One girl and two boys... obviously students at a glance.
So why were these punks so brazenly trying to buy cigarettes and alcohol...?
“I left my ID at home. Can’t you just give it to us? You look younger than us anyway...”
This body... this damn shell. I chose the form of a young girl because it was convenient, but every now and then, bastards like this look down on me.
In the old days, I would have sent these brats to King Yeomra with nothing but my forepaw, but now all I could do was grin.
After all, I couldn’t very well let an incident about three students being torn to death in a convenience store make the front page of the newspapers.
“I’m sorry. You can’t make a purchase without an ID.”
Without even putting on an apologetic expression, I said it to them in a flat voice.
It would have been nice if they had just left quietly, but of course, they did no such thing.
“You really don’t understand words, do you...!”
The boy facing me glared, his eyes wide.
Do males, regardless of species, always act tough in front of females, or was I being underestimated because my body looked like this?
It seemed both were correct.
“If you continue, I’ll report you to the police.”
The word police made the boy flinch, but soon he glared at me again.
“If you’re gonna report us, then do it!”
Haaah~ What a pain.
I took out my smartphone and slowly pressed the numbers.
1... 1... wait, what was the next number again...? Was it 9...? No, that was for when someone was hurt or there was a fire. Ah, right, it was 2!
I showed them the smartphone with 112 dialed.
“G-go ahead and report us!”
Drrr... drrr...
The sound of a call being placed came from the smartphone pressed to my ear.
[Yes, this is 112.]
“This is the convenience store near the high school to the left of Jangsan. Some minors are trying to buy alcohol and cigarettes.”
[Understood. We’ll dispatch someone now.]
The pupils of the brats who had demanded alcohol and cigarettes from me were trembling.
They probably hadn’t expected me to actually report them.
“Fuck, we’re screwed! Run!”
Watching them bolt out of the convenience store like deer being chased by a tiger, I smiled in victory.
When I pulled the smartphone away from my ear, I saw the screen still showing 112 dialed.
There was no record in the call history of me calling 112, either.
Naturally. I had never called 112 in the first place.
The ringing tone and the police officer’s voice from earlier were all sounds I had made myself.
Originally, it was an ability I used to lure humans, but it was perfect for chasing humans away like this, too.
“There’s an hour left until my shift change, so maybe I’ll play on my phone.”
The reason I, who once lived as the Mountain Lord of Jangsan and was an object of fear, had become a convenience store slave was because of this smartphone, but I too had become a body that couldn’t live without this smartphone.
A smartphone had tens of thousands of functions, but there was one thing I absolutely had to check.
“Witube,” where people turned everything under the sun into videos and uploaded them. I had heard that if you uploaded videos on “Witube” and gained recognition, you could quit being a convenience store slave, so I gave it a try, but...
-Isn’t this not voice mimicry, just the original voice uploaded?
-Fr
-Faking shit so hard. Just quit.
-First
-I analyzed the pitch, and it’s identical to the original. In other words, it isn’t voice mimicry.
Three thousand subscribers.
The comments were plastered with malicious replies.
Compared to the value of sacrificing my precious weekend, it was far too bitter a price.
My channel, “Sanbeom’s Voice Mimicry,” was in the state of a thatched hut on the verge of collapse.
“No, if the pitch is perfect, you should just praise me. What do you mean it’s not voice mimicry!”
That said, because of my pride, I couldn’t reply and insist that it really was voice mimicry.
The Mountain Lord tramples his prey; he never argues with it.
Uploading an even more perfect voice mimicry video and burying those damn comments out of sight was the only way for me to win.
However, my voice mimicry skills had already reached their peak. Not only could I imitate human voices, I had once lured people by making the sound of valley water flowing near someone who was thirsty, and I had also gulped down onlookers by mimicking the sound of clashing blades.
Honestly, I had no idea what more I was supposed to do from here.
.
.
.
“Sanbeom, you heading out now? Take the expired stuff with you.”
“Yes.”
I rummaged around and stuffed triangle gimbap and some other drinks into the pockets of my hoodie.
“You must be sleepy after working all night. Hurry home and sleep.”
The middle-aged owner waved at me as I left the convenience store.
Without turning back, I waved my hand over my shoulder.
I did intend to go home like this, but unlike what the owner said, I wasn’t sleepy.
Sleep was an action creatures of yang originally took to endure the night, when yin energy grew thick. To me, already a lump of yin energy, it was an utterly useless action.
“Before I go home, I should meet Brother Baekho and complain a little.”
