INV 48

On that day, during their second meeting, Governor Gangnim—no, Great King Yama—asked Gwak Deukcheon to become his person. It was already the second proposal. It was followed by a sincere persuasion that if he came, his insight would help build a new system.

Even then, Gwak Deukcheon did not grasp Gangnim’s hand.

It wasn’t a pretense to play hard to get or to raise his own value.

To be honest, he hadn’t expected anyone to listen to his grievances about the atrocities of Hell, which he had poured out as if rebelling because he thought nothing would change. He certainly never imagined that the man would go on to overturn the existing system, somehow become Great King Yama through whatever means, and then return to offer him a recruitment proposal to come work for him.

Nevertheless, Gwak Deukcheon straightened his back and spoke.

“In this world, there are things that must be chased away, defeated, and sent back for the sake of the living. Until now, my mission has been to return the dead to their proper place for the sake of the living.”

When the one who had become Great King Yama asked why he was refusing a position as a Reaper, which would be a perfect fit for him, Gwak Deukcheon, with a truly upright posture and eyes filled with commendable passion, replied clearly. He said that it wasn’t only “others” who needed to return to their proper places in this world.

“…One does not need to give up being human to become an Underworld Reaper. It is simply a matter of extending your longevity.”

“I do not wish to do that.”

From the tail end of the late Joseon Dynasty to the year 1999, he had lived for nearly a hundred years—a long life even by today’s standards.

Because he knew his longevity was reaching its end.

That shaman said proudly, right up until his death, that he too wished to return to his proper place.

Even the officials whispered that his spirit was truly remarkable, wondering how he could be so confident while knowing how the world after death might treat him. And they thought that after he met the end of his longevity, he would surely enter the celestial realm as a noble soul or turn the wheel of reincarnation—at any rate, he would never fall into the lands of Hell.

However, Gwak Deukcheon eventually ended up here.

“…”

Through several years that he didn’t even want to think about for whatever reason, he ended up here. Although it was said he came not as a dead soul but as a living person who “fell” into the lands of Hell, in the early days of his becoming a Reaper, the riffraff used to mock him, asking where he had thrown away the bravado of refusing to extend his longevity by joining hands with the Underworld before crawling in like this.

Every time that happened, Gwak Deukcheon would instill “Peace” and “Equality” with his fists, earning himself a massive notoriety…

“There were days like that.”

The stinging reminiscence ended in an instant.

When he lifted his eyelids again, all he saw were warriors full of youthful vigor. Warriors. Warriors. Warriors.

There was a small commotion as Kwon Yihyeon belatedly realized he had returned to reality and clutched his chest in relief, but no one noticed that much.

It was because Gwak Deukcheon let out his trademark crooked smile.

“That’s right, a stubborn man who has lived as recklessly as that is exactly who I am.”

I can certainly break something like a hardened head. Yes. A change like that is no big deal.

“Compared to the life I have lived.”

It was a pride that bordered on arrogance, but his life, which had been a desperate struggle, bore witness to his words.

Though they say there are many who have lived longer than him in both the Underworld and the celestial realms, and that most humans who aren’t seeking Taoist immortality retire from the field to take up a comfortable external post and play at power, Gwak Deukcheon hated that. So, even while hearing that he had gone senile and even accepting the disgrace of a demotion in rank, he rooted himself in field work.

He bit the upper management like a mad dog, saying they never had to promote him as long as he remained an Underworld Reaper, and he even created a combat unit that hadn’t existed in the administrative departments before, personally picking up “chicks” and raising them.

“Why? Why did I do that?”

Why did I make such a scene like a rabid dog that would bite its own tongue and die if it could no longer fight?

Well, who knows. The youthful ambitions of the boys who sat on the veranda looking up at the starlight that seemed ready to pour down have long since set. He has already counted years that an ordinary human could not endure. His soul was better suited to the word “withered” than “aged,” and his hands had naturally grown violent because he could not let the mission in his heart fade. Still, only a single mission remained for Gwak Deukcheon. That was why he was generally lukewarm toward everything else. Because only his heart had to be hot. Because he had to protect the wicked stubbornness dwelling in this mission. Whether others misunderstood him or not was none of his business. He wasn’t at an age where he felt the need to flex his muscles just because those who tucked their tails in fear whispered and called him nicknames, but then again, what reason was there not to use his accumulated notoriety?

He had lived that way and thought he would live that way in the future, but now he had become able to withdraw his notoriety a notch out of pity for another brat’s plight.

If it was a regression, it was a regression; if it was growth, it was growth.

