Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work Novel - Chapter 77

I’m currently walking down the stairs in a nightmarish school with a Disaster Management Agency agent.

……Dragging them along like a prisoner, I might add.

By the way, I subdued them using an item they gave me.

“…….”

This is a mess.

‘This won’t do.’

This feels like I’ve crossed a line.

I might end up on the Disaster Management Agency’s blacklist tomorrow, and possibly conscripted into the Scales of Evil if things go south.

My company will probably protect me, but I don’t want to deal with the insane situation of being indebted to Daydream Corporation…!

‘I need to somehow rehabilitate my image.’

My back is constantly drenched in cold sweat….

I spoke seriously first.

“If you swear not to scream, I’ll loosen the gag. Just nod.”

The agent’s murderous glare softened.

And they nodded very calmly.

‘…That’s a lie.’

If you’re going to lie, at least make it less obvious…!

Finally, I sighed and said.

“I have absolutely no intention of harming you, or deceiving you to steal information from the agency and report it to my company.”

“…….”

“And… while making that statement, I felt no pain whatsoever.”

“…!”

“I know the caramel you gave me was truth serum.”

The agent’s pupils dilated.

“Of course, I don’t think you meant any malice. It’s just…”

I looked at the empty space with somewhat wistful eyes.

“Even though I didn’t explicitly tell you I work for Daydream Corporation, I wanted to convey that I didn’t intend to lie…”

Strictly speaking, that’s a lie.

If things went wrong, I planned to use the painkiller rocket-shipped from the Alien Shop and spout survival-based lies.

Sure enough, a nauseating pain rose from within.

‘Ugh.’

A feeling like my stomach was twisting and churning, like a peptic ulcer.

But momentum was key here.

‘I can endure this without showing it now.’

The stronger the malice or intention behind a lie, the stronger the pain. Since my statement was an evasion, it wouldn’t even register as level 1.

I’ll endure it.

‘Next is…’

Trust.

At the same time, I discreetly hid my expression while using one hand to unfasten a small silver badge from my pocket.

And I openly showed the agent that item, the ‘Silver Heart’.

“I’m saying this without relying on the effects of this.”

“…….”

“I’ll say it again… If you swear not to scream, I’ll loosen the gag. Just nod.”

Indescribable conflict clouded the agent’s eyes.

And by the time we reached the landing.

They nodded, very slightly.

“…….”

I silently released the gag.

The agent, as promised, didn’t cause a commotion.

‘Hmm.’

Good. Next step.

I returned the agent’s confiscated flashlight and pistol.

And I loosened the restraints on their arms.

“This…”

“You’ll need it for self-defense in such a precarious situation.”

‘Anyway, that pistol is almost ineffective against anything other than ghosts or supernatural phenomena.’

While it might work against villains depending on the bullets, I didn’t think either I or Jang Heoun fit that description.

‘Mr. Jang Heoun… I haven’t heard any rumors of him doing crazy things in the past three months.’

But I couldn’t untie them before my charm offensive ended, lest they escape. So I added a plausible excuse.

“It’s too dangerous for you to escape alone, so I’ll keep you restrained until your rational judgment returns.”

“…….”

As we slowly made our way up the stairs, cautiously observing our surroundings.

Suddenly, the agent asked.

“Is Roe Deer your alias?”

“…….”

“You operate in groups of trillions and call each other by aliases derived from masks, don’t you?”

“…That’s right.”

“Are you the leader?”

“No. Just a rookie. This is… my colleague.”

I smiled somewhat wistfully, took a half-mask from my pocket, and put it on my face.

The familiar texture of bark-like horns covered my skin.

The agent looked at me with a rather shocked expression.

And Jang Heoun’s downcast voice was heard.

“…I’m sorry, Roe Deer. I was trying to help…”

“It’s alright. You must have been very surprised.”

Baek Saheon tried to somehow make me fucked up, so honestly, this was a situation I had anticipated since I pretended to be a temporary agent….

Furthermore, Jang Heoun even apologized to the agent.

“That, Mr. Roe Deer is a really kind and decent person. Even when we first met, in the darkness, he risked his life to save me……”

“That, that’s not quite right.”

Nice shot!

“It’s just… we helped each other. To survive together in the darkness.”

“Mr. Roe Deer……”

“…….”

The agent closed their mouth with a more complicated expression.

But let’s appreciate the fact that they didn’t try to bash my head with the small pistol grip.

“…4th floor, entering.”

And we went up the floors.

[4F]

“…….”

We got here, but….

‘This is nerve-wracking.’

This urban legend says that things start to get more distorted from the 4th floor.

First of all, even if a student dies, no announcement is made….

It’s extremely dark.

*chizzik*…

Most of the lights are already broken, and even the few remaining ones are flickering, except for a few.

And the bigger problem is….

“…!!”

“Hup,”

Dozens of students are standing in the hallway.

And they were already staring intently at us.

