WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈
Episode 32: Haunted Head Gallery (3)
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‘Is there no company in reality that extracts energy from ghost stories?’
That was why I’d ended up asking a question that got me dismissed as an idiot right away.
As people gathered and the internet age began, orally transmitted ghost stories became series, and categories of their own emerged.
Short-form ghost stories about ghosts, spirits, or murderers. The most classic and traditional branch. Japanese ghost stories involving Talismans or shrines were the most famous. They had also been the central concept of early horror films.
Then there were chilling stories like the so-called “stories that become scary once you understand them,” or Napolitan ghost stories. Unlike classic ghost stories, they did not clearly identify the source of the fear.
After that came series such as the XX Mysteries, where various ghost stories connected to a specific place were combined.
Those were especially famous. School ghost stories had made them well known. You could say they appropriately mixed the two fundamental types into one setting.
And then there was a new kind created once wikis came along. Fictional ghost stories centered on mock documentaries or original creatures, derived from the idea of creating a world where ghost stories and unrealistic elements were commonplace.
By the time you got to that kind of wiki, the focus shifted away from horror and toward fandom staples like so-called named characters, exploration records, and fighting ghost-story monsters with physical force.
‘Classic is still my preference, but...’
Of course, when someone actually fell into a ghost story, fictional ghost stories were better than classic ones. Their intricate setting games often included ways out.
Anyway, the ghost story that had overlapped with this gallery was one of those enormous wiki settings, a ghost-story series infamous for its vicious setting and equally massive fandom.
System of Sitra Achra.
Commonly known as the SOSA setting.
The world itself was made up of supernatural entities, and the energy derived from those entities became ghost stories or anomalies that harmed people.
Ultimately, those supernatural entities would devour Earth and the galaxy. It was a setting with humanity’s extinction as its predetermined future.
To prevent that future, various groups worked in secret to contain, worship, or use supernatural entities.
‘And the person walking beside me is an employee of the craziest company among them.’
Da’at Research Group, commonly known as D Corporation.
It had an elaborate backstory, but put simply, it was a mad-scientist research corporation that produced tools capable of chewing up the laws of physics using supernatural entities. Naturally, it had completely abandoned corporate ethics and civilian protection.
I shouldn’t trust Lee Daeun too much, either. When things got desperate, that company told people to leave behind an arm or leg and run. If someone broke down on the job, they shot them under the pretense of giving them a “stabilization round.”
‘But what exactly was the basis for these ghost stories overlapping?’
If the Popup had fused based on similarities in their shared space, then the gallery and SOSA had no settings in common at all. Hopefully, it wouldn’t become a variable when we searched for the exit.
“Mr. Jaehyeon.”
Lee Daeun, who had been staring down her in-ear device for quite some time, finally spoke.
“Would you like to come with me?”
“What?”
It was an unexpected offer. What was this? Was she planning to throw me to a curator as a human sacrifice if things went wrong?
“If you go around alone here, you’ll die immediately. I got separated from my team, so I needed a companion anyway.”
I could tell from Lee Daeun’s eyes. She wasn’t a named character. At best, she was an unnamed mob who appeared in one line of the 28,374th record for a popular anomalous entity.
That was why she could make the clumsy decision, so unfitting for a ghost story, that she had to save and take even someone like me with her. Why she could sincerely offer to travel together.
‘Is she really a fictional character in a ghost story...?’
No matter how I looked at her, she seemed like a real person. Enough to make me ashamed of having considered leaving her behind and running if things went wrong.
What was the problem with one more person escaping? I had saved Choi Seongun, so one more person would be nothing. I nodded.
“Thank you. I’d be glad to come with you.”
After waiting another five minutes or so, the area became completely quiet. Lee Daeun gestured to me. We emerged from behind the statue and began walking along the corridor.
Lee Daeun led by about two steps, and I followed behind. I searched my blog for information on D Corporation, but there was no one named Lee Daeun.
“Do you have a destination?”
“I’m planning to meet up with my team leader. We’re not supposed to act separately for more than an hour in a reality-interfering resource.”
“What caused that disturbance earlier?”
Lee Daeun stopped walking for a moment.
“I think someone suddenly screamed.”
“That’s strange. You seem familiar with this place, judging by the way you call it a resource and conduct yourselves on assignment. Are you saying you didn’t familiarize yourselves with the invitation?”
Lee Daeun blinked. I waved the brochure I was holding.
“This place presents itself as a VVIP personal gallery. Basically, it treats everyone as guests.”
“...Ah.”
“The curators here don’t act hostile toward visitors first, as long as they don’t behave violently.”
“Then...”
“Someone was probably deliberately made to scream. To scatter you and the others.”
The wiki didn’t contain detailed information about D Corporation’s internal work. Its records focused more on how insane D Corporation’s products were and which supernatural entities those products were connected to.
Which meant I needed to find out why they had appeared here, and what the ghost stories had in common.
“You probably have security regulations, but this situation seems to fall outside your expected scope of operations. If you tell me what you know, it’ll help us determine what to do next.”
In situations like this, the key was calm persuasion. Show that I was a veteran with more information, and therefore more likely to survive.
“You said you were a civilian, but you know a lot about this place.”
“I inferred it. I also spoke with a curator and figured out that we’re being treated as guests. Since I was looking around, they gave me a catalogue and even directed me to the lounge.”
“A catalogue?”
