Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 217

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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 217

Nostalgia’s red yarn wraps around my neck.

The first thing I felt was clarity.

A sensation where everything was distinct and in its proper place.

“….”

I blinked my eyes.

I could blink my eyes.

Eyelids and eyebrows. The vision through my corneas was clear….

I looked down at my hands. There were human hands with bare skin fully exposed, without black rubber.

I clenched and unclenched my bare hands.

Yes.

This was how it originally felt.

This was the sensation.

The shock naturally faded leaving only traces, and only familiarity remained.

Natural emotions and sensations.

And in that place, forgotten familiar feelings also settled in.

Yes. Feelings.

I was definitely this….

Thud.

….

….

I lowered my head.

There are no bare hands.

There I could only see divine hooves and scales attached to melting, shapeless flesh…

Forcibly, I put on gloves.

I stuff them in.

I stuff them in.

“…Noru?”

I stuff them in.

I stuff them in.

Done.

Human fingers.

I can see fingers with a silhouette similar to human ones.

And through them I can see.

The floor.

On the floor lies a single thread that looks completely worn and frayed.

Fuzzy, dirty, discolored, and now worthless

The yarn has snapped.

“…!”

“Wait….”

It was a mistake.

Did you think Nostalgia Kitty could help you? Did you think what you’re experiencing now is contamination? Did you think there was a possibility of returning to when your body and mind were healthy?

Did you believe you could return to the days when you were embraced by the comfort of ignorance? Did you think you could get hints from it, know the direction to go, realize how to navigate this world, reset your goals, return to being human, return home, and finally go home?

Did you hope for such things?

Did you believe it was possible?

Really?

Making an absurd wish, a wrong wish, unnecessarily realizing what you didn’t need to know, awakening from a grotesque body, experiencing this, and the terror of six months spent alone underground seeing only ghost stories and corpses comes flooding back

Wearing Nostalgia Kitty was a mistake.

You cannot take only the good from all effects. You cannot have only human form, only a body capable of interaction. What this means is, in other words, the emotions I should have felt if I were human.

It means my fear and despair also return.

And what has been experienced once doesn’t disappear even if the brain and body crumble like mush in an instant.

It remained.

I cannot bear it.

….

Smoke rises.

It continues to rise, covering this entire space, filling it so there’s no gap to escape through. It can fill it, but it’s not enough….

….

The space

is insufficient.

“Noru, wait….”

I stood up.

The Badger Mask Wearer falls into the thick smoke. I moved him to the bed. Rest well.

I faced the Security Chief.

He says nothing. Because his work hours are over and he has no duty or authority to control me.

So then

“Um….”

.

“Is there… anything I can do for you.”

I opened the door of the containment room.

I walk straight out.

The black smoke that flowed out fills the isolation corridor.

Red and blue lights turn on.

Like Annex Basement Level 13.

[Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure…]

Alarms sound in the corridor.

And also in my head.

You cannot leave your designated area! You cannot leave your designated area! You cannot leave your designated

You did not designate where I should be during post-work hours. You only assigned a new workplace, but did not specify my space, nor inform me verbally, in writing, or through suggestion.

Therefore.

I can choose where to rest after work hours.

I can go anywhere.

You

It stopped.

However, the unbearable feeling does not disappear. Why won’t it disappear? Why? Why…

Ah.

Right.

I continue moving my feet. The distance closes through the smoke.

The isolation corridor is about to end. The Equipment Warehouse Front appears. Since they left their posts to prepare equipment and arm themselves to suppress the escaped containment entity, only a few Security Team members remain in place.

I know.

That there will be problems with their calculations.

Since unrealistically fast movement ability was not observed in containment entity (130666), the misjudgment that it would take at least three times longer to reach the equipment warehouse resulted in this disaster.

This is a situation that could be described in such terms.

“No…”

The few remaining Security Team employees sink into the smoke.

I found keys from one of their pockets, opened the door to the Equipment Storage, and came out.

I kept walking until I reached the central elevator.

Ding.

The elevator stops. I boarded it.

The floor I need to go to is predetermined.

-The 17th floor is… especially where researchers looking for new darkness are located.

17th floor.

[The doors are opening.]

The pristine glass and marble office space that I had once visited in a different form appears.

The smoke that had filled the elevator pours out, pressing down on the office space.

[Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure…]

“Aaaahhh!”

“Run! Run…”

The Lab Coat Wearers ran toward the emergency exits. Those who inhaled the smoke collapsed. They cried and wailed, burst into laughter, clutched their heads and muttered. They bowed.

All those melting mosaics.

I stepped into their midst.

Until what I was looking for appeared.

Toward the office I already knew.

[Research Team 1-A]

To the clean and spacious area at the very end.

Before escaping.

Before hiding.

I gathered the smoke that had spread throughout the corridor, pooled it at my feet, then made it surge upward to cover an entire section of the corridor.

Thus isolating Research Team 1’s office.

With smoke.

…

Now those inside cannot escape.

Darkness and silence pool in front of the corridor.

Within it, I open the door.

“Ah.”

Only one person was working the night shift there.

[Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade darkness containment failure…]

The one who was simply scanning CCTV footage with ecstatic eyes even amid the loud alarms.

Gwak Je-gang, who had been checking CCTV from the containment room to the corridor I had traveled, raised his head toward the open door.

