Chapter 028
…Let’s go over the things I need to keep in mind this time while being deployed into a Ghost Story with Group A.
Conditions
- I must not let them find out I’m a coward.
- I must not let them find out I already know the strategy.
- I have to survive the workplace bullying of an uncooperative Group Leader.
‘Just kill me instead.’
I felt like I’d said that to myself more than anything else since joining the company.
But it couldn’t be helped.
This was also the first time I’d ever gone into a Ghost Story together with a superior who actively wanted me to get screwed over!
‘Every day is a fresh new hell….’
And the other one was a work-first superior with the kind of personality that would shove me into the Cleanup Team the moment he found out I was a coward….
In short, I had entered a Ghost Story with nothing but people who would interfere with my survival.
‘Like I thought, the only answer is to desperately gather points and use a Wish Ticket to escape this place.’
And on top of that, the Ghost Story we’d entered this time had made things confusing enough to break me into a cold sweat.
“What do you think, looking at the space?”
“…It looks like an abandoned factory.”
A dark abandoned factory that smelled of oil.
Do you have any idea how many Ghost Stories in <Darkness Exploration Record> featured abandoned factories?? At the very least, it was well over dozens.
And there had to be even more Ghost Stories where abandoned factories appeared as one of several randomly shifting spaces!
The moment I got separated from the two people from Group A, I was planning to quickly enter the identification code and search <Darkness Exploration Record>, but they never once gave me the chance to be alone.
‘T-they keep glancing at me like they’re watching me.’
As though they were waiting for me to make a mistake, the two superiors from Group A kept shooting me sidelong glances as they walked forward slowly….
Cold sweat broke out.
‘There really isn’t a single cooperative companion….’
-Friend?
“…!”
-Oh! Another location, I see. Hmm, it does not seem a particularly suitable place for filming, but still! Such squalor, like a filthy old donkey! Wouldn’t you agree?
I immediately dropped my gaze.
The keyring in my pocket, my ‘Good Friend,’ was speaking.
Brown!
‘There was one, a cooperative party!’
W-wait. But with those two Group A superiors right beside me, if you talk that openly….
-Oh dear, are you worried our precious friendship may be interrupted? No problem at all! Those who are not friends have no right to hear my words!
Hoo.
So that meant no one else could hear it.
‘Come to think of it, there were definitely records among the Good Friends where they only spoke to their owner.’
And hadn’t it been said that they could keenly read the other person’s mood or surface thoughts?
Feeling a little reassured, I patted my pocket lightly.
-Haha, that tickles a little!
I could have cried.
The fact that a monster from a Ghost Story had become the emotional refuge of my heart….
“Group Leader. There’s a door over there.”
“There is. Mr. Soleum, why don’t you open it?”
“…….”
“Mr. Soleum?”
“Yes.”
As I immediately walked toward the rusty door in front of me, I swallowed a scream.
Not only had he not even given me a manual, he was deliberately picking me out anyway. He wasn’t even trying to hide that he was tormenting me anymore!
-Oh dear… Mr. Roe Deer, you seem to be having a hard time. Is it a matter of stamina?
Shake shake.
I subtly shook my head just enough not to get caught.
-Then is it the matter of this filthy environment?
Shake shake.
-Aha, in that case, it seems your companions are not terribly compatible with you!
That was true.
This was genuinely awful. This filthy Ghost Story world setting, and the workplace bullying too….
-Bad people bullying my friend?
Shake shake shake shake shake.
-Oh, I understand. Sometimes there are people who simply do not get along with you, like identical poles of a magnet. Let us encourage ourselves and move forward, friend!
My stomach was starting to hurt.
‘So now I even have to keep a stuffed doll balanced so it doesn’t go on a rampage.’
Was this really right?
Suffering between fear and stomach pain, I barely managed to keep myself from trembling as I took hold of the iron door handle.
Creeeak.
What appeared when the rusty iron door opened… was the factory work area.
Maybe operations had been halted, because there were boxes and canned goods piled everywhere under a thick layer of dust. Between broken beef cans, rotten contents had spilled out and were oozing across the floor.
But there was something even stronger than that.
The sharp smell of iron stabbing at my nose.
And… a corpse collapsed on the floor.
“…….”
W-wait a second.
“See that? There’s a corpse over there.”
“…Yes.”
“Mr. Soleum, go examine it.”
“Yes.”
Aaaaaargh!!
The fact that the only reason I didn’t collapse onto the floor and burst into tears was because the warmth of the keyring doll was comforting me was so humiliating I could barely stand it.
‘Abandoned factory… corpse, abandoned factory, corpse….’
