Chapter 050
“Oh, Roe Deer’s here!”
“Right. You got the regeneration potion safely?”
“Yes.”
As I returned to the office, I greeted my supervisors, who had already finished lunch and were lounging around.
But the moment they saw the translucent reinforced plastic case in my hands, they went serious and straightened up.
“…!”
“Wait a second, is that your assigned Darkness, Roe Deer?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
I lifted the transport case and showed them the inside.
Inside it, two black cards rattled lightly.
The F-grade Darkness I had chosen.
———————=
Darkness Exploration Record / Ghost Story
[Either-Or]
: A Ghost Story that appears in the Darkness Exploration Record. Baekilmong Co., Ltd.’s identification code for it is Qterw-F-2073.
Two plain black cards, 60 mm wide and 110 mm long.
However, if the owner flips those cards over at midnight, the images on the front are revealed. Their theme is selected at random from the Tarot Major Arcana.
That reading will actually come true in the future.
———————=
It was a low-grade Darkness, small and portable enough to be entrusted to a single employee for management, but….
In truth, among the three candidates I had been given, it was also the most dangerous and the most uncertain Ghost Story.
Because it had to do with the future.
My supervisors must have recognized it too, because their expressions turned serious.
“That’s a little rough for a rookie.”
“Right? Normally they give you something easier, don’t they? When I was a rookie, I just got a radio. Roe Deer, you saw it on your first day too, didn’t you? That one even got reassigned to Twilight-grade.”
Ah, that radio.
‘So Senior Staff was the one managing it.’
No wonder it had been sitting in the office so openly.
Senior Staff said, sounding a little worried,
“Maybe it’s because expectations are too high upstairs since Roe Deer’s doing so well… Ah, Group Leader!”
At the sound of himself being called, the Lizard Group Leader, who had been coming into the office, turned his head.
“You know how you said you’d let Roe Deer choose his Darkness directly—when do you think that’ll happen? Not yet?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“…?”
“…??”
“He chose twenty minutes ago.”
My supervisors turned to look at me.
“Roe Deer.”
“Yes.”
“Out of the choices Group Leader gave you, you picked that one?”
“Yes.”
I nodded expressionlessly.
“They said it comes with overtime pay.”
“…….”
“…….”
“Because this Darkness has to be managed regularly at night.”
The faces of the two supervisors turned wistful.
“Ahh….”
“Mmm, that’s so like Roe Deer.”
And then they relaxed.
“…….”
Where exactly was my image headed at this point….?
‘Should I be happy that I’m successfully building my character?’
Ngh.
Holding back tears, I turned on my PC.
“You registering it now?”
“Yes. I’m entering my employee number now.”
If I found the code for that Darkness in the intranet under “List of Unassigned Darknesses” and registered my account to it….
Done.
Qterw-F-2073 : Kim Soleum (Senior Staff)
With that, I now had an assigned Darkness too.
“Even if it’s F-grade, it’s still a supernatural phenomenon. Be careful when you manage it.”
“Yes.”
I read the method of managing that Darkness.
The method of using that Ghost Story, which I already knew.
[Flip cards at midnight / once per month]
And then, a few days later, at midnight.
I came to the company annex to work overtime.
“Good work.”
The employee seated at the desk, dressed from head to toe in pitch-black clothing, gave a small nod and opened the corridor for me.
If you followed that path and opened the correct door….
“There you are.”
There were the two black cards I had to “manage” tonight.
I carefully stepped inside the iron-doored room and shut it behind me.
Then I opened the card storage case, took out this Darkness, Either-Or, and placed it face-down on the round table already set up in the room.
-Are you telling fortunes? Occult verification was a staple subject on talk shows too! Now then, Mr. Roe Deer, go ahead and check the future!
It was a little different from that.
“It’s not about seeing the future.”
-Hm?
“It’s about choosing it.”
———————=
Interpretation
A mysterious tarot card that lets you see the two cards in advance and then choose one, causing an event matching that symbol to occur in the near future.
However, it must be an event that could plausibly happen in that person’s ordinary life. (Something like winning the lottery is not possible.)
———————=
That was right.
These were cards that let you choose, in an either-or form, what would happen in the near future.
Of course, that did not always mean something good.
I reached out and flipped over the two cards on the table.
A lavishly ornate illustration appeared as if by magic.
The Devil. The Moon.
‘Damn it.’
Like that.
-Oh dear. Traditionally, neither of those is exactly a very good symbol!
Well, depending on the type of question, they weren’t symbols that unconditionally meant something bad, but overall… that was true enough.
Which meant that if both choices were bad, then all you were really doing was adding one extra bad event for no reason.
