Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 32
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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 032
The missing manual person in charge.
My missing fifty million won.
And the soon-to-be missing gift blood bathtub (scheduled).
“….”
The bigger problem is that Brown, the very party who requested the gift, is currently in my bag pocket…
‘He’s probably hearing everything, damn it…’
It felt uncomfortable leaving him at home for various reasons, and since I never know when I might enter another ghost story, I’ve been carrying him around, but it feels like it’s backfiring.
This is like… promising a gift to your nephew on Christmas Day, only to go to the department store and see a sold-out sign on the display shelf.
Except that nephew is Annabelle.
“Sigh…”
A sigh escaped me naturally.
‘The person in charge has been absent without notice for a week in this world…’
It’s obvious.
This means they got caught up in a ghost story and went missing.
“Just wait leisurely. That’s better for your mental health.”
If I wait leisurely and someone else buys the blood bathtub from the alien shop first, then I won’t be able to keep the ‘promise’ I made with Brown!
I don’t want to get on the bad side of a stuffed doll that burned an A-grade darkness to death with a single finger flick…!
‘I’m really going to die.’
Eun Ha-je patted my shoulder a couple times before returning to her seat, and I sat down and agonized in silence.
What should I do.
Should I wait anxiously for two months and then bow my head in apology if the bathtub gets sold in the meantime.
Should I somehow try to get a loan.
Or…
‘…For now, should I try to find out why they went missing.’
It’s not just to save face with an ‘I did my best’ excuse. Maybe I could find the person in charge without much difficulty or danger.
was still in my head and smartphone.
‘Let me just check.’
Work has been quite leisurely since the theme park incident. Plus, I finished the paperwork for yesterday’s ghost story exploration.
This means I can leisurely do other things today as long as I don’t blatantly escape outside the company.
‘The supervisors are just going in and out of the office anyway.’
Of course, since I’m at the bottom of the hierarchy, I decided to move around briefly for about an hour after lunch time.
The first place to visit would be…
‘The person in charge’s seat, obviously.’
Ding.
The elevator doors opened.
Of course, I had prepared an excuse for this visit too.
-Noru wants to visit the person in charge’s office? Oh my… Then take this with you!
The soft-hearted team leader let me deliver a ‘training certificate that doesn’t really need to be given now but would be fine to deliver anyway’ on his behalf.
‘Thank you, Park Min-seong…’
What a warm choice in this ghost story world overflowing with psychopaths.
I entered the administrative support office and looked for an employee to give the documents to. They happened to be sitting at the desk next to the empty manual person in charge’s seat.
“I brought documents from Team D’s Park Min-seong.”
“Oh? Just put it there.”
“Yes. Oh, and this…”
I politely held out an envelope to the office worker who was tapping on their PC with bored eyes, not even looking at me.
Inside were golden-brown donuts sprinkled with sugar and filled with plenty of vanilla cream, still warm.
And iced americano too.
‘Bribes are essential for this kind of thing.’
“We bought some food for ourselves and got some extra. I thought it would be nice if you had something to eat while working.”
“…! Oh, you didn’t have to bring all this.”
Even so, their hands were quick to receive the americano and donuts. Truly an office worker.
“Kang, share this around.”
“Oh? Donuts?”
“That person brought them.”
“Wow, thank you! Are you from Team D?”
I watched as the administrative staff bit into the donuts and the office atmosphere subtly shifted into tea time.
An atmosphere of casual small talk.
A good time for strangers to blend in smoothly. Especially if they’re the snack provider.
I appropriately timed my words and brought up the topic.
While looking at the empty seat of the manual person in charge, ‘Lee Byeong-jin.’
“Um, should I just leave a coffee at Manager Lee Byeong-jin’s seat too? He doesn’t seem to be there…”
“Oh, just take it with you. He hasn’t even come to work.”
“Ah, he’s on vacation.”
“Vacation? No way, he’s missing.”
Got them.
The employee next to them spoke casually as if they weren’t particularly sorry, exchanging glances with the employee across from them.
“Honestly, I kind of saw this coming.”
“Hey, hey.”
“Oh why, it’s going to spread around anyway? You there from Team D, you said you’re new? What’s your name?”
“Kim Sol-eum.”
“…! Oh, are you the one who almost got into Team A?”
“Um, I’m grateful they looked favorably upon me.”
“Wow.”
I heard murmurs from somewhere around like ‘so that’s the Team D newbie.’
The employee next to them looked me up and down with renewed interest, then spoke while subtly hiding their indifferent expression.
