Chapter 104 – 104. Tight Pupils

The moment the sun went down, the forest changed.

In an instant, it became so dark that it was difficult to see an inch ahead, and non-human objects began to roam the forest.

– Kkeaaaaa!!!

-That, stop it!!! Aaaaa!!!

– Poetry, I hate it!!

-Foohwaak..!

– Wooddeuk. Puddeudeuk.

Screams and death murmurs echoed throughout the forest. Also, the sound of flesh being crushed and bones being torn could be heard from everywhere, and death became rampant in the forest.

The goons who go looking for victims kill humans as painfully as possible.

Beasts running rampant to eat the living sacrifices ate the stomachs of humans while still alive, and the demons gave the captive humans pain enough to die without killing them.

Lastly, the missing people who lost their way in this forest and took their lives disguised themselves as living humans and killed the forest intruders.

Endless despair rages.

A dilapidated shrine built in the center of a forest. The idol of the god placed in the center trembled.

The trembling sounded like the sobbing of a woman or the laughter of a child playing a funny prank.

*****

I accidentally used the curse and ended up dumping it.

After hearing the meaning of the words recorded on the cassette tape, I felt so bad that I couldn’t control my expression. I can’t feel good now that the damn curse has been put on me.

“Is there anything else Eunji unni?”

“Yeah.. I’m just saying that running away quickly is good for your health.”

“You have to have a place to run to, so you can run away… Ha ha… That’s really fucked up.”

I wonder if the curse was overlaid on me, who was the first to press the button and check the recorded voice. Didn’t you just throw it away instead of pressing it?

‘It’s nonsense to throw away a tape recorder that might be a hint for walking around the forest without even playing it.’

I am afraid of maggots so I can’t make sauce. It is correct to check the contents of the clues you have obtained. Even if it’s a sentence that curses the reader, you won’t know what it’s about until you open it. If you don’t know, you will suffer. If I knew I would be beaten, I would have broken it as soon as I saw it.

And the beggar’s notebook, which was a problem with cassette tapes, gave a lot of information. For example, how to follow the red star to find a shrine.

“Jun, don’t worry too much. You have no choice but to fall into such a strange trap.”

“I will.. Heesun unnie is right. To be cursed as soon as you hear it… It’s quite evil.”

Eunji strongly sympathized with her sister’s words.

I think I’ve become a little too sensitive because I’m losing my energy to the forest. All the women saw my darkened expression and quickly tried to cheer me up. Harin also kissed me and hugged me.

I’m worried about you like this, but I can’t stay depressed forever. The curse has already been written. There is no time to sit down in the misfortune that befell me.

I just break down whatever comes along and move on. As it has been until now… Of course, if you want to fight and say you can’t, of course you have to run away.

At that time, Harin, who was acting cute to me, asked a question.

“By the way, what is dodomeki?”

“I know. From the name alone, it looks like a Japanese monster…”

I ask what dodomeki is, but I’m not sure. What he is, what abilities he has, what are his characteristics. Not a single thing is known.

The name was a bit small, but I got used to it. I only remembered the name roughly because it appeared as a miscellaneous mob in several Japanese games.

‘If you’re a horror maniac… If you’re Eunji…’

I wondered if Eunji knew something, so I asked.

“Does Eunji know what Dodomeki is doing?”

“I only know that Dodomeki is… A female ghost.”

“Uh… Huh… A female ghost…”

“I don’t know the details either. A female monster who just surprises people? Ghost?”

In the end, no one in the party knew what Dodomeki was doing.

“First of all… Let’s not be too scared. To be honest, with all our strength, it might be worth a fight no matter what comes out.”

“That’s right.”

I catch and kill the field boss… Can’t I catch a ghost coming out of the forest? You shouldn’t be vigilant, but you don’t have to be scared either.

“Jun’s older brother.”

“Huh?”

“Because we.. Are those precious treasures. Will it be okay?”

“Ah.. That. That’s right. Just looking at it, it can drive out demons.”

It was something I bought from a peddler. Since the effect is said to be two weeks, wouldn’t it be possible to approach us with Dodomeki or something?

“Okay. There is also an amulet, so don’t be afraid and keep moving.”

“Yes!”

Before moving again, I picked Yang Ji-sang, who was sensitive to ghosts, just in case. Yang Ji-sang, whose soul was trapped in the swamp sword, had been trembling ever since he entered the forest, feeling the alien energy around him. Wouldn’t he know something if he was dealing with demons?

“Hey, can you feel something?”

[… Why…]

“Why? What.”

[Huge… Malevolence… I’m looking at a spiritual body that’s so strong that even I can’t handle it… And this… Sobs? Or… Ridicule… I don’t know.]

“Huh… Is that a woman?”

[No.. Female or male.. A huge collection of ghosts that can’t be distinguished… It’s collecting the souls of the dead… For Advent. To wake up again…]

Yang Ji-sang, this guy… It seems he felt someone other than Dodomeki right now. Did you detect the god’s idol? Being able to spot shrines is more important than detecting dodomeki. I ordered Yang Ji-sang to continue to feel the energy.

