Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 221.1

A dark, cramped editing room.

The massive editing monitors.

Only one of them lit.

On the sole light source glowed a blue desktop background.

And on it, several video file icons.

Variety show footage.

Having already discussed their plan beforehand, the two Field Exploration Team employees moved without hesitation.

– First, let’s check if it’s really a Darkness.

– Yes!

Verification process.

The hand gripping the mouse moved, and the pointer slid across the desktop…

Click.

The selected icon spat out footage.

It was raw video intended for MBS’s ‘Kind Karaoke’, Episode 26.

[Hahahahaha!]

[Wow, you really sing well!]

[You flatter me.]

On the brightly colored karaoke set, two guests and the MC laughed across a table.

It was a format currently popular as a broadcast content strategy against YouTube, a small-scale music talk show featuring glamorous guests and a witty but not overly aggressive host.

The bright and cheerful set design, laughter, and even the production staff’s cheers gave the room a buoyant air.

“…There.”

The video was paused.

A passing cut of the karaoke room interior.

On the dark little window in the karaoke door.

The man’s face.

Staring straight at the camera.

“Huu.”

Visible even in the dark. More twisted, more blatant than in the attached screenshot of Episode 36 from the forum post.

As if straining to be noticed by someone beyond the camera’s lens.

A sight that would have frozen anyone in terror at their desk or sent them screaming if they stumbled on it by chance.

“Okay.”

But the two Field Exploration Team members quickly closed the video and clicked on another.

Because they were used to it.

Click, click. Their hands moved quickly, selecting other variety show files and episodes ending in ‘6’.

…And then they realized.

“……”

“……”

Recent trends in variety formats meant large, boisterous crowds were uncommon.

Especially shows with audience participation or mass reaction shots. They were almost nonexistent.

Which meant, no crowds.

The ‘man in the screen’ could no longer sit hidden among a sea of people, pretending to be just one of them.

So instead…

He appeared in stranger, more unnatural ways.

In a rooftop-room variety show where guests sat on cushions chatting, the man stood outside the veranda, staring into the camera. In a fishing variety show on the river, the man pressed his face close beside the cast concentrating on their rods, staring into the camera. In a talk show with an emcee and actor guest seated at a table, the man stood behind them, unmoving, staring into the camera.

His expressions grew more grotesque.

His postures too.

Sometimes mimicking the gestures of the emcee or guest.

Almost like mockery, yet with such stiffness and wrongness that chills crawled down the spine…

“……”

By this point, even the most money-obsessed opportunist began to feel a rising dread. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Kang Yihak swallowed hard and shut off the footage.

But she didn’t hesitate.

“I’ll put it in.”

“Yes.”

Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae inserted the prepared USB into the editing machine connected to the monitor.

Executing the simple disposal method the company had provided.

Place the video data in a storage medium that does not allow automatic playback, and return it to a proper containment location. (provisional)

Given the Darkness’s patterns, it was a rational attempt.

If watching videos in the editing room where ‘the man in the screen’ appeared led to death, then the solution was simple. Store the footage separately, seal the editing room, and be done with it.

If the videos couldn’t be played, the phenomenon couldn’t occur.

Regrettably, the production crew would be told to rely only on the untouched raw data outside the editing room.

So we just don’t provoke it, and load everything into the USB as it is!

Exactly.

Click.

As soon as the USB connected, Kang Yihak swiftly opened the removable disk. With practiced ease, she selected every file ending in ‘6’ on the desktop, along with the in-progress editing folder, and dragged them all in at once.

It was a motion she’d done so often it carried no hesitation.

‘Huu.’

And then, as expected of massive files, a loading popup appeared.

The footage began transferring into the removable disk.

If they could just endure this part…

Copying…

“……”

“……”

Huh?

“Excuse me.”

Lee Seonghae spoke.

“Why is your hand there?”

Kang Yihak lowered her gaze to her hand.

Instinctively resting on the keyboard, her finger was pressing the Ctrl key.

…A habit.

When you drag files or folders directly into a USB storage, the system treats it as a move.

It’s a ‘cut’.

But if you hold Ctrl while doing it…

It becomes a ‘copy’.

A natural instinct developed in any senior student juggling endless extracurricular work and assignments.

A backup.

“……”

Kang Yihak looked at the files still transferring into the USB storage.

And at the files still remaining on the desktop.

The ones containing the ‘man in the screen’.

At this rate, the originals would remain in the editing room.

But files being copied couldn’t be deleted.

‘No.’

Cold dread trickled through her veins as she stared at the ‘Copying’ popup, waiting for completion.

The numbers climbed steeply. Please. 90%, 92%, 95%, 97%, 99%…

Complete.

In that instant, Kang Yihak slammed the delete shortcut.

Are you sure you want to

permanently delete these 6 items?

Now!

It had to be quick. Her hand mustn’t slip. No, her hand didn’t slip but strangely, unnaturally, the mouse double-clicked and instead of deleting the footage it played and

You locked eyes with the man in the screen.

Do not delete

Salt Goblin

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