Chapter 1
Have you ever been completely hooked on something?
I don’t just mean ‘oh, this is fun.’ I mean so deeply impressed that you ended up spending extra time and money on it.
You know what I’m talking about.
For movies, watching the director’s cut. For games, buying the art book. For webtoons, paying for early access. For a singer, going to concerts…….
Take it a step further, and buying spin-off merchandise would be another example.
Yeah, what they call merch.
Figures, banners, badges, plushies…….
I can say with absolute certainty that I’d never in my life spent money on anything like that.
Until now.
***
This was a department store.
The wildly popular pop-up store had already finished distributing queue tickets the moment the department store opened at 10 AM.
And I’d managed to snag one of those tickets.
“2:30 PM group, we’ll be letting you in now!”
“Ah, finally!”
“Hey, come on, let’s go.”
The bright-eyed teenagers standing next to me broke into excited grins and ran toward the staff member.
‘2:30… that’s right.’
I pulled my cap down as low as it would go and joined the line.
But I could hear whispers from behind me.
“Ugh….”
“A reseller, maybe.”
“Isn’t he a scalper?”
“……”
It was genuinely unfair, but I couldn’t exactly blame them.
I was the only adult male who looked like an office worker in this entire line.
‘Hah……’
I stared at the pop-up store entrance and groaned inwardly.
[Explorer from the Darkness, welcome.]
‘This is insane.’
A theme of black and red backgrounds interlaced with all sorts of monster caricatures, occult motifs, and interlocking symbols of corporations, religions, and governments.
It was, without question, a worldview designed to hit teenagers right in the heart.
The title was a true work of art, too.
[Doomsday Prophecy: Records of Dark Exploration]
Huh….
I barely held back the urge to cover my eyes with one hand.
‘Why did I have to go and read this at work……’
<Records of Dark Exploration>.
An internet ghost story universe that had been extremely hot recently.
You know the type. A collective-intelligence, open-source worldview where anyone could jump in and write their own stories.
From what I’d heard, it originally branched off from a certain famous ghost story and spread quietly among students through word of mouth, but then it hit the WeTube algorithm and exploded in popularity.
‘Records of exploring various supernatural phenomena called “Darkness.”‘ That was the concept behind these ghost stories.
Eventually, it grew into an independent wiki with hundreds, even thousands of stories logged, which was how it caught my eye.
‘…Since it was all text, it was way too easy to read at work.’
And they say anything that isn’t actual work is fun when you’re doing it at the office.
I’d fallen so deep into this universe that I’d gone and created my own ghost story and even uploaded it to the wiki…….
How the hell did it come to this? Was my work life, utterly devoid of dopamine, to blame after all?
On top of that, there was the sheer scale of <Records of Dark Exploration> itself.
‘I never expected it to blow up this much.’
Apparently it was now a massive IP practically reigning over WeTube as the king of the middle school crowd.
And once that happened, corporations swooped right in to cash in on it.
This pop-up store was part of that very initiative.
‘But still, the wiki literally had a “Recommended for Ages 15+” tag on it.’
Why was it nothing but kids here?
Between the whispering behind me and all of this, the dose of reality was hitting harder than I could handle, but….
“I think he’s definitely a scalper….”
“Hey, hey, he could be buying stuff for a niece or a cousin… let’s not be like that.”
No. It’s for me.
…Actually, I’d come last week too, but a piece of merch I wanted sold out right before my turn, so here I was again…….
I’d even used a vacation day for this.
‘At least last time there was a woman around my age here.’
Of all the time slots, I’d ended up with a weekday afternoon where the only other adults were parents who’d tagged along with their kids. I was so mortified I wanted to flee on the spot, but I held on.
‘Actually, I don’t even know why I’m trying to hold on….’
In any case, I followed the staff member’s guidance and entered the store.
The fact that the employee didn’t bat an eye was my sole consolation.
“Whoa!”
“Hey, it looks so real.”
Along with the middle schoolers’ gasps of admiration, the pop-up store interior came into view, decorated with impressive detail like a theme park.
And there were even helpfully labeled exhibit sections.
[Daydream Inc.]
[Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau]
[Church of Nameless Radiance]
In this ghost story universe, three massive factions existed: corporate, government, and religious, each trying to observe and secure supernatural phenomena… was the setting.
‘At first there were only the government-side Disaster Management Bureau ghost stories, but then a ton of people jumped in and went wild, and it ended up like this.’
In any case, this pop-up store seemed to have cherry-picked only the ones that had gone viral online.
The fact that they’d lumped everything together and only put out the popular characters and ghost story items gave it a blatant cash-grab feel, but the quality was decent enough.
‘Right. When else am I ever going to get to visit a place like this……’
I ignored the stares and quickly grabbed what I’d come to buy.
Since I’d already bought most of what I wanted last week, the items I was picking up this time weren’t particularly popular, which was a small mercy. At least the reseller-suspicion stares had disappeared.
“Would you like to purchase an L-size eco tote to carry your merchandise? It’s 5,000 won.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I finished paying without incident, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the pop-up store right away. I lingered, hesitating.
I turned my head and looked at the area next to the register where people had gathered in a line.
[Roulette Event]
: Create Your Own Records of Dark Exploration Character.
That.
I’d actually seen it last week too, but I couldn’t bring myself to stand in line and participate back then…….
‘I heard this pop-up ends tomorrow.’
Just as I was locked in fierce internal debate over whether this was worth trading my social dignity for.
A staff member who had just been relieved at the register spotted me, smiled, and spoke up.
“The roulette event runs through today! Would you like to try it?”
“…Yes.”
Thank you.
Really, thank you. Kind employee….
“Great! Right this way, then! Oh, if you could stand here……”
The employee nimbly guided me to the line in front of the enormous black roulette wheel, and thanks to that, I was able to slip naturally to the end of the line.
The line moved faster than expected.
Soon enough, I was standing at the very front, holding a single button that looked like a walkie-talkie.
“Alright, we’ll spin the lucky roulette first! Press the button whenever you want it to stop.”
WHIRR—
With an artificial sound effect, the roulette wheel began to spin.
Each section displayed a prize rank and its corresponding reward.
Merch I’d already purchased, display-only merch not for sale, and a random pair of Bluetooth earbuds….
Of course, the biggest section, the 7th-place prize, was just some small memo pad or something. I’d probably land there.
But that was fine. I’d nearly walked out without even participating, hadn’t I?
‘Don’t get your hopes up.’
That was what I told myself even as I carefully pressed the button the employee had given me.
RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE… CLICK.
But my black roulette slowly came to a halt…… and stopped, remarkably, right here.
A single slender golden section.
[1st Place]
: Records of Dark Exploration Real Merch Box
“…!”
“Oh! Congratulations!”
Is this… actually real?
“Holy shit!”
“So damn lucky, ah, I’m so jealous.”
Screams, gasps, and voices laced with envy erupted from behind, turning the area chaotic.
“Wow, on the second-to-last day of the pop-up, we finally have a 1st-place winner!”
The employee was even more excited than I was. She dashed behind the roulette and came back carrying a sizable, shrink-wrapped box.
The black box, emblazoned with a massive symbol in silver foil, looked like a carefully crafted product in its own right.
I managed to keep my hands from trembling as I accepted the box.
“…Thank you.”
Quick… I need to get out of here and slap myself in the face or something. Is this even real?
I tried to leave the pop-up store right then and there, but the employee stopped me.
“Oh! We’d like to give you a custom-made merch piece on the house. All we need is your name!”
My name? My personal information became public property ages ago when the portal sites got hacked. The only thing that matters is getting this home safely…!
“Kim Soleum.”
“Okay! Soleum, just a moment.”
The employee fiddled with a black vending machine next to the roulette that looked like a 3D printer.
It seemed to have been built specifically for the pop-up store, as there was even an explanatory label stuck on top.
[Records of Dark Exploration Character Maker]
Ah. Was that what the subtitle on the roulette event had been about?
…’Create Your Own Records of Dark Exploration Character,’ that is.
What a thoroughly teenage concept…….
“Please enter your name over here.”
“……Yes.”
Gripping the merch box tightly with one hand, I punched my name into the vending machine’s keypad with the other.
The black vending machine let out a rather loud and ominous music-box melody, then put on a flashy performance of turning gears.
