Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 82

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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 082

The morning after clearing the horrific horror game’s high school ghost story.

Still, the fact that I have to go to work – which is even more like a ghost story – has me busily preparing for my commute.

However, this time the journey to work wasn’t so arduous.

Because I have something to rely on.

The Dream Essence Collector filled with Grade A solution.

‘How reassuring.’

I carefully packed the Dream Essence Collector filled with golden solution into my briefcase.

It was the harvest from last night’s labor.

Moreover, the moment I fully sat up in bed, I confirmed quite a unique ‘additional harvest.’

Clatter clatter.

Something that had been covering my body spilled onto the floor.

Dozens of… marbles?

They were transparent marbles that looked like they could be loaded into a slingshot.

I picked one up to examine its appearance, then read the single Chinese character written inside it.

The character for protection… perhaps?

-Ah, it’s a Chinese character that frequently appears with the meaning of protecting or guarding someone. Quite obvious and intuitive.

Ah.

I immediately realized what it was.

‘This is the clear reward from the final stage of that game!’

Graduation Ceremony Successfully Held (Deaths 2, Survivors 1)

So, I had brought items from the dream game into reality.

Just like how Baek Sa-heon had made off with the fountain pen item from the faculty office.

“…Hmm.”

Come to think of it, I remember now.

When I went to the front door, Baek Sa-heon’s shoes were already gone.

‘He left quickly for work and escaped.’

I’ll see him later.

Anyway, this means these dozens of glass marbles serve as some kind of ‘protective charm.’

‘I think I’ll find a use for them.’

I stored all those ‘protective charms’ in my tattoo, kept just one or two in my pocket, then continued preparing for work.

But.

-….

-….

There seemed to be an unusually long silence.

‘…Brown.’

Friend

By any chance.

‘Last night… were you very uncomfortable?’

The Quiz Show Host whose stuffing nearly got flattened because I was sleeping on them…

-Haha, it wasn’t exactly the best feeling of my life!

Friend

Oops.

My Friend

“….”

Hmm…

‘I did feel something special.’

-Indeed!

‘I conducted the graduation ceremony quite intensely.’

-A graduation ceremony, did you give a congratulatory speech or something?

No.

‘A teacher who didn’t like my hosting attacked me. I held out until it ended safely, with limbs exploding one by one.’

-Good heavens!

Brown, who had seemed somewhat hurt, quickly got excited when I explained in detail what had happened in the dream.

I should have the tattooist give him that… aroma meridian treatment she did in the evening.

-What an excellent attitude, Noru! I’d like to hear more details.

Sure, sure.

On my way to the company, I continued explaining what had happened to me.

About being chased by students, and even about how I directly became one of those students.

-Ooh!

And finally, I had arrived at the building and was heading up to my office.

“Soleum!”

I met a familiar face.

“Ah, Manager Lee Byeong-jin.”

Manager Lee Byeong-jin, the missing person I had rescued from the Chang-gwi ghost story and who was in charge of manual review, brightened up when he saw me.

“I heard the entire Field Investigation Team attempted entry into that ghost story with decent yield rates!”

Ah, he already knows about the deployment to the high school ghost story.

Well, an official document did come down ordering the entire Field Investigation Team to attempt entry.

“How did your team turn out, Soleum?”

“Ah, I did go in and come back out… but I’m not sure about the others.”

I think Lizard Manager probably couldn’t enter.

‘If that person had entered, it would have been recorded in the without fail…’

No, they probably wouldn’t have even written it in the records in the first place. The counter to this ghost story is Lee Ja-heon after all.

‘There’s no way such a pursuit would be meaningful against someone who can beat everything down with physical attacks…’

Why ruin a ghost story.

Even if a butterfly effect occurred because I interfered with the exploration, at minimum, if Lizard Manager had been in this exploration, I would have noticed their presence.

‘They weren’t there.’

…And.

The other Team D person…

Died.

‘Sigh.’

Just as I was about to open my mouth to say those words.

“Ah, Team D only had the Team Leader and Team Leader Sol-eum, right? I guess you two didn’t meet each other.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Still, it’s individual competition, right? At least it wouldn’t have interfered with our company’s future! Our capable Team Leader Sol-eum, haha!”

…

What?

“Wait a moment. When you say Team D only has two people…”

“Huh? No, wasn’t the personnel assignment temporarily put on hold?”

The Manager looks at me with a puzzled expression.

“Well, Team D, since the contaminated person might recover, we decided to skip this season for now and focus on support duties, didn’t you get a separate notice about that…?”

