Chapter 277
Chapter 277
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 277
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Right now.
What the hell just happened?
"......"
In the silence, I stared at the 'someone' who had appeared behind me.
A black suit with an animal mask.
The moment I saw that distinctive outfit, I knew their affiliation. It's the same as mine.
'Daydream Corporation Field Exploration Team employee.'
But the instant I looked down at my own attire.
I noticed subtle differences.
The way the hair was styled.
The way the suit was tailored.
Just a feeling, but impressions of 'something strangely different from now.'
More old-fashioned than mine.
That's right.
The employee in front of me clearly wasn't from the 2020s.
Someone from decades ago.
That... distinctive wolf mask.
"......"
I knew exactly who this outfit belonged to from the past entries in the [Darkness Exploration Records].
'...Elite Team B Squad Leader.'
J3.
The security captain's past.
The fleeting glimpse from when I took the Nostalgia Candy had now appeared before me as a vivid, continuous entity.
I faced it, frozen in place.
And then...
"You're not answering. Should I just call you Employee Yong?"
"...!"
Those words snapped reality back into my head.
Hold on.
'What about the others?'
I reflexively looked toward the opposite aisle of the library where the rest of the group had been, but no one was there.
Just the quiet bookshelves stretching out unnaturally.
'...!'
I missed it.
A chilling premonition hit me.
And right now, in this space, the only sign of a person was the man in the wolf mask before me.
"......"
I could guess what was happening.
'It's a supernatural phenomenon.'
The man in the wolf mask was a bizarre entity created from the history of this 'Hanbit Library' in Segwang Special City, stemming from J3.
'Don't provoke him.'
For now.
As a Daydream employee who had entered the ghost story, I responded accordingly.
'Don't mention J3.'
I took a deep breath, pulled out a piece of paper, and scribbled with a pen.
The man in the wolf mask stared at the paper.
And I held out the pen.
To him.
"......"
"......"
The man in the wolf mask didn't take my pen.
Instead, he smoothly pulled a pen from his front pocket and wrote on the paper I offered.
Maybe...
All I could see from the wolf-masked man was a faint smile.
"......"
I wrote calmly.
'No need to correct it to Deer.'
For now, since the security captain was in this state, I needed to maintain a gentle, friendly relationship as much as possible and somehow stay safe...
Right. Say I'm a newbie recently assigned.
But at that moment.
The gaze from behind the wolf mask changed.
'...Huh?'
And then, at the follow-up response, my mind reeled dizzily.
"...!!"
Right after, goosebumps erupted as I realized why this had happened.
'Difference in lore settings...!'
When that B Squad leader looked at the [Darkness Exploration Records] from his 'registered' time.
'That was when Daydream's settings were just starting to solidify.'
It was an era before the company's details were fully fleshed out. Back when searching 'Daydream Corporation' only brought up a single document page.
And how were the employees classified back then?
Daydream Corporation
A corrupt company that stuffs countless employees into ghost stories like spare parts to extract pharmaceutical ingredients from within.
Employees who thought they'd joined a major corporation met countless gruesome deaths inside the ghost stories.
Only those exceptional in high-grade explorations among the ingredient-supply employees were assigned to elite teams labeled A, B, C, and could be promoted to company executives.
That's right.
Elite Teams.
And everything else.
In other words, all Daydream Corporation employees not classified under alphabetic A, B, C were just expendable units to be slaughtered in ghost stories.
There were no ranks or promotions for employees from the start. Just plain employees, listed on paperwork with experimental code numbers.
They perfectly captured the eerie essence of the ghost story 'thought you joined a big corporation but were actually lab rats.'
That was Daydream Corporation's employees...
'And ghost stories had already been created based on that setting.'
To maintain their plausibility...
5.1 Daydream Corporation (Early Days)
A corrupt company that stuffs countless employees into ghost stories like spare parts to extract pharmaceutical ingredients.
Everything had been treated as part of the past.
'Daydream before it went public as a corporation.'
Daydream Corporation had evolved from a vague ghost story entity into a detailed major pharmaceutical powerhouse in the world's lore.
'......'
I could feel the gaze.
The past elite team leader's gaze fixed on me.
A piercing stare gauging whether I was something pretending to be human.
...And I knew.
The specific classification method from the early elite teams.
5.1.4 B Squad (Early Days)
Daydream Corporation's elite team.
The squad for employees with a knack for discerning true/false and repeatedly selecting the correct choice in binary dilemmas.
And this man was B Squad's leader.
I knew clumsy lies wouldn't work.
So.
Better to go straight at it.
"...!"
Tell the truth.
I looked at the wolf-masked man.
The other just looked at me silently.
And by the time cold sweat beaded on the back of my neck, he picked up the pen again.
Phew.
The other moved his pen leisurely.
I nearly swallowed hard.
...The wolf leader's hand patted my back...
And so, our bizarre companionship began.
We walked silently through the massive cavern of bookshelves that was Hanbit Library, muffling our footsteps.
The wolf leader, having memorized the 'Library Rules' from the floor that I pointed out and he confirmed, walked quietly.
I could occasionally feel his gaze on me.
Of course, I couldn't ask the wolf leader's name. Asking for a real name in a ghost story could turn him hostile for real.
But walking with the pre-corruption past security captain—a named employee from the [Darkness Exploration Records]—felt stranger than the ghost story itself.
Tension.
...Get it together.
'I need to find the others.'
I looked down at the yarn in my hand.
...The wolf leader had immediately figured out its purpose.
...So, from the fork where the group vanished and I met the wolf leader, I had tied the yarn to a bookshelf slot and headed down the opposite path where the group had disappeared.
'If any of the others see this yarn, they might follow it.'
And even if the paths got confusing, seeing it right away would keep me calm.
But moments later.
I witnessed a shocking sight.
"......"
"......"
The familiar hallway had reappeared.
<2000s Masterpiece Horror Short Story Collection>.
The book that someone in a school uniform had dropped on the floor—which I had seen—was right back at the starting point.
Incredibly, the yarn was messily stretched into two lines down both paths.
'Damn it.'
I nodded slowly.
"...!"
Damn it.
"......"
I stopped walking.
The eyes behind the wolf mask looked at me.
A glint of interest.
Phew.
"......"
A whisper reached me.
"And you're the arrogant type."
"...!"
"Smart enough too. But I can think of what you're thinking, so no need to ask from now on. Smart Employee Yong."
"......"
"Let's walk."
The wolf mask turned away.
Suppressing a groan, I readjusted the yarn and stepped back in the direction we had come.
My legs were trembling.
'Think.'
Yet amid the tension, my mind raced with urgent guesses.
One of the library rules.
If you obtain one, leave.
Do I have to touch that book to escape this library?
No, maybe it'll automatically let me out... but that's even more problematic.
'What about the others?'
The whole group vanished, and the security captain's appearance changed.
And...
Is it really okay to leave the security captain like this?
As I moved with my complicated thoughts.
"Hmm."
At that moment.
Tap tap.
The security captain patted my back, directing me to look beyond the fork.
The space where I had just stepped moments ago was...