Translator: Nox

Chapter 17

Even After Falling into a Horror, I Still Have to Go to Work

Even After Falling into a Horror, I Still Have to Go to Work, Chapter 17

Even After Falling into a Horror, I Still Have to Go to Work, Chapter 017

Around the time Field Exploration Team D entered the horror.

“Section Chief, what rank do you expect for this one? Is D the safe bet?”

“Ayy, Assistant Manager Lee. Let’s read the room a bit, yeah?”

“…….”

“It’s fun and all, but let’s keep it quiet within the development department. Don’t bring it up when other teams are around. Got it?”

“……Ah, yes.”

The research team assistant manager, who had been smirking while bringing up the bet to Kim Sol-eum, finally shut his mouth.

He felt annoyed that Section Chief Kwak Jegaeng—whom he’d looked down on a bit for being young and having a laid-back, easygoing personality—was lecturing him over something like this.

And that irritation made him think of an even easier, more annoying target.

The Field Exploration Team rookie!

‘Look at how he was glaring at his superior.’

He’d tried to let the guy in on the bet out of the goodness of his heart, and the rookie had rejected him instantly with a look of pure disbelief.

That expressionless, dismissive aura kept sticking in his mind. Was his name Kim Sol-eum?

‘You guys are basically just human lab rats, so why are you acting so high and mighty?’

A rookie in the Field Exploration Team is practically halfway to the grave. Yet, just because he’d pulled off one decent performance, he was walking around with a stiff neck. It was enough to make the assistant manager scoff.

He’d heard stories that every year brought a rookie who couldn’t grasp the reality of their situation, and it seemed he was finally seeing one for himself.

‘Is he gonna die? It’d be pretty funny if he did.’

His morally numb brain, anticipating a hit of dopamine, made him salivate slightly.

He quickly sent a message.

It was a group chat for the internal anonymous betting pool.

• I’m putting 10 on D.

• Okay.

It was also a personal wish. If it was a D-rank, the probability of death would be higher!

Just then, his superior rained on his parade.

“Assistant Manager Lee, have the preliminary report organized before you leave today.”

“…Yes, sir.”

‘The lab rats probably won’t even have crawled out of the darkness by the time I leave anyway.’

The Section Chief was specifically singling him out for a task that he could have easily handed off to a junior during the shift change.

‘My luck with bosses is the worst.’

The research team assistant manager grumbled internally as he continued writing the latter half of the preliminary experiment report.

• 3.2 Experimental Subjects

Adults aged 18 or older who have witnessed the 5-second video titled ‘Pierrot Hates You,’ which plays as a promotional advertisement on a specific video site.

‘If you approached the clown hand that popped out after watching that, you’d get dragged in, right?’

Isn’t anyone who actually approaches it an idiot?

If something looks suspicious, you should run away. From that point on, he considered any death to be a case of natural selection.

‘But then again, there are civilians who are lucky enough to make it out alive.’

According to the testimony of civilian survivors reported earlier, they returned to reality after entering an empty portrait where a clown had exited.

‘The lab rats went in knowing that much.’

However, nothing specific had been revealed about which portrait was the correct one.

The types of hallways, the size of the portraits, the frames, and the timing were all different.

It seemed most people just mindlessly jumped into whatever empty portrait a clown had come out of, and only a lucky few returned.

‘Finding the answer to this is going to be a massive grind.’

It was a darkness that required exhausting a huge amount of physical strength by waking clowns, losing them, and sometimes defeating them.

At the same time, not knowing which portrait was the right one would make anyone’s stomach churn with anxiety!

In that case, wasn’t at least one or two deaths almost guaranteed? He figured they’d force each other to go in as a test, sacrificing one another.

‘For someone to escape, it’ll take at least half a day, or a few days at longest…’

“Waaaagh!”

“Clear!”

“…….”

“…….”

Huh?

The researcher turned his head.

On one side of the lab, he saw people suddenly pouring out from a corner.

…Every single member of Field Exploration Team D!

“……?!”

“Is the Dream Collector full?”

