Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work (Novel) - Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Among the countless repeating and shrinking figures of myself reflected in the double-sided mirrors of the elevator, there was only one bizarre phenomenon.
The back of my figure that beat me in rock-paper-scissors.
The ‘it’ inside the mirror was stretching its neck, looking back at me and smiling.
Clunk.
I barely snapped out of it at the noise of the elevator.
What I held up was a rock.
What the thing in the mirror held up was… paper.
‘…I lost.’
First of all, since I lost, I had to do it again.
Until I won.
[5F]
The elevator was going up.
*Caution: According to the statements of most who had performed this ritual, ‘the me in the mirror’ had an unnaturally high win rate in rock-paper-scissors against oneself.
With a trembling hand, I raised a rock toward the mirror again.
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
The back of my figure, smiling with its head turned, changed its hand at will.
I was scissors.
The one in the mirror was rock.
…I lost again.
Clunk.
…The elevator that was going up stopped for a moment, then went up again as if nothing had happened.
Clearly, that was all in reality.
But in the elevator reflected in the mirror…
Before I knew it, the door was slightly open.
Slipping out.
Through the gap, a white hand was sticking out.
“……”
[7F]
The elevator was going up.
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
We tied.
[7F]
‘Just once.’
I only needed to win just once. Before arriving at the 12th floor, the highest floor of this building…!
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
I was scissors, the ghost was rock.
‘I lo…’
Clunk.
The elevator shook for a moment.
That was it. There was no change in reality.
But in the elevator reflected in the mirror… before I knew it, the door was open further.
Someone’s arms and legs were visible through the gap.
“……”
Its torso was halfway inside this elevator, looking as if it would almost touch me…
But it was still not visible in reality. Because only the mirror reflected that strange scene, I could not take my eyes off the mirror.
‘Please, just once!’
If I won just once, everything would be over.
3. Congratulations. You have now moved on to the question stage.
It meant I could go to this instruction.
‘I have to go that way.’
That was the least scary and fastest way. Please, please…
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
We tied.
[10F]
“…Rock, paper, scissors.”
……
I raised my head.
My hand, clenched in a rock.
And in the mirror, I saw my face smiling with its palm wide open.
[12F]
I lost.
13. You failed to win even once.
You cannot get off at the highest floor. Poor thing.
Clunk.
The elevator stopped.
The red lights on all the buttons went out, darkening the interior. I barely held back a scream.
‘Crazy, crazy…’
I barely raised my head.
Inside the huge mirror reflecting this dark elevator…
“……”
The elevator door was fully open.
1930819F, a strange floor number was displayed on the indicator. And outside the fully opened door in the mirror, only emptiness was visible.
And…
A ghost was standing next to me.
“……”
I gasped for breath.
The ghost in the far mirror, who was playing rock-paper-scissors with me, had opened the elevator door, entered, and was now in the mirror right in front of my nose.
I rolled my eyes to look at the side.
I saw a dilapidated and dark interior with no one around, and the elevator doors were tightly shut.
But looking into the mirror,
another version of myself, who had entered from the darkness of the wide-open elevator door and stood next to me, smiling so joyfully that its mouth ripped open, was looking back and staring intently at me…
……
You failed the ritual.
You should be careful every time you ride an elevator from now on. Because the thing in the mirror will try to find you and meet you.
Fortunately, a chance to ask a question still remains.
However…
: Go to number 6.
The smiling thing inside the mirror lowered its hand.
6. From now on, the entity in the mirror will conduct the ritual.
Mouth shapes with no sound.
Rock, paper, scissors.
And it presented a rock.
“……!”
I broke out in a cold sweat, looking at my hand that had put out a rock in time to match.
If you do not respond to rock-paper-scissors with ‘the me in the mirror,’ it will gladly accept a win by default.
In this case: There is no separate number instruction. Rest in peace.
I had to match it.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Once more, I put out my hand.
The opponent was rock. And I was…
Scissors.
“……”
I lost.
From now on, I had to pay the price of defeat.
I raised my head, sweating coldly.
Not you.
The entity in the mirror will ask.
Inside the mirror, the ghost with my appearance moved its finger to leave a mark on the mirror.
What is your name?
Fuck.
With a trembling hand, I left letters on the mirror.
Kim Sol-eum
Grinning.
