Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 41
A dark ventilation shaft inside a ghost story.
A situation where one must hold their breath to avoid terror.
In fact, the situation was so absurd that I was the one who had essentially saved Baek Sa-heon’s life.
’Of all people, it had to be you.’
Moreover, the man was now desperately avoiding my gaze.
“……?”
He didn’t seem like the type to act this way…
‘Ah, no way.’
Something suddenly occurred to me.
- Watch out for serial killers.
Maybe it was because I had been kindly sending him daily serial killer alerts.
He seemed a bit intimidated. Well, it was admittedly creepy.
‘Actually, this is better.’
It was somewhat intentional. I hadn’t sent those messages anonymously specifically for this effect.
I look like a psycho, right? So don’t mess with me.
Considering his personality—clearly one who is weak to the strong and strong to the weak—he would likely try to protect himself and avoid getting involved with me as much as possible, rather than trying to take me out.
‘I’d welcome that.’
…The problem, however, was that we had to stay squeezed into this vent together for the time being.
I held my breath. Fortunately, Baek Sa-heon was as quiet as a dead mouse.
Outside, the shadows of people who had failed to escape were dimly illuminated by candlelight in the darkness.
Screeeech, thud.
The machinery stopped.
In front of the shadows of people cornered in a dead end, something slender poked out.
A silhouette resembling spider legs.
Then, silence.
“…….”
“…….”
Only the unidentifiable mechanical humming echoed.
Fwip.
The spider-leg-like silhouette snapped open in front of a human’s eyes.
H-heeeek!!
In the flickering shadows, eight sharp, delicate appendages could be seen clutching a human torso.
Help m— Help me…… Aaaaaagh!!!
Thwack.
A single spider leg burrowed into the gap of the human head.
Then, with a pop, it plucked something out of the head.
“…….”
And I already knew what it had plucked…
‘…An eyeball.’
That was it.
The reason this exhibition was called the ‘Mansion of the Blind.’
======================
Many visitors have testified to the Guide that they lost human body parts, and it is said that the most common part to be lost first is the ‘eyeball.’
======================
The ‘Guide’.
If you encounter that machine here, your eyes get plucked out.
The next time you meet it, it’s usually one of your limbs, your tongue, or sometimes your ears.
Thus, it was a twisted story where people—eventually blind, mute, and reduced to crawling like slugs—would roam the dark exhibition halls…
What was even more cruel was that this didn’t happen all at once.
Surprisingly, it was because this exhibition was ‘kind.’
To the point where it would provide ‘conveniences’ even without being asked.
======================
For the convenience of visitors, sensory compensation devices are always available for rent free of charge.
(Currently supported devices: Sight, Smell, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Proprioception, Field of View)
======================
Gurgle, ugh.
As the victim groaned, another spider-leg silhouette gracefully and delicately approached the empty socket.
The shape attached to the tip of the leg was momentarily revealed as a sharp shadow under the candlelight.
A slender needle and thread.
‘Shit.’
I held my breath and waited longer until all the commotion died down.
Cold sweat broke out all over my body.
After a moment.
Thud, thud, thud…
The mechanical sounds grew distant.
……Soon, the person whose eyes had been plucked began to stagger forward.
Of all directions, they approached the vent, their blood-soaked face clearly revealed before vanishing.
Instead of eyes, telephoto lenses were attached to their face.
“…!”
I saw Baek Sa-heon mouth a silent curse beside me.
It didn’t feel like someone else’s problem.
‘They can see for a few hours at the shortest, or a day or two at the longest, with those things on.’
But as they were rental devices, they would gradually lose function, plunging the victim further into terror.
And the next time they met the Guide, those would be ‘collected’ too.
Because it was a rental.
‘This is insane.’
My eyes naturally clamped shut at what felt like a prelude to the horrors to come…
‘But I have to endure it; I can’t let him catch me being a coward.’
Conscious of Baek Sa-heon beside me, I climbed out as soon as I confirmed the surroundings were quiet.
‘I can’t stay here forever.’
I had to move quickly and escape. I’d organize the exploration records and manual after I parted ways with Baek Sa-heon…
“Hey.”
Hmm?
“Thank you.”
Suddenly, Baek Sa-heon spoke to me using formal language.
He nodded quite politely, as if that had been his way all along. Just like when we first met on the subway.
