Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Newbie Protector (2)
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This is that thing I've only heard about.
There's a wiretap in my ear!
To be honest about my firsthand experience.
My ears are ringing.
Just moments ago, that booming voice that made my skull vibrate was still echoing in my head.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Congratulations on your acceptance, Employee ‘Kim Min-hyuk’
Whip-!
I whipped my head around to check my surroundings, but there wasn't a single soul in sight.
The voice that had just brushed past my eardrums.
It belonged to a man with a deep, resonant baritone that could captivate countless women with its timbre alone.
Is this some kind of advanced modern crime tactic?
Well, the fact that it's a man already disqualifies it.
My gaze stopped at the front door. I replayed that advanced crime scene in my mind once more.
Within the dim, murky hallway.
A flickering light bulb at irregular intervals and a chill wind grazing my skin.
Broken tiles scattered across the walls and floor, stained with unidentifiable blotches.
......Is this really.
what they call a modern criminal spell?
If they have the skill to even alter the structure of a room.
A thought naturally crossed my mind: 'Wouldn't it be better to just switch to the construction industry?'
A deep masculine voice that could rival any voice actor.
And a hallway structure that screamed suspicion to anyone who laid eyes on it.
With just these two clues.
There was only one conclusion I could reach.
I'm just......completely exhausted right now.
I figured this must be what they call 'hypervigilance stress disorder' or something like that.
Hallucinations and auditory illusions born from fatigue due to my night part-time job.
Otherwise.
There was no way I could hear voices in an empty space.
Or that a room of just a few dozen pyeong could turn into a long hallway.
Click-
I closed the front door again.
......Hoo-
I let out a short breath, then inhaled and repeated.
Cautiously gripping the doorknob with my right hand, I slowly turned it clockwise.
Click-
When the door opened again and I faced the world before me.
The unchanged dim hallway and that deep masculine voice brushing my ear once more.
Came piercing through in a tearing screech.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【G-o i-n.】
Thud-
“!!!”
With the sensation of someone shoving my back hard. I stumbled into the dim hallway一
Step-
I was inside.
Bzzz-bzzz-bzzz-bzzz-
The echo of my footsteps reverberating.
My stiffened movements and faintly trembling pupils stared at the long hallway unfolding before me.
And immediately exploded in anger.
“......W-what the hell! Out of nowhere!”
I raised my voice. I turned my head to see the face of whoever shoved me.
There, where I turned, a wall made of black stains and broken tiles.
Was greeting me.
....
....
....
I stood there for a while.
Speechless, I blankly stared at that wall.
This long, dim hallway that anyone would think twice about entering.
But if you ask if there's a way out......
Swipe-
The opposite side was a dead end too.
I touched the dead-end wall and lightly knocked on it with my fist to check.
Thud-
Thud-
The echo wasn't resounding.
It felt like a thick outer wall made of cement.
......Fuck, a dream?
I desperately hoped all of this was just a dream.
That I was just so exhausted.
I had passed out on the street, and this was the ending.
Vrrr-
?
But at that moment, I felt my smartphone vibrate in my pocket.
'......Yes!'
I immediately pulled out my smartphone.
I had a smartphone.
The fact that it vibrated meant this place had signal.
I held the phone in one hand and punched in the numbers on the keypad.
112.
The voice that soon came from the speaker.
『This area does not provide call services. Please move to a serviced area.』
......?
I tried connecting a few more times after that.
But all I got was.
『This area does not provide call services......』
Just the repeated message about being out of service range.
This place is within service range. So what the hell...
What was that vibration just now?
I searched for the source of the alarm I'd felt on my smartphone moments ago. There, on the screen, was a very familiar yet bizarre notification.
[A new post has been registered on 'Apocalypse of Ghost Stories.']
Apocalypse of Ghost Stories.
It was a notification that a new post had gone up on the gallery I'd been frequenting.
......A glitch?
Having already realized this place had no signal.
This notification was most likely just an error.
Or perhaps the signal had coincidentally caught for a moment.
“......”
But for some reason.
Even though I was trapped in a bizarre situation akin to kidnapping. A dire circumstance.
Swipe-
My index finger slowly began heading toward that notification.
Tap-
My faintly trembling index finger pressed the notification window, and a brightly glowing screen entered my view.
📰 New Post
/Apocalypse of Ghost Stories.Title: Newbie Protector 2Author: Anonymous (115.170)
— Anonymous (115.170)
The Newbie Protector is a secretive entity. Always wanders only through gloomy corridors. No one knows what's at the end of the corridor. If you find out, you die. Anyway, the point is the Newbie Protector always uses that dark, dim corridor. If you try to refute this, everything I said is correct.
