Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 18

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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 018

I’ll be honest.

One month since joining the company.

Surprisingly, this ghost story corporation is actually worth working for…!

“Wow, that’s insane, another 30-minute clear!”

“Aren’t they actually performing better than Team C?”

To think the day would come when I’d actually hear those artificial lines that sound like something extras in a YouTube web drama would say.

“Hey, enjoy it. It’s all your achievement.”

Lunch time.

Eun Ha-je, who had boldly gotten both the A and B menu options from the company cafeteria, said refreshingly.

For reference, we had already handled one case this morning.

“Thanks to Noru, I’m pulling off crazy stuff like clearing 12 new darkness investigations in a month.”

“No, it’s all thanks to your good leadership.”

“What leadership? You’re riding the bus well.”

“That’s right. I’ll buy beef today, Senior Sol-eum.”

“Min-seong… even so, that’s a bit much.”

“Hey, why are you like that! If you’re doing well, you’re all my seniors.”

When supervisors make jokes like this, it’s surprisingly difficult to react without getting offended…

But whether it was a joke or sincere, instead of waiting for my reaction, Park Min-seong excitedly showed me a screenshot of his monthly point accumulation.

“It’s already 5000 points!”

Right.

[Team Leader Park Min-seong / Accumulated Points: 5200p]

This was also the amount of points I had earned in a month.

‘Speed runs really did work…’

To think my survival movement would turn out like this.

It was possible because most cases were either F or D grade.

‘High-grade cases don’t seem to come up that often.’

Well, if they came up frequently, the world would have already ended with “And Thus the World Was Destroyed.”

Anyway, my supervisors looked more excited than I did. It seemed more fun because it wasn’t their own business.

“This is probably the shortest time record among all new employees in our company’s history, right?”

“Ooooh!”

Ah, come to think of it, I’ve barely seen my fellow new employees.

Since I’ve been going in and out of the Research Team Office on the 17th floor every day, I’ve had fewer opportunities to see other Field Investigation Teams.

‘Baek Sa-heon and I are treating each other like we don’t exist.’

Actually, to maintain the crazy guy concept I had established, I occasionally threw work-related jokes that crossed the line.

-You’re going into darkness investigation today too? Want to bet on how many civilians died?

-…

The gambling researcher gave me inspiration. Thank you.

Anyway, seeing Baek Sa-heon gritting his teeth and ignoring me without responding, the performance seems certain.

‘Things are going smoothly.’

I finished the last of my galbitang broth and put it down.

Leaving work on time, and getting bonuses too.

‘The company cafeteria is decent too.’

The welfare benefits seemed like they’d get a rating of 3.5 or higher on sites like Job Korea.

Except for the tremendous stress of staying overnight in a haunted house with ghosts appearing every day…

‘Doing work I would never have done before just to make a living… Hmm. It’s ordinary office life.’

Even the part where you start thinking it’s manageable because of the sense of accomplishment from producing results is exactly the same.

“Noru.”

Eun Ha-je said quietly and softly.

“With this level of performance, there must have been talk from higher ups.”

“…Excuse me?”

“About your performance.”

“…”

“Once could be skill or luck, but when it’s about ten times, it’s not that.”

Eun Ha-je squinted and grinned.

“There will definitely be someone higher up who wants to check you out, so make sure to tell us. Tell the team leader too.”

Hmm.

If this were a normal company, I might have worried about having my achievements stolen and quietly not mentioned it.

But this is a ghost story world setting, and this is advice from a supervisor whose life I had saved before.

I nodded obediently.

“Yes.”

“Good. He may look like that… no, even just looking at him, our team leader is quite extraordinary.”

Our gaze turned toward Lee Ja-heon, who had quickly finished eating and left the cafeteria.

“Even if you get some ridiculous proposal, he’ll cover for you if you ask, at least once.”

That lizard?

“…Yes.”

“Okay. Anyway, Noru really understands what people are saying.”

The fact that I wasn’t really convinced but just nodded should remain a secret going forward.

But still… there might be talk from higher ups.

I thought as I cleared my tray and stood up.

‘At this point, standing out is unavoidable.’

I’ve somewhat given up on that.

