Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 6

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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 006

‘New goods?’

And if it was about unlocking usage permissions, it seemed like I could use one of the goods I bought again.

‘Based on what criteria?’

I wanted to immediately click on the memo pad floating unrealistically in mid-air, but I realized I was still sitting in the middle of the lecture hall.

Moreover, since the host had called me out as the top performer or whatever, there were glances directed my way.

‘Let me leave this place first and check.’

The event seemed to be over, so I should head home… wait.

I realized something quite critical.

“….”

Do I… even have a home here…?

I hurriedly opened my smartphone and started checking the records.

Unbelievably, all records of me getting hired and working had completely disappeared.

Even my family contacts were completely wiped out.

‘Oh, please.’

The only thing left were records from my university days, which were similar to what I remembered, so I felt momentarily relieved.

The problem was… that I had lived in the dormitory during university.

‘That’s why I had such a hard time when my schedule got messed up while looking for a studio apartment after graduation.’

Sure enough, the most recent records were text messages about appointments to look at rooms at real estate offices and KakaoTalk messages with a friend about staying at a motel because their one-room apartment contract fell through…

“….”

I unconsciously raised my gaze to check the screen in the lecture hall that was still up.

Specifically, just one line of text at the bottom, enlarged.

[Employee Benefits – Miscellaneous]

Company Housing Support

Benefits… I should take full advantage of them, right?

And this ‘company housing support’ was processed surprisingly quickly.

“Oh, hello!”

“Hello.”

Within an hour of inquiring at the desk, I was assigned a room number and received keys and an address, and even the location was decent.

Of course, it probably wasn’t out of good intentions to accommodate employee convenience.

‘If they want to work people around the clock without breaks, I guess even outside slaves need to be nearby…’

Anyway, the building was a fairly decent-looking officetel. It was clean, as if newly remodeled, and had good security.

Considering that ‘company housing support’ is usually a benefit that comes with provincial assignments, this was ridiculously good welfare, but…

‘The company just put us through a death survival game, and here I am moving in.’

But this sarcasm literally comes true.

When I met Go Young-eun in front of the officetel and greeted her, she said this to me:

“Did you hear? Seven people received company housing support.”

“…?”

Isn’t that more than half?

Come to think of it, Go Young-eun seemed to be here to move in too.

She seemed to notice my gaze and made an awkward expression.

“It’s a bit scary, but since I’ve already joined the company, it would be a shame to refuse the chance to live for free in a station area officetel…”

“…Yes.”

Right. In capitalism, money is always the scariest thing.

‘Saving about 1.2 million won a month, it’s worth acting crazy and moving in.’

Of course, there was also a more critical reason.

“I think those who came up from the provinces probably received guidance and registered right after passing.”

“I see.”

Now I understand the situation. The new employees who cheered and said okay couldn’t back out, that’s what this is.

I wondered how they gave me a room so quickly, but now I can guess.

‘Was the room I got from a new employee who just got eliminated in the death survival…?’

Thinking about it that way, I’m just embarrassed that my spine is tingling.

Anyway, I finished greeting Go Young-eun and came up to the 12th floor where my room was located.

That part was fine.

The problem was that the officetel was a two-room unit.

And my company housing roommate was Baek Sa-heon.

“….”

“….”

Baek Sa-heon was sitting in the living room.

Seeing the medical eye patch over one eye, he must have received some treatment. Given the timing, it seemed like the company had provided some kind of treatment rather than a hospital.

I tried to enter my room after a silent bow without bothering to speak, but…

“Hey.”

What?

“Hey?”

I stopped walking.

Baek Sa-heon flinched when I actually responded, but his anger seemed greater as he glared at me relentlessly and spoke.

“You must have had a great time watching me get my perfectly good eye gouged out while leaving the lost item behind, huh?”

It seemed like he thought I had deliberately left him to get his eye gouged out while knowing about the existence of the lost item.

‘What the hell, he’s the one who ran out on his own.’

Where did this brilliant idea come from that he could punch someone else’s eyeball but others should take care of his eye?

But at the same time, I knew.

If I went with a submissive approach like ‘That’s not it, you suddenly left…’, ‘Why are you suddenly speaking informally, sir…’, he would probably get more aggressive and talk nonsense.

From my years of experience dealing with clients, there’s a term for Baek Sa-heon’s type in the Difficult Customer Assessment Method.

