Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 155

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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 155

One whining new employee, two sniffling superiors.

All three of them 8 years old.

The situation was smoothly deteriorating.

‘Damn it!’

This isn’t explaining, it’s overwhelming them first…!

With the urge to bite my tongue, I finally tried earnestly to explain the reason for ‘I don’t want to, let’s look more,’ but I was already on the verge of being influenced by the other two.

Tears spread quickly among kids too…!

“Ah, we still have more time and you said the rule is only two days. So I thought we still had time to explore safely without contamination…”

“…Right.”

“Then I want to look for at least one more person. There might be someone we just haven’t discovered yet!”

Agent Choi sniffles.

“Th, then maybe two more days would be…?”

“Agent!”

Bronze Agent, whose eyes had turned red, stepped forward and glared at Agent Choi, then turned to me and said firmly.

“That won’t do.”

I want to argue ‘Why won’t it do!’

“Why won’t it do!”

This is maddening.

Bronze Agent also shouts angrily.

“Because it could be dangerous! An agent’s life always comes first. If we push ourselves by breaking rules…”

And his voice chokes up.

“I, I’ve seen agents die that way. There are many seniors who never returned.”

“…”

“So we shouldn’t start in the first place. We must follow the rules.”

‘…Sigh.’

His point also makes sense.

And Bronze Agent glances at my arm.

“Don’t forget that arm needs charging every three days too.”

“But I brought a charger for that! Th, then how about this? Just one more night, just one more night.”

Agent Choi said, holding up his index finger.

“And if we’re not confident there’s a kid worth rescuing by tomorrow afternoon, we’ll just leave. Right? Delaying the mission by half a day is… really just adding one line to the report.”

“…”

We both reflexively looked at Bronze Agent.

“Jae-gwan…”

“Agent, listen…”

“Do whatever you want.”

And Bronze Agent shut his mouth.

Leaving only these words.

“I never agreed to this.”

It seemed that way.

His face was flushed red, unable to hide his grief and resentment.

But since it was also an implicit declaration that he wouldn’t argue further, Agent Choi immediately wrapped things up.

“Good. Then we’ll look for just one more day!”

If that still doesn’t work, we’ll give up and leave immediately, the three children promised.

And we scattered to the sleeping areas of the children in our respective zones.

Agent Choi near the palace, Bronze Agent near the central fountain, and I… toward the village entrance.

What was somewhat maddening was that our paths overlapped, so I ended up walking with Bronze Agent.

“…”

“…”

“Um, I’m sorry…”

“…It’s fine.”

Bronze Agent sighs as he speaks.

“Considering other cases of Dokkaebi Tricks shapeshifting… this was reasonably and rationally concluded.”

“I, is that so?”

“Yes. There have been agents who cried and fought and rolled around among themselves.”

I, I see.

“…That’s why rules are necessary. In these supernatural situations, it’s important to follow discipline even if it’s not convincing. You’ll eventually confirm that it’s ultimately more correct.”

Bronze Agent took a deeper breath.

“Of course, Grape Agent isn’t at fault. New agents all go through this once. But the supervisor failed to explain properly and went along with it…!”

“…”

That supervisor has an excellent talent for making the new employee who succeeded in negotiating for just one more day thanks to him shut up…

Anyway, Bronze Agent still didn’t look pleased, but as we scattered to our destinations, the atmosphere recovered enough for him to give me advice.

“The children will all fall asleep before midnight anyway. Don’t waste your energy, Grape Agent, and get some sleep.”

“…Yes.”

The Sparkling Dragon Palace changes between day and night based on the city’s clock tower bell.

When night comes, drowsiness arrives to match children’s sleep cycles, everyone falls asleep before midnight, and they wake up to cheerful music when the sun rises.

It was a supernatural structure befitting a ghost story.

I walked through the village covered in enchanting red-gold light, then soft navy blue and white sparkles, and entered the lodging I was in charge of.

