Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work (Novel) - Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Lord of the Mountain.
One of the most dreary and strange-feeling <Records of the Dark Exploration>.
———————=
A ghost story that appears similar to the Jangsan Tiger ghost story that was popular on the Korean internet, but has a stronger shamanistic and strange color.
A ghost drawing claiming to have been killed by a tiger called the Mountain Lord persistently changes its appearance, chases, and tries to bewitch and drag a victim away.
One of the <Records of the Dark Exploration> that went viral in the first half of 20XX, with consecutive reviews claiming that merely reading it made one feel bad or sick to the stomach.
———————=
It was literally so.
It was a ghost story that left such a strangely uncomfortable lingering feeling that even I, who read text-based ghost stories reasonably well, stopped several times while reading it.
The fact that a ghost story similar to this was popular and felt somewhat close also played a part.
Probably everyone has heard of it at least once.
‘A ghost story where a person eaten by a tiger becomes a ghost and visits someone close….’
The so-called Changwi.
The chilling story that this ghost can only go to the afterlife after finding another victim and passing their role onto them.
‘Certainly, even recalling it is uncomfortable.’
However, thinking about it calmly, there is a way to survive.
‘If it’s C-grade, it is a grade that still has orthodox escape records.’
Even if it is not easy, it means there is a way to escape from this Dark anomaly.
The problem was… that the method was quite bizarre and forced an unjust choice, so one’s breath was choked with mental pain and pressure.
Because it was the kind of ghost story that enjoyed making the reader immerse and shudder.
———————=
Exploration Record #3
A man in his 50s who downloaded a landscape painting from the internet that was said to improve career luck.
He testified that the landscape painting was an ink wash painting drawn in the late Joseon Dynasty style, and the expression of the mountain and fog in the dusk was bizarrely vivid even in low quality.
After downloading, he occasionally dreamed of wandering near the mountain in the landscape painting, and each time, strangely, his mind felt comfortable and his concentration improved.
However, the dream changed starting from the point he suddenly got promoted at work.
A voice of someone calling him from inside the mountain’s fog began to be heard.
Saying that it is the duty of a scholar to repay help once received, the sound of weeping sadly and walking along the mountain path, and the crying sound of a beast were heard.
Strangely chilled, the man turned back and fled.
Then, it followed him along with giggling laughter, repeatedly saying ‘You’ve been caught, you’ve been caught.’
The dream of fleeing was repeated every night.
As the man drifted further from the mountain in the landscape painting, the voice calling his name in all kinds of voices also grew closer.
And he realized that, unable to flee any further in his dream, he had reached the front of his home’s entryway.
Waking up terrified from the dream, the man immediately rushed out of the house alone and moved his residence to a hotel. He stated it was to avoid the voice chasing him, and to prevent his family from getting caught up in it just in case.
However, the voice did not chase him in the dream that night.
Instead, he saw someone with a pale complexion slithering like a snake into the gap of his open entryway while giggling.
The man said he only realized it then.
That the voice was not following him around, but was trying to find out where his house was and enter.
Result: Entire family of 3 went missing, excluding himself. (3 unidentified bodies found in a nearby dam 6 months later)
Subsequently committed suicide while hospitalized for PTSD.
———————=
…It is this way.
Having to imagine the mental suffering of the person caught up in this ghost story was the worst part.
In addition, there was something even more uncomfortable.
‘……I’ve come too far.’
Already bewitched by the Changwi and dragged here.
Circumstances of answering the calling voice a few times.
The talismans almost completely fallen.
This was a description that would only appear in a desperate situation right before everyone’s death at the end of a long exploration record.
It meant it was a game pushed to the absolute end.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
I swept my hair back.
-Are you in trouble, friend?
It is not just trouble. I feel like I’m taking a bath in cold sweat.
-Oh dear. Is it perhaps because of the uninvited guest who visited earlier? An uninvited guest is always unpleasant. Even more so if it is in an unwanted place.
-So I want to give you a piece of advice. Would that be alright?
Uh?
I looked down at my pocket.
-I shall turn off Mr. Roe Deer’s spotlight!
-Then you can slip out of this place quietly without drawing anyone’s gaze.
