Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 79

The Exploration Log #13 I appended:

- If you acquire and wear the uniform correctly, you’ll be treated as a student.

It was a bold statement.

Handled poorly, it could fundamentally alter the flavor of the original ghost story.

A Classic Tale with a Twist

The ghost story, Under the Black Shadow, played on two timeless tropes:

Monsters that only move when unseen.The classic nightmare of being chased relentlessly by something familiar turned terrifying.This was a school ghost story designed to invoke fear through familiarity—a place once ordinary, now warped and horrifying, populated by creatures that pursued you until death.

However, after ten recorded explorations, the story began to evolve subtly.

“Adding a little depth to the lore keeps it interesting.”

Take Exploration Log #5, for example:

Discovered writing on the chalkboard:

“Avoid the teacher. The teacher is...” (The rest of the message was violently erased.)Such tidbits gradually built the lore and hinted at a deeper narrative.

By the twelfth log, the hints had accumulated to the point of frustration for the participants. Fans loved the story but yearned for answers.

And that’s where my contribution came in.

From Fear to Discovery

By introducing the possibility of becoming a "student" through the uniform, I gave the ghost story a new perspective. Players could now explore as insiders rather than outsiders. It transformed the story from a chase-horror to one of layered intrigue.

Now, standing in the third-floor hallway, wearing the uniform of Se Kwang Technical High School, I felt the profound shift myself.

Far ahead, I spotted "monsters" slinking away around the corner of the hallway. They seemed confused, as though their predatory instincts had been overridden by my presence.

The sight stirred an unexpected reaction in me—a strange mix of disdain and pity.

“I belong here now.”

Walking these halls in the guise of a student felt... right. It was as if I had stepped into a world I was meant to inhabit. The monstrosities roaming the school felt like trespassers disrupting the natural order.

An Unshakable Duty

The announcement blared suddenly:

[A fatal incident occurred in Class 2-2.]

My heart clenched at the sound.

An inexplicable sadness washed over me, coupled with an icy hollowness—and an overwhelming urge to fix whatever had gone wrong.

[Please observe a five-second moment of silence.]

The halls were briefly bathed in a stark, unnatural brightness. Every part of me wanted to dash off, find the source of the error, and put an end to it.

But I reminded myself:

“I’m not really a student.”

Returning to the Fourth Floor

My steps faltered briefly at the thought of my assigned class—1st Grade, Class 5—located on the second floor. A faint echo of logic seemed to question why I’d even think to ascend.

But I shook off the hesitation.

“I’m only wearing the uniform; I’m not bound by their rules.”

With renewed resolve, I climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.

A World Transformed

The fourth floor had once been dark, its students frozen in place like eerie mannequins.

But now, it was alive.

The students moved freely, gesturing to one another, exchanging knowing glances, and holding silent conversations. Their faces were expressive, their motions fluid.

“They’re... alive?”

The Infirmary's Warning

I bit my tongue to keep silent.

Se Kwang students don’t speak aloud. Any spoken words would trigger ■■■ ■■■■—a mysterious and fatal consequence noted in the logs.

The students around me barely glanced my way. Some even smiled faintly when our eyes met, as though I were just another face in the crowd.

The Faculty Storage Room

I walked calmly to the end of the hallway, stopping in front of a small metal door marked [Faculty Storage].

A group of students, six or so, sat in a tight cluster nearby, blocking the entrance.

Had I not been wearing the school uniform, I wouldn’t have even dared to approach. But now, I stepped forward with confidence.

The students turned to me with mildly curious expressions, as if to ask, “Why is a first-year here?”

I pulled out a sheet of A4 paper and scribbled:

The seniors asked me to fetch a ladder from the storage room. Can I get it?

One student grinned, grabbed my pen, and scrawled a reply:

“Sure, lol.”

Jingle.

Another student casually tossed me a set of keys.

I caught them, found the one labeled 4F Storage, and unlocked the door.

Secrets in the Storage Room

The door creaked open, and a dazzling light hit my eyes.

Inside, mundane objects—buckets, mops, even a small whiteboard—shimmered faintly, exuding an eerie presence. They reminded me of the glowing name tag I had received earlier.

“Incredible...”

Closing the door behind me, I wove through the clutter, searching.

At last, I found it:

A simple decorative brooch crafted to resemble an azalea, the school’s symbolic flower. Its design was amateurish, as though a student had made it by hand.

Item Acquired: Name Tag Ornament

Description: A graduation gift shaped like an azalea flower, reading "Congratulations on Graduation."I slipped the brooch into my pocket.

“Got it.”

With this item, I now had the key to completing this ghost story’s ultimate "clear condition."

Exploring Further

I continued to test the boundaries of the exploration log, visiting areas only students could access:

Borrowing a book from the library.Tapping the keys of a dusty piano in the music room.Every action confirmed that the information in the logs matched reality.

Avoiding the Fifth Floor

One place I didn’t go was the auditorium on the fifth floor, where preparations for a "graduation ceremony" were underway.

It wasn’t time for that yet.

Awaiting the Next Trigger

I lingered in the fourth-floor hallway, catching my breath. My heart pounded as I waited for the next event.

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And then it came.

A sharp, distant noise.

The unmistakable sound of footsteps.

They weren’t random.

They were coming straight for me.

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An earth-shaking roar slammed into my ears.

“......!”

If a glitch had a sound, it would be this.

It was like hundreds of nails scratching against chalkboards simultaneously—an insane cacophony!

And I knew exactly what it was.

‘...The monsters!’

Those warped, error-ridden beings—explorers turned into monstrous distortions.

The noise was unbearable, like a hammer striking directly into my brain, and it seemed to emanate from the floor below.

What are they even doing down there?!

Their dissonant voices clashed in a nonsensical cacophony, making my skin crawl.

A sudden, overwhelming urge swept over me.

‘This must be why the loudest ones are always hunted first!’

The primal desire to silence the noise consumed me. If only I could just—

‘...No! Calm down. Calm down....’

I clenched my fists, forcing myself to resist the compulsion to charge down the stairs. I held still for several agonizing seconds, wrestling my impulses into submission.

Only when I felt steady again did I begin moving, cautiously approaching the source of the noise on the far side of the fourth-floor hallway.

The Scene of Conflict

When I arrived, I saw the monsters.

They were facing off against a "student."

No, the fight was already over. The student lay motionless on the ground, unable to move—a condition I recognized as the infamous "immobilization state."

But the monsters hadn’t fully retreated either.

‘Damn it.’

I braced myself.

Among the group of warped figures, only one remained standing.

It had been staring at the fallen student, but then—

It turned to look at me.

And I froze.

The Masked Horror

Far away, its pixelated form shimmered and distorted, the grotesque remnants of a human face melting and collapsing like a broken image file.

But this one was different.

Unlike the other creatures, this one wore a mask.

A goat mask.

And I immediately recognized it.

‘...Go Yeongeun!’

***

"Wow."

Go Yeongeun leaned against the hallway wall, catching her breath.

She was the last one standing.

Ahead of her, the (probably) last student on this third floor lay motionless on the ground in an immobilized state. The student was still alive, it seemed, but she had no intention of finishing it off.

‘If I kill it, another blackout will happen, and more will swarm... ugh.’

The civilians who had been with her? All dead.

‘At least the last three took name tags with them when they died....’

According to the company manual, even death in these nightmares didn’t affect one’s ability to continue living a normal life in reality. Still, it was unsettling that the Dreamcatcher Liquid only filled up when a name tag was collected.

‘There’s something to it.’

She had abandoned her hopes of a high-grade clear, choosing instead to subtly talk about the name tags and share them with her group. But those people? They were gone now.

‘Sigh....’

She had grown used to the gore, the massacres, the ghosts, and the monsters. Years of studying anatomy and cadaver dissections had already hardened her, but working for this company had taken her resilience to another level.

‘At least they’re not really dead....’

She thought this with a detached clarity that might have scared the old her.

Just as she decided to catch her breath before heading upstairs—

Flicker.

“...!!”

A new student appeared at the other end of the hallway.

Tall and sharp-featured, dressed in a slightly disheveled Se Kwang Technical High School uniform.

‘Hah.’

Another one?

She was done. Done with this nightmare, done with this chaos. She reached up to pull off the ultra-bright headlamp strapped to her forehead.

She didn’t care about surviving anymore. She just wanted to wake up.

But then—

Flicker.

Wait.

Beneath the dim, flickering lights, she caught a glimpse of the student’s face.

Cold yet composed.

“...Noru?”

It was Kim Soleum.

At first, she thought it might just be a student who resembled him, but even though his features looked slightly younger, it was unmistakably him.

Her blood ran cold.

‘Wait... wait...!’

What was this?

Could this nightmare have corrupted him somehow? Could fulfilling certain conditions trap you as one of the students—a monster?

“Ah....”

She knew a fair bit about contamination through months of working with ghost stories. The thought chilled her to the bone.

But then, she made up her mind.

‘I have to find out.’

If she woke up only to find out something had gone wrong and she had done nothing, she’d hate herself forever.

‘Even if I die here and wake up, that’s fine.’

Determined, she forced herself not to blink both eyes at once as she slowly approached him.

The closer she got, the more certain she was that this student was Kim Soleum.

‘The rabbit plush isn’t with him.’

The keychain he always carried was gone. This realization filled her with an odd blend of sadness and unease as she stepped closer.

Flicker.

The lights blinked again, but her headlamp kept her vision intact.

‘Almost there.’

She reached out—

But then.

Thud.

A flash of light struck her eyes, blinding her momentarily.

“...!!”

Her vision vanished.

The source?

Kim Soleum’s flashlight.

He had set it on a timer, rigging it to release a sudden burst of light to disorient anyone approaching him.

Go Yeongeun staggered, struggling to process what had just happened.

‘He set... traps?’

She felt a fleeting pang of betrayal but quickly focused her thoughts.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Still, she couldn’t make sense of this bizarre situation. Whatever these circumstances were, she had no choice but to face them.

Or so she thought—

Until she realized she wasn’t dead.

Not Dead?

There was no pain, no floating sensation signaling a return to reality.

She was fine.

‘What?’

Regaining her composure, she blinked away the lingering effects of the flash and looked up.

The "student," Kim Soleum, wasn’t looking at her.

Instead, he was staring at the floor.

‘The floor?’

Curious, she shifted her position slightly to see what he was looking at.

And then she saw it.

Scrawled on an A4 sheet of paper spread out on the floor were the words:

Goat Lady?

AAAAAAHHH!!!