Digging frantically through the <Darkness Exploration Record> wiki encyclopedia inside my head, I somehow managed to approach the corpse without screaming.
The corpse was wearing a suit and sprawled face-down over a rail.
An adult man bleeding from the back of his head.
Maybe because he was around my age and wearing a suit, he looked somehow familiar.
‘This is driving me insane.’
There was absolutely no way I could touch it directly…! Holding my breath, I immediately summoned the dedicated equipment and hovered my hand in the air as I examined the corpse from various angles.
The fact that it only transmitted pain and not tactile sensation was such a, such a relief.
“…A man in his late 170s to early 180s in height, wearing a suit. The bleeding appears limited to the back of the head. It looks like he was struck hard by something over 10 cm in diameter.”
“Hmm. Not bad. Now turn him over.”
“Yes.”
Kim Soleum will remember this….
Putting every ounce of strength I had into glaring at the Group A Leader in my head, I somehow managed to whip the corpse over while suppressing my nausea.
Its front came into view, eyes closed.
And it was….
My face, bleeding.
“…….”
Fuck, fuck!!
Ah, these damned Ghost Stories, seriously!!
“Oh, it looks exactly like you, Mr. Soleum. Is it some kind of trap?”
“Group Leader, maybe it’s time you at least told him the most basic part of the manual….”
“Ah, right. I suppose so?”
The Group A Leader looked me over as if weighing something, then slowly opened his mouth as though granting a favor.
“Mr. Soleum, this is inside a story.”
“…….”
“Think of it as having entered a novel or a film, and move accordingly.”
I already knew that.
The moment I saw my own corpse, I realized
what Ghost Story this was.
———————=
Darkness Exploration Record / Ghost Story
[The Day I Died]
: A Ghost Story appearing in <Darkness Exploration Record>, identified by Baekilmong Co., Ltd. with the code Qterw-C-406.
A Ghost Story in which one is dragged into an unsuccessful thriller or mystery narrative and becomes the victim.
The first witness will always discover their own already-murdered corpse.
A total of 25 explorations have been recorded.
———————=
It really was the kind of Ghost Story tailor-made to give someone a psychotic break.
‘This is… a potato, it’s a potato.’
Doing my best to brainwash myself, I tried to pull my gaze away from the corpse-shaped thing….
“Don’t use the dedicated equipment. Check it directly. Go over every inch carefully….”
Are you kidding me?
“That won’t be possible.”
I answered without even breathing.
Behind the mallard mask, the eyes narrowed.
“…Hmm?”
Ah, crap.
Talking back to a superior who already disliked me enough to bully me at work?
‘I-I have to recover this!’
This time too, my body reacted first and naturally added the words—
…the already-tested routine I had used before.
“There’s a faster way to escape.”
Again.
Again with this direction…!
A new work condition had been added.
Conditions
- I must not let them find out I’m a coward.
- I must not let them find out I already know the strategy.
- I have to survive the workplace bullying of an uncooperative Group Leader.
- I have to do a time attack. (new!)
…Still, the fortunate thing was that because I had seen my corpse, I’d been able to identify exactly what Ghost Story this was.
‘And the textbook strategy for clearing this one is… this.’
———————=
Success is achieved by reconstructing the story in a direction where the victim does not die.
———————=
The more you explore the space, the further time rewinds into the past in this Ghost Story.
So under normal circumstances, you’re supposed to investigate this entire factory, work out step by step exactly why ‘my corpse’ died, and reason through the process one clue at a time.
———————=
If the story is not altered within the time limit, the victim is confirmed dead.
———————=
That meant I should have been spending the better part of half a day racing against time in a desperate, nerve-shredding pursuit to avoid one guaranteed death.
‘Mm. My stomach’s going to melt before that.’
My digestive system wasn’t going to survive it.
If there wasn’t a shortcut, then I had to make one. Help me, exploration records!
If this had been recorded 25 times, then surely the creators had written some weird, irregular records to break out of their own stagnation. Something I could use as a hint!
I flipped rapidly through the records in my head.
‘Let’s see, a distinctive enough experience to serve as reference would be…….’
———————=
Exploration Record #21
Assistant Manager Han Soeun and two others deployed.
Immediately after entering a mountain-lodge-type Darkness, the employees recognized what work it was.
It turned out to be a certain film that had failed miserably at the box office but had become a meme online and was widely known as a joke.
Responses included contemptuous laughter, imitating the meme, loud mockery, and derogatory spoilers.
Result: The space suddenly collapsed and moved into a different work (subsequent record: Exploration Record #22). There was testimony that crying could be heard.
Good grief, what is this, some failed director’s ghost
or something? Even having weak mental fortitude fits.