‘Ha.’

Those students lined up on both sides of the dark school hallway like mannequins.

All the student entities on the 4th floor are third-graders, and more than 100 entities have been confirmed in every exploration attempt on this floor.

Just hearing this makes you think it’s a death sentence.

However.

“……It’s alright.”

The agent provided information, albeit in a stiff voice.

“They cannot leave that spot.”

Right.

The 4th floor is really too strange. Although we can’t actually see these ‘students’ move, we do see them change position, right?

But the 4th-floor students don’t move.

It’s like their feet are stuck to the classroom floor.

– 9th exploration record recording-

As long as they don’t rush at you and stay still, you just need to avoid entering the student’s territory.

If you need to approach, keep looking at them to freeze their movements.

‘The problem is that it’s dark, making it easy to lose track of them.’

And they were very… very cunning.

They often tried to catch us off guard with psychological warfare.

‘……Hmm.’

That’s right.

After confirming that Jang Heoun was wearing a name tag acquired from a student of this school on his blazer, I said seriously,

“Then let’s carefully investigate the 4th floor slowly.”

There was no objection.

We entered between the students.

‘Whew.’

Jang Heoun swallowed.

The feeling was really strange.

Passing right next to the ‘student’ entities, close enough for their uniform sleeves to brush against him, while trembling.

But he gritted his teeth.

‘I have to be helpful.’

It seemed he had ruined his grateful colleague, Kim Soleum’s, exploration this time.

What was he trying to do by going with the agent?

‘He must have aimed for a high score… a clear one, right?’

However, according to the manual, the longer you survive here and the more name tags you collect, the higher the concentration of the solution in the dream collector tends to be…….

Was it too dangerous? Kim Soleum didn’t even look at the name tags attached to the 4th-floor students.

‘…I don’t know.’

Jang Heoun decided not to judge rashly.

Relying on his intellect wasn’t a good habit.

He simply stared intently at the approaching students.

Especially when entering areas where the lights were broken or flickering, he shone his flashlight relentlessly.

*Thud, thud.*

“Mr. Wild Buffalo, please watch the rear.”

“Yes.”

His voice trembled slightly.

Jang Heoun walked backward, watching his back.

In the place they had passed, dozens of students were visible, turning their heads this way and stretching out their hands….

“There’s the music room over there, let’s just make it there.”

We moved our feet.

Soon, we reached a section with no lights at all.

‘Whew.’

In the suffocating darkness, dozens of students were still staring at them intently.

It was the moment we were cutting through the gap with a flashlight.

Flicker.

A light flickered somewhere. It seemed like a power outage….

‘What?’

Wait a minute.

Something was strange.

‘How could the light flicker when there are no lights?’

And Jang Heoun realized a moment too late.

It wasn’t a power outage.

What flickered was…

someone’s flashlight ahead.

Just now, someone lost their sight.

“…!”

Jang Heoun almost turned around. But a calm voice pricked his back first.

“Don’t look back.”

“You…!”

“First, we have to… walk.”

Kim Soleum’s voice was laced with gasps.

And…

the smell of iron.

Drip, drip…

In Jang Heoun’s field of vision, as he walked backward, red liquid began to fall drop by drop onto the floor.

He couldn’t see properly because he was looking at the student, but the floor was slippery under his shoes.

And,

Jang Heoun also saw a student’s hand extended towards the center of the hallway, close enough to hit his waist.

It was stained red, with blood dripping.

Jang Heoun suppressed a gag reflex.

“No, Mr. Roe Deer…!”

When he finally pushed through the students and looked back.

Kim Soleum was clutching his stomach, his face ashen.

And the flashlight in his hand flickered again.

He smiled with a pale face.

“……The battery,”

– Effective lighting time: 60 minutes

That’s right.

Emergency flashlights don’t have such a long usable time.

‘Ah…!’

The two, who had brought emergency flashlights as extra supplies, hadn’t considered the duration of the other person’s flashlight…!

“Wa, wait… Ugh.”

“D, don’t speak!”

Jang Heoun tried to support Kim Soleum while suppressing his gag reflex. The agent instinctively joined in.

Thus, the Daydream Corporation employee and the Disaster Management Agency official urgently helped someone into the classroom.

A few students were looking in, and they carefully laid down the person they were carrying, out of reach of the students.

Then, Kim Soleum said while sitting down and pressing on his wound.

“You two.”

“…….”

“Leave me.”

The horned mask-wearing man pressed on his wound, managing a weak smile.

“Ah, just a moment.”

Kim Soleum reached out with the hand not holding his stomach, completely unfastening the Disaster Management Agency agent’s restraints.

“I forgot. If you go now…”

The agent ignored him, rummaged through his pocket, and shoved a spare name tag into Kim Soleum’s pocket.

But…

“You don’t have to. You might need it.”

“…….”

