208 Chapter

Got Dropped Into A Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work (Light Novel) — novelight.net · All chapters

208 Chapter

The iridescent potion ripples in my hands.

The color of a dream.

The potion that grants a wish.

...Its label, engraved in delicate relief on the transparent glass bottle, reveals itself whenever the potion inside shimmers like waves of light.

I stared into it.

: Baekilmong Potion :
Wish
EX (miraculous)

Hold the bottle with both hands.
After expressing your earnest wish in a single sentence…
Close your eyes and drink the entire contents at once.
Any wish will be granted.

I’d known the instructions for a long time.

Which is why I’d been agonizing over it from the beginning.

What sentence should I use?

When using the Wish Ticket, in what single sentence could I express my wish?

Every time I lay in bed unable to sleep, every time I wrote up an exploration report in the office, every time I staggered home after barely surviving an urban legend—I thought about it.

The very first phrase that came to mind was:

A primal urge.

“Please send me home.”

It was desperate.

But I decided against it.

Home was too vague a concept.

I’d lived in too many places for the potion to reliably interpret what I meant.
There was no way to know what it would use as its reference point.

Worse, it might even send me back to the Baekilmong dorms.

...Even during my time undercover at the Disaster Response Agency, I’d gone out of my way to stay in motels instead of anything that might feel like “home.” That discomfort probably stemmed from this very thought.

Anyway, I kept thinking.

I had to eliminate all ambiguity.

I can’t mess this up.

I had to ensure the Wish Ticket didn’t interpret my wish in some unintended way.

“Send me back to where I used to live”? Still too vague. Rejected.

“Send me to a world without urban legends”? No guarantee that’d be the one I came from. For all I knew, it could mean I’d die and go to heaven, which technically is a world without urban legends...

I discarded possibility after possibility, meticulously narrowing it down.

A sentence that could specify time and space with absolute precision.

And I decided.

Clutching the potion tightly in both hands, I opened my mouth and spoke.

"My wish is—"

Here it is.

“To return to the place I was the day before I joined Baekilmong Corporation.”

The world I originally lived in.
The moment before I ever spun that roulette at the popup store.

A perfect designation.

“Splendid!”

It worked.

I heard the host's admiring exclamation and calmly opened the potion bottle.

Light burst out, but I covered it with my hand and closed my eyes.

Then, I poured the potion into my mouth.

"……!"

A dream you drink.

That’s the only way to describe it.

A bizarre liquid, synesthetic and unlike anything I’d ever tasted, slid down my throat.

It filled my stomach with radiant brilliance.

Formless power. Transcendent authority. Overflowing mystery.

Ecstasy and awe surged through me.

Yes. I’m in transit!

Oh my god.

My whole body is being pulled somewhere.

Deep—far—
To the place where my wish leads.

It feels like I’m embarking on a pilgrimage to fulfill a lifelong desire.
A supernatural force is relocating me.

Yes.

Yes!

I’ll finally return safely to my—

……

……?

“Guh—!”

I collapsed to the floor.

My body tumbled onto a dusty, filthy surface as a cough tore from my throat.

A musty, sour air.

When I opened my eyes, there was nothing but pitch-black darkness. Even blinking revealed no outline.

Silence.

What… is this?

The fantastical sensation was gone. The Wish Ticket had vanished. Which meant—

This was my destination.

"……."

The blood drained from my head.

I felt numb.

“Ugh.”

I twisted myself upright, my arms and hands scraping against sharp fragments that left burning stings behind.

Panting, I looked at the empty bottle I still held in one hand.
The last few drops of potion shimmered faintly like dying embers.

The space around me came into view.

...I was lying on shattered glass.

"…!"

I turned my head and saw where I’d fallen.

A broken, empty glass chamber.

I had collapsed onto shards of shattered glass within a dust-filled pit.

…Why?

Why was I… transported into that?

My heart began to thud in dread.
Before the fear could take over, I desperately searched the shadows for a silhouette of the device.

It looked like a large container once used to hold liquid. And yet—

...The device looked familiar.

No power, no lights, and beneath the broken glass tank was a panel of buttons and a keyboard—
an old-fashioned experimental machine, early 2000s style.

That was—that was…

The Dream Incubator.

A broken, ruined Dream Incubator from Yukhoe Research Lab.

……

I blankly scanned my surroundings.

My eyes, now adjusted to the darkness and guided by the potion’s leftover glow, finally recognized the space.

This was—

The prototype Dream Incubation Room of Yukhoe Research Lab.

"……!"

Something had gone wrong.

Something had gone very wrong.

Why was I here?

"No…"

Stay calm. Stay calm. I clearly asked to return to where I was the day before joining—why am I here—wait. No. No.

"This isn’t right!"

It’s different!

Yeah. The layout was the same as that old lab—but something felt off.

The silhouettes of the machines and documents looked different.
There were cassette tapes and empty reagent bottles. And computers…

The computers don’t have dust on them.

……That’s strange.

I staggered and turned my head. I needed a clue—anything.

And then I saw it.

A research journal.

"……."

Soaked in blood and filth, all the records inside had been erased, replaced by a single phrase written over and over:

We were deceived.

It sat beside the broken Dream Incubator.

Just like the one I had found last time in the Dream Incubation Room.

"……."

I approached it.

This one wasn’t soaked in blood or filth, but it had been scorched brown.

I turned the pages with trembling hands.

Burnt in parts, the pages were difficult to read—but not impossible.

Right from the first page:

Research Invitation: To the Name

I drew in a breath.

Research Goal:
To confirm the target…
To induce the descent of the …being into this world, and proceed with the contract.

We have adopted the name used by a recently popular cult that worships this being, derived from prior foundational research.

This will be the final project of Yukhoe Research Lab.

My heart began pounding ominously.

I flipped through the pages in a frenzy.

Endless records of experiments.

Each entry varied in format and executor—since they were never registered as official data.

All sorts of trials and preparations.

Failure. Dream Incubator #21 discarded.

Failure after failure.

Horrific ingredients and extreme methods, half of them redacted or smeared out.

They’d created something. Summoned something. Then discarded it.

And then—

Success.

A meaningful result had emerged.

Experiment #316
Solution volume: 1200L
Ingredients: Qterw-A-4’s …drake, ……-…326, human blood, ……
Thirteen other synthetic elements.

Succeeded in awakening the mind of the Name within the glass chamber.

Contract failed. Form collapsed within solution.

Suspected cause: insufficient fluid volume.
Future trials will adjust variables based on this result.

And the records grew more refined from there.

Experiment #322

Solution volume: 2300L

The awakened Name let out a shriek from within the glass chamber… then showed no further signs of life.

After recognizing the mutation of its own body, a rejection response occurred, breaking down the combined materials into a formless mass.

Request to adjust ingredient ratios in order to prepare a vessel that more accurately reflects the Name’s true appearance.

Currently investigating darkness-related to shapeshifting.

My hands trembled.

A dreadful suspicion began to loop in my mind.

The experiments continued, and their conditions grew increasingly specific.

The current known requirements for summoning and contracting with the Name are as follows:

Preservation of the Name’s original identity
Erasure of previous emotional attachments
Provision of a survival objective
Elimination of all cognitive dissonance

It was believed that powerful Taboo Seals could help fulfill these conditions, and multiple methods were being proposed.

And then—

An old invention by Yukhoe Research Lab was mentioned.

A now-discontinued product designed to implant a piece of an entity from the Other Side into a doll, so it could serve the contractor in a friendly, supportive role.

A limited version of the product was currently being distributed as a souvenir in a certain board game—

That was it.

The product known as “Nice Friend.”

"……."

I managed to turn the page.

The final experiment record.

Experiment #444
Solution volume: 39,999L
Ingredients: Same as #443

Result: Success.

Utilizing the ritual from the discontinued product, the Name was fully summoned.

Stabilized… within [REDACTED].

Upon awakening, it is to be removed from the dream-solution immediately and subjected to brief questioning.

The page ended there.

But—

"……."

When I flipped past the final sheet, I saw a crumpled scrap of torn paper tucked behind it.

Wrinkled, as if it had once been balled up and tossed—then carefully smoothed out and placed back with the experiment records by someone else.

On it, hastily scribbled writing:

Baekilmong found out. They stormed in. Another trick. Before they could steal the Name, I smuggled it out and hid it… in the place with the most people.
Please—

The sentence cut off abruptly.

Below the line “the place with the most people,” someone had underlined it heavily and scrawled a different note in a separate handwriting.

New Employee Orientation?

As if the writer had deduced it from context.

"……."

No.

My mind rejected it.

But the realization had already happened.

There was no need to guess.

It was obvious.

That this—

This was the answer to my wish:

“Please return me to the place I was the day before I joined Baekilmong Corporation.”

And in response—

I had awakened inside this broken Dream Incubator.

Which meant—

I was…

The subject of this research journal.

Nice Friend.
The entity from the Other Side, summoned by Yukhoe Research Lab and fused with a synthetic being.
Projected into a plush toy—like the host, Brown.
The consciousness of Kim Soleum, from another world, projected into something created in the Dream Incubator.

...Was that it?

"No…"

No.

There must be another explanation.

What did the Taboo Seal say again? I don’t qualify. I want to go home. I must go home.
I have to go back to my house, to my family, my friends—

So then...

Who exactly are those people?

"……."

I can’t remember.

I mean—

I’m sure I remembered them back when I first joined, right?

Didn’t I recall conversations with my parents and friends? Didn’t I go over my contacts, check records, verify locations—

…Did I?

Or did I just assume I had done that?

Can’t remember a single number I looked up.
Did I ever actually visit an old address?

I don’t know.

I don’t remember.

Just the belief that I had.

"……."

So am I—
This body I’m in—
Not even Kim Soleum?

If this was the place I’d been the day before joining,

If I returned to the place this body had been,

If I was created in a dream research lab—

Am I… not even human?

"No."

I looked down at my hands.

[No]
No!
Tha can’t be
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

My body bulged and distorted.

The tattoos shattered.

I was disappearing. The human form collapsed.

A self aware of the truth rejected the human body. It began reverting to its original state.

A sacred, grotesque, incomprehensible fusion emerged from inside me.

Scales, horns, hooves, barbs—ripping through ribs—

"No!"

My voice reverberated strangely in the air.
But there was nothing I could do.

I had already disposed of every item.
My tattoos were empty—

Wa i t—

In that moment.

I realized something.

There was still one thing left in my tattoo.

Something I’d borrowed—
Not mine.

"…!"

With a mutating hand, I clawed into the tattoo and yanked out the equipment.

The Security Team suit.

I began frantically # Nоvеlight # forcing it on.

My deforming body was shoved, compressed into the humanoid frame.

Dark smoke hissed around me as the strange form was sealed inside.

I barely managed to regain a human shape.

I had to run.

Staggering, I searched for the lab door. My glowing yellow eyes caught the doorknob in the dark.

I reached for it and pushed myself out—

—

A fluorescent-lit office hallway.

"……!"

A scene I’d seen before.

…Baekilmong’s underground.

Just as the Guard Captain had told me.
The Yukhoe Research Lab… still beneath company HQ.

“The lab’s still down there…”
“Go deeper underground… and the same office hallway repeats endlessly…”

What floor was this?

How do I get out?

Elevator…

My head and body were heavy.

An intense, crushing pain coursed through every limb.

Dragging my feet, I stumbled toward the end of the hallway—

And then.

"Impressive."

…….

"Such devotion. Coming back like this."

I raised my head.

Someone in a business suit stood before me, staring me down.

An age-defying presence, with a clean-cut appearance, navy-black hair, and a flawless three-button suit.

Executive Director Cheongdallae.

"Already dressed in uniform. How admirable."

His dark pupils bore into me.

"But that uniform’s not quite right…"

I opened my mouth—

But no words came out.
My vocal cords felt compressed inside the suit.

The awful, strangling discomfort grew stronger—more painful.

"Ah. So that thing lets a human appear monstrous. Is it a new model?"

"……."

"But when a real monster wears it, it’s just a mold forcing the body inside.
As you know, in this world, most programs don’t work unless a contract is signed."

And then, the declaration:

"In that state, you’ll start to rot."

"……."

"If you don’t like that, there is another way."

Cheongdallae pulled a crisp sheet of paper from his jacket.

"A contract."

…….

"Just sign. I promise humane treatment.
You’ll have a fulfilling role…
On the Security Team."

Blood began dripping from my fingers.

"Here."

"……."

"Make your choice."

I was going to die.

My ruined body twisted, my mind unraveling.

I couldn’t even walk anymore.

No strength to consider another path.

A dead end.

"……."

I raised a trembling hand.

And signed the contract with my blood.

"Good."

As the signature finished,

My body was instantly stabilized.

Like slipping into a perfectly tailored suit.
Like fulfilling a promise.
Like pouring the exact amount of water into a glass.

Calm spread through me—
Along with a strange new power.

And, most of all, a distinct Taboo Seal.

"……."

I looked at my superior.

"You’ve just been assigned a truly exceptional role."

And that’s how…
I started working for the company again.

* The END OF PART 1 *