Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 35

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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 035

The abandoned house where I was trapped, bewitched by Chang-gwi.

Is anyone there…?

Once again, someone called out from outside the front door of the abandoned house.

This time it was a low male voice.

“Ah, no…! Wh-who the hell…”

The manager covered his mouth and screamed in agony.

Please open the door…

“…”

“Wh-who’s the dead person? Who came? Haaah… L-let’s run! Let’s get out of here!”

It’s too cold here.

Hmm.

“Th-this time I absolutely won’t answer… Eeeek??”

I approached the door.

And pulled the door knob.

“Uuuhhh?!”

What was revealed as the door opened was…

“Wow, I thought I was going to die… Thank you…”

A perfectly normal human with a slender build, light hair color, wearing a worn navy blue uniform.

“…!?”

“Manager Lee Byeong-jin, please say hello.”

I nodded my head respectfully.

“This is the Security Team 3 Leader.”

“…??? …?!”

That’s right.

This would be the Security Team 3 Leader who got sucked into the ghost story along with me.

‘His face is going to explode.’

Manager Lee Byeong-jin’s face turned bright red as he alternately pointed at me and the Security Chief, then hurt his own finger from being startled alone and made a strange groan.

“Why… h-how…?!”

Why, you ask.

‘You told me yourself…’

-Like that, every single day, they come once with the voices of dead family, friends, and neighbors…!

He said they come only once per night.

For reference, similar words are also openly recorded in the .

Voices of dead relatives

”Every day’ means the cycle is one day.’

But I can’t say ‘There are magical records that support your statement,’ so whatever.

“Lucky guess.”

“…”

The manager somehow had a blank expression.

Anyway, since I was right, just accept it.

After confirming that the Security Chief had entered the abandoned house, I immediately closed the door and secured the handle.

Just looking outside gives me chills.

“Thank you…”

“Not at all.”

How this person managed to avoid being dragged away by Chang-gwi and safely knock on this house’s door was truly shocking…

‘Well… he is from the Security Team.’

Rather, the surprising point was that the Security Chief wasn’t alone.

He was supporting someone.

“…Who is that person?”

The leader answered cheerfully.

“Look, I found the missing person!”

“…The missing person is this person though.”

“Ah. I got confused…”

“…”

They’re even different genders…

I checked the person the Security Chief had casually put down on the floor.

It was a stranger.

They were in a very disheveled state, and regardless of whether people were present or not, they sat down in the abandoned house and started wailing.

“Waaaah, it’s all over. It’s all over!”

“They kept doing that. Oh, this place is better… I came to my senses in some place that looked like a shaman’s house… It was cold, dark, and damp, so not great there.”

“Aaaaah!”

“…”

‘What a mess.’

I just simply needed a colleague with their head screwed on straight…

‘I miss you, Team D Supervisors…’

Still, I took a look at the wailing person. They were wearing a disheveled white gown with a name tag attached to their chest.

[Go Seon-ha]

‘Huh?’

I immediately pulled out a small business card.

The one that was tucked between the pages of the old book titled ‘Path of Life.’

Go Seon-ha

Jugang University History Department

On the back it said ‘Going out tomorrow.’

“If you happen to be the person on this business card, did you try testing the contents of the ancient book?”

“*sniff*…”

The woman nodded her head.

“Yes… But it’s all useless.”

“Huh? Wait! Us-useless, you say. What do you mean…”

“I mean exactly that.”

The woman pulled something out from her chest with a gloomy face.

“That is,”

“If you go out from here and walk about a hundred steps, there’s a shrine just like it says in that ancient book… That’s probably the ‘sacred shrine’ the ancient book talks about.”

“…”

“And this is a copy of the wooden tablet over there.”

The woman glanced at me with a tired face.

“I see you’ve properly read that ancient book too. …Do you happen to research Korean history? This was written in a style from hundreds of years ago…”

No. I just have a monster friend…

“Ah, anyway!! Then can’t we just do what’s written on that wooden tablet?! Why are you just crying and saying nothing works…?”

“Because it doesn’t work!!”

“…!”

“Mister, I’m not an idiot – I tried doing what was written on the wooden tablet. Getting three plums, crushing them in a cup and sprinkling it outside, I did it all! I did everything but…”

“…”

Go Seon-ha caught her breath while looking into space, then showed us the back page of the paper she had taken out.

“Read this.”

Brown tactfully began reading it aloud.

-‘Prepare a melody to offer to the Mountain Lord. The more well-known it is, the better the effect. Write the lyrics and place them on the incense altar, sing with full voice while clapping with each step and bowing every thirty steps.’

“A melody to offer to the Mountain Lord…”

“Yes! That’s it!”

Go Seon-ha asked with sparkling eyes.

“The Mountain Lord is a tiger! So what comes to mind immediately? Melodies related to tigers, songs praising tigers, whether children’s songs or folk songs.”

“Well, that’s…”

Manager Lee Byeong-jin stammered as he spoke.

