Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 132

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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 132

Bronze Agent Ryu Jae-gwan stood in one corner of the indoor space without showing any signs of impatience.

The Final Candidates Assembly Room.

The roll call for those who passed the aptitude test had already been completed several times, and the prepared chairs were almost full.

But….

‘Why isn’t he coming?’

While the successful candidates were being called one after another and showing up, the person he had no choice but to pass still hadn’t arrived.

‘Kim Sol-eum!’

His number had already been called three times!

-Group ‘D’ number 4.

-You have passed. Please move to the designated location.

If that announcement is repeated more than four times, the evaluation gets put on hold!

Because they would judge that he had given up on the interview.

‘Why on earth….’

After going through all the trouble of passing the aptitude test, he’s giving up like this?

It was at that moment when Ryu Jae-gwan himself was burning with anxiety to a degree he couldn’t understand.

Thud!

“S-sorry.”

In the room where almost all the successful candidates had gathered, the door opened hastily and a male with a bright red face entered.

He was catching his breath as if he had rushed here, and water was dripping from his suit sleeves and neck….

[D-4]

That number that would have been expelled if called just one more time.

It was Kim Sol-eum.

No matter how you looked at it, he seemed to have washed his face due to nervousness.

…If he were a spy, he probably wouldn’t do something so conspicuous….

‘Damn it!’

Don’t be lenient! Ryu Jae-gwan kept his mouth shut and maintained a displeased expression.

-Please take your seat.

“Y-yes….”

Kim Sol-eum adjusted his glasses and quietly sat in the back corner seat.

He could hear another successful candidate sitting next to him cautiously speaking.

“Are you okay? Here, take this….”

“Oh, I-I’m fine! Thank you….”

The way he was startled by the kindness of his neighbor offering water looked more specific to Ryu Jae-gwan, who knew the circumstances.

As if being among employees from that crazy pharmaceutical company who were like cultists with no ethics left had made him feel great emotion even from such small kindness….

“….”

The agent quietly continued to observe the situation.

-The appointment ceremony will now begin.

The Disaster Management Bureau’s agent appointment ceremony was simple and straightforward.

They register their preferred funeral method in case of death in the line of duty, receive temporary passes, and are informed about the brief training schedule and the missions they will be assigned to.

There were no standardized administrative procedures comparable to regular government officials, but it wasn’t heavily focused on training like special forces either.

Supernatural disasters.

The capacity to respond to terrible and eerie paranormal phenomena was ultimately developed through experience.

And more than half of the agent volunteers were people who had lost family or relatives through terrifying unknown incidents.

Even if that wasn’t the case, the sense of mission unique to people who had discovered the secrets of the strange Other Side World was presupposed as an atmosphere in the candidates’ room.

-Group ‘D’ number 4. Kim Sol-eum.

“Th-thank you.”

Kim Sol-eum, who received his pass among them, was the same.

Because he looked timid and gloomy, there was a certain assumption that if someone with that kind of personality applied, his resolve must be extraordinary.

Of course, there were also some lukewarm glances mixed in that looked at him like an incompetent unqualified person.

-You will all go through three weeks of training and trial deployment, and will finally be sorted into which team you’ll be assigned to.

-Until then, please follow the instructions of your senior agents thoroughly.

It was at this time that the interviewers appeared.

The interviewers become the seniors of the new agents they selected, directly guiding and taking responsibility for the new recruits they passed.

This was the basic policy of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.

Of course, when pairs didn’t match, agents other than interviewers were also mobilized, but at least for ‘impressive candidates,’ interviewers were directly assigned as pair agents.

And in Kim Sol-eum’s case, due to the subtle support and recommendation of the assistant interviewers….

-The agent standing in front of you will be your direct senior, taking charge of one-on-one training for three months.

Ryu Jae-gwan stood in front of Kim Sol-eum.

“…!”

Seeing the face behind the glasses turn pale as he recognized him.

