Got Dropped in a Ghost Story Chapter 14

A new employee on her third day at work.

“Huuu.”

As lunch break drew to an end, Go Yeongeun carefully settled into her seat.

This would-be medical professional, who had never even taken the national licensing exam, thought she was adapting reasonably well to her new circumstances.

The seniors in Squad R weren’t exactly warm and welcoming, but they didn’t bully newcomers either.

More importantly, they hadn’t shoved her into any situations where she was obviously going to die.

And above all—

she had already successfully cleared two F-Class ghost stories.

Didn’t they say the average rookie clears one or two a week?

Two in three days.

Even if they were only the lowest-class Darkness, that wasn’t bad for a new hire.

She really was doing everything she could to adjust to this insane company.

Although…

she had nearly fainted when she saw how many points the Wish Ticket required.

I cleared two and only got 66 points.

How am I ever supposed to reach 500,000?

“…”

Still, giving up wasn’t an option.

I’m going to do it.

Go Yeongeun quietly steeled herself.

Then another thought crossed her mind.

I wonder how the other new hires are doing.

She absentmindedly looked down at her phone.

A group chat was pinned at the top of her messenger app.

[Daydream Inc. New Hires Group Chat]

It included nearly every employee from their recruitment class.

Except one.

It wasn’t that anyone was deliberately leaving him out.

No one had his contact information.

The missing person was none other than the top-ranked new recruit—

Kim Soleum.

We should invite him too.

Even Baek Saheon, who had already made quite a name for himself, was in the chat.

But strangely enough, none of them had run into Kim Soleum anywhere in the company since orientation.

So no one had gotten the chance to tell him about the group chat.

Naturally, people were curious.

What exactly had the top recruit been doing during his first two days?

Should I message him through the company messenger?

Go Yeongeun logged into the intranet and searched for Kim Soleum’s name.

Just as she was about to send him a message—

Ka-talk.

Ka-talk.

Ka-ka-ka-talk!

Notifications suddenly flooded the group chat.

– Did you see the announcement just now?

– Does anyone actually know Kim Soleum?

– He’s the top recruit, right?

– Did he seriously clear an A-Class ghost story as a major contributor?

– Was Kim Soleum the guy wearing that weird horned mask?

“…?!”

======================

“Wow, Roe. Someone in upper management apparently suggested promoting you straight to supervisor.”

“Cough—!”

I nearly choked on the medicine I was drinking.

“But it got blocked almost immediately. People from other departments are apparently losing their minds over it, saying there’s never been a precedent.”

“…Ah. I see.”

Was I supposed to sound disappointed?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

So that was about as much of a reaction as I could manage.

I set the empty medicine bottle down and rubbed my chest.

After barely escaping the Tuesday Quiz Show, which had suddenly transformed into an A-Class ghost story, the three of us were sent straight to the infirmary.

We had, after all, been bleeding from various parts of our faces.

“Feeling better?”

“Yes.”

The medicine seemed to be working.

Daydream Inc.’s drugs were always suspicious in one way or another, but when it came to ordinary first aid, they were ridiculously effective.

– Darkness refers to those bizarre entities and phenomena found in urban legends.

– This recovery medicine is intended for supernatural injuries caused by exposure to Darkness.

Basically—

it was a health potion.

This was probably sold as cherry-ade at the collaboration café near the popup store…

The real thing tasted like cold cough syrup.

Still, drinking an actual recovery potion after surviving a ghost story feels kind of surreal.

Once I escaped, everything suddenly seemed wonderful.

Bright daylight.

A normal room.

Being alive.

All of it was great.

My seniors, however, seemed less interested in enjoying the relief and more concerned with how the incident was being handled by the higher-ups.

They were contacting everyone they knew, trying to find out how the situation had been reported.

“Honestly, this was completely unprecedented. I wish the squad leader would push a little harder for us, but he’s really not the type…”

“Please do that when you get promoted later, Assistant Manager.”

