CHAPTER 284: GUMIHO (2)

Whoosh-

It was a dark forest.

This space with a bright blue moon in the sky was Gumiho’s collaboration space.

Awooo-

A fox’s cry could be heard from somewhere.

“Only subscribed to the right gods subscriber.”

A voice like rolling jade beads was heard.

Yoho, fox spirit, Gumiho.

Gumiho, a god with various aliases, greeted while holding the hem of her hanbok skirt.

“Nice to meet you, Lady Gumiho.”

Ethan also greeted politely.

“Well, it’s a bit awkward to ask this question at our first meeting.”

Gumiho cleared her throat a couple of times and then asked immediately.

The dignity of a god wasn’t more important to her than her curiosity.

“Why did you subscribe to me? To be honest, it’s not much of a channel?”

Ethan smiled at that question.

“Tremendous potential for growth. I saw that in Lady Gumiho’s channel.”

“…!”

For a moment, Gumiho’s cheeks turned pink.

“G-growth potential? In me?”

Of course, it was a lie. He just subscribed to what came up when he searched for [evil spirit exorcism] using the algorithm.

“You didn’t know about me, right?”

“Yes, embarrassingly…”

“Yet you were already uploading videos centered on shorts. Shorts were a feature that wasn’t getting much attention in New World until recently.”

“I’m not good at making long videos. It’s not fun either. Short ones are fun. Quite so.”

Her eyes sparkled.

“You saw the potential instinctively, Lady Gumiho.”

Ethan said.

“You’ve gone down a path no one else has taken on your own. Other gods probably find it difficult to make long videos too. Yet there’s a reason they make long videos. They’re trying to walk the right path. That’s why they didn’t choose shorts.”

Of course, he couldn’t be certain since he hadn’t checked all the gods. There was a high possibility that there were other gods specializing in shorts.

However, that wasn’t important at all right now.

“But Lady Gumiho chose the path of making shorts. You’ve gone down a path no one else has taken first. In other words, you’re a kind of pioneer.”

“Me, a pioneer…?”

Gumiho focused on Ethan’s words as if mesmerized. Clearly, collaborations were meant for gods to explain things in detail to subscribers and take questions, but the current collaboration had completely reversed positions.

Moreover, Gumiho was a god skilled in bewitching people.

Who would have thought such a god would instead be bewitched by a subscriber and listen attentively to their words.

‘She’s weak to praise.’

At that moment, an unexpected presence was felt from the side. It wasn’t a human, so it could be considered a divine presence.

When Ethan turned his head, there was a green flame.

‘It has eyes?’

“Ah, this is Mr. Do. As you can see, he’s a dokkaebi, and he’s a god scheduled for collaboration with me.”

The will-o’-the-wisp approached Ethan hesitantly and then transformed into a dokkaebi with a huge build.

“Hello, Only subscribed to the right gods subscriber. I’m a dokkaebi.”

It was quite a polite voice. However, it was clear at a glance that he was quite nervous.

“Mr. Do… you should extend your hand, not your club.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m nervous.”

The dokkaebi hurriedly withdrew his club and extended his huge hand.

“I’m Dokkaebi. You probably know me well, right?”

Whoosh-

Green flames began to burn all over his body.

“I know you well. Nice to meet you, Mr. Do.” (+)[1]TLN: I’m not really knowledgeable for Korean folklore, but Mr. Do name in KR is “도 선생 (do seonsaeng)” Which can literally mean Teacher Do, Instructor Do, or Mister Do. Why I’m explaining this then? Well, Ethan here call Mr. Do with “nim”, which can be confusing. You already used “seonsaeng” as the honorific but you add “nim” which another honorific? My theory is why Gumiho calls Mr. Do, Mr. Do is probably because it’s from “Dokkaebi” so Mr. Do or Mr. Dokkaebi(?) IDK. Well, anyway just know that Ethan here calls Mr. Do with high respect.

When Ethan addressed Dokkaebi in the same way as Gumiho, he smiled brightly and seemed pleased.

‘Have I gained a fan too?’

Looking at the two of them, it felt like he had gained a fan club.

“Is it alright if I continue what I was saying?”

“Ah, yes. Please don’t mind me.”

Dokkaebi stepped back slightly. Ethan looked at Gumiho again and spoke.

“It’s because I saw that potential that I subscribed to Lady Gumiho and even requested this collaboration.”

“Thank you for choosing me!”

Her nine tails began to sway gently.

