Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 73

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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 073

Brown is gone.

“What, what is it?”

“Th-this person moved!!”

Seeing that Eun-hwa isn’t in the doll’s belly, was the ‘Good Friend’ ritual itself nullified? Or is it because this is a dream that it only looks like a doll…

‘Stop!’

Deduction isn’t the priority right now! Get a grip!

You’re inside a ghost story right now!

“Look over here!”

I quickly turned my head.

In a dark corner of the classroom, someone was screaming.

It was the person who had been poking the ‘Student’ that was frozen like a wax doll, sitting motionless alone at the desk.

But that wax doll…

“Over there!”

Had disappeared from the desk.

And following the finger of the person pointing with a pale face nearby…

[Sekwang Technical High School]

The missing student was standing tall at the back door.

Gripping the door.

Expressionless.

Looking around the classroom.

“…”

“Um, excuse me. You’re just playing around, right?”

There was no answer.

No movement either.

“Wait a moment.”

One brave person approached and waved their hand right in front of its face.

The ‘Student’ didn’t even blink. It just stood there vividly frozen in front of the back door…

“It’s not breathing. It’s not a person but a mannequin…”

“But how can a mannequin suddenly move? Maybe they learned some technique to make it look like they’re not breathing?”

“Yeah, this is that thing. You know, those shows on variety programs or YouTube where they observe people’s reactions.”

No.

Obviously, there were no cameras here, nor any variety show production crew trying to scare people.

[Ding- dong- dang- dong-]

Instead.

[Students of Sekwang Technical High School! The graduation ceremony will begin soon. Please gather in the auditorium.]

“Graduation ceremony…?”

A cheerful and proper, school-like announcement came through.

“Shall we go? How interesting.”

“Um, we look like we did in high school right now, don’t we? Wow. What kind of dream is this?”

Several people who had decided this was completely a dream chatted with each other without any tension.

Certainly, it wouldn’t seem very scary up to this point.

‘It wouldn’t feel real.’

They had returned to their high school appearance, hadn’t they? Rejuvenation is usually a pleasant thing.

And while nighttime schools are a staple of ghost stories, when there are many people and moonlight filters in slightly, it can feel romantic too.

But…

“Hey, look at this student mannequin?”

One person approached the motionless student in front of the back door.

And pointed to the hand the student had extended backward.

“This hand gesture looks exactly like…”

[Students, we will now close the automatic curtains and turn on the lights for heating and safety.]

“It looks like it was trying to lock the back door.”

Thud.

The window curtains closed.

“Oh my!”

“Ah, that startled me!”

The automatic curtains closed with a loud noise, and for a moment the classroom was plunged into darkness.

Very briefly.

Flicker.

The classroom lights turned on with a time delay.

“Ah, thank goodness.”

“I guess they were going to turn on the lights… huh?”

Blood was flowing abundantly across the ivory-colored classroom floor.

“Wh… what what what?”

Following the blood with their gaze,

One of the people was collapsed near the back door with their neck completely twisted backward.

An enormous amount of blood flowed from the neck twisted at a bizarre angle that no living human could achieve, pooling between the floor tiles.

With eyes wide open in shock, as if completely unexpected.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Ughhhhhhh!!”

It had begun.

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

Right.

The only escape method from this nightmare ghost story is ‘death’.

To get out of this nighttime school, death is the only way.

And… the ghost story featuring non-human entities that became so memorable it turned into a cliché.

“That…! That person!!”

One of the screaming people raised a trembling hand and pointed.

At the student still frozen at the back door.

But there was exactly one difference.

“There’s blood on your hands.”

“….”

People’s gazes stiffly hardened and turned.

And they confirm the truth.

On the Student Doll’s right hand gripping the door, inside the curled fingers as if trying to hide something.

Blood is smeared along the fingerprints.

“….”

People’s gazes turn back to the corpse.

They see finger-shaped bloodstains on the back of the corpse’s broken neck,

clearly visible.

“Agh!”

“Oh my god! Ahhhhhhh! Huff!”

And again.

Flicker.

The lights flicker.

Sekwang Technical High School

In the blink of an eye, when the classroom becomes bright again.

It moves inhumanly fast.

The person who was pointing at the doll has disappeared.

“Agh!!”

That person is found as a corpse on the floor with everything below the chest crushed.

Thud.

The pointing finger, having lost its support, weakly bent and fell to the floor.

“Ah….”

