Chapter 221
Chapter 221
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 221
Chapter Title: Gotta Go to Work, Even in a Ghost Story
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A dark and cramped editing room.
Giant editing monitors.
One of them was lit up.
A blue desktop background filled the screen on that sole source of light.
And several video icons scattered across it.
Raw footage from variety shows.
The two Field Exploration Team employees, having already coordinated beforehand, moved without hesitation.
—First, let's check if it's actually the Darkness.
—Yep!
Verification work.
A hand grabbed the mouse, and the pointer darted across the desktop...
Click.
The clicked icon opened the raw footage—the original video destined to become MBS Friendly Karaoke episode 26.
[Hahaha!]
[Wow, you really sing well!]
[You're too kind.]
Two guests and the MC laughed across a table in the bright, colorful karaoke set.
It was the trendy format from recent broadcasting content chasing after WeTube: lavish guests paired with a non-aggressive, humorous host in a small-scale singing talk show.
The cheerful interior, the bursts of laughter, and even the production crew's cheers made everything feel fresh and lively.
"There."
The video paused.
A passing shot of the karaoke interior.
A small, dark window on the karaoke room door.
A man's face was there.
Staring right at the camera.
"Whew."
It was visible even in the darkness. More warped and conspicuous than the episode 36 capture they had seen in the attached data post.
It was as if he was desperately trying to catch someone's eye beyond the camera lens.
It was a sight so spine-chilling that anyone stumbling upon it unexpectedly would freeze in terror on the spot or scream and bolt.
"Okay."
But the two Field Exploration Team members swiftly closed the video and clicked another.
They were used to this.
Click, click. Their hands rapidly clicked on the files of other variety shows ending in the number '6'.
...But then it hit them.
"......."
"......."
Recent trendy variety formats rarely featured large, rowdy casts.
Especially not ones packing in extras for reactions or audience participation. There were none at all.
So, there were no crowds.
Ultimately, the 'Man in the Screen' couldn't just sit among a group of people as if he were one of them.
Which was why...
The man started appearing in increasingly awkward ways.
In a rooftop variety show where guests sat on cushions chatting, the man stood outside on the balcony, staring at the camera. In a riverside fishing show, with the cast focused on their lines, the man pressed his face right up next to them, staring at the camera. In a talk show with the MC and an actor guest facing each other, the man stood stock-still behind their table, staring at the camera.
His expressions grew increasingly bizarre.
His postures, too.
Sometimes, his movements mimicked the guests or the MC.
It was as if he was imitating them, but the sheer awkwardness and wrongness of it sent chills crawling up their spines...
"......."
By now, even die-hard money worshippers would start feeling an ominous dread creeping in.
Kang Ihak swallowed hard and closed the footage.
But he didn't hesitate.
"I'll load them in."
"Yep."
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae plugged the prepared USB into the editing rig connected to the monitor.
Executing the company's simple protocol.
Seal the video data in an unplayable storage format and ship it off to an appropriate holding facility. (Presumed.)
It was a logical approach based on the Darkness's patterns.
If watching the videos featuring the 'Man in the Screen' in the editing room triggered fatalities, they could simply isolate every last file, lock down the room, and be done with it.
If the video couldn't be played, the phenomenon couldn't even occur.
Regrettably, they'd just have to inform the production crew to salvage and use whatever raw footage hadn't entered the editing suite.
—No need to poke the bear—just dump it straight onto the USB!
—Right.
Click.
Kang Ihak, who had been waiting, immediately opened the removable disk the moment the USB mounted. He scooped up every file ending in '6' from the desktop—even the in-progress editing folder—and dragged them all in one fell swoop.
It was a routine motion, executed at breakneck speed without a second thought.
‘Whew.’
True to the hefty file sizes, a loading popup appeared. The process of the footage transferring to the removable disk. If they could just hold out through this...
Copying...
"......."
"......."
Eh?
"Excuse me."
Lee Seonghae spoke up.
"Why is your hand resting there?"
Kang Ihak glanced down at his hand.
Reflexively placed on the keyboard, his hand was pressing down on the Ctrl key.
...A habit.
When dragging files or folders straight to a USB drive, it is processed as a 'Move'.
It is essentially a 'Cut'.
But if you do it while holding down the Ctrl key...
It becomes a 'Copy'.