After all, if I saw a clown crawling around with only its upper body after jumping out of a portrait, I would have already fainted…

But I have something to rely on.

‘It’s hard to give new employees work harder than this, right?’

If it goes beyond this level, it would mean giving core business tasks rather than grunt work.

Having a new employee who’s been with the company for only a month, not even an experienced hire, handle core departmental tasks?

It’s not like some crazy company on YouTube. That would be completely impossible according to the unwritten social rules within large corporations.

I just need to think that I was lucky that my workload developed toward ‘ghost stories without manuals.’

If this becomes chronic, there’s a higher chance they’ll get used to it thinking ‘ah, this person specializes in that area’ and move on.

“Shall we head back?”

“Yes.”

I came to a conclusion and returned my dishes.

However, at this moment, having become accustomed to and absorbed in the world setting and office life, I had forgotten one thing.

An unchanging truth of social life.

Namely…

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down!

At the same time, in the Research Team 1 Office.

‘Another escape in just over an hour…’

A researcher who had been wasting his salary while looking at Team D’s records gritted his teeth.

‘That’s about 50,000 points so far, right?’

At that pace in just one month, he might really be able to break the shortest record and claim a Wish Potion within a few years…

“….”

“Must be nice, huh?”

The researcher grumbled.

“Some of us work in the research lab seeing all kinds of horrible things without getting a single hazard pay, making it hard to even collect 500 points a month.”

“….”

“While some new employee makes 50,000 points in just one month…”

“Now, now, let’s stop there.”

The researcher clamped his mouth shut.

His insides began to boil with frustration at the reality where he couldn’t even voice his complaints in this situation.

Something was wrong.

‘Some guy gets lucky drawing good equipment and easily earns points carrying it around.’

While others can’t even dream of it because they have no points or access rights.

‘Research positions are supposed to be more elite and better treated than field investigation jobs that involve physical labor, right?’

It was truly unfair.

The researcher genuinely thought so.

He conveniently forgot that he had mocked the Field Investigation Team employees by calling them lab rats.

“Well, when the timing is right, darkness investigations can go smoothly like this sometimes.”

Manager Gwak Je-gang casually remarked to the researcher with a smile.

“Though this is quite impressive even so.”

“….”

Pretending not to see the researcher’s disgusted expression as he lifted his head, Gwak Je-gang rustled through the documents again.

“Ah, this darkness requires more than 10 people to enter, right?”

“….”

“Team Leader Lee?”

“Oh, yes. That’s right. They say 10 people need to gather to enter the darkness.”

“Hmm.”

Gwak Je-gang smiled and picked up a pen.

“Then this time it’ll be teamwork.”

-Team A, Team D, Team Y deployment.

“….”

The researcher watched as Gwak Je-gang pulled out the Field Investigation Team’s organizational chart and checked off the corresponding teams.

That’s when it happened.

“Team Leader Lee.”

“Yes?”

“Do you happen to know what the alphabetical order of the Field Investigation Teams means?”

He didn’t know.

Someone who only handled his own work carelessly while just maintaining his position wouldn’t be well-versed in other departments’ organizational structures.

Gwak Je-gang smiled and tapped the documents. It was somehow a strange smile.

“In short, it’s by performance ranking.”

“…!”

“You know, like in school. Honor classes, regular classes, remedial classes and such.”

The researcher quickly caught on.

“Then… Team D is an honor class?”

“No.”

A firm denial came back.

“A through C. These are the elite.”

Gwak Je-gang tapped the corresponding teams with his pen.

“The rest are all expendable.”

“…Ah.”

Just as his mood was about to improve slightly.

“But well, this is just between us… Team D’s performance has been so good lately. There are even rumors that if they keep this up, something good might happen during the next personnel assignment, haha.”

“…!”

As with office gossip, absurdly sensational stories usually weren’t reliable rumors.

Yet somehow the researcher felt anxious.

‘Isn’t there any bad news?’

As if to satisfy that expectation, Manager Gwak Je-gang’s muttering could be heard.

His tone seemed deliberately regretful.

“But of all things, they get caught up in this. Going in together with Team A… hmm.”

“…! Oh, is it bad to go in with the elite team?”

