Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 128

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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 128

Dream Essence Collector.

Literally equipment issued by Baekillmong Corporation to Field Investigation Team employees to collect a liquid called ‘dream essence’ from ghost stories.

The concentration of the collected liquid is determined by the grade of the ghost story being cleared.

And among the liquids I had confirmed with my own eyes, the highest grade was…

‘It was A.’

The that had an anomalous manifestation on the Tuesday Talk Show, and that I had entered at Sekwang Technical High School.

Both liquids were brilliant and vivid gold in color.

But the liquid I’m holding in my hand right now…

‘Good heavens.’

On top of that, a hologram-like orient was spinning around it.

The liquid that seemed to flow with radiance also reminded me of some kind of potion…

‘The wish voucher potion I saw when I joined the Company…!’

It was strange how it gave off a mysteriously similar feeling. Was it because this was the original solution?

No, what’s important right now isn’t that…

‘So this is… S-grade?’

I rotated the cylinder. The radiance flickered…

It doesn’t feel real.

‘That grade isn’t just attached to ghost stories because they’re dangerous.’

Abyss (S) grade.

The Creators of the wiki all thought:

‘Wouldn’t we need more special criteria for something to get an S rating?’

The existing Baekillmong Corporation ghost stories up to that point had an atmosphere where grades were assigned based on implicit standards of ‘this would probably be high-grade.’

Danger level, mysteriousness, meaningfulness, scale, etc… the kind of levels you could imagine when thinking of ghost stories.

But from A-grade and above, the participants commonly thought something different was needed.

So the condition that was attached:

In the darkness, who do you face?

Beyond the atmosphere of cosmic horror, only when facing a ghost story that was cosmic horror itself, could that darkness finally surpass the A specification and become Abyss grade.

‘But Brown’s Late Night Talk Show was at that level?’

I had worked there as Staff for a whole month before escaping, but I thought that was a bit excessive.

Brown seemed like a crazy ghost story talk show Host and a very powerful supernatural being, but wasn’t he quite friendly toward humans to be called cosmic horror?

Maybe the liquid in the dream essence collector wasn’t filled there, but was just a bonus that came with the merchandise itself.

‘And the reason this merchandise came to me is…’

Since I cleared a high grade without having a dream essence collector, I was probably given ‘the qualification to receive a new collector.’

And more importantly:

‘…If this really is S-grade, how many points would that convert to?’

The Company’s point payment notice automatically came to mind.

S-grade: Separate evaluation

I swallowed.

Since A-grade was 100,000, considering the increasing trend…

500,000 points.

It might be possible.

‘…Couldn’t I exchange this directly for a wish voucher?’

Good heavens.

Then I wouldn’t need to worry about whether I get terminated or not!

If I just submit this collector, the Company would give me points…

…

Ah.

‘Damn it.’

I felt deflated.

‘There’s no way to submit it.’

-Just be careful not to lose it. They all have numbers engraved on them, so it becomes a real headache.

Something Eun Ha-je had told me once struck through my mind.

She was right.

Dream essence collectors are individual equipment that are thoroughly registered to each employee, all managed with engraved numbers.

So me having a spare would be an awkward, strange, and bizarre situation.

It would be no different from the crazy act of cheerfully reporting that I found one more shell casing while looking for spent rounds…

‘I couldn’t even answer if they asked where I got it.’

Obviously I couldn’t just honestly say I bought it as merchandise from the Popup Store.

Especially not this dream essence collector.

“…Ha.”

This version that came out exclusively for the Elite Team, smaller and more ornate than regular dream essence collectors.

I groaned as I peeled off the product sticker attached to the cylinder.

Dream Essence Collector (Elite Team Exclusive)

There was a reason this came out as merchandise instead of a regular dream essence collector.

‘This is the version that appeared in that famous game based on …!’

It was a work that implemented certain investigation records as a game, where this item appeared both for identifying important NPCs and as a collectible element where you needed to gather 6 to see the true ending.

They even added this setting to prevent setting conflicts with the wiki!

Elite Team Exclusive Cylinder

: Once specially produced for the Elite Team, but disappeared into the back pages of history when specifications were unified due to budget issues.

So if the game setting was reflected…

-A New Employee who was missing for a month suddenly appears with equipment that was produced long ago and only a few people had.

That crazy sentence would be completed.

‘And if this setting isn’t reflected, it would be even more problematic.’

Suddenly bringing a strange dream essence collector with different specifications from what the Company makes?

Anyone would see it as technology leakage. The Development Department would be completely turned upside down.

‘I’d be misunderstood as an industrial spy.’

Worse yet, I might even be suspected of being something like parallel world Darkness.

