Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 215

The security team employees raised their eyes.

The dark pantry.

Seeing them emerge from under the shadows via a transfer device, they met the eyes of the sales employee who had fallen to the floor and was holding his breath.

“Child… no.”

The one wearing an animal mask drawn by a child, Badger, calmed his own stimulated contamination.

Soon, a calm, businesslike voice emerged.

“Sales Team 4 employee.”

“Yes, yes…”

“Identity confirmed. We will now begin cost settlement.”

The sales employee swallowed.

Wrapped in black specialized uniforms, their faces covered, and equipped with various strange devices, they themselves seemed like a living urban legend.

Supernatural and clearly entrusted with special missions, yet he felt a momentary sense of relief.

Of course, the next moment, terror surged again at this incomprehensible situation.

“Excuse me, what, what should I do…”

Something caught the sales employee’s eye as he rolled his eyes, trying to grasp the situation.

The security team employee who followed them out was holding a black transport cage.

A steel transport cage that looked like it was for animal capture.

…Wait a minute.

“Y-you’re not going to put me in there and take me out, are you…?”

“No. Of course not.”

Badger gently stroked the transport cage.

It was the moment the sales employee felt relieved.

“Someone’s already in here.”

“……Huh?”

“Don’t think too deeply about it.”

Badger inwardly smiled bitterly, looking at the sales employee who seemed to have lost his mind in the utterly incomprehensible situation.

And…

“It’s cramped…”

J3, who was holding the transport cage with one hand, wasn’t very interested in the situation itself.

Of course, it had been an incredibly long time since he had come out for ‘work’ wearing something other than his security uniform.

Though it was too cramped to call where they were now ‘out.’

Meanwhile, Badger, with an unheard-of kindness for a security team employee, informed him in a businesslike manner.

“We have confirmed all the details you submitted. We will now begin…”

“Who is it?”

“Who is it?”

“…!”

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.

A sound like raindrops falling from the door grated on his nerves.

It was fingernails hitting the door.

Ten fingertips scraped the door.

“There’s someone else.”

“There’s more.”

They whispered as if gasping for breath.

The sound was so close. Because…

They were whispering with their heads pressed against the door crack.

“It’s all too late.”

“It’s all too late.”

The couple was looking inside.

Inside the door they had locked.

Feeling frozen to the core, the sales employee stiffened.

However…

“Is it a person?”

“Well…”

Surprisingly calm ‘security team’ conversation was heard right next to him.

“Maybe… it used to be?”

J3 instinctively tried to adjust his security uniform cap, but realizing it wasn’t there, he instead fiddled with his mask.

Faded, animal-like eyes were revealed on it.

And he carefully placed the transport cage he was holding on the pantry floor.

Right next to the sales employee.

“Hey… can you wait here…?”

“Yes, yes?”

But those words were not directed at the sales employee.

“Are you okay…?”

…Tap.

The bars of the black transport cage vibrated slightly.

As if the animal inside was responding.

“I’ll be back… soon. Just wait…”

Tap.

Another response came back.

J3 lightly touched the transport cage, then stood up.

“Listen… if you don’t want to get hurt… stick close to this side…”

These words were indeed directed at the sales employee.

“Absolutely… do not treat it roughly.”

“……”

The sales employee swallowed and nodded. And he stuck close to the black transport cage.

He realized, with a keen sense, that this was a kind of defensive measure.

…A strange chill emanated from the transport cage.

“Then, we will begin.”

The two security team employees, leaving the sales employee, approached the pantry door and forced it open.

“…!!”

The outside was obscured by their bodies, but the intensified sound of rain was heard. The sales employee hunched his body as much as possible. The sight of the security team employees going outside flashed into his vision…

The door closed, and the sound of rain subsided.

Thump.

…

Screech, screech, click.

A tearing sound began to echo loudly.

The sales employee unconsciously gripped the transport cage tightly. To avoid imagining what was happening outside.

The cold kept his mind focused.

Inside the transport cage, a strange smoke seemed to be wriggling and rising…

After what felt like a terribly long moment.

Thump.

“…!”

The loud noise disappeared, and the sound of rain also stopped.

The door opened.

And the two security team members were seen standing casually, checking their equipment…

“Subjugation complete.”

“……!”

They’re fine.

