Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 357

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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 357

High school student Ryu Jae-gwan held his breath.

It had already been several hours since they had been moving through Segwang Special City, following that researcher named Lee Ja-heon, whose eerily perfect features were unsettling.

…It had also been several hours since the agent who had saved him disappeared beneath the concrete debris of the station platform.

-Agent!

Though the shock from that still lingered, another shocking event had just occurred.

“….”

Ryu Jae-gwan looked at the underground railway tracks before him.

Just moments ago, he had communicated with the agent who had disappeared, through a piece of paper that suddenly appeared from that corridor.

He didn’t know how it was possible, but clearly a piece of paper had popped out from empty air where nothing existed…

Relief and confusion crossed paths.

“This is enough to make even ghosts weep.”

“….”

“Researcher, are you sure we just need to wait here like this?”

“Yes.”

Actually, following the words the agent had left behind, they had tried to take the subway to a station as far from the center as possible, then take a nearby mountain path to get out.

But after various twists and turns, when they approached beyond the edge of Segwang Special City, beyond the mountain path…

A strange phenomenon occurred.

-Do not stare.

…When they came to their senses, the two people were being carried by the researcher, quite far from the mountain path.

All they remembered was a powerful signal of ‘nothing exists there.’

Existential terror.

The mind that had nearly been consumed by that place made their hearts beat frantically…

-I will change the destination.

Eventually, they had reorganized their route according to the researcher’s guidance and made their way here.

The entrance to the maintenance tracks.

Though it was relatively near Segwang Station, the place with only personnel tracks for an unmanned station was desolate.

They had already turned off all their smartphones, and the strange ‘march’ was circling around the downtown area rather than here, so they could catch their breath.

The researcher had said there was a possibility this place could regain its function as an entrance to the outside…

Though those difficult-to-understand words hadn’t come to pass, notes had even come from the agent.

However, now, quite some time had passed since they sent the last note, but no reply had come yet.

“Hmm.”

Ryu Jae-gwan watched as journalist Eun Ha-je, whose eyes still hadn’t lost their light, went in and out of the underground tracks, exploring this and that.

But soon she came out shrugging her shoulders.

Her eyes looked like she was trying to stay calm but seemed confused.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything special.”

Impatience crept up through his feet.

But at that moment.

…Thud.

Something suddenly appeared from the empty air at the entrance to the underground tracks.

Dress shoes, and long legs in a suit slipped out.

Supernaturally.

“…!!”

The lower body came out, then the upper body above the waist emerged. And the face that was revealed…

Face.

“Hello.”

“….”

“I’m glad everyone is safe.”

It was the agent.

…The person they thought might have died crushed under the pile of concrete and rebar was looking at the three people with a neat appearance and clean face, showing them a smile.

He was perfectly fine.

For a moment, joy and relief surged up together, but…

“There isn’t much time.”

The agent urgently grabbed their shoulders and pushed them into the tracks.

“You need to be in the safest place possible. Please go inside the tracks for now. That’s the subway’s territory.”

“Ah, understood.”

Ryu Jae-gwan entered the tracks and looked back.

He could hear the conversation between the researcher and the agent beside him.

The content seemed to hint at something, stirring up questions.

“Noru.”

“It’s fine. …I received help from ‘us’ too. I’m ready.”

What kind of preparation was he talking about?

What on earth had happened?

If he really had gone outside as the researcher said, was it okay for him to come back in?

How had he become so clean in just a few hours?

But before all those questions, the agent was already moving.

As if without a moment’s hesitation.

As if he had already finished all mental preparations.

“I’ll go now.”

The agent, who patted the rescue requester’s shoulder once more, was already over there.

The shadowy figure in a suit ran beyond the tracks.

He was already wearing a mask on his face that they’d never seen before. A mask with horns.

The words that person left behind remained in their ears.

“Before today ends, you’ll be able to get out safely.”

I ran forward.

Toward City Hall.

[It seems another grand finale is approaching. Friend, let’s go with a sprint.]

The surroundings were strangely quiet.

Now there were no disaster alert notifications around Segwang Station.

Only the sound of people’s marching echoed.

It seemed to be the point when the ‘mass’ I had seen when I fell from the train was being created…

‘Could that mass be born from the cocoon at Segwang City Hall?’

I raised my head and stared at City Hall.

…The cocoon was now swelling ridiculously, what is that thing abnormal abnormal strange strange appearance swelling biological disaster! biological disaster spreading

[Action!]

…!

[This is the alarm you requested. Friend! Noru said to notify immediately when he gazes at today’s destination. Now, our protagonist is ready to run again.]

‘…Thank you.’

[My pleasure!]

I immediately took out a candy from my pocket, unwrapped it, and put it in my mouth.

Nostalgia Candy.

My body and mind regained a clean and rational state.

It melted quickly, but that was fine.

‘I can just keep putting them in my mouth.’

My pocket was full of them.

This was what it meant to have the full cooperation of Baek Il-mong Director, Ho Yu-won.

