It Seems I Must Go to Work Even After Falling into a Horror Story 046

2nd Floor.

Ko Yeong-eun casually asked the guide machine, which she was now accustomed to.

“Did the guests who finished their visit go down from this 2nd floor?”

Nodded.

“…!”

It was done.

With this, the answer had practically been deduced.

‘If there’s an exit on the ground floor and below the 2nd floor….’

Only the 1st floor remains.

“Then, if we just go to the 1st floor and ask about the exit…!”

“Let’s hurry!”

“Yes!”

Baek Sa-heon and Ko Yeong-eun finally agreed for the first time.

‘To think the exit was on the 1st floor as if it were modern common sense. What a lucky coincidence.’

I felt a bit deflated from the long detour, but a greater sense of expectation urged my steps.

Now, once we figure out the exit and inform the supervisors waiting on the terrace, everything would be ready.

-Oh no, is the exhibition over? What a pity. I feel like I haven’t even seen five proper halls yet…

Heh heh. If you look around longer, your friends’ eyes, nose, and mouth could vanish.

Not to mention, you could faint before that!

‘Even now, three people are enduring with lights in hand.’

I patted the pocket that Brown was holding like soothing it and moved my feet.

Ko Yeong-eun, holding a candle, stepped forward.

Her determination didn’t waver even when encountering the guide machine on the 1st floor. It seemed her eagerness to get out prevailed over her fears.

“Hello!”

Again, the machine politely responded, influenced by the candlelight, and Ko Yeong-eun, after taking a deep breath, boldly requested.

“Please guide us to the exit!”

But.

…

Silence.

The machine stood motionless.

“…?”

There was no response.

“C-could it be?”

Ko Yeong-eun stared wide-eyed into the candlelight. It seemed she was worried that the candle wouldn’t work.

The candle was shining fine.

After checking a few more times, Ko Yeong-eun spoke again with a trembling voice.

“Please… guide us to the exit.”

More silence.

“…”

“…”

The atmosphere turned chilly.

‘Damn it.’

I opened my mouth.

“…Goat.”

“Yes, yes….”

“Ask like this.”

I uttered a familiar sentence, and with each word I spoke, Ko Yeong-eun’s eyes dimmed.

“Did the guests who finished their visit go down from this ground 1st floor? …If so, please nod.”

Nod.

“…!!”

The guide machine’s testimony was contradictory.

“Why….”

Ko Yeong-eun swallowed hard.

“Surely the B1 guide machine said the people went up…!”

“That’s correct.”

A chill ran down my spine.

‘What is going on?’

Things didn’t add up.

The underground said to go up, while the ground floor said to go down.

Even if there were two or more exits nearby, this made no sense. These signals contradicted each other completely.

‘No wonder the exit being so obvious on the 1st floor left so few survivors in [Dark Exploration Records].’

“How about we head down and ask directly instead of repeating the same useless words? We have candles left, so let’s not waste them.”

“…Ah.”

At Baek Sa-heon’s urging, we began searching for the stairs leading down.

That path leading to the basement felt oddly long and heavy…

And the result was.

Nod.

“Go up? Ha…”

The same answer I had asked was returned.

According to the guide machine, guests who had finished their visit from B1 had indeed gone up.

“…”

“…”

Now even Baek Sa-heon was silent.

Everyone’s heads were spinning at this point.

“Hey.”

Ko Yeong-eun lowered her head.

“Actually… is there no exit at all?”

“…!”

“It’s just a place that deceives and torments us, making us cling to vain hopes and suffer more… there are many horror stories like that.”

That’s right.

But this time, it wasn’t the case.

“There is definitely an exit.”

I didn’t say this just because I had read [Dark Exploration Records].

“Do you remember? Before entering here, didn’t you receive a simple manual?”

Though the information was corrupted to become the exhibition invitation.

“Since we successfully escaped through the exit, a survival record must have been created, and it’s registered with Daydream Corporation in the dark.”

“Ah…!”

Ko Yeong-eun raised her head.

“That’s right. Exactly.”

Then, taking a deep breath, she spoke again in a much clearer voice.

“Phew! I’m sorry. At times like these, I shouldn’t get caught up in my emotions. There must be an answer out there.”

