Even if I fall into a ghost story, I still have to go to work
Chapter 73
Brown is gone.
“W-what is this?”
“Th-this person, he moved!!”
Judging by the fact that there are no silver coins inside the doll, has the ‘Good Friend’ ritual itself been nullified? Or is it because this is a dream that it only appears as a regular doll…
‘Stop!’
Now is not the time for deduction! Get it together!
You’re inside a ghost story right now!
“Look over here!”
I snapped my head around.
Someone was screaming in a corner of the darkened classroom.
It was the person who had been poking the ‘student’ who sat alone at a desk, unmoving like a wax figure.
But that wax figure…
“There!”
It had vanished from the desk.
And if you followed the trembling finger of the person whose face had turned pale as a ghost…
[Segwang Industrial High School]
The missing student was standing tall at the back door.
Hand gripping the handle.
Expressionless.
Staring back into the classroom.
“…….”
“H-hey. You’re joking right now, right?”
There was no answer.
No movement.
“Hold on.”
One brave soul approached and waved a hand right in front of the student’s face.
The ‘student’ didn’t even blink. He just stood there, frozen stiff in front of the back door, looking incredibly lifelike…
“He’s not breathing. It’s a mannequin, not a person…”
“How does a mannequin move all of a sudden? Maybe it’s some technique to make it look like they’re not breathing?”
“Yeah, this is one of those things. You know, like on variety shows or Wetube where they observe people’s reactions.”
It wasn’t.
Naturally, there were no cameras here, nor any production crew trying to prank people.
[Ding-dong-dang-dong—]
Instead.
[Attention, students of Segwang Industrial High School! The graduation ceremony is about to begin. Please gather in the auditorium.]
“Graduation ceremony…?”
The broadcast was crisp and orderly, sounding just like a normal school.
“Shall we go? This is strange.”
“Hey, we look like we did in high school, right? Wow. What kind of dream is this?”
A few people, having decided it was just a dream, chatted amongst themselves without a hint of tension.
Admittedly, it wouldn’t feel that scary yet.
‘It doesn’t feel real to them.’
They had returned to their high school selves, after all. Rejuvenation is usually a pleasant thing.
And while a school at night is a staple of ghost stories, it can also feel romantic when there are many people around and the moonlight is streaming in.
But…
“Uh, this student mannequin? Look at this.”
One person approached the motionless student at the back door.
He pointed to the hand reaching behind the student.
“The hand gesture looks just like…”
[Students, for the sake of heating and safety, we will now close the automatic curtains and turn off the lights.]
“It looks like he was trying to lock the back door.”
Thump.
The window curtains closed.
“Mommy!”
“Ah, you scared me!”
The automatic curtains slammed shut with a roar, and for a moment, the classroom was plunged into pitch-black darkness.
Just for a split second.
Flicker.
A moment later, the classroom lights buzzed on.
“Ah, thank goodness.”
“I guess they were just trying to turn on the lights… Huh?”
Blood was pooling on the ivory-colored classroom floor.
“Uh… Uh-uh-uh-uh?”
Following the trail of blood upward,
One of the people lay collapsed near the back door, their neck snapped completely backward.
An enormous amount of blood gushed from the neck, twisted at a bizarre angle no living human could achieve, and pooled between the floorboards.
Their eyes were wide open in shock, as if they hadn’t expected it at all.
“Aaaaah!”
“Gaaahhh!!”
It had begun.
======================
Darkness Exploration Record / Ghost Story
[Inside the Black Shadow]
: A ghost story appearing in . Baekilmong Corporation’s identification code is Qterw-()-62, and the Disaster Management Bureau’s registration number is 2845PSYA.2016.Ha53.
If you fall asleep after reading a text file circulating on the internet, you wake up at
Segwang Industrial High School
at night and are hunted by something
non-human
until you die.
All civilian attempts to find the high school in reality have failed, and it is currently identified as a place that does not exist in Korea.
======================
That’s right.
The only way to escape this nightmare ghost story is ‘death.’
There is no way out of this school at night except by dying.
And… the non-human entity that appears in this ghost story has become such a classic it’s now a cliché.
“Th-that…! That person!!”
One of the screaming people pointed a trembling finger.
At the student still frozen at the back door.
But there was one difference.
“There’s blood on his hands.”
“…….”
The people’s gazes stiffened as they turned.
And they confirmed the fact.
On the student mannequin’s right hand, which was gripping the door, inside the fingers curled as if to hide it.
Blood was smeared along the fingerprints.
“…….”
Their gazes shifted back to the corpse.
They saw the bloody handprint on the back of the corpse’s snapped neck.
They saw it.
“Ack!”
“Oh my god! Uh-uh-uh-uh! Gasp!”
