Chapter 192
Chapter 192
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
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Deep within the subterranean silence of the makeshift laboratory.
Looking around the dusty perimeter of the Jolly Lab's dream cultivation room, Kwak Je-gang’s eyes violently dilated, his gaze practically devouring the massive cultivator hummed in the center of the space.
But the invisible gears of the trap had already begun to turn, and the countdown commenced.
A tinny, low-quality recorded melody blared from my smartphone, accompanied by an overly cheerful, synthetic child's voice.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
"What exactly is it you think you know? You expect me to just spill everything I know about proprietary potion manufacturing equipment?"
I stared back at him, maintaining a cold, unreadable silence behind my mask.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
"No, haha. Potion manufacturing? Did I perhaps see a blueprint once when I first joined the company? Even if you demand this level of data from a raw materials supply researcher... Irrationality is certainly the charm of a localized Darkness, but this is..."
Kwak Je-gang’s defensive babbling abruptly ceased.
"...Wait a minute."
The smug arrogance drained from his voice, replaced by a sudden, trembling vibration.
"That design... no way. Is that actually it?"
It wasn't a tremor of fear. It was the frantic, unmistakable spark of pure scientific obsession.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
A mad, academic flame ignited in the eyes of the researcher as his brain connected the pieces.
"It's a potion manufacturing prototype!"
The countdown chime abruptly cut off.
However, Kwak Je-gang’s mouth showed no signs of stopping.
"The pure, unfiltered version! The one built before the company implemented those restrictive quality control limits on production! Ah, I don't have much passion for Daydream's standard commercial potions, but the original manufacturing devices are a completely different story, haha..."
A wide, manic smile spread across Kwak Je-gang’s face.
"It was derived from a Darkness, and that right there is the original device pulled straight out of the abyss!"
...!!
"It's sitting right in front of me! If you had just shown me this from the start instead of putting on this ridiculous security performance, I would have willingly testified to anything you wanted!"
He muttered frantically, his eyes scanning the glass casing of the dream cultivator with an intensity that made it look as if he wanted to lick the metal frames.
"How on earth did you manage to procure this? If it's capable of spitting out raw Wish Grants, it has to be sourced from an Abyss-Grade Darkness—what specific ghost story did you extract it from? I don't know which corporate higher-up is secretly running this operation, but don't you need an elite researcher? My lips are absolutely sealed, I'm brimming with research passion, and I am a total expert in anomalous biochemistry!"
A broad, desperate grin bloomed on Kwak Je-gang’s face.
"This is lightyears better than the pointless, mind-numbing drudgery they have me doing in the annex! Hey, do you mind if I take a step closer? That component..."
Whoosh.
I released a thick, suffocating cloud of black smoke directly in front of Kwak Je-gang just as he attempted to stand up from his chair.
Kwak Je-gang froze mid-step, his body locking up.
But the eyes he lifted to meet my masked face gleamed with pure, unadulterated curiosity rather than any physical fear.
"Quite the volatile temperament. Haha... Where exactly did you come from? Which specific Darkness answered Daydream Corporation's summons? Was it the Fire? The Water? The Visions of Madness? The Fairy Tales? Or perhaps... the Throne of Pure Silver?"
I offered absolutely no answer.
But behind my silent facade, the special exploration records involving Kwak Je-gang's past cases rapidly flashed through my mind.
I needed to calculate exactly what kind of misunderstanding would be best to induce in his highly analytical mind.
'Something as powerful as possible. An anomaly that Kwak Je-gang wouldn't possess much concrete data on.'
But still a legendary concept where he could let his paranoid imagination run wild.
I slowly extended my hand and pointed down.
Directly toward...
The yellow lantern wrapped in rib-like horns hanging securely from my waist tactical belt.
"...A star?"
Kwak Je-gang muttered, his voice dropping to a whisper.
He took the bait perfectly.
"A Darkness tied directly to stellar bodies. Gold, binding restraint... haha, intriguing... You are quite interested in the affairs of humans, aren't you, entity?"
I didn't answer his fantasy.
Instead, I simply tapped the screen of the disguised carrot toy.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Kwak Je-gang now regarded me with absolute fascination rather than defensive tension.
He seemed utterly thrilled at the prospect of gleaning technical data about the dream cultivator from the nature of the questions I was posing.
But.
This wasn't a academic question designed to exchange data about the cultivator.
This was a psychological hammer designed to shatter his confidence.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Kwak Je-gang’s face instantly stiffened, the manic grin freezing on his lips.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
"...It is still under observation."
