Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 186

186. Advanced Psychological Warfare

Rembrary stared at the reporter strangely. The reporter, feeling the gaze, waved his hands in a fluster.

“It’s not that I have any bad intentions, absolutely not—”

In fact, he had no bad intentions, but he did have some ambition. Living monsters, people chasing monsters, a hidden world. If he were the first to reveal this, he would immediately become a reporter who would go down in history.

This achievement would be savored for a long time and might even appear in textbooks. What reporter wouldn’t want to miss such a scoop? It was his desire and ambition.

But the idea that ‘a hero should be treated like a hero’ was also genuine.

Woo Yeon-woo is often called crazy. These days, his image has improved and he has become more popular, but he still doesn’t receive good evaluations in terms of personality.

The public likes Woo Yeon-woo, but they like him not because ‘Woo Yeon-woo is kind,’ but more along the lines of ‘he’s crazy but fun.’ The reporter thought Woo Yeon-woo deserved better treatment than this.

In other words, he would reveal Woo Yeon-woo’s true identity to the people, and Woo Yeon-woo would rightfully be treated as a hero. Wouldn’t this be a real win-win strategy?

However, there was one major flaw in this.

“No.”

Even though he wasn’t the only one to have such thoughts, there must be a reason why the world where monsters roamed was kept secret. This was a problem the reporter should have inferred from seeing that Woo Yeon-woo wasn’t fighting monsters alone.

“Yes? Aren’t you upset, Woo Yeon-woo?”

“I still don’t like it.”

Rembrary said firmly. To be precise, it wasn’t ‘I don’t like it,’ but more like ‘it would be troublesome if I did.’

If he revealed his power here, he would immediately become a target of Nakru [a shadowy organization]. That group seemed to have wider connections and reach than he thought. Rembrary didn’t want to get involved with such people.

Originally, there were paladins in the world who would protect him from people, monsters, and demons who sought his power. But there were no such paladins here.

Persuasion continued afterward, but Rembrary steadfastly refused to budge. The reporter eventually gave up.

“I understand. If that’s what you truly wish, I will keep my mouth shut and pretend I don’t know anything.”

“Good choice. Getting involved with this side won’t do you any good either.”

But this was only a superficial surrender. The reporter still didn’t give up on his intentions. Of course, he would keep this a secret.

The reporter got up from the sofa.

“Then, I’ll be on my way……”

However, the reporter stopped speaking in the middle of his farewell. He remembered something he had forgotten for a moment. The camera.

“Um… Woo Yeon-woo.”

“What is it?”

“Ordinary people can’t see monsters, right?”

“It’s a bit complicated.”

“Complicated?”

Usually, whether it’s yokai [supernatural entities], ghosts, or magical beasts, they are invisible to the human eye, but when they attack with murderous intent, their appearance becomes visible to the person being attacked.

Whether this was the power of the yokai or the sixth sense awakened by a person’s survival instinct was a matter of much debate even in Rembrary’s original world, because even this wasn’t something everyone could see.

Of course, sometimes they could be seen even when they only had murderous intent without attacking, especially when seen as an image reflected elsewhere rather than directly with the eyes.

This was why Im Yu-han sent Rembrary a text message for help during the Cow Head Yokai incident, but the Tiger Head Yokai couldn’t show itself to Im Yu-han even if it wanted to.

But explaining all of this would be too complicated, so Rembrary shook his head.

“I won’t explain things you don’t need to know.”

“No, you said you were going to explain it……”

“Just remember this one thing.”

The reporter stared at him with a face that said he would engrave it in his bones. Rembrary reached out, turned the reporter’s face to the side, and urged.

“If you see anything that doesn’t look human, run away immediately. Don’t make eye contact.”

The reporter swallowed hard. Goosebumps rose on his skin. Hearing those words vividly reminded him of that centipede-headed thing.

“Um… Woo Yeon-woo.”

“What is it?”

“That monster wouldn’t be angry that it couldn’t kill me and come after me, would it?”

“That’s up to it.”

“!”

“But it probably won’t go that far.”

It wasn’t a yokai that targeted the reporter from the beginning, but just attacked because he was there.

Of course, this assumption is also just ‘probably’.

“But why did you ask whether ordinary people can see yokai or not?”

When Rembrary asked again, the reporter, who had forgotten again, finally remembered what he was going to say. What he originally wanted to say was, ‘The detective took the camera, so be careful.’

“Woo Yeon-woo. Do monsters get captured on cameras?”

“Usually, they don’t get captured.”

“Ah. Then it’s okay. My colleague, I mean, the dead colleague’s camera was taken by the detective. You were captured on it… But it was taken from a distance, so unless a yokai is captured with you, it won’t affect you much.”

* * *

As soon as the reporter left, Jong-woo, who had been anxiously waiting in front of the door, rushed in and demanded to know.

“What did he say? Did he say anything strange? What did he say to you?”

“Not very strange.”

“What’s less strange? Why is that person suddenly bowing to you like that?”

Rembrary tried to gloss over it with vague words, but Jong-woo didn’t fall for it.

“Why? What’s going on? Please, I’m anxious, so tell me. Huh? Could that reporter acting like that be the spark of some incident or something? Huh?”

As Jong-woo kept following him around and asking, Rembrary had no choice but to tell him, deleting only the parts related to the yokai.

“I helped that reporter when he was attacked by a person with many heads. He came to thank me for that. It’s not an accident, so don’t worry.”

