Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel (End Part 1) - Chapter 198

The villagers flocked around.

[They’ve arrived, the blessings of Jisan!]

The shouts from the person with the megaphone grew louder, and soon the singing and gong sounds intensely revived.

A vortex of people.

“This way!”

I followed Agent Cheongdong, dodging the villagers through the crowd, but it was futile.

“Wow, awesome.”

“Is that person getting the golden chicken?”

The murmurs of people who hadn’t yet grasped the situation, the villagers rushing towards me, abandoning everything, people prostrating themselves on the ground and praying towards the mountain, and Baek Saheon, who had disappeared amidst them.

And…

“Run away.”

I grabbed Agent Cheongdong, who was pushing me and Agent Eun Haje back, and tried to confront the villagers.

“Calm down. Anyway, it’s highly likely that I won’t be able to leave ‘safely’ now.”

“……!”

“And it was definitely in the rulebook.”

I met his eyes.

“How to act in a similar situation.”

During a rescue, it occasionally happens that one of the agents gets captured by the villagers.

But unless it’s the last day of the festival, do not rush in recklessly or confront the entire village.

You can always re-enter the village during the festival. What that means is, you can return with sufficient preparation.

Don’t be swayed by emotion and just cause a ruckus, wasting a precious opportunity. Act wisely and boldly.

Let the captured person, the remaining people, and the person who will rescue them all survive and escape the disaster.

“Go.”

“……”

“Go, quickly find a way to rescue me and come back. That’s my way to live.”

A fierce struggle was visible in Agent Cheongdong’s eyes. A tug-of-war between emotion and rational judgment.

But soon, reason won.

“Tomorrow.”

“……”

“I will definitely return.”

I quickly put the five-colored shoelaces, which Agent Cheongdong had handed me, into my inventory tattoo.

It was a card I could use in the worst-case scenario, even at the risk of disappearance or suicide, to get out.

And Agent Cheongdong ran through the crowd with terrifying speed towards the entrance.

“You’ve come. The blessings of Jisan!”

At the same time, the villagers swarmed me.

I blinked.

I seemed to have lost consciousness for a moment.

And where I regained consciousness was… a wide, old-fashioned wooden floor.

Sliding paper doors on two sides of a square room.

“……”

I had seen a similar style recently.

‘That tile-roofed house.’

Agent Eun Haje was nowhere to be seen. …It seemed she hadn’t been caught with me.

That was fortunate.

‘……’

I looked down at my legs.

Both legs were tied with gold ropes.

The gold ropes extended outside through a hole in one of the sliding paper doors.

When I tugged lightly, I felt tension. It seemed fixed.

‘This is getting serious.’

At that moment.

Thud.

The sliding paper doors opened and people entered.

No, just two people.

One person carried a small table laden with festival food, and the other carried a bottle of alcohol. Both bowed deeply to me and placed the neat food and alcohol down.

And faint music began to be heard.

Outside the building, a crazily intense festival seemed to be taking place.

All night long.

“……”

The two picked up the small drawing barrel they had brought and drew. Then, the one who picked the stick with the rooster feather remained here, and the other bowed and left.

The one who remained was the one who had carried the alcohol.

“Mr. Saheon.”

“……”

The villager who had carried the alcohol, Baek Saheon, looked at me.

The suspected culprit who might know why I suddenly picked the special prize.

“Did you deliberately make me pick the ‘Special Prize’ stick from your pocket last night?”

-…Check my pocket.

He had clearly led me on so naturally.

That was the only suspicious unusual action that could explain why I, who had only gotten duds in the drawing yesterday, picked the special prize.

“To make me someone who had already picked the special prize, to make me ‘suitable’?”

“……”

“So you induced me to pick the special prize the next day, right?”

A deep sense of satisfaction crossed Baek Saheon’s eyes.

And he spoke in a hoarse voice.

“What if that’s right?”

“You planned this for a long time.”

“……”

“Until you guessed this would work, and also thinking about what to do if the agents couldn’t rescue you.”

A joyful smile spread across Baek Saheon’s lips.

“That’s right.”

Liberation.

Madness.

“I thought about it every day. What would I do if I ever won? I don’t want to end up like that. Every time I slept in this damned house, every time someone died, even when my sister died!”

