Got Dropped in a Ghost Story Chapter 6

New merch?

If something new had been unlocked, that meant I could use another piece of merch I’d bought.

But what determines when something unlocks?

I wanted to press the floating notepad immediately.

Then I remembered where I was.

I was still sitting in the middle of the auditorium.

And after the host singled me out as the top performer, I could already feel people occasionally glancing my way.

I’ll check it after I leave.

The orientation seemed to be ending anyway.

I could finally go home and—

Wait.

“……”

A critically important realization suddenly hit me.

Do I even have a home in this world?

I hurriedly pulled out my smartphone and started checking my records.

Just as I feared, every trace of my previous job had vanished.

My employment history.

My workplace.

Even my family’s contact information.

All gone.

Please, no.

The only thing that remained intact was my college history.

Those mostly matched what I remembered, which was a relief.

But there was a problem.

Back then, I had lived in a dorm.

And after graduating, I had trouble finding a place because my schedule got messed up…

Sure enough, the most recent messages on my phone were texts arranging apartment viewings with a realtor and a chat with a friend about how I was staying at a motel after my studio apartment contract fell through.

“……”

I slowly raised my head.

The presentation was still displayed at the front of the auditorium.

More specifically, my eyes landed on one line near the bottom.

[Employee Benefit – Miscellaneous]

[Company Housing]

Well…

I should probably make full use of the benefits, right?

***

The company housing benefit was approved surprisingly quickly.

“Ah, hello!”

“Hello.”

Less than an hour after asking at the front desk, I had already been assigned a room number, given a key, and handed an address.

The location wasn’t bad either.

Of course, I doubted the company was doing all this purely out of concern for its employees.

If they plan to exploit us around the clock, I suppose it makes sense to keep their wage slaves close by…

Still, the building was surprisingly decent.

It was a clean officetel that had clearly been renovated recently, and the security seemed solid.

Considering company housing was usually reserved for employees working in remote areas, this was ridiculously generous.

‘Then again, this company did just put me through a life-or-death survival game. I might as well take the free housing.’

That cynical thought turned out to be closer to the truth than I expected.

I ran into Go Yeongeun outside the building.

“Did you hear? Seven of us got company housing.”

“…?”

Seven?

That was more than half of the surviving new hires.

Go Yeongeun seemed to be moving in too.

When she noticed my expression, she gave me an awkward smile.

“It’s a little scary, but… we’re already employed here. Turning down a free place this close to the subway would feel like a waste.”

“…Right.”

Exactly.

In a capitalist society, money was scarier than ghosts.

Saving 1.2 million won in rent every month?

Anyone would move in while pretending not to notice how suspicious it is.

And apparently, there was an even more practical reason.

“I think the people coming from outside the city registered for housing as soon as they were told they passed.”

“I see.”

Now I understood.

The new hires who had happily agreed to company housing after getting accepted couldn’t exactly back out now.

And suddenly, I understood how the company had prepared my room so quickly.

The room I’m getting probably belonged to one of the new hires who didn’t survive the death game…

A chill ran down my back.

I felt a little ashamed of myself for reacting that way.

After talking with Go Yeongeun for a little while longer, I took the elevator up to the twelfth floor, where my room was.

So far, everything was fine.

The problem?

The unit had two bedrooms.

And my roommate was Baek Saheon.

“……”

“……”

Baek Saheon was sitting in the living room.

A medical eye patch covered one eye.

Judging by how quickly he’d been treated, it was probably through the company rather than at an ordinary hospital.

I gave him a quiet nod and started walking toward my room.

Then—

“Hey.”

What?

“‘Hey’?”

I stopped.

Baek Saheon flinched slightly at my response.

But apparently, his anger won out.

He glared at me.

“You knew about the Lost Item, didn’t you? Must’ve been real fun watching me rip out a perfectly good eye when there was another one right there. Huh?”

Ah.

Apparently, he thought I had deliberately kept quiet about the other Lost Item because I wanted to watch him lose an eye.

You were the one who ran off by yourself.

And now you’re blaming me?

He hadn’t hesitated for even a second before smashing someone else’s eye.

But when it came to his own, apparently I had been obligated to help him.

What kind of logic was that?

But at the same time, I understood something.

If I started saying things like, That’s not what happened. You suddenly ran off… or Why are you suddenly talking to me like that, Didn’t you call me Teacher…? he’d probably just get even more aggressive.

