Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 73

Braun is missing.

“What, what is it?”

“Th-this person moved!!”

Seeing that there’s no silver coin in the doll’s belly, does it mean the ‘good friend’ consciousness itself is invalidated? Or is it a dream, so it only looks like a doll…?

‘Stop!’

Now is not the time for deduction! Snap out of it!

You’re in a ghost story right now!

“Look here!”

I quickly turned my head.

In a dark corner of the classroom, someone was screaming.

It’s the person who was poking the ‘student’ who was sitting alone at the desk, motionless like a wax doll a while ago.

But that wax doll…

“Over there!”

It disappeared from the desk.

And follow the finger of the person whose face is pale and pointing nearby…

[Sekwang Industrial High School]

The disappeared student stands tall by the back door.

Holding the door.

Expressionless.

Looking around the classroom.

“…….”

“Th-there. Are you kidding me?”

There was no answer.

No movement either.

“Wait a minute.”

One brave person approached and swung their hand in front of the student’s face.

The ‘student’ didn’t even blink. It just stood frozen in place in front of the back door, so lifelike…

“They’re not breathing. It’s not a person, it’s a mannequin…”

“But how can a mannequin suddenly move? Didn’t they learn some technique to appear like they’re not breathing?”

“Yeah, it’s that. You know, those things on variety shows or YouTube where they observe people’s reactions.”

No.

Naturally, there were no cameras or variety show crews trying to scare people here.

[Ding- Dong- Dang- Dong-]

Instead.

[Sekwang Industrial High School students! The graduation ceremony will begin shortly. Please gather in the auditorium.]

“Graduation ceremony…?”

A cheerful and neat announcement, typical of a school.

“Shall we go? It’s strange.”

“Hey, we’re in our high school appearances, right? Wow. Is this a dream?”

Some people, having decided it’s a dream, talked to each other without tension.

Certainly, it wouldn’t be that scary so far.

‘It doesn’t feel real.’

They’ve returned to their high school selves, haven’t they? Rejuvenation is usually a pleasant thing.

And a school at night is a favorite location for ghost stories, but with many people and a little moonlight, it can feel romantic too.

But…

“Hey, is this student a mannequin? Look at this.”

Someone approached the motionless student in front of the back door.

And they pointed to the student’s hand extended towards the back.

“This movement, it’s like…”

[Students, we will now close the automatic curtains and turn on the lights for heating and safety.]

“They seemed to be trying to lock the back door.”

Bang.

The window curtains closed.

“Oh my!”

“Ah, I was startled!”

The automatic curtains closed with a loud thud, and instantly the classroom was plunged into darkness.

For a very short moment.

Flicker.

The classroom lights turned on with a time lag.

“Ah, thank goodness.”

“I guess they were trying to turn on the lights… huh?”

Blood flowed profusely on the ivory-colored classroom floor.

“Wh-what… what?”

Following the blood with their eyes,

One of the people is lying near the back door with their neck completely twisted backward.

An enormous amount of blood flowed from their neck at a bizarre angle impossible for a living human, pooling between the floorboards.

Their eyes were wide open in a look of utter astonishment, as if they hadn’t expected it at all.

“Aaaaaah!”

“Kheueoeooeok!!”

It began.

———————=

Darkness Exploration Record / Ghost Story

[In the Black Shadow]

: A ghost story appearing in <Darkness Exploration Record>, Daydream Co.’s identification code is Qterw-()-62, Disaster Management Agency’s registration number is 2845PSYA.2016.ha53.

A ghost story where if you read the text version floating around on the internet and fall asleep, you wake up in Sekwang Industrial High School at night and are chased by something non-human until you die.

All civilian attempts to find the high school in reality have failed, and it is currently considered a non-existent location in Korea.

———————=

That’s right.

The only way to escape this nightmare ghost story is ‘death.’

To get out of this school at night, death is the only way.

And… a ghost story with a non-human appearing, so impressive it’s become a cliché.

“Th-there…! That person!!”

One of the people screaming points with a trembling hand.

A student, still frozen in the back doorway.

But there’s one difference.

“There’s blood on my hands.”

“…….”

The gazes of the people hardened like stone.

And they check the facts.

On the student doll’s right hand, gripping the door, inside the curled fingers, as if trying to hide them,

blood is smeared along the fingerprints.

“…….”

The people’s gazes return to the corpse.

They see the bloodstain in the shape of fingers on the back of the corpse’s bent neck.

“Aaack!”

“Oh my god! Oooooh! Ugh!”