“Well, naturally, right? You know this too, Team Leader Lee.”

Gwak Je-gang stroked his chin.

“There are types of darkness where sacrifices are needed to open escape routes.”

Especially…

Even more so if it’s darkness that requires a large number of people.

Gwak Je-gang shrugged his shoulders.

“This investigation record will have plenty to talk about in various ways.”

A few days later.

Team D, who had naturally received the call and gone up to the 17th floor as they had for the past month, encountered an unexpected scene.

“Good morning.”

“…?!”

There were already people in the Research Team 1 office.

People wearing various masks.

‘Are they other teams from the Field Investigation Team?’

I quickly counted heads.

About seven people.

Among them was someone I recognized.

-Is it possible to bring the dead back to life.

It was the new employee who had asked that question about the Wish Potion at the welcome party.

The new employee wearing a cow mask was quietly bowing his head and leaning against a desk.

There was a somewhat gloomy atmosphere around him.

His hair was long for a man, to the point where you’d worry about getting disapproving looks at the company for dress code violations.

Of course, no one in this place seemed to care about such things.

“Ah.”

“This is… hmm.”

While the senior members of Team D were giving short reactions that could have been admiration or sighs at seeing the office space filled with people.

“Oh, our Team D has finally arrived too. Welcome~ Now then, let’s begin today’s briefing.”

Manager Gwak Je-gang appeared and began leading people toward the auxiliary conference room.

As I moved my steps, I heard the Assistant Manager asking a question.

“Are we entering together with other teams?”

“That’s right. Exactly.”

“….”

The assistant manager quickly looked around, then came back near me and spoke quietly so others couldn’t hear.

“Do you see those employees wearing masks with gold marks over there?”

“Yes.”

“That’s Team A.”

I know that.

‘That’s the elite team.’

Daydream Corporation had a structure where the company only functioned when someone cleared ghost stories to produce materials.

‘For there to be no plot holes about how the company should normally go bankrupt, they’d need inhumanly high-performing field investigation teams…’

That’s why it was a place with unusually many named characters in . I nodded slightly.

Team A consisted of three people wearing strange butterfly, mantis, and mallard duck masks respectively.

Then, the person wearing the mallard duck mask from Team A acknowledged me.

It was the energetic voice of a middle-aged woman.

“Ah, so you’re that Employee Kim Sol-eum?”

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

I reflexively bowed while breaking out in a cold sweat.

‘That’ Kim Sol-eum – what kind of rumors are going around about me?

“Good, good. Let’s meet sometime if we get the chance. You’re a young man with a bright future.”

And she passed by and took her seat.

…That person must be Team A’s leader.

The assistant manager continued explaining.

“And… those wearing masks without gold marks are Team Y.”

“….”

Three people wearing masks without gold marks, plus the new employee in the cow mask who I was acquainted with.

It was a team with a somewhat gloomy atmosphere.

“Team Y’s leader is a regular employee, not a manager, but just go along with it and stay quiet.”

“Yes.”

I know that too.

The team leader whispered to me.

“Um… Noru. With the other team members you see today, especially Team Y, just treat them casually if possible. You understand? I’ll tell you the reason later.”

“Yes.”

I nodded without complaint.

Because I could roughly guess what he’d tell me later.

But suddenly the team leader sitting next to me was moved.

“Ha. I really… like how you’re like a quick-witted version of the manager?”

“Me too.”

“….”

That’s… a compliment, right?

“Alright, now that everyone’s seated, let’s start the briefing.”

Gwak Je-gang stood in front of the conference room board without even turning on the prompter.

“I’m going to tell you about the darkness we’ll be entering today… or I was going to!”

Section Chief Gwak laughed heartily.

“Actually, we don’t know much either.”

“…??”

“What do you mean by that, Section Chief Gwak.”

“There’s only one piece of civilian escape information!”

“…Huh.”

Documents were distributed in the silence.

I also looked at the page that was barely more than a note.

-All university students (12 people) playing board games during a club MT at Hanmaeumgadeuk Pension in Gangwon Province went missing.

The board game in question is branded ‘Yukwae Theme Park! ~Fun Fantasy Land Trip~’, presumed to be developed by Yukwae Research Institute*.

