NOVEL NEXT Chapter 69: Jamsuni in the Basement (1)
I hesitated for a second when I heard Jamsuni's question. Should I be honest?
Or should I lie?
Would Jamsuni believe me if I said I stormed into the hideout of the evil organization Heavenly Ordeal Sect and heroically rescued Nayu?
No, she probably wouldn’t.
So, I decided to keep it vague.
“Nayu was in a bit of a tough situation, so I helped her out.”
“A tough situation?”
I wasn’t lying.
No matter how young Jamsuni is, as an adult, I can't just deceive her.
Of course, sometimes adults have to tell white lies for the greater good.“A tough situation, huh.”
But hearing those words, Jamsuni’s expression turned even colder.
It was a little scary whenever she made that cold face.
Getting intimidated by a middle schooler.
I really have reached a new low.
Jamsuni, still standing with a defiant stance, asked,
“It doesn’t sound like it was just a ‘tough situation.’ Tell me in detail.”
“No, there's nothing more to say. Let's go inside. We need to have dinner.”
“Nayu-teacher mode.”
Suddenly, Nayu struck a proud pose, placing her hands on her hips.
I was so taken aback that I mumbled.
“N-Nayu?”
“Nayu is all worried and teary.”
What? What does she mean by that?
“What? Because you were in pain, Yoo Hajin came running like crazy, crying?”
And how did Jamsuni even understand that?
Then Nayu spoke again.
“Nayu's little siblings, Nayu Nayu!”
W-What? What’s Nayu Nayu supposed to mean?
“What? There are kids just like you, and Yoo Hajin decided to take responsibility for them? Taking care of family. That’s, that’s…”
“W-Wait a minute.”
Jamsuni, how on earth are you understanding this?
It’s not wrong, but something feels off.
But Nayu didn’t stop talking.
“Nayu Hajin date request!”
“H-Haha.”
At least I could understand the “Nayu Hajin date request.”
And it seemed like Jamsuni got it too.
“Jamsuni. To explain it in more detail···.”
“Screw you, I hate you!”
Jamsuni only left those words behind and ran off. I couldn’t help but let out a sigh as I watched her go.
“When she gets like this, it usually lasts a week.”
This is such a headache.
I glanced at Nayu.
But Nayu avoided my gaze and mumbled.
“Nayu telling the truth…”
“No, Ha. Never mind.”
I felt a bit complicated.
It was because of some strange thoughts I had.
Honestly, they were so twisted that I felt ashamed of myself. Feeling good about Jamsuni being so clingy to me like this?
So, when I got home, I tried to clear my head while taking a shower.
Jamsuni was obsessed with me.
And that was probably not because of love.
I’ve seen young girls behave like this before. That’s why, whenever Jamsuni acted this way, I felt both nostalgic and tender.
Why does Jamsuni act like this?
Maybe, like my younger sister Harin, she doesn’t want her only guardian’s attention to be elsewhere.
After all, I’m Jamsuni’s only guardian.
And I’ve fulfilled that role quite well for a long time. Why did I take on that role? Was it to use Jamsuni?
Did I end up getting close to Jamsuni because of that?
Have I been taking care of her all this time for such a trivial reason?
Am I really that good of a person?
Or could it be…
Could it be that I’m seeing someone else in her?
For some reason, I felt like I knew the answer to this question. And the answer is probably one of the things I’ve been thinking.
“This answer is crap. It can’t be true.”
It’s so hard to lie to yourself.
After coming out of the shower, I was choosing a shirt to wear when I noticed a school uniform wrapped in plastic. It was my sister’s uniform.
A uniform she never got to wear. For some reason, I thought it would be nice if Jamsuni could wear this uniform.
Why would I think that?
I couldn’t bring myself to answer that question, so I shook my head.
I decided to forget about that kind of question.
“Damn it. Jamsuni and I are just…”
Lying to yourself is really…
****
Kim Sojin hated everything.
She hated the detestable Heavenly Ordeal Sect members, she hated Yoo Hajin’s flustered face. But most of all, she hated herself, who was on the verge of tears.
How did she become so pathetic?
How did she end up becoming so human?
Humans were nothing but corruption.
Breathing corruption, smiling corruption, eating corruption, walking corruption, staring at flowers corruption, waiting for someone they like with anxious hearts corruption, and ultimately, loving someone corruption.
Every action humans take is corruption. To reach the pinnacle of enlightenment, one must discard all things human.
But Kim Sojin couldn’t do that.
Even if this heart caused her so much pain, it was too precious to simply discard.
Because this heart was everything to her.
Then how could she reach new heights with this corrupt heart?
How could she surpass Heavenly Ordeal Sect and that old man and claim Yoo Hajin for herself?
Kim Sojin found the answer to that question.
She would harness the power of the fallen demon lord, “Heuksim.”
Standing at the entrance of the Louisville basement, Kim Sojin muttered to herself.
“I’m really out of my mind. I must be insane.”
The girl standing in front of the door judged herself to be crazy.
But even so, she did not stop.
After all, enlightenment can only be achieved through extreme hardship. Kim Sojin knew all too well that you have to be mad to reach the pinnacle.
So, Kim Sojin opened the door to the basement of Louisville. It was the door that even the old man and the Heavenly Ordeal Sect members hesitated to enter.
As soon as the door opened, the air changed.
It wasn’t that it became stale or that there was a foul odor.
It was the sheer presence of hatred in the air.
Hatred towards the corruption that tainted the world.
In other words, it was hatred towards humanity.
Kim Sojin scoffed at that hatred and descended the stairs into the basement.
The first basement level was nothing remarkable.
There were rusted boiler systems and pipes stretching in all directions, along with an infinite elevator installed.
There were no spirits or malicious entities to be seen.
Even the ominous infinite elevator wasn’t functioning.
“Even evil spirits fear this place.”
Kim Sojin infused her spiritual power into the infinite elevator, gradually corrupting it. Through this, she realized just how deep this basement extended.
Descending underground holds great significance in mysticism.
It’s a ritual symbolizing a descent into the world of evil spirits, Sheol.
It’s an act of forsaking the light and embracing the dark energy.
It signifies exile and self-isolation.
The girl knew this better than anyone.
Why?
Because she was once a weapon deployed in the most dangerous of battlefields. And for a psychics, the most perilous battlefield is an endlessly extending underground.
“This brings back memories.”
Kim Sojin smiled faintly, feeling as if she had returned home.
And so, she arrived at the second basement level.
The second level was also unremarkable.
There were a few pipelines running along the ceiling, and the floor was marked with white lines in a grid pattern, suggesting it was once used as an underground parking lot.
Nothing stood out.
The girl descended to the third basement level.
The third level resembled a storage room. The items stored there included first aid kits, tools, and wooden boxes with Cyrillic letters inscribed on them.
The girl opened one of the wooden boxes and smiled.
This one box alone could kill millions.
She closed the lid of the box, thinking to herself.
Then she murmured,
“So, this is how you want to play?”
The girl continued down to the fourth basement level.
The fourth level was an abandoned server room. Dust-covered servers, no longer operational, were neatly lined up.
The girl paid them no attention as she walked down the corridor.
And then, pretending to look for the stairs, she glanced at her phone.
There was no Wi-Fi signal available.
So, this must be the problem.
===
Bluetooth
My Device
PM-M971N
Registered Devices
Sojin's Buds Pro
Available Devices
Its Brain
Its Eyes
Its Ears
Its Stomach, Lungs, Liver, Intestines, Spinal Cord
Devices to Connect
His Heart
HeartHeartHeartHeartHeart
===
Kim Sojin stared at the items displayed on her phone with indifferent eyes. Just as she expected. There were rules to every phenomenon, even the supernatural. Breaking those rules should come with penalties.
But she had casually bypassed the first, second, and third floors. She had engaged in dangerous behavior along the way.
Surely, she had violated several of this anomaly's rules.
Yet, no penalties had followed.
Why was that?
It was because this phenomenon was hiding itself from her.
"But even an evil spirit is just a natural phenomenon. And natural phenomena can’t stop themselves."
Fire doesn’t burn because it wants to.
The wind doesn’t blow because it desires to.
The waves don’t crash because they feel like it.
The same goes for an evil spirit.
An evil spirit simply brings destruction because it embodies the end of an era.
So even if it tries to conceal itself, its instinctive malice towards humanity still slips through.
Even if that human is a monster coming to devour it. The girl infused her smartphone with spiritual power, using it to trace that malice.
Specifically, through the device-scanning app on her phone.
– – – The End of The Chapter – – –
TL: You can support the translation and read 5 chapters ahead of the release here on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Bill94
Join Our Discord for regular updates and have fun with other community members: https://discord.com/invite/SqWtJpPtm9 ]
Support Author
https://novelpia.com/novel/232694Join Discord
https://discord.com/invite/SqWtJpPtm9