Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 117

“No way! The moment of a difficult choice has arrived, my friend.”

Brown’s cheerful voice echoed in my ears.

“Now, Mr. Roe Deer only has 10 pass tickets, but there are 45 poor candidates who will fall into the terrible, rotting flesh altar and suffer.”

“By what criteria will you select 45 sacrifices, and by what criteria will you choose 10 dramatic exemptions among them?”

“Trial? Vote? Review? Lottery? Ah, whichever it is, it seems truly unfortunate…”

Brown’s voice rose in a pleasant crescendo.

“But isn’t the essence of the show that nail-biting tension and pressure, and the immersion, the sigh of relief, happiness, and despair?”

“This is the best moment. Ah! Just in time, the panel over there is opening its mouth!”

At that moment.

“What does it matter?”

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol spoke.

“Assistant Manager?”

“I don’t know what difference it makes if there are ten painkillers or one. Just grab 45 people and tell them to jump. That’s it.”

Her tone indicated a complete lack of understanding.

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol turned to look at me.

And…

“That’s why you went to all that trouble to set the atmosphere, wasn’t it? No?”

Click.

The assistant manager slightly opened the door to Car 1.

“…! Assistant Manager…”

“Look.”

…Through the crack in the door, I saw passengers in Car 2 waving or greeting with worried faces.

The atmosphere was created by hundreds of friendly people, where everything would proceed smoothly without any friction.

“Good. I thought it was useless, but now I see I can make work less tiring.”

“……”

“Anyway, the people left on the train won’t understand the situation, will they? They’ll only know after they fall.”

…It was the truth.

In fact, at this moment, if I grabbed anyone and said, ‘This round, 45 people have qualified, and you are included. Now, one by one, you just need to jump,’ that would be the end of it.

Then, unaware, they would simply fall from the window without even receiving painkillers…

Into a torturous time, without warning.

“No, since it might not end at the 9th altar, just tell everyone to keep jumping until no altar appears.”

“……”

“Now, go and throw them…”

“You can’t do that.”

“…!”

The answer came from someone else.

Dolphin Chief.

Another elite team member answered, looking up at Assistant Manager Jin Nasol.

“…What did you say?”

“I said you can’t.”

“Oh, really?”

Jin Nasol’s temple twitched, but a capable person was given one more chance.

“Then what do you propose?”

And the Dolphin Chief chose a decision utterly characteristic of himself.

“Why don’t we just pick out the nastiest people and throw them?”

“Are you crazy? Why do that troublesome thing?”

At that moment.

Those who wish to reach Tamra, offer sacrifices. 

“Time’s up.”

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol strode towards the door of Car 1, intending to step out.

Dolphin Chief’s eyes flashed. And he raised his hand… Wait a minute!

“Just a moment!”

I blocked the assistant manager’s path.

“What.”

…It was a cliff edge.

‘Careful, be careful.’

I swallowed and spoke.

“Dolphin Chief’s words… have a point. We can’t just tell them to jump without reason.”

“……”

“What I mean is, there’s a valid reason why we should!”

“Reason.”

“Yes.”

I took a deep breath.

Calmly.

Reflecting the story of the prose I already knew, into the clues I had…

So it wouldn’t seem awkward.

“Assistant Manager, when you stepped out the window, you heard a sound from the altar full of rotting flesh, something like ‘Cast off your sins’…”

Cast off your sins.

Tear it off as much as your sins.

That strange, colossal echoing in my head was clearly not blocked even by the ‘Happy Maker’.

And if it weren’t for the Happy Maker, hearing that voice would have made my whole body burn with agonizing pain, tearing off skin and flesh.

“So.”

“If the message is that powerful, it must be deeply related to this phenomenon. So… in this darkness, I think ‘sin’ is the keyword.”

“……”

“The keyword needed for clearance, I mean.”

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol stopped moving her feet.

“Keep talking.”

“Yes.”

I swallowed.