And then again.

Flicker.

The lights flicker.

The student of Sekwang Industrial High School doesn’t move while someone is looking at it.

But the moment the gaze is gone,

the moment the classroom brightens again,

it moves inhumanly fast.

The person pointing at the doll is gone.

“Aaack!!”

That person is found on the floor, their lower body smashed, a corpse.

Thud.

The pointing hand, having lost its support, weakly falls to the floor.

“Ah…”

“…….”

“Aaaaaaaaaack!!”

Panic, fear, rage.

“Ri, right now! Attack now! Huh? Hey, someone near there, take a look!”

“F, F***! Then you do it, why are you yelling at me!”

Flicker.

“Hic.”

Another corpse.

One of the people who had been shouting is impaled upside down on a desk.

Only their lower body remains.

“…….”

“…….”

In the silence of terror,

people turned their heads.

Now the ‘student’ in the back door is staring intently at the people.

A strange smile is on their face.

“…!!”

“Heeeelp!”

“Ru, run away! Run away!”

“Open the door, now!”

The people flee towards the front door, avoiding the back door that the student is blocking. But…

It’s too late.

“This way… Aaaaaaaaaack!”

The person who opened the front door collapsed.

In front of the open front door stands the smiling student.

[Sekwang Industrial High School]

The same name tag was attached to that female student with her bangs neatly cut.

“Ju, just go sideways!”

“Go!”

People run past the smiling student. And again.

Flicker.

The lights flickered.

“…….”

The student at the front door disappeared from my sight.

Aaaaaaaaaack!

…Desperate screams echoed down the hallway.

And one by one, the screams disappear.

“…….”

“…….”

A maddening silence.

Gasping breaths, distant screams, people staring at the door with wide, bulging eyes.

“Slowly,”

I said quietly, looking around the classroom.

“Let’s move slowly. While checking if anything is still not moving. Both the front and back doors.”

“Ah, ah…”

Adults, outwardly no different from high school students, shuddered and staggered back from the door.

“…….”

Of the people who opened their eyes in this class.

Half escaped and their survival is unknown, the other half remained in the classroom.

No, rather than remaining, they were frozen… closer to that.

I quietly thought in that gap.

‘It’s over.’

I shouldn’t have started like this.

Before the curtain closed and it became completely dark, I should have run out alone first, grabbed the emergency flashlight, and then gathered the necessary items and hid.

‘I missed the timing.’

I was flustered by the absence of Braun and my judgment was late.

Meanwhile, people who finally noticed the situation began to appear.

“Th, this is that!”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you know? The monster that you can’t move if you look at it!”

“Th, that… you know?”

“Gosh, why don’t you know?? There’s that monster that follows you if you don’t look at it! It can’t move right now because we’re looking at it!”

A person with a voice distorted by fear and excitement mumbled.

Maybe everyone saw some strange text, maybe we’re in a game, possession…

Even people who would normally ignore it, now listen, caught in the panic.

It was a familiar plot.

And the conclusion of the group overwhelmed by fear was… simplistic and violent.

“If this is the case, quickly that! Let’s attack and eliminate it!”

“Huh?!”

“If we run away now, it’ll keep chasing us, right? If we don’t look, we all die! We saw the people who went out! Quickly! Before the lights flicker again!”

“Ah!”

People frantically searched the empty classroom for anything that could be used as a weapon. Brooms, chairs, burlap sacks, box cutters…

‘No.’

This is a shortcut to a typical bad ending!

“Just a moment, please…”

That’s when it happened.

Someone covered my mouth.

“…!”

I almost threw a punch.

To avoid escalating the situation, I slowly turned my head to see who had covered my mouth.

My eyes met a familiar face.

‘…A government official!’

A Disaster Management Agency agent!

Agent Ryu Jaekwan, whom I’d met at the mountain lodge, had short hair, typical of a high school student, but his appearance was otherwise largely unchanged.

‘Where was he sitting?’

No, that’s not important!

‘Right. A government official could get in here!’

This wasn’t a ghost story that Daydream Corporation was “containing and securing.”

In other words, it meant that I could encounter personnel from other agencies.

But even so, seeing the same agent again? Aren’t you working too hard?

“If you don’t scream, I’ll let you go.”

I immediately nodded seriously, and the official released me without another word.

‘Whew.’

“You really do have a knack for getting involved in these things, don’t you?”

“……Yes.”

Let’s just say that’s the case.

“And, what the person who spoke earlier said is partially true.”