Years of dealing with clients had taught me how to recognize people like Baek Saheon.

There was a term for this kind of nightmare client.

Creationist Complainers.

People who make up an entire scenario in their heads, convince themselves it’s real, and stubbornly refuse to let go of it.

Explaining yourself to people like that rarely works.

Better to just—

I walked straight up to Baek Saheon and gripped his shoulder.

“Thanks. I had a great time because of you. Is this what people call dopamine?”

“Wh—”

“Keep bringing me good news like that. Actually, I hope we get to work together.”

“……”

“Work’s going to be fun.”

That should do it.

Now he probably thinks I’m insane.

From what I knew about his personality and everything he had done in Dark Exploration Records…

If Baek Saheon ever finds out I’m a coward, he seems like exactly the kind of person who’d throw me into danger just to see what happens.

So it was better to leave him with a different impression.

This guy is dangerous.

Stay away.

A little bluffing never hurts.

I patted his shoulder twice, stood up, and walked toward my room without looking back.

As long as he doesn’t stab me in my sleep, I’ll be fine.

Of course, I had exaggerated slightly.

The chance of us actually being assigned to the same squad was tiny.

What kind of company made squads composed entirely of new hires?

They would obviously split us up and assign us to different squads.

It was basically a balancing system.

Like that famous ninja manga where teams were formed based on everyone’s different abilities.

And besides—

I had been called first during the rankings.

Baek Saheon had been called second.

Which means he probably scored well too.

That made it even less likely that we would end up on the same team.

We probably wouldn’t have to work together for quite a while.

Good.

We could simply pretend the other person didn’t exist.

Clack.

I entered my room and shut the door.

“Huu.”

The room was clean.

Fresh bedding.

A desk.

Even a private bathroom.

There was an information booklet hanging from the bathroom door.

“If I apply, they’ll change the bedding and clean the room every week for a hundred thousand won a month?”

These benefits were getting ridiculous.

I could practically see what the company was trying to do.

Drown the new hires in carrots until they forgot about the death game they’d just survived.

Everything here was so clean and friendly that plenty of them would probably start wondering if what happened earlier had even been real.

Of course, I knew exactly why the company was doing this.

They’re desperate to keep people in the Field Exploration Team.

Once they found someone capable of doing the job, they didn’t want that person quitting.

Well, I might as well take everything they’re offering.

I had already decided to stay anyway.

There was even a small welcome gift sitting on the desk.

Expensive snacks and office supplies with the company logo printed on them.

Then I noticed a diary in a half-open drawer.

The company logo was printed on the cover, so it looked like another company-issued item.

But this was made last year.

Did the previous person living here leave it behind?

I opened the diary.

And on the first page, written in huge letters—

─────

RUN.

─────

Ai-goo.

Unfortunately, it was already too late for me.

It wasn’t even that scary.

Isn’t this just normal corporate trauma?

If anything, it made me feel a little closer to humanity.

I closed the diary and carefully put it back in the drawer.

Now that I’d checked everything else…

It was time.

[Dark Exploration Records Real Merch Box]

– New merch unlocked! (!)

I was finally alone.

I could check it properly.

Phew.

With my heart pounding, I sat on the edge of the bed, got comfortable, and reached toward the notepad.

Tap.

Just like before, the paper unfolded.

Something dropped out.

This time, it was a transparent OPP plastic packet.

Inside was a stack of stickers.

The kind of decorative stickers commonly sold as fandom merchandise.

“This is…”

I lifted the package.

Round yellow stickers with the classic smiling-face emoji printed on them.

The infamous bribe item.

─────

Dark Exploration Records / Daydream Inc.

/ Items

Smiley Sticker

A salesperson’s best friend! 🙂

When attached to a sentient being, it induces mild feelings of friendliness toward the user.

Unlock Requirement: Must be a full-time employee or higher at Daydream Inc.

(P.S. Using this item for inappropriate personal purposes, including hitting on people, may result in disciplinary action.)

─────

“Huh.”

Despite the cheap packaging and sloppy finish, these stickers had actually become pretty iconic in several <Dark Exploration Records> stories.

Making someone feel friendlier toward you?

That was basically manipulating their affection.

Wasn’t this used when convincing people from other organizations to cooperate?