“Wasn’t it strange from the start? Why do the sacrificed people always wake up on the train again? If they were offered as sacrifices, they shouldn’t return.”

“Instead, they go crazy.”

“Yes. But that… they go crazy from the pain because they follow the instruction to ‘tear off their flesh as much as their sins’.”

I distinguished between the two things that had been vaguely lumped together during the 14th loop.

“If so, the sacrifice isn’t the human itself… isn’t it the ‘flesh’ that humans directly offer as much as their sins?”

“…!”

Didn’t I say it before?

That a cult had flourished, and people in all carriages were killing each other, holding mad rituals, and throwing corpses out the windows.

If you only counted the number of people who died and fell out the window that way, the 9th altar should have been easily passed.

Yet, the reason this ghost story didn’t end despite hundreds of loops.

It was because.

“People are not the sacrifice. They just offer their sins as sacrifice at the altar.”

“……”

“And people return.”

Those who complete the offering always walk out of the altar and return to the starting point of the train.

That’s how the loop begins again.

Even if they’re half-mad from the pain of ‘tearing off their sins’, the people themselves return.

“Leaving their sins, torn off as flesh, in the passage as they go.”

Eating, vomiting, spilling…

“I still think that’s the sacrifice.”

That pain.

The terrible burning pain and the echoing in their heads received as much as their sins.

…Looking at the rotting flesh piled up in the passage from that perspective, it becomes understood from a slightly different angle.

That it wasn’t just grotesque traces, but sacrifices continuously offered and accumulated at the altar.

“So, I think the most certain method is for people with sins to fall onto the altar to offer their sins. …That’s all.”

“……”

“……”

Clap clap clap.

The Dolphin Chief quietly clapped behind me, but the assistant manager didn’t move a muscle.

“Of course, my conjecture might be wrong. But wouldn’t it be rational to take the safe path in case it’s right?”

I met Assistant Manager Jin Nasol’s eyes and pleaded earnestly.

“So, for a safe clear, please. I’ll persuade the passengers…”

“You.”

The assistant manager’s mouth opened.

“You’re quite good at lying, too.”

“…!!”

“Well, it’s better to be good at talking, I guess.”

“Assi—”

“This is the third time.”

Thump.

I was grabbed by the collar and lifted into the air.

“Precursor!”

“Aaah!”

“You just keep taking advantage. You have to enter the darkness even after getting off at Mokpo, so why keep wasting energy here?”

Passengers screamed and ran from Car 2 beyond the connecting section. However, Assistant Manager Jin Nasol didn’t bat an eye, closed the door to Car 1 in front of them, and locked it.

Click.

“Listen, and be grateful I’m spending time on this nonsense.”

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol leaned her face close.

“You say the flesh people tear off and offer is the sacrifice? Hey. But those guys you injected with painkillers and threw in came out perfectly fine without offering any flesh.”

“…!!”

“According to you, they didn’t give a sacrifice, but it still proceeded well, moving on to the next altar without a hitch, didn’t it?”

That…

“You knew, and you lied, didn’t you?”

…

“You caught me.”

“—Oh my god!”

That’s right.

I tried to trick the assistant manager.

‘Though I didn’t expect to be caught right away.’

I wiped the cold sweat and grinned.

But most of what I said was true.

‘Except for one thing.’

The conclusion.

“Just as I thought.”

The pressure gripping my neck intensified.

“So, we can just throw anyone onto the altar, right?”

“Gasp, yes.”

I admitted docilely.

“Actually, how much sin is offered probably doesn’t matter. …Even if none is offered. The act of a human… preparing offerings and coming to the altar itself, that’s what’s important, I imagine.”

Moreover.

“Anyway… it seems this train to Tamra considers all humans, cough, to have sins.”

Didn’t I see it?

‘Even that benevolent owner of a pure heart tore off his body at the altar.’

According to the judgment of this insane ghost story… there are no sinless humans.