A signboard at the entrance announced:

For Children

Dreamland Beds

Inside was a huge space decorated cutely like a child’s bedroom, with a dozen or so fluffy beds draped with canopies.

…The children in the bedroom were already all asleep.

Since I had searched for children to rescue until the very last moment, I had already used up time to the limit.

I was also drowsy.

“Whew.”

I picked one of the empty beds and lay down. Impossibly soft and warm bedding gently embraced my head and body.

And briefly, the disgraceful behavior I just showed passes through my mind… Wow.

I threw a tantrum? Me?

‘I don’t think I was that bad even when I was actually little.’

And thinking about personalities, it seemed like not just me, but Agent Choi and Bronze Agent would have been the same.

Since Dokkaebi Tricks isn’t real rejuvenation but deception, it felt strangely like we had shapeshifted into the concept of ‘children.’

So what’s important now is proceeding calmly without being influenced by the excessive characteristics of this child’s body.

After all, the objective hasn’t changed.

I resolved slowly with my drowsy mind.

‘…Wake up early and look right away.’

At least one person.

Maybe one, I might be able to take out with me…

…

…

[Grape.]

…Hmm?

[Grape. You will become a truly good agent. Your arm thinks so too.]

I heard a voice that was somehow nostalgic and warm.

No, listening again, it also sounds trustworthy and strong.

What is this?

[It’s your dream.]

I see.

Come to think of it, I did fall asleep.

Sparkling light flickered before my closed eyes. Like warm flames…

[And in dreams, thoughts that you can’t have in reality also come to mind. Because you’re free from the constraints of reality.]

…

Things that don’t come to mind in reality.

Certainly, since I was conducting the rescue mission as a child to meet the entry conditions, I can now review the things I missed.

The me in the dream calmly recalled several questions.

Adult suspicions.

For instance…

‘Why do more than half of the children we meet change every time agents come?’

If all the children changed completely, I could rationally guess the setting as ‘there must be several similar places due to the nature of this supernatural phenomenon.’

But more than half of the children we meet being different is completely different.

In other words, it means that more than half of them disappear from here.

At least in a form where they can’t meet with agents.

And…

‘Why don’t the agents feel suspicious about that?’

Two eerie but simple and certain possibilities also came to mind simultaneously.

Either they themselves are being affected by this ghost story.

…Or there are facts they deliberately hid from me, the new employee, and didn’t tell me.

Or both.

‘If that’s the case…’

…Don’t I have something useful for this situation?

Something that would supplement my realization.

Without having to ask the other two people.

[Indeed! How clever you are, Grape. Wise creative thinking is a treasure for all ages.]

[Don’t forget what you gained in your dream and wake up tomorrow.]

I felt as if wrinkled hands had encouragingly patted my head.

Ah, thank you, Elder.

…

…

“Ah.”

Kyarurururu!

I heard bell sounds and children’s laughter.

A new golden morning had begun.

“Let’s go see the Mermaid Princess!”

“I want to play hide and seek.”

The children were getting up from the bedroom and leaving their spots, chattering energetically.

Normally this would be a situation where I should immediately chase after them to extract information from the children, but my mind clearly came up with one idea.

Something I had concluded in the dream I had last night.

“…”

I put my hand inside my thick coat and carefully took out what I had brought, being careful not to break it.

It was the ‘Children’s Detective Syrup’. This syrup that I had manufactured by pressing the emoticon button in the Dream Cultivation Room.

Baekillmong Corporation called it this.

If I drink the detective syrup, I’ll immediately see the children I can rescue.

Since my current mission objective is rescuing children, the ‘most necessary thing’ would be child rescue.

‘Good.’

Normally I would have calculated this and that… but no matter what, this is about rescuing children, and going that far would make me feel like I’d become a human scumbag.

‘I needed to check the effect once anyway.’

I opened the sealed cap of the syrup and gulped it down.

The syrup with artificial cherry flavor and sweetness as written on the label went down my throat…

“…Whew.”

I put away the empty bottle.