An employee who was missing for a whole month and was terminated returning like that?

A picture-perfect path to becoming a test subject was expected…

‘…No, that won’t do.’

I swallowed.

For now, I’ll hold off!

“Whew.”

I put the cylinder back in my pocket.

Still, my heart was pounding.

The raw essence of a potion that could grant wishes and produce magical effects.

There’s no way the wiki would just briefly describe such an interesting setting with a simple sentence like ‘used as raw material by the ghost story company.’

‘It can be used in other ways too.’

There were several useful applications even beyond exchanging it with the company for points.

‘Let’s aim for that.’

Then for now…

“Contact first.”

I left the park as dawn was breaking.

After treating my cracked left arm and bruises, I immediately used a free smartphone charging station to charge my phone as soon as I left the hospital.

And then I made contact.

To the true superior of this era, who had helped me the most in my escape.

That evening.

“Kim Sol-eum.”

“Team Leader.”

As soon as I met Lee Ja-heon, I bowed my head deeply.

I had good reason to, really…

“Thank you so much. Really…”

“Yes.”

Though it cost 66.66 million won, I honestly think it was a profitable deal…

‘Physical strength is… really convenient and good.’

It wasn’t for nothing that Employee D was used like a cliché in every special investigation record.

…Though I never expected him to be an alien.

‘Should I have suspected when he looked like a lizard from the start?’

I looked at Lee Ja-heon’s face, which still looked like a lizard, and sighed with relief inwardly.

To think he was part of a mysterious space shopping mall-related group that could even bombard ghost stories.

‘He definitely… called it the ‘Union.”

The wiki didn’t have such content in the Employee D section either. I couldn’t contain my curiosity about the inside story and asked.

“Um, Team Leader. May I ask what the ‘Union’ you mentioned when summoned by ‘We Help’ is?”

“No.”

“…”

Ah, yes…

Then let’s get to the main point.

After asking him not to tell the company and receiving confirmation, I showed Lee Ja-heon the dream collector.

“About the liquid in this collector.”

The lizard’s vertical pupils stared intently at the strangely shaped collector…

I asked calmly.

“Is it S… grade, that is, Abyssal Darkness dream essence?”

After a suffocating silence.

“No.”

Ah.

“It’s a higher concentration than the ‘Grade: Dark(A)’ judgment standard registered in the company database, but it’s not Abyssal grade.”

Phew.

‘I thought so.’

There’s no way S grade would come out that easily.

‘Should I think of it as roughly A+ grade?’

I put the collector back with a satisfied feeling.

“Then what color is real S grade?”

“There is no precise word in the currently used language. However, it is a high-concentration color that cannot be doubted when witnessed.”

“…I see.”

What a way of speaking that screams alien…

Suddenly, I became a bit curious.

‘What exactly is Lee Ja-heon’s relationship with the space shopping mall?’

And why he works at Baekillmong Corporation – various questions arose, but they weren’t things to bring up right now.

The real problem is whether I can continue working at that company…

“Team Leader. I understand that if contact is lost due to unauthorized absence for a month, termination procedures are initiated.”

I swallowed.

“Does that apply to me too?”

“Yes.”

Damn!

“Is it possible to return with the reason that I couldn’t come to work unavoidably due to being caught up in darkness?”

“Yes.”

Phew.

That was fortunate. I could manage if I just spoke well. I sighed with relief and said.

“Then as is…”

Bzzzz-

At that moment, Lee Ja-heon’s phone rang.

Lee Ja-heon looked at his phone and spoke.

“Kim Sol-eum.”

“Yes?”

“There are people who want to meet you.”

A little later.

“Noru!”

I saw familiar faces at Lee Ja-heon’s residence building.

Eun Ha-je and Park Min-seong.

Seeing the people who had even entered ghost stories to find me when I was missing, my heart suddenly felt overwhelmed.

‘This really isn’t ordinary.’

Nearly dying in the Mountain Sacrifices’ Chorus, then entering Brown’s Late Night Talk Show, which was practically a sequel to that ghost story, wasn’t just any kind of resolve.

Especially when one had to keep avoiding other employees’ eyes, and the other couldn’t even go out properly.

I felt an indescribable strange surge of emotion that I hadn’t felt when I was assimilated into that darkness and became part of the talk show.

I bowed my head deeply.

“Thank you. Thanks to the candy you gave me, I found a clue.”

That became the starting point that eventually led me to press the ‘We Help’ button.

Eun Ha-je waved her hand dismissively.

“Forget it. I didn’t do much.”

“I just found out because these two told me and came in at the last minute.”

Park Min-seong chimed in with a laugh. He certainly looked more stable than during the year-end containment room cleaning…

I looked at Park Min-seong’s black casual clothes instead of a suit.

