Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work [Novel] Chapter 19 - Chapter 19 is available as a full text chapter. Published May 16, 2026 and updated May 16, 2026.
Translator: Nox
Chapter 19
Even if You Fall into a Ghost Story, You Still Have to Go to Work - Chapter 19
Even if You Fall into a Ghost Story, You Still Have to Go to Work - Chapter 019
The psychopathic researcher had pushed his own subordinate into the ghost story investigation as a sacrificial lamb.
He likely intended to observe how the Field Exploration Team members would die in even more bizarre ways through the synergy of being entangled with that researcher.
The problem was that I was on the same team as that researcher.
‘Phew…’
I pulled myself together.
My ears grasped the ghost story before my eyes did.
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
The cheerful sound of a melodica and an orchestra.
A typical theme park BGM.
“Gasp.”
When I opened my eyes, we were in the middle of a theme park that was gaudily colorful in an old-fashioned way.
-Hahahaha!
The laughter of children echoed.
However, not a single human face was to be seen.
The only things wandering around were mascots.
I thought I could see visitors wearing mascot heads in the distance, but they would likely vanish like a lie if I approached.
‘Because that’s the kind of place this is.’
I immediately checked my wrist.
[(Joyful) Fantasyland Boarding Pass □□□]
Three blank spaces.
‘As expected.’
It was the amusement park inside that crazy board game, where you could only escape after riding three attractions.
======================
Darkness Exploration Record / Ghost Story
[Joyful Theme Park!]
: The ghost story appearing in ,
Baekilmong Corporation
Identification code: Qterw-B-11.
An amusement park inside a board game themed around various fantasy lands.
After entering this ghost story, you can return home by using three major attractions.
A ghost story more famous for its supplement, the ‘Joyful Theme Park User Manual,’ written by people who played the board game while in a state of delirium.
If you are looking for the game that this ghost story is based on, follow this link.
======================
There are many amusement park ghost stories. But this was one of those that became more famous because of its bizarreness, uniqueness, and persistent horror.
‘There were even goods motivated by this theme park at the pop-up store.’
The supplement, the user manual, had also gained a cult-like popularity.
I believe they called those ’Napolitan ghost stories.’
‘And it’s B-rank.’
Darkness of the Gloom rank.
Civilian survival rate… 2%.
The previous civilian survivors must have been extremely lucky for four of them to survive.
If you cross-reference the list of missing persons who disappeared without a trace before that, quite a few cases of everyone dying in this ghost story would likely turn up.
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
‘…The people in Team D might be in danger.’
Of course, I had my own problems to worry about right now.
I was the one burdened with the variable of ‘researcher getting caught up’!
“Aaaagh, huff, huff… Let, let me out. This is wrong, wrong…!”
“Quiet!”
I muffled the screaming researcher’s mouth and forced him to crouch down.
In that instant.
Snap.
The numerous mascots of the theme park all turned their heads simultaneously to look at the wailing researcher.
“……”
======================
Joyful Theme Park User Manual (Applies up to Exploration Record No. 64)
- Please refrain from expressing negative and intense emotions such as crying, wailing, or screaming!
It does not suit Joyful Theme Park.
======================
It was a total nightmare.
I struggled to keep my eyes from squeezing shut.
3.
2.
1.
The noise returned.
-Hahahaha!
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
The gazes vanished.
Amidst the landscape of the theme park, which began to bustle energetically again, I slowly let go of the researcher.
The Team A employee struck the researcher’s jaw.
“…!”
Thud. After the short, dull sound, the Team A employee grabbed the researcher’s jaw tightly, thrusting his face—covered by a Butterfly Mask—forward, and spoke in a low, ominous tone.
“Hey.”
“……!”
“If you whine one more time, know that I’ll kill you before we even start.”
“Hi-hiieek.”
The researcher scrambled back with a terrified expression, then sat down and clutched his head.
He seemed to be muttering things like ‘this is a dream’ and ‘it’s a lie’ mixed with curses; he had fallen into a panic.
