It Seems I Must Go to Work Even After Falling into a Horror Story 073

Brown is missing.

“What, what is this?”

“This, this person moved!!”

Seeing that there’s no coin in the doll’s belly, does that mean the ‘Good Friend’ ritual itself is nullified? Or does it really just look like a doll because it’s a dream…?

‘Stop!’

Solving this mystery isn’t the priority right now! Get a grip!

You’re stuck in a horror story right now!

“Look over there!”

I quickly turned my head.

In a dark corner of the classroom, someone was screaming.

It was the same person who had been poking the ‘student’ who was frozen stiff like a wax figure and sitting motionless at the desk.

But that wax figure…

“Hey!”

It vanished from the desk.

And following the finger of someone nearby, whose face was pale, I looked…

[Seokwang Technical High School]

The missing student was standing tall by the back door.

Holding the door handle.

With an expressionless face.

Looking back at the classroom.

“…”

“Uh, um… You’re just playing around, right?”

There was no answer.

No movement.

“Wait a second.”

A brave soul approached and waved their hand right in front of the student’s face.

The ‘student’ didn’t blink. They were just standing there, frozen in front of the back door…

“They’re not even breathing. They’re not a person; they’re a mannequin…”

“How could a mannequin move all of a sudden? Did they learn some technique to look like they’re not breathing?”

“Yeah, this is just like those ‘reaction observation’ shows on reality TV or YouTube.”

No way.

Of course, there were no cameras here, nor any production crew trying to scare people.

[ Ding- Dong- Ding- Dong- ]

Instead.

[Attention Seokwang Technical High School students! The graduation ceremony will begin shortly. Please gather in the auditorium.]

“A graduation ceremony…?”

A light and neat school broadcast played.

“Shall we go? This is interesting.”

“Hey, we’re in our high school days, right? Wow. What kind of dream is this?”

Some people outright concluded it was a dream and chatted away without a hint of anxiety.

Certainly, up until now, it didn’t seem that scary.

‘They probably don’t feel a sense of reality.’

They’re looking back at their high school selves. Rejuvenation is usually a pleasant thing.

And while nighttime schools are a staple of horror stories, with many people and a sprinkle of moonlight, they can feel romantic too.

But….

“Hey, this student mannequin? Can you take a look?”

One person approached the motionless student at the back door.

And the student pointed to the outstretched hand behind them.

“This hand gesture…”

[Students, for heating and safety reasons, we will be closing the automatic curtains and turning on the lights.]

“It looked like they were trying to lock the back door.”

Thud.

The window curtains closed.

“Oh my gosh!”

“Ah, you scared me!”

With a loud noise, the automatic curtains closed, and in an instant, the classroom was engulfed in darkness.

Just for a moment.

Flicker.

After a slight delay, the lights turned on in the classroom.

“Oh, thank goodness.”

“I guess they were just trying to turn on the lights… Huh?”

Blood was flowing thickly onto the ivory classroom floor.

“Uh… uh oh?”

Following the blood with my gaze,

one person collapsed by the back door, with their neck twisted completely backward.

A remarkable amount of blood poured from the bizarre angle of a neck that no living human could manage.

With wide eyes of disbelief, as if they couldn’t anticipate this at all.

“Aaah!”

“Guhh!!”

It started.

Yeah.

The only way to escape this nightmare-like horror story is through ‘death.’

The only way out of this nighttime school is to die.

And… the horror stories have become so clichéd that they’ve become memorable, involving something that’s not human.

“Hey…! That person!!”

One of the screaming people pointed a trembling finger.

At the student who was still stuck at the back door.

But there was one notable difference.

“There’s blood on their hand.”

“…”

The gazes of the people froze in place.

And they confirmed the truth.

On the right hand of the student doll, which was gripping the door, there was blood smeared along the inside of its curled fingers, as if trying to hide it.

“…”

The people’s gazes returned to the corpse.

They noticed the fingerprint-shaped blood marks behind the twisted neck of the body.

“Ugh!”

“Oh mom! U-ugh! Ugh!”

And then again.

Flicker.

The lights flickered.

The students of [Seokwang Technical High School] remain motionless as long as someone is watching them.

However, the moment the gaze disappears…

In the blink of an eye, the classroom brightens again.

They move inhumanly fast.

The person who was pointing at the doll vanished.

“Ugh!!”

That person was found as a corpse, smashed below the chest on the floor.

Thud.

The pointing hand, losing its balance, fell lifelessly to the ground.

“Ah…”

“…”

“Aaaah!”

Panic and fear erupted.

“Now! Let’s attack now! Hey, someone close by hit it!”

“Damn! Then you do it! Why are you blaming me!”

Flicker.

“Ugh.”

Another corpse added to the tally.

One of those who had been shouting was stuck upside down on a desk.

Only the lower half remaining.

“…”

“…”

In the suffocating silence of fear,

the people turned their heads.

Now, the ‘student’ at the back door was staring at the people with vacant eyes.

A strange smile formed on its face.

“…!!”

“Eek!”

“Run away! Run away!”

“Open the door right now!”

The class rushed to the front door to avoid the student blocking the back door. But…

It was already too late.

“O-over there… Aaaah!”

The person who opened the front door collapsed.

Standing at the open front door was the smiling student.

[Seokwang Technical High School]

The girl with neat bangs also had the same name tag attached.

“W-we can just go to the side!”

“Go already!”

The people rushed past the smiling student and ran. And then again.

Flicker.

The lights flickered.

“…”

The student at the front door suddenly vanished from my line of sight.

Aaah!

…Desperate screams erupted in the hallway.

And one by one, the screams faded away.

“…”

“…”

A maddening silence.

Panting breaths, and voices of agony heard from afar, with people staring at the door with wide eyes, as if something might pop out.

“Slowly,”

I whispered as I scanned the classroom.

“Let’s move slowly. We need to check if anything else isn’t moving. Both the front and back doors.”

“Ah, ah…”

Adults, who looked no different from high school students, trembled as they staggered back from the door.

“…”

Among those who opened their eyes in this class.

Half had fled, their fates unknown, while the other half remained stuck in the classroom.

No, it was more accurate to say they couldn’t move and were frozen…

I quietly thought within that space.

‘This is bad.’

I shouldn’t have let it start like this.

Before the curtains closed, plunging the place into utter darkness, I should have dashed out on my own, grabbed a flashlight, and collected the necessary items to hide.

‘I missed the timing.’

I froze up, panicking at the thought of Brown being missing.

In the meantime, some people finally began to notice what was happening.

“Th-this is it!”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t you know? The monster that can’t move when you’re watching it!”

“Y-you know about it?”

“Why don’t you know?? If you don’t look at it, it’ll follow you! If we’re looking at it now, it can’t move!”

The person, whose voice grew strained with fear and excitement, rambled on.

Did everyone read some strange text? This feels like we’ve entered a game or something, like we’re possessed…

Even people who usually wouldn’t pay attention were on high alert, listening closely.

This was a storyline I had seen a lot.

And the collective conclusion of the panic-stricken group was… both simplistic and radical.

“We need to attack it! Get rid of it!”

“Huh?!”

“If we run, it’ll chase us anyway! If we don’t see it, we’ll die! We saw what happened to those who went out! Quickly! Before the lights flicker again!”

“Ah!”

Like mob mentality, people scoured the empty classroom looking for makeshift weapons. Brooms, chairs, sacks, box cutters…

‘No.’

This was a sure path to a typical bad ending!

“Please, just wait a moment…”

It was then.

Someone covered my mouth.

“…!”

I almost punched them out of reflex.

I slowly turned my head back to see who was covering my mouth, trying not to agitate the situation.

I locked eyes with a familiar face.

‘…Public Official!’

It was an agent from the Disaster Management Bureau!

Agent Ryu Jae-gwan, who I had met in the mountain cabin, had his hair cut short like a high schooler, but his appearance had not changed much.

‘Where has he been sitting?’

No, that’s not important!

‘Right. A public official could also get involved!’

This was not a horror story that Daydream Corporation was ‘isolating and securing.’

Which meant, it was possible to meet personnel from different agencies like this.

But would it really be the same agent again? Isn’t that a bit too eager?

“If you don’t scream, I will release you.”

I nodded seriously, and the public official let me go without saying anything more.

‘Phew.’

“Seriously, you have a knack for getting mixed up in these things.”

“…Yes.”

Let’s just assume that’s the case.

“And some of what the person who spoke earlier said is correct.”

“…”

“Keep your eyes on the student doll no matter what. Don’t let your gaze stray—you can alternate blinking, and if the lights go out, hide your head without fail. And…”

The public official quietly whispered the standard manual he already knew.

“Those things are very sensitive to sound.”

Yeah.

Students show a clear tendency to chase after those who scream, swear, or shout.

“You must not raise your voice. Absolutely not.”

I nodded slightly.

“But should we really allow people to attack it…?”

“Right now, your own safety comes first. Saving people caught in a disaster comes next.”

The public official declared calmly.

“Assume that everyone caught up in the supernatural disaster will die first, and act accordingly.”

“…”

This is… a typical Disaster Management Bureau manual.

‘They must think it’s more important to assess how to seal or destroy this horror story.’

So, they could prevent countless deaths that could occur thereafter.

A moral calculus that values pulling the lever without hesitation to kill one instead of five in a trolley dilemma.

“I will also let you know when the time to run comes. For now, just remember what I said.”

“…Yes.”

Arguing with the public official right now would be suicidal.

I closed my mouth.

Meanwhile, people were approaching the student with weapons raised.

‘Damn,’

I tried to weave in a question to elicit an answer from the public official,

I needed to know how to act naturally in the future.

“So, is this not a dream? If we die, won’t we just wake up from our sleep…?”

That was a classic way to escape a nightmare.

The moment you meet death in a dream, you awaken and return to reality.

If it ended here, one might think it would be better to quickly kill themselves, but not at all. That choice should not be made…

‘I need something.’

“…That’s true, but there’s a condition.”

Of course.

“A condition?”

“Yes. Do you see that name tag?”

The public official pointed at the ‘student doll.’

“You must die while holding the name tag of that doll to ‘normally’ wake up. …If you fail to do so,”

“You’ll be affected by some not-so-great influences.”

“…”

“There are also several other conditions to safely die, but I will explain them as we go along.”

“C-companionship?”

“Yes.”

Wait a moment.

But as if interpreting my bewilderment, the public official had an expression that said ‘there’s nothing to apologize for.’

He seemed to aim for a forced smile, trying to reassure me.

“Don’t worry. Besides me, many agents are also involved. Surely, some must have passed through.”

Not just one but many agents from the Disaster Management Bureau…?

‘This… looks like our explorations have overlapped quite a bit, huh?’

There would surely be a corresponding episode.

I frantically searched my mind for recent exploration records to pick candidates, but the situation changed before I could.

“D-die!”

People started attacking the student doll.

And then surprisingly.

Crack.

“Ugh!”

“B-blood…!”

The student from ‘Seokwang Technical High School’ was hurt like an ordinary human.

Blood spewed out, and the sounds of bruises and broken bones echoed through the room.

“Ugh!”

“What do we do, ah, damn….”

‘…Phew.’

Fear and confusion crept up my spine.

But the public official remained unfazed, looking at me and making a small gesture towards the front door.

“First, let’s take this opportunity to…”

Hmm?

At that moment.

Figures appeared on the bright central stairs visible through the open front door.

“…!”

Three or four people were tiptoeing up the stairs, making no sounds.

They all shared one common feature.

They were all wearing peculiar animal masks!

‘Staff members!’

And there was even a familiar mask.

A wildebeest!

‘Jang Heo-woon.’

She was the new employee from Team Y who I had suffered through the theme park horror story with!

‘Did she get reassigned to the general team?’

How long has it been?

My recent circumstances had been so chaotic that I hadn’t checked in on others’ regular assignments, but it seems she had survived safely for these three months.

‘Well, I’m glad to see you, really.’

But next to her… was someone I wasn’t particularly happy to see, the person I had seen earlier.

A black goat mask.

“It’s….”

Baek Sa-heon, huh.

‘Did those two awaken in the same class?’

They all seemed to be following the company’s safety recommendation of ‘bringing animal masks to wear and act.’

‘I wish I could wear one too.’

I wanted to verify and use my collected items to maximize our escape chances.

Overall, it seemed better to naturally part ways with the public official and join them.

“Hey, agents…”

“Daydream Corporation…!”

“…”

Oh no.

“Be careful. If you encounter someone dressed in a suit and an animal mask in a place like this, don’t ever acknowledge them.”

The public official gritted his teeth, casting a contemptuous gaze ahead.

“They’re likely dispatched from some abhorrent cult company, so don’t get involved with them.”

“…”

“Most of the staff have a distorted sense of ethics and are psychotic. Be careful.”

“…Yes.”

Absolutely.

Absolutely! Do not get caught!