Surviving Among the Anomalies - Chapter 9

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 9: Inspiration

──────

『Can you see me?』

“Yes, I can.”

『Y-you can hear my voice too.』

“Of course I can.”

『O-ohhh!』

The ghost wailed. Unlike before, this cry was mixed with a sigh of relief.

『A-are you a shaman, by any chance?』

“I’m just someone with sharper Spiritual Insight than most.”

『Ah...』

“Of course, I’m not cold-hearted enough to ignore a wronged ghost.”

『Ah!』

“Would you tell me what happened to you?”

People passing by whispered about me as if I were crazy, but I didn’t care. We were only passing strangers. By tomorrow morning, they would have forgotten me.

『Sob, it’s just...』

The ghost lamented his fate.

『My name is Shin Yeong-mun.』

He was a man in his mid-thirties who worked at a factory and watched online streams as a hobby.

『After work, I’d watch online broadcasts until I fell asleep. That was my daily life. Then, a few years ago, I came across a game through a stream.』

It was an online mahjong game.

『Sometimes, something suddenly becomes a huge trend among streamers. Back then, that was it.』

At first, it wasn’t fun. He didn’t know the rules, and they were so complicated that he hadn’t even wanted to learn them.

『But I kept watching my favorite streamer, and somehow I memorized the rules. Then I tried it myself and got completely hooked.』

For years afterward, he enjoyed Mahjong regularly. He watched Mahjong-focused streams, researched the game, and studied it.

『I wasn’t a Mahjong master, but I was confident I was pretty good. Around then, I started wanting to play Mahjong in person.』

There was a saying about Mahjong.

『They say the hardest part of Mahjong is gathering four people, and it was true.』

Online Mahjong automatically matched players, so it didn’t matter. Offline Mahjong was different.

『That’s when I found this place.』

The ghost looked toward the building behind us.

「Daebak Mahjong Parlor」

『There was a Mahjong café where you could play the game. You could play with strangers, so you didn’t need to gather four people yourself. I came here right away.』

“So something happened there.”

『At first, there were no problems.』

The people were kind, and Mahjong was fun. Then one day, a Mahjong friend he had grown close to told him a secret.

[There’s a secret room in our café.]

A room that could only be entered through someone’s introduction.

Drawn by curiosity, he entered it and found...

『A gambling den where people bet real money.』

There would have been no problem if he had run away then, but he didn’t. He became addicted to illegal gambling instead.

『There are lots of comics about Mahjong, and they often show people getting rich through illegal gambling. I wanted to become the protagonist of one of those comics.』

“But you failed.”

『No, I could have succeeded. I could have, but...!』

Shin Yeong-mun’s eyes turned blood-red.

『Those bastards cheated. They must’ve planned to fleece me from the start!』

By the time he realized it, he had lost not only his housing deposit but every bit of money he had saved.

『I even took out debts I couldn’t handle. I ran all over the place trying to resolve it, but I ended up in a traffic accident. When I came to...』

“You were like this.”

『Yes! U-um...』

“Lee Seung-hoon.”

『Yes! Seung-hoon! Please, avenge me! Sob!』

“Cheating at gambling, huh.”

Since ancient times, people had said that ghosts passed on once their grudges were resolved.

“I’ll come back tomorrow.”

『S-Seung-hoon!』

The next day, I put the bundles of cash I had withdrawn from the bank into a bag and returned to the building from yesterday.

“I brought some money. Is this enough to get into the illegal gambling room?”

『H-how much is it?』

“Twenty-five million won.”

『Y-you’re really going in?』

“Yes. If I take the money from the bastards who cheat, you’ll be able to pass on too.”

『Oh...』

“But you were outside the Mahjong parlor instead of at your home or the place where you had the accident. You must hold quite a grudge.”

『Actually, I spend every day watching the bastards who cheated me in there. No matter how hard I glare at them, I can’t do anything, so I came out here.』

The Mahjong parlor was underground. As we went down the stairs, Shin Yeong-mun followed behind me and asked,

『But do you know how to play Mahjong? If you don’t, I’ll teach you from behind! Ghost Mahjong King!』

Mahjong.

“I know the rules. I’ve never actually played.”

Knowing the basics was enough.

“I don’t think I’ll lose.”

I only had to handle the rest with my body.

＊＊＊

The Mahjong parlor was comfortable. There were no middle-aged men reeking of cigarettes, no broken lights or cobwebs, and no suspicious guards in black suits standing around.