“Yes! Oh, it’s a D-rank!”

Reflexively, he checked his watch.

2:41 PM.

‘They entered at 2:15 PM, so…’

26 minutes had passed since entry.

Wait a second.

‘…26 minutes?!’

As they watched the four members of Team D emerge from a horror in the time it takes to make a quick trip to a cafe, a heavy silence fell over the Research Team 1 office.

‘Is… is this a dream?’

No.

‘Are we being haunted by a horror too?’

No.

“…My god! No, how on earth did you get out so early?! Huh? Section Chief Lee, did your ‘smash everything’ method work again?”

Answers poured out immediately in response to Kwak Jegaeng’s exclamation.

“No.”

“Exactly.”

“He did it.”

Kwak Jegaeng’s eyes widened at the simultaneous words of the Team D superiors.

“…Good to see you again.”

The rookie, who had been standing quietly in the back, gave a small bow.

It was Kim Sol-eum.

“…That guy did it?”

To the unspoken question of ‘But he’s a rookie?’, a nonchalant answer returned.

“What’s so surprising?”

“Roe Deer was like this on his first day, too.”

“…??”

The deputy manager and assistant manager of Team D didn’t elaborate further and began putting away their masks.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon nodded.

“So it seems.”

“…….”

“This horror is D-rank.”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

Lee Jaheon abruptly began his report. Accustomed to this stream-of-consciousness style of communication that only cared about efficiency, Research Team Section Chief Kwak Jegaeng responded immediately.

“Then what was the clear mechanism?”

“? I don’t know.”

“…….”

“Ah. Would it be alright if I explained?”

The rookie raised his hand from the back.

“Uh, yeah… go ahead.”

“First… the name of the clown advertisement one must witness beforehand to enter this darkness is ‘Pierrot Hates You.’”

“Right.”

“But a Pierrot is not a clown.”

“……??”

“Clowns wear colorful makeup, laugh playfully, and perform tricks or jokes. They’re a type of traditional entertainer.”

So?

“But a Pierrot wears monochrome makeup and has a crying expression.”

“…!”

“There is a clear difference.”

A faint smile flickered across Kim Sol-eum’s pale face before vanishing.

“And since it said ‘Pierrot Hates You,’ I figured they wouldn’t chase us.”

Because an entertainer wouldn’t chase someone they hate.

“To prove it, we looked for a portrait with monochrome makeup and only red on the lips, and we didn’t approach any other portraits at all.”

“…….”

“And just to be safe, we maintained a safety distance of three meters and touched the painting remotely.”

He took all that into consideration while clearing a horror he’d never seen before in just thirty minutes?

Furthermore, judging by the result….

“The Pierrot did not come out of the portrait.”

“…!”

“Instead, it quietly disappeared from the painting.”

The rookie had found the exact correct answer.

While civilians in the past hadn’t realized it because they were busy being chased by clowns falling out of all sorts of portraits, Team D, who had interacted with only one portrait from a distance, had grasped the situation perfectly.

Goosebumps rose on the researcher’s skin.

Moreover, he had even considered other variables.

“There were records stating that clowns pop out of every portrait if a light is shone on them, so we didn’t use any light sources.”

“Huh? Then how on earth did you identify the state of the portraits from three meters away in the pitch black?”

“Ah.”

Kim Sol-eum blinked.

“The Team Leader could just see them….”

“…….”

Ah.

Kwak Jegaeng tried his best not to whip his head around to look at the Team D leader, who seemed like the living embodiment of the phrase ‘the man himself is a weapon.’

“I think there won’t be any problems if future entrants bring night-vision goggles.”

“Ah, I… I see.”

“That is all.”

Another heavy silence filled the room.

Kwak Jegaeng muttered quietly as if talking to himself.

“So… you deduced all this just from the preliminary information.”

“Yes.”

The rookie added, as if he’d just realized something.

“Perhaps none of the previous entrants were familiar with American everyday culture.”

“…….”

Was that really something that could be explained so simply…?