Then it spat out a small object.
CLACK.
I picked up the familiar-looking thing.
It was… an employee ID badge.
[Daydream Inc.]
Kim Soleum, Employee
Field Exploration Team
“Wow! You got Daydream Inc. It’s one of the three most famous factions in our <Records of Dark Exploration>!”
“……”
Yes. I’m aware.
In a nutshell, it’s the big corporation that does business with supernatural phenomena. A classic trope.
And among its divisions, the Field Exploration Team was…….
‘That’s basically the death squad.’
Like the redshirts from a certain sci-fi show. Every time, they’d march into some supernatural phenomenon in the name of exploration and get ground to a pulp.
Of course, thanks to that, most of the named characters also belonged to this Field Exploration Team, if I recalled correctly.
“Wow! A Field Exploration Team employee badge. I can’t wait to see what kind of adventures Employee Kim Soleum would have in the <Records of Dark Exploration> world!”
“Yes, thank you….”
I felt my toes curling from the secondhand embarrassment, but I held it in.
‘At least it’s not an ID badge for the government agency or the cult.’
A corporate badge was the lesser evil, all things considered.
It was a bit mortifying, but the employee seemed to have built up an immunity from saying these lines so many times, or was perhaps simply composed as any proper worker in a capitalist society would be.
In any case, receiving this ID badge appeared to mark the end of the roulette event.
“Thank you.”
I stared at the employee ID badge printed with my name and groaned inwardly.
‘This… I need to stash this somewhere no one can see.’
No matter what, my threshold for embarrassment couldn’t possibly hold up this far.
Meanwhile, the employee cheerfully asked:
“Do you like it? You’ll treasure it, right?”
“Yes.”
“Liar.”
……?
I looked up, wondering if I’d misheard.
Grin.
The employee was suddenly smiling at me, the corners of her mouth split wide.
Unnaturally elongated upward, as if they might reach her ears…….
“…?”
That instant.
A sudden wave of vertigo crashed over my head.
“…!”
The clamor of the pop-up store vanished.
My vision churned dizzily as if smeared over with black paint, flickering in red and blue.
And when the vertigo finally subsided.
I never could have imagined, not even in a dream, that the entire world would have changed.
***
[Welcome to all who have joined Daydream Inc.!]
“…!?”
Before I knew it, I was sitting in the corner of some large lecture hall, facing the central stage.
And then.
ROOOOAR!!
A cheer erupted, and on the stage’s massive projector screen, a fireworks effect burst across the PPT slide.
[New Employee Orientation]
Young professionals in suits clapped and cheered politely, while the person who appeared to be the host beamed a wide smile and advanced the slides.
It was, by all appearances, a major corporation’s new employee orientation event.
Faces brimming with the joy of finally breaking through the gates of employment, buzzing with pride and nervous anticipation.
[You should be very proud of yourselves for beating the 145-to-1 competition to join us! Haha! Now then, let’s begin the new employee orientation!]
“……”
What is this?
I tried to shuffle back, but then I realized I was sitting in a chair.
I was in a suit. I’d worn it because there was a client dinner that evening, but by coincidence, I looked very much like the ‘new employees’ filling this lecture hall.
Meanwhile, the merch box from the roulette event sat primly on my lap.
“Excuse me, where did you get that? Is the company handing them out?”
“……”
I couldn’t even respond to the question from the new hire sitting next to me.
[You are all hand-picked successful candidates!]
[As it happens, among the recruits from this round’s new employee posting, we’ve brought only the most exceptional individuals to Lecture Hall A for this orientation!]
[Congratulations! You have all passed the aptitude assessment and been assigned to a special team, the <Field Exploration Team>.]
“We already got our assignments?”
“Field Exploration Team? Daydream Inc. has a place like that?”
“Field exploration… at a pharmaceutical company?”
“Hmm, that kind of sounds like an exile post, doesn’t it? A branch office, not the main one? They’re just using nice words to string us along….”
Whispers all around, murmured behind the host’s back, but I had no room to pay attention.
Because I’d recognized the familiar company name and team name.
Daydream Inc.
Field Exploration Team.
……Like a bolt of lightning, a wiki page surfaced in my mind.
