Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 137

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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 137

Go Young-eun is a calm colleague.

That was a definite fact. I confirmed it when she woke up in that crazy subway during the entrance exam, and later when we escaped from that insane exhibition that gouged out visitors’ eyes.

But now, Go Young-eun standing on the stairs leading to the ‘4th floor’ – the main culprit behind the disappearance cases in this bizarre mart…

“You’re… hu, human, right…?”

She was too calm.

A pale face that didn’t waver even when looking at the high school student screaming and asking questions.

She said nothing.

My expressionless colleague of the same age was standing on the stairs, looking down at us…

Wait.

‘…Standing on the stairs?’

Wait a minute!

Didn’t the revolving door disappear the moment we climbed the stairs? That means we can’t get out to the 3rd floor on our own.

Then.

‘Just how long has she been here…?’

No. In the first place.

‘Why is she here?’

Go Young-eun could be one of the two agents who entered earlier. The fact that there were 2 people was itself a hint. Disaster Management Bureau agents usually move alone or as a full team.

Two people usually means a senior-junior pair.

But then.

Why is a Disaster Management Bureau new employee standing alone on the stairs to the 4th floor where people disappear?

Without her senior.

For at least a week or more.

Trapped… on these stairs.

“….”

An ominous feeling crept up my spine.

I opened my mouth.

“Agent?”

There was no answer.

“Sanyang… sir?”

Go Young-eun on the stairs opened her mouth.

“Welcome to Lucky Mart!“

I grabbed the high school student and pushed him behind me.

Then I grabbed the door.

“Agent.”

“Thank you as always, customer!“

The expressionless shadowy figure staggers down the stairs.

Go Young-eun.

No, an employee… in the form of Go Young-eun.

‘Damn…!’

I was about to immediately open the door and rush out with the high school student when I noticed something strange.

‘Sound.’

I don’t hear any creaking.

…Go Young-eun’s outfit isn’t an employee uniform either. She’s still in her agent uniform.

Then…

‘Contamination?’

I checked the figure on the stairs again.

Go Young-eun’s appearance, definitely a human form was coming down the stairs.

“…Hold onto the door handle.”

“Y-yes?!”

I rushed forward.

And grabbed and pinned down Go Young-eun who was just stepping onto the stair landing.

“…!!”

“Welcome to Lucky Mart…“

It works.

It was definitely still a human body.

…Then!

With one hand holding down her shoulder, I used my other hand to pull out the remaining blue soda churros from the tattoo on my wrist.

And somehow managed to stuff it into Go Young-eun’s open mouth.

“!”

She didn’t even struggle. She just tried to keep walking and repeating the same lines somehow.

And in the process, the churros got crushed by her naturally moving teeth, so at least some of it went down her esophagus to her stomach.

I watched that scene, breaking out in cold sweat…

A moment later.

“Uweeeeek!”

Go Young-eun started vomiting water like crazy.

I somehow patted her back. Black water pooled on the stair landing.

It wasn’t enough water to choke on like when I spent a month at Brown’s talk show… but it was an alien and strange sight enough to horrify the high school student.

I supported Go Young-eun as she finally vomited out bluish water and collapsed weakly.

“Huff, hufff, huk….”

“Agent.”

I called my colleague.

“…!”

Her eyes, now regaining reason, looked at me.

And her pupils dilated, starting to tremble like crazy.

“…No, Noru.”

Her reason had returned.

Reason enough to respond to being called ‘Agent’ and to call me by my nickname rather than my name since we’re in a ghost story.

‘Thank goodness…’

“Uh, uaaaah!!”

“…?!”

Ugh!

I hastily grabbed Go Young-eun as she suddenly crawled and tried to go back up the stairs.

“Huffff, ugh, this damn mart! Even the hallucinations are realistic! Agh!”

“….”

“I, I won’t be fooled. You’re dead, Noru is dead…”

Ah.

Right.

“Um, I’m not dead. Agent.”

“…?!”

“I was assigned to the same job as you, Agent.”

“?!”

To Go Young-eun, who thought I had been missing in a ghost story for a month and was declared dead.

