episode_0118

Friday evening finally came.

The weekend trip we had been waiting for was just around the corner. If I waited just one more day, I could enjoy the ocean view aboard a luxury liner.

In the evening, I was putting my luggage in my suitcase in advance.

If I wanted to get on the ship on time, I had to leave for Busan early this evening.

I guess I should stay the night with Sarah at a motel near the passenger terminal.

This was when I put everything I needed into the carrier, including extra clothes, swimsuit, motion sickness medication, camera, blanket, and emergency medicine.

Suddenly, Sarah’s voice came from the living room.

“Jinwoo. Come here.”

I went out into the living room.

Sarah was sitting on the sofa in the living room and looking at her smartphone.

It was soon time to leave the house, but for some reason, I was sitting still. I asked Sarah with a puzzled expression.

“What’s going on? Have you packed all your luggage?”

“I haven’t gotten everything yet, but listen to it first. Something worth investigating came up.”

Something happened.

I had to go on a trip right away, but if something happened, I had no choice but to give up on going.

“Work? So are we canceling our trip?”

It was a shame, but I couldn’t help it.

Working is probably more important than playing.

However, Sarah said that the trip was not cancelled.

“It’s not a cancellation. The place where the incident occurred is Cruise. One person died on the Serenade we were supposed to board.”

“Oh, really?”

The Serenade was the cruise we would be taking tomorrow.

It is a luxury passenger ship that can carry up to 1,200 passengers. If an incident had occurred there, there would have been no reason to cancel the reservation. I guess I can enjoy the ocean view on the boat and investigate the case.

I asked Sarah about the incident.

“How did the person die?”

“A YouTuber named Lee Chang-hoon died on a cruise ship. He’s a mukbang YouTuber with about 200,000 subscribers.”

“Mukbang YouTuber… ? I don’t know much about that.”

I also watch YouTube, but all I subscribe to are mystery channels. I only knew of YouTubers that talked about strange events or aliens. Of course, Sarah also didn’t know who Lee Chang-hoon was.

“I don’t know much about YouTubers who do mukbangs. But Lee Chang-hoon died while continuing to eat at the cruise buffet. Since a mukbang YouTuber died while filming a mukbang, it was bound to become a hot topic. If you look at YouTube channels that cover accidents these days, most of them are about Lee Chang-hoon.”

Lee Chang-hoon’s death seemed to be a hot topic in the world.

How absurd was his death?

“How did you die while eating food? Is your airway blocked?”

“The airway is not blocked. After eating so fast for two hours, my stomach ruptured.”

“Wow.”

Did he die from a ruptured stomach?

I was eating so much that my stomach really exploded.

It was beyond bizarre.

But it wasn’t impossible.

“Sera. Is this something we should look into? It’s rare for people to die from stomach rupture, but it’s not non-existent, right?”

“That’s right.”

Perhaps Lee Chang-hoon’s death could have been a simple accident.

In Taiwan, there was also a case where a woman died after eating for 5 hours because her stomach swelled to 20 times the size of a normal person. The woman wasn’t particularly possessed by a ghost, but she just had a big appetite.

Likewise, Lee Chang-hoon may have died because of his gluttony.

Sarah agreed with what I said.

“Like you said, it could have been an accident. Still, we can investigate tomorrow when we get on the ship, right? Let’s investigate on the way.”

“Then, tomorrow we will eat lunch at the cruise buffet?”

“It will be so delicious that you will die after eating it.”

After telling the story of the incident, Sarah packed her luggage into her suitcase.

Sarah and I went out of the house, each pulling a suitcase. Because we weren’t just going on a trip, we added various shamanic items and psychic equipment to our suitcases.

After some time, we boarded the KTX and departed for Busan.

On the train, Sarah talked to me while checking the equipment.

“If Lee Chang-hoon’s death wasn’t just an accident, could it have been the work of a ghost?”

“Do you think a ghost has possessed a person?”

“Yes. Among people who suddenly binge eat, there are some who are addicted to begging. I’m talking about a hungry ghost that is always hungry.”

“Is that so? It could be something you did.”

Among the ghosts wandering this world, there was one called a ghost. It was a ghost that was always hungry. I heard that a person possessed by a hungry ghost cannot satisfy his hunger no matter how much he eats.

Of course, it was not yet possible to determine the cause of the incident.

Even if it’s not a ghost, there are many things that can bewitch people.

Time passed and the train arrived at Busan Station.

We took a taxi and went to a motel near the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal.

“Jinwoo. I’ll take just one room?”

“If you’re uncomfortable, you can get a separate room.”

“I get bored when I’m alone.”

We booked a room and stayed overnight at a motel.

When I woke up, Saturday morning dawned.

Sarah was full of energy in the morning and tried to wake me up from my sleep on the bed.

“Wake up, Jamtaeng! The sea is waiting for us.”

“Why are you waking up already… ? Isn’t it 10 o’clock to board the boat?”

“Shouldn’t you go after breakfast?”

“I don’t want to eat and sleep more… .”

Sarah always prays early in the morning at home.

Because he is a morning person, he was more vivid in the morning than I was.

“Jinwoo. You’re not telling me to eat alone, are you? If you don’t wake up, I’ll throw your panties out the window!”

