Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 316

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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 316

 

Thump. Thump.

 

The sound of my heartbeat violently echoes in my head.

 

I placed my hand on the tattoo near my heart.

 

The contamination I had stuffed and organized there.

 

The products of ghost stories I had separated from myself.

 

What do you mean Noru is an empty shell, that the real one is inside? Are you perhaps talking about contamination….

 

Voices of protest could be heard from the jury seats. Soon after, lights went out on several jury seats.

 

If you continue to cause disturbance, we will proceed with dismissal measures.

 

“….”

 

A brief sound of teeth grinding could be heard, then the jury seats fell silent.

 

However, Juror No. 1 was still looking at me.

 

An agent whose face couldn’t be seen.

 

202■Management 370614 Selection Candidate.

 

Kim Sol-eum.

 

I gasped for breath and raised my head.

 

According to Juror No. 1’s request, we will proceed with additional interrogation.

 

Come forward and answer.

 

Come forward?

 

“Urgh.”

 

A tearing sensation from my chest, something bursting out and pressing down on my facial features, struck me with vivid agony.

 

I staggered and tried to step back, but eventually….

 

“Did you call for Teacher?”

 

[This way]

 

Should I answer?

 

-What’s going on here? My goodness, could you call the cameras first? Getting interrogated would definitely be stimulating, and the viewers would love it!

 

[This isn’t a school, but I see some familiar-looking clothes….]

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

Contaminations.

 

My contaminations burst out and began answering. I couldn’t block them. What was pulled from the tattoo covered me like vomit, flowing backward uncontrollably, covering me arbitrarily…!

 

‘Put them back!’

 

I tried to stuff them back into the tattoo, but revealed truth cannot be hidden before the courtroom. No…!

 

Based on the ‘motiveless murder’ scale weight, I will question you.

 

Has the selection candidate ever harmed the life of an innocent third party by their own will?

 

[This way]

 

-Absolutely not! Though I have gloriously participated in producing talk shows that make innocent viewers’ hearts flutter!

 

Welcome to Lucky Mart! Shall I help you with checkout?

 

No

 

“Such difficult vocabulary is hard for students to understand! Use this sentence: ‘Have you ever killed someone for no reason?’!”

 

Answers without reason or emotion, inhuman responses, irrational obsessive monologues poured out. That’s not me, but even among those, there was no answer saying I had harmed anyone. Thank goodness. Instead of relief, I feel like vomiting.

 

The jury seats were quiet. Only the contaminations on this platform spoke arbitrarily without order, their voices echoing through the vast space…

 

Statement received.

 

Good.

 

Good, it’s over now!

 

Proceeding with the next question.

 

Shut up!

 

Sto….

 

Can the selection candidate swear not to harm the life of innocent third parties for their own benefit?

 

Of course!

 

Of course I can swear….

 

[Impossible.]

 

My heart feels like it’s sinking.

 

[Games inherently begin with harming someone for one’s own benefit. At school, we sometimes survive by leading other students to sacrifice themselves.]

 

That’s.

 

-Audience… no, jurors, what do you think about the expression ‘innocent third party’? Of course, it’s an expression that might appear in some criminal law book.

 

-But what about in reality?

 

Shut up.

 

-The actions I take to survive today might unexpectedly endanger someone else’s life!

 

-But isn’t that life?

 

No!

 

I’ve never thought like that. It’s contamination, a distorted thought originating from ghost stories.

 

-Even if others’ suffering is pitiful, you don’t need to take responsibility! It’s too obvious that no one can predict all the consequences of their actions. Just because bad things happen doesn’t mean it’s that person’s fault.

 

-So, ‘I swear not to harm the life of innocent third parties for my own benefit’? Who could make such a comprehensive and meaningless oath?

 

That’s, that’s….

 

If scared

 

might not be able to

 

“….”

 

guarantee

 

I can’t do it

 

The voice rings out as if deflated.

 

The comfortable emotional expression of an amusement park mascot for children.

 

An uncertain sound, a resigned tone, honest expression…

 

That emotion sounds familiar somehow.

 

-In extreme situations, life is acrobatics. It’s a repetition of sighing in relief every time you successfully pull off a wonderful performance each moment. It’s difficult to look too far ahead or try to take on too much responsibility.

 

-For a program to survive, it needs to be more thrilling, fun, and stimulating.

 

To survive…

 

-Can’t we be a little selfish? To become an attractive show, you need to be self-centered sometimes.

 

“…”

 

I listened to the voices of contamination chattering through my mouth.

 

No.

 

The voice coming from within me.

 

Since when was it?

 

I no longer expressed the irritation or resentment that boiled up when seeing people who weren’t helpful in ghost stories.

 

My self-centered judgments of letting people who were trolling die because I needed to survive, and only saving those I could save, also became rare.

 

Even when meeting people who were easy to incite or use, I stopped cheering while muttering gratefully despite slight guilt.