It took several more dozen minutes to convince her that I was alive and well and had been deployed as a spy…

“Th-thank you… I really survived thanks to you.”

“Not at all.”

Fortunately, as soon as Go Young-eun regained her composure, she understood the situation after comparing several circumstantial details with me.

It seemed more difficult to explain without revealing strange information to a high school student civilian…

I looked at the now completely empty churros paper wrapper and felt a strange impression.

‘This churros… is really amazing.’

In Brown’s Late Night Talk Show, things were moving so frantically that I couldn’t pay attention, but if it could purify contamination in one go like this, it was an incredibly amazing item.

‘To be recorded in the Darkness Investigation records… it’s an item that’s too good for this worldview.’

Anyway, escaping from this crazy mart was the priority right now.

Still, having a person, especially a reliable colleague join us, gave me a bit of energy.

So let me check first.

I stepped aside slightly and clearly showed Go Young-eun the door leading to the 3rd floor mart.

“Can you see the entrance?”

“…”

Go Young-eun nodded.

“Yes.”

Phew.

“To be precise, I can’t see the door itself, but I can see light coming through the gap. …If someone opens it for me, I think I could get out.”

“Then that’s fine.”

Just as I thought it was fortunate, Go Young-eun covered her face with one hand.

“But… anyway, I can’t leave the mart.”

“Excuse me?”

“…Because I damaged merchandise.”

“…! It’s okay. Since this is outside the mart, even if you ate food as long as you weren’t witnessed…”

“No. I got caught breaking things in the mart.”

“…”

“It wasn’t me but another agent who did it, but it seems like we were roughly treated as accomplices.”

I remained silent for a moment before asking.

“…Where is that senior agent?”

“Dead.”

“…”

“No, I think they’re dead. …They went up there.”

Go Young-eun pointed to the stairs.

“I think their family went missing here. But the last trace ended with them going up to the 4th floor… so they came here planning to enter there from the beginning.”

“No, I don’t even want to use honorifics for them. Aren’t they crazy? They could die alone, but when I came in… ah.”

“…”

“Anyway, I sat here covering my ears as soon as that person opened the 4th floor door. …But I could still hear it.”

The logo song.

And not long after, she became like an ’employee’.

“…”

“Um.”

“You can call me Grape.”

“Yes. ‘Grape Agent’.”

Go Young-eun rubbed her face and then looked up.

It was an expression of having organized her thoughts.

“Since I’m screwed anyway, I’ll at least serve as bait when you two leave. I was trapped here and almost starved to death from contamination, so at least that much…”

“No.”

I thought for a moment, then stepped back and grabbed the high school student, pushing him forward.

“Huh? Agent…?”

“Rather, could we get some help? …He injured his ankle.”

“Ah.”

We barely convinced the high school student, who said he wouldn’t spit it out because it was scary, to temporarily take the candy out of his mouth.

And when I earnestly handed over the first aid kit I had brought, Go Young-eun treated and stabilized the high school student’s ankle with skills twenty times more professional than mine.

“But if he eats that candy, won’t this just get in the way? Um, the candy…”

“Just keep it on for a few hours.”

I calmed down the high school student who had returned to a state of depleted mental and physical strength and was on the verge of panic.

And I pulled out a lure.

“Let’s eat this first.”

“…!! Food…!”

The high school student’s eyes grew about twice as large.

The instant food I took out as if it had been in the bag I brought disappeared into the mouths of the three people in an instant.

‘Since this isn’t the mart, I can finally eat.’

These were things I couldn’t take out even in the food court because I could only eat ‘safe’ food there.

Even though I only took out things that didn’t have strong smells just in case, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything so fast in my life.

I emptied sterile milk in 2 seconds and devoured a whole castella cake in about 30 seconds.

‘Now I feel like I might live.’

And I put the high school student to sleep.

I also wanted to collapse and sleep for a few hours, but first I needed to have a conversation with my colleague who looked equally haggard.

We shared the information we knew and also chatted to replenish our mental strength for a while.