“Not that the prestige of a mad dog has gone anywhere, though.”

Vowing that as soon as this incident was wrapped up and they returned, he would absolutely beat the chicks into a pulp, Gwak Deukcheon accepted the binding ropes himself.

“…!”

“…!”

Surprisingly, that was…

Even among the countless incidents and accidents the Underworld Reaper Gwak Deukcheon had caused in the Underworld.

The most special, the very first moment.

“What do you mean, the first?”

Specifically, this moment where he was bound by ropes! This moment itself was the ultimate entertainment!

“Gwak Deukcheon, who always insisted on walking on his own feet even after causing trouble, beating back the warriors!”

The legendary Gwak Deukcheon, called a mad dog, a fighting dog, a son of a bitch with rabies, and so on…!

Was finally undergoing something called an arrest…!

“I have to see this in person!”

“I’m going on strike today! Sorry, Sunbae!”

“You crazy bastards! Where are you going!”

“They say that bastard Reaper Gwak is finally croaking today!”

“What? Finally, the laws of the Underworld are being set straight! Everyone on strike immediately! No, let’s call it a field trip and go watch!”

At that, the entire Underworld began to stir.

Pop!

Having one’s superior arrested and taken away.

Is an excessively high-stimulation event for an intern on his second day of work…

But consideration for the intern? There was no such thing. If Underworld Company were that kind of company, everyone wouldn’t have broken into cheers at the news of their colleague Gwak Deukcheon’s arrest and run out into the streets to throw a festival.

“This place is crazy…”

Kwon Yihyeon, who felt faint after witnessing a street dance battle while trudging back to the office, slowly looked up at the Underworld Company Co., Ltd. headquarters building.

The glass building pierced into the clouds so deeply that its end could not be seen. The transparent walls reflected the deep blue sky as it was, and the crystal-like window grids transmitted pure white light, exuding a mystery so vast it was almost majestic—but now, Kwon Yihyeon felt like he couldn’t look at the headquarters with a sane mind.

It’s pretty, it’s pretty indeed.

“That’s not the problem right now!”

Do you know the term “The City That Never Sleeps”?

That was exactly the situation now.

Despite it being broad daylight with the sun blazing, fireworks exploded like crazy, and unseasonal lanterns rose into the sky.

The Underworld was running wild.

“Why is the whole city in a festival mood! Don’t you see the intern whose Team Leader was suddenly arrested?!”

Can’t you see the Haetae Department?!

“The mood over here is like a house of mourning…!”

It felt like only yesterday that he thought he would come to love this beautiful city. No, it was yesterday.

The illusion was shattered. The romance was broken. The Underworld was no different from Seoul.

There is only one iron rule an employee must remember.

“All companies are nests for lunatics.”

He shouldn’t have forgotten that… The intern’s naivety had ended up bringing frustration. At this rate, the gastritis he had gained while dodging his professor’s suggestions to enter grad school seemed likely to flare up again.

“Ah, yes… this was what ‘going to work’ was… this damn business was ‘going to work’…”

Whether it was Underworld Company or whatever, it didn’t even take a day for the first impression to go flying away.

However, though Kwon Yihyeon didn’t know it, the team members had gone through the exact same process and sent their first impression of Kwon Yihyeon flying away.

So, the thought that the team and the intern might have actually met their own kind… was a thought only Chacha had to himself, one that would have made Kwon Yihyeon scream spasmodically if he had heard it. Therefore, the fact that Chacha’s low laughter carried on the wind and tickled Kwon Yihyeon’s ear,

“…A hallucination?”

Was not an illusion. Nor was the sight of a shape like a fox’s tail wagging in the shadow beneath his feet.

It was an implication that Chacha was looking down at the Underworld through the mediator of the contractor’s shadow.

“I must have seen it wrong because I’m tired.”

However, Kwon Yihyeon decided to think this and move on.

To dig deeper than that…

Whizzzz! Bang!

The sound of fireworks was far too loud. If he had to pick one thing to be thankful for, was it perhaps that his superior Assistant Manager Woon’s mumbling wasn’t heard by the outside world?

“What kind of spell should I use to blow up the entire headquarters building at once?”

…I didn’t hear anything. I will continue to have heard nothing for the rest of my life.

I will.

“But why do I feel like I’m going to keep getting involved?”

Kwon Yihyeon tried his best to deny the sense of kinship he felt from his damn teammates’ levels of insanity.

He planned to deny it three more times before the sun set.

Whizzzz! Pop! Pop! Pop!