Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 43
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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 043
“To think there was even an underground floor here…”
In front of the underground stairs, Go Young-eun’s face showed half fear and half anticipation.
Baek Sa-heon spoke sarcastically.
“Exactly. And the person next to me somehow knew there was an underground floor, and without saying why we need to go underground, just insisted we absolutely have to go to basement level 1.”
“If you don’t want to go, let’s split up here.”
“…”
Baek Sa-heon fell quiet.
After confirming the underground existed, it seemed he wouldn’t miss out on a ‘situation where Kim Sol-eum might have something to rely on.’
I briefly explained to Go Young-eun that I had ‘found a helpful space by examining the notice posted in front of the elevator with the help of special equipment.’
And finally, I took steps toward the underground stairs.
“…”
“…”
With each step, I realized something.
‘The style has changed.’
The mansion that had been brass-colored darkened to a bronze hue, and more avant-garde decorations appeared.
Somehow it felt like we were descending much deeper than when we came down from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor…
“…”
“…”
Eventually, an antique door appeared beside the stairs.
-Basement Level 1. That’s what it says.
We had arrived.
I carefully grasped one of the door handles of that door, and only after confirming that no mechanical sounds could be heard from outside did I open it.
And what was revealed was… not an exhibition hall or corridor.
Go Young-eun’s eyes widened.
“This place is…”
“It must be the visitor lounge.”
It was a kind of rest area.
The huge hall, decorated quite comfortably, had luxurious armchairs and vintage tables, and even a fireplace burning with bronze light in one corner.
“Is this what you read about at the elevator?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, since lobbies usually have places like this, is there an exit nearby around here…?”
“I’m not sure about that. But…”
“But?”
“According to the manual, there were several things that couldn’t be done in the exhibition hall, but I thought there would be fewer restrictions in a ‘rest area.'”
Right.
I came here hoping that some of the prohibited acts in this exhibition would be allowed.
“Things you can’t do… ah, like eating!”
“Yes.”
“…But we don’t really need to bring anything to eat right now.”
That would be true.
“To be precise, I came here to do a certain act that’s prohibited because it’s included in eating.”
“…What would that be?”
I took out the item I had prepared from my bag.
[Easy and Quick Candle Making Kit]
“The prohibition of fire.”
From now on, I’ll try making an escape item.
Go Young-eun swallowed.
In front of her, an impossibly competent colleague was doing something truly impossible.
“Is it like this?”
Kim Sol-eum took out a strange box from his document bag and was quickly reading through the enclosed instructions.
But that box looked extraordinary. Why on earth would he bring a candle making kit?
‘I’ve never seen a brand like that.’
The logo named ‘Pleasant Research Institute’ sparkled tackily with a smile mark, but the instructions Kim Sol-eum held were handwritten messily in dark red ink.
…It gave off a very strange feeling.
Like props you’d encounter in a ghost story somehow…
Then, Baek Sa-heon muttered.
“…An item?”
An item?
When I reflexively looked back at Kim Sol-eum, he answered quite kindly.
“Yes. It’s an object with supernatural abilities.”
…!
“Then, isn’t that darkness?”
“It would depend on the classification method, but… objects that have stable anomalous properties, are portable, and have no territory seem to be called items rather than darkness.”
“…”
How does Sol-eum know that…?
‘Aren’t we… the same new employees?’
Why is there such a difference in information?
And where on earth did you get that…?
For Go Young-eun, who had done well enough in company life to be in the top three among new employees, this was a situation she couldn’t help but be flustered by!
‘No, he even looks extremely skilled at handling it…?!’
Perhaps sensing her gaze, Kim Sol-eum looked back at her and spoke somewhat defensively.
“This is my first time making one too.”
It was the truth!
While he had read the instructions several times and thought about how to use it, this was Kim Sol-eum’s first time actually making one.
However, from the perspective of a colleague who had no way of knowing he had already conducted similar rituals about three times, it just made her feel mentally distant…
No, shouldn’t someone like that start a business instead of getting a job for society’s benefit?
Shouldn’t he not be tied to a horror movie-like company like this??
But soon, cold reality brought her back to her senses.
‘…It must be because of the Wish Potion.’
Because of a wish that couldn’t be given up.
Go Young-eun almost got slightly depressed with sympathy for each other’s situations, but soon pulled herself together.
Right now, let’s focus all our attention on escaping.
…Let’s also use all the rage toward the Team R Leader who abandoned her and ran as soon as the monster machine approached!
