Chapter 224
“It seems pointless.”
Jang Mokhwa’s words were of no use, yet Seong Geonwoo didn’t give up.
“Your wife ran away with another man!”
‘Do radio shows even talk about things like that these days?’
Jang Mokhwa stifled a laugh.
The spirit lying in the coffin remained calm once again.
There was still the procedure of repeating the same words in Red River Language. Waiting for Seong Geonwoo to persistently say the same thing, Jang Mokhwa let out a sigh.
“If you hadn’t sensed any human consciousness, and if I hadn’t detected even the faintest electric signals, I would never have imagined this person was still alive. He would’ve been asleep for at least thirty, forty years, right? And yet he’s alive to some extent… truly a mystery. Could someone have been regularly injecting glucose and nutrients?”
Even if a human regained the dormant abilities encoded in their genes, surviving in a sleep state for thirty to forty years would be impossible.
After a moment of thought, Seong Geonwoo responded.
“Human cryonics technology.”
Jang Mokhwa was somewhat familiar with the technology.
“So you’re saying this person somehow used an ability or some kind of item to freeze their body?”
In reality, the body wasn’t literally frozen. The only thing Jang Mokhwa and Seong Geonwoo could feel standing before the coffin was a slight chill.
“We’ll know once we wake him up.”
Seong Geonwoo muttered while fiddling with his chin. Then, he quickly turned to look directly at Jang Mokhwa.
“Look…”
“Stop! Look at what? What trick are you up to?”
Jang Mokhwa’s guard immediately shot up.
Seong Geonwoo answered honestly.
“I want to try using my Awakener ability on him. You see, my ability works on beings with human consciousness—and he still has human consciousness.”
Even without her Detective Clown ability, Jang Mokhwa could understand his words. She also thought that the attempt might have a fair chance of success.
Muttering to herself in thought, Jang Mokhwa said:
“At the company, they said not to move the body of a sleeping spirit unless absolutely necessary. I added that it’s best not to touch it at all. But there was no warning about the mental side or contact.”
Seong Geonwoo’s expression brightened instantly. He even threw off his mask as if determined to do his best.
Seeing him, Jang Mokhwa quickly added:
“Don’t use the Detective Clown ability. He won’t hear you. The Obstructionist and the Dual-Hand Inability abilities are theoretically possible, but I recommend the Dual-Hand Inability. The former could cause unintended accidents.
The latter only affects the hands after the connection is established. His hands are already immobile, so the process won’t visibly change him—and the chance of danger is minimal.”
Jang Mokhwa didn’t want to witness the mummy suddenly springing upright.
“Yes, understood.”
Seong Geonwoo didn’t object.
Jang Mokhwa promptly removed the latex gloves on her left hand and moved her fingers.
“I can’t touch anything here, but you can. Observe his condition carefully, and if you sense anything strange, I’ll bring you back to your senses immediately.”
As she spoke, a faint electrical current crackled between her fingers.
Seong Geonwoo watched her, then focused his gaze back on the sleeping spirit inside the coffin. Quickly, he extended his consciousness and connected it with the spirit’s.
Suddenly, darkness enveloped Seong Geonwoo’s vision.
It felt as if he had returned to the Sea of Origin, with only a faint light visible.
Following that faint light, Seong Geonwoo discovered a window. Far beyond it, a blurry tower soared as if piercing the clouds. Below the window, in darkness, a figure crouched.
Then, the figure raised its head and looked at Seong Geonwoo. From its mouth came a weak voice, its eyes flickering with a strange light.
“Save me…”
The figure in the darkness reached toward Seong Geonwoo like someone drowning, desperate to grasp at a straw.
Seong Geonwoo’s whole body felt chilled, as if slowly sinking into icy water. The closer the figure’s hand came, the more violently the faint light in the surrounding darkness flickered.
Finally, through the silently shattering darkness, a ray of sunlight filtered in. And once again, Seong Geonwoo’s vision returned to the real world—the black coffin and the mummy in rough white linen.
His body was still stiff, as if countless peripheral nerves were convulsing.
“What’s wrong? I just tried to wake him because your expression started to twist. Good thing you took off your mask.”
Jang Mokhwa withdrew her sparking left hand and let out a deep, relieved sigh. Her eyes reflected genuine concern.
“How long has it been?”
Seong Geonwoo asked.
“About two or three minutes.”
Since she already knew the answer, Jang Mokhwa didn’t even check her wristwatch. She had been fully focused on monitoring Seong Geonwoo and the specific time until now—there was no time to linger in the temple.
Seong Geonwoo recalled the vision for a moment and spoke.
“It only felt like ten seconds.”