A faint hope rose in the sales employee’s heart, whose legs almost gave out.

So, can he leave now? The employee got up and cast his gaze outside the door.

And he understood what ‘subjugation’ meant.

“Ah-up.”

He stifled a scream.

The hallway was squelching with moisture.

The walls and floor, soaked with fluids splattered like blood, created dark, sticky reflections.

And the wall directly opposite.

The bizarre bodies of the couple, with all their limbs twisted and fixed, were there.

“…!”

Mercilessly, as if to thoroughly prevent every possible movement by twisting and crushing every joint, the two figures, now resembling strange centipedes, were fixed at each joint with colorful thumbtacks.

Overwhelming pressure and violence.

And, incongruous with that, children’s stationery.

Fluids flowed from every orifice on their faces, displayed as if exhibited in the dark hallway…

Like his dead superior.

More inhumanly so.

“……”

“Ah… right. It was a collection task.”

Collection?

“Starting with information collection?”

“Yeah…”

The thin and slow security team employee, whose frame didn’t fit his bones, approached ‘what used to be the couple’ that he had crushed and fixed…

And pulled out a thumbtack stuck in their mouth.

“……!”

“Say… is there… a younger child here…?”

One of the things he had said into the pager.

A chill ran down the sales employee’s chest.

What was more horrifying was that the couple’s mouths opened and they began to answer.

“P-please save us. Please save us… hic,”

“Answer… the question first.”

Suddenly.

Tears streamed down the couple’s eyes.

“……!”

“That child, that child is in the bathroom.”

“She’s a poor child. Please help her…”

“You’re already trapped too. It’s too late… Please help us…”

“……”

The security team employee, called ‘Captain,’ stared at them blankly.

“What’s… upstairs?”

“There’s something evil. Don’t go. No, quickly escape from here.”

“Maybe you can still escape. Get out somehow…”

“Hmm…”

As if contemplating, the security team employee raised his hand towards them.

And the next moment.

“…That’s enough.”

…CRACK.

With a sound as clear as day, the couple’s necks were twisted.

The thin security team man, holding each of their necks with one hand, had crushed their bones with bizarre strength and twisted them backward.

Casually.

…

Did he kill them?

“Ah, you’ve confirmed everything you needed, then.”

“Yeah.”

“Understood. …Caller, you should be fine now. Just give me what you’re holding.”

His hand trembled.

Something was wrong.

That’s not something a human would do…

“Caller employee?”

The sales employee forced his head to turn and looked down at his hand.

He was holding the sketchbook paper.

New writing on it.

I’m scared

Truly.

Monster

Suddenly.

The sales employee turned his head.

The place right next to the pantry.

The answer the paper had kindly told him from the beginning.

…The place the dead couple had also mentioned.

Bathroom bathtub

The bathroom.

The sales employee ran…

“You shouldn’t.”

“…!!”

His head was grabbed.

The sales employee gasped for breath, looking at the grotesque, huge figure that had blocked his vision and gripped his face.

An animal’s paw with countless claws.

“Just… stay still…”

The sales employee blinked. The fear of death froze him…

He was going to die.

“Sir, release your grip! Follow the rules your colleague is telling you. That’s how you’ll be a perfect sir!”

The strength left his hand. The sketchbook paper slipped away.

No.

“Want to read it…?”

“No. If I read it, it’ll be contaminated, so later…”

The sales employee rolled his only movable eyes. Run away. Somewhere to run, the front door, the living room, upstairs, the window…

‘Ah.’

Right.

He could escape through the window!

Why hadn’t he thought of that? Right, if he died trying to leave through the front door, he could go through the window. He had to escape, he had to escape… now!

The employee struggled, trying to crawl towards the window. He failed in every attempt to kick or push the animal’s paw with his nails, but he couldn’t give up…

“If you go there… you’ll die.”

…

Huh?

“Stay still…”

“D-dying, why…”

“Hmm. Because you’re getting… closer to the cause…?”

The cause?

The employee turned his head.

“The caller himself said it, so you’ll remember.”

What?

“You said it when you reported… that this house sometimes felt strange.”

“……”

The employee stopped moving.

And he recalled one of the things he had shouted into the pager, the pager, when he desperately cried for help.

What his superior had told him.

“Rain…”

-That house feels a bit off on rainy days.

The sales employee looked at the window.

