Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 159

Kim Soleum thought.

If a certain “kind friend” had been with him in this ridiculous situation, he could guess exactly what they’d say.

—Oh! Deception. A highly effective governing technique since ancient times. Guiding the masses to a particular scene—it’s getting more and more exciting…

Something along those lines.

‘Come to think of it, I’m walking on all fours… No room to carry that rabbit doll now, huh.’

A mindless thought. No, he was desperately trying to distract himself.

Because the stares burning into his back were too much to bear.

‘Ugh.’

Behind him, both Daydream Corporation employees and Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agents were following as if entranced.

No, even the mermaid juveniles—the children—were trailing after him.

‘This much…?’

Sweat threatened to break out.

It was true that he had deliberately orchestrated the moment for both factions to see each other. The confusion would amplify the psychological effects of the fake Necronomicon.

But he hadn’t expected it to work this well—to the point that not a single one of them had retreated, and they were all following him.

‘If they catch on, I’m screwed…’

If those veterans realized what was happening, he might as well prepare his will. His paws felt damp with sweat.

Yet, miraculously, Kim Soleum managed to keep it together. His survival instincts—honed since his rookie days at the ghost story company—worked in his favor.

Because of that, he was now perceived as an incarnation of some eldritch horror that had just caused the terrifying, supernatural phenomenon they had witnessed.

Even by someone who had begun to suspect the truth about this cat.

"Excuse me."

Baek Saheon.

The goat-masked employee walking beside the cat finally managed to open his mouth after several minutes of hell.

"What the hell is going on…"

The cat stared.

It stopped walking, fixing its blood-red eyes on the black goat.

Silently. Wordlessly.

"……."

"……."

"……Ugh."

In the end, Baek Saheon clamped his mouth shut, cold sweat trickling down his temples, and started walking again with spinning vision.

‘Didn’t die.’

‘Didn’t kill him.’

‘At least it definitely has a purpose.’

As people’s thoughts slowly started clicking back into place, rationality attempting to regain control—

The terrifying being in the shape of a cat spoke again.

This time, a different word.

[10]

…A countdown.

"…!"

[9]

And the cat’s pace quickened.

[8]

The cat grew smaller, slipping further into the cityscape.

If they didn’t follow immediately, something would happen.

[7]

With cold sweat pooling at the nape of their necks, the people shut their mouths and moved.

It was a rare moment where everyone—from ghost story exploration veterans to hardened Bureau agents—recognized an unspoken rule.

—In ghost stories, running away while screaming mindlessly usually gets you killed.

And so, the logic of the ghost story itself was protecting Kim Soleum.

Not to mention, the eerie presence of this mysterious entity standing between two bitterly opposed factions meant neither could act rashly, each wary of the other.

‘Thank you, Baek Saheon…!’

Because of that, Kim Soleum, despite his clammy paws, was able to maintain his fearsome presence, leading them forward with undeniable authority.

The ominous, black-furred entity kept walking, swiftly guiding them somewhere in the city.

The employees dodged the mucus left by ulcers along the way. The Bureau agents hurried to lift children whose legs ached. Everyone moved with urgency.

Eventually, past the urban landscape, an unusual structure emerged.

"Huh?"

"It looks… like a cathedral."

A stained-glass building at the easternmost end.

Though its glass was shattered and its symbols destroyed, it still held an air of significance.

The cat stepped soundlessly into the ruins, passing through a collapsed beam, slipping into an obscured space beyond.

Amazingly, there was a small annex there.

"…!"

"I’ve never seen this place before."

Concealed by the wreckage of the main structure, it had completely escaped the notice of Daydream employees.

Though, in the eyes of the mermaid juveniles—who saw things differently—it gleamed like an undersea palace.

"This was part of our last search area, wasn’t it?"

"Yes. Nothing unusual was found."

And so, while one group was intrigued, the other was confused—but both entered warily.

Following the black cat.

[This way.]

The cat stopped only once it reached the annex.

Before the left wall.

Below a torn, faded painting.

Baek Saheon hesitated.

"…And what are we supposed to do with this?"

[This way.]

Damn it.

Baek Saheon stared at the damaged painting, sweating, then turned back with an uneasy smile.

"Uh, Pony-masked employee."

Kang Ihak pretended not to hear.

Baek Saheon ignored that and continued.

"I'm not really an expert in these things, but could you take a look? This painting… Feels like there’s a safe behind it."

"A safe?"

"Yeah."

Kang Ihak immediately stepped forward.

He scrutinized the painting for a moment…

"Aha."

Without hesitation, he reached out and ripped it down.

Behind it was—an old, rusted iron lock.

"…!"

Baek Saheon had been bluffing, but there actually was something.

For a moment, he nearly grabbed Kang Ihak by the collar.

‘Should’ve just done it myself…’

Kang Ihak moved without delay.

"Mr. Cat."

He knelt before the cat.

Kim Soleum nearly lost his footing but barely managed to keep up the facade.

Kang Ihak’s eyes sparkled.

"A key! Where’s the key to the safe?"

Dear god.

"Haha, you told me to bow earlier, so I did! Maybe just a little hint about what’s inside—"

[This way.]

The cat remained (unwillingly) firm.

Meanwhile, Baek Saheon discreetly reached out and yanked the safe open.

Screeeech.

"Ah. It was unlocked…?"

And then—every single Daydream employee froze.

One, two, three…

Twelve.

Inside the safe, pristine white conch shells were neatly arranged, each tied with golden thread.

Items they had searched the entire city for—items almost impossible to find now.

"A-An Angel’s Breath…!"

Eastern city ruins. Annex beside collapsed religious structure. Total of 13 ‘Angel’s Breath’ discovered. Given the building’s nature, presumed professional stockpile.

This is what the cat had wanted to show them.

The black cat, with its red eyes, silently observed the thrilled employees.

If this had been a location previously explored, it would have naturally led them elsewhere.

But this place had to be found.

…For a reason.

Though, as expected, there was an unavoidable side effect.

‘Items!’

Greed flickered in the Daydream employees’ eyes.

‘How much is this worth in points?’

‘We have to take them with us, no matter what.’

But—for now, the lingering fear from the Necronomicon’s psychological grip kept them in check.

They seemed convinced that the monstrous entity before them would impose conditions or unleash disaster if they acted too soon.

And so—

[This way.]

The cat stepped forward once more.

A suffocating silence followed.

Then—

It sat in front of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau’s children.

"…!"

"A kitty plushie! Cute!"

"No! It’s dirty!"

Agent Choi stopped a mermaid juvenile from lunging at the cat.

If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.

Ryu Jaegwan broke out in cold sweat.

Either way, the cat, already perceiving the deeper layers of this reality, could still detect the voices of the Bureau agents trapped in children’s bodies.

And it urged them forward.

[This way.]

“…Looks like it's telling us to check inside that safe.”

“…….”

After calming the mermaid juveniles, the two agents carefully approached the safe, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.

The Daydream Corporation employees looked like they were itching to get their hands on something, but given the situation, they remained quiet for now.

And then, finally, the agents peered inside the safe—

“…….”

“…Bronze, do you see anything?”

“No.”

“Right.”

Agent Choi wiped his cold sweat with a stiff smile.

“…It's completely empty.”

That’s right.

To the agents trapped in the form of children, the shimmering ivory-lit safe appeared completely empty.

“But actually, something is there, right?”

Agent Choi lifted his sun catcher again and checked the spot where the Daydream Corporation employees had been fussing over.

And then, he confirmed it.

“…!”

There were twelve conch shells.

Agent Choi quickly turned to the mermaid juveniles.

“Hey, can you see anything in there?”

“What? What’s in there?”

“I see the cat.”

The children answered innocently.

The agents realized.

These items—could not be perceived by children.

No, more precisely… They could not be registered at all.

‘Wait a minute.’

Bronze Agent felt a chill run down his spine.

‘Then… that means the Bureau has never identified this crucial item before.’

The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau had always infiltrated ghost stories in the form of children.

So they had no way to perceive these conch shells, let alone search for them. They would only stumble upon them by sheer accident.

But now, at this very moment, the Bureau agents had become aware of this item’s existence…

Agent Choi snapped his gaze back to the cat.

The cat simply looked at him, its message unchanged.

[This way.]

“…Agent.”

“No, no, it’s fine.”

Agent Choi responded quickly.

He reached out, attempting to touch the conch shells inside the safe.

…But his hand passed right through.

“…….”

He couldn’t touch them at all.

The shimmering illusion of the undersea palace—created by the source of this ghost story—was rejecting the conch shells.

“Then…”

[This way.]

“…….”

Agent Choi closed his mouth.

The cat moved again, as if its turn had ended.

This time, it stopped in front of Baek Saheon.

‘Why is it always me?!’

Baek Saheon screamed internally.

But in the next moment, he understood.

“…Oh. So I’m the one who’s supposed to collect them, huh?”

That’s right.

‘It’s telling me to take the items!’

For the first time, Baek Saheon felt a rush of excitement as he obeyed the little black cat.

He reached into the safe.

[10]

Even in his excitement, his mind was racing.

‘How the hell am I supposed to take all twelve?’

If the cat had only told him, he could have just taken everything without a word. But now that it had made a whole show of it, he’d have to share—some with his awful boss, and some with his money-obsessed coworkers—to keep the situation under control.

‘F***.’

[9]

It had definitely gathered an audience on purpose, just to make things more entertaining. That damn cat—it had to be that psychopath Kim Soleum…

‘…Wait.’

Baek Saheon hesitated.

That overwhelming, insane, bizarre pressure—the presence—

Could a human psychopath really create something like that?

And that eerie red halo he saw around Kim Soleum.

Baek Saheon had seen red halos before. Humans could emit them too, as a sign of danger.

But Kim Soleum’s was different.

[8]

Less like a person’s.

More like something he’d seen in ghost stories.

A phenomenon.

‘No way.’

No way—his former roommate wasn’t just some inhuman psychopath.

[7]

‘What if he was never human to begin with…?’

A shudder crawled down his spine.

But it was too late to dwell on that now.

‘Doesn’t matter.’

[6]

The countdown was running out.

Baek Saheon gritted his teeth and quickly stuffed the gold-threaded conch shells into his bag. Ignoring Kang Ihak peering over his shoulder, ignoring his boss’s burning gaze, ignoring the agents watching intently.

And just as he swept the twelfth conch shell into his bag—

“Huh?”

He spotted one more.

Hidden at the very bottom.

It didn’t have a gold thread, but it was definitely another Angel’s Breath.

‘Jackpot.’

Baek Saheon immediately started thinking of a way to pocket it without anyone noticing.

He reached for it—

[This way.]

Something lunged out.

“…!”

Baek Saheon tripped over the cat, barely dodging.

A gelatinous infection mass shot out from the conch shell, slicing through the air in search of a target.

"Ah!"

Baek Saheon instinctively hurled the conch shell away.

Bronze Agent, who had been watching with his sun catcher, rushed forward and blasted the attacking shell with his glass hand cannon.

Thunk.

A sharp crack.

The conch shattered, and the fleshy parasite inside convulsed, writhing like an insect before it was shot again and pinned to the ground.

Splat.

Jin Nasol’s shoe crushed it.

“…….”

A cold silence fell.

Everyone slowly turned to face the cat.

The being that had led them all here.

The entity that had orchestrated this.

The thing inside the ghost story itself.

***

Hoo…

I resisted the urge to break into a cold sweat as the stares around me intensified.

Being in a cat’s body made it easier to avoid eye contact.

‘This was what I needed to confirm.’

Yes. Out of all the locations where I could have farmed Angel’s Breath, I had deliberately chosen this one.

The moment the conch shell hidden at the bottom of the safe was touched, an infection mass burst out.

This place had a specific trait. A trap item.

Like a mimic, a biological disaster had disguised itself inside a seemingly valuable item, parasitizing it. A textbook horror trope.

But when combined with the information I’d obtained from the Tattooist…

‘It becomes an even clearer hint.’

A hint about the true nature of the conch shells.

■■.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is frёeωebɳovel.com.

The overwhelming sensory information the owner of Moonlight Tattoo Shop had conveyed—about the conch shells, about Angel’s Breath—was undeniable.

They were entangled with a catastrophic and deadly event.

Most likely, the infection and the fall of this city.

Yet at the same time, the conch shells carried images of comfort and healing.

And then there was the Tattooist’s phrase: “Even if you rationally understand that something isn’t dangerous, if it looks tainted, people will still find it horrifying.”

If I pieced it all together…

A conch shell that was originally a medicine caused a catastrophic event—but its original function wasn’t destruction.

That conclusion was inescapable.

Which meant the real question was—who corrupted the conch shells?

‘A painfully obvious candidate.’

A biological disaster—the ulcers—hid inside the conch shells and disguised themselves as Angel’s Breath.

The same way the mermaid-infected hallucination created the Shimmering Undersea Palace to lure children as hosts.

‘They first embedded themselves in the conch shells and used them to spread the infection.’

That way, as the children became infected, the chaos spread rapidly. The city’s civilization learned to fear the conch shells—preventing emergency treatment when it was needed the most.

‘Everything fits perfectly.’

Kim Soleum had herded everyone here to reveal this hint without arousing suspicion.

And now—

“Aha.”

Someone had caught on.

“…….”

Agent Choi picked up a fragment of the shattered conch shell. Goosebumps crawled up his arm.

The sensation was electric.

A sharp, experienced mind could spot the hint immediately, drawing closer to the answer.

“…It’s medicine?”

He turned to the cat.

“This is a cure, isn’t it?”

“…!!”

“So that’s why the kids couldn’t see or touch them. And you mixed in some duds to make sure people misinterpreted them? So they couldn’t use them?”

The cat didn’t respond.

But Agent Choi was already certain.

With a voice eerily calm for someone addressing a presence that had just radiated overwhelming terror, he made his declaration.

“Yeah. This… is a cure.”

“…….”

Tension seeped into the air.

‘What’s going on?’

To the Daydream Corporation employees, Agent Choi’s words registered only as a mermaid juvenile’s laughter.

They couldn’t understand, but they could feel that something was off.

“But here’s the thing.”

Agent Choi’s gaze shifted to Baek Saheon’s bag.

Baek Saheon’s grip tightened.

“There are twenty-eight kids.”

And every single one was infected too severely to escape on their own.

“But there are only twelve conch shells… and somehow, they’re in the hands of some cultist corporation goons?”

Agent Choi raised his hand.

And pointed his glass hand cannon—

[10]

“…….”

[9]

The cat.

Was already sitting elsewhere.

[8]

Right in front of Jin Nasol’s shoes.

“Well.”

[7]

“I don’t know what the hell you want me to do.”

[6]

“So you’re saying, ‘Go ahead and do what you were gonna do’?”

[5]

“Fine, then.”

[4]

And so, Jin Nasol did exactly what she had intended to do.

[3]

The elite team deputy of Daydream Corporation launched the attack wire attached to her nail.

Not at the Bureau agent.

At the mermaid juvenile.