She just wanted to take back her past comment that there was no clique behavior in the team, and that there would be no interpersonal stress.
‘Die, Team Leader!’
But thinking that the Team R supervisors might really die miserably with their eyes, nose, and mouth all torn out felt a bit strange too…
“That’s done.”
“…!”
Go Young-eun, who had been about to fall into thought, quickly raised her gaze again at Kim Sol-eum’s voice.
Before she knew it, Kim Sol-eum had laid out a sheet of black paper on the floor and drawn a small picture with the enclosed crayon.
That was… hmm.
‘…A candle?’
Right. It looked like a candle…. To be precise, it was just a flat drawing depicting the outline of a candle.
But Kim Sol-eum paid no mind and pointed with one hand to the cards placed near the drawing for his colleague to see.
“You can see the cards.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Please draw one of them.”
“….”
“We’re determining the item’s attributes.”
Could I be getting used or dragged into something?
Go Young-eun hesitated for a moment but soon reached out her hand.
This was because Kim Sol-eum’s words and actions had never shown any unpleasant suspicion, and objectively looking at the situation, she judged that he had always treated her with good intentions.
‘Let’s try it.’
This person quite trusted the big data in her smart brain.
So she flipped over one of the cards scattered on the floor quite boldly.
On the front of the card was a spirited blue figure raising one hand up.
A white star sparkled like a jewel at the very top.
[Honor]
A faint smile spread across Kim Sol-eum’s face.
“…You drew well.”
Is that so?
‘I don’t particularly feel like I need honor right now….’
Anyway, it was fortunate that the person who read the instructions said it turned out well.
Soon Kim Sol-eum turned his head and called Baek Sa-heon with a voice that didn’t sound very enthusiastic.
“Draw a card.”
“….”
Baek Sa-heon seemed to be calculating the situation by thinking, but soon narrowed his eyes and reached out his hand.
On the front of the card he flipped was a crookedly smiling person’s mouth and red iron bars.
[Interference]
“It suits you.”
“What?”
Kim Sol-eum ignored him and continued with the creation!
“I’ll flip over all the remaining cards.”
“Yes, yes.”
I don’t know what it is, but please do so!
Go Young-eun watched as Kim Sol-eum quickly flipped the cards with neat hand movements.
There were ten remaining cards in total.
Confusion, Healing, Meditation, Wound, Lies, Dream, Anger, Protection, Strike, Gaze…
‘What on earth is this?’
He made them draw cards like doing tarot reading, then why reveal them all at the end?
She realized after seeing Kim Sol-eum’s next action.
The last card was to directly choose what you wanted.
[Lies]
Kim Sol-eum, who picked out that card with a black heart and golden gear drawn next to it, burned all three cards they had drawn with his lighter.
The flames sparked in various colors as the cards turned into glittering ash.
“…!”
Then he carefully collected the ash from those cards and applied it like paint inside the crayon candle outline he had made, then folded the paper.
“Now it just needs to harden for about 30 minutes.”
Kim Sol-eum lifted the paper he had placed on the floor with a faint smile, folded it, and put it in his business suit’s front pocket.
“What you just made….”
“This candle will help us get out of here.”
“…!”
“I was thinking of repeating it several times if it didn’t work, but the keywords came out pretty well in one try….”
Creeeeeeeeeeeeak
“….”
“….”
The three people turned their heads in unison.
From over there, a massive shadow revealed itself under the bronze light.
Eight straight lines resembling spider legs.
And….
Creeak
The mechanical eye from which gas lamp light leaked out.
“….”
“….”
“Run!”
The three immediately began sprinting at full speed in the opposite direction.
I knew it.
That machines could appear even in rest areas.
Still, I had assumed they would patrol more loosely than in the exhibition halls, so I had decided to accept a certain degree of risk….
‘There was no place to hide like ventilation ducts there, so it couldn’t be helped, but still, of all times!’
I gritted my teeth and crossed the corridor.
Since we were already detected, it would probably follow us even if we hid in some other ventilation duct.
Because it’s a machine with that level of performance!
“Should we go straight?!”
“For now!”
Going straight would lead to the main exhibition hall.
We could only hope to go there and find some higher priority problem situation to draw aggro….
‘After coming down underground, who knows how dangerous the exhibition has become…!’
That’s when it happened.
Swoosh.
“…!”
Baek Sa-heon tried to grab my business suit.
‘What now, you crazy bastard!’
He shouted.
“That item! The candle! Let’s offer the candle we made! That’s valuable, right!”
I swatted his hand away and yelled.
“No, you idiot!”