‘It’s ordinary.’

An ordinary place where ordinary people played Mahjong. That was my first impression.

‘Where can I find the illegal gambling?’

It didn’t take long.

『Ah! That’s him!』

The ghost behind me pointed out the person who arranged the illegal gambling.

『Go to him and say the password, and he’ll let you downstairs! The password changes regularly, but I know the latest one! The password is...』

Following his instructions, I approached a man eating snacks while watching other people play Mahjong and whispered,

“Vampire.”

“Bat.”

“Ramen.”

“Claw.”

The man answered calmly, glanced at me, and nodded.

“Who introduced you?”

“Shin Yeong-mun introduced me.”

“Ah, that guy?”

Shin Yeong-mun shouted behind me when the man started grinning.

『T-that fucking bastard! Look at him treating me like a sucker!』

“Did you bring the money?”

“Would you like to see?”

I opened the bag and showed him the cash. He nodded, then led me to a room farther inside.

“Go down here.”

There was a staircase leading underground inside the room. At the bottom was a corridor.

‘There are guards.’

Whether they were guards or gangsters, there were a dozen or so large men standing throughout the corridor. Shouts came from the rooms lining it.

-Hahaha! I got it, I got it!

-You bastard! You cheated, didn’t you!?

-How can you cheat using an Automatic Mahjong Table? Say something that makes sense!

“Come this way.”

At the end of the corridor, the suited man led me into a room on the right. The people waiting inside greeted me.

“Ah, the players are finally all here.”

“Isn’t this place past its prime too, if we’re only gathering this late?”

“I haven’t seen you before. Who introduced you?”

“Shin Yeong-mun introduced me.”

Shin Yeong-mun’s trembling voice sounded behind me.

『Those three bastards, they’re the ones who fleeced me too!』

“Ah, that guy? Haven’t seen him lately. Is he doing well?”

“He’s busy with work, so I don’t see him often either.”

“Haha, of course he is! He got cleaned out last time!”

Once I sat down, the table started up with a whir, and they explained the rules.

“Ten thousand won per point. Riichi Mahjong, no local rules. And Red Dora...”

The explanation ended, and the game began.

『Seung-hoon! Be careful! You never know what those scammers might try!』

The table spun. The wall of tiles rose, and thirteen tiles were placed before me.

“Damn, I won again.”

“Seven Pairs? Ha, what kind of unmanly hand is that? If it were me, I’d have gone straight for Four Concealed Triplets.”

“You’ll get yourself killed chasing big hands.”

I spent about three rounds slowly getting used to it. Once I had adjusted, I began to notice many things.

The different fingerprints on the backs of the tiles. I remembered what tile each fingerprint-marked piece had been in the previous round.

I remembered which tiles had tiny blemishes too small to even call scratches.

And I checked the reflections in my opponents’ eyes as they looked at their hands, seeing what tiles they held.

“Tsumo.”

I revealed my tiles and claimed my first victory.

“Let’s move on to the next game.”

There was no reason for me to lose now.

＊＊＊

“...”

Silence hung over the Mahjong table. No one spoke.

“Y-you!”

Several people from the first table had already gone bankrupt and left. We had moved to another table to continue playing, but it was the same here.

“You bastard! What kind of trick are you pulling!”

“T-this makes no sense unless you’re cheating!”

I understood their reaction. Until now, I hadn’t discarded a single tile they needed. When my hand was bad, I held out through thorough defense. When it was good, I attacked aggressively and secured the win.

“Cheating? Can you even cheat using an Automatic Mahjong Table?”

“Didn’t you secretly tamper with it!? With some kind of program! Wi-Fi or something!”

“How could that possibly be done?”

“Don’t lie, you bastard!”

Maybe because money was on the line, they all glared at me with bloodshot eyes. One of them grabbed me by the collar.

“Violence is not good. We have the wonderful means of conversation, yet resorting to violence first turns even matters that could be easily resolved into difficult ones...”

“Shut up!”

The person gripping my collar threw a punch. I lightly pressed down on his wrist, restrained him, and gave him a small shove to the side.

“Urgh!”

When he fell, the guards finally rushed over.

“What’s going on? Violence is prohibited.”

“No, this bastard’s cheating! He hasn’t let anyone make a single Open Call! He hasn’t discarded a single tile anyone needs! He keeps taking every Dora! He just keeps winning by himself! How many straight wins is that now!”

“Is that true?”

I nodded at the guard’s question.

