Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 152

"The beginning of this whole mess traces back to when I first reported to the field cleanup squad.

Up until that point, everything had been going smoothly.

'Come on, introduce yourselves. This is our new recruit, Agent Hwagal.'

A middle-aged woman with a scholarly demeanor, who seemed like a kind superior, introduced me and Jang Heo-woon to each other, and we exchanged agent names as if it were our first time meeting.

'Um, I’m Podo… n-nice to meet you….'

'…?! Hm, cough, y-yes….'

Jang Heo-woon had a sudden coughing fit for some reason, but we managed to move past it, and everyone exchanged greetings with smiles.

The team leader of the Field Cleanup Squad, Zhuque Unit 2, was chatting with the Bronze Agent, and I could hear bits of their conversation about how I had requested to join his team.

'Haha, my kid is still a rookie too. Having someone around the same age on the team would be nice, right?'

'Yes. Please take care of me.'

Thank you, Bronze Agent…!

I struggled to suppress my urge to grin and instead feigned nervousness, hunching my shoulders. Jang Heo-woon glanced at me before quickly managing his expression.

'Now then, today’s site… yeah, it’s not too difficult, so I think it’ll be perfect for our two rookies.'

The team leader patted both our shoulders with a smile.

'It’s a ghost story that an agent from Xuanwu Unit 1 just finished rescuing a civilian from. Ah, you’ve heard of Xuanwu Unit 1, right? That’s where the Bronze Agent is stationed.'

'Yes…!'

I’d heard about it so much I was practically being forced into that unit….

Anyway, the team leader of Zhuque Unit 2 gave us a concise briefing on today’s supernatural disaster.

Along with safety measures.

'If at any point you feel like you can’t handle it, let us know. Podo’s senior will be waiting outside.'

'Thank you…!'

But that wasn’t going to happen.

I was going to complete this field cleanup mission flawlessly and handle all the paperwork perfectly as well…!

Besides.

'This is a ghost story I’m familiar with.'

No, not just familiar—I was practically intimate with this ghost story. It didn’t even matter if my grip strength recovered or not.

'People fought all night over how to conclude this ghost story while I sat back and watched.'

And the story had been resolved in the way I thought made the most sense. I remembered it well because the next morning, I fueled myself on dopamine and went to work.

Of course, this was exactly the kind of ghost story I feared the most.

But the actual ghostly events were already over! No ghosts were going to appear!

In terms of cleanup, it was similar to the taxi incident from last time, except there wouldn’t be any supernatural entities jumping out at us. It was purely about tidying up the aftermath…!

'Wearing this uniform makes me feel at ease.'

As he put on the white protective suit assigned for cleanup duty, Jang Heo-woon spoke in a cheerful voice.

'It really does…!'

Being covered from head to toe provided a sense of psychological security.

I responded brightly, but for some reason, Jang Heo-woon’s expression turned ambiguous. Was I being too friendly…?

'Now then, Agent Hwagal, why don’t you go over the site briefing one more time?'

'Yes!'

Following the team leader’s encouragement, Jang Heo-woon quickly relayed the information to me.

'The supernatural disaster we’re dealing with today is located in Dobong District, and the estimated cleanup time is three hours. Its defining characteristic is this….'

A clear and concise description followed.

'A public telephone booth that tells scary stories.'

***

As the sun set over a neighborhood in Seoul, a solitary structure stood by the roadside.

A worn-down public telephone booth.

The kind you rarely see in Korea anymore, with a sky-blue ceiling.

The exterior was that of an ordinary public telephone booth manufactured in the 1980s. It looked old, but when you tried to make a call, it connected normally.

There were a few old advertisement stickers haphazardly stuck to the booth’s walls, as if they had been there for decades.

The stickers next to the phone were mostly from defunct businesses.

However, among them, there was one particular sticker, colored deep red and yellow, measuring 12cm x 7cm, that read, 'We tell scary stories.'

Calling the number on this sticker would lead to a terrifying story related to the telephone booth.

(The number was a 13-digit sequence, and attempting to call it from any device outside the booth resulted in failure.)

Users who spotted the sticker reported experiencing an overwhelming urge to call.

And that was when the supernatural disaster occurred.

Because the scary story it told would actually unfold inside the booth.

This afternoon, the emergency rescue team had extracted a civilian from that telephone booth, who had become ensnared in the ghost story.

Our job was to clean up the eerie 'aftermath' left behind by the ghost story.

