Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work

‘Writing it was thrilling.’

Even now, my heart raced—whether from tension, fear, or anticipation, I wasn’t sure.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the curtain to the only bed without a shadow.

On the clean, makeshift bed, I carefully placed the student.

In my mind, I could see the words I had written in my own exploration log overlapping with this moment.

Exploration Record #13

[…]

Employee ■■■ successfully lured an injured student entity with the help of a civilian.

After binding the entity, they entered the infirmary and placed it on a bed.

The name tag was not removed during the process.

The student was limp but could have moved their joints awkwardly if I had forced them to.

I covered them with a blanket, then stepped out of the infirmary.

Leaning against the bloody hallway wall, I waited for several seconds, my heart pounding.

‘After this…’

After a brief wait, I knocked lightly on the infirmary door and reentered.

Inside, I would find the injured student entity lying on the bed in gym clothes, having received proper first aid.

And that’s exactly what I saw.

A feeling of awe—or perhaps fear—overwhelmed me as I approached the only bed with its curtain undrawn.

The bleached-haired student I had brought lay on the bed, now dressed in gym clothes.

Bandages and splints had been applied, and he didn’t even look in my direction.

‘At this point…’

In the original exploration record, it was noted that ‘the discovery was made while thoroughly searching the surroundings’.

Slide.

I opened the drawer beside the bed without hesitation.

Inside was a neatly folded school uniform.

[Sekwang Technical High School]

It belonged to the student lying in the bed.

The buttons were loose, and some parts were frayed, but strangely, the uniform was clean, with no blood or stains.

‘Hah.’

My heart pounded fiercely.

Without looking back at the student lying on the bed, I grabbed a sheet of A4 paper from the infirmary and wrote:

I’ll just borrow your uniform for a bit.

– Transfer student who brought you here

Folding the paper neatly, I placed it in the drawer where the uniform had been. In its place, I took out the uniform.

Turning my head, I saw the student lying on the bed, still dressed in gym clothes, with his eyes closed.

He looked as if they were in a deep, peaceful sleep.

‘It worked.’

I quickly began to undress.

I threw my old high school uniform out the infirmary window and started putting on the ‘borrowed’ Sekwang Technical High School uniform.

Luckily, our builds were similar, and it fit reasonably well.

Once I finished donning the old-style school uniform—

Drrk—

I heard the sound of a drawer opening behind me.

Turning back, I saw that a reply had appeared on the note I left inside the drawer.

What grade and class are you in?

Swallowing hard, I wrote down the same profile I had scribbled on the back of my old high school photo to prepare for this moment.

The name of the class where I first woke up.

Class 1-5.

The instant I wrote that—

The entire world plunged into darkness.

A total blackout enveloped me, but as my eyes adjusted, faint outlines of the world began to emerge.

Emergency lights, LED clock faces—dim glimmers just enough to distinguish the school’s infirmary from complete void.

And then—n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Tap, tap.

Something tapped my shoulder.

I turned around.

The student, who had been sitting idly on the bed, was now lightly tapping my shoulder.

The bleached-haired student casually retracted his hand and began moving.

Yes, naturally.

With movements far too human, he took the A4 paper and pen from my hands with his bandaged arm and quickly scribbled something before handing it back to me.

Transfer student, huh? Tough luck.

And then, he lay back down on the bed as if to resume sleeping, every motion eerily natural.

With a grim expression, I stood and left the infirmary.

Slide.

The world was still dark.

But strangely, everything seemed unnervingly clear—as though I could see even the dust floating in the air.

It felt like a peculiar certainty radiated from the uniform, taking root in my mind.

Walking down the hallway, I bent to pick up the name tag I had dropped outside the infirmary earlier and tucked it into my pocket.

[■■■]

The name tag now glowed strangely, far more than before.

Even in this dark, bloodied, and filthy environment, an odd calmness pervaded me.

But then—

Something appeared in the distance.

From Class 2-7, shapes began to emerge, peeking out.

The silhouettes were human.

But their entire bodies squirmed grotesquely, as if pixelation errors in a video game had manifested in real life—ghastly creatures out of a horror movie.

Their decaying forms, clad in what barely resembled school uniforms, looked like glitched-out abominations, errors not meant to exist in this world.

And the moment they noticed me—

I froze.

A sensation like my insides flipping surged within me.

Flicker.

Suddenly, like lightning, the world became blindingly bright.

Instinctively, I dashed forward.

Those glitch-like monsters, blinded by the intense light, couldn’t seem to look at me. Their movements slowed to a crawl.

This was my chance to finish them!

‘No.’

I forced myself to stop.

I suppressed the urge to chase them down. The sweetness of the candy rolling on my tongue brought me back to my senses.

And then—

Flicker.

Once again, the world turned pitch black.

When my eyes met theirs again—

They were already far away, sluggishly retreating down the hallway to the opposite stairwell.

Leaving me behind.

My entire body was drenched in sweat.

My clenched fists trembled as if I had narrowly survived an overwhelming addiction.

But I could endure it.

I had read about this moment in the logs, after all.

There was no confusion.

I had merely confirmed what I already knew.

‘So that’s how it works.’

Did you notice?

The monsters I had just seen—they were the explorers.

The ones dragged into this ghost story, just like me, until moments ago.

‘And now I…’

If an explorer dons the uniform of Sekwang Technical High School with the permission of a student, they can take on the role of a student in this ghost story.

I was now a student of Sekwang Technical High School.