“…!”
I recalled the amazing superpower this stuffed doll had shown in the theme park.
That strange ability that made my presence vanish completely, letting me move without getting caught by the blue mascot.
-You just have to quietly step out of that door and return home. There is nothing better for avoiding a tiring situation than this….
“…….”
I have a high probability of deducing the correct escape route based on the <Records of the Dark Exploration>.
Which meant, as long as I didn’t get caught by the Changwi, I might really be able to escape this ghost story very easily!
‘But….’
Isn’t that for one person?
‘By any chance, can you do it for other people besides me?’
-To someone who is not a friend?
Brown’s voice briefly distorted as if he had received an unpleasant proposal, but as a broadcaster, he still replied in a cheerful tone.
-Well. I might be able to do it, but if it were me, I wouldn’t take such a risk!
-Mr. Roe Deer, doesn’t everything have a fixed total amount, and the more we share, the less we will have for ourselves?
Anyway, it seemed that if he used it for others together, either the duration of his ability would decrease or its power would weaken.
‘As expected, to go safely, it means it’s for one person.’
Even so, to leave the kids behind, the conscience of a modern person who received public education was…….
Furthermore.
‘Brown. If we can’t take Manager Lee Byung-jin over there… a major problem will arise in our budget.’
-…Pardon?
‘Then I cannot buy the Blood Bathtub….’
Capitalism drags my feet.
-Ah… how could that be!
-But, but if we turn off the spotlights of as many as two, sensitive viewers can easily notice! Then the completeness of the cut will be ruined!
Right.
‘So I will look for another way.’
Of course, if it becomes urgent, I would have to quickly send an SOS to Brown and flee even if it’s just one person, though.
‘Let’s do what we can.’
-What a pity! I understand.
I searched my pockets for now.
Fortunately, several items I always carried on my way to work remained safe, as I had packed them even while changing into the security uniform.
The Smile Sticker, the Alice buff/debuff foods, and even the Snow White’s Apple.
Though I had lost the fork of the Vampiric Tableware just now….
‘It is originally a pair.’
Yes, the knife remains.
I pulled out the remaining Vampiric Tableware from my opposite thigh pocket.
And I was surprised.
‘…It grew larger!’
The knife that revealed its appearance was no longer the size of dessert cutlery.
Delicate craftwork was attached to the handle, and a very small red gemstone-like thing was elegantly placed as a decoration over it.
It had grown at a single glance.
‘Could it be that the blood consumed by the fork was shared with this side.’
Since it was a pair.
“…!! Is th-that the Security Team’s riot suppression weapon?”
I didn’t answer. Let’s let Manager Lee Byung-jin misunderstand.
I carefully wiped the knife, which was now about the size of a cutter blade, on the fabric once and put it in my jacket front pocket within easy reach.
Please let there be no need to use it.
“Then I will search this house.”
“Ah… yes!”
As I moved my steps, the manager hurriedly cleared the way for me.
I stared blankly at the stopped Manager Lee Byung-jin.
“…?”
“Please accompany me.”
“Pardon!? Ah, no. Well, I’ve already seen everything….”
“Since you’ve already seen it, it means please guide me.”
“U-uh… yes.”
Manager Lee Byung-jin was reluctant, but he moved his steps while watching my reaction.
It was fortunate. I avoided the situation of getting terrified while wandering alone, screaming, and fainting.
“Here, uh… was likely the kitchen. Though there was nothing to eat.”
Rust-covered, dust-laden, and mold-ridden, the old house was filled only with talismans in all directions.
The kind of house, old and abandoned where people no longer live, visible halfway up the mountain in the far distance when driving on a provincial highway.
“Did you experience any discomfort while staying here for as long as a week?”
“The thing is… I was neither thirsty nor hungry……”
The manager’s face turned pale.
“Th-the ghost, every night when the ghost visits, only at those times did I strangely feel like my energy was being drained….”
“Have you never gone outside during the day?”
“…I have, but no matter how much I walked, only the forest came out…… and terrified that the sun would set outside, I kept returning here.”
It was a statement that also agreed with other exploration records.
If so….