“…!”

Ah.

I realized it the next moment.

Team Leader Yoon Jo-hoon.

That newly assigned person was eliminated as an error by the ‘Teacher’ in the dream…

He’s also eliminated from reality.

He was literally deleted.

As if he had never existed in reality from the beginning.

“…”

Right.

‘That’s why people were mistaken thinking this ghost story had no casualties.’

Even in the worst case, they understood it as being dragged back to that school on the new moon night.

Everyone!

Because…

People who collected many name tags and stubbornly endured on the high floors without retiring were all ‘deleted.’

Because they became people who never existed in the first place.

…It was a terrifying Reality Manipulation ability.

‘…The solution didn’t come out as A-grade for nothing.’

I can feel that some deeper darkness is involved…

Goosebumps ran down my back.

Actually, this might not be objectively bad for me.

Someone who was clearly difficult to work with naturally disappeared.

But…

‘It’s no different from being hit with record erasure.’

My stomach churns. Moreover, this feeling of being the only one who remembers was really strange.

No, wait.

‘Why am I the only one who remembers in the first place?’

Shouldn’t everyone have forgotten together.

Maybe it’s because I directly witnessed the death.

Ah!

Or maybe because I was eating Nostalgia Candy at the time, so the effect missed me?

Come to think of it, when I ate the Nostalgia Candy, I was…

…

…

“So, Sol-eum?”

“…Ah. I think I was mistaken about something.”

Anyway, it’s not important, so let’s focus on the conversation for now.

Even if it’s a different team, a superior is still a superior.

Just then, Manager Lee Byeong-jin asks me with a somewhat expectant face.

“Oh, come to think of it, Sol-eum, how did you clear it, and what grade? If you show me the collector, I can roughly tell you the grade by looking at the solution concentration…”

“Ah.”

I readily took out the collector from my document bag and showed it.

The golden liquid swirled.

“This is it.”

“…”

After a moment of silence.

“…?!”

Swish swish, Manager Lee Byeong-jin wiped his glasses.

“Haha, I’m getting old too, my eyes are getting dim, the light seems to be over-reflecting…?!?”

“Ah.”

I spoke in a pleased voice.

“Does it look like A-grade to you too, Manager?”

“…”

Lee Byeong-jin put his glasses back on.

“…Right now,”

“…?”

“We need to go report this right now, what are you doing! Hurry!”

I was instantly summoned and called.

This means the collectors confiscated my collector before I could even report to the Team D office.

“Good heavens!”

The gazes of the people in charge looking at me with expressions like ‘It’s you again?’ are, well, I guess good things are good things.

And the measured grade is…

“Kim Sol-eum.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“The grade of the solution Kim Sol-eum collected from the darkness last night has been confirmed as A.”

That afternoon, Lizard Manager calmly delivered this to me as I sat in the office writing my exploration report.

I had expected that much.

However, the next words were the problem.

“And regarding this exploration, there has been a request for an individual interview with Kim Sol-eum.”

“…”

Well, this one was unavoidable…

The second A.

Especially since this time too, it had popped out from an unprecedented ghost story.

‘In that ghost story, A-grade was probably just a nominal existence.’

Most were either D or F.

Someone who endured long and collected items and name tags might have drawn C-grade solution once or twice, but that would be the end of it.

It seemed like there was talk from higher-ups about how a jackpot had hit in a ghost story that was just used for item farming.

But the thing is.

‘Actually, this is the end.’

They only count first clears…

Afterwards, similar clearing attempts were made, but from the same grade ending (B), solution one or two grades lower was extracted.

‘That’s how the game format works.’

If it’s not the first time, it’s repetition so it doesn’t count as an Achievement…

Of course, I don’t plan to tell them everything, but I need to drop some hints to avoid the absurd blame-shifting of ‘We trusted and invested in you but A didn’t come out again!’

‘I’ll be running around all afternoon…’

It was when I was sadly anticipating this.

“Kim Sol-eum.”

“Yes?”

“Do you not want to do the interview?”

You’ll, you’ll let me off??

But after thinking for a moment, I shook my head.

“No. It’s fine. I should do it.”

To avoid absurd blame-shifting like ‘You couldn’t clear A-grade because you tried to finish with a situation report!’… *sigh*.

“Yes.”

Lee Ja-heon didn’t offer twice. He was really lizard-like.

And shortly after, at the appointed time.

I left the D-Team office for the interview.

‘They called me to a high floor too.’

I got off at the designated 31st floor and went to find the conference room.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

At the permission heard from inside the door, I very carefully opened it.

