Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2. Slender Man

Slender Man.

One of America's most famous urban legends.

An anomaly this deeply embedded in public awareness had a high chance of being extremely powerful.

And when I opened my spiritual senses to check, a fairly intense aura was indeed pouring out from beyond.

That was when it happened.

《Delicious... smell... Take me... over there...》

The spirit who had done nothing but complain about being hungry suddenly became much more talkative.

Do-jun cautiously began approaching the motel across the street.

“Screeeech!”

“They're Proxies! Proxies!”

Near the police line.

People who appeared to be motel guests, transformed almost like zombies... rushed at the police.

Proxies.

Puppets whose minds had been taken over by Slender Man, moving according to his will.

‘Wow... Those actually exist.’

Seeing something with my own eyes that I'd only ever encountered in internet horror stories felt strangely fascinating.

Then a dozen or so heavily armed exorcists stepped forward.

“Begone, evil spirits!”

“Hraaaaah!”

Crack! Crunch!

They splashed holy water over the Proxies and swung hammers to knock them unconscious.

The Proxies crumpled almost anticlimactically.

‘...Maybe there's no reason for me to step in.’

After that brief commotion passed.

《Closer... closer to that place...》

Following the spirit's urging, I cautiously approached the police line.

Then one of the exorcists shouted irritably.

“Hey, Asian! It's dangerous here, so get your ass back to your room!”

“Ah, I'll just watch from here. I'm a kind of exorcist myself... Thought there might be something I could help with.”

A huge blond man.

With a build that made him look more suited to professional wrestling than exorcism, he scowled fiercely.

“Exorcist? Ha! Cut the bullshit and get lost. Everyone knows Asian exorcists are useless!”

“That's a little harsh.”

“You still aren't leaving? We're about to start the operation, so stay out of the way!”

That was when it happened.

Crash!

A window shattered, and something burst out from inside.

“Tzzzzzz.”

“I-It's out!”

“Surround it!”

A hulking figure easily three meters tall.

A pale, featureless face above a business suit.

Grotesquely twisted joints and tentacles extending from its back.

A powerful, wicked aura poured from its entire body.

Do-jun smiled.

‘That bastard's pretty strong.’

Immediately afterward.

“Guhk...!”

Fresh blood erupted like a fountain.

Chaos broke loose.

The exorcists panicked, splashing holy water and chanting incantations, but the evil spirit ignored them and began its slaughter.

“A-Aaaagh! Shoot! Shoot it!”

Bang! Bang! Bang-bang!

Even the police began unloading their pistols.

Watching them, Do-jun furrowed his brow.

‘Why the hell are these guys performing exorcisms with absolutely no plan?’

Unlike the operations he'd carried out in Cheongwa, there seemed to be no strategy or system at all... just throwing people in and hoping something worked.

Crunch! Crack!

“Aaaagh!”

The exorcists fighting it had their arms severed and their bodies hurled backward.

They occasionally used the sacred magic America was supposedly so proud of, but it wasn't enough to handle Slender Man.

That was when.

“G-Gaaagh! Guhk!”

Slender Man lunged at the blond exorcist who had told Do-jun to get lost moments earlier and seized him by the throat.

Against that overwhelming strength, his neck would snap if this continued.

‘...I really didn't want to interfere.’

“Wandering Ghosts of the Five Directions, Invade Not This Path!”

He tossed a talisman from inside his clothes into the air, and the paper burst into flame.

It transformed into a blue arrowhead and slammed into Slender Man.

“Screee?”

Slender Man was knocked away, landed, then tilted its head.

‘...That barely did anything.’

I'd fired it intending to punch straight through its chest in one blow, yet that was all the reaction I got.

The exorcists stared at me in shock.

I put on the mask I'd brought with me and covered my face.

Slender Man then changed targets and charged straight at Do-jun.

“Screeeech! Screeeech!”

Together with the Proxies under its control, it attacked with its elongated arms and legs.

‘Thunderbolt Hand!’

‘Five Thunder Divine Incantation!’

I burned the talismans I'd prepared in advance and countered its attacks.

But the limitations were obvious.

Without divine power, my counterattacks couldn't deal any serious damage to that thing.

At this rate, I'd run out of talismans and die.

Besides...

《Hungry... I am hungry.》

The spirit inside me was still spouting completely unrelated nonsense.

Excuse me, Spirit, could you stop talking crap and lend me some power?

