Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: KEH Isn't Bad (3)
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I prefer turning off the lights at night over leaving them on.
People sometimes ask if it's not scary, but once you get used to it, it's not really frightening. Except on nights when I watch horror movies, that is.
It's night.
All the lights in every room are off.
When I stare blankly into the darkness like this, it feels like all sorts of thoughts come swimming up from within it.
In that quiet yet clamorous darkness, I reviewed everything that had happened lately.
"Ghost stories... No matter how I think about it, I should have been way more careful. And kept my head straight."
Ghost stories.
Even if one takes a liking to me and helps me out, it can still be dangerous.
Just look at the chaos at the market. The Shadow Office gave me information for my sake and told me what I needed to know, but it didn't tell me everything.
"I could have died."
Even though I had the Responding Bear Doll badge,
even though I entered through the proper gate as a guest,
if I hadn't run into Team Leader Shin Na and figured out where the exit was,
or if I'd panicked along the way,
I definitely would have died. And the Shadow Office never said a word about those risks.
It wasn't like they were deliberately trying to screw me over... They probably didn't even consider it important information in the first place.
Because it's a ghost story. The Shadow Office ultimately is too.
Completely different from humans.
So things like that will keep happening from now on. Every time I try to use a ghost story. Always.
"…"
Sitting in the darkness, I tilted my head back against the wall.
But now, I felt like I understood a little.
The rules for how ghost stories are created.
1. Plausibility
Just babbling nonsense doesn't make a ghost story.
I learned that for sure after the market trip. When the setup and the material resonate strongly without clashing, the odds of creating a ghost story go way up.
2. Blank Space
Ghost stories aren't programs. The more rigidly I define one, the less likely it is to form.
When my setup has plenty of plausibility but lots of unfilled gaps, that's when the ghost story fills those gaps on its own (however it damn well pleases) and reveals itself from the darkness.
It was like that this time too. I never put in any setup about it being a wind-up toy or calling me "Master" or anything.
There was just plausibility. I'd "purchased" Team Leader Shin Na's body. And wind-up toy dolls exist as a concept. Based on that plausibility, the ghost story filled in its own details and bound Team Leader Shin Na to me. Textbook ghost story antics.
But if I try to tightly define everything to avoid that, no ghost story forms at all.
The essence of ghost stories might just be that unregulated unpredictability. So I always have to stay sharp.
3. The Difference Between "Me" and "You"
This one's not confirmed yet... but maybe when assigning a setup, starting with "You are..." creates a ghost story with self-awareness, while "I..." creates one closer to an item without much self-awareness?
When I revived Team Leader Shin Na, I was in such a rush I just blurted out the setup without a second thought.
"I... made a wind-up device that moves people."
Meanwhile, with the Responding Bear Doll and Rational Gacha Machine before, it started like this.
"You are. A Responding Bear Doll."
"You are. A Rational Gacha Machine."
Maybe that's why the wind-up device this time only has K.E.H written on it. Like it's not something I created, just my possession.
Unlike the Responding Bear Doll or Rational Gacha Machine that wander off causing incidents on their own, the Wind-up Device seems pretty docile, like an item. ...Or at least, that's the impression from the memories filtering through Team Leader Shin Na.
4. Inspiration
The most vague, but the most crucial. It feels like this has to hit with a solid wham for a ghost story to form.
Yeah.
This seems like a solid summary.
And based on this summarized knowledge...
I decided to avoid creating ghost stories as much as possible.
Not never create them... but dodge them whenever I can and be as cautious as humanly possible. Something like that.
The market was a shock.
Team Leader Shin Na's situation was a shock.
All I wanted was to save her... I never imagined it'd turn out like this. "Master," of all things...
But then again, considering the unpredictability of ghost stories, maybe that was a blessing. It could have turned into something far worse. The thought sends chills down my neck.
I have to keep remembering: ghost stories are beyond my control and something I can't handle.
But.
Even accounting for that...
"This has to be done."
I pulled out the small hand mirror I'd bought and set it in front of me.
Peering into it in the dark room, it almost looks like a pond connecting to an unknown world.
