Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 44
A dark, bronze-colored mansion.
I was walking silently behind Assistant Manager Park Min-seong.
The assistant manager, who had achieved the insane feat of ‘disguising himself as a guide machine to deceive the machines and rescue a poor new recruit,’ evaluated himself like this:
“The AI didn’t seem like a particularly brilliant machine. About the level of a robot vacuum? So I figured I could fool its eyes for a second!”
I didn’t think the machine’s intelligence was actually that bad, but regardless, I was so moved I could weep with gratitude that he had saved me at the perfect moment.
“Um, but how did you… as a guide machine…”
“Ah! My personal equipment.”
Assistant Manager Park gave a wide grin and showed me a piece of cloth hanging around his neck.
Ah!
I recalled the introduction he’d given me before about his personal equipment.
—Mine is a camouflage item, but I can’t turn into a person, and the duration is short. I just use it as a sort of last-ditch gamble when things get tight.
Since we’d only entered ghost stories where such a thing was useless or didn’t apply, I’d only heard about it in passing, but I was finally seeing it in person.
‘It’s actually pretty good in limited situations, isn’t it??’
I felt like paying to have new personal equipment made or even borrowing it as a parent item.
Of course, that wasn’t the immediate priority!
“Good. Phew. Now that we’ve found Roe Deer, let’s get the hell out of this crazy place.”
“Have you found a way out?”
“…….”
Assistant Manager Park Min-seong didn’t answer and just gave a knowing smirk.
‘He must have something up his sleeve.’
For now, I decided to follow him quickly.
“This way.”
We climbed the stairs again from the first basement floor.
Before long, the surroundings turned yellowish, and a massive corridor drenched in brass tones—instead of bronze—revealed itself.
‘It’s the ground floor.’
That alone was enough to make me feel relieved, but…
Pandemonium was breaking out on the first floor.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
“Mmph!!! Mmmmph!”
“My eaaaar… My ear!”
Screams echoed from everywhere.
‘Two hours have passed.’
It seemed the employees who had been hiding were finally being caught by the guide robots, having other body parts ripped out…
Just like I had been a moment ago.
“…….”
The assistant manager moved his feet without even glancing toward the corners where the sounds originated.
“Roe Deer, don’t look back.”
“…….”
His hands were gripped so tight the veins stood out.
“It’s hard, I know, but right now we’re barely keeping our own team alive. If you’re going to keep collecting points here… you have to learn how to let go.”
“…….”
Suddenly, I remembered the moment on the talk show when the assistant manager had resigned himself to his fate.
—…I have family in the hospital. I’d appreciate it if someone could check in on them after this shoot is over! If possible, that is.
Somehow, I felt like I understood how this good-natured man managed to endure this place…
In any case, I didn’t protest.
Soon, after scanning the surroundings, the assistant manager seemed to have safely reached his destination.
And that place was…
“Here it is.”
“…….”
A window.
The tightly closed, opaque glass window that Go Young-eun had supposedly tried so hard to open earlier.
‘Is he saying we should go out through here?’
However, instead of trying to tear the window open, the assistant manager raised a finger and gave a timid knock.
Knock—knock-knock, knock.
Then, the window clicked open.
“…?!”
No, it didn’t just open.
The way it slid all the way down to the floor…
‘…A terrace door!’
This wasn’t a window!
‘Wait, is that why the exploration records said…?’
======================
The 19th record is a testimony left by a visitor who attempted to exit through a window; however, it will be omitted due to credibility issues.
This exhibition has no windows.
======================
I thought it was just the typical narrative style of a ghost story manual, but there really were no windows.
“Let’s go in.”
“Yes.”
There was no time to be bewildered, so we immediately stepped out through the open terrace door. A small hexagonal terrace space with a long sofa and a table was revealed.
Strangely, however, the scenery outside the terrace was invisible. Only a thick black fog swirled…
As if our sight was not permitted.
Thud.
The moment Assistant Manager Park closed the terrace door while staying alert, the person sitting on the sofa stood up and tapped my shoulder.
“I knew you’d be safe.”
“Deputy Manager.”
It was Deputy Manager Eun Haje.
And then, the vertical pupils of the Lizard Team Leader met mine nonchalantly.
“Our Team Leader suggested we expand the search range since you weren’t nearby, and you popped up right from the floor below.”
“Thank you.”
“Did you go down there on purpose to find an exit in that creepy place? That’s so like you.”
I looked at Assistant Manager Park with newfound appreciation.
Coming down to the first basement floor where the atmosphere suddenly shifted, without any information on floor levels, was a massive decision.
‘Thank you, truly…’
Thanks to him, I kept my eyes.
Wait, and besides…
“How on earth did you open this? Someone else tried to open the windows repeatedly and failed…”
“? I opened it with my hands.”
“…….”
I see.
‘They say if your body is weak, your head suffers, but…’
Now that I looked at it, the terrace door handle seemed to be dangling.
Wouldn’t something terrible happen if the guide caught us with that?
However, the D Team superiors seemed accustomed to such situations where the Lizard Section Chief created his own path, and simply began their meeting calmly.
“Well, now that all our team members are here… shall we try to escape, Team Leader?”
“Yes.”
“…Is there a viable escape method?”
“Yes.”
“……May I ask what kind of method it is?”
Section Chief Lee Ja-heon answered simply.
“We will tie a rope to the terrace railing and explore the exterior walls of this exhibition space.”
“…….”
Excuse me?
“Looking from the outside, there must be a floor with a main entrance. We just have to go out through there.”