“Go. There are definitely more people on this floor. If you join them, you’ll be, ugh, alright.”

Kim Soleum slightly frowned, then smoothed his expression.

“Actually, even if I die like this, it won’t be a big problem for my job. The company will be satisfied with this…”

“That damn company!”

The agent clenched his fist.

“Why do you believe in such a disgusting and absurd organization!”

It seemed he had touched a sore spot.

“Do you really think that company, which holds human life so cheaply, will grant your wish?”

“…!”

Jang Heoun looked at the agent in surprise.

The agent gritted his teeth and said,

“I know you work because of the wish grant. Do you really believe in that absurd illusion? That a magic potion will grant any wish?”

Kim Soleum looked up at the agent.

“It grants it.”

“…….”

“If the wish grant were false, this structure couldn’t be maintained. Once you use it, it grants any wish.”

“……Hmph.”

The official sighed as if he were going crazy with frustration, repeating a long-held argument.

“Think about it. Let’s say someone wished for world peace, and someone else wished for the extinction of humanity. How do you grant both those contradictory wishes?”

Jang Heoun, wearing a bison mask, flinched.

But Kim Soleum was calm.

“From the perspective of the person making the wish, yes. It is granted.”

“That… what,”

“The wish grant isn’t meant to change the world, but to fulfill the individual’s wishes omnipotently.”

What does that even mean?

It sounded like a cult-like salvation theory.

However, Kim Soleum’s attitude wasn’t religious fanaticism, but rather the resignation of someone who had inductively verified the situation many times…

The agent looked at him in confusion, but Kim Soleum just shrugged.

Anyway, I think that’s all for me.

…！

Blood gushes out from under the hand pressing against the stomach.

The bleeding won’t stop at all.

Kim Soleum handed the name tag back to the bronze agent.

The name tag was stained with blood.

The agent gritted their teeth.

“Even if you’re dragged here every night of the new moon and keep giving up your name tag, that company will never help you.”

“Maybe.”

Kim Soleum tried to shrug again, but winced slightly in pain and smiled.

“But the Disaster Management Agency will eventually end this darkness… or rather, the disaster. Then I’ll be completely free.”

…！

The agent looked at Kim Soleum like they’d been punched.

“Go, both of you. It could be dangerous if you keep looking back like this.”

Kim Soleum looked up and shone her still-functioning emergency flashlight outside the classroom.

“I’ll watch the front as much as I can while you’re going.”

…

“I, and Mr. Buffalo, are new recruits, so you really haven’t done anything wrong. It would be nice if you could stay safe with us for a while.”

“Mr Roe Deer…”

The agent hesitated.

But in the end, they gritted their teeth, turned around, and walked with the flashlight.

“Follow me.”

“Ah…”

Jang Heoun hesitated, but finally made up their mind.

‘Even if I’m here, there’s nothing I can do…’

It might be better for Kim Soleum if they disappeared quickly.

But they couldn’t just leave, so they secretly slipped something into Kim Soleum’s arms.

“Mr Roe Deer, I… this is a spare name tag of mine.”

…！

“Thanks to you, I lived longer… I don’t have anyone else to save. It’s not much, but even one… thank you.”

And without waiting for an answer, they left following the agent.

Without daring to look back.

…

Kim Soleum, as promised, watched for a while as the agent and Jang Heoun left.

And…

‘Got it!’

As soon as they disappeared around the corner, they frantically pulled out an item they had prepared from their pocket.

One individually wrapped candy.

Those warm days,

Magic candy!

Old-fashioned candy, red, yellow, and white, was large in its nostalgic wrapper.

Nostalgia Candy

Kim Soleum’s purchased emergency recovery medicine.

They peeled open the packaging with their bloody hand and put one in their mouth, rolling it around.

Then the change began.

…！

The wounds on their body close up.

The spilled blood is reabsorbed, and the broken bones naturally reconnect to their original shape.

As if time were rewinding.

When rolling the candy in their mouth

Reliving old memories!

While the candy melts in their mouth, it fixes the user to the appearance of the period 10 years ago when their body and mind were at their healthiest.

‘It’s a dream anyway, so this makeshift method is enough.’

Their condition improves drastically, and their mind clears up.

Their head spun.

‘I succeeded…!’

Kim Soleum breathed a sigh of relief.

Their gambit had worked perfectly.

The most effective method they could use in this situation.

‘It’s a death-retirement after all.’

They had barely managed to seize the opportunity to pursue freedom of exploration and image renewal simultaneously.

‘I was so nervous I wouldn’t be able to get the timing of the emergency flashlight turning off right.’

They got up, and let out another big sigh of relief.

Their heart was pounding.

Relief and fear.

‘…Good.’

Now they know what to do.

Kim Soleum got up, checked the reappeared tattoo, took out a spare powerful flashlight from within, and gripped it in their hand.

After taking a deep breath, they left the classroom and took a single step into the dark fourth-floor corridor.