And again.
Flicker.
The lights flickered.
The students of
Segwang Industrial High School
do not move as long as someone is watching them.
But the moment they are out of sight—
When the classroom brightens again in the blink of an eye.
They move with inhuman speed.
The person who had been pointing at the mannequin was gone.
“Ack!!”
That person was found on the floor, their body crushed from the chest down.
Thud.
The pointing finger, having lost its support, slumped weakly to the floor.
“Ah…”
“…….”
“AAAAAAAAAH!!”
Panic, fear, and frenzy.
“N-now! Let’s attack now! Hey, those of you close by, hit it!”
“F-fuck! Then you do it! Why are you shitting on me!”
Flicker.
“Hieee.”
Another corpse was added.
One of the people who had been shouting was shoved headfirst into a desk.
Only their lower body remained sticking out.
“…….”
“…….”
In the silence of terror,
People turned their heads.
Now the ‘student’ at the back door was staring intently at the people.
A strange smile was etched on his face.
“…!!”
“Hieeeek!”
“R-run! Run!”
“Open the door, now!”
People rushed toward the front door, avoiding the back door blocked by the student. But…
It was already too late.
“This way… Aaaaaah!”
The person who opened the front door collapsed.
Standing in front of the open front door was a smiling student.
[Segwang Industrial High School]
The female student, with her bangs neatly trimmed, was also wearing the same Name Tag.
“Go, just go to the side!”
“Move!”
People ran past the smiling student. And again.
Flicker.
The lights flickered.
“…….”
The student at the front door vanished from my sight.
Aaaaaah!
…Desperate screams echoed from the hallway.
And one by one, the screams died out.
“…….”
“…….”
A maddening silence.
The sound of ragged breathing, distant screams, and people staring at the door with eyes wide enough to pop out.
“Slowly,”
I said quietly, looking around the classroom.
“Let’s move slowly. While checking if anything starts moving again. Both the front and back doors.”
“Ah, ah….”
Adults, looking no different from high schoolers, shuddered and stumbled back from the door.
“…….”
Of the people who had woken up in this class.
Half had run away, their fates unknown, and the other half remained in the classroom.
No, rather than remaining, it was more like they were frozen, unable to move.
I thought quietly amidst them.
‘I’m screwed.’
I shouldn’t have started like this.
Before the curtains closed and plunged everything into total darkness, I should have rushed out alone, grabbed an emergency Flashlight, and hidden with the necessary items.
‘I missed the timing.’
I was flustered by Brown’s absence, and my judgment was delayed.
Meanwhile, some people finally began to realize the situation.
“Th-this is that thing!”
“Huh?”
“Don’t you know? The monster that can’t move if you’re looking at it!”
“D-do you know about it?”
“Damn it, why don’t you know?? You know, that monster that follows you if you don’t look at it! It can’t move right now because we’re looking at it!”
A person whose voice had turned strange with fear and excitement rambled on.
Asking if everyone had seen that weird text file, saying it felt like we were inside a game, wondering if it was a possession story…
Even those who would normally ignore such things listened, gripped by panic.
It was a development I’d seen many times before.
And the conclusion of a group overwhelmed by fear was also… simplistic and violent.
“Then we have to—! Attack it and get rid of it!”
“What?!”
“I’m telling you, even if we run away now, it’ll just keep following us! Everyone’s dying because they aren’t looking! You saw the people who went out! Hurry! Before the lights flicker again!”
“Ah!”
As if possessed, people searched the empty classroom for anything that could be a weapon. Brooms, chairs, mops, box cutters…
‘No.’
This is the shortcut to a typical bad ending!
“Please wait a moment…”
It was then.
Someone covered my mouth.
“…!”
I almost threw a punch.
To avoid escalating the situation, I slowly turned my head back to identify the person holding my mouth shut.
I locked eyes with a familiar face.
‘…The civil servant!’
It was a Disaster Management Bureau Agent!
Agent Ryu Jae-gwan, whom I had met at the mountain villa, had short hair like a high schooler, but his features weren’t much different from his current self.
‘Where was he sitting?’
No, that’s not what’s important!
‘Right. Civil servants could enter too!’
This wasn’t a ghost story currently being ‘contained and secured’ by Baekilmong Corporation.
In other words, it meant I could encounter personnel from other agencies like this.
But still, to see the same Agent again? Aren’t you working a bit too hard?
“I will let go if you promise not to scream.”
I immediately nodded with a serious face, and the civil servant released me without another word.
‘Phew.’
“You really have a constitution for getting caught up in these things.”
“……Yes.”
Let’s just say it’s something like that.
“And, some of what that person said earlier is correct.”
“…….”
