Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 46

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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 046

2nd Floor.

Go Young-eun now skillfully asked the Guide Machine a question.

“The guests who finished viewing and went home, did they go to the lower floors from this ground 2nd Floor?”

Nod.

“…!”

It’s over.

With this, we’ve practically derived the answer sheet.

‘If the exit is on the ground floors, and it’s below the 2nd Floor….’

Only the First Floor remains.

“Then, now we just need to go to the First Floor and ask about the entrance…!”

“Let’s go quickly!”

“Yes!”

Baek Sa-heon and Go Young-eun agreed for the first time.

‘To think the entrance was really on the First Floor like modern common sense would suggest. What a coincidence that it worked out this way.’

I felt slightly deflated at the sense of having taken a long detour, but greater anticipation made me quicken my pace as well.

Now we just need to find out about the entrance and tell the Supervisors waiting on the Terrace, and everything will be ready.

-Oh my, is your exhibition viewing over? How disappointing. It seems like you haven’t properly toured even five halls yet….

Hehe. If we look around more, your friend’s eyes, nose, and mouth might disappear.

You might faint before that happens too!

‘Even now, three people are barely holding on by sticking together with lights.’

I patted the pocket containing Brown soothingly, then moved my feet.

Go Young-eun’s steps became energetic as she held the candle.

That momentum didn’t shrink even when we met the Guide Machine on the First Floor. It seems her desire to get out quickly overwhelmed all fear.

“Hello!”

This time too, the machine responded politely under the candle’s influence, and Go Young-eun took a deep breath before making her request vigorously.

“Please guide us to the entrance!”

However.

….

Silence.

The machine stands without moving at all.

“…?”

There’s no response.

“N-no way.”

Go Young-eun looked at the candlelight with a pale face. She seemed worried that perhaps the candle wasn’t working.

The candle was shining perfectly fine.

After checking several more times, Go Young-eun spoke again with a trembling voice.

“Please… guide us to the entrance.”

Silence again.

“….”

“….”

The atmosphere froze coldly.

‘Damn.’

I opened my mouth.

“…Sanyang.”

“Y-yes….”

“Ask like this.”

I said a familiar sentence, and as Go Young-eun pronounced it following along, her eyes went dead black.

“The guests who finished viewing and went home, did they go… downward from this ground First Floor? If correct, please nod.”

Nod.

“…!!”

The Guide Machine’s testimony contradicted itself.

“Why….”

Go Young-eun swallowed.

“Clearly, the Basement Level 1 Guide Machine said people going out went up…!”

“That’s right.”

My spine feels chilled.

‘What on earth is going on?’

This doesn’t add up.

Underground says go up, ground level says go down.

Even if there were two or more entrances nearby, this doesn’t make sense. The signals are completely contradictory.

‘No wonder there were too few Survivors in the Darkness Investigation Records for an exit that was obviously on the First Floor.’

“Instead of wasting time saying the same useless things, let’s go underground and ask directly? We still have candle left, so let’s not waste it.”

“…Ah.”

At Baek Sa-heon’s urging, we moved our steps to find the stairs going underground.

That path going down to the underground somehow felt long and heavy….

And the result was.

Nod.

“Go up? Ha….”

The exact same response I had asked about came back.

According to the Guide Machine, the Visitors who finished viewing at Basement Level 1 definitely went upward.

“….”

“….”

Now even Baek Sa-heon fell silent.

It was time for everyone’s heads to get complicated.

“Um.”

Go Young-eun hung her head low.

“Actually… there’s no such thing as an exit, is there.”

“…!”

“It’s just a place that deceives and torments people, giving false hope to make it more painful… there are many ghost stories like that, aren’t there.”

That’s right.

But not this time.

“There’s definitely an exit.”

This wasn’t something I was saying because I had read the Darkness Investigation Records.

“Do you remember? Before entering here, didn’t you receive a Simple Manual?”

Even though the information was corrupted and became an Exhibition Invitation.

“Since we succeeded in escaping through the entrance, a survival record must have been created, and we got registered with Darkness Daydream Corporation.”

“Ah…!”

Go Young-eun raised her head.

“That’s right. You’re correct.”

Then she took a deep breath and continued speaking with a much clearer voice.