“A person with many heads? Did you take down several people?”

“I didn’t take them down. I just stopped them.”

“You?”

“Me.”

“How?”

Jong-woo scanned Rembrary’s arm. Then, he examined his smooth, unblemished skin. He had some muscles, but it didn’t look like an arm that could knock down multiple opponents in a one-on-many fight without a single scratch.

“How? I grabbed their hair.”

“What? You said you stopped them!”

“I grabbed their hair and stopped them.”

“That’s fighting, you idiot!”

Besides, fighting is fighting, but… Jong-woo opened his mouth in bewilderment. It was hard to believe. Was he a hidden master? Was he good at fighting?

He knew that Keshi had a gentle face but was a stone fist. Im Representative even called Keshi a Maltese [referring to their surprising strength despite their gentle appearance].

But Rembrary’s weapon is his tongue, not fighting with others. Seeing the reporter who had been picking a fight bowing like that, he must have helped him somehow…?

Whether Jong-woo was suspicious or not, Rembrary went to the waiting room, got a hot chocolate, put it in his mouth, and sent a text message to Shin Jo-woon.

[Whale. Are you sulking?]

Unexpectedly, he didn’t get an immediate reply.

Rembrary immediately realized why Jang Tae-ri was worried. Shin Jo-woon was usually someone who replied like a knife. Jang Tae-ri’s reply speed slowed down when he was in a meeting, on a business trip, or working, but Shin Jo-woon always replied quickly, making him wonder what he was doing at the company. Shin Jo-woon only replied slowly when he was ignoring the text.

‘Is he ignoring me?’

Still, just in case, he waited for about 5 minutes, but as expected, he didn’t get a reply.

“You’re drinking hot chocolate when I told you that you gained 5kg?”

Even after Jong-woo ran over and took away the hot chocolate, Shin Jo-woon didn’t reply.

[Anchovy. Are you sulking?]

He didn’t reply even after sending another text.

After sending only that far, Rembrary decided to wait for the other person to reply instead of sending more texts, and he also put his phone back in his pocket.

For the next two hours, he practiced dancing with the members in the practice room.

It was already four hours after he sent the text when he returned to the dorm and opened the text message box on his phone. Even if he was acting aloof, he would have replied by now. Rembrary confidently opened the notification window with one hand.

“……”

However, there was still no reply.

In the end, Rembrary decided to use his last resort and sent the text [3].

* * *

Shin Jo-woon was holding his phone and staring at the screen. Should he reply or not? He had been hesitating all along. It wasn’t an easy decision.

He knew that it would be natural to reply since there was a variety show filming in a few days. But with his current mood, he even wanted to drop out of the variety show. If he did, Jang Tae-ri would roar and protest fiercely.

But he really hated Nakru. Very much.

In fact, if it were the original him, he would have taken pictures of Nakru as soon as he found them, waited for an opportunity to catch them, and immediately made them ‘dogs’ [subjugate them]. Now, he was releasing Woo Yeon-woo’s brother, who was definitely Nakru, and even Woo Yeon-woo himself, who seemed to be newly joining Nakru, and waiting.

Weren’t those actions already displaying considerable patience and generosity? But when he kept poking at him with texts like this, he got more and more angry.

Then the text [3] came.

What does this mean again?

Shin Jo-woon straightened his back, which had been leaning against the chair. As he straightened his back, the chair back that had been automatically unfolded rose up with him. With his chin resting on his hand, Shin Jo-woon stared intently at the text.

It was difficult to know what it meant even after looking at it for a long time. Could it be… a warning or something? You know my identity, so I will respond to you, there are three paths, does it mean something like that?

Before he could finish thinking, this time the text [2] came faster.

‘2?’

Following that, [1] came.

‘Countdown?’

Only then did Shin Jo-woon realize that Woo Yeon-woo was counting down. He didn’t know what kind of countdown he was doing.

But the moment he thought it definitely wouldn’t be good. A new text arrived faster than before.

[ㅗ]

‘This pig?’

Shin Jo-woon was so angry that he immediately pressed the call button.

* * *

[What kind of childish prank is this?]

As expected, people can’t stand being cursed at.

Rembrary smiled contentedly as his advanced psychological warfare succeeded.

“Then why are you ignoring someone when they’re talking? Was it delicious?”

[Yes, it tasted like barbecue, so it was very delicious.]

“Shin Jo-woon. Do you have a problem with me?”

[It seems like you’re the one picking a fight with me.]

“Jang Tae-ri was worried about you.”

[……What did Tae-ri say to you?]

“He was just a little worried. You were ignoring my texts earlier. Are you really angry with me about something? Of course, I don’t think you are.”

[If you asked a question, why don’t you listen to the answer?]

“If you’re angry with me, say it clearly. That way, I can ignore your texts too.”

Over the receiver, he could hear a huu… breathing sound. Rembrary waited patiently for Shin Jo-woon to finish breathing.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re angry about now?”

[There’s someone I really hate.]

“So?”

[It seems like you’re close to that person.]

“So?”

[So I’m thinking. In many ways.]

What is this childish human being? He didn’t know who Shin Jo-woon hated, but he ignored his texts for such a reason?

This was behavior he wouldn’t have done even when he was a young acolyte who had just entered the temple. Of course, Rembrary himself had been a benevolent high priest since he was young.

[Hello? Hello?]

Rembrary stared at his phone in bewilderment and pressed the end button.