“Mountain hero, they say…”

“‘On the tiger lord’s birthday,’ yes, that one! I thought of that too. So I tried to use that but…”

Go Seon-ha hung her head low.

“…You can’t use melodies that have already been used.”

“…!”

“Under the incense altar was already full of lyrics that had been used before! Mountain hero was naturally among them too…!”

Good heavens.

“‘The Mountain Lord is fickle and enjoys melodies, so he does not accept the same things as before.’ I mean, folk tales say tigers smoke and dance, but this kind of… this kind of!!”

Go Seon-ha screamed toward the air as if breathing fire, then turned to look at us with a desperate expression.

“Tiger children’s songs, folk songs, instrumental pieces… isn’t there anything else that comes to mind besides that mountain hero song? Anything, anything at all…”

There isn’t.

“There isn’t, right!”

Go Seon-ha pulled at her hair.

“It’s not like we’re music majors, and we can’t search for it either, ah, ah…”

“…”

No.

I didn’t know this couldn’t be duplicated either.

In the , there were records of performing rituals in spaces reached after being enchanted by Chang-gwi about three or four times, and different songs were used each time.

From traditional music performances to instrumental pieces…

‘I thought they just wrote different songs for fun since it was a collective intelligence wiki.’

I didn’t know such details were hidden.

Even if we tried to use the songs written on that wiki, only the titles were listed without lyrics or melodies.

‘Damn.’

The atmosphere in the abandoned house turned cold.

“…”

Whew.

I thoroughly read the Chinese characters on the paper copied from the wooden tablet in the sacred shrine with Brown’s help.

And I asked.

“Ms. Go Seon-ha.”

“…Yes.”

“I have a few questions I’d like to ask, if that’s alright?”

“What is it.”

“Have you been here since a few days ago?”

“…Ten days.”

Go Seon-ha’s face turned pale.

“But after two or three days, I heard sounds of some crazy old man wandering around… so I hid in the attic.”

The ‘crazy old man’ looked back at Go Seon-ha with a somewhat wronged expression.

“And a few days later… I even heard children’s voices. I didn’t know what to do, so just… today when it became the full moon, when this man was dozing, I secretly went outside.”

“And you went to the sacred shrine to try performing the ritual.”

“Yes.”

I nodded.

And moved on to the next question.

“But that’s strange.”

“Yes?”

“It clearly states that the ritual requires one sacrifice, so why did you go alone?”

“…I won’t say something like I was going to sacrifice myself alone to save the children.”

Go Seon-ha clenched her fists until they turned white.

“I was going to observe how it’s done first… then decide. But, yes. I ended up understanding the situation while doing it. After seeing the records of people who had performed it before.”

“…”

“Today is the full moon. When today ends, it’s all over! We can’t last 15 days until the next full moon comes. Surely… surely, the ghost will open the door,”

“Yes. The ritual must be performed before sunrise.”

Thinking of the single talisman barely remaining on the door knob, I found myself nodding.

“But I’m saying it can’t be done!”

“No.”

I shook my head and stood up.

“I think it might be possible.”

“What?”

“The ritual.”

I had thought of it.

An alternative that seemed feasible.

“I’ll try to prepare it.”

“W-wait a minute. No, uh, what, even if something works, we need to find and prepare all the materials from outside again… I’m saying everything I found has already been used!”

I looked again at what was written on the paper copying the ritual.

Materials: 3 plums, salt, ashes from burning peach tree branches, one measure of well water

We have to get all of this from outside…

In this dark night when Chang-gwi is wandering around.

But a way to safely move around here alone…

‘There happens to be one.’

Only for me.

-Should I turn off the lights now, Noru?

“…”

Wow.

Do I really have to go out alone?

I unconsciously looked around at the people.

My coward’s heart was screaming for everyone to stick together and go as a group, but my brain grabbed it by the collar telling it not to do something stupid.

Aaahhh, this is driving me crazy!

In the end, reason won out.

“Everyone, please wait here.”

Actually, I’d really like it if you came with me.

If anyone is willing to volunteer to come along… there is someone, isn’t there?

Surprisingly, Go Seon-ha raised one hand.

“…Since I’ve done it before. I could at least guide you to the location,”

“Hey! Don’t interfere, just sit down, student.”

However, Lee Byeong-jin jumped up in alarm and stopped Go Seon-ha.

“You can’t think of him as someone like us! Huh? He’s not an ordinary person!”

“…”

No, that’s a bit much.

“Don’t interfere, just mark the location for him. Hurry!”

“Uh…”

Go Seon-ha had a displeased expression.

But after looking at me, he soon nodded with what seemed like understanding.

‘…!?’

Then he marked the locations where he had obtained the ritual materials in the blank spaces on the paper and handed it over.

“Ah! And… be careful of water.”

“…”

“Chang-gwi can be a ghost that died from tiger attacks and serves tigers. …But in the past, it also meant water ghosts…”

Go Seon-ha swallowed nervously with a pale face.

“Riverside, sound of water, valleys, whatever – if you see any signs related to water, avoid them. Don’t even look, just keep walking.”