 

I also stopped deceiving or frightening other people to control the atmosphere in ghost stories, unless I was certain those people were evil.

 

All the things I did while internally screaming that we’re all trying to survive together so please cooperate.

 

Disappeared.

 

“…”

 

I looked down at my hands.

 

I saw human hands.

 

This was my original appearance that I had so desperately wanted when I was 130666, in that pulverized state.

 

But am I really the former Kim Sol-eum?

 

I tried to live like a human.

 

I lived trying to make only the smoothest, most human-like decisions.

 

But is that really me?

 

At the jury seats, Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je and the Bronze Agent made completely different arguments.

 

Judgments based on personal experience, personal selfishness, personal protruding aspects.

 

I definitely had them too.

 

But at some point they disappeared.

 

And now I understand the reason.

 

‘…I thought of it as contamination.’

 

I dismissed all my peculiar traits that ‘overlapped with ghost stories’ as contamination.

 

Because it was scary.

 

Because if it was the influence of contamination, it seemed like I would return to that situation where my mind collapsed following my body that had collapsed into something inhuman.

 

So I included even that in the contamination I shoved into my tattoo and blocked it off.

 

Because I was afraid.

 

…

 

I recall the conversation I had with Brown on the first day I received treatment at the Fox Counseling Room.

 

-I’m more comfortable and happy with who I am now.

 

-I don’t like my judgment standards suddenly changing like flipping paper either.

 

I was afraid that contamination meant losing oneself.

 

So I was desperate to cut out the contamination itself, but if that conversely resulted in cutting out myself.

 

“…”

 

I raised my hand.

 

“…I would like to address Juror No. 1.”

 

Permission granted.

 

I lifted my head and looked at that agent whose face I couldn’t see.

 

“You are correct, Juror.”

 

-You transferred your misguided desires, misguided thoughts, extreme emotions, and all abnormal judgments to other personalities that you separated and isolated within yourself.

 

“The unsightly desires, thoughts, extreme emotions, abnormal judgments within me…”

 

I said.

 

“They’re all mine, that’s correct.”

 

The contamination was exactly as it burst forth.

 

“Some of the statements I made just now were impulsive and inappropriate, but…”

 

I take a deep breath.

 

“…they’re also things I’ve thought about at least once.”

 

The incident at Hanbit Library comes to mind.

 

That all the pages composing the book were myself.

 

The advice I heard at the Space Shopping Mall comes to mind.

 

That advice not to destroy the contamination within me.

 

‘That’s why I chose the tattoo.’

 

I placed my hand on the pattern on my chest, recalling the description of this Moonlight Tattoo…

 

Governing oneself!

 

The most fundamental and important task. However, when there are countless identities and troubles in the mind, it’s difficult to gather and govern them as one.

 

Let’s attach index tabs to each and create junction points.

 

So you can organize and piece them together whenever you want.

 

Junction points.

 

Organizing and piecing together.

 

Not cramming them in and putting locks on them, but attaching indexes and organizing.

 

“…”

 

I placed my hand on the tattoo.

 

And I realized that this tattoo composed of circular bands rotates and moves along the central axis…

 

‘Ah.’

 

…I think I know why they discouraged cover tattoos at the Moonlight Tattoo Shop.

 

I wasn’t properly ‘enjoying’ this tattoo’s function.

 

“I acknowledge it.”

 

The organized contamination rotates.

 

The inscribed phrases, the contamination I had shoved in, are being reorganized.

 

Strange identities that aren’t really mine but are at infection levels go to the outer edge, while the rest move closer to my heart.

 

The emotions and judgments that were originally mine, changes that manifested differently when meeting contamination, moving more toward the center.

 

Uncomfortable feelings collide. Anxiety, selfishness, impulse, aggression, destructive desire, deceptive psychology, acting, superiority complex, cowardice, curiosity, excitement…

 

Extreme and sharp emotions clash inside and vividly enter my body.

 

But I soon become familiar with them.

 

I have no choice. Because they were originally mine.

 

“….”

 

I removed my hand.

 

The impulsiveness and weakness of the contamination that burst out, the protruding peculiarities are still in my head.

 

But it was okay.

 

Because they were originally there.

 

“All of that is me.”

 

….

 

Juror No. 1, please speak.

 

Juror No. 1 was raising his hand again and looking at me.

 

The validity of the selection candidate’s statement has been confirmed.

 

I recognize the subject as a complete unified state that can be weighed on the scale of evil.

 

He smiles.

 

Now I could recognize him.

 

I saw the outline of that juror’s face revealed in the lighting. It was….

 

I suggest extracting his heart again and placing it on the scale.

 

My face.

 

Grape Agent wearing glasses.

 

202■ Management No. 370614 selection candidate.

 

Please place your heart on the scale of evil again.

 

“….”

 

Selection candidate Kim Sol-eum.

