Chapter 106
Chapter 106
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I checked the work tip note with trembling hands.
11. Doing this two days in a row?
They sometimes give the day after night cleaning off, but back-to-back nights? You're really pitiful... Anyway, the tips continue. Tonight at dawn...
No, no!
'Stop reading.'
I had definitely seen a suspiciously corrupted rule at the very end. The first one might be okay, but from the second note onward, they themselves could be traps.
I roughly folded the note back up and shoved it into my pocket.
Then I raised my head and looked at the firmly shut doors of Isolation Corridor B... before my gaze settled on one in particular.
"......"
What the hell was going on?
'Calm down.'
I needed to sort this out.
I had definitely survived the first day.
It was around 3 a.m. Just as I was finishing up cleaning, the isolation room door suddenly opened, and someone... or something appeared in the form of Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je.
And the moment Foreman Park Minseong noticed its true nature...
'He immediately realized and did... something horrific.'
After that, my memory went blank.
So why had an entire day vanished, jumping straight to the second day, with the story ending as if 'we safely finished cleaning'?
And it felt like the rescue happened before that incident even occurred, as if I'd snapped out of it in advance...
Wait a minute.
I checked the electronic watch on my wrist.
Just before 3 a.m.
"......"
"Foreman! Over here, right now!"
"Wh-what?!"
I called out to Foreman Park Minseong and ran.
I flung open the iron door at the end of the corridor, where the green emergency light was still shining steadily, and rushed outside.
"What is this..."
Slam.
The moment Foreman Park Minseong followed me out, I shut the door. His bewildered voice came through.
"Deer, what are you doing? We haven't even finished cleaning yet. Why on earth..."
As if on cue, the red lights came on, and protective shutters descended over the doors.
Including the one on the corridor we'd just escaped from.
"...!"
Foreman Park Minseong's expression hardened.
"...Hold on. Deer. You knew about this..."
"Just a moment."
I immediately pulled out the radio and turned it on. I cranked up the volume and pressed the button.
Something in the form of Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je had told me not to trust the radio, so conversely, I judged this one trustworthy.
"J3. Something came out of the isolation room."
Beep.
A response came back almost instantly.
"No. We just exited the isolation corridor. However..."
I glanced toward the door leading out from the rental storage.
A shutter had descended there too.
"We're trapped in front of the rental storage front desk... The exit door here has a protective shutter down too."
Whew.
I barely managed to reply.
"Probably... 14."
Silence.
"Yes."
An ominous silence flowed over the radio once more.
My back grew slick with sweat.
Beep.
I swallowed hard.
"Yes."
10 minutes.
Click.
The radio cut off.
Silence descended in the dimly lit rental storage, illuminated only by the red emergency lights.
"......"
When I glanced to the side, Foreman Park Minseong—who had heard the entire exchange—had gone pale as a ghost and was carefully backing away from the door to Isolation Zone B Corridor...
Then.
Bang!!
The door shook.
Bang bang bang!!
Something inside Isolation Corridor B was pounding on the door hard enough to rattle the protective shutter.
And a faint voice.
...Hey! What the...!
"......"
Someone was shouting from the isolation corridor we'd escaped. The voice was starting to sound eerily familiar...
"Deer, don't listen...!"
"...!"
Foreman Park Minseong clamped his hands over my ears and hurriedly dragged me toward the rental storage front desk.
Only once we'd put enough distance between us and the isolation corridor door did he whisper urgently to me.
"The protective shutter is down—there's no way a sound from behind it could reach us here...! That's not real. That's..."
Gulp.
The foreman swallowed hard.
"...Something really came out, just like you said."
"......"
"Security said 10 minutes until they arrive. No matter who comes and talks to us until then, don't believe them and stay still. Don't speak first..."
I nodded slowly. The foreman let out a sigh of relief and slumped down where he sat.
"Hey, but how did you know, Deer? About the isolation room door opening..."
"It's complicated, but there's something I need to confirm first."
"What?"
"What exactly happened on the first day?"
Confusion spread across Foreman Park Minseong's face.
"Huh? The first day?"
"Yes."
"We just cleaned normally... Well, sure, a few things from the work tips happened, but we handled them fine and clocked out, right?"
