6:00 PM, as the sun began to set.
A murky sunset reflects on the entrance of a certain building located in Seoul.
A cold, clean ground-floor space with a modern structure.
{Daydream Inc. Annex}
{Entry restricted to authorized personnel only.}
This was the lobby of the Daydream Inc. annex building.
However, this desolate space, which should have been quiet and eerie, was now somewhat lively with the buzzing of people.
"Wow, look at the atmosphere."
"Hello. Yes, nice to meet you…!"
Dozens of young adults in black suits were gathered, exchanging greetings. Their faces were bright with a mix of anticipation and tension.
It was only natural.
"Congratulations on getting the job!"
"Hahaha, thank you. You too!"
After all, they had just successfully joined Daydream, a famous pharmaceutical company that had been a hot topic in the stock market for the past few years!
Thus, the company had summoned them via email to the Annex next to the Seoul headquarters.
{New Employee Orientation Guide}
Today was the first day of orientation.
"A three-day, two-night orientation at the Seoul Annex... It's almost luxurious, isn't it?"
"Seriously. Wow, this place feels more like a museum lobby than anything."
"Yeah, as expected of a large corporation... Ah, are we all sales team hires?"
"It seems so. Everyone I’ve talked to is in sales."
"Then the new hires for other departments might be gathered at another nearby location."
The people, intoxicated by the joy of passing the recruitment process, laughed and talked with one another.
There was no reason not to be friendly. After all, they were fellow colleagues who would continue to see each other frequently in this pharmaceutical giant. The victorious new hires!
As a result of this cheerful atmosphere, some people even generously struck up a conversation with those excluded from the conversation.
"Excuse me, you're a new hire too, right?"
".…."
Among the noisy new employees, one individual who had been quietly observing the interior of the annex alone, raised his head.
A young man around their age, with a weary-looking expression on his face.
The new employee who had been leading the conversation continued speaking to him in a slightly boastful manner.
"Congratulations on joining the company! Let's work well together!"
However...
"Thank you."
That was it.
“….."
"....."
Silence.
'What the hell...?'
How could a new sales employee be lacking social skills?
How on earth did this guy even pass the interview?
As the atmosphere was about to turn awkward, the new employee who had spoken hurriedly babbled on.
"Haha, actually... I have a friend who's already working at Daydream."
"Whoa."
"Really?"
"Wow, which department?"
"Yep, yep. I think it was…. The Research Team or something?"
The crowd responded with explosive interest!
The new employee let out a sigh of relief inwardly for reviving the atmosphere and continued speaking in a subtle tone, half-boasting and half-not.
"But you know, he actually was weirdly discouraging me from joining. He said something about how I'd regret it if I worked here."
"Haha!"
"Friends who get a job first always say stuff like that."
"Exactly my point!"
“….."
People laughed, as if it were typical office-worker banter about being overworked.
However...
"...Which department?"
"Pardon?"
The man who had remained silent opened his mouth again.
"That friend of yours... which department was he in—?"
At that moment.
[Ah, ah. Mic test.]
"...!"
Everyone raised their heads at once.
[Oops, everyone is gathered nicely. Then, let us begin~]
A speaker installed in the corner of the wall.
A voice with a very cheerful tone began to come out of it.
The smooth voice of a man.
[Welcome to all the new hires who have joined us after breaking through the 142 to 1 competition! I am Kwak Jekang, the Section Chief from Research Team 1, and I will be in charge of your orientation today.]
[Shall we start with a round of applause?]
Whoahhhhhh!
The new employees all clapped happily, yet they were slightly puzzled.
"Why over the speaker...?"
Why wasn't he appearing in person?
"Um, maybe it’s something we’re supposed to do on our own?"
[Aha. That's correct!]
"...!"
‘H-He was listening...!’
[Exactly, exactly. From now on, to build teamwork and company spirit, you—the new hires! —will be participating in a very fun activity together~]
[Well, it's just one light mission, so think of it as a recreational activity. There are prizes on the line too!]
The new employees quickly took it positively.
"I guess it's meant to help us quickly get close to each other!"
"It's actually better this way. Haha."
After all, many large corporations and famous venture firms these days often conduct their orientations in very creative or unique ways.
"I heard one company even uses its office for a murder-mystery board game."
