Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 159
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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 159
Kim Sol-eum thought.
If ‘Good Friend’ had been accompanying him in this absurd situation, he could roughly predict what it would say.
-Oh! Deception. It’s been a very effective governing technique since ancient times. Leading the masses toward some scene is becoming increasingly intriguing….
It probably would have said something like that.
‘Come to think of it, walking on all fours, there’s no room to carry a rabbit doll anyway.’
Kim Sol-eum had such a blank thought. No, he desperately feigned such indifference.
Because the gazes from behind were too piercing.
‘Aaaah.’
Behind him, Baekillmong Corporation employees and Disaster Management Bureau agents were following as if entranced.
No, even the young mermaids… that is, the children were following along.
‘To this extent?’
He felt like breaking out in cold sweat.
It was true that he had deliberately guided the two forces to witness each other. Since they needed to be conscious of each other and the situation needed to become chaotic for the fake Necronomicon’s psychological effect to work better!
But he hadn’t expected it to work so well that not a single person would retreat and they would all follow him.
‘If I get caught, I’m screwed….’
If those veterans caught him, his soles were getting damp just thinking about what might happen….
However, surprisingly, Kim Sol-eum succeeded in not showing any of this. It was thanks to the survival instincts that had worked since his time as a new employee at the ghost story company.
Thanks to this, he was perceived as some kind of cosmic horror entity’s incarnation that had caused the terrible and powerful phenomenon they had just experienced.
Even by the person who had guessed this cat’s identity!
“Excuse me.”
Baek Sa-heon.
The goat-masked employee walking beside the cat finally managed to speak after several hellish minutes had passed.
“What on earth is happening….”
The cat stares.
It stops walking and gazes at the black goat with blood-red eyes, silently, without saying a word.
“….”
“….”
“…Urgh.”
In the end, Baek Sa-heon covered his mouth and started walking again with spinning eyes, breaking out in cold sweat….
‘It’s not killing me.’
‘It’s not killing me.’
‘It definitely has some purpose.’
Just as people’s minds began to turn again and rational thinking was about to function.
The massive terror in the form of a cat began to speak again.
Different words.
[10]
…A countdown.
“…!”
[9]
And the cat’s pace quickened.
[8]
The cat grows smaller toward the other side of the city district.
If they don’t follow immediately, who knows what might happen….
[7]
With cold sweat forming on the backs of their necks, people shut their mouths and began moving to follow the cat that had started walking again.
It was a rare situation that occurred because everyone had experience in ghost story exploration.
Because they all knew this unwritten rule.
-In ghost stories, if you scream and run away without thinking, you usually die.
Thus, the logic of ghost stories was protecting Kim Sol-eum!
Moreover, with a strange entity inserted between two forces that were extremely hostile to each other, there was even the effect of them restraining each other and being unable to act recklessly.
‘Thank you, Baek Sa-heon…!’
Thanks to this, despite his cold, sweaty soles, Kim Sol-eum was able to properly create fear and pressure while guiding them.
The black cat with an ominous presence continues moving its feet, heading somewhere in the city in an instant.
The employees dodged the slime that ulcers scattered along the way, the agents hurriedly carried children on their backs who complained of sore legs, and they walked urgently.
Eventually, passing through the city district, a strange architectural structure appears….
“Huh?”
“It looks like a cathedral.”
It was the stained glass building at the eastern end.
Even though all the glass was shattered and all the symbols were destroyed.
The cat quietly went to that collapsed building, heading toward a strangely hidden space beyond the collapsed beams.
Surprisingly, there was a small annex building there.
“…!”
“I’ve never been to this place.”
Because it was hidden by the completely collapsed building, it was a place the Baekillmong employees had never noticed and didn’t even know existed.
However, in the eyes of the children looking at the Sparkling Dragon Palace, they could see the appearance of a proper beautiful building….
“This is the place we searched last time, right?”
“Yes. There were no unusual findings.”
Thus, one side found it strange, the other side found it puzzling, and both entered the building full of wariness.
Following the black cat.
[This way]
The cat stopped only after entering the annex building.
It was in front of the left wall.
Right below where a small, completely torn painting was hanging.
Baek Sa-heon hesitated.
“…What am I supposed to do with this?”
[This way]
Damn.
Baek Sa-heon looked at the damaged painting, broke out in cold sweat, then turned around and smiled.
“Hey, Mr. Pony.”
Kang I-hak naturally pretended not to hear. Baek Sa-heon didn’t care and continued speaking.
“I don’t know much about this kind of thing, so could you take a look? This painting, it seems like there might be a vault behind it…”
“A vault?”
“Yes.”
Kang I-hak immediately stepped forward.
And after examining the painting closely…
“Aha.”
He unhesitatingly reached out and pulled the painting away.
Behind it was indeed a completely rusted iron lock.
“…!”
It was a bluff, so why is it there!
Baek Sa-heon almost grabbed the other person by the collar.
‘If I had known this would happen, I would have done it myself…’
Kang I-hak immediately took action.
“Cat-nim.”
He knelt down in front of the cat.
Kim Sol-eum almost fell backward but barely managed to stiffen into a proper ghost story resident pose.
