Chapter 215
Chapter 215
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 215
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
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The Security Team employees looked up.
In the darkness of the pantry.
Seeing them emerge from the transport device beneath the shadows, they locked eyes with the sales employee who had collapsed on the floor, holding his breath.
"Child... no."
The figure wearing a child's drawing of an animal mask—Badger—calmed his own stimulated contamination.
Soon, a plain, businesslike voice emerged.
"Sales Team 4 employee."
"Y-Yes..."
"Identity confirmed. We will now begin cost settlement."
The sales employee swallowed hard.
Wrapped head to toe in black specialized suits, faces concealed, equipped with all manner of bizarre devices—they were ghost stories in their own right.
Even though they were clearly handling some supernatural special mission, the sight brought a momentary sense of relief.
Of course, the next instant, terror welled up again at this incomprehensible situation.
"Um, wh-what should I..."
The sales employee's eyes darted around, trying to grasp the situation somehow, when something caught his gaze.
The next Security Team member to emerge held a black transport cage in his hand.
An iron transport cage that looked meant for capturing beasts.
...Hold on.
"N-No way, you're going to stuff me in there and take me out...?"
"No. Of course not."
Badger gently stroked the transport cage.
It was the moment the sales employee relaxed.
"There's already someone in there."
"......Pardon?"
"Don't think too deeply about it."
Badger smiled bitterly to himself as he watched the sales employee, who looked like he was losing his mind in the face of this utterly baffling situation.
And then...
"Tight..."
J3, who was holding the transport cage in one hand, showed little interest in the situation itself.
Of course, it had been an eternity since he'd gone out on "duty" without his guard uniform.
Though calling it "going out" was a stretch, given how confined the space they were in really was.
In the midst of it all, Badger—uncharacteristically courteous for a Security Team member—delivered the information in a businesslike tone.
"We've confirmed everything in your report. Then we'll begin now..."
"Who is it?"
"Who's there?"
"...!"
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
A sound like raindrops pattering against the door grated on their nerves.
Nails clashing.
Ten fingertips scratching at the door.
"There's someone else."
"There's more."
Whispering, like labored breaths.
The sound was far too close. Because...
A head pressed against the door crack, whispering.
"You're all late."
"You're late."
The couple was peering inside.
Into the room behind the door they'd locked themselves.
Feeling as if frozen to the bone, the sales employee went rigid.
However...
"Are they people?"
"Who knows..."
The astonishingly calm conversation from the "Security Team" came from right beside him.
"They used to be... maybe?"
J3 habitually reached to adjust his guard uniform cap, realized it wasn't there, and fiddled with his mask instead.
Faded beast-like eyes peered out from above it.
He carefully set the transport cage he was holding down on the pantry floor.
Right next to the sales employee.
"Um... can you wait here...?"
"Y-Yes?"
But those words weren't directed at the sales employee.
"You okay...?"
The iron bars of the black transport cage vibrated faintly.
As if the creature inside was responding.
"Be right... back. Just wait......"
Another response came.
J3 lightly touched the cage before standing up.
"Um... if you don't want to get hurt...... stay right next to this......"
This time, the words were for the sales employee.
"And absolutely... don't treat it roughly."
"......"
The sales employee swallowed and nodded. He pressed himself against the black transport cage.
He'd intuited that this was some kind of protective measure.
...An eerie chill emanated from the transport cage.
"Then we'll begin."
Leaving the sales employee behind, the two Security Team members pressed against the pantry door and forced it open with brute strength.
"...!!"
Their bodies blocked the view outside, but the rain sounds intensified—that much he could hear. The sales employee curled up as tightly as possible. He caught a glimpse of the Security Team members stepping out...
The door closed, and the rain sounds faded.
Thud.
......
Screeech, screeech, screek.
Sounds of something being torn apart rang out loudly.
The sales employee gripped the transport cage without thinking. To keep himself from imagining what was happening outside.
The chill seized his mind.
From inside the cage, something like strange smoke sluggishly rose...
After a subjectively endless moment.
Thud.
"...!"
The roar ceased, and the rain stopped.
The door opened.
The two Security Team members stood there casually, checking their gear...
"Subjugation complete."
"......!"
They're unharmed.
A faint spark of hope rose in the sales employee's heart as his legs nearly gave out.
Can we leave now? He struggled to his feet and peered out the door.
And realized what "subjugation" meant.
"Agh."
He stifled a scream.
The corridor was slick with fluids.
Dark, sticky reflections gleamed from the wallpaper and floor soaked in splattered secretions like blood.
And on the wall directly opposite.
The couple's grotesque bodies, limbs twisted and fixed in place.
"...!"
Ruthlessly—all possible movements crushed, joints pinned with colorful thumbtacks like some bizarre centipede. Every segment broken to prevent even the slightest motion.
Overwhelming pressure and violence.
Incongruous with the childish school supplies.
Fluids dripped from the holes in their faces, displayed like exhibits in the dark corridor...
Like his dead boss.
Even more inhuman.
"......"
"Ah... right. Collection duty."
Collection?