-Noru. If you need anything, I’ll prepare whatever it is.

When I succeeded in persuading Ho Yu-won, I bought all the necessary items through Baek Il-mong Director’s capital power.

Items that could be used in Segwang Special City, since they weren’t borrowed from external entities.

Verified ones.

That didn’t mean I had read about others’ usage cases and effects in the Darkness Investigation Records.

It meant items I had personally used before.

In this strange and frightening world, everything I had chosen with utmost care and experienced the side effects and benefits of.

I now knew what was effective and could be used with minimal side effects in this situation.

I also had plenty of people around to ask.

-Yeah… The Nostalgia series… should work…

-Right. Mystical objects from the same origin easily influence each other. Even if one side is unilaterally more powerful. It should be fine to target that gap.

The items I had prepared rattled in my pocket. Instead of the inventory tattoo packed full with the potion maker, my actual pocket was stuffed full.

And from my waist, the sound of bells rang.

…It was Agent Choi’s equipment.

After the signing, Agent Choi crammed countless ‘tips’ into me as if he had never interfered with me, teaching me with headache-inducing persistence and thorough attribute guidance.

And at the end, he handed me this.

An agent item he possessed.

-It’s a bell I had stored in my dokkaebi cap. I didn’t pray to anyone for it, but it changed its nature on its own.

-If you wear this, you’ll encounter fewer evil things. Like slightly avoiding those people shouting ‘Believe in the Way’ on the street.

-Now, you have to wear it from the very beginning. Don’t save it and then suddenly die. Got it, Grape?

I moved forward steadily.

Whether it was the bell’s help or not, crowds and strange gazes passed by me.

But this bell alone wouldn’t be enough to reach the center of an extinction-level disaster.

So I took out the next measure.

The most crucial guide.

-We need Young-eun’s cooperation for the termination attempt.

-Tell me anything. No, I want to go in myself this time.

That wasn’t possible since everyone goes crazy when they hear the music box.

I desperately persuaded Young-eun while asking her colleague to help create one item.

The object that had illuminated my path and protected my companions several times when falling into large-scale darkness.

-Once more, please.

Mystical Candle Kit.

It was a product made by Joyful Research Institute, which had the same origin as this incident.

Honor, Healing, Meditation, Wound, Lies, Anger, Interference, Protection, Strike, Gaze, Confusion, Dream.

A ritual where you draw three of these word cards and create a candle reflecting those attributes.

The tendencies and desires of the three people making it are strongly reflected.

So there was no one more suitable than Go Young-eun.

A person with strong purpose toward termination, personnel of Segwang Special City.

Above all, a verified person.

-Should we do it right now?

This colleague had previously drawn ‘Honor’ at the Mansion of the Blind and ‘Confusion’ at Lucky Mart.

And now at this point, at the end of the journey, the card she drew was…

[Gaze]

Firm goal consciousness and will that seemed to pierce through a single point.

I gratefully accepted it.

But it didn’t end there. Originally, three people needed to draw these word cards.

And I knew the next suitable person.

To safely reach the rooftop, we also needed purposefulness that prioritized one’s own safety.

-What, what is it?

-There’s something I need you to do. Please.

Baek Sa-heon.

That Daydream Company colleague with an intense obsession with survival eventually came to the counseling room and drew cards together.

[Protection]

I recalled that the first card he had drawn was ‘Interference’.

I felt a strange emotion.

-…

Baek Sa-heon finished the work strangely quietly. He seemed to be observing me somehow, but that was the end of it.

And at this point, the last person was already decided.

The person who needed this candle.

Me.

“…”

I drew a card.

What was held in my hand, having previously drawn ‘Lies’ and ‘Protection’, was…

[Meditation]

…A mindset that seeks to reflect on the world, free from prejudice and suffering.

“….”

The three of us who had been colleagues at Daydream Company were the same members who had first created this candle.

However, we were combined with completely different keywords.

And thus it was completed.

[Staring, Protection, Meditation.]

An intense sense of purpose regarding termination.

The desire for self-protection.

And the actual user’s reflection.

With these three elements combined, the well-hardened candle was now in my hands as I ran toward City Hall.

“….”

However, I know.

※This toy was created to relieve

the fatigue of modern Earthlings.

For safety reasons, aliens, beings from other worlds, non-intelligent entities, gods, and all other

intelligent beings that are not human cannot use it. 🙂

…I had been unable to light this candle from the beginning.

When I held it, the flame would go out.

Now I understand.

‘I really didn’t have the qualifications to use it.’

Because I thought of myself as a being from another world, someone from another realm.

…Because I had a body that wasn’t human from the start.

‘And I didn’t even properly understand that.’

Since I didn’t know who I was or how I came to be here, I couldn’t discuss usage qualifications.

But now I can.

Because now I know.

‘I am….’

Not a being from another world right now.

As Agent Choi confirmed in the ritual, my blood and flesh were born in this place.

And I’m not a non-intelligent entity, nor a god, nor an intelligent being that isn’t human.

Because I’m living as a person.

