WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth
[Translator – Aren]
Chapter 1 - Underground Shopping Mall (1)
Recently, South Korea had been strange.
[Here’s the next news update. In the greater Seoul area, unexplained missing person cases have increased by 45% compared to last month. In response, the police......]
For a country that prided itself on top-tier public safety, the number of missing persons had been skyrocketing day after day. And strangely enough, rumors were spreading that if you picked up some bizarre-looking coin, you could become filthy rich.
Whenever people gathered, that was all they talked about.
"Coin? You mean cryptocurrency?”
"No, not that. They say it’s something way bigger than a 500-won coin. Like, a physical object. Anyway, supposedly rich people are going crazy trying to buy them, you know?”
"Wait, why?”
"I don’t really know the details. I heard if you collect enough of them, you can trade them for something special?”
To Park Minho, it sounded quite tempting. Life hadn’t exactly been going his way.
'Student loans, rent…… Hah, I’m barely scraping by here.'
At 27 years old, he still hadn’t landed a proper job and was working part-time at a small pizza shop.
The place was called ‘Daomi Pizza,' located in the Anyang underground shopping mall, and thanks to its decent prices, business was holding up fine, even during this recession.
Especially today, things had been so busy that closing time had dragged on longer than usual.
The owner, working beside him, spoke up in a friendly tone.
"Minho, I’m sorry. Hang in there a little longer, okay? I’ll make sure you get paid properly.”
"It’s fine. I’m making money, so I can’t complain.”
Just as he was in the middle of washing dishes, the owner’s phone rang.
Riiiing!
The owner quickly pulled off his gloves and answered.
“Hello, honey. What’s the matter?”
The warmth in his voice vanished almost instantly, turning serious.
"What? Daomi? Really?”
Minho glanced over unconsciously. The owner’s eyes were shaking.
“Okay. I’m heading there right now! The ER, right? Try to stay calm, honey!”
The owner hurriedly turned to Minho.
"My daughter’s burning up with a fever! Minho, I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you later, so can you handle the rest here?”
The guilt on his face was obvious for dumping all the remaining work on a part-timer like this.
But what could he do? His daughter was sick.
"Go. Don’t worry about it.”
"Thanks, Minho!”
In his panic, the owner ran out without even taking off his apron.
"I hope it’s nothing serious…”
Worry aside, there was still a mountain of work left. Just thinking about the piled-up dishes and prepping dough for tomorrow made him sigh.
"Phew..."
‘If I could get one of those coins, would my life actually change?
"Man, I want one of those coins."
* * *
"2 a.m.? You’ve gotta be kidding me."
In the cramped kitchen, after hours of fighting for his life, the hellish closing shift finally came to an end.
"Ah…I’m dead. Uuurgh…!”
Still, having his favorite VTuber stream playing in the background had made the time fly.
Rattle, clang.
Grabbing the key ring the owner had left behind, Minho pulled down the shutter and locked it.
He had somehow made it through the day. Just as he turned around, a sense of accomplishment settling in, he froze.
"Huh…?”
The underground mall was dark. Normally, even after business hours, the place stayed brightly lit for pedestrians. But now, more than half of the ceiling lights were out.
'Why?'
The problem wasn’t just that it was dark. There was just something really off about all this.
This was a place he passed through every day. Just because it was darker than usual shouldn’t have made it feel like this.
The Park Minho realized the nature of the unease he was feeling.
'It’s way too quiet, isn’t it?'
Even after closing, the underground mall never truly died. Security guards made their rounds, shop owners who worked late gathered in small groups as they headed home, and the occasional passerby would drift through. Soon enough, the cleaning crew would show up too.
But now there was nothing.
The corridors felt unusually empty and long. Shops stretched on endlessly, their shutters all pulled down in a row, and…
Bzzzzzz.
The only sound was the harsh, scraping buzz of flickering fluorescent light.
A chill crept over him. Pulling his coat tighter, Minho quickened his pace.
'Let’s just get out of here.’
If he kept going straight and turned right, Exit 12 would be there. It was a route he walