LNCrawler

211 Chapter

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

211 Chapter

TL Note:
Guys, regarding the Novelight inserts — you're absolutely right. Our translations get stolen very often, and that watermark serves as minimal protection for our work. I hope you can understand and accept this 😊
***
 
The monster’s fingers, wrapped in black gloves, swept upward.
With that smooth motion, every basement-level button on the elevator panel lit up.
The new hires stared blankly at the sight.
What… did it just do?
“C-cancel! Can we—cancel—”
Too late.
It only took a blink for the elevator to move a single floor.
Ding.
[Now arriving: Basement Level 12.]
The elevator doors opened without warning.
Like a lightning bolt, the memory of what happened hours ago flashed through their minds.
—Uuuuurgh… huuup.
—W-what the hell is this…?
The elevator that had gone to Basement 12 for a "mission" had returned with one employee missing, leaving only a pool of red blood on the floor.
[Doors opening.]
The elevator's light dimly revealed the dark hallway of Basement 12.
The new hires held their breath.
“……”
“……”
But the hallway was clean—no blood in sight. Unlike the elevator.
“Haah…”
Before they could instinctively feel relieved, something off caught their eye. Greasy soil or dust had piled up and was wedged in the gap beneath the elevator doors.
Dirt…?
They looked up to find its source.
Chunks of something were scattered like markers along the hallway.
Weathered, decomposing masses.
But as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, the silhouettes became clear.
An ankle near the ankle bone, a severed ear and temple, a right shoulder blade…
Remnants of body parts, bloodless and mannequin-like.
“H-hiiiee…”
Thmp.
A new hire clamped a hand over their own mouth, suppressing the whimper.
They couldn't make a sound.
Because—at the end of their gaze—they saw something huge.
Something standing silently in the dark hallway.
It too was wearing a uniform.
The same security uniform as the horned monster standing with them in the elevator—clean, unchanged, the perfect silhouette of a human being. It almost looked like a bored security employee standing idle.
But…
Its head was a scarecrow.
A crude, straw-made, hollow face. Its features were drawn with fresh blood.
……
Somewhere, a song began.
Standing tall all day long
The angry scarecrow man
It echoed faintly through the hallway.
Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp—oh dear, I’m scared
The birds all fly away
Hahaha, be careful now
Your hat might blow away
Drip.
A bead of blood from the scarecrow’s awkwardly drawn eye fell from the end of a straw.
Standing tall all day long…
When did it start?
The angry scarecrow man…
When did that head turn to face this way?
“……”
Gulp.
The new hires froze in place.
The scarecrow hadn’t moved.
But…
Why had it shifted?
Why was it now a full door closer?
Why was it suddenly raising its straw left hand?
Why was there a weed-cutting sickle in its grasp?
Why was its face—
“AAAAAAAAH!”
Just then, the elevator beside them opened.
Light and screams spilled out.
“…!”
More people—clearly a different team sent to complete a mission on this floor—fell inside the elevator in panic.
“Wh-what the hell is that?!”
They screamed at the sight of the scarecrow and the body fragments scattered across the hallway floor.
……
Standing tall and still all day
The kind scarecrow man
Why was the scarecrow standing with its head turned now?
“GYAAAH!”
“Close it! CLOSE—!”
“N-no! We have to run—!”
Too late.
And the new hire who’d been watching all this in frozen horror suddenly realized—
Yes. A chance to escape.
“Hkk!”
This was the moment. While it wasn’t looking, while it was distracted—quick, now! The new hire thrust his hand forward to hit the “Close” button—
But a black-gloved hand blocked him.
“…!”
Gas mask. Yellow lantern eyes. Horns like antlers or ribs branching from every angle.
The Security Team officer from Room 666, Basement 13, didn’t even glance at him.
It simply stared out of the elevator, and from the gas mask’s filters, a thick black smoke began to pour out, pooling at its feet.
Hoooooo…
Then the smoke rolled out, spreading like mist toward Basement 12.
Toward the scarecrow.
Hahaha, be careful now
Your hat might blow away
Standing tall and still all day
The kind…
WHOOSH.
The smoke surged upward, swallowing the scarecrow.
“!!”
Sound vanished into thick black.
So dense and heavy was the smoke, the scarecrow’s form vanished completely beneath it.
And from beneath it…
A new sound.
CRK-K-KRRRK
A grotesque noise echoed down the hallway.
The new hires held their breath, panting as they listened.
The scarecrow—now hidden beneath a veil of pitch-black smoke—was no longer visible, not even its shadow.
Only the sounds remained.
Raw, brutal tearing.
Crack crack CRACK—like horns or bones snapping. Like something being scraped. Like something forcibly crammed in—or devoured.
Then came a scream, laced with desperation.
A voice begging, trying to run. Overpowered by the cacophony. Then—
A final death rattle, choked and abrupt.
Silence returned.
“……”
“……”
At last, the smoke began to recede.
And the scarecrow that had been hidden within it was now—
“...What?”
A corpse.
The new hires blinked.
But the blood-soaked body lying crushed and disfigured on the floor didn’t move.
Blood dripped from the face, pooling at the same spots as before.
Plip.
“AAAAAAAGH!!”
“AAAAHH!!”
The elevator filled with screams. But the one in the gas mask simply inhaled, drawing all the black smoke back with a breath. One of the new hires recoiled and crawled into the corner.
[Doors closing.]
Meanwhile, in the adjacent elevator, the other team mashed buttons frantically, holding their breath as the doors shut behind them.
“Th-they’re…!”
The other new hires had escaped safely.
At the same time, the smoke that had flooded the Basement 12 hallway recoiled and gathered neatly again at the floor of this elevator.
“Eek!”
“Wait!”
As one of them began panicking and tried to back away from the smoke, someone grabbed his shoulder.
It was the coworker named Jang Heowoon, whispering urgently.
“Don’t provoke it.”
“…!!”
“That smoke didn’t touch our heads. Just… stay calm.”
He was right.
The smoke was quietly pooled at their feet.
“Huuuh… huuuh…”
Swallowing hard, the new hire tried to steady his breath and gripped the elevator handrail tightly.
[Doors closing.]
And so, they left the 12th floor.
The new hire desperately avoided looking at the corpse just beyond the elevator doors—but just before they closed, he thought he saw it staggering to its feet again…
Like a scarecrow.
“Hhhgh…”
He swallowed with a groan.
But the vivid impression of what he had just witnessed wouldn’t fade.
That bizarre entity.
And the smoke that turned that bizarre entity into a corpse.
Suddenly, a startling realization hit him.
…We lived.
Everyone had survived.
His legs trembled with relief.
And yet, a thought crossed his mind.
Wait a second.
Then doesn’t that mean the strange horned “Security Team officer from Room 666” actually… helped them escape to the elevator?
Hold on, then…
Yes. Maybe he wasn’t something to be afraid of. Maybe he was safe!
Unable to endure the situation any longer—the fact that he was trapped in an elevator with something so horrific—he clung to rationalization and turned his head.
“Um, excuse me…”
He locked eyes with the Security Team officer.
But then…
“Thank… you…”
Had it always… looked this melted?
The officer’s arm was disturbingly long. Something was wrong… too many feet. Its melted lower body was bulging and twitching, fused into the smoke across the elevator floor.
And it had thirty-seven eyes.
Eyes that didn’t blink, staring directly at him.
“U-uh…uhhh…”
What… is that?
What is that?!
[Now arriving: Basement Level 11.]
The elevator’s movement delayed the onset of panic.
They had arrived again.
[Doors opening.]
“I’ll remove my optic nerves.”
“I’ll connect my mouth to my belly button.”
“I wish I didn’t have feet!”
On Basement 11, an employee in a doctor’s coat was conducting a pleasant little pre-op consultation in Room 910.
Hhhshhh.
Once again, the figure in the gas mask stared out with thirty-seven eyes and released its smoke.
Soon, the bizarre entity in the doctor’s coat became a bloodless corpse, its limbs stitched together in the wrong places.
“AAAAAAAH!”
Another scream. Another escape.
The people who had been engaged in the hypnotic “consultation” scrambled madly out of Room 910, diving into another elevator. The doors of this elevator closed as if on cue.
[Doors closing.]
“……”
The new hire looked down.
He could no longer see the floor of the elevator.
Because the Security Team officer’s melted lower body had spread across it.
Thump.
A sound like a heartbeat came from the wall.
The officer’s upper torso had partially fused with the elevator wall.
“……”
And then it repeated.
[Now arriving: Basement Level 10.]
[Basement Level 9.]
[Basement Level 8.]
With each floor where the doors opened and closed, and the smoke enacted its bizarre scenarios, the shape of the thing inside the elevator grew stranger.
It grew larger. Blurred.
[Now arriving: Basement Level 6.]
[Basement Level 5.]
The shape that had boarded the elevator became increasingly grotesque and harder to comprehend. A strange ████████████████…
[Now arriving: Basement Level 4.]
[Basement Level 3.]
[Now arriving: Basement Forever.]
Strange.
And then—he understood. The entire elevator was now formed from sticky smoke, yellow lights, a crown of thorns, and curves like a grave of bones.
That’s it!
This is Basement 13!
It’s sucking us into Basement 13…!
Ding.
……
……
[Now arriving: 1st Floor.]
[Doors opening.]
Light poured in.
“Hhhhaaah…”
The moment the familiar lobby of the surface came into view, the new hire collapsed.
Someone rushed over and patted his back.
“Easy, easy now… try to breathe slowly.”
Was it the fellow new hire named Jang Heowoon? Another name—he?me?grabbedagainbreathebreathebreatheandtheSmokeTellUsAboutOur■■Sir…
■■ Sir?
“…Excuse me.”
A voice spoke.
The new hire turned his head instinctively.
Before he knew it, the ■■ Sir?—the Security Team officer’s form—had returned to normal.
That unsettling, horned man in a gas mask. Jang Heowoon was speaking to him.
“…Did you just help us?”
No.
The smoke moved.
“Hk!”
But rather than covering anyone’s head, it formed letters.
Duty of an Employee
“……”
After a long pause, Jang Heowoon finally spoke.
“…Yes. Thank you.”
His voice sounded choked, perhaps hoarse.
Then he turned and began to support their trembling teammate who was still curled up in the corner of the elevator.
Maybe his mind had broken from the terror.
Lunatic.
I need to get out of here right now.
The new hire snapped back to his senses.
And hurried out of the elevator, deliberately avoiding eye contact with his coworker.
Getting involved with others in a situation like this was a good way to die. Self-preservation was the only path to survival…
In his fear and panic, he clung to that thin thread of logic.
“Wh-what the hell was that thing…?”
“Uuhhhgh…”
Whether by luck or misfortune, the lobby had already devolved into chaos. All sorts of survivors had returned, filling the air with noise—and few had even noticed the figure inside the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) elevator.
The one with the yellow lantern eyes turned its gaze from Jang Heowoon and the other hire leaving the elevator—
Then suddenly, it looked directly at him.
And then—
Be grateful for your luck
“…!”
[Doors closing.]
The elevator departed again.
Back to Basement 13.
[B13]
The new hire stared blankly at the floor indicator—
Then collapsed onto the lobby floor.
Drenched in cold sweat.
***
The elevator doors closed.
I was alone again.
“……”
The smoke rose, and I felt my warped, bloated body slowly return to the proper shape of a Security Team uniform.
……
Something pulsed.
I raised a hand to my chest, but felt no heartbeat.
Whatever was inside me—wherever it was—had already lost all form.
But the strange fluttering sensation lingered for a while.
I savored it.
Like perfume from a broken bottle.
Ding.
The doors opened on Basement 13.
A silence spread.
Dark hallway. Flickering red and blue lights. Eerie iron doors.
But there was something else.
—Target acquired.
The security team.
Familiar uniforms emerged from the hallway, closing in.
Someone must have reported that I had acted without authorization.
That was a misunderstanding. I had performed my duties properly—I never once stepped onto any unauthorized floor.
Suspicion
But the security team paid no attention to the letters I had written.
Instead, they drew their standard-issue suppression tools, transforming them into corrupted weapons—
“Oh dear, everyone’s so tense!”
A white hand popped out from behind me.
“No need for that. If you’ll all just step aside…”
A voice too cheerful for the situation echoed out, and from the middle of the security team stepped a research department employee.
I still couldn’t distinguish their face—it was a melted mosaic like the others—but I could identify them from their clothing and badge.
I knew who this was.
“Good evening.”
Kwak Jaegang.
“It’s been a while since we’ve met in person—wait, I suppose this is our first time, haha!”
His glasses framed a face that looked calm, even smiling—though the thrill in his voice was unmistakable.
“I’m the handler assigned to our Security Team’s new Special Department employee! I also happen to be in charge of today’s Annex experiment.”
Apparently unbothered by the hostile stares of the security team, he cheerfully pulled documents from his coat and flipped through them, beaming at me.
“I’d like to start with a few light questions… Haha, but first—how about I introduce the guests who visited Basement 13 today? Seems these young folks forgot to introduce themselves properly.”
“Let’s see now. Mr. Lee Jeongin, age 28. Mr. Park Yonghae, age 25. And…”
He paused for effect.
“…Mr. Jang Heowoon, age 26.”
……
……
Just now.
“Hmm? Any of those names sound familiar to you? Haha.”
What… did he just say?