NOVEL NEXT Chapter 71: Jamsuni in the Basement (3)
Louisville had a basement. According to the old man and Jamsuni, it was a dangerous basement where ghosts appeared. So, naturally, I visited often.
Of course, when I tried to take a look, Jamsuni and the old man would nag at me, so I had to sneak in quietly. But, of course, there were no ghosts in that basement.
The only surprising thing was that there were quite a few floors.
I guess they built it that way to use it as an underground parking lot or something.
Anyway, that’s the kind of basement Louisville had.
But after telling me not to go there, Jamsuni went down herself? Can you believe this double-standard brat?
“So, you’re saying Jamsuni ran away to the basement?”
“Nayu nods.”
Running away to the basement, huh.
Can we even call that running away?“Well, at least that kid’s got a good head on her shoulders. Instead of running off to some shady place, she just goes to the basement.”
“Nayu tilts her head?”
“What’s with the head tilt? Harin... no, Sojin is still a good kid compared to most.”
Jamsuni really reminded me of that girl.
The way she told me about things in the world I didn’t know about.
How she spoke smartly, yet couldn’t completely shake off her childishness.
Pretending to be cold, but actually having a soft heart underneath—it was all the same.
That’s why I...
“Ah, I’m getting lost in pointless thoughts. Don’t worry, I’ll bring her back. Just wait here.”
“Nayu looks worried.”
“I told you not to worry. Actually, I’ll let you in on a secret—I’ve been all the way down to the basement myself before.”
The basement of Louisville was about 10 floors deep.
The 10th floor was a room where some sticky, tar-like substance flowed across the floor.
So naturally, I covered my mouth and nose.
Yeah, I admit it.
Going down 10 floors into an unventilated basement might sound insane. I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking I was out of my mind. But, honestly, the air quality wasn’t that bad. Still, no one else would believe that.
See? Even Nayu’s getting mad at me, isn’t she?
“N-Nayu! Nayu shocked! Nayu worried! Nayu angry face!”
Nayu being mad wasn’t scary at all. Honestly, seeing such a cute girl try to act tough was more adorable than intimidating.
But, since I had to respect her feelings, I should probably act like I was in trouble.
“Sorry. Let’s talk after I bring Jamsuni back.”
“Nayu declares she’s coming along.”
“No, you can’t.”
If it were the old man asking to come along, I wouldn’t have stopped him. But he’d already gone to work long ago.
And there was no way I could take Nayu with me.
Why was this happening in the first place?
It was because of the whole ‘Nayu Date Declaration’, wasn’t it? Bringing her along now would only lead to Jamsuni’s frustration blowing up in surround sound.
So, I ignored Nayu and closed the basement door.
Then, I gently locked it.
“Just how far down did that kid go?”
I muttered, staring into the dark basement.
****
Kim Sojin was breaking through the 7th floor. No matter how much she descended, only the 7th floor appeared in an infinite loop of strange phenomena.
Sometimes, the murals on the walls would laugh and shift form, or rust-colored liquid would fall from the ceiling like rain. On the walls, alongside the phrase “Photo of your house,” were eerie, grotesque pictures of hell.
Photos of people eating others while chasing those fleeing. A picture of something that looked like a dragon made of tentacles flying through the clouds. And a house that, while it felt like she had never seen it before, lingered somewhere in her memories. A picture of all humans laughing as they jumped into a dark sea.
“Which photo is your house?”
Except for one, all the photos were familiar. The picture of people eating people depicted the spirit realm of the Demon King of Cannibalism.
The dragon-like figure made of tentacles was the Demon King Gudo-ryong.
The image of humans jumping into a dark sea was the remnants of the Demon Lord Heuksim.
They were all familiar places.
They were pictures of her long-time adversaries from when she was weak.
The only unfamiliar photo was that of the ordinary house.
“Which photo is your house?”
The girl bit her lip.
So, that’s it.
Was that house, the one she can’t remember, was home?
“My house is…”
Kim Sojin couldn’t finish her sentence.
She could only keep descending the stairs.
“It takes a lot of spiritual energy to create a space like this.”
The girl muttered as she went down the steps.
And with that, she began to absorb all the spiritual energy from every 7th floor she had passed through.
The countless 7th floors.
All of the spiritual energy in those floors turned into a vacuum.
It was common sense that when one space became a vacuum, air from other spaces would rush in to fill it. The same applied to spiritual energy.
As soon as the spiritual energy was drawn into the vacuum, the girl stepped onto the next floor. Thus, she reached the 8th floor.
“I’ve dealt with this pattern dozens of times.”
The girl broke through the 8th floor.
Of course, these were all strange occurrences she had faced before.
The girl broke through the 9th floor.
It was all a familiar hell.
As the girl pushed through each floor, she had to admit one truth.
She was more familiar with hell than with reality.
That she could never live a normal life.
That she was a monster that even monsters feared.
“Hah.”
She sighed on the staircase leading down to the 10th floor.
“This really does make me sound like I’ve got a severe case of ‘chuunibyou.’ Even though I’ve never even been to middle school.”
Her eyes flickered for a moment.
Now.
Now, perhaps.
Was there really a way to catch Yoo Hajin’s attention that didn’t involve using strength? But how? She was still just a child. She wasn’t tall, nor did she have any remarkable physical development.
And Kim Sojin, the Eternal Exorcist, knew nothing of other methods. She knew nothing about how a normal child should act to receive love. The only things the girl knew were battle and exorcism.
She could never become a normal child.
She had already run too far down the path of becoming a monster.