—–
[Field Exploration Team] (Daydream Inc.)
: One of five teams under the Development Division of Daydream Inc., a major faction in <Records of Dark Exploration>.
An ill-fated team commonly known as the death squad. But thanks to that, the people who write ghost stories have fun with it.
—–
‘Wait.’
…This is the source material for the pop-up store I just visited.
If that’s the case, then what happens next is….
—–
A batshit insane department that runs a death survival from the very first day of new employee orientation to screen permanent hires.
It’s also a consistently popular wiki topic, since it serves as a reminder of what happens when ordinary people attempt Darkness exploration.
—–
“……!”
“Uh, wha, what are you…”
I shot to my feet, knocking my chair back.
To hell with assessing the situation. I was going to run for the exit.
But it was already too late.
[However, prior to formal hiring, there will be a brief probation period. It won’t be long! We’ll evaluate each of you individually through an absolute grading system to assess your practical aptitude.]
[Of course, for a proper evaluation of each individual, active participation is essential, right? We’ll catch every single freeloader!]
SLAM, SLAM-SLAM-SLAM.
The lecture hall’s doors slammed shut one after another.
‘Damn it!’
Even so, the naive new employees, who still believed Daydream Inc. was just an ordinary pharmaceutical company, hadn’t grasped the situation.
And so, with roughly a hundred new hires attentively listening, the host proclaimed, bright and spirited:
[Now, let’s begin!]
With that chipper voice.
The lights in the lecture hall went out.
“…?”
“Huh?”
Perhaps they thought a video presentation was being set up, because the new hires only looked mildly puzzled.
That was understandable enough.
‘There’s no way any of them expected this kind of insanity to happen right after getting hired.’
For instance.
Their surroundings suddenly transforming into an eerie subway car.
[Dear passengers, thank you for riding the Abyss Transit Authority today…. Our train does not stop.]
[For a comfortable journey to the final destination, please pay close attention to the announcements.]
An announcement bearing a name no one had ever heard before.
“……!?”
“Wh-what the hell is this?!”
New hires who’d been seated neatly in their suits as if the lecture hall had been transplanted wholesale leapt to their feet.
Understandable.
“Excuse me?”
“Is this some kind of VR? Did we actually move?”
But since most of the people from the lecture hall seemed to still be here, that apparently gave them some sense of security, and complacent reactions were the majority.
Some poked around the subway car looking for signs of the company. Others searched for the event host or anyone who looked like they worked for the company.
Before long, they’d more or less assessed the situation.
“There are other people in the next car! But the doors… uh, the doors won’t open. What’s going on?”
“Some kind of new technology?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them, feeling cold sweat threatening to break out.
Because my mind had already identified which ghost story this was.
—–
[Welcome to Abyss Transit Authority]
: A ghost story appearing in <Records of Dark Exploration>.
Among the early D-Grade Darknesses, a notoriously insane ghost story boasting an overwhelmingly high escape difficulty, standing alone at the top. And the Field Exploration Team suffers for eternity.
A total of ■■ explorations have been recorded.
—–
<Welcome to Abyss Transit Authority>.
As you could probably tell at a glance, it was a ghost story set on a Korean subway.
-You fell asleep and woke up on a subway car. It feels like your usual evening commute, but something is off. The station names sound… wrong….
That kind of opening.
Because the ghost story’s prey was anyone who ‘had ever commuted by subway,’ an absurdly broad criterion, it covered the vast majority of working adults, which made it all the more chilling for the reader.
“……”
‘And this ghost story… is a Darkness under the jurisdiction of Daydream Inc.’
It seemed Daydream Inc. planned to use this ghost story to ‘screen’ its new employees. ……Damn it!
“Is it like an escape room?”
“Why would a pharmaceutical company that makes hair-loss treatment run an escape room for new sales hires…?”
That was when it happened.
[The next stop is Sorrow. Sorrow Station.]
“…!”
“Sor…row?”
The first announcement.
I held my breath and turned my head.
[Doors will open on your right….]
LURCH.
The train stopped.
[The platform doors are opening.]
The doors opened.
Just like any ordinary day.
[In 30 seconds, the doors will close. There will be no turning back.]