And all the examples he cited matched what we'd actually experienced... before the chaos in the isolation room.
So then.
"Do you remember who gave you the second work tip note in the early hours?"
"...Deer."
Foreman Park Minseong's expression hardened.
"There was no second note."
"......"
"You must be... Did the open isolation room affect you? Hold on, let me see today's work tip..."
What?
I stopped Foreman Park Minseong from reaching into my pocket for the note.
"Wait. How did you get that work tip note in the first place?"
"Huh? From security—they circulate work tips."
"Right. Who exactly?"
"......"
"Can you describe who gave it to you?"
"Of cour—hic."
Foreman Park Minseong's face went deathly pale.
He opened and closed his mouth several times as if trying to speak...
Finally, he confessed.
"...I don't know."
"...!"
"No, surely... Huh? I mean, it was in the break room? No, a security colleague gave it... Do I even have colleagues? Huh? Huh? Wh-what?!"
Damn it.
"It's fine! You don't need to think about it. For now, let's just stay put."
"...Okay."
Foreman Park Minseong quietly curled up and bowed his head.
"...Let's just think about getting out. Once that door opens, we bolt. No looking back."
"Yes."
Whew...
'Wow, this is insane...'
My head was a mess.
Our accounts didn't match, so I had no idea where my memories were true or false.
I couldn't tell what was real, what to believe—this situation filled only with terror.
'Am I... possessed by something right now?'
But I was definitely wearing the silver ring. It granted strong resistance to illusions, hallucinations, and brainwashing. So...
'Let's sort this logically.'
I desperately recalled.
1. My mind is intact.
2. Everything I'm experiencing is real.
3. This is a supernatural phenomenon unrelated to my mind.
And the third party to view this objectively would be...
'Brown.'
The plush doll in my pocket, of course.
'Brown! I want to ask you something. Is that okay?'
......
Silence.
No way.
'...Brown!'
I rummaged through my pocket. Even calling again brought no response...
Whew.
I gripped the fluffy plush doll in my pocket and sighed in relief.
"......"
'Catch up'?
'...Why did you need to catch up to me?'
The cheerful voice began spouting nonsense.
'Wait, hold on.'
I hurriedly cut it off.
'Sorry for interrupting, Brown. But... I need to confirm something.'
Right, got it, so...
'You mean I jumped straight from the 29th to the 30th. How?'
'...!'
Wait, hold on.
'Someone else?'
"......"
I barely managed to turn my stiff neck toward the subject Brown mentioned.
The one sitting right next to me.
"Um... Deer? You're not talking, and it's kinda scary... Can we chat a bit?"
...Earlier.
When I ran out of the isolation corridor, I thought I'd called Foreman Park Minseong and gotten him to follow.
But thinking back, I hadn't grabbed him directly or looked behind me.
So.
'Someone else who heard the sound could have followed me instead of Foreman Park Minseong...'
In that case, the one pounding on the door from inside the corridor just now was...
"......"
"Deer, you okay? Say something."
And the advice from Security Chief J3 over the radio.
That included...
...the person who came in to clean with me.
"Deer? Deer...... Busted again."
Splat.
Foreman Park Minseong's face dropped to the floor right in front of me.
A mouth formed in the melting body and moved closer.
To my face, closer...
Ah.
Thanks! It opened!
The faceless thing drew even closer.
It cried out in ecstatic joy.
The grotesque laughter exploded right by my eardrum, shaking my brain. My mind reeled. Everything blurred. Faded.
In reality...
Blackout.
"...Gasp!"
I raised my head.
The dark rental storage.
The sealed space with red emergency lights on. Protective shutters firmly down.
Me, looking like I'd abandoned the cleaning tools and just fled Isolation Zone B Corridor.
A scene a bit earlier than what I'd seen before.
And in my pocket... the work rules note.
For Day 3 of work.
I immediately crumpled it and threw it aside.
Beep beep.
The radio buzzed, but I ignored it.
This time, I definitely remembered.
'...Name-nim.'
I brushed back my sweat-soaked hair with shaking hands.
'Got it.'
What this was.
My vanished story.
The one appearing in my colleague's form.
Crying out Name-nim.
Its true nature was...
The Nameless Radiant Church.