“Phew! I’m sorry. At times like this, I shouldn’t get caught up in emotions for no reason. There must be a correct answer.”

“Yes.”

Though it seems contradictory, there must be something we haven’t thought of…

I was lost in thought when it happened.

“Hey.”

Baek Sa-heon looked at me with a strange expression and asked.

“Your doll.”

“Brown?”

“Yeah. What does Brown… say?”

Friend

Of course, he’s not asking because he thinks Brown actually talks, but because he thinks I’m a lunatic who talks to dolls…

‘I understand he wants to hear some unconventional ideas.’

I deliberately stared at Baek Sa-heon before speaking.

“How can a doll talk?”

“…”

“Think before you speak.”

Baek Sa-heon clenched his fist!

“But the idea of throwing out suggestions itself isn’t a bad thought.”

“…!”

“Sanyang, do you have any thoughts that come to mind?”

“Ah, um…”

“As positively as possible. Assuming there’s definitely an exit nearby.”

“Then… it’s a secret space.”

Go Young-eun frowned.

“Like how there’s an attic above the top floor, maybe there’s another space between underground and above ground? Like a parking garage…”

I’ve never seen any records of that kind of secret space in this exhibition hall.

Of course, it’s possible. There’s definitely a difference between experiencing something directly and reading about it in text.

Sometimes you know something but can’t match it up.

‘I didn’t know the window was actually a door leading to the terrace either.’

But… the entrance should be in a more obvious location.

‘Conceptually speaking, it would be strange for the official entrance to be in a secret space.’

So the entrance is there normally, but we just haven’t noticed it.

Prejudice, way of thinking, cultural factors…

“…!”

Wait a moment.

“No, Noru?”

I jumped up from my seat.

I looked down at Baek Sa-heon, who was looking at me with surprised eyes, and Go Young-eun, who couldn’t turn around because of the candlelight effect.

“Do you have enough stamina left to go up and down the stairs a few more times?”

“What?”

“I, I do have some left.”

“Then let’s move.”

“Huh?”

I got up from my seat.

“We need to go up to the top floor.”

“…??”

Back to the stairs again.

“…We just go up, right?”

“Yes.”

I started walking.

But instead of mindlessly climbing until the next floor appears, I count.

One floor.

Two floors.

Three floors…

Until no more stairs appear at all.

“Huff.”

“Pant.”

I raised my head.

“This is the end.”

We had climbed to the very top floor of this massive mansion.

On the way up, we encountered the Guide Machine about three times, and each time my colleagues asked the machine questions, but the results were the same.

They’re probably thinking this:

‘It keeps telling us to go down, so why did we come up?’

The answer to that question lay in this top floor itself.

“Sanyang. How many floors do you think we climbed?”

“Huh? Well… Huh?”

“…”

“Wait a moment. If my count wasn’t wrong…”

“6th floor.”

Baek Sa-heon said.

“This isn’t the 7th floor, it’s the 6th floor!”

That’s right.

“You said this mansion goes up to the 7th floor!”

-Also, this historic grand mansion is said to consist of 7 above-ground floors and 7221 underground floors.

This time it contradicts Brown’s explanation.

But since Brown is a ‘Good Friend,’ it doesn’t lie.

So… if everything is true.

“…”

I see, that’s how it is.

“Did you deliberately lie about it being 7 floors…”

“Sanyang, do you know this?”

“Hey!”

There are many such ghost stories.

A situation where the correct answer can be logically derived for some people, but for others, the answer doesn’t come out due to irrationality.

Due to cultural and environmental differences.

Ghost stories that enjoy the creepiness that comes from that.

It’s different in type, but like that previous darkness where I found the Pierrot drawing because I knew the difference between a Pierrot and a Clown.

Environmental knowledge.

“The way of counting building floors differs depending on the cultural region.”

“…Huh?”

“In the United States, and in East Asian countries including Korea where we live, floors start from the 1st floor.”

However.

“But other cultural regions use a somewhat different system.”

The reason why the stairs going down from the ground 1st floor to basement level 1 felt particularly long.

It wasn’t just my imagination.

“They start from the 0th floor.”

“…!”

The floor also called the Ground Floor.

“This mansion’s ground level is probably made up of 7 floors. …From the 0th floor to the 6th floor.”

I looked down below the stairs.

