Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 118

“Chief, I’ll go out now. I’m fine by myself.”

The Dolphin Chief readily volunteered to fall at the first altar.

Someone had to take the lead at the first altar as one had to go alone, and I needed to remain until the end to organize and check the passengers, so I had to stay until the very last moment.

However, the Dolphin Chief did not fall alone.

“Th-then I’ll go first too…!”

“It’s better to do it first if you’re going to do it anyway.”

Since there were so many volunteers, several people decided to jump together even at the first altar.

And just before the start.

Remaining distance: 4

“You still have a chance to quit now.”

Even at the final crossroads, not a single person quit.

“Let’s go!”

“Waaah!!”

Two or three people, holding hands without hesitation, continuously jumped out the window.

After confirming that the last of the volunteering passengers had jumped out the window, I immediately stood in front of the window.

“Are you, are you going?”

In fact, leaving now wouldn’t affect the clearance, but…

Nevertheless…

“—Ah, will you use that excellent painkiller again, my friend?”

…

‘No.’

I put the painkiller back into my pocket.

And I threw my body towards the window.

Thump.

My body, having fallen from the high-speed train, tumbled into the dark red altar passage.

And the moment my five senses grasped the surrounding scenery…

…

‘F***.’

It was a primal hell.

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t felt disgusted by this sight.

Even though I had done it twice before, the difference between having the Happy Maker injected into my forearm and not was stark.

It was a hell where countless pieces of rotting flesh, whose origins were unknown, squirmed on the floor, creating waves like worms, and filled with rotten blood and filth. The flesh was moving!

Is this, is this causing delirium too? No, I’m wearing a silver ring, so it’s fi— no, stop thinking, stop thinking.

To let the silver ring’s resistance take effect, I took a deep breath.

Still, the shocking sound in my head wasn’t heard like before.

‘Gather my wits…’

Then.

A searing pain, as if my entire body was on fire, struck me.

“…!!”

I almost fell.

Burning pain.

Burning pain!!

Bur

Ning

Pain

Bur

Ning

Pain

Bur

Ning

Pain

Each letter felt like molten wax searing my entire body.

Not hearing that strange sound echoing in my head wasn’t enough!

Furthermore, those who did hear that sound…

“Crazy! Crazy!”

“Aaaargh!”

“Wh-what are you saying, wha… sin, siiiin?”

Cries, screams, and signs of delirium echoed through the altar.

My head was spinning.

Thump.

One person near me completely fell and plunged into the flesh. I suppressed a scream and pulled the person up.

“Gurgle gurgle…”

‘P-painkiller.’

Only the thought of pulling them up and injecting them with the Happy Maker dominated my mind.

So, the moment I supported and hoisted them onto my back.

“…!”

Suddenly.

The burning pain sharply decreased.

‘…No!’

It didn’t decrease; rather, the burning pain wasn’t felt in the back and shoulder area that was in contact with this person, making it feel relatively easier to bear…

“…Ah!!”

I understood.

In the areas of contact with each other, the burning pain was not felt.

Because they weren’t exposed to the altar’s environment!

“Everyone! Stick together! It gets better if you stick together!”

As I said that, I linked arms with a person nearby.

The words spread.

“Don’t expose bare skin! Th-the sound comes from there!”

“Hold hands with each other!”

Soon, groups of two or three, who had been sporadically separated, clustered together, and those people rushed to stick together, front and back.

“Get lost, you f***! Aaaargh!”

Of course, even amidst that, I saw people who couldn’t come to their senses, pushing others and sinking completely into the flesh.

“You f***, I’m not gonna let you get away with thissss!! You tricked me! Tricked me!■■■”

Even one passenger, who had joined at the last minute, bullyingly claiming they’d get ‘special abilities,’ glared at me as if to kill me and pointed a finger, only to be buried in the flesh and left behind.

However, more than twenty people, the majority, began to surround and huddle together like penguins.

“It’s, it’s work—”

“Bearable. It’s bearable…!”

“L-let’s moveee!”

And clinging to each other as much as possible, arms linked, they began to run towards the light, pressed together.

The pain was minimized.

Their hands, intertwined so tightly they couldn’t be torn by teeth or scratched by nails, firmly gripped the people on either side, and the rotting flesh beneath their running feet scattered.

Screams and shouts echoed, but at the same time, encouragement and shouts of exertion also rang out.

