Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 52
It had been three minutes since I was swept into a serial killer urban legend and dropped in front of a mountain lodge deep in the woods.
The trader from the second-hand market, who had gotten off his bicycle after us, approached the lodge door.
He paused for a moment when he saw Baek Sa-heon and me standing there.
‘…I think he recognized me.’
The seller from the second-hand market—he recognized me.
However, I kept my mouth shut, pretending I hadn’t noticed him yet.
Baek Sa-heon immediately began to chatter in a deceptively kind voice.
“Excuse me, are you the owner of this house? I’m so sorry, but I think we took the wrong bus. Since we’re in the forest, my phone isn’t getting any reception… I was wondering if we could use your phone for just one call?”
“I also took a wrong turn and came to ask for help.”
“Ah… I see.”
Only then did I look back at the man and pretend to be surprised.
“…!”
I just widened my eyes and gave a slight, silent nod.
The man, as if he had already noticed, didn’t seem particularly flustered and returned the nod slightly.
Meanwhile, Baek Sa-heon was subtly digging for information about the man’s identity.
He was likely trying to gauge if the man was weaker than him.
“Did you come here for a weekend trek? This place seems quite remote; you must be a local resident.”
“…No. I don’t know how I ended up here either. I definitely started from Seoul.”
“Oh, really? Same with us, but the phones don’t work here. I don’t suppose you know the way out or where exactly we are…?”
“……I’m not sure. Let’s go inside and ask.”
“…Ah, yes.”
Baek Sa-heon seemed to smack his lips at the fruitless conversation, then glanced at the bicycle the man had arrived on.
And finally, he seemed to have confirmed it.
The mark printed on the handlebars.
[Seoul Metropolitan Government #2153]
It was obviously for civil servant use. Baek Sa-heon, having spotted a gap to dig into his identity, looked pleased.
“Excuse me, by any chan—”
I poked Baek Sa-heon in the ribs.
The kid stiffened instantly and turned to look at me, mouth shut.
I slowly mouthed the words.
‘Disaster Management Bureau.’
“……!”
‘You must have heard at least once while working that the relationship between the company and the Bureau is dead-set awful.’
If we get caught…
As I made a slight, almost imperceptible gesture of slicing my throat with my hand, Baek Sa-heon’s complexion changed.
He didn’t proactively speak to the civil servant again. Mm. Good attitude.
“I’ll try the door.”
I nodded to the civil servant, who had grabbed the doorknob before I knew it, and he lightly pushed open the wooden door of the lodge.
Creeeeeak.
“Is anyone here?”
The midday sunlight poured into the somewhat dark lodge.
And…
“Oh? Someone else is here!”
“Are you the owner??”
The people who had arrived earlier revealed themselves.
A man and woman who looked like a married couple, three people in their twenties, and a middle-aged man.
Six people.
Including the three of us… nine in total.
‘It’s started.’
Suppressing the urge to squeeze my eyes shut, I stepped into the lodge.
And everything proceeded exactly like a cliché…
The couple who said they ended up here because their GPS broke.
“No, the GPS led us to this weird place, the car broke down, the phone won’t work… I’m going crazy!”
“Oh, honey, that’s why I told you. Let’s go to Sapporo instead of Sokcho!”
Three college students from a hiking club who got stranded.
“We even left our car parked down below.”
“I know… Ah, this is driving me nuts.”
And even a middle-aged man who was looking for the nearest bus stop to go home after finishing a job as a designated driver.
“Aigoo, still, seeing other people makes me feel so relieved. If we wait, won’t the owner show up?”
—And now, when the lodge owner appears, does the bloodbath begin?
Close enough.
I surveyed the surroundings with the dead eyes of someone who had given up on everything.
I couldn’t even pack my items properly.
Life is truly hard…
‘Let’s only worry about myself. Just me!’
A question was directed at us, the newcomers.
“What do you young men do for a living?”
“Ah, we’re just office workers, but I think we got the route wrong while taking the bus for an outside assignment. This is the Assistant Manager, and I’m just a regular employee.”
Look at this brat Baek Sa-heon, subtly shifting the responsibility onto me.
I pulled out my notebook.
Since I was still in my outdoor clothes, it was in my pocket, allowing me to maintain my character.
[Hello.]
