Chapter 7

“Alright! Let’s move on to the next section!”

The frightened look Mugyeong had earlier was nowhere to be seen as he proudly lifted his chin and strode forward confidently.

Watching him, Unho let out a laugh of disbelief.

“That’s a relief. Earlier, I seriously thought you were going to faint.”

“This much is nothing!”

People said that, for celebrities, being ignored was scarier than getting hate comments.

Even if he collapsed and got carried out on a stretcher here, he still couldn’t give up the attention.

As they entered the next section, the lighting shifted from blue to red.

The area appeared to be themed after an abandoned hospital. Patient beds, cabinets, and medical equipment were scattered around the hallway.

The ghosts themselves were scary enough, but after the mannequin jumpscare earlier, Mugyeong kept glancing around nervously, afraid another hidden device might suddenly pop out.

“Cheongun-nim, are there ghosts here too?”

“Yes. More than before.”

Unho answered PD Park’s question calmly.

Mugyeong instinctively scanned the empty air around them, but aside from the ominous red lighting, he couldn’t see anything unusual.

“How many do you see?”

“About five or six that stand out immediately. There may be more.”

“F-five or six?!”

Mugyeong stared at him in horror.

That meant there were more ghosts than actual people in the building.

“No, why are there so many spirits here? Did some kind of accident happen?”

“That’s unlikely. Usually when someone dies in an accident, they become a spirit bound to that location. But the spirits here seem to have arrived recently.”

“Mugyeong-nim, should we try the ghost box?”

At PD Park’s suggestion, Mugyeong pulled a small radio-shaped device out of the equipment bag and raised the antenna.

“This is called a ghost box. Apparently it picks up nearby frequencies and lets ghosts communicate.”

The moment he pressed the power button, loud static filled the air.

Radio channels rapidly switched one after another before broken fragments of speech emerged.

“Hello— bzzzt— hello — bzzzt— cold — this morning — healthy—”

Disconnected words drifted through the static.

Mugyeong decided to ask a question first.

“Why did you die?”

“— bzzzt— traffic—accident — bzzzt— sui—cide — yesterday — bzzzt— old—”

The comments exploded.

[Anonymous#11134: There really are multiple ghosts. The causes of death are all different.]

[Anonymous#7708: Ask their gender.]

[Pentatonic55: Ask their age.]

“What gender are you?”

“— female— bzzzt— obviously—male— bzzzt— sheep—”

“How old are you?”

“— college— child— adult— bzzzt— two years old—”

Between Unho’s explanation earlier and the ghost box responses, it truly seemed like multiple spirits were gathered here.

“Then the employees probably weren’t hallucinating after all.”

“That’s likely.”

“No seriously, why are there this many if no accident happened here?”

“I was actually going to mention this earlier when we first entered.”

Unho glanced around slowly.

“This building was probably constructed on top of a ghost pathway.”

“A ghost pathway?”

“Ordinary people sometimes compare it to underground water veins. Shamans usually call it a gwiro.”

Unho explained patiently.

“Just like people naturally walk along trails already formed in the mountains, spirits also move along established routes. Those paths are called gwiro. Unfortunately, this haunted house was built directly on top of one.”

“So it’s like building a house without realizing there’s underground water flowing beneath it. Then suddenly water starts appearing in your yard.”

“Similar idea. Except spring water helps humans, while ghost pathways are harmful. Places where yin energy gathers strongly naturally become spirit routes, so fundamentally this is bad land.”

Mugyeong instinctively rubbed his shoulders.

Just imagining spiritual currents flowing beneath the building made him feel colder somehow.

Unho continued.

“I don’t think the entire building is affected. But the northern exit probably intersects with an east-west ghost pathway. The closer we get to the northern exit, the more spirits there are.”

“But why do the ghosts even enter the building? Couldn’t they just stay on their original route?”

Despite the endless questions, Unho answered surprisingly sincerely.

“If you dig a small channel beside a flowing stream, what happens?”

“…The water would probably start flowing into the channel too.”

“Exactly. Spirits are similar. It’s not that they consciously decide to come here. Spiritual energy simply flows wherever there’s a path.”

He gestured around the haunted house.

“And this place specifically is a haunted house. Dark, damp, full of screaming people running around. There are even mannequins that resemble them everywhere. To spirits, it probably feels welcoming.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

“From the spirits’ perspective, it’s like they received an invitation to visit, only for the owner to suddenly start yelling at them to leave.”

The explanation was easy enough for Mugyeong to understand.

Still, another thought suddenly occurred to him.

“…But isn’t this technically a haunted house? If real ghosts appear, wouldn’t that actually help business? Wouldn’t people come more because of the rumors?”

The chat immediately exploded.

[Anonymous#20916: Truly born from capitalismㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

[Anonymous#410122: Paranormal tourism package!]

[Anonymous#98354: The owner would collapse hearing thatㅋㅋ]

Unho looked at Mugyeong like he was hopeless.

“I knew you’d say something like that, hyung.”

Mugyeong puffed out his cheeks.

Was that really such a weird thing to say?

“Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Even an ancestor’s hand becomes a ghost’s hand’?”

“Nope. What does that mean?”

“No matter how kindly an ancestor stays beside their descendants, prolonged contact with spirits eventually harms the living. That’s why shamans perform rituals to send even ancestor spirits onward.”

His gaze darkened slightly.

“If even your own ancestors are like that, then what do you think wandering spirits with unknown identities are like?”

“….”

“Humans and ghosts fundamentally belong to different worlds. Constantly interacting with ghosts is never good. Most spirits only scare people like earlier, but if you’re unlucky, you can encounter ones that are malicious and powerful.”

He spoke quietly.

“There’s no benefit worth risking that.”

