So.
I opened the door to the unmanned motel, and Section Chief Kwak Jekang is tied up with the Sergeant sitting on top of him?
Moreover, why is Supervisor Park Minseong here?
No, I’m glad to see him after a while, but what on earth is this combination…
“Mmmph!”
Just then, Kwak Jekang, who was pinned to the floor, started struggling again. Wait!
‘No.’
If he turns his head and sees my face, things will go crazy. I immediately snapped to my senses and tried to close the door and leave.
However, the Sergeant, seeing my movement, seemed to realize something before I could.
“Ah.”
The Sergeant struck the head of the person he was restraining.
And just like that, Section Chief Kwak Jekang passed out.
“……”
—What a mess, oh my god! It’s so chaotic! But there’s a unique charm that comes from chaos, isn’t there?
Wow, please…
“What on earth is going on?”
“Ah… he followed me secretly…”
“…??”
To summarize the urgent explanation that followed:
The Sergeant said he had been going around various parts of the company to collect a few stories worth telling in order to find the information about the ‘Cheerful Research Institute’ he had promised me.
And in the process, he explored various places, and the place he went today was…
“I went to the… Research Team special area in the Annex…”
“…Wait a minute. Isn’t that a restricted area for all employees except those involved?”
“Ah… for the Security Team… it’s fine if it’s for work. You know… like area patrols…”
Ah, I see.
“So did you wait until you were assigned to that patrol duty?”
“No… I worked… instead of another guard…”
“……”
“You said… you needed information…”
‘I’m starting to feel sorry…’
I was lost for words because the Sergeant had such a proud expression on his face.
Anyway, seeing as their paths overlapped this much, it seemed certain that the Guard Team Baek Saheon mentioned was indeed the Sergeant.
Wait, come to think of it…
“I heard that you had a fight with Section Chief Kwak Jekang… is that related to the current situation?”
“I never fought him… he just kept picking a fight…”
“Ah, so you got caught up in his provocations.”
“No… I ignored him…”
“……”
“He bumped into me and fell over on his own… hmm. Anyway.”
Scratching his head, the Sergeant returned to the main point.
He said he saw some equipment and documents while patrolling the Research Team special area today, and something unusual happened.
“It felt like someone was following me…”
“…!”
At some point, a persistent, observing gaze had started following him.
He said he felt a strange sense of malice.
“So I just came outside… but he kept following me secretly…”
So you neutralized him…!
“Well… there was no one watching at the time…”
I nodded, feeling like I wanted to hold my head.
“You didn't know it was Section Chief Kwak Jekang.”
“No, I knew…”
“……”
Aaaagh!
“Well… it doesn’t really matter… though I didn’t know… he would call the Security Team in the process…”
My gaze turned toward Supervisor Park Minseong.
The supervisor’s pupils trembled.
“Yeah. I received the page…”
“……”
“When I got here… it was already… yeah.”
And so, this bizarre meeting had taken place…
—Ahaha! Oh my god! It’s like a sitcom!
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot. The problem is that I’m right in the middle of it!
‘This is driving me crazy.’
I suppressed the urge to rub my temples and barely managed to speak.
“If we send him back like this, is there a high probability that Section Chief Kwak will report Mr. Jay or… anyway, exaggerate the situation and make it an issue?”
“…Most likely?”
Supervisor Park Minseong and I faced each other, breaking out in a cold sweat, and then looked at the Sergeant.
The Sergeant had a face that looked like everything was a bother.
He seemed to have a 'whatever happens, happens' attitude.
“……”
“……”
No, this is about your own safety…!
“For now, then… is it right for you, Supervisor, to… take the Sergeant in?”
“In principle, yes… but, um, if you just let him go like this, I’ll try to handle it on my end somehow… um, I’ll say Section Chief Kwak Jekang was here alone.”
Supervisor Park Minseong laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.
“He’s someone who commits a lot of eccentric acts anyway, so I think it’ll work out somehow…”
“It won’t work…”
“……!”
The Sergeant stared intently at Supervisor Park Minseong.
“Since you just joined the Security Team… the Binding Restriction is at its strongest…”
Binding Restriction?
“It hasn't even been 100 days… since you started official duty, right? It'll be hard… to lie to the company…”
“……”
“The watch. It’s counting down right now, isn’t it…?”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s face stiffened.
But in the next moment, a picture-perfect smile appeared on his face.
And as if unconsciously, he moved his hand to his wrist. On the wrist hidden by the Security Team uniform, a shape that looked like a watch flickered.
Yes. A wristwatch.
‘…The Binding Restriction placed on the Security Team.’
It comes to mind.
In Daydream, once a rescued employee had recovered their humanity to some extent after escaping contamination, rather than investing further, they devised a way to use them immediately.
The Dark Exploration Record doesn't mention all those Binding Restrictions in detail. It was thought that letting the reader imagine them would be more ominous and chilling.
However, there were hints here and there.
For example…
‘The wristwatch.’
Yes, yes. The company security teams also wear wristwatches. What are they for? I don't know either. What's certain is that if they… do something unexpected.
Like, trying to leave the company during the day?
Anyway, then a sound could be heard. The sound of a watch ticking…
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Why was that strange? It looked like an electronic watch, but why did it make the sound of a second hand moving? That also felt like a ghost story, so it was unsettling…
It kept getting faster, and eventually, something like an alarm sounded.
Then, they suddenly disappeared.
Not the watch, but the Security Team employee.
—Excerpt 26 from the interrogation of Glass Prison prisoner A-56 (Origin: Daydream Inc.)
“Supervisor.”
“…Ah! Yes.”
Supervisor Park Minseong pulled his hand away from his wrist as if suddenly snapping out of it.
The atmosphere in the motel grew heavy.
But the Sergeant spoke as if it were nothing.
“Hey, don’t worry… it’ll probably just be… some disciplinary action… it’s not like I killed him…”
“…?!”
“Just… go and tell them… but, wait a minute.”
The Sergeant looked down at the researcher he had tied up and muttered seriously.
“Isn’t it… a bit of a waste…”
…??
“This guy… knows a lot… so, since things have turned out like this… maybe some information…”
“No, it’s fine.”
That’s suspicious!
Moreover, why are you trying to increase the disciplinary action you’ll receive!
‘Let’s wrap this up quickly.’
As long as he didn’t see me, it wouldn’t matter… wait.
Even if Kwak Jekang didn't see me, someone else did.
“Supervisor Park Minseong.”
“Yes?”
“If it’s difficult for you to lie to the company right now, in the process of stating the facts of the incident… will you have to say you saw me?”
“……!!”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s face turned pale again.
“Probably… if the company demands it, I might have to…”
Damn it!
From that point on, the problem wouldn't end at the level of being caught that I was alive.
‘…In the process of settling that, it’ll definitely reach Director Ho’s ears.’
If he asks why I was meeting the Sergeant, then even the Dream Incubation Room might be discovered…
“Avoiding that situation as much as possible…”
“Excuse me…”
The Sergeant raised his hand.
“Um… honestly, I don’t feel like it… and it’s a hassle…”
Then he pointed at Kwak Jekang.
“Should I just… kill him…?”
“!?”
The, the Right of Immunity for Lethal Force!
Come to think of it, the Guard Team had the Right of Immunity for Lethal Force!
“If I kill him… and the Security Team reports ‘no target found for the page’… it’s not a lie either… and it’ll just pass. For now… we can buy time, too…”
“You can't do that.”
“P-please calm down, Sergeant!”
No, the Guard Team’s Right of Immunity for Lethal Force isn’t for the sake of the guard employees!
‘It was made so they wouldn't have to pay compensation even if someone from the company died during the process of neutralizing a ghost story appearing in the building!’
Additionally, it’s closer to saying, ‘We have the Right of Immunity for Lethal Force, so don’t get in the way and increase costs when the Guard Team is working.’
In the first place.
“The Right of Immunity for Lethal Force is the authority for the Guard Team to kill employees who interfere during their duties. You’re not on duty right now!”
If they could just kill people like that, Kwak Jekang might have already disappeared into a puddle of blood by another Guard Team.
“That’s true, but… um,”
“L-let’s think of another way.”
“Yes! We’ll think of something!”
“Um… okay…”
I’m breaking out in a cold sweat.
‘I’m gl-glad the Sergeant lacks motivation…’
His ruthless judgment shows he wasn't an Elite Squad leader for nothing.
…Honestly, it was all the more so in that he didn't just think of the Right of Immunity for Lethal Force, but seemed to have thought of destroying evidence by killing him altogether.
It’s just fortunate that he’s not a bad person by nature. I wiped away my cold sweat.
…And this situation was my responsibility.
I was too tempted by the Sergeant’s offer to look into the Cheerful Research Institute’s information.
—It’s the moment of choice, Friend! An adventure for a clean result without loss, or stability with a bit of loss!
—Oh, if you ask this Host for advice, I’m fully prepared to give you a tip.
‘…You’re suggesting I go for the adventure of killing him and destroying the evidence, aren’t you?’
—Correct!
Damn it.
I pressed my brow and then suddenly…
I thought of a way.
‘No.’
—Hmm?
‘There’s… another way to destroy evidence!’
“I’ll settle this.”
I pulled out an item I had been keeping in my inventory.
Children's Disguise Syrup
(Green Grape Flavor)
★★★★★
A short while later.
“…Hmm?”
Section Chief Kwak Jekang opened his eyes.
To be precise, that was the assumption. It was because we had blindfolded him.
“Oho? Am I perhaps in the Darkness… no. You’ve just blindfolded me.”
The excitement that had momentarily colored his tone cooled down instantly into indifference.
But soon, as if realizing why he was in this situation, his tone changed.
The part about being captured and struck unconscious after tailing the Sergeant.
“Hah! Just because you’ve blindfolded me doesn't mean I’ll forget what I saw! Hahaha! Oh, my god. You, how are you going to explain this to the company? Why did you do such a thing?”
“……”
“The situation has changed a lot from when you were the B-Squad Leader~ Do you still believe the company will give you special treatment? Dear me.”
He said things like, ‘Did you really think the Right of Immunity for Lethal Force meant you could just kill researchers?’, ‘I wonder how the company would react if a Research Team Section Chief with as much to do as me was found as a fresh corpse.’
With a tone peculiar to someone who prides himself on his own brilliance and lack of a replacement, he spoke lightly, with subtle threats and grim prospects.
But soon.
“Or… perhaps it’s a situation so desperate that you had to do this.”
“……”
“What were you looking for in the Annex special lab? Could it be…”
His voice became significant.
“That you thought the Darkness you disappeared into might be there?”
“……”
“Look, I told you the entry method collapsed! Even if you’re curious now about what miserable state the employees still trapped there might be in…”
I think he’s talked enough.
I whipped off the cloth that was covering his eyes.
Kwak Jekang looked delighted and seemed about to say something else, but.
“…!”
The guard he had expected, the former Elite Squad leader, was not there.
Instead.
There was me, wearing a Security Team suit.
“……”
In front of Kwak Jekang, who had frozen upon seeing my appearance, I pulled out a pager and clicked it.
“…Aha, it seems you’re the one who responded to the page! This is… hmm, a Security Team area?”
Silence.
“By any chance, wasn't there a guard employee where I was?”
Silence.
“…You’re quite taciturn. ……Wait a minute.”
A strange light flickered in Kwak Jekang’s eyes.
“It’s a Special Suit.”
He had recognized my attire.
The uniform for the Security Team Special Division.
“What’s going on? You responded to a mere Research Team Section Chief’s page? Such cleanup shouldn't be the work of a special and rare individual like you! Hahaha… another purpose,”
And then, as if realizing the next words, Kwak Jekang’s expression changed.
Yes.
‘Unless there was another purpose.’
Silently, I raised my hand and placed something on the office desk in front of his eyes.
[A Fun Truth Game!]
[Shall we play a round?]
“……!”
A carrot-shaped plastic recording toy that shouted cheerfully.
It looked childish and cheap, unfitting for the atmosphere, but Kwak Jekang’s expression stiffened.
‘As expected, he knows about it.’
One of the most famous pieces of Security Team interrogation equipment that appears in the Dark Exploration Record.
==========
Dark Exploration Record / Ghost Story
[Everything a Carrot Can Do]
: A ghost story appearing in <Dark Exploration Record>, identification code Qterw-E-2525 at Daydream Inc.
A party toy that helps with truth games.
If the opponent does not answer truthfully, it immediately realizes it and sets a cruel and unconventional mission as the price.
If the mission is not performed, other game participants can punish the participant in question.
==========
Hmm.
Where did I get it?
To be honest.
‘It’s a fake.’
It’s a counterfeit implemented by pouring ‘Children’s Disguise Syrup’ onto my smartphone.
Why else would it be a five-star item?
It’s not me who’s disguised, but an item that disguises what I want.
That is to say, it has versatility because it’s for objects rather than people, and it perfectly mimics the appearance and performance desired by the user.
And it doesn't matter if it’s a fake mimicking the original.
The important thing is that the opponent will believe it’s real.
For the first time, a hint of confusion appeared in Kwak Jekang’s eyes.
“…What? No, there’s no need to do it this way, is there? I am…”
Then I’m ready.
Now I just need to drive the deceived opponent into a corner and wrap up the situation.
…Preferably, in a way that’s slightly more beneficial to us.
[If everyone is ready, let’s begin.]
[Now, a question!]
While the carrot was blathering, I stepped slightly to the side so that Kwak Jekang’s view would open up.
Behind me, the prototype dream incubator from the Cheerful Research Institute revealed itself.
“…!”
Kwak Jekang’s eyes wavered, but the ‘carrot’ spoke the recorded question.
[What do you know about the machine in front of you?]
Truly, an incredibly cost-effective resolution method had begun.
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