“So, Sol-eum… did you study abroad or something?”

“No, nothing like that.”

Kim Sol-eum answered immediately.

“I just happen to know a lot of random trivia.”

“…….”

The researchers witnessed the rare sight of the usually silver-tongued Kwak Jegaeng being rendered speechless!

“Ah, I also drafted a temporary manual based on this theory. Assistant Manager Park Minseong was kind enough to lend me his notebook….”

“Oh, I didn’t do a thing~ Roe Deer did it all~”

While the words of Team D’s badger-masked assistant manager echoed in the background, the researcher saw Kwak Jegaeng take the notebook from him.

He craned his neck to steal a glance.

Inside, the hypothesis Kim Sol-eum had just explained was indeed organized with perfect clarity.

‘…!’

Section Chief Kwak Jegaeng scanned through it, then closed it with a smile.

“…Hmm, we’ll put it to the test.”

“Yes.”

Just like that, a prototype manual was completed.

By a single person—and a rookie at that.

“…….”

The researcher who had participated in the bet momentarily wondered if he was dreaming.

Even if he happened to know about Pierrots… is it really possible to build a theory so easily in an extreme situation and escape in under thirty minutes?

No. Does this even make sense?

‘Is he some kind of monster pretending to be human?’

But there was no way something like that could get a job in the Field Exploration Team.

Wasn’t the Dream Collector supposed to respond only to humans?

“Team Leader, the research team wants that thing you brought out of the darkness.”

“Yes.”

In the meantime, Section Chief Lee Jaheon handed over a scrap of fabric he’d been holding in his hand.

“That is….”

“Ah, the Team Leader lunged at the Pierrot in the portrait just as it was trying to run away….”

It seemed he had reflexively closed the three-meter gap to grab the Pierrot by the collar before it could escape, tearing its clothes in the process.

“…….”

‘Birds of a feather, I guess.’

Were the two of them cousins or something? Now that he looked at them, they even seemed a bit similar. Both of them had that slick, polished look.

The researcher almost entertained a ridiculous delusion for a moment.

And the rookie who had delivered this shock and awe to him was….

‘I… I survived.’

His heart was still pounding because he’d acted without thinking about the consequences!

‘Why did the clown have teeth?! Why was it skinning people?! Why was it sucking people into the sewers like balloons?!’

After witnessing all sorts of moving ghost portraits in real-time, he had developed a fear of clowns as of today!

‘Another reason for insomnia added to the list….’

He was simply amazed at himself for somehow talking his way through and smoothing over the situation.

‘Wait, I did smooth it over well, right?’

I didn’t seem too suspicious, right?

They aren’t going to figure out that I have a cheat sheet and drag me to the sapient experiment labs in the basement of Baekilmong Corporation, are they?!

Just before Kim Sol-eum could hand over the controls to his inner anxiety, Section Chief Kwak Jegaeng, who had been silently looking over the notebook, spoke up.

“…New recruit Kim Sol-eum, did you happen to get a business card or something?”

Having snapped back to his senses, Kim Sol-eum answered dutifully.

“No. Rookies don’t get business cards yet….”

“Ayy, you’re good at playing dumb. You know that’s not what I mean.”

“…….”

The anxiety in Kim Sol-eum’s head stopped instantly.

Something came to mind.

The business card the MC had handed him at the welcome party.

───

If needed

010-0153-24865

───

The Section Chief of Research Team 1 grinned.

“If you want to earn points faster, give that number a call.”

“…….”

“I have a feeling you’ll be calling pretty soon, Sol-eum.”

It was a proposal that sounded quite tempting.

However.

“I’m fine.”

Kim Sol-eum answered without a hint of hesitation.

“…Hmm. Suit yourself, then.”

Section Chief Kwak Jegaeng shrugged and let it go easily.

“Is there a reason you wouldn’t want to call? Haha.”

“…….”

It was simple.

‘A scarier event… yeah, I’ll pass.’

The heart of a coward had been severely shaken once again.

Kim Sol-eum had decided to settle for this sweet, triple-point event!