“…Wasn’t that a bit too harsh?”
The newbie from Y Team spoke cautiously, but the Team A employee ignored him.
Instead, he asked me.
“You, newbie. You said you were the top recruit, right? Your judgment is decent.”
“…Thank you.”
“Did you pull your exclusive equipment?”
Hmm.
So, for now, he was going to treat me as a fellow employee.
‘Because I’m the top recruit, even if I’m not on an elite team?’
I thought the criteria were excessively one-dimensional, but I answered politely without showing it.
Exclusive equipment, I had it.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“A finger capable of remote touch. There are limits on time and frequency.”
I’d tell him just that much.
And I should ask him this much as well.
“What kind of weapon do you use, Deputy Manager?”
“None of your bu— Hmph. Fine.”
The Team A employee pulled at his index fingernail.
It was a fake nail for nail art.
Something sticky stretched out from the back of the detached nail.
A translucent thread.
“It extends endlessly, and the strength is quite good.”
“…It seems like it could be used very usefully for many purposes.”
“Hmph. I suppose so.”
His mood seemed to have improved slightly.
I immediately nodded and asked.
“May I ask your name?”
“Just call me Deputy Jin. Why the formal introductions? It’s embarrassing.”
Isn’t that basic etiquette when people meet…?
Anyway, his surname was unique enough that I could identify him immediately.
‘He’s probably… this employee.’
-Deputy Jin Nasol infiltrated the murderer’s bedroom and set the clock to 4:44.
-The Cucumber seriously answered Deputy Jin Nasol’s question, ‘Do you have a particular grudge against carrots?’ Nothing unusual.
-Severed the limbs of a teddy bear (Executor: Employee Jin Nasol).
And so on.
There weren’t many descriptions specific enough to deduce his personality, but he seemed to have been written as a fairly competent and cold-hearted employee in the original work.
Just then, the newbie from Y Team quietly asked me.
“…What exactly is exclusive equipment?”
Ah, right. This person likely wouldn’t know properly.
“Ah, the company allows you to customize equipment using the darkness…”
“Hey. Let’s move quickly. In a large-scale darkness like this, observation comes first.”
“……”
“What are you doing, top recruit? I said let’s move.”
He’s openly cutting me off.
Without waiting any longer, I followed Deputy Jin of Team A, who was already walking away, and answered.
“Yes. I’ll explain the situation to my colleague as we move.”
“What? Why bother with— Ah.”
A strange smile formed under the Butterfly Mask.
“You don’t know, do you?”
“……”
“Well, do whatever you want.”
I didn’t argue.
Instead, I gave the Y Team newbie a rough explanation of what ‘exclusive equipment’ was.
I also added this to create less friction within the team.
“I gave it a lot of thought and spent quite a few points to pull it. I’m afraid of what’s to come, after all.”
“……I see.”
I nodded and continued.
“By the way, I’m late with my introduction. I’m Kim Sol-eum.”
“…I know.”
A slightly gloomy voice flowed from beneath the Cow Mask.
“I am… Jang Heo-un.”
“Yes. Nice to meet you.”
I also tried talking to the researcher who was sitting on the ground, but all I got back was a panicked whine.
“No, no, I can’t walk. Give me a shoulder!”
“I can support you, but… that would make your movements awkward, Assistant Manager.”
I added as if I were worried.
“If that happens, the probability of the person involved dying is high.”
He stood up like magic.
‘I knew it.’
The Team A deputy glanced our way with a look of disapproval but didn’t interfere, simply walking while scanning the surroundings.
I also began to quicken my pace, turning my gaze.
It was a theme park like a dream—flashy, but somehow dizzying and suffocating.
‘Is red the theme?’
There wasn’t a single place in this theme park zone—flags, buildings, even tents—that didn’t feature a red symbol.
‘We must have been dropped into this zone because we picked the red horse.’
On the flag, a cute rabbit was smiling with one hand raised.
