Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 211

The monster’s finger, encased in a black glove, moved as if sweeping upwards.

Following that smooth motion, all the basement floor buttons in the elevator lit up.

The new employees stared blankly at the sight.

Now.

What did it just do?

“Ca-cancel! Ca—”

Too late.

The elevator moving just one floor was in the blink of an eye.

Ding.

[This is B12.]

The elevator doors opened defenselessly.

The scene from a few hours ago flashed through their minds like lightning.

—Ugh… h-hup.

—W-what is this…?

The elevator that had gone down to B12 to perform a ‘mission’ had returned with no sign of the employee, only a pool of red blood on the floor…

[Doors opening.]

And in the faint light of the elevator, the dark corridor of ‘that’ B12 was dimly revealed. The new employees gasped for breath.

“……”

“……”

However, there wasn’t a single drop of blood in the corridor. Unlike the elevator.

“Haa.”

Before they could instinctively feel relieved, something alien caught their eye. Greasy dirt, like soil, was piled on the floor, wedged into the elevator’s gap.

‘Dirt…?’

They raised their heads, searching for its source.

Lumps, scattered like landmarks in the corridor, came into view.

Lumps that looked weathered.

But looking closely, eyes accustomed to the darkness could distinguish silhouettes.

An ankle near the instep, a piece of an ear and temple, a right shoulder blade….

Limb fragments, bloodless and like models.

“Hiiiii….”

Thump.

The new employee clamped a hand over their mouth. To prevent any sound from escaping.

They mustn’t make a sound.

Because, at the end of their gaze, they saw something massive.

Standing silently in the dark corridor.

It, too, was wearing a uniform.

The same security team uniform worn by the horned monster in this elevator. It was a perfect human silhouette, clean and without distortion. It almost looked like a bored security team employee standing idly. However….

What was on its head was a scarecrow.

A roughly made, empty face of straw, with crude features drawn in fresh blood.

…….

From somewhere, a song could be heard.

Standing tall all day long, Angry scarecrow uncle.

It echoed faintly in the corridor.

Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, oh how scary, The birds fly away. Hahahaha, be careful, Your hat might fall off.

Plop.

The blood gathered in the scarecrow’s crudely drawn eyes dripped from the tip of a straw.

Standing tall all day long,

But since when.

Angry scarecrow uncle,

Was that head looking this way?

“……”

Gulp.

The new employees froze.

The scarecrow clearly hadn’t moved. But….

Why has it changed?

Why was it one iron door closer than before?

Why was it even closer now?

Why was its left straw hand raised?

Why was it holding a brush cutter in its grasp?

Why was its face….

“Aaaah!”

At that moment, the door of another elevator next to them opened, and light and screams poured out.

“…!”

Other people. Those who had clearly come to this corridor for a mission, fell inside the elevator.

“W-what is that!”

They screamed, having witnessed the scarecrow and the body parts on the corridor floor right before their eyes.

…….

Standing patiently all day long, Good scarecrow uncle.

Why was the scarecrow standing with its head turned?

“Hieeeek!”

“Close it! Close it!”

“N-no! Run—”

Too late.

And the new employee, staring blankly at it, realized.

Yes. A chance to escape.

“Hik!”

They had to seize this moment. While it wasn’t looking at them, quickly, quickly! The new employee stretched out their hand with all their might to press the close button….

It was blocked by a black glove.

“…!”

The gas mask with grotesque horns sprouting in all directions and yellow lantern-like eyes.

The security team employee from B13, Room 666, who had blocked the close button, didn’t even look back at them.

Only thick black smoke flowed from its gas mask, which was staring intently out of the elevator, and gathered at its feet.

Whoosh…

And it spread low like a fog towards B12.

Towards the scarecrow.

Hahahaha, be careful, Your hat might fall off. Standing patiently all day long, Good…

Whoosh.

The smoke surged and covered the scarecrow.

“!!”

The sound was muffled thickly.

The smoke was so heavy and dense that the scarecrow’s form disappeared. And beneath it….

A new sound.

C-c-c-crunch!

A grotesque noise echoed in the corridor.

The new employees held their breath, panting, and listened to it.

The grotesque scarecrow’s form, covered in black smoke, was now invisible, not even a shadow.

Only the sound.