“Of course, I’m not asking you to just do it.”

“If you say so, I’m grateful! And there must be a reason you need my abilities for choosing me, right? I’ll teach you all of my abilities. And first…”

Ding-!

-You have become a premium subscriber of Fox Spirit Gumiho!

“I’ll give you premium subscriber status first!”

Gumiho said with a smile.

“And actually, besides Mr. Do, there’s one more god I’ve collaborated with. I’ll provide you with the collaboration video with Mr. Do, and also the collaboration video with that person. And two goods as well!”

Premium subscriber status for Gumiho’s channel and Gumiho’s abilities. Two collaboration videos and two goods. These were all the things Gumiho could provide right away.

‘Not bad.’

“But who is the other person besides Mr. Do?”

“They’re an incredible person. Actually, while my abilities are great, their abilities are also amazing. It’s a shame they haven’t created a channel, that’s how great they are.”

At Gumiho’s words, Ethan showed a slight expectation.

“Who might that be?”

“They’re the king who rules over spiritual beings.”

“Among the Kims, he’s known as the Dokkaebi King.” (+)[2]TLN: I think here “Kims” is the one with name “Kim”. For example, “Kim Joohyuk”, etc.

Mr. Do chimed in from the side.

‘Seems like a really major god? Then there’s no way I wouldn’t know the name.’

“You might not know because they’re not that famous compared to their power. They didn’t participate in New World either. But I persuaded them after a long time. On the condition of offering three of my tails later if needed.”

Gumiho sighed and looked at her lush tails.

“Bihyeongrang. That’s their name.”

‘I don’t know them.’

“You seem not to know, but once you see, you’ll be surprised by their abilities. As I said earlier, I’ll provide the collaboration video with them for free too. I look forward to working with you, premium subscriber.”

It was certainly a name he was hearing for the first time.

Bihyeongrang. It was definitely a name he had never heard before.

But judging from what Gumiho and Mr. Do were saying, and the alias was quite impressive.

No less than the Dokkaebi King.

‘It seems the algorithm didn’t simply recommend Gumiho?’

Everything that could be obtained by subscribing to Gumiho seemed to have been reflected in the algorithm’s recommendation.

‘If they’re called the Dokkaebi King, exorcising evil spirits should be no big deal.’

“Then shall we talk in detail, Lady Gumiho?”

***

Gumiho was currently feeling limited by her shorts-focused operation method.

Gumiho’s channel basically produced all videos as shorts, dividing her abilities among several short videos to convey them to subscribers.

Being short and cheap was certainly an advantage as it could be clicked without burden. However, due to the nature of shorts, there was a disadvantage in that one video couldn’t clearly convey the ability.

“Because of that disadvantage, I’ve been losing a lot of subscribers. Actually, likes aren’t accumulating much either. Likes need to accumulate so that I can reinvest with those likes. It’s become difficult to do that.”

That’s why she was trying to find another way.

“I thought that way was collaboration.”

“But collaboration doesn’t suit making shorts, right?”

“Yes, that’s why I haven’t been able to do anything. I just have the video source shot with Bihyeongrang, but it’s not edited at all.”

Gumiho let out a sigh.

“Why don’t we utilize Lady Gumiho’s strengths? Lady Gumiho’s strength is shorts. Then, we can focus on shorts and produce long videos separately. You said it’s hard to make long videos, right? Then I’ll teach you how to easily make long videos with shorts.”

Ethan’s conceived method was to compress long videos and create several shorts in a preview format. The method of making shorts into long videos is simple too. You just have to do this in reverse.

‘Actually, making long videos is easier this way.’

From the start, Gumiho’s shorts were among very well-made videos. Of course, not all videos were perfect, but some videos were far superior to the shorts Ethan made.

‘It’s difficult to contain an ability in one short. That’s why I made them in a preview format, excluding abilities. Gumiho’s shorts contain both the preview format and abilities.’

Then, refine the shorts and combine them to reconstruct into one.

Ethan explained this method to Gumiho.

“It might feel a bit difficult at first. But I’m telling you it’s easy to combine into long videos because you’re already making perfect shorts.”

“I see… So that’s how it can be done.”

Gumiho, also a god of New World.

She quickly absorbed Ethan’s explanation and fully understood.

“I understand well what you mean!”

Gumiho nodded and smiled brightly. She seemed to have come up with quite a few ideas.

Mr. Do, standing beside, looked at Ethan and Gumiho with a pleased expression.

