Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work (Novel) - Chapter 38

Chapter 38

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The very first thing felt was wetness.

Splat.

As I put my hand soaked in salt water into the snake cave, a strange coldness felt like putting my hand into calligraphy ink.

And I was sucked in.

“…!”

The suction power starting from my hand soon swallowed my entire body.

‘M-my breath.’

It felt like wet paper sticking to my entire body, squeezing me.

Inside the pitch-black vision and sensation, my vision spun round and round, then…….

“Gasps!”

Thud.

My breath opened up in the cool empty air.

I opened my eyes.

A night view of a provincial city where neon signs sparkled instead of stars unfolded before my eyes.

A Korean autumn night.

‘…I lived.’

It was reality.

“Whew.”

I tried to raise my trembling legs and stand, but almost fell over.

Dark red calligraphy ink was leaking and trickling under my feet.

“…….”

I raised my gaze along the traces of the ink.

An ink wash painting drawn on an old Hanji was there, completely smudged and faded.

As if new ink had been poured over a drawing whose image had completely flown away after a long time, not even a proper form was visible…….

‘…That must be one of the several drawings leading to that crazy mountain earlier.’

Feeling somewhat chilled, I immediately averted my gaze and looked at the people splayed on the ground instead.

One, two, three, four…… seven. Everyone is here.

They were likely spat out by that drawing after me.

“Urrgh….”

“Are you okay?”

“Ugh…… Uh?! O-outside!!”

Manager Lee Byung-jin screamed while looking into the empty air.

“Haha!! I-I lived!! I lived!!”

Then, looking back at me with an expression filled with joy and tears, he bowed his head deeply.

“Th-thank you. For saving me……”

“You saved yourself, Manager. Wasn’t it you yourself who conducted the ritual?”

“…Haha, my, you are humble too…… I am embarrassed. Yes.”

Manager Lee Byung-jin bowed his head deeply with an expression that looked moved for some reason.

It was closer to flattery rather than humility, but let’s let him misunderstand in a good way.

“U-uuhh!?”

The next ones to regain consciousness were the middle schoolers, and I heard a surprising story while checking on the kids.

“Is this your school trip location?”

“Yes!!”

Come to think of it, it was a place that perfectly fit the description of the ‘pavilion on the hill behind the lodging’ that the kids had mentioned.

‘We must have all been spat out here.’

……It was fortunate that we didn’t regain consciousness in the gaps of that strange office in the company basement.

I didn’t stop the kids, who were hugging each other and crying with relieved faces, trying to run down immediately, but only left words telling them to be careful.

“Watch your step. As soon as you go down, meet an adult and then call your parents, okay?”

However, the kids seemed to be scared instead.

“Aren’t we going together…??”

Uh… naturally so, right?

Whether mistreated as a kidnapper or treated as a righteous person who saved children, the moment we go to a police station, the company wouldn’t like it very much….

‘It is enough if the kids return safely.’

I slowly shook my head and spoke.

“The misters have to go somewhere else. You must walk straight down from here. Do not look back.”

Because you might trip.

“…! Yes.”

The kids somehow grew brave as if making a big decision, and just as told, they carefully relied on each other and eagerly went down the mountain.

‘It’s done.’

Since it was a shallow mountain with a well-maintained trail anyway, going down would only take five minutes.

How the kids descended safely, it was then.

Tap, tap.

“Excuse me….”

The security leader, who had gotten up stumbling early, tapped my shoulder.

“This, take it with you……”

“Ah.”

The security leader held out the wooden stick where the purplish wild ginseng hung.

‘No, you could have just left it there.’

Anyway, accepting the wild ginseng that had fainted unexpectedly, the security leader turned back and began to walk tramping.

“…Where are you going?”

“The company……. I am still on shift……”

Ah.

‘But here is Gyeongju.’

On the way back up, wouldn’t my shift end anyway.

Anyway, I also followed along. Since I had to go to Seoul.

Lifting Ms. Ko Seon-ha, the grad student who was still splayed, onto my shoulder.

‘Let’s drop her off in front of a police station on the way.’

It was then.

“Ah, the two of you are from the Security Team, so you must return quickly! I-I will follow! Haha! Shouldn’t the missing person you were looking for go along? Let’s go together!”

I turned to look at Manager Lee Byung-jin.

The way he followed in a hurry looked like a sycophant worried about losing his backing just in case.

Mmh, since we escaped…… is it about time he knew the truth.

“And uh, after things are wrapped up, I will drop by your workplace to greet you again. Hehe, where does the Security Team work……”

“We don’t.”

“…?”

“Even if you come to the Security Team, you cannot meet me.”

“Yes?”

“Because I am in the Field Exploration Team.”

A major silence flowed.

“But the, the clothes are Security Team,”

“He lent it to me……”

“…!?”