And the place I headed to was a certain high-rise building.
It was quite far from Jangsan, so I had to transfer public transportation several times to get there.
.
.
.
“How may I help you?”
“I’m here to see Brother Baekho... I mean, Gang Baekho.”
I saw the receptionist’s kind smile falter slightly.
“Wh-what business do you have with the mayor?”
This receptionist, at least, didn’t seem to look down on me for being young. In the case of the previous receptionist, the moment I brought up the name “Gang Baekho,” they kicked me out.
“It’s not exactly business. I just wanted to see him after a long time.”
“.... ....”
The receptionist was unable to continue speaking for a moment.
A mayor was, if compared to the old days, about the rank of a county magistrate, so it made sense that the staff member would be at a loss for words after learning that I was close to such a person.
“I’m sorry. The mayor is busy, so you can’t meet him without permission.”
It seemed she hadn’t taken me for someone important, but rather as someone half insane.
I took out my smartphone, found Gang Baekho’s contact, and began sending a message.
-Brother, are you free?
-I’m free right now. Why?
-I’m downstairs at city hall.
-You should’ve told me in advance if you were coming. Wait there, I’m coming down.
A little while later, the city hall elevator doors opened.
A sturdy man who looked far too fit to be in his forties stepped out of the elevator.
No, in truth, he wasn’t actually in his forties, so it didn’t matter.
“Sanbeom, get in.”
I looked at the receptionist and got into the elevator.
The receptionist’s expression looked as if she had just realized she’d been bewitched by a ghost.
When we entered the mayor’s office, Brother Baekho poured me some makgeolli and set it down.
“Brother Baekho, thank you as always.”
I downed the makgeolli in one go and then spoke.
“Don’t call me Brother looking like that. The sense of dissonance is no joke.”
Hmm... Well, my current body did look about the age of a middle school girl, so from the other person’s perspective, being called Brother might feel strange.
“Then should I call you Baekho oppa?”
“Just call me Brother. If anyone else hears it, I’ll explain it properly.”
Calling him oppa was something I couldn’t stomach, either.
“So what brings you here today?”
Brother Baekho asked as he poured makgeolli into his own cup as well.
“That Wituber thing you told me about last time isn’t going well. You said with my voice mimicry ability, I’d hit one million, but forget one million, I can’t even hit ten thousand.”
With a sigh, I began lamenting my situation.
“Living as a human is also something I can’t keep doing. I’m thinking of going back into Jangsan and living like before.”
Brother Baekho silently listened to my lament, which could rival that of a professional singer of sorrowful songs.
“I’m a spiritual creature too. You think I’m doing this because I like it? In this day and age, if you show your true form by mistake, the news will even reach those Western vampire bastards...”
Brother Baekho also heaved deep sighs after me.
“Still, Brother, you’re using your abilities and at least serving as mayor... All I can do is bewitch people with my voice.”
Brother Baekho thought for a moment, then his eyes suddenly flashed as if something had occurred to him.
“Among my acquaintances... what was it, there was a guy who said he made animations. Recently, that guy contacted me saying he needed a female voice actor. He said he needed someone who could do two perfectly different voices.”
“A voice actor...? What is that?”
“A voice actor is, you see, a profession where you act using only your voice. In other words, it’s the perfect job for you.”
If it were ordinary acting, a gumiho would be far better, but when it came to voice acting, there would be no one who could match me, who lured humans deep into Jangsan with my voice and devoured them.
“Do you have that person’s contact information?!”
Brother Baekho readily gave me the contact.
On my way out after receiving it, I met eyes with that staff member again.
As if she had realized my true identity, the staff member was looking at me as though she were looking at a tiger.
.
.
.
After returning home, I put off contacting that person and connected to Witube.
Deciding that the person’s life might not be as leisurely as mine, and that I should contact him between noon and one, during lunchtime, I rode the Witube algorithm and let the stream of my consciousness drift far beyond the Peach Blossom Spring.
“Hm? A voice mimicry contest?”
A post caught my eye: a Wituber with 400,000 subscribers was hosting a voice mimicry contest for content.
“The first-place prize is five chicken gifticons! Of course I have to participate!”
I uploaded a few videos from my channel to the board.
But those were videos that had been cursed at a great deal for being fake, so in case this Wituber thought the same, I uploaded one more voice mimicry video.
A voice mimicry of the Wituber himself...!
The line was, “The winner of this voice mimicry contest is this person!” so surely my desperation would come through.
After uploading the final video to the board, I contacted the person Brother Baekho had told me about.