“It’s called Jisan Village.”
Having confirmed the location of the Happy Ending Sect’s underground bunker, the three of us returned to Ho Yuwon’s sector for now.
Our heads still throbbed from the unexpected revelation.
As it happened, all three of us here had once attended Jisan Village’s festival celebration.
Granted, one of us had experienced it while parasitically inhabiting someone else’s body, and in the end, had been exorcised by General Beom.
“So that cult village was actually connected to all that—this Nameless Brilliance Sect or Happy Ending whatever?”
Deputy Eunhaje’s muttering was half-right.
“It seems there was indirect affiliation with a different branch of the Nameless Brilliance Sect.
I think it was the Mock Master or something like that.”
“Ah, right. The Roe Deer drew the golden rod and got captured. You heard that? Good job.”
“Thank you.
Let’s go with that version for now.”
“But why are they here? You said it was a different sect, right?”
“Exactly.”
‘They were even sealed away by the SDRA and taken...’
What the hell do they think is left to dig up?
“Hmm. Maybe there’s some other reason.”
And naturally, my thoughts wandered back to the reason Deputy Eunhaje had originally appeared in Jisan Village.
“Could it be because of that well?
I remember Director Ho was looking for it. It must’ve been an unusually special place.”
“Ah. Yeah. That well.”
And if Ho Yuwon had been the one searching for it...
‘Then it’s connected to Sekwang Special City.’
Under the weight of our gaze, Ho Yuwon casually admitted it.
“That’s right. I’d heard rumors that the well is connected to Sekwang Special City....”
So it really was that, huh.
Question: Source?
“As I said, it’s my turn to ask questions. Mr. Roe Deer, you’re not allowed to ask right now.
Such a shame, really.”
Wow, seriously.
But just because you don’t say it doesn’t mean we can’t guess.
‘Must be someone inside the SDRA.’
How else would Ho Yuwon have known that the SDRA’s classified archives included extinction-level disasters and information on Sekwang Special City?
‘He definitely has his own pipeline into the agency.’
Whatever personal feelings Ho Yuwon might have about the SDRA, his interest remained unchanged.
Extinction-class disasters.
“If the Happy Ending Sect is interested in Sekwang Special City, then it only makes sense they’d try to glean information through that well. Don’t you agree?”
But Deputy Eunhaje frowned.
“...Tsk.”
Something clearly bothered him.
“I could’ve sworn the SDRA went in back then, smashed that centipede freak’s skull open and everything....”
As soon as the SDRA was mentioned, Director Ho’s smile deepened—but neither of us paid it any mind.
“Wouldn’t those government folks have done follow-up cleanup, too?”
Of course they would have.
This Jisan Village... still has plenty of suspicious elements.
They’ll probably conduct a proper search from now on—looking for people, the well, everything.
“Then how the hell did they not realize the underground was crawling with cultists?”
Well...
Maybe... the bunker was moved here after the cleanup was completed.
Let’s think it through.
The SDRA field recovery teams, the Zhuque Division people—they would’ve come in and finished the site cleanup.
‘They probably relocated the villagers, too.’
There was evidence of that.
From what I saw earlier—through the glass, aboveground—
There wasn’t a single person left in the village.
Not one.
But the weird thing is...
‘They said a full search would happen soon.’
And yet the village looked completely unchanged.
Like the day of the festival had simply frozen in time.
It’s strange. You’d expect SDRA agents to be sent for routine inspections,
but it doesn’t seem like that happened.
“Yeah. Creepy...”
“Or maybe they just didn’t think it was worth the trouble?”
Ho Yuwon’s mild voice flowed smoothly into the silence.
“Government agencies always rank their priorities.
Instead of spending manpower on an already ‘closed’ case, they’d rather use their resources to save people they believe are more ‘valuable.’”
Hmm.
‘That’s... a pretty hostile interpretation.’
“Well... yeah. I mean, overworked local agents isn’t exactly a new issue.”
Deputy Eunhaje dodged his boss’s words with glazed eyes.
And then—back to the point.
“In any case, it’d be great if we could dig up more on the aboveground village too.