The ghost in the mirror standing next to me laughed.
…I had to endure.
If you give a false answer: There is no separate number instruction. Rest in peace.
I was going crazy.
‘Why can’t I win even once?’
Even searching the exploration records in the wiki in my head, there was no answer.
Because, in the first place, playing rock-paper-scissors with the ghost was not the main focus.
It was focused more on what questions were asked after that. There was no solution like how to win rock-paper-scissors.
In the first place, isn’t rock-paper-scissors a game of luck?
There was no such thing as a sure-win strategy. But…
I barely managed to stare at the ghost in the mirror that was staring intently at me from beside me.
‘…Then, how has that thing never lost even once from the very beginning?’
Simple luck?
A cliché where it knew everything I would put out because it was the me in the mirror?
‘But if that were the case, how did other people win?’
And even in my case right now.
‘If it knew everything, shouldn’t it not even tie?’
If it could win, why on earth…
Rock, paper, scissors.
Damn it.
I hurriedly put out my hand.
I was scissors, the ghost was… rock.
“……”
When is your birthday?
My fingers trembled.
September 13th
The ghost in the mirror hopped up and down like crazy.
…Because only one time remained.
“……”
While continuing the rock-paper-scissors led by the entity in the mirror until the elevator moved again,
If you win even once: Go to number 3.
If you answer the opponent’s questions three or more times: Go to number 99.
I had already answered twice.
My name.
My birthday.
……Now, I only had the luxury of losing one more time.
‘It’s the end.’
…Because the text for number 99 was like this.
99.
If enough time has passed after three answers to scroll down to this point, you are probably no longer the person who first began reading this ritual document by now.
I hope you live happily outside the mirror! Please don’t come looking for meplease
I would be swapped.
With the something in the mirror.
‘No.’
Cold sweat poured down.
But I had no time to dwell on it. Since I already had no control…
Rock, paper, scissors.
I hurriedly put out my hand.
Paper versus paper. We tied.
‘Phew…’
I could barely catch my breath…
Rock-paper-scissors.
“…!”
I missed it.
I failed to… respond.
‘Fuck.’
I gritted my teeth and prepared myself to face whatever situation followed…
……
Huh?
Nothing happened.
‘…Ah!’
I realized. It seemed that since I had not lowered the hand I was holding up, it was counted as having ‘responded’ to the new game of rock-paper-scissors.
‘Right. I was holding it as paper…’
“……”
Wait a minute.
I recalled the results of the rock-paper-scissors games I had played with the ghost so far.
Could this be…
Rock, paper, scissors.
I didn’t change my hand this time either.
We tied.
Rock, paper, scissors.
This time too.
And the next one…
I kept putting out paper and stayed still.
The amazing thing was that the ghost was doing the same.
We tied three times in a row like that.
‘…As expected.’
I swallowed hard.
It seemed I had realized one crucial thing.
-The ghost in the mirror doesn’t put out scissors.
That was why we tied if I only put out paper.
If I put out paper, the opponent had to put out scissors to win. But since it couldn’t do that, it was forced to put out paper as well to avoid losing.
‘Why?’
Why couldn’t it do that?
There must be some hidden setting behind it… no, at this moment, it was just a groundless guess, so let’s focus on the phenomenon.
Anyway, a defense method was established…
Rock-paper-scissors.
I hurriedly opened my hand.
If I kept putting out paper in this manner from now on, I could unconditionally tie.
‘But I can’t tie forever.’
It was even more despairing that such a case was not in the manual at all.
Indeed. The conditions had not changed.
‘I must win at least once, just once.’
How can I win…
‘…If that ghost is ‘the me in the mirror’ and already knows what I will put out,’
the solution was surprisingly simple.
‘I just have to put it out at random.’
Probably everyone passed like that.
Whether they were a civilian playing rock-paper-scissors at random, completely out of it with fear, not even knowing what they were putting out,
or an employee of the Field Exploration Team who had a strong heart that felt no fear, already knew the manual, and just put out whatever came to hand indifferently.
Even if they regained their senses halfway and were predicted, they would have won at least one round in five or six tries. There was no need to record what was and wasn’t put out.
But I had missed both cases.
The reason was…
‘…The silver ring!’
Because I wore a mental defense item, I couldn’t enter a panic state, but since I calculated and put out each hand while being scared, it ended up like this. Damn it…!
This was the worst result a coward could produce by not suffering from a status condition.
‘Should I take off the ring now?’
No, it was too late. There was only one chance left.
‘How on earth can I…’
I roughly wiped away the sweat running down my temple.
In the process, the button on my sleeve scratched my cheek, causing it to bleed. I wiped that blood away along with the sweat.
…At that moment,
a red thread-like line appeared on the cheek of the ghost in the mirror as well.
“…!”
And the sleeve was stained red.
…Exactly like the blood mixed with the sweat I had wiped off.
Wait.
‘Does it share… my state?’
Yes. After all, the mirror was reflecting me.
Even if it was a ghost in my shape that started moving on its own inside the mirror, it was affected by the ‘me’ outside the mirror…
……!
Right.
‘…If so!’
A flash of realization passed by.
I gritted my teeth and searched my pockets.
The ghost with my appearance inside the mirror searched its own pocket to mimic me, as if teasing, and pulled out the exact same thing.
But what I pulled out was not some grand item.
It was just a pen and a rubber band.
‘Hurry.’
I inserted the pen between my fingers and started wrapping the rubber band…
Rock-paper-scissors.
“…!”
I responded.
While responding so that I could tie the rock-paper-scissors game my mirror self threw at me out of nowhere, I fixed a pen vertically to the thumb and index finger of my right hand respectively.
And the left hand as well.
‘Qu-Quickly.’
Rock-paper-scissors.
Rock-paper-scissors.
Rock-paper-scissors.
Rock-paper-scissors.
As if to interfere, the ghost in the mirror kept putting out its hand. I continued my work while responding to it breathlessly.
Slipping several times, the tip of the ballpoint pen scratched my arm and hand.
But…
Rock-paper-scissors.
‘…It’s done!’
I hurriedly put out my hand.
But this time, it was not paper.
Made with the index finger and thumb, which were fixed so they couldn’t bend…
Scissors.
……!
But the opponent in the mirror was still paper, with all its fingers stretched wide open.
To be precise…
‘It could only put out that!’
By the pen and rubber band that I had bound to prevent my index finger and thumb from bending, its fingers were constrained.
‘Like this, it can’t use rock.’
But from its perspective, unable to put out scissors either… it could do nothing but open its hand. In the end…
Scissors versus paper.
“…!!”
I won.
“I did…!”
Bang!
The ghost inside the mirror slammed its head against the mirror.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I stood frozen in place.
Bangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbangbang!!
The mirror shattered.
It cracked, rippled, and broke apart.
But, but…
the thing inside the mirror failed to come out.
…
The vibration stopped.
Inside the mirror, the thing that had been slamming its head toward the outside raised its head.
The thing that had been smiling so widely that its mouth ripped open until a moment ago was expressionless.
It looked down at its hands, bound so that it could not bend the joints, and then distorted its expression.
It distorted it!
Staring at me with an odd, th-this odd expression that a human could never possibly make…
Cackle, cackle, cackle, cackle!!
It rushed out of the open elevator doors inside the mirror while laughing like crazy.
“……”
[Going down.]
“Phew…”
I collapsed to the floor.
The elevator moved again.
The strange text on the floor indicator disappeared, and numbers were displayed normally…
[12F]
Ding-dong—
[12th floor. The doors are opening.]
3. Congratulations. You succeeded in the ritual!
Get off at the highest floor and find a nearby window.
If there is no window: Go to number 7.
I survived.
I stumbled out into the dark hallway.
Even though I had clearly entered during the day, the windows in the gloomy hallway, which looked as if the sun had already set, were sporadically broken, taped up, or covered in graffiti.
Although it was the inside of an abandoned building where I would have run out screaming if I had entered alone, even that sense of fear brought relief now…
I walked toward the nearest window on the opposite side.
The window was dirty and grey with dust, but I placed my finger on it without hesitation.
If you write the question you want on the window, the entity that was in the mirror will answer any question.
And this answer is unconditionally the truth.
The question I was most curious about.
The wish I would make.
-Is it possible to return to the place I originally lived through Daydream Co.’s Wish Ticket potion?
I took my finger off the window.
Then, at the bottom of the window, other letters began to appear…
“…!”
The answer to my question.