And the current state of the site—

The inside of the booth was flooded with crimson blood, which had overflowed and spilled onto the ground.

"……."

"……."

Wow.

'I want to run away.'

But if I did, I’d be recommended for termination.

I swallowed hard.

"Let’s go in."

"Y-Yes…."

Jang Heo-woon, who also seemed bad with blood, looked on the verge of passing out, but just like me, he was a spy. Retreating wasn’t an option.

So, both of us hesitantly stepped toward the telephone booth.

The phone was hanging by its cord, dangling near the floor, and it looked like the blood had poured out from there….

"I-I’ll take the photos…."

"A-Ah… yeah!"

I raised the camera and zoomed in to frame the public telephone booth at the center.

'…There’s something floating in the blood.'

Organs.

Goosebumps ran down my spine.

'Please, just….'

Okay, think. The civilian was rescued, so these are basically just props. Yeah, it’s like walking into a haunted house—

'Haunted houses are terrifying too!'

Just endure it!

Forcing myself to push through, I took a series of quick photos and lowered the camera. Beside me, Jang Heo-woon stiffly stepped closer to the booth, opened the door, and placed the 'cleaning device' inside.

Exorcism Swallow

A specialized field cleanup device that looked like an industrial vacuum cleaner. It efficiently sucked up the blood.

However, due to the size limit of the entrance, we had to manually remove 'anything larger than that.'

"……."

"Are… you okay?"

"Y-Yes… w-we’re completely covered, so…."

Having no direct skin contact was the only saving grace.

Thankfully, Jang Heo-woon hadn’t passed out, so we both stepped into the booth to begin cleaning.

This is so damn disgusting.

Suppressing the urge to swear, I grabbed the dislodged intestines and round, bulbous organs and placed them into the designated containment unit.

Since there was no immediate threat to our lives, my brain was processing this entire ordeal in a horrifyingly crisp and conscious manner.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

'Save me.'

I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut a few times.

Seeing this, even pale-faced, Jang Heo-woon muttered in admiration.

"Wow, you’re r-really good at… a-acting like a proper recruit…!"

"……."

"I-I mean that in a good way."

"…Thanks."

This isn’t acting….

Swallowing my words, I continued cleaning as fast and mechanically as possible. Damn it.

Fortunately, the blood drained easily.

And thanks to the effectiveness of our protective suits, we remained much calmer than when we had first seen the state of this insane booth.

'Just don’t look too closely.'

I desperately avoided thinking about the fact that we’d have to count how many organs were present once this was over and focused on scrubbing every trace of the ghostly filth away.

Next, we had to apply the cleansing solution….

"Next…"

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Just now, did you say something about next…?"

Oh. Had I been so tense that I accidentally spoke my thoughts out loud…?

Next… what…?

"……."

"……."

Slowly, we turned our heads.

The receiver of the phone, which had been submerged in blood, was emerging as the vacuum sucked the liquid away.

Droplets of blood dripped to the ground, one after another.

Drip. Drip.

Revealing itself.

A pristine speaker.

[If you would like to hear the next scary story, please press 4.]

Thunk.

The booth door shut.

"…!!"

[If you would like to hear the next scary story, please press 4.]

We instinctively recoiled from the phone.

A low, crackling mechanical hum accompanied the pre-recorded voice as it continued its automatic playback.

"The phone… it’s still connected…!"

Beep.

A short electronic tone.

One of the buttons on the phone’s keypad pressed itself.

The first button on the second row.

Beep-beep-beep-beep!

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

[We will now tell you the next scary stor—]

I lunged for the phone.

And instinctively, I began frantically mashing the pound key while yelling into the receiver.

"It is currently March 7th, 202X. There are no longer any public telephone booths in Dobong District. Isn’t that terrifying?"

[…]

"I have already heard the next scary story!"

The call ended.

'Now…!'

"Agent! This thing!!"

I nearly blurted out Jang Heo-woon’s real name as I grabbed the entire phone unit with both hands and lifted it into the air.

"…?! W-what are you—"

"Move!"

And then, I hurled it straight into the glass door of the booth.

"…!!"

Crash!!

The booth door shattered as the public phone tumbled onto the pavement. With every roll, it broke apart further, emitting eerie, distorted screams, button tones, and connection noises, all mixing together into a cacophony.

Then, all that remained was a pile of black ashes.

"…Hah."

"Huff… hufff…."

