Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work

I recall it.

The main building basement of Baekilmong Corporation, where the layers of the YuKwae Research Laboratory’s past were stacked floor by floor.

The shadows and corpses of researchers dying in the blazing lab that I saw there.

Shuddering at what on earth could have happened for the lab to catch fire, and remembering the moment I escaped with Director Ho from an office dozens of floors below, engulfed in flames.

...So the YuKwae Research Laboratory really was underground.

I just didn’t expect that “underground” to be subway infrastructure.

I looked again at the YuKwae Research Laboratory offices unfolding inside the machinery room on the outer-bound platform of Midnight Station.

......Is this also a projected ghost-story?

“Agent, do you sense anything impure or malign?”

“...At present, no.”

I glanced at Baek Saheon, who had been subtly lifting his blindfold to peek inside; he hurriedly shook his head as well.

...Not a ghost-story? A real place?

And it seemed no one present recognized where we were.

I realized.

No one here has been under Baekilmong HQ.

Mostly only Security Division goes down there.

“Roe Deer. Do you want to go in?”

I nodded slowly.

“...It seems to be a place I know.”

“...!”

“But given it’s completely burned out, sending too many in at once would be dangerous. I’ll go, and...”

“Can I come?”

Deputy Lee Seonghae (Dolphin Deputy) shot a hand up.

“...I’d appreciate it.”

Thus Deputy Lee Seonghae and I entered the charred corridor.

Slosh.

Black water pooled underfoot clung to my soles and peeled away.

“Roe Deer. How do you happen to know this place?”

I hesitated, then told the truth.

Since I had become part of Director Ho’s project team, keeping it to myself would feel like deception anyway.

“...It existed beneath Baekilmong.”

And I explained as concisely and quickly as I could:

That the YuKwae Research Laboratory seemed to be the source of Baekilmong’s dream-tech;

that after some kind of incident, the lab burned and disappeared, and its past was turned into a darkness instance and bound beneath Baekilmong HQ.

“Oh.”

Deputy Lee Seonghae, who had seemed lost in thought, gave this as the first response:

“So the Wish Ticket was originally developed at the YuKwae Lab?”

Huh?

“I... don’t know.”

I recalled the prototype unit from the dream incubation room I’d found.

🥰🥸🤯🧐🤪🥱

◎

Potion-making buttons labeled with emojis.

And the blank slot where the bottom button was missing.

“I confirmed the source versions for the other potions, but I never found the Wish Ticket.”

“Aha.”

We walked the burned-out corridor in brief silence, then Deputy Lee Seonghae spoke again.

“Honestly, sometimes the Wish Ticket feels kinda weird.”

“In what sense?”

“If it exists, why don’t the company executives take it?”

“...I heard only full-time employees are allowed to take it.”

I pictured Director Ho with those glossy eyes.

If the Wish Ticket allowed entry into Se-gwang Special City, he’d have gone long ago.

If he could secretly drink it and reap its effects, he already would have.

Deputy Lee Seonghae shook their head.

“That’s weird too. Doesn’t seem to be sold anywhere either. Then why produce it at all.”

“......!”

True...

...Something doesn’t add up.

The Wish Ticket clearly uses extremely high-concentration dream-substance—the obvious essence of Baekilmong’s potion series.

The core of Baekilmong.

It’s emphasized at onboarding and internally. It’s set up so that anyone connected to the company will sense it as a kind of ultimate goal.

Naturally.

This is the world of the Darkness Exploration Records wiki. In this setting, staff ghost-story exploration is paramount; the Wish Ticket was made the driving engine for that exploration.

A potion that grants everything.

Perfect for appearing in a ghost-story.

But...

Thinking about it realistically:

Why does the company produce the Wish Ticket?

It consumes that much dream-substance; and the very executives or upper ranks don’t actually take it themselves—so why produce it and list it on the welfare mall?

It feels far too “core product” to say it’s made only as an incentive for employee performance...

Who’s buying it?