[...Aha, wow, that does sound fun! This is similar, you see. Yes, indeed~ Now then...]
The tone of the voice flowing from the speaker rose as if excited.
[Let’s begin the new employee orientation right now!]
At the same instant.
Clack, clack, clack, clack.
The lights in the annex lobby switched on.
"...!"
Under the bright incandescent lights, things that hadn't been visible before began to appear.
Down the corridor that was previously obscured by darkness, stood rows of heavy iron doors.
".…."
How should I put it? Rather than maintaining security, it’s as if they were meant to isolate and lock something away… The atmosphere was heavy and alien.
'Why would there be something like that in the company annex...?'
But before anyone could linger on their doubts, everyone’s attention was focused on the place where the lights shone most brightly.
A lone front desk.
An eye-catching object placed upon it.
"Ah...!"
The new employees blinked as they confirmed what it was.
A pitch-black cylindrical box.
"A lottery box?"
It was large and old.
It looked shabby and crumpled here and there, so out of place in the modern, pristine marble lobby of the annex.
The top of the black box, made of thick paper, was covered so the inside couldn't be seen, but through the silhouette of the lid, one could tell there were three holes.
Each round lid cover was numbered.
⓵ ⓶ ⓷
[Alright, step forward one at a time and draw a lot. Pick the next number in order, and then keep going that way.]
[Ah, let me show you how it’s done. You three people standing closest! Come draw a number, one at a time!]
"Uh, yessir!"
Amidst the whispering, the three who were pointed out stepped forward, though they hesitated they couldn’t refuse.
And they drew their lots.
Shuffle.
The contents written on each slip were as follows:
⓵ 6th BF
⓶ 322
⓷ Recite a nursery rhyme
"What..."
[Now, let's... look at the desk again. Do you see the whiteboard behind the drawing box?]
Everyone's gaze turned toward the whiteboard.
A printed sentence was stuck there.
I go down to Basement Floor ⓵___,
and reaching the room number ⓶____,
I will ⓷__________ .
[If you fill in the blanks on the whiteboard with each numbered lot you drew, the sentence is complete!]
[Carrying out what's written in that sentence is the mission. Isn't it so simple? Haha!]
They placed the lots on the whiteboard according to their numbers, and the sentence was completed.
Like this.
I go down to Basement Floor ⓵__6_,
and reaching the room number ⓶__332__,
I will ⓷__Recite a nursery rhyme_ .
"..."
"..."
An inexplicable, eerie feeling arose from the completed sentence.
'Basement?'
It was at that moment.
[Ah, right. An incredible prize awaits the team with the best mission performance.]
As if sensing their hesitation, a cheerful motivation came through the speaker.
[You'll get... 100 points, which can be used like cash in the employee mall!]
One hundred points?
"May I ask what we can buy with that?"
[Of course! That's an amount that can even buy a robot vacuum cleaner!]
"Ooooh!"
If it could buy a robot vacuum, it must be quite a sum!
The atmosphere brightened instantly.
Reason and a sense of reality returned to their calculations.
'Yeah, worst case, it's just a test of courage, right?'
'The company isn't stupid; they wouldn't make us do something truly dangerous.'
With so many people around and being in groups of three, it was hard to even feel scared.
Even if they had prepared a surprise, it would likely be at a level that even a coward could handle!
The new employees looked at each other, nodding and smiling.
"Excuse me, do we have to take the stairs?"
[Oh dear, wouldn't that be too exhausting? For moving, you may use any of the elevators currently in operation. Hahaha!]
[Now, now, let's form teams as you like and try it out!]
"Yes!"
They talked among themselves, with faces flushed with excitement, and reached into the black box and drew.
The lots that would decide their fate.
"Fighting!"
"The three of us will go first. We just need to take this elevator, right?"
"Let's go. Basement 6th floor!"
The atmosphere couldn't have been better.
At least, until thirty-four minutes later, when the returning elevator doors opened, revealing colleagues with only their lower halves remaining.
"Aaaaaah!"
"Aaah!"
And it continued.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
The sound of the elevator arriving.
Each time the elevator arrived and its doors opened, screams split the air and echoed through the annex lobby.
Screams. Terror. Panic.
The elevators, arriving one after another were filled with 'what used to be bodies,' each in a different state.
Gruesome sights they would have never imagined encountering in real life. Blood, filth, fragments of entrails, sometimes ash or ice, and even scraps of human skin covered with dense writing in pen.
There was even an employee who died from excessive bleeding while writing bizarre phrases or patterns on the elevator mirror with their own blood.
"Euaaaaaak!!"
Those who managed to return alive from within were also not in their right minds.
"We have to run! Run! Run!"
"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for knocking on the door..."
Some mumbled in a daze.
Then, finally, people who were at least somewhat normal appeared.
"T-This person is okay!"
"..."
"What on earth happened?! What is this?!"
A new employee, who had been holding a dead employee as a shield in front of the elevator doors, spoke with a face turned deathly pale.
"There’s someone there."
Down in the basement where they’d gone, beyond the doors—
"Someone? Who?! Who on earth?!"
...
"A… A strange employee."
And the eyewitness accounts of the survivors came pouring out.
When the elevator doors opened, the cold and desolate basement corridors were revealed.
The numerous iron doors there, and the strange markings that were only on the doors they were assigned to. The sounds, the smell of blood, the light that came only from just that door...
And the scenery inside, glimpsed through the small hole above the room number plate.
An employee.
"They were wearing the employee uniform... but it was strange. Really strange..."
A child in a lab coat. One with an oxygen tank. One holding a bunch of balloons. One wearing a cowboy hat with wooden hands. One wearing a lion dance mask...
The bizarre descriptions of their appearances made everyone's skin crawl.
And then—
"I-It responded."
"...!"
"It reacted to what we did! It chased after us, and then... like that!"
Heads turned toward the elevator doors, now filled with body parts.
"..."
"..."
The new employees realized.
This 'do as the sentence says' mission.
It was basically a suicide act straight out of a horror movie.
They were caught up in an unrealistic catastrophe.
"No!"
About half of the new hires, those who had not yet gone down to do their mission, looked around at each other with faces turned blue with terror, then bolted for the main entrance.
However, the annex's only door had already been sealed before they even knew it.
People clung to the door where the shutters had come down.
"Please let us out!"
"M-My phone isn’t working. What do we do?"
"This... this has to be some kind of variety show. Y-Yeah, there must be cameras here somewhere..."
"Please open the door! Please, I’m begging you!"
Bang, bang, bang!
There was no response no matter how hard they pounded on the main entrance's shutters until their hands bled.
A few new employees noticed another method of communication.
"The speakers!"
They swarmed toward the speakers where 'Section Chief Kwak Jekang's' voice had come from and began to pour out requests for rescue, pleas, and terror.
However…
[(Beep—) The automated response system has been activated due to the absence of the person in charge.]
Section Chief Kwak Jekang's voice was no longer heard from the speakers.
Instead, a recorded, cheerful voice played on loop.
[The main entrance will be opened after all participants have attempted the mission. In 30 seconds, all attempts to forcibly open the shutters will result in death by security protocol.]
[Orientation participants, do your best!]
Beep, beep, beep, beep— Beep!
"Aaaaaah!"
Two employees who attempted to break the shutters had their heads burst open.
And then, they died.
Pandemonium.
"Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh..."
"Heu-heuk."
No one could understand how or why this was happening.
Faced with a sight so unbelievable it couldn't be reality, the chaos in the lobby only gradually died down.
From then on, the people in the lobby huddled together for more than half a day, trembling before the front desk.
Whispers and movements to find a way out occurred occasionally, but at least no one went near the elevators.
No one seemed to be willing to complete the mission.
Then, a brutal incentive was given.
[An announcement regarding the delay in mission performance for over 6 hours.]
[If the next participant does not board the elevator within 5 minutes, death by security protocol will occur.]
"..."
"..."
The new hires looked at each other with trembling eyes.
Someone.
Some had to go.
Someone had to get on the elevator.
Who would it be?
"Fuck..."
The new employee who, a few hours ago, had been boasting about ‘a friend who works at the company’, now squeezed into a corner, avoiding everyone’s gaze as much as possible.
And while breaking out in a cold sweat, he looked again at the sentence his group had completed.
I go down to Basement Floor 13,
at the door of room 666,
I will knock and then go inside.
He’s going to die.
There's no way he’d survive with such ominous numbers.
'Run...'
Then.
"The next ones up! The ones who already drew!”
Damn it!