At the security leader’s words, Manager Lee Byung-jin’s face filled with confusion, but he soon seemed to piece the situation together in his head somehow.

“Ah! Ah! I see. Uh? But you aren’t familiar at all… do you not receive administrative support? Ah! By any chance, a special team, something like that? That’s why the security uniform……”

“I’m a rookie.”

“……?”

“I’m a Group D rookie employee.”

“…???”

* * *

The matters after that were handled quite quickly.

Manager Lee Byung-jin kept shouting ‘Liar’ repeatedly until we returned to the company from Gyeongju, but after coming to the company and checking even my personnel documents, his face became blank again.

And he did not switch stances as if it were natural… or did he.

‘Why.’

I thought he would look down on me as a Group D rookie employee immediately, but unexpectedly he behaved politely and persistently watched my reaction.

Even though he dropped formal speech while trying hard to act magnanimous.

“Uh, Sol-eum, did you hear that? The, the kids and the grad student. It seems they returned safely.”

A few days later, the manager informed me that the people who escaped together with us were registered as civilian survivors at <Daydream Co.>.

He also tipped me off that they likely received quite a decent amount of information provision fees.

“In some sense, it is truly ironic that they can be seen as having their monetary luck open up. Huh? That is how life is.”

And that irony visited me too.

“Anyway, now you just have to trust only me, Sol-eum!”

“……Mmh, yes.”

“Hahaha!”

Manager Lee Byung-jin processed the manual review in short order.

…Only mine.

‘Is it okay for him to act like that after appearing from a week of unexcused absence?’

Anyway, it was a good thing for me.

The hanging scroll rod, the passage of the ‘Lord of the Mountain’ ghost story, was quickly collected as a Dark anomaly under <Daydream Co.>, and in that process, my independent escape method was accepted as a manual again.

Moreover, my manual revision review that was pending since my Group A scout application also passed rapidly.

Thus, the amount printed in my bank account was…….

Review Payment ₩100,000,000

“…….”

‘This is crazy.’

A hand-trembling amount was printed.

With two Dark anomalies passing the review, an unimaginable amount appeared on my banking application.

Even though it felt like receiving money as a secondary option instead of points because it wasn’t officially allocated work, when the amount reached this point, my eyes spun.

‘When the manual review coordinator is this friendly, shouldn’t I somehow conquer a lot of new Dark anomalies…?’

However, since I couldn’t bring myself to voluntarily meet various ghosts and monsters and wander alone, for now….

‘Let’s spend the 100 million won well.’

Where should I spend it to hear that I spent it well.

Well, three-tenths of this already had a designated place to be spent.

Namely, the starting point of all this hard labor.

“Congratulations, Brown.”

-Oooooh!

Blood Bathtub – ₩29,999,999

= ₩29,999,999

Purchase preparations complete.

Fortunately, the Blood Bathtub remained safely in the Alien Shop, and I was able to keep my promise to the moving stuffed doll.

‘Will it come by courier this time too.’

I was slightly dumbfounded when recalling the post office courier box suddenly thrown out from the empty air.

From what I knew, the Blood Bathtub… was a four-legged tub about the size of a built-in bathtub placed in a fairly large house.

Its legs were even decorated with gold foil to be luxurious, but that drops into this studio-sized private room of the company housing?

‘…Should I order it in the bathroom?’

F-first, I decided to push the bed and desk slightly in the room to secure space, and try pressing the order button here. Since there was too little space in the bathroom.

“…Okay. Ordering now.”

-I look forward to it! My heart is pounding.

In the room lit only by a single flashlight to converse with a stuffed doll that wouldn’t even have a pounding heart, I finally clicked the ‘Order’ button.

Tear.

The space tore open like the past few times. Tension rose.

However, the torn space is… smaller than expected?

Plop.

It spat out the package.

The package is also… small…?

“…?”

I opened the post office package, which was less than one-fourth of the expected size.

A product box was visible.

[Tub of Youth – Foot Massage Edition]

“…….”

No wonder it was cheap.

Come to think of it, since they originate from home shopping ghost stories, all kinds of editions and versions seemed to remain in the records too….

Except for a few specific times, there was not much of a highly significant difference, just detail fun, though.

‘Still, I never dreamed there would be something like a foot bath version.’

As if it was a special edition in its own way, a shiny gold foil sticker and even a warranty were inside.

[10-Year Free A/S]

Truly meaningless….

‘As if I would apply for something like A/S.’

However, I opened it regardless.

Since there was no record like getting my blood automatically drained after touching the Blood Bathtub in the <Records of the Dark Exploration>.

Unpacking the angular box like general electronic devices, an object covered in expensive packaging materials, just as brands advocating luxury do, was visible.

And upon stripping the packaging materials, it finally revealed its appearance.

‘…Tub of Youth.’

