Kkiwoong shook his head violently. The Dark One had already clung to Iri before coming here, crying and begging to stay by his side, but Dojin had dragged him along by force. Already heartbroken and miserable, being told to ‘infiltrate’ on top of that was like a bolt from the blue. He tried to turn into a shadow and seep into Dojin’s shirt.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Dojin stopped him instantly.
Lifting the small stray spirit by the scruff with two fingers, Dojin narrowed his eyes and threatened him.
“You’ve been living at the rental shop for a month and a half now. Unlike my master, I’m not generous enough to feed some penniless stray spirit for free. If you’re going to eat, you work and earn money. That’s how it goes for people. You know exactly what I’m saying, right?”
Kkiwoong……
“You’ve seen plenty of nightmare customers by now. So go to the Welfare Center and unleash everything you’ve learned. Be a total asshole. Like, so much of an asshole that people think, ‘Wow, this level of being a pain in the ass is a medical condition.’ A complete, triple-grade nightmare customer.”
Kkiuung. Kkiwoong.
“You don’t feel confident? Hah. This is piss-easy work. If you can’t even do this, there’s no reason for me to keep you at the rental shop. Now where was that place stray spirits usually live around here….”
Kki—Kkiwoong!
Kkiwoong hurriedly nodded his head.
“Do it well. I’ll be watching.”
Dojin stuck Kkiwoong next to the doorbell and activated stealth arts. His figure vanished.
“Hm. Threatening such a young being makes me uncomfortable.”
“We didn’t threaten him, so what’s there to feel uncomfortable about?”
The Scholar and Ihaeja also disappeared.
Left alone, Kkiwoong crawled up to the doorbell and slammed his whole body against it.
Ding-dong rang out, but no one came. Kkiwoong threw himself at it again. Ding-dong!
Kkiwoong……
Still no response. Only after hurling himself at it two more times did a voice finally call out, “Yes, I’m coming,” dripping with irritation.
“Yes, this is the Welfare Center—.”
The one who opened the door was, as expected, a human-type spirit.
Employees at places like the Podo Office, the Welfare Center, and the Wia Immigration Office are mostly human-derived spirits, stray spirits, or minor gods. Compared to Wia that originate from plants, animals, or objects, they have faster comprehension, learning ability, and adaptability, and most of them already understand the concept of ‘labor’. Perhaps because of that, among spirits, those who choose a working life after death are disproportionately human spirits.
Those who lived virtuously and accumulated virtue in life are given a choice after death: reincarnation, becoming a guardian spirit, or accumulating further virtue and enjoying immortality in the Wia world. There are two ways to accumulate virtue—cultivation and labor—and humans usually choose labor. The Underworld, Paradise, the Heavenly Flower Garden—there are plenty of places that need workers, so employment is relatively easy.
The spirits working at this Welfare Center were likely those ambiguously ‘good’ souls who took jobs to accumulate virtue.
“Huh? There’s no one—”
Kkiwoong!
“Ack!”
The gatekeeper spirit jumped in surprise as Kkiwoong shrieked, clinging to the doorbell.
Kkiwoong! Kkiwoong! Kkiwoong-kkiwoong! Kkiwoooong!
After slamming his body into the doorbell four times, Kkiwoong’s whole body ached. Even without trying to act like a nightmare customer, he was genuinely angry now.
“Ah, yes. Yes. Sorry for coming out so late.”
The spirit scratched his head and held out a finger for the customer. When Kkiwoong climbed onto it, the spirit closed the gate and went inside. Of course, Dojin and the divine spirits had already infiltrated the premises.
“It’s bigger than the rental shop?”
“Yeah. The garden’s smaller, but the building’s way bigger.”
Unlike the rental shop, which was a two-story house, this place was a twelve-story building.
The garden was smaller than the rental shop’s, but still neat, with a fountain and well-maintained flowerbeds. Spirits and minor gods wearing Welfare Center name tags wandered around. Their faces looked so greasy with leisure that Dojin and the divine spirits wanted to reveal themselves and rush them on the spot. But for the sake of their greater goal, they restrained themselves and continued recording evidence.
The first floor was a lobby, complete with a café. Spirit employees were leisurely drinking coffee.
The gatekeeper who guided Kkiwoong to the second-floor civil affairs office spoke indifferently.
“Take a number first. Go over there, fill out the form, and wait to be called.”
There was no need to take a number. There were no other waiting customers.
Still, the spirit mechanically finished his instructions and returned to his post.
There wasn’t even a pen provided for tiny Wia like Kkiwoong. The Dark One struggled to fill out the form using a pen far too large for his body.
[Name: KKiwoong
Lineage: Self-proclaimed
Purpose: To ruin everything]
He even took a number and waited—only to find his number was ‘1’.
“Number one? O-o-o-one?! It’s already past lunchtime and it’s the first customer?!”