“Hey.”

After hearing that, I jumped out of bed.

What are you saying that you’re going to throw your panties because you won’t wake up?

“Hey! Don’t do that! I also take revenge by throwing your panties.”

“Police man! It’s a pervert here. I’m about to throw the high school girl’s panties.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t eat alone anymore! Jinwoo, you made me like this, so take responsibility!”

Sarah and I came out of the motel arguing in the morning.

We had a light meal at a convenience store and went to the passenger terminal where the cruise ship was located.

* * *

It was 10 am.

It was time for us to board the cruise.

When we arrived at the passenger terminal, we boarded the cruise ship anchored at the dock. Although it was a short trip of 2 days and 1 night, there were many travelers like us. It took quite a long time to stand in line and even get into the boat.

Sarah stuck her tongue out as she looked at the crowd.

“There are so many customers! I heard someone died here. Do you want to go on a boat today?”

“On the surface, Lee Chang-hoon’s death is just an absurd accident. The cruise staff didn’t make a mistake, so there’s no reason not to take it.”

One person died in the ship’s restaurant, but regardless, there were still many passengers today.

We were issued boarding cards by uniformed crew members. It was an item that could be used as a key to enter the room, or like a credit card.

The cruise set sail after all passengers were on board.

An announcement rang out as the cruise ship left the dock.

[Hello, customers. To ensure an enjoyable and safe flight, I would like to give you some information… .]

Now that the ship was moving, I finally felt like I was going on a sea trip.

Seagulls cackled in the sky.

After unpacking our luggage in the room, we went out to the deck and looked at the sea. The weather today was clear without a single cloud. It’s the perfect day to go on a trip.

The current time is 11 am.

The buffet where the accident occurred was not yet operating.

It opened 30 minutes later, so we spent time on the deck until then.

“Sera. When are you going to imitate the famous Titanic scene?”

“If nothing happens after the investigation, let’s do it right away. I have to start with work.”

Before we knew it, the cruise ship was so far away from land that the dock seemed small.

It was when I was splashing water while looking at the sea.

Suddenly, something strange began to appear in my eyes.

It looked like something huge was wriggling beneath the surface.

‘What is that?’

I closed my eyes and opened them, wondering if I had seen something wrong.

However, the huge shape hanging over the water did not disappear.

big.

It is bigger than the 200m long cruise ship we are on.

Something writhing in the sea.

As soon as I saw it, I couldn’t help but feel instinctively chilled.

This is no joke.

There was a huge monster under the sea.

But the other passengers on deck showed no fearful reaction. They were just enjoying the view of the sea with an excited expression. Perhaps the other passengers did not see the sea monster.

I was scared and called Sarah.

“Sera! Do you see that too?”

“What?”

“That! Something bigger than a boat is wriggling!”

“Ah, that person? I can see it too.”

Sarah was clearly seeing the same thing as me. Fortunately, it wasn’t just a monster that I could see. That gigantic monster seemed like an invisible spirit to uninspiring people.

“What is that! Shouldn’t we turn the boat around right away?”

The giant monster did not stay still but was constantly moving in the sea. It was swimming in the sea by moving its thick and long body like an earthworm.

Seeing that, even people who don’t have apophobia would develop apophobia.

“It comes this way!”

Even a huge monster was coming in the direction of the cruise. As the monster’s figure got closer, I became more nervous.

But strangely, Sarah seemed calm.

“Calm down, Jinwoo.”

“Do you look calm now? That monster might hit our ship! Run away!”

“That doesn’t happen! That person is not a monster, but a god.”

Sarah caught me as I was trying to get my weapon right away.

Sera seemed to know the identity of the gigantic figure in the sea.

“That’s a god? How do you know?”

“In the past, I was with my mother when she performed the Yongwanggut in Busan. This is the spirit that I met with my mom back then. The dragon god of the East Sea.”

Yongshin.

Only then did I realize what the huge monster was.

In shamanism, it was a dragon god known to preside over the sea. It turned out that the hundreds of meters long body wriggling in the sea was indeed the body of a dragon.

Looking at Sarah’s attitude, it seemed like she was not a spirit that harmed people.

“You don’t have to worry. The Dragon God of the East Sea is someone who does good things for fishermen. If you make an offering, it calms the waves and allows you to catch more fish. He is the one who makes the climate of the sea clear.”

Controlling large catches, climate, wind and waves.

It was all the power of the Dragon God.

I knew it in my head, but this was the first time I saw the Dragon God in person.

“It’s really big… .”

“Because it’s literally a dragon?”

A huge figure in the sea came closer. At the moment the cruise and the huge figure crossed paths, the head of the dragon god rose above the water.

━━Good luck

A dragon’s head with a long beard appeared.

The dragon’s eyes were as beautiful as jewels.

A huge dragon’s head passed near the deck where we were.

It was so spectacular that it made my heart sink.

As Sarah said, the Dragon God never touched Cruz.

The Dragon God passed by Cruise and walked away.

‘Surely something like that won’t attack the ship?’

I couldn’t shake off my anxiety.

But Sarah, unlike me, was carefree.

She was also the daughter of a shaman.

“It’s almost time to run the buffet. Let’s go investigate.”

It was lunch time.

We went to the cruise buffet.