Surviving Among the Entities

[“Can you see me?”]
“Yes, I can see you.”
[“You, you can hear my voice too?”]
“Of course I can hear you.”
[“Oh, oohh!”]

The spirit wailed. Unlike before, this cry was mixed with a sigh of relief.

[“By, by any chance, are you a shaman?”]
“I’m just someone whose intuition is better than others’.”
[“Ah…..”]
“Of course, I’m not so heartless as to simply ignore a resentful spirit.”
[“Ah!”]
“Will you tell me what happened?”

The passersby whispered, treating me like a lunatic, but I paid no mind. They were just fleeting connections who would forget me by tomorrow morning anyway.

[“Huhuhu, it was…..”]

The spirit lamented his tragic circumstances.

[“My name is Shin Yeong-mun.”]

He was a company man in his mid-30s who used to watch internet broadcasts as a hobby after work.

[“Coming home and watching internet broadcasts before falling asleep was my daily routine. But a few years ago, I came across a certain game through broadcasts.”]

That game was an online mahjong game.

[“You know how broadcasts sometimes have sudden trends that blow up? That was the trend back then.”]

At first, he didn’t find it interesting. He didn’t know the rules, and they were so complex that he didn’t even want to learn them.

[“But as I kept watching my favorite streamer’s broadcasts, I started naturally memorizing the rules. So I tried playing myself and got completely hooked.”]

After that, for several years he steadily enjoyed mahjong, watched mahjong streams, and studied the game.

[“I wasn’t quite a master of mahjong, but I took pride in being a skilled player. Around that time, I developed the desire to play offline mahjong games.”]

But there is a saying about mahjong:

[“The most difficult part of mahjong is gathering four people, and that turned out to be true.”]

With online mahjong, it automatically matches you with people, but that’s impossible for offline games.

[“That’s when I found out about this place.”]

The spirit’s gaze turned towards the building behind us.

“Daebak Pawnshop”

[“There was a mahjong cafe here. Since you could play mahjong with strangers without needing to gather four people yourself, I immediately came running.”]
“So something happened there.”
[“At first, there were no issues.”]

The people were kind and mahjong was fun. But one day, a mahjong friend I was close with brought up a secret.

[“Our cafe has a secret room.”]

A room you could only enter by being introduced by someone in the know.
Led by curiosity, when he entered that place…..

[“It was an illegal gambling den where real money was being bet.”]

If he had run away then, there wouldn’t have been an issue. But he didn’t run, and fell into the trap of illegal gambling.

[“There are so many mahjong manga where the protagonist becomes rich through illegal gambling. I wanted to become the protagonist of one of those stories too.”]
“But you failed.”
[“No, I could have succeeded. I could have succeeded, but…!”]

Shin Yeong-mun’s eyes turned red like blood.

[“Those bastards were doing rigged gambling. They must have planned to fleece me from the very start!”]

By the time he realized that, he had already lost not just his home deposit, but his entire life savings.

[“I had irresponsible debts too, and in my frantic attempts to resolve them, I ended up in a traffic accident. When I regained consciousness, I was…”]
“In your current state.”
[“Yes! Yes, Seung…hoon!”]
“Seung-hoon Lee.”
[“Yes, Mr. Lee! Please, resolve my resentment! Huhuhu!”]
“Rigged gambling, you say.”

It has long been said that when a spirit’s resentment is resolved, they can be reborn.

“I’ll come back again tomorrow.”
[“Mr…Mr. Lee!”]

The next day, I returned to the building from yesterday, carrying a bundle of cash I had withdrawn from the bank.

“I’ve withdrawn some cash. Will this amount be enough to gain entry to the illegal gambling den?”
[“Uh, how much is it?”]
“2.5 million won.”
[“You, you’re really going in there?”]
“Yes. If I win back the money those con men stole in reverse, then you may be able to be reborn.”
[“Oh….”]
“But you were lingering in front of the mahjong cafe instead of your home or the accident site, it seems your resentment runs deep?”
[“Actually, my daily routine is staring at those bastards who conned me inside there. No matter how much I glare at them, I can’t do anything, so I came out here.”]

The mahjong cafe was located underground. As I followed the stairs down, Shin Yeong-mun asked from behind me:

[“By the way, do you know how to play mahjong? If not, I can teach you as your ghost mahjong master!”]

Mahjong, huh.

“I know the rules. I’ve never actually played, but…”

Knowing the basics is enough.

“I don’t think I’ll lose.”

The rest can be resolved physically.

Inside the mahjong cafe was cozy. There were no uncles reeking of cigarettes, no broken lights or cobwebs, and no shady-looking guards in black suits standing watch.

‘Quite ordinary.’

