Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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Kim Sol-eum thought to himself.
If that 'good friend' of his had been tagging along in this absurd situation, he could roughly guess what the guy would say.
-Oh! Deception. A highly effective governing technique since ancient times. Leading the masses toward an ever-more thrilling scene... fascinating.
Something along those lines.
'Come to think of it, there's no room to carry a rabbit doll while crawling on all fours.'
Kim Sol-eum entertained such a dazed thought. No, he desperately pretended to be oblivious like that.
Because the stares from behind were prickling too sharply...
'Ugh.'
Trailing behind him like they were entranced were the Daydream Corporation employees and the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agents.
No, even the baby mermaids... the kids, were following along.
'This much?'
Cold sweat threatened to break out.
He had indeed maneuvered the two factions to deliberately spot each other. For the psychological effect of the fake Necronomicon to hit harder, they needed to be aware of one another and thrown into confusion!
But he hadn't expected it to work this well—no one pulling back, everyone blindly following him.
'If they catch on, I'm screwed...'
Getting busted by those veterans would make his soles sweat buckets...
Yet astonishingly, Kim Sol-eum managed not to show a hint of it. Thanks to the survival instincts honed since his newbie days at the ghost story company.
Thanks to that, he was perceived as some cosmic horror entity's avatar—the very source of the horrific, overwhelming phenomenon they'd just endured.
Even by those who suspected the cat's true identity!
"Hey."
Baek Saheon.
The goat-masked employee walking beside the cat finally spoke after several hellish minutes.
"What the hell is going on...?"
The cat halted its steps and fixed its crimson eyes on the black goat, staring silently.
"......"
"......"
"......Ugh."
In the end, Baek Saheon clamped his mouth shut, eyes spinning, sweat beading as he resumed walking...
'He won't kill me.'
'He's not going to kill us.'
'At least he has some goal in mind.'
As people's minds began to churn again, rational thought flickering back to life.
The massive terror in the form of a cat spoke once more.
Different words.
[10]
"...!"
[9]
And the cat's paws quickened.
[8]
The cat shrank into the distance toward the far side of the city streets.
If they didn't hurry after it, who knew what might happen...
[7]
Cold sweat beading on their napes, the group clamped their mouths shut and followed the cat once more.
It was a rare situation, born from everyone's veteran experience in ghost story explorations.
They all knew this unspoken rule.
-Screaming and fleeing thoughtlessly in a ghost story usually gets you killed.
Thus, the ghost story's logic was shielding Kim Sol-eum!
Plus, with this eerie entity wedged between two bitterly hostile factions, they were checking each other, too wary to act rashly.
'Thanks, Baek Saheon...!'
Thanks to that, despite his sweaty soles, Kim Sol-eum properly built an aura of terror and pressure as he guided them.
The ominous black cat kept padding onward, swiftly heading somewhere in the city.
The employees dodged spurting ulcerative mucus here and there, the agents hurriedly carried kids complaining of sore legs, and they all hurried along.
Soon, beyond the streets, a bizarre structure emerged...
"Huh?"
"Looks like a cathedral."
A stained-glass building at the far eastern edge.
Though the glass was all shattered and the symbols smashed.
The cat quietly headed into the ruined building, toward a strangely obscured space beyond a collapsed beam.
Astoundingly, there was a small annex there.
"...!"
"Never seen this place before."
Hidden by the collapsed structure, the Daydream employees hadn't noticed it until now—didn't even know it existed.
Though to the kids' sparkling eyes, entranced like they'd spotted a dragon palace, it looked like a proper beautiful building...
"This the place we searched last time?"
"Yeah. Nothing unusual."
So one side marveled in wonder, the other puzzled, both on high alert as they entered the building.
Following the black cat.
The cat stopped only upon entering the annex.
Before the left wall.
Right below a small, tattered painting hanging there.
Baek Saheon froze.
"...What are we supposed to do with this?"
Damn it.
Baek Saheon eyed the ruined painting, sweat beading, then turned back with a grin.
"Uh, Pony boy."
Kang Ihak naturally pretended not to hear. Baek Saheon pressed on regardless.
"I'm no good with this stuff, mind taking a look? This painting... feels like there's a safe behind it..."
"A safe?"
"Yeah."
Kang Ihak rushed forward in an instant.
He peered intently at the painting, then...
"Aha."
Casually reached out and yanked it off.
Behind it was indeed a rusted iron lock mechanism.
"...!"
It was a bluff, but why was it real!
Baek Saheon nearly grabbed the guy's collar.
'Should've done it myself...'