“What?!”
“Look at the exhibition theme!”
“Art!!”
“…!”
“Among them, life forms, civilization, history!!”
I screamed.
“What does this item have to do with any of that for them to accept it as payment!”
If the item had been valuable in the first place, our Company Employees would have offered their own equipment first and wouldn’t have had their eyes gouged out!
Besides, the candle isn’t even finished yet!
However, Baek Sa-heon reached out again trying to snatch my bag, and Go Young-eun let out an exasperated sigh.
“Let’s at least try! We’re going to die like this!”
“Ah! Excuse me! Stop it and run…”
I turned my head.
Right now, our feet…
Had crossed the threshold of the Main Exhibition Hall.
“…”
I caught my breath and looked up.
S t a r l i g h t s p a r k l e d i n a l l d i r e c t i o n s
N o w a i t a r e t h o s e g e m s t o n e s ? C o u n t l e s s p a i r s o f g l e a m i n g s a m e – c o l o r e d c i r c l e s
coveredthesquarewallscompletelystaring at me human gazes…
The eyes the Guide Machine had plucked out.
“Huh.”
I stopped walking and lowered my head. Next to me, I could hear Baek Sa-heon hitting his one remaining eye.
My shaken mind slowly… calmed down…
-Ah. They’ve arranged them like stars in the universe. ‘Shining Gazes’. Quite conventional but a popular naming choice! They must have been mindful of those who provided the artwork materials.
“…”
Three sides of the massive black exhibition hall were completely filled with eyeballs, not a single gap visible.
The only entrance was the door we had just come through.
And through that entrance, the Guide Machine was continuously approaching…
We were trapped.
-I’m curious about Noru’s choice! Now it’s a dead end. A place to escape… hmm, there doesn’t seem to be any. Indeed!
Friend
It… knows that too.
‘If it were just me alone.’
That I could escape safely at any time.
Brown would gladly use the ability it calls ‘Turn Off Lights’ on me, making my presence disappear.
Then I could carefully slip out of here while the other party members drew aggro and had their eyes and ears extracted.
-Then how about having that person named Baek Sa-heon pay the fee? His life doesn’t have much time left anyway!
Right. Since I successfully made the candle that required 3 people, Baek Sa-heon is no longer needed.
‘I only brought him along because I was worried about mental issues.’
Honestly, wouldn’t it be no big deal if that bastard died? No, it might actually help society if he died.
In the meantime, if we’re lucky, Go Young-eun might be able to escape too…
…Huh?
Wait a minute.
“Let’s split up! So if even one person gets out…”
“Sanyang!”
“Yes?”
“You are safe.”
“…?!”
“Didn’t you have your fee collected recently? There should still be time left until the next term.”
“Ah!!”
Go Young-eun, who had her ear extracted relatively recently, must still have ‘usage time’ remaining!
Hope flashed in Go Young-eun’s eyes.
“Then I’ll go and try to interfere…”
Creeeeeeeeak
“…”
“…”
It came in.
The Guide Machine.
Whirrrr.
In the Bronze Candlelight, I saw that machine head-on for the first time.
Mercilessly sharp and precise.
As if based on a spider with iron added as flesh, it had a bizarrely connected head-chest, with an abdomen and lower body below.
But it strangely resembled a bipedal intelligent being, touching the uncanny valley. Its creaking bizarre movements made one feel eerie.
Sharp needle-like legs moving joints at will.
And from its head, eight gas lamps glowed yellow, piercing through the pale shadows.
“…”
Go Young-eun, who had been approaching, froze in place.
The trauma from having her ear torn off just before seemed to surge through her brain.
It was understandable.
Creeeeak.
The machine passed right by Go Young-eun.
‘As expected.’
Then what the machine was chasing was….
Me and Baek Sa-heon.
Kiiiiiiiiik.
I pondered very briefly.
When attention was focused on Baek Sa-heon, I could quickly erase my presence and escape.
It would be difficult when the machine was only focusing on me, but since there were still two targets, wouldn’t Brown’s ability work?
-Oh, should I use it now?
And I decided.
‘No.’
Instead, I pushed Baek Sa-heon to the side.
“…!”
“Run.”
Baek Sa-heon was already missing one eye.
In other words, he knew that he might have something beyond just an eye extracted together.
‘I don’t know what level of erratic behavior he might show.’
Even if I made him have his ear ‘collected’ instead, the rejection reaction of someone who had already experienced having an eye extracted would be more intense.
I couldn’t even gauge how extreme and crazy his actions might be.