Unlike the regeneration potion, I didn’t feel any dramatically noticeable miraculous changes, but my heart was beating and I felt calm.

‘Now let’s check.’

I alternately looked at the children remaining in the living room and the children running around the street beyond the window to check.

Trying to find a ‘child that catches my eye.’

But…

“…”

Why aren’t there any?

Neither the children running out, nor the children laughing and playing around the fountain in the distance.

They’re just children. Nothing particularly stands out.

Just as my spine was about to turn cold, wondering if there really wasn’t a single target.

‘…Huh?’

I felt a presence from somewhere else.

In the periphery of my vision, something somehow clear and bright caught my attention.

“…”

I turned my eyes to check it.

The opposite pocket of my coat.

It was exactly where the items I had purchased from the Manhole’s Faceless Market were stored.

‘Why is this…’

I put my hand in and took out the item.

It was paper with 4 old stamps printed on it.

It looked like cost-reduced charity or advertising stickers, and each faded stamp had old Korean streets drawn on it.

And if you look more closely. You can also see non-human things drawn in the background there.

Pigeons, rats, stray cats, sparrows, cockroaches.

Creatures that coexist with humans on the streets.

…I had intended to bring this in case I needed to escape or hide while spying, but I broke out in cold sweat when Agent Choi recommended it instead.

I sweated again while selecting items not originating from Baekillmong Corporation for exchange.

Anyway, the essential ability of this item is ultimately this.

‘The ability to transform into a non-human street animal.’

Sounds pretty good, right?

Naturally, there are also fatal side effects.

However, if continuously affected by the stamp’s effects for more than 2 hours, the body may mutate into something within the stamp.

It wasn’t the convenient story of actually becoming that animal.

It means the characteristics of those animals appear as if infected all over the human body. Like a biological disaster horror game.

Think of pigeon beaks or sparrow eyeballs growing beside your jaw.

‘Ugh.’

The thought alone was horrifying, so I resolved once more to never violate the usage time limit.

But… in a ghost story where the entry condition is ‘appearance of a child,’ taking the form of an animal is ‘what I need most right now’?

I felt uneasy but also got a chilling sensation.

A premonition that something was amiss and needed checking.

‘…Even if Baekillmong scammed with other things, they never scammed with potions.’

The effects were so reliable there was no need for that.

‘Alright.’

If anything seemed strange, I could immediately spit out the stamp and return to child form.

After taking a light deep breath, I peeled off one stamp and put it in my mouth.

“…!!”

My field of vision lowered.

Even more drastically than when I became a child, down to the floor.

My waist bent, and I stood on all fours.

I felt the texture of fur, my ears moved up, and the strange sensation of having long whiskers.

‘A cat, I suppose.’

I lifted my head.

Being a pigeon would have been more useful since I could fly. Anyway, psychologically fortunate that I avoided being a cockroach or rat…

…

‘Huh.’

The golden city crumbles in my vision.

The enchanting blue sea, the fairy-tale brick houses and boulevards sparkling like heaven, the beautiful banners all lose their light, fade in color, and break down.

And instead, grotesque things begin to appear. Rusted metal pipes, broken streetlights flickering, half-destroyed buildings, graffiti made of blood and filth. Bizarre ulcer-like lumps protruding unevenly fill the spaces between bricks and streetlights, pulsating! This entire space is infected! Strange! Strange! It’s everywhere! I’m contaminated…

Spit it out!

I need to spit out the stamp. Something’s wrong with this…

…

No.

‘That’s… not it.’

It’s because of the shock of falling from an enchanting place… to a horrifying one.

I’m not contaminated.

“Whew.”

I caught my breath.

Adapting to the environment, the acute panic ended. I shivered all over and looked around with the cold mind of someone who had escaped being a child.

Grotesquely collapsed civilization and biological tissue masses infected throughout the city.

This is a description I know.

Right. ‘Sparkling Dragon Palace’ wasn’t a ghost story unrecorded in the Darkness Investigation Records.

It just wasn’t the form I knew.

