Chapter 191
Chapter 191
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: You Have to Go to Work Even If You Fall into a Ghost Story
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So.
Let me get this straight.
I open the door to this discreet, unmanned motel room, and I find Manager Kwak Je-gang bound, gagged, and violently sprawled on the floor, with the company's Security Section Chief sitting casually on top of him?
And why the hell is Assistant Manager Park Minseong standing over them?
I mean, it's genuinely nice to see him after so long, but what kind of absolute, ridiculous combination of personnel is this...?
"Mmph!"
At that exact moment, Kwak Je-gang, pinned to the linoleum floor, started violently squirming again.
Hold on!
'No way.'
If he lifts his head even an inch and spots my face, this entire covert situation is going to go completely, irreparably off the rails.
I instantly snapped to attention, desperately grabbed the doorknob, and tried to back out of the room to save my own skin.
But the Security Section Chief noticed my frantic movement and seemed to deduce the tactical problem first.
"Ah."
The Security Section Chief casually, almost lazily, smacked the back of the head of the man he had tied up.
And just like that, Manager Kwak Je-gang went completely limp, passed out cold.
"......"
Oh, come on, please just shut up for five minutes...
"What the hell is going on in here?"
"Ah... I was following someone..."
"...??"
To summarize the frantic, disjointed explanation that followed:
The Security Section Chief had been covertly scouring the company's various sectors, actively collecting rumors and classified stories that might relate to the 'Jolly Lab' he had previously promised to look into for me.
In the process of his investigation, he poked around various high-security zones, and today he wandered into...
"I went to... the research team's special restricted zone in the annex..."
"...Hold on. Isn't that a highly classified, restricted area? Strictly no entry for non-essential personnel?"
"Ah... The Security Team can go in for official work reasons. Like... patrolling the perimeter..."
Ah, got it. Bureaucratic loopholes.
"So you waited patiently until you were officially assigned to patrol duty there?"
"No... I just covered the shift for another guard..."
"......"
"You said... you needed intel..."
'God, I actually feel bad for him now...'
The Security Section Chief looked so incredibly proud of his rule-breaking initiative that I was completely at a loss for words.
Anyway, given how their movements and paths crossed like this, it seems the legendary security guy Baek Saheon mentioned previously really is this exact Section Chief.
Wait a sec, speaking of which...
"I heard rumors you got into a physical altercation with Manager Kwak Je-gang recently... Is this kidnapping situation related to that?"
"I never fought him... He just kept picking fights and provoking me..."
"Ah, so you got dragged into a corporate squabble."
"No... I completely ignored him..."
"......"
"He bumped into some equipment and tripped over himself... yeah. Anyway."
Scratching the back of his head casually, the Security Section Chief finally got back to the main point.
While covertly patrolling the research team's special zone today, checking through classified equipment and documents, something odd happened.
"I felt like someone was aggressively following me..."
"...!"
At some point during his infiltration, a persistent, heavy gaze started shadowing him.
He sensed a strange, targeted malice in it.
"So I completely left the area and came outside... but they kept tailing me in secret..."
And so you took him down...!
"Well... there was no one else around to see..."
I dropped my head into my hands, resisting the overwhelming urge to scream.
"So you didn't know the stalker was Manager Kwak Je-gang."
"No, I definitely knew..."
"......"
Aargh!
"Well... it didn't really matter much... I just didn't expect him to somehow call for a Security Team backup..."
My gaze slowly shifted to Assistant Manager Park Minseong.
His pupils trembled violently under my stare.
"Yeah. I was the one dispatched to the call..."
"......"
"When I got here... it was already... y'know. Like this."
And thus, this incredibly bizarre, catastrophic encounter came to be...
Life looks like a hilarious comedy when viewed from afar. The massive problem is that I am standing right in the bloody middle of it!
'This is clinically insane.'
I swallowed back the urge to aggressively press my temples and barely managed to speak.
"If we just let him go like this... won't Manager Kwak immediately report you, Mr. J, or otherwise blow this kidnapping massively out of proportion?"
"...Probably?"
Assistant Manager Park Minseong and I exchanged cold, nervous sweats, then looked desperately at the Security Section Chief.
He looked like existing was a hassle and he was utterly done with everything.
Like he was ready to just let fate take the wheel and crash the car.
"......"
"......"
Hey, this is about your literal criminal record and employment status...!
"So, then... Assistant Manager, shouldn't you be officially taking the Section Chief into custody right now?"
"In principle, yes... but uh, hmm. If you just let him go, I can try to handle the paperwork on my end... I'll just write up a report saying Manager Kwak was here completely alone."
Assistant Manager Park Minseong gave an incredibly awkward 'haha' laugh and scratched the back of his neck.
