Got Dropped in a Ghost Story Chapter 27

Baek Saheon.

– You idiots. If losing one eye is all it takes to get out, then just do it already!

My coworker who had caused that whole mess on the subway.

He was also a fairly important character in <Dark Exploration Records>, someone who would continue making a name for himself until eventually becoming a Section Chief.

“What? He’s going to die?”

And now a keychain plush from a ghost story had suddenly declared that Baek Saheon was doomed.

Naturally, I had to ask.

“Why?”

But I know there’s a future where he becomes a Section Chief…

– Ah, it’s a classic. A true classic…

– Mr. Roe Deer, have you ever watched movies like that?

“…Movies?”

– Yes. The kind with serial killers.

Please.

– In popular media, there are certain types of people who frequently become victims.

– Blondes. College students. Hitchhikers. Someone wearing something distinctive, like red shoes.

– And do you know the most classic and foolproof way of choosing a victim?

The plush doll’s enormous shadow whispered from the wall.

– Picking up something that belongs to the killer.

“…”

The black shadow stretched one arm toward the wall beyond my room.

– Your “work colleague” picked up an item.

– And now he’s going to die horribly!

“…”

Seriously…

“Anyway, thanks for telling me.”

– You’re very welcome!

I politely told Braun that I had work tomorrow and needed to sleep.

Fortunately, my [Good Friend] readily understood.

– Goodness! You must have had an exhausting day.

– I hope you sleep soundly and have wonderful dreams!

That seemed unlikely.

You contributed to today’s disaster too…

– Adios!

My phone flashlight switched off on its own.

The enormous shadow on the wall disappeared with it.

After thinking for a moment, I grabbed a clean towel, folded it into a soft little spot on my desk, and placed the plush doll there.

Hopefully this much hospitality will stop him from appearing in my dreams with a cleaver.

Of course, the bigger question was whether I would manage to fall asleep at all.

“Hm.”

I turned my night-light up to maximum brightness and climbed into bed.

Baek Saheon.

He was probably sleeping in the room next door by now.

What exactly did he pick up?

What kind of horrifying ghost-story item had he brought back that Braun could sense it through the wall?

Was this some kind of butterfly effect caused by my presence?

Or had this always been destined to happen?

I tried to remember everything Baek Saheon had done in <Dark Exploration Records>, but even after mentally searching through the wiki, nothing relevant came to mind.

Maybe that wasn’t surprising.

If this happened outside work, there might never have been an Exploration Record about it.

“Huu…”

“…”

If I knock on his door in the middle of the night, he’ll probably have a heart attack.

And honestly, I wasn’t eager to voluntarily approach an object dangerous enough to put someone on a serial killer’s hit list.

Besides, Baek Saheon wasn’t exactly the kind of roommate I was willing to risk my life for.

Still, now that I know, I should at least warn him.

Preferably indirectly.

Ah.

Got it.

It also connected nicely with something else I had planned to do.

I lay back and opened the messenger app on my phone.

[Jang Heo-un: This is the new-recruit group chat.

Please join through this link. Thank you! (Link)]

The message was from my Squad Y colleague.

I sighed and tapped the link.

[Field Exploration Team Batch 17 Chatroom]

It was an open KakaoTalk group chat.

Maybe they used an open chat instead of personal contacts so that when someone inevitably died, the emotional impact would be a little less direct.

Either way, everyone was using their real names as their profile names, so figuring out who was who wasn’t difficult.

I should just use my name too.

[Kim Soleum has joined.]

I was about to type a greeting when—

[whoa]

[dang]

[Is that really Kim Soleum-ssi?]

[welcome ^^]

[It really is you? Can I ask who invited you?]

“…??”

I hadn’t even said hello yet, and reactions were already pouring in.

They’re not thinking, Who was stupid enough to invite this guy, are they?

On the positive side, maybe my recent performance had generated enough rumors to make people curious about me.

I decided to keep it simple.

[Nice to meet you all. I look forward to working with you.]

Almost immediately, someone replied.

[Kang Yihak: Is it true you got 40,000 points? haha]

Hmm.

[Yes.]

[Kang Yihak: I’m so jealous! I’m curious how you managed to earn that much haha]

[I just did my best.]

I left it at that and sent a bowing emoticon.

This place is a jungle.

For a moment, I had wondered whether this might be a warm group chat where rookies exchanged advice, helped one another, and talked about hobbies.

Apparently not.

It’s more like an intern group chat where only ten percent of us will ever become full-time employees.

Everyone was subtly looking for anything that might give them an advantage.

Well… with people constantly dying and the Wish Ticket still so far away, I suppose that makes sense.

Getting too attached to everyone here would only make the inevitable death notices harder to handle.

It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I understood.

[Go Yeongeun: (hwaiting emoji)]

[Go Yeongeun: (clapping emoji)]

Still, there were some genuinely nice people here.

Looks like she’s doing well.

Seeing the simple supportive emojis from my med-school-dropout colleague who had backed me up during that deadly subway incident made me smile a little.

All right.

Time to do what I came here for.

Time to listen to my conscience.