It was a natural reflex for any upperclassman who had juggled countless external activities and university assignments.
Always make a backup.
"......."
Kang Ihak eyed the files still funneling into the USB storage.
And he looked at the files still lingering on the desktop.
The ones containing the 'Man in the Screen'.
At this rate, the originals would remain right here in the editing room.
But you cannot delete files that are in the middle of being copied.
‘No.’
Feeling his blood run cold, Kang Ihak stared at the 'Copying' popup, waiting for it to finish.
The numbers climbed steeply. Please. 90, 92, 95, 97, 99...
Complete.
The instant it finished, Kang Ihak hammered the delete shortcut.
[Are you sure you want to permanently delete these 6 items?]
Right now!
He had to do it quickly. His hand couldn't slip. No, his hand didn't slip, but strangely—supernaturally—the mouse double-clicked. Instead of deleting, it clicked the icon, and the footage started playing—
He made eye contact with the man in the screen.
Amidst the joyful variety show scenes, standing quietly alone, the eyes that met his beyond the camera became visible.
Dilated pupils. Two dark, black eyes—like holes punched into his face—were staring right at him. He smiled, baring his teeth.
He was looking at Kang Ihak. He opened his mouth, revealing a black void where blood-red gums and a tongue writhed and locked into place. The mouth slowly formed the words: Do not delete.
Uuuuhhheeeeeeeuuuuhhhhhooooohhhheeeeooooohhheeeeeeehhhhkeeehhhhheeeuuuhhhaaaaahhhheeeeeoooohhh
Countless video files began playing simultaneously on the desktop. The audio overlapped, the system lagged and stuttered. Bizarre noises rang out. The playback positions of the footage jumped randomly, turning off, turning back on, shifting. The screen flashed. Something was coming out of the screen.
Uuuuhhheeeeeeeuuuuhhhhhooooohhhheeeeooooohhheeeeeeehhhhkeeehhhhheeeuuuhhhaaaaahhhheeeeeoooohhh
The videos flickered. Scenes from different variety programs switched every second, zooming in. A common entity was edited together and appeared on the screen. It was him. The face of the man in the screen. THE MAN IS COMING OUT. HE IS ZOOMING IN ON THE SCREEN. BIGGER AND BIGGER AND BIGGER AND BIGGER.
Kang Ihak stared at the man's mouth. His bizarrely rounded, wide-open mouth was moving. Anyone standing in front of the editing monitor had no choice but to watch it. Kang Ihak's gaze was fixed. Lee Seonghae's gaze was fixed. They had no choice but to watch. The preparation to listen to his words was complete. He was angry. They would die after listening to all his words. He.......
Tap.
"........" A sound.
Tap, tap, tap. Smoke.
Tap, tap, tap, tap. The transport cage. The Employee.
"....!"
Kang Ihak bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood and snapped back to his senses.
He quickly reached out. His hand found the lock on the transport cage right next to her. He unlocked it.
Clang. The sound of the iron cage opening.
However, the 'Employee' did not come out.
Instead, a thick smoke resembling black fog seeped out......
And completely obscured the Field Exploration Team's line of sight.
"...!"
Through the smoke, dozens of light sources like yellow lanterns shone, disrupting the monitor's light and shapes.
The man in the screen was no longer visible.
Because only the lanterns could be seen within the smoke.
"...Hah!"
Momentarily separated from the Darkness, the Field Exploration Team employee gasped for breath and shot up.
...Kang Ihak realized he had been bowing his head so close to the editing monitor that his nose was almost touching it. A terrifying chill stung his back.
The audio from the six video files, caught in a lag, continued to echo through the narrow editing room like a continuous scream.
Kang Ihak was still staring at the thick, heavy black fog and yellow eyes flowing from the transport cage....
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae seemed entirely surrounded by the smoke.
"Employee!"
Kang Ihak made a rational judgment first.
"Could you wrap up the monitor tightly and... could you suppress that thing just once? Then we'll resume operations immediately!"
Wasn't that exactly the Security Team's role!
However, the black smoke did not touch the monitor.
No, looking at it now... it was actively avoiding direct contact with the monitor or the editing equipment.
‘...Huh?’
The smoke drew letters.
[Concerns Upon Contact:]
▶ Deletion of the Darkness
▶ Increased risk of death for the two accompanying employees (Dolphin, Pony)
".......!!"