Because when I explore the darkness, Dream Essence is extracted, and I define myself as Kim Sol-eum.

‘Therefore.’

By all the truths I know.

And despite all those truths.

If I can think of myself as human….

I was human.

I picked up the candle.

The prayer must hold this candlelight toward the target of meditation, revealing a protected form through the power of staring.

Divine protection is granted to the prayer holding the candle.

Explorer in the darkness.

The flame ignites.

The light of the burning candle is a warm yellow. A small light burning alone in the darkness.

I could move forward following the path that light illuminated.

Toward that destination.

I move my feet.

Now only what I stare at appears correctly. I don’t need to worry about the surrounding environment.

The candle burns.

With a clear mind, I began running again.

City Hall draws closer.

The light flickers as if about to go out, and the candle melts abnormally fast.

But it didn’t go out.

I ran down the narrow path toward my destination.

Following the path illuminated by the candle, the emergency staircase appears.

The stairs still bore the traces left by the melted counselor. However, I didn’t collapse and moved my steps, heading to the rooftop just as I had done with the counselor back then.

The small light burns.

There was no hesitation throughout that entire process.

I could still faintly hear the music box sound, but strangely enough, I was able to keep my wits about me.

And.

Creak.

Once again, I open the rooftop door.

The rooftop floor had already swollen up so much it didn’t look like itself, but I could only see the Dream Incubator.

I went straight forward.

My feet bumped into the surface of unfamiliar cocoons, or seemed to hit fallen panel debris, but I didn’t care.

I ran out and sat in front of the Dream Incubator, calmly beginning to disconnect it with one hand.

I didn’t let go of the hand holding the candle.

I had practiced for hours to do it quickly with one hand.

‘I can do this.’

I tear off the panel from the bottom.

Before ripping out the wires, I flip the switch down to cut the power, then separate the wires one by one.

‘Quickly, quickly.’

Thunk, thunk. With tough sounds, the heavy cables fall.

‘I can’t just rip them out…!’

I need to separate them so they can be reconnected. Cold sweat forms on my palms.

And the moment I separate the last wire.

“….”

The lights in the incubator go out.

“…Hah,”

I gasped for breath.

The real problem was just beginning.

…I had to put down the candle temporarily to safely take out the massive potion maker from my tattoo and install it.

So I had already planned this assuming I’d have to extinguish it anyway.

“Huff.”

I took a breath, quickly put a new Nostalgia Candy in my mouth while spitting out the existing smaller candy.

And as I put down the candle… I immediately stuck my hand into the tattoo.

The music box sound pierces into my head.

The cocoon churns, endure it. I can’t hear the bell sound. I grit my teeth and take out the potion maker, setting it down. Thud. I push the dream cultivator I had taken out to move it aside…

…

It won’t move easily.

‘No good.’

I pushed the cultivator to make even a little space. Pushed and shoved it to topple it sideways…

And then I realized.

[Oh my god.]

The bottom of the dream cultivator was connected to the cocoon.

No, it seemed like something that had penetrated through the bottom of the dream cultivator had become a cocoon, and the interior visible through the machine’s pierced bottom was contaminated white and covered with cocoon patches…

‘…It’s okay.’

This too was one of the scenarios I had anticipated. I swallowed and stopped pushing the half-toppled dream cultivator, no, that cocoon shell, and turned my head back to the potion maker,

Riiiiip.

…

I instinctively knew.

The cocoon had torn.

Perhaps, as the dream cultivator stopped… the dream essence solution that had been supplied from there was cut off.

The weakened cocoon seemed to have torn slightly from the force of my pushing.

Just a tiny bit.

A small gap.

“…”

I replaced the Nostalgia Candy with a new one. My heart was pounding. And I grabbed the candle to light it…

I stopped.

‘Is this actually good?’

Hadn’t it lost one of the sources of power for the extinction-class disaster to grow?

I immediately resumed work.

My head is clear.

‘No time to think.’

It’s time to make a bet. I left the cultivator alone and started pulling wires to connect them to the potion maker.

While doing so, I noticed with wariness.

The cocoon that had swollen up to the rooftop was deflating.

The silhouette at its base was being revealed.

“…!”

The silhouette that had devoured countless people.

The mass I had seen, from beneath it…

The end has come!

Paradise exists!

We have failed!

The candy had completely dissolved.

I put another one in my mouth and continued.

The end has come!

Paradise exists!

We have failed!

It’s getting closer.

I continued working. As the cocoon collapsed, beneath my feet humans were writhing—can they even be called human? What is this…

…

There’s something there.

The end has come!

Paradise exists!

We have failed!

I looked at the toppled dream cultivator again.

What was revealed as the cocoon that had swollen from its bottom center deflated was…

The silhouette of one person.

It was revealed through the gap in the torn cocoon.

Something holding a music box in its arms.

Its entire body connected to the mass, letting out bizarre screams. The music box sound rings out. It rings endlessly.

The end has come!

Paradise exists!

We have failed!

That body connected to the cocoon and flowing down…

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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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