Well, that’s…
“I see.”
I might have been tempted if this damn mansion didn’t potentially go down seven thousand floors.
And if I didn’t currently have an item in my briefcase that could facilitate an easier escape.
‘We can just leave with this.’
Thinking of the candle that should be hardening nicely, I raised my hand.
“Please wait a moment.”
I felt I could persuade them if I explained while showing the physical object.
Let’s just stall for a bit until it’s finished.
And while I’m at it, let’s do some rescue work.
“I was with two of my colleagues before we got separated, and they should still be nearby. If you give me a moment, I’ll go out and find them—”
“…….”
“…….”
Ah.
“Roe Deer,”
Deputy Manager Eun Haje spoke flatly.
“Exactly three recruits entered this place. Including you.”
“…….”
“They said they picked a few kids who had good performance records and threw them in… but they probably know. They were just filling the headcount.”
“Senior,”
“Be quiet.”
The Deputy Manager, silencing the assistant manager, continued.
“You saw them at lunch, right? The higher-ups in the conference room. Those bird-brains are hoping this place might actually be an A-grade.”
I remembered.
—No, it’s definitely a high-level darkness, but a civilian survivor came out? This could be an innovative case for opening a new supply source for high-quality raw materials.
“They were all excited, wondering if this would become the supply source with the highest survival rate among all A-grade darknesses. A-grade Dream Essence extract is always out of stock.”
“…….”
“New recruits? They were put in with the assumption that their deaths would just be written off as expenses from the start.”
Because securing a supply source for top-tier raw materials, which were in short supply, by pulling an A-grade manual was more profitable.
While it was true that Field Exploration Team members were valued more as they gained experience and survived longer, consumables were still consumables.
They were secondary to more precious resources.
“Remember this. The further a bastard works from field exploration, the more they treat human lives like flies.”
Deputy Manager Eun Haje tucked her cigarette back with a sigh.
“So just look after your own life.”
“…….”
“We don’t have time, so let’s head down. Having useless sympathy will only make things harder for you.”
I barely managed to open my mouth.
“It’s not that.”
“Good kid, yeah. If they’re lucky, they’ll get out—”
“My colleague was carrying the escape item!”
“…?!”
Of course, it was a lie.
“We don’t know what’s out there, so there’s no need to risk going down on a rope.”
But this much was definitely true!
“With that item, we’ll be able to escape here safely.”
I went back down to the first basement floor.
Walking here alone made my legs shake, but perhaps because my goal was so clear, the fear felt a bit duller.
Finding my colleagues.
—I’ll give you exactly 20 minutes. If you can’t find them by then, you’re coming back.
My lie—that my colleague had an escape item that would make the universe marvel and the world tremble—had roughly worked.
So the time given was short, but… it was doable.
‘They couldn’t have gone far.’
When people are in shock, their mobility drops. They’re likely hiding somewhere nearby to conceal themselves and try to pull their mental state together.
Besides, I had given them a hint.
About where it would be good to hide.
‘The vents.’
And at the 7-minute mark of the search.
I finally found a colleague squeezed into a vent on the outer corridor of the first basement floor.
But it was Baek Sa-heon.
“…….”
“…….”
“Hey.”
Baek Sa-heon avoided my gaze.
“Do you want to get out?”
Baek Sa-heon looked at me with an extremely suspicious expression.
But at the same time, he nodded.
“Then tell me where Mountain Goat is.”
Uh, for some reason, this sounded like I was threatening him to give up an ally’s location…
“She went into the left exhibition hall. Probably hiding behind a sofa or something!”
“…….”
He gave up the location without a moment’s hesitation. Loyal bastard.
Anyway, I successfully found Go Young-eun as well.
14 minutes had elapsed by then.
“Roe, Roe Deer-ssi…! Thank goodness, really… !”
I briefly explained to Go Young-eun, whose eyes were swollen from crying, that I’d received help from the superiors, and we quickly resumed moving.
And I cautioned them.
“I told the team members that I had to find you because you two were entrusted with the key escape item. Please match my story.”
“…!”
I handed Go Young-eun the paper with the candle mold drawn on it, which I had kept in my briefcase.
Go Young-eun very carefully tucked it into the front of her suit and nodded.
“I just need to keep my mouth shut and follow your lead, right?”
Yes!
Baek Sa-heon, who was naturally ignored during this process, looked at me with an expression that said he had a lot to say, but he didn’t bother opening his mouth.
He must have felt that escape was near.
And when I stepped out onto the terrace with my two colleagues after opening the terrace door, exactly 19 minutes had passed.
I’d wrapped it up within 20 minutes. Phew.
“I’ve brought them.”
“Wow.”
“Honestly, since it’s Roe Deer, I knew it’d be like this.”
Seeing the deputy manager and assistant manager toss out their comments, the two recruits began to look wary. It was obvious to anyone that the atmosphere wasn’t exactly welcoming.
In fact, Section Chief Lizard was already in the middle of taking out a rope on the terrace.
“Ah, um…”
“I’ll skip the introductions.”
Section Chief Lee Ja-heon tied the rope into a taut-line hitch to secure it to a pillar and spoke dryly.
“Explain the item in your possession within 200 seconds.”
The colleagues swallowed hard in unison.
I immediately interjected.
“May I explain on their behalf?”
“Yes.”
Now was the time to explain properly.
According to the keywords I had combined, this candle was…
“This item can deceive the guide machines.”
Section Chief Lee Ja-heon stopped what he was doing.