Then what about you?

If frequently meeting ghosts was dangerous, then what about someone like Unho, who dealt with them every day?

Was the great-grandmother spirit beside him protecting him—

or hurting him?

The question suddenly rose in Mugyeong’s throat.

But he couldn’t bring himself to ask it.

Passing rows of mannequins dressed in hospital gowns, the three finally arrived at the last section:

The Mirror Room.

Every wall was covered entirely in mirrors, and the pathway twisted confusingly.

Under the dim green lighting, every direction looked exactly the same, making it difficult to tell walls from passageways.

According to PD Park, the route was technically only one path, so if they followed the arrows on the floor carefully without rushing, they’d eventually reach the exit.

Mugyeong glanced sideways into the mirror beside him.

Countless reflections of himself, Unho, and PD Park stretched endlessly in every direction.

That reminded him of a ghost story he’d once heard.

Elevators usually had mirrors facing one another, creating endless reflections.

But supposedly—

among the hundreds of reflected faces, sometimes one reflection would be staring the wrong way.

And that one was the ghost.

At that moment—

Something dark moved at the edge of the mirror.

“Ah!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It was definitely a man. Based on the build, I think it looked like President Kim.”

“Really? I didn’t see anyone.”

“He went toward the exit side. Unho, didn’t you see him too?”

Unho didn’t answer.

He only stared silently at Mugyeong.

The comments flooded the screen.

[Pentatonic55: Oppa stop scaring usㅠㅠ]

[Anonymous#98354: The fake reactions are too much.]

[Anonymous#410122: ??]

[Anonymous#62222: How is the normal guy seeing things even the shaman didn’t?]

“No seriously, everyone. I’m not making this up. I really saw him.”

Mugyeong huffed indignantly.

“I bet five hundred won President Kim is waiting outside once we leave. He probably stepped away because he didn’t want to interrupt filming.”

[Anonymous#20916: Forget the owner. When are actual ghosts showing up?]

[channel3108: He saw another one. Feels like his spiritual sight is opening.]

Mugyeong rubbed his hands together uneasily.

The surrounding temperature somehow felt even lower now.

“Did the AC break or something? He said electricity bills were expensive, so why is the cooling this strong?”

“They say temperatures drop whenever there are lots of ghosts nearby, Mugyeong-nim.”

“PD-nim, please don’t say scary things…”

“That’s actually true.”

Unho interrupted calmly.

“You two planned this together just to mess with me, didn’t you? Answer me honestly, Unho. You’re joking, right?”

Mugyeong protested furiously, but Unho only smiled without answering.

Which somehow made it even more terrifying.

After walking a little farther, PD Park stopped.

“If we turn right one more time here, we’ll reach the exit. Apparently this area is where people reported seeing the most ghosts.”

“Here? Compared to the earlier rooms, this place doesn’t even seem scary.”

“There actually aren’t any effects here besides mirrors.”

PD Park pointed toward a recessed nook built into the mirrored wall.

“See that hollow area there?”

“Ah… yeah.”

“That’s where the part-time workers wait. Even on days without customers, employees said they saw people walking around the corner toward the exit.”

She continued quietly.

“One worker even said somebody asked them for directions, so they politely guided them to the exit.”

[Anonymous#20916: Maybe the workers just scared themselves seeing their own reflectionsㅋㅋ]

After reading the comment aloud, PD Park shook her head.

“The employees here don’t wear ghost costumes. Since the entire room is mirrors, costumes could easily cause accidents. Mostly they just wait near the exit to lightly scare couples lingering too long or guide people who get lost.”

“Then it’s less likely they imagined it.”

“Exactly. And the ‘ghosts’ they saw weren’t bloody horror ghosts either. They looked like completely ordinary visitors.”

Mugyeong tilted his head.

If that was true, maybe they weren’t dangerous spirits after all.

“Unho, what do you think? Is that possible?”

“Of course.”

Unho answered immediately.

“People often say someone was ‘bewitched by a ghost.’ Even without being a shaman, people with strong intuition can sometimes see spirits. They might even hold conversations thinking the ghost is a real person.”

“Then what do ghosts usually look like? Can they really be mistaken for living people?”

“Some appear frightening or grotesque. But many ghosts manifest in the appearance they had while alive.”

Which made them difficult to distinguish from actual people.

If you observed long enough, you might notice strange repetitive behavior or unnatural speech patterns.

But at first glance—

they looked human.

“That’s fascinating.”

“You might’ve already met one today without realizing it.”

“…Can you stop messing with me already?”

Mugyeong laughed awkwardly while checking Unho’s expression.

But unlike before—

there wasn’t even a trace of humor on Unho’s face.

The comments changed direction again.

[Anonymous#62222: Use the ghost box again.]

[Anonymous#20916: Bet there are tons here.]

Mugyeong pulled out the ghost box once more and turned it on.

Then he asked carefully,

“Is anyone here?”

“— bzzzt— crackle—”

“Hello?”

“— crackle— bzzzt— hu—”

“How long have you been here?”

“— —— — —”

PD Park frowned awkwardly.

“Ah… I think all these mirrors are interfering with the signal. Maybe one last question before we stop?”

Mugyeong nodded.

“Okay. Just one more.”

He swallowed lightly before asking:

“What’s your name?”

Static crackled.

Then—

A clear voice emerged.

“My name is the military.”

“Because our numbers are many.”

 

• 귀로 (Gwiro / Ghost Pathway) → Spiritual “roads” believed to be traveled by ghosts or yin energy in Korean shamanistic belief.
• 고스트 박스 (Ghost Box) → A real paranormal investigation device used in ghost-hunting media that rapidly scans radio frequencies so spirits can supposedly communicate.