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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work Episode 111
“Bound for Tamra? What’s that?”
“A glitch? Wow, but it’s kind of creepy.”
Passengers on the high-speed train murmur as they watch the changed car display.
Still, it wasn’t serious. It was just the tone of people thinking something unusual had happened during a boring travel time.
…Until they properly realized what kind of incident this was.
“Hey, I filmed this, you know? I’m going to upload it to InHeart… Huh?”
“What?”
“…The internet isn’t working.”
Typical.
“Hey, turn on your smartphone. Hurry!”
“Um, excuse me, but mine says I’m out of service range. Can you make calls on yours?”
“What? Why aren’t any of the connections working?”
The people’s murmuring grows louder.
But Butterfly Deputy sitting in front of me didn’t move a muscle, and Dolphin Assistant Manager sitting in the aisle seat next to me just grumbled quietly.
“Ah, how annoying. We got caught up in this when there are so many civilians around.”
It was the typical introduction to Darkness that anyone in our company’s Field Investigation department would expect.
Moreover, though these people didn’t know it, this ghost story was actually an anomalous phenomenon that the government, not our company, had identified decades ago and left brief documents about.
The Shangri-la Test (tentative name) is a phenomenon that occurs very rarely on the high-speed rail from Seoul to Iksan. No casualties to date. Disaster classification pending.
But that was all there was to it.
‘Because there were no casualties!’
The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau usually only registered ghost stories as disasters when people died.
Therefore, the brief document concluded with ‘The Iksan-bound high-speed rail was extended to Mokpo-bound high-speed rail, and this anomalous phenomenon is presumed to have disappeared.’
However… it had started again.
Right now, on this train.
“Excuse me! L-look outside!!”
“Oh my!”
I turned my head to look at the train’s window. Outside the window that should have been showing the city as we left Seoul…
An endless blue sea stretched out.
“…!”
The blue horizon meeting the crimson sky created a fantastic and mysterious landscape.
The train was splashing through waves, cutting through the water and speeding across the sparkling ripples of the blue sea…
“This train is… running on the ocean right now?! H-how?”
“Wow…”
“Ah, isn’t this graphics? Like some kind of window LCD test run?”
Passengers forget their bewilderment and admire the background that feels mysterious yet beautiful and somehow transcendent.
Some people tried to take photos with smartphones that supposedly weren’t working, only to be surprised that the images wouldn’t save.
The Tamra-bound high-speed train incident.
It’s identical to the introduction in the document I knew…
“…”
Damn it.
If I had focused on the fact itself that I was ‘boarding a Mokpo-bound high-speed train,’ I might have been able to notice the possibility of this ghost story occurring.
‘But the design made me carelessly overlook this.’
Because another Darkness had been placed as a target in front of me!
-Go to Mokpo and enter the C-grade Darkness.
While focusing on this proposition and constantly revising and supplementing only this countermeasure, an awl popped out from an unexpected place.
I clasped my hands together. My head spun rapidly.
‘…Is this a trap they aimed for?’
Or is it a coincidence?
This incident was definitely written in the wiki as ‘occurred without anyone expecting it.’
‘But that was written from the Disaster Management Bureau’s perspective.’
Other groups or individuals… might have figured it out by observing ghost story occurrence patterns.
…Especially.
‘Looking at my companions, I feel too much intentionality…’
“Excuse me, Deputy. Wake up.”
“…Hah.”
Dolphin Assistant Manager next to me woke up Butterfly Deputy in the front seat.
“Work again? I’d rather it be high-grade. At least I’d get more points for reporting it.”
“Exactly!”
Two people from the Elite Team.
In other words, those who could make ruthless decisions without blood or tears to accomplish missions.
‘…They’re incompatible with this ghost story.’
Because this…
Is a ghost story that tests human ethical consciousness.
“Hmm. The text on the screen changed.”
…
I raised my head with coldly chilled eyes.
A new sentence flows across the screen.
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“…A sacrifice?”
Clunk.
One window at the very front of the train car opened.
People sitting nearby are startled.
“Oh shit!”
“This is a window that normally doesn’t open… Wait. Why isn’t any wind coming in?”
“But why did this suddenly open…”
As if…
Telling us to throw a sacrifice in there.
“…”
Bewilderment and faint fear spread across the faces of several passengers who had completely left their seats to actively check the anomalous phenomenon.
“What… sacrifice? Offer a sacrifice?”
“This is too strange…”
But no one wanted to deduce and discuss what a real sacrifice was, what an offering meant.
“…Isn’t it just hacked?”
“Hey, let’s find the Train Crew.”
It was avoidance.
People just sat down with anxious eyes clicking their tongues, or moved to other cars looking for Train Crew.
I acted nonchalant like that.
Because I truly realized that the current situation was far from normal, an eerie silence fell over the train car instead…
Tap tap.
At that moment, Butterfly Deputy lightly tapped the handle across from her, drawing the attention of both Dolphin Assistant Manager and me.
“Don’t step forward. Start by observing what they’re doing.”
“Understood for now!”
“Yes.”
The deputy probably wanted to see what results would come from others trying first. …It also seemed like she was trying to prevent me from acting impulsively.
But I had no intention of stepping forward in the first place.
‘If this really is that incident, it’s better not to act right now…’
I sat quietly and watched to see if the situation would unfold ‘as predetermined.’
After a moment.
“This is way too strange!”
People’s screams began erupting sporadically here and there.
“We found the train crew but they’re in complete panic! They’re shouting that they don’t know either!”
“No, there are people in the front car who brought kids, you know? They’re all making a fuss saying their kids disappeared! This doesn’t seem like an ordinary situation…”
“They say the train engineer isn’t responding. The driver’s cabin door is completely locked!!”
Once they started communicating with other cars, they learned even more chilling facts.
-Ah, what chaos! Throughout human history, the incomprehensible has always been an object of fear, and this place is no exception.
-Will you continue to observe where they drift, friend?
‘…For a while.’
That was right.
But since anxiety was unavoidable, I gritted my teeth to suppress my restlessness.
And I watched the people standing in front of the train car door, chattering as if making announcements to everyone.
“Everyone, I think we need to come up with some kind of plan!”
“Right, this really seems like a big problem…!”
Ding!
“…Huh?”
Everyone’s gaze turned.
New text appeared on the in-train display.
First Altar Entry
“…Altar?”
Whoosh.
Outside the window, the dazzlingly blue sea suddenly began turning red…
Then it suddenly became dark.
“Aah!”
Through all the windows, instead of the horizon, walls covered with bizarre mucous membranes began to appear.
“Th, this is…”
“Oh my god!”
As if the high-speed train had entered a tunnel or station, the train continued gliding through that strange dark space.
Remaining Distance : 5
“Sh, shouldn’t we try to do something?”
“Let’s look for a button or something!”
“A button? There’s nothing like that…”
Remaining Distance : 4
“Ah, what do we do? What should we do…”
“Excuse me! Person in the window seat! Help me close this window, don’t just sit there…!”
“Ah, so damn noisy, seriously!”
Thud!
Remaining Distance : 3
“Y, you’re trying to push someone right now… huh? Huh huh huh?”
Splash.
“Aah! Someone fell out the window!”
“N, no! That person tried to push me and ended up falling alone!”
Remaining Distance : 2
“Sh, shouldn’t the train stop? Someone fell…”
Remaining Distance : 1
“Get down on the floor, quietly.”
“Y-yes.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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