"Information collection first?"
"Yeah..."
The gaunt, lethargic Security Team member approached the "former couple" he'd smashed and pinned.
And pulled the thumbtack from its mouth.
"......!"
"Listen.... here... there's a little kid...?"
One of the things he'd said into the pager.
The sales employee's chest went cold.
Even more horrific—the couple's mouth opened, and it began to answer.
"P-Please save us. Save... ugh."
"Answer... the question first."
Suddenly.
Tears streamed from the couple's eyes.
"......!"
"The kid... the kid's in the bathroom."
"Poor kid. Please help..."
"You're trapped too. Too late.... Help us......"
"......"
The Security Team member referred to as "Squad Leader" stared at them impassively.
"What's on the upper floor?"
"Something evil. Don't go. No—get out of here fast."
"You might still be able to escape. Somehow to the outside..."
"Hmm......"
As if pondering, the Security Team member raised a hand toward them.
And the next moment.
"...Good enough."
...Crack.
A crisp, unmistakable snap—and the couple's necks broke.
The dry-built male Security Team member seized each neck in one hand and, with freakish strength, shattered the bones and twisted them backward.
Casually.
......
He killed them?
"Ah, you've confirmed everything needed."
"Yeah."
"Understood. ...Caller, you're good now. Just hand over what's in your hand."
His hand trembled.
Something was wrong.
That's not something a human would do...
"Calling employee?"
The sales employee forced his head to turn and looked down at his hand.
He was holding a sheet of sketchbook paper.
New writing scrawled on it.
Suddenly.
The sales employee whipped his head around.
To the place right next to the pantry.
The answer the paper had kindly provided from the start.
...The bathroom tub the dead couple had mentioned.
Bathroom.
The sales employee bolted...
"No can do."
"...!!"
His head was seized.
Panting, the sales employee beheld the grotesque, massive silhouette clutching his face, blocking his vision.
A beast's forepaw, covered in countless claws.
"Stay... still......"
The sales employee blinked. The terror of death froze him solid...
He's going to die.
"Teacher, let go of the hand! Follow the rules your fellow teacher is telling you. That's what makes you a perfect teacher!"
Strength drained from his hand. The sketchbook paper was taken.
No.
"Shall I read it...?"
"No. It'll contaminate me if I read it, so later..."
The sales employee rolled his only movable part—his eyes. Escape. Entrance, living room, upper floor, window...
'Ah.'
Right.
Escape through the window!
Why hadn't he thought of it? If he'd die heading for the entrance, just go for the window. He had to escape, had to...
Right now! He thrashed, trying to crawl toward the window. Kicking with his legs, pushing at the beast's paw with his nails—every attempt failed, but he couldn't give up...
"You'll die if you go there."
......
Eh?
"Stay still..."
"D-Die, why..."
"Hm. The cause... you're getting close...?"
Cause?
The sales employee turned his head.
"You said it yourself, caller. You'll remember."
What?
"You said it when you reported. ...That this house sometimes felt off."
"......"
The sales employee halted his foot.
And recalled one of the things he'd desperately shouted into the pager, begging for help.
Something his boss had mentioned.
"Rain..."
-On rainy days, that house just gives off bad vibes.
The sales employee looked at the window.
Outside, rain was drizzling down...
......
"On rainy days... yeah......"
The slow, listless voice burrowed chillingly into his ear.
"If you open a wet black umbrella inside the house, something comes in... If you leave wet shoes upside down, a ghost wears them..."
"Squad Leader, for real?"
"No......"
The guard squad leader gazed at Badger with eyes devoid of any gleam, then continued slowly.
"Most are just... nonsense rumors......"
"Ah."
"But... sometimes... they say things are born from those rumors......"
Darkness.
The former Field Exploration Team junior read the word the guard squad leader had deliberately omitted.
The explanation wasn't over.
"And... there's stories like......"
"......"
......
The sales employee's eyes met the guard squad leader's.
"Someone keeps trying to talk to you, right...?"
That instant.
"Lee Junior?"
The sales employee froze.
"Lee Junior, you there?"
A familiar voice from the entrance.
Knock knock knock.
Someone was knocking on the door.
"Lee Junior. Open the door. What the hell's going on?"
Right...
"Why aren't you coming out?"
It was his dead boss's voice.
Knock knock knock knock.
The corpse that had been crumpled at the entrance, neck snapped, had vanished.
Instead, only the sound of someone knocking behind the front door carried over the rain...
Along with the boss's voice.
"Open this. You need to come out too."
All strength drained from the sales employee's body.
The guard squad leader released his grip on the head. With a thud, the sales employee collapsed to the floor, face a mask of confusion.
'Wow...'
Watching this, Badger inwardly marveled.
At the profound darkness exploration knowledge hidden beneath the guard squad leader's apathetic drawl.
It was like what D Squad's witty newbie junior might have after a few more years on the Field Exploration Team...
...No. Pointless thought, since they were both Security Team now. Badger bitterly swallowed the near-rude notion.
In the meantime, the sounds had multiplied several times over.
"Person! There's a person. You okay?"
