Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 216
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work Episode 216
The dull head thinks while looking at the darkness before its eyes…
The ghost story of Mumyeong Chanran Temple deleted from the wiki.
However, it exists here. That’s…
‘…Is it because it exists even as a deletion record?’
Those that were once registered on the wiki after meeting the recommendation requirements but later deleted for not meeting registration standards could be found as ‘deleted ghost stories.’
Then…
Is this ghost story truly a Divine Authority created by Mumyeong Chanran Temple?
Or is it separate since it was deleted for ‘insufficient connection to Mumyeong Chanran Temple’?
…What kind of structured world is this place that summoned me into this bizarre body…
Confusion slowly spreads through the collapsed brain.
The smoke wavers.
“…Are you okay?”
A voice is heard.
It’s the one wearing the badger mask.
I feel a gaze looking inside from outside the bathroom.
They seem to want conversation.
Standby
However, I must make a judgment.
So, if a ghost story that possibly belongs to Mumyeong Chanran Temple falls into the hands of Baekillmong Corporation, what kind of influence or side effects would…
…
…
Is that important?
It’s not important.
It’s meaningless for me to worry about the origin, fundamentals, and contradictions of ghost stories, and the only task given to me is to perform my duties.
That is the purpose of my employment contract, and nothing else is necessary.
There’s only one thing I need to do.
Verification work in progress
Determining whether it’s darkness suitable for Baekillmong Corporation’s dream production.
Those three criteria.
1. Something from which dream essence can be collected through clearing.
2. Something that can increase survival return probability based on the manual.
I can deduce.
The meaningful clearing method is probably ‘enduring without any contact with rainwater until the rain stops.’
The enchantment of rainy days.
Since it’s a ghost story rooted in luring rather than direct slaughter and violence, there’s a survival probability just by maintaining one’s sanity and locking the door.
If Investigation Records accumulate, behavioral patterns could be inferred as well.
‘Conditions 1 and 2 are suitable.’
And the final third condition.
3. Something that is easy to isolate or store.
…
I looked into the bathtub filled with rainwater and slowly tapped my chin with my finger.
I make an estimate.
And reached a conclusion.
Conditions met
: Suitable darkness
And.
Proceeding with suppression in transportable form
I proceeded with the work.
“Noru? Right now…”
I covered the rainwater in the bathtub with fog.
What is covered by fog will now regain its original form.
By deleting unnecessary descriptions and records.
To its true appearance.
“Ah…”
The caller from the sales team under the Security Chief’s surveillance seems to have noticed it too.
Hope spreads across that face.
“Is, is it… over?”
Affirmative
“Ha…”
The Employee sits down again.
But this time it’s not from fear, but from relief.
Soon the electric lights returned to the house as well.
Flicker.
The interior, brightened again, was as ordinary as if nothing had happened.
“We’ll return now.”
And the other Security Team Staff report on the current situation of returning to reality and escaping from the ghost story.
Among them, the relieved Sales Employee barely managed to stand up and smiled.
“Th, thank…”
There’s nothing to thank.
Remaining step
: Cost settlement
“…What?”
Because everything has a price.
[Settlement complete]
[The estimated cost will be executed.]
“…”
At the words from the Dead Superior’s radio, the Sales Employee who was blinking raises their head.
“…How, how much would it cost?”
[A person in charge will be assigned soon.]
[Remaining time 30 seconds….]
“Excuse me, excuse me? Ah…!”
Suddenly.
A thought slowly passes through my head.
If someone regularly visited this place on rainy days, they would have already been under a spell from the moment they entered this house.
Like that employee’s dead superior.
But….
Did Baekillmong Corporation really not know?
That the married couple who regularly purchased special potions had become victims of a ghost story and been replaced. Or that they had already been receiving potions as residents within the ghost story from before.
That sales team employees could get caught up in that situation.
As long as payment could be made, did any direction not matter? Or perhaps the opposite….
….
….
That is not for a Security Team Employee to judge.
“…Let’s go back.”
“Excuse me…? Excuse me…!”
The Security Team returns to the company. The shadow of the wireless pager swallows the Security Team again.
I too was stored in a transport container and transferred to the containment room in the main building basement.
However, I kept recalling it.
The expression on the Caller’s face that seemed to have ‘alive’ written on it, gradually becoming filled with anxiety.
That crumbling pile of mosaics.
[Well now. Truly the talent our company wants… no, should I call you divine talent? Haha!]
[To think you’d capture it right away!]
Excited chatter.
The sound of the researcher in charge who received this work report, Gwak Je-gang, excitedly flipping through papers can be heard.
[The grade, ah, what grade would it be… It seems like at least D grade or higher. Even if it just comes out as C grade, it would be really interesting, I mean, truly diverse investigation records could come out… It’s darkness.]
[Whispers on a rainy day!]
“….”
[Well, the two Security Team members who were attached as support should give thanks to the Employee, shouldn’t they?]