‘Guess I have no choice.’

Gritting my teeth, I drew up the energy from my lower abdomen.

I was about to confront it using my life force—my Innate True Qi.

Then...

“Tzzzzzt!”

Slender Man unleashed an ominous aura from its entire body and charged straight at me.

At that moment...

《How laughable.》

“Hm?”

My tobangguri suddenly trembled.

Then an enormous phantom rose above my body, vast enough to swallow the night sky.

A beast shaped from a raging storm, blue fur whipping around it, larger than dozens of grown men combined.

The instant that being opened its eyes, the surrounding air grew scorching hot like a desert wind.

“W-What the hell is that?”

“Goddamn...”

The Bibles carried by the exorcists at the scene began trembling violently, while their cross pendants bent toward Do-jun as though bowing to him, completely against their owners' will.

Then, from the center of the storm, the beast casually extended a forepaw as if swatting away an annoying fly.

KRAAAAAAASH!

A storm erupted with a deafening roar.

Slender Man and the Proxies were torn apart so completely that not even their forms remained, disintegrating into nothing.

‘Huh? It... it can do that?’

By the time I came to my senses, a massive crater had formed in the middle of the road.

Shock filled the faces of the police and exorcists nearby.

An Asian man who had appeared from nowhere had annihilated Slender Man in a single blow.

The blond exorcist I'd saved moments earlier approached and asked.

“Who exactly are you?”

His attitude had suddenly become respectful.

I thought for a moment before answering.

“Me? An exorcist, same as you.”

“...I-Incredible. I've never met anyone this powerful in my life.”

Their attitudes mixed fear with awe.

He cautiously asked again.

“Forgive me for asking, but may I know what organization you belong to?”

“Why would I tell you when I don't even know who you are?”

“I-I'm... Michael, guild master of ‘Riverside 14’ and a Rank-7 exorcist. A-Are you perhaps... a Named Exorcist?”

Named Exorcist.

Rather than being assigned one of the standard Ranks 1 through 9, the term referred to exceptional individuals outside the ranking system who were granted separate codenames by the U.S. Department of Exorcism.

I'd heard their information was kept under strict secrecy.

“I have no obligation to tell you.”

I answered coldly and strode away with confidence.

“Whoa...”

“H-He's a Named.”

“I've never seen one before.”

I could hear the exorcists behind me talking among themselves however they pleased.

There was absolutely nothing to gain from revealing my name or leaking information here.

Information always flowed, and it was only a matter of time before that flow crossed the Pacific and reached the ears of Cheongwa, the secret organization directly under the South Korean president.

‘Those vicious bastards won't sit still if they learn I'm running around making noise.’

Especially since I knew plenty of Cheongwa's black agents were hiding throughout the United States.

Quite a few of them were monsters in their own right.

If they caught my trail in my current condition, things would become complicated.

Then.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘Wait... isn't this actually a pretty good situation?’

An Asian man who appeared out of nowhere and displayed overwhelming power.

And these people currently mistook me for a Named Exorcist.

If I played this right, I felt like I could make something out of it.

“Oh, right. You said your name was Michael?”

“Yes! What can I do for you?”

“How much was the job to take this thing down worth?”

“Why do you ask...?”

The unexpected question left the exorcist looking dumbfounded.

“Come on.”

“S-Slender Man... including the city bounty and the association allowance, it's worth roughly two hundred thousand dollars.”

Two hundred thousand dollars.

A massive sum equivalent to around three hundred million won.

The instant I heard that...

‘I'm jealous.’

That was my genuine reaction.

South Korea didn't officially recognize the existence of evil spirits or malevolent ghosts, and their exorcisms were handled exclusively through organizations operating in the shadows.

Like everything involving the government, that meant terrible pay and vague treatment.

Back when I was a special-class exorcist, these people were getting paid nearly my annual salary just for killing one of those things.

This, apparently, was America—the crown jewel of capitalism.

I made my decision instantly.

I'd done work I never intended to do, so I might as well get properly paid for it.

“Seventy percent.”

“Excuse me?”

“I'll generously leave thirty percent for you guys to cover the cleanup. I won't ask for more, so hand it over in crypto or cash.”

At my brazen demand, the exorcists exchanged glances.

‘He's a Named... Getting on his bad side would be a nightmare.’

Overwhelming strength, refusing to reveal his identity, demanding the payout in cash.