[Passengers whose final destination is Sorrow Station, please follow the announcement and exit.]
The familiar voice wove strange words and phrases into the announcement, delivered with practiced politeness.
But people will grasp at anything for reassurance, rationalizing as they go.
“Look outside! It’s just a subway station!”
And it was.
Beyond the train doors, a platform was clearly visible. A bit dark and damp-looking, but otherwise an ordinary-looking subway station.
Two or three people’s faces lit up at that and headed for the door.
Ah, damn it.
“I’d suggest you don’t get off.”
“Huh?”
This is insane. I held back a sigh and spoke quickly.
“You heard them say Sorrow Station just now. Where in Korea is there a station called that? It’s obviously wrong.”
“Ah……”
“Um, I think he’s right. Maybe we should wait and see……”
A sharp-eyed person backed me up. It was the new hire who’d been sitting next to me.
Thanks to that, the people about to step out wavered even more.
“Still….”
“Hey, the doors are closing!”
But the sound of the doors closing sent a few panicked souls bolting outside on impulse….
Great.
[The doors are closing.]
“Ah!”
“Couldn’t get off. Ah, fuck.”
Those still on the train watched the ‘ones who’d gotten off’ waving from the platform and let out groans of regret.
A few even shot me a sideways glance and muttered curses under their breath.
I understood. In a strange, bizarre situation like this, the first instinct is to shut your brain off and just run.
But here’s the thing.
“Huh?”
“What the……”
A grotesque scene unfolded.
When the people who’d exited onto the platform turned around to move,
countless silver droplets suddenly erupted from the station ceiling and pillars, showering down upon their heads.
Drip, drip, drip, drip, drop.
They looked like enormous tears.
But the countless silver droplets poured over the human bodies like molten slag, producing a horrific, pulpy rupture of sound.
Screams. Screams. Convulsions.
Silence.
Blood mixed with silver liquid splattered against the windows.
[The train is departing Sorrow Station.]
The last thing visible through the window.
“……”
Before the platform doors, awash in filth and blood, only the mangled remains of the new hires were left behind.
Twitching.
“AAAAAH!”
“GYAAAH!”
Such was the fate of those who chose wrong.
[For a comfortable journey to the final destination, please pay close attention to the announcements.]
Among the passengers now shriveled with terror, screams and shouts finally began to bleed together.
‘It’s started.’
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Trapped inside a ghost story?
I had no idea how the hell I’d ended up like this. But it was clear I’d become a new employee in a ghost story company’s team.
A team with an extraordinarily high mortality rate, at that.
‘Is this actually happening?’
Yeah. I’ll admit, compared to the other new hires, I’m probably in an advantageous position.
I’ve read every single entry on this ghost story wiki, after all.
—–
3.2 Exploration Records (Recorded up to Entry ■■)
—–
By which I mean I remembered it in fairly precise detail, roughly to that extent.
And if you only look at this much, I seem like your textbook overpowered protagonist.
Transported into a world I’m obsessed with, savoring the thrill of absolute information superiority to escape this situation in style. Can you picture it?
Does it seem like I could afford to feel a little cocky at the thought of monopolizing every lucky encounter and item ahead?
You might think so.
But there’s a problem. One problem.
One absolutely critical problem.
‘……I can’t handle scary shit, fuck!’
That’s right.
I’m… a coward.
Text is fine. I can read it with interest.
But the moment anything becomes visual, I’m absolutely hopeless.
And not just a regular coward, either. The kind of coward my friends ruthlessly clown on.
-Is it true Kim Soleum’s crush asked to watch a horror movie and he turned her down because he can’t handle it?
-lolololololol
-Dude, Soleum, your name literally sounds like “goosebumps” but you can’t watch horror movies? lmaooo
-Any girl who was into you would run for the hills lol
lol-
Want to die?-
-Sorry.
-Sorry.
A coward so extreme that even when reading ghost stories at the office in broad daylight, if a creepy background or BGM started playing, he’d kill his data and set it to text-only before reading!
A coward who couldn’t even include a single image in the ghost story he submitted to the wiki! A long-term resident of the Scaredy-Cat Shelter!
“……”
I covered my eyes with both hands.
I was… already… screwed……