Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 176

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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 176

The resort must open its doors.

Even though someone died 3 hours ago.

Even though that person was a close workplace colleague of mine.

Even though blood and entrails went back inside and they came back to life as something inhuman.

“Welcome, guest! What kind of room would you like?”

Standing side by side at the front desk.

…Next to me, a resort employee wearing a yellow mascot mask is kindly serving customers.

It’s Jang Heo-un.

No…

‘I don’t know.’

Cold sweat flowed inside the mask. I mechanically handed room keys to guests while thinking…

What the hell is this?

‘Did I bring Jang Heo-un back to life?’

But can that thing really be considered Jang Heo-un?

My mascot sense identifies the employee standing next to me as an existence I’ve bound through contract.

However, starting work with a bright smile is absolutely not a reaction a human who died from being pierced through the spine and came back to life would show.

It’s a ghost story.

But since the resort must operate, and since Jang Heo-un must also work diligently to meet the conditions as an employee and get his boarding pass stamped, I’m standing here.

However, now escape itself is questionable.

Can something that has already become a ghost story escape to reality according to human laws?

And would it be okay to escape…?

“Wow… thank you!”

Now he doesn’t get overly nervous.

He’s really acting like a hotelier toward guests of all bizarre appearances.

He doesn’t break into cold sweats or panic at all sorts of strange requests.

Who is that?

Even during lunch break, instead of moving to the employee cafeteria I prepared with other employees, he works mixed in among the standard mascots.

He doesn’t even glance at the ladybug employee who killed him, now mentally broken and muttering alone in a corner while cleaning.

No resentment, no forgiveness, no interest.

Nothing.

‘He’s not human.’

All that sense of wrongness makes my stomach churn and sends chills down my spine.

Thankfully, the mascot mask covers everything.

Next

I sent off one guest and looked at the next guest approaching with their mouth agape, looking around.

But…

“Um, excuse me…”

A modern person in a hoodie and jeans, with an excited expression, looking around as they approached.

‘That’s a human.’

Could they have gotten caught up in the theme park board game? I hoped they’d fill their boarding pass quickly and get out.

But…

“This is that resort from the magazine, right? Amazing…”

…Magazine?

‘Wait a minute.’

I checked both of their wrists.

…There’s no boarding pass band.

Theme Park

You Came?

“Huh? There’s a theme park here too? I saw that, um, review advertisement… Huh? But how did I get here? I thought about wanting to go, but why am I here?”

The person’s face becomes blank.

And my spine went cold.

…A human has been drawn in through a different method, not the board game.

Just for this resort?

“Um, but I don’t know how I got here. How do I leave this place?”

“It’s over there, guest!”

Jang Heo-un cheerfully points to the lobby door.

But this resort’s exit is… wait a minute.

I don’t think they should just go out that way…!

Legitimate theme park customers will safely return home to where they entered. But simple visitors… wouldn’t they have a high probability of just going outside the theme park?

And who knows what’s outside the theme park…

Think about Death Road or the Mansion of the Blind!

‘They’ll go missing.’

I urgently grabbed them.

Wait

“Uh… yes?”

This

I randomly handed over one of the room keys hanging behind the desk.

Take It

“Yes? Oh, no, it’s okay…”

I bowed my head.

And I gave the sightseer who entered the resort, who wasn’t even a guest, one last chance to become my customer.

The mascot’s pupils stare at the sightseer.

Take It

“Y-yes…”

They tremble and extend their hand to receive the room key.

It was almost forced selling.

But I had no choice.

‘Let’s make them stay for now.’

At that moment.

“How would you like to handle payment?”

…!

“Pa-payment? Card…”

Jang Heo-un’s body wearing the yellow mascot mask smiles and returns the card.

“That’s not a currency method you can use at Cheerful Theme Park, guest! Please use Cheerful Coins.”

“Uh… um, where do I get those?”

No.

“It’s simple! The ■■ of Theme Park ■■ will ■■■ your ■■■ ■■.”

“Ahhhhhhh! Ah, that method!”

“Yes! It’s simple.”

