Chapter 130: Tagger.apk (4)

[4. As I have said before, the countermeasure is simple. The ghost story has not yet been completed. So, all you have to do is stop playing the game.]

Jae-min, who had been diligently climbing the mountain trail, stopped and panted for breath, his lungs burning.

“Ah, hold on. Hold on. This isn't going to work.”

Jae-min stopped for a moment and pulled insect repellent out of his bag.

“Guys, do you know what's the scariest thing in the mountains? Ghosts? Nope. Ticks. Ticks.”

After joking toward the camera he had set down to one side, Jae-min sprayed every kind of repellent he had brought all over his body.

Then he checked the location on the map again.

Seeing that he was almost there, he drained a plastic bottle of water, crushed it roughly, and stuffed it back into his bag.

“See that? I even take my trash back with me, guys.”

Making pointless remarks like that eased some of his fear.

But when Jae-min saw the place he soon arrived at, that feeling vanished completely.

This time, it was the real deal.

“Oh...... damn.......”

[You have arrived at the fourth tagged location!]

At the location stood an abandoned shamanic shrine.

***

Sa-rin finally stretched out her legs after finishing the consultations she had booked for the day.

Young shamans with strong spiritual power tended to go through periods in their prime when they were overwhelmed with appointments.

Of course, there were occasionally shamans who retained that power even as they grew older.

But there was no guarantee she would be one of them.

It was only right to make as much money as she could while she still could.

“I'm exhausted. Grandma~ I'm going to rest for a bit~”

Muttering something that was not quite talking to herself, Sa-rin flopped sideways and lay down.

Did being a shaman mean she disliked fictional stories about ghosts and the supernatural?

Not necessarily.

Sa-rin was naturally curious and had always been interested in all kinds of occult stories.

That had been true before she became a shaman, and it was still true afterward.

Her YouTube account was filled by the algorithm with videos about ghost stories and mysteries.

As she habitually browsed to see whether anything new had been uploaded, an unfamiliar channel caught her eye.

“......What's this?”

[Song Jae-min] Tagger Experience LIVE — Day 3!

She had never seen the channel before, but it seemed to belong to someone who mainly explored abandoned houses and haunted locations.

It was not a particularly large stream either, with only a little over a hundred viewers watching at the same time.

Curious, Sa-rin clicked on the live broadcast.

―A place this ominous is always a welcome sight, isn't it, guys?

The YouTuber saying that was pointing his camera at what looked like an abandoned shamanic shrine.

If it were a place a shaman had properly cleaned up before leaving, there would not be much of a problem with someone rummaging around a little.

In fact, it would be the perfect location for this kind of content.

―All right, so what's the mission this time?

―.......

―Seriously, this thing makes you do all kinds of crap, huh? I really don't want to do this one.

―You think I'm scared? Of course not! It'll ruin my hairstyle!

―Ah, you guys just don't understand fashion.

As the YouTuber joked and laughed, Sa-rin saw the screen on the phone he was showing to the camera.

Those two things made her slowly sit upright.

[After pressing the Perform Mission button, cut off some of your hair, place it on top of the shamanic shrine, and take a verification photo! Click!]

Hair had an unmistakable ritual significance.

And that shrine had not been properly cleared out either.

Even Sa-rin could not say for certain what meaning the spirits might assign to an act like that.

What mattered was that absolutely nothing good could come of it.

[Do NOT do that!]

[Hey, YouTuber! Can you see this? I'm an actual practicing shaman.]

[Forget that.]

[I said don't do it?!]

But even though the YouTuber seemed to be constantly watching and interacting with the chat, he acted as if Sa-rin's messages were completely invisible.

No, Sa-rin was not even the only one trying to stop him.

―Misunderstanding: Damn, feels like you're seriously gonna get cursed

―BlackHood: Bro, you're gonna collapse again at this rate

―HoldingBreathTillDischarge: Think you can stop around here? Damn

―SunsetSoul: lol but did the guy above get discharged yet?

―slkdf: fr Jae-min bro just stop and call it a night, it's late already

―HoldingBreathTillDischarge: hahahahaha ah

―HoldingBreathTillDischarge: you talking about me?