“Well, since you’ll probably find out anyway if you keep working here, I’ll tell you,”
Hmm.
“No, while working at this company, there’s always someone who goes missing after picking up strange things without knowing better, you know?”
“Excuse me?”
I deliberately furrowed my brow as if thinking and asked.
“Could it be… that’s why he can’t come out?”
“That’s right. That… what was it? A scroll thingy?”
“A scroll, a scroll.”
When the person across answered as if giving up, the employee next to them giggled.
“Oh, right. A scroll. Something about buying a scroll that would bring wealth luck… He bought it and won second place in the lottery, so he was subtly bragging about it.”
Oh.
Bought a suspicious scroll, bragged about his financial luck improving, then went missing?
‘A typical secondhand goods ghost story…’
The structure is completely cliché.
‘Hmm, good.’
I made a quick decision.
‘Let me get out of here.’
I might end up as a corpse if I get involved just to get paid a little faster.
So I was preparing to say something like ‘Wow, that’s really scary! Well, I’ll be going now…’
“Anyway, at this rate, things don’t look good for you.”
For me?
“Hey, why bring that up!”
“No, but it’s true. That darkness manual revision review you’re handling, right?”
Yes.
“That’s going to be hard to pass without Manager Lee who went missing.”
…?!
What, what does that mean…
“That manager was originally close with Team A. You know how it is. What they call… ‘the same line’.”
“…!!”
Line.
The foundation of office politics.
Factional relationships that split based on which higher-ups you’re friendly with!
And the missing person in charge was someone who was particularly close with Team A, riding ‘the same line’ in crude terms…?
Realization struck me like lightning.
‘So that’s why the Team A Leader spoke with such confidence!’
No wonder he was so confident about the manual revision speed!
“Honestly, it’s uncertain what the new person will be like… but the chances of someone from the same line getting placed are low. Someone from Director Cheong’s side will probably come?”
“…”
“That side and Team A don’t get along so… well.”
Did I just hear that?
The sound of fifty million won evaporating.
It’s not coming late, it’s disappearing entirely…!
‘No way!’
I found myself opening my mouth without realizing it.
“By any chance, do you know where that person in charge disappeared…?”
“Oh, there’s actually an interesting story about that.”
The person next to me leaned in close and whispered to me.
“There’s a rumor that they disappeared inside the company.”
“…!”
“Someone said they met Manager Lee coming to work in the morning at the lobby. But he never made it to the office.”
“…He disappeared in the middle?”
“Well, nobody really knows for sure. No one can guarantee anything. No one actually saw him disappear.”
“…”
No one saw it… huh.
‘Even if no person saw it, something else might have.’
I raised my head.
In a corner of the office, the red light of a CCTV camera was blinking.
CCTV.
If he really went missing inside the company, there might naturally be a record left on that device.
‘For security CCTV used by a company of this size… they probably keep it for about 2 weeks.’
Then I should still be able to check it.
To collect the fifty million won on time, tracking down the missing person was urgent.
…The problem is.
‘The ones who manage CCTV records in this company are… the Security Team.’
And the Security Team is… hmm.
======================
Authorized to kill without liability. (All employees)
======================
Right.
So I wanted to avoid running into them for various reasons…
‘Since I’ve already joined the company, it’s impossible to avoid them forever anyway.’
Since things have come to this, let me use this opportunity to gather information and check it out.
I headed to the first floor, once again conscious of Brown in my pocket.
Straight to the Safety Management Office where the Security Team was located.
“I guess I go underground from here.”
On the outskirts of the first floor, there was a staff-only door leading to a separate underground space, and if you went down the stairs just a little from there, you could see this iron door.
[Safety Management Office]
I raised my hand.
Knock knock.
-…
Knock knock.
-Just come in…
“…??”
I carefully opened the door.
Then I saw a narrow space like a typical facility office, with an old sofa placed in the center.
Someone was sprawled out on top of it.
A security employee wearing a worn navy blue uniform.
…?
“Good day…”
I quickly scanned that person’s uniform name tag.
[Security Team 3 Leader J3]
“Excuse me, Team Leader. Would it be possible to check CCTV records from a week ago? There’s someone who went missing…”
“…”
A slow response came back.
“You want to see CCTV…”
“Yes.”
“Ah…”
The other person looked tired and annoyed by everything.
Security Team 3 Leader, who was sprawled on the old sofa without even introducing himself, slowly opened his mouth.
“Normally if you want to see it, you have to submit a CCTV Access Request Form…”
Ah.
“When has this company ever cared about such things… Just watch.”
“….”
I wasn’t sure whether to call this kindness or dereliction of duty.