He spat out the words.

“I thought, I absolutely don’t want to become like that. Damn it, if I die, gods or whatever…”

“Gods?”

Baek Saheon swallowed. I felt the anxiety and pleasure of someone speaking forbidden words.

“This holiday festival was to worship gods, then.”

“Worship? No!!”

Baek Saheon shrieked.

“This is a ritual to create a god!”

“……!”

“They really believe that insane nonsense: ‘Set an auspicious day as a holiday, then enthrone the winner in the Seonangdang to create Jisan’s blessing, a god who will liberate us from worldly truths!'”

“Is that really possible?”

“I don’t know! But…”

Panting.

“There’s really something here.”

“……”

“If there’s no outsider who picks the special prize during the holiday, we gather the remaining sticks and draw among ourselves every day. And if someone wins there…”

Baek Saheon’s face hardened.

“When the last day of the festival ends, they cover their heads like livestock and drag them to the Seonangdang.”

“……”

“They drag them there, and do something at the Seonangdang.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. But, there’s something…”

His face turned pale.

“When the people who were dragged there come out in the morning, their complexions are all different. They can’t speak. And they prepare for next year’s holiday among themselves…”

“……”

“When the holiday they prepared that year ends, they hang themselves in the Seonangdang.”

…!

“But, they reappear every holiday. They die and come back. They walk out of Seonangdang.”

He wailed.

“They play pungmulnori (traditional Korean folk music and dance)!!”

“…!”

“They’re doing it right now. Outside!”

Hiyah-a-a-a-a!

“I won’t become like that. I won’t die. Absolutely not.”

Baek Saheon’s eyes flashed with fear, anger, survival instinct, and the relief of having succeeded… then they calmed with reason and calculation.

“Now that you’ve won, the holiday and the drawing are over. I don’t have to come back here anymore. Not being able to escape this Jisan village, being trapped here, that’s all over now.”

…….

“I understand.”

I nodded.

Baek Saheon mumbled.

“Now that you’re an insider, can you talk about it? Haha. …I always thought guys who blabber about this stuff first were stupid, but this… this is what it feels like?”

Being in a situation alone, unable to speak and having to swallow information only you know.

This is funny, but I think I understand better now how Baek Saheon feels.

‘……’

Actually, I should be angry or anxious right now.

This crazy bastard, Baek Saheon, to save himself, pushed a civil servant who had merely come to rescue him and said there was no way to do it, into his place as a sacrifice.

Anger, disillusionment, anxiety, and indignation should surge at being subjected to such a thing, and my mind should be spinning to find a way out.

That’s how it should be.

But strangely, it’s not.

Instead, I feel odd… at peace.

This feeling of the complex tomorrow and near future becoming a little opaque.

‘Since I’m stuck here, I don’t have to think about anything else, right?’

I no longer have to prioritize thinking about the wish ticket, Director Ho’s prohibitions, the information I need to find within a month, or how to treat an agent whose identity has already been exposed.

‘Is this literally escapism?’

It’s a bit funny and absurd that the threat of death actually brings peace of mind.

But it was true.

So I could speak plainly.

Without pity or anger.

“I see. I understand.”

“Understand?”

Wariness returned to Baek Saheon’s eyes.

“Are you going to say ‘Oh, that’s too bad, I understand…’ and then try to tell me that this isn’t right and ask me to release you?”

“Perhaps. But… living a daily life where you can’t feel safe at all, where you feel like you’re going to die soon, and where every day is terrifying.”

“……”

“I understand that.”

The other person looked at me with a sunken expression.

“Still, you were lucky to pick one of the two agents.”

“Why, do you want to die?”

…….

“A little?”

I’m not sure right now.

“Have you never wanted to die? Not even once?”

“……”

“You have.”

Baek Saheon blurted out.

“I don’t want to die. You wanted to die, so that’s good for you. Just stay like that.”

“……”

It’s strange.

His words held no hint of mocking me for being deceived, as if it was my just deserts. Even though he was in a position to tease me, it didn’t seem like he found it particularly amusing.

I only felt his selfish desperation for survival.

He didn’t seem to feel guilty, but what can I say… it seemed like there was no room for guilt itself.

‘Come to think of it, he’s always been like that.’

He only desperately looked out for his own interests, his own survival.

