Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 372

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even If You Fall Into Ghost Stories, You Still Have to Go to Work — Episode 372
A dark and silent alley in the city.
A passerby emerged from behind a utility pole, casting a long shadow through the gap.
“Ugh!”
Thud. The man who’d struck the pole lifted his head.
“Damn it…!”
The reek of alcohol poured from his mouth.
Blind drunk—the sort you’d instinctively avoid on the street. His bleary eyes muttered curses to himself.
“Money, money… Damn it, damn it, this damn….”
Smack, smack! He kicked at the utility pole.
Desperate to vent his fury on someone, anyone, weaker than himself.
Five hundred million won.
The debt he’d run up trying to cover gambling losses with cryptocurrency had spiraled beyond first and second-tier credit institutions straight into loan sharks.
Yet even as he posted things online like “How warm is the Han River these days?” and drank himself numb with despair….
Some part of his mind still couldn’t fully grasp the seriousness of it all.
Because none of it felt real.
Me? With an astronomical debt like that?
Pay it back?
Everything’s ruined?
‘There’s got to be a way, right?’
“This… no, there’s no way this is… ugh,”
In the moment when bloated ego mixed with despair and baseless hope fired miserably together.
A glint.
A dull light stabbed his eyes.
“Huh…?”
The drunk squinted.
Now he saw it—the utility pole’s light was reflecting off something stuck to his body.
It was….
“A flyer?”
A flyer.
What people called a junk ad—coated paper with a gaudy design.
Now hiring
Urgent!
…Major Corporation
Black text on a yellow background.
Parts of the lettering were missing where the paper had torn, but the context was unmistakable.
A job recruitment ad.
And in a money-starved mind, two massive words stamped themselves hard.
Job.
…Major corporation.
“…That’s insane. Why would a major corporation… ugh, huh? Why hand these out, huh? Why hand out a flyer,”
Even an alcohol-soaked brain could tell something was off.
The drunk saw the final lines of the cheap flyer—”Insane benefits” and “Start work now!”—and almost punched the pole again with fresh anger….
Then he stumbled.
“Whoa,”
His balance suddenly gave way and he fell hard.
His flailing hands clenched the flyer tight.
Crumple—the flyer twisted in his grip….
The back of the paper came into view.
“…?”
There, scrawled in black marker, was more writing.
Immediate payment upon hiring!
Cash: 500,000 won
Five hundred thousand won.
“…….”
Not fifty thousand. Not five million. Five hundred thousand!
Oddly… realistic-sized money.
The sort of amount you could actually believe someone would pay.
Money you could blow on entertainment—genuinely high-denomination cash.
That grabbed his attention.
More than that….
‘One big score, maybe…?’
Capital to invest with.
Hope exploded in his skull like fireworks.
‘Work hard for a month, and if I get it… if gambling or crypto actually pays off….’
This time for sure!
The drunk’s mind swelled with dreams of “recouping his losses,” and he swallowed hard.
Even if it was illegal or dangerous, wasn’t it worth trying?
And didn’t everyone probably think the same thing before calling? Was there still an opening?
Now desperation clawed at him.
“Where….”
Where do I call?
He scanned the flyer again, and now he noticed the perforated strips along the bottom, pre-cut for tearing off.
Where people usually wrote phone numbers.
070939312535
This is not a phone number
In a rush of anger, the drunk tore one off anyway.
Rriiiiip.
Then he pulled out his phone and punched in that “major corporation hiring” number.
070, 9393….
Brrrrr… click.
“Hello? You said you’re hiring, right? I mean, you’re hiring, right? Saw the flyer—500,000 won, yes, it’s real, right? Cash?”
…….
“…What I’m doing? I’m calling because I want to work. Right now? You’re asking if I can start right now? Yes, yes. I can start now. Where do I go, ugh, where should I—”
“Check the number again?”
“What do you mean… huh?”
…….
“Why is the number one digit longer, uh, that’s wrong, uh, uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh”
…….
