Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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I'm currently walking up the stairs in this nightmare school with an agent from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
……While dragging him along like a prisoner, bound and all.
For the record, I knocked him out with the item he handed me and tied him up.
"……."
What a mess.
'This won't do.'
This feels like I've crossed a line.
By tomorrow, I might end up on the Bureau's blacklist and get conscripted onto the Scales of Evil if things go south.
The company would probably protect me, but I don't want to owe Daydream Corporation a crazy debt…!
'Yeah, I need to somehow rehabilitate my image.'
Cold sweat just keeps dripping down my back….
I spoke gravely first.
"If you swear not to scream, I'll untie the gag. Just nod."
The agent's murderous glare softened.
And he gave a very subtle nod, dead silent.
'…What a blatant lie.'
If you're gonna trick me, at least be less obvious…!
In the end, I sighed and said,
"I have no intention of harming you, Agent, or of tricking you to steal Bureau intel and report it to the company."
"……."
"And… when I just said that, I felt no pain at all."
"…!"
"I know the caramel you gave me is a torture truth serum."
The agent's pupils trembled.
"Of course, I don't think you had any malice. It's just…."
I gazed into the empty air with slightly misty eyes.
"I didn't explicitly tell you I work for Daydream Corporation, but I wanted to convey that I had no plans to lie…."
Strictly speaking, bullshit.
If things went wrong, I was ready to jam in some rocket-delivered painkillers from the alien shop and spew survival-grade lies.
Sure enough, a nauseating pain welled up from inside.
'Ugh.'
A twisting, stomach-ulcer-like churn in my gut.
But here, momentum was key.
'I can endure this without showing it now.'
The more malicious or intentional the lie, the worse the pain. What I just said was more evasion, so it wouldn't even hit level one.
Hold it together.
'Next….'
Trust.
I subtly untied the small silver badge from my pocket with one hand, hiding my expression.
Then I openly showed the agent that item, Silver Heart.
"I'm telling you this without relying on its effects."
"……."
"I said it again. …If you swear not to scream, I'll untie the gag. Just nod."
An indescribable conflict flickered in the agent's eyes.
And by the time we reached the landing.
He finally gave a tiny nod.
"……."
I wordlessly removed the gag.
True to his word, the agent didn't make a fuss.
'Hm.'
Good. Next step.
I returned the confiscated flashlight and pistol to his hands.
And loosened the bindings on his arms.
"This is…."
"You need self-defense in a situation this urgent."
'That pistol's mostly useless against anything but ghosts or supernatural phenomena anyway.'
It might work on villains depending on the bullets, but no matter how I thought about it, neither I nor Jang Heo-un seemed to qualify as that level of scum.
'Mr. Jang Heo-un… no rumors of him doing anything insane in the last three months.'
But I couldn't let him bolt before my likability ploy finished, so I didn't untie him completely.
I added a plausible excuse there too.
"It's too dangerous to run off alone, so I'll keep you bound until your rational judgment returns."
"……."
We were slowly ascending the stairs, vigilantly scanning our surroundings.
Then, out of nowhere, the agent asked,
"Is Deer your callsign?"
"……."
"You move in squads and call each other by names from your masks, right?"
"…Yes."
"Squad leader?"
"No. Just a newbie. This guy's… a同期 coworker."
I gave a slightly bitter smile and pulled my half-mask from my pocket, pressing it to my face.
The familiar texture of bark-like material with horns covered my skin.
The agent stared at me, looking somehow shocked.
And Jang Heo-un's dejected voice came.
"…Sorry, Deer. You were trying to help me…."
"No. You must've been really rattled."
Compared to Baek Saheon, who was hell-bent on screwing me over, this was honestly something I'd braced for since pretending to be a temp agent….
Plus, Jang Heo-un even made excuses for me to the agent.
"Deer here's really a good, decent person. The first time we met, he risked his life to save me from the darkness…."
"N-No, it wasn't that big a deal."
Nice shot!
"We just… helped each other out. To survive the darkness together."
"Deer…."
"……."
The agent shut his mouth with an even more complicated expression.
But let's take solace in the fact he didn't try to bash my head with the pistol grip.
