Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 210

After drinking the wish and realizing the ‘truth.’

My body collapsed, and Director Ho’s security team uniform, which I desperately crammed my body into, ironically backfired, causing me to necrotize.

Thus, at the brink of death, I had no choice but to make a decision.

– Just need to sign.

I signed the employment contract papers Director Cheong handed me.

Immediately after, I lost consciousness… and when I regained my senses, I had already been transported to a certain place.

A desolate small room.

The first thing I saw was a number.

[666]

It was the nameplate on the iron door.

The space, consisting of an iron bed and a washbasin, was very old-fashioned and silent.

The only light source was a single fluorescent lamp, and it was as quiet as a mouse.

However, during working hours, I could go outside whenever I wanted. Because my work, which had not changed a single day from the first day until now, was….

– Today your duty is security on the 13th basement floor of the annex.

Basement 13th floor.

Because it was guarding this corridor.

– Security on the 13th basement floor of the annex.

But it was meaningless.

No one came.

This place, with no windows or emergency exits, was just a corridor lined with iron doors, and I walked meaninglessly through it.

I wandered the corridor.

Red and blue lights flickered.

An elevator was visible. The lights indicating the floor flickered, showing numbers.

But I couldn’t board it.

Because there were no buttons.

They weren’t visible.

I couldn’t leave.

Hiss….

Black smoke filled the air.

The fluorescent lights of the pale corridor flickered, and the smoke swayed and rose.

It was coming from my breath, through the gas mask.

I walked, locked in.

As I stared at the only thing that moved, the smoke that lay and swayed in the corridor….

– Your working hours have ended. Return immediately. Your working hours have ended. Return immediately. Your working hours have ended. Return immediately…

It ended.

I re-entered room 666, which opened as per contract.

Click.

The door locked, and I sat on the bed.

Silence again.

Would I normally feel terrible?

Whether it was claustrophobia or fear of isolation, would I feel fear at simply existing in the basement of a terrible pharmaceutical company, unnoticed by anyone?

Perhaps I would have.

But I don’t remember what that specific emotion felt like.

But not remembering isn’t so bad either.

I just chewed on it for a moment.

My work.

Security officer for the 13th basement floor of the annex.

Performing security duties without questioning the things that exist beyond the iron doors and without leaving the designated 13th-floor corridor.

Abnormal phenomena occurring upon contact are currently unknown.

Those forms that faintly flash and then blur in my mind.

If described in the style of the <Dark Exploration Records> wiki, it would probably be something like this.

Yes. It probably would have been….

But even that faint and censored imagination doesn’t last long.

Chii-ji-ji-ji-jik-

The silence is broken.

The light from a black-and-white screen casts shadows on the iron bed.

[Welcome, special entity employee, full of dreams and passion! Welcome to Daydream Co., Ltd. Security Management Team!]

The low-quality digital recording echoed through the confined room.

[Yesterday, we told you in detail what wonderful work the Security Management Team does, didn’t we? Today, we’ll tell you the rules you must follow during your work!]

A small, spherical TV in the corner of the solitary room continuously played a video.

The <Security Management Team New Employee Training Video>.

It only conveyed the same content.

[You cannot leave your designated work area!]

Two mascots appeared.

The fox mascot stood still in front of the corridor elevator and spun around.

A format I seemed to have seen before.

But somehow distorted… was it distorted? The cheerful training video about office worker lifestyles and Daydream Co., Ltd. was rendered in black and white, moving light around the room.

[You are a contracted worker and cannot violate the work rules!]

It seemed like a typical new employee training video, but there was a slight difference.

It obsessively told me what to do when my working hours ended.

[Sleep.]

[Do not violate your sleeping hours. You cannot wander around. You must rest. That is the normal behavior of a company employee!]

The bizarrely bright and cheerful video’s light shimmered in the small, confined room.

Then….

[That’s all for this video’s training. May you be at ease!]

Click.

It disappeared.

“…….”

Today’s work was over.

Thus, from beyond the iron door of the small space where all light sources had vanished, only faint red and blue light seeped in.

Bedtime.

Of course, I couldn’t sleep.

But as the training video said, I couldn’t violate bedtime. Because that was a work rule.