“I’m quitting before that happens.”

“Honestly, same.”

I want to say that too.

United by that strange bit of workplace solidarity, all three of us collapsed onto the infirmary beds.

Supervisor Park Minseong stretched and let out a long breath.

A genuine sigh of relief.

“…I seriously thought I was going to die.”

He grinned weakly.

“Being alive really is better. Hey, Roe. Thanks.”

“No. I just did what I could.”

Honestly, the wiki had done most of the work.

If I said anything more, the conversation would probably turn into something awkward like—

We were all about to die, but you were smart enough to save us.

So I kept my mouth shut.

“We’re not usually this useless as seniors, you know. We just let our guard down because it was classified as D-Class.”

“Assistant Manager, that excuse sounds kind of pathetic.”

“Then we’ll prove ourselves in the next Darkness.”

I’d really prefer there not to be a next Darkness at all.

Unfortunately, our peaceful paid recovery time didn’t last very long.

“The Section Chief says the meeting is over.”

“…!”

“He’s coming to the infirmary.”

Assistant Manager Eun, who had been checking her phone, immediately sat upright.

Supervisor Park sprang to his feet too.

So I stood up as well.

Am I finally going to meet him in person?

Section Chief Lee Jaheon.

Employee D.

Nickname: Lizard.

One of the most famous Daydream Inc. employees in <Dark Exploration Records>.

There had even been rumors that he was popular enough for the company to consider giving him an official character design.

Honestly—

I was curious.

What kind of person was he?

From the conversation we had through the call button, he definitely didn’t seem normal…

And then there was the ridiculous stunt with the AAA battery.

At this point, my mental image of him was starting to become strangely impressive.

Knock, knock, knock.

“The door’s open! Come in, Squad Leader!”

The infirmary door opened.

A tall figure stood on the other side.

He wore a perfectly fitted black suit, complete with an employee ID around his neck.

At first glance, he looked exactly like a polished corporate professional.

Finally.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon.

The famous “Employee D.”

“Hello.”

“…!? …!!”

A lizard.

It was—

a lizard.

Not a mask.

An actual—

He literally has a lizard head.

“…”

Wait.

No.

That couldn’t be right.

Maybe the stress had finally broken something in my brain.

After dealing with a host who had a television for a head, maybe my mind was projecting that image onto normal people now.

Yes.

That had to be it.

My brain was probably seeing a mask and misinterpreting it as an actual reptile head.

Then I looked more closely.

There’s a mask hanging from his waist.

“…”

I was going to lose my mind.

“It’s so good to see you that I could cry.”

“Come in, Squad Leader!”

Why was everyone acting so normally?!

If a lizard wearing a business suit was going to walk through the door, shouldn’t someone at least warn the new recruit beforehand?

Something like—

Don’t panic when you meet the Section Chief.

Why was everyone treating this like a perfectly ordinary introduction?

“Ah, this is Roe Deer, sir. Roe, this is Section Chief Lee Jaheon. Go ahead and introduce yourself.”

“Wow, look at Roe! He must be shocked by how handsome the Section Chief is! Haha! He practically looks like he’s from another species!”

I couldn’t tell whether that was just normal office banter or vital advice for surviving the social interaction.

The white lizard head slowly turned toward me.

Its red, vertical reptilian pupils gleamed.

“Mr. Roe Deer.”

“…”

“Can you see?”

Fuck.

Oh fuck.

“What do you mean…?”

My brain desperately scrambled for an answer.

“Oh. No, I didn’t injure my eyes. My vision is perfectly fine.”

Nice.

That was quick.

I was almost impressed with myself.

“…”

Um.

Hello?

“Hmm. All right.”

The white reptilian head turned away with a faint hiss.

I nearly collapsed from relief.

Please stop doing this to me.

Wasn’t surviving the actual ghost story enough?