“It is.”

“Did you do something?”

“No. I only played Mahjong. Discard the tiles you don’t need, draw the tiles you do, and complete a hand. Isn’t that all it takes for anyone to win at Mahjong?”

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, boss, it’s...”

After listening to the guard’s explanation, a man who appeared to be a superior pointed at me.

“You there, customer. Take off your clothes. We need to check whether you’ve hidden any concealed tiles.”

“I refuse. This is Mahjong, not hwatu. How would I hide concealed tiles?”

“Hey, do I look like I’m joking?”

The man approached with his eyes wide.

“I’m not joking either.”

“Ha, I was going to let it slide because you’re a customer.”

I saw the man’s hand coming to slap me. I casually threw a punch and struck his jaw.

“Gah!”

“Boss!?”

Once he fell, every guard in the place rushed over.

“You bastard!”

“Hmm.”

This wasn’t part of the plan.

“Why is it that no matter how kindly I explain things, no one ever understands?”

Online or in real life.

“Get him!”

It was sad that people never listened to one another.

＊＊＊

“I’ll be going, then.”

“Ugh...”

Leaving the fallen guards behind, I picked up my bag and left the basement. Shin Yeong-mun chattered beside me on the way out.

『A-are you John Wick?』

“No. I’m not a killer.”

『N-no, then how did you grab a knife with your bare hand and snap it? How did you knock out someone attacking from behind with an elbow strike? And how can you beat all those gangsters without even getting out of breath?』

“I grabbed the blunt side of the knife, not the blade, and people pass out if their liver takes a heavy impact. A crescent kick is a representative technique that aims for that. Lastly, my Physical Ability is just a little better than average.”

『Then what do you do?』

“Just think of me as an ordinary person working hard to survive.”

『Ordinary...』

The bag was heavy. It contained 1.07 billion won in cash. Excluding my original money, I had made a profit of 1.045 billion won.

‘It’s a lot of money, but it isn’t enough.’

The money I needed for the survival I wanted was far more than this.

‘I’ll have to give up on making money through private gambling.’

More importantly, I had something to test.

“Aren’t you going to pass on?”

『Uh, well, I still can’t pass on because I don’t feel satisfied yet.』

“I see. Ah, you said you played online Mahjong before, right? Did that game have ranks based on skill too?”

『Yes. You start as a Novice, then move up through Adept, Expert, Master, Saint, and Celestial. Every rank is divided further into one-star, two-star, and three-star levels.』

“What rank were you?”

After hesitating for a moment, he answered.

『Adept, one-star.』

“That’s second from the bottom.”

『But! It wasn’t because I lacked skill. When I played, hacks were everywhere, so I couldn’t climb. Then just when the hacks seemed to die down, having AI play Mahjong for you became popular, so I couldn’t climb then either!』

“I see.”

『Even if my rank was low, I can confidently say my skill was Celestial-tier!』

I was starting to understand.

“By the way, among the Mahjong players I faced today, how many were the people who cheated you?”

『All of them! Every last one was a scammer!』

“Shin Yeong-mun.”

This wasn’t a gambling den where they cheated.

“You can’t cheat using an Automatic Mahjong Table.”

『I didn’t mean they rigged the table. The three of them worked together and...』

“If they had, they would’ve done it to me today too. I didn’t see any signs of that.”

It was just an ordinary illegal gambling den.

『Then what was everything I went through?』

There was only one reason he had lost his money.

“You weren’t cheated. You’re just bad at Mahjong.”

『...You’re saying I ended up like this because I was fucking terrible at Mahjong?』

“To put it crudely, yes.”

『I played Mahjong for years, and I was so fucking bad at it that I lost all my money, got hit by a car while going to borrow money from a friend, and died!?』

“I didn’t say that.”

His condition was serious. His eyes had turned completely red, and his once translucent body was becoming slightly charred black.

‘It seems ghosts become evil spirits when their emotions run high.’

He now looked exactly like the evil spirits people imagined.

『Ugh, argh!』

Watching him twist in agony and scream, I felt like he would cause serious trouble if I left him alone.

‘Hmm, should I exorcise him?’

If I did, should I use a Christian method, a Buddhist one, or a Japanese one?

‘More importantly, I think I can touch him.’

Since the ghost had stayed attached to me for so long, my Spiritual Insight seemed to have become even sharper.

『I’m angry. I, I’m so fucking bad at Mahjong...』

I walked up and threw a punch.