He seemed to think that the [Only subscribed to the right gods] subscriber was truly worthy of his reputation.

“That’s all, Lady Gumiho. I have nothing more to teach you.”

Gumiho looked back and forth between Ethan and Mr. Do.

Gumiho thought that Mr. Do’s words about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity were exactly right.

“The collaboration unintentionally got a bit long, subscriber. Shall we go through things one by one?”

It was time to give a reward befitting the lesson received.

“First, my ability.”

Gumiho had several powers, but the most powerful was the force called magic, which was the foundation of Gumiho’s various powers.

“The power to create fox-fire, show illusions to bewitch, and devour and dominate souls.”

‘It’s more powerful than I thought?’

This Gumiho was not the simple Gumiho that Ethan knew.

The Gumiho before his eyes was a god who had nine tails and had overcome trials through countless years of training.

She was truly a great yokai.

-You have learned Gumi Magic.

-Skill added: Gumi Magic (A+)

“This is a skill imbued with all my power. If you master it well, [Only subscribed to the right gods] might even grow tails. And this is a fox bead. This is a fox tail, but you probably don’t need it. The fox bead strengthens magical power within the body.”

Gumiho explained the important points of Gumi Magic.

“All magical power, including the magical power of Gumi Magic, can be said to be based on negative energy. So negative energy is very important, you know? But subscriber, you’re a man, so your yin energy… But it’s okay. I’ll support you to use it as best as possible… Huh?”

Suddenly, Gumiho looked at Ethan with surprised eyes, as if she couldn’t believe it.

Whoosh-!

A fox bead began to form in Ethan’s hand, and its size was not ordinary.

“W-what?”

Gumiho hurriedly gathered magical power in her eyes. And soon she looked at Ethan and was greatly shocked.

“There’s extremely compressed negative energy inside your body… W-what is that, subscriber?”

Extremely compressed negative energy.

“It’s a long-standing illness.”

Extinction showed off its presence.

“Huh… With that much, you should be able to use my Gumi Magic without any problems. By the way, that illness is incredible. But subscriber, you’re clearly human, how can you move like that while suffering from such an illness? Even I would find it difficult to handle that illness.”

Gumiho shook her head.

“Anyway… I look forward to working with you again, subscriber. I’ll try to make a proper long video!”

With those words, the collaboration ended.

Just before that, Dokkaebi seemed to have urgently approached and said something about an autograph… but Ethan didn’t pay much attention to it.

***

After the collaboration.

Ethan immediately turned on the collaboration video of Gumiho and Bihyeongrang.

As soon as the video started, a bright blue moonlight was visible.

Below it was a bridge, and on the bridge stood a thin man with hair reaching down to his nape.

-I am filming this video at Miho’s request. My name is Bihyeong.

As he raised his hand, numerous spiritual bodies began to appear behind him.

Spiritual beings. Beings that are called ghosts or spirits depending on the culture began to rise up following Bihyeong’s hand gestures.

Tens, hundreds, thousands.

As their numbers gradually increased to fill Bihyeong’s surroundings, it looked like an army of ghosts.

-I am called the king who rules over all ghosts. I’m not some great being like a god or whatever.

Saying that, Bihyeong smiled. Looking through the Eye of Horus, it seemed like a kind smile, but objectively, it was quite eerie.

-My ability is the same as my nickname. The power to rule over all ghosts.

‘This is it.’

Ethan inwardly rejoiced.

It was exactly the ability he needed.

* 1. TLN: I’m not really knowledgeable for Korean folklore, but Mr. Do name in KR is “도 선생 (do seonsaeng)” Which can literally mean Teacher Do, Instructor Do, or Mister Do. Why I’m explaining this then? Well, Ethan here call Mr. Do with “nim”, which can be confusing. You already used “seonsaeng” as the honorific but you add “nim” which another honorific? My theory is why Gumiho calls Mr. Do, Mr. Do is probably because it’s from “Dokkaebi” so Mr. Do or Mr. Dokkaebi(?) IDK. Well, anyway just know that Ethan here calls Mr. Do with high respect.

* 2. TLN: I think here “Kims” is the one with name “Kim”. For example, “Kim Joohyuk”, etc.

Author's Thoughts

Hi everyone, I've completely translated this novel! For those who love this novel and wanted to binge read until the last chapter, you can go to my Patreon "Shop" page. There, I have a product in which you can read them with discounted price!