"…4th floor, entering."
And we finished climbing the floor.
[4F]
"……."
We made it, but….
'Still scary.'
This ghost story starts twisting even more from the 4th floor.
First off, no announcements even if students die….
Most of the lights are already shattered, and the few remaining ones are flickering, except for some.
And the bigger problem is….
"…!!"
"Hup."
Dozens of students are huddled in the hallway.
And they're already staring right at us.
'Ha.'
Those students lined up like mannequins on both sides of the dark school hallway.
Just hearing that makes it sound like instant death.
But.
"……It's fine."
The agent provided info in his stiff voice.
"They can't leave those spots."
Right.
The 4th floor is seriously weird. We can't actually witness those "students" moving in the first place, but we do see them change positions, right?
But the 4th floor ones don't move.
It's like their feet are glued to the classroom floor.
'The problem is it's so dark, easy to miss them.'
And they were… very, very cunning.
They often struck at psychological blind spots.
'……Hm.'
I see.
I confirmed Jang Heo-un had a name tag from the school students clipped to his blazer, then said gravely,
"Then let's carefully, slowly investigate the 4th floor."
No objections.
We slipped between the students.
'Whew.'
Jang Heo-un swallowed hard.
The feeling was really off.
Brushing past the students' uniform sleeves up close, trembling as they did.
But he gritted his teeth.
'I need to be helpful.'
He felt like he'd ruined his grateful coworker Kim Sol-eum's exploration this time.
What was he even trying to do tagging along with the agent?
'Probably aiming for high score… clear?'
But according to the manual, the longer you survive here, and the more name tags you collect, the higher the Dream Essence concentration in the collector….
Maybe too risky, but Kim Sol-eum didn't even glance at the name tags on the 4th floor students.
'…Dunno.'
Jang Heo-un decided not to judge.
Over-relying on his smarts wasn't a good habit.
He just intently stared at the approaching students.
Especially obsessively shining his flashlight when entering areas with broken or flickering lights.
Step, step.
"Bison, watch the rear."
"Yes."
His voice trembled faintly.
Jang Heo-un walked backward, watching behind.
Dozens of students turning their heads toward them after they passed, arms outstretched….
"Music room up ahead. Let's push till there."
He moved his feet.
Soon, a completely unlit section appeared.
'Whew.'
In the suffocating darkness, students still yo-yoing, peering at them blankly.
The moment he parted them with his flashlight.
Flicker.
Some light flickered. Like a blackout….
'Huh?'
Wait.
Something was wrong.
'No lights, so how'd it flicker?'
And Jang Heo-un realized a beat too late.
Not a blackout.
The flicker was….
The flashlight of whoever was ahead.
Just now, someone lost their field of view.
"…!"
Jang Heo-un nearly turned. But a calm voice pierced his back first.
"Don't look back."
"You…!"
"Keep… walking."
Kim Sol-eum's voice was laced with gasps.
And….
The smell of iron.
Drip, drip….
As Jang Heo-un backed away, red liquid dripping onto the floor entered his view.
He hadn't noticed properly from watching the students, but his shoes slipped.
And,
He saw a student's hand thrust into the hallway center, up to his waist.
Dyed red, blood dripping.
Jang Heo-un stifled vomit.
"De-Deer…!"
When he finally pushed through the students and looked back.
Kim Sol-eum clutched his belly, face pale as death.
And his flashlight flickered again.
He smiled wanly.
"……Battery,"
Right.
Emergency flashlights didn't last long.
'Ah…!'
They'd brought spares for true emergencies, but overlooked the agent's flashlight timer…!
"W-Wait… urk."
"D-Don't talk!"
Jang Heo-un fought vomit while trying to support Kim Sol-eum. The agent reflexively joined.
Thus, Daydream employee and Bureau agent hurriedly carried one person into a classroom.
A few students peered in, so they set him down just out of reach.
And Kim Sol-eum, sitting, pressed his wound and said,
"You two."
"……."
"Leave me."
Wearing the horned mask, he plugged the wound, forcing a pained smile.
"W-Wait."
Kim Sol-eum reached with his free hand and fully untied the Bureau agent's bonds.