“We just need to go to the 1st floor now and ask them to show us the way to the 0th floor.”

And that’s what we did.

-Please guide us to the path leading to the 0th floor.

Following the path that the Guide Machine on the 1st floor kindly led us along, surprisingly, on the opposite side of the Main Exhibition Hall on the 1st floor, we can see a different type of staircase from before.

A massive Spiral Double Staircase.

And if you walk down either side of that spiral… of course, you could go to the basement level 1 exhibition hall where the brass color changes to bronze like we went down before.

But you could also make the choice to stop in the middle and open the massive door.

And I opened that great door and went out.

Creak.

A magnificent and elegant space filled with silver light spread out.

That place wasn’t an exhibition hall.

It was… the Lobby.

“…!!”

The 0th Floor, which functions as a lobby without exhibits, so they didn’t bother making passages from the regular stairs that go between exhibition halls.

We had finally entered that floor through the most orthodox route.

And the Stained Glass Door visible right in front of us….

“…The Main Entrance.”

Light was flooding in so we couldn’t see outside, but it was certain.

We had finally found the exit.

“We’re saved!!”

“Haaa….”

Shouts and sighs of relief echoed through the lobby.

And joyful cheers too.

“Noru! Your deduction was right! Right again! Waaaaah!! Let’s get out right now!”

Really. I sincerely want to cheer and scream while running out right away….

“I need to find my supervisors and leave together with them.”

“Ah, ah!! Then… you’ll need candlelight.”

Go Young-eun looked at the remaining amount of candle as if gauging it, then soon shouted energetically.

“…Let’s hurry and go together!”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Really, truly thank you….

Just wandering around here by myself when I was looking for my colleagues already exhausted all my energy….

So Go Young-eun made a choice befitting her character.

Of course, Baek Sa-heon did too.

Meaning he headed straight for the door without any hesitation.

“Do whatever you want. I’m getting out!”

Go ahead then.

I stared directly at Baek Sa-heon.

‘I should check what kind of effect happens at the door when leaving, what kind of reaction occurs.’

However, Baek Sa-heon hesitates.

“….”

“….”

And he quietly moves away from the entrance.

‘…?’

Why?

“Didn’t you say you were leaving?”

“…After confirming other people leave.”

Oh my.

‘It would be more convenient in many ways if he just left.’

I glanced at Baek Sa-heon with a slightly disappointed feeling and turned my gaze away.

-Hahaha… this is quite an interesting situation. Noru!

I don’t find it particularly interesting, but if someone finds it amusing, that’s quite consoling….

-Now you have to go inform your ordinary supervisors about the location of the exit door?

That’s right.

‘Though they’re not particularly ordinary people….’

I don’t know how many times I’m going to wander around this Grand Mansion…. My legs are about to fall off, but let’s hurry and go.

Friend

-Oh, then it seems the time has come to introduce my New Ability.

…Huh?

‘New Ability?’

Friend

-Well then, please take me out of your pocket.

It was a somewhat pretentious, boastful tone, but strangely it was a peculiar tone that also conveyed a bit of gratitude.

Anyway, I took the Stuffed Doll out of my pocket as instructed.

“Noru?”

“Please wait just a moment.”

-That’s right. You won’t need to wait long! A true host is always ready at any time… like this!

Snap!

A dull sound echoed as fingers snapped from the fingerless doll’s hand.

And I….

Somehow, I felt something ‘opening up’ in my chest and mouth.

Resonance.

A strange feeling as if a huge space had been created….

[Ah.]

“…!!”

“My, my voice….”

I closed my mouth.

The vibration coming through my vocal cords resonated throughout the entire lobby.

-Not bad at all.

-In my show, any guest can deliver their words to the audience and viewers comfortably and accurately without having to raise their voice.

That’s….

‘Microphone?’

-Ah, what a popular expression!

Friend

-In terms of this space, that’s right. If you’re on the ‘same floor’, that is!

My goodness.

I really have become more capable.

-You flatter me.

I was amazed.

‘But unfortunately, this ability doesn’t seem suitable for the current situation.’

-Pardon?

I’m trying to call only the supervisors in the terrace room, but if everyone on that floor hears….

“….”

Friend

Wait a minute.

Wouldn’t that not be a bad thing?

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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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