The Dark Age and the Idol Hunter

[Casual Discussion Board] Title: Anyone ever seen a ghost?

Back in the day, people would ask like this, right? Nowadays it’s the opposite. A lot has changed, lol. But seriously, is there really someone who hasn’t seen a ghost?

5 comments User1: How blind do you have to be? My dog sees them. User2: What if you’re visually impaired? ↳ User3: I heard visually impaired people sense them better through other senses. User4: Me lol, I’m just too tough lol. ↳ User5: Ghosts avoid losers too.

“Idiots.”

He’d logged onto an online community out of boredom, but only ended up feeling annoyed. The whole world was suffering because of ghosts, and here they were playing word games.

Lee Jushin put down his phone and lifted his head. Through the rearview mirror, his eyes met the driver’s, who quickly looked away. Gauging the mood, the driver hesitated for a moment before carefully asking.

“Is there something uncomfortable…?”

“It’s not because of you that I’m annoyed.”

From the way he cut off the question, the driver could read the underlying message: Now I’m annoyed because of you too.

“I’m sorry.”

In situations like this, a quick apology was the best policy. The driver shut his mouth and focused on driving. After all, if you poke Lee Jushin, that jerk, you only make things worse for yourself.

The luxury sedan carrying ‘lord’ Lee Jushin sped through the silence to its destination: Irok High School, where the eighteen-year-old Jushin attended.

Lee Jushin, who had been sinking deep into the car seat, raised his upper body only after the driver got out and opened the door for him. But he didn’t step out immediately. Instead, he glared at the driver with fierce eyes and muttered.

“Now I’m a bit annoyed.”

“Huh?”

“I told you I’d get out myself where there are many eyes. How many times?”

“Ah… sorry…”

“Move aside.”

Jushin stretched his leg out even though the driver was standing right in front of the door. If the driver hadn’t quickly dodged, Jushin’s footprint would have been stamped onto his suit.

It was late morning, close to noon, and classes had long since started. Lee Jushin leisurely crossed the empty schoolyard. No class seemed to have PE; he was the only person on the wide field.

Of course, non-human things existed. They were everywhere.

Jushin’s sharp eyes caught several of them. A ghost sitting on the book of the ‘Reading Girl’ statue, swinging its legs. A ghost hanging upside down from a pine tree. A ghost crawling up the school wall like a bug. A ghost lying face-down in the middle of the field…

They were spirits that didn’t harm humans, so they escaped exorcism. Because he ran into them every time he came to school, he almost felt a bit fond of them. Out of professional habit, he had been unconsciously observing them, but he averted his gaze and entered the school with a steady gait that hadn’t wavered since he got out of the car.

When Jushin reached the hallway where the second-year classrooms were, the bell announcing the end of class rang. The scraping sound of desks and chairs followed immediately, and classroom doors slid open as students rushed out. Jushin clenched his molars.

“Jushin’s here!”

“Jushin, when did you get here?”

Students poured into the hallway and surrounded him, greeting him warmly. Jushin relaxed his clenched jaw.

“Just now.” He smiled warmly. “What was the previous class? Must be hard to catch up.”

The cynical, rude Lee Jushin who cursed at anonymous internet users and bullied the driver was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, sorry. Could you move aside for a sec? Thanks.”

With kind words and gentle gestures, Jushin brushed past the students and sat down at his desk. The students immediately gathered around him again.

“It’s been too long, hasn’t it?”

“Jushin, you’ll sit with us at lunch, right?”

“But when did you go to the US again? I saw the article!”

The stream of greetings, trivial talk, and questions about recent cases poured onto Jushin like a waterfall. He answered every single one without showing the slightest sign of irritation. It looked exactly like an idol fan meeting.

In fact, the ‘idol fan meeting’ comparison wasn’t just a metaphor. In this era, no one suited the title of ‘idol’ more than Lee Jushin. He was a star supported not only at school but nationwide—a national hero.

It was an age of war against ghosts.

And Lee Jushin was Korea’s greatest exorcist.

A scientist who left his name in history once said:

‘If the Third World War breaks out, I don’t know what weapons will be used, but the next world war will be fought with sticks and stones.’

The next generation interpreted this as a prophecy of nuclear war. Many agreed with this interpretation, and nuclear weapons always invoked fear and controversy.

But the prophecy of the famous scientist, and the interpretations of countless scholars, were wrong.

In the 21st century, the Third World War broke out. It was a war against ghosts. What humans had to fear and fight was not nuclear weapons, rival nations, or even natural disasters—it was ghosts.

[On the 25th of last month, a stabbing incident occurred in the middle of Seoul. The suspect, Mr. Park, committed the crime out of despair over his situation…]

[17-year-old A killed 6 classmates at school. The weapon was a modified toy gun…]

[“Fast & Furious” dump truck crashes into shopping mall…]

The disaster came without warning, and the immediate culprits were humans. Because humans do not easily blame their own kind, they struggled to find the cause of the suddenly skyrocketing crime rates. The first thing experts unanimously pointed to was a ‘new mental illness’.

[New Mental Virus Causing ‘Deadly Violence’?]

[No Symptoms, New Mental Illness Causes Uncontrollable Violence During Episodes! Patients Commonly Claim: ‘No Memory’ of Acts]

[Affects Regardless of Gender, Age, or Environment. Expert: ‘A Condition Stemming from Social Phenomenon. No Cure Unless Society Changes…’]

[Professor Kim Gong-tae from Korea University: ‘Crime Seizure Virus? Not a Disease. Collaborating with US Institute to Analyze Cause.’]

Incidents attributed to the so-called ‘crime seizure virus’ were occurring simultaneously not only in Korea but in every country around the world.

Before long, incidents that used to occur once or twice a month increased to once or twice a day, then to dozens a day. Even countries that prided themselves on top-tier public safety were no exception. People around the world trembled in fear.

Schools closed down, and the number of workers quitting their jobs piled up like fallen leaves in autumn. Everyone locked their doors and hid inside. If they went out and encountered a ‘patient’, they’d be dead. Worse, they themselves might ‘break out’ and kill someone without even realizing it.

A ‘Dark Age’ had arrived.

No place on Earth was safe as long as humans existed. It was clearly a pan-human crisis.

Scholars from various fields around the world put their heads together to find the cause. But finding an exact link among tens of thousands of ‘crime seizure virus patients’ with different nationalities, backgrounds, environments, ages, and genders was nearly impossible. Their only commonality was that they all said they didn’t remember the crime. After committing horrible acts, they cried and claimed their innocence.

‘I really don’t remember. It’s like I was possessed…’

Even the greatest scholars working together couldn’t identify the cause. At this point, various conspiracy theories poured out as expected. Among them, the hypothesis that powerful nations, including the US, had spread the crime seizure virus to drastically reduce the overpopulated global population gained the most support.

Everyone talked about the hellish situation, but no one could find the reason. The crisis became so severe that within less than a year from the first incident, the world was on the verge of total anarchy.

But then someone claimed to know the source of the madness. A Korean.

“I know you’re confused. I know you can’t trust anyone. But don’t you have to grasp at straws? What I dare to say is a leak of divine secrets, the last straw we must hold.”

An old woman dressed in black hanbok as if in mourning, her white hair tied neatly in a bun, spoke to the public. Her voice, even more solemn than her attire, made listeners hold their breath.

“The gates of hell have opened.”

The old woman was revered as a manshin—a heaven-earth deity. And she spoke of hell without hesitation.

“Souls that should be in the underworld have crossed into this world. Their evil deeds are the evil deeds of those souls. It’s the mischief of evil spirits…”

The old woman muttered to herself for a moment, then declared in her usual weighty tone.

“Now it is not people fighting people. It is people fighting ghosts.”

In turbulent times, con artists thrive. Even though the old woman was a renowned shaman, people didn’t easily believe her at first. Rather, they pointed fingers at her, saying she had gone senile. Even as everything was falling apart, they spat that she was talking nonsense out of greed.

Placed on the judgment seat of disbelief, the old woman simply waited. She waited for the time when foolish humans would face the truth.

Not long after, children who could see ghosts began to be born.

No, almost all children could see ghosts.

The atmosphere that had dismissed her as a crazy old woman instantly reversed. The South Korean government, which had only a facade left, urgently invited the old woman and other shamans to find a solution to the current crisis.

Thus, starting with the Korean government, international governments selected humans with strong divine and spiritual power to establish an organization to fight ghosts. Those members—the exorcists—were called ‘Hunters’.

It was 12 years after the ‘Dark Age’ began.