Then he described the dark environment, the faintly glowing window, the distant tall tower, and the crouched figure beneath the window exactly as he had seen them.
“The figure said ‘save me’?”
Jang Mokhwa asked in surprise.
“He spoke Ashlandic.”
Seong Geonwoo, as always, ended with an unrelated answer.
Jang Mokhwa, glancing at the temple’s layout, looked at the mummy with long black hair in rough linen again and nodded slightly.
“Maybe it makes sense… if he cried for help, it could mean his current state isn’t what he wanted. Some accident might have trapped him deep within the corridor of the spirit world, preventing his consciousness from returning to his body. Perhaps his energy fused with an Awakener and tried to use that body to create a passage between the spirit world and the real world?”
Jang Mokhwa, who had always worried when Seong Geonwoo ventured into the Sea of Origin, voiced a relatively orderly hypothesis.
“Perhaps during some attempt, his consciousness was trapped in the subconscious,” Seong Geonwoo suggested another possibility, analyzing the situation seriously.
Jang Mokhwa responded again:
“But that alone doesn’t explain why his body is still alive. Could a human or Awakener body naturally enter a frozen state when caught in such a predicament?”
For now, there was no answer. Jang Mokhwa reluctantly changed the subject.
“What could the window and the tower outside mean? If your guess is correct, it’s a psychological reflection. If mine is correct, it’s a scene deep within the corridor of the spirit world. Time’s short—let’s see if we can find any other clues. Talking won’t get us anywhere.”
Jang Mokhwa checked her wristwatch once more.
Seong Geonwoo nodded in agreement, put his mask back on, and pulled out the flashlight hanging from his belt.
The beam of yellow light illuminated the coffin, chasing away the darkness.
Jang Mokhwa crouched, holding her gun in one hand, and carefully examined the sleeping spirit named Yeomho under the flashlight’s glow.
As she scanned from head to toe, her eyes caught the mummy’s right fingernails—cracked and stained dark red.
“Is he hurt?”
Jang Mokhwa gestured for the light to fall on the coffin wall that the mummy’s hand might have touched.
There, scratches marred the surface. Some were normal, some broken, and some stained dark red.
“Did he scratch with his nails after falling asleep? Could he move his fingers occasionally at first?”
Jang Mokhwa couldn’t determine the exact meaning of the marks. Usually, such traces weren’t created all at once, but over several instances.
After slinging her gun over her shoulder, Jang Mokhwa pulled out paper and pen from her pocket and drew a scaled-down layout of the coffin and the marks.
Only after copying them did she realize their meaning.
‘새’, ‘로’, ‘운’, ‘세’, ‘계’
Five Ashlandic characters.
The sleeping spirit Yeomho had left these marks with all his might after falling asleep.
Seong Geonwoo opened his mouth as if struck by sudden insight.
“He’s trapped in a new world!”
“Isn’t that too simple? What do you mean by a new world? Where is it?”
Jang Mokhwa didn’t blindly reject Seong Geonwoo’s guess. She only raised more questions.
“I don’t know,” Seong Geonwoo replied, as always, honestly.
Jang Mokhwa checked the time once more.
“Let’s discuss this later. First, finish the search.”
They quickly examined the coffin, but found no further clues.
Even after checking the corridors on either side of the temple until the very last minute, not a speck of dust remained.
“It’s time to leave now.”
Jang Mokhwa returned to the coffin and made a rational decision.
Seong Geonwoo, though reluctant, followed the team leader’s orders.
Jang Mokhwa took a final glance at the sleeping Yeomho, scanning his tightly shut eyes, gaunt face, and slightly yellowed white linen. Her gaze lingered on the bracelet on his right wrist.
She suspected the bracelet had a peculiar effect. But recalling the strange changes caused by the merman Awakener, she dared not reach for it. Who knew if Yeomho’s item might have a similar effect—or even a virus?
Suppressing her rising desire, Jang Mokhwa turned and headed out of the temple without looking back.
It was better to leave such a dangerous object for the Boundary Sect or the company’s professional disposal team who might come later.
Seong Geonwoo didn’t follow her immediately. Instead, he put away the flashlight, stepped diagonally toward the coffin, and gently covered it with his latex-gloved hand.
After finishing the task, he bowed deeply three times in front of the now-invisible sleeping spirit.
Standing in the courtyard, Jang Mokhwa silently watched the scene, having resolved never to look back.
“He’s still not dead…”
Jang Mokhwa sighed.
“That way it’s warmer, right? And the bugs won’t bother him.”
Seong Geonwoo explained his action with his own reasoning while removing the white drape rolled at the entrance.
Jang Mokhwa chuckled.
“Then why did you bow so deeply?”
“Manners,” Seong Geonwoo said sincerely.