Kang Ihak sprang into action.
"Cat sir."
He knelt before the cat.
Kim Sol-eum nearly toppled backward but barely stiffened into a proper ghost story resident pose.
Kang Ihak's eyes sparkled.
"Safe key! Where's the key to the safe?"
Good lord.
"Haha, I bowed earlier when you said bow, but just a tiny hint on what's valuable inside..."
The cat (had no choice but to) stayed resolute!
And in the meantime, Baek Saheon slyly reached out and wrenched the safe open.
Kreeeak.
"Oh. It just... opens."
And the entire Daydream Corporation crew froze.
One, two, three...
Twelve of them.
Inside the safe, pristine white conch shells bound with golden cords were on display.
Precious items they'd scoured the city for like rats, now nearly impossible to find.
"An-Angel's Sigh!"
What the cat wanted to show them.
The cat watched the employees with its red eyes, gazing at their delight.
If it had already been explored, he could've just led them elsewhere naturally. But this spot was ideal.
...For a reason.
Though the promised side effect was unavoidable.
'Items!'
Greed flickered in the Daydream Corporation employees' eyes.
'How many points is that worth?'
'We have to take them.'
Yet the terror from the Necronomicon still had them wary.
They likely figured the massive evil manifesting as the cat would impose some condition or horrific consequence.
And so...
The cat resumed padding forward.
Suffocating silence flowed.
And... it sat before the Disaster Management Bureau agent kids.
"...!"
"It's a kitty doll! So cute!"
"No! It's dangerous!"
Agent Choi restrained the baby mermaid trying to rush the cat.
Ryu Jaegwan broke into a sweat.
Anyway, the cat—now cognizant of the world's underside—could detect even the voices of the Bureau agents in their 'kid' forms.
And it urged them on.
"...Seems like it's telling us to check inside that safe."
"......"
They calmed the baby mermaids, then cautiously approached the safe, scanning all around.
The Daydream Corporation employees looked itchy-handed but stayed quiet for now.
And at last, the agents peered inside...
"......"
"...Bronze. See anything?"
"Nope."
"Right."
Agent Choi flashed a sweaty grin.
"...Nothing there."
Indeed.
To the agents in kid form, the sparkling ivory safe interior appeared utterly empty.
"But really, there's something there, right?"
Agent Choi raised the sun catcher again, checking the spot where the Daydream folks had freaked out.
And confirmed it.
"...!"
The twelve 'conch shells' were definitely there.
Agent Choi hurriedly asked a baby mermaid.
"Hey kid, see that?"
"What? What's there?"
"I see the kitty."
The kids answered innocently.
The agents realized.
This item was invisible to children.
No, more precisely... utterly unperceivable!
'Hold on.'
Bronze Agent's spine chilled.
'Then... there's been a crucial item the Bureau missed all this time...'
They always infiltrated ghost stories in kid form.
So they couldn't even perceive conch shells—had to hunt them down forcibly just to barely find any.
But now, at this moment, the Bureau agents learned of this item's existence...
Agent Choi whipped around to the cat, but it stared back, repeating the same intent.
"Agent."
"Nah, it's fine."
Agent Choi responded to the call.
Then reached out, groping toward where the conch shells had been...
But he couldn't touch them at all.
"......"
Couldn't even touch them.
The sparkling dragon palace hallucination crafted by this ghost story's culprit and infection source was rejecting the conch shells.
"Then..."
"......"
Agent Choi shut his mouth.
As if declaring their turn over, the cat moved again.
Toward Baek Saheon.
'Why me again!'
Baek Saheon screamed inwardly. But the next instant, he got it.
"Ah. ...Should I grab these conch shells?"
Yes.
'It's telling me to take the items!'
Baek Saheon, beaming with joy for the first time at the kitten's words, thrust his hand into the safe.
[10]
Even in his glee, his mind raced through calculations.
'How to snag all twelve in this situation?'
If it'd just told him alone, he could've pocketed them outright. But now, he'd have to give some to the nasty boss and money-grubbing colleagues to smooth things over.
'Fuck.'
[9]
Definitely gathered everyone on purpose for a more thrilling, stimulating scene. That cat was total psycho Kim Sol-eum...
'...Wait.'
Baek Saheon paused.
But that insane, bizarre, terrifying pressure, that presence... no mere psycho human could pull that off, right?
The red halo around Kim Sol-eum too.
Sure, Baek Saheon had seen danger halos on humans a few times, but Kim Sol-eum's felt... different. Somehow different.
[8]
Closer to what he'd seen in ghost stories than people...
The feel of an anomaly.
