Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work - Chapter 9

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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 009

A rainy Monday afternoon.

The employees of Field Investigation Team D had written their situation reports at unprecedented speed and even completed proxy approval through the team leader’s ID.

The reason was simple.

A new employee who ignored the time limit and cleared a ghost story!

“Surely… the time limit was three days, right?”

“That’s correct.”

The deputy and employee sat across from the new employee on the sofa, having laid out snacks they’d raided from the break room in front of him.

They exchanged glances and nodded at each other.

It was finally time to ask proper questions.

“But how did you get out so quickly?”

“Ah.”

The new employee seemed to think for a moment, but soon answered with an understanding expression.

“I sped up time.”

‘He’s answering so casually, like he’s talking about what he had for lunch…!’

…Before they could even voice that thought, the new employee slowly explained the method he had used.

“Since there was a time limit, I thought there must be some event that would determine ‘time has passed.’ So I focused on that part…”

Even the method of using expiration dates to trigger the ‘Time Alarm.’

The supervisors who listened quietly thought:

‘He’s a genius.’

‘Resignation is forbidden.’

The intuition and logical thinking to see through the essence of a ghost story at once?

This was talent born for the Field Investigation Team. Absolutely can’t let him escape from this team… no, we need to help him adapt well!

“I wasn’t in a position to say welcome or anything like that. Noru.”

“He’ll probably overtake me and get promoted to deputy soon.”

“…!?”

We can’t find another new employee like this…!

“When you get promoted, don’t forget us… and come brag when you get a Wish Potion…”

The new employee seemed a bit flustered.

“No, that’s not it. Um… actually,”

“Hm?”

The new employee added as if making a big confession.

“I was scared, so I tried to get out quickly.”

“…”

Could you normally escape quickly from an urban legend just because you were scared…?

It was like some kind of escape room, almost causing cognitive contamination.

‘Too modest…!’

However, the new employee was steadfast.

“Next time, I’d appreciate some advance notice. I was so scared I almost fainted.”

“Is that something someone who cleared it in 1 hour should say…?”

The new employee said with a subtle expression.

“I thought I was going to die.”

‘Lies!’

How could someone who thought they were going to die pull off something like a record-breaking time attack? That’s pure insanity that even veteran employees don’t attempt.

However, separately, they understood the sense of betrayal.

‘Honestly, it was pretty harsh.’

No matter how safe it was supposed to be, being dropped alone into a paranormal phenomenon wasn’t ordinary.

And they knew exactly how to soothe this wounded heart.

The office worker’s remedy!

The deputy asked while drinking coffee.

“Noru, how much did you get?”

“Excuse me?”

“The money that comes out when you clear it.”

“Ah, yes. I got ten million won.”

That’s right. This F-grade darkness gives prize money upon clearing.

And it’s clearly stated in the manual.

-When clearing a Shadow (F) grade darkness with a complete manual from the company, 50% of the incidental revenue generated is paid to the employee as a bonus.

Conversely, this means the company takes 50% of the money employees earn from darkness using completed manuals.

Moreover, the darkness initially assigned to new employees doesn’t fall under this clause!

The company’s reasoning was that they couldn’t provide hazard pay for assigning ghost stories whose safety was guaranteed through dozens or hundreds of attempts.

The new employee had already read this manual.

But here’s the thing.

“That money is normally all taken by the company… just keep it for yourself.”

“…Excuse me?”

Once you gain experience and accumulate know-how, there are always ways to handle things under the table!

There’s even a nice company regulation exception that says ‘since you cleared it with a new escape method, it doesn’t fall under the manual,’ so everything can be processed. Yeah.

Getting a large sum on your first day makes everything look rosy!

The deputy and team leader deployed the technique they had experienced themselves on the new employee with warm faces.

“Hey now. Put it away, put it away. There are ways to handle everything.”

“…”

‘Actually, it was twenty million won.’

Kim Sol-eum, who had planned to pocket half himself, broke out in a cold sweat.

The joy of suddenly gaining an additional ten million won of unexplainable origin and the pangs of conscience were brief, as he found himself standing up following his supervisors.

“Since you successfully completed darkness investigation, we need to go accumulate the most important thing.”

“Accumulate… you mean?”

“Yeah.”

The team leader grinned.

“Employee welfare mall points!”

“Phew.”

Being in the middle of a crowded city center in broad daylight couldn’t be happier.

I’m not even worried about the future of not being able to sleep tonight even with all the lights on.

‘Having twenty million won in cash in my pocket even creates peace of mind…’

No matter how much I’ve fallen into a ghost story, this is still 21st century Korea and a capitalist society.

I finally sat at my assigned desk, turned on the computer, and accessed the intranet.

Sitting in a spine-correcting office chair in a brightly fluorescent-lit office like this, the insane reality of just confronting a ghost felt like a lie.

There were even quite cute writing instruments and a wide-eyed lizard doll on the desk.

‘…Doesn’t it seem somewhat used?’

Well, I can only hope the previous user quit immediately due to a lottery win and couldn’t clean up their desk.

Anyway, the welfare mall was already bookmarked on the PC, so I could access it easily.