I lay on the bed and closed my eyes.

As if sleeping.

And so, learning about ‘company work,’ I continued my labor on the 13th basement floor of the annex.

…….

…….

How many days had I worked?

A week?

Half a month?

A month?

Seven years?

■■■?

It was unknowable and hard to calculate. But there was no problem. The contract didn’t specify the work period, so I just had to be here like this.

Working hours would return again.

Then, in the silence, this place….

Knock… knock.

…….

Knock knock knock.

A sound.

A sound was heard.

The sound of hard joints, covered by soft skin, moving carefully and hitting metal.

The sound of knocking on the iron door.

……

Knock.

People.

I pulled the door open.

“Hmph!”

“Eeeek!”

Room 666’s iron door opened.

Those holding the doorknob startled, fell backward into the corridor, and tried to point at me with their fingers, then….

“Aaaah… ngh.”

They covered their mouths.

And bowed their heads.

“Hello, hello.”

“We are new employees. Greetings.”

They spoke.

Their voices were stiff, as if rehearsed, but real.

I realized that it was the sound of someone alive, which I hadn’t heard in an extremely long time.

No….

Alive?

“If it’s alright, may we visit for a moment….”

No. It was a dead sound.

All the voices of living people heard through my auditory organs crackled as if from an old training video.

As if filtered, as if recorded, all human speech seen and heard from beyond the gas mask made it difficult to clearly identify individuals.

And….

“……That.”

There were no faces above the suits.

No, I couldn’t identify the faces.

The area where the faces should be only looked like a melted mosaic.

It was distorted in red and black, as if a damaged film had been painstakingly reassembled.

‘Why?’

I didn’t know if it was something I wasn’t supposed to see according to the employment contract, or if my collapsed body had also collapsed my perception system.

But there was no problem.

Identifying individuals by their attire, physique, and accent was not a problem.

Nor was understanding the situation.

New employees, suits, groups of three, panic and confusion, no masks.

And one more thing.

“…….”

I looked back at the one who had spoken first.

Listening to his ragged breathing, I extended a hand in black gloves.

“Huuuugh!”

I pulled out something from the front pocket of his suit.

A note.

I go down to basement 13th Floor

at door 666

and knock then enter.

This is….

Right.

‘Experiment Name: New Employee Orientation’ 21st Attempt

: Missions assigned using the Lottery Box (Qterw-E-382). Consists of exploring the annex basement and encountering the security team ■■■■ in charge of that area.

A record surfaced from my mutated head like a spark, then lingered as if being savored.

I ‘knew’ what kind of situation this was.

“Hmph!”

I put the note back into his front pocket. The person touched by my black-gloved fingers convulsed.

The larger person standing behind him stepped forward as if to calm him, then pushed another new employee behind his back and spoke calmly.

“…It was something the company instructed us to do.”

“…….”

“We are performing our duties.”

Right.

If orientation could be considered a duty.

I looked at the three unfortunate new employees, who were merely participating in the ‘New Employee Orientation.’

And….

I took a step back behind the door.

As if inviting them in.

“…….”

“…….”

“C-can we… come in?”

The entry of authorized personnel does not violate work regulations.

“Thank… thank you…….”

Trembling, looking around nervously, their stiff bodies stepped into room 666 to fulfill what was written on the note.

And then immediately sprang out of the door again, as if they had stepped into a pit of fire.

…There was no need for that.

“Hiiik!”

I tried to reach out to the two employees who almost pushed each other to get out quickly, then got their limbs tangled and fell, but they started crawling away even faster.

That’s right.

They ran away.

There was an escape route.

Straight to the elevator.

“Hmph, hmph!”

“Wait, calmly….”

I seemed to hear the larger person trying to stop them, but they frantically pressed something.

The elevator button.

There were buttons after all.

Was it just that they weren’t visible to the security officer?

Soon, with a cheerful sound, the elevator doors opened, flooding the corridor with light.

The bright elevator interior.

“C-close! Close…!”

I followed them, moving my steps. Smoke rose from my gas mask with each step.

The moment the black smoke entered the elevator.

You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area!

It echoed in my head.

You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area!

…….

