Chapter 209: Ch 209: PART 2 (intro)
6 PM, as the sun began to set.
A dim, golden dusk fell across the entrance of a certain building located in Seoul.
A modern structure with a cold, pristine ground-floor space.
Daydream Inc. (Ltd.) Annex Entry restricted to authorized personnel only.
This was the lobby of Daydream Inc.’s annex building.
Yet this sterile, ordinarily quiet and bleak space was currently buzzing with
the excited murmuring of people.
"Wow, check out the atmosphere."
"Hello. Yes, nice to meet you...!"
Dozens of young adults in black suits, freshly entering the workforce, had
gathered and were greeting each other enthusiastically. Their faces were
bright with a mix of anticipation and nervousness.
It was only natural.
"Congratulations on getting hired!"
"Hahaha, thanks! Same to you!"
After all, these were the individuals who had recently succeeded in joining
Daydream Inc., the renowned pharmaceutical company that had emerged as
a hot topic in the stock market over the past few years.
Thus, the company had summoned them to its annex building in Seoul via
email.
New Employee Orientation Notice
Today was the first day of orientation.
"A three-day orientation at the Seoul annex feels a bit luxurious, doesn’t
it?"
"Absolutely. Wow, this place feels more like an art gallery lobby than
anything."
"Yeah, big companies are different after all... Oh, are we all sales team
hires?"
"It seems so. Everyone I’ve talked to is in sales."
"Then maybe other new employees are gathering somewhere else nearby."
The people, intoxicated by their recent hiring success, happily chatted
amongst themselves. There was no reason not to be friendly. These were,
after all, fellow colleagues they’d continue to see frequently in this
pharmaceutical giant. The victorious new hires!
This cheerful atmosphere led some to generously include those who’d
remained outside the conversation.
"Excuse me, you’re a new hire too, right?"
"..."
Amid the bustling crowd, one individual, who’d been quietly observing the
interior of the annex alone, raised his head. A young man around their age,
with a weary-looking face.
Feeling somewhat superior, the new employee who initiated the
conversation continued addressing him.
"Congratulations on joining the company! Let’s work well together!"
However...
"Thank you."
That was it.
"..."
"..."
Silence.
’What the hell?’
How could a new sales employee have such poor social skills?
How did this guy even pass the interview?
As the atmosphere threatened to turn awkward, the person who’d started the
conversation quickly chattered again.
"Haha, actually... I have a friend who already works at Daydream."
"Whoa."
"Really?"
"Which department?"
"Yep, yep. I think it was... Research Team or something?"
The crowd responded with explosive interest!
Secretly relieved that he’d saved the atmosphere, the employee kept
speaking in a subtly proud tone.
"But you know, he was weirdly discouraging me from joining. He said I’d
regret it if I worked here, or something like that."
"Haha!"
"Friends who got jobs earlier always say stuff like that."
"Exactly!"
"..."
People laughed as if it were typical office-worker banter about being
overworked.
But...
"...epartment."
"Hm?"
The quiet one opened his mouth again.
"That friend of yours, which department was—"
At that very moment.
[Ah, ah— Mic test.]
"...!"
Everyone raised their heads simultaneously.
[Aigoo, everyone gathered well. Then let’s begin~]
A speaker mounted at the corner of the wall emitted a lively, easygoing
voice.
A man’s casual voice continued.
[Welcome, new hires who made it through the competition of 142 to 1! I’m
Kwak Jaekang, the Section Chief from Research Team 1, who’ll be leading
your orientation today.]
[Shall we start with a round of applause?]
Woooaahh!
The new hires enthusiastically clapped, though slightly confused.
"Why use a speaker...?"
Why wasn’t he appearing in person?
"Hm, maybe it’s something we’re supposed to do on our own?"
[Haha. Correct answer!]
"...!"
’H-He was listening...!’
[Exactly, exactly. From now on, to build teamwork and company spirit, you
new hires will engage in a very entertaining activity~]
[Well, it’s just one light mission, consider it a recreational activity. There’ll
even be prizes!]
The new employees quickly took this positively.
"I guess this is to help us quickly bond with each other!"
"That actually sounds great, haha."
After all, many large companies and prominent venture firms nowadays
conducted their orientation sessions creatively or uniquely.
"I heard one company even uses their office for a murder-mystery board
game."
[Aha, wow, that does sound fun! This one’s similar, you see. Yep, indeed~
Now now, then...]
The speaker’s voice grew excited, its tone rising.
[Let’s begin the New Employee Orientation right now!]
At the same instant.
Tadadadadak.
Lights switched on in the annex entrance.
"...!"
Under the bright lights, things previously unseen began to appear clearly.
Down the corridor, previously obscured by darkness, stood rows of heavy
iron doors.
"..."
Somehow, rather than maintaining security, it felt more like something was
being cut off and locked away... The atmosphere was heavy and alien.
’Why would there be something like that in the company annex...?’
But before anyone could linger on their doubts, everyone’s gaze was drawn
to the spot most brightly illuminated by the overhead lights.
There, on the front desk.
An object that stood out.
"Ah...!"
The new employees blinked as they spotted it.
A jet-black cylindrical box.
"A lottery box?"
It was large and old.
Its battered, crumpled appearance was out of place in the modern, pristine
marble lobby of the annex.
The thick paper cylinder was covered on top so its contents were hidden,
but the silhouette of the lid revealed there were three holes.
Each round lid was numbered.
⓵ ⓶ ⓷
[Alright, step forward one at a time and draw a lot. Pick the next number in
order, and then keep going that way.]
[Ah, let me show you how it’s done. You three who are standing closest,
come draw a number, one at a time!]
"Uh, yessir!"
Though they hesitated a bit, the three that were called out couldn’t refuse
and stepped forward.
And drew lots.
Shuffle.
The slips each had something written on them.
⓵ 6 BF
⓶ 322
⓷ Recite a nursery rhyme
"What..."
[Now, look at the desk again. You see the whiteboard behind the lottery box,
right?]
Everyone’s attention turned to the whiteboard.
Printed sentences were displayed.
After going down to ⓵___BF
and reaching room number ⓶___,
I will ⓷______________.
[If you fill in the blanks on the whiteboard with what you drew, the
sentence is complete!]
[And the mission is to carry out exactly what that sentence says. Too easy,
right? Haha!]
They filled in the numbers on the whiteboard, and the sentence was
completed.
After going down to 6 BF
and reaching room number 322,
I will recite a nursery rhyme.
"..."
"..."
For some reason, the completed sentence gave off a strange, unsettling
feeling.
’Basement?’
At that moment.
[Ah, and of course, there’s an amazing prize waiting for the team with the
best mission performance.]
The speaker’s cheerful motivational tone seemed to pick up on the room’s
mood.
[You’ll get 100 points, usable just like cash in the employee mall!]
A hundred points?
"May I ask what we can buy with that?"
[Of course! It’s enough to buy a robot vacuum cleaner!]
"Oooh!"
If you could get a robot vacuum cleaner, it must be quite a sum!
The atmosphere brightened noticeably.
Rationality and realism returned to their calculations.
’Worst case, it’s just a test of courage, right?’
’There’s no way the company would have us do anything genuinely
dangerous.’
Besides, with so many people here and teams of three, there was hardly any
room to be scared.
Even if there were some surprise, it had to be something even those who
were easily frightened could endure.
The new hires exchanged nods and smiles.
"Excuse me, do we have to take the stairs?"
[Oh, wouldn’t that be too much trouble? You can use any of the currently
operating elevators to move. Hahaha!]
[Now, go ahead and form your teams however you like!]
"Yes!"
They talked among themselves, faces flushed with excitement, and reached
their hands into the black box to draw their fate.
"Let’s do this!"
"We three will go first. We just take this elevator, right?"
"Let’s go. Basement 6!"
The mood was better than ever.
At least, until thirty-four minutes later, when the elevator doors opened
again and revealed only the lower halves of their colleagues.
"Aaaaah!"
"Aaagh!"
And it continued.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
Each time the elevator arrived and its doors opened, screams split the air
and echoed through the annex lobby.
Screams. Terror. Panic.
The elevators, arriving one after another, were filled with ’what used to be
bodies,’ each in a different state.
Horrors no one would have imagined encountering in real life. Blood, filth,
pieces of viscera, sometimes ash or ice, and even scraps of skin covered
with dense writing in pen.
There were even employees who, using their own blood, scrawled bizarre
phrases or patterns on the elevator mirrors before dying of blood loss.
"Uuaaagh!!!"
Those who managed to return alive were in no condition to speak.
"We have to run! Run! Run!"
"I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry for knocking on the door, I’m so sorry..."
Some mumbled in a daze.
Then, finally, a few who were still lucid appeared.
"Th, This person is okay!"
"..."
"What on earth happened?! What is this?!"
A new hire, using the corpse of a colleague as a shield in front of the
elevator doors, spoke with a deathly pale face.
"There’s someone there."
Down in the basement where they’d gone, behind the door—
"Someone? Who?! Who’s there?!"
...
"A... A strange employee."
And then survivors’ accounts came pouring out.
When the elevator doors opened, what was revealed was a cold, desolate
corridor in the basement.
The many iron doors there, and the strange markings found only on the
door they were assigned to. The sounds, the smell of blood, the light that
came from just that door...
And the scene glimpsed through the small hole above the room number
plate.
An employee.
"They were wearing an employee uniform... but it was weird. Really
weird..."
A child in a lab coat. One with an oxygen tank. One holding a bunch of
balloons. One with a cowboy hat and wooden hands. One wearing a lion
dance mask...
The descriptions of those bizarre appearances made everyone’s blood run
cold.
And then—
"I-It responded."
"...!"
"It reacted to what we did! It ch-chased after us, and then... like that!"
Heads turned toward the elevator doors, now filled with body parts.
"..."
"..."
The new hires realized.
This ’do as the sentence says’ mission.
It was basically a suicide act straight out of a horror movie.
They had been swept up into an unreal catastrophe.
"No!"
About half of the new hires, those who hadn’t yet gone down to do their
mission, looked at each other in terror, then bolted for the main entrance.
But the annex’s only door was already sealed.
People clung to the door where the shutter had come down.
"Please let us out!"
"M-My phone doesn’t work. What do we do?"
"This... This has to be some kind of prank show. Y-Yeah, there must be
cameras somewhere..."
"Please open the door! Please, I’m begging you!"
Bang, bang, bang!
Even when they pounded on the door until their fists bled, there was no
response.
A few new hires caught on to another method of communication.
"The speakers!"
They all rushed over to the speakers that had broadcast ’Section Chief
Kwak Jaekang’s’ voice, begging for help, pleading in fear.
But...
[(Beep-) No attendant available. Automated response system activated.]
Section Chief Kwak Jaekang’s voice could no longer be heard from the
speakers.
Instead, a recorded, cheerful voice played on loop.
[The main entrance will open once all participants have attempted the
mission. In 30 seconds, any attempt to force the shutter will result in death
by security protocol.]
[Orientation participants, keep your spirits up!]
Bee-bee-bee-beep— beep!
"Aaaagh!"
Two employees who tried to break the shutter had their heads burst open.
And then, they died.
Pandemonium.
"U-Uhhhhh..."
"Hicc..."
No one could understand how or why this was happening.
Faced with something so impossible, so unreal, the chaos in the lobby only gradually died down.
From then on, the people in the lobby gathered trembling before the front
desk, clinging to each other for more than half a day.
Occasionally, there was whispered discussion and some movement to try to
find a way out, but at least, nobody so much as approached the elevators.
No one seemed willing to complete the mission.
Then came a brutal incentive.
[Mission delay has exceeded six hours. This is an announcement.]
[If the next participant does not board the elevator within five minutes,
death by security protocol will occur.]
"..."
"..."
The new hires looked at each other with trembling eyes.
Someone.
Someone had to go.
Someone had to get on the elevator.
Who would it be?
"Fuck..."
The new hire who, hours earlier, had boasted about having a friend at the
company, now tried to hide in a corner, avoiding everyone’s gaze.
Sweating coldly, he looked again at the sentence his team had completed.
After going down to 13 BF
and reaching room number 666,
I will knock and go inside.
He’s going to die.
There was no way he’d survive with numbers that ominous.
’Run...’
Then.
"The next ones up! The ones who already drew!"
Damn it!
"There they are! It’s those people!"
"...!"
The others rushed over and forcibly shoved his team into the elevator.
They struggled like mad, but were outnumbered, with no weapons or means
to resist.
"No!"
[The doors are closing.]
As he tried to get up, struggling in panic, he desperately pressed the open
button.
At that moment, one of his teammates grabbed his hand and pulled it down.
"...!"
"It’s too late."
Thunk.
The doors closed.
"Hiiek!"
In a terror so deep he couldn’t even feel anger, he turned his head and saw
the pale-faced peer staring at him.
The one who’d always been weirdly quiet.
But now, that person spoke calmly, almost as if explaining.
"Because of the security protocol, someone died. Which means, even if we
just stayed in the lobby like this, we’d die all the same..."
"..."
"At this point, we have no choice but to go through with it."
"N-No...!"
"Calm down and think. There were quite a few people who came back
unharmed."
As if to snap them out of it, the other person grabbed that guy’s shoulder.
"...At least one out of every three teams testified that ’nothing happened’ to
them."
"...!!"
It was true.
"For the teams where something did happen, about half of them still had
survivors. So, compared to just dying in the lobby, your odds are better this
way."
– Nothing really happened... – Just... there was a weird person in some kind of special agent uniform
silently staring at us.
– There was really no one inside!
"..."
"...Let’s move carefully, based on the previous teams’ testimonies."
Gasping for breath, the two new hires slowly nodded.
It was thanks to the composure of the one who seemed almost like an
experienced veteran.
The new hire who had tried to act self-important ended up speaking without
realizing it.
"Um, by the way, may I ask your name...?"
"..."
The previously silent person spoke up.
"My name is Jang Heowoon."
Ding.
The elevator arrived at the basement.
Shaking, the new hires stepped out into the old hallway lined with iron
doors.
And they found the room they were looking for.
666
Taking a breath, they reached out and touched the door.
Knock knock knock.
* * *
I had a dream.
A truly strange and bizarre nightmare.
A dream in which I entered the ghost-story wiki I loved so much.
In the dream, I became an elite employee at a horrific pharmaceutical
company that pushed workers into ghost stories to make potion ingredients.
I also infiltrated the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau, a special
agency that rescued people from these ghost stories, as a spy.
Through that, I encountered so many ghost stories from the
Exploration Records> wiki.
A convenience store where you played tag with ghosts, a quiz show where
you died if you got the answer wrong, ink wash paintings haunted by evil
spirits, exhibitions that charged organs as entry fees, a strange theme
park...
Fierce and chilling, days teetering between life and death.
And yet, I also met unforgettable people.
– Kim Soleum-ssi. Can you hear me?
– Roe, I heard seventeen employees escaped thanks to your
announcements!
– I hope your wish comes true.
– You’ll be alright, Grapes-ie.
An overpowering afterimage remains.
You know those dreams where, even if you forget most details upon
waking, a strong impression and afterglow remain like a shock?
Especially when the ending is terrifying and traumatic.
I survived close calls, endured horrors, worked at a ghost story company,
and finally, at the very moment I drank the Wish Ticket I had so desperately
wanted...
ThetruthisIwas■■■■■■anddidnotcrashlandinanotherworldbutwasinvitedan
dmybodyisnothumanandIrealizedthat■■■■■■.
No!
I don’t want to wake up.
I don’t want to know reality.
I don’t want to realize that I am still in Daydream Inc.
...
And in the next moment, I realized.
That I cannot sleep.
Gaaasp.
Dawn.
I sat up in bed, gasping for breath.
No, I must have made a ’breathing’ sound.
If I had a normal voice box, that is.
"..."
I reached for my throat.
Shhhhk—
A strange hiss of smoke.
I could feel the rubbery material of a work suit instead of skin, the hand in
the shiny glove wrapping around my neck.
I fumbled. The silhouette was human.
But when my hand touched the bizarre, rib-like horns connecting from my
neck to over my head, I let my hand fall.
"..."
Again, I realize.
I cannot sleep.
– Bzzz!
– Your work shift has begun. Please wake up. Your work shift has begun.
Please wake up...
I rose from the steel bed and began today’s work.
As per the contract.
goblin notes:
We are so back~