“No… I mean, Grape Agent is always well-prepared. I uselessly brought a mart floor plan.”

‘But the 3rd floor was so big that the information was too general and sparse to be useful,’ Go Young-eun muttered bitterly.

“I also brought coins that I used in other darkness just in case, but they don’t seem to count as currency to pay with here…”

Wait a minute.

“You have a floor plan?”

“Yes. It’s included in the supplies for regular exploration teams. …We’re supposed to investigate places that haven’t been explored yet if possible.”

“Could you show it to me?”

“Of course.”

Go Young-eun took out a well-folded thick paper like a pamphlet from her small backpack.

I could see that people had added various phrases and drawings in different colored handwriting on top of the printed building floor plan.

‘…These are notes from Disaster Management Bureau agents.’

“…”

I looked at it as if mesmerized, then discovered one location name.

A store that was specially marked.

There seem to be crazy bastards who think this is useful, but it’s suicidal. Don’t go.

“…Agent.”

“What I mentioned earlier. ‘Currency to pay with.'”

“Yes? Yes.”

“I think we might be able to obtain that separately.”

I was about to point to one place with my finger but held back. I thought the other person might feel repulsed or be shocked.

Instead, I explained with words.

“Among the places marked on the map you gave me, I can see a useful store. There’s a hint.”

“…”

However, Go Young-eun took a deep breath and shook her head.

“I… I’m sorry, but I’m against it. The 3rd floor is so big that I don’t know how long it would take to get there. And I’m also scared about how long it would take to find the door back to these stairs when returning.”

Cold sweat formed on Go Young-eun’s calm face.

And there seemed to be signs of trying hard to hide her fear.

“You two should go when business resumes. I’ll… wait for rescue. Right now, if there are no other items to shake off employees or other dangers…”

That’s what I’m saying.

“Now we have it.”

“…!”

“Do you remember? It’s something you’ve used before.”

I pulled out an item from my Inventory Tattoo that I hadn’t used in a very long time.

Now that our party had become three people, perfectly matching the recommended number, it was something we could use.

…And with no Bronze Agent around, there was nothing to worry about.

[Easy and Quick Candle Making Kit]

I held the ‘Mysterious Candle Kit’ item box and smiled genuinely for the first time in three days.

“Let’s make candles again.”

This candle-making item that had contributed significantly to our escape from the ‘Mansion of the Blind’ could finally be put to use again.

The dark stair landing.

Three people standing in the narrow space were crouched down looking at the floor.

I spread out the black paper that came with the box on the stair landing and drew complex patterns to make candles.

Then I suggested.

“Let’s draw cards.”

“Huuuuu.”

“Wow….”

Go Young-eun and the High School Student took turns looking at the card backs and randomly drew one each.

The keywords that would become the candle’s attributes were decided.

[Confusion]

[Dream]

‘Not bad.’

The keyword order was decent. …Though they seemed strangely related to their current states.

Anyway, now it was time to choose the last card. I looked at the cards that were all face up.

Honor, Healing, Meditation, Wound, Lies, Anger, Interference, Protection, Strike, Staring….

‘Last time I chose Lies.’

With the keywords Honor, Interference, and Lies, we had deceived the exhibition Guide Machines and pretended to be customers who had legitimately paid admission.

‘Then this time.’

I chose one without hesitation.

[Protection]

A card depicting hands preciously cradling a crystal orb that sparkled with pale purple light.

I burned all three completed cards to make ash, applied it like paint within the crayon candle outline I had drawn, then folded the paper.

Exactly the same as I had done before.

And after some waiting.

“It’s complete.”

“Wo, wow.”

A pale blue candle rolled out of the paper into my hand.

Of course, I couldn’t use this, and the injured minor surviving on nostalgia was obviously out of the question.

And even if that weren’t the case, we had an experienced person here.

I turned to Go Young-eun and handed over the candle.

“Please take care of it this time too.”

“…Yes.”

Go Young-eun took hold of the completed candle.

“This time, I’ll do it properly.”

Leaving behind a subtle nuance.

The lit candle began to burn in my colleague’s hand.