Everyone is a sinner, with only a difference in degree…

So if the goal is clearance, there’s no need to specifically seek out bad people.

“Finally, you’re talking sense.”

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol abruptly let go of my neck.

I barely managed to stand, catching my breath on the floor.

“Good. Then stop talking nonsense and cooperate quickly. Efficiently.”

“……”

I forced a weak smile.

“That’s strange, though.”

“What?”

“Assistant Manager, you’ve made an inefficient choice.”

Thump thump!

I looked back at the passengers pounding on the door, and Dolphin Chief, and Baek Sa-heon.

“If you do it your way, you’ll have to fight three employees.”

“…!!”

“And since the passengers just saw you grab me by the collar, whatever you do, they’ll vehemently resist and retaliate.”

“……”

With the situation already set like this, Assistant Manager Jin Nasol’s ‘most efficient move’ would be met with immense backlash.

Because the passengers wouldn’t cooperate at all!

And with the dynamic like this, Dolphin Chief would definitely join forces with me to subdue Assistant Manager Jin Nasol in return.

“Of course, you could subdue them all, Assistant Manager… but that would be a tremendous hassle. Right?”

“Ah! That’s a good point, Chief.”

The Dolphin Chief laughed and approached.

“That’s right. Why go through all that trouble! Just go to sleep, and the three of us will take care of it.”

Behind us, Baek Sa-heon made a face that seemed to say ‘Me?’, but instead of siding with the assistant manager, he quietly rolled his eyes and kept his mouth shut.

If they were on the same elite team, they’d side with the numerically superior group based on winning odds.

So…

“Assistant Manager. Can’t you just overlook this troublesome matter just this once?”

“……”

“It’s not really company business, it’s just a situation we stumbled into. I want to use a slightly more comfortable and safer method. It’ll just take a little more time.”

Please!

‘Assistant Manager Jin Nasol is a rational person.’

She was the type of person who would think it foolish to throw a tantrum and take the troublesome roundabout way just because she was in a bad mood.

I had no choice but to trust in that.

‘But… she’s still human, so she might act impulsively if she’s in a bad mood.’

Especially as an elite team boss, she would surely feel strong resentment towards this situation where two chiefs were defying her…

I swallowed.

“As you said, Assistant Manager, this isn’t work.”

“……”

“……”

After silence.

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol moved her shoe foot. And…

She sat down in an empty seat in Car 1.

“…Thank you.”

There was no answer. Assistant Manager Jin Nasol merely closed her eyes with an expressionless face.

She was clearly suppressing her anger.

In fact, it was crazy to confront her boss during a business trip!

‘Phew…’

I’m sorry, Assistant Manager…

Still, my prediction was that once everything was over, there would be an efficient outcome that Assistant Manager Jin Nasol could understand.

Though I had to gloss over it now, as I couldn’t rationally explain it.

Now, I had to move.

“…Let’s get this done quickly.”

We were about to enter the first altar.

Dolphin Chief seemed to have a similar thought and immediately tried to unlock the door.

“Yes, yes. Now, let’s go out and pick 45 bad people!”

Hmm.

“Uh, Chief. About that.”

“…?”

“Can’t we do it a different way?”

“Oh?”

Creak.

I opened the door to Car 1.

“Ah! It’s open… gasp!”

“Wh-what’s going on here?”

The passengers, who had been knocking on the door, probably discussing whether to break it and worrying, initially brightened but then recoiled in horror. They were startled by the terrible sight inside Car 1.

But seeing me, they immediately felt relief.

…Perhaps because the person they considered the solution to this train was unharmed.

I bowed my head.

“Everyone. Thank you for waiting.”

“Are you all right, Precursor?”

“Earlier, that, that person…”

“Of course, I’m fine.”

I looked back at Assistant Manager Jin Nasol and forced a bitter smile.

“I… learned a shocking truth, and she helped me come to my senses.”

“…A shocking truth?”

Phew.

“Everyone. I have something to tell you.”