“….”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”

Panic and terror, frenzy.

“N-now! Let’s attack now! Huh? Hey, someone close by hit it!”

“F-fuck! Then you do it, why are you yelling at me!”

Flicker.

“Hik.”

One more corpse appeared.

One of the people who was shouting was stuck upside down in a desk.

With only the lower half remaining.

“….”

“….”

In the terrifying silence,

people turned their heads.

Now the ‘Student’ at the back door is staring intently at the people.

A strange smile hangs on its face.

“…!!”

“Hiiiik!”

“R-run! Run!”

“Open the door right now!”

People rush toward the front door, avoiding the back door that the Student has blocked. But….

It’s already too late.

“This way… ahhhhhhh!”

The person who opened the front door collapsed.

In front of the open front door stands a smiling Student.

[Sekwang Technical High School]

The Female Student with neatly cut bangs also had the same name tag attached.

“W-we can go to the side!”

“Go!”

People run past the smiling Student. And again.

Flicker.

The lights flickered.

“….”

The Student at the front door disappeared from my sight.

Ahhhhhhh!

…Desperate screams echoed from the corridor.

And one by one, the screams disappear.

“….”

“….”

Maddening silence.

Panting breaths, distant cries, people staring at the door with eyes bulging as if about to pop out.

“Slowly,”

I said quietly while looking around the classroom.

“Let’s move slowly. While checking if anything moves again. Both the front door and back door.”

“Ah, ah….”

Adults who looked no different from high school students shuddered and staggered back from the door.

“….”

Among those who opened their eyes in this class.

Half ran away with their survival uncertain, the other half remained in the classroom.

No, rather than remaining, they were frozen and unable to move… would be more accurate.

I quietly thought in the midst of this.

‘I’m screwed.’

I shouldn’t have started like this.

Before the curtains closed and complete darkness fell, I should have run out alone first, grabbed the emergency flashlight, then gathered necessary items and hidden.

‘I missed the timing.’

I was flustered by Brown’s absence and my judgment was delayed.

Meanwhile, people finally began to realize the situation.

“Th-this is that thing!”

“What?”

“You don’t know? The monster that can’t move when you’re looking at it!”

“Th, that’s something you know?”

“Damn, why don’t you know?? That monster that follows you when you’re not looking at it! Right now while we’re watching, it can’t move!”

The person whose voice had become strange from fear and excitement babbled on.

Did everyone see some strange text, it seems like we’ve entered a game, isn’t this possession….

Even people who would normally ignore this were panicking and listening intently.

It was a development I’d seen many times before.

And the conclusion of a group overwhelmed by fear was also… simplistic and extreme.

“Then we need to quickly attack and eliminate that thing!”

“What?!”

“If we run away now, it’ll keep chasing us anyway, right? Everyone dies if we don’t look! You saw the people who went out! Hurry! Before the lights flicker again!”

“Ah!”

People searched through the empty classroom as if possessed, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon. Brooms, chairs, sacks, cutter knives….

‘No.’

This is a shortcut to an ordinary bad ending!

“Please wait a moment….”

That’s when it happened.

Someone covered my mouth.

“…!”

I almost threw a punch.

To avoid stimulating the situation, I slowly turned my head back to check who was covering my mouth.

I met eyes with a familiar face.

‘…Government Official!’

It was a Disaster Management Bureau agent!

Agent Ryu Jae-gwan, whom I’d met at the mountain lodge, had short hair befitting a high school student, but his appearance itself wasn’t much different from now.

‘Where was he sitting?’

No, that’s not what’s important!

‘Right. A government official could enter too!’

This wasn’t a ghost story that Daydream Corporation was ‘isolating and securing.’

In other words, it meant I could encounter officials from other agencies like this.

But even so, seeing the same agent again? Isn’t he working a bit too hard?

“If you won’t scream, I’ll let you go.”

I immediately nodded with a serious expression, and the government official released me without another word.

‘Phew.’

“Really, you have quite the constitution for getting caught up in these kinds of incidents.”

“…Yes.”

Let’s just say it’s something like that.

“And what that person said earlier is partially correct.”

“….”

“Keep looking at that Student Doll no matter what. You mustn’t take your eyes off it, so blink your eyes alternately, and if the lights go out, absolutely lower your head. And….”

The government official quietly whispered the standard manual he already knew.

“Those things are very sensitive to sound.”

Right.

Student

“You must not raise your voice. Absolutely not.”

