Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 240

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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 240

Six people with stories worthy enough for the Seeker inside the box are here.

Among them, who will be thrown into the inescapable slow and terrible suffering toward death that lasts an average of 27 years.

Such an absurd choice is now right before us…

“Noru.”

I lowered my head.

Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je in the form of an old woman was patting my shoulder area.

“Put me down for a bit. Even though I look like this, I’m not really an elderly person.”

However.

“I should also spit out the bead and get some mobility. Looking at how things are turning out, the situation doesn’t seem normal.”

…

I put Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je down. The Deputy Manager spat out the glass bead and began returning to her original form.

The Bronze Agent’s expression changed.

“You are…”

“Well, it’s been a while. You old-fashioned fellow.”

Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je grinned.

Coincidentally, the two were acquainted from this Jisan Village, and now they were meeting again in a similar location.

“Oh. Hello, Deputy Manager! Have you been well since you quit?”

“Yes, yes.”

The Bronze Agent’s mosaic face twitched as he alternately looked at Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je exchanging greetings with Deputy Lee Seong-hae and Ho Yu-won.

As if realizing what kind of being had been using Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je’s body.

“Are you perhaps being threatened or under unfair pressure from a supernatural being?”

“Something like that, but my situation isn’t that urgent right now, so let’s skip it.”

Pat pat.

The Deputy Manager tapped me.

“Noru, you seem to know quite a bit about that strange darkness, so let’s start with an explanation. We don’t know what dangerous button we might press if we remain ignorant.”

…

Mumyeong Chanran Temple’s Dangerous Box

: Seeker Inside the Box

I explained to everyone as quickly as possible.

The danger of this box, the peculiarity of this place, and even the fact that we had been escaping from this cult, all plainly.

Finally, even the most basic breaking method.

Victims marked as capacity

Current capacity: 2

A brief silence flows among the ghost story veterans reading the letters I draw with smoke.

“So you’re saying if two people go in, they’ll be tortured for several decades before dying, and the rest will pass through safely.”

Correct.

“If about one B-grade dream essence is extracted, the company would be damn pleased.”

Speculation: If you don’t enter the box, dream essence extraction impossible

“Ah, I thought so. It would just count as avoiding without entering the darkness.”

Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je glanced at Ho Yu-won and muttered as if it was rather fortunate.

Anyway, so.

Request: Do not move

Don’t provoke it unnecessarily.

Reason

▶ Possibility of being detected as suitable target when moving

▶ Slim possibility of escape from inside the box

(Unable to confirm whether item usage is possible)

The Seeker inside the box will keep following once it detects a suitable target for the capacity.

That period is…

▶ Once detected as suitable target, can never escape until the box closes

If we’re not careful, someone among us will end up in that situation…

If my salivary glands and esophagus were in normal positions, my mouth would have gone completely dry.

‘I need to check.’

Whether the box is currently moving based on someone among us. Exactly who among the six it’s getting closer to.

‘Or…’

I could take the initiative and provoke the box myself.

‘It would probably be easier to respond if it chases after me.’

If necessary, I might even be able to try ‘reading’ and erasing the setting before the box swallows me.

…Though it’s chilling to think what kind of fatal side effects might occur and how long they’d last, compared to receiving decades of pain for display inside that box…

“Wait, Grape.”

…

“…We said not to move. That includes you too.”

Agent Choi confirmed that I stopped moving, then looked around.

“Now. Did everyone hear that? Is there anyone among us who’s dying to go to the bathroom or anything? No, there isn’t. Well, that’s fortunate in this misfortune, isn’t it?”

The Bronze Agent next to him grabbed his forehead.

“Just a little bit! Let’s take some time. From what I heard, it seems we have some leeway.”

Agent Choi broke out in cold sweat but grinned and spoke calmly while crouching down.

“It’s not right in front of us yet.”

His eyes kept watching the strange hands inside the box.

“Let’s all sit down first, don’t provoke the box… and think of a breaking method. Is that okay, Grape?”

…

I slowly nodded my head.

However.

Recommendation: Everyone keep checking the box’s position

It will keep getting closer as time passes.

So the six of us sat down with the entrance to the Mumyeong Chanran Temple underground bunker between us.

Three people inside.

Three people outside.

And… the black box extending both hands, positioned close to the entrance.

Slightly closer.

‘…The position has been readjusted.’

The day of the guillotine is approaching.

Already half a step closer.

“Grape Agent.”

I turned my head with difficulty. As soon as I sat down, Bronze Agent naturally threw something to me.

“These are supplies you left behind. Please take them.”

Only after reflexively catching it did I realize what it was.

…It’s my agent jacket.

‘…Why.’

I can’t even wear it right now anyway. No, why would they even bother looking for an industrial spy who had already submitted a resignation letter?

My stomach feels queasy. Not knowing what to do with the jacket, I just touched it.

‘For now… should I put it in my tattoo?’

So I reached for the bottom of the jacket to fold it…

There’s something in the pocket.

I sent black smoke to carefully feel inside and realized what it was.

Colorful strings.

Five-colored shoelaces.

[Oh, isn’t that an escape item?]

That’s right.

An item that allows emergency escape from supernatural disasters while ignoring clear procedures, usually issued one per field agent.

It was exactly what I had been asking Ho Yu-won about earlier, something I really needed. But…

‘…Why on earth is this here?’

At this urgent moment?

I looked at Bronze Agent again, but his mosaic face avoided my gaze and was having some conversation with Agent Choi.

As if he wanted to smoothly gloss over whatever was in the jacket.

Could it be…

‘Is he telling me to use it now?’

If I use this, I’ll go to the escape location designated by the Disaster Management Bureau, and my identity will naturally transfer there.

But then what about the other people remaining here?

What’s his intention in giving this? Is this Bronze Agent’s independent action?

“Well then, let’s begin.”

And regardless of my confusion, it was the moment Agent Choi was about to quickly proceed with the situation.

“First, the condition for that box to count as a garden is a sentient being…”

“Excuse me!”

Flash.

Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae was the first to raise his hand.

“There is a fastest and simplest method!”

Those employee-like words come out.

“You said this is a cult, right? Can’t we just find the two worst people among them and throw them in?”

“…”

“What?”

“We can make the first move. There’s no need for it to come from among us.”

Right.

Agent Choi had proceeded sensibly. ‘Let’s think of various solutions within the time limit.’

But there’s a problem.

With this group, I think I know how the story will eventually end.

‘With a blade at our throats, this isn’t a composition that allows for leisurely discussion…!’

First, Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae will definitely insist on finding bad people from this base to send.

He’s someone who doesn’t care if his own team employees die. With the cult background already set up, there’ll be nothing to hold him back.

“Ah, that’s a decent proposal. That box has already swallowed one cult executive. Another cult executive is lying unconscious behind us.”

“Ooh, nice! That’ll make it easier to throw them in.”

Lee Seong-hae grins, and Ho Yu-won smiles too.

But the thing is.

“Cheongdong, I’m wondering if I’ve gone deaf. I think I just heard someone say they’d throw citizens into a supernatural disaster in front of government agents.”

There’s also someone here who can’t tolerate that.

Though Agent Choi threw out the words jokingly, he eventually opens his mouth with a sigh.

“Whew, of course I understand the sentiment! But that’s something to consider only at the very last moment…”

“Hey, we don’t have time even now. There’s no need for good people to get scared and endangered trying new things, right?”

“…!”

Phew.

“It’s not like I’m saying to just throw in any random believer. If they’re cult executives, it would actually be better for society if they died! Even if they’re arrested, they won’t receive severe punishment…”

Lee Seong-hae rests his chin on his hand and nods seriously.

“This is a good opportunity for retribution!”

A brief silence flows.

“…That’s quite a personal judgment?”

“I won’t ask the agents to choose. I’ll pick the other one well too, so just wait and see! Even if the box follows, it’s nearby so I’ll dodge well and quickly put them in!”

“No…”

“Please wait a moment.”

Bronze Agent speaks up.

One might think this agent is also joining in to stop Lee Seong-hae.

But…

“We will handle the selection.”

“…!!”

Today’s Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau is an organization that can say ‘if someone must die, let it be that person.’

They select evildoers through scales of evil and send them to death to prevent greater sacrifices.

The living proof of that, the agent who played the killer role at the mountain lodge, speaks.

Glancing at the box that had moved half a step closer, anxiously.

“Is there anyone here who directly witnessed that cult executive causing numerous casualties?”

“Well, I did see it.”

Deputy Manager opened her mouth.

Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je is a realist, and she knew how to reasonably accept moderately gentle options in given situations.

“They probably killed at least dozens of people just to brew some alcohol.”

“Confirmed.”

“Cheongdong.”

“Agent.”

Bronze Agent stops his senior’s words.

“Rules are rules.”

-Agent lives always come first.

And if there are confirmed evildoers, they should be the ones to die.

“Leaving verified methods aside and continuing discussion based on imagination will only make decisions harder.”

…It was rational.

“And as time passes, we might not be able to choose verified options even if we want to.”

Whether the cult executive regains consciousness.

…Or the box gets too close.

“We should attempt it while we have the luxury to do so.”

Even Agent Choi had no response for a moment to those words.

Public opinion had already passed the majority.

[Hmm. Surprisingly well organized. Sacrificing a third party. You’ve managed to slip away quite cleverly.]

[The sinful twins will endure lengthy torture until death inside the box. Switching extras doesn’t mean much though.]

Brown’s deflated voice could be heard.

Agent Choi kept his mouth shut, and I witnessed Ho Yu-won watching with a smile as others talked and the situation got sorted out.

And I fell silent.

‘…Is this really okay like this?’

The truth about the Happy Ending Cult complicated my thoughts.

In a situation where I couldn’t suppress all these people who would clearly act suddenly and force them to listen to me, and even if that were possible, there wasn’t really a better alternative than this. But still…

‘I could try various other attempts by drawing the box’s aggro myself and buying some time…’

“Grape.”

I turned my head.

Agent Choi had been silently looking at the floor, then repeatedly staring at the box, lost in deep thought. He who had been calculating something…

Had somehow picked up the Goblin Lantern he had set down on the floor.

“…You were originally planning to move and lure the box yourself, weren’t you? Until everyone else could get out safely.”

…!

“Still the same. Heh, I got it right again.”

Laughter.

“But that’s what the youngest member does, right? Seniority order.”

Wait a minute.

Agent Choi looked this way and grinned.

The eyes of someone who had made a decision.

“Still, now that I’m an agent, I should try doing at least one thing I can do. …Thank you.”

Hey!

Agent Choi got up and moved. At his sudden action, Bronze Agent belatedly rose from his seat, but it was too late. The box sensed the agent with countless stories and moved to follow him…

“That level is quite less hypocritical for an agent. Not very Disaster Management Bureau-like. You think so too, don’t you, Noru?”

Shut up!

“So I’m going to try selecting too, Noru.”

Thud.

“The more Disaster Management Bureau-like side.”

Bronze Agent was pushed by Ho Yu-won’s hand.

His body collided with the box.

Thud.

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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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