Anyway, since I was the one asking for a favor, I offered the remaining snacks as a bribe.
“I thought you might enjoy these as snacks….”
“Ah, donuts.”
His lifeless face suddenly brightened, and he quickly got up from the sofa and snatched the envelope.
“I like donuts, but there’s nowhere that delivers to the company… I can’t go out during the day, so I don’t get to eat them very often….”
I see.
‘He doesn’t look as violent as I expected.’
But in ghost stories, there’s also the cliché of ‘doesn’t look like it but is actually a ghost.’
I maintained my vigilance while speaking gently.
“Then would it be alright if I head to the CCTV room now?”
“Yes…. But.”
The employee scratched the back of his head, stared at the donuts as if agonizing, remained silent for a while, then slowly began to speak.
“There’s one security guard available, so take him with you…. It might be dangerous….”
“Ah, thank you.”
I waited for him to call a security guard with his walkie-talkie or something.
But there was no movement.
“…?”
“…?”
“You said you’d assign a security guard….”
“That’s me….”
He pointed to himself.
“I’m that person….”
….
“Ah… yes.”
‘Let’s not get involved.’
I should quickly check the CCTV and get out.
“You said a week ago….”
“Yes, yes.”
Anyway, I entered the CCTV room with the Security Chief and checked the recordings.
Though he called himself the Security Chief, he didn’t seem very skilled at operating the equipment, which deepened my suspicions, but that wasn’t what mattered.
“Found it.”
I found the recording with the Person in Charge.
I confirmed the middle-aged man entering the lobby and taking the elevator.
It matched the face of Lee Byeong-jin, the Person in Charge registered in the company network.
And the long object he was holding in his hand.
‘Is that a scroll rod?’
It definitely wasn’t something you’d normally bring to the company. It felt eerie somehow.
“You’re good at finding things. You could work as a security guard….”
Please don’t say such scary things.
“Thank you. I think I’m focused because I’m trying to find the missing person.”
“…Missing person?”
“Yes.”
He seemed a bit flustered and fell silent.
It seemed like he had only half-listened to what I said earlier and was just now realizing it.
That the Security Team didn’t know someone had vanished from within the company.
“I missed this….”
“Is this very troublesome for you?”
“No…. It wasn’t during my shift either.”
“….”
“They’ll handle it themselves….”
Yes….
Clear shift-work office worker logic, well heard.
Anyway, after checking the elevator CCTV as well, I was able to confirm where the missing Person in Charge had gotten off.
What was surprising was… the Person in Charge hadn’t gone up to the upper floors.
“…He went down to the basement.”
A floor below even this Safety Management Office.
[B2]
The CCTV clearly captured him staggering as he got off on Basement Level 2.
…That’s creepy.
‘What on earth happened?’
Why would an administrative employee suddenly go down to the basement as if possessed?
‘Only the Security Management Department has access to that area.’
I even heard that the Security Management Department only does patrols there, so what could this be about?
Cold sweat broke out.
I hastily turned my gaze away from the empty elevator.
‘From now on, it seems dangerous for me to watch CCTV too.’
Even if I could somehow fake my way through what I’d seen so far, this place seemed impossible.
The basement of a mysterious pharmaceutical company that gets raw materials from ghost stories.
A place where regular employees don’t even have access and no one knows what happens there?
‘It was described like some Neapolitan ghost story in too!’
This won’t do. Let me dust off my hands and get up.
I bowed my head to the Security Chief while avoiding looking at the CCTV as much as possible.
“Thank you for showing me. I’ll be going now….”
“…Bathroom.”
“…?”
“The person you’re looking for. He went into an unused men’s restroom in the basement….”
“….”
“He hasn’t come out. For a whole week.”
I desperately tried not to look at the CCTV.
However, this Security Chief seemed to have already checked Basement Level 4, where the missing person had gone, on his own initiative.
“Want to go check out the bathroom…?”
“I don’t have access to the basement levels.”
“I’m going anyway….”
Yes. It’s your workplace, so of course you would.
If you could go find the missing person, I’d really appreciate….
“Let’s go together…. I’ll say you’re a new Security Team member.”
What?!
“No, you don’t need to go that far,”
“Let’s go….”
No!!
How did things end up like this?
‘I even got a uniform.’
I’m riding the maintenance elevator while wearing the navy blue uniform of a Security Team general member.
My mind is in a daze trying to figure out what this situation even is.
‘I got persuaded…’
-It’s okay. The Field Investigation Team sometimes comes for support duty too…
Isn’t that disciplinary action?