“Yes.”

It may seem contradictory, but there must be something we had overlooked…

While I was lost in thought.

“Hey.”

Baek Sa-heon, with a mysterious expression, turned to me and asked.

“You doll.”

“Brown?”

“Yeah, Brown… what does it say?”

-I’m waiting for my friend’s fabulous answer!

Of course, he thought I was mad enough to talk to a doll, not that Brown would actually speak…

‘I know you want to hear a different idea.’

I deliberately stared at Baek Sa-heon before saying.

“How can a doll talk?”

“…”

“Think before you speak.”

Baek Sa-heon clenched his fist!

“But throwing out ideas isn’t a bad concept.”

“…!”

“Goat, do you perhaps have an idea?”

“Uh, well….”

“Think positively. Assume there’s definitely an exit nearby.”

“Then… it’s a secret space.”

Ko Yeong-eun frowned.

“Like an attic above the top floor, isn’t there another space somewhere between underground and ground? Like a parking lot…”

I hadn’t seen records of such a secret space in this exhibition hall.

But there’s a possibility. Experiencing things directly is clearly different from reading them in print.

There can be instances where you know but can’t match them.

‘After all, I didn’t know that the window was a door leading to the terrace.’

But… the exit seemed to be in a clearly more obvious position.

‘Conceptually, it wouldn’t be odd for the official entrance to be in a secret space.’

In other words, the exit should be there, but we just hadn’t noticed it.

Preconceptions, ways of thinking, cultural influences…

“…!”

Wait a minute.

“No, Doe?”

I jumped up from my seat.

Looking at me with surprise were Baek Sa-heon, and Ko Yeong-eun, who couldn’t turn around due to the candlelight.

“Do you perhaps have enough energy to go up and down the stairs a few more times?”

“What?”

“I do, somewhat.”

“Then let’s move.”

“Yes?”

I stood up from my seat.

“We need to go up to the top floor.”

“…??”

The stairs again.

“…So we just head up, right?”

“Yes.”

I moved my feet.

But instead of climbing thoughtlessly until the next floor appeared, I started counting.

One floor.

Two floors.

Three floors…

Until no stairs appeared at all.

“Ugh.”

“Phew.”

I raised my head.

“Here is the end.”

We had reached the very top floor of this gigantic mansion.

On the way up, we met the guide machine about three times, and each time my colleagues asked it questions, but the results were the same.

You might think something like this.

‘Why are they telling us to go down when we’ve come up?’

The answer to that question lay in this top floor itself.

“Goat, how many floors do you think we’ve climbed?”

“Huh? So… huh?”

“……”

“Wait a minute. If I haven’t miscounted…”

“6th floor.”

Baek Sa-heon said.

“It’s the 6th floor, not the 7th!”

That’s right.

“You said this mansion has up to the 7th floor!”

-Additionally, this historic mansion is said to consist of 7 above ground floors and 7221 below ground floors.

This contradicted Brown’s explanation.

But Brown wouldn’t lie because he was a ‘Good Friend.’

So… if everything is true.

“……”

As expected.

“You must have deliberately lied and said it was the 7th floor…”

“Goat, did you know?”

“Hey!”

There are many horror stories like that.

In situations where one person derives a reasonable answer, another gets an unreasonable one due to cultural and environmental differences.

That eerie thrill that comes from it.

Though they are different types, it’s like how I figured out the difference between clowns and pierrots in that dark past.

Environmental knowledge.

“The way of counting building floors varies by culture.”

“…Huh?”

“In the U.S., and in the East Asian countries we live in, including Korea, floors are counted starting from the 1st floor.”

However.

“Yet other cultures use a different method.”

I had felt that the stairs leading down from the ground first floor were unusually long.

It wasn’t merely a matter of perception.

“Starting from the 0th floor.”

“…!”

Sometimes referred to as the Ground Floor.

“The ground level of this mansion is probably 7 floors high. …From the 0th floor to the 6th floor.”

I looked down the stairs.

“We simply need to go to the 1st floor and ask them to direct us to the path to the 0th floor.”

And so we did.

-Please guide us to the path leading to the 0th floor.