And considering that more than half of the tarot cards could be interpreted ambiguously or negatively, the odds of something like this happening were at least more than one in four.
But….
-Have you decided which one you’ll choose?
“Yeah.”
Because I was going to do it a little differently.
I moved to the opposite side of the table where the cards lay.
‘If I do this, then naturally….’
From the opposite side of the table, the cards appeared upside down.
If I picked one up in that state….
-Hoh, it’s reversed now.
I looked at the card in my hand, held upside down.
‘I heard you were absolutely never supposed to do something like this when reading fortunes.’
But like an F-grade Ghost Story, its power wasn’t that great and it had plenty of loopholes, so tricks like this seemed to work.
‘Even if the trick failed, sometimes it just ended with them turning back into plain black cards.’
So I’d taken the gamble, and it seemed to have been a decent choice.
And the card I chose was….
-The Moon. Ah, the symbol of confusion!
I looked down at the Moon card, where a yellowish full moon hung upside down.
-The Moon is originally a symbol of mystery and uncertainty. When the sun disappears and the moon rises, vague forms and suspicion begin to grow, and at last… madness reveals itself.
-But if it is reversed, then the opposite must be true, yes?
Hm.
‘So something becomes clearly revealed?’
-Not bad at all. The resolution of uncertainty! Wouldn’t it help one settle one’s mind?
I thought so too.
‘In this insane Ghost Story world where it’s hard to see even an inch ahead, it’d be nice if even one thing became certain.’
-Is that all?
“That’s right.”
I put the cards back in order.
The cycle of this fortune-telling was once per month.
In other words, whatever happened would happen sometime within this month, as part of my ordinary life.
Granted, there was a clear limitation that the event had to be on an ordinary level, but my ordinary life meant working at a Ghost Story company, didn’t it…….
So I had thought it might actually help with survival quite a bit.
‘Even if not, fixing even one slightly positive future in place wouldn’t be bad.’
Where else would you find a managed Darkness that was a benefit rather than a burden?
I decided not to get too greedy….
Thud.
“…….”
I heard a sound outside.
This was the annex.
A place where relatively safe Darknesses were stored. Mostly Twilight-grade, though occasionally F-grade ones were included too….
But in the end, they were all still Ghost Stories.
Thud.
And sometimes.
Very sometimes, when management failed and an unexpected incident occurred… one or two people died laughably easily.
I stood before the iron door.
‘……How far away is that sound coming from?’
Should I wait here, or….
KWA-A-A-ANG!!
“…!”
I flung open the iron door and ran at once.
Because it really sounded like something had exploded!
‘My odds of survival are better if I run and get out of here than if I stay trapped inside.’
And I tried to run to the entrance and get out the front….
But the floor there had already been half destroyed.
“…….”
-Oh dear! What a thoroughly messy sight.
All kinds of insane possibilities flashed through my mind.
But right after that, I saw a figure standing in the middle of the shattered front floor, one foot planted firmly on top of something that had been smashed to pieces.
“…!”
It was the black-clad employee who had been sitting at the front desk.
And judging by how he looked like he had “suppressed” the Darkness….
‘So he was a Facility Security Team employee!’
And it seemed the situation had already ended.
The sound I had heard seemed to be the noise made while the Facility Security Team was suppressing it.
‘So that’s why they don’t just put anyone at the annex desk.’
I hesitated, then asked from about four meters away.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
The black-clad employee shook his head.
Thank you very much…….
Let’s just get out of here quickly.
“Then I’ll be going in.”
The employee looked at me for a moment, then reached to the side and lifted something from the desk.
A Post-it note.
Have a good night.
Unexpectedly sociable.
“Thank you.”
I bowed my head. The desk employee, black all over, lightly returned the nod, then withdrew his foot and went back to sit at the desk.
On the ruined floor of the entrance, I could see shattered glass glinting—probably whatever had been the medium of the Ghost Story.
In that reflected light, the employee’s leg shadow twisted strangely, looking like a bent hoof for a moment…… then returned to looking human again.
‘Phew….’
Let’s not look.
Fixing my gaze on nothing at all, I left the annex.
“Well now.”
All kinds of incidents really did happen as part of everyday life here.
‘Fixing one good ordinary event in place really does seem like it was a decent choice.’
Life was harsh and exhausting, but I felt a little better thinking that somehow, somehow, I was still managing to push through it all.
Hm. Come to think of it, I remembered that I too had communicated in writing like that employee earlier.
[Have a good day^^]
I meant that one-on-one in-person secondhand sale where I sold Ghost Story food for forty million won.
I had even used writing because I wanted to hide my voice.
That was when I sold the churros the blue dragon mascot from the theme park had given me.