"Forgot. Now go…."
The agent ignored him, dug in his pocket, pulled spare name tags, and stuffed them into Kim Sol-eum's pocket.
But….
"No need. Don't you need them?"
"……."
"Go. Others must be on this floor. Join them, ugh, you'll be fine."
Kim Sol-eum's face twitched then relaxed.
"Honestly, dying here won't screw my job at the company much. They'd be satisfied with this…."
"That damn company!"
The agent clenched his fist.
"Why do you trust such a repulsive, nonsensical group?!"
He'd touched a raw nerve.
"You think a company that treats lives so cheaply will really grant your wishes?"
"…!"
Jang Heo-un startled, staring at the agent.
The agent gnashed his teeth.
"We all know you're working for the Wish Grant. You really believe that absurd fantasy? That magic potion grants any wish?"
Kim Sol-eum looked up at the agent impassively.
"It does."
"……."
"If Wish Grant was fake, this system couldn't hold. Once you use it, any wish, granted."
"……Hah."
The agent sighed in exasperation, reciting long-pent-up logic.
"Think about it. Someone wishes world peace, another human extinction. How does it grant both contradictions?"
Bison-masked Jang Heo-un flinched.
But Kim Sol-eum was calm.
"From the wisher's perspective, yes. It comes true."
"What does that… even,"
"Wish Grant isn't for changing the world. It's an item that omnipotently fulfills personal wishes."
What did that mean?
It sounded like cult salvation doctrine.
Yet Kim Sol-eum's attitude wasn't fanatic zeal, but resignation from repeated empirical verification….
The agent looked confused, but Kim Sol-eum just shrugged.
"Anyway, looks like this is it for me."
"…!"
Blood gushed from under his pressing hand.
No hemostasis at all.
Kim Sol-eum handed the name tags back to the bronze agent.
Blood smeared them.
The agent grit his teeth.
"Dragged here every new moon, yielding name tags forever—that company won't save you."
"Maybe not."
Kim Sol-eum tried shrugging again but winced from pain, still smiling.
"But the Bureau will end this darkness someday… I mean, disaster. Then I'll be fully free."
"……!!"
The agent stared like he'd been punched.
"Go, you two. Lingering risks you."
Kim Sol-eum looked up, shining his still-working emergency light outside.
"I'll watch ahead as you go."
"……."
"And Bison, you're a newbie, did nothing wrong—please stick with the agent for safety a bit."
"Deer…."
The agent hesitated.
But grit his teeth, turned, flashlight in hand, and walked.
"Follow."
"Ah…."
Jang Heo-un wavered but resolved.
'Nothing I can do staying….'
Better if he vanished quick, maybe easier for Kim Sol-eum.
But he couldn't just leave empty-handed, so he secretly slipped something into Kim Sol-eum's pocket.
"Deer, this… my spare name tag."
"…!"
"Thanks to you, I lasted longer… no one else for me to save. Not much, but… thank you."
And he left after the agent without waiting for reply.
Not daring to look back.
"……."
Kim Sol-eum watched them leave as promised.
And….
'Done!'
The moment they rounded the corner, he yanked a prepped item from his pocket.
A vinyl-wrapped eyeball candy.
Kim Sol-eum's emergency heal purchase.
He peeled the bloody packaging with bloody hands, popped one in, and rolled it.
Changes began.
"…!"
Wound closed.
Spilled blood absorbed, broken bones knit naturally.
Like time rewinding.
'Dream anyway, this patch works fine.'
Condition skyrocketed, mind sharpened.
Brain spun fast.
'Success…!'
Kim Sol-eum sighed in relief.
His gambit worked perfectly.
Most effective play in this scenario.
'Death retire, as expected.'
He seized the chance for exploration freedom and image rehab.
'Was sweating bullets on the flashlight timing.'
He dusted off, stood, sighed deeply again.
Heart pounding.
Relief and fear.
'…Good.'
Now he knew what to do.
Kim Sol-eum stood, checked the reformed tattoo, pulled a spare heavy flashlight, gripped it.
Deep breath, left the classroom, stepped alone into the dark 4th floor hall.