NOVEL WEB Chapter 14
The man gradually became happier.
At the workplace, everyone treated him with warmth.
Women saw him as an attractive person.
The rice he ate daily became more delicious.
Whether it was luck or not, money started rolling in.
This astonishing happiness grew stronger with each ritual he received from the monster.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
However… something felt strange.
The man sensed it.
A peculiar sensation.
His instincts whispered that something was wrong… a strange feeling.
But what could the problem be?
Everything is going well, so what in the world could be the issue?
To shake off that sense of incongruity, or maybe to dispel the constant whisper of fear lurking somewhere in his heart, he kept talking to those around him about meeting a shaman.
The story of how he met the shaman while stepping out for a smoke.
The shaman had suddenly appeared and cast a spell that brought him good luck, and thanks to that, everything he did was going smoothly.
Those who heard his story uniformly responded with, “What luck! No way that could be true.”
But one of his friends said this.
“Hey, isn’t that a scam?”
Remembering how easily deceived he was in school, the man felt a pang of anger at his friend treating the shaman who had blessed him as a con artist but realized it was a question stemming from genuine concern.
“No, that shaman’s spell was real.”
“Then what I’m saying is, isn’t it possible some half-baked spell is just fooling you?”
The Republic of Korea is a nation overflowing with scammers.
It has an overwhelmingly high rate of fraud compared to other countries.
Among the countless fraudsters, many pretended to be genuine shamans as they approached people.
They claimed that if you offered money to a deity they had never heard of, they would bring you blessings or that as a shaman who had contracted with deities, they could write talismans for a generous reward.
You could occasionally see people impersonating shamans, as the public perception of shamans is that they are “eccentric beings.” If you asked for their reasons, they could easily mislead people.
“It’s often seen in old tales. A shaman suddenly appears, casts a spell, and protects or helps others.”
Many old stories depict plots where characters resolve issues with the help of passing shamans.
Such as a story where a virtuous scholar is pitied and saved from an evil spirit, or where a talisman is given to a character captured by a monster, allowing them to escape.
Perhaps because they are such familiar figures, scammers would sometimes disguise themselves as shamans to trick people. Their efforts to swindle money from others are astonishing and often deceive those who have only encountered shamans through TV or books.
Moreover, due to the nature of magic, those with lower skills could easily access and use it, and unless they were powerful capable people, even ordinary individuals or weak capable persons rarely encountered obstacles, making it easy to cheat with a half-decent spell.
Furthermore, rituals could often be presented as “I’ll perform a grand magical ritual,” which many people would blindly accept without thinking much. Especially in modern times, the existence of convincing magical techniques or magical items makes it even easier to deceive people.
“Are there really shamans impersonating these days? Some of them even deceive government agencies! Think about it!”
Given his gullible nature, the man couldn’t shake off his friend’s words.
What if what he had witnessed was merely an illusion created by magic or a scam?
But the man chuckled to himself.
“Surely, there can’t be those kinds of people these days.”
While scammers pretending to be shamans definitely exist, those who persistently keep impersonating shamans don’t last long.
Real shamans don’t tolerate those who impersonate them and commit crimes.
Shamans carry an image of eccentricity intertwined with localized and folklore images, appearing as friendly and innocent figures who seem harmless at first glance.
In reality, many of them were genuinely kind-hearted shamans helping others or those who secluded themselves in remote mountains for cultivation.
However, there were certainly shamans who seemed like they stepped out of a horror movie or a thriller. In South America, there have been instances of crazy shamans involved in human sacrifices being killed, and in Europe, there were shamans who roamed with wolves, ruling like kings.
These two examples are extreme, and in reality, most shamans are neither malicious nor benevolent. Many of them are indifferent to worldly matters unless directly involved. There are many who are so absorbed in their practices that they remain unaware of the outside world.
Thus, scammers think,
“If I pose as a shaman, I might just hit the jackpot.”
They acknowledge that some shamans can be violent.
But isn’t the same true for criminals?
Out of 1,000 people, there could be assailants and murderers.
Yet, most people are living their lives normally, aren’t they?
If they don’t get caught, then that’s it.
If they do get caught, they might just think of it as bad luck.
In this way, scammers impersonate shamans fearlessly.
And they inevitably fall.
Not just fall, but crash in a horrifically disastrous way.
“Who’s even pretending to be a shaman these days? They’d socially perish!”
With the advancement of science, the treatment of capable persons has changed from the past.
Wizards, once precious and respected by kings and nobles, have turned into engineers, soldiers, and special occupations, rising to elite statuses.
Warriors, who were core forces protecting the nation, have transitioned into roles as soldiers, bodyguards, or mercenaries.
Contractors, who once caused upheaval in history, are now treated as merely slightly stronger capable persons, while witches, once persecuted, have expanded into the entertainment and beauty industries, becoming objects of admiration.
Even summoners, once facing death due to summoning demons or monsters, now appear on TV boasting about their summon creatures. Cute animals are a cheat code to boost ratings.
But shamans have not changed much from the past.
In ancient times, shamans had power and honor because they could predict the future and wield magical abilities.
Kings and nobles would consult shamans for divination in important matters, and when the nation faced famine or had to go to war, rituals for prosperity were performed.
Many wealthy and powerful individuals would visit shamans’ homes, often carrying extravagant offerings, so frequently that the thresholds of those homes wore down.
However, shamans were not the exclusive domain of the powerful.
Their abilities were not limited to mere divination; they were multifaceted.
In times when medical practices were not systematically organized, shamans served as doctors and were also counselors who listened to people’s grievances and provided solutions.
They were often the ones who prayed for blessings for newborns and were experts in feng shui, determining auspicious locations based on geographical features.
They intervened amidst difficult situations as if writing their own tales.
Since shamans have existed alongside humanity since ancient times, they have been both familiar and awe-inspiring figures.
This characteristic has continued into modern times.
With the disappearance of kings and nobles and the establishment of capitalism, wealth and power must still exist as long as society remains.
Thus, even if the names have changed, ruling classes reappeared.
Kings became presidents.
Nobles became council members and wealthy individuals.
In this newly structured world, reborn power holders yearned for shamanic practices just as the ancient powerful had, seeking to foresee their futures and attract blessings.
For this reason, skilled shamans often linked up with powerful figures and dealt decisively with the scammers who boldly impersonated them.
Powerful individuals wishing to cultivate close ties with shamans handled them without a hint of compassion, announcing the consequences of impersonating shamans through various media platforms, ensuring that everyone knew of a scammer’s grim fate.
As this pattern repeated, the formula of ‘impersonating a shaman = social demise’ took root.
One punishment to serve as a hundred warnings,
this was the resolve of shamans to ensure they were never crossed again.
Yet, it was unavoidable that some foolish impersonators would still emerge.
These were the type who wished to make a big score off the rich and then disappear.
“Would those crazy morons aim for someone like me? They’d be targeting the wealthy in Gangnam instead.”
The man brushed off his friend’s words like so.
Yet, due to the sense of incongruity he had been feeling lately and his friend’s words, he couldn’t help but feel a ripple of unease.
Thus, when he encountered the monster again, he impulsively spoke up.
Instinctively.
“Um, shaman. Besides that fortune spell… can you cast other spells too?”
The monster smiled.
“Of course.”
As if it were the answer it had been waiting for.