“Follow me.”

“….”

Ryu Jae-gwan heard the sound of his assigned new recruit, Kim Sol-eum, quietly following him.

And the moment they entered an unmanaged room in one corner of the desolate aptitude test building and were left alone.

Rustle.

“…!”

He heard the sound of the other person taking something out.

‘A weapon?’

Just as Ryu Jae-gwan was about to move his hand to immediately suppress him….

“Um, Agent.”

“….”

“I wanted to… return this to you.”

It was….

A temporary agent badge and pistol.

The items that had been given to temporary agent Grape at ‘Sekwang Technical High School.’

These were things that Ryu Jae-gwan had forgotten due to how urgently the situation had unfolded.

“I should have returned these to you earlier, but I didn’t have the chance and ended up giving them to you like this. I’m sorry….”

“….”

Ryu Jae-gwan looked at Kim Sol-eum.

Despite voluntarily confessing something no one would have known if he had just kept his mouth shut, the other person already seemed to have given up on everything.

It was as if he thought the agent in front of him would immediately report him as a pharmaceutical company lackey.

…Ryu Jae-gwan’s heart sank.

“Does that pharmaceutical company know you’re here?”

He slowly shook his head.

“No.”

How could he possibly believe that….

“At the company, I’m already considered a dead person….”

“…!”

What?

“What do you mean….”

“I was caught up in the darkness… I mean, a supernatural disaster for over a month and couldn’t get out.”

Kim Sol-eum’s face turned slightly pale.

“When it goes over a month like that, they treat you as dead, so, well, the company probably thinks of me as an already deceased employee, no, former employee….”

“….”

They finish processing someone’s identity without even attempting rescue?

After being momentarily speechless at the unethically callous procedure that exceeded his imagination, Ryu Jae-gwan realized the premise underlying Kim Sol-eum’s answer.

“So you were trapped in a ghost story for over a month?!”

Kim Sol-eum nodded slightly with his head deeply bowed.

Ryu Jae-gwan felt like he’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.

‘No way!’

And he looked at the other person again.

The reason this person, who had been neat and composed, suddenly became so cautious and clumsy in reacting to his surroundings.

It seemed like this was the result of being trapped in a terrible ghost story for an extended period….

“Don’t tell me you did it on purpose….”

“No.”

Right.

What kind of lunatic would voluntarily choose to be trapped in a ghost story for a whole month.

Especially someone who had experienced it firsthand through work….

“But not reporting to the company after getting out… that was intentional.”

“…!”

Ryu Jae-gwan reflexively said.

“You did that so you could… quietly resign ‘without problems’?”

“….”

Kim Sol-eum took a deep breath, then finally nodded.

“Yes.”

That’s a lie.

Daydream Corporation is a place that would let you go without complaint even if you waved your hand saying “Dobby is free.”

It’s just that no one on the Field Investigation Team does that because it means throwing all your hard-earned points in the trash!

“I don’t regret it.”

But in the mind of the innocent Disaster Management Agency agent who didn’t know this fact, a typical cult pyramid scheme escape story came to mind.

The appearance of a victim who had endured mental trauma, PTSD, and gaslighting, and could only escape the company by pretending to be dead….

“So, I mean… the fact that I was from that company, of course I can’t stop you, but… I beg you, please don’t make it publicly known….”

“….”

He was afraid of being tracked down by Daydream Corporation.

Ryu Jae-gwan intuited this, but didn’t show it outwardly and instead asked as if interrogating.

“What about your wish? Weren’t you working there because of the wish that company was supposed to grant?”

A bitter, hollow smile spread across Kim Sol-eum’s lips as he kept his head down.

“That… that became meaningless.”

“…!”

“Well, there was a problem while I was working, and the performance I had accumulated for my wish was reset.”

“….”

“That’s when it felt strange.”

Daydream Corporation’s wish potions certainly do grant wishes.