Survivors explained that the board game ‘was already placed inside the pension’.

The pension owner denies this fact.

Result: Some personnel returned after 17 hours.

Testified that they ‘stayed at a theme park inside the board game’. Showed various symptoms including mental confusion, PTSD reactions, and mild neurosis.

-4 survivors, 1 missing, 7 dead

The next page briefly listed testimonies about the ‘theme park inside the board game’ by each survivor. The descriptions were very fragmented, likely due to severe psychological trauma.

But even that was quite familiar to me.

I swallowed.

‘It was about time for this one to appear.’

It finally came.

A darkness that required large-scale personnel participation!

“The board game must require more than 10 players? Is that why you matched the numbers so large.”

“Yes yes, we tried to create as similar an environment as possible.”

Gwak Je-gang winked.

“Still! Our team members figured out a reliable entry method under these harsh conditions.”

“Didn’t you just bring the board game?”

“Haha! You’re being harsh, Assistant Manager Jin. I even learned all the game rules.”

The Team A employee in the butterfly mask didn’t respond, and Gwak Je-gang didn’t mind as he placed the board game on the table.

“Here it is.”

[Yukwae Theme Park!]

~Fun Fantasy Land Trip~

: Work with your teammates to ride 3 fantasy attractions fastest and receive prizes!

On the front of the box, which was almost like new, was a colorful illustration of Fantasy Land.

Opening the box revealed an illustrated map of the theme park divided by zones and colorful coins.

“Now, we just need to divide into teams and start the board game.”

He said so cheerfully to hurry into a ghost story where more than half the people died.

“Then should we just team up by groups?”

“Ah, well… you draw game pieces from this drawing capsule, and teams are divided according to the colors!”

Section Chief Gwak took out and showed a small capsule-like object from one side of the box.

“If you shake this, pieces fall out through this hole.”

“It’s random.”

People eventually sighed and shook the capsule to draw out game pieces one by one.

‘Blue, yellow, red… I guess.’

Naturally, since these things tend to go by seniority, my turn was almost last.

What I drew was…

“Employee Kim got red.”

It happened to be a red piece.

It wasn’t a very good feeling since red was an ominous color in ghost story worldviews.

‘Well, in this ghost story, color isn’t really that important.’

Because it’s a place where different things happen even if you draw the same color.

I swallowed nervously.

Anyway, are we entering now?

“Now, when we unfold the game board, we’ll enter!”

However, when Lee Ja-heon unfolded the game board as the representative, nothing happened.

“….”

Hm?

At the lightning-fast thought, I checked the number of people.

Four yellow, four blue.

And the people who drew red like me were….

The butterfly mask from Team A called ‘Assistant Manager Jin’, and the familiar New Employee from Team Y.

Including me, a total of three people.

“….”

Ah.

‘Only the Red Team doesn’t have matching pairs.’

“We’re one person short.”

Lee Ja-heon looked back at Gwak Je-gang with vertical pupils.

“It seems we can’t enter with 11 people. We need to fill all 12 spots and try again.”

“Oh, that?”

Gwak Je-gang answered nonchalantly, then casually threw the capsule containing the game piece.

“Team Leader Lee. Catch this!”

To the Gambling Addiction Researcher standing right next to him.

“Uh, uhh…?!”

The Researcher reflexively caught the capsule.

Roll roll.

The remaining red piece came out from inside.

“…!?”

“I, I drew it!”

Wait a minute.

-Departing for Fantasy Land~

The board game board flew up into the air and swallowed the view before us.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

I heard the Researcher’s scream in my ears.

And also Gwak Je-gang’s laughter.

“….”

I recalled that person’s wiki back pages.

======================

Psycho

Mad Scientist

Obviously going to die

Disciplinary records

#Can be confirmed on the Investigation Records (Side Story) page.

======================

…I had been on guard that a day like this would come eventually.

“What is this, what the hell is this!”

With this many people, and when Team A and Team Y came together, I had suspected it from the start….

‘He deliberately screwed with the survival probability.’

This isn’t aiming to clear the ghost story with maximum survivors.

This is a setting where everyone except Team A should die.

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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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