-Researcher Kwak Jegang
———————=
Oh.
“Manager, Assistant Manager, could you give me just ten minutes?”
“Mmm, all right.”
First, I needed to leave no opening at all for my superiors to interfere.
Since I didn’t know what kind of sabotage might come from workplace bullying, I had no choice but to dirty my hands and do it myself……
‘……I need to do this quickly before I throw up or start screaming.’
Using the dedicated equipment, I rapidly rechecked the shape of the sunken wound in the sticky back of the corpse’s head (aaaargh), and I also checked the corpse’s footprints and the surrounding bloodstains….
“Why are you deliberately using the dedicated equipment instead of your hands?”
“That’s because if I grab it directly with my hands, the evidence could be damaged. For the preservation of the scene, I thought this was the correct way to proceed.”
I didn’t know I had a talent for rapid-fire rap delivery.
“Evidence? You’re talking like it’s a detective novel.”
“Not detective work exactly, just a simple hypothesis. And….”
I stood up.
“I found it.”
“Huh?”
“The answer.”
I immediately searched the surroundings. Of course, using the dedicated equipment remotely.
Let’s see.
Hidden artfully in the shadows, but not completely concealed, in a spot your eyes might glide over without thinking….
‘Found it.’
From under a shelf, in a stale-smelling corner, I pulled out a cylindrical object.
“That’s… just a canned food can, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Hm, but there are canned food cans all over the place here.”
Exactly. Because this seemed to be some kind of abandoned canned food factory.
But there was one difference.
On the can I’d lifted, there was blood staining a slightly crushed section of it.
‘Just like the “it’s always darkest under the lamp” cliché.’
-Hoho, Mr. Roe Deer! If this were a detective drama, that would be the decisive evidence. The shape matches the wound on the head perfectly.
That’s right.
“This is about the same size as the indentation in the wound to the back of the head.”
-Ah, classic. The ordinary background object you overlooked without thinking turned out to be the murder weapon. It has the proper structure of a story….
Exactly, exactly.
In any case, the Group A assistant manager immediately seemed convinced as well and nodded.
“Then that must be the murder wea—”
Thunk.
I dropped the can that was the candidate ‘murder weapon’ onto the floor.
Then I kicked it hard and crushed it.
“…??”
“…????”
-?!??!
“Ah.”
I tilted my head.
“There’s no way the back of a human skull would have been destroyed by something with this level of strength… hmm. That’s strange. It doesn’t add up.”
Rattle.
In that instant, the space trembled faintly.
-But no matter how you look at it, it does appear he was struck with a canned food can!
Exactly.
I nodded as if I had just realized something.
“Ah… this can is aluminum.”
“So what?”
“Normally, canned food cans are made of steel.”
I frowned.
“Why would canned food be made from aluminum, like a soda can…. Hmm, wait, no way….”
-How fascinating….
I deliberately paused for one beat before continuing.
“Was it a research failure?”
Crack.
At that moment, the cans around me began to tremble faintly.
But I ignored them and continued my muttering.
“I suppose that could happen. Since people come into contact with soda cans more often than canned food cans, someone might absentmindedly picture a soda can and accidentally write the material as aluminum….”
-Hoho….
But.
I cut myself off and let out a hollow laugh.
“Come on, as if.”
“…Mr. Soleum?”
“Anyone could find that with one search. There’s no way someone would make a story that carelessly. In a mystery genre, the most important thing is the trick. They’re not an idiot.”
-Hahaha!
“And when you think about it, having a murder happen at a canned food factory with a canned food can as the weapon is way too obvious a structure, isn’t it?”
That part, honestly, I meant from the heart.
“There’s no freshness and no twist… there’s no way the author wrote this thinking it was some kind of clever trick. Not if they had any sense as a creator.”
-Oh, I agree!
The space began to shake violently.
“To be frank, it’s so sloppy….”
I finished in a flat tone.
“Even amateurs these days probably wouldn’t write something like this.”
Boom.
After a moment of silence—
Papapapapapop!!
Canned food cans started exploding in every direction.
“W-what the hell?!”
Every place the exploding cans struck began to melt away, like tears streaming down a face.
And then it disappeared.
Right before everything vanished completely, someone let out a scream, followed by a sorrowful sobbing sound….
And the very next moment,
we were standing in the elegant reception room on the fifteenth floor of the company.
Covered in canned-beef contents.
“…….”
“…….”
“We’re… out.”
For the first time, the Group A Leader lost composure and stammered.
“The Darkness threw us out, …why?”
Wiping the exploded beef-can sludge from my face, I answered quietly.