However, the company can decide not to give wish potions to individual employees.

Irrationally and unfairly.

“I realized that I was working indefinitely in this terrible place based on an absurd judgment….”

Ryu Jae-gwan held back words like ‘Didn’t I tell you not to believe such ridiculous talk about granting wishes’ that rose to his throat.

“Ah! Don’t worry. Since I was processed as deceased anyway… I can no longer accumulate performance or quit.”

The bitter smile gradually disappeared from Kim Sol-eum’s face.

It was emptiness.

“After that, I had nothing left to do.”

“….”

“So… I remembered the business card you gave me and applied to the Disaster Management Agency.”

And he shrank back again.

“…I’m sorry if this displeased you.”

Suddenly, Ryu Jae-gwan felt like he was interrogating the other person over something absurd.

It was psychological guilt.

It would be similar to grabbing a citizen just rescued from a paranormal phenomenon by the collar and demanding they properly explain what had happened.

The guilt of psychologically pressuring a victim who had barely escaped after struggling to live morally despite suffering from unethical company work and policies!

Yet he had given only this person unfairly excessive pressure during the interview, and even now was calling him aside to intimidate him.

The other person had even lost his most desperate goal of the wish potion and his affiliation.

Ryu Jae-gwan thought.

…But the reason Kim Sol-eum still wanted to enter here must have been some unconscious expectation.

The work done by the Supernatural Disaster Management Agency.

Protecting citizens’ safety from supernatural disasters, ghosts, unidentified life forms, unknown phenomena and threats.

This could be said to be the complete opposite purpose of the Daydream Corporation he had worked for.

From their two previous meetings, if Kim Sol-eum had entered with some hope and sense of purpose regarding this agency.

‘If that’s the case….’

Ryu Jae-gwan clenched his fist tightly.

‘He’s not trying to hit me, is he.’

I looked at the Bronze Agent’s clenched fist with a feeling like I might break out in cold sweat.

I had spilled everything.

‘It seemed like he bought it.’

I broke out in cold sweat because I didn’t know why he was clenching his fist.

But after a few seconds of keeping my head down without changing expression, after that….

Beep beep beep beep.

“…!”

The watch on the Bronze Agent’s wrist began ringing with a loud notification sound.

“…Please wait a moment.”

“Yes.”

Phew.

‘Was that why he was clenching his fist?’

Click.

Almost simultaneously as the Bronze Agent opened the door and left, I clicked my tongue and sat down on the floor.

Ha.

‘The only time in my life I’ve deceived good people this much was during Mafia games….’

Now I’m deceiving a government official to do spy work. I’m literally bathing in cold sweat.

Still, the important thing is….

‘He seems to believe it, right?’

The point is that it seems to have worked.

Earlier, I definitely noticed that the Bronze Agent suddenly became much quieter and started looking at me with sympathetic eyes.

If that sympathy isn’t directed at a criminal who will be permanently imprisoned in the Disaster Management Bureau’s special glass prison, then ‘volunteer Kim Sol-eum’ has escaped from being a suspect.

‘Good.’

I wiped the cold sweat from my temples.

They say excellent fraud is 90% truth and 10% lies, and it seems I unintentionally maintained that ratio well.

…By the way, my colleagues who infiltrated the Disaster Management Bureau as spies with me didn’t experience this kind of thing.

-Director Ho, then what about the other colleagues….

-Ah, they’ve already entered.

-….

-Until last month, there was a route prepared through irregular hiring at the Disaster Management Bureau, so immediate deployment was possible.

…In other words, I alone caught the last spy train and had to take the official Disaster Management Bureau exam instead of irregular personnel hiring, which is why I went through this ordeal. Haha….

Go Young-eun, Jang Heo-un… I didn’t hear where in the Disaster Management Bureau you are, but please enjoy the easy life wherever you are, and if things go wrong, please help me… please.

‘I beg you.’