"He's kind of infamous for his eccentric, weird behavior around the office, so maybe I can swing it..."
"It won't work..."
"...!"
The Security Section Chief stared flatly at Assistant Manager Park Minseong.
"Now that you're officially part of Security... the restriction clauses are at their absolute strongest..."
Restrictions?
"You haven't even passed your 100th official workday yet, right? Lying directly to the company system... won't be easy..."
"......"
"The clock. It's ticking down on your wrist right now, isn't it...?"
Assistant Manager Park Minseong's face stiffened into a mask of pure panic.
But the very next moment, a picture-perfect, entirely staged corporate smile bloomed on his face.
And as if on reflex, his hand moved defensively to his wrist. Beneath the heavy fabric of the Security uniform, something shaped exactly like a watch gleamed faintly.
Yeah. A wristwatch.
'...The prohibition restriction clause for Security Team members.'
It suddenly came back to my mind.
At Daydream Corporation, once a rescued employee is moderately restored and shakes off their anomalous contamination, the company prioritizes immediate, ruthless usability over protecting them.
The Darkness Exploration Records wiki never details these exact clauses explicitly. Because leaving it to the paranoid imagination is far more evocative and chilling.
But there were terrifying hints scattered throughout the logs.
For example...
'Wristwatches.'
"Assistant Manager."
"...Ah! Yes."
Assistant Manager Park Minseong violently snapped out of his trance and pulled his hand away from his wrist.
The unmanned motel room fell dead quiet, the atmosphere growing oppressively heavy.
But the Security Section Chief spoke casually, shattering the tension.
"Hey, don't worry about it... It'll probably just be a severe disciplinary reprimand... It's not like I actually killed him or anything..."
"...?!"
"I'll just... go in and explain the situation... But wait a sec."
The Security Section Chief looked down at the unconscious researcher he'd hogtied and muttered with dead seriousness.
"Kind of... a massive waste, isn't it...?"
...??
"This guy... he's got a lot of high-level classified knowledge... Hmm, since it's already come to this... maybe I should, y'know, squeeze some valuable intel out of him..."
"No. Thank you. It's fine."
That is suspicious as hell!
And why would you actively try to make your own corporate punishment exponentially worse by adding torture to kidnapping?!
'Let's wrap this up right now.'
As long as he didn't wake up and see my face, it was fine... Wait.
Even if Kwak Je-gang didn't see me, someone else in this room definitely did.
"Assistant Manager Park Minseong."
"Yeah?"
"If lying directly to the company system is too difficult for you right now, during your official debrief... do you have to mention seeing me here?"
"...!!"
Assistant Manager Park Minseong's face turned completely pale again.
"Probably... if the company explicitly asks who was present. I might have to..."
Damn it!
At that point, it's not just a problem of my identity and location being revealed—it's a whole other level of corporate treason.
'...And cleaning up that resulting mess will definitively reach Director Ho's ears.'
If they interrogate him on why I was secretly meeting with the Security Section Chief, the existence of the prototype dream incubator room might even get exposed...
"I'll do my absolute best to avoid that situation..."
"Excuse me..."
The Security Section Chief lazily raised a hand.
"Uh... honestly, I don't feel like dealing with this... and the resulting paperwork is a pain..."
He then pointed directly at the unconscious Kwak Je-gang.
"...Should I just kill him?"
"!?"
W-Wait, the lethal immunity clause!
Come to think of it, the Security Team did possess kill-with-impunity rights!
"If I kill him... and the Security Team officially reports 'no target found on site'... it's not even technically a lie... it'll all blow over smoothly. And it buys us a lot of time..."
"No."
"P-Please calm down, Section Chief!"
No—the kill-with-impunity mandate wasn't meant for settling personal vendettas or covering up kidnappings!
'It was created strictly so that if a company employee accidentally dies during a horror suppression operation in the office, the company avoids paying out massive compensation!'
And really, the subtext of the rule was more like: 'Since Security has immunity, do not get in our way and drive up operational costs.'
From the very beginning.
"Lethal immunity is strictly the right to execute obstructing employees during official duties. You are not on duty right now!"
If they could just kill whoever they wanted arbitrarily, Kwak Je-gang would've been reduced to a bloody puddle by some other annoyed Security Team long ago.
"Well, that's true... hmm."
"L-Let's think of another way."
"Yeah! We'll figure it out without murder!"
"...Alright..."
I was sweating bullets.
'L-Lucky the Section Chief has absolutely no motivation...'
No wonder he used to lead an elite squad—his ruthless decisiveness and lack of hesitation were no joke.
...Honestly, the fact that he thought about it more like "erase the evidence" rather than just utilizing his "lethal immunity" makes it exponentially scarier.
Thankfully, he's not a genuinely bad person at his core. I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead.