“Come here.”
Click.
…….
…….
Thud.
The phone dropped to the dark alley floor.
The number you have dialed does not exist. Please check and try again—
Ding.
Silence fell with the end of the call.
The phone screen on the ground went dark.
…….
Now the alley was empty.
In that place where only the utility pole’s light remained, the flyer’s coating reflected again.
Hiring complete
Visible even where the paper was crumpled and hidden.
Baekillmong Corporation
Nam Hae Branch Office

* * *
“Kim Sol-eum.”
“…….”
“Kim Sol-eum!”
Ah.
I jerked my head up.
In the bright office, my boss was tapping my monitor with his finger.
“Your condition not good lately?”
And out came that go-to workplace question…!
I reflexively summoned a professional smile and answered.
“Sorry, I was a bit slow to respond, wasn’t I?”
“No, I’m not looking for an apology….”
I wasn’t sincere about it anyway.
“…I’m asking because I’m worried. You’re just staring at a blank monitor during your break.”
“…Haha.”
Oh, is that what this was about….
I laughed awkwardly and tore my eyes from the screen.
‘Maybe I’m just drowsy from the heat?’
I did seem a bit out of it.
Five minutes before lunch break ended.
The office with its air conditioning was fairly quiet. Most of the staff had already returned to their desks.
Like my boss here.
“Your numbers are good, so why are you so tense even during lunch?”
Turns out he was interpreting things quite positively.
“Look, find something fun to do. I mean, didn’t you use to watch something? That….”
……Wait.
Hold on….
“Ghost stories.”
“…….”
The moment I heard that word.
A strange chill ran down my spine.
Something between trauma and longing. An odd sensation.
An abnormal feeling.
I….
“Yes.”
I managed to answer.
“Thanks for that. Haha, maybe I really did catch air conditioning sickness… my head’s been a bit fuzzy when I relax.”
“Right, right. Look after yourself and work hard.”
“Yes.”
Relax.
Being too tense is awkward.
Not that it matters if I look awkward, but there’s no reason to stay wound up like this….
“Huh?”
My boss cast his gaze past me.
Toward where my bag was.
“Oh, you carry one of those too? It’s cute with all that fluffy fur.”
“…Yes?”
“No, I mean the doll on your bag. A rabbit, right?”
“…!”
I spun around in shock.
At the place where my bag sat….
“Oh wait, now that I look closer, it’s a dog.”
A trendy white dog character was hanging there.
……Not a pink rabbit.
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Spark.
An electric tingle spread through my chest.
Relief. Or perhaps… deflation.
“Did your girlfriend give it to you?”
“No.”
“What, no girlfriend?”
“…Yes.”
“…….”
“…….”
“Sorry about that….”
“No, it’s fine….”
My boss offered some generic words of blessing and disappeared.
Phew.
I sighed and leaned back.
That conversation had brought back a certain chat message….
-Hey Kim Sol-eum blind date?
-You should say yes to thisㅋㅋ
-Don’t tell me you got girlfriend phobia from “that incident”?ㅋㅋㅋ
“…Ha.”
-Forget it
I tossed my phone onto the desk.
Then I looked at the ceiling where the air conditioning vents were, glanced briefly out the blinds at the summer sun, and turned back to my desktop screen.
July 7th.
A oddly familiar date sat there.
And I quickly realized why it felt familiar.
The day I’d visited the Pop-up Store.
And at the same time….
The day I came home.
‘Oh.’
Right.
A full year had passed.
Since I came back from that Pop-up Store.
In other words… since the day I finally made it home.
I’d slipped back into my old life with remarkable speed.
My life without ghost stories.
Going to work, leaving work, seeing family on days off.
The routine had changed from school to job over the decades, but that unchanging pattern of daily life reasserted its calm rhythm once more.
The human capacity for complacency and resilience worked surprisingly well.
Sometimes, it felt like a dream that I’d been sucked into another world, into ghost stories.