Outside, rain was falling steadily…

…

“On rainy days… that’s right…”

A slow, unenthusiastic voice eerily seeped into his ears.

“If you open a black umbrella indoors while it’s wet, something comes in… If you put wet shoes upside down, a ghost wears them…”

“Captain, really?”

“No…”

The security captain looked at Badger with unreflective eyes, then slowly continued.

“Mostly just… rumors…”

“Ah.”

“But… sometimes… they say it happens because of such rumors…”

Darkness.

The employee, who was once a manager in the field investigation team, read the word the security captain deliberately didn’t add.

The security captain’s explanation wasn’t over.

“And… there’s also that story…”

“……”

“If you’re holding an umbrella on a rainy day, and you hear an unknown whisper… a voice talking to you from beyond… don’t answer…”

…

“Because it’s not human…”

The sales employee met the security captain’s eyes.

“Hey, wasn’t someone constantly talking to you…?”

At that moment.

“Manager Lee?”

The sales employee froze.

“Manager Lee, are you there?”

A familiar voice came from the front door.

Knock-knock-knock.

Someone was knocking on the door.

“Manager Lee. Open the door. What on earth happened?”

It was…

“Why aren’t you coming out?”

His dead superior’s voice.

Knock-knock-knock-knock.

The superior’s corpse, which had been lying at the front door with a twisted neck, had disappeared.

Instead, only the sound of someone knocking on the front door was heard beyond the rain…

Along with his superior’s voice.

“Open this. You have to come out too.”

All strength drained from the sales employee’s body.

The security captain released his grip on his head. With a thud, the sales employee slumped to the floor with a confused expression.

‘Wow…’

Badger, who watched this, inwardly admired him.

Because he realized the profound knowledge of darkness investigation hidden beneath the security captain’s unenthusiastic tone.

It was like what a witty new recruit from Team D might have gained if he had worked a few more years in the field investigation team…

…No. It was a meaningless thought, as both were already part of the security team. Badger bitterly swallowed the thought, almost having been rude.

Meanwhile, the sounds multiplied.

“Person! There was a person. Are you okay?”

“Oh dear, this old man fell… could you help me a bit?”

“…Wait a minute, the grandmother of this house died a few years ago… don’t listen. Something’s strange!”

From upstairs, the master bedroom, beyond the kitchen side door. Sounds were heard from everywhere. As if everyone in the house had just woken up from the power outage.

Getting closer and closer.

Along with the sound of rain.

“Where are you?”

“…! Don’t answer the sound from upstairs. There’s no one there right now…!”

“Be careful. There seems to be something strange here…”

Footsteps.

And.

“Ah, the door opened.”

…

“I’m coming now. Where are you?”

Even his dead superior.

“…Gasp.”

What is this? What’s right?

Which of them is the monster?

The sales employee tried to review what he had heard to somehow distinguish them, but he was grabbed by Badger.

“Ack!”

“Calm down. It’s okay… Captain?”

In a situation where his heart should have been pounding with fear, the security captain calmly knelt down and put his head against the transport cage.

He spoke to the inside of the cage.

“What… do you think? Does it seem right…?”

Tap.

“Hmm. Then… shall I do it…?”

Tap-tap.

“……Still.”

Tap-tap.

“……”

The security captain touched his mask and reluctantly, slowly moved aside.

One tap meant affirmation, two taps meant negation.

Seeing that agreed-upon expression, Badger again smiled bitterly behind his covered face.

He really hadn’t changed.

“…Then I will open it.”

Badger approached the transport cage and unlocked it.

Clang.

The bars lowered, and the transport cage door opened…

Smoke settled on the floor.

And from the empty darkness of the transport cage, a complete leg emerged.

“…!”

A black leg wearing black boots.

Although he knew it was the same uniform as the other security team members, what emerged from the transport cage with thick black smoke, as if walking out, was a bizarre, horned being of tall stature.

A tall man, unbelievable to have been crammed into the transport cage.

“Oh, oh-oh-oh…”

His yellow eyes met those of the trembling sales employee.

Recommendation: Do not look directly

▶ Lower your head

▶ Close your eyes

The employee hastily lowered his gaze.

Instinct above panic.

‘I shouldn’t keep looking.’

Cold sweat soaked the back of his neck.

But the letters made of smoke kept following him.