And I had a pretty good idea why this particular item had been unlocked.

Unlock Requirement: Must be a full-time employee or higher at Daydream Inc.

“So it unlocked because I officially became a full-time employee.”

In Dark Exploration Records, most items created by organizations or specific groups could only be used by people with the required rank or affiliation.

From an in-universe perspective, it was used to stop people from stealing and misusing them.

But from the perspective of the people writing the ghost stories—

There was another reason.

It kept overenthusiastic newbies from charging into every ghost story loaded with powerful items like some kind of Mary Sue.

Anyway, if I had met the requirement now…

Does that mean every time I get promoted or join a new organization, this Merch Box will spit out another item?

It definitely seemed like something that could help me survive.

Though, if I had a choice, I’d rather they hadn’t dragged me into this world at all. The more I thought about it, the whole situation felt like a ghost story of its own.

Ugh.

I stared uneasily at the glowing notepad for a little longer before forcing myself to move on.

“Well, at least I got something useful out of it.”

The Smiley Sticker.

Having to stick it directly onto someone made it a little inconvenient, but being able to make someone favor me in an emergency could definitely come in handy.

There was just one problem.

…This item got discontinued after some kind of controversy.

The writers fought like hell over how powerful the sticker was, turning the whole debate into a verbal colosseum until the item was eventually scrapped altogether.

I didn’t remember exactly when that happened.

Which meant…

The pack in my hands might actually be the only Smile Stickers left in this world.

I looked down at the unopened package again.

Hmm.

I absolutely cannot let anyone find out about these.

Just in case, I took out five stickers and slipped them into the breast pocket of my suit. That way, I’d have them ready when I went to work.

…My first day at work, huh.

The thought made me uneasy again, but I desperately needed some rest. After everything I’d been through, both my body and mind were exhausted.

I need to recover.

I changed into the robe they’d provided, locked the door, and climbed into bed.

It was the first time I’d gotten any proper rest since being thrown into this ghost story.

Not that I slept particularly well.

Images of people being torn apart and the horrifying subway station kept replaying in my head, as if someone had installed a surround-sound theater inside my brain.

Still, after a couple of days, I finally managed to sleep through the nightmares.

That alone was something.

A few days passed that way.

I checked the tiny amount of money in my bank account, stretched it as far as I could, and bought clothes and daily necessities.

Of course, I didn’t forget the most important thing.

I need to memorize all of it.

Using the Memorial Griptok, I kept reading every <Dark Exploration Records> wiki page I had ever seen.

I studied them until I could recall the information at a moment’s notice.

This was my lifeline.

And then Monday came.

My first day at Daydream Inc.

***

“……”

Monday morning.

I headed toward Daydream Inc.’s headquarters with a grim expression on my face.

Go Yeongeun, whom I ran into as I was leaving the officetel, looked at me with concern.

“Oh, Soleum-ssi, are you alright? Did you… not sleep well?”

“…Something like that. I’ll be fine.”

“Oh dear…”

As fellow new hires, we exchanged a few brief pleasantries while making the fifteen-minute walk to headquarters.

We passed several other new members of the Field Exploration Team along the way. They all looked just as nervous as we did, but we only exchanged brief nods.

“I heard the Field Exploration Team uses the tenth through fifteenth floors… Ah, I’ll get off here. Soleum, let’s do our best.”

“Yeah. Let’s do our best.”

I watched Go Yeongeun get off on the tenth floor, then looked at the button I had pressed.

Thirteenth floor.

Even the floor number feels ominous…

Hopefully, I was just being paranoid.

I checked the assignment notice I’d received two days earlier one more time.

[New Employee (Field Exploration)_Assignment.pdf]

● Kim Soleum / D Squad

Ding.

The elevator doors slid open on the thirteenth floor, revealing a hallway divided into sections marked with different letters.

I walked over to the automatic door marked D, pressed the button, and greeted the people inside as I entered.

“Good morning.”

“Oh!”

“You’re here!”

Several people around the spacious office looked up and welcomed me.

One of the men got to his feet and held out his hand.

“Welcome to Unit 15, D Squad.”

A woman with a bob haircut and an expressionless face gave me a small nod.

“By the way, we call ourselves the ‘Death Squad’ because all the new hires die.”

“…”

“Just kidding.”

Should I quit now?

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