“Huh? Why are you writing…?”
[My throat is a bit uncomfortable.]
“Ah, I see.”
The three college students turned away with expressions that said I was being dramatic. The couple glanced at me and then moved a little further away.
“Ugh, I heard the flu is nasty these days. Did he catch something like that?”
“He should at least wear a mask. What if it spreads to others?”
[I’m sorry. I’ll try not to speak and be careful.]
Baek Sa-heon looked at me as if he were seeing something disgusting. He’s been making the reactions I should be having for a while now.
“But is that young man over there from the same company?”
“No, we met in front of the door… Um.”
The Salmon Market trader had a large build and sharp eyes, giving him a fairly fierce impression, but he responded politely.
“I am a civil servant from the Seoul Metropolitan Government.”
Oh. He’s actually telling the truth?
He appropriately explained that he was a civil servant and that he had gotten lost while riding his bicycle.
Of course, that was it.
He didn’t breathe a word about being part of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau, or that they were all stuck in a ghost story and about to play Russian roulette with a serial killer.
Still, the people weren’t fools, so they must have felt the strangeness.
“Then all these people got lost in broad daylight and gathered at this countryside pension?”
“It’s like we’re possessed by a ghost.”
“Ahem! Honey, why would you say something so ominous?”
People get brave when there are many of them.
Even while mentioning ghosts, people were now glancing around as if they were looking at a tourist attraction.
“Come to think of it, this place…”
“Looks like a well-to-do house, doesn’t it? Eh? You know, like those rich houses that used to be in every neighborhood when we were kids.”
It was exactly as he said.
The wooden lodge, built in a style that was popular decades ago, felt somewhat tacky but had a cozy sense of abundance and luxury.
“Oh my, look over there. There’s even a gold frame!”
A large picture frame was hanging on one side of the living room, and the frame certainly looked like it was made of solid gold.
But the contents inside the frame caught my eye before the frame itself.
There was a poem.
+++
Happy Mealtime
The rabbit is roasted in the kitchen
The deer is caught in the backyard
The pigeon is fattened in the room
The sheep provides a slice in the living room
The sound of hopping and laughing
Thump, thump on the wooden floor beneath the feet
The table is bountiful
I hear a hum
The whole family is gathered around
Bon Appétit
+++
“……”
No way.
‘That’s an overt foreshadowing.’
—Ho-oh. Could it be a metaphor for the serial killings that are about to occur?
It seems very much so.
However, it seemed no one here was interested in the horror or mystery genre.
The college students from the hiking club chuckled among themselves, and one of them even went as far as stealing an ivory ornament from the table next to the sofa and slipping it into his pocket.
‘Oh.’
I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw them as the first corpses tomorrow.
The moment I thought that.
Thud.
“…!!”
A sound came from behind the kitchen.
I could see a shadow showing that the back door had opened.
And the figure slowly walking through the open door…
Wearing a worn-out hoodie, hunched over to hide his face, the figure was…
“Greetings, visitors of the lodge.”
“…?!”
“I am the Lodge Keeper, and I will be at your service during your stay.”
It was a deep voice.
He bowed to us with very polite, old-fashioned Seoul speech.
—Oh, a suspicious staff member!
Yeah. The character who usually appears as the ‘butler managing the murder mansion.’
Unlike my dead-fish eyes, the people were flustered by the speech and its content, which didn’t match his shabby attire.
“U-um, excuse me, we’re not exactly guests; we got lost and came to use the phone…”
“No. You have come to the right place.”
“Pardon?”
“Have you not come to exchange the Cassette Tapes?”
The people paused.
“The ones currently in your pockets.”
“…!”
As if possessed, everyone searched their pockets and pulled out an object.
A worn-out, ivory-colored Cassette Tape with a blurred title, similar to the one Baek Sa-heon had.
“…That!”
“How did everyone get that…?”
“The master of this lodge was a very wealthy man, and it is said that he distributed those Cassette Tapes to various places during his lifetime.”
The people flinched.
“And so, he made a promise.”
“W-what kind of promise?”
“The promise that ‘if you visit the lodge with that Cassette Tape, I will let you exchange it for anything I possess.’”
“…!”
“That remains valid even now that he has passed away.”
—An inheritance! What a fine bait.