A conference room with a majestic atmosphere, where sunlight poured through blinds between windows.

And a black, massive round table.

But…

“Hmm.”

The research team members for the interview weren’t there.

Instead, at the head seat of that massive desk, only one person sat alone.

A woman with dark blue hair wearing a perfectly fitted three-button business suit looked at me with a benevolent expression.

She didn’t have an aged appearance, but somehow had an atmosphere that made it difficult to gauge her age.

And the black mother-of-pearl nameplate on the desk that immediately caught my eye.

Executive Director Cheong Dal-rae

“…?!”

A, a director??

Wait, in the conference room I was called to… a director is sitting alone?

It wasn’t even Manager Lee Byeong-jin or Director Ho who had connections with Team A.

However, that surname itself…

‘I’ve heard it before…’

When Manager Lee Byeong-jin from Director Ho’s line went missing.

In the office gossip where those office workers were speculating about who might come as successor.

-Honestly, it’s uncertain what the new person will be like… but the probability of someone from the same line being placed is low. Someone from Director Cheong’s side will probably come?

Director Cheong.

A distant superior I’d never been connected to before, one of the executives in this company’s Development Department, had called me…!

‘This is insane…’

Of course, while being shocked, I was bowing my head deeply.

Just because I’m surprised doesn’t mean I should forget workplace etiquette!

“…! It’s an honor to meet you, Executive Director.”

“Yes. Nice to meet you.”

Director Cheong, who accepted my handshake, waved her arm and pointed to the chairs lined up around the round table.

“Let’s sit down first.”

“Yes.”

Where exactly should I sit?

After pondering, I sat at a spot that wasn’t the head seat but wouldn’t be too far to have a conversation with the director.

Then someone who appeared to be from the secretary office entered the conference room, placed some unknown documents in front of the director, and left.

I felt like breaking out in cold sweat.

‘What kind of situation is this?’

Since I can’t even grasp the context, let me start with that first.

“So… Team Leader Sol-eum? Are you still in your twenties?”

“I was born in XX year.”

“You’re young. I’ll speak casually, so you can be comfortable too. I called you for good news.”

“Good news, you say…?”

“I’ve been hearing a lot about you, Team Leader.”

Director Cheong smiled slightly.

“Very impressive. If only new employees like you came in, we wouldn’t have problems with raw material supply.”

“Thank you.”

When high-ranking people say such things, just sit politely and maintain a listening posture.

If I actively join the conversation trying to precisely meet your needs, I might end up just being presumptuous…

‘Did she personally come to the conference room today to commend me and make a show of telling me to write the A-grade manual well?’

Making an impression, that is.

“So, Team Leader Sol-eum.”

But the main point started from there.

Without any warning.

“Are you interested in the Elite Team by any chance?”

I almost choked on my saliva.

“That’s…”

“Ah, I know you received an offer from Manager Seok in Team A last time but declined.”

“…!”

“‘Building from the basics’… Good excuse. You responded well.”

Oh, my goodness.

“That team… hmm, it’s good to maintain hierarchy, but sometimes priorities get mixed up and they value hierarchy more than exploration.”

“…”

“It’s not pretty to see, but well, being good at picking sides is also an ability, isn’t it? Haha!”

You’re very openly revealing that Team A is from a different faction.

‘I won’t react to a single word of that, Director…’

Let me just smile awkwardly and nod my head.

If I get caught up in this wrong, it’ll mean I badmouthed Team A together with the Director.

The Director would naturally be fine!

But as a new employee who hasn’t picked sides, I’d be screwed…

Though I didn’t know what to do, I showed signs of trying to calm down and spoke up, pretending it was difficult to say.

“Well, since I haven’t been with the company long, I was certain I needed the basics… so I’m actually working hard to learn right now…”

“Hahaha! That’s fine, that’s fine. Yes, it’s an understandably tense situation, Team Leader Soleum.”

Director Cheong burst into hearty laughter then became serious.

“You don’t need to agree with everything I say. I don’t like sycophantic people like that.”

“…”

“Right. I should choose my words more clearly. Don’t you think?”

Director Cheong paused as if lost in thought for a moment, then closed the documents and spoke.

“I’m not saying I’ll put you in one of the Elite Teams.”

“…?”

“I meant whether you’re interested in receiving Elite Team treatment. Yes… I could ask it this way too.”

Director Cheong smiled slyly.

“How would it be if Team D became an Elite Team?”

“…!!”

“With one team member of your choosing added, the whole team.”

Good heavens.

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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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