Around the time Field Operations Team Group D entered the Ghost Story.
"Chief, what grade are you expecting for this one? D is still the safe bet, right?"
"Come on now, Chief Lee. Read the room a little, yeah?"
"...."
"It's all fun and games, but let's keep that quiet inside Development, okay? No need to bring it up when other teams are around. Got it?"
"...Ah, yes."
The research team chief who had been grinning while bringing up betting to Kim Soleum finally shut his mouth.
Kwak Jegang, the section chief he'd thought easy to push around because he was young and always smiling, had actually called him out over something like this, and it put him in a bad mood.
And irritation naturally made him think of someone even easier to bully, and even more irritating.
That rookie from the Field Operations Team!
"The way he was glaring at a superior, seriously."
The rookie employee who had refused his invitation to join the betting pool at once, like it was ridiculous.
That expressionless look, as if he were looking down on him, kept lingering in his mind. Kim Soleum, was it?
"You guys are just human lab rats, so where are you getting all that swagger from?"
If you were a rookie in the Field Operations Team, you were practically half dead already. And yet the way the kid had gone stiff-necked just because he'd posted one good result was laughable.
He'd heard every year that some clueless rookie like that came in, and it seemed he was finally getting to see one for himself.
"Will he die? That'd be funny if he died."
His morality-numbed brain, already anticipating the dopamine hit, practically watered at the thought.
He quickly sent a message.
It was the company's anonymous betting group chat.
-I'm putting 10 on D
-ㅇㅋ
It was also what he hoped for. If it was D-rank, the odds of someone dying would be higher!
Then his superior threw cold water on it.
"Chief Lee, get that preliminary report organized before the end of the workday today."
"…Yes, yes."
"Like those lab rats are even going to make it out of the Darkness before I clock out."
It was the kind of job he could've just naturally passed on to a junior at shift change, but instead he was being singled out and assigned it himself.
"What is it with my luck with bosses?"
The research chief grumbled inwardly while continuing the draft of the pre-experiment report.
-3.2 Test Subjects
Adults aged 18 or older who witnessed the 5-second video titled "Pierrot Hates You," played as a promotional advertisement on a certain video site4).
"So after they watched that, if they approached the clown hand that came out, they'd get dragged in, right?"
Wasn't getting closer the idiotic part?
If something looks suspicious, you run away. If you die after walking toward that, that basically counts as natural causes.
"But then again, there are civilians who get lucky and come back alive."
According to the testimony records from civilians who had survived before them, they'd entered an empty portrait after the clown popped out of it and returned to reality.
"The lab rats knew that going in too."
But exactly which portrait was the correct answer still hadn't been determined.
The corridor type, portrait size, frame, and timing had all been different.
Most of them had just run into an empty portrait after a clown dropped out of it, and it seemed only a lucky few had made it back.
"Finding the right answer here is going to be a fucking grind."
It was a Darkness that consumed a huge amount of stamina—you had to wake clowns, shake them off, and sometimes even destroy them.
And at the same time, because you had no idea which portrait was the correct one, it would gnaw at your insides too!
At this rate, wasn't it almost guaranteed one or two of them would die? Since they were being made to go in as an experiment, they'd probably end up sacrificing each other.
"For anyone to escape, it should take at least half a day, maybe a few days if it drags on…."
"Waaaagh!"
"Clear!"
"...."
"...."
Huh?
The researcher turned his head.
In one corner of the lab, people had suddenly spilled out from around the bend.
…Every single member of Field Operations Team Group D!
"...?!"
"Your Dream Trace Collectors are all full, right?"
"Yes! Oh, it's D-rank!"
He reflexively looked at the clock.
2:41 p.m.
"They entered at 2:15 p.m., so…."
Twenty-six minutes since entry.
Hold on.
"…Twenty-six minutes?!"
A thick silence fell over Research Team 1's office as they stared at the four members of Group D, who had popped out of the Ghost Story in about the time it took to make a quick café run.
"I-is this a dream?"
No.
"Did we get dragged into a Ghost Story too?"
No.
"…Good lord! Wait, how did you get out this early?! Huh? Manager Lee, did smashing it up work again?"
Kwak Jegang's exclamation was answered immediately.
"No."
"That's right."
"He did it."
At the simultaneous answers from Group D's superiors, Kwak Jegang's eyes swung over.
"…We meet again."
The rookie employee standing quietly in the back gave a small bow.
It was Kim Soleum.
"…That guy did it?"
The unspoken He's a rookie, though was met with an indifferent answer.
"What's there to be surprised about?"
"Roe Deer was like that on his first day too."
"…??"
Group D's Assistant Manager and Chief did not elaborate any further and instead started organizing their masks.
Manager Lee Jaheon nodded.
"So it seems."
"...."
"This Ghost Story is D-rank."
"Ah, yes, yes."
Manager Lee Jaheon suddenly began reporting. Kwak Jegang, already used to this odd style of speech where the man followed only efficiency, responded at once.
"Then what is the clear mechanism?"
"? I do not know."
"...."
"Ah. Would it be alright if I explained?"
The rookie employee in the back raised his hand.
"Uh, yeah… go ahead."
"Well… to begin with, the name of the clown advertisement one must witness in advance to enter this Darkness is 'Pierrot Hates You.'"
"That's right."
"But a pierrot is not a clown."
"...??"
"A clown wears colorful makeup, smiles playfully, and performs tricks and comic routines. A kind of traditional entertainer."
So?
"But a pierrot wears monochrome makeup and has a crying expression."
"…!"
"There is a clear difference."