Isn’t it just too obvious…
‘No, maybe it’s because it works so well that it’s obvious.’
Money always has a magical power.
The people let out hollow laughs, but their eyes instinctively turned toward the various precious metals and Goryeo celadon inside the display cabinets.
The middle-aged man burst into a hearty laugh and grabbed the solid gold frame, half-joking but half-serious.
“Ha, then can I just take this?”
The Lodge Keeper replied smoothly and politely.
“Of course. However, you may only leave with it after three days.”
“What?”
Mm. As expected.
======================
For the entrants, only if they stay in the disaster for a certain period of time,
a powerful monetary reward
is promised.
Here, the ‘certain period’ ranges from a maximum of one week to a minimum of 12 hours, presented within a range that the entrant can handle for the sake of the monetary reward.
======================
“To ensure you do not waste your one and only exchange opportunity, I am giving you three days of contemplation time.”
“No, I’m saying we don’t need that!”
“Then you may leave now. However, an exchange will not be possible.”
At the Lodge Keeper’s words, the couple shut their mouths. It seemed they were loath to give up the free money.
One of the people from the hiking club raised his hand from the back.
“Excuse me. Then… is something like that possible? Like, give me all the deceased person’s inheritance, that kind of thing.”
“It is possible.”
“…!!”
The playfulness vanished from the college student’s tone.
“Is it even possible to ask for this lodge?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
The look in people’s eyes changed.
‘They’ve started to want to believe it.’
The uncomfortable chill vanished without a trace, replaced by an atmosphere as if the kind of monetary luck one only sees on the internet had found them.
Once they even confirmed the will and documents shown by the keeper, it turned into certainty.
“I think this is real.”
“Crazy……”
The couple who had been cursing also changed their tune.
“It’s just a weekend trip; let’s just hold out. If something happens, eh? We can just call the police.”
“Exactly. Ugh, did some powerful shaman put a talisman in the tape? All these people gathered. It’s fascinating, truly fascinating.”
The Lodge Keeper even gave us time for each person to make a phone call.
Once everyone had finished their respective calls, the atmosphere became excited, as if this were some kind of event.
Watching this, the Lodge Keeper bowed deeply.
“In the case where so many of you have visited at once, the order of exchange will be important.”
“Ah, that’s true!”
“If the first person says, ‘Give me all the inheritance~’ then it’s over!”
“Therefore… we will give priority in the exchange starting from the person who possesses the most Cassette Tapes.”
“…!”
In an instant, people looked around at each other.
Especially the three college students who came together; they exchanged glances.
If they divided into groups, they had the most tapes.
“Wait, are you telling us to buy other people’s Cassette Tapes or something?”
“I am merely explaining the method. It is not mandatory, and it might be interesting for each of you to wisely create your own exchange conditions. The order will also be important.”
“…….”
A meaningful tension passed between the people.
“Shall I prepare the rooms then? There are bedrooms on the second floor where you can stay.”
“Ah, right.”
“Yes. Let’s start with the bedrooms…”
“Wait a moment, excuse me.”
Baek Sa-heon’s voice was heard from among the crowd.
“An urgent matter has come up, so I might have to go back. Could you tell me the way out of here?”
“Of course.”
But that didn’t happen.
A moment later.
======================
Entrants are inevitably isolated at the location for various reasons.
What primarily appears is extreme
weather anomalies
such as typhoons, heavy snow, or landslides.
======================
“It seems that heavy rain has caused a landslide, burying the way out. Fortunately, the power has not been cut, so there should be no problem with your stay.”
“…….”
Baek Sa-heon turned to me with an expression that said, ‘Aren’t we screwed?’
‘Exactly.’
I shrugged my shoulders.
Since things had turned out this way anyway, no one could leave until everything that was supposed to happen had happened.
‘Thanks to that, I’m currently racking my brain, trying to figure out how to get through this.’
If there’s one good thing, it’s that at least ghosts won’t appear…
‘…Though a killer will.’
And isn’t it obvious?
It’s a twist commonly used in all movies and novels, and it’s the same in ghost stories.
The killer…
One of the entrants performs a
special role
. In a narrative sense, they correspond to a predator
is among us.
Commonly referred to as a
serial killer
.
I had to find and avoid the person among us who would transform into the killer.