"There they are! It’s those people!"
"...!"
People rushed over and violently pushed his group into the elevator.
They resisted like mad, but they were outnumbered, with no weapons or means to resist.
"No!"
[The doors are closing.]
He tried to get up, struggling in panic, he pressed the open button like crazy.
At that moment, one of his teammates grabbed his hand and pulled it down.
"...!"
"It's already too late."
Thud.
The doors closed.
"Hiieck!"
Turning his head in terror so deep that he couldn’t feel anger, he saw his peer with a pale expression staring at him.
The man who had been unusually quiet.
But now, he spoke calmly as if explaining.
"People died from the security protocol. Which means, even if we just stayed in the lobby like this, we’d die all the same..."
"..."
"Since it's come to this, we have no choice but to do it."
"N-No...!"
"Calm down and think about it. There were quite a few people who came back fine."
As if to snap him out of it, the other man grabbed his shoulders.
"...Certainly, about one out of every three teams testified that 'nothing happened’ to them."
"...!!"
Indeed, that was true.
-“Nothing much happened…”
-“Th-There was just a weird person dressed in something like a strange... special agent uniform staring at us wordlessly.”
-“I'm telling you, there really was no one inside!”
"Even for the teams where something did happen, about half of them came back alive. So, compared to just dying in the lobby, your odds of living are higher.”
"..."
"...Based on the testimonies of the previous teams, let's move carefully."
Gasping for breath, the two new employees slowly nodded.
It was thanks to the composure of the one who seemed almost like an experienced veteran.
The new employee who had tried to act self-important ended up speaking without realizing it.
"Um, by the way, what is your... name…?"
"..."
The previously silent person opened his mouth.
"It's Jang Heowoon."
Ding.
The elevator arrived at the basement.
Onto the old corridor lined with iron doors, the new employees step out, trembling.
And they found the room they were looking for.
{666}
Taking a breath, they reached out and placed a hand on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
***
I had a dream.
It was a truly strange and bizarre nightmare.
A dream in which I entered the eerie ghost-story wiki I loved so much.
In the dream, I became an elite employee at a terrible pharmaceutical company that pushed employees into ghost stories to make potion ingredients.
I also infiltrated the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau, a special agency that rescued people from ghost stories, as a spy.
In that process, I entered numerous ghost stories from the <Dark Exploration Records> Wiki.
A convenience store where you played tag with ghosts, a quiz show where you died if you got the answer wrong, ink wash paintings haunted by evil spirits, exhibitions that charged organs as admission fees, a bizarre theme park……
Fierce and chilling days spent teetering on the threshold of life and death.
And yet, I also met unforgettable people.
—“Mr. Kim Soleum. Can you hear me?”
—“Roe, they say seventeen employees escaped after hearing your announcement!”
—“I hope your wish comes true.”
—“You’ll be alright, Grapes-ie.”
A lingering, vivid afterimage remains.
You know, those dreams where you forget most of the details as you wake up, but an intense impression and a lingering feeling remain like a shock.
Especially when the ending is particularly horrific and traumatic.
I survived life-threatening moments, endured horrors, worked at a ghost Story company, and finally, at the very moment I drank the Wish Ticket I had so desperately desired….
ThetruthisIwas■■■■■■anddidnotcrashlandinanotherworldbutwasinvitedandmybodyisnothumanandIrealizedthat■■■■■■■.
No!
I don't want to wake up.
I don't want to know reality.
I don't want to realize that I am still in Daydream Inc.
…….
And in the next moment, I realized.
That I cannot fall asleep.
Gaaasp
Dawn.
I sat up in bed, gasping for breath.
No, I must have made a ‘breathing’ sound.
If I had functional vocal cords, that is.
“…….”
I reached for my throat.
Shhhhk—
A strange hissing sound of smoke.
My hands, wrapped in shiny gloves, feel a rubbery material of a work uniform wrapping around my neck instead of skin.
I fumbled. The silhouette was human.
But when I touched the strange, countless rib-like horns that connected from my neck to the top of my head, I let my hand fall.
“…….”
Once again, I realize.
I cannot sleep.
[Whirrrrr!]
[Your work shift has begun. Please wake up. Your work shift has begun. Please wake up….]
I rose from the steel bed and began today’s work.
As per the contract.
TL Notes: -
Discussion