Chapter 71: The End of the Ghost Story (4)

If they were simply salaried employees, the schedule was tight enough that they could have complained about being worked so hard.

But the members of the Governance were in a different situation.

For most of the field agents, someone precious to them was trapped somewhere inside a story that could be any ghost story at all.

They didn’t want to waste time either.

Su-myeon asked the team members.

“Did you look into the cruise ship I mentioned last time? I wrote down the conditions for you.”

“It’s difficult to identify the exact ship.”

Ju-hee answered with a troubled expression.

Some of the information Su-myeon knew was metaphorical or distorted.

The Witch’s Forest was a prime example, where a forest of apartment buildings had been interpreted as an actual forest.

If they tried to account for cases like that as well, the range became far too broad.

Hwi-yeon added an explanation.

“Most cruise ships cross national borders, after all. It’ll take time to investigate the parts that require actual measurements.”

“Then, what about Mimi Lodge?”

“....”

At Su-myeon’s words, Hwi-yeon pressed her lips tightly together.

That was the place where the entrance to the ghost story in which Hwi-yeon’s younger sibling had disappeared was located.

Whenever she had time, Hwi-yeon had gone over and reorganized the information Su-myeon had written down about Mimi Lodge dozens of times.

Thanks to that, among the new ghost stories they were currently organizing, its safety rules were among the most thoroughly compiled.

Even so, there was one reason she couldn’t readily step forward.

Su-myeon’s parents.

They still hadn’t found even a trace of evidence regarding their whereabouts.

She couldn’t simply tell him that they should search for her younger sibling first while standing in front of someone in that situation.

“If we don’t have anywhere definite right now, let’s not waste time and go there.”

“...Thank you.”

Now that their destination had been decided, that was as far as the meeting could go for the moment.

They needed to make absolutely certain of the safety rules for the ghost story they would enter through Mimi Lodge.

To make sure there wasn’t any information he had overlooked, Su-myeon started toward the upper floor where his computer was.

As the team members dispersed to their respective tasks, Ju-hee called out to Su-myeon.

“Ah! Take this with you.”

What Ju-hee handed Su-myeon was a fluffy, dry Cheshire.

Hearing that, Mi-ae raised one hand without even taking her eyes off her paperwork and said.

“You know, just putting everything in the washing machine doesn’t mean you’re done? Chief, I put your jacket through the dryer too, so make sure you take it with you!”

At Mi-ae’s words, Su-myeon scratched the back of his head.

When they came out of The Witch’s Forest, they had looked indescribably filthy.

Han-su had been the dirtiest, but Su-myeon had been just as much of a mess.

For a modern Korean, there was a fairly clear limit to how much filth one could tolerate.

Everyone had practically fled, throwing their ruined clothes into the washing machine before going off to wash themselves....

“Thank you for taking care of it.”

There were quite a few things people forgot when they grew up under their parents’ care.

Of course, intellectually, they knew that all sorts of things required work, but that was only when they consciously stopped to think about it.

When everything was hectic, it was easy to unconsciously think of clothes as something that simply got washed on their own and returned to where they belonged.

“...If you think you won’t be able to keep track of things properly, then just have someone do it for you.”

Mi-ae, who had been busily working on documents, turned her gaze toward Su-myeon as she spoke.

Mi-ae was fairly meticulous about things like this, so thanks to her, it felt as though things were at least being kept somewhat organized.

As Su-myeon gathered his things while thanking her again, Mi-ae called after him.

“Or at least please tell the higher-ups to hire more staff~!”

Hwi-yeon handled all the hiring....

But since Su-myeon was technically the superior on paper, he merely nodded timidly and headed upstairs.

‘...Someone above me.’

Among the people who regularly came to work at the Governance and showed their faces there, Su-myeon was the highest-ranking one.

But since the organization had formally been established as an agency, there was obviously someone above him.

As for who exactly that superior was, Su-myeon recalled the special episode in which Hwi-yeon had been the protagonist.

If it was the same person....

‘No, there’s a high chance it is the same person.’

So far, none of the phenomena shown in the game had been wrong.

Whether they were from the future or the past.

There had been changes because the timing didn’t match, but they had never actually been incorrect.

If that was the case, did he need to prepare for something?

‘Can I even prepare for it....’

They were all fragmented pieces.

Even when the protagonist of the main story appeared, it was rarely made clear exactly when, or at what point in time, the scene took place.

While Su-myeon was thinking, the elevator doors opened.

He entered the familiar password, scanned his fingerprint, and headed toward his spot inside the storage room.

“.......”

In the silence, not even the ordinary ticking of a clock could be heard.

The storage room was filled with cabinets and display cases meant for keeping various items.

There were still more empty spaces than occupied ones, since it hadn’t yet been fully filled.

And there, Su-myeon felt that something was strange.

He looked around at the sense of wrongness that felt almost like intuition, but couldn’t determine exactly why.

It felt far too unpleasant to dismiss as mere imagination.

The moment he started walking again, an unfamiliar voice rang out.

“Unexpected.”

It was a low, clear male voice.

The sudden voice startled him, but after taking a few more steps inside, Su-myeon saw its owner.

The man was sitting in Su-myeon’s seat without permission, with neatly swept-back hair, an expensive suit, and a carefully groomed appearance.

At a glance, he gave off the unmistakable impression of a high-ranking official, though he looked no older than his mid-to-late thirties.

Even though the situation would have made it perfectly reasonable to call him an intruder, the man gestured as though it were nothing unusual.

“Will you sit?”

Still sitting in Su-myeon’s seat as though it belonged to him, the man casually offered him the spare chair in front.

It was a face Su-myeon had never seen in person before, but the man did not look unfamiliar to him.

Su-myeon knew who he was.

“....”

Keeping his mouth firmly shut, Su-myeon sat down in front of him.

The man studied him closely, then slowly raised one corner of his mouth.

“You’re not asking anything.”

The man speaking was the high-ranking National Intelligence Service official who had ordered Hwi-yeon to explore ghost stories in her special episode.

His name had also been unusual enough that Su-myeon remembered it.

Jang Bok-eum. A mysterious high-ranking official in his mid-thirties whose background and true identity were unknown.

“You’re my superior, I assume. Am I right?”

Rather than revealing everything he knew, Su-myeon spoke as though he had simply deduced it.

Although his expression was tense, his voice carried certainty, and Bok-eum looked at him with interest.

“I can certainly see that you’re different.”

After muttering almost to himself, he properly introduced himself.

“That’s right. I’m Jang Bok-eum, and I’ve been appointed Director of this facility. I’d prefer it if you called me Director Jang.”

Bok-eum held out his hand for a handshake.

His hand was covered by a pitch-black leather glove.

Su-myeon clasped it with the hand that still had adhesive bandages on it.

Bok-eum’s grip tightened strangely hard, enough to make Su-myeon’s hand tingle, and the gesture made him distinctly uncomfortable.

Even then, Bok-eum kept staring at him as though observing him.

“Doesn’t it make you wonder whether I’m genuine?”

Since Su-myeon wasn’t saying anything first, Bok-eum took the initiative.

The way he kept probing him as though testing something was deeply unpleasant.

Still, even Su-myeon, despite having almost no experience with ordinary working life, knew well enough that one was supposed to act deferentially around one’s boss.

After thinking for a moment, Su-myeon chose what seemed like the most appropriate answer.

“I can tell that much apart.”

He already knew because of the information he had seen in the game, but there was still one thing Su-myeon had kept hidden even from the other team members.

The fact that they themselves appeared inside Su-myeon’s game.

That was the one thing Su-myeon had never directly mentioned.

At first, he had simply delayed bringing it up because he didn’t know how he was supposed to explain it, but by now, he had come to think there was no particular reason to tell them.

“Is that so. You certainly qualify for special treatment.”

