Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 126
Kim Soleum's body sprinted through the labyrinthine, chaotic corridors of the studio.
Boom.
The narrow, trembling interior space echoed with thunderous noise, and once again, Isajeon darted forward at an unbelievable speed.
The audacity and swiftness of his movements, seen through the CCTV-like vision of Soleum’s original body, left even him holding his breath, his palms sweating.
Before long...
“It’s a door.”
A pair of double doors came into view, labeled with a sign: Filming in Progress.
Without hesitation, Manager Isajeon shattered the lock and entered.
Bang!
Beyond the flung-open doors—
—!
A sprawling studio set revealed itself.
The sheer scale of the space was overwhelming, oppressive in its vastness.
But the main talk show stage in the center...
It was already in ruins, beyond functionality.
—...
The ceiling, once glittering with lights, was half-collapsed. Broken fixtures, twisted steel beams, and rubble littered the floor and the shattered furniture atop the stage.
Even amid the wreckage, the Starfire Barrage continued raining down relentlessly.
The audience seating was in disarray, filled with murmurs of confusion. Those unable to leave their spots, corrupted by the environment, seemed to vacillate between amusement at the chaos and the verge of screaming for mercy.
Kim Soleum swallowed hard.
“It seems the live broadcast is completely ruined.”
The remnants of a broken variety show lay scattered there...
And at the center of it all—
[Oh.]
Standing alone on the half-destroyed stage was the entertainer.
[You came of your own accord.]
The host.
It leaned against the desk, illuminated only by the falling streaks of the Starfire Barrage, like shooting stars, lighting up the ruins of the studio.
The host already seemed to know exactly who had caused the destruction. Yet, it didn’t scream in rage.
It simply stood there, staring calmly at Kim Soleum as he entered, knowing full well that the body was being moved by a mercenary possessing it through an emergency beacon.
—...
Feeling the gaze of the host beyond the vision, Kim Soleum gulped.
“Captain.”
“Yes.”
“I think... something outrageous is about to happen.”
The host raised a hand.
It moved as if still hosting a talk show.
[Introducing with pleasure: the cause of this calamity!]
Click.
One remaining spotlight, unbroken, illuminated Kim Soleum.
[The one who destroyed the talk show set and threw the live broadcast into chaos... Oh, surprisingly, it’s a former audience member from a previous show!]
[Let’s welcome them with applause. Or perhaps, jeers would be more fitting!]
Instantly, the host identified Isajeon’s true nature, the one controlling Kim Soleum’s body.
[For such heinous crimes, surely they deserve appropriate challenges, trials, and... punishment!]
The stage grew progressively darker.
[In medieval times, executions were festive events, weren’t they? Of course, our talk show would never resort to something as boring as a hanging!]
[Today, we present a brand-new segment! Allow me to introduce...]
In the encroaching darkness, the silhouette of the host, with arms raised high, grew larger.
Larger.
And larger still.
Boom.
The studio walls dissolved into darkness.
The stage floated in the void.
A massive, spherical TV head descended.
Boom!
The enormous TV, as large as the stage itself, landed, replacing the central guest doors it had crushed on its way down.
One gloved hand of the host propped up the TV like a chin rest, while the other pointed directly at Kim Soleum as if firing a gun.
[A thrilling spectacle! A dizzying danger! Horrifically fun and terrifyingly thrilling... Punishment Acrobatics!]
The TV screen lit up with a dazzling sign in bright lights:
Brown’s
Exciting Punishments
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom...
A drumroll resounded.
The gloved hand of the host tapped the stage like a snare drum, building tension before a circus act.
“I doubt they’ll kill you immediately.”
Isajeon raised his head while listening to the advice of his host-possessed body’s original owner.
“It’s still a live broadcast.”
The black TV screen flickered—
And poured forth darkness.
[It begins now!]
Boom.
The darkness swallowed Kim Soleum’s figure whole.
......
......
[Well then...]
The spherical TV raised its head once more.
Inside the screen, Kim Soleum’s silhouette was now trapped.
The audience, thrilled and entertained by the spectacle, clapped and cheered.
[Shall we see what tricks you can perform?]
Lights flickered.
A subtitle appeared:
Punishment 1
Happy Ending Teddy Bear
Within the screen, countless teddy bear-like monsters, their mouths lined with jagged teeth, lunged at Kim Soleum, attempting to tear his skin apart as they had done to their neglectful former owners.
But Kim Soleum’s body, powered by extraordinary strength, forced the bears’ jaws apart, slamming them into each other to fend off the danger.
He ran.
The scenery on the TV shifted, changing suddenly.
A nighttime cityscape. A back alley.
The ground opened.
Punishment 2
Manhole Arms
Bizarre arms burst from the manholes, clawing at him. Leaping like an acrobat, Kim Soleum grabbed onto a streetlight and swung upward, narrowly avoiding the long, bony fingers reaching for him.
Each punishment reflected the forms of the guests Kim Soleum had previously selected for the talk show.
Cruel, absurd, and theatrical, they pushed him into dead ends, yet—
[Oh dear.]
Kim Soleum narrowly overcame each one.
Even as his left arm fractured and his forehead bled, he refused to be caught, refusing to let the punishments end.
But as the numbers climbed, the punishments grew increasingly brutal and grotesque.
Punishment 3. Punishment 4. Punishment 5...
Clang!
Kim Soleum barely escaped, leaving only strands of his hair under the blade of a Gourmet Restaurant for Intelligent Creatures. He slid under the knife and out of the punishment...
And then.
Punishment 6
The Red Scarecrow
A vast cornfield.