 

“Yes.”

 

I took a breath.

 

And after barely taking my eyes off Juror No. 1, I quickly retrieved my silver heart from the scale.

 

I put it back into my chest….

 

Then inserted the blade again, split it open and took it out.

 

Over the tattoo.

 

“….”

 

The heart that was extracted this time wasn’t as light in color as before.

 

It was silver, but seemed to have some heavy texture.

 

‘It looks heavier than before.’

 

But I placed it on the scale.

 

The opposite side of the scale with ‘motiveless murder’ added sways with the weight.

 

‘!’

 

I held back from almost screaming without realizing it.

 

The giant gray balance scale swayed and moved from side to side….

 

Soon, it tilted to one side.

 

“….”

 

The weight of sin fell heavily downward.

 

Pass.

 

My heart was placed on the scale, floating peacefully in the air.

 

Lower than before, but clearly and definitely.

 

202■ Management No. 370614 selection candidate has been determined to be a citizen, not a conscription target, according to the regulations of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.

 

The gazes looking down at me from the jury seats grow dim.

 

Also, recognizing the validity of the candidate’s statement that the Segwang Special City branch does not officially exist, we declare the official suspension of rescue and selection operations.

 

Bang bang.

 

The sound of the gavel rang out and all the pin lights in the courtroom disappeared.

 

And the darkness throughout the space also disappears.

 

A white empty space.

 

“Grape Agent!”

 

I saw my companions jumping down from the jury seats.

 

[Oh, it seems the show has ended in this courtroom too. Everyone is leaving their assigned positions.]

 

That’s right.

 

I looked at the gradually fading courtroom.

 

The agents in the jury seats were disappearing from their positions one by one.

 

…They might be small lingering attachments of dead agents or something imitating them, but anyway, I hope they escape from this ghost story and find peace.

 

‘If possible, I should check again….’

 

“Grape, retrieve it!”

 

Ah.

 

I took my heart from the scale and pushed it back into my chest. And at that timing, I saw a small movement from under the scale of evil.

 

“…?”

 

Thread dyed in five traditional colors.

 

It smoothly rolled up and wound into the arms of Agent Choi who had come down from the end of the jury seats.

 

Wait a minute.

 

‘Was that guy trying to manipulate the scale if things went wrong?’

 

It’s not like he’s some unscrupulous fish market owner cheating customers buying sashimi with rigged scales, what kind of behavior is that.

 

I was dumbfounded but also slightly amused.

 

…I was grateful.

 

But at the same time, I noticed that Agent Choi had also been looking at Juror No. 1 like me.

 

“Agent.”

 

I approached and whispered quietly.

 

“Did you keep looking that way because you noticed the identity of Juror No. 1?”

 

“…Identity?”

 

“…Grape Agent, I mean.”

 

It seems my agent self was also recognized as a juror and got to sit there.

 

Interrogating oneself is also a cliché in this type of ghost story.

 

But Agent Choi’s face hardened after hearing my words.

 

“Agent?”

 

“…Did it look like Grape’s face to you, Grape?”

 

And he smiles with a face dripping with cold sweat.

 

“To me, it looked like my own face.”

 

“…!”

 

I immediately turned my head.

 

Juror No. 1’s seat.

 

The one sitting there was looking at me closely.

 

With Grape Agent’s face.

 

“…Who are you?”

 

My mouth opens.

 

I am a projection that remains here.

 

The next moment.

 

The courtroom completely vanished.

 

In the ritual that was burning white and disappearing, I saw that the face and clothing of Grape Agent who had been sitting in Juror No. 1’s seat had somehow changed to something else….

 

Like someone who had been shapeshifting and revealed their true form after being caught.

 

…In Juror No. 1’s seat,

 

Ho Yu-won’s face was smiling.

 

 

I opened my eyes.

 

The cozy scenery of the Fox Counseling Room came into view.

 

“…!!”

 

‘I got out?’

 

This was the first time I had come out of Segwang Special City without dying.

 

I sat up on the bed.

 

Countless questions arose in my mind, and the one corresponding to my biggest question was right before my eyes.

 

“Noru?”

 

“Ho Yu-won.”

 

I immediately sat up on the bed.

 

“What I just saw at Morning Station in the Special City….”

 

….

 

Wait a minute.

 

‘Huh?’

 

I raised my hand and grabbed my neck.

 

The feeling of leather, the feeling of a zipper.

 

130666’s security suit.

 

But….

 

“Ah.”

 

…I can speak.

 

“…!!”

 

I hurriedly lowered my hand to check.

 

130666’s hand wearing leather gloves.

 

I raised my other hand and with trembling fingers pulled down the zipper, removing the black gloves….

 

A human hand was visible.

 

“….”

 

I grabbed my head and took off the gas mask.

 

And I turned my gaze.

 

In the mirror, I saw Kim Sol-eum.

—————
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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