"Oops, this old lady fell... can you help?"
"...Wait, this house's grandma died years ago... Don't listen. Something's off!"
From the upper floor, master bedroom, kitchen side door, and beyond. Sounds from everywhere. As if everyone who'd been in the house had just snapped out of the blackout.
Drawing closer.
With the rain.
"Where are you?"
"...! Don't answer the upper floor. No one's up there...!"
"Be careful. Seems like something weird's here..."
Footsteps.
And.
"Ah, door opened."
"Coming now. Where you at?"
Even the dead boss.
"......Ugh."
What is it? What's the right thing?
Which of them is the monster?
The sales employee tried to review everything he'd heard to figure it out somehow, but Badger grabbed him.
"Ack!"
"Calm down. It's fine... Squad Leader?"
In a situation that should have had his heart pounding in terror, the guard squad leader calmly knelt and pressed his head to the transport cage.
Speaking to the inside.
"What do... you think? Seems right...?"
"Hm. Then... should I...?"
"......Even so."
"......"
The guard squad leader fiddled with his mask and reluctantly stepped aside, slow as ever.
One knock for yes, two for no.
Seeing the prearranged signal, Badger smiled bitterly beneath his concealed face.
Truly unchanged.
"...Then we'll release."
Badger approached the transport cage and undid the lock.
Clank.
The cage collapsed, and the door swung open...
Smoke spread across the floor.
And from the hollow darkness within the transport cage, an intact leg emerged.
"...!"
A black-clad leg in black walkers.
He knew it was the same uniform as the other Security Team members, but what stepped out amid thick black smoke was a horned, bizarre entity.
A tall man, impossible to believe had been crammed into the transport cage.
"E-Eh..."
The sales employee's trembling lips met yellow eyes.
▶ Bow your head
▶ Close your eyes
The employee hastily averted his gaze.
Pure instinct amid panic.
'Can't keep staring.'
Cold sweat soaked his nape.
Yet the letters formed of smoke pursued him.
▶ Bow your head ✓ : Correct
▶ Close your eyes
As if praising him.
And then.
Tearing sounds like before echoed from all directions.
Screeeeeeeeech!
Mucus bursting, wailing...
The Security Team was "subjugating" the approaching entities.
"How's he telling them apart...?"
Human from monster.
Or...
'Not telling them apart at all.'
The sales employee huddled tighter. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it would burst. He felt like he was dying...
Then, the letters in the smoke changed.
As if responding to his mutter.
▶ Couple
▶ Sketchbook paper
Me distinguish?
The employee reflexively opened his mouth.
"C-Couple!"
Look at those ghost-whatevers approaching, yammering nonstop. The couple was definitely ghosts too. Had to be!
▶ Couple ✓ : Correct
▶ Sketchbook paper
As expected.
Ah, so anything talking in a human voice was dangerous? Was that it?
'C-Couple was dangerous, so don't be scared of us while we're subjugating...'
Is that what it wanted to say?
If so, it made sense. The sales employee regained a sliver of reason and calm through this practical logic, remembering what he needed to do.
'Me, panicked, trying to calm it down... that's it.'
Either way, these were beings he could rationally converse with.
If this "Security Team" was truly here to rescue him, then he should speak more specifically about the other possible trapped entity... the "little kid." It had already been mentioned, so he could.
About the letters on the advising paper, properly.
The employee swallowed in his parched mouth and opened it.
"Th-The sketchbook paper..."
That instant.
▶ Couple ✓ : Correct
▶ Sketchbook paper ✓ : Correct
"......"
Eh?
But it hadn't changed.
▶ Couple ✓ : Correct
▶ Sketchbook paper ✓ : Correct
So this meant...
"Dangerous..."
Both dangerous.
"......Why?"
Same thing
Dazed as he mulled the meaning, the sales employee's mouth fell open unwittingly.
"Then what was I supposed to believe? I mean... what should I have trusted?"
None.
"......"
On rainy days
To stranger's words
Do not react rashly
Ah.
The sales employee raised his head.
But the black-clad man was no longer in front of him.
"......"
Only a wisp of the black smoke he'd left behind remained, the very thing that had conversed with him.
Like distracting a child before an injection, diverting attention elsewhere.
To cut off impulsive actions.
"......"
The tearing sounds had ceased now, and the surroundings were filled with bodies "fixed" like the couple by the Security Team.
The only consolation was the darkness preventing a clear view.
And... the black smoke.
Dazed, the sales employee watched the black smoke that had conversed with him get sucked away...
The smoke flowed down the corridor toward the spot next to the pantry where they'd been trapped...
Now, the only source of noise was from there.
Bathroom.
Horrific screams erupted in chains from within.
I looked at the bathtub in front of me.
Inside, rainwater brimmed, echoing.
A transparent, bottomless pool ready to swallow victims drawn by its words.
Letters scratched across my mind...
An unregistered, discarded Nameless Radiant Church ghost story from the wiki.
And my job... was to register it with Daydream Corporation.
I peered into the rainwater in the tub.
......
Is this really okay?