I found Baek Saheon’s profile and opened a private one-on-one chat.

Then I typed:

[watch out for serial killers –]

The little “1” showing that the message was unread vanished almost immediately.

But no reply came.

Hmm.

Maybe he had a guilty conscience about something?

If he feels guilty, he’ll probably be more careful.

That should be enough for tonight.

“I’ll send it every morning from now on.”

If I kept warning him for about a week, surely the message would stick even after I stopped.

Satisfied with myself, I turned off my phone.

…Time to sleep.

Whether I could actually fall asleep was another matter.

But I had work tomorrow.

Sob.

If only the company would explode.

Unfortunately, given the nature of this company, I had the depressing feeling that even if it did explode, I would still somehow be expected to come to work.

I stayed awake almost the entire night.

When I finally dozed off in the early morning, I dreamed that theme-park mascots were chasing me while swinging intestines around, and then I offered churros to the plush doll.

Save me.

Just another night of trauma for an ordinary office worker.

The news I heard the next morning, however, was far from ordinary.

“Roe, you hit the jackpot.”

“…?”

“You earned twenty thousand points.”

Pardon?

I immediately checked the point total from that morning.

[Employee Kim Soleum / Earned Points: 20,000P]

It was real.

They definitely said yesterday that it would only be around ten thousand…

Supervisor Park repeatedly slapped me on the shoulder.

“Assistant Manager Jin from Squad A reported that you absolutely deserved the extra points!”

Assistant Manager Jin…!

Thank you, Assistant Manager Jin.

Thank you for recognizing just how hard I worked to get everyone out alive, even after your nail punched a hole through my palm.

In my head, her evaluation rose from cold, efficiency-obsessed psycho to quick-witted and fair superior.

“Originally, our Squad Leader was also supposed to be listed as a primary contributor, but Squad A’s leader threw a fit…”

Ah.

Well…

From her perspective, I could understand why.

Did I accidentally benefit from their fallout?

I wasn’t sure whether I should feel happy about that, but I would gratefully accept the points.

“Anyway, Roe, this is huge.”

“You’ve already broken the company record for fastest point accumulation after joining!”

“That’s insane.”

“Thank you.”

Although at this rate, I might soon have to give up completely on the idea of staying unnoticed at this company.

Still… points are sweet.

And that wasn’t even the end of it.

Before the morning was over, I received a call.

“…Assistant Manager Jin?”

– Yeah.

I had expected to spend the day taking it relatively easy.

After all, I had just completed a B-Class Darkness exploration yesterday, and there was plenty of paperwork to catch up on.

Instead, I was getting an internal call from Squad A’s Assistant Manager.

Naturally, I started by thanking her.

“Thank you. I heard you recommended me as a primary contributor for clearing the theme-park Darkness.”

– The person who performs well should get the points.

– That’s how things work best. No need to thank me.

Ah.

Right.

– Anyway, come upstairs.

“…?”

– My team is entering a Darkness today, but we’re short one person.

– You’re filling in.

“…”

– Don’t want to?

Yes!

I absolutely don’t want to!

I’m a poor rookie who nearly died yesterday!

Would it kill you to give me one day off?!

“Please hold on a moment.”

I immediately looked toward my seniors.

“Assistant Manager Eun, there’s a call for you.”

“Oh? What is it?”

Please save me, dear superior.

I tried handing the call off to my seniors in hopes that they could get me out of this.

It backfired.

“Squad A is short-staffed?”

Assistant Manager Eun’s eyes widened.

“Is this a Squad A backup request?”

“…!”

Uh-oh.

Even Supervisor Park, who had been slumped over his desk, suddenly sprang upright with his chair.

He immediately leaned in, eyes shining with interest.

“Wait. Squad A specifically asked for Roe to fill the vacancy?”

I don’t know, Supervisor.

My shoulders hurt.

Please stop shaking me.

“Got it. Yes.”

Meanwhile, Assistant Manager Eun finished the call.

Then she turned toward me and pumped her fist, eyes gleaming.

“Hey.”

“Go.”

…

Pardon?

“That’s right!”

Supervisor Park immediately joined in.

“With Squad A in its current state, this is a golden opportunity!”

“Safer conditions and more points. You can’t pass this up!”

Assistant Manager Eun nodded eagerly.

“Think about the points, Roe.”

“Points.”

“…”

So basically—

Elite Squad A earns additional points for each assignment.

That was pretty appealing.

And there had been no call for Squad Y or any of the Cleanup Teams.

So this probably wasn’t the sort of Darkness where they needed disposable sacrifices.

On top of that, they were willing to bring in a rookie like me as a substitute.

That probably meant it wasn’t an especially difficult mission.

In other words—

high-paying overtime with low difficulty.

“With the vacancy, they had to bring someone in.”

“They probably liked what they saw from you yesterday and decided to give you a chance.”

“Go for it!”

“…”

I had no excuse left.

Saying something like, I was so terrified yesterday that I couldn’t sleep, so I’d really like to rest today, would sound absurd at this point.

If someone from the Field Exploration Team starts complaining about being scared when there’s a relatively safe mission with lots of points on the line… that would look suspicious.