Both Jang Heo-woon and I collapsed onto the ground.

Before we realized it, the glass booth we had stepped into had disappeared entirely. The surroundings were wide open, and the containment units where we had been collecting blood-soaked organs were now empty and clean.

The only sound was the vacuum still noisily sucking at empty space.

'Haa…'

Possessed public telephone booth… successfully dismantled.

'That was horrifying.'

We had almost ended up in a horrific situation.

Thank god this ghost story had a straightforward resolution.

'By revealing that I had already experienced a ghost story related to public telephones, I created a contradiction and forced a paradox. Then, by physically removing the phone unit from the booth and throwing it outside…'

Since the 'scary story' only had power within the booth, it naturally disappeared.

It was a method of ending a supernatural disaster by forcing the ghost story to devour itself.

'I always liked this kind of resolution, but actually getting to use it was… kind of surreal…'

"Agent Podo!!"

I heard the sound of a senior agent rushing toward us.

They must have been startled when the telephone booth suddenly vanished. That’s right, Bronze Agent, I have successfully escaped—

"……."

Wait a minute.

The senior agent was waiting outside the whole time.

'Then… wouldn’t we have been fine if we had just stayed put?'

And another thing.

'We weren’t supposed to "remove" the scene. We were supposed to clean it up.'

I lifted my head.

Bronze Agent, who had rushed over, was staring at us with an expression of pure disbelief.

"……."

"……."

"Did you just… destroy the telephone booth?"

Ah.

***

"Ahahahahahah!!"

"……."

"Not cleanup, but destruction! The Wrecker Rookie! Agent Podo!"

Agent Choi, who had been laughing like a madman, gave me a thumbs-up.

"Yeah! Ending a supernatural disaster is the best kind of cleanup! Great job, rookie!"

I wanted to punch him.

'Haa.'

I held down my right hand, which was itching to give another unintentional thumbs-up, and let out a deep sigh, suppressing my frustration.

…After I destroyed the telephone booth, I still vividly remembered the awkward conversation between Bronze Agent and Zhuque Unit 2’s team leader….

— "It was certainly impressive, but… uh, that was a risky move. I think we’d be better off with someone a bit calmer in our team."

— "……."

Of course, no matter what, I couldn’t open my mouth and say, "It was completely safe because I already read about this method in the Darkness Exploration Records."

In the end, my actions were perceived as a timid rookie who, in a state of slight panic, made a bold yet somewhat reckless decision based purely on instinct.

And it just so happened to work.

Of course, completely resolving a supernatural disaster was a significant achievement, so it seemed like my capabilities were recognized.

…However, the final evaluation ended up like this.

— "Yeah, I think this rookie agent would be a perfect fit for Bronze Agent’s team! The Emergency Rescue Squad!"

Krrrk.

…Jang Heo-woon, who had been anxiously watching from behind, visibly shifted expressions—one that said, "Yeah, honestly, the fawn supervisor is probably better suited elsewhere." I nearly lost my mind.

'…But I was going to be good at paperwork!'

There was nothing left to clean up because I had erased the entire scene.

And since the ghost story itself had been completely resolved, I… had become not the one organizing the reports, but the subject of the report.

…Just now, I had been interviewed for documentation purposes… by Zhuque Unit 2’s team leader….

"……."

"Snrk, at least you got to connect with another new recruit in that team. It’s always good to know people in other teams. Makes it easier to ask for small favors."

Which brought me to my current predicament: meeting with Agent Choi.

"Ah, right! My bad. You haven’t officially been assigned to a team yet. I got ahead of myself~ …But still, you’re working with our team today."

Yeah. Because my next assignment had already been decided.

…As a rookie agent, I was still in my three-week rotation, experiencing various team assignments.

Which meant…

"Welcome back to Xuanwu Unit 1!"

That meant I was getting thrown back into an emergency rescue mission.

And apparently, thanks to the stunt I pulled, the personnel department found the idea of giving me another mission in the rescue squad extremely convincing.

'Bronze Agent…'

It seemed like he had tried his best to stop it, but at the end of the day, rescue missions were something all rookie agents were expected to do, so it wasn’t enough to overturn the decision.

"Man, some rookie agents have all the luck. Getting assigned to the perfect team for their skills~"

"……."

Agent Choi grinned, rubbing his palms together.

"Today, rookie, you’ll be experiencing a very fulfilling three-person scheduled rescue mission!"

Save me.