Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel (End Part 1) - Chapter 125

I didn’t know.

From the perspective of a palm-sized plush doll, how enormous and overwhelming a talk show set could appear.

How pressing it felt when everything was extraordinarily huge, yet I couldn’t even blink or struggle once.

Especially.

If there was a grotesque host next to me, casting a giant shadow, with a TV for a head instead of a face.

And their vivid voices…

“Now, let’s welcome today’s guest!”

“~~!”

The vibration shook the cotton stuffing inside me.

But no matter my predicament, the talk show continued.

‘Guest…’

Classical light bulbs flickered, and a door opened.

A bizarre horror story, one I had suggested in a meeting and which had been adopted as ‘a very good idea,’ opened the door, entered, and sat in the guest chair.

To be precise, a staff member lifted the guest and propped it obliquely in the guest chair.

Because it was something in the shape of a human made of wooden sticks.

The Red Scarecrow!

Its head was wrapped in cloth, haphazardly scrawled with human eyes, nose, and mouth using a red marker.

Even that was smudged by rainwater, making it look even more grotesque.

A monster that lured people to get lost in cornfields as vast as a city, and when night fell, transformed into a monster to relentlessly pursue and make them disappear, one by one.

Based on a famous American horror legend, Records of Darkness Exploration – this chilling horror story, which I had recommended because it seemed to fit the atmosphere of this talk show, was sitting there.

I felt like I was going to throw up.

But there was nothing.

Because I was a plush doll.

I had no mouth, no stomach, no small intestine.

[You’ve gone to great lengths to be here today. Now…]

As the host moved towards the guest, the pressure shaking my entire body slightly lessened.

The scarecrow could not answer the host’s words, and its scribbled face stared eerily into space, but the host remarkably conducted the interview alone.

[Oh, most recently, bank robbers trying to evade police entered the cornfield! How thrilling…]

The story unfolded of bank robbers who, seeking to escape police pursuit, entered the cornfield, encountered the Red Scarecrow, and all ended up as corn fertilizer and the scarecrow’s stuffing.

Morally less uncomfortable, yet a thrilling ‘exploration record’ unfolded, adding humor and suspense.

“Wow, that’s really creepy.”

“Awesome.”

The audience members watched the show with great enjoyment and excitement, flinching in surprise or fear but never losing their smiles.

Yes.

As if, if everyone laughed together, any terrible thing that happened could be enjoyed.

Even as the interview veered towards a chilling direction, with more and more innocent victims, the audience cheered and thrilled.

‘It was contaminated.’

Now I understand.

These many people were slowly being contaminated as they watched the talk show.

And perhaps, I too…

Even if not at first, increasingly so as the talk show continued.

[That was a fascinating story! Don’t you agree? Oh, let’s give a big round of applause for our guest, who has come out of the cornfield and appeared before the public for the first time!]

The chilling scarecrow was still just eyes, nose, and mouth scribbled with a red marker.

However, now, somehow, those eyes seemed to be looking at the audience…

[Now… It’s time to move on to the next segment… That’s right! It started last episode! Do you remember this short segment, viewers?]

To Brown’s Friend!

Please tell us!

Wait.

[Unfortunately, my friend isn’t scheduled to appear today, so they couldn’t come as they usually do…]

[But with burning passion, they have come in a new form.]

He picked me up.

Into the air, my body dangled, and my head and arms bobbed in the air, held by a giant gloved hand.

“You see?

My friend!”

The audience members cackled, pointed fingers, then clapped and cheered.

He held me like a puppet and began to converse, as if ventriloquizing.

[What did you say, friend? Aha!]

[I’ll ask questions for 100 seconds, please answer. Audience!]

The host creepily mimicked my tone and accent with unnerving smoothness. My cotton-stuffed arm waved towards the audience. People laughed.

The fear of my spirit being elevated was terrifying.

[Now, shall we hear what questions my friend has?]

The TV speaker leaned towards me.

…I couldn’t speak.

A plush doll has no mouth.

But…

‘I can think.’

This thought was powerfully conveyed to the other person.

Just as I had understood the good friend’s voice.

So…

I thought.

‘I want to stop.’

[…Aha! My friend is very nervous.]

[But now, the first question is… Oh, how bold. ‘If you were to redraw the Red Scarecrow’s face, what would you draw?’]

‘I want to stop.’

[Cute! Oh, that’s a good answer. My friend thinks so too, don’t you?]

‘I want to stop.’