The Prayer must hold this candlelight toward the confused being, with the power to make them dream, and reveal a protected form.

Divine protection is granted to the Prayer holding the candle.

Visitor in the mist.

Whoosh.

The light illuminates us.

“Ah….”

I stood behind Go Young-eun with the High School Student.

It reminded me of when Brown had turned off the lights for us, but this felt colder and lighter.

It seemed as if cool mist was wrapping around us following the candlelight….

“….”

We slowly opened the door and stepped out onto the 3rd floor.

Our appearance carrying the lamp should have stood out in the dark store, but strangely, we blended in naturally as if shrouded in mist.

And we encountered an employee.

“Hik.”

I covered the High School Student’s mouth who had made a sound.

That employee creaked as they approached us….

“….”

And smoothly passed by.

“Ha.”

Go Young-eun caught her breath.

But it was mixed with relief rather than fear.

‘Thank goodness.’

Once again, the item from the Alien Shop had done its job perfectly.

But the item’s time limit was even tighter than during the exhibition.

…Since we had to prepare for a long time until business resumed.

“Since it’s over when the candle burns out completely, if we want to use it again after business resumes later, we should move quickly.”

“Yes. Where should we go?”

“Here.”

I pointed to a location on the floor plan that Go Young-eun had brought and showed it to her.

Go Young-eun, who had been looking casually, was startled.

“…! Wa, wait….”

“It’s okay. Let’s move.”

“….”

She was already holding the candlelight, and we couldn’t get into a physical fight or argument that might extinguish it.

Eventually, Go Young-eun began to move while gesturing that she had a lot to say.

Phew.

‘Thank you….’

That was understandable.

Because my destination was….

[Flesh-Selling Lucky Mart]

Because it was a strange event store with this insane signboard.

“….”

While other stores seemed to imitate past Lucky Mart event displays, the ones with these bizarre signboards were strangely abnormal, as if they were created by some error.

In this case, only dozens of grills were lined up on an empty white floor with nothing else.

And in the silence, they were sizzling and burning something….

“Hic.”

“Quiet.”

I grabbed the High School Student’s shoulder as he started trembling.

The kid wasn’t being overly dramatic.

“Ha.”

On the grill displayed right in front of the event store.

Charred black meat parts were being grilled as a demonstration… but anyone could see they were carelessly placed parts from a familiar bipedal animal.

…Missing People processed as supplies.

‘I feel like throwing up.’

But I held it in.

And there was a banner hanging above.

…Just as the Agent had written.

Instant BBQ Event!

Participate while alive and receive a guaranteed Gift Certificate

Gift Certificate.

Why would you do the crazy thing of trying to get a gift certificate here? You’ll attract attention and get attacked by Long-term Missing Persons. They can hardly be considered human anymore, so we’ve given up on rescuing them.

But we were currently temporarily protected by fog while gently avoiding attention within this mart.

I gently tapped Go Young-eun’s shoulder.

“Could you please move aside for a moment? So I can stand in front of an empty grill.”

“What? …Wait a minute. This….”

“It’s fine.”

Actually, it’s not fine.

I have a strong urge for someone else besides me to do all this instead….

‘Wouldn’t that be human nature?’

But the thing is.

One of my companions is someone who was trapped on the stairs contaminated for over a week, and the other is a civilian minor.

They weren’t suitable candidates to dump this work on.

Besides, this was also an opportunity.

‘I need to get the Gift Certificate.’

Only if I take the initiative can it come into my hands as currency I can use proactively.

‘To push my opinion through until we escape with what I get here, I have to do it.’

I gritted my teeth.

…First, I injected Happy Maker to prevent shock death. My hands were shaking.

‘Calm down, stay calm.’

And I calmly grabbed an item I had slyly taken on the way here, struggling not to let my hands tremble.

A massive Butcher Knife.

The sharp blade glinted in the light.

“That thing…!”

“Items don’t break and return to their original state when used, so they won’t be recognized as purchases if restored properly.”

“That’s not the point, no, Agent…!”

I brought the Butchering Knife down on my right arm.

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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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