Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 51
I Still Have to Go to Work Even if I Fall into a Ghost Story
I Still Have to Go to Work Even if I Fall into a Ghost Story, Episode 51
I Still Have to Go to Work Even if I Fall into a Ghost Story, Episode 051
‘It’s been a productive day.’
An extra forty million won in profit. It was the best choice.
‘I think I’ve established a line for regular side income without standing out.’
Various options for how to spend today’s forty million won floated through my head, along with the new company sectors that had been unlocked following my promotion.
And a certain stuffed doll, who had picked up on my windfall with razor-sharp precision, was starting to subtly hint at what it wanted.
-Whew, I’ve been out so much lately that my body feels quite stiff. I would like to take a bath….
Endure it. It’s not like I can go out and lift blood packs from some hospital….
-Of course. I can certainly endure it. Because I am a good friend….
Well, a bath in the Blood Bath Tub might be out of the question, but I could probably give him a hand-wash.
I was planning to spend the evening engaging in such trivial banter with Brown.
That was, until someone burst into my room.
“You!!”
“…!”
It was Baek Sa-heon.
Why on earth was this guy, who barely ever left his own room, suddenly barging into someone else’s without knocking?
But before I could even point out his rudeness, I realized the state he was in.
He was practically in a panic.
“What the hell does this mean…! What have you dragged me into?!”
He was clutching his smartphone, and displayed on the screen was….
[Kim Sol-eum: Watch out for the serial killer]
It was the message I had sent.
I’d sent another one just as I was coming in earlier.
But here’s the thing.
“I didn’t drag you into anything.”
“…….”
“You’re the one who made the wrong choice.”
-Roe Deer-ssi’s ‘colleague’ picked up the item, and now he will soon die a gruesome death!
Baek Sa-heon’s face turned pale.
‘It looks like something just popped off right as he saw my message.’
Since he wasn’t dead yet, he could probably handle it by contacting the company or something.
Anyway, I didn’t want to get involved and suffer for nothing, so I was about to head out when….
-Oh my, can you hear it?
-It seems time is up for Roe Deer-ssi’s ‘colleague.’
“…….”
What?
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
A humming sound began to drift through the air.
The source was definitely Baek Sa-heon standing right in front of me.
But Baek Sa-heon hadn’t even opened his mouth.
……In that case.
“You’re holding something you shouldn’t have, aren’t you?”
“…….”
With a pale complexion, Baek Sa-heon reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
It was a cassette tape.
On its stained, old ivory body, there were traces of a title on a sticker that had been roughly crossed out with a pen.
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
The humming emanating from the tape grew louder and louder.
A very intuitive… signal.
-The time has come.
Let’s bolt.
I immediately stood up and ran out of the dormitory.
The problem was that Baek Sa-heon followed me out in a frantic scramble!
“Throw the tape away first!”
“I already did! Out the window!”
Then stop following me!
-It is too late.
-Oh dear, Roe Deer-ssi… you saw the item too. You’ve become entangled in this story. You’ve become part of the selection of the scapegoat.
-Though I suppose it’s inevitable for a talented guest with such a gift for entertainment like yourself!
Ha.
‘Why can’t this Baek Sa-heon bastard handle his own business instead of being such a nuisance to others…!’
I gave him a warning; he should have taken it! Are you really a named employee of a ghost story company?
Curses surged up to my throat. But since there wasn’t even time to swear, I ran faster.
‘Let’s just put some physical distance between us first.’
If we haven’t fully fallen into the ghost story yet, then generally, securing some distance should help!
In one breath, I distanced myself from the dormitory and headed for the bus stop.
And I caught the bus that arrived immediately.
Beep.
As I tapped my card and boarded, I heard the sound of Baek Sa-heon tapping his card behind me.
‘Why are you following me, you lunatic!’
Doesn’t he have any human conscience to keep the person who gave him advice from getting dragged in?
Now that I think about it, he probably doesn’t. The guy was a total sociopath!