“Yes.”

This is really scary as hell…

Anyway, the situation had arrived, and I stood in front of the door.

The Security Chief said something.

“Oh… you’re going out alone?”

“Yes.”

It makes me want to cry, but that’s how it turned out.

“If any problems arise, please take care of the people.”

The Security Team isn’t really a department that protects people, but they’d be much better than civilians. Especially if we’re dealing with a Monster from the Ghost Story.

But the Security Chief just stared at me blankly.

“Hey.”

“Yes.”

“You really don’t seem like an employee of our Company…”

“…?!”

“How strange… Got it. I’ll just sit here… We don’t have equipment anyway…”

And he sprawled out near the door.

“…”

Anyway, that’s settled, right?

‘…Let’s go.’

I took a silent deep breath, then grabbed the door knob.

Creeeeak.

With the eerie sound of hinges, the outside became visible.

In the misty darkness.

It was deathly quiet.

“…”

Creak, thud.

The door closed behind me.

They said it was a full moon, but the mist was so thick that not a ray of moonlight shone through.

Deep darkness where whitish things flickered occasionally, tree branches swaying in the wind, shadows of trees and grass.

I barely managed to take a step.

Thud, thud.

Good Friend

With each step, something like a thick shadow pressed down darkly above me.

‘Even experiencing it again, it’s a strange sensation…’

I became faint and dark, quietly melting into the Misty Forest.

-Phew. I feel quite light here!

Of course, the fear remained. I felt like I might die of a heart attack.

[Walk straight up and left from the Abandoned House and you’ll see a very large tree. Sacred Rope hanging on it.]

Still, in my head, the crude Rough Map and arrows and notes that Go Seon-ha had drawn helped guide my steps.

I couldn’t tell front from back, so I was truly impressed by how he managed to gather the ritual materials.

‘Up and left.’

After what felt like an hour but was probably just a few minutes passed.

-Ah, Noru. I can see something over there.

As Brown said, something began to come into view.

It was… a massive tree shrouded in thick mist.

Whoosh.

Every time the branches swayed, there was a somewhat sweet smell.

…It’s peach.

‘Why does it smell when there’s no fruit.’

Even though it was clearly sweet, it felt somehow unsettling…

Sacred Rope was hanging on the tree, draped between two thickly grown branches.

And beyond that, a Small Field was visible.

-Ho, farmland? A small Kitchen Garden in the mountains has quite nice aesthetics. Still not my taste though!

Brown spoke quite cheerfully, but my mind wasn’t very cheerful.

Didn’t the Ancient Book I read earlier call this area the ‘Mountain Lord’s Burial Ground’?

And these are the places where materials for the ritual are found?

‘This is definitely a supernatural zone.’

I approached that area extremely carefully, circling around to gather materials.

‘Plums… found them.’

[Keep the large tree on your right and look left to see small trees. Plum trees.]

I picked up fallen fruit under the plum tree, and near the giant peach tree I also collected some dried tree branches.

For reference, I absolutely did not pick fruit directly or break off branches.

‘What kind of trouble am I asking for.’

Standing alone in the mountains at midnight would be scary enough, but imagine standing alone in mountains you’re trapped in after being bewitched by a ghost.

And I have to complete a mission on top of that?

I’d naturally become a safety-first person.

‘…Good.’

Finally, I gathered the salt that had been sprinkled like a protective charm on top of the old stone tower and wrapped it in paper.

…Honestly, earlier when I was drawing water from the well, I nearly screamed when I heard the well bucket clanking inside.

‘But I collected everything.’

The surroundings were still quiet.

I let out a very thin sigh of relief.

‘Now if I go back to the peach tree and reverse direction, I should reach the abandoned house…’

As I was retracing my steps in reverse order to move accurately.

I noticed something I hadn’t seen before.

At the end of the peach tree’s sacred rope, a clean piece of silk was tied.

‘Huh?’

There was writing on it.

You who are unqualified

Go back

Wow.

‘I absolutely shouldn’t touch that either.’

I nodded while maintaining a safe distance of 1 meter.

-You seem nervous, Noru.

‘Ah. It seems like you need qualifications to cross this rope.’

-Hmm.

‘No matter how I think about it, there’s no way someone who came here bewitched by a ghost would have qualifications…’

-And you do have qualifications!

‘…’

What?

-Would you look at your wrist?

I raised my hand to look at the inside.

The spot where the theme park’s entry band had been.

: Socius :

The tattoo that remained where the membership card had burned was glowing mysteriously.

“…!!”

‘The word was Socius, wasn’t it.’

Latin meaning companion, member, kinsman.

-Oh ho, what a mark with a wider range of acceptance than expected!

-I don’t know if that theme park mascot just has wide connections or has some other part-time job.

“…”

Friend

I approached right up to the sacred rope and slowly reached out my hand.

The swaying sacred rope passed through my arm as gently as if it were a lie.

“…!”

-As expected.

I carefully stepped forward.

Into the farm where entry was permitted.

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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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