Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work (Novel) - Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The 13th exploration record I had added.
-If you obtain and wear the school uniform in an appropriate manner, you can be treated as a student.
Actually, it was quite a groundbreaking concept.
Because it was also a choice that, if handled poorly, could alter the flavor of the original ghost story.
School ghost stories.
Monsters that move only when no one is watching.
‘In the Black Shade,’ created by weaving these two clichés together, was originally a classic ‘terror of the pursued’ themed ghost story.
A nightmare where places and figures that were normally familiar become bizarre things of unfathomable identity, pursuing me until they kill me.
However, once the exploration records pile up more than ten times, even this gets subtle build-ups.
‘It adds the fun of concretely imagining the background of the world-building.’
Exploration Record #5
Writing discovered on the blackboard:
Flee from the teacher, the teacher is (The subsequent text was roughly erased.)
In that manner, pieces of bait are added one after another.
It had only accumulated like that for twelve runs, and since this ghost story was quite popular, the atmosphere felt as though it would continue to ‘only accumulate.’
‘By that point, it gets frustrating.’
It also becomes difficult to maintain the existing theme of feeling terror from the void of information.
But the thing was.
‘If you can explore as an insider—a student—it adds the fun of collecting those bait pieces yourself…!’
The 13th exploration record I wrote matched the demands of the ghost story writers like that.
Thus, the ghost story ‘In the Black Shade’ came to face a new turning point.
From the mid-to-late explorations onward, all the eerie baits of the world-building scattered in the previous records are retrieved, revealing a shocking twist.
The latter half had ended up filled with deeper exploration records rich in story elements…
That was indeed a wondrous indirect experience.
Watching the seed I had planted be completed into a larger and newer story through the participation of multiple people.
‘But to think I’d actually experience it in reality too.’
Indeed.
Right now, I planned to experience the focal point of that story a bit earlier.
‘Let’s go.’
In the form of a student, I walked the dark hallways on the 3rd floor of Sekwang Technical High School.
From afar, I saw the terror-stricken ‘monsters’ slowly disappearing around the corner of the hallway…
The urge to pursue bubbled up sharply and then vanished.
‘Phew.’
Existing while performing the role of a student inside the school was strangely comfortable.
It felt like I was standing where I belonged.
To that extent, the aversion and destructive urge when witnessing an anomalous ‘monster’ roaming the school premises were even more severe.
Especially.
[A fatal accident has occurred in Class 2 of the 2nd Grade.]
The moment I first heard that announcement, I felt my heart drop.
A lingering sadness and a chilly emptiness.
And a sense of duty to find the cause of the accident!
[Let everyone observe a five-second moment of silence.]
And although I wanted to run out freely into the school that had brightened like broad daylight, gladly eliminate the cause of this error, and observe ‘silence’…
‘I am not a student.’
I must not forget.
Kim Sol-eum had many things to do.
First, I had to go up to the 4th floor. I stepped onto the stairs…
‘Ah.’
Huh?
The classroom of Class 5 of the 1st Grade, which I belonged to, was on the 2nd floor.
It seemed there was no reason to go up to the 3rd floor.
A thought that popped up like a notification.
“…….”
This was why the setting ‘they do not easily leave their respective floors’ was attached to the students.
Of course, it wasn’t something I couldn’t overcome. Since I had merely borrowed and worn the uniform and wasn’t an actual student here.
‘Phew.’
I moved my feet again.
One step, another step.
[4F]
Long before the dazzling ‘light of silence’ that filled the hallway vanished, I stepped onto the 4th floor.
The place that had been pitch-black with broken and flickering bulbs.
The 4th floor, where dozens of students had stood frozen like mannequins staring at people, was now…
vibrant.
…!
The students were now sharing silent small talk with lively expressions, exchanging glances or gesturing to one another.
I bit my tongue to ensure I wouldn’t make any sound.
The students of Sekwang Technical High School have no voices.
If you speak verbally while wearing the borrowed school uniform, ■■■ ■■■■.
Afterward, waking up from sleep and regaining consciousness.
To think I would be bound by the sentence I wrote myself.
I kept walking through the crowd of students, who glanced at me and turned away with little interest, or smiled awkwardly when our eyes met.
Let’s not look awkward…
‘Naturally…’
I passed the corner of the hallway and stopped just before the stairs right near the 3rd-grade teacher’s office.
There was a small iron door.
[Teacher’s Office Storage]
It was a leftover space usually used in schools to store cleaning supplies.
And right in front of it, five or six students were gathered sitting in a circle.
It was a dense formation that I could never have approached if I weren’t wearing the Sekwang Technical High School uniform…
‘But now, I can enter.’
I stepped inside.
The students looked at me with puzzled expressions.
Why did a 1st year come all the way up here?
They seemed to say just that.
I pulled out the A4 paper I had taken from the infirmary and slowly wrote.
The seniors asked me to bring a ladder from the storage.
Would it be alright to take it out?
One of the students smiled, took my pen, and wrote a reply.
Okay haha
Jingle.
Looking up, another student was already dangling a ring of keys in front of me.
I received the key ring.
And myself, I unlocked the storage door using the key labeled ‘4th Floor Storage’ and entered…
A place only a student could enter.
Creaaak.
A flashing light from the gap in the door pierced my eyes.
Because various items inside the storage were sparkling as if radiating their presence.
Just like the name tag I had received from Jang Heo-un.
‘My goodness.’
I had expected it, but it was an odd sight that stood out even more than I thought. After closing the storage door securely, I reached out my hand toward the items…
It seemed it wasn’t an item I could take yet.
Ignoring the thought that popped up like a notification once more, I sifted through and dug past various sparkling items—buckets, mops, small whiteboards, etc.—and…
finally found what I was looking for.
“…….”
It was a decorative brooch.
An ornament with a slightly amateur feel, made by coating thick paper, as if handmade by an amateur.
Acquired ‘Name Tag Decoration’!
Name Tag Decoration: A floral ornament with ‘Congratulations on Graduation’ written on it. It seems to have been crafted in the shape of a royal azalea, the school flower of Sekwang Technical High School.
Was it intended as a gift for graduates?
I took this ‘Name Tag Decoration,’ which was sparkling the most, and tucked it securely into my pocket.
‘Good.’
I had now gathered the essential items to ‘solve’ this ghost story.
Afterward, I went around various places that only students could use, checking if there were any discrepancies with the information from the exploration records I knew.
Borrowing a book from the library, briefly striking piano keys in the music room…
‘If there was even a sliver of discrepancy, it would be better to die quickly and wake up.’
But fortunately, everything matched.
‘…Alright.’
During this process, I absolutely did not go up to the 5th floor, where the ‘auditorium preparing for the graduation ceremony’ was located.
Because the time wasn’t ripe yet.
‘Around when will the notification come?’
I composed my tense breathing, waiting slowly…
It was then.
Aaaaack!! Go away!! Go away…
An enormous roaring sound struck my ears.
“……!”
Would it feel like this if a glitch became sound?
This insane noise, sounding like hundreds of people scratching a blackboard with their fingernails!!
I also knew what the identity was.
‘…Monsters!’
It was clearly the voices of the explorers, who looked like glitched monsters to me!
Whatever they were blabbering about downstairs, an immense noise hit my ears—no, my brain.
An immense impulse enveloped my body.
‘So this is why they pursued the loudest people first!’
I wanted to at least eliminate the sound…
‘…! Calm down, let’s calm down…’
Instead of being unable to endure it and running down the stairs, I suppressed the impulse as much as possible for a few seconds.
‘Let’s go now.’
And only after becoming sufficiently calm did I move, identifying the monsters at the far end of the 4th-floor hallway.
The monsters were facing off against a student.
No, it was already almost over. The student lay flat on the floor, frozen in an immobile state.
However, the monsters had not all retired.
‘Damn it.’
I prepared.
A single monster that survived intact.
It looked at the student collapsed on the floor, and…
turned to look at me.
And stopped me.
…….
I saw the monster that stopped me in the distance. A figure with a horrific shape, its face melting and pixelated.
Yet, there was one difference from the other monsters.
‘It’s wearing a mask.’
And the shape of that mask was…
A wild goat!
‘…Ms. Go Yeong-eun!’
* * *
“Wow.”
Only I’m left.
Go Yeong-eun leaned against the hallway wall, catching her breath.
In front of her, (presumably) the last student on this 3rd floor lay prone in an immobile state.
It seemed to still be alive, but she didn’t feel like killing it.
‘If it dies, there will be another blackout and they will swarm… Sigh.’
The civilians traveling with her were already all deceased.
‘Still, the last three returned with their name tags…’
According to the company manual, one could live normally in reality even if they just died, but it felt uncomfortable that the solution in the dreamscape collector only filled up when a ‘name tag’ was obtained.
‘…I feel like there is something.’
Go Yeong-eun had somewhat given up on collecting name tags frantically to achieve a high-grade clear, and had subtly talked about and shared the name tags with her group.
And those people had all died just now.
‘Sigh…’
Perhaps because she had become quite used to this gory slaughterhouse, monsters, and ghosts while working at this company, she wasn’t overwhelmed.
In the first place, she had completed cadaver dissection during her anatomy studies without issue, so she was likely naturally strong anyway.
‘It’s a relief they didn’t actually die…’
She had reached a state where she could think this quite indifferently now.
‘…Shall I head upstairs now?’
It was the moment Go Yeong-eun judged she should catch her breath before moving.
Flicker.
…!!
From beyond the hallway,
another student appeared.
A student of Sekwang Technical High School, tall and dressed in a somewhat sloppy school uniform.
‘Sigh.’
Wow…
I can’t do this anymore!
‘Let’s just go.’
If I endured this much, there shouldn’t be any issue with my performance evaluation.
Go Yeong-eun felt like just taking off the super-strong headlamp she wore on her head.
And just prepare to wake up from this garbage nightmare…
Flicker.
…Huh?
‘W-Wait a minute.’
Under the dark light, the student’s facial features were vaguely visible.
An indifferent yet cool-headed and neat impression.
“…Mr. Roe?”
It was Kim Sol-eum.
She wondered if it was just a similar-looking student, but although he looked slightly younger than the face she usually saw, it was certain.
It was indeed him.
Go Yeong-eun’s spine chilled.
‘W-Wait a minute…!’
What on earth was this situation.
Don’t tell me! If you satisfy specific conditions in this ghost story, do you get ‘contaminated’ and caught like that…?
As a monster called a student?
“Ah…”
Since she had worked for several months and knew to some extent about the contamination of ghost stories, terror rushed in, but…
she resolved in the next moment.
‘Let’s verify it.’
If she woke up like this and things had truly gone wrong, she felt she would hate herself for just fleeing midway.
‘It’s fine even if I die right now and wake up from the dream.’
She approached down the hallway, straining to avoid blinking both eyes simultaneously.
The appearance of the student standing frozen only gave her more certainty that it was Kim Sol-eum as she drew closer…
‘…He doesn’t have that rabbit doll either.’
Perhaps for some reason, the stuffed doll key ring he used to carry wasn’t visible either, so Go Yeong-eun felt an emotion that could be bitterness or depression as she advanced further.
Flicker.
The light flickered, but there was no issue thanks to the headlamp on her head.
‘Just a little more.’
Let’s get closer.
However.
Thud.
Suddenly, a flash-like light pierced Go Yeong-eun’s eyes.
…!!
Temporarily, her vision disappeared.
The cause was the flashlight in Kim Sol-eum’s hand.
He had set it to burst after a few seconds using a timer.
So that the eyes of the approaching opponent would be temporarily paralyzed.
Unable to confirm exactly what object caused it, Go Yeong-eun also grasped the situation and was dumbfounded.
‘Setting it up… in advance?!’
It was a trap.
She felt momentarily dizzy, but at the same time, she quickly organized her thoughts.
‘It can’t be helped.’
She only regretted not being able to grasp exactly what kind of bizarre thing this was.
But she wouldn’t be able to think this for long. Because those monsters were crazily fast.
In the next moment, I will di…
“……??”
I didn’t die?
There was no pain, nor any floating sensation of waking from a dream.
…She was perfectly fine!
‘What?’
Adapting to the aftereffects of the flash, Go Yeong-eun looked up at the ‘student’ with a flustered expression and froze him.
…….
Kim Sol-eum, wearing the Sekwang Technical High School uniform, was not looking at Go Yeong-eun.
Instead, he was looking down at the floor.
‘The floor?’
Go Yeong-eun backed away slightly, looking so that both Kim Sol-eum and the floor were caught in her line of sight…
…!
A message had appeared on the floor.
An A4 paper laid down before she knew it, and the words written on it.
Wild Goat?
Aaaaack!