Only merciless tearing sounds could be heard.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, like horns or bones breaking, or grinding, or being forcibly crammed or swallowed somewhere.

And then, a pleading scream could be heard.

Sounds of something begging and trying to escape mingled with the roar, then disappeared with a final, choked gasp.

As silence fell.

“……”

“……”

Finally, the black smoke dispersed again.

The scarecrow, hidden by the smoke, reappeared in the corridor….

“…Huh?”

It was a corpse.

The new employees blinked.

But the sight of the bloody corpse, its entire body crushed, lying on the floor, did not change.

The blood gathered in its features, like the scarecrow’s, dripped onto the floor.

Plop.

“Aaaah!”

“Argh!”

Screams filled the air. But the masked figure inhaled the smoke back with a single breath. The new employee, terrified, scrambled into the corner of the elevator.

[Doors closing.]

Meanwhile, in the adjacent elevator, the doors closed with the sound of frantic button-pressing, without even a breath.

“Th-there!”

The other new employees were safely escaping.

At the same time, the black smoke, which had surged back from the B12 corridor, neatly gathered on the floor of this elevator.

“Hieek!”

“Wait!”

Someone grabbed his shoulder as he instinctively tried to avoid the smoke.

A fellow employee named Jang Heoun. He whispered urgently.

“Don’t needlessly provoke it.”

“…!!”

“That smoke didn’t cover our heads…. Calm down, calm down.”

He was right.

The smoke calmly settled on the elevator floor.

“Hoo, hooooh…”

The new employee swallowed, caught his breath, and gripped the elevator handrail.

[Doors closing.]

And so, they left B12.

He desperately tried to avert his gaze from the corpse beyond the elevator door, but he seemed to have seen it stagger and rise again through the crack in the door just before…

Like a scarecrow.

“Huuuuu.”

He groaned and swallowed.

But the strong impression of what he had just seen did not fade.

A bizarre existence.

And the smoke that turned that bizarre existence into a corpse.

Suddenly, he realized the astonishing outcome.

‘…We survived.’

Everyone survived.

His legs trembled with relief.

At the same time, a thought flashed through his mind.

‘Wait a minute.’

Then, perhaps that strange horned ‘security team employee’ from Room 666… helped them escape to the elevator?

‘Wait, if that’s the case….’

Yes. Maybe there’s no need to be so scared. Maybe it’s okay! He couldn’t bear the situation of being trapped in the elevator with something terrifying, so he rationalized and turned his head.

“Th-that, um….”

He made eye contact with the security team employee.

But….

“Tha…nk… you….”

Was it originally… melting like this?

The security team employee’s arm was strangely long. It was strange… it had too many feet. Its melting lower body was bulging on the elevator floor, mixed with the smoke.

And it had thirty-seven eyes.

The eyes stared at him without blinking.

“Uh, uh-oh-oh-oh….”

What is it?

What is that?

[This is B11.]

The external shock momentarily delayed his panic.

They had arrived again.

[Doors opening.]

“I’ll remove my optic nerves.”

“I’ll connect my mouth and belly button.”

“I wish I had no feet!”

On B11, an employee in a doctor’s gown was conducting a pleasant consultation for surgery in Room 910.

Whoosh.

Again, the masked figure, with its thirty-seven eyes, stared out and sent out smoke.

Soon, the bizarre existence in the doctor’s gown became a bloodless corpse with limbs sewn in the wrong places.

“Aaaah!”

Screams again. Flight.

The people who had been conducting the consultation as if entranced frantically rushed out of Room 910, took another elevator, and this elevator’s doors naturally closed.

[Doors closing.]

“……”

The new employee looked at his feet.

The elevator floor was invisible.

Because the security team employee’s melting lower body covered it.

Thump-thump.

Something like a heartbeat could be heard from the wall.

Because the security team employee’s upper left body was broadly plastered against the wall.

“……”

And so it repeated.

[This is B10.]

[This is B9.]

[This is B8.]

Each time the doors opened and closed, each time the smoke created a bizarre situation, the form of ‘that thing’ inside the elevator became stranger.

It grew larger and more distorted.

[This is B6.]

[This is B5.]

The form of the thing in the elevator became increasingly grotesque and difficult to look at, strangely distorted.

[This is B4.]

[This is B3.]

[This is an eternal basement.]