What I knew was…

…a horrifying ghost story from Baekillmong Corporation.

This.

So… the children of Sparkling Dragon Palace here are.

I staggered and walked on all fours through the completely destroyed street.

Throughout the dark deep-sea streets, I could see corpses frozen in bizarre poses, pulled and moved by strange ulcer-like masses.

No… half living person, half corpse.

Moving stiffly and sluggishly with doll-like movements.

‘Those drinking fountain decoration dolls.’

Children

Come get your honey!

Doll decorations of various appearances from soldiers to elephants.

‘They were human.’

People who were dragged into this insane ghost story and became infected.

Then the honey that came from the faucets attached near their bellies…

Was actually blood that those ulcer-like masses extracted from people’s stomachs.

‘…Ugh.’

I ran.

Kicking with all four legs, I ran through this grotesque ruins of an old city sunken to the seafloor, where contaminated life writhed around rusted mechanical devices.

And so I arrived at the city’s heart.

…What had appeared to be a beautiful dragon palace…

Was a cluster of massive ulcer masses.

Thump, thump.

Dirty crimson, green, and pinkish pale flesh-like masses whose pulsations reached even here hung throughout the collapsed massive buildings, standing tall like avant-garde sculptures.

And attached at the very front, a bumpy egg sac-like thing with tentacles.

With a knowing eye, one could recall something with a similar silhouette.

A statue of the Mermaid Princess.

Right.

…In the ‘Sparkling Dragon Palace’, the toys, clothes, and picture books given to the kids when they offered ‘honey’ to the statue were… old belongings of people who had gone missing here.

It was just creating an illusion so only the kids would see them that way.

This ghost story.

And it was infecting the kids. The terrible infectious fluids commonly called baby mermaids in this Mermaid Graveyard darkness investigation records were, in the end…

In the end…

“…”

No.

‘This… this.’

Let’s retreat for now. I can’t meet children in this state. I staggered and barely managed to turn around.

At that moment.

Uuuuuung!

With a strange sound, the ulcerous mass on the floor shot slime at me.

“…!”

It’s infectious slime.

If that sticks to me, I’ll grow a faucet too…!

‘Damn.’

Fortunately, cats knew how to run fast.

Like a lie, my four legs moved in perfect adaptation to the cat’s body, running through dusty and rusted alleys. Is this why Agent Choi recommended it?

‘Anyway!’

So, so then.

What the hell do I do about this?

Should I inform the agents? If I do tell them, how much should I reveal?

How should we proceed with the rescue? No, is it right for the agents to continue being children in this situation?

Is the appearance of children really safe?

The judgment that living here is better than turning into foam, now…

“This way. No baby mermaids here.”

…!

“Move out.”

“Yes, Deputy Manager!”

I stopped in my tracks.

Three shadowy figures that just entered the alley.

Calm tone. Familiar words I’d seen in the investigation records. Titles used for ranks.

…It’s Baekillmong Corporation.

‘The Field Investigation Team was already inside…!’

Right, since most of the long investigation records of darkness registered with that company were written by Field Investigation Team employees, it’s natural I’d encounter company people inside.

…Then.

Maybe I can use this.

‘If they’re Baekillmong Corporation employees, they should have at least one or two pieces of special equipment.’

I might see a way to break through this situation. Or at least get some ideas…!

Even if not, having more cards to play was absolutely necessary.

‘Let’s go.’

I held my breath and approached the alley where the masks and business suits had passed.

“…so.”

“Ah. This one.”

Their conversation reached my sensitive hearing, and the three shadowy figures finally revealed as I turned the corner were…

…

Familiar masks.

“…Hmm. Doesn’t look very useful.”

“Huh? Looks like it could be worth money. I’ll take it.”

Goat Baek Sa-heon, Pony Kang I-hak.

And…

“Be quiet.”

Butterfly, Team A Deputy Manager Jin Na-sol.

“…”

‘Damn.’

It was a killer lineup.

—————
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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