Come to think of it, aside from the employee-point welfare mall, the distribution channels for the Wish Ticket are...

Unknown.

.........

Perhaps.

“Are you suggesting that the very act of someone suitable using the Wish Ticket... is the company’s goal?”

For example—

That they’re filtering for such “people suited to use the Wish Ticket” via the entrance exam.

“Oh.”

Deputy Lee Seonghae clapped their palm.

“Never thought that far, but sounds plausible.”

Exhale.

“Would that be... malicious?”

“Pardon?”

“Like, if this kind of person uses the Wish Ticket it actually accelerates environmental pollution... that kind of thing!”

“...I doubt it’s environmental pollution, but I also doubt our company is pursuing an ethically upright purpose.”

Saying it out loud, I realized:

“It’s probably whatever benefits the people running the company.”

That someone uses the Wish Ticket.

Someone with a wish they desperately want to fulfill, highly attuned to ghost-stories, someone who has survived countless darkness runs and returns...

“Aha.”

With that, Deputy Lee Seonghae wrapped the conversation.

In the flashlight beam, their green pupils glinted briefly, then sank back into the dark.

[Now that’s a new idea, Roe Deer! Let’s record it carefully. It may prove useful someday!]

...Right.

With complicated feelings, I moved farther down the corridor.

Checking doors as I went.

Cre-eak.

Some opened; some did not.

But where they wouldn’t open, I could peer in through windows cracked by heat.

The flashlight once more cut through a place without light; I swallowed a groan.

Completely charred.

...Where the dream incubators were?

Recalling the YuKwae Research Laboratory corridor under HQ where I’d once come with Director Ho, I headed for that office.

But the moment I opened the door—

“.......”

There were no dream incubators.

In the burned-out office, the only shapes left—strangely—were a single desk in the center, one chair, and a computer.

...A completely different configuration.

“...!”

And I understood.

[What realization, friend?]

This is a different place.

What I’d seen under Baekilmong HQ was the YuKwae Research Laboratory stacked by time slices across floors.

B10–B19 — Offices at lunchtime

B20–B29 — Offices at midnight

You see different timeframes of “some floor of the YuKwae Lab.”

The lower you go, the more dynamic the timeframe becomes...

Until, dozens of floors down, you confront the YuKwae Lab on the day it was engulfed in flames.

But here the office itself is different from the one under HQ.

This isn’t a difference of time.

...And yet the corridor and office layout are exactly the same.

[Oh? Then what is your best hypothesis for this place, Roe Deer?]

“...Let me step out a moment.”

I left the office and headed to the end of the corridor.

And there it was.

There.

The doors of a burned-out elevator.

“It doesn’t look like it works.”

Naturally, the charred elevator did not operate.

...But I can check something else.

What’s printed around an elevator. For example—

Safety guides on the architectural plan.

Even traces would do.

I wiped the soot near the top edge of the elevator doorway, within reach of my gaze.

Something emerged...

A sunken plaque, same material as the wall, set beside the elevator.

Not paper—so it hadn’t burned. The over-painted red pigment seemed to have burned off, leaving only sparse flaking at the edges...

And I had seen a similar form of “guide” before.

Different format, but on the subway train here, in this very place.

Segwang Special City subway route map.

“...!”

The subway route map... in front of an elevator?

Of course, since we are also inside subway infrastructure here, it’s not impossible, but normally route maps are inside the train, not at elevators.

Those are placed so that passengers can confirm where they are while moving between stations.

But for it to be in front of an elevator...

They used the elevator like a train...!

Like a lightning strike to the head, everything connects.

“It seems this elevator was used to move to similar facilities located in other stations.”

“Huh?”

Each subway station in Se-gwang Special City has a different ‘floor’ of the YuKwae Research Laboratory hidden inside it.

Yes.

This facility in Midnight Station clearly isn’t the same one I visited beneath Baekilmong HQ.

Because this is a different station...!

What I saw must exist hidden beneath some other station.