But there are limits to what we can do from in here....”
Ah.
“Director, do you have anyone else you could call in from outside?
Someone who could scout things out up there?”
...Me.
Well, actually—
‘Yeah... I do.’
I thought of the paper boat slumbering peacefully beneath my inventory tattoo.
And the person I’d left it with—a native of Jisan Village.
***
Baek Saheon had just finished what could only be described as a complete hell of a day.
‘What the hell is this darkness, even.’
It had started out as some messed-up boarding school urban legend.
One of his teammates got the skin of his face ripped off and died—he’d gone through all that hellish effort, and for what?
‘I split off and ran, nearly died myself.’
Not that he gave a damn about the dead teammate. It just pissed him off that after all that, they’d only gotten a D-rank. What a joke.
‘...Well, not that it matters anymore.’
His wish to escape the village entirely seemed to have finally been granted.
And yet, here he was—still working for this damn company.
He hadn’t even laid his sister’s skull to rest anywhere. Hadn’t burned it, hadn’t buried it.
‘F**k.’
But hey, at least he was finally off-duty, lying back on the company housing sofa.
That’s when he noticed the paper boat.
There was new writing on it.
Greetings, citizen.
Have you been doing well?
“...!!”
Baek Saheon nearly rolled off the sofa.
‘What the hell—’
Last time, the other person had just left a rushed thank-you message and vanished. He’d written “don’t just ghost me after looting my stuff” as a parting insult.
But now they were writing again. And—
The item is not yet ready,
but I’ve acquired information
regarding the current state of Jisan Village.
“...!!”
Baek Saheon clutched the paper with both hands.
The letters—were updating.
Currently, beneath the village
is a facility belonging to a cult.
What?
And how
do you know that?
I have infiltrated
the cult in question.
“Are you insane?”
Was this agent seriously saying they’d been hiding out this whole time... inside that cult?
‘No wonder they don’t have the item!’
It’s nearly impossible to keep your own belongings inside a cult. At least, that had been Baek Saheon’s experience.
‘...Are they just stupid?’
Who the hell walks into that kind of place voluntarily?
Baek Saheon wrote that exact thought onto the paper boat.
And the reply that came back—was this:
A request for help had arrived.
“...What a sucker.”
But strangely, no scoff escaped his lips.
That agent—he was someone who actually kept his promise.
Baek Saheon knew this firsthand, having seen [N O V E L I G H T] it back in Jisan Village.
“......”
He stared down at the paper.
The agent was making a request.
I have found a location inside this facility
that provides a view of the outside.
Would you be able to look at my drawing
and tell me where in Jisan Village this perspective is from?
The moment he was about to write “What nerve...”—
If this operation leads to any new information
about Jisan Village, I will share it with you.
Since you’re directly involved.
At the bottom of the message, one more sentence had been added.
I’m sorry I couldn’t deliver the item yet.
......
Ha... Fuck, seriously!!
Baek Saheon clutched his head, groaning, before finally scribbling a reply.
Just send the drawing already.
***
Oh.
Baek Saheon had agreed to cooperate and pass on information about Jisan Village.
Surprisingly—just like last time—it was going smoothly. Apparently, my cover story of infiltrating a cult was more convincing than I’d expected....
Guess the Jisan intel did the trick.
Or maybe... judging by how nitpicky he was being, he just needed somewhere to dump his emotional garbage.
In any case, I now had a simple sketch of the village drawn by Baek Saheon in pencil, committed to memory.
[Oh ho, Mr. Roe Deer’s former roommate’s got some drawing skills, doesn’t he?]
Yeah, really.
The map was surprisingly clear—marking the well, the pine tree, the hanok where we’d been confined, and the spot where the village shrine had been.
And the place we’d looked out from—this authority zone we were in now—
...was beneath the well.
If there’s an entrance anywhere,
it’s probably around here.
Which meant the Jisan Village well was directly above this underground bunker’s entrance.
The feeling was... odd.
[Yes, this is quite an intriguing clue. Do the twins who vanish during lunch sneak off to check the well through the entrance? Or is there another hidden facility deeper inside the bunker?]