Bok-eum’s words were praise, but Su-myeon didn’t feel particularly good about them.

Because he couldn’t tell what the man truly thought or why he was doing any of this.

Even in the game, it had been impossible to tell what he actually wanted.

All he seemed to want was for them to somehow keep digging through as many ghost stories as possible.

What he ultimately desired had never been revealed at all.

He had been presented almost like a supporter watching their backs, but as long as his intentions remained unknown, he was suspicious.

“Anyway, you accomplished something significant this time. I came personally to offer some encouragement.”

“And yet you told us to move straight on to the next job.”

At the word encouragement, Su-myeon made a timid counterattack.

Of course, Su-myeon wanted to find his parents as soon as possible too.

But being busy by choice and being made busy by someone else were two different things.

Bok-eum shrugged as though Su-myeon’s words didn’t bother him and answered calmly.

“If you intend to save a great many people, you have no choice but to be busy. You could say they’re all small sacrifices for something greater.”

Had he really come all this way just to offer such worthless encouragement?

Bok-eum continued spouting ceremonial words that didn’t resonate with Su-myeon in the slightest.

“Of course, if you ever decide that things are truly too difficult or unreasonable, you may tell me at any time.”

As though there would be anything they could do if Su-myeon simply refused to go and dug in his heels.

The way Bok-eum spoke as though he were being considerate was almost laughable.

“Right. This is my contact information.”

Bok-eum took a business card from inside his jacket and handed it to Su-myeon.

Unnatural Threat Governance

Director Jang Bok-eum

010-XXXX-XXXX

...Even looking at it again, it really was an unusual name.

As Su-myeon looked at the business card, Bok-eum continued.

“Anyway, among the personnel working in this building, aren’t you the highest-ranking one?”

Bok-eum briefly explained that from now on, if Su-myeon needed anything, he could tell him directly instead of asking Agent Lee to handle it.

From Su-myeon’s perspective, the more responsibility and authority he was given, the more burdensome it became.

And he still couldn’t understand why he had been placed in this position instead of Hwi-yeon in the first place.

‘Of course, I’m the only one who’s actually produced results in ghost stories so far, but....’

Even so, the fact that a government agency had so readily acknowledged such fragmentary achievements was suspicious no matter how he looked at it.

It would have been only natural to work through Hwi-yeon, who was already part of the organization and therefore more trustworthy.

Wasn’t that precisely why Hwi-yeon had been the one dealing with the higher-ups until now?

‘Why did they specifically give someone they couldn’t even trust, like me, that weird position of Special Operations Chief?’

Once his suspicions broke loose, there wasn’t just one or two suspicious points.

In the end, Su-myeon couldn’t hold himself back and asked.

“Why was I suddenly put in charge of something like this?”

He had no idea what they had been thinking when they entrusted it to him.

At Su-myeon’s question, Bok-eum stared at him for a moment.

Then he burst out laughing.

Laughing?

I asked a serious question, at least by my standards....

“I thought you were intelligent, but apparently not entirely.”

Bok-eum’s response wasn’t an answer.

But he added nothing more and rose from the seat.

“Then, I’ll be in touch.”

That was the entire conversation.

Without giving him any clear answer, Bok-eum simply said whatever he wanted to say and left.

After watching the door close completely behind him, Su-myeon suddenly felt exhaustion wash over him.

“Haah....”

With a sigh, Su-myeon placed Cheshire and the phone he had been holding on top of the computer.

Rather than worrying about an impossible boss, it was probably better to deal with the problem immediately in front of him.

“Oh... fluffy!”

The moment Cheshire was placed on top of the computer, it stood up and threw both arms into the air.

A cat doll moving around while giving off a pleasantly soft scent.

It was a bizarre sight, but somehow Su-myeon felt like he was getting used to it.

With that thought, Su-myeon picked up the phone he had just set down.

There was an unfamiliar notification on the Dokkaebi AI app.

But that thing in thy pocket.

Dost thou even know what it is that thou carriest around?

“....”

What does this mean?