‘Actually, I still have one more pack of those churros.’
I still had no intention of selling them, just in case… but hmm.
I realized I had more food-related items than I’d thought.
And the quantities of some of them were fairly decent.
‘Maybe it really would be better to sell one or two and turn them into cash.’
Assuming they were still looking, that was.
Since I’d thought of it, I logged onto Salmon Market and checked.
Amazingly, another post was up.
[Buying food derived from anomalous phenomena.]
For research purposes.
Strong anomalous phenomena (Disaster Management Agency waveform abnormality) preferred.
40.0
-This bastard seriously never gets tired of this huh
-lol at this point anyone falling for it is the real idiot?
Hmm.
‘If the churros have already been used for research….’
I sent a message.
[BlueFriend : Hello, sir^^ I’ve obtained some food again. Would you be interested, by any chance?]
And then, two days later, on the weekend.
Just like last time, I ended up waiting for my secondhand buyer at Exit 5 of Gwanghwamun Station.
‘Trust really is important for people.’
Since I had sold them an item that met their conditions last time, this time they didn’t even waste words—just set a meeting time.
This time, the other person was even waiting at the exit first.
Just like last time, they were dressed in dark clothes and had on everything from a cap to a mask.
I recognized them from the drink box in their hand. Well, I wasn’t in much of a position to comment, since I was dressed about the same way.
[Hello^^]
This time too, I opened my notebook and showed the greeting. The other person must have expected it, because they didn’t look surprised.
[This is the item I prepared.]
And inside the box I held out were two cookies from the Alice Picnic Set.
Why had I chosen these? Simple.
‘They don’t have much shelf life left.’
Like proper snacks, they had an expiration period!
They were items that either halved or inflated effects, so I hadn’t actually had as many chances to use them as expected, and I had a fair amount left.
Even so, since the drink had been such a super-save in Tuesday Quiz Show, I couldn’t bring myself to bring that out, so I had brought cookies instead.
‘Cookie-form items are harder to use anyway.’
Wouldn’t it be a waste to just leave them sitting there until the expiration date ran out?
And use an expired item? I didn’t particularly want to find out what would happen.
Anyway, I presented the goods and waited for the buyer’s appraisal.
Like before, the buyer ran a gloved hand once over the top of the box….
Then gave a small shake of the head.
“It isn’t what I was looking for.”
Mm. As expected.
‘It didn’t seem like it was at the waveform-grade level.’
Industrial-product items had a relatively low danger level and a passive feel to them, so they simply had a different texture from bizarre objects acquired directly from high-grade Ghost Stories….
‘Too bad, but nothing I can do.’
Still, it was worth trying to negotiate….
“So I’ll buy them at half price each.”
Thank you for the smooth deal.
‘If this person ever found out about the Alien Shop, would they decide it was too valuable and try to kill me…?’
Just in case, I decided it would be better to lay a little groundwork.
I hurriedly scribbled on my notebook.
[Thank you. I really needed the money.]
“…….”
[This one didn’t seem like dangerous food, but the expiration date isn’t far off, so I think it would be better if you researched it before then. I’ll give you a few extra.]
And while writing that, I tucked a small extra bag with one or two more cookies into the box.
‘Call it a freebie.’
It was trust-building for future transactions. I had brought them as bargaining pieces, and now I was using them like this.
At this point, wasn’t I basically an exceptionally kind secondhand seller? Especially in a Ghost Story setting.
Just as I was receiving the drink box full of cash from the buyer and about to leave right away—
the buyer spoke.
“Excuse me.”
Hm?
“How do you come to possess things like this?”
Hmm.
[I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you.]
This should be enough.
It was a platform for trading supernatural objects, so naturally everyone had their own circumstances. Better to let them imagine the rest.
‘And unless someone has personally seen the ad for the Alien Shop, sometimes the page just says it doesn’t exist even if they try to access it.’
I was getting ready to bolt if they pried any further, when—
“…….”
The buyer pulled a pen from their pocket and wrote something on the notebook I was holding.
“If a dangerous situation occurs, contact that number.”
Huh?
“Then, goodbye.”
The buyer left, and I checked the notebook.
1717 8282 42
“…!”
‘That’s a government-side number.’
It was the direct emergency relief hotline to the Disaster Management Agency.
In other words, Ghost Story 119.
‘So they were connected to that side?’
No wonder they were using that grading terminology.
Shrugging, I tucked both the money and the notebook away properly.
Baekilmong Co., Ltd., as befitted a vicious major corporation, was on bad terms with the government. But for me, an employee working there, to go so far as to call this number and get tangled up with them….
‘Surely that would never happen.’
Yeah. It did.
That very evening, when I returned to the company housing.