[Of course, Brown!]

I continued to react with rejection to the host’s words.

But the host, as if by magic, casually moved the doll and continued to ventriloquize as if I were enthusiastically responding.

After 100 seconds passed like that.

[Hahahaha! Thank you! That was ‘Brown’s Friend’!]

[Now it’s time to welcome a new guest. Before that, a short commercial break!]

The camera stopped, and the stage lights went out.

…

…

[How dare you interrupt a live broadcast.]

My body froze.

The giant TV head bent down and whispered to me.

[This is unacceptable. Soleum, have you started thinking with straw instead of a brain, like a scarecrow? How dare you try to ruin the show!!]

My head was pressed. My head, as if my brain had disappeared, was crushed between his gloved fingers.

[My goodness… This is… how brazen.]

[I, as a good friend, actively cooperated with everything you did! But Noh-ru, you’re trying to ruin this live talk show, which is now your workplace.]

[Absolutely unforgivable…]

‘There’s something I can’t forgive either.’

[……]

‘The audience disappeared and died, you said.’

Through my crushed vision within the gloved hand, I kept thinking.

‘After the show, you sent thank-you letters, specifically telling those people how they could meet the guest.’

‘You did that so you could use it as a fun story when the guest reappeared.’

[Who told you?]

[No, that’s not important, friend. There seems to be a misunderstanding…]

The pressure of the glove pressing my head disappeared.

Instead, it gently massaged my head, allowing the cotton to fluff up again.

[Noh-ru, my show doesn’t force anything.]

[If a movie about a killer fascinates someone and leads to serial murders, it’s not the movie’s fault but the perpetrator’s responsibility, wouldn’t you agree?]

A crying face appeared on the TV.

[Why should a show prioritize anything other than joy, pleasure, and excitement?]

‘I have no intention of convincing you.’

I thought.

‘So don’t you try to convince me either.’

And.

‘I don’t want to create or appear in a talk show that kills and incinerates people.’

…

…

[Oh.]

The glove released my head.

And…

[Understood.]

[Then from now on, I suppose I’ll just have to treat you as a general staff member.]

My blood felt like it was freezing.

But I had no blood, so I could keep thinking…

‘You have no right to do that. I never signed a staff contract.’

That’s right.

We did everything verbally.

The contract was merely scheduled to be signed soon.

‘And you said it yourself. You’d let me go if I wasn’t enjoying it.’

With eyes that couldn’t blink, I stared at the screenless TV.

‘Let me go. I’m scared and not enjoying it.’

The old TV remained still.

‘I’m not here to listen to your persuasion or words. Just send me away immediately.’

…

…

Thud.

Brown placed me back on the desk.

And what came out was…

A softened, sad voice.

[I… don’t quite understand. Think about it, Noh-ru. Why would you return to a painful job when you have a joyful and rewarding one?]

[Was there something you didn’t like about the treatment on our talk show? There’s no perfectly ethical show in the world, Noh-ru… You know that.]

He whispered.

[Perhaps, conscience is just a reason you’ve found. Could it be that you actually have practical complaints as a staff member?]

[How about we change your accommodation? Oh, or how about living in a more powerful and splendid form, suited for the show…]

No!

‘I told you, I won’t listen to persuasion!’

I might get dragged in. I’m a doll right now. I don’t even have a silver ring. No. I mustn’t be persuaded…

‘I’m going to quit. That’s the end of it.’

[……]

The TV head moved away.

[I understand what misunderstanding you’re under.]

[But I am your friend, so it’s only right that I grant your wish.]

The gloved fingers gestured to the staff to remove me.

[You are fired. Feel free to leave this wonderful studio and return to your pathetic and boring life!]

[However, from now on, there will be no good friend.]

‘…’

[Remember that. Now, after today’s show, you can go anywhere you want. Well…]

[If you can go with that cotton-stuffed body, that is.]

‘You put me in it. Send me back.’

[Oh. Why should I?]

‘Of course…’

[Amusing. Kim Soleum. You recklessly say and do what you want without any sense of responsibility for the show, and you even hectored this Brown not to persuade you!]

[But now you’re trying to persuade me. You have no shame. Ah, that too is an emotion consumed in the show…]

[Mostly for the pleasure of watching someone get punished!]

The staff member threw me onto a side table next to the guest, not the desk.

A precarious position, as if about to fall into the trash.

[Oh, the cameras are back on!]

Brown’s voice became incredibly bright and cheerful.