Then he tried to slip away.
“Well then, I’ll be going now…”
“Wait.”
Baek Sa-heon stopped in his tracks.
I asked.
“How many hours has it been since you entered?”
“…….”
“Don’t want to answer?”
“…About two hours have passed.”
He had entered quite a bit before me.
Since this wasn’t a ghost story where the concept of time became distorted, it meant Baek Sa-heon, a rookie, had been called in since morning…
‘The Team D superiors left me out of it!’
For a moment, I almost felt touched.
It was enough motivation to find my teammates and get out of here quickly.
‘Section Chief Lizard would have been among the seven final survivors anyway.’
I had to find the other Team D members soon.
…Though honestly, looking at the corridor after coming out of the vent made me sigh…
‘Wow, I have to poke around this place alone.’
I had to search every nook and cranny for clues? While playing hide-and-seek with that Guide monster?
There was even a horror game based on this darkness; I hadn’t played it, but I’d seen videos of it on WeTube.
…While covering half the screen with my hand.
“…….”
Hmm. Even if he has personality issues… wouldn’t it be better… if I went with someone?
I looked back at Baek Sa-heon.
In the darkness.
Standing beside Kim Sol-eum, Baek Sa-heon swallowed hard.
‘Shit.’
Of all people, I had to run into this lunatic.
Nothing had gone right since this total nutjob was assigned as my dormitory roommate.
Hearing him spout crazy things with a cynical face that looked like it would never get picked on by a drunkard even at night was enough to make my head spin.
‘Do I really have to stick with this guy?’
The employees who entered with me seemed to have been scattered all over this bizarre mansion, and the other civilian I’d encountered had just been destroyed by what happened earlier.
Still, it might be better to go alone than with this deranged bastard…
It was as he was frantically weighing his options.
Suddenly, Kim Sol-eum spoke.
“You’re using formal speech? All of a sudden.”
Fuck.
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
“…Before, it was such an emergency that I happened to speak informally… but I thought it would be right to be polite to each other again.”
Kim Sol-eum stared at him for a moment, then replied nonchalantly.
“I see. Understood.”
“…Yes.”
Should I… run?
Baek Sa-heon scanned Kim Sol-eum.
He had already heard all the ridiculous, grand rumors about the man within the company.
The Field Exploration Team’s unbelievable monster rookie.
I heard he cleared an A-Grade Darkness all by himself.
They say he was almost scouted for the Elite Squad. But he turned it down?
Wow, didn’t he even find a missing Section Chief? Is he really a rookie?
Two manual review revisions? Is this some kind of propaganda rookie they’re using to exploit the employees…
Later on, the rumors were so grand that some people even whispered that he was a product of company propaganda.
However, Baek Sa-heon didn’t doubt the rumors.
‘Isn’t it because he’s a lunatic?’
The reason that bastard’s performance was monstrously good… was probably because his way of thinking resembled a monster’s.
Since his thought process differed from normal people, he probably came up with ideas no human could in a ghost story!
Baek Sa-heon knew he was a selfish person obsessed with self-interest.
But the intimidation given by an unpredictable opponent was different.
The fear of the unknown.
‘I’d believe it if someone said that guy himself was a ghost story.’
Baek Sa-heon broke into a cold sweat.
Still, he wanted to gain information, so he spoke up.
He had to hear as much as he’d told.
“Where are you going? Judging by how that monster attacks people, it seems we’re being treated as intruders in this darkness…”
“No.”
“Excuse me?”
“This exhibition definitely treats us as visitors.”
What kind of nonsense was this now?
Baek Sa-heon looked at Kim Sol-eum.
The other man spoke with absolute certainty, as if it were nothing.
“That’s why it comes to collect the fee. It only plucks out eyes. It’s just collecting the usage fee.”
“…….”
“Didn’t you read the manual?”
He had.
That bizarre document contaminated by the exhibition invitation.
“It’s an invitation. Why would someone who was invited be an intruder?”
“……But there was no mention of a fee.”
“Read it again. Near the end of page 3.”
Baek Sa-heon unfolded the paper.
+++
This exhibition is free for one hour, provided in a spirit of openness for those who adore art.
+++
“The fact that it’s a one-hour free viewing implies that after that, they will collect a fee or kick you out.”
“…!”
“But seeing as they pluck eyes instead of kicking us out, it’s a fee collection. That thing earlier… must be a sort of ‘staff’ for this exhibition.”
Surprisingly, it was persuasive.
Baek Sa-heon asked reflexively.
“Why do you think human eyes are the fee?”
“Who knows. Maybe because body parts are the most valuable things humans possess?”
“……!”
“I guess everything else we have is worthless from their perspective.”
“…’Their’ perspective?”
Kim Sol-eum shook his head expressionlessly.
“I don’t know.”
And likely, no one who had been swept into this would know…
A chill ran down his spine.
“Anyway, whoever runs this exhibition seems to think human body parts are the most valuable things people have.”
“…….”
“And at first, an eye seems to be the most appropriate value.”
An eye.
He only had one.
Baek Sa-heon almost reflexively pressed down on his eye patch.
He still remembered it.
Kim Sol-eum, staring at him as he left the subway, holding up the other eyeball—the ‘correct answer.’
That eerie composure and observation as he waited for him to realize his eye had been plucked for no reason.
That mocking gaze.
This darkness at least uses them as a fee, but what on earth did this bastard grow up eating to act so chillingly?
“But…”
“…!”
Kim Sol-eum stared intently at Baek Sa-heon.
“You went back to informal speech.”
Goosebumps erupted.
Baek Sa-heon tried his best to keep his voice calm.
“Yeah. Why don’t we just keep it casual? We’re colleagues; let’s escape together…”
“I don’t want to.”
“…….”
He felt a surge of anger for a moment but forced a smile.
“Don’t be like that. Seeing as you hid me in the vent, didn’t you have the intention of saving your colleague?”
“Yeah. So I could use you as bait if necessary.”
“…….”
Baek Sa-heon completely gave up on gaslighting and shifted to a persuasive tone.
Because Kim Sol-eum seemed to have a better grasp of this horrific exhibition ghost story than he expected.
“It’ll be easier to explore if there’s one more person. Especially in a dark place like this.”
“I don’t particularly need it.”
“…….”
“But let’s go together for the dopamine. More people mean more variables.”
He’s a lunatic.
Baek Sa-heon was certain.
In his eventful life, this was his first time meeting someone so openly insane.
However…
‘Is that the kind of person you have to be to adapt to this company?’
Feeling a strange sense of defeat, he gritted his teeth under his black goat mask.
“Moving out.”
Kim Sol-eum ignored the stiffened Baek Sa-heon and began to walk.
Then he said out of the blue.
“Thanks. I’m glad to hear that.”
“What?”
What was he thankful for?
Just as he was about to ask in confusion.
Kim Sol-eum put a finger to his lips.
“Quiet. I’m talking to Brown.”
“…….”
Baek Sa-heon barely managed to speak.
“Brown?”
“Yeah.”
Kim Sol-eum reached into his suit pocket and pulled something out.
It was a keychain with a cute, fluffy rabbit doll.
“Brown is saying hello to you right now.”
“…….”
Baek Sa-heon was starting to want to run away!
Of course, he had no way of guessing that Brown was actually saying things like, ’Oh, hello there, Mr. Victim-in-the-Next-Room-Who-Will-Soon-Die!’
Nor did he know that Kim Sol-eum was thinking this:
‘Phew. Having one more person around makes it a bit less scary.’
The thought of roaming this place with only the doll, Brown, had been as chilling as the time with the Window Ghost.
‘I think I made a good choice!’
“Are you going to search this place to secure more spots like that vent earlier?”
“No.”
Kim Sol-eum looked at Baek Sa-heon with eyes that seemed to be looking at someone truly absurd.
“We have to find the exit. Why would we look for a vent?”
“…….”
“If you like vents so much, you can stay in one. And pay the fee when you get caught.”
Kim Sol-eum knew.
‘This guy… he’s the type you can’t let your guard down around.’
Baek Sa-heon was the kind of person who would show his true colors the moment he was given an opening!
This was the same Baek Sa-heon who had attacked a stranger without blinking an eye until their eyeball burst.
Let’s not forget that his nickname at the academy was the Viper.
Vigilance is key!
‘I have to act like a lunatic too.’
Thus, the uncomfortable exploration of the darkness began for the two “lunatics.”