I wonder if it’s okay to wish for colleagues’ peace for such self-centered reasons, but anyway, good things are good things, right?

Of course, what’s immediately important now is….

‘The department where I’ll work at the Disaster Management Bureau.’

The deduction isn’t difficult. I crossed my arms.

Let’s see, thinking based on .

The assignment that agents who passed the official exam at the Disaster Management Bureau receive after having their aptitude evaluated through 3 weeks of temporary work….

‘Can be broadly divided into 3 categories.’

You could say they’re the basic three stages for dealing with supernatural disasters.

First, the first one.

Their role is to find and explore urban legends that are currently rumored, both online and offline, and classify them.

Of course, it’s not like Baekillmong Corporation’s method of just throwing the Field Investigation Team in to make manuals, but they collect information and conduct exploration as safely as possible.

‘I’m realizing anew just how crazy the workplace I used to work at was….’

But thinking about it, I’m still not just working there but even doing spy work.

…It’s sad, so let’s stop thinking about it.

Anyway, next, the second one.

That’s the rescue team.

It’s the crazy job of going into situations where ghost stories are in full swing and saving people at the scariest moments.

It’s the most dangerous, but at the same time, it’s the assignment that represents the essence of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau and is respected within the company.

‘And the exploration records are the most interesting too.’

But it’s not what I’m aiming for.

‘I’ve had enough of interesting things.’

Indirect experience was enough for interesting things….

‘What I’m aiming for is the last assignment.’

Namely….

Also known as the cleanup team!

Like crime scene cleaners, it was the team that finally organized concluded or sealed ghost story locations and wrote related documents.

So, I can work on creating registration documents!

Since it’s easiest to access documents, it’s the team most suitable for accessing materials about the ‘certain supernatural ghost story’ that Director Ho mentioned.

‘Especially for someone who’s already read the Darkness Investigation Records, there’s no better deal than this.’

It’s no different from me organizing a wiki, so it was truly a comfortable and fun job.

And most importantly….

‘You go in after all the scary stuff is over!’

That means it’s the least scary.

With this, I can finally have a normal work life without breaking out in cold sweat…!

Can you hear it? The sound of my quality of life rising vertically!

The method of getting assigned is also simple.

‘I just need to show a passive and intelligent side for the next 3 weeks.’

Let’s appeal to an overall analytical and research-oriented personality in classification, organization, etc.

Did you notice? It was a perfect match for the character I just created…!

It’ll be even easier to appeal since the senior knows I’m a ghost story experiencer.

Plus, they know about my suspicious background.

‘I got through it by talking my way out, but if there’s still a trace of suspicion, they’ll stick me in document organization.’

The Bronze Agent seemed like a competent person.

But would they expect an employee from a crazy pharmaceutical company to save people!

“Phew.”

I stood up with an inward smile of relief.

Just then, the agent returned too.

Thud.

“Kim Sol-eum.”

Ah, now he’s probably going to tell me to go home….

“Please take this.”

Thunk.

I reflexively caught what the other person thrust toward me almost like throwing it.

‘A pass?’

It looked like an ID card for facility access. But I already received this during the agent appointment ceremony earlier…?

“Originally, new agents are assigned to work locations through 3 weeks of paired work.”

I knew that….

But I didn’t know the next words.

“However, I have arbitrarily assigned you to a department.”

“….”

Huh?

“From now on, you belong to the same organization as me.”

“….”

Wait a minute.

‘If it’s the Bronze Agent’s organization….’

With an ominous feeling, I flipped over the access pass I was holding….

Agent (β)

Name: Kim Sol-eum

Assignment: Emergency Rescue Team Xuanwu Team 1

“You are now assigned to Xuanwu Team 1 starting from this moment.”

“….”

No way….

No!!

“I just received a rescue call, so we’ll immediately enter a supernatural disaster to save citizens. Follow me.”

“….”

The persuasion jackpot hit in the strangest place!

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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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