[It must have been quite fun, reminiscing about old times and imitating the Field Investigation Team!]
The person in the Badger Mask clenches their fist tightly, then releases it like giving up.
….
I added one more to the accumulated count against the Researcher.
And.
Question
[Ah, of course you can ask any question….]
Question :
Specific billing cost for the Caller
At that moment.
[….]
[Are you… curious about that?]
The Researcher’s voice became very gentle.
As if wanting to be sweet and coaxing.
[Of course I should answer. But… this is the first time you’ve been curious about something unnecessary for work, so are you perhaps curious about other related things?]
[Anything is fine….]
As if there was something they wanted to find out.
[Why don’t you try asking whatever comes to mind? It’s okay even if it’s not work-related!]
….
I drew smoke.
Cost inquiry : Work-related
▶ Efficiency issue
[…Huh?]
Changes in work matters according to cost
: Possibility of triggering the Caller’s aggression and unexpected behavior
[What?]
I kindly attached an example as well.
Example phrase : Make it worth the money
After silence flowed.
[…Ah.]
[That… Yes. Well, that’s… true?]
The deflated Researcher’s voice rang through the speaker, sounding somewhat flustered.
[Um… Most summoned employees don’t know much about the cost, so it probably won’t go that far.]
[And the cost usually isn’t money. …It’s labor.]
….
[This Caller will probably be processed as working at a branch office for several years.]
Branch office?
A branch office of Baekillmong Corporation. A setting value not specifically described in the wiki.
[Well, isn’t that good? You’ll even get remote work allowance.]
For a moment, an impulse that could be called worry or curiosity flashed through my mind, but it soon sank beneath the muddled thoughts.
Because an alert was ringing in my head that work hours had ended.
-Your work hours have ended. Your work hours have ended. Your work hours have ended….
[…Oh my. Has it already gotten this late? Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Employee!]
The speaker cut off too.
And so the sealed room I was in became quietly silent without noise.
….
I sat down on the bed.
No training videos come on now either.
Silence flows through the space imitating a company housing room. There are a few books on the bookshelf, a laptop on the desk, but they’re all models. They don’t function.
I can’t interact with them.
I can’t work here until the next work hours come….
Just quietly….
Knock knock.
…!
“Um, is it… okay to come in…?”
I looked back at the iron door.
Someone was standing outside.
Not only standing outside, but soon I hear the sound of them gently opening the iron door and coming in….
Security Team.
The Badger Mask Wearer and Security Chief.
My team members.
“I’m a bit late because I was washing up.”
Other Security Team agents close the iron door from outside.
But they don’t leave.
“…Um, you know.”
The Badger Mask Wearer holds something out to me.
A thick, heavy rectangular object.
“I got permission to bring this in! The captain said this much would be okay, and it really worked.”
It’s a book.
12 Essential Masterpieces for Young Adults.
“…I thought you might be bored.”
….
I took it.
The people sitting across from me seem to smile happily….
“And… you know.”
A voice that sounds somewhat nervous.
“I, I was thinking… couldn’t we call you Noru when it’s just us?”
….
“The, the captain said it was okay….”
“Yeah…. When it’s not work hours, we can use, unofficial titles….”
….
Affirmative
“…! Alright.”
I hear laughter from behind the mask.
And they sit next to me.
“…Good work on your first Security Team shift, Noru.”
….
The hand that was habitually moving toward my head area naturally drops to the floor.
Because there’s no hair form to ruffle.
….
I raised both hands.
“Noru?”
A dull desire.
A desire I haven’t felt since the employment contract rises roughly and dully, faintly from the very bottom….
I want to take on a similar form.
I want to interact in the same way.
It seems like a desire expressed in such sentences.
“W, wait a moment. Um…!”
I covered my form with smoke.
But I don’t know how to make it.
Just as one cannot learn how to breathe, things that were once instinctively possible don’t know how to be artificially created. I felt around my face. Bone, rubber, silhouette, and a non-existent esophagus. Nostalgia candy that cannot be consumed….
….
Nostalgia.
Request
“Huh?”
“…What kind?”
I completed the sentence.
Request :
Nostalgia Kitty
“…!!”
Both Security Team members jumped up from the floor simultaneously.
Because they understood what this request implied.
“Th, then… wait, huh, Security Captain?”
The Security Chief already goes outside the iron door.
And as if ignoring the tremendously long distance and inspection procedures to the equipment storage front desk, he returns in a surprisingly short time.
With the requested item in his hand.
“…Here,”
A red line falls from pale, bony protruding hands onto the hand I extended.
An item in the form of red yarn.
Nostalgia Kitty
Something I had used before after rescuing the contaminated Park Min-seong from the ‘Hungry Hangman’ ghost story.
Its effect was….
When worn, it fixes the target in the form of when their body and mind were at their healthiest within the past 10 years.
The more severe the mutation, the faster it breaks.
I picked up the Nostalgia Kitty.
And wrapped it around my neck.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————