It was better to let him escape instead.
“I said run.”
Baek Sa-heon hesitated for a moment.
But soon he backed away from the machine, and when the machine stood in front of me, he ran toward the door at full speed and disappeared.
At the same time, Go Young-eun saw my eye signal, squeezed her eyes shut, and ran out the door.
“….”
So now.
-Do you have a question for the Guide? Noru.
I raised my head.
A machine that looked like a half-mosaic combination of a spider and a woman was facing me, illuminated by gas lamp light.
It had a grotesque and spine-chilling appearance.
The Guide Machine eventually raised its eight legs and arm needles attached all around and began waving them at me.
I politely bowed my head.
“Good day. I just entered.”
I know it won’t work.
Sure enough, the machine made an incomprehensible noise and wiggled the joint of one giant needle.
-It says that since 1 hour and 54 minutes have passed since entry, additional fees will be settled.
I took a deep breath.
“Wait a moment. Before paying the fee, may I ask a question first?”
-Of course that’s fine!
“By any chance, are Guest Room reservations handled at the Front Desk? …If you agree with my question, please nod once, and if you don’t agree, please shake your head sideways.”
….
Nod.
“Thank you for the guidance. Then….”
I held back a sigh and opened my mouth.
I had asked the previous question to ask this.
The key question for escape.
‘These machines only remember information about their own area, so they don’t know which floor the entrance is on.’
Probably even if I asked about the location of the Front Desk, it wouldn’t know.
But still.
If I changed it to information about the floor it’s on, wouldn’t I be able to hear an answer?
Like this.
“Guests who finished viewing and wanted to go home, did they go to a lower floor from this Basement Level 1?”
….
“Or did they go to an upper floor?”
Nod.
“They went to an upper floor. Thank you.”
Right.
By asking appropriate questions to each Guide Machine encountered on each floor like this, I could eventually narrow down the location of the entrance….
If my eyes, nose, mouth, and limbs weren’t all plucked out before then.
‘If it’s above Basement Level 1… it’s on the Ground Floor.’
Just finding that out was a great achievement. The Ground Floor only had 7 floors, and it was somewhere within that.
‘Good conditions.’
But the joy disappeared like a candle flame.
Because the unavoidable time was now approaching.
Kiiiiiiik.
-Now it says it will collect the fee.
Fee collection.
“….”
Thinking coldly, there wasn’t a big problem.
‘Since they’ll stick a rental item in my eye socket instead, I’ll have vision until I escape from this darkness.’
And I knew this world well. I already knew several methods for restoring lost body parts, and I was confident I could use them more easily than others….
That’s also why I was standing in this place.
‘It’s a situation I calculated and accepted.’
The problem was… this insane feeling of rejection!
Who could accept this meekly and nonchalantly?
Having both eyes extracted raw by a monster!
Even in this space where other people’s plucked eyes were displayed all around!
Cold sweat dripped down my chin.
‘Still, I have to confirm it.’
I gritted my teeth.
Even if my eyes were plucked out, it probably wouldn’t hurt.
‘If I can’t endure even under these conditions, I’ll have to give up on surviving here.’
Really, there couldn’t be better conditions than now. To confirm whether I could endure the injuries of ghost stories with my coward’s heart.
For recoverable damage, I needed the experience of enduring it once to build resistance.
Still, my clenched hands trembled.
‘Damn it…’
Whirrrr.
A massive needle made of thin, sharp metal like spider legs approached before my eyes.
I held my breath.
Swoosh.
The needle dug into my eye area…
Screeeeech.
“…”
I only rolled my eyes to look to the side.
From beyond the Darkness, a huge, bizarre form resembling a spider was approaching…
Screeeeeeech, creeeeeeeak.
It was another Guide Machine.
“…”
What is this.
‘There must be programmed routes for the machines.’
There shouldn’t be cases where routes overlap… right?
Sure enough. The machine that was trying to extract my eye seemed to malfunction briefly… then soon moved away from me and started relocating.
As if it was automatically adjusting its route.
Creeeeeeeak…
“…”
No sigh of relief came.
Because the newly arrived machine would extract my eyeball.
I just held my breath and stared at the newly appeared machine.
The Guide Machine raised its spider leg-like appendages right up to my nose.
And then…
“Phew.”
…?!
“Are you okay, Noru?”
The spider form crumbled away, revealing a human wearing a Badger Mask.
“…Team Leader!”
Park Min-seong, who had revealed himself, grinned with a face drenched in cold sweat.
“Whew… that was close!”
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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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