Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 160

The Bureau agents turned their eyes.

“Wow!”

In an instant, a wire entwined with ornate claws shot toward the mermaid juvenile’s clothing, wrapping tightly.

A-Team Deputy’s signature weapon.

“Oh? Fireworks!”

The child laughed.

As she listened to the infected mermaid juvenile’s laughter, Jin Nasol made her move—striking at the most lethal points first.

The parts that secreted paralytic and infectious fluids.

Slash.

“AAAAAH!”

The mermaid juvenile’s massive tail was severed.

Blood and mucus splattered.

“It hurts! It hurts!”

A Bureau agent’s attack barely grazed past her.

Without hesitation, Jin Nasol yanked the now-tail-less and incapacitated mermaid juvenile toward her with her wire, gripping it firmly with one hand.

“Ah—!”

And then she made her declaration.

“Come any closer, and I kill it.”

“…!”

A perfectly rational choice.

‘My leg’s not in working condition.’

Jin Nasol’s calf was still numb from earlier when she had been struck by the bell-adorned execution blade. Even running after the ominous cat had required her to use an item.

Trying to stand off against two Bureau agents while grabbing items and escaping would have been stupid.

And Jin Nasol despised stupidity.

So she made her decision.

“I told you not to come.”

“…!”

Even if words failed, certain gestures communicated meaning perfectly.

“Bronze, wait.”

Agent Choi, who valued each and every life, raised his hands in a feigned surrender while rapidly calculating an alternative.

However—

That was not the standard protocol for the Bureau.

"A hostage."

A proper Bureau agent, one like Bronze, would make a different decision.

These corporate criminals were hoarding twelve conch shells—potential life-saving items—just to escape for their own benefit.

"Even though they could leave without them."

If they let them go, twelve children would die.

And the Bureau’s priority was clear.

To ensure maximum survival at minimum sacrifice.

—If sacrificing one citizen could save many more,

"Then that’s what we do."

“…Bronze?”

Bronze made his decision swiftly.

He raised his glass hand cannon—and charged.

“Hey—!”

But at that exact moment, another creature moved.

Jingle.

“Huh? Wait a sec—”

Baek Saheon’s startled voice barely registered before the cat silently leaped off his shoulder.

Clutched in the cat’s mouth—was a conch shell tied with a golden string.

Angel’s Breath.

It had snatched it straight from Baek Saheon’s bag.

“No—!”

The cat sprinted—straight toward Jin Nasol.

“…!”

Jin Nasol instinctively prepared to kick and launch her wire, but—

The cat wasn’t targeting her.

It moved slightly to the side, slightly lower.

“Huh? Kitty plushie…”

The mermaid juvenile she had taken hostage.

The cat pressed the conch shell directly against the child’s ear.

“…!”

A sound resonated from within the shell.

A hum.

It sounded almost like the song of a beautiful singer.

Or maybe the lullaby a parent would hum while holding their child.

Or a triumphant anthem.

Or a hymn, overflowing with life.

But from all of that—

Only one phrase.

Only one melody.

Soft and warm, the sound trickled into the child’s ear.

“…Ah?”

The tail-less mermaid juvenile froze.

Mmm, mm-mm, mmm, mm-mm-mmm.

The bleeding slowed.

The ulcers that had covered its face and limbs began to fade.

The infection’s warping symptoms—the twisting limbs, the gurgling throat—began to recede.

Its vocal cords were restored.

It wasn’t as if the child was magically reversing back into its original state.

But the rampant infection had lost its momentum.

And the human life within it—like a spark finding dry kindling—began to burn brightly.

And then—

Hooo…

With a deep exhale,

The child returned to the form of a sickly but recognizably human child.

“…….”

“…….”

For a brief moment, the sheer wonder of the sight made everyone pause—their instincts overwhelmed.

“Wh-What is this? Mommy…!”

The child suddenly burst into tears.

As the infection receded, the hallucination disappeared.

The Shimmering Undersea Palace was gone.

And reality came into full, merciless view.

“…!”

Even the mind-control wears off…!

But as the child, newly freed from its enchanting prison, continued crying—

Shockingly,

The cat moved into its arms.

“Kitty…?”

The child pulled on the cat’s fur, clumsily clutching at it.