Just ordinary people playing ordinary mahjong – that was my first impression.

‘But where can I find the illegal gambling?’

It didn’t take long to find.

[“Ah! That guy over there!”]

The ghost behind me pointed out the one facilitating the illegal gambling.

[“If you go to him and say the code phrase, he’ll let you downstairs! The code phrase changes periodically, but I know the latest one! The code phrase is….”]

Following his words, I approached the man eating snacks and watching others play mahjong, whispering to him:

“Vampire.”
“Bat.”
“Ramen.”
“Claw.”

The man calmly responded, giving me a sidelong glance before nodding.

“Who introduced you?”
“I was introduced by Mr. Shin Yeong-mun.”
“Ah, him?”

As he chuckled, Shin Yeong-mun behind me shouted:

[“That goddamn bastard! Look how he’s looking down on me!”]
“Did you bring money?”
“Shall I show you?”

When I opened my bag to show the cash, the man nodded and led me to a room inside.

“Go down these stairs.”

Inside the room were stairs leading underground. Following them revealed a corridor.

‘There are guards.’

Or should I say gangsters? Over a dozen large men were posted throughout the corridor, and from the rooms branching off it, I could hear people shouting.

-Ahaha! I got it, I got it!
-You bastard! Did you cheat!?
-How could I cheat on an electronic auto-table! Say something that makes sense!

“This way, please.”

Following the suited man’s lead, I entered the room at the end of the corridor on the right, where the waiting people greeted me.

“Oh, the final player has arrived.”
“We were getting started a bit late here too, it seems.”
“I don’t recognize your face, whose introduction did you come through?”
“I was introduced by Mr. Shin Yeong-mun.”

From behind, I heard Shin Yeong-mun’s trembling voice:

[“Those three bastards were the ones who fleeced me too!”]
“Ah, that friend? Haven’t seen him in a while, is he doing alright?”
“He’s been busy with work, so I haven’t seen him much either.”
“Haha, of course! He got thoroughly cleaned out last time!”

As I took a seat, amidst the clacking of the tiles, the people explained the rules.

“10,000 won per hand, riichi mahjong, no local rules. And this thing called ‘jeokdo’…”

After the explanation, the game began.

[“Mr. Lee! Be careful! Those con men might try something again!”]

The spinning auto-table, the dealt tiles, the 13 tiles laid before me.

“Oh, I won again.”
“Chittoitsu? Ha, how unmanly. If it were me, I would have aimed for a big sankan hand.”
“If you aim too high, you end up losing big.”

For the first three hands or so, I slowly adapted. And as I grew accustomed, many things became visible to me.

The types of fingerprints left on the back of tiles. I could remember what tile had those fingerprints in the previous hand.
The tiny nicks on tiles too minor to be called scratches – I could remember which tiles had them.
And I could see the reflections of my opponents’ tiles in their eyes as they checked their own hands.

“Tsumo.”

Revealing my tiles, I scored my first win.

“Let’s move on to the next game.”

Now there is no reason for me to lose.

“……”

Silence fell over the table. No one spoke a word.

“You, you!”

Some of the initial players at this table had already gone bankrupt and left, moving to continue playing at other tables, but it was the same situation there too.

“You bastard! What kind of cheating did you do!”
“This, this can’t be anything but cheating!”

I understand their reactions. Until now, I hadn’t given my opponents a single tile they needed. When my hand was bad, I stubbornly defended. When my hand was good, I aggressively attacked to secure definitive wins.

“Cheating? How could one cheat on an electronic auto-table?”
“Did you tamper with it in secret!? With some program! Or wifi hacking or something!”
“There’s no way that could be possible.”
“Stop your bullshit!”

With money on the line, they all glared at me with bloodshot eyes, grabbing my collar.

“Violence is unbecoming. We have the excellent means of dialogue, so resorting to physical force first only makes easily resolved issues difficult….”
“Shut up!”

The man grabbing my collar threw a punch. I lightly pressed his wrist to subdue him, then lightly shoved him to the side.

“Uggh!”

As the man fell, the guards belatedly came running over.

“What’s going on here? Violence is prohibited.”
“No, this bastard was cheating! He never gave me a single hu! Never gave me the tiles I needed! He took every dora tile! How many consecutive wins did he get!”
“Is this true?”

In response to the guard’s question, I nodded.

“It’s true.”
“Did you do something shady?”
“No, I simply played mahjong. Discarding the tiles I didn’t need and taking the ones I did, completing my hand. Isn’t that just the basics that anyone can do to win at mahjong?”
“Hey, what’s going on here?”
“Ah, boss, it’s…”

Listening to the guard’s explanation, the man who seemed to be his superior pointed at me.

“You there, customer, strip down a bit. Let me check if you’ve got tile substitutes hidden somewhere.”
“I refuse. This is mahjong, not hwatu, so how could I hide tile substitutes?”
“Hey, do I look like I’m joking around here?”

The man approached me, glaring menacingly.

“I’m not joking either.”
“Ha, I was going to go easy on you since you’re a customer.”

I saw the man’s palm swinging towards me. I lightly threw a punch, striking his jaw.

“Gugh!”
“Boss!?”

As the man fell, all the guards came rushing over.

“This bastard!”
“Hmm.”

This wasn’t part of the plan.

“Why is it that no matter how kindly I try to explain with words, people never understand?”

Be it online or in reality.

“Take this!”

It’s sad how everyone refuses to listen to others.

“Then I’ll be going.”
“Ugghh…”

Leaving the fallen guards behind, I grabbed my bag and exited the underground den. On my way out, Shin Yeong-mun excitedly chattered beside me.

[“Uh, um, are you John Wick or something?”]
“No, I’m not a hitman.”
[“Ah, but how could you bend blades with your bare hands, knock out people sneaking up from behind with your elbow, and beat all those gangsters without even breaking a sweat?”]
“For the blades, I bent them by grabbing the non-sharp part. People lose consciousness from strong impacts to the solar plexus. The crescent kick is a representative technique targeting that. And lastly, I just have pretty good physical abilities.”
[“Then what do you do for a living?”]
“Just think of me as an ordinary person working hard to survive.”
[“Ordinary….”]

My bag was heavy. The cash inside totaled 1.07 billion won, excluding my original money, a profit of 1.045 billion won.

‘A large sum, but not enough.’

The financial resources I desired for survival required even more money than this.

‘I should give up on earning money through illegal gambling.’

Instead, one thing has come up for me to experiment with.

“You’re not going to be reborn?”
[“Ah, well, for some reason I still don’t feel fully relieved, so I can’t yet.”]
“I see. Ah, you mentioned playing online mahjong games before, right? Were there skill-based ranks in that game too?”
[“Yes. It starts from beginner, then goes up to yakusha, yakugeki, yakukou, yakusei, and finally konten. Each rank is further divided into isei, nisei, and sansei.”]
“What rank were you, Mr. Shin?”

After a moment’s hesitation, he answered:

[“I was a yakusha isei.”]
“So the second-lowest rank.”
[“But! It’s not due to a lack of skill. When I played, hacking was rampant so I couldn’t rank up. Then just when the hacking died down, boosting with AIs became the new trend, so I still couldn’t rank up!”]
“I see.”
[“I dare say my actual skills were at the konten level!”]

Now I’m getting a bit of a sense.

“Then among the yakusha players I faced today, how many of them had cheated you before?”
[“All of them! Every last one was a cheater!”]
“Mr. Shin.”

This place wasn’t a rigged gambling den.

“Electronic auto-tables cannot be rigged.”
[“It’s not about the table, it’s that those three colluded and conspired to…”]
“If they were going to do that, they would have tried it on me today too. But I didn’t see any signs of that at all.”

It’s just an ordinary illegal gambling den.

[“Then what about the incident I went through?”]

There was only one reason this man lost his money.

“You didn’t get cheated, you just lack mahjong skills.”
[“……You’re saying I lost everything and ended up like this just because I suck at mahjong?”]
“To put it bluntly, yes, that’s correct.”
[“I played mahjong for fucking years and you’re saying I lost my entire life’s savings, had to borrow money from a friend, and got run over and ended up like this just because I fucking sucked at it!?”]
“I didn’t say that.”

His state had become serious. His eyes turned completely red, and his body shifted from translucent to a slightly blackened state.

‘It seems when a spirit’s emotions intensify, they become an evil spirit.’

His appearance was just like how people imagine evil spirits.

[“Guuhhh, aaahhhh!”]

Seeing him writhing in what seemed like agonizing pain, if I left him be, it looked like he might cause some major trouble.

‘Hmm, should I perform an exorcism?’

If so, should I do it the Christian way, the Buddhist way, or the Japanese way?

‘Then again, it seems I can interact with him?’

From the spirit constantly being around me, it seemed my intuition had grown even sharper.

[“I’m pissed, how can I be so fucking bad at…”]

I approached and threw a punch.

[“Guuh!”]

Shin Yeong-mun fell over.

“I can hit him.”

With his body still blackened and red eyes remaining, it seems that wasn’t enough.

“My knowledge grows.”

With abundant intuition, I can hit spirits to help them be reborn.

“It’s still unclear if he’ll actually be reborn or not.”

But I’ll find out if I keep hitting him.