A faint smile appeared and vanished from Kim Soleum's pale face.
"And since it says 'Pierrot Hates You,' I assumed it would not chase us."
Because performers don't go running after someone they dislike.
"To prove that, we looked for a portrait in monochrome makeup with only the mouth painted red, and did not approach any of the other portraits at all."
"...."
"And in case of unforeseen circumstances, we secured a safety distance of three meters before remotely approaching and touching the painting."
He had considered even that while clearing a Darkness he'd encountered for the first time in under thirty minutes?
And judging from the result….
"The pierrot did not come out of the portrait."
"…!"
"Instead, it quietly disappeared from the painting."
This rookie had found the exact correct answer.
The civilians before them had never realized it because they had been chased by clowns dropping out of all kinds of portraits, but Group D, which had interacted with exactly one portrait while maintaining distance, had returned with a perfect understanding of the situation.
A chill ran over him.
And he had even considered additional variables.
"There was a record stating that if light was shone on them, clowns would leap out from all the portraits, so we did not use a separate light source."
"Huh? Then in a place that dark, how did you figure out the portrait's condition from three meters away?"
"Ah."
Kim Soleum blinked.
"Manager Lee was able to tell just by looking…."
"...."
Ah.
Kwak Jegang did his best not to whip his head around toward Group D's leader, a man to whom the phrase the human body itself is strong seemed perfectly suited.
"It seems there should be no major problem if future entrants carry night-vision goggles."
"Ah, I-I see."
"That is all."
A heavy silence fell again.
Quietly, almost to himself, Kwak Jegang muttered,
"So… he deduced all that just from the preliminary information."
"Yes."
As though realizing something, the rookie employee added,
"Perhaps none of the people who entered before were familiar with American everyday culture."
"...."
Was that really the sort of thing you could explain that simply…?
"S-Soleum-ssi… did you study abroad or something?"
"No."
Kim Soleum answered immediately.
"I just happen to know a lot of random trivia."
"...."
The researchers were witnessing a rare sight: Kwak Jegang, normally such a smooth talker, had been rendered speechless!
"Ah, and based on this theory, I also drafted a temporary manual. Chief Park Minseong kindly lent me a notebook…."
"Oh, I don't deserve any credit~ Roe Deer, you did everything~"
With the voice of Group D's chief in the badger mask ringing in the background, the researcher watched Kwak Jegang accept the notebook from him.
He craned his neck and peeked.
Inside, the hypothesis Kim Soleum had just explained really was laid out in neat, orderly form.
"…!"
After scanning through it, Kwak Jegang smiled and closed the notebook.
"…Hm. We'll test it."
"Yes."
And just like that, the prototype manual was completed.
By a single person.
And a rookie employee at that.
"...."
For a moment, the researcher who had taken part in the betting pool wondered if he was dreaming.
Even if someone happened to know something about pierrots… could a person really build a theory this smoothly under extreme conditions and escape in under thirty minutes?
No. Did that even make sense?
"Could he be some kind of monster pretending to be human?"
But something like that couldn't possibly get hired into the Field Operations Team, could it?
Hadn't they said the Dream Trace Collector only responded to humans?
"Team Lead, the research team says they want that item since you brought it out from the Darkness."
"Yes."
In the middle of that, Manager Lee Jaheon handed back the piece of cloth he'd been gripping in one hand.
"That's…."
"Ah, when the portrait pierrot tried to run away, Team Lead immediately lunged at it and—"
It was a torn piece of cloth from when he'd reflexively covered three meters in an instant and grabbed the thing by the collar so it couldn't flee.
"...."
"Birds of a feather, huh."
For a second, the researcher almost indulged in an absurd fantasy. Looking at them now, the two even seemed to resemble each other a little. Both of them had that sleek, slippery sort of look.
And the rookie employee who had inflicted all this shock and horror on him was….
"I-I lived."
Because he'd blurted things out without thinking about the aftermath, his heart was still pounding like mad!
"Why does the clown have teeth?! Why is it peeling off human skin?! Why is it sucking people down drains like balloons?!"
After witnessing portrait after moving portrait full of ghosts in real time, a brand-new clown phobia had been born in him today!
"Another reason added to the insomnia pile…."
Even so, it was amazing enough that he had somehow managed to keep talking and bluff his way through the situation.
"No, I handled that well, right?"
It wasn't too suspicious, right?
Baekilmong Co., Ltd. wasn't going to find out I had an answer key and drag me down to some intelligent-lifeform laboratory in the basement, right?!
Just as Kim Soleum was on the verge of handing the controller over to the anxiety in his head, Kwak Jegang, who had been flipping silently through the notebook, opened his mouth.
"…Rookie employee Kim Soleum-ssi, didn't you get something like a business card?"
Kim Soleum, his mind snapping back into place, answered diligently.
"No. New employees do not receive business cards yet…."
"Oh, come on, don't play dumb. You know that's not 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 handed him at the welcome party.
───
If needed
010-0153-24865
───
The section chief of Research Team 1 grinned.
"If you want to earn points faster, contact that number."
"...."
"I've got a feeling you'll be calling them pretty soon, Soleum-ssi."
It was the kind of offer that could sound quite tempting.
However.
"I'm alright."
Kim Soleum answered without the slightest movement.
"…Hm. If that's how it is."
Kwak Jegang shrugged and let it go lightly.
"Any particular reason not to call? Haha."
"...."
It was simple.
"An even scarier event… yeah, I'd rather pass."
The heart of a coward who had once again been thoroughly put through it.
Kim Soleum had already decided to settle for this sweet-as-hell triple-points event.