Fitting for a talk show.

[Now, watch the rest of the talk show and think carefully. This is your last chance.]

[Will you choose punishment, or will you return…]

Just then.

Pik.

A strange, thin sound echoed before me, accompanied by a flash of light.

Something appeared in my unblinking eyes.

The talk show studio ceiling, pierced with a needle-like hole.

An abnormally blue light shot down from above, illuminating me.

And…

Pik pik pik pik pik pik pik pik.

Holes kept appearing consecutively.

Cotton burst out into my field of vision.

‘Ah.’

Something

pierced

me…

[…!]

Could that be… the holy fire bombardment?

No.

‘…Am I dying?’

If I die in this body, will I just die as a cotton doll?

Then.

[Now…]

I felt a hand tightly gripping my plush doll.

It was the host.

He seemed to be trying to stop the cotton from coming out of the hole-ridden plush doll.

But the strangely persistent bombardment targeting this plush doll didn’t stop.

Pik pik pik pik pik pik pik pik.

My head detached and fell to the floor.

[…!!]

Thud.

Kukukukukukukukung!

The ceiling collapsed.

Transparent, glowing something fell like mad meteors onto the talk show studio stage, shattering only the talk show set.

In my rolling vision, I saw the rigid figure of the host, still holding the torn cloth and cotton that had been my torso.

Ah.

Just as I was flustered when my good friend was torn in half.

This guy too…

“-Kim Soleum.”

“…!”

“-Are you back?”

“…Yes.”

I regained consciousness in a place where I felt nothing again.

In the CCTV-like view before me, Manager Lee Jaheon was moving again.

The difference was that the studio in the view was shaking as if it had been bombed.

“-Holy fire bombardment has commenced.”

Yes. I know…

Because you shot me…

“Did you deliberately target the plush doll I was in? To make me return to this body?”

“-Yes.”

“-This bombardment will continue for the next 10 minutes, but it’s a high-risk situation. Section Chief Kim Soleum must leave this location as quickly as possible, ideally within 3 minutes.”

“Couldn’t the host put me back into the doll now?”

“-It’s possible.”

“-However, darkness is an extreme phenomenon without balance. A talk show-obsessed supernatural entity like the host is highly likely to prioritize restoring the studio and identifying and eliminating the cause.”

Manager Lee Jaheon moved at a frantic speed, and his emotionless voice uttered a chilling statement.

And then, just as nonchalantly, declared another thing.

“-Also, approval has been granted for entering a safe house.”

“…Yes?”

“-The Alliance has recognized the current situation where the emergency beacon user cannot escape.”

“-Therefore, Section Chief Kim Soleum can be transferred to a location where pursuit by supernatural entities can be avoided.”

“…”

I didn’t know what the Alliance was, but it was probably some alien organization.

“-The only way to prevent unforeseen incidents in the current situation is to quickly leave this studio and go there.”

So… I could avoid the host’s pursuit for a while?

Then, while regrouping my situation, I might be able to find a way to completely shake off the host in Records of Darkness Exploration.

In my CCTV-like view, I watched Lizard Team Leader’s movements as he ran down the shaking studio corridor amidst a roaring sound.

“…Have you figured out the way out?”

“-Yes.”

“-I reconfirmed the path while re-infiltrating the studio to determine the location where Section Chief Kim Soleum’s personality was summoned.”

“…!”

It really felt like I could escape.

Whether returning to ‘Delusional Home Shopping’ or going somewhere else, if I could just enter the approved safe house, I felt like I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

It was a powerful temptation, but…

…

I knew the truth.

It was all a temporary fix.

‘It’s an extremely hostile escape method.’

I had a strange premonition that this might mean making an irreversible choice with the host…

‘The host, Brown, could find me again at any time.’

So this escape was nothing more than a temporary evasion, not a solution.

Moreover…

“…”

I recalled the sight I had seen just before falling out of the plush doll.

The host is trying to block my bursting plush doll.

“…”

Perhaps.

“…Team Leader.”

“-Yes.”

“Are you the type of intelligent being that is easily contaminated by darkness?”

“-No.”

‘…Okay.’

And one more thing.

“If I die in this body, will you just return to being Manager Lee Jaheon?”

“-That’s correct, if you die within 55 hours.”

…Then.

“Team Leader.”

I swallowed.

“Don’t go out through the exit like this; go to the host.”

If it’s a gamble anyway, I’ll try a definite method where I do it myself.

“I’ll find another way out.”