[Reason: Anomaly of a non-physical entity. Insufficient data.]
Wait. So, just by coming into contact with it, the editing room ghost would be 'influenced', and it was holding back in case some crazy variable occurred... is that what it meant?
And one of those variables was the Darkness being deleted?
‘Just how powerful is it?’
A somewhat thrilling premonition ran down his spine, but his mouth spoke rational words.
"Then, to resume our work...."
And the task the 'Employee' presented was very simple.
[Do not stare at the Darkness]
"...Of course! That is a very reasonable point."
But without eyes, a human's accuracy and efficiency drop drastically....
Especially for a delicate task like having to continuously minimize the wildly popping video windows, find the files on the desktop, and permanently delete them!
"Still, I think someone needs to be looking at it."
And the Employee kindly answered that question as well.
[The one who looks: Me]
At that moment, the dozens of yellow eyes that had sprouted above the black fog stared at the monitor.
"...!"
...Yellow eyes on a black background.
‘........Huh?’
It was the moment Kang Ihak was reminded of something.
"Yep."
At the same time, Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae began to move.
Because her separate conversation with the black smoke, held while she was crouched down, had just concluded.
[Expected Results Upon Delayed Start:]
▶ Failure to collect the Darkness
▶ Occurrence of casualties
Because she had received the signal.
Thud.
The elite team member slid smoothly into the black smoke and positioned herself under the desk where the monitor sat.
As the smoke slightly receded to make room, she reached out only her right hand, snatched the mouse from the desk, and brought it down to the floor where she was sitting.
"...!"
That's right. ‘Even if you bring the mouse under the desk, it works perfectly fine...!’
This was possible because most equipment nowadays uses Bluetooth mice with strong connections.
Lee Seonghae placed the mouse on the floor to level it.
Then she gripped it tightly and aggressively dragged it down to the bottom right.
‘...! If she does that, it'll unconditionally go to the bottom right corner.’
She was aligning the position of the unseen mouse pointer on the screen.
By aligning it like this and moving it slightly up...
That was exactly the bottom right of the monitor screen, where the 'Show Desktop' button was located.
She clicked.
"...!"
"Did it work?"
Tap.
But it was only for a moment.
Uuuuhhheeeeeeeuuuuhhhhhooooohhhhnnaaahhhsaaaaggggnnnaaaajjjjaaaakkkeeeeeoooohhheeeeeeehhhhjjjuuuuhhhhaaajjjaaaaahhhheeeeeoooohhh
"Ugh!"
The video footage popped up again, and bizarre sounds began to echo horrifyingly in the dark editing room.
The man in the screen was still there.
‘Hah.’
Feeling a rare cold sweat running down the back of his neck from sheer terror, Kang Ihak forced a smile.
And one of the yellow eyes in the black smoke looked back at him.
[Input Devices]
▶ Mouse (Dolphin)
▶ Keyboard (Pony)
Damn it.
"Yep!"
As expected, you work for what you earn!
Eventually, Kang Ihak also ran over, grabbed the keyboard, and crouched under the desk, almost lying flat.
The keyboard, also Bluetooth, naturally worked.
"I'll bring up the desktop, so Dolphin, please designate the deletion!"
Kang Ihak began to mash the Windows key + D.
And so, they repeated it frantically.
Sometimes the video popped up first, making the icon click miss, and sometimes they were almost there but hit the desktop key, causing the deletion pop-up to vanish.
And the sound became clearer.
Uuuuhhheeeeeeeuuuuhhhhhooooohhhhoooooooohhhhsagggjjjeeeeehhhhhaaaajjjjeeeeeoooohhheeeeeeehhhhkeeehhhhheeeuuuhhhaaaaahhhheeeeeoooohhh
It was a situation where cold sweat made both their hands clammy.
But Lee Seonghae moved calmly.
Relying purely on sensation to move the pointer, she calmly learned the 'Employee's' signals and reduced her margin of error.
They couldn't just select all the desktop icons with the keyboard to delete them.
Because that would include the Recycle Bin.
Ultimately, she had to use the mouse to designate the appropriate files excluding the Recycle Bin.
After that, Kang Ihak just had to press the shortcut for 'Permanent Delete' (Shift + Delete).
Until the timing was right.
Before it was too late.
They repeated it.