+
That's the guy.
The author who concocted that childish ghost story.
The one who gave me that uneasy feeling with the weird popup: 'Anonymous (115.170)'.
Normally, I wouldn't even glance at such obvious bait.
But.
But......
The post's mention of 'corridor' and the specific term 'Newbie Protector' stuck in my mind.
And before coming here.
That mysterious text I'd received also had those exact words.
[Web Sender]『Hello. Congratulations on your acceptance as ‘Newbie Protector’. Please report to work at the assigned location upon receiving this message.』
'Congratulations on your acceptance as Newbie Protector'.
My stiffened body and dilated pupils turned toward the endless end of the corridor.
At the end of the corridor, a pure white door that hadn't been visible before now entered my sight.
A door boasting a stark white color completely at odds with the current hallway structure.
My gaze was naturally drawn there.
I had to make a decision.
......Step-
I slowly took a step forward.
With all my nerves on edge from the sound of my footsteps echoing through the hallway.
As the distance to the door grew shorter and shorter, my heart began pounding faster, giving me the illusion that my eardrums would burst.
Step-
Before long, my footsteps stopped in front of the white door.
The moment my right palm gripped the doorknob before me and turned it clockwise.
Click-
The doorknob opened far too easily.
I swallowed dryly dozens of times.
Beyond the slowly opening door, what awaited me were.
A rectangular room the size of a schoolyard, walls tinged with a yellowish hue, and white lights spaced at regular intervals.
There was nothing else noteworthy like furniture.
Just a vast, empty room.
That was it.
The only piece of furniture in this massive room.
Seemed to be an old rotary dial phone sitting smack in the center.
The moment I saw the layout of this room.
An instinctive thought flashed through my mind.
'This is totally the Backrooms......shit.'
A curse bubbled up from deep inside naturally.
An abnormal room structure.
A single phone plopped in the middle.
No need to overthink it.
It was the textbook setup straight out of the ghost stories I'd read endlessly on [Apocalypse of Ghost Stories].
I was standing right on top of that deadly structure I'd die before entering.
Should I just die here?
No, if suicide had been an option from the start, I wouldn't have come this far.
The reason I came here wasn't to die.
But to survive.
“......Mom.”
In a situation like this, you really do call for your parents.
I slowly moved my reluctant feet, stiffly stepping into the alien room.
Because I wanted to live.
Because I didn't want to die.
I headed toward the rotary phone sitting there on the floor.
Praying desperately that nothing would jump out.
Slowly.
With every nerve on edge.
Short, if short.
Long, if long.
When I finally reached my target spot.
Ring-ring-ring-
!
The phone bell rang out loudly, nearly stopping my heart in an instant.
My rigid gaze locked onto the phone.
Ring-ring-ring-
“......”
Pick up?
Don't pick up?
I didn't have time to think long.
“......Screw it!”
The ghost story entities in [Apocalypse of Ghost Stories] were mostly attention whores.
Not picking up was a high chance of instant doom.
Click-
I immediately picked up the receiver and pressed it to my ear.
From the receiver came a very stiff AI voice.
『This call is being recorded, so please refrain from strong profanity and sexual remarks as much as possible ‘██’.』
The tension mounted further amid the static noise mixed with the woman's stiff voice.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Employee ‘Kim Min-hyuk’, newly assigned to Newbie Protector duties, must thoroughly familiarize yourself with the following clauses.
⚔ REGULATIONS ⚔
<Clause 1>
Conduct yourself with an attitude befitting a Newbie Protector. (Making a strong first impression is key.)
<Clause 2>
Complete assigned duties without error. (Repeated failures will lead to termination procedures.)
<Clause 3>
Master Clauses 1 and 2 well, and there will be no major issues with future promotions.
Hearing those clauses from the receiver.
It seemed like these were the minimum rules to survive this ghost story.
The content didn't seem particularly complicated.
But one thing was crystal clear.
'I'm......totally screwed, aren't I?'
Looks like picking up the phone was the bad option.
Our AI lady, oblivious to my sinking feelings, continued her stiff tone.
『If you have memorized the clauses, I will now relay your first assignment.』
......What?
Already?
“No, wait a second!”
I'm not mentally prepared yet.
But the AI on the other end wouldn't convey my urgency.
📜 NEW ASSIGNMENT 📜
[Assignment Details]
📍 ID Code: Tyui-D-61
📍 Location: Bus Stop 4444 Does Not Exist
[Main Assignment Procedure]
- Rescue 1 missing newbie.
- Failure will be deemed insufficient ability. Termination procedures will commence.