INV 16

Ominous, beneficial, or merely a bystander? He couldn’t tell. They were, quite literally, “all sorts of things.” One felt entirely pitch-black and undulating, adorned with hundreds of eyes. Another was licking its lips while looking at Kwon Yihyeon. Another was merely peeking in, filled with curiosity. One looked at Kwon Yihyeon and felt pity. Another was captivated by and drawn to Kwon Yihyeon. Another wanted to kill Kwon Yihyeon.

‘The stimulus… is too much.’

Humans are beings who get nervous even when receiving the gaze of ten people simultaneously, but Kwon Yihyeon couldn’t even count the quantity of gazes aimed at him.

He couldn’t even tell what the owners of those gazes were. He could only instinctively sense the information that all of it was disjointed, repulsive, filthy, and wicked. “All sorts of things” did not dare to invade Kwon Yihyeon’s home, out of respect for Chacha. However, “those things” continued to watch Kwon Yihyeon. Roughly dozens, perhaps more than several hundred. On and on. On and on. On and on.

Before the frozen Kwon Yihyeon, Reaper Gwak’s pale hand appeared.

Snap, snap.

When that hand made a crisp snapping sound twice with a finger snap, everything suddenly returned to normal and the gazes vanished.

‘A cold sweat…’

His back was damp. What he just felt was…

‘Ghosts, spirits, that sort of thing.’

Because Kwon Yihyeon was someone who had intentionally avoided ghost stories when others sought them out for fun or to cool off in the summer heat, he knew some things deeply as the grandson of a shaman, but regarding other things, he was more of an amateur than an ordinary person. He couldn’t even think of what other kinds of wicked things existed besides ghosts and spirits.

He had lived his whole life denying that such things existed.

Now, that was impossible. Because every single one of their desires—hundreds of desires—could be distinguished in minute detail.

Kwon Yihyeon could never return to the self of two minutes ago, to a life of knowing nothing.

The contract that had flipped his life upside down now looked like an ordinary piece of paper again. Only Kwon Yihyeon’s signature glowed faintly.

He had to clear his throat for a long time to keep his voice from trembling.

“Do I see these things because I’ve become a member of the Afterlife Company?”

He knows now that the word “contract” is scary. He also vaguely knows that a contract can give power, just as it can bind something. Even to the unknowing Kwon Yihyeon, what just happened seemed to be because of the contract.

However, the reply that came back was indifferent.

“No. You’re just an intern. You don’t get power just from signing an intern contract.”

His tone was exactly like his usual half-hearted, offhand vibe, but Reaper Gwak did not have the bored and tired face he usually showed.

He was frowning slightly, but there was a vitality in his face.

Perhaps, he was finding it interesting.

“Then what was this?”

“It’s not that the contract did something. You woke up. Do you understand? You’ve finally opened your eyes. Those things just now sensed you and watched you.”

In an instant, his shoulders flinched.

Reaper Gwak’s eyes, met straight on, weren’t just vital; they were piercingly bright.

No living human could possibly look at another with such a penetrating gaze.

“You woke up the moment you felt the power of the contract being formed. I simply helped you get a feel for it so you could control it.”

Come to think of it, when Reaper Gwak made the sound with his fingers, Kwon Yihyeon had been wishing for it even in his daze. That these gazes were bothersome and strange, so he didn’t want to feel them right now.

When he heard the first sound, he knew what he needed to try,

And when he heard the second sound, he succeeded.

Reaper Gwak let out a smirk. Perhaps it was a habit, but the left corner of his mouth curled up a bit more, making it look as if he were mocking others.

“This guy is a real piece of work. It’s going to be noisy for a while.”

“Is that in a bad way?”

“Well? That depends on how you handle yourself.”

Now he felt it clearly. Reaper Gwak was enjoying this situation. It seemed a momentary vitality and curiosity had flickered in his dead eyes.

And for that very reason, Kwon Yihyeon felt a slight sense of foreboding.

But…

“I look forward to working with you.”

Kwon Yihyeon bowed politely to his future boss.

Judging by Reaper Gwak’s attitude, he at least wasn’t completely without talent in this area. It seemed a thousand miles away from the future plans he had dreamed of, but since he had already set foot in this world, wouldn’t it be better to have talent?

‘Because I want to do well.’