“…….”

“Keep your eyes fixed on the student doll over there. Don’t look away, even blink alternately, and if the lights go out, immediately bow your head. And…”

The official quietly whispered the standard operating procedure he already knew.

“Those things are very sensitive to sound.”

Right.

The students show a clear tendency to chase after people who scream, curse, or shout.

“You mustn’t raise your voice. Absolutely not.”

I nodded slightly.

“But…is it right to let people attack that thing…?”

“Your safety comes first. Saving people caught in the disaster comes after that.”

The official declared matter-of-factly.

“Assume everyone caught in a supernatural disaster is dead, and act accordingly.”

“…….”

This is…a typical Disaster Management Agency manual.

‘They think it’s more important to thoroughly understand and then seal or destroy this ghost story.’

To prevent the countless deaths that could follow.

It was a value judgment that would make one pull the lever without hesitation to kill one person instead of five in a trolley problem.

“I’ll let you know when it’s time to escape. For now, just remember what I’ve told you.”

“…Yes.”

Arguing with the official here and now is suicide.

I shut my mouth.

Meanwhile, people were approaching the student with weapons.

‘Damn it,’

Once again, I deliberately crafted a question to elicit an answer.

I need to know this to act naturally in the future.

“Um, but isn’t this a dream? Then, even if I die, wouldn’t I just wake up…?”

It was a classic way to escape a nightmare.

The moment you die in a dream, you wake up and return to reality.

Hearing this much, you might think it would be better to just quickly commit suicide, but no, that’s not it. You mustn’t make that choice…

‘I need something.’

“…That’s correct, but there’s a condition.”

That’s right.

“A condition?”

“Yes. Do you see the name tag over there?”

The official pointed to the ‘student doll’ with his finger.

“You have to die while possessing that doll’s name tag to ‘normally’ wake up. …Otherwise,”

If the release condition isn’t met.

The investigator is bound to “In the Black Shadow”.

“You’ll be subjected to a rather unpleasant influence.”

“…….”

“There are a few other conditions to die safely, but I’ll explain them as we go.”

“Accompany…me?”

“Yes.”

Wait a minute.

But somehow interpreting my bewilderment, the official wore an expression that said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’

It meant he tried to force a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry. Many other agents have been deployed besides me. Someone’s bound to have gotten through.”

Not one, but several Disaster Management Agency agents…?

“This… it seems our explorations really overlapped!”

There must be a corresponding episode.

I tried to frantically search my memory of past exploration records to find candidates, but the situation changed before I could.

“Kill, kill!”

People actually started attacking the student doll.

Then, surprisingly…

Crack.

“Ack!”

“Blood, blood…!”

The ‘Seogwang Industrial High School’ student was injured like a normal human.

Blood gushed, bruises formed, and the sound of breaking bones echoed.

“Ack!”

“What to do, ah, damn…”

“…Phew.”

Fear and unease climbed my spine.

But the government official, seemingly accustomed to this, calmly gestured towards the front door.

“First, taking this opportunity, we… uh?”

That’s when it happened.

Figures appeared on the brightly lit central staircase visible outside the open front door.

“…!”

Three or four people were walking up, silencing their footsteps.

They had something in common.

They were all wearing strange animal masks!

‘They’re employees!’

And I even saw a familiar mask.

A bison!

‘Jang Heoun.’

A Y-team new employee I’d worked with during the theme park ghost story!

‘Was he reassigned to the general team?’

It’s been a while.

My situation has been so chaotic lately that I haven’t checked other people’s regular assignments, but he seems to have survived three months without incident.

‘Anyway, nice to see you, really.’

But next to him… is someone I’m not so happy to see, someone I saw earlier.

A black goat mask.

“…….”

Baek Saheon.

‘Did they both wake up in the same class?’

Everyone seemed to be following the company’s safety recommendation to ‘wear a mask whenever possible.’

‘I want to wear one too.’

I wanted to check my items and use them to increase my chances of escape.

Overall, it’s better to naturally separate from the government official and join them.

“I, agent… ”

“Daydream Corporation…!”

“…….”

Whoa.

“Be careful. If you meet someone in an animal mask and suit here, never acknowledge them.”

The government official gritted his teeth, his gaze filled with contempt.

“They’re likely dispatched from that disgusting pseudo-company, so absolutely do not get involved.”

“…….”

“Most of the employees are psychopaths with abnormal ethics. You need to be careful.”

“……Yes.”

Absolutely.

Absolutely! Don’t get caught!