A shared sensation.

“We’re almost there!!”

The light drew nearer.

Slowly but surely.

A little more.

A little more…

And finally!

“Ah…”

People cheered desperately and threw themselves into the light.

“Waaaahhh!!”

I, too, was enveloped in the light, my mind beginning to feel ecstatically elevated.

The voice that had already vanished was no longer heard, but…

…

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

Perhaps the trial given by this ghost story had never been ‘properly’ solved before.

And at this very moment, I seemed to have vaguely seen the direction of the solution.

‘Perhaps Tamra is.’

An unknown world that all passengers on the train could reach if they all jumped together and went through this process.

I opened my eyes.

“Gasp!”

“Ugh…”

“Ah… wh-what is it?”

Gasps and small groans were heard from all around.

The frantic movements characteristic of someone who had been dozing off and suddenly startled awake were also visible from the shaking chairs around.

I immediately raised my head to look at the train’s display.

And the text flowing across the screen.

Mokpo-bound

It changed.

Departure

Beeeeeep!

With a cheerful sound, the high-speed train began to leave the station…

“Oh, we’re back.”

“……Yes.”

Escape, successful.

‘Phew…’

I slumped back in my seat, the tension draining out of me completely.

But the moment I saw the person in front of me, I became alert again.

‘…Assistant Manager Jin Nasol!’

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol was staring at the train ceiling, arms crossed, without a word or expression.

Well, of course, everything was a dream now, and Assistant Manager Jin Nasol hadn’t jumped at the end, so her remaining anger probably wasn’t great, but…

‘Still, let’s do what needs to be done!’

I hastily rummaged through my pocket and pulled out an item that would restore energy to a tired, efficiency-driven boss.

It was something all three of us sitting here possessed. Namely…

“…Assistant Manager.”

“……”

“My Dream Collector is full.”

Clear golden liquid sloshed inside the collector.

Yes.

We were on a business trip, so of course we had our Dream Collectors, and since we cleared the ghost story, the liquid was collected.

‘If we had cleared it back when it was the Iksan-bound train, it probably would have been F or D grade, but…’

Now, with the anomalous manifestation, extended route added, restarting in double digits, and countless people falling into the altar together…

“It’s C-grade.”

The same grade as the darkness of Mokpo we were trying to enter.

And since the Dream Collector was already full, there was no point in entering the darkness again.

Finally, an expression returned to Assistant Manager Jin Nasol’s face.

“This means we don’t have to go to Mokpo, right? We’ll return at the next station.”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

I breathed a sigh of relief, patting my chest.

‘Thank goodness.’

Indeed, for an office worker, finishing work quickly is the best gift…

It was then.

I heard whispering from the back seats.

“Hey… I had a weird dream… like the train was running on water?”

“Whoa, what’s that? Just a random dream.”

“No, but it was fun. It was chaos, and then a saint-like person appeared… they called him ‘Precursor,’ right? Anyway, he was right in front of us!”

“Oh, really?”

“…!”

Wa-wait a minute.

It seemed acting like a cult leader had made a strong impression on people’s memories.

‘I-I should leave this spot first.’

I excused myself to my superiors and headed to the restroom to avoid being noticed.

Click.

“Phew.”

Hmm. I’ll stay here for a few minutes until the details fade from the passengers’ memories…

“—It’s like a star avoiding their hardcore fans…”

It was somewhat embarrassing how similar it was…

Still, it wasn’t a bad situation.

‘No, it’s a very good ending.’

A faint sense of satisfaction spread through my chest.

…The tranquility that the passengers originally did not enjoy during the Tamra-bound high-speed train incident.

‘That’s because… the original ending was more terrible.’

It was so shockingly despairing that I remembered it vividly even without a wiki.

At one point, after hundreds, thousands of loops, the passengers’ minds completely collapsed, going beyond mass hysteria to become almost non-human.

The train car, now a hell where all passengers’ minds had collapsed, was a swamp of pain where the very judgment of jumping out the window according to the number of people was impossible.

‘But with repeated trials, probabilistically, the ‘correct answer’ sometimes appears inadvertently…’

After countless restarts and endless time, they finally matched the numbers and plunged into the 9th altar.

They dramatically escaped this anomalous phenomenon, but…

‘In a way, they didn’t escape.’

Even people who experienced the offering once and woke up were affected for tens of minutes, thinking it was a nightmare.