The expression of someone who realized something.

“You… no, sir.”

…

“It was Kim Sol-eum, wasn’t it?”

I approach.

“Not a vessel, but from the beginning. From the beginning…!”

I grabbed his throat.

The white research coat hangs down below the feet of the one lifted into the air.

“Going to kill me? Because you’re angry? Haha…”

Fear and terror seemed to fill his eyes, but soon ecstasy and curiosity rose up.

“But… aren’t you curious?”

…

“I absolutely cannot understand what you are. How you extracted dream fragments, by what means you move between darkness and human form…”

Gwak Je-gang’s eyes behind his glasses look at me.

He’s smiling.

“Actually… you don’t know either, do you? …What kind of existence you are.”

…

“You don’t want to be bound to the Company, right? I’ll help you! Director Cheong Dal-rae? Who cares about her. A researcher should be like a researcher! We must pursue origins! Truth! Understanding!”

A voice filled with madness shouts. Conviction and desire burst forth.

“If you’re trying to find out why you were called to this place, why you have that form, I will cooperate completely! No, I earnestly beg you to let me cooperate!”

Ecstatic eyes.

“Dying here like this wouldn’t be too bad either…! But I can’t stand it because there’s something I want to see…”

…

I loosened the strength in my grip.

The throat that was caught in my hand falls to the floor.

“Ugh!”

But Gwak Je-gang looks at me with eyes sparkling with ecstasy without complaint.

“That’s right! A wise choice…”

I bent my legs and sat in front of his eyes.

And meeting his gaze, I spoke with smoke.

I don’t want to?

“…!!”

I can’t trust you?

“Um.”

The smoke draws letters.

Unbelievable thing

: Target for deletion

“…! Wait.”

His panting grows louder.

I announce.

Warning 3

Reason: Insulting remarks toward worker

Accumulated warnings: 3 / 0 until disciplinary action

Smoke rises from the black gas mask.

To envelop Gwak Je-gang’s head.

“Wait,”

He steps back.

I don’t follow. But the smoke does.

And it wraps around his features….

The researcher, gradually suffocating, gasps and lets out pained groans and breaths, then desperately manages to squeeze out a single word.

“…Then!”

He fumbles behind with his still-free arm, his fingers slipping several times before finally grasping his drawer.

The place where Twilight-grade darkness is temporarily stored.

He fumbles inside and pulls something out.

“This, what if… we use this?”

It’s barely held out before my eyes.

…Red thread.

A form remarkably similar to what I just used.

The smoke writhes.

However, remembering that it’s not yarn but thin and fine, I settle it down….

And I also realize it has a completely different purpose.

“If we make it so you can’t betray, so you have no choice but to be trustworthy, wouldn’t that solve it!”

There’s only one thing that matches that description.

Red Finger

: Darkness that literally realizes the nursery rhyme ‘pinky promise, pinky promise‘.

When making a single vow while hooking the thread around the pinky fingertip, that vow will absolutely be fulfilled.

Because you die if you try to break it.

“The usage is….”

Gwak Je-gang, who was moving his lips, made a sound that could have been laughing or sobbing when I tore open its packaging and grabbed his pinky finger.

“You seem to… know this darkness.”

There’s nothing I don’t know.

If it’s been described.

I grabbed the red thread and tied it around Gwak Je-gang’s pinky finger.

Gwak Je-gang sweats coldly and smiles.

“I swear. Um… I won’t betray you.”

I looked at him.

Impossible.

Reason: Inaccurate

“…I’ll cooperate fully?”

Impossible.

Reason: Inaccurate

I slowly changed the smoke.

Accumulated failures: 2

Remaining attempts: 1

Cold sweat forms and drips from Gwak Je-gang’s face.

“…Then, would you tell me what to swear? It would be troublesome in many ways if I die from trying to make something up and seeming suspicious!”

….

The smoke draws a sentence.

Suggestion:

I will not go against your will from now on.

Gwak Je-gang’s eyes waver.

Because he realized the comprehensive and total meaning implied in the sentence.

But his mouth opens.

Because there’s no other choice.

“I will not go against your will from now on….”

Snap.

I pulled the red thread.

The researcher’s pinky fingertip where the thread was wrapped gets severed.

Blood spurts.

“Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!!”

Watching his pinky fingertip roll on the floor, Gwak Je-gang laughed while clutching his bleeding left hand.

“Thank you…. Thank you!”

6 minutes later.

I return directly to the containment room.

There’s commotion outside the door, but it doesn’t matter.

Even if the two Security Team members disappeared, it’s fine…. It means they returned safely.

I just thought about this new situation.

About what the experience of being wrapped in yarn returned to me.

About fear and unbearableness.

…And I concluded.

‘I need to know.’

Why I exist in this place in this form.

Who exactly summoned me.

To do that, I first need to find out about this company’s secrets.

What’s in the main building basement.

What exactly Yukwae Research Institute was.

And if there’s no way even after finding out all of this….

….

Then, let’s give up.

It was the moment I made that decision.

[That’s quite an interesting plan, Friend!]

‘…!’

I sat up.

…There was something on the bed where I had been lying alone.

A fluffy body. Lovely pink ears, black eyes, and a bow tie around its neck.

And.

[Noru.]

A call.

‘…Brown?’

[Ah, Friend is finally calling my name. How delightful this is!]

Good Friend was there.

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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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