“Team Leader, have you… started working again?”

“…Right. I’m working with the Security Team.”

He was no longer part of the Field Investigation Team.

Park Min-seong didn’t mention anything more about the work he was doing.

He simply said briefly, ‘It’s good to start earning points again.’

“….”

Instead of pressing further, I let Park Min-seong deflect the topic.

“Ah. Security Team Leader Jay occasionally asked about you, but I just… didn’t tell him you went missing in the darkness. Still, a few days ago, he seemed to already know.”

“Yes.”

I was about to just nod when I suddenly realized something.

Wait a minute.

“The company already knew I wasn’t just absent without leave, but that I went missing inside the darkness?”

“Ah, um. Right. They determined that you went missing on the ‘Tamra Express’ through various circumstances.”

Oh!

“Then has the company been searching for me without giving up this whole time? Or at least, kept me listed as missing?”

“….”

“….”

Both supervisors started looking away!

‘…They already processed me as deceased.’

What an absolutely wonderful company.

Well, not that it mattered much. I nodded while suppressing the urge to rub my temples.

“I understand. Then once I report that I’m alive and cleared the darkness to get out, and return…”

“No, Noru! About that…”

“You can’t.”

“…!?”

Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je cut him off sharply.

“…Deputy Manager?”

“Listen… Noru. The company spent quite a bit of effort searching for you for several weeks, which was exceptionally unusual.”

Team Leader Park Min-seong hurriedly stepped in to continue.

“But if the audit department determines that you were just absent without leave rather than on company business, they’ll try to… charge you for those costs somehow.”

….

What?

“There’s no justification since I didn’t directly request rescue, right?”

“Justification can be attached however they want.”

“….”

“The points we receive aren’t wages to begin with, but ‘welfare points.’ If the company wants to recover them somehow out of spite, it’s not like there aren’t methods. …At minimum, they could impose ‘suspension due to disciplinary action’ for several months.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“It wasn’t a workplace accident caused by the company, but getting caught up in darkness that happened by chance? They’ll think they suffered a loss.”

Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je spoke through gritted teeth.

“They’ll claim you were absent without leave due to personal accident or reasons, causing damage to the company.”

“…!”

“If you don’t return, what can they do, but once you become an employee again…”

It was bullshit.

However, the problem was that these were all injustices that could happen even at regular companies…

“So let’s first turn your clearing method into a manual. Then it roughly becomes work, right? Then they can’t pull that spite nonsense and will have to let it slide…”

“That’s impossible.”

“….”

My entry was special from the start, and the method I used to escape was something that could absolutely never be turned into a manual.

Moreover, working as staff in that ghost story for a whole month before escaping was itself an unusual situation.

‘If I could just submit the solution, everything would probably be smoothed over.’

It was frustrating that I couldn’t do that.

‘…Should I act prepared to lose points?’

No. No matter how I thought about it, it was too wasteful.

No, beyond wasteful… it was infuriating.

‘I collected more than half.’

The company making a big fuss and doing whatever they wanted, then taking my points? I couldn’t accept it humanly.

The problem was that this wasn’t even the end.

“Got it. Anyway… if you describe how you escaped and mention that you were part of the ghost story for a whole month.”

Team Leader Park Min-seong swallowed.

“They might determine you’re contaminated and make you go through the same… process I did.”

“….”

Right.

Normally, if someone came out after being inside a high-grade ghost story for a whole month, returning to the Field Investigation Team in their right mind would be impossible.

They would analyze and reassign me according to the case.

“Then, you might not be able to return to the Field Investigation Team.”

“….”

At this point, I’d want to shout that I’d quit this damn company, but I couldn’t resign in a fit of anger.

‘I need the wish ticket.’

I already confirmed it in the elevator ghost story. That I could return home with the wish ticket…!

‘Plus, to summon Brown again as promised, I need to rescue the doll from the Cheerful Theme Park ghost story too…’

I barely managed to establish him as a friend, and if I broke this promise, who knows what ‘the being from the Other Side World summoned under the condition of being together forever’ might do.

I gritted my teeth while feeling the presence of the coin still in my jacket.

‘The situation got strangely twisted… No. There’s definitely a way.’

The high-grade solution was in my hands now, and I safely escaped the ghost story in my right mind.

The situation definitely wasn’t worse than before.

There must be a move that could break through this problem…

“….”

I looked at my supervisors’ faces as they watched me with worried expressions, then suddenly remembered something.

Perhaps.

“Deputy Manager.”

I looked at Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je.

The person whose workplace had changed.

“Could you possibly contact Director Ho?”

“…!”

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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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