Rather than his usual sluggish motions, which had shown not even a drop of enthusiasm, the sergeant moved swiftly and precisely through the lab.
Even his eyes seemed like someone else’s.
“Well, there are some unusual items here, so I hope you won’t overexert yourself.”
There was no reply.
He even tried to skim through the research journal I had once tossed away in exhaustion, but when a grotesque black shadow tried to leap out over him again, I freaked out and snatched it away.
“……”
“……”
Only after that whole inspection ended did the sergeant finally speak.
“…Um, this place… who told you about it? A company employee?”
“……”
“Even though it clearly looks like a prototype made with the same technology.”
The sergeant affirmed this with silence.
“Do you have any idea what this place might be? Even if it’s just a suspicion or a partial guess.”
“…Hmm.”
The sergeant glanced around the lifeless, seemingly abandoned lab space, then opened his mouth with a peculiar expression.
“You know… have you heard of the company disposing of Darknesses?”
…!!
“No.”
But I actually had.
I’d directly witnessed how that plot device was updated several times to become more coherent.
But since it would be too odd for a rookie to know such things, it was better to hear it directly from the sergeant.
“What do you mean by disposing of Darknesses?”
“I mean… even if someone clears it, if Essence can’t be extracted from it anymore… they throw it out…”
“……”
“Because it’s no longer useful…”
That’s right.
Ghost stories that, from Daydream Inc.’s perspective, no longer yield any productivity.
When a Darkness loses its supernatural presence, Dream Essence can no longer be harvested from it.
In such cases, after the deletion procedure of its registration number, it’s discarded, although some are recycled through research or recharge processes.
Here, ‘loses its supernatural presence’ typically means that too much exploration data has accumulated and the manual is overly complete.
‘They’ve fully mapped out the ghost story.’
The sense of the extraordinary and mysterious fades, and employees just handle it like routine, without tension.
Once all its mechanisms are revealed and there’s no longer anything creepy or left to imagine, that ghost story becomes reality.
Just a slightly dangerous reality.
No different from a high-risk industrial site.
Of course, since it was originally a ghost story, it might still retain some eerie traits that could act as an unnatural trigger.
Like that blood and filth-covered research journal the sergeant was now tapping with his fingers.
“This kind of thing too… It just feels like one of those discarded Darknesses…”
Hmm.
Then there’s a high chance this space itself was originally a ghost story.
If I piece it all together…
‘Daydream Inc. extracted pharmaceutical technology from this ghost story… and in the process of wringing it dry, the ghost story itself disappeared… is that it?’
In any case, the fact that this place had now become relatively safe was good information.
“And this…”
The Security Sergeant picked up the card key placed in front of the Dream Incubator.
The ID I had found on the corpse of the deceased researcher.
■■■
“This says… ‘Yoo Kwe,’ right…?”
“That’s how I read it too.”
“Ah, I thought so.”
The sergeant fiddled with the card key and spoke slowly, gaze lowered.
“Then by any chance… do you know ‘Cheerful Research Institute’?”
“…!”
The moment I heard that specific name.
I realized.
Why the name ‘Yoo Kwe’ had felt strangely familiar.
‘…Cheerful Research Institute!’ [1]
From the mysterious candle kit I had to the theme park ghost story I previously investigated.
It was the origin of those ghost stories I’d repeatedly come across but dismissed as incidental worldbuilding tidbits.
A name that had shown up several times even in the <Dark Exploration Records>.
A ghost story maker.
========================
Dark Exploration Records / Factions
Cheerful Research Institute
A strange group that produces toy-themed ghost stories. Their size, personnel, and purpose are all unknown.
Products from the Cheerful Research Institute appear in various places, from ghost story shopping platforms like Delusion Home Shopping, Space Shopping Mall, Today’s Catalogue, to old rural attics.
They’re often registered as Darknesses with Daydream Inc. The most famous example is that theme park.
========================
“Um… There are ghost stories that produce other ghost stories… and the company kind of favors those…” the sergeant explained.
That Cheerful Research Institute is a name you can come across fairly often within Daydream Inc.
And then came something new to me.
“I heard about how the very first Darkness the company ever registered had the Cheerful Research Institute tag too.”
Huh?
“…Do you know what that Darkness was?”
“No idea. I only overheard the executives talking about it… that it had already been discarded……”
Holy shit.
“You… remember all that?”
The sergeant gazed at me blankly.
“When it comes to the company, I remember everything… all of it.”
“……”
“Other things… I’ve forgotten a lot of this and that……”
“…Would you like to remember them again?”
The sergeant pressed down his cap.
“Not really… They weren’t all good memories.”
“……”
Maybe he only thinks that because he’s forgotten.
“I understand. Still, if the opportunity comes someday, wouldn’t it be nice to look for the good memories? Like a really tasty meal or a fun place.”
“Mmh.”
The sergeant’s voice brightened slightly.
“That… might not be so bad.”
“Right?”
I nodded with a smile.
“Thank you for kindly explaining all this despite being dragged to such a strange place. I doubt there are many employees who know that the first ghost story Daydream Inc. registered had the Cheerful Research Institute tag…”
“You’re probably not supposed to know it in the first place…”
“……”
Ack.
The sergeant brought his index finger to his lips.
“So don’t spread it around… unless you want a visit from the Security Team…”
A chill ran down my spine.
Note/s:
[1] Yoo Kwe – the word 유쾌 can be translated as ‘cheerful’, but Soleum kinda misconstrued it as the name 유 Yoo 쾌 Kwe because he saw it right before the designation/job title of 연구원 researcher. Since it’s all cleared up, the ID can be read as such:
■■■