Ihaeja was so furious he started foaming at the mouth and keeled over, twitching. Naturally, no one helped him up.
Despite there being zero people waiting, the number wasn’t called right away. Only after a full ten minutes did the bell finally ring.
“There’s no one waiting and it’s the first customer, and it still takes ten minutes?!”
The Scholar started foaming too and collapsed next to Ihaeja.
Dojin was furious as well, grinding his teeth as he filmed everything.
The reception staff skimmed Kkiwoong’s form and entered it into a tablet.
“So. What’s the problem?”
Kkiwoong! Kkiwoong. Kkiuung. Kkiwoong!
Kkiwoong complained about how it had taken four full body-slams on the doorbell before anyone opened the door.
The staff member propped his chin on his hand, eyes half-closed.
“Got it. Just tell me why you’re here.”
Kkiwoong! Kkiwoooong!
Kkiwoong insisted that they needed to install a separate doorbell for small Wia. In fact, the rental shop, the Podo Office, and clinics all had small doorbells specifically for tiny Wia.
“Ah, okay. You want me to write that down? I’ll report it upstairs. You may go now.”
Kkiwoooong!
Genuinely enraged, Kkiwoong pointed furiously. He didn’t actually have fingers, so it just looked like he was flailing wildly.
Kkiwoong. Kkiwoong! Kkiuung! Kkiwoooong…!
While Kkiwoong passionately vented, the Welfare Center employee remained indifferent, chin propped, occasionally responding with a bored “Mm-hmm, yes.”
‘Kkiwoong’s doing better than expected,’ Dojin thought.
After thoroughly filming the empty second floor—with no customers and barely any staff—Dojin nodded to the collapsed divine spirits. They staggered back to their feet.
The third-floor civil affairs office was also completely empty.
The three moved on to the fourth floor, the office area.
The fourth floor was more crowded than the civil affairs offices—but not in a good way.
“Jinsu, what are you doing? Watching Shaman videos again?”
“A teaser for a self-produced show dropped yesterday. Looks like they’re doing a horror special. I wanna go cameo as a ghost.”
“Haha. If you do, I’ll come too.”
—Employees fangirling over idols.
“Ugh, I’m bored. Wanna go to a coin karaoke?”
“Oh yeah. Let’s go sing The Shaman’s new song.”
“I’ll come too. I’m so bored.”
—Employees blatantly slacking off.
“……”
“……”
—Employees lying flat-out asleep.
Others were gaming, watching movies, watching variety shows—total chaos.
After recording everything, the three checked the remaining floors one by one. It was the same scene everywhere. Eventually, they reached the beautifully landscaped rooftop garden.
The spirits sprawled out under the sun, photosynthesizing, and looked a little tired. For a moment, a flicker of doubt arose.
“General So’s drinking capacity is seriously infinite…. We drank until morning, and here we are dead on our feet, but he already went out drinking again with King Byeonseong.”
“Well of course, they’re General Gods…. Totally different league from ordinary humans like us….”
“Someday, I really want to beat him…. Maybe we should check out Iri’s Curio Rental Shop? They say they sell alcohol that doesn’t get you drunk.”
“Ohhh, should we? I want to see that famous Immortal Iri and his disciple too. I heard the disciple’s insanely handsome and fierce-looking.”
“They say he’s a Jangsa. Apparently he even arm-wrestled Yama King. The King lost because of his age, but I wonder how he’d fare against General So.”
“Obviously General So would win. How could some mere Jangsa beat a young General God—”
“Right?”
The spirits snickered.
Dojin didn’t hear the insults directed at himself. What he did hear was—
A brazen General So, drinking all night and then going out to drink again.
Immortal Iri, who couldn’t even sleep from dawn to dawn, handling curios for the sake of Wia.
Thinking of those two utterly different administrators, there was no way he wouldn’t be furious.
“These fucking bastards…! They slack off all day and then try to dump extra work on the rental shop over shit that’s not even important?!”
“AAARGH! I can’t take this anymore! Hey, Kim Dojin! Stop filming! We’ve got enough! I seriously can’t hold back anymore!”
The Scholar and Ihaeja tore at their hair, going berserk.
“Yes. I can’t hold back anymore either.”
Dojin answered coldly and turned off his phone.
He’d barely managed to restrain himself earlier—despite wanting to throw his phone and gather everyone up on the spot—but this time, his vision truly went red with rage.
Dojin took a deep breath—
“HEY, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!”
His roar shook the entire building as he revealed himself. Ihaeja and the Scholar appeared at the same time, surrounding the spirits. The spirits fainted in shock.
“H-huh? Wh-what is this?”
“Ah! You scared me! Wh-who are you people?!”
“You wanna know who I am? I’ll tell you who I am. I’m the fierce-looking employee of Iri’s Curio Rental Shop, you ghost bastards!”
The furious shout of a Jangsa thundered through the building.