The individual in question comes to firmly believe that they are a being who has inherited the inspiration and legacy of a legendary killer derived from this location, and they experience mental and physical mutations.
‘Hmm.’
Or… I could use a slightly different method.
Just as I was stroking my chin, I saw the civil servant quietly leaving his spot.
“I’ll go check the weather outside for a moment.”
“Go ahead.”
I followed him out to the veranda.
A fierce wind and rain had begun to howl, the outside had grown dark, and raindrops slightly dampened my clothes.
It seemed the heavy rain would mask our voices.
I held up my notebook, being careful not to let it get wet.
[You’re the person who bought the cookies, right? I was worried I might be mistaken.]
Fortunately, the civil servant didn’t pretend not to know me.
“Yes. That’s right.”
However, he was looking me up and down as if gauging me.
Hmm.
I pretended to scan the surroundings, and after confirming that no one was looking this way, I quickly scribbled in the notebook with a tense face.
[I’m sorry, but could this… be a strange situation?]
“…….”
[Because no matter how much I think about it, it’s strange that only people with Cassette Tapes got lost and arrived here.]
[Could it be… a ghost?]
He would already know that I’m someone who has experienced supernatural events. After all, I sold food that came out of a ghost story.
Asking a question of this level wouldn’t make me look strange.
‘The problem is whether he judges that I entered here intentionally.’
If possible, I want to be treated as an innocent civilian.
I was planning to decide my course of action based on how he reacted here.
‘Honestly, there’s a high probability he’ll give a safe answer like ‘I’m not sure’…’
“That’s right.”
…??
Just like that?
The civil servant seemed to struggle for a moment, then asked me.
“How did you obtain the Cassette Tape?”
[Actually, I don’t have one… I saw a colleague at work had one.]
[It looked ominous for some reason, so I told him to throw it away and we got on the bus, but it brought us here.]
“…….”
The civil servant put his hand to his chin and was silent for a moment.
“Do you get caught up in things like this often?”
I just laughed as if I were in a difficult spot.
[Occasionally?]
“I see.”
He hesitated before continuing.
“I am… well, a government agent of sorts.”
He’s revealing that much?
[Really? Like a 007 who catches ghosts?]
“Um… yes.”
[Wow!]
…‘Now is not the time to be impressed’ is written all over your face, sir.
“Anyway, it is true that we are within a supernatural phenomenon. Be careful. …Try to stay with me if possible, and if absolutely necessary, move in groups of three or more.”
Wait a minute.
‘He’s treating me like a much more innocent civilian than I thought?’
I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s a good thing. I quickly replied.
[Thank you. But… what about the others?]
The civil servant replied firmly.
“You don’t need to worry about them.”
Hmm.
[Should I perhaps tell my colleague—]
“No.”
Whoops.
The civil servant glanced back at the living room and then lowered his voice, speaking quietly.
As if confessing a massive secret.
“Actually.”
Actually?
“…There is a killer among us.”
Mm.
Yes.
I know…….
Of course, I couldn’t show it, so I quickly scribbled the next words in my notebook, pretending to be flustered.
[A killer? How do you know that??]
“…This lodge is no ordinary place. It has never been made public to the press, but similar situations have already repeated several times, and visitors were murdered by a killer.”
—Ah, a nightmare of that day reenacted at a time-honored, legendary murder scene… that’s quite a decent taste.
No, it’s not, you Host.
“Don’t trust anyone, no matter how close you are, and it would be best not to open your door to anyone when you are alone in your room.”
‘Usually, the one who struggles and insists on staying inside their room is the first to die…’
Anyway, I think I’ve confirmed a few facts about him through this exchange.
And about this ghost story as well.
[Thank you]
I conveyed my thanks and goodnight to the civil servant and left the veranda.
And I was able to go to my assigned room with a much easier mind.
Because I had made up my mind on what to do.
“Whew.”
I searched the room.
I was looking for something.
Namely…
—A weapon, I see.
When I opened the closet in this room, I saw two fairly large hatchets hanging as decorations.
“…….”
It’s truly scary and exhausting, but it can’t be helped.
—Ah, this is going to be truly fun!
Since it’s come to this…
‘Shall I make the first move?’
I pulled out the hatchet.
Serial killer—I’ll give it a try.