[Well, if things go according to Mr. Roe Deer’s plan... we’ll find out soon enough!]
That’s right.
After I’d mentioned communicating through the item to obtain intel, Director Ho and Deputy Eunhaje had taken on a different task.
Surveillance.
To track the whereabouts of the twins who disappeared during lunchtime.
To find out what exactly they were preparing down here in this underground cult lair.
As I keep saying—we have to understand what’s really going on down here.
Only then can we deal with sudden events, or dig out whatever secrets are buried.
If they stuck close to the old woman initiate, they might draw some attention, but if they were caught in a weird spot, people wouldn’t be as suspicious.
Especially after the “performance” they put on last night.
Even if they get caught, it’s not like Ho Yuwon’s someone who’d just roll over.
Besides... what is it? These cult executives in the Happy Ending Sect...
I’ve read the theory about how strong they’re supposed to be, but honestly? They don’t make me feel tense.
Their imagery is so shallow and one-dimensional.
Still, the setting and the questions surrounding the place are plenty bizarre to keep the atmosphere unsettling.
So I quietly used the map to calculate angles and coordinates, matching up the underground bunker’s layout to the village structures—and waited for the two of them to return.
By the time lunch was almost over—
“We found something.”
Ho Yuwon and Deputy Eunhaje came back with new intel.
Deputy Eunhaje, still disguised as the old woman, caught his breath and urgently began sketching a map on the floor with his finger.
Even the interior of the underground bunker.
“If you look at it like this, this is the north. The dining hall is to the east,
and the east-west corridors are the initiates’ quarters.”
And right in the center—
“There’s that huge dome-shaped space where they keep all the coffins piled up.
That’s where they do their rituals and dispose of corpses.”
Symbolic, in a way.
And then—
“Behind the coffins, there was a passage.”
Deputy Eunhaje’s finger slid downward.
South.
“That’s where the twins were headed.”
......
“Well? Anything you can match to the intel your ‘informant’ gave you?”
There is.
In my head, I laid Baek Saheon’s map over the layout Deputy Eunhaje had drawn—
And realized it.
The place the twins had gone to—
Was directly beneath the Jisan Village shrine.
And what had been beneath the shrine?
The Centipede Relic.
Of course, that centipede was long dead, and the ritual magic surrounding it had all been sealed off by Agent Cheongdong’s bullets. There shouldn’t have been anything left.
Just the empty space where the shrine once stood. And yet...
What the hell are they trying to do there?
“Hrm. Definitely not normal.”
Deputy Eunhaje frowned at my explanation.
“Should we take another look?”
Huh?
“Just a quick peek inside—after the twins leave.
Let’s see what’s in there.”
Ho Yuwon glanced over at him, smiling.
“Mr. Peregrine... if you refuse, I’ll be really sad.
It’ll feel like you don’t trust me.”
“Well... yeah. Just don’t ditch me if something goes sideways.”
Grumbling, Deputy Eunhaje turned to me.
“We’ll check it out and see what the initiates are up to. You wait here.”
Hmm.
“Don’t worry. If anything feels off, we’ll bail immediately.”
Then—
Should I go this time?
Wouldn’t it be too risky to send the same person again? Maybe I should—
“Hmm, Roe Deer...”
Deputy Eunhaje clapped a hand on my shoulder.
“You do realize you’re walking around trailing black smoke right now... right?”
Ah.
“Sorry, but when you combine that with your blinking yellow charm,
you really look like you’re trying to make a dramatic entrance.
You’re like a walking neon billboard.”
......
“Understood.”
“Just stay here.
And while we’re gone—if possible, could you try to pinpoint the exact location of the bunker entrance?”
I gave a quiet nod.
“Okay. Then let’s meet again at dinnertime.”
And just like that, they set out on another recon run—
“Let us all gather and pray for happiness.”
Time passed.
And finally, the promised dinner hour arrived.
However—
“......”
“Grandmother Kim Bokja... hasn’t come.”
Neither Deputy Eunhaje nor Ho Yuwon appeared at the dinner gathering.