Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work (Novel) - Chapter 78

Chapter 78

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The dark 4th-floor hallway.

Students standing in a row like mannequins.

And me, moving my feet after calculating the standardized reach of the students’ hands in advance.

‘Phew.’

For starters, I immediately unfolded the item I had neatly folded in my pocket and wrapped it around my vital areas.

The ‘armor’ purchased from the Alien Shop.

Wrapping Paper 12B357-Na

The loose wrapping paper settled inside the uniform of my high school days.

‘The Nostalgia series doesn’t heal wounds or contamination suffered while it is active.’

Let’s be more careful from now on.

I moved my feet carefully, trying my best not to overlap with the dolls’ domains.

Since I occupied less physical space, it was actually somewhat easier. Moving alone like this might actually yield a higher survival rate on the 4th floor.

“…….”

I wondered if Agent Bronze and Mr. Jang Heo-un made it out safely.

‘They likely move with joining others as their priority.’

Since the agent wasn’t foolish enough to go to the 5th floor with just two people, he would probably look for others on the 4th floor.

Judging by the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he would take Mr. Jang Heo-un prisoner.

‘Even if he does, I really did my best, peer…’

Walking to the end of the hallway like that.

“Phew.”

I reached the front of the stairs I had climbed earlier with my peer and the agent.

And…

I began to descend the stairs again.

[3F]

I was retracing the path I had come from.

Why was I doing this?

To be completely honest, I didn’t particularly need the information items scattered across this school.

‘Because I already have it all in my head.’

It was no different from having already obtained and seen everything.

I knew everything up to the moment this ghost story ended.

Why the school ended up like this, what the theme of this ghost story was, and what on earth these students were.

Therefore, there was only one thing I practically needed.

‘The key item that will serve as the key to a maximum-grade clear.’

And now, I was going to retrieve it.

‘Probably… by now, the necessary item must have been ‘created’.’

I stopped my feet on the landing.

The 3rd floor below was very quiet.

“…….”

Because everyone had become corpses.

Under the bright lights, the blood-drenched corpses were exposed starkly in a gruesome state of mutilation.

It seemed most of those wearing school uniforms on this floor had died.

‘Even if there are surviving agents, they must have gone elsewhere.’

And at the very least, almost all of the students who had swarmed the teacher’s office seemed to have been deemed immobile and broadcasted in the fatal accident announcements.

“Phew.”

Aside from the gruesomeness, I felt an awful sensation as if I were standing in the middle of a disaster site where dozens of people had died.

‘Let’s calm down.’

This is a dream… It’s all a dream…

I repeated this to myself as I kept descending the stairs, continuously checking both ends of the hallway and the opposite teacher’s office in rapid alternation.

And I spotted the target.

Flicker.

In the brief moment I turned my gaze,

a student whose posture had changed was inside the teacher’s office.

…!

Of course, it hadn’t pursued me.

For that, the student entity was already in a state too wretched.

Both its arms were broken, one leg suffered a compound fracture, and its stomach was drenched in blood.

However, it seemed to possess enough ‘consciousness’ to tilt and turn its head toward me…

“…….”

I looked around the surroundings.

‘There is no sign… of another student appearing.’

Good.

I headed into the teacher’s office.

And I walked right up to the front of the student collapsed near the front door.

Bleached hair and piercings. It had the typical appearance of a delinquent student, but any impression from its looks was already gone due to its injured state.

“…….”

Wow, it felt like an absolute act of madness, but,

I grabbed that ‘student’ with both hands and hoisted it onto my back.

“Phew.”

Since piggybacking would remove it from my sight, I slung it over my shoulder like a sack and walked.

‘This is insane.’

Carrying a murder machine weighing dozens of kilograms like this was no small feat mentally.

Still, my physical condition was robust enough to handle it easily. Because the Nostalgia Candy was rolling around inside my mouth.

‘And… the destination is here.’

There was a route I had mapped out in my head.

Given the mess that had occurred, students would likely be rare on the 3rd floor, but let’s move quickly just in case.

I held the flashlight in my mouth and moved forward while feeling the wall.

Regardless of a blackout or whatever, the powerful flashlight illuminated the entire hallway brightly.

Even so, it was suffocating because it was drenched in blood.

Still.

[Infirmary]

My destination came into view.

Rattle.

I silently dropped the name tag my peer had slipped to me on the floor, quietly opened the door and entered the infirmary.

I saw three beds lined up near the window, obscured by curtains.

Inside two of them, shadows of people were already visible behind the curtains.

“…….”

I moved my feet slowly.

As I passed, the notice on the whiteboard attached to the infirmary door caught my eyes.

Students injured during exercise should lie in bed and wait until the school nurse arrives!

“…….”

It felt strange.

‘That’s it.’

That was the very clue… that had made me continue writing the exploration records for this ghost story.

The 12th exploration record left by the predecessor.

Exploration Record #12

Assistant Manager Kang Ji-woo entered the infirmary and laid the injured person (Supervisor Park Cha-on) on an empty bed according to the instructions.

No anomalies occurred.

Afterward, cleared by all dying due to a student entity that pursued them into the infirmary.

Because I saw a gap somewhere from the moment I read this.

‘It felt like the previous writer had left it intentionally.’

The explorers are ‘students from another school’ by setting in this ghost story.

It meant they were outsiders.

So…

-What would happen if we laid down an actual student of Sekwang Technical High School?

The imagination branching out from that question had created the impulse in me to write the 13th exploration record…

‘My heart was pounding.’

And my heart was pounding even now.

With something that could be tension, fear, or anticipation.

After a deep breath, I opened the curtain of the remaining bed that had no shadow.

And I laid the student on the clean cot that was revealed.

Overlapping in my head,

were the phrases of the exploration record I had written.

Exploration Record #13

(Omitted)

Employee ■■■ succeeded in luring only a single injured student entity along with civilians.

Entered the infirmary after binding it and laid it on a bed.

The opponent’s name tag was not removed during this process.

The student might have been able to move its joints if I forced it, but it was still in an awkward posture.

I covered it with a blanket and left the infirmary for a moment. Then, suppressing my pounding heart in the bloody hallway, I waited for several dozen seconds.

‘After this.’

Once the wait is over, after knocking lightly on the infirmary and entering…

Witnessed the injured student entity lying in bed wearing gym clothes after receiving appropriate first-aid treatment.

It was exactly the same.

“…….”

Feeling something that could be wonder or fear, I approached the only bed with open curtains.

The bleached-haired student I had brought lay on the bed in a lax posture, wearing gym clothes.

Bandages and splints were applied,

and it didn’t particularly look at me.

‘From here…’

Although the original exploration record stated it was discovered ‘while searching the surroundings thoroughly,’

Rattle.

I immediately opened the drawer chest beside the bed.

There sat a neatly folded school uniform.

[Sekwang Technical High School]

It was the school uniform of the student lying in the bed.

Though missing buttons or frayed parts couldn’t be helped, the blood and filth were strangely washed clean…

‘Sigh.’

My heart pounded furiously.

Without turning back to look at the student lying on the bed, I hurriedly brought a piece of A4 paper provided in the infirmary and wrote.

I’ll borrow the uniform for a bit

-From the transfer student who brought you to the infirmary

Then I folded the paper neatly, placed it in the drawer where the uniform had been, and took out the uniform instead.

“…….”

When I turned my head, I saw the student still lying down with eyes closed, wearing gym clothes.

Looking as if it had fallen fast asleep.

‘Done.’

I quickly undressed.

And after throwing my original high school uniform outside the infirmary window, I began to slip into the ‘borrowed’ Sekwang Technical High School uniform.

Thanks to our similar builds, it fit reasonably well.

After getting fully dressed in the old-style school uniform,

Rattle.

“…….”

the sound of a drawer opening came from behind.

When I turned my head, a reply had returned on the note I had left in the drawer.

Which grade and class are you in?

“…….”

Swallowing hard, I wrote with trembling hands.

The identical profile to what I had written on the back of my high school photo to enter this place.

And the name of the class where I had opened my eyes.

Class 5 of the 1st Grade.

At that moment.

The entire world turned dark.

“……!”

A pitch-black darkness without a single speck of light temporarily blinded my eyes, and soon, my eyes adjusted and vaguely revealed the contours of the world.

The school infirmary… where emergency lights and faint glow like an LED clock barely allowed me to distinguish the space.

And.

Tap, tap.

“…!”

Someone tapped my shoulder.

I turned my head.

The student who had been sitting on the bed with a bored expression was tapping my shoulder.

The bleached-haired student naturally withdrew its hand from my shoulder and moved.

Yes.

Naturally.

In a highly human motion, it took the A4 paper and pen I held, moved its bandaged arm, scribbled down some words, and handed it to me.

A transfer student?

Unlucky bastard.

And it lay back down on the bed.

As naturally as a human settling down to sleep.

“…….”

I stood up with a stiff face.

Rattle.

I stepped out of the infirmary door.

The world was still dark.

Yet, everything seemed to be visible with bizarre clarity…

A state of arousal where even the dust floating in the air seemed visible.

It felt as if a strange confidence emerged from the uniform and settled in my heart.

“…….”

Walking out into the hallway, I picked up the name tag I had dropped when entering the infirmary and tucked it into my pocket.

[■■■]

Unlike before, the name tag looked strangely luminous. Furthermore, despite this dark situation filled with splattered blood and filth, I didn’t feel an odd amount of fear.

But…

I saw something at the far end.

…!

Somethings were peeking their heads out from the Class 7 classroom of the 2nd Grade.

The silhouettes were clearly human.

But their entire bodies were writhing grotesquely.

It was as horrific as a ghoul in a horror movie, looking as though pixelation was manifested in reality.

Those draped in various decaying uniforms looked like glitched errors manifested incorrectly in the world…

And the moment they looked at me,

…!

I froze.

The moment my stomach turned as if backflowing.

Flicker.

…!!

Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, the entire world brightened.

With bright vision, I ran forward without realizing.

The glitch-like monsters couldn’t look at me, as if blinded by the bright light! Now they moved very, very slowly…

I can eliminate them here!

“…….”

‘No.’

I barely managed to stop my feet.

I managed to suppress the urge to pursue them. The sweet taste of the candy rolling on my tongue brought me back to my senses…

And in the next moment,

flicker,

the world had turned pitch-black again before I knew it.

And when my eyes met the monsters again,

they were already leaping down the stairs on the opposite side of the hallway very slowly from afar…

Leaving me frozen.

“…….”

My entire body was drenched in sweat.

My clenched fists trembled as if I had barely endured some massive withdrawal symptoms.

But because I was experiencing in reality what I had already known in print, I could endure it.

Since there was no confusion.

Since I had merely confirmed it.

‘…So this was it.’

Did you happen to notice?

Those monsters I just saw were the explorers.

The people dragged into this ghost story who were in the same position as me until just moments ago.

‘And I…’

Upon acquiring and wearing the Sekwang Technical High School uniform with the student’s permission, the explorer can perform the role of a student in this ghost story.

Now, I was a student of Sekwang Technical High School.