Regardless, the bus doors closed, and it set off without any issues.
“Haa.”
“Haa…….”
The humming could no longer be heard.
I went to the very back and sat right next to the emergency exit hammer that could break the glass. Just in case.
After a moment of hesitation, Baek Sa-heon sat down right near me.
“…….”
“…….”
It wasn’t rush hour, and we’d avoided the lunch break; it was a weekend, so there were only a few passengers on the bus. Two or three in the front seats.
After checking his surroundings, Baek Sa-heon lowered his voice and asked anxiously.
“Hey, you… how did you know to send that message?”
“Hey?”
“…I thought we agreed to speak casually…… no, I mean… right. Assistant Manager. How on earth did you know?”
“How I know isn’t what’s important.”
I spoke, suppressing the urge to scream at the cowering Baek Sa-heon.
“The important thing is why you had that in your possession.”
“…….”
If this guy kept his mouth shut, I was planning to get off at the next stop and hail a taxi. Even if I had to throw him out of the cab to stop him from following me.
But as if he had sensed my intent, Baek Sa-heon opened his mouth.
“…It was something I had at home.”
Home?
“I inherited it from a relative. They told me to use it if I ever wanted to turn the tables in a crisis, so I’ve been carrying it around….”
-Ah, the classic trick. An heirloom you thought was a symbol of protection turns out to be a haunted object… is this not the very cliché of a horror movie!
Precisely.
I wasn’t trying to needle him; I asked out of genuine curiosity.
“You work for a company that ranks ghost stories, and you never once thought to have that inspected?”
“…If the company thought it was useful, they might have kept it after the inspection! I thought it through.”
“I don’t think you did.”
“…….”
“Try thinking from now on.”
“…Ah, yes.”
Baek Sa-heon’s face flushed red and then pale as he forced a smile so strained his lips twitched.
This guy was truly transparent—acting like a prickly sociopath one moment, then suddenly becoming polite the moment he got scared.
Anyway, I suppressed a sigh and assessed the situation.
It was a textbook introduction to getting caught in a ghost story.
“For now, let’s go to the final stop, get off, and contact the company security team….”
“…….”
“…….”
“……W-what is it, Assistant Manager?”
Something was wrong.
City bus stops are usually within three minutes of each other.
But this bus—
Why was it still driving?
-Oh my, it has caught up.
I looked out the window.
……Fog was rolling in.
The scenery outside the city bus, which had been traveling along a pleasant four-lane road in downtown Seoul, began to transform into a winding, unpaved road before I knew it.
“…!”
I stood up from my seat.
The passengers in the front seats had vanished.
…The only one still there was the driver.
“…….”
The bus driver was now wearing a worn-out cap.
The kind of cap that would have been worn back when buses still had a sense of formal decorum.
And with a gloved hand, humming to himself, he reached out and turned on the radio.
Click.
And what flowed out was….
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
That humming from the cassette tape.
“……!”
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
The humming filled the bus.
The low-floor bus that had been driving through modern Seoul had somehow become an old, dilapidated bus with seats arranged in rows.
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
“Don’t look back.”
It was already too late.
Baek Sa-heon gripped the handrail with a stiff face, staring straight ahead. I tried not to look too closely at the exterior where the fog was clearing, fixing my gaze forward.
The narrow path turned into a worn, paved road.
The old bus, which had been rattling along the rough country road, finally slowed down….
[This stop is ‘Horizon Lodge.’]
“…….”
The destination was in sight.
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
The humming was now flowing from the radio as an unmistakable melody.
Listening to the upbeat yet minor-key pop melody that was popular in the 1980s and 90s, I looked at the scene outside the opening doors….
[Horizon Lodge]
A luxurious mountain villa-style mansion with a sign in elegant calligraphy stood in the middle of the mountains.
“…….”
Ha.
“…Are you going to get off?”
Yeah.
Even though I hate it more than words can say.