As I walked along the path kindly taken by the 1st floor’s guide machine, I saw, astonishingly, a different set of stairs at the opposite end of the main exhibition hall on the 1st floor.

A massive spiral double staircase.

And following either side of that spiral down… of course, just like before, it would lead to the underground exhibition hall of B1 transitioning from brass to bronze.

However, I could also choose to pause in the middle and open the large door.

And so, I opened the grand door and stepped outside.

Creeeak.

A grand and elegant space filled with silver spread out before us.

It was not an exhibition hall.

It was… the lobby.

“…!!”

Since it was a floor functioning as a lobby without any exhibits, they hadn’t bothered creating a passage in the typical stairs connecting the exhibition halls.

We had finally entered the most conventional thoroughfare of that floor.

And right before us was a stained glass glass door…

“…the main entrance.”

Light flooded in making it impossible to see outside, but it was certain.

We finally found the exit.

“I’m alive!!”

“Haah…”

Cheers and sighs of relief echoed in the lobby.

And joyful exclamations.

“Doe! Your deduction was right! It was totally correct! Let’s get out now!”

For real. I genuinely wanted to burst out and run right away, but…

“I need to find my supervisors and leave with them.”

“Oh, oh!! Then… you’ll need a candle.”

Estimating the amount left in the shortly dwindling candle, Ko Yeong-eun soon exclaimed cheerfully.

“…Let’s hurry up and go back together!”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Truly, truly thank you…

I’d already used up all my energy wandering around alone like this in search of my colleagues…

Thus Ko Yeong-eun made a choice that matched her character.

Of course, so did Baek Sa-heon.

Which means he headed straight for the door without hesitation.

“Do as you please. I’m gonna leave!”

Whatever.

I stared intently at Baek Sa-heon.

‘I need to see what effects occur at the door when I leave and what responses arise.’

However, Baek Sa-heon hesitated.

“……”

“……”

And slowly began to pull away from the entrance.

‘…?’

What’s wrong?

“Aren’t you going out?”

“…I want to confirm that others are leaving first.”

Oh dear.

‘Just leaving would be the more convenient thing to do all around.’

A twinge of disappointment washed over me as I shot a glance at Baek Sa-heon and looked away.

-Hahaha… what an amusing situation this is. Doe!

I don’t find it entertaining, but it’s a great relief that someone does…

-So now you must go inform your ordinary supervisors of the location of the exit?

That’s right.

‘I wouldn’t exactly call them ordinary…’

I didn’t know how many times I had wandered through this mansion… my legs were about to give out, but I needed to hurry.

-Wait a moment. Are your legs hurting, my friend?

-Oh, it seems the time has come to introduce my new abilities.

…Huh?

‘New abilities?’

-That’s right! Thanks to the fabulous bath and tub gifted by my dear friend, I am now rejuvenated… .

-Now, please take me out of your pocket.

In a somewhat pompous manner, it sounded oddly like they felt a bit of gratitude as well.

Anyway, I took out the stuffed doll from my pocket as instructed.

“Doe?”

“Please hold on for a moment.”

-Indeed. You don’t need to wait long! A true entertainer is always prepared…

Snap!

The sound of fingers snapping echoed loudly from the doll’s fingerless hand.

And I…

For some reason, felt as if something had ‘unlocked’ in my chest and mouth.

Resonance.

A strange feeling, as if a vast space had been created…

[Ah.]

“…!!”

“The, the voice…”

I clamped my mouth shut.

The vibrations emanating from my vocal cords echoed throughout the lobby.

-That’s quite decent.

-At my show, no guest ever has to raise their voice to be comfortably and precisely heard by the audience and viewers.

That’s…

‘A microphone?’

-Oh, what a mainstream expression!

-Your words, my dear friend, will be clearly conveyed to everyone in the same studio…. as long as they are within the same space!

In terms of this setting, that is, if they are on the ‘same floor!’

Oh my gosh.

It really did become more competent.

-You flatter me.

I was amazed.

‘But unfortunately, this ability doesn’t seem to fit this situation right now.’

-Yes?

I was just trying to call only those in the terrace room, and if everyone on that floor hears me…

“……”

–Friend?

Just a moment. Wouldn’t that be a bad idea?