“I’ll go change it right now! It’s so reasonable that humans can be killed too!”

Stories I shouldn’t hear are coming out! Stories I shouldn’t know are coming out! There’s a reason I deliberately assigned a human employee instead of a mascot as the front desk assistant. And there’s a reason I deliberately didn’t think about it Of course, as a mascot, I already know. No, I won’t think about it! No…

Quiet

The employee closes their mouth.

The drooling human guest looks at me.

Gift

“Uh uh uh but payment…”

Forget

“Yes.”

The guest staggered up to their room.

A sigh of relief escapes through my twisted mouth.

“…”

I was certain of one thing.

The employee next to me just did something that Jang Heo-un would never have done.

“Mascot, shall we serve the next guest?”

I couldn’t hold back.

You

Who are you

“Huh? Oh, I’m an employee working at this resort, hired by you, Mascot…”

Who are you

The employee glanced at the mascot, but soon answered in a cheerful voice befitting a Cheerful Theme Park employee.

“I’m the HR manager of this resort!”

What is

your name

“Um… Ah. My name is Bison!”

…

The nickname that was signed on the contract.

Who

am I

“You’re the mascot!”

My name

“You are Golden!”

The name of the employer signed on the contract.

I look at the employee who has Jang Heo-un’s appearance but whose identity I can’t fathom, with a devastated heart.

And finally ask.

Do you

know Noru?

“…Noru?”

The employee wearing the yellow mascot pauses for a moment.

“Colleague.”

…!

“A colleague from the company I worked at before getting hired at this resort. They were very kind to me. I remember you were also an employee of the Security Team there, Mascot…”

…

Perhaps.

Why

did you work there

The reason he worked at Daydream.

Wish Potion.

The most desperate goal of his life.

If I remind him of the core of who Jang Heo-un is, perhaps…

“Ah… I tried to save my precious family.”

…!

“I’m an orphan who grew up in a facility, and three years ago there was a big fire accident where all the family I lived with died inside. I somehow survived alone.”

…

“I tried to die too, but they said I shouldn’t. So I tried to save other people. If I did that…”

Stop

“Huh? Understood, Mascot!”

I can’t listen anymore.

I’m going crazy.

“But it was all meaningless obsession. I find working at this resort very rewarding and happy!”

…

Why

“…Yes?”

Why are you happy?

“Because it’s a resort run by a wonderful mascot…”

What does that have to do with you

“I’m, I’m sorry… I overstepped. I’ll work harder for you and the resort, Mascot…”

Damn it.

S o r r y

“No! Mascot can do anything. This resort operates entirely based on Mascot’s judgment and will. It’s an honor to work in such a place.”

….

N o

With those words, I started receiving guests at the Front Desk again.

The Employee who looked like Jang Heo-un seemed restless for a moment, but when a guest approached, he responded cheerfully like a proper theme park resort employee.

That made my head grow even colder.

‘I shouldn’t have heard this.’

The revulsion of hearing someone’s intimate and desperate personal circumstances so absurdly lightly and carelessly.

My stomach churned.

I was grateful I didn’t hear more details and cut it off in the middle.

….

Really, really, is there no way…?

I took out the document I had been using as a resort management guideline and picked up a pen.

Repaired one employee. It took effort, but the employee seems to have become more excellent through the repair process. Very satisfied

I got goosebumps.

I forcibly twisted the pen.

Very satisfied However, since an excellent employee isn’t necessarily a good employee, I’m contemplating ways to return things to normal.

But the pen wouldn’t stop.

There’s no such thing.

…!

I only need to think about ways to operate the resort better. I’ve decided not to engage in meaningless contemplation.

I will exist solely as the mascot of this resort

I lifted the pen and barely managed to erase all the text.

My breathing inside the costume suit became labored, but the mascot doesn’t waver. This won’t do.

‘I need to get out quickly.’

Something was going wrong.

But… first, I needed to successfully expand this resort one more time.

As quickly as possible.

Requirements for resort facility expansion

3 employees

300 satisfied customers

Mascot Ceremony Ritual

First… satisfied customers would quickly reach 300 at this rate. No, honestly, seeing the flood of guests today, it would be finished within a day or two.

It was an astounding achievement.

‘Why does the social distancing concept work even in ghost stories?’

Before, I might have been annoyed and found it funny, but now I didn’t care. The problem was the top and bottom.

Employees and the ceremony ritual.

‘….’

Three additional employees.

Like before, there was one method of enticing civilians who visited here to work as employees using accommodation as bait.

The problem was how many such people I could persuade, and who would take responsibility if those people died while working as employees.

‘Those people don’t even have minimal equipment like masks.’

Whether my sanity could handle it was also a problem.

And the next method was…

Disgusting, but a method I learned from this incident.

‘….’

I summoned a Standard Mascot.

And I inquired about the location of objects they had disposed of somewhere.

Specifically… the whereabouts of the two corpses that came with Lee Seong-hae when he arrived.

Right.

I was trying to see if I could revive corpses and use them as employees.

And the Standard Mascots guided me to the back of the resort building.

A space where human employees avoided entry and guests were prohibited from approaching, where only Standard Mascots worked.

Among those, they guided me to the Freezer Section of the Room Service Warehouse.

Two mascots were standing guard in front of it.

[Freezer Storage Sealing Confirmation Required]

‘Ha.’

I was about to open the door to check, imagining the appearance of the corpses that would be inside…

‘….’

I realized it.

I, as the mascot, figured it out.

Y o u

The corpses weren’t in the Freezer Storage.

The two Standard Mascots standing guard in front of the Freezer Storage were the employees’ corpses!

‘Fuck!’

The corpses had transformed into those Standard Mascots…!

Just like Jang Heo-un’s corpse had transformed into an employee…

The Standard Mascots looked at me.

I almost staggered back, but my identity as the resort’s operator made me stand firm.

Then the Standard Mascots, which I had considered extensions of my own body, approached to support me.

I got goosebumps.

Then the true identity of all the Standard Mascots here was…

‘Damn.’

There must have been corpses wandering and dying in the resort ruins.

They had been raising people who died who knows when and using them as employees!

This insanely creepy resort… no, wait.

Thinking about it, it’s not the resort’s fault.

‘Corpses get buried in graves and become nutrients for nature anyway.’

But if they became nutrients for this wonderful resort, wouldn’t that be better than being uselessly decomposed for ordinary natural things and insignificant creatures?

Right. If they were dead people anyway, it seemed right to make good use of them.

‘Phew.’

I finally organized my thoughts and let out a sigh of relief.

…In any case, using dead corpses as employees was a failure.

‘Since I didn’t make a separate contract with them, they weren’t recognized as individuals.’

Still, if there was one hope, it was that Heo-un was counted as an employee rather than a standard mascot.

In other words, he was recognized as an individual, not like these mascots who had no self-awareness at all.

…Even if the reason he didn’t have a mascot appearance was simply because I had allowed the employees to maintain human appearances.

“…”

I squeezed my eyes shut. No, I wanted to, but the costume suit blocked me.

The situation was… getting out of hand.

‘I’m confused.’

The strangeness of the ghost story was beginning to show itself blatantly.

I had been desperately focused on operations, but looking at the current situation, it seemed like something bigger would go wrong.

I had entrusted surveillance of the Ladybug Employee to the two powerful employees—Manager Lee Ja-heon and Team Leader Lee Seong-hae—but there was a limit to how much I could relieve their burden.

‘I need to get out of this crazy resort quickly.’

No matter how enchanting this resort was and how hard I had worked to cultivate it, this was unavoidable.

‘I need more information.’

Paradoxically, now that Heo-un was… a perfect resort employee, I could leave the front desk to him temporarily and move around.

Whatever instructions I gave him, he would carry them out exactly as ordered.

I had gained some degree of freedom of movement.

So today, on the fourth day, my evening schedule was… this.

I came completely outside the resort building and walked along the street.

And…

Hel lo

I came directly to the gate leading to Blue Dream Water Park.

So…

To meet the Blue Mascot.

I came

The Blue Mascot standing beyond the gate threw down the booklet it was holding and came running over.

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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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