[Magic Bunny Arcade Zone]
Does that translate to Magic Rabbit Adventure Space…?
‘It really feels like a theme park.’
It was then.
The aforementioned rabbit mascot blocked Deputy Jin’s path.
“Ah, blocking the way…”
“Wait a moment.”
I stopped Deputy Jin, who was trying to walk around the mascot.
Because….
“…It looks like a parade.”
A rope was being drawn behind the rabbit mascot, and from further back, the sound of cheerful music and various flamboyant rabbits appeared.
However, I didn’t feel the slightest bit of excitement.
I struggled not to cover my face with both hands.
‘It’s started…’
======================
Joyful Theme Park User Manual (Applies up to Exploration Record No. 64)
- Please cheer for the parade with a joyful face!
Everything that happens in the Joyful Theme Park parade is joyful and never negative. Never, ever negative.
======================
The parade drew closer.
A rabbit mascot in a dress waved from atop a palace, and then….
Bang!
It struck the surrounding carrots with a colorful wand.
Then, all sorts of red sparkling things showered down upon the mascots.
-Waaaaah!
Candy, jewels, confetti, firework effects!
But that wasn’t the end.
Bang!
The next one went off in succession, spilling out new red items.
Blood, guts, and organs!
-Hahahahahahahaha!
They poured out in heaps.
Heaps and heaps. The mascots danced while rummaging through the entrails. They stained the stone floor right in front of me red… Wow, this is truly driving me crazy.
‘This is the problem.’
In this insane theme park, things that a human’s sensitivity couldn’t possibly laugh at popped out like glitches, and if you screamed or cried at them, you’d get [Censored]!
-Waaaaaaaah!
Splat.
The front of my shoes got wet with blood.
Something that rolled over hit the toe of my shoe.
An eyeball.
‘!@#$!@%!%’
Aaaagh!! Aaaaagh!!!
A silent scream erupted down my spine.
‘I-I feel like I’m going to throw up.’
I tried my best to squint my eyes. I tried to endure this situation by pretending to be nonchalant, not looking properly at what was in front of me….
“Ugh.”
“…?”
Wait a second.
That sound just now… it wasn’t from me, right?
When I glanced sideways, I saw the Cow Mask clutching his mouth.
‘Could it be.’
“…Do you find it difficult to watch gruesome things?”
“……”
The Cow Mask nodded slowly.
The lower half of his face, which wasn’t covered by the mask, was already pale.
‘A comrade…!’
My heart almost felt warm.
Finally, someone had appeared who was experiencing the insane horror of this insane situation together with me!
‘Hey, you’re actually holding it in quite well!’
It was the moment I was about to say, “Let’s avoid it well and break through this obstacle together,” or something similar.
“Ah, seriously… what are they talking about.”
It was a voice filled with peak irritation.
…It was the Team A deputy.
“Can’t watch gruesome things? Why don’t they realize that a liability like this isn’t a spare life, but a burden?”
“…!”
“Hey, top recruit. I’m telling you this because you have potential. That.”
The tip of Deputy Jin’s index finger pointed toward the Y Team newbie.
The Y Team employee flinched.
“Don’t bother socializing with the guys from X, Y, or Z teams for no reason.”
“……”
I had heard something similar from my direct superior just a moment ago.
-Roe Deer. Just treat the people from the other teams you see today casually. Got it?
…I already knew the reason.
‘The Field Exploration Team assigns letters to each team.’
And there is a meaning to that order.
The elite teams, A, B, and C.
The general teams, from D to W.
And X, Y, and Z are….
======================
Darkness Exploration Record / Baekilmong Corporation / Field Exploration Team
Finishing Team
A field exploration team made up of personnel who passed the entrance exam but have some kind of defect that makes them unfit for normal exploration duties.
They are mainly deployed when testing special situations.
Mainly referred to by the last three letters of the alphabet (X, Y, Z).
======================
“The last three letters of the alphabet are where they stick guys like that. They’re just meat shields. They’re like spare lives given to employees with actual brains, so don’t pay them any mind.”