Sleeping peacefully after returning to my family home, laughing with friends and acquaintances, coming back without a care—with each of these, the feeling faded further.
‘…It feels like a lie.’
That I ever went to the world of .
That I worked for a shady pharmaceutical company granting wishes and a supernatural government agency.
That I actually met real people from that world.
Yet….
“…….”
Sometimes, I’d flinch.
-Channel lock!
When I heard that catchphrase on a TV talk show.
When the subway announcement crackled, when I filled a bathtub with water, when I heard the logo song at a big-box mart, when I saw an ad for a counseling program, and….
When I happened upon .
[The horrifying truth about the “cure-all medicine” developed by 7 researchers from a famous pharmaceutical company / Qterw-B-486]
“…….”
Friday night, after work.
I’d turned on my phone in bed for a moment and quickly scrolled past that WiTube video that appeared on my algorithm feed.
Because a fading sense of reality had sent a tingle up my spine.
‘Hmph.’
Of course that wasn’t the only reason.
I couldn’t simply consume it as interesting entertainment anymore.
When reading about the fates of people I’d actually met, how could I possibly feel otherwise but “unable to bear it”?
I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy the way I used to.
At the same time, imagining myself going back to enjoying it as a “Wiki” reader felt… wrong.
It felt like I shouldn’t.
“…….”
And then thoughts spiraled endlessly.
If the world of that I visited still existed.
Was it still connected to this world right now?
How much time had passed there since I left?
How were they all….
“Stop.”
…Stop thinking about it.
There was no point dwelling on it.
“There’s no way to find out anyway.”
The Wiki won’t tell me that.
After I fell into that world, events unfolded differently from the Wiki like a butterfly effect. But….
‘…What if that’s reflected in the Wiki too?’
Given how the Wiki updates in real time, wouldn’t I be clueless about what’s happening right now?
If I checked right now….
“…….”
No.
Don’t let impulse and compulsion drag you around.
You just got home. Don’t create new problems for yourself.
‘It’s just because it’s late at night.’
Besides, worries and thoughts that come in the dead of night usually vanish by morning.
“Don’t do this on a weekend night, and for god’s sake, just sleep….”
Fortunately, that worked.
I left the living room light on, threw my phone onto the nightstand, and collapsed into bed.
And fell asleep like that.
And then….
My eyes snapped open.
“…!!”
A dark, vast interior space.
I’m standing there. In a place with the lights off after closing….
The basement of a Department Store.
Whoooosh—
Sportswear, designer brands, character merchandise. The middle of that Department Store basement would’ve looked modern and atmospheric with the lights on, but….
There was empty space.
Whoooosh—
A space where the interior had been demolished, concrete exposed.
Like everything had been torn out, desolate as a vacant storefront with a lease inquiry posted….
But one thing remained.
A barely-hanging sign at the entrance.
[Apocalypse Prophecy : Darkness Investigation Records]
“…….”
That’s right.
I’m standing in that exact spot—where the Pop-up Store had opened and been demolished.
But I’m not panicking.
“It’s a dream.”
Yes. This is a nightmare.
And it was a situation I’d already experienced several times.
For a while now, I’ve been having dreams where I wander through the demolished basement space of the Department Store where the Pop-up Store had been….
I screamed the first time. But from the second time on, it was fine.
Because I knew it was a dream.
“It doesn’t actually exist.”
Right.
“There’s already another pop-up running in this space.”
I’d even visited this Department Store basement again. That space, packed with idol fan merchandise, had no trace of the Darkness Investigation Records.
“So a space like this doesn’t exist in reality.”
It’s all my imagination.
Just a place my subconscious created.
I knew that.
But….
“…….”
Whirrrrrr…
The moment it goes quiet.
I hear it.
Whirrrrrr…
From inside that demolished pop-up space,
From somewhere unseen,
A sound.
Whirrrrrr…
Something operating.
A rolling sound.
The sound of something I’d actually done before.
Specifically….
A prize roulette.
Whirrrrrr…
Click.
Someone’s spinning the roulette.