...And really, looking at the big picture, this mess was kind of my fault.
I had gotten too greedy when he offered to actively investigate the Jolly Lab for me.
'...You mean we murder him and go on an evidence disposal adventure?'
Damn it.
As I pressed my fingers hard to my throbbing temples, a thought suddenly came to me.
'No.'
'There's... another way to permanently erase the evidence! I've got one!'
"I'll handle this."
I quickly pulled an anomalous item from my inventory.
Children's Disguise Syrup
(Grape Flavor)
★★★★★
A short while later.
"...Hm?"
Manager Kwak Je-gang groaned and opened his eyes.
Or at least, that was the assumption—because we had securely blindfolded him.
"Wha—? Am I in the Dark? ...No, wait. It's just a cheap blindfold."
The momentary excitement in his voice faded immediately, turning dull and analytical.
But soon after, his tone changed again—as if he'd fully realized what had just happened to him. He'd stalked the Security Chief, been physically restrained, knocked unconscious—and had now woken up as a hostage.
"Seriously! Do you honestly think just blindfolding me will erase what I saw? Ha ha! My god. You, how exactly are you going to explain this catastrophic breach of protocol to the company?"
"......"
"The company isn't going to treat you specially anymore, you know. Do you still think they'll cut you endless slack like they did back when you were Group B's golden boy? Pathetic."
'You think your lethal immunity lets you murder vital researchers willy-nilly?'
'I'm highly curious to see how the company reacts to finding the hot corpse of an irreplaceable researcher like me.'
He spoke with the arrogant air of someone utterly convinced of their own irreplaceable value, laying out subtle threats and grim, eerie predictions in that unique tone of his.
But then.
"Or... maybe this really is a desperate situation for you."
"......"
"What exactly were you looking for in the special research lab? Wait... are you perhaps thinking..."
His voice dropped, turning ominous.
"That the Darkness you disappeared into might be locked in there?"
"......"
"Listen, that entry path collapsed entirely! Even if you're curious about what horrible state the trapped staff are in, there's absolutely no way to know now—"
He's talked enough.
I aggressively ripped off the cloth covering his eyes.
Gwak Je-gang's face lit up—he looked like he was about to say something smug.
"...!"
But the person standing before him wasn't the former Elite Team captain he remembered and expected.
Instead.
It was me, fully kitted out in a Security Team tactical suit.
"......"
I silently lifted a call device and waved it slowly in front of the frozen Gwak Je-gang's face.
"...Ah, so you're the one who responded to the alert. This is... hmm, Security Team territory?"
Silence.
"Wasn't there supposed to be a guard stationed where I was attacked?"
Silence.
"...You're the quiet type... wait a minute."
Gwak Je-gang's eyes sharpened, rapidly processing the visual data.
"That's a special suit."
He had recognized my uniform.
The elite security division gear.
"What's going on? You, responding to a mere research team manager's summons? A cleanup operation like this isn't grunt work for rare specimens like you! Ha ha... unless—"
Then his expression changed drastically as the realization dawned on him.
Yeah.
'Unless there's another, highly classified objective.'
I silently lifted my hand and placed something onto the motel desk directly in front of him.
"...!"
It was a cheery, carrot-shaped plastic voice toy that chirped brightly.
It looked incredibly cheap and childish—totally out of place in an interrogation—but Gwak Je-gang's face instantly froze.
'So he knows exactly what it is.'
One of the most infamous, brutal interrogation tools logged in the Darkness Exploration Records.
Hm.
So, where did I get it?
To be completely honest?
'It's a fake.'
I poured the 'Children's Disguise Syrup' over my personal smartphone and used it to flawlessly mimic this horrific toy.
That's exactly why the item is five-star rated.
Because it doesn't just disguise the user—it disguises whatever you apply it to. That's why it works perfectly on inanimate objects. It flawlessly mimics the aesthetic look and the functions the user actively imagines.
And even if it's just a fake copy of the original—it doesn't matter.
What matters is that the target absolutely believes it's real.
A flicker of genuine confusion and fear crossed Gwak Je-gang's eyes for the very first time.
"...What is this? You didn't have to go this far with the theatrics, did you? I..."
Good. We're set.
Now I just have to aggressively push him through the situation—corner the fooled target and wrap it up.
...Ideally, steer it toward a resolution that benefits us a little more.
As the carrot chattered away in its pre-recorded, overly cheerful voice, I subtly stepped aside so Gwak Je-gang could see more clearly.
Behind me, the massive, imposing prototype dream incubator salvaged from the Cheerful Research Lab was now in full view.
"...!"
Gwak Je-gang's eyes violently trembled as he processed the machine. But the 'carrot' continued with its recorded prompt:
And thus began the most insanely cost-effective cleanup operation of all time.