The so-called Genesis-type difficult customer.

Someone who imagines situations as they please and stubbornly insists on them.

Explanations don’t work on this type of person.

Rather…

“Yeah. It was fun, wasn’t it?”

“…!”

Going strong would be the answer.

I approached Baek Sa-heon without hesitation. Then I pressed down firmly on his shoulder.

“Thanks. It was enjoyable because of you. Is this what they call dopamine?”

“What the…”

“Keep giving me good news in the future. No, I hope we can work together.”

“….”

“Company life is going to be fun.”

That should do it.

‘This should make me look like just a crazy bastard.’

Combining his behavioral patterns so far with his performance in …

‘Baek Sa-heon seems like the type who would corner me even more the moment he realizes I’m a coward, right?’

Then it would be better to plant an impression like ‘Ah, I shouldn’t get involved with this bastard!’

‘Might as well do some bluffing while I’m at it.’

I patted Baek Sa-heon’s shoulder a couple of times as he fell silent, then got up from my seat and headed toward my room without looking back.

‘As long as I don’t get stabbed with a knife in my sleep, I’ll be fine.’

Actually, I had been a bit deceptive just now.

At this stage, the probability of working with colleagues is extremely low.

What company would group new employees together to form teams? They split everyone up when assigning teams.

Plus, it’s similar to a certain ninja manga – they balance things out by distributing people evenly based on performance.

And anyway, wasn’t I called first and Baek Sa-heon called second?

‘He was probably judged to have good performance too, so it’s even less likely we’d be placed on the same team.’

So we won’t be working together for a while.

Let’s just treat each other like we don’t exist.

Click.

With a light heart, I entered my assigned room.

“Phew.”

The clean room had freshly replaced bedding, a desk, and even a door leading to a personal bathroom.

There was even an information booklet hanging on that door.

“If you apply, they provide bedding replacement and cleaning service weekly for 100,000 won per month?”

Seeing this insane level of welfare from the company, I could sense their intention to confuse new employees with a carrot-and-stick approach.

Quite a few new employees would be confused by this neat and friendly reality, as if the death survival up until now had been a lie.

From my position of knowing why the company is doing this, their intentions are all too transparent…

‘Right. It must be hard to recruit useful personnel for the Field Investigation Team.’

Since these are new employees judged capable of doing the ‘work,’ they want to make sure there are no deserters.

‘Well, if they’re offering it, I should use it well.’

Since I’ve decided to work here anyway.

On the desk, I could even see a small welcome gift package. Expensive snacks and office supplies with the company logo.

Plus, in the half-open drawer, there was some kind of diary.

Judging by the company logo on the diary cover, it seemed like issued equipment.

‘But it was made with last year’s date.’

Did the person who lived in the company housing before me leave it behind? I flipped through the diary.

Then on the first page, there were huge letters…

-Run away

‘Oh my.’

I appreciate the senior’s words of wisdom, but I’m already screwed.

It wasn’t even that scary.

‘It’s just… the cruel reality of office workers, isn’t it.’

I felt a bit of humanity welling up. I closed the diary and carefully put it back in the drawer.

Now that I’ve checked everything worth seeing, shall I get to what I need to do?

[Darkness Investigation Records Real Goods Box]

-New goods usage permission unlocked! (!)

Now that I’m alone, I can check it out!

‘Whew.’

With a trembling heart, I sat on the edge of the bed and reached for the memo pad in a comfortable position.

Tap.

Just like when it spat out the grip tok, the memo pad opened and something fell out from inside.

OPP clear film packaging.

Inside that bag commonly used for packaging fancy goods was a bundle of stickers.

“This is…”

I picked up the plastic bag.

Stickers with typical smiling emoticons drawn on yellow circles.

Also known as bribe items.

======================

Darkness Investigation Records / Daydream Corporation

/ Item

Smile Sticker

A salesperson’s friend! 🙂

Intelligent beings

Item usage condition: Daydream Corporation regular employee rank or higher.

Disciplinary action

======================

“Huh.”

This shoddily packaged sticker with poor finishing was, surprisingly, an item used quite iconically in several .

It evokes friendliness? It’s basically favorability manipulation.

‘Was it when persuading people from other organizations for collaboration?’

And I also understand why this particular item was unlocked.

Item usage condition: Daydream Corporation regular employee rank or higher.