And no matter how supernaturally the elevator was used—it’s still fundamentally an elevator, and thus the structural layout would be the same.

Elevators move between floors.

Meaning:

The building called YuKwae Research Laboratory was spread across various subway stations in Se-gwang Special City, and the original method of moving between its sections was via elevator.

A structure befitting a supernatural, ghost-story-like laboratory.

Then the YuKwae Lab was hidden beneath Se-gwang Special City this whole time?

......Wait.

Then the fire I saw—

could that disaster be connected to the catastrophe of Se-gwang Special City?

And also...

Director Ho. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

— What I’m looking for is located in a facility connected to one of Se-gwang Special City’s subway stations.

Don’t tell me the place he wants is—

—another station’s YuKwae Laboratory...?

“Roe Deer.”

“...!”

I snapped back to reality.

I had gotten so absorbed in thinking that I forgot I was still inside a burned underground facility.

“That looks like an emergency exit, but it’s completely collapsed.”

“...Yes.”

It would be impossible to go that way.

We could ask Section Chief Lee Jahaeon to try clearing the rubble, but if the structure collapses further, it would be pointless.

Exhale.

“Agent Podo, are you alright?”

“Yes! I’m fine!”

They were checking on us from the entrance. But we couldn’t leave yet.

“Let’s look just a little more.”

I began searching the corridor thoroughly.

If this is a different floor, then this floor may have different clues.

I checked under burned desks and equipment.

“What are you doing?”

“Sometimes, areas where furniture was flush with the floor didn’t burn fully. No oxygen flow.”

“Aha.”

And indeed—here and there, untouched floor appeared beneath charred shapes.

Seeing this, Deputy Lee Seonghae also moved.

“Then look at this.”

“...!”

The first room we checked.

The one with only a desk, chair, and computer.

Deputy Lee lifted the monitor—

A piece of paper fell out.

A document?

It looked like something either meant to be reviewed frequently, or hastily written and shoved away.

One side of the sheet was nearly shredded—burn-blackened—and the other had a short printed note.

For this upcoming initial research,

use Children’s Paradise Syrup

→ My recommendation!

‘Children’s syrup’...

That’s the original YuKwae Lab naming scheme for what later became Baekilmong potions.

But Paradise Syrup is new. None of the emoji-potion formula buttons had that name...

But there is one Baekilmong potion with similar thematic feel—

...The Wish Ticket.

It may be a leap, but a sharp pain shoots through the back of my head.

And.

And...

Initial research.

Initial Summoning Research.

I froze.

Research Purpose: Verification of the targeted ......

Manifestation of the ... entity into this world, and initiation of contract.

This project derives from a prior research series and is named after the deity worshiped by a currently flourishing cult.

This will be the final research of the YuKwae Laboratory.

That unforgettable document.

The research that summoned me here.

The naming matches.

Then—

Derived from the prior research...

Meaning traces of that prior research remain here, in this YuKwae Lab branch?

Wait.

Could the catastrophe of Se-gwang Special City itself have originated from that research?

While searching for a method to summon me...?

Why?

My heart pounded.

I had to know.

What I am.

Why I came here.

Whether I—

Whether I can go back.

“Roe Deer.”

“...!!”

“Smoke exposure may affect respiration. Let’s leave.”

“...Yes.”

I urgently pocketed the note.

Then I walked back out of the corridor with Deputy Lee.

For now—

This is all we can recover from the Midnight Station facility.

The other offices have no shape left—

so this clue was only found thanks to Deputy Lee’s intuition.

But in ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the facilities of other stations—

there may be more critical evidence.

And in some station...

I may be able to confirm the exact floor that appeared under Baekilmong HQ—

in its real form.

My mind sparked like flame.

If we reach any station, immediately cross to the opposite platform and explore—?

Is that possible?

We’ve never tried.

If it works—perfect.

If not—

Then we must first conclude the ghost-story of that station.

Just like the Hanbit Library only returned to a real subway station after closure.

Meaning we would have to also resolve: