Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 297

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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 297

 

I recall.

 

The basement of Baekillmong Corporation’s main building where the past of the Joyful Research Institute was layered upon layer.

 

The shadows and corpses of researchers who died in the burning research institute that I saw there.

 

The moment when I escaped with Ho Yu-won from the research institute office engulfed in flames dozens of floors underground, wondering eerily what could have happened to cause the fire at the research institute.

 

‘…So the Joyful Research Institute really was underground.’

 

Though I never knew that underground would be a subway facility.

 

I looked again at the office of the Joyful Research Institute spread out inside the machine room of the outbound platform at Hanmam Station.

 

…Could this also be a projected ghost story?

 

“Agent, do you sense any malevolent energy or anything like that?”

 

“…Not at the moment, no.”

 

I turned to look at Baek Sa-heon, but he was secretly holding up his eyepatch to look inside and hurriedly shook his head.

 

‘…So it’s not a ghost story but an actual existing place?’

 

And none of my companions seemed to recognize where this was.

 

I realized.

 

‘No one here has been to the Daydream Underground.’

 

Since it’s mainly a place only the Security Team enters.

 

“Noru. Do you want to go inside and take a look?”

 

I slowly nodded.

 

“…It seems like a place I know.”

 

“…!”

 

“But since this place was completely destroyed by fire, it might be dangerous for too many people to enter at once. Just me and…”

 

“May I go too?”

 

Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae raised his hand high.

 

“…I’d be grateful for that.”

 

So Lee Seong-hae and I entered the burned corridor.

 

Splash.

 

The black water pooled below clings to the soles of my shoes and then falls off.

 

“Noru. How do you know about this place?”

 

I was somewhat conflicted, but eventually told the truth.

 

Since I’d become part of Ho Yu-won’s project anyway, not sharing would be deceptive.

 

“…It was in the Daydream Underground.”

 

And I explained as concisely and quickly as possible.

 

The point that the Joyful Research Institute seemed to be the source of Baekillmong’s dream technology.

 

Up to the point that some kind of accident occurred at that research institute, burning it down, and the past leading to the research institute’s disappearance was made into darkness and bound in the Daydream Underground.

 

“Oh.”

 

Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae’s first reaction, after seeming lost in thought, was this.

 

“So, the Wish Ticket was originally developed at the Joyful Research Institute?”

 

Huh?

 

“That… I’m not sure about.”

 

I recalled the prototype device of the Dream Cultivation Room that I had discovered.

 

🥰🥸🤯🧐🤪🥱

 

◎

 

Potion manufacturing buttons displayed as emoticons.

 

And the empty space where the bottom button was missing.

 

“I confirmed the original versions of other potions, but I couldn’t find the Wish Ticket.”

 

“Aha.”

 

After walking through the burned corridor in silence for a moment, Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae spoke again.

 

“Actually, there are times when the Wish Ticket feels a bit strange to me.”

 

“In what sense?”

 

“If such a thing exists, why don’t the company executives take it?”

 

“…From what I heard, only full-time employees can take it.”

 

I recalled Ho Yu-won with his gleaming eyes.

 

If he could have entered Segwang Special City with a Wish Ticket, he would have entered long ago.

 

If he could have secretly drunk it and seen effects, he would have seen them already.

 

Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae shook his head.

 

“That’s also strange. It doesn’t seem to be for sale either. Then there’s no need to produce it.”

 

“…!”

 

‘Certainly…’

 

…Something doesn’t add up.

 

The Wish Ticket clearly requires an enormous concentration of dream essence, and is obviously the essence of Baekillmong’s potion series.

 

Baekillmong’s core.

 

It’s emphasized both during hiring and internally within the company. It’s structured so that anyone related to the company feels it’s like some kind of ultimate goal.

 

‘Of course.’

 

This is the world of the wiki. And in that worldview, employees’ ghost story exploration is most important, so they made the Wish Ticket the driving force for that exploration.

 

A potion that grants everything.

 

Perfect for appearing in ghost stories, isn’t it.

 

But…

 

If you think about it realistically.

 

‘Why does the company produce Wish Tickets?’

 

Why produce something that requires so much dream essence, something that even executives and high-level personnel can’t directly consume, and sell it in the welfare mall?

 

To say it’s only produced as bait for employee work performance seems too much like a core product…

 

‘Who buys them?’

 

Come to think of it, aside from the employee point welfare mall, there are no known routes for selling Wish Tickets…

 

Nothing is known.

 

…

 

Perhaps.

 

“Could it be that someone, a suitable person using the Wish Ticket itself… is this company’s goal?”

 

For instance.

 

They’re filtering for such ‘people suitable for using Wish Tickets’ through hiring tests.

 

“Oh.”

 

Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae clapped his hands.

 

“I hadn’t thought that far, but it seems reasonable.”

 

Phew.

 

“Could it be for bad intentions?”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Like when such a person uses a Wish Ticket, it actually accelerates environmental pollution… something like that!”

 

“…I don’t think it’s environmental pollution, but I don’t think our company pursues such ethically correct purposes.”

 

I realize as I speak.

 

“Probably… it would be in a direction that benefits the higher-ups running this company.”

 

Someone using the Wish Ticket, that is.

 

That ‘someone’ has a wish they desperately want to fulfill, is ghost story-friendly enough to survive and return from numerous darkness explorations, and

 

“Aha.”

 

Deputy Manager Lee Seong-hae ended the conversation with those words.

 

The green pupils briefly glisten in the flashlight beam before disappearing into the darkness.

 

[What a novel idea! Noru! Let’s record this well. It might come in handy someday!]

 

‘…Right.’

 

I moved my steps further into the corridor with complicated feelings.

 

And I looked around, checking the doors.

 

Creak.

 

Some open, some don’t.

 

But for the places that wouldn’t open, I could look inside through windows broken by the heat.

 

The flashlight beam illuminated the lightless area once more, and I held back a groan.

 

Everything was completely burned black.

 

‘…Where was the dream cultivation device?’

 

I recalled the corridor of the Joyful Research Institute underground that I had visited with Ho Yu-won in the past, and headed toward that office.

 

But the moment I opened the door.

 

“…”

 

The dream cultivation device wasn’t there.

 

What remained in the burned-out office was, strangely enough, just one desk and one chair placed in the center. And one computer.

 

…It’s a completely different form.

 

“…!”

 

So I realize.

 

[What kind of realization is it, Friend?]

 

‘This is a different place.’

 

The Joyful Research Institute I saw in the basement of Daydream’s main building was stacked and arranged in layers according to time periods.

 

Underground Floors 10-19 – Lunchtime offices

 

Underground Floors 20-29 – Midnight offices

 

Different time periods of ‘some floor’ of the Joyful Research Institute were visible.

 

The further down you go, the more dynamic the time period becomes…

 

Eventually, dozens of floors below, you encounter the Joyful Research Institute from some day engulfed in flames.

 

‘But here, the office itself is different from the one in the main building basement.’

 

This isn’t a difference in time.

 

…However, the structure of the corridor and offices is exactly the same.

 

[Oh, then… do you have any good deductions about what kind of place this might be, Noru?]

 

“…I’ll step outside for a moment.”

 

I stepped out of the office door and headed to the end of the corridor.

 

And I encountered it.

 

‘It’s there.’

 

The door of the completely burned elevator.

 

“It doesn’t seem to be working.”

 

Naturally, the blackened elevator wasn’t functioning, but.

 

‘…I can check other things.’

 

Things displayed around the elevator. For instance…

 

‘Safety guides from the blueprints and such.’

 

Even just traces would be good.

 

I wiped away the soot from the area near the elevator door, at the upper part within reasonable sight.

 

Then something revealed itself…

 

It was an engraved plate made of the same material, carved next to the elevator.

 

It seemed to be made of material that didn’t burn, not paper. The red dye that had been painted over appeared to have burned, with only sparse remnants remaining at the edges…

 

And I had already seen a similar form of ‘guidance’ before.

 

Though the format was somewhat different, it was right here in the subway train.

 

“…Noru??”

 

In front of car 1-3’s door.

 

Beyond the open screen door.

 

Go Young-eun, breathing heavily, looks at me and the people behind with trembling eyes.

 

“…!!”

 

‘Thank goodness.’

 

We met.

 

In that moment when relief surged like crazy.

 

…I noticed the shadowy figures behind Young-eun in succession.

 

[Oh, new extras!]

 

“…!!”

 

Padding, dress, school uniform, cardigan.

 

People wearing casual clothes.

 

And.

 

“Who is that?”

 

“Business suit?”

 

They speak normally.

 

…Survivors from Segwang Special City were standing in the train, looking at us.

—————
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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