“Can you locate it?”

[Should I… Go?]

“Of course.”

[Position can be detected.. Not exactly.. But vaguely.]

Yang Ji-sang replied that she could find out in a confident voice. Now, if he follows the red star in the direction Yang Ji-sang leads, he will be able to reach the shrine.

So we walked out again. Still, it’s nice to have indicators now. There was also a compass called Yangjisang. Even though I was passed over by a ghost because of the tape left by the suicide… I have to think of it as just stepping on shit.

“Let’s go over there.”

“Yes!”

Yang Ji-sang pointed in one direction. When a clear direction was set, our pace naturally sped up.

Everyone in our party could see through the darkness. I had a deformed vision, Eunji had a revealing gaze, Harin had a sixth sense, and Heesun noona had a forest keeper’s mind. They were all skills acquired at a relatively low level.

Thanks to that, we were able to roam the forest without a light source. The moment we turn on a light in a place where everything is dark, all kinds of things can gather around us like moths. Especially hated by the forest, I am in a more dangerous state than the other participants.

At that time, Eunji noticed a sparkling light in the distance.

“Look over there.”

“That’s…”

“It’s a light… A player?”

“It won’t be. A guy carrying a blue light must not be normal.”

“Yeah.. I don’t think he’s human.”

I could see some lights in the distance, but most of them were non-human. Heesun noona and Harin were also very reluctant. In particular, Yang Ji-sang even warned me not to go there at all.

I didn’t think anything good would happen if I went closer, so I ignored everything and went towards the shrine. On the way, we bumped into a man who sat down and asked for help.

“Uh.. You guys..? Help me!”

It was a middle-aged man with a broken leg. His attire is like a person who has climbed a mountain and lost his way. He was dressed exactly like one of the suicides hanging from the trees.

“Who are you..?”

“That’s… I’m adrift here… I’m begging you… Help me! I can’t leave because my leg hurt…”

I immediately swung the ear-curved sword and ripped off the man’s head.

A human who carelessly asks for help saying he was hurt in a forest like this. Have no choice but to kill I don’t think there are any useful NPCs among the guys in this forest. Judging by his appearance, he must have been a missing person with a high probability.

“Dedicated.”

Since it is a talking enemy, I thought they would treat it as an intelligent body, so I immediately used human sacrifice. However, I didn’t feel like being served. It was because the man had not yet died, even though his throat had been cut.

“Quaaaaa!!!”

A terrifying scream was heard from its head as it was dismembered and rolled on the ground.

Also, something like a plant stem grew from the cross section of its severed neck, trying to connect it.

“Huh… They’re disguised as people.”

“It doesn’t seem like a monster. Not even a baby animal. So, is this guy a missing person…?”

“I guess so…”

I melted the severed head of the missing person with unclean hands. As his head melted away, the trunk that wriggled and stretched out also limp and died.

“Dedicated.”

[Healthy taste…]

It didn’t seem to like the taste very much. It tastes like being healthy. Could it be that parasitic plants are growing on the bodies of the missing people? Judging by the fact that no blood came out even after the head was cut, the stems of plants crawled out from the cross section, so it seems that the body was encroached on by the roots of the forest.

“I’ll look for the body.”

“Uh..”

In the meantime, Eunji went through the dead man’s bag. He said there might be new clues coming out.

In the bag the man was wearing, a drink that had passed its expiration date and a rotten chocolate bar popped out. There was nothing useful in the bag. It was all old and worn out and needed to be thrown away right away.

“Uh… Here’s the paper.”

After searching all over the inside of the corpse, Harin found an old, crumpled piece of paper.

“Hmm… You need three fetishes to enter the shrine..?”

“Fetish?”

“Huh. Have you seen a key or something?”

The paper had information about castings written on it. Harin read her writing and went down.

“If you walk around the forest, there are small shrines. In each shrine, there are wooden chests with statues of Buddha. Take out the castings from the wooden chests and open the doors of the shrines…”

“A wooden box…? Oppa. Kotoribako… It’s also in a wooden box…”

“Chew…”

I found the direction to the shrine. However, in order to enter the shrine, you need a key to open the door. Moreover, even after finding the shrine… I couldn’t tell if the item lying there was really a key or just a cursed box.

“These crazy operator bastards.. Just tell them to die..”

Vicious He had no intention of allowing him to obtain the idol of God normally.

“No way. Let’s get a slave to open the box instead of us.”

It’s what I felt while living in a world that was destroyed. Most problems can be solved by hunting slaves. We must find a slave to sacrifice for us.

It was when I was thinking like that.

Hee hee…

A woman’s laughter was heard. That was a very unpleasant sound…

-Phut!!

“Kyaaa!!”

“Boo, the amulet!!”

At that moment, the amulet that Heesun noona and Harin had exploded. At the same time, the ear-curved sword trembled.

[OMG!! Eye..! Eyes!!]

Suddenly, someone stood in the middle of our party.

That was the woman who let her hair down.

The eyes that were tightly packed in her woman’s arms all stared at me.