invitation, Heejin’s group left us. Even after we arrived, about ten additional customers came into the factory. As many as 40 customers were crowded around the abandoned factory. Because it was an anonymous curse auction, many people seemed to participate without any hesitation.

It was exactly two o’clock in the afternoon.

It was time for the auction to begin.

“Now! Let’s start the auction now.”

Heejin wore a portable microphone and delivered a speech. Heejin’s voice, amplified through the microphone, echoed throughout the factory.

“The first item I’d like to introduce is a devil doll! This doll was discovered in the Sandy Hook Forest in Connecticut, USA. It’s actually an item used in devil worship rituals. With this doll, you can summon a lesser demon and place a curse on a person.”

Next to Heejin, a male colleague was actually holding a devil doll. It was a wooden doll the size of a child. I saw devil’s horns carved from wood and large eyes painted with dye. The doll’s large eyes were shiny and alive, giving me goosebumps.

After hearing the history of the devil doll, customers immediately started asking for prices.

“5 million won.”

“Yes! Customer number 21 asked for 5 million won!”

The curse auction held inside the abandoned factory was quite fierce. As bidders changed frequently, the price of the devil doll rose.

“6.5 million won.”

“6.5 million won! Customer number 15 bid 6.5 million won! Is there anyone else?”

“7 million won.”

The devil doll, whose price continued to rise, was sold to a pot-bellied man. You couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a mask, but it was a man with a bulging stomach. The price the pot-bellied man offered to win the bid for the devil doll was 10 million won.

“It’s 10 million won! The devil doll has been won for customer number 8!”

The first successful bidder emerged from a noisy abandoned factory. If left like this, that pot-bellied man would commit murder with a devil doll. Even if there is no intention to kill, the fact that dangerous items are released into the market does not change.

I was watching the auction and gave a signal to Sarah.

“It’s time to start messing around.”

“Okay.”

Sarah received the signal and nodded.

We opened the briefcase that was placed on the floor. The leather briefcase contained a military knife and various other equipment.

“Hu.”

I took a deep breath, took out my military sword, and held it high above my head. The customers around me reacted in surprise when they saw me suddenly pulling out a knife.

“Da, what are you?”

“That person is holding a knife!”

Customers around us immediately started chattering.

Heejin’s gang, who were conducting an auction, also stopped and looked at us.

It must be a tense moment.

First of all, there was a need to kick out troublesome customers.

I held up my military sword and shouted loudly.

“You prospective murderers! Get out before I burn a hole in your belly skin!”