Yet the cat remained utterly still.

Which, ironically, made it look even more eerie.

But it was an undeniable signal.

This being—this cat—was not hostile to children.

"A ghost story that follows different rules based on age?"

Jin Nasol, as a seasoned field exploration elite, continued analyzing.

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

But she didn’t release the hostage just yet.

She only stopped actively harming the child.

Because the cat, in this terrifying form, was still unpredictable.

However—

“These bastards are insane.”

Some people knew exactly how to exploit the situation.

“…!”

A bullet flew.

Jin Nasol saw it.

The agent across from her fired the glass hand cannon, aiming for her leg.

Simultaneously, another agent—already close—moved to restrain her upper body.

‘Ha.’

Jin Nasol intentionally let herself fall backward.

Her off-balance movements threw off their grappling attempts just enough.

And at the same time—

She flung the hostage forward.

Straight at Agent Choi.

“…!”

As Agent Choi caught the child—

'There are hostages all over the place.'

Jin Nasol calculated coldly and moved to kick open the door.

'I’m getting out of here.'

The other Daydream Corporation employees had already sensed the shift and began moving for an escape.

Even Baek Saheon, clutching the bag containing the remaining eleven conch shells, prepared to run.

And then—

[This way.]

The cat stared.

“…!”

The ominous feline stepped silently out of the child’s arms, where it had been held by Agent Choi.

“Why is it…”

The four-legged beast walked through the frozen crowd. It passed all of them and stopped before something.

The severed mermaid juvenile’s tail.

The ulcerous mass of infection.

[This way.]

The cat’s form glitched, its shape flickering as it surveyed the people.

“What… What do you expect us to do with that…?”

[This way.]

The cat’s blood-red eyes bore into me.

As if it already knew everything about me.

“…….”

F**.*

Baek Saheon hastily grabbed the tail with his gloved hands, attempting to shove it into the waterproof bag.

But Agent Choi snatched it first.

“Ah…!”

Agent Choi firmly gripped the writhing, still-living tail, preventing it from parasitically latching onto his child-sized body. He turned to the cat.

“This? This is why you made us attack?”

Silence.

“What is this tail useful for?”

The cat did not answer.

But it did.

[This way.]

By looking directly at the Daydream Corporation employees.

“…!”

Agent Choi immediately sealed the tail inside containment and hurriedly pulled out a piece of chalk, scribbling a message on the floor.

A means of communication—connecting the Shimmering Undersea Palace and the Mermaid’s Grave.

-So, you guys use these tails, huh?-

“…!”

-Tell me where and how you use them, and I swear on my agent’s honor that we won’t fight until we get out of here~ ^^-

-Do you use them for escaping? We already know you’re leaving on an escape vessel. How does the tail factor in?

‘This lunatic…’

But Agent Choi had leverage.

-The cat seems to want us to talk, too, don’t you think?-

[10]

“Ah, for f***’s sake!”

As the cat began a countdown, Baek Saheon frantically glanced around.

‘I do not want to be the one answering this…’

Fortunately, Kang Ihak immediately crouched down and began writing.

-Oh~ How much will you pay us if we tell you? ㅎㅎ-

‘Another insane bastard.’

-We’re broke! ㅠㅠ Rich folks like you should just suck it up! You don’t wanna get your head split open by the cat, do you?~-

“Hey.”

‘You f**ing bastards*…!’

In the end, under the pressure of the countdown, Baek Saheon sighed and wrote the response himself—since his gold-crazed coworker clearly had no shame.

-You already know, don’t you? We need the tails for the escape process.-

-But we never cut off mermaid juveniles’ tails like this. We only take tails from fully infected hosts. We have to survive, too…-

‘If they find out we killed kids, they’ll lose their s***.’

He worded it as prettily as possible.

But Agent Choi didn’t even flinch.

-What’s the tail used for? Fuel? A ticket? A sacrifice?-

Was it safe to reveal this much?

[6]

Damn it.

-A ticket.-

As Baek Saheon finished writing, he instinctively glanced toward where the cat had been.

But the cat was no longer there.

“…!”

It was standing by the window.

And not on all fours.

[This way.]

The cat’s posture was unnatural.

Like something was puppeteering a feline body, it stood upright by the window—balancing on its hind legs, eerily raising its left forepaw to point.

It pointed westward.

‘…The escape vessel’s direction!’

And then—

It dropped out the window.

“…!!”

People rushed to look.

But below—

There was nothing.

The cat had vanished.

“……Ha.”

The air suddenly felt lighter.

Some people exhaled, others frantically processed the situation.

And then—

“The escape vessel… The escape vessel!”

Baek Saheon grabbed his head.

“That’s it! It’s telling us to get the hell out!”

“What?”

“It said to prepare for death earlier—I was wondering what that meant, but now it’s clear. If we don’t leave on the vessel, we die!”

“…!”

“We have to—”

But the Daydream Corporation employees didn’t immediately rush.

The Bureau agents were still here.

And—

The cat’s lingering influence on the situation.

“…….”

At that moment, Agent Choi was deep in thought.

The cat had forced them to remove the mermaid juvenile’s tail.

Then it had used the conch shell to heal it.

From every angle—it had shown clear goodwill toward children.

‘Hmm.’

Slowly, he began to write on the ground.

-The cat led us to the conch shells, showed us how to use them—it’s clearly telling us to save as many kids as possible.-

-Unless any of you wanna be idiots who die for greed?-

F**.*

But Agent Choi wasn’t done.

-Or… we temporarily cooperate until we get everyone out safely?-

“…!”

-We take as many kids as possible. Using the conch shells. On the escape vessel you’re taking.-

“…….”

Jin Nasol shoved Baek Saheon aside and stepped forward.

“…!”

She stared at the agent without blinking.

And then she wrote.

-Try anything, and I kill you.-

“Okay~”

And just like that—

A temporary alliance was formed.

A unit capable of utilizing both the Mermaid’s Grave and Shimmering Undersea Palace for navigation.

With enough manpower to fight off infections while protecting multiple children.

‘…Was this planned?’

Ryu Jaegwan’s eyes twitched.

Just what was that cat?

What kind of paranormal phenomenon was it?

No—first, they had to escape.

They could worry about the cat later.

More importantly—

He wasn’t alone right now. He even had a new recruit under his watch.

Wait.

“Podo!”

Ryu Jaegwan’s expression hardened as he urgently turned to his superior.

The new recruit, who had been searching for survivors, had been left behind!

“We need to find them immediately! If they fall behind here—”

“Wait, wait! Calm down. We were supposed to meet up tonight, remember? We’ll probably run into them on the way.”

That was the problem.

‘We cannot bring these lunatic corporate bastards near them…!’

“Let me deal with these guys first.”

Agent Choi secured the remaining common infection tails in exchange for leaving the conch shells with Baek Saheon.

And while pretending to haggle over the conch shells, he secretly planted a tracking device on them.

“Done.”

They set a final rendezvous near the escape vessel.

“Now let’s gather the kids.”

“…Yes.”

But in the end—

A confrontation between the cult-like pharmaceutical corporation and Agent Podo was unavoidable.

Ryu Jaegwan felt a cold dread settle in his chest.

He needed to cover Podo’s face as quickly as possible.

He’d have to make his superior understand.

They needed to protect the recruit’s identity.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

“There! By the fountain!”

“Yes.”

But the moment they reached the city’s central fountain—

"Agent!"

Ryu Jaegwan realized his plan was useless.

Through the sun catcher he had instinctively kept in hand—

He could see it clearly.

The recruit, Podo, looking up at them.

“…I gathered the kids by era and categorized them.”

Half their face was covered in ulcers.

“…….”

Ryu Jaegwan froze.

Cold sweat ran down his back.

His trembling gaze traced over the recruit’s child-sized form.

From the waist down, long, umbilical cord-like tissue dangled.

Thick flesh tendrils hung from their back—swaying like a tail.

It was grotesque.

It was monstrous.

But with the city’s underwater aesthetic—

And the tail-like shape of the infection—

This biological disaster had earned its name.

A mermaid.

“…But playing with them is so much fun.”

The recruit-turned-mermaid juvenile smiled, waving at them.

“Can’t I stay just one more day?”

Two Bureau agents paled as they stood frozen in place.

Because the recruit wasn’t partially infected.

They were completely one of them.