“Of course! …It’s about how this company collects Darknesses. It’s surprisingly structured and multifaceted.”
Kwak Jekang pulled out a pen, flipped over a sheet of paper, and scrawled out diagrams in front of .
“This company’s thods of collecting Darkness are broadly divided into two categories.”
External Collection.
Internal Collection.
“The forr, of course, is sothing you’re already very familiar with.”
Collecting from the outside.
Discovering and retrieving wandering new ghost stories, or reclaiming those that had been intentionally redeployed among civilians for recycling.
External Collection – Capture.
External Collection – Retrieval.
“And the latter… Haha, this is where the Research Team really shines!”
The work done inside Daydream Inc.
“Developnt and Excavation.”
Internal Collection – Developnt.
Internal Collection – Excavation.
“First, developnt. That’s creating new Darkness by grafting or experinting with existing ones.”
True to this ghost story world, this was known to be the standard work of the developnt-related Research Team.
Research aid at raising the grade of Darknesses while keeping survival rates high, or hypothesis building for manuals, and so forth.
Naturally, this was all familiar to .
That ant the important part was…
“But you haven’t heard of Excavation before, have you?”
The final part.
“Exactly what it sounds like… Excavation is digging up Darkness from beneath this company’s very floors.”
…!!
Kwak Jekang bead broadly.
“Do you happen to know what’s beneath our company…?”
……
Cheerful Research Institute
“…! I knew it would be related sohow… Hahaha, ha!”
I looked at Kwak Jekang silently.
He quickly stopped laughing.
“That’s right, yes. If you go further down below the lower floors, you’ll see endless repetitions of the sa office layout.”
I know.
I’ve seen it twice already.
And… the sergeant had risked himself to find and tell .
– If you go deeper underground… the sa office corridors… just keep repeating…
– It must be the sa place, but… maybe… each one is a slightly different ti…?
I’d thought that was information I didn’t need anymore since I had already used the Wish Ticket, but I was wrong.
“That is the ghost story called ‘Cheerful Research Institute’.”
The entire place itself is a massive ghost story.
Kwak Jekang showed copied docunts, pages about Cheerful Research Institute that he must have requested access to himself.
…They matched the sergeant’s account.
“And within it, you can find all sorts of prototypes they produced back when Cheerful Research Institute was still active, as well as artifacts that serve as diums connecting to ghost stories.”
The source of the earliest Darknesses when Daydream Inc. was first founded.
“This is where Daydream excavates ghost stories that can beco Darknesses. Especially in the early days, this was the norm.”
Kwak Jekang’s eyes glead with the thrill of uncovering new knowledge.
“So one could theorize… that Daydream built its headquarters right on top of it. Hahaha, fascinating, isn’t it?”
[Goodness. This man’s codic timing is so poor he’d be pelted with rotten eggs if he tried stand-up!]
“Anyway, they’ve already scoured everything they can from the shallower floors… now they have to go deeper, but the further they go, the stranger things get, so they’re struggling.”
Kwak Jekang looked at .
“Even the standard Security Team finds it difficult… So wouldn’t the help of a Special Division staff mber be crucial?”
…!
“I’m certain it’s connected to why you were created.”
I clenched my invisible hand within the smoke.
“In the end, this ‘excavation’ assignnt will be given to you, Mr. Employee…”
Request for expedited progress
“Of course! But to get to that stage, there needs to be a solid foundation of trust first!”
Kwak Jekang was suddenly trying to feel out.
“For example… That I, as your supervising researcher, prove that my thod of operating 130666 is reliable. Hahaha.”
Hm. In other words, I’d need to appear obedient enough to justify moving on to the next stage…
To make the company believe they could control to so extent.
This is driving nuts, seriously.
‘Well, I already signed that damn slave contract, didn’t I.’
Let’s do it. That way, I can move more freely.
Affirmative
“…! Excellent. Then I’ll co up with a very suitable and fun thod…”
Please, for the love of everything, stop talking.
I quickly shaped my smoke into words.
Perform standard Security Team duties
“…Aah.”
The excitent drained from Kwak Jekang’s voice.
“Right. Well, that’s… rather dull, or should I say, plain… though, coming from you, it’s a little different.”
I’m not done yet.
Justification :
‘I’ve discovered an additional thod of control, and I wish to test it.’
“…! Ah, so you’re framing it as an experint to see how well you can be controlled! That’s good. Fear? Pleasure? Rewards and punishnt, which is it? Haha, whichever direction it is…”
Money
“……”
Greed based on disciplinary asures :
Requesting wages based on the employee pay table
“……I see.”
Thank you, Kang Yihak-ssi.
People driven by money are, ironically, easier to predict.
And Daydream has plenty of it.
* * *
A few days later.
I was seated at the annex’s front desk with two Security Team mbers.
They said they’d pay . That’s nice.
A bit sad, though, that I was still inside a carrier crate…
‘Sniffle.’
And one more thing.
[Oh, that looks like an ear, Friend.]
During the quiet hours of my shift, I began rationally examining my deford, lted body, mapping out what part was where.
There was sothing I wanted to confirm: if any part of still retained its proper shape.
And then, I found it.
:恩主:
The inventory tattoo.
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