“Because I successfully got hired as a regular employee.”

In , items made by institutions or specific organizations were mostly restricted so only certain ranks or affiliations could use them.

In terms of worldbuilding logic, it was to prevent indiscriminate theft.

‘And from the perspective of people creating ghost stories, it was to prevent the “Mary Sue” type of nuisance where excited beginners would barge into all sorts of ghost stories and use all kinds of tools recklessly.’

Anyway, the fact that I now meet those conditions means…

‘When I get promoted or my affiliation changes, this will spit out goods one by one?’

It definitely seemed like it would help with survival.

But it would have been really nice if I hadn’t been dragged into this world in the first place. Thinking about it that way, this whole thing seems like a ghost story itself.

‘Ugh.’

Feeling unnecessarily uneasy, I looked up at the glowing memo pad several times before finally turning my thoughts away.

“Well, it’s something I’ve gained anyway.”

Smile Sticker. Having to stick it directly on the target is a bit burdensome, but being able to gain favor in truly urgent situations is definitely an advantageous condition.

However, there’s a problem.

‘…This was definitely discontinued after appearing a few times.’

After the creators fought to the death over the sticker’s power and had a tongue colosseum, this item itself eventually disappeared into the dustbin of history…

I don’t know exactly when, but perhaps what I have in my hands might be the only sticker set remaining in this worldview.

I looked down at the packaged Smile Sticker with fresh eyes.

Hmm.

I absolutely must not get caught.

Still, just in case, I put five sheets separately in my business suit’s front pocket.

This way I won’t forget to bring them on my first day of work.

‘…Work.’

I was about to feel restless, but I had to sleep for now.

After experiencing such spectacular and absurd events, both my body and mind were completely exhausted.

‘I need to recover.’

I changed into the provided gown temporarily, locked the door, and went to bed.

It was my first rest since falling into the ghost story.

Honestly, I didn’t sleep well.

The sight of people literally exploding and the grotesquely transformed subway station fed off my imagination and replayed in my brain in surround sound.

I thought I had bought some kind of home theater speaker system.

Still, after about two days, I was fortunate enough to recover to the point where I could sleep while being tormented by nightmares.

Several days passed like that.

I checked the meager amount in my bank account and somehow managed to stretch it to buy clothes and daily necessities, preparing for everyday life.

Of course, I didn’t forget the most important thing.

‘I need to memorize everything.’

Using the ‘Memorial Grip Tok’, I continued reading all the Wiki Pages I had read, memorizing them to the point where they would pop out at the slightest touch.

This was my lifeline, after all.

And Monday came around.

The first day of work at .

“….”

Monday morning.

I headed to the main office building of with a face that didn’t look particularly pleasant.

It must have been quite bad since Go Young-eun, whom I met while going down from the officetel, was surprised.

“Oh, Sol-eum, are you okay? Did you not sleep well?”

“…A little, yes. I’m fine.”

“Oh my….”

The two new employees walked to the main office building 15 minutes away on foot, exchanging brief small talk.

Besides us, we encountered several other new employees from the Field Investigation Team with tense faces, but we only exchanged eye greetings.

Then we scanned our employee ID cards and boarded the elevator.

“I heard the Field Investigation Team uses floors 10 through 15…. Oh, I’ll get off here. Sol-eum, let’s fight together….”

“Yes. Fighting.”

I saw Go Young-eun off as she got off on the 10th floor and looked at the floor number of the elevator button I had pressed.

13th floor.

‘Even the number seems to foretell the future….’

I could only hope it was just my imagination.

I checked the assignment text message I received the day before yesterday once more.

[New Employee (Field Investigation)_Assignment.pdf]

– Kim Sol-eum / Team D

Ding.

When the elevator door opened on the 13th floor, I could see a corridor divided into sections marked with alphabets.

I found the automatic door printed with ‘D’ among them and pressed the automatic door button.

And at the same time, I greeted them.

“Good morning.”

“Oh!”

“He’s here, he’s here.”

Several adult men and women sitting in the fairly spacious office looked up and welcomed me.

One of the men stood up and extended his hand to me.

“Welcome to 15th Class Team D.”

A short-haired woman with an expressionless face standing behind him nodded and continued.

“For reference, there’s a nickname that all the newbies in Team D die.”

“….”

“Just kidding.”

Should I quit right now?

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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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