UuuuhhheeeeeeeDELETEeeeeuuuuhhhhhooooohhhhDIEeeeoooohhhjjjeeeDON'Teeeeoooohhheeeeeeehhhhkeeehhhhheeeuuuhhhaaaaahhhheeeeeoooohhh
To accurately grab the files Kang Ihak had held earlier.
To make him input the permanent delete shortcut at that exact moment.
And for one split second.
Tap.
"...!"
Lee Seonghae knew.
"........Ah."
Just now, Kang Ihak's delete key had hit at the exact right timing.
And she visualized it. The pop-up on the monitor that the 'Employee' would be seeing, invisible to her.
[Are you sure you want to permanently delete these 6 items?]
Right?
Tap.
Right.
Lee Seonghae immediately placed her hand on the keyboard Kang Ihak was holding and smashed the Enter key.
Then she smashed the mouse she was holding against the floor to break it.
To prevent it from 'accidentally' double-clicking and playing the video.
Following that, she smashed the keyboard as well.
CRACK.
The sound of panting and silence filled the editing room.
.....
..........
"Is it.... done?"
However, the Employee was still wrapping them in black smoke.
The monitor couldn't be seen. What more did they have to do....
Tap.
Just then.
A hand wearing a black glove emerged from the black smoke and lightly pointed at the editing rig's tower.
Ah, the USB!
"...!"
Kang Ihak practically crawled over to the tower and yanked out the USB.
Only then did the black smoke surrounding them retreat.
"......Phew."
Their vision was revealed.
Standing up and looking at the editing monitor.... only the blue desktop was visible again.
No video footage, no man, no bizarre lag or voices.
It was over.
They had captured the 'Man in the Screen' phenomenon on the USB.
"Hah!"
Kang Ihak collapsed onto the floor.
He survived, and he made money.
Dopamine rushed through his central nervous system like crazy, making his heart pound.
This is true happiness......
But the next moment, Kang Ihak shot upward and bowed his head.
"Phew, I'm so sorry. I ate up our time because I left the original files on this computer midway through!"
In times like this, you have to admit fault properly to brush past it relatively lightly, preventing further losses or having to spend money later.
‘Still, we handled the recovery well.’
She rolled the small magnet she still held in her left hand.
An exclusive piece of equipment she got as a free perk upon being promoted to Assistant Manager.
It was an item with the capability: 'Once a day, has a 50% chance to immediately unlock any lock.'
It had the downside that if it was a lock she couldn't pick no matter how much time she spent, this couldn't open it either, but it was still quite a satisfying piece of equipment.
It had played an active role this time, too!
‘Would we have died if I hadn't opened the transport cage door immediately?’
Phew! High return really does mean high risk!
"Even so, finishing this quickly is all thanks to working with such capable people.... We even made extra profit, it was great! I'm glad it ended well!"
It was at that moment.
The 'Employee', who had returned to the transport cage and remained silent, reacted.
Tap, tap.
Negative.
Kang Ihak swallowed hard.
".........Don't tell me you aren't happy with the extra profit?"
Tap, tap.
"......"
"......"
If so.
What this Employee from the Security Team's special department was denying was.....
"The job isn't over."
........
"We misunderstood something right now, didn't we?"
Lee Seonghae's calm voice gave Kang Ihak the chills.
"We missed something, didn't we?"
Tap.
"......!"
Before they could even interrogate what that meant.
".......This, do you think they used film back in the day?"
"Excuse me?"
"The variety show footage. They used film even up until the mid-2000s, right?"
Suddenly, Lee Seonghae, who was peering at the USB, opened her mouth.
More accurately, she was looking at the data inside it.
"Even if that wasn't the case, there would have been no reason for the video data to leave the editing room, right? Because you can't really do proper editing outside the editing room anyway."
"Well. That's probably true."
Lee Seonghae raised her head.
"But right now, it's gone outside."
"........"
Kang Ihak realized the meaning of those words.
They had just experienced it.
The 'Man in the Screen' reacted to the very act of deleting himself.
Meaning, if the trigger wasn't the space called the editing room, but the act of 'editing the video footage' itself.
—Editing... we only do the urgent stuff that requires the equipment here during the day, and we try to do the rest outside the station at studios or from home.
On the personal PCs of all the editing-related production staff in the PBS Variety Department.
The 'Man in the Screen' was there.
They rushed out of the broadcasting station and frantically began calling the Security Team.