[Daydream Corporation Employee Welfare Mall]

I quickly entered my employee number to proceed with registration, and clicked the ‘Point Registration’ tab as my supervisors had instructed.

-You select the darkness grade you cleared, enter your name, then attach the PDF and submit it.

I did exactly that.

And 5 minutes later.

[Employee Kim Sol-eum / Accumulated Points: 100p]

“…!”

The review was completed and points were credited at a surprisingly fast speed.

‘So they give 100 points for clearing F-grade alone.’

Well, regardless of how much I suffered, it’s F-grade so it probably isn’t big money… Let me abandon my expectations.

Still, since I did get some points, I tried to check if there were items I could buy with 100p.

And I was flustered from the first page.

“…Robot vacuum?”

The product selection was better than I thought.

Most items on special were around 100p, and the highest-grade large appliances you’d buy for a wedding trousseau were about 500p.

Moreover, Daydream Corporation’s unreleased reagents were also being sold for around 1000p, and among them were astounding levels of over-technology like cornea regeneration potions.

Oh, by the way, hair loss treatment cost about 500,000 won without insurance on the market, but here it could be purchased for 100p.

‘This is actually pretty good.’

I moved the mouse with slight anticipation.

Now it was time to check the most important thing.

That brilliant name that appears when you sort by ‘highest price’ in the ‘company products’ tab.

‘Wish Potion.’

The price of that miraculous potion introduced as the main welfare benefit right after Death Survival ended was…

Wish Potion: 500,000p

“….”

Is this a joke?

‘Five hundred thousand?’

I just got 100 points for clearing a ghost story…

500,000 points?

‘Theoretically… if I assume I go into F-grade alone every single day, it would take 15 years.’

But that couldn’t be as easy as it sounds.

‘If things go according to my plan, there’s no way that would be company work.’

Not only would it be impossible to select and clear only F-grade darkness every day, there would definitely be numerous variables.

‘There would definitely be many cases of being forcibly deployed with colleagues into high-grade darkness.’

Wait, do they divide that by N people too?

I searched through the welfare mall’s point registration tab and found out the basic points given by darkness grade.

F-grade: 100p

D-grade: 1000p

C-grade: 2500p

B-grade: 10000p

A-grade: 100000p

S-grade: Separate review

Additional allowances were attached based on special circumstances measured internally by the company.

Things like urgent clearance, lack of information yet, or additional risks.

‘Since we’re in teams of 3, if 3-person clearance is the standard…’

…You’d have to clear B-grade 150 times to get it?

‘Are they sane?’

Even at B-grade, civilian survival rates plummet to about 2%.

From that point on, whatever choice you pick from the given options, you either die or suffer a fate worse than death!

If you go in there 150 times, regular employees should just be considered dead.

A crazy situation where you’d have to prostrate and beg that you can’t go even if ordered.

It means speed running by targeting only high grades is impossible.

‘In the end, to raise survival rates even a little, I’d have to invest over 10 years.’

This isn’t some gentleman’s revenge…

But if the Field Investigation Team is the fastest among departments, then people in other departments have an even higher chance of never getting the Wish Potion during their tenure.

Since the welfare mall has various products, many people in other departments probably give up and settle for that level…

But I can’t do that.

Because my goal is very surreal and clear.

Return to the original world.

But live here for 15 years? I’d die of shock from a heart attack before then!

‘No way!’

I needed a plan, a plan.

‘I need to properly consider what ghost stories I absolutely must enter and what I should avoid.’

So I had to maintain the golden balance with safety while collecting 500,000 points in the shortest time possible.

I was about to fall into serious contemplation when the team leader tapped my back and asked.

“Noru, did you register? Is the computer working well?”

“Yes. Oh, these personal items here are…”

“Ah, that’s the team leader’s desk.”

“….”

So that’s why it looked used!

“Just don’t break the monitor. Use it comfortably today, comfortably.”

Is this company… really okay?

Is it okay to do the crazy thing of telling a new employee to temporarily use a supervisor’s desk for a bit?

‘Come to think of it, there’s no way it’s okay.’

Isn’t this a company that grinds people into ghost stories to extract potions? If I apply the common sense of a decent 21st century Korean office worker, wouldn’t astounding situations keep occurring?

…Maybe I should use some shortcuts after all.

“Oh, does Noru smoke too?”

“I’m fine.”

I didn’t follow my supervisors to their cigarette break.

Instead, I looked down at the desk I was using, took a deep breath, and flipped over the keyboard.

As expected, there was a Post-it note attached.

[Team Leader Lee Ja-heon / 105105301]

ID: yongj1111

PW: dydajflgodks!111

It’s too common a sight in companies to criticize the lack of security awareness.

‘If he’s a team leader… he’d be a section chief.’

And actually, in this company, there’s a certain site that only section chief level and above can access…

That would really help when clearing high-grade darkness.

“….”

After seeing the crazy target of 500,000 points, it really seems too valuable to pass up.

Good.

‘Let’s do this.’

I made up my mind and accessed the Welfare Mall again.

However, this time it wasn’t with my ID.

ID: yongj1111

Password: dydajflgodks!111

I attempted to log into the Welfare Mall using Team D’s Team Leader’s ID.

Password does not match.

“Hmm…”

That’s fine. I expected this level of difficulty.

Let’s see. If I click on sign up, I can check the password requirements.

‘So it needed a capital letter.’

Then if I change only the first letter of the password written under the keyboard to uppercase and try logging in with ‘Dydajflgodks!111’…

Ding.

[Welcome, Manager Lee Ja-heon]

‘It worked!’

I clenched both fists under the desk. It’s a celebration I can do in the office without drawing attention. Though right now I’m the only one in the office.

Anyway, what I need to find on this page now is… a kind of phishing link.

The so-called ‘Alien Shop’.

In , there were quite a few alien ghost stories, and among them were creatures trying to sell things to Earthlings with clumsy communication methods.

‘They had no malicious intent, but from an Earthling’s perspective, they sold creepy or dangerous things too.’

Well, it was almost comedic in nature, so it was one of the rare heartwarming ghost stories.

And they had quite the business mindset. They seemed to want to target people who had decent demand for their products as customers…

They even planted something like ransomware in Baekillmong Company’s intranet.

‘The shopping mall advertisement phishing link was only visible to those at manager level or above.’

I remember well how to see that phishing link.

‘If you randomly click around the Welfare Mall and then press the back button five times in a row…’

Click, click, click…

Beep.

Suddenly a small green hand appears in the corner of the Welfare Mall screen.

A pixelated left hand that waves as if greeting to catch attention.

A speech bubble appeared above it.

1st Anniversary Thank You Sale! ~80% Off

Is work boring? >>Click

Want to become stronger? >>Click

Want to have cool items? >>Click

‘Tacky.’

It looked just like old internet banner ads from way back.

But surprisingly, if you click on this crude thing!

The intranet miraculously opens external internet and you get hijacked to an alien site.

I want to click on it right away!

‘Hold back.’

Instead, I right-clicked to copy only the link, then pasted the link address into Excel and took a photo with my smartphone.

‘Company PCs keep records of all access history.’

Having a record of clicking on alien ransomware wouldn’t be good for anything. Especially using someone else’s account.

A little later, seeing the supervisors return from their smoke break, I nodded my head as if nothing had happened and greeted them.

“Noru~ When the Team Leader comes back from his external meeting, let’s have a welcome dinner party. On the corporate card.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

And I waited until it was time to leave work.

The evening after my monumental first day at work ended.

But my work wasn’t over yet.

“Let’s do this.”

I deposited twenty million won and then went home.

And now I’m in my bedroom, copying the ‘Alien Shop’ phishing link I photographed from my smartphone gallery using image analysis.

After correcting a few parts that weren’t read properly, I opened an internet browser and pasted it into the address bar.

“Whew.”

Taking a deep breath… and Enter.

Click.

The page navigates through the complex link address written in the address bar.

Then a screen similar in format to Daydream Corporation’s Welfare Mall page appears and… breaks apart.

And a new page appears.

A screen with raw underlines and fonts, like early 2000s internet.

※Cool Items from Outer Space※~!!

Items

Boing boing boing. A green spaceship spun around in the corner.

‘Really tacky.’

However, I shouldn’t let my guard down because of the tackiness.

Items

…The prices are also outrageous, which is the problem.

They started from at least millions of won.

…It was the result of imaginary inflation stemming from the ego inflation of Ghost Story Creators thinking ‘I should use more expensive stuff!’

If it had been yesterday’s me, I wouldn’t have been able to purchase even one of these items, but…

‘I have twenty million won.’

My heart raced a little. Being able to directly purchase items from a fictional world was definitely a dopamine-inducing experience.

“Whew.”

Items

The screen appears.

Items

Vampire Utensils – ₩14,999,999

Wider Walkie-Talkie – ₩4,999,999

Alice Picnic Set – ₩11,999,999

We Help! – ₩66,666,666

₩4,999,999

₩19,999,999

“…!”

I knew more than half of these items.

Had my luck finally turned!

‘Nice.’

In my excitement, I quickly recalled my memories.

Vampire Utensils.

It was a weapon consisting of a small Fork and Knife that evolved to become larger and sharper by absorbing the blood of victims.

It could literally be called a growth-type weapon.

Wider Walkie-Talkie.

It was a toy walkie-talkie that enabled Remote Communication with other people even inside ghost stories.

It would be very useful when I had companions.

Alice Picnic Set.

As the name suggested, it was Food Items inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

It would be a set consisting of a Drink that temporarily doubled an item’s effects and a Cookie that halved them.

That was all the items I knew.

I didn’t know about the remaining two, but ‘We Help!’ had an interesting title aside, it far exceeded my budget so I’d skip it.

‘The Silver Snake is on discount.’

Buying something on discount would probably make me feel like I was getting a good deal.

“…Hmm.”

I crossed my arms.

A weapon, communication device, buff potion, and a discounted item… was it?

My budget was twenty million won.

What should I buy within this range to get the most benefit?

“Alright.”

I made up my mind and clicked.

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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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