Chapter 233
Chapter 233
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 233
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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The one waiting for me in front of the elevator.
New hire Kim Heo-un.
"Employee?"
I can't distinguish human faces.
They look like melted mosaics, and their voices are as hard to make out as old radio recordings.
So, I have no idea how much this 'new hire Kim Heo-un' standing in front of the elevator resembles the Jang Heo-un I knew... but one thing I'm certain of.
'...This is a weird situation.'
This is abnormal.
And there's someone standing next to me who knows that better than I do.
The director of this company.
"Hello. You must be the new hire from the Field Exploration Team."
"Ah. Yes...! I'm Kim Heo-un."
"I see. ...But how did you get in here?"
"......Pardon?"
"You're with the Field Exploration Team, right? So you shouldn't be able to enter the Security Team's area on your own... I was just wondering how you're here."
Silence.
"And how did you find this elevator? How did you know there was an employee here?"
Ho Yuwon pointed at me.
"......"
His mouth opens.
...What?
"I mimicked the Security Team to get in, and mimicked the Research Team to find out where you were."
'Mimicked...?'
The moment an ominous premonition hits.
A smile spreads across the invisible face of Kim Heo-un.
"But I've already achieved my purpose for joining the company, so even if I get fired for this, it's fine."
And he looks at me.
"Employee."
Entry purpose.
It was me.
"No need to worry. I didn't cause any commotion. I just came to find a chance to properly introduce myself... to say thank you."
And Kim Heo-un bowed deeply to me.
"Thank you for saving us. Thanks to you, Employee, everyone from the facility survived."
......
Wait a minute.
"Thanks to you, Employee, Jang Heo-un's wish came true."
The meaning of those words...
"Ah. Too bad, but it looks like my guess was wrong. Mr. Deer."
I realized.
The two Wish Grants delivered to Go Yeongeun were both used...
'It wasn't to save Jang Heo-un with the Wish Grant...!'
A person as smart and composed as him wouldn't suddenly make a sloppy wish on a Wish Grant. If anything...
'Having the Wish Grant in his possession indefinitely would have been more unsettling.'
It could get stolen by someone at any moment.
Plus, he might have heard that while the Disaster Management Bureau was doing everything to improve Jang Heo-un's condition, no one knew when he'd fully recover.
In that case, it makes more sense that before any mishap with the indefinite Wish Grant, one was used on his behalf.
Recovery from contamination has precedents like the Security Team, so they entrusted it to the Disaster Management Bureau.
Instead, the real wish was made.
Like this.
Please grant Jang Heo-un's wish.
And Jang Heo-un's wish was...
......
I looked at Jang Heo-un's fulfilled wish right in front of me.
One of his family, named Kim Heo-un.
The people from a religious social welfare facility in the countryside where the orphan Jang Heo-un, who had been completely burned in the fire, grew up.
...That's.
'I have a guess...'
The chill creeping up my spine tells me. The one shocking hypothesis that flashed in my mind.
...Narrow it down with questions.
"Ah. We're family who grew up in the same facility. Seven out of eight died in the fire, though."
"The facility gives the same name to those living communally. Different surnames, but we share the name. Because we're family."
"No strict rules, but... to match the lifestyle befitting the name 'Heo-un', we get the same education, eat the same food, sleep in the same place. So we all have fair, equal experiences."
"Ah. It wasn't hard. For example... going to sleep late and waking up late."
......
"Reading poetry books more than twice a week, developing a fear of blood, starting middle school a year early, dropping out of high school."
And.
"Not introducing your name to shamans or people from other religions."
......
Last question.
"Ah, that place is..."
And I already knew the answer.
In this world, there are countless bizarre groups, but only one insane organization runs a childcare facility like this...
"...the Love Paradise Shelter."
......
I know it.
A fairly infamous cult in Korea in this world's setting.
I've even seen the name once at the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
When the White Tiger Team handled the 'red clothes at exit 4' ghost story on my suggestion, the phrase the agents wrote pretending to be cult missionaries was impersonating that place.
But for me, something more comes to mind.
Because this group has its own dedicated page on the Darkness Exploration Records wiki.
And.
The hypothesis that this process was influenced by the Mimicry Church of the Nameless Radiant Church received favorable reviews for being amusing, and it was eventually established as one of the church's subordinate groups.
That facility belongs to the Nameless Radiant Church.
Jang Heo-un grew up in a facility of the Nameless Radiant Church.
And to save the church believers he grew up with, he joined Daydream Corporation...
The orphans from the facility he calls 'family', who were subjects of the ritual alongside him.
'......'
Once it gets here, it's clear how Yi Heo-un from the Jolly Lab connects...
'That Heo-un was the target of the ritual.'
'They were raising someone to mimic Yi Heo-un from the Jolly Lab and steal the researcher's role.'
Detailed stories not written on the [Darkness Exploration Records], ones I don't know, come to me through the surrounding people.
Cold sweat I can't physically produce feels like it's trickling down my spine like a hallucination...
And one of them stands before us.
A knockoff made in the image of 'Yi Heo-un'.
Kim Heo-un lowers his head deeply.
"I. Actually, saying I came just for an introduction was a lie."
......
"I came to ask you something desperately."
He speaks with extreme courtesy.
An absurd statement.
"Just as you took in Jang Heo-un, could you take all of us in too?"
...!!
"We can tell. Because we're the same Heo-un. ...Isn't Jang Heo-un happy under you right now?"
My head starts to ache.
"...We can't go back anywhere else."
His voice lowers.
"The facility we were in burned down, and we can't go to other Love Paradise Shelters... ...We can't live like before."
I knew the reason without him saying it.
'The fire.'
That fire was also part of the ritual to follow the researcher's narrative from the Jolly Lab...
And Jang Heo-un, who survived that fire and gained the narrative of 'surviving a major facility fire', was the finished product.
But this one... is one who was culled and used as material in the process.
"Please give us the same name that Jang Heo-un received."
......
"Then we can be the same person. That's how we were raised!"
His voice grows desperate.
"...Jang Heo-un entering first feels meaningful somehow. Like the eldest son, the firstborn, receiving the surname 'Jang'. Then we can continue..."
I raised my hand. Kim Heo-un hurriedly bowed his head, taking a posture as if anticipating my touch...
But smoke rises from my hand.
"...Pardon?"
"Pardon? But... I..."
A small chuckle comes from Ho Yuwon next to the elevator. As if he'd heard an outrageous proposal.
And.
"I already received the Mimicry Church's power, so to get in here... So if things stay like this, I can't escape,"