Commonly called Blood Bathtub.

It was a glossy black-and-white checkered bathtub that looked like it was made of sparkling ceramic.

The entire bathtub drew an elegant curve, and golden cat-paw-shaped legs easily supported the tub from all sides.

It was quite a nice appearance.

‘…Except for the fact that it is a foot bath tub.’

However, someone who possessed the perfect size for the tub seemed highly excited.

-Mr. Roe Deer! Please put me in there! Along with the bath bomb….

Wait, if it’s the bath bomb for the Blood Bathtub….

“…Are you asking for my blood?”

-Yes! You have very good understanding, Mr. Roe Deer.

This is crazy.

For a moment I agonized between persuasion and flight, but,

-Haha! Just kidding, friend!

“…….”

-There are neither viewers nor cameras, so there’s no way I would make such unreasonable demands of my friend!

Then what about when there are viewers and cameras?

But I did not speak it out loud. Originally, the one in a tight spot has to swallow their words.

However, I couldn’t help but say one word.

“I wish you wouldn’t make such jokes. It’s not funny, it’s scary.”

-Dear, I understand. Humor is an element heavily dependent on culture, so it must always be handled with care!

Is this what you call handling with care…?

-Anyway, to return to the main subject…… isn’t there already something more suitable to be used as a bath bomb in this space?

-Oh, shall we verify if our Mr. Roe Deer can guess it!

There is such a thing in the company housing?

I turned my head.

‘Don’t tell me you mean Baek Sa-heon who lives in the next room…….’

Surely not. It must not be.

Excluding that for now, there was indeed one thing that caught my eye.

With a reluctant expression, I pointed with my hand at the object that had occupied a corner of my company housing desk since a few days ago.

“…This wild ginseng?”

-Splendid!

Correct.

Namely, that depraved purple wild ginseng-like thing that I stole unexpectedly from the ‘Lord of the Mountain’ ghost story.

‘Should I call it sap, it certainly seemed that something like blood flowed.’

However, this wild ginseng was just purple in color and otherwise exactly like a normal wild ginseng for days.

I intended to grind a whole bag of apple juice and feed it again if it only woke up, and hand it over to the company if it was unmanageable, but surprisingly it did not wake up.

‘To the point where it was foolish that I stayed awake in a state of absolute tension at sunrise that day….’

Regarding this, Brown had even commented like this.

-It seems it won’t wake up in the future either. Isn’t it natural for a weak beast to play dead when it senses a threat?

I shall interpret it as being due to being dragged into the real world from that Changwi space, whatever the ‘Mountain Lord’s grave site’ is.

-Anyway, friend. If you worry a lot, I will steadily keep an eye on it in the future.

And the point was that absolutely no problem had occurred until now.

Anyway, so you are asking me to use this wild ginseng.

‘Mmh, that might be worth a try.’

If it wasn’t possessed by a ghost, it was just trimming a juicy ginseng.

Furthermore… honestly, I also wanted to see the Blood Bathtub operate once.

‘It is fascinating, after all.’

I had curiosity as well. That must be why I was looking into the ghost story wiki when I had free time at work, though….

There weren’t many ghost stories I could look at without issue even when encountering them in images.

I did want to utilize this opportunity that would operate with plant sap instead of blood.

-Ooh!

I brought rubber gloves and scissors from the kitchen.

A low and excited voice came from the monster stuffed doll beneath the bed.

-Now please put me in the bathtub!

“Hold on.”

Before that, I have something to say.

“This bathtub is effective for rejuvenation, but do you need rejuvenation? Mmh… you look young enough.”

I wanted to point out whether such a concept could even apply to a doll first, but I held back.

However, the stuffed doll laughed heartily. It was a neat sound, like a show’s recorded sound effect.

-Hahaha! You are viewing the concept of rejuvenation quite narrowly, my friend! It is fine. Since here is I, a good sympathizer and conversationalist!

-‘Rejuvenation’ is… yes. In the Chinese character culture sphere, it means ‘spring returning.’ Therefore, strictly speaking, it means ‘recovering the skills of one’s prime.’

Right now, when my body is strangely heavy and hard to balance, it is the exact efficacy I absolutely need!

Well… but you are a cotton doll.

Furthermore, the manual says it is highly effective for ‘wound healing, fatigue recovery, arthritis treatment, skin beautification, etc.’

‘…I don’t know.’

If he says so to that extent.

Cases of getting harmed in the Good Friend ghost story for treating the stuffed doll well and giving it power… there weren’t particularly any in the <Records of the Dark Exploration>.

A major catastrophe occurred when treated roughly.

I decided to stop before my thoughts grew deeper. It is needlessly scary.

Instead, putting on rubber gloves, I held the scissors in one hand and the wild ginseng in the other.

‘Let’s use it.’

And reached out toward the Blood Bathtub.