Recommendation: Do not look directly

▶ Lower your head ✔ : Correct Answer

▶ Close your eyes

As if praising him.

And.

The tearing sound he had heard earlier began to echo from all directions.

SCREEEEECH!

The sound of slime bursting, crying…

The security team members were ‘subjugating’ the approaching entities.

“How are they distinguishing them…?”

People and monsters.

Or…

‘Are they not distinguishing them?’

The sales employee hunched his body. His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst. He felt like he was going to die…

Then, the letters in the smoke changed.

As if reacting to his muttered words.

Choose the dangerous one among the following.

▶ Couple

▶ Sketchbook paper

You want me to distinguish?

The employee instinctively opened his mouth.

“The, the couple!”

Look at these things, whether they’re ghosts or whatever, talking to him frantically and approaching. That couple must have been ghosts too. Definitely!

▶ Couple ✔ : Correct Answer

As expected.

Ah, perhaps everything that spoke in a human voice was dangerous? Was that it?

‘The, the couple was dangerous, so don’t be afraid of us who are subjugating them…’

Is that what they want to say?

If so, it makes sense. The sales employee regained a bit of reason and calmness with this realistic logic, and recalled what he needed to do.

‘I must have been trying to calm myself down after panicking.’

Anyway, these are beings that can be reasoned with.

If this ‘security team’ really came to save him, it would be right to speak more specifically about other beings who might be trapped in this house… the ‘younger child.’ Since it’s already been mentioned, he can do it.

Properly about the words in the paper that gave him advice.

The employee swallowed the saliva in his dry mouth and opened his mouth.

“That, sketchbook paper…”

At that moment.

▶ Sketchbook paper ✔ : Correct Answer

“……”

Huh?

But even looking again, it hadn’t changed.

Choose the dangerous one among the following.

▶ Couple ✔ : Correct Answer

▶ Sketchbook paper ✔ : Correct Answer

So, this means…

“Dangerous…”

Both are dangerous.

“……Why?”

Same thing

The sales employee’s mouth unconsciously dropped open as he blankly pondered the meaning.

“Then what was I supposed to believe? Th-that is… what I was supposed to believe was,”

Nothing.

“……”

On a rainy day

To unfamiliar voices

Do not respond carelessly

Ah.

Recommendation: Do not look directly ended

The sales employee raised his head.

But the black man was no longer in front of him.

“……”

Only a wisp of black smoke he had left behind was having a Q&A with him.

As if to distract a child before giving an injection, to divert attention elsewhere.

To cut off impulsive actions.

“……”

Now the tearing sounds had stopped, and everywhere was filled with bodies ‘fixed’ like the couple by the security team.

The only comfort was that he couldn’t see properly in the dark.

And… black smoke.

The sales employee blankly watched the black smoke he had been talking to disappear as if being sucked away…

The smoke flowed through the hallway to a place next to the pantry where they had been trapped…

Now, the only sound came from there.

The bathroom.

Horrific screams erupted in succession from within.

I looked at the bathtub in front of me.

It was filled with echoing rainwater.

A transparent, deep pool to swallow and suck in victims drawn in by its words.

Letters scratched into my mind…

———————=

[Rainwater Echo]

: The power of the Nameless Brilliant Cult, a modernized version of the superstition that whispers heard on rainy days are the calls of ghosts. The affiliated cult is the Mimics.

On rainy days, it targets victims who approach the rainwater pool, and in this process, it imitates the appearance and voices of previously sacrificed individuals to lure people.

Furthermore, it broadly and eerily uses the meaning of ‘talking’ in various forms such as letters, notes, or drawings.

It takes the form of a dilemma-type urban legend that makes victims agonize over whose words to believe, but in reality, no matter what is chosen, it leads to ruin, mocking the victims.

A twist that exploits the human psychology of believing that choosing the right person will lead to survival.

———————=

However…

This urban legend has been deleted due to being unsuitable for wiki registration based on the following:

1. Insufficient connection with the affiliated organization (Nameless Brilliant Cult).
2. Confirmation of similar urban legends among disasters registered with the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.

An urban legend of the Nameless Brilliant Cult that could not be officially registered on the wiki and was discarded.

And my task is… to register this with Daydream Inc.

I looked down at the rainwater in the bathtub.

…

Is that okay?