If I didn’t want everyone deciding I was a coward and shipping me off to a Cleanup Team, I had no choice but to keep quiet.

So, dragging my feet, I headed toward the fifteenth floor.

“That’s the spirit of a rookie!”

Honestly, it felt more like defeat than spirit.

Trying not to look too miserable, I trudged into the elevator.

The fifteenth floor was the highest floor used by the Field Exploration Team.

When the doors opened—

“…!”

I froze.

There were no cramped office desks.

No partitions.

Nothing resembling an ordinary workspace.

Instead, the entire floor looked like the luxurious lounge of a high-end hotel.

Beyond the lounge were separate glass-walled rooms, each one private and labeled with an employee’s name.

My God.

Everyone had their own office.

It was the kind of perk you’d expect executives to have.

Is this supposed to motivate people?

Apparently, joining one of the Field Exploration Team’s elite squads came with privileges like this.

A private office… every office worker’s dream.

Just then, the glass door beside me opened and a familiar face stepped out.

My superior from yesterday, already wearing her butterfly mask.

“Good morning, Assistant Manager Jin.”

“Hey.”

Outside the Darkness, Assistant Manager Jin somehow looked much more human than she had yesterday.

“The Squad Leader wanted to see you again.”

Then the door to the larger office across from us opened.

Squad A’s leader stepped out with a cup of coffee in hand.

“Mr. Roe Deer.”

“Good morning, Section Chief.”

The middle-aged woman smiled warmly and patted me on the shoulder.

You would never guess that yesterday she had been glaring at Squad Leader Lee Jaheon like she wanted to kill him.

“Assistant Manager Jin isn’t someone who praises people easily, but she seems to think very highly of you, Mr. Roe Deer. I’ve heard quite a lot.”

Was I really that impressive…?

“So I thought I’d call you over today. It’s the first time I’ve seen Assistant Manager Jin compliment someone like that.”

I instinctively looked toward Assistant Manager Jin.

Behind the butterfly mask, she gave a slight scoff.

“I merely reported what happened.”

“Oh, there you go again.”

Assistant Manager Jin frowned when our eyes met, but her tone softened.

“What? You did well yesterday.”

“…Thank you.”

“Yeah. Do well today too.”

“Ah, you youngsters. Try to get along.”

Squad A’s leader, wearing her teal duck mask, chuckled as she watched us.

“Welcome to Squad A, Kim Soleum.”

“…”

“All right. Let’s get to work.”

Honestly, I was a little curious.

Does an elite squad operate differently?

Maybe Squad A’s process would be different from that of an ordinary squad, where members usually received a quick briefing, skimmed the manual on the day of the mission, and were promptly thrown into the Darkness.

And yes.

It was very different.

“Dream Essence Collector confirmed. Data recorder confirmed. Mask confirmed. Equipment confirmed. Basic supplies confirmed. Thirty-one minutes remaining until entry into Identification Code Qterw-C-402 at 1100 hours. Preparation check complete.”

…

This is intense.

The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different from Squad D.

Back there, we usually sat around on the couch, joked with one another, and then headed into the Darkness while our Squad Leader failed to understand half the jokes.

Squad A was different.

Even though they were down one member and only two regular members remained, the hierarchy and procedures were strict.

The moment I arrived, I was put through the full equipment-check briefing.

“…Check complete.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Temporary member or not, it was obvious that the lowest-ranking person here handled the grunt work.

Come to think of it, Assistant Manager Jin isn’t exactly easy to get along with, but she still treats her Squad Leader with proper respect.

Well, I would probably have to experience this kind of team eventually.

Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing to see how an elite squad worked at least once.

As long as nobody figures out I’m a coward…

If I could just find out what kind of ghost story we were entering today, I could at least prepare myself mentally.

Right then, Squad A’s leader turned toward me with the manual in her hand.

“Oh, Soleum-ssi. You haven’t read the manual yet, have you?”

“No, ma’am.”

Trying to remain positive, I politely reached out to take it.

But just before she handed it over, she stopped.

…?

“Actually, Soleum-ssi.”

She pulled the manual back slightly.

“Why don’t you try going in without it this time?”

Pardon?

“I heard figuring things out without a manual is your specialty.”

I stared at her in shock.

Beneath the teal duck mask, Squad A’s leader was smiling.

“If it starts looking dangerous, I’ll give it to you immediately. All right?”

“…”

So…

She would decide when things became dangerous.

Not me.

Which meant there was every possibility she simply wouldn’t give me the manual until the exploration was practically over.

“…”

The two of them already knew what was written in it.

And I was supposed to go in completely blind?

“All right, shall we get going?”

She sounded almost cheerful.

“Ah, it’s been a while since work felt this entertaining~”

Wait.

Could this be…

Workplace bullying?

It was so stereotypical that it almost felt like a joke.

I was getting dizzy.

But why would the leader of another squad, someone I had only met yesterday, bother doing this to me?

Then it hit me.

…Lee Jaheon!!

Did our lizard-headed Squad Leader piss her off that badly yesterday?

And now she was taking it out on his rookie?

Why am I getting dragged into their feud?!