From one dark corner, from a place I can’t see, comes the sound.
Only sound reaches me.
Whirrrrrr…
Click.
No!
‘I imagined it.’
I imagined it myself….
I spun that roulette, failed the Daydream New Employee Orientation, and developed trauma from it—that much is certain.
It’s fine during the day, but when I sleep, my subconscious does this. I can rationalize it away like this because I’m lucid dreaming, so isn’t that lucky? I can deduce my way out of it.
So I can relax.
This is definitely just a dream my mind created!
But….
Whirrrrrr…
Click.
“…….”
…What if it’s not imagination?
Click.
My head swells between fear and curiosity like it might burst.
‘No.’
I suck in breath.
And,
in the end,
unable to resist, I turn my head,
and stare,
into that darkness beyond the signage…….
…….
BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP!!
Thud. I tumbled out from under the bed.
“…Gasp!!”
Damn.
I stretched my arm out and shut off the phone alarm that was blaring loudly.
My entire body was drenched in cold sweat.
“Ha….”
I could’ve left my alarm off on the weekend, but I stupidly left it on….
Yet because of that, I’d woken up.
“I’m losing it.”
I sighed and sat up on the bed.
Fortunately, my sense of reality returned quickly.
This wasn’t the desolate demolished space—it was my rented room’s bedroom with sunlight streaming in.
“……Phew.”
…The nightmares seem to be getting worse.
‘I didn’t hear any roulette sounds before.’
This was the first time.
There wasn’t really any experience story you’d find online titled “(true) I had a scary dream” that matched this….
And given that I’d barely escaped that ghost story in the dream, the plausibility was solid.
“Hah….”
I lowered my head and looked at my phone screen where the alarm had stopped.
The thing that could connect me to the internet… my phone.
“…….”
-Usually, worries and thoughts that come in the dead of night vanish by morning anyway.
It usually worked.
But not today.
So….
‘Maybe it’s better to face it head-on right now.’
I swallowed and swiped on my phone.
I opened the browser, and for the first time in ages, typed a familiar keyword into the search bar.
Darkness Investigation Records.
The search results unfolded, and a website link appeared at the top.
My heart pounded.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them, and….
[Apocalypse Prophecy : Darkness Investigation Records]
I clicked the page link.
Soon the familiar website homepage filled with text appeared…….
…….
“Huh?”
I blinked.
—
The apocalypse has come.
Thank you very much
—
That was all there was.
On a blank white page, only two sentences sat without any decoration.
“…….”
Tap tap—I clicked around the page, but it didn’t respond.
‘Did the site itself disappear…?’
Leaving only this page?
‘Wait… wait a minute.’
-What is this?
-sold the site and runnㅋㅋㅋ
-?????
-Everyone, please calm down. This is certainly a disappointing situation, but let’s wait a moment. If such an unconscionable decision was made, we cannot forgive it.
└This otaku is hilarious when he talks like he’s noble
-Please let it be a lie my way to school is all dopamineㅋㅋ
People who’d been reading the Wiki were screaming in makeshift communities and social media they’d found to evacuate to.
-Did anyone back up the site?
-ahㅋㅋ it’s not like copyright applies so of course there’s backupsㅋㅋ please come outㅋ
What was this?
‘…Did it disappear the moment I clicked it?’
No, I could chalk it up to self-consciousness, but an eerie feeling kept crawling up my spine.
A sense of unease.
-The phrasing is ominous though I believe it’s an event?
└Is it? That dodgy popup store seemed sketchy from the start they sold the site ㅋㅋ
The phrasing.
I suddenly went back to the page.
—
The apocalypse has come.
Thank you very much
—
Now that I thought about it.
‘…Why doesn’t the second sentence have a period?’
A typo?
But the sense of unease kept nagging at me, clinging to my spine.
Like… when exploring the ‘Darkness’.
When you’d overlooked something in a ghost story and your survival instinct’s light had flickered—that sensation came back to life.
“…….”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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