Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 306

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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 306

 

I suddenly witnessed dozens of Baek Il-mong researchers at Segwang Special City subway station.

 

And this insane reality where our eyes met.

 

‘Damn.’

 

I reflexively brought my hand to my face.

 

What was hanging there was a mask with horns sprouting like tree branches, just like always.

 

What that meant was that I was wearing the exact same outfit as when I worked as Noru.

 

‘Shit…!’

 

There would definitely be researchers who would recognize me.

 

‘I didn’t enter Segwang Special City in my alien lizard body because I was worried it might cause problems.’

 

Even though that strength might have been helpful, I gave it up for safety. Because it might affect my sleeping mind.

 

But instead, I ended up facing this kind of unexpected situation that’s bad for mental health.

 

“What?”

 

“Field Investigation Team?”

 

The moment researchers started poking their heads out from behind the fence, following the voice of the person who pointed at me.

 

‘…Wait a minute.’

 

I turned around and changed my mask.

 

From Noru to feline.

 

To the mask of the new identity I had received.

 

“…Huh?”

 

The researcher who had been pointing at me made a dumbfounded expression and then shouted.

 

“Huh? W-wait. That field employee… the mask changed!”

 

“What?”

 

“No, just now for sure, like this… something like horns. Hey! You just changed your mask, didn’t you!”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

 

“N-no, I definitely saw it!”

 

“Could it be a hallucination?”

 

“A hallucination?”

 

“As expected, it really is darkness, damn it!”

 

The researchers’ attention immediately returned to their own situation rather than the Field Investigation Team that only had testimony.

 

The researcher who had been pointing at me was still looking at me with an unconvinced expression, but I ignored him for now.

 

“Excuse me, what kind of darkness is this exactly? And who are you.”

 

Phew.

 

“Actually, I don’t know either.”

 

“…!”

 

“To be precise, I’ve been trapped here so long that I can’t answer who I am.”

 

Still, if I’m going to try to save them, this would be the right approach.

 

I spoke seriously.

 

“But I remember one thing for certain. This place is dangerous, so please go down that way.”

 

“What?”

 

And I pointed with my finger to the bottom of the stairs I had climbed up.

 

“…The subway?”

 

“Yes. Go down here and board the train. Then you can secure at least minimal safety…”

 

“Ah, yes yes.”

 

Tsk, one of the researchers looked me up and down and interrupted.

 

“No, even if we listen to what you’re saying…”

 

“Tch. We’re not going to believe what a contaminated person who’s been missing long-term in a place like this says.”

 

“Ah~”

 

“Let’s keep our distance. And don’t provoke them either. That’s the best manual.”

 

Telling me not to even talk to them, they avoided me and pulled people together to have their own conversation.

 

But soon the tone of those who grasped the seriousness from behind became increasingly urgent.

 

“Security Team calls aren’t working!”

 

“W-wait a minute. They’re not working?”

 

“That can’t be right, the caller should work in any darkness in principle…”

 

“There’s no way that expensive thing wouldn’t work.”

 

Eventually, one researcher who had been anxiously moving around in the group started pursuing responsibility.

 

I saw the employee ID with glossy coating on my chest.

 

Research Team 2

 

Team Manager Choi Myeong-jin

 

Even a team manager was present at this scene.

 

It was also a name I had seen several times in the Darkness Investigation Records. Like an executive of a corrupt pharmaceutical company, he was a character who faithfully recreated the cliché of causing incidents and accidents through cost reduction.

 

But today didn’t seem to be that role.

 

“Section Chief Gwak. This isn’t your doing, is it?”

 

“What?”

 

“There should be other personnel besides you who could pull off this kind of crazy stunt!”

 

“Hahaha, what are you talking about, Team Manager Choi.”

 

Gwak Je-gang chuckles.

 

“This research team has nothing in common except that they were all in the annex research building, so why are you coming to me like this… Really, you’re like a politician rather than a researcher.”

 

“What, what?”

 

“Come to think of it, I’m curious. Isn’t there anyone who recognizes this darkness? There must have been a problem with the darkness our company possesses… Wouldn’t it be enough if we just deduce its identity?”

 

“Ah!”

 

And all kinds of ghost stories with residential areas as backgrounds began pouring out from the researchers’ mouths.

 

The woman at the corner, marble alley, the playground coming from beyond, streetlight shadow play…

 

And gradually… they began to lose not only panic but even tension.

 

[Oh, they’re truly letting their guard down.]

 

Right.

 

‘Once we figure out what kind of ghost story it is, we can just follow the manual, right? Then it’s easy.’

 

That seems to be that kind of thinking.

 

It’s arrogance.

 

‘They’ve only ever pushed Field Investigation Team or civilians into darkness.’

 

It’s an unconscious white-collar supremacist mindset that since those outsiders could do it, they who know ghost stories well could naturally follow the manual and come out.

 

‘…Phew.’

 

Let me try talking just one more time.

 

“Everyone, it would be better to have conversations at least on the platform…”

 

“Yes yes. Got it. Let’s just cut it short. We heard you. Well… we won’t stop you from watching what we do and following us to escape.”

 

And then they snicker.

 

“Seeing that no one here knows you, you seem like someone from a branch office… don’t think about giving advice to researchers as a field employee.”

 

“…”

 

[Friend, do you wish to teach these people a lesson?]

 

No… never mind.

 

I just followed those researchers as they moved among themselves.

 

It was also because I had found something out of place in that group.

 

‘Those two people.’

