Gurgling, dark clots spilled down my chin. I hurriedly wiped them away with my sleeve, feigning a panicked expression as I looked at the goblin.
“I-I’m sorry…”
It wasn’t just to stir alarm.
Blood.
[Kim-seobang…!!]
Traditionally, a goblin’s most sensitive trigger.
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
The large tiled house trembled.
Scary! Scary! Scary!
Why scary? Why scary? Why scary?
[Aigoo! Quit making such a fuss! It’s nothing!]
Scary! Who’s it? Scary! Who’s it?
Even as the agent yelled, the house continued shaking. I paled, clapping a hand over my mouth as I retched.
“I’m s-sorry.”
[Get out of here! Who the hell sends a sick rookie to the goblin’s turf? I’ll deal with that bastard myself—!]
“N-No! Elder, I… I came here on my own, I didn’t know any better.”
[Elder, my foot! You still don’t get it?]
Time to pretend I’d caught on.
“……!”
I widened my eyes, clumsily scrambling to my feet.
“No way…”
The goblin-agent crossed his arms.
[Consider yourself lucky, rookie, that this sunbae is stationed here.]
“Y-Yes… sorry, sir.”
I wore the most clueless, dazed expression possible, as if I barely understood what was happening, and slowly got back up.
Thud. Thud.
Now, loud knocks—like broomsticks or wooden clubs—echoed from the tiled house’s door.
The agent clicked his tongue and barked at me.
[If you’re sick, just rest! Why crawl into a place like this? Did HQ send you?]
Oh?
Wait, if I play this right…
“…No, sir.”
Quickly, I rifled through my mental database of Disaster Management Bureau anecdotes.
‘…There was that betting culture during training!’
Like some test of courage where they competed to show off their competence and bravery.
Good. I’ll go with that!
“…The other trainees told me to get the Memorial Popsocket repaired myself…”
The agent flinched.
[…Do they still do that these days?]
I just smiled sheepishly.
The agent, still wearing the guise of a goblin, seemed to suppress a laugh, then rubbed his face before waving me off.
[…I’ll let it slide without reporting it to HQ. Just get out of here.]
It worked.
“Th-thank you.”
[What’s your codename?]
“It hasn’t been assigned yet… I’m still thinking about what would suit me.”
[…Fine. You’ll know when the time comes.]
The agent pretending to be a goblin gestured.
Fwick—
With a flick of his hand, I felt myself being gently pushed…
[Go and rest.]
BAM!
I fell flat on my rear.
“Hah…”
When I raised my head, I found myself back on the bustling streets of Hongdae.
The streets were as lively as ever, the sun was blazing, and the café with the blue roof was busy as usual…
‘I made it out alive!’
Without being exposed.
– That was an excellent adlib, Friend!
I let out a long sigh, covering my face.
I nearly sprawled out in the middle of the street.
* * *
The next two days were spent in genuine recovery.
Not being able to use the popsocket made me anxious, so I tried jotting down what I remembered from the wiki. But I stopped when I realized I might be unintentionally distorting or creating details that were never true.
Instead, I obsessively replayed the information in my mind, which made time pass more quickly.
And then—
“Kim Soleum-ssi.”
“Section Chief.”
Three days later, back at work, I met Section Chief Lee Jaheon again.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine. You should schedule an additional consultation within the month, Kim Soleum-ssi.”
“……Yes.”
Fortunately, he seemed fine, too.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon didn’t ask me anything further.
Neither about Braun’s ‘Lights Out’ ability nor about the black water mascot that had chased me.
Even when I shared my side of the story as much as I could, he only responded with a calm, “I see.”
‘Consistent as always.’
Because of that, I also found it hard to ask him any questions.
Besides, after three days of sick leave, I had too much work piled up to waste time prying.
‘Wow, how am I supposed to finish all this?’
After yet another irregular escape, the entire D-squad, except for two temporary employees, took immediate leave.
The pressure from all sides was relentless.
I spent the day writing reports with the section chief, doing interviews, and even calling Director Cheong to express my gratitude.
In the midst of it all, I had to include in my report how I’d used the taxi Darkness to escape Death Lane, which left me racking my brain over how to explain how I knew to summon it.
‘Should I just say I saw some flyer advertisement in Death Lane?’
But wouldn’t that count as contaminating the manual?
My head was spinning when—
“The taxi you summoned is categorized as a pending Darkness under manual review.”
“……!”
As I turned to look at Section Chief Lee Jaheon with a chill creeping over me…
The lizard calmly added,
“That means it’s information that can’t be obtained through the company’s official systems.”
Whoa.
“So, I changed the recorded caller.”
“…Who is it now?”
“Me.”
Wait.
“You changed the report to say you were the one who called the taxi, Squad Leader?”
“Yes.”
I was starting to grasp his modus operandi.
“…Was this both a reward for my significant role in escaping Death Lane and you taking responsibility as the squad’s leader?”
“Yes.”
And that wasn’t the end of it.
“Oh, by the way, do you recall, Squad Leader? You once promised me some equipment during the pantry ghost story…”
“Yes. It’ll be ready by next week.”
Wow.
I decided to wholeheartedly respect Section Chief Lee Jaheon.
So what if he’s a bit slow? He’s the dream boss!
‘Just deal with the slowness yourself!’
Got it, Kim Soleum!
I shouted at myself internally and dove into the mountain of paperwork.
New equipment in the works, new team roles ahead.
A new chapter in my corporate life was on the horizon.
But first, another darkness awaited me.
…Along with a most unwelcome face.
* * *
“Well, long time no see, Mr. Roe Deer!”
Research Team’s Kwak Jaekang waved cheerfully at me.
“Would you be interested in, say, an abandoned elevator?”
No way! Absolutely not!!
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