Why did this world insist on terrifying me afterward too?

What the hell is going on?

Still—

I wasn’t going to ask.

The atmosphere made one thing obvious.

I was not supposed to be seeing Lee Jaheon as a lizard.

Everyone else must be seeing a normal human face.

Blend in.

Don’t stand out.

I would absolutely not react suspiciously to this walking human—

No.

Walking lizard excavator.

Fortunately, I managed to keep my expression under control.

With the others carrying the conversation, things proceeded without incident until we finally reached the important part.

“Section Chief, did the higher-ups explain why this happened?”

“Yes.”

The white lizard—

No.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon nodded.

First came the cause of the incident.

The other employees who had suddenly entered our broadcast—

“They said it was human error.”

“The Tuesday Talk Show was assigned to both Squad D and Squad L at the same time.”

“Oh, come on.”

“Seriously…”

So that was why the assignment had felt so rushed.

There really had been a mistake.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon continued.

– Squad L began filling out the medium—the postcard used to enter the Tuesday Quiz Show—at roughly the same time as Squad D.

– However, they left the company building during the process, creating a delay of approximately fifty minutes.

“…Did they go out to buy coffee for their rookie?”

“Squad L did have people who were unusually good at looking after their teammates.”

For a brief moment, bitterness appeared on the faces of my two seniors.

Squad L was dead now.

But they quickly hid their expressions.

“So their entry ended up transmitting at some weird time, and we happened to go in first.”

“Yes.”

Lee Jaheon answered briefly.

Then came the real bombshell.

“And the reclassification of the Tuesday Quiz Show as A-Class has not been approved.”

“…?!”

“W-What?”

======================

Due to the absence of another surviving group capable of independently verifying the incident, and because the initial survival rate was relatively high at 43%, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that the Darkness warrants A-Class classification.

======================

“What kind of nonsense is that? Squad L was wiped out!”

“The collector too! The Dream Essence Collector turned gold! I’ve heard plenty of times that gold means A-Class!”

======================

Although the concentration of the liquid collected by the Dream Essence Collector is comparable to A-Class, it cannot be ruled out that exceptional circumstances may allow a lower-class Darkness to produce higher-grade liquid.

======================

“So because the company officially had it registered as D-Class, they’re refusing to make an exception for the Tuesday Quiz Show.”

“…”

In other words—

the company’s position was basically:

This whole mess happened because of our mistake, so let’s not make it any bigger than it already is.

Typical corporate behavior.

They really knew how to drive their employees insane.

“This is ridiculous. We should go up there and argue with them ourselves—”

“Assistant Manager, wait.”

Supervisor Park suddenly interrupted her.

He looked stunned.

“The higher-ups didn’t take the A-Class liquid and still record this as a D-Class clearance, did they?”

“No.”

“…!”

“Separate compensation has been approved.”

Honestly—

I wasn’t surprised.

So they’re basically paying us to shut up.

Any company with even a little common sense would prepare some kind of compensation after something like this.

The only question was—

how much?

Trying not to stare directly at the lizard, I focused on Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s…

Not snout.

Mouth.

“Considering the unusual circumstances and the confirmed color of the Dream Essence Collector’s liquid, they agreed to recognize this as an exploration comparable to A-Class.”

“So…?”

“Additional points will be awarded.”

======================

For successfully clearing the Tuesday Quiz Show, a one-time bonus equivalent to an A-Class exploration will be issued.

======================

The amount was—

“Thirty thousand points per person.”

“…!!”

Supervisor Park and Assistant Manager Eun froze.

“Thirty thousand?!”

“Yes.”

“Waaaaah!”

The standard reward for clearing an A-Class Darkness was 100,000 points.

If those points had simply been divided among everyone who entered, with members from two squads involved, each person would have received less than 17,000.

But we’re getting almost twice that.

And that wasn’t all.

“There is also a separate incentive for the employee determined to have played the decisive role in clearing the Darkness.”