“Wh-where are you going?”
I headed to the end of the hallway which had no doorways.
And stood at a dead end.
“It seems there is an upper floor.”
“Pardon?? No, there are no stairs leading upward! I searched everything for a week, but not even a trace of stairs—”
I summoned the telekinetic hand.
And gripping the remaining Vampiric Tableware, the knife, in that hand, I launched it toward the empty air.
To be exact, toward the ceiling.
“Huff!”
A snapping sound of something breaking came from the knife stuck in the minute gap of the ceiling.
Then, with a noisy sound, the ceiling opened and an old ladder fell clattering down.
‘Attic room discovered.’
“M-my goodness! As expected of the Security Team…. The way you, uh, view spaces is different from ordinary people!”
“…….”
No, it isn’t.
I just read the exploration records….
There is always an attic in an abandoned house.
‘Well, the eyes of someone who knows something will be there and someone who doesn’t know at all cannot help but be different….’
At any rate, under the circumstances, it looked certain that it led to the attic room, but.
‘Wow.’
It really looked like a place I didn’t want to go.
‘It feels like entering an open room all by myself in a haunted house.’
However, since I had already pretended to be a Security Team member, I had practically volunteered as the tank. In the end, pretending to be unbothered, I grabbed the ladder and went up.
Aargh.
‘Please follow me!’
Unsurprisingly, he did not follow.
‘The Security Team impersonation will remember this event….’
Struggling to keep my legs from shaking, I barely made it up to the attic, quickly finished the search, and hurried back down.
As if I was highly capable and finished the search swiftly.
‘Phew.’
It must have looked natural.
“H-how is it?”
“It is just a worn-out attic. There is nothing special, but….”
I held up the sole harvest.
“It was placed on top of a worn-out small dining table.”
It was an old book, bound in an old-fashioned style.
[Hwallo]
“H-Hwallo! By any chance, is it written with the way to escape!”
You read Chinese characters well.
I carefully opened the old book that looked ready to crumble.
The inside was also entirely in Chinese characters.
‘Chinese characters…… getting a Grade 2 back in high school is all I have….’
-Hoh. What interesting contents.
“…!”
Could it be that he even understands Chinese characters?
-Goodness, Mr. Roe Deer. An outstanding host like me is naturally capable of communicating with all audiences in the universe…. Mmh, almost all.
I felt like I heard an extremely unrealistic remark just now, but the important thing was this.
‘…Can you read it for me?’
-Of course!
Good.
A brief throat-clearing sound of a classic broadcaster with a good voice came from Brown, and then the sound turned old and deep in a flash.
-‘This is thy sole Hwallo.’
Thud.
-‘O foolish one who, bewitched by a Changwi, stepped into the grave site of the Mountain Lord! Thy front is dark and a ghost clings to thy back.’
I swallowed.
-‘Do not answer, do not open. Merely cleanse thy flesh and hold out until the full moon, and when the full moon rises, go to the shrine and perform the ritual.’
-‘Then shalt thou see the rising sun alive. However…….’
I turned the page.
-‘A Changwi will chase with all its might once it finds a person to be tiger-eaten. Thou art already bewitched by the tiger. Thou canst never escape.’
-‘The ghost will persistently cling to thy house’s threshold, to the bedside where thou art asleep.’
-‘Therefore, become ye Changwi as well. Thou must capture and bring one who will be caught and die by the tiger instead of thee.’
…!
-‘The sacrifice must surely possess intellect, hot blood must flow within, and it must make speech sounds. Only then can it deceive the Changwi.’
-‘While offering the sacrifice, if thou followest the trail toward where the moonlight shines, there is a small snake cave.’
-‘This alone is thy sole Hwallo, and there is no other path.’
“…….”
-That is the end. Hoh, how interesting.
I closed the book while frozen.
‘……Was it this kind of thing.’
In the exploration records, it was merely mentioned in a one- or two-line description: ‘Designating a victim by drawing lots and performing the ritual. The winner refused, so they testified that they bound them to a pillar and dragged them along.’
Looking into it directly… beyond chilling, a strange mental pressure crushed a person.
Flutter.