 

Among the people actively chattering, two figures standing slightly apart by themselves.

 

Strangely, they had rather passive and pale expressions.

 

‘…That.’

 

And I recognized their appearance and clothing.

 

‘Project dinner gathering.’

 

It was the appearance I had seen at Director Ho’s project achievement commemoration group dinner.

 

Most of the personnel were wearing masks, but there was also a table where people sat wearing masks that didn’t have cognitive interference effects like the Field Investigation Team’s masks.

 

‘That must have been the research team table….’

 

Right. Come to think of it, it was natural.

 

Ho Yu-won, who didn’t hesitate to even drag in Disaster Management Bureau agents to make this project successful, wouldn’t have formed the project with only the Field Investigation Team.

 

‘Of course he would have recruited a research team too, to study methods for entering the sealed extinction-level disaster.’

 

And now those people have revealed themselves in the heart of Segwang Special City.

 

‘Phew.’

 

With a bad feeling, I finally made eye contact with the two people.

 

“…!”

 

As expected, they recognize me. They saw me wearing this mask at the dinner gathering.

 

So I slowly spoke with lip movements.

 

Like this.

 

‘Director Ho’s project.’

 

“…!!”

 

‘Report.’

 

“….”

 

The people who had turned pale, whatever they misunderstood me to be, looked at each other’s faces, then one person urgently moved their mouth.

 

I read the words from that movement….

 

Entry…method development accident….

 

‘Entry method development accident.’

 

‘…!’

 

Wait a minute.

 

I felt like I had been hit in the head as I watched that. So….

 

‘…Director Ho was continuously developing other methods to enter Segwang Special City!’

 

Right. In a way, it was natural.

 

The Daydream director presumed to be Ho Yu-won had desperately tried to enter Segwang Special City through various methods even on the wiki.

 

Although they had now succeeded in entering through the well, there were limitations to bringing out what was inside, so it wouldn’t be strange if they were still trying other methods.

 

Then was that… a success?

 

‘No.’

 

If it were a success, those researchers wouldn’t look so pale. So this current situation is the result of failure.

 

They came together with all the nearby researchers, and judging by their expressions….

 

‘They’re missing.’

 

They were transported one-way into Segwang Special City.

 

Without an exit.

 

‘….’

 

Meanwhile, another researcher also urgently looked around and moved their mouth.

 

Please tell us how to get out please

 

…It was readable without needing interpretation.

 

Those who had already noticed that this was inside an extinction-level supernatural disaster had been continuously pale.

 

My hair stands on end with eeriness.

 

‘Wait, so….’

 

All those researchers.

 

Are here in their real bodies, caught up in this?

 

Dozens of Daydream researchers are… trapped underground in Segwang Special City?

 

And at this station?

 

“Phew, we’ve narrowed down the possibilities for now.”

 

Meanwhile, the researchers who finished their discussion were looking at the darkness list they had created.

 

“Then thinking it’s one of these three….”

 

“Gasp.”

 

[This way]

 

I tried to direct other researchers toward the safest direction as much as possible from the crossroads, but it rarely worked properly.

 

And it becomes increasingly difficult to travel the path.

 

I understand. The closer we get to the platform stairs, the more ‘entities with twisted necks’ there are.

 

I felt suffocated.

 

‘Should I enter a house for a moment?’

 

But wouldn’t that rather isolate me?

 

I barely grazed between two entities with twisted necks and climbed back onto the wall to check the path….

 

And I discovered something on the other side of the wall.

 

A bright silver rectangular box.

 

Fire extinguisher.

 

‘…!’

 

That, perhaps.

 

[This way]

 

I guided the people I was leading toward the fire extinguisher.

 

And I hit the fire extinguisher with my front paw.

 

“He, here?”

 

[This way]

 

“No, that’s….”

 

“Don’t interfere and get out of the way!”

 

Gwak Je-gang cheerfully opened the fire extinguisher and threw his body in first.

 

And after all the other people went in, I also entered through the fire extinguisher gap.

 

Thud!

 

The door closes.

 

Inside the fire extinguisher was strangely wider than it looked from outside.

 

‘As expected.’

 

…Just as Young-eun had told me, fire extinguishers in the Segwang Special City subway were indeed somewhat special spaces.

 

“Gasp.”

 

The researchers caught their breath.

 

[Quiet]

 

The researchers covered their mouths.

 

Thud, thud….

 

…Outside the fire extinguisher, the sound of barefoot walking can be heard.

 

Until that sound passed by, the three researchers except for Gwak Je-gang desperately covered their mouths….

 

[Confirmed]

 

“Phew.”

 

Only after my signal dropped did the researchers let out sighs of relief and catch their breath.

 

And I finally recognized the face of the researcher who had been accompanying Gwak Je-gang.

 

A woman with thick dark circles under her eyes, wearing glasses.

 

‘…Assistant Manager Lee Yeon-hwa.’

 

She was almost the only researcher in this company who had ethical concerns.

 

Just as a slight sense of joy and relief was about to emerge even in this ruined situation.

 

“…Black cat.”

 

Assistant Manager Lee Yeon-hwa suddenly looked at me and muttered.

 

‘…??’

 

“Section Chief Gwak, th-that entity, identification code Qterw-A-1845, it’s the black cat!”

 

Excuse me?

 

“A-grade darkness!”

 

Me?

 

“The entity that saved people at the Mermaid Graveyard, the one when the Pony Employee got worship-type contamination…!”

 

Ah.

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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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