The synthetic countdown halted.
"...How could you possibly know about that? Is the company's internal audit division already aware?"
As if the corporate drones could ever find out on their own.
I only knew because of the insane, highly illegal stunts this bastard Kwak Je-gang had pulled, documented in detail thanks to the '#Exploration Records (Extra)' page on the wiki.
Among those records, I had specifically selected one massive-scale incident that would have utterly ruined the development department had it been uncovered—but had remained successfully buried right up to the wire.
'J Squad's Endless Lives'
This irregular record was infamous among readers for leaving a sickeningly bad taste in the mouth, making one's stomach churn just imagining the psychological horror of it occurring in reality.
But in this specific room, it was an incredibly potent weapon.
'There is absolutely no way he'll suspect I'm just a former ordinary employee now.'
No matter how incredibly shrewd Kwak Je-gang was at reading human expressions, the conclusion was too absurd to reach.
Instead, his brain would be forced to think along a completely different track.
'Ah, one of the company's powerful, hidden higher-ups has caught wind of my illegal experiments.'
From here, it was incredibly easy sailing.
"...Haha, if this isn't an official company disciplinary action, but you're dragging me into a hidden room using a black-ops security team like this... what exactly did I interfere with over there? What kind of corporate secret did I accidentally stumble upon?"
I remained silent, letting the misunderstanding fester in his mind to steer the situation entirely in my favor.
"Does this laboratory have some deep connection to that specific incident?"
I completely ignored Kwak Je-gang’s analytical mutterings. Instead...
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
I abruptly turned off the carrot toy's speaker.
Then, I stepped up to Kwak Je-gang and reached out, grabbing his chair.
"...!"
I aggressively shoved him—still tightly bound to the chair—directly up to the front glass panel of the cultivator.
"Ha... haha!"
Kwak Je-gang laughed, a cold sweat visibly beading down his face.
It was deeply unsettling how he still brimmed with anticipation for what was coming, even while experiencing genuine fear for his life. Regardless, his chair came to a halt right before the glowing liquid of the dream cultivator.
The golden glow of the active dream essence solution reflected off the lenses of his glasses.
I reactivated the carrot recorder.
The cheerful child's voice rang out once more.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
"...A far more potent, primal potion manufacturing function! Being directly derived from the Darkness, it will undoubtedly operate on extreme rules that completely defy human comprehension! Mind if I touch it? No? Just observe from here?"
I permitted Kwak Je-gang to stand up from the chair, but kept a strict, physical watch on his hands as he laid them on the metallic chassis of the cultivator.
Kwak Je-gang sweated profusely, yet he couldn't conceal the sheer thrill as his fingers frantically poked and analyzed every seam of the machine.
"Crude... but structurally far more intricate than the company's polished commercial models, naturally. Fewer interface buttons... an emoticon keyboard? What on earth is this? And this port..."
He pressed a hidden latch on the side of the incubator.
...A concealed pipe, identical to the injection port I had fed the high-grade solution into earlier, slid out of the side.
Even I hadn't noticed that mechanical feature.
'Is it possible to drain the liquid solution directly from there?'
I'll remember that. If I'm ever caught in a desperate pinch, I can use that port to siphon out all of my stored dream essence.
Even as he analyzed the exterior, Kwak Je-gang inspected the machine obsessively, eventually peering deep into the glass chamber holding the glowing dream essence.
More precisely, his gaze locked onto the faint, organic silhouette suspended within the liquid.
The pulsing, crimson lump roughly five times the size of an egg.
"That object suspended in the center! What exactly is it? There's nothing like that in the company's commercial manufacturing devices!"
I said absolutely nothing.
Mainly because I didn't know what it was either...
But thanks to the elaborate silent setup I had crafted, Kwak Je-gang immediately inferred the silence as a deliberate, heavy warning: 'That is not a secret for your clearance level.'
He wet his dry lips and reluctantly pulled his hands away, though his gaze still raked over the cultivator greedily.
Then, his eyes halted at the very bottom of the interface panel.
The empty slot where a single, critical button had been physically removed.
◎
"Ahh, this... this looks exactly like the Wish Grant production slot."
...!
"Right? It seems highly likely. Ah, did your faction intentionally remove it so I wouldn't be tempted to press it?"
Hold on.
That specific spot... was originally designed for manufacturing Wish Grants?
Does that mean even this unrefined prototype was capable of producing Wish Grants?
'That implies... the original, raw Wish Grants produced by this machine were even more powerful than the company's current refined versions.'
What the absolute hell was the Jolly Lab trying to manufacture here?
And...
'If I can track down and physically restore that missing button... is it possible to synthesize a raw, Jolly Lab-version Wish Grant...?'
Thump. Thump.
My heart pounded so violently against my ribs that my head spun.
No, no... calm down.
This was purely Kwak Je-gang's academic speculation.
And even if his deduction was spot-on, the stable Wish Grant potency I relied on stemmed entirely from Daydream Corporation's extensive commercial refinements.
No one could possibly predict the deranged, catastrophic side effects of using Jolly Lab's 'original, raw' formula.
'Don't chase high-risk gambles when safe, verified answers already exist.'
'Whew.'
"If you just give me more time, I could learn even more about its structural limitations. Whoever you are representing, bring me onto this secret project and..."
Kwak Je-gang glanced at me slyly from the corner of his eye as he spoke, trying to negotiate.
I stared back at him in dead silence.
A thin line of physical black smoke lanced toward his chest like a warning blade.
Kwak Je-gang flinched, taking a step back.
The black smoke slowly circled his body—as if silently warning him against any further foolishness—before sucking back into my mask as I inhaled.
"Ha."
I reached out and reactivated the carrot's pre-programmed sequence.
It was time to wrap this interrogation up.
'If I get too greedy for info, a sharp bastard like him might actually catch on to the bluff.'
And the final touch... was required to perfect the illusion of an official security audit.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
"...!"
The classic, terrifying question the Security Team always fired at the absolute end of every official interrogation.
A brutal knockout blow designed to crush those who had tried to desperately dodge the system with the logic of 'just don't lie.'
Yet Kwak Je-gang merely grinned, completely unfazed.
"Nothing in particular. Haha!"
He really was a complete, certified lunatic.
"Your faction is clearly overlooking all of my major disciplinary dirt anyway to use me—so why would I feel the need to hide anything else?"
He wet his lips again.
"I'm just slightly disappointed. I guess I don't fit your faction's ideal candidate profile for the black-ops squad? Hm, then who exactly is currently operating on that team... a confidential squad, full of officially missing persons, hm."
And then, his eyes narrowed.
"Could it be... Assistant Manager Kim Sol-eum?"
I nearly leaped clean off the floor in panic, my heart stopping.
"Looking at your physical proportions now, the build matches perfectly... Come to think of it, yeah. Kim Sol-eum's assigned security mask had horns on it too. Did your faction snatch that specific employee off the train and use his body as your physical vessel?"
This absolute psycho.
"That explains why his disappearance felt so off! That train Darkness wasn't the specific type of anomaly to let someone vanish without leaving a corpse—now the puzzle pieces perfectly snap together. Hahaha."
Hold on.
The train Darkness was 'not the type of anomaly to let someone vanish like that'?
That highly specific phrasing implied...
'He knew about the Tamra-bound train ghost story before I even boarded it!'
The realization hit me like a physical blow.
'This bastard set the entire board from the very beginning!'
The sudden, urgent provincial business trip. Getting swept into the train ghost story en route.
It wasn't an unlucky happenstance—it was his deliberate handiwork.
'He had gathered intel on the Tamra-bound train anomaly beforehand.'
Yeah, Kwak Je-gang possessed the clearance and the madness to pull stunts far beyond what was logged in the standard [Darkness Exploration Records].
And it was all thanks to the chaotic wildcard of 'me'!
"An upright, timid new employee who knows how to feel genuine fear. Man, even just listing his psychological traits screams that he was the perfect human sacrifice candidate..."
And his tone—it was clear he had researched my corporate persona, 'Kim Sol-eum,' far more extensively than I had ever realized.
...He actually knew?
My exact personality?
"Anyway. I'll have to verify my theory eventually! That tactical security uniform you're wearing—is it perhaps made from that unlucky employee's tanned skin? Is it a good physical matchup for you?"
'Stay calm.'
I deliberately showed absolutely no physical reaction to his horrific words.
I acted as if his insane drivel and logical deductions yielded zero valuable info to me.
As if anything beyond my immediate security assignment was completely meaningless, irrelevant to an entity like me.
Then, casually, I snatched up the carrot recorder and gave it a quiet, dismissive shake.
"……Tsk. So incredibly stoic..."
In that exact split second.
The Security Section Chief, who had been silently waiting behind the office desk, lunged out of the shadows and delivered a swift, heavy chop to the back of Kwak Je-gang’s neck, knocking him instantly cold.
"Eup."
Thud. His limp body hit the linoleum floor with a quiet, wet sound.
'Whew.'
Somehow, seeing him get knocked out felt incredibly refreshing.
"Should I... just dump him outside near the facility...?"
I nodded quickly in agreement.
As the Security Section Chief hauled Kwak Je-gang’s heavy body away, I shed the security uniform in a frantic flash.
'…Good. The stage is set.'
What happens next in the sequence?
The Security Section Chief will dump Kwak Je-gang near the company gates. He'll eventually be 'discovered' by Assistant Manager Park Minseong and brought back inside.
Thus, Park Minseong can officially report: 'Found a passed-out Section Chief Kwak Je-gang near the company perimeter, safely returned him.'
That would be the last confirmed sighting logged in the system.
'A sighting of me or the Security Section Chief? Entirely irrelevant to his official duties.'
So Park Minseong could completely excise my involvement from his report—without having to tell any direct lies to the wristwatch.
After changing back into my civilian clothes, I retrieved Brown from the dusty office corner, slotted him securely back into my front pocket, and his mental applause poured forth.
'Yeah? You're sure it didn't look forced?'
Ah, that specific concern.
I smiled with absolute confidence.
'It won't happen.'
Because Kwak Je-gang was far too sharp for his own good.
Security interrogations were under a strict, system-enforced non-disclosure protocol.
Employees kept entirely mum about them until a direct, official probe was launched by someone in the know.
And Kwak Je-gang was especially incentivized to keep quiet.
Especially since the line of questioning was directly tied to his own highly illegal, rogue antics!
'Why would he broadcast his own discipline-worthy crimes to the company prematurely?'
He wouldn't. Not before he could 'observe' the fallout and obtain his twisted sense of catharsis.
It was a psychological lock far better than any supernatural curse.
I recalled Assistant Manager Park Minseong’s worried voice from earlier.
I could have potentially used one, but I deliberately held off.
Those were Daydream-manufactured potions, after all.
Someone of Kwak Je-gang’s high clearance level could easily snag dispel potions from the corporate point mall—using an artificial memory wipe would only breed deep, immediate suspicion.
The key to survival was handling the situation naturally.
Acting as if his wild deductions meant absolutely zilch to me.
And even in the worst-case scenario where he did squeal, any corporate listener would simply buy it as a highly classified secret project run by some powerful faction higher-up—causing zero awkwardness for me.
'Exactly.'
My only real hang-up... was him linking my physical build to Kim Sol-eum.
But even if Kwak Je-gang blabbed those specific details later, by the time the rumor chain actually reached Manager Ho, I wouldn't be anywhere near this company.
"It's done."
Thus, I had successfully wrung every scrap of actionable intel from Kwak Je-gang and salvaged a catastrophic mess.
But my entire body was aching from the physical and mental strain...
'Should I take a quick nap until the Security Section Chief returns?'
Dealing with that nutjob researcher had deeply soured my gut.
I stowed the security tactical gear away in my inventory tattoo and plopped down heavily on the floor before the dream cultivator.
I stared at the glowing gold machine in the dark, silent room.
'…A preview?'
"……Brown?"
That was the exact moment.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
My personal smartphone violently buzzed in my pocket.
"…!"
A late-night contact.
Was it an emergency message from the Disaster Management Bureau? Were overwhelming rescue requests piling up in my sector?
I whipped out the phone and unlocked the screen. But...
📱 K.LEE
Eh?
The profile picture was a sunny Hawaii beach.
It was C Squad Deputy Lee Kang-hun, the corrupt operative who had originally hooked me up with the Salmon Market.
But...
A direct text message?
'That's impossible.'
Because... because...
I was already officially registered as dead in Daydream's records.
And I had changed this specific burner number ages ago.
'……'
Something was fundamentally, horribly wrong.
Meanwhile, the phone in my hand kept buzzing relentlessly with incoming texts.
📱 K.LEE
"Seriously."
I slowly whipped my head around to face the shadows behind me.
"To pull off a real spy gig."
A figure standing quietly behind the dream cultivation room's high-backed office chair slowly removed a shimmering goblin cloaking hood from his head, bleeding back into physical reality.
Agent Choi.
Clutched tightly in his hand was the handwritten note I had once desperately given to him, now heavily crumpled.
"You really should have found a way to successfully erase this critical clue midway through... Deer."
The steel trap snapped violently shut.