―HoldingBreathTillDischarge: yeah yeah I did, just too lazy to change the username

Not a single person was egging the YouTuber on.

If anything, they were chatting among themselves in a fairly peaceful atmosphere while worrying about him.

But.

―All right, all right. I said I'll do it. I'll do it. Just wait. What did I have that I could cut it with?

Like someone under a spell, the YouTuber muttered as though answering an impatient chorus that did not even exist in the chat.

Certain now that something was wrong, Sa-rin got to her feet and grabbed her phone.

***

Jae-min was agonizing in front of the abandoned shamanic shrine in the mountains.

“Ah, it took me forever to grow this out.”

He had grown the hair at the back of his head long enough to tie into a small ponytail.

The most dramatic thing to do in a situation like this would be to boldly cut the whole ponytail off, but....

'That'd be a little much, wouldn't it...?'

Fidgeting nervously with the hair at the back of his head, he eventually stood in front of the camera screen and used it as a mirror.

Then, with the small pair of scissors he had brought... he cut off a little of his bangs.

He placed the clipped hair on top of the shrine like a few scraps.

“Come on, let this much count, guys. Do you know how many months it takes to grow hair like this?”

With that, Jae-min opened the app again.

He pressed the Perform Mission button in Tagger and took a picture.

Click.

[Mission failed! The amount of hair is insufficient.]

“.......”

Jae-min froze at the message that appeared so emptily on the screen.

He had assumed that the Perform Mission button in the app was only there for form's sake.

The app was not particularly large, and more importantly, it worked even when there was no internet connection.

Naturally, he had assumed there was no way for it to actually verify whether a mission had been performed correctly.

The only reason he had faithfully followed the instructions anyway was because doing so made good content in itself.

But... the app had actually recognized it?

Before the chills from seeing the shrine had even subsided, another cold sensation crawled up the back of his neck.

“Ha... hahaha.... Wow. They actually made this app pretty well, huh?”

Was it really analyzing the photo accurately?

For some reason, Jae-min suddenly felt like testing it, so he pulled up several similar-looking weeds and placed them on top of the shrine.

A few strands of wilted weeds looked convincingly like clumps of hair in the darkness.

But.

[Mission failed! The image does not contain hair.]

As though it knew exactly what it was looking at.

The app accurately determined that it was not hair.

―Understanding: Cut it

―TornHood: Cut your hair

―HoldingBreathTillDischarge: Stop making this boring

―SunsetSoul: Hurry

―slkdf: Quickly

―HoldingBreathTillDischarge: Hurry

Looking at the impatient chat messages, Jae-min finally sighed.

Viewers really were ruthless.

In the brutal world of internet streaming, shaving your head once or twice was practically a rite of passage.

Deciding to think of it that way, Jae-min nodded.

“Ah, all right. All right. I'll cut it. I'll cut it.”

Almost without thinking, he grabbed a lock of hair at the back of his head about as thick as a finger and snipped it off.

His hair tie slipped loose and dropped to the ground as the hair became too short to hold it.

“Damn it....”

'Guess I'll have to go back to the salon.'

At this point, he would probably have to cut off the entire ponytail and start growing it again.

Still, when he thought about all the donations pouring in, he figured he could just treat himself to a nice salon.

Feeling as though he had finally done it properly, Jae-min placed all the cut hair on top of the shrine again and took a picture.

Click!

[Mission successful! Tagging the fifth location.]

For some reason, the next location appeared immediately this time without even loading.

It was right nearby, within about one kilometer, which was at least a relief.

It was already past midnight.

After wandering around for so long, his stamina was starting to run low as well....

“.......”

While looking at the map, Jae-min glanced back over the eerie shamanic shrine.

Halfway up the mountain, five-colored strips of cloth hung from a huge tree.

There were small stone statues he could not identify, along with all kinds of bowls.

Bells and various ritual implements were scattered everywhere.

The place certainly looked abandoned, but no one had cleared any of it away.

It looked almost as if someone had simply left everything exactly as it was and fled.

It seemed like too interesting a place to just walk away from, so Jae-min started poking around at the objects lying nearby.

Jingle, jingle―

When he picked up a bell, its clear sound rang surprisingly loudly.

Jae-min fiddled with a few more things before soon losing interest and getting back to his feet.

“Well, there wasn't really anything special. Anyway, shall we head to the next place now, guys?”

Jae-min was a little frightened, but he told himself it was only the pleasant kind of thrill.

More than anything, no matter how creepy something looked, the moment he saw the donations and the flood of chat messages, he felt energized again.

How great would it be if every stream could be like this?

Running that hopeful fantasy through his head, Jae-min continued along the rough mountain trail.

His flashlight illuminated the path ahead....

Rustle―

“......?”

Jae-min stopped.

For some reason, he felt a sense of déjà vu.

'Wasn't there just another set of footsteps?'

“......Anyway, I guess one good thing about being in the mountains is that it's a lot cooler, guys.”

Jae-min started walking again as he muttered.

He did not want to turn around.

No, shouldn't he still check?

'Is it a person? A cat again? A water deer? Or... c-could it be a wild boar?'

That might actually be even scarier than a ghost.

While he was thinking that.

[You have arrived at the fifth tagged location!]

The arrival notification appeared.

When Jae-min raised his head, he swallowed dryly for what felt like the hundredth time and barely managed to steady his voice.

“...There's something pretty unusual here.”

Three small mounds of packed earth rose together, shaped almost like graves.

“They kind of... look like graves, don't they?”

In a situation like this, that was what he was supposed to say.

Jae-min suppressed the ominous feeling and repeated to himself again and again, almost as if brainwashing himself, that he was a content creator.

'They don't really look like that. I'm just pretending they do.'

As he muttered internally, almost trying to escape reality, Jae-min suddenly flinched again.

Rustle―

“...Did you guys just hear something?”

Unable to stand it any longer, Jae-min finally said something first.

For some reason, the chat was unusually quiet.

'Did they all plan this together or something?'

Trying to ease his fear, his mind kept leaping to increasingly ridiculous explanations.

[This is your fifth mission.]

[After pressing the Perform Mission button, take a photograph showing your entire body! Click!]

This mission only required him to take a picture with his full body visible, so it was not particularly difficult.

He felt relieved that he had finally gotten a normal mission.

But.

[Mission successful! Tagging the sixth location.]

.......

'Why did it say I succeeded before I even took the picture?'

It had been so picky just a moment ago.

“...Well, I guess it's counting it as done.”

His voice tense, Jae-min waited for the next location to be tagged.

Only two more locations.

The thought gave him at least a little strength.

***

'Found him.'

I slowly followed behind him, tracking the beam of his flashlight through the mountains.

“Have them cut the stream first.”

There was no reason to let footage of the agents remain on video.

Now that we had found him, it should be fine to forcibly terminate the broadcast.

Following my instruction, Ju-hee contacted Hwi-yeon.

Hidden in the dark mountains, we were the only ones who could see Jae-min.

“Huh? What?”

We heard Jae-min's confused voice when the broadcast suddenly ended.

Then, now, it should be fine to reveal ourselves.

I stepped forward without hesitation and headed toward Jae-min.

“Hey, Mr. Song Jae-min. Been doing well?”

I had expected one of roughly two reactions from him.

Either he genuinely had no idea what he was doing and would stare at us in bewilderment.

Or, because he had secretly been terrified, he would be glad to see me.

“.........!”

Startled, Jae-min stared at me for a moment as though trying to decide something, and then...?

“Damn it...!”

'What.'

'......What?!'

“Uh, uh...?”

Completely contrary to my expectations, Jae-min suddenly took off running in the opposite direction.

'Is that bastard seriously running away from us?!'

The moment I sprinted after Jae-min, Ju-hee and Han-su immediately started running after him as well.

But at that exact moment.

“There he is!”

'What the hell is this now!?'

Someone else came charging toward us from another direction, slammed violently into me, and knocked me straight to the ground.