"...Yeah. I have to."
The reason I bought this mirror was for emergencies—to shake off any tracking from that secret organization hunting for me.
An idea hit me the moment I saw it.
With this, I could make sure they never find me.
I did hesitate a little. I'd just resolved to avoid making ghost stories, and now here I was about to create another one. It didn't sit right.
But no matter how I thought about it...
This was unavoidable.
"You saw it. They were pissed. Can't get complacent. That World Health Safety League is probably foaming at the mouth hunting me down right now. Maybe even this very moment."
Yeah. If I'm set on it, better do it fast.
In the darkness,
I stared into the mirror and spoke.
"I... feel gazes from within this mirror." The gazes hunting me down.
No matter where I am,
no matter what I'm doing,
gazes determined to track me down.
I
realized that by shattering the mirror,
I could free myself
from all those gazes.
The moment I shatter the mirror,
I will immediately be
safe from every gaze hunting me.
They won't be able to find me.
Forever.
"…"
I stared silently at the mirror for a moment.
Screeeeech!
With a spine-chilling sound, its master's mark engraved itself onto the mirror's surface.
<K.E.H> The mirror's surface, which had only reflected my room, now flickered with the eyes of unknown people passing by. Gazes from those hunting me, perhaps.
It's done.
The ghost story is created.
Now, if I break this mirror, those hunting me will never be able to find me again.
That said, I can't predict everything.
My setup leaves plenty of blanks.
What side effects might crop up... who knows.
Still.
I've gotta do what I've gotta do.
I don't want to get caught by some unknown organization and turned into a lab rat.
I slowly reached out, gripped the hand mirror,
and slammed it against the floor.
Crash!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ ⚙ KEH-RELATED REPORT ⚙ Ultimately, even though Team Leader Shin Na has retained all her memories, her physical abilities have actually improved, and her judgment, values, and belief system remain the same as before, since she perceives herself as a living doll owned by KEH, it seems appropriate to classify her as 13-1 type personnel and suspend her duties for the time being. Inferring from the fact that a dispatched recon agent was converted into a sort of wind-up doll, KEH is presumed to be an aggressive Aberrant Reality Pollution Source. Not immediately urgent but requires caution. Accordingly, requesting assignment of ARPS code ARPS-HWC-31001 to pollution source KEH. Regular Team 2 Agent Oh Ji-seong has requested use of <Ending 13> for KEH tracking. Currently under review. "Agent Oh Ji-seong. If you use Ending 13, you'll be classified as 13-1 type personnel, making resignation impossible, and you'll have to remain within the League under 24/7 surveillance. Do you agree?"
"I agree."
After a rigorous review process, Agent Oh Ji-seong's use of <Ending 13> was finally approved.
Oh Ji-seong relocated his residence to the secure zone within the World Health Safety League's Korean headquarters, and that very day, he received a mysterious ID badge with nothing on it but a single capital letter: "A."
"Wear that and go to sleep, and you'll enter Ending 13."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ ⚔ ENDING 13 ⚔ (Censored)
A pollution phenomenon that allows exploration of our already perished future—or a parallel universe—in the form of a dream. The landscape doesn't seem like the distant future at first glance, but it's a world where humanity has gone extinct, with not a single lifeform in sight. Perfect exploration is impossible; only targets you know from reality appear clearly, while everything else shows as black silhouettes. As a world that has met its end, unknown dangers lurk everywhere, and any entanglement with them carries over into reality even after waking. Recommended for use by skilled regular agents only. Oh Ji-seong hung the ID around his neck and lay down.
He closed his eyes.
The place he was about to enter was a future world where everything had perished.
Specifically, the headquarters of the World Health Safety League.
The organization that monitors, tracks, and investigates every Aberrant Reality Pollution Source in the world.
It might not be the case now, but surely in that future version, there would be a thorough investigation on KEH.
He could uncover everything about KEH just by finding and accessing that information.
"...Wait for it."
With an expression that could have been grief or joy—or something indefinable—Oh Ji-seong clenched his teeth, then slowly relaxed his body.
His consciousness was sucked into somewhere.