Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 79

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Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work Episode 079

Investigation Record #13 that I added.

-If you obtain and wear a school uniform through appropriate methods, you can be treated as a student.

It was actually quite groundbreaking content.

It was also a choice that could potentially alter the original flavor of the ghost story if handled incorrectly.

School ghost story.

A monster that only moves when no one is watching.

‘In the Black Shadows,’ created by varying these two clichés, was originally a classic ‘hunted one’s terror’ themed ghost story.

A nightmare where familiar everyday places and people become unidentifiable, grotesque things that pursue you until they kill you.

But once investigation records accumulate over 10 times, this also gets some buildup added bit by bit.

‘It adds the fun of specifically imagining the worldview background.’

Investigation Record #5

That’s how the plot threads accumulated layer by layer.

They had only been building up for 12 rounds, and since this ghost story was quite popular, it seemed like it would just keep ‘building up’ more.

‘That’s when it gets frustrating.’

It becomes difficult to maintain the original theme of feeling fear from information gaps.

But here’s the thing.

‘If you can explore as an insider called a student, it adds the fun of actually collecting these plot threads…!’

The 13th investigation record I wrote matched the demands of the ghost story writers in that way.

That’s how the ‘In the Black Shadows’ ghost story reached a new turning point.

From the mid-to-late explorations afterward, all the eerie plot threads scattered throughout the previous records were collected, revealing shocking twists.

The latter half was filled with deeper investigation records with more story elements…

That was also a truly wondrous indirect experience.

Watching the seed I planted grow into a bigger, newer story through multiple people’s participation.

‘But I never thought I’d actually experience it too.’

Right.

I was now planning to experience the climax of that story a bit earlier.

‘Let’s go.’

I walked down the dark corridor on the 3rd floor of Sekwang Technical High School in the form of a student.

In the distance, I could see the terror-stricken ‘monsters’ slowly disappearing around the corridor corners…

The urge to pursue flared up and then disappeared.

‘Phew.’

Existing in the role of a student within the school was strangely comfortable.

It felt like standing where I belonged.

Correspondingly, the revulsion and destructive urges when witnessing foreign ‘monsters’ wandering around the school were even more intense.

Especially.

[A fatal accident has occurred in Class 2-2.]

The moment I first heard that announcement, I felt my heart drop.

Sharp sadness and cold emptiness.

And a sense of duty that I needed to find the cause of the accident!

[Everyone, let us observe 5 seconds of silence.]

And I wanted to freely run out into the school that had brightened like broad daylight, gladly eliminate the cause of this error and ‘observe silence,’ but…

‘I’m not a student.’

I mustn’t forget.

Kim Sol-eum had many things to do.

First, I needed to go up to the 4th floor. I stepped onto the stairs…

‘Ah.’

Huh?

A thought that popped up like a popup.

“…”

This was why the setting ‘they don’t easily leave their respective floors’ was attached to the students.

Of course, it wasn’t to a degree I couldn’t overcome. I was just borrowing the school uniform, not actually a student of this place.

‘Phew.’

I moved my steps again.

One step, one step.

[4F]

Long before the dazzling ‘light of silence’ filling the corridor disappeared, I had climbed to the 4th floor.

That place that had been dark and gloomy with broken and flickering light bulbs.

The 4th floor where dozens of students had stood frozen like mannequins in the corridor, staring at people, was now…

Lively.

“…!”

The students were now exchanging glances with animated expressions or gesturing to each other, engaging in silent conversations.

I bit my tongue to avoid making any sound.

The students of Sekwang Technical High School have no voices.

To think I’d be bound by a sentence I wrote myself.

I walked among students who glanced at me briefly before turning away with disinterest, or smiled awkwardly when our eyes met.

Don’t look awkward…

‘Naturally…’

I passed the corridor corner and stopped right before the stairs near the 3rd Grade Faculty Office.

There was a small iron door.

[Faculty Office Storage]

It was usually a leftover space in schools where cleaning supplies and such were stored.

And right in front of it, five or six students were gathered sitting in a circle.

It was such a tight formation that I absolutely couldn’t have approached if I hadn’t been wearing Sekwang Technical High School’s uniform, but…

‘Now I can enter.’

I stepped into their midst.

The students looked at me with puzzled expressions.

Why did a first-year come all the way up here?

It seemed like they were saying that.

I took out the A4 paper I had brought from the infirmary and slowly wrote.

The seniors told me to find a ladder from the storage room.

Could I possibly take it out?

One of the students smiles and takes my pen to write a reply.

Okay lol

Jingle.

When I looked up, another student was already standing in front of me, waving a set of keys.

I received the package.

And then, using the key labeled “4th Floor Storage,” he directly opened the storage room door and went inside…

A place only students can enter.

Screech.

A flash of light through the crack in the door stabbed at my eyes.

It was because objects throughout the warehouse were glittering as if radiating their very presence.

Just like the name tag I received from Jang Heo-un.

‘Oh my God.’

I had expected it, but it was even more strikingly bizarre than I had imagined. After carefully closing the warehouse door, I immediately reached out toward the objects….

I don’t think it’s something I can handle yet.

Ignoring once more the thought that popped up like a popup, I rummaged through and pushed aside various gleaming objects—buckets, mops, a small whiteboard, and so on….

I finally found what I was looking for.

It was a decorative brooch.

A somewhat clumsy-looking decoration made from coated thick paper, as if handcrafted by an amateur.

You obtained a ‘Name Tag Decoration’!

I carefully took this most sparkling “name tag ornament” and tucked it safely into my pocket.

‘That’s enough.’

I now have all the essential items needed to ‘conquer’ this ghost story.

After that, I continued visiting various places that only students could access, checking to see if there were any discrepancies with the information from the exploration records I knew.

Going to the library to check out books, or briefly playing the piano keys in the music room….

‘If I had been off by even an inch, it would have been better to die quickly and wake up.’

But fortunately, everything matched up.

‘…Alright.’

During this process, I absolutely never went up to the 5th floor where the ‘auditorium preparing for the graduation ceremony’ was located.

Because it wasn’t the right time yet.

‘When will the notification come?’

I steadied my nervous breathing and waited slowly…

That was when it happened.

A tremendous roar struck their ears.

Is this what it would feel like if a glitch became sound?

This insane noise, like hundreds of people scratching their nails on a chalkboard!!

I also figured out what his identity was.

‘…They’re monsters!’

The voices of the explorers, who looked like glitched monsters to me, were clear!

An enormous noise from whatever they were chattering about downstairs hit my ears—no, struck right into my brain.

An overwhelming urge engulfs my body.

‘This is why we tracked the noisy ones first!’

I want to at least get rid of the sound….

‘…! Calm down, calm down….’

Instead of running down the stairs because I couldn’t stand it anymore, I suppressed my impulse as much as possible for a few seconds.

‘Let’s go now.’

And only after calming down sufficiently did he move, checking on the monsters at the far end of the 4th floor corridor.

The monsters were confronting the student.

No, the situation was already almost over. The student was lying face down on the floor, immobilized and motionless.

However, not all of the monsters had retired.

‘Damn.’

I was ready.

The one and only monster that survived completely intact.

It was while looking at the student lying face down on the floor….

Look back at me.

It stopped me.

I saw it in the distance—the monster that had stopped me. A horrific human silhouette with a face melting away, crushed into pixels.

However, there was one thing that set it apart from other monsters.

‘You were wearing a mask.’

And the shape of that mask was….

It’s a mountain goat!

‘…Ms. Go Young-eun!’

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