The lizard’s head turned toward me.

“Kim Soleum-ssi.”

======================

Top Contributor Bonus

Additional Reward: 10,000P

======================

“You will receive forty thousand points in total.”

“…”

I had just filled eight percent of the Wish Ticket requirement in one shot.

Wow.

For a moment, I was almost too stunned to react.

Was I disappointed that the A-Class clearance wouldn’t officially go on my record?

Not at all.

If anything—

this is better.

There’s absolutely no benefit to standing out and getting promoted too quickly in this world.

What would happen if the company started expecting ridiculous things from me?

I’d obviously be sent into increasingly dangerous ghost stories.

And the more attention I attracted, the harder it would become to secretly use the merch I had brought with me.

Sure, promotions came with access to special areas and useful items.

But I couldn’t lose sight of what mattered most.

This was a world where one bad decision could get me killed.

And considering how close I just came to dying… I really don’t want to go anywhere near another A-Class Darkness.

Besides, looking at the points I had earned, it didn’t feel like my efforts had gone unrewarded.

Apparently, my seniors felt the same way.

“…I think my resignation date just moved three years closer.”

“Same.”

After a moment, though, they seemed to regain their composure and turned toward me.

“Points can’t be transferred, so… this feels a little awkward.”

“Yeah. Roe basically earned all of them.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Honestly, even if points could be transferred, I doubted they would have given theirs to me.

And that wasn’t a criticism of their character.

These are people who willingly took jobs in death zones because they need points for a Wish Ticket.

For most members of the Field Exploration Team, those points were probably something they could never afford to give up.

Hmm.

I should remember that.

“Woo-hoo!”

“They really came through for us.”

We immediately returned to the office and registered our rewards.

[Kim Soleum / Accumulated Points: 40,100P]

Whoa.

I stared at the monitor.

Five digits.

For some reason, actually seeing the number made it feel much more real.

“Whew. We survived, and we got a ton of points out of it…”

Assistant Manager Eun grinned.

“We should celebrate with a team dinner. Company card!”

“Ooooh!”

“Come on, Roe!”

I answered immediately.

“Yes!”

======================

And now—

I was witnessing the extremely rare sight of a lizard eating premium beef.

Sizzle.

I did my absolute best to look natural as a perfectly cooked slice of beef disappeared into the lizard’s mouth.

“The Squad Leader’s personality is a little unusual, but his skills are the real deal.”

“Yeah. You’re lucky you ended up in our squad.”

“…Yes.”

At this point, I was almost certain I was the only person seeing a lizard’s face.

Still, having read several stories where Section Chief Lee Jaheon physically demolished his way through ghost stories, I could understand why the other squad members trusted him so much.

Anyway—

ghost stories aside, the beef was delicious.

I ended up enjoying the team dinner far more than I had expected.

At least this isn’t uncomfortable.

I also discovered that a little alcohol helped considerably with the fear.

When I get home, I’m watching ten episodes of children’s cartoons and sleeping with every light in the house turned on.

While I was planning my extremely serious post-horror bedtime routine, Section Chief Lee Jaheon, who had been eating green onion salad, suddenly spoke.

“Are you planning to save all forty thousand points?”

“Pardon?”

It was a perfectly normal question.

“Oh. Um, yes. I need them for a Wish Ticket.”

“I see.”

“…”

Wait.

This conversation pattern felt strangely familiar.

I thought back to our previous exchange.

Then—

“Is there another useful way to spend points?”

“Yes.”

“…”

Ah.

So this is how I’m supposed to talk to him.

I was finally beginning to understand how to handle the Lizard Squad Leader.

Feeling slightly relieved, I continued in a more relaxed tone.

“What can I use them for?”

“Custom equipment.”

“…!”

I hadn’t expected that to come up already.

But—

Finally,

One of the major benefits of working for Daydream Inc.

Personalized equipment.

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