I nodded slightly.

“But is it right to let people attack that thing….”

“Right now, your own safety comes first. Saving people caught in disasters comes after that.”

The government official declared with practiced ease.

“Assume that everyone caught in a supernatural disaster will die, and act accordingly.”

“….”

This is… a typical Disaster Management Bureau manual.

‘He thinks it’s more important to properly understand this ghost story and seal or destroy it.’

Because it would prevent countless deaths that would occur afterward.

It was the kind of value judgment that would pull the lever without hesitation in the trolley dilemma, choosing to kill one person instead of five.

“I’ll also tell you when it’s time to escape. For now, just keep in mind what I’ve told you.”

“…Yes.”

Arguing with the government official here and now would be suicidal.

I kept my mouth shut for the time being.

Meanwhile, people were approaching the Student with weapons in hand.

‘Damn it,’

Once more, I deliberately crafted a question to elicit an answer.

I needed to know this to make my future actions natural.

“Um, but isn’t this a dream? Then even if we die, wouldn’t we just wake up….”

It was a standard escape method from nightmares.

The moment you face death in a dream, you wake up and return to reality.

Just hearing this much, you might think it would be better to quickly commit suicide, but that’s absolutely not the case. You must not make such a choice….

‘There’s something needed.’

“…That’s correct, but there are conditions.”

Right.

“Conditions?”

“Yes. Do you see that name tag?”

The government official pointed at the ‘Student Doll’ with his finger.

“You can only wake up ‘normally’ if you die while possessing that doll’s name tag. …If you fail to do so,”

If the liberation conditions aren’t met.

“You’ll be subject to rather unpleasant influences.”

“….”

“There are several other conditions for dying safely, but I’ll explain the details as we go along.”

“Go, go along?”

“Yes.”

Wait a minute.

But however he interpreted my bewilderment, the government official made an expression that said ‘there’s nothing to be sorry about.’

It meant he was trying to force a smile as if comforting a child.

“Don’t worry. Besides me, many other agents have been deployed to this situation. There must be someone who made it through.”

Not just one but multiple Disaster Management Bureau agents…?

‘This… it really seems like our explorations properly overlapped?’

There would be a corresponding round.

I tried to frantically search through past exploration records in my head to pick out candidates, but the situation changed first.

“Di, die!”

People finally began attacking the Student Doll.

Then, surprisingly.

Crack.

“Aah!”

“Bl, blood…!”

The ‘Sekwang Technical High School’ Student was injured like an ordinary human.

Blood spurted, bruises formed, and the sound of breaking bones rang out.

“Argh!”

“What do we do, ah, damn…”

‘…Phew.’

Fear and complexity crept up my spine.

However, the Government Official gestured calmly toward the front door without any disturbance, as if accustomed to this.

“First, let’s take advantage of this opportunity and we… hm?”

That’s when it happened.

Shadowy figures appeared on the bright central stairs visible beyond the open front door.

“…!”

It was three or four people walking up while muffling their footsteps.

They had something in common.

Namely… they were all wearing strange animal masks!

‘They’re employees!’

And I even recognized some of the masks.

A bison!

‘Jang Heo-un.’

It was the Team Y New Employee I had shared hardships with in the theme park ghost story!

‘Did he get reassigned to a regular team?’

It’s been so long.

My situation has been so chaotic lately that I couldn’t keep track of other people’s regular assignments, but it seems he survived three months safely.

‘Anyway, I’m really glad to see you.’

But next to him… there’s someone not so welcome who I saw earlier too.

A black goat mask.

“…”

That’s Baek Sa-heon.

‘Did the two of them wake up in the same group?’

Everyone seemed to be following the company’s safety recommendation of ‘try to bring and wear masks when acting.’

‘I’d like to wear one too if possible.’

I wanted to check and use the items I brought to increase my escape probability.

Overall, it would be better to naturally part ways with the Government Official and join up with them.

“Agent…”

“Daydream Corporation…!”

“…”

Oops.

“Be careful. If you encounter people in animal masks wearing business suits in a place like this, you must never act like you know them.”

The Government Official gritted his teeth and shot a contemptuous gaze forward.

“They’re probably people dispatched from that disgusting cult company, so absolutely don’t get involved with them.”

“…”

“Most of the employees are psychos with abnormal ethical consciousness too. You need to be careful.”

“…Yes.”

Absolutely.

Absolutely! Let’s not get caught!

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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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