It’s strange. He finally realizes. The entire elevator is now made of sticky smoke, yellow lanterns, thorny crowns, and bone-like curves. That’s it! This is B13! Being sucked into B13!

Ding.

…….

…….

[This is 1F.]

[Doors opening.]

Light poured in.

“Hoooaah….”

The moment the familiar ground floor lobby appeared, the new employee collapsed.

Someone rushed over and patted his back.

“Slowly, slowly… just breathe out.”

Jang Heoun, a fellow new employee? He grabbed me again. I breathed out, died, and the smoke tells me about our master….

Master?

“…Excuse me.”

He spoke.

He turned his head without realizing it.

By now, the form of the Master? The security team employee had returned to its original state.

A man in a gas mask with strange horns, exuding a peculiar aura. ‘Jang Heoun’ was speaking to him….

“Did you… help us just now?”

No.

The smoke moved.

“Hik!”

But instead of covering his head, the smoke formed words.

Employee’s Duty

“……”

Jang Heoun, after a long silence, finally spoke.

“Yes. Thank you….”

His voice sounded choked, perhaps hoarse.

Then he turned and began to support another team member who was trembling in the corner of the elevator.

Perhaps he had lost his mind from fear.

‘Crazy bastard.’

He had to get out of here immediately. The new employee suddenly regained his sanity.

And he frantically rushed out of the elevator. Desperately ignoring his fellow employee.

In such a crazy situation, trying to help someone rashly would surely lead to death. Self-preservation, only self-preservation would save him…. He barely gathered his sanity amidst the fear and panic.

“W-what was that?”

“Ugh, ugh…”

Fortunately or unfortunately, the lobby, already a mess and filled with all sorts of noises from returning survivors, had its attention dispersed, so not many people witnessed the security employee inside that elevator.

Its yellow lantern-like gaze briefly swept the lobby as ‘Jang Heoun’ supported another employee out of the elevator… then suddenly, it looked directly at him.

And….

Be grateful for your luck

“…!”

[Doors closing.]

The elevator started moving again.

To B13.

[B13]

The new employee stared blankly at the floor display, then slumped onto the lobby floor.

He was drenched in cold sweat.

The elevator doors closed.

I am alone again.

“……”

Smoke billowed, and I felt my distorted and crushed body slowly return to its proper form, fitting back into the security team uniform….

…….

Something flickered.

I brought my fingers to my chest, but no heartbeat was felt. Because the ‘me’ inside was formless and broken, I couldn’t tell where it was, or if it even existed.

But the strange throbbing continued for a while.

And I savored it.

Like homesickness.

Ding.

The doors opened on B13.

Silence filled the basement. A dark corridor, eerie iron doors with blinking red and blue lights were visible.

But there was something else.

—Target confirmed.

Security teams.

Employees in familiar uniforms emerged from the corridor and confronted me.

Someone must have reported me, assuming I had acted out of line.

It was a misunderstanding. I had never set foot on other floors, on the ground, and had properly performed security in my sector.

Question

However, instead of focusing on the words I formed, the security team members took out their specialized restraints and began to transform into corrupted forms….

“Oh dear, everyone’s so fierce!”

A white hand suddenly popped out from behind.

“It’s alright. Just step aside here….”

A voice, inappropriately bright for the situation, was heard, and a research team employee walked out from the center of the security team.

Although his human face still appeared like a melting mosaic, I could identify him by his clothes and employee ID.

His identity.

“Hello.”

Kwak Jegang.

“It’s been a long time… no, it’s the first time I’ve met you in person. Hahaha!”

His glasses-wearing face seemed to wear a calm smile, but his excited voice was undisguised as he spoke.

“I am the person in charge of our security team’s new special division employee! And incidentally, I’m also in charge of the annex experiment today.”

As if not afraid of the security team’s gaze, the excited man pulled out documents from his pocket and handed them over, grinning at me.

“I’d like to start with a brief Q&A… haha, well. First, shall we introduce today’s B13 visitors? These friends seem to have forgotten to introduce themselves. Let’s see, 28-year-old Lee Jungin, 25-year-old Park Yonghae. And….”

His voice paused as if building suspense, then emphasized.

“26-year-old Jang Heoun.”

…….

…….

Just now.

“Hmm? Is there any familiar name among these? Hahaha.”

What did he say?