Instead of answering, I opened the catalogue to a page and showed it to Lee Daeun. Countless photographs of heads and body parts belonging to pale-skinned people spread before her like a panorama. Lee Daeun’s face turned deathly pale.
“W-what is this?”
“It seems to be a product catalogue. If someone is caught by a curator and dies, they appear here as merchandise. Could you check whether you recognize any faces?”
With an expression of utter revulsion, Lee Daeun accepted the catalogue and began turning the pages. I’m sorry. Anyone would find photographs of displayed heads unpleasant...
After flipping through it for some time, Lee Daeun’s expression collapsed entirely. She bit her lip and lowered her head, seemingly trying to remain composed, but her shoulders trembled.
‘Maybe they’d all been wiped out.’
“Are you the only one left?”
“I think a few people are alive. They’re not from my team, though, so I don’t know for sure.”
“You’ll need to join them to escape smoothly. Were you given any other instructions?”
“When we entered, they told us that, ‘if there is no anomaly,’ an exit would open within two hours.”
“Is there no way to identify it before the exit appears? Such as going to that floor and waiting in advance?”
“That would be nice, but we determined that its appearance is completely random. The floor, the location, and the form.”
“What about waiting for the gallery’s operating hours to end?”
“I was told that wasn’t recommended. In reality-interfering resources, anything outside the manifested space is defined as being beyond the range of perception.”
Lee Daeun might not have been a named character, but within the records, she seemed to fill the role of a sharp new recruit. Every question I asked received a clear answer immediately.
As Lee Daeun and I exchanged what we knew, the outline of the situation gradually began to take shape.
“From what you said earlier, it sounds as though several teams entered. Is that right?”
“There are five teams, including mine.”
“Was the proportion of women high, by any chance?”
“What?”
“I mean, based on the people you saw in that catalogue and the ones you remember, roughly how many women were there among the total personnel?”
Lee Daeun picked up the catalogue again and began counting on her fingers. Her expression, which had only just recovered, twisted again.
“...Around thirty people entered. More than, um, twenty of them were women?”
“...As I thought. Then let me ask one more thing. Were there any women among the team leaders?”
“Ah, no. I think the teams with women team leaders were sent on a different mission this time.”
Just as I thought. What a crazy company. A sigh slipped out.
“I confirmed the gallery’s theme properly after entering. This time, the theme is Langwidere.”
Did that world have The Wizard of Oz too? There might be a similar supernatural entity, so I assumed she roughly understood.
“And the attached subtitle is Eve. The most valuable things in this gallery are human heads, especially beautiful heads belonging to young women, the kind a princess would desire. Like yours, Ms. Daeun.”
Lee Daeun hiccuped and reflexively wrapped a hand around her neck.
“This gallery says it provides endless contemplation and goods until you find what you want. In other words, once you find and purchase what you want, it’ll no longer expand.”
Buying something would create an exit.
“Your team leaders deliberately caused the disturbance. They needed to drive the employees out of their status as guests and turn them into merchandise here.”
Based on the employee management records held by the team leaders, they must have concluded that the bodies the curators collected were effectively currency in their hands.
If they used that in the donation exchange, they could collect an item generated by a supernatural phenomenon in exchange for a few employees’ corpses, then escape safely.
“On top of that, they deliberately selected women with higher value to maximize the range of goods they could obtain, and assigned multiple team leaders so they could deal with any problems. That must mean the item they need to acquire this time is extremely valuable.”
No matter how many other team leaders remained, arrangements would likely have been made for the survivors to inherit ownership of employees from the other teams as well.
“If you find an exhibit you like in the gallery or have a suggestion, please use the central staircase rather than requesting a curator, and seek out the director. The director will take the most appropriate measures for you.”
“I think they’re trying to buy Langwidere’s head.”
It was reasonable to assume they were targeting the seventeenth head, Langwidere’s favorite, using several heads as payment.
After all, the more famous and expandable an anomalous entity was, the more highly D Corporation valued it, since it could extract special things from the bizarre beings found in ghost stories.
“Then we need to stop them from buying it, right?”
“Fortunately, that’ll be easy.”
“All exhibits are given top priority to the first person who expresses an intent to purchase them. Should it become necessary to coordinate opinions, please request a curator.”
“If we state our intent to purchase the most valuable item here first, we can buy time until the matter is mediated.”
“What if the team leader has already paid with only the team members who died? They might have brought more people than needed to cover the price...”
It was a reasonable inference. What a waste, turning someone this smart into merchandise.
“No. Didn’t the earlier disturbance scatter everyone? Since they don’t know how many bullets they have in hand, they’ll wait until the deadline is close.”
“What if they go to the director and start negotiating right away?”
“They can’t say they’ll buy something they haven’t even seen. And I don’t think trying to negotiate in a gallery like this would be a good idea.”
The shape of what we needed to do was clear. I unfolded the floor guide in the brochure.
Eve’s Langwidere Floor Guide
1F Information Counter, Special Exhibition Hall
2F Exhibition Halls A to F
3F Eve’s Garden (*Not for Sale Exhibition)
4F Exhibition Halls G to L
5F Guest Lounge, Donation Exchange Counter
There were twelve exhibition halls and one special exhibition hall. We had to find the most valuable head in an exhibition hall before the team leaders did, then ask the director to make a deal.
“Shall we go?”
Together with the somewhat grim-faced Lee Daeun, I entered the first exhibition hall.
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