“……Pardon?”
“They don’t seem to tell the new recruits properly, saying something about removing variables or whatever, but it doesn’t matter since that thing is going to die here anyway.”
The employee in the Cow Mask froze.
“Wh-what does that…”
“Finishing Team Cow Mask. Raise your left hand.”
“!”
As if by magic.
Jang Heo-un thrust his left hand up toward the air.
“…!!”
The lower half of his face, not hidden by the mask, was pale with bewilderment.
“Wh-wha…!”
The Team A employee tilted his chin up.
“Meat shield. That’s how you use them.”
======================
When an employee of a certain rank or higher enters the darkness with a Finishing Team employee, they can demand unconditional performance of orders from them.
The Finishing Team employee must perform said demand.
======================
Right.
‘…It’s a device to extract more brutal and dramatic exploration records.’
In short, they’re like slaves or a suicide squad.
But seeing it in person was even more bizarre than I had imagined. Especially since the Cow Mask employee seemed to be struggling to resist.
‘This is insane.’
The golden mark near the chin of the Team A employee’s Butterfly Mask glittered.
“If something dangerous comes up that I want to try, I just make guys like that do it first. But it drives me crazy when they misunderstand things on their own, don’t follow instructions, and die.”
“Ugh, uuuuh…”
“I guess if they had the brains to understand, they wouldn’t have been assigned to a team like that in the first place, right?”
The verbal abuse continued in a flat tone, ending in the tired voice of an office worker who seemed to be suppressing his irritation.
“I mean, why even get a job at a place like this just to be a nuisance? Every time, seriously… psychopaths, cultists, criminals…”
“……”
Certainly, they must have placed people with personality defects in the Finishing Team on purpose.
It was likely a device to lower the psychological hurdle for people reading the ghost stories.
‘It feels a bit better if a bad or flawed person dies than if a kind and normal person is killed like a tool…’
Though seeing it in reality felt so sordid it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
What did the Cow Mask employee do so wrong that he’s being treated like a member of a suicide squad?
“Even that damn coward over there…”
Right, a coward….
“……!?”
…W-wait a minute.
Wait a moment, Deputy Manager!
I think I just heard something incredible….
“…Did you just say, coward…?”
“Yeah. Can you believe there’s a coward who whines even after passing that entrance exam?”
The Team A employee gestured with his chin.
“Like that Y Team newbie.”
…….
‘Is that all?’
Seriously?
You’re saying that Cow Mask newbie was shoved into the Finishing Team just because he’s a scaredy-cat?
Being a coward was that much of a disqualification?
Then…….
‘What about me?’
…I’m a coward too!
In an instant, the things I had said to my superiors after running away from the convenience store ghost on my first day of work flashed through my mind like a panorama.
-Uh, actually… I tried to get out quickly because I was scared.
“……”
Only now did I realize.
I was so lucky they didn’t believe me.
‘So cowards are labeled as useless and get bullied within the company…!’
They don’t even just get the cold shoulder; they’re officially pushed into places where they’ll die!
‘I only thought about not letting my weakness be discovered…’
It was more than that!
In an instant, I could hear the sound of my survival rate plummeting in surround sound.
No!
“Anyway, there’s nothing in particular to order right now. It’ll probably just be a hindrance, so just you and I will move. Got it?”
No!
If I go alone with you, I feel like I’ll be targeted as a coward within five minutes!
I can see a future where I, Kim Sol-eum, am exiled to the Finishing Team tomorrow, following Deputy Jin’s testimony of “What’s with this guy? He was a coward.”
“In that case, please go on ahead.”
“Wha-what?”
For the first time in my month of employment, I broke the Newbie’s Ten Commandments.
I defied a superior.
My justification was plausible enough.
“I’ll take care of the team members and then follow.”
“……”
The Team A deputy stopped moving.
For a moment, I worried if this superior would use the Y Team newbie to slit my throat, but.