'No way.'
No way his old roommate wasn't just a psycho inhuman, but...
[7]
'...Never human to begin with. Not from reality...'
His back crawled.
But the ship had sailed; he had to grab the items.
'Doesn't matter.'
[6]
The countdown ticked down.
Baek Saheon gritted his teeth, swiftly scooping the golden-corded conch shells. Ignoring Kang Ihak peeking, the boss and agents' intense stares.
When he'd swept all twelve into his bag.
"Huh?"
He spotted one more conch shell at the very bottom, hidden beneath.
No golden cord, but definitely an 'Angel's Sigh'.
'Jackpot.'
Baek Saheon pondered secretly pocketing it as he reached out...
Something shot out from inside.
"...!"
Baek Saheon narrowly tripped over the cat.
The mucus-like infection source blasting from the conch shell sliced through empty air, missing its target.
"Argh!"
Baek Saheon hurled the conch shell in his hand.
Bronze Agent, watching with sun catcher in hand, dashed over and smashed the mucus-shooting conch with a glass bullet.
Thud. With a short sound, the conch shattered, the tick-like chunk of flesh inside convulsing, crawling like a bug—only to take another bullet and stick to the floor.
Splat.
Jinna Sol's heel ground it down on top.
"......"
In the eerie silence, everyone turned to the cat.
The entity from the ghost story that had forcibly led them here.
Whew.
I averted the people's stares, feeling like breaking into a cold sweat.
Easy enough in the cat's body.
'This is what I wanted to verify.'
Yeah. Why I'd chosen this spot among many places to farm 'Angel's Sighs'.
The moment he grabbed the conch shell at the safe's very bottom, infection mucus burst out.
This place's specialty. A trap item.
Like a mimic, the biohazard had parasitized a seemingly useful item, disguising itself—classic spine-chilling horror trope.
But combining this classic bit with the tattoo artist's intel...
'Makes for a clearer hint.'
A hint to the conch shells' true nature.
■■.
From the overwhelming sensory info the Moonlight Tattoo Shop owner relayed, the conch shells—'Angel's Sigh'—were tied to something horrific, negative, and deadly.
Likely this mad infection and city collapse.
Yet paradoxically, conch shells also evoked comfort and healing.
Adding the tattoo artist's line: 'Even knowing rationally it's harmless, the unclean image makes it horrific'... piecing it together...
-The conch shells were originally medicine, but caused a deadly incident—not their true function.
So who contaminated the conch shells?
'Obvious suspect.'
-The biohazard ulcers infiltrated the conch shells, masquerading as Angel's Sigh.
Same as how the biohazard mermaids craft sparkling dragon palace hallucinations to beguile kid hosts.
'Hid in the conch shells from the start, spreading infection.'
Kids got infected, the madness spread rapidly, and the city's civilization grew wary of conch shells—preventing timely emergency treatment...
'All the pieces fit.'
Kim Sol-eum had herded everyone here to deliver this hint directly, without suspicion falling on him.
And...
"Aha."
Someone who grasped the hint perfectly was here.
"......"
Agent Choi picked up a shard of the shattered conch shell. Goosebumps crawled up his hand.
Verging on shivers.
The sharp, experienced ones catch hints easily, nearing the truth.
"Medicine?"
He turned to the cat.
"This is medicine, isn't it?"
"...!!"
"That's why you blocked the kids from seeing or touching it, even mixed in duds to mislead? To stop them from getting treatment."
The cat didn't respond, but Agent Choi was convinced.
In a voice too calm for addressing the being that had exuded utter dread moments ago, he declared:
"Yeah. This... is medicine."
"......"
Tension rippled through the space.
'What?'
To the Daydream Corporation employees, the agent's words sounded like mere baby mermaid giggles.
Incomprehensible, but the ominous vibe instinctively registered.
"But y'know."
Agent Choi eyed Baek Saheon's bag.
Baek Saheon gripped it tight.
"There are twenty-eight kids."
All too deeply infected to escape.
"But only twelve conch shells... in the hands of you cult company bastards?"
Agent Choi raised his hand.
And leveled the glass gun...
[10]
"......"
[9]
The cat.
Had quietly sat elsewhere.
[8]
Before Jinna Sol's shoes.
"What."
[7]
"No clue what you're getting at."
[6]
"Do what you were gonna do?"
[5]
"Fine then. Go ahead."
[4]
Thus, Jinna Sol did what she'd originally intended.
[3]
The Daydream Corporation elite team deputy manager unleashed the attack wires from her nails.
At the agent—as a baby mermaid.