They say that to turn back in life, it takes twice the strength you used to move forward.
The girl had already come too far.
There was no turning back now.
So, the only path left was to move forward and become a perfect monster.
A cruel heart wounds the hearts of others.
Wounded hearts grow cold,
Cold hearts become ruthless,
And ruthless hearts turn cruel.
A cruel heart can only continue to hurt others.
That was the rule she had learned.
An undeniable truth.
“So, that’s the truth, isn’t it?”
Kim Sojin, who had reached the 10th floor, saw a dark heart.
It was already dead, yet it throbbed, waiting for a new body.
It promised stronger power and enlightenment.
‘So, reach out your hand.’
“I’ll bind you completely to my will. Activate Principle.”
The girl reached out her hand.
****
“How far down did she go?”
I muttered as I looked into the dark basement.
I turned on the flashlight on my phone and shone it down the stairs to the next floor.
“Jamsuni!!!”
No answer.
It seemed like she had gone down deep.
I kept descending, thinking as I went.
Was she hiding somewhere?
Or could it be something happened because of the ghosts everyone talked about?
I couldn’t see anything, but if a real shaman like Nayu said it was dangerous, then there had to be something down here.
Feeling more anxious, I shouted louder.
“Jamsuni!!! It’s soy stir-fry for breakfast today!!! Your favorite breakfast!!!”
Still no response.
My heart pounded in my chest.
“Or maybe… I’ll play with you all day today? We can do multiplayer on Marinecraft together!!! This time, I promise I won’t quit until we finish building the house!!!”
Why wasn’t she coming out?
This was way scarier than any ghost.
“Fine, I’ll even mine diamonds and share them with you!!!”
****
“Jamsuni—”
The girl, who had reached out towards the dark heart, flinched. She had heard a voice from the upper floor. But the girl smiled and ignored it.
‘There’s no way I’m hearing a voice. Each of these floors is practically a separate dimension. There’s no way a human voice could cross through multiple dimensional barriers.’
But for the man, those barriers were invisible.
And he had a strange talent for ignoring things he couldn’t see. His voice was no exception.
“Jamsuni—It’s soy stir-fry for breakfast—Your favorite meal—”
“Soy stir-fry does sound deli—Wait, do you think I’m obsessed with food or something?”
The girl called Jamsuni grumbled.
Yet somehow, her expression looked oddly cheerful.
“Or maybe I’ll play with you all day today—We can do multiplayer on Marinecraft—This time, I promise I won’t quit until we finish building the house—”
“You, you made fun of it last time, calling it a game for kids.”
She trembled in frustration but then let out a sigh.
What was she even doing right now?
“I’ll even mine diamonds and share them with you!”
Pfft—
Jamsuni couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“He really thinks I’m a little kid. What’s he going to do with diamonds anyway?”
Jamsuni lowered the hand she had extended toward the dark heart. She just didn’t feel like doing this today.
But at that moment—
The dark heart began to pulse, veins forming from it.
As those dark veins crawled up her right hand, Jamsuni didn’t hesitate to cut off her arm.
“So, when I reached out earlier, it was already too late.”
The dark energy had already consumed her right arm. And using the dense spiritual power stored in that arm, it spread its veins even faster.
“The dark blood... it’s been a while. Cleansing this stuff is a nightmare. Now it’s crawling through my veins.”
She staggered.
It was because of the blood loss from her severed arm.
The dark blood flowed through her veins, and in her effort to purify it, she had to pour almost all of her spiritual energy into it. That made it harder for her arm to regenerate.
Of course, the dark heart didn’t care that Jamsuni was in danger. It continued to expand its veins. Seeing this, Jamsuni murmured to herself.
There was no way she could let the Demon Lord stir again.
That’s what Jamsuni believed.
But why?
Upstairs, that man was coming down. So, Jamsuni did something she would never normally do.
“Activate Principle—Full Deployment. Spirit Realm Release.”
Jamsuni had fully regenerated her right arm before she knew it. The girl pulled out a talisman from her pocket and used a lighter to set it on fire.
The flames spread instantly. The sticky blood flowing on the floor acted as fuel, making the fire blaze brightly. The blood on the floor was the real blood of the Demon Lord, and thus the flames that consumed it were real as well.
The dark heart writhed in agony.
It recognized these flames.
These flames came from the Great Scorching Hell, a hell so intense it was sometimes called the “Inescapable Hell”, one of the closest hells to the abyss that even Demon Lords feared to some degree.
And these were not just ordinary flames from the Great Scorching Hell.
The ability Jamsuni used was called Spirit Realm Release. A portion of the Great Scorching Hell, which Kim Sojin had once stolen with her own powers, had now been unleashed here.
The corpse of the already-fallen Demon Lord stood no chance against these flames. And neither did Jamsuni, who had nearly exhausted all her spiritual power.
“Foolish.”
Jamsuni slumped to the ground, watching the flames dance.
“Even though it’s from the Great Scorching Hell, why is it so cold?”
She pulled her shoulders closer to herself.
****
I had descended to the 6th floor.
But I still couldn’t find Sojin.
Where could she be hiding?
With my phone’s flashlight as the only source of light, it was hard to see anything clearly.
Please, just answer me!!!
At that moment, a bright light flickered from the lowest floor. What was that? No, those were flames. Why is there fire down there?
Why is there fire there? I once saw a burning shaman’s house from afar. It was the only house on the mountainside, and the flames could be seen even from the city.
I could never forget the color of those flames.
The same color of the fire now rising from the basement.
“No.”
– – – The End of The Chapter – – –
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