To anyone watching, he practically screamed that he was a Named.

Michael spoke.

“P-Please wait just a moment! We'll bring it right away!”

He gave orders to his subordinates, who soon returned carrying a bag stuffed with hundred-dollar bills.

One hundred forty thousand dollars, equivalent to nearly two hundred million won.

And I'd earned it... in less than an hour.

***

A short while later.

“Haaaaah...”

I let the hot water from the motel shower wash over me.

After rinsing away the blood and tension beneath the stream, I wrapped a single towel around myself and threw myself onto the bed.

“I seriously thought I was gonna die.”

A dry laugh escaped me as I stared at the ceiling.

The heavy pressure I'd felt from the enormous tobangguri in my lower abdomen still felt unfamiliar.

Facing Slender Man with an empty vessel drained of all divine power had made everything seem hopeless, but not only had I survived the crisis, I'd walked away with an unexpected haul of two hundred million won.

“They sure pay well. Guess this really is the homeland of capitalism.”

Memories of Korea flashed through my mind.

Even when I belonged to Cheongwa and traveled around stopping national-level disasters, they would deduct this and that under the excuse of hazard pay and other nonsense, and getting an amount like this required dozens of pages of reports and a month of waiting.

Compared to the days when I'd been exploited in the name of patriotism and public service, this place was a literal gold mine.

‘If I handle this right, I could grow far faster than I expected.’

I'd heard about it before.

After the United States and several other countries officially acknowledged the existence of evil spirits and malevolent ghosts, the market value of talented exorcists skyrocketed, and the highest-tier exorcists—the so-called ‘Named’—could earn annual salaries exceeding one hundred billion won.

Then what if I could regain the strength I'd possessed in my prime?

Becoming filthy rich would be easy.

‘But before that, there are still plenty of problems I need to solve.’

First, I had to figure out exactly what had taken up residence inside my tobangguri.

I closed my eyes and peered inward, toward the center of that vast vessel within me.

There lurked the majestic being that had torn apart the evil spirit in a single strike moments ago.

A mysterious spirit that remembered neither its name nor its divine identity.

《Crunch, crunch, gulp.》

It was greedily chewing and swallowing the soul of Slender Man it had just devoured, as though enjoying a lavish feast.

A wild and mighty being whose very presence felt overwhelming.

Even I got chills from it.

If I hadn't borrowed that being's power, I probably would have had to sacrifice five years' worth of Innate True Qi—five years of my lifespan—to defeat Slender Man.

I waited patiently for some time.

《...Buuurp.》

As the meal came to an end.

The spirit's satisfied belch echoed through my consciousness.

《Thanks to you, I ate well, child. It has been a long time since I enjoyed such a satisfying meal. Though it wasn't particularly tasty.》

I cautiously asked.

‘So, Spirit, who exactly are you?’

《Have I not already told you? I do not remember. When the medium who housed me died, the aftermath erased both my name and my true name.》

A trace of bitterness entered the spirit's voice.

《But worry not. As I consume the sustenance you bring me and regain my strength, my memories will return as well. And when they do, my power will grow even greater.》

I was inwardly stunned.

Even the brief display of power this spirit had shown earlier was in no way inferior to the White Tiger Spirit I'd served back in Korea.

And this wasn't even its complete state?

‘So this is the American style after all... Everything's on another scale.’

What if I made this spirit even stronger?

A strange light naturally entered my eyes.

Kang Do-jun Great Again.

The American Dream itself might not be just a dream.

If I made money, rapidly increased my strength, and used that foundation to build connections with America's political and financial elite while expanding my influence?

Even those Cheongwa bastards wouldn't dare touch me.

I was excited.

Those Korean bastards who had used me and thrown me away.

The day I could take revenge on them had just moved forward by several years at the very least.

My mind raced.

‘Change of plans.’

Remove the old pieces, replace them with new ones, and in no time... a completely new picture came together.

The conclusion came quickly.

‘I'll start with work in the underworld.’

A mountain of money and the spirit's growth.

It was the choice that could accelerate both faster than anything else.

The Catastrophe-Class Exorcist Is Too Strong in America

Author

: Gisigami

Production Date

: September 15, 2026

Publisher

: ACES Media Co., Ltd.

Editor

: ACES Media Editorial Team

Address

: 12F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Email

: acesmedia9@gmail.com

※ This work was published by ACES Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder,

and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.

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UCI

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