Chapter 17

Around the time Field Exploration Team D entered the ghost story...

“Section Chief, what grade do you think this one will be? Is D still the favorite?”

“Come on, Supervisor Lee. Read the room a little, will you?”

“...”

“It’s all good fun, but let’s keep it quiet within the Development Department. No need to bring it up with other teams around. Understood?”

“... Oh, yes.”

Only then did the research team supervisor who had grinned at Kim Soleum while inviting him to bet shut his mouth.

He was offended that Section Chief Kwak Jegang was giving him grief over something like this. He had thought the man would be something of a pushover, being young and so easygoing.

And his irritation brought to mind someone even more irritating—and easier to push around.

That Field Exploration Team recruit!

‘The way he glared at a superior.’

He had gone out of his way to include the recruit in the betting, only to be turned down flat, as though the suggestion were ridiculous.

That blank expression, almost dismissive, kept sticking in his mind. Was his name Kim Soleum?

‘You’re nothing but human lab rats. Who the hell are you trying to impress?’

A Field Exploration Team recruit already had one foot in the grave. Yet one achievement had him holding his head so high that the supervisor could only laugh in disbelief.

He had heard there were recruits every year who failed to understand their situation. Apparently, he was finally seeing one for himself.

‘Will he die? It’d be hilarious if he did.’

His morally numb brain anticipated a hit of dopamine, making his mouth water a little.

He quickly sent a message to the company’s anonymous betting group chat.

-I’m putting 10 on D

-OK

That was wishful thinking, too. A D-grade Darkness would mean a better chance of someone dying!

Just then, his superior spoiled his fun.

“Supervisor Lee, have the preliminary report organized before you leave today.”

“... Yes, yes.”

‘Those lab rats won’t even be out of the Darkness before I leave.’

This was something he could easily hand off to a junior at the shift change, yet the man had specifically assigned it to him.

‘Why do I have such rotten luck with bosses?’

Grumbling inwardly, the research team supervisor continued writing the remaining sections of the preliminary experiment report.

-3.2 Test Subjects

Adults aged 18 or older who have viewed a five-second video titled ‘Pierrot Hates You,’ played as a promotional advertisement on a particular video site4).

‘After watching it, they got dragged away if they approached the clown hand that appeared, right?’

Weren’t they idiots for approaching it?

If something looked suspicious, you should run. As far as he was concerned, dying after that practically counted as death by natural causes.

‘But some civilians do get lucky and make it out alive.’

According to the previously reported testimony of civilian survivors, they had returned to reality by entering an empty portrait after its clown had climbed out.

‘The lab rats knew that going in, too.’

But no one had established which portrait was the right one.

The type of corridor, the size of the portraits, their frames, even the timing—all varied.

Most seemed to have simply leaped unthinkingly into portraits vacated by clowns, with only a lucky few making it back.

‘Finding the answer to this is going to take a shitload of grinding.’

It was a Darkness that demanded enormous amounts of stamina: waking clowns, losing them, and sometimes defeating them.

All while agonizing over which portrait could possibly be the right one!

Surely that meant one or two deaths were all but guaranteed? He imagined them sacrificing one another by making people enter portraits as a test.

‘For anyone to escape, it’ll take at least half a day. Maybe several days if—’

“Aaaaagh!”

“Clear!”

“...”

“...”

Huh?

The researcher turned his head.

People had suddenly spilled out from around a corner on one side of the lab.

... Every single member of Field Exploration Team D!

“...?!”

“The Dream Essence Collectors are all full, right?”

“Yes! Oh, it’s D-grade!”

He reflexively checked the clock.

2:41 p.m.

‘They went in at 2:15, so...’

Twenty-six minutes since entry.

Wait.

‘... Twenty-six minutes?!’

A heavy silence settled over Research Team 1’s office as everyone stared at the four members of Team D, who had emerged from a ghost story in the time it took to make a quick trip to a café.

‘A-am I dreaming?’

No.

‘Has a ghost story bewitched us, too?’

No.

“... Good Lord! How on earth did you get out so soon?! Huh? Section Chief Lee, did smashing everything work again?”

Answers immediately poured in at Kwak Jegang’s exclamation.

“No.”

“Exactly.”

“He did it.”

At the successive remarks from Team D’s senior staff, Kwak Jegang’s gaze shifted.

“... Hello again.”

The recruit standing quietly at the back gave a small bow.

It was Kim Soleum.

“... He did it?”

His unspoken question—But he’s a recruit, isn’t he?—received indifferent replies.

“Why the surprise?”

“Roe Deer was like that on his first day, too.”

“...??”

Team D’s deputy and supervisor began putting away their masks without elaborating.

Section Chief Lee Jaheon nodded.

“So they say.”

“...”

“This ghost story is D-grade.”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

Lee Jaheon abruptly began his report. Accustomed to this stream-of-consciousness style of speaking, concerned solely with the speaker’s own efficiency, research team section chief Kwak Jegang promptly played along.

“Then what’s the mechanism for clearing it?”

“? I don’t know.”

“...”

“Oh. Would you mind if I explained?”

The recruit raised his hand from the back.

“Uh, sure... Go ahead.”

“First... the clown advertisement you have to see before entering this Darkness is called ‘Pierrot Hates You.’”

“That’s right.”

“But a Pierrot isn’t a Clown.”

“...??”

“Clowns wear colorful makeup, smile comically, and perform tricks and comic routines. They’re a kind of traditional entertainer.”

And?

“Pierrots, however, wear monochrome makeup and a weeping expression.”

“...!”

“There’s a clear distinction.”

A faint smile appeared on Kim Soleum’s pale face, then vanished.