Amid the dense stalks and leaves, a grotesque figure, bristling with countless limbs, slithered and pursued him like a centipede.
By now, escaping seemed nearly impossible.
But the one controlling Kim Soleum’s body was none other than a veteran field explorer, Staff D, from the Dark Exploration Logs.
Dodging and countering like a performer, he wielded a gleaming blood-sucking knife.
Shing!
Several of the Scarecrow’s arms were severed in a flash. Gasps erupted from the audience.
But it was only a matter of time.
No one could defeat the cornfield monster with mere force in its domain.
And with his injured body, the limits were clear...
‘This punishment was designed with my death in mind.’
Kim Soleum waited.
He waited and waited—until the Scarecrow lunged to attack.
“Now!”
Isajeon turned sharply, following Kim Soleum’s advice.
Then, he began sprinting at a terrifying speed.
Straight toward the TV screen.
“Whoa!”
“It’s getting bigger!”
And then—
[Oh!]
He succeeded in bursting out of the TV.
Kim Soleum’s body rolled across the floor, and Isajeon skillfully landed it with a roll.
Waaaaaahhh!!!
The audience erupted into cheers.
[Incredible! My goodness!]
The host, seemingly forgetting their anger, now sounded elated.
As if all that mattered was that the show had turned into a spectacular success, a smiling emoticon appeared on the TV screen.
[Making it through Punishment #6! What an edge-of-your-seat thrill! Ah, truly delightful. Did everyone enjoy that?!]
Yes!!
The audience shouted back in unison.
The host, still inside the enormous TV, responded in a smooth, pleased tone.
[Well then....]
[Return to the TV and proceed to Punishment #7.]
The massive TV head began moving closer again.
[The audience’s cheers were sweet, weren’t they? You must repay their fervent enthusiasm. Oh, with such a positive reaction, how could we end it here? Keep going. Keep going....]
At that moment—
From the rubble, a faceless staff member managed to pull out a sketchpad. They raised it from beneath the stage.
Emergency Notice.
[...Ah-ha!]
The TV froze.
[It’s time for a commercial break.]
The audience let out disappointed groans.
[Haha, I’m as disappointed as you are, but we must conclude this surprise segment here. Instead, a dazzling show finale awaits you all!]
[A short break will only heighten your anticipation!]
The smiling emoticon on the giant TV lowered its "head" in a bow.
[Yes, when the cameras turn off, the audience’s gaze fades, and the stage lights go out....]
The host’s gaze bore down on Kim Soleum’s figure.
Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.
[Who can say what wonderful things might happen to a performer of a concluded segment?]
“.......”
[Stay tuned.]
Click.
The camera lights switched off.
The staff didn’t move onto the shattered stage to clean up.
In the dimness of the damaged set, the murmuring of the audience was clearly audible.
The host raised a hand.
It stared at the performer, who had now outlived their usefulness in the surprise segment.
At the audacious rogue who dared to destroy the set and wreck its friend.
The giant fingers began slowly coming together, ready to crush—
“Brown.”
The hand stopped.
“My ‘stuffed body.’ Did you incinerate it?”
.......
[Ah, you’ve returned there, have you?]
[Did you come seeking help? How shameless. But then again, shamelessness is a virtue of the broadcast world....]
“No.”
The words that came out of Kim Soleum’s mouth were cold and indifferent, uttered by Isajeon.
“I just had a question.”
The emoticon disappeared from the TV screen.
‘As I thought.’
Kim Soleum was sure of it.
Right now, Brown couldn’t read his inner thoughts.
Because it was Isajeon out front, speaking directly to Brown.
Just as someone reading a script doesn’t necessarily understand the mind of its author, Brown couldn’t grasp Kim Soleum’s intentions.
Likewise, Kim Soleum could avoid falling prey to Brown’s infamous "persuasion."
This was because all input was being filtered and simplified—just images on a screen and words exchanged in conversation. It allowed for what one might call a true dialogue:
A conversation where neither party could fully grasp the other’s thoughts, requiring them to listen, interpret, and strive for understanding.
“Would you hear me out? It’s probably a question you didn’t expect....”
[Ah, bravado on stage can sometimes be practical.]
[But only for those who aren’t entertainers themselves.]
The talk show’s host, eyeless, stared directly at him.
[To think you’d hope to defuse this situation by impressing me with some cliched script, line, urban legend, or anecdote—how tragically naive....]
But.
“It’s nothing like that. It’s just a personal question.”
The voice was calm.
[‘A personal question’?]
“Yeah.”
Kim Soleum’s mouth opened.
“Was it suffocating to be the ‘nice friend’?”
[ ]
The TV screen froze.
But its smooth voice continued.
[Those who find their assigned masks suffocating are unfit to stand on stage.]
[In that sense, I, Brown, have never once considered my mask suffocating....]
“I see. Well, when I was stuck as a stuffed toy, it felt pretty suffocating and terrifying. I wondered if maybe you’d felt the same.”
[Oh, fostering sympathy and understanding? How typical. What a dull and outdated notion.]
[Go ahead and give me a long-winded explanation of why I shouldn’t incinerate you and that blade-wielding lackey of yours.]
[Before the commercial break ends.]
“.......”
Kim Soleum thought.
He was standing here because of his fear and prediction that escaping now would only lead to an even worse outcome in the near future. It was a gamble, pure and simple.
But gambles require some degree of possibility.
Kim Soleum hadn’t placed his bet here without reason.
The possibility he had clung to was this:
“Well then, did you enjoy being the ‘nice friend’?”