I took a deep breath, looking at the hundreds of people staring at me.

“The number of people who can go out the window this time… is unlimited.”

“Ooohh!”

“And this is the last time.”

“……”

“What?”

“What does that mean…”

“It means exactly what I said.”

I spoke slowly.

“This will be the last time; the trial is over.”

The passengers began to murmur, asking what that meant. Some even asked if everyone wasn’t supposed to go out the window eventually.

“Originally, it was correct for everyone to slowly go out the window. …But, there has been a change.”

The passengers held their breath, listening to my words.

“Because all of you have qualified.”

“Th-then!”

I nodded.

“Yes. Anyone can go out the window and pass the trial.”

“My goodness!”

“Then I…”

I spoke to those who immediately raised their hands to come forward.

“However, this time, it will unconditionally be painful.”

“…!!”

Bluntly and honestly.

“When you fall, you will feel a burning pain and walk. It might hurt so much you’ll want to tear off your flesh. You’ll have to fight the pain and the voice echoing in your head, walking step by step towards the light…”

The passengers fell silent.

Frozen, they exchanged glances and began to whisper.

And someone from behind shouted.

“That’s not what you promised!”

“Yeah! You said you’d protect us…”

I nodded.

“Of course. If you don’t want to participate, you don’t have to.”

“Uh… uh oh?”

“However, there is one thing I can promise for certain.”

The truth was.

According to a confidential document from the Disaster Management Bureau about the past Iksan-bound train, when this ghost story safely ended…

When this ghost story ended, the passengers would awaken at the starting point of the train, startled as if from a nightmare.

And so, thinking ‘I had a nightmare,’ they would live their lives as if nothing had happened.

What happened on the Tamra-bound train would disappear over half a day, like forgetting a bad dream, and eventually be completely forgotten.

However…

Several changes were observed in those who voluntarily stated they fell out the window.

I remembered that phrase.

One passenger, who habitually verbally abused his subordinates, apologized immediately after getting off this train and never did so again.

A passenger who habitually jaywalked corrected that habit, ‘somehow feeling ashamed of himself,’ and another passenger actually started the youth center cleaning volunteer work he had only thought about.

Even a swindler passenger who was involved in planning insurance fraud gave up that plan and handed information over to the police.

Overall improvement in morality, self-esteem, and pride observed.

Yes.

If this terrifying hundreds of loops didn’t repeat and simply ended safely as before, the horrible pain in this ghost story would end as a brief nightmare and be forgotten.

But the good things would remain.

‘…So, when this ghost story was the Iksan-bound train, the Disaster Management Bureau referred to it as a phenomenon, not a disaster, and only created a confidential document…’

So, to speak a bit exaggeratedly.

“Those of you who go out the window this time will finally be proud of yourselves when you exit the tunnel.”

I continued.

“Instead of regretting what you did yesterday, you will be the person who steps forward in that moment, and you will meet a better version of yourself without shame.”

A small voice burst from the crowd.

“……Excuse me, is that all?”

I met that passenger’s eyes and slowly nodded.

“Yes.”

“……”

“However, I can guarantee that much.”

The passengers became silent again.

“Then I ask again. …Is there anyone who wishes to endure the pain and go out the window?”

…

“Me.”

I turned my head.

The Dolphin Chief had raised his hand.

And.

“I’ll get off too.”

One by one, people raised their hands.

“Me.”

“Me too…!”

A strange exhilaration, surpassing fear, filled all their faces.

Herd mentality.

A double-edged sword.

But the collective solidarity and influence accumulated over 14 loops now revealed its outline in an exceptionally solemn form.

Being inspired by the courage of those close by.

In an instant, almost half of the train’s occupants voluntarily raised their hands.

…The ending I had sought to see, even if it meant becoming a cult leader during the 14th loop, was now before my eyes.

“…Everyone.”

Entering the first altar.

“Thank you. I will go with you.”

In the way the owner of the pure heart desired.