However, if he wasn’t enjoying seeing someone in trouble because of him, or finding torment amusing… then there was a slightly different approach.

I could use him.

‘…Still, I can’t just escape reality to the point of dying like this.’

In the end, I opened my mouth.

“Mr. Saheon. If both you and I could live, would you help?”

“…What?”

“It would just be more difficult for you than now, and you’d have to risk being caught.”

“Would I? You crazy bastard.”

It was then.

-Oh my, stop! There’s a limit to how much dramatic elements one can tolerate. How rude!

-Ah, friend. Why are there so many people lately who repay your kindness with betrayal! This Brown’s heart aches too.

…The stuffed doll started speaking again.

-I will help you. Let’s get out of here first.

-After that, let’s show them what karma is. That would be a thrilling and exciting scene, wouldn’t it?

…….

‘Ah. It’s okay.’

The stuffed doll stopped speaking.

‘I’ll try it alone. Won’t that be more fun?’

-That… well. It seems like a good flow if appropriate help comes in, but!

‘It’s okay.’

I finished my conversation with the stuffed doll and looked at Baek Saheon again.

My words came out naturally, directed at someone I hadn’t even expected anything from.

“But Mr. Saheon. I’m dying because of you.”

“……”

“I came to rescue you, and I’m dying because there was no way to do it. I’m dying because you pushed me into this spot.”

“Why is this my fault?”

Baek Saheon’s face twisted.

“Did I tell people to die if they picked the special prize, damn it? Did I shove people into the Seonangdang and kill them? The ones killing are others, aren’t they! So then I should just die? That…”

Getting angry and cursing brings bad luck.

“……!!”

Both Baek Saheon and I simultaneously turned our heads towards the sliding paper door.

A murmuring sound was heard.

Getting angry and cursing brings bad luck. Getting angry and cursing brings bad luck. Getting angry and cursing brings bad luck. Those who have forgotten, disappear. Those who have forgotten, disappear. Those who have forgotten, disappear. May Jisan bless you with myriad fortunes, oh Agent, may Jisan bless you with myriad fortunes, oh Agent, may Jisan bless you with myriad fortunes, oh Agent.

An echoing sound.

Baek Saheon looked towards the sliding paper door with a pale face.

There was clearly nothing there, but the sound of the pungmulnori group began to grow louder and louder…

“Mr. Baek Saheon.”

“No.”

He went to the opposite side of the sliding paper door, bent down, and covered his head.

A helplessness unbelievable for someone who usually calmly committed all sorts of impulsive actions.

‘Is this a trauma response?’

Would this work, perhaps?

I pondered for a moment, then opened my mouth.

Towards the sliding paper door.

“I apologize. I was flustered and swore.”

The sound stopped.

“It was bad behavior at the festival, wasn’t it? I’ll try to use polite language now.”

The sliding paper door remained motionless, as if dead quiet.

And…

Hiyah-a-a-a!

The sound of the pungmulnori, which had started again, slowly faded into the distance.

Until it completely disappeared, melting into the festival noise.

“……”

“……”

“Mr. Baek Saheon.”

Baek Saheon rose from the corner of the sliding paper door, drenched in cold sweat.

And he looked at me with confused eyes.

“I just helped you from dying.”

“……”

“Don’t you feel even a little grateful?”

“…If I’m grateful, should I die instead?”

“You speak as if expressing gratitude would cost you a great price.”

Baek Saheon looked at me as if asking what kind of obvious thing I was saying.

Is that so.

“Do as you please. Your life seems very precious to you.”

And I looked down at my feet.

“But my life was also precious to me. Even though I sometimes thought I wanted to die.”

“……”

“……”

After a long silence.

Baek Saheon’s mouth opened.

“What exactly is the way for both of us to live?”

“……”

“What is it?”

I put my still-free hand in my pocket and rolled the silver badge I found there.

Silver Heart.

“It’s simple.”

Because I had realized it just now, listening to Baek Saheon’s words.

What kind of ghost story this was.

“I will plant doubt in their belief.”

God-making, liberation from worldly truths, coincidence and fate, a sacrificial ritual shared by only a few, the returning dead, sacrifices…

Everything pointed to one thing.

This was a ghost story under the Wuming Canlan Sect.