Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 225.3

“Of course! …It’s about how this company collects Darknesses. It’s surprisingly structured and multifaceted.”

Kwak Jekang pulled out a pen, flipped over a sheet of paper, and scrawled out diagrams in front of me.

“This company’s methods of collecting Darkness are broadly divided into two categories.”

External Collection.

Internal Collection.

“The former, of course, is something you’re already very familiar with.”

Collecting from the outside.

Discovering and retrieving wandering new ghost stories, or reclaiming those that had been intentionally redeployed among civilians for recycling.

External Collection – Capture.

External Collection – Retrieval.

“And the latter… Haha, this is where the Research Team really shines!”

The work done inside Daydream Inc.

“Development and Excavation.”

Internal Collection – Development.

Internal Collection – Excavation.

“First, development. That’s creating new Darkness by grafting or experimenting with existing ones.”

True to this ghost story world, this was known to be the standard work of the development-related Research Team.

Research aimed at raising the grade of Darknesses while keeping survival rates high, or hypothesis building for manuals, and so forth.

Naturally, this was all familiar to me.

That meant the important part was…

“But you haven’t heard of Excavation before, have you?”

The final part.

“Exactly what it sounds like… Excavation is digging up Darkness from beneath this company’s very floors.”

…!!

Kwak Jekang beamed broadly.

“Do you happen to know what’s beneath our company…?”

……

Cheerful Research Institute

“…! I knew it would be related somehow… Hahaha, ha!”

I looked at Kwak Jekang silently.

He quickly stopped laughing.

“That’s right, yes. If you go further down below the lower floors, you’ll see endless repetitions of the same office layout.”

I know.

I’ve seen it twice already.

And… the sergeant had risked himself to find and tell me.

– If you go deeper underground… the same office corridors… just keep repeating…

– It must be the same place, but… maybe… each one is a slightly different time…?

I’d thought that was information I didn’t need anymore since I had already used the Wish Ticket, but I was wrong.

“That is the ghost story called ‘Cheerful Research Institute’.”

The entire place itself is a massive ghost story.

Kwak Jekang showed me copied documents, pages about Cheerful Research Institute that he must have requested access to himself.

…They matched the sergeant’s account.

“And within it, you can find all sorts of prototypes they produced back when Cheerful Research Institute was still active, as well as artifacts that serve as mediums connecting to ghost stories.”

The source of the earliest Darknesses when Daydream Inc. was first founded.

“This is where Daydream excavates ghost stories that can become Darknesses. Especially in the early days, this was the norm.”

Kwak Jekang’s eyes gleamed with the thrill of uncovering new knowledge.

“So one could theorize… that Daydream built its headquarters right on top of it. Hahaha, fascinating, isn’t it?”

[Goodness. This man’s comedic timing is so poor he’d be pelted with rotten eggs if he tried stand-up!]

“Anyway, they’ve already scoured everything they can from the shallower floors… now they have to go deeper, but the further they go, the stranger things get, so they’re struggling.”

Kwak Jekang looked at me.

“Even the standard Security Team finds it difficult… So wouldn’t the help of a Special Division staff member be crucial?”

…!

“I’m certain it’s connected to why you were created.”

I clenched my invisible hand within the smoke.

“In the end, this ‘excavation’ assignment will be given to you, Mr. Employee…”

Request for expedited progress

“Of course! But to get to that stage, there needs to be a solid foundation of trust first!”

Kwak Jekang was suddenly trying to feel me out.

“For example… That I, as your supervising researcher, prove that my method of operating 130666 is reliable. Hahaha.”

Hm. In other words, I’d need to appear obedient enough to justify moving on to the next stage…

To make the company believe they could control me to some extent.

This is driving me nuts, seriously.

‘Well, I already signed that damn slave contract, didn’t I.’

Let’s do it. That way, I can move more freely.

Affirmative

“…! Excellent. Then I’ll come up with a very suitable and fun method…”

Please, for the love of everything, stop talking.

I quickly shaped my smoke into words.

Perform standard Security Team duties

“…Aah.”

The excitement drained from Kwak Jekang’s voice.

“Right. Well, that’s… rather dull, or should I say, plain… though, coming from you, it’s a little different.”

I’m not done yet.

Justification :

‘I’ve discovered an additional method of control, and I wish to test it.’

“…! Ah, so you’re framing it as an experiment to see how well you can be controlled! That’s good. Fear? Pleasure? Rewards and punishment, which is it? Haha, whichever direction it is…”

Money

“……”

Greed based on disciplinary measures :

Requesting wages based on the employee pay table 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“……I see.”

Thank you, Kang Yihak-ssi.

People driven by money are, ironically, easier to predict.

And Daydream has plenty of it.

* * *

A few days later.

I was seated at the annex’s front desk with two Security Team members.

They said they’d pay me. That’s nice.

A bit sad, though, that I was still inside a carrier crate…

‘Sniffle.’

And one more thing.

[Oh, that looks like an ear, Friend.]

During the quiet hours of my shift, I began rationally examining my deformed, melted body, mapping out what part was where.

There was something I wanted to confirm: if any part of me still retained its proper shape.

And then, I found it.

:恩主:

The inventory tattoo.

Salt Goblin

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