“It had a mental breakdown.”
After escaping from the Ghost Story where my corpse had been.
We washed off the canned beef that had covered our entire bodies in the shower room attached to the office, and then gathered once more in the reception room.
“So it really wasn’t just boasting when people said you were fast at clearing things even without a manual. The rumors were true.”
“You flatter me.”
“This isn’t the time to be humble, Mr. Soleum.”
After checking that the yellow liquid had properly filled the Dreamdew Collector, the Group A Leader turned to me.
There was admiration in those eyes.
“How did you arrive at that result?”
Yes. I knew you’d ask that.
I clasped my hands behind my back and assumed the rigid posture of a presenter.
It was for defense, in case the superior’s workplace bullying reactivated and he started nitpicking again.
“I followed a textbook process of deduction.”
“Hmm.”
“First… from the way you kept making me observe the corpse and search the surroundings, I guessed that the corpse must be the core to escaping.”
Of course, in reality he’d probably just been trying to harass me, but what mattered was how you framed it.
“And since you told me this was a story, then it had to be a novel or film about someone becoming a corpse—in other words, a murder case. So I assumed the standard clear method would involve preventing my death.”
I shrugged.
“But that would take too long.”
“…?!”
“Since you went to the trouble of calling me in, I wanted to resolve it before noon if possible.”
The Group A Leader was staring at me with an expression that practically said, What kind of insane thing are you saying, new hire?
But you’d still prefer a lunatic over a coward, Manager!
“So I looked for a shortcut.”
“How?”
“Because there were hints.”
I turned to look at the two of them.
“Your actions.”
“…!”
“You had both read the manual, hadn’t you? So your actions kept giving me clues.”
Like how he pushed me toward observing the corpse.
‘And if that was a hint he gave intentionally, then there were hints he gave unintentionally too.’
I recalled the most decisive part.
-There is. Mr. Soleum, why don’t you open it?
-Mr. Soleum?
“Even after entering the Darkness, you called me by my real name.”
“…!”
Normally, inside a Ghost Story, it was strongly recommended that you not call each other by your real names, but use the nicknames taken from your masks instead.
Because real names could be exploited in bad ways.
But the Group A Leader had called me ‘Soleum,’ not ‘Roe Deer.’
If someone far more experienced than me, from an elite team no less, did that, then there was only one reason.
He already knew it was safe.
“That means there is no sentient being in this Darkness that could hear my real name and harm me because of it.”
It also meant that aside from my already-occurred death, there was no further supernatural interference.
After adding that explanation, I continued.
“So that gave me more freedom to move… and if that was the case, I thought perhaps I could be more aggressive and attack the story itself, causing it to collapse.”
“…??”
“You… had that thought?”
“Yes. If the foundation of a story collapses, then it loses its meaning, doesn’t it?”
I nodded.
“So I brought the story down by criticizing its plausibility and escaped. That is all.”
“…….”
“…….”
My superiors’ faces somehow looked blank.
“…So you inferred something like that not only from the surrounding environment, but also from our conversation and actions?”
“That’s right.”
It wasn’t.
Actually, I had benchmarked the exploration record.
Result: The space suddenly collapsed and moved into a different work (subsequent record: Exploration Record #22). There was testimony that crying could be heard.
Just mocking a work that had become a meme had shattered its mental state enough to cause the story to reconfigure itself.
So I’d thought that if I went one step further and crushed its creator’s pride by methodically pointing out failures in research and internal logic, maybe the whole work would disappear altogether.
‘And it worked.’
Yay.
But then the Group A Leader looked at me and slowly spoke.
“You make it sound… very easy, Mr. Soleum.”
Oh no.
“W-well, of course it wasn’t the standard method. You could call it a shortcut.”
Had I offended him somehow?
I quickly laid the groundwork and then lowered my head as if reflecting.
This should make it look real, right?
“Still, I will accept any reprimand.”
Yes. Please just curse me out and end it there.
I obediently waited for Workplace Bullying Mark II.
And then…….
Clap, clap, clap….
I heard applause.
When I raised my head, I saw that the Group A Leader—now with the mallard mask removed—was looking at me with shining eyes full of surprise and satisfaction.
“You follow discipline and orders. But you don’t care about means or methods.”
Pardon?
“I like that very much. That is exactly the sort of talent we want.”
Me?
“Mr. Soleum. You pass.”
“What do you—”
“There’s an empty seat in Group A, isn’t there?”
At that moment, I realized.
‘Ah.’
This wasn’t workplace bullying.
It had been a test.
“Take that seat properly, Mr. Soleum.”
“…!!”
Good grief.
So this was Group A scouting!