“And since it says ‘Pierrot Hates You,’ I thought the Pierrot wouldn’t chase us.”

An entertainer wouldn’t chase after someone they disliked.

“To prove that, we looked for a portrait with monochrome makeup and red only on the lips. We didn’t approach any other portraits.”

“...”

“Then, as a precaution, we maintained a safe distance of three meters and touched the picture remotely.”

He had considered even that while clearing an unfamiliar Darkness in thirty minutes?

And judging by the outcome...

“The Pierrot didn’t come out of the portrait.”

“...!”

“Instead, it quietly disappeared from the picture.”

This recruit had found the exact answer.

The civilians before them had been too busy fleeing clowns dropping out of all sorts of portraits to notice. Team D, however, had interacted with just one portrait from a distance and returned with a perfect grasp of the situation.

It gave him goosebumps.

And the recruit had considered other variables, too.

“There was a record stating that shining a light would make clowns spring out of every portrait, so we didn’t use a separate light source.”

“Huh? Then how on earth did you make out the portrait’s condition from three meters away in the dark?”

“Oh.”

Kim Soleum blinked.

“Our team leader could see it just fine, so...”

“...”

Ah.

Kwak Jegang struggled not to whip around and look at Team D’s leader, a man best described as simply being inherently powerful.

“I think future entrants should have no particular trouble if they bring night-vision goggles.”

“Ah, r-right.”

“That’s all.”

Another heavy silence fell.

Kwak Jegang murmured quietly, almost to himself.

“You deduced all this... just from the preliminary information.”

“Yes.”

As though something had occurred to him, the recruit added,

“I suppose none of the previous entrants were familiar with everyday American culture.”

“...”

Could it really be explained away that simply...?

“Er, Soleum... did you study abroad, perhaps?”

“No.”

Kim Soleum answered immediately.

“I just know a lot of trivia.”

“...”

The researchers witnessed the rare sight of the normally eloquent Kwak Jegang at a loss for words!

“Oh, I also drafted a temporary manual based on this theory. Supervisor Park Minseong happened to lend me his notebook...”

“Oh, I don’t deserve any credit~ You did everything, Roe Deer~”

With the voice of Team D’s badger-masked supervisor in the background, the researcher watched Kwak Jegang accept the notebook from the recruit.

He craned his neck to sneak a look.

Sure enough, the hypothesis Kim Soleum had just explained was laid out neatly inside.

‘...!’

Section Chief Kwak Jegang read through it, then closed it with a smile.

“... Hmm. We’ll test it.”

“Yes.”

And just like that, a manual prototype was complete.

Made by one person—a new recruit, at that.

“...”

For a moment, the researcher who had placed the bet wondered whether he was dreaming.

Even if the recruit happened to know about Pierrots... could someone really construct a theory so effortlessly under extreme conditions, then escape in thirty minutes flat?

No. Did that make any sense?

‘Is he some fucking monster pretending to be human?’

But surely something like that couldn’t get a job with the Field Exploration Team.

Hadn’t they said the Dream Essence Collectors only responded to humans?

“Team Leader, the research team says they’d like that if you brought it out of the Darkness.”

“Yes.”

Meanwhile, Section Chief Lee Jaheon handed over the scrap of cloth clutched in his hand.

“That’s...”

“Oh, when the Pierrot in the portrait tried to run away, our team leader immediately lunged at it...”

Apparently, the cloth had torn off when he reflexively covered three meters and grabbed the Pierrot by the collar to stop it escaping.

“...”

‘Birds of a feather, huh.’

Were the two of them cousins or something? Now that he looked, they even seemed a little alike. Both had such slick-looking faces.

The researcher nearly entertained an absurd flight of fancy.

And the recruit who had inflicted all this shock and horror on him...

‘I-I survived.’

His heart was still pounding after he had rushed into action without thinking about the consequences!

‘Why do the clowns have teeth?! Why are they skinning people?! Why are they sucking people into drains like balloons?!’

After witnessing all manner of moving ghost portraits in real time, he had developed a brand-new clown phobia as of today!

‘Another reason for insomnia added to the pile...’

He was amazed he had somehow managed to talk his way through the situation and make it sound plausible.

‘Wait, I did pull it off, right?’

He hadn’t seemed too suspicious, had he?

They weren’t going to discover he actually had the answer key and drag him off to the laboratory for sapient beings beneath Daydream Inc., were they?!

Just before Kim Soleum handed the controller over to his inner Anxiety, Section Chief Kwak Jegang, who had been silently leafing through the notebook, spoke.

“... Our new recruit, Kim Soleum. Haven’t you received something like a business card?”

Coming back to his senses, Kim Soleum answered dutifully.

“No. New recruits aren’t issued business cards yet—”

“Oh, you’re good at playing dumb. You know that isn’t what I mean.”

“...”

For a moment, even the anxiety in Kim Soleum’s head stopped.

Something came to mind.

The business card the host had given him at the welcome event.

───

If needed

010-0153-24865

───

Research Team 1’s section chief grinned.

“If you want to earn points faster, contact that number.”

“...”

“Personally, Soleum, I think you’ll be calling them soon.”

It was an offer that could sound quite tempting.

However...

“No, thank you.”

Kim Soleum answered without so much as a twitch.

“... Hmm. If you say so.”

Section Chief Kwak Jegang shrugged and let it pass lightly.

“Is there any particular reason not to call? Haha.”

“...”

It was simple.

‘An even scarier event... Yeah, I’d rather pass.’

His cowardly heart had taken another brutal beating.

Kim Soleum had decided to be content with this sweet, sweet triple-points event!