“This idiot…”
The Butterfly Mask deputy seemed to have chosen to cut me off and disappear instead.
But… uh, here’s the thing.
‘You won’t be able to go alone anyway.’
======================
Joyful Theme Park User Manual (Applies up to Exploration Record No. 64)
- Teammates of the same color must stay together inside the theme park!
If you are not on an attraction and move more than 5m apart, you will be executed. You will be strangled. It hurts. Don’t move further apart. No.
======================
‘There’s no way they’d just let a brave soul like you go…’
You have to be our tanker.
The deputy in the Butterfly Mask stopped with a choking sound as if his neck had been grabbed.
“This piece of—!! Ah!”
A red string.
That line, like a leash, could be seen connecting above our heads and tightening, then disappearing again as the deputy wisely stepped back to close the distance.
“You…!”
“Deputy Jin.”
I made a gesture of putting my index finger to my lips.
Then I rolled my eyes.
The mascots around the parade were all staring at Deputy Jin.
“……”
The Team A deputy calmed down quickly.
Competent people are truly convenient…
“Don’t tell me, the reason the teams were split…”
“Yes. Didn’t we pick the red horse together? We’re tied together as a team… and it seems we’re under physical constraints.”
“……No way.”
The deputy looked at me and asked meaningfully.
“You… you guessed this in advance?”
…?
I just read this ghost story beforehand…
But let’s take the credit.
I set the mood and spoke.
“As you may recall… there were clearly four civilian survivors.”
“So?”
“Don’t you think they were on the same team?”
I said seriously.
“Since four of us were assigned to one team, I thought it might have been the same for those civilians. I figured the probability of a single team surviving together would be the highest.”
“……”
“So for now, I think we should act on the assumption that we need to look out for each other if we want to get out of this darkness safely.”
After a brief silence.
“…That makes sense. Fine.”
Fortunately, the Team A superior seemed to have been rationally convinced.
“Mr. Kim Sol-eum, thank, thank you…”
“It’s nothing. Let’s all do our best together.”
Additionally, my Cow Mask comrade seemed moved, but now is not the time for us to get sentimental, my fellow coward.
‘Let’s see.’
I looked at this team objectively.
A superior steeped in elitism.
A pair of coward ‘Dumb and Dumber’ types.
And an employee from another department tagged along as a bonus.
‘Hah, what a mess.’
If this were a novel, this is the kind of lineup where everyone would die as soon as the record started, and the perspective would shift back to Section Chief Lizard.
But even with this group, there is a way to survive….
‘There is.’
If we follow the rules of conduct well and aim for the exit!
“…Do you happen to remember?”
“What.”
“The phrase written on the board game box.”
- Ride the 3 fantasy attractions with your teammates as fast as you can and get your prize!
The eyes under the Butterfly Mask narrowed.
“Three attractions… right. There are exactly three slots on this bracelet too.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“For now, I think we should do exactly as it says. If there’s a requirement implied by the darkness, following it is the standard way to clear it.”
“…You’ve been with this company for a month, yet you talk more like an expert than I do after three years?”
Oops.
“It’s just that during that month, I’ve only been deployed to darknesses without manuals… so I think I’ve developed a habit of making these kinds of guesses.”
“Well, fine.”
Fortunately, the Team A superior just nodded.
I guess he wasn’t saying it because he was offended.
“Your hypothesis is persuasive.”
“Yes.”
He seemed reasonably convinced.
I raised my hand and made a very polite suggestion.
“So, I think we should go on an attraction first.”
Luckily, one of the nearby signposts listed the attraction I was aiming for.
[Fantasy Train]
“Isn’t this the attraction the civilians testified about?”
“That’s right.”
I nodded nonchalantly, and the researcher, who was in a state of panic, let out a convulsive scream.
“Th-they said everyone who rode it di-died!!”
That’s right.
This is the ultimate train from hell with a 3% survival rate!
‘That doesn’t mean I’m crazy, though.’
A veteran player always has a way!
…A way to clear it while being a little less scared.