I stood up and stepped toward the open door. Behind me, I heard the sound of Baek Sa-heon muttering something like a curse as he scrambled to follow me off.
Behind us, the bus doors closed, and it pulled away.
Along with the humming melody.
“…….”
“…….”
Baek Sa-heon muttered in a slightly relieved tone.
“At least the song isn’t playing anymore, and the tape is gone, so the situation is better than before….”
“Check your pocket.”
“What?”
“Your pocket. Put your hand in and check.”
“…….”
Baek Sa-heon looked at me with a blank expression, then suddenly thrust his hand into his coat pocket.
And what came out was….
The old cassette tape he said he’d thrown away earlier.
“…!!”
I grabbed Baek Sa-heon’s arm as he tried to throw the cassette tape away again.
“It’s already too late, so get ready to go in.”
“Go in….”
“There.”
I pointed toward Horizon Lodge.
Once you’ve come this far, running is useless.
You’ll only waste your energy and, after all sorts of suffering, end up back at this ‘location that serves as the setting for the story’ anyway….
‘I’d rather go in early and at least assess the situation.’
-Roe Deer-ssi, you’re moving as if you somehow know what lies ahead! Is this another story you already knew?
Brown, having noticed that I possessed quite a broad range of information regarding supernatural phenomena, spoke up.
And… he was right.
‘…That’s right.’
The keywords had been combined.
A serial killer.
A lure using a mode of transportation.
An item that keeps returning to your pocket as if cursed.
And….
I raised my head and looked at our destination.
‘……Horizon Lodge.’
======================
Occult Exploration Records / Ghost Story
[And Then There Was Someone]
: A ghost story appearing in,
The registration number at the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau is 1489PSYA.1991.Ra84.
A ghost story where people are killed one by one by a serial killer in a suspicious, isolated location. A variation of a classic closed-circle mystery novel and a B-movie slasher film.
A Brain-type (櫴形) disaster that can be sealed with nine humans; the Disaster Management Bureau must recruit personnel through volunteers or conscription once every four years.
======================
The true identity of the ghost story, deduced through an analysis no different from my work experience over the past few months.
However, there was something a bit different this time.
‘The affiliation…!’
This wasn’t the darkness of Baekilmong Corporation.
It was a ghost story quarantined by the government, or one to be quarantined in the future.
A so-called ‘Disaster’!
What was the difference?
It was because the rules of operation were fundamentally different from a large corporation trying to extract raw materials from the darkness for business.
The government created the Management Bureau primarily to prevent loss of life or massive property damage.
At least, that was the pretext.
Therefore, the Disaster Management Bureau prioritized the quarantine of things that should absolutely not be in the hands of the public.
In other words….
Someone unconditionally dies.
Whether you clear it, get trapped, fail, or succeed.
In every possible scenario.
‘The moment you’re caught in this, there’s a guaranteed kill.’
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
The government had judged that for this to be cleared, someone must die….
And I was right on the verge of stepping into the middle of it.
And it’s not even like they’re giving out points!!
‘That damn Baek Sa-heon!’
I wanted to scream curses at Baek Sa-heon right here and give him a bruise on his other eye to match….
‘It’s a waste of time….’
“Excuse me, Assistant Manager!”
I ignored Baek Sa-heon, sighed, and walked toward the main entrance of the lodge.
And just as I was about to knock after taking a deep breath….
Ding-ring.
I heard a bicycle bell from behind.
Turning my head, I saw a bicycle stopping in front of this secluded house in the woods, and a person riding it.
-Oh, another one has arrived. The one who picked up an item!
Tell me about it.
One more poor soul has been caught up in this damn ghost story.
I looked back, suppressing a groan… and was startled.
“…!”
A familiar face was getting off the bicycle.
To be precise, I didn’t know their face, but I recognized their attire.
A figure dressed in dark clothing with a hat and mask pulled low.
‘…Salmon Market!’
The person I had traded ghost food with at Gwanghwamun Station this morning was standing right there!