Kwon Yihyeon, at the very least, didn’t want to be swayed by all of this while knowing nothing. He needed to bow his head appropriately until he grasped the rules and laws of the new world. Even if his boss was a loafer who watched with excitement as if the new recruit were some kind of toy, the loss from being disliked by him was too great. Everyone would treat Kwon Yihyeon like a man crazy for love because of that goddamn “false rumor” anyway… but from now on, he would have to change his reputation to a man crazy for politeness. A polite crazy person. How nice does that look?

“You won’t stay in such a sensitive state forever. Soon the door will close and only a reasonable level of sense will remain. Still, you—kid. You’re quite something. To have opened up that much at the moment of awakening means you have that much potential for growth. Instead, keep this in mind. Ability is not something that appears all at once, but something you must refine and cultivate. Do not even think about stopping your devotion just because you already have it. Don’t be conceited. Back in my day.”

Reaper Gwak left a long speech—he couldn’t tell if it was nagging or advice—and vanished without a trace, leaving a copy of the contract behind. He didn’t know how or where he went, but he only hoped he wouldn’t appear again until it was time to clock in. A boss who trespasses into my house at any time.

‘It’s horrible.’

As his whole body relaxed after being tense, a long sigh followed for some reason. Kwon Yihyeon began to walk slowly through the house, following a strange sensation. As he newly opened his eyes, everything that had been nothing but daily life felt like a new sensation. During that period when he had nightmares about Chacha, he felt he now knew what kind of energy the talismans he had bought in bundles and hung up out of a fear of dying possessed.

‘What is with this yin energy on a talisman for repelling ghosts…?’

No wonder he felt his strength drain every time he saw the talismans. He had been thoroughly taken in by incompetent shamans.

‘I’ve come to know all sorts of things.’

It wasn’t only this that he had come to know.

Even without seeing with his two eyes, he could feel roughly where Chacha was. It was impossible not to know. Chacha’s presence felt like looking at a mountain that towered higher than the clouds. Far from feeling a limit, he couldn’t even get a sense of how he was structured. He felt sorry for making a comparison to the Jae Angshin, but even Reaper Gwak was like a skinny scrap of grass compared to Chacha. Chacha was truly profound. He felt he understood why the minor spirits had swarmed near this house, and how they could never, ever enter inside.

This world was not just what Kwon Yihyeon had seen and felt until now. Many things were hidden in the world, and what was revealed on the outside was only a tiny part. Kwon Yihyeon had merely become aware of the tip of that iceberg, and even then, only the very edge of it…

Thinking that way, his mood sank low for some reason. Was it because his senses were gradually closing, as per Reaper Gwak’s advice?

Just before he sank into an unusually heavy contemplation, the phone rang.

It was a call from a junior in his university club. What is it?

As soon as he answered the phone in a slightly dazed state, a half-sobbing voice flowed out.

“Yihyeon sunbae! Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

Come to think of it, he had been out of contact with everyone during that time. When he checked, there were 500 unread messages across all messengers combined, and about 40 missed calls remained. He had only been in contact with Park Seongjun, but after Park Seongjun had his phone confiscated, even that was gone. I’ve made everyone worry.

However, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t remember anything from before the great commotion when Chacha appeared.

During that period, he had been half-insane with insomnia, so perhaps it was only natural.

“Sorry. I was busy with things at home. What’s up?”

“Don’t you… remember?”

What are you asking me to remember again? He suppressed the urge to give a sharp reaction. Realizing that his nerves were a bit on edge after seeing the other side of another world for the first time, Kwon Yihyeon began to search his memory instead of snapping at his junior to get to the point.

Because the junior on the other end of the phone seemed unusually anxious and uneasy.

But there really was nothing he remembered.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t remember. What’s the matter?”

At that, the junior, who was the ace of the tennis club, spoke in a dizzy voice.

“We have a tournament coming up soon. The Gyemyeong Bank Cup, that national tennis tournament.”

Oh, damn it.

It’s not that Kwon Yihyeon is at the level of a tennis player just because he enters a national tournament. To begin with, he only encountered tennis after entering university, and if you count the years, it’s barely been three. But perhaps because the club thought he might actually pull something off, they had been egging him on since his second year, so starting from last year, he had been on his way to getting soundly beaten at various tournaments.

And because of recent events, Kwon Yihyeon had completely forgotten about the tournament and disappeared for a week. He had applied for doubles with that junior as a team! From the junior’s perspective, it must have been maddening.

Checking the calendar in a hurry, the tournament was next week. Now, Kwon Yihyeon could never go to a hobby sports tournament again and his connection to them was gone.

Now, that kind of world no longer belonged to Kwon Yihyeon.