At that moment, something that was inserted in the very last page of the book fell.
“…….”
A small paper business card.
When I picked it up, scribbled handwriting on the back was visible.
⧻⧻ Escaping tomorrow.
I flipped the business card.
Ko Seon-ha
Department of History, Jugang University
Was he the person who read this book first.
In the meantime, Manager Lee Byung-jin, who could read Chinese characters, seemed to be trying to read the book’s text on his own haltingly.
And he was startled to his bones.
“Sacrifice…… Th-this! Doesn’t this mean one person has to die?”
“…….”
“Right! If only one dies, everyone can live!”
I did not answer.
Manager Lee Byung-jin rolled his eyes and began to rub his palms with an anxious voice.
“Um, but, since everyone dies if we don’t do it anyway, so….”
“So?”
“…Isn’t it fine if a person who deserves it dies? I mean someone who likely wouldn’t have been able to escape anyway, yes.”
Is he introducing himself?
However, looking at the expression of Manager Lee Byung-jin who was signaling downward, I realized.
‘Format.’
He is talking about the kids.
“Honestly! About one kid… aren’t they all doomed to die anyway if the guard hadn’t come? We should focus on us getting out!”
“…….”
“If only one of them dies and the rest escape alive, yes! Isn’t that still a good thing!”
I didn’t expect to hear such a heresy of a remark in reality.
Though I could take into account that he had been trapped here for a week, feeling the fear of death, and had fallen into panic….
‘Still, I cannot chime in with that kind of talk.’
I glanced at the Chinese characters.
“Intellectual entity.”
“Pardon?”
“It is written in this book that one who possesses intellect, that is, an intellectual entity must be offered as a sacrifice.”
I tilted my head slightly.
“However, can you judge a child who is not yet an adult as a complete intellectual entity?”
“U-uh……”
“I think not.”
I quietly stared at Manager Lee Byung-jin.
“Wouldn’t it be an adult who is suitable to be used as a sacrifice as a complete intellectual entity. Then… it seems there is only one.”
“……!”
Receiving my gaze, the manager sweated cold sweat, his pupils trembling as he opened his mouth.
“Th-uh, uh….”
I opened my mouth.
“I mean me.”
“……Pardon?”
“There would be no candidate other than me. If we exclude the children, and the manager who is in mental confusion after being trapped here for a week.”
“…….”
“But I do not wish to die. I will look for another way.”
I began to examine the book again.
After silence flowed.
“Um, that… I am sorry.”
“…….”
“Bringing up children’s lives, how did I become a person who says such things… ha, hahaha….”
With a face that seemed completely out of its mind, the manager slumped in his seat.
“On the first day, it was my deceased father……”
He passed away on a sickbed due to cancer, and I couldn’t even watch over his last moments because I was working.
“But that father was crying, saying Byung-jin, let’s see our Byung-jin’s face. Please open the door.”
“…….”
“When I endured it while hitting my head, the ghost went back while spewing all kinds of mockery and curses. In my father’s voice.”
The manager lowered his head while wrapping his hands around it.
“Like that, every single day, it visits once in the voice of a deceased family member, friend, or neighbor…!”
The maternal uncle who adored him so much, his aunt, the cousin who died in an accident, his college alumnus, and even the neighbor’s child who was kidnapped and went missing….
“Now, doesn’t it drag out every deceased person I was well-acquainted with. It is hard to hold out with a sane mind any longer……. If there is a hell, it would be here.”
“…….”
Mmh.
Come to think of it, the middle school kids didn’t even know that there was a ghost knocking on the door outside.
Despite being here for as long as two days.
‘Did he stand guard almost right in front of the door.’
Whether that was intentional, accidental, or because he was bewitched by the ghost, at any rate it gave me a strange feeling that it turned out to be an action that protected the kids’ mental state.
I stared at the manager for a moment, then nodded.
“If this is hell, we must escape all the more.”
“…….”
“I will familiarize myself with the contents of this book a bit more—”
Knock, knock, knock.
“…!”
My face and the manager’s turned toward the door at the same time.
“Just now….”
Knock, knock, knock.
“…….”
“…….”
Excuse me.
The voice came, once again.