Dream Collector.
As the name implied, it was a piece of equipment issued by Baekilmong Co., Ltd. to Field Operations Team employees, used to collect a solution called “dream essence” from Ghost Stories.
The concentration of the solution collected was determined by the rank of the Ghost Story you cleared.
And the highest-grade solution I had ever confirmed in person was….
‘A.’
Chorus of Living Sacrifices, which had manifested irregularly in Tuesday Talk Show, and In the Dark Shadow, which had entered Segwang Industrial High School.
In both cases, the solution had been a brilliant, vivid gold.
But the solution I was holding in my hand right now….
‘Good lord.’
On top of that, a hologram-like iridescence swirled through it.
The liquid, which seemed to flow with radiance, even called to mind a certain potion….
‘The Wish Ticket potion I saw when I joined the company…!’
It was strange how oddly similar it felt. Was it because this was the undiluted form?
No, that wasn’t what mattered right now….
‘Then does that make this… S-rank?’
I turned the cylinder. A gleam flashed from it….
It didn’t feel real.
‘That rank isn’t something they slap onto a Ghost Story just because it’s dangerous.’
Abyss (S) rank.
All the contributors on the Darkness Exploration Record wiki had thought the same thing.
‘Wouldn’t something more special be needed before they attach an S?’
Up until then, the Ghost Stories at Baekilmong Co., Ltd. had generally been ranked based on an unspoken standard of, ‘At about this point, it’s probably high-rank.’
Danger, mystery, ominous significance, scale… the kind of intensity you would normally imagine when you thought of Ghost Stories.
But everyone involved had shared the view that once you got above A-rank, you needed something different.
So they came up with this condition.
Who do you face in the darkness?