No.

This was not leaving the work area.

This elevator was currently at the 13th basement floor, and I was merely entering a connected space as part of the 13th floor.

It was never specified that the elevator was excluded from the 13th basement floor work area.

…….

…….

It became quiet again.

“Ah! J-just a moment….”

I naturally boarded the elevator again.

The door closed.

Thump.

Black smoke filled the elevator interior.

“Ah, aaaah■■.”

“Ooh, oh, ■■-nim, th-th-that■”

I heard groans and murmurs from the employees next to me. Was inhaling the smoke painful? I held my breath and sucked the black smoke through my gas mask.

The mosaic of human faces revealed in the smoke became transparent.

It looked as if bodily fluids were dripping from their eyes, nose, and mouth. Still, their breathing seemed stable….

I tried my best to push the smoke towards the wall and fix it, but one person who was under my gaze trembled and opened their mouth.

“Do… do you mean for us to be quiet?”

Meaning?

That my action of moving the smoke had meaning….

Ah.

“…….”

So… this was how it was done.

Meaningless expression.

“H-Hangul!”

The mosaics trembled and gasped at the letters I formed with smoke.

A strange sense of familiarity or relief was discernible even through the noise.

“E-excuse me… are you going to, attack, attack us…?”

Current situation: Negative.

“Ah…!”

Their voices brightened considerably. The relief that comes from familiarity, the strange empathy when the unknown shows an understandable aspect.

Emotions I had known.

A sigh brushed my ears with a dull quality.

And another question.

“Then, where, where are you… going?”

“…….”

I looked at the elevator buttons.

Things that couldn’t be confirmed in the 13th basement floor corridor.

Among them, I saw the button the new employees were reaching for, looking at me nervously.

1st floor.

“…….”

No.

I could not currently set foot on the ground floor. Exiting the elevator would be a complete departure from the work area, the limit of the loophole I could refuse. I could not leave.

Then why had I boarded the elevator?

“…….”

Because there was something I could do without getting off the elevator.

I reached out my hand.

Frozen inside the elevator, the boastful new employee gasped for breath.

What was happening? What was happening?

The black smoke filling the elevator now, and through the smoke….

Yellow eyes like gas lamps.

‘F***, f***…!’

Giant branch-like or rib-like horns sprouted above the gas mask. The black full-body uniform, revealing no flesh, looked like a nightmare crammed into a human silhouette.

The ‘Security Team’ name tag on its chest felt like a chilling joke.

The thing that was in room 666 on the 13th basement floor.

‘If we act politely, we’ll have a higher chance of survival, he said…!’

He inwardly cursed and blamed his teammate, who had introduced himself as ‘Jang Heowoon.’

Jang Heowoon wasn’t even making eye contact with him; he was staring intently at the monster.

‘Still pretending to be calm!’

The fact that he wasn’t dead yet, and that Jang Heowoon hadn’t put him in this situation, was conveniently forgotten for the sake of his resentment.

At the same time, he unconsciously realized why people had been dying in the elevators.

‘They all chased them into the elevators…!’

But there was nothing else inside with them….

He swallowed.

Could it be that it killed them out of spite because it couldn’t get in?

‘Then how… how did this get in?’

The silver lining was that some form of communication seemed possible, but… damn it.

‘Can we take that back to the 1st-floor lobby?’

In horror movies, everyone in the lobby dies if that happens. Cold sweat beaded on his chin and dripped.

But survival instinct came first.

He wanted to go back. He would go back. He would escape this terrible, insane space in the basement!

‘Right, right!’

At least he wasn’t dead!

Let the bastards in the lobby save themselves! He wasn’t going to die here alone!

He reached out, almost out of his mind, and pressed the 1st floor….

Their eyes met.

“Ah.”

The yellow eyes looked at him through the smoke.

The new employee froze again.

But the strange figure with the lamp did not stop the new employee from pressing the 1st floor button.

Instead, it also extended its black hand.

And tap, it pressed the 12th basement floor button.

“Oh…?”

Basement 11th floor, 10th floor, 9th floor, 8th floor… all the way to the 1st floor.

All those buttons.

It swept through them, as if playing a piano keyboard.