“Keep your eyes on that student mannequin no matter what. You shouldn’t take your eyes off it, so blink one eye at a time, and if the lights go out, you must lower your head. And…”
The civil servant quietly whispered the standard manual I already knew.
“Those things are very sensitive to sound.”
Right.
The
students
showed a clear tendency to hunt
those who screamed
, cursed, or shouted.
“You must not raise your voice. Never.”
I nodded slightly.
“But is it right to let people attack that thing…?”
“Your own safety comes first right now. Saving the people caught in the disaster comes after that.”
The civil servant declared with practiced ease.
“Assume everyone caught in a supernatural disaster is already dead and move accordingly.”
“…….”
This was… a textbook Disaster Management Bureau manual.
‘They think it’s more important to understand this ghost story thoroughly to seal or destroy it.’
Because that would prevent countless deaths later.
It was a value judgment that would pull the lever in the trolley dilemma to kill one person instead of five without hesitation.
“I will let you know when it’s time to run. For now, just keep in mind what I’ve told you.”
“…Yes.”
Arguing with the civil servant here would be suicide.
For now, I kept my mouth shut.
Meanwhile, people were approaching the student with weapons.
‘Damn it,’
I asked another question, deliberately trying to elicit an answer.
I needed to know this so my future actions would seem natural.
“Um, but isn’t this a dream? Then, even if we die, won’t we just wake up…?”
It was the standard way to escape a nightmare.
The moment you face death in a dream, you wake up and return to reality.
If you only heard that much, you might think it’s better to just commit suicide quickly, but that wasn’t the case at all. You must never make that choice…
‘I need something.’
“…That is true, but there are conditions.”
I knew it.
“Conditions?”
“Yes. Do you see the Name Tag over there?”
The civil servant pointed at the ‘student mannequin.’
“You can only wake up ‘normally’ if you die while holding that mannequin’s Name Tag. …If you fail to do so,”
If the release conditions are not met.
The explorer becomes bound to ‘Inside the Black Shadow.’
“You will be subject to a very unpleasant influence.”
“…….”
“There are a few other conditions for dying safely, but I will tell you more as we move together.”
“M-move together?”
“Yes.”
Wait a minute.
But however he interpreted my bewilderment, the civil servant had an expression that said ‘no need to feel sorry.’
It meant he was trying to force a smile to reassure a kid.
“Don’t worry. Many other Agents have been deployed besides me. Someone must have made it through.”
Not just one Disaster Management Bureau Agent, but many…?
‘This… it seems the explorations really overlapped.’
There must be a corresponding turn.
I tried to frantically search my memory for past exploration records to pick out candidates, but the situation changed before I could.
“D-die!”
People finally began attacking the student mannequin.
Then, surprisingly.
Crack.
“Ack!”
“Bl-blood…!”
The ‘Segwang Industrial High School’ student sustained injuries just like a normal human.
Blood splattered, bruises formed, and the sound of breaking bones echoed.
“Ack!”
“What do I do, oh, shit….”
‘…Phew.’
Fear and a heavy feeling crawled up my spine.
However, the civil servant gave me a small hand signal toward the front door, unmoved as if he were used to it.
“Let’s take this opportunity to move to…… Hmm?”
It was then.
Figures appeared on the bright central staircase visible through the open front door.
“…!”
It was three or four people walking up with muffled footsteps.
They had one thing in common.
They were all wearing bizarre animal masks!
‘Employees!’
And I even saw a familiar mask.
A bull!
‘Jang Heo-un.’
It was the Y Team newbie I had shared life and death with during the theme park ghost story!
‘Was he reassigned to a general team?’
How long has it been?
My own situation had been so chaotic lately that I hadn’t checked the regular reassignments of others, but it seemed he had survived the three months well.
‘Anyway, it’s good to see you, truly.’
But next to him… was someone I wasn’t particularly glad to see, whom I had seen just a moment ago.
A black goat mask.
“…….”
It was Baek Sa-heon.
‘Did they wake up in the same class?’
Everyone seemed to be following the company’s safety recommendation to ‘take a mask and wear it whenever possible.’
‘I want to wear one too if I can.’
I wanted to check and use the items I had brought to increase my chances of escape.
Overall, it would be better to naturally part ways with the civil servant and join that group.
“Um, Agent…….”
“Baekilmong Corporation…!”
“…….”
Oops.
“Be careful. If you meet someone wearing an animal mask and a suit in a place like this, never act like you know them.”
The civil servant gritted his teeth and shot a look of contempt forward.
“They are likely people dispatched from a disgusting cult-like company, so never get involved with them.”
“…….”
“Most of the employees are psychos with abnormal ethics. You must be careful.”
“……Yes.”
Never.
I must never get caught!