But what about the minds of humans who repeated that hundreds and thousands of times?

‘…They simply never escaped the nightmare.’

It is presumed that the passengers did not recognize that the anomalous phenomenon had ended and they had returned to reality.

They had mistakenly believed they were still trapped in the loop…

On the contrary, as their mental strength slightly recovered upon returning to reality, they despaired even more and began to actively commit insane acts.

Thus, hell also arrived in reality.

The majority of passengers, in their seats, in the passage, at the windows, killed each other, tore apart, dismembered.

And at the end of that immense riot and frenzy, the train derailed…

It exploded.

And so, the ‘Tamra-bound High-Speed Train Incident’ met a terrible end…

Survivors: 7

Deceased: 404

…It was fortunate that it didn’t become reality.

I sighed in relief.

Hmm, and now that it was all over, I finally had the leisure to wonder.

Assistant Manager ■■■

The only person from Daydream Inc. among the survivors of this incident.

The employee who bought this silver ring I got from the Death Road market by exchanging it with three civilians.

Where was this person?

‘No, were they even there?’

I don’t know.

Earlier, the only company employee we could confirm on the train was Baek Sa-heon.

I didn’t want to do anything conspicuous, like identifying employees, which wouldn’t help with clearance anyway.

‘Anyway, I’m glad.’

If they were there, they would have survived since it ended safely.

The important thing was that the tragedy that had occurred on that train did not happen.

Thump thump thump!

Ah,

‘I should go out soon.’

The next person was impatient and knocking on the restroom door.

I grabbed the memories of the past 14 loops, which were slowly fading from my mind, jotted down a few notes on my smartphone, splashed cold water on my face, and exited the restroom.

Click.

The person who had been waiting abruptly entered the restroom.

‘Were they in a hurry?’

I quickly brushed past them and returned to my seat…

Whoosh.

“You bastard.”

I lowered my head.

A utility knife blade.

The knife was, narrowly slicing across my chest…

“…!!”

F***!

As I recoiled, I simultaneously grabbed the opponent’s forearm with one hand and twisted it.

Clang!

The utility knife clattered to the floor with a sharp sound. I immediately subdued the opponent and pinned them to the floor.

In the process, their faces became visible.

“You son of a b****, ugh, ugh!”

This crazy person.

I pressed down on the opponent, sweating cold.

‘The cult leader…!’

“F***! It hurts so much, ugh, it hurt! Ugh!”

It was the person who had been left behind, falling at the last, 9th altar!

‘This crazy b*****d…’

“You trick people?!? Then you deserve to die, you son of a b****, you b****…”

I grabbed the opponent, who continued to curse, and slammed them to the floor once more.

With a short impact sound, thump…

They fainted.

“Gasp.”

My grip was soaked with cold sweat.

‘…Were they delirious after being left behind?’

Moreover, since their personality was originally bad, they might have suffered longer, having more sins to offer…

Even if it was just a nightmare, they must have quite the temper, unable to control their anger.

‘This kind of person would be like this, I guess.’

“Phew…”

I wiped away the sweat.

Fortunately, my chest, where the knife had cut, was fine, without any pain.

Why?

‘…Good thing I wrapped myself in the wrapping paper beforehand.’

I never imagined I’d be dragged into another ghost story while on a business trip that was already a ghost story, but I had wrapped myself in a protective wrapping paper item against my bare skin before departing, just in case I wouldn’t have the chance later.

It was the ‘Wrapping Paper 12B357na’ sold at the alien store.

It was a natural preparation, as I had even received a death prediction.

‘Even so, I never dreamed I’d almost die from a knife-wielding assailant instead of a ghost story…’

Could it be that the death prediction I received was this, and I just blocked it?

‘What do you think, Brown?’

…

…

There was no answer.

“…Brown.”

A strange premonition, a chill, ran down my spine.

So… I was just cut across the chest.

I wasn’t hurt, but that meant it was my bare skin reinforced by the wrapping paper.

But what was inside the outer pocket, on the left side of my suit jacket…

“…Brown?”

Still,

There was no answer.

I hastily reached into my suit’s inner pocket.

My trembling hand pulled out the fluffy stuffed doll inside…

Thump thump.

Cotton stuffing fell to the floor.

Tattered pink fabric, cut, fluttered down.

“……”

I stood frozen, holding the stuffed doll keychain, split in two.