Kang I-hak’s eyes sparkled.
“The vault key! Where is the vault key?”
Good grief.
“Haha, you said to bow earlier so I tried bowing, but could you give me just a hint about how valuable what’s inside is…”
[This way]
The cat was (reluctantly) steadfast!
And meanwhile, Baek Sa-heon quietly reached out and yanked at the vault.
Creak.
“Ah. It just opened…!”
And everyone from Baekillmong Corporation froze.
One, two, three…
Twelve.
Inside the vault, beautiful white conch shells tied with golden strings were displayed.
Precious items that they had scoured the city for like catching mice, but were now rarely found.
“An, Angel’s Sigh!”
Total of 13 ‘Angel’s Sigh’ discovered in vault inside annex building next to collapsed massive religious architecture in eastern part of city. Due to nature of building, appears to be stockpiled supplies for direct achievement.
What the cat wanted to show them.
The cat watches the employees rejoicing with its red eyes.
If this had already been an explored area, it could have naturally guided them elsewhere, but this place was preferable if possible.
…There was a reason.
However, the promised side effects were unavoidable.
‘Items!’
Greed appeared in the eyes of the Baekillmong Corporation employees.
‘How much would that convert to in points?’
‘We absolutely have to take it out.’
However, they were still being cautious due to the fear that the Necronomicon had brought.
They seemed to think that the massive evil appearing as a cat would set some condition or bring about terrible consequences.
Therefore…
[This way]
The cat moved its steps again.
Suffocating silence flows.
And… it sat in front of the Disaster Management Bureau agent children.
“…!”
“It’s a cat doll! So cute!”
“No! Don’t!”
Agent Choi restrained the young mermaid that was about to rush at the cat.
Ryu Jae-gwan broke out in cold sweat.
Anyway, the cat’s senses, having already perceived the other world once, could also detect the voices of the Disaster Management Bureau agents in ‘children’ form.
And it urged them.
[This way]
“…It seems like it’s telling us to look inside that vault.”
“…”
The two calmed the young mermaids, then approached the vault while watching all directions.
The Baekillmong Corporation employees looked itchy-handed but remained quiet for now given the situation.
And finally the agents looked inside the vault…
“…”
“…Cheongdong. Can you see it?”
“No.”
“I see.”
Agent Choi broke out in cold sweat and smiled grimly.
“…There’s nothing here.”
That’s right.
To the agents in children’s form, the glittering ivory-colored vault appeared completely empty.
“But there’s actually something there, right?”
Agent Choi lifted the sun catcher again and looked at the spot where the Baekillmong Corporation people had been making a fuss.
And confirmed it.
“…!”
There really were twelve ‘conch shells’ there.
Agent Choi hurriedly asked the young mermaid.
“Friend, can you see that?”
“What? Is there something?”
“I can see the cat.”
The children answered innocently.
The agents realized.
These items were invisible only to children.
No, more precisely… they couldn’t perceive them at all!
‘Wait a minute.’
Bronze Agent felt a chill down his spine.
‘Then… there were crucial items that the Management Bureau hasn’t been able to identify until now…’
They always infiltrated ghost stories in children’s form.
So in that form, they couldn’t even perceive them, and the conch shells that could only be found with great effort searching were impossible for them to identify.
But at this very moment. The agents of the Disaster Management Bureau have learned of this item’s existence…
Agent Choi quickly turned to look at the cat, but the cat stared at him intently and continued to express the same will.
[This way]
“Agent.”
“No, no, it’s fine.”
Agent Choi responded to the call.
And he reached out his hand, extending it into the safe to try to touch where the conch shell had been…
But he couldn’t touch it at all.
“….”
It won’t even let him touch it.
The hallucination of the Sparkling Dragon Palace created by the culprit and source of infection of this ghost story was rejecting the conch shell.
“Then…”
[This way]
“….”
Agent Choi closed his mouth.
The cat moves again as if his turn is over.
Where those steps are heading… is in front of Baek Sa-heon.
‘Why me again!’
Baek Sa-heon screamed internally. But the next moment he realized.
“Ah. …Should I collect these conch shells?”
That’s right.
‘It’s telling me to collect the items!’
Baek Sa-heon, filled with joy for the first time after hearing the kitten’s words, quickly reached his hand into the safe.
[10]
Even in his joy, his mind was busily calculating.
‘How do I collect all twelve in this situation?’
If it had only told me, I could have just collected them right away, but now that it’s come to this, I’ll have to give some to my nasty superior and money-crazy colleague to resolve the situation.
‘Damn it.’
[9]
It must have deliberately gathered people to create a more interesting and stimulating scene. As expected, that cat is the psychopath Kim Sol-eum…
‘…Wait a minute.’
Baek Sa-heon hesitated.
But that crazy, strange, bizarre and terrifying pressure just now, that presence… isn’t that something beyond what a mere psychopathic human could do?
The same goes for the red halo visible around Kim Sol-eum.
Of course, Baek Sa-heon had confirmed several times that he could see danger-warning halos around humans too, but Kim Sol-eum’s felt somehow… somehow different.
[8]
Rather than human, it was closer to what he’d seen in ghost stories…
The feeling of an abnormal phenomenon.
‘No way.’
Could it be that his former roommate isn’t an inhuman psychopath.
[7]
‘But was simply never a human from reality to begin with…’
His back went cold.
But the ship had already sailed, and he had to collect the items.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
[6]
The countdown is ending.
Baek Sa-heon gritted his teeth and quickly collected the conch shells tied with golden strings. Ignoring Kang I-hak’s prying and the intense gazes of his superior and the agents.
And when he had swept all twelve into his bag.
“Huh?”
He discovered an additional conch shell that had been hidden at the very bottom.
It wasn’t tied with a golden string, but it was definitely an ‘Angel’s Sigh.’
‘This is a bonus.’
Baek Sa-heon pondered how to secretly collect it separately and reached out his hand…
[This way]
Something shoots out from inside.
“…!”
Baek Sa-heon tripped over the cat by a hair’s breadth.
The viscous infectious agent that shot out from inside the conch shell cut through the air and lost its target.
“Agh!”
Baek Sa-heon quickly threw the conch shell in his hand.
The Bronze Agent who had been watching the situation while holding a sun catcher ran over and struck the conch shell that shot the slime with his Glass Hand Cloth.
With a short thud, the conch shell shattered, and the tick-like lump of flesh inside convulsed and crawled out like a bug before getting hit by another bullet and sticking to the floor.
Splat.
Jin Na-sol’s shoe crushes it.
“….”
In the chilling silence, people turned to look at the cat.
The entity within the ghost story that had forcibly led people to this place.
Whew.
I deliberately avoided people’s gazes, feeling like I wanted to break out in cold sweat.
It wasn’t too difficult since I was in a cat’s body.
‘I was trying to verify this.’
Right. The reason I specifically chose to come to this place among the various locations where I could farm ‘Angel’s Sigh.’
The moment you grab the conch shell hidden at the very bottom of the safe, infectious slime shoots out.
The special nature of this place. It was a trap item.
Like a mimic, it was a chilling and typical horror development where a biological hazard was parasitically disguised inside a useful-looking item.
But when you combine this typical element with the information obtained from the tattooist…
‘It becomes a clearer hint.’
A hint about the identity of the conch shell.
■■.
From that overwhelming sensory information the shop owner of Moonlight Tattoo Shop had conveyed, the conch shell, the ‘Angel’s Sigh’, was something terrible connected to negative and fatal events.
That event was probably this insane infection and the city’s destruction.
However, at the same time, the conch shell also had contradictory images of comfort and healing.
Adding the tattooist’s expression that ‘even knowing rationally it poses no threat, it’s terrible because it appears unclean’, when I think carefully and reconstruct it all…
-The conch shell that was originally a cure caused a fatal incident, but this is not the conch shell’s original function.
…I arrive at this conclusion.
Then who on earth contaminated the conch shell?
‘A very obvious candidate.’
-The biological disaster ulcer entered the conch shell and disguised itself as the Angel’s Sigh.
It’s identical to how the biological disaster-mermaid creates illusions with the Sparkling Dragon Palace to bewitch child hosts.
‘It hid in the conch shell from the beginning and spread the infection.’
If children became infected this way and this insane situation spread rapidly, even making this city’s civilization wary of conch shells so they couldn’t receive timely emergency treatment…
‘All the pieces fit together.’
Kim Sol-eum drove people here to directly convey this hint without being suspected.
And…
“Aha.”
There’s someone here who accurately grasped the hint.
“….”
Agent Choi picked up a fragment of the broken conch shell. Chills began rising through his hand.
It was close to a thrill.
Those who are sharp and experienced easily notice hints and approach the correct answer.
“A cure?”
He looked back at the cat.
“This is a cure?”
“…!!”
“So that’s why you completely blocked the kids from seeing or touching it, and even mixed in duds to induce misunderstanding? To prevent treatment.”
The cat didn’t respond, but Agent Choi was already certain.
He declared in a voice unbelievably calm for addressing an entity that had just shown an utterly terrifying presence.
“Right. This… is a cure.”
“….”
Tension begins to permeate the space.
‘What’s this?’
To the Baekillmong Corporation employees, the agent’s words only sounded like a young mermaid’s laughter.
So they couldn’t understand, but they could instinctively sense the ominous atmosphere.
“But you know what.”
Agent Choi looked at the bag Baek Sa-heon was holding.
Baek Sa-heon gripped the bag tightly.
“There are twenty-eight kids.”
And all of them are so severely infected they can’t escape.
“But there are only 12 conch shells… why are they in the hands of some cult company bastards?”
Agent Choi raised his hand.
And the Glass Hand Cloth…
[10]
“….”
[9]
The cat.
Was suddenly sitting somewhere else.
[8]
In front of Jin Na-sol’s shoes.
“What.”
[7]
“I don’t know what you want me to do.”
[6]
“You want me to do what I was going to do?”
[5]
“Then so be it.”
[4]
Thus Jin Na-sol did what she had originally intended to do.
[3]
The elite team deputy of Baekillmong Corporation launched the attack wire attached to her nail.
At the young mermaid, not the agent.
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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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