Anyway, it’s been verified that even if word gets out about me going underground, it won’t blow up into anything major.
I also desperately contacted Team D to process this as official support duty, so there shouldn’t be any disciplinary issues…
Should I say it’s fortunate that my workplace social skills toward supervisors shined through?
‘Still, I’m in a daze.’
I came all this way just to buy one Blood Bathtub.
At this point, Brown should acknowledge me even if I can’t pull five thousand.
Ding.
The door opens with the elevator sound.
Basement Level 2.
Even though it was clearly the same sound, it somehow sounded ominous. What was revealed was…
A corridor lined with ordinary offices.
“…”
Why… are there offices in the basement?
‘Shouldn’t there be safety equipment or facilities here…?’
The office corridor with slightly dim lighting was very quiet, with opaque glass doors on all sides.
Office A, B, C… nameplates were attached.
The Security Chief whispered.
“Don’t open the doors…”
“Yes.”
Even without that warning, I had absolutely no intention of touching them with even a fingertip.
I walked slowly, only looking at the Security Chief’s back.
That’s when it happened.
-Noru?
“…!”
Good Friend
Those were truly grateful words.
But here’s the thing.
‘…How are you talking to me?’
‘Good Friend’ could only speak and move within ghost stories… Which means.
I’m already inside a ghost story.
“Ah, we’ve arrived.”
The Security Chief stopped walking.
In front of the bathroom door where pale light was leaking out.
“I’m opening the door…”
“Wait,”
But before he could hear my words, the bathroom door opened.
Creak.
Amid the flickering lights, the space beyond the door revealed itself…
“…”
‘This is insane.’
The bathroom was covered in dark red ink.
As if a knife had stabbed an artery, the burst ink covered the entire bathroom mirror like blood.
I was completely frozen.
I couldn’t even scream.
But the next moment, my sense of smell awakened my reason.
‘There’s barely any metallic smell.’
That’s not all blood.
But it’s not the smell of ordinary ink either. This is…
‘…India ink?’
Tap tap.
Brown tapped me from my pocket.
‘Warning.’
I snapped to attention.
The Security Chief looks around the bathroom and reaches out his hand.
“Don’t touch…”
Poke.
“Yes…?”
We’re screwed.
The moment the Security Chief touched the ink with his index finger.
The dark red liquid in the bathroom began swirling like waves.
“…!!”
I immediately tried to turn around and run, but the thick black liquid stretched out like countless hands, swallowing and pulling my feet.
Aaaahhh!!
‘Fuck, fuck…!’
I barely managed to fall forward instead of backward. The liquid splashed up to my chin from my struggling. Nausea rose up to under my chin.
The moment I turned my head to somehow grasp the situation, I saw its source.
“A scroll!”
There was a scroll with its center slashed in the bathroom mirror.
Blood-like ink was being sucked into the inside of the scroll that was empty with knife marks.
In other words, my feet were also being dragged in that direction.
As if a living creature was pulling me… wait, living?
Like blood?
‘Vampire Utensils…!’
I took out the fork and stabbed it into the floor.
The pure white silver fork trembled, then began greedily absorbing the surrounding ink.
“Ah!”
Something was working!
But a finger-sized dessert fork wasn’t enough to hold on.
Ping.
The cutlery was flung away.
‘Fuck!’
I was sucked into the scroll just like that.
“Huff!”
I raised my head.
Through my dark and hazy vision, I could see wallpaper with old, crinkled patterns on the wall.
This was an unfamiliar place.
‘…An abandoned house?’
I caught my breath and waited for my vision to adjust to the darkness.
And then, and then…
I realized.
What I had seen wasn’t wallpaper.
Talismans.
Old, worn-out talismans were plastered all over every wall made of rotted wood.
“…!”
It was heavy.
A strange sense of oppression dominated this dark and chilly interior, as if the air was pressing down on my shoulders.
…Something was wrong.
I felt like a rat that had snuck into the wrong place in the wrong way.
“…”
I clenched my trembling hands tightly.
But there was nothing to grasp.
‘…It’s gone.’
The vampire utensils had disappeared.
I broke out in a cold sweat and slowly, slowly breathed to prevent hyperventilation…
“Excuse me…!”
I thought I was going to faint.
“Th-there! Are you perhaps a police officer…??”
I raised my head.
I wasn’t alone in this dark abandoned house.
Small figures huddled in a corner over there were looking at me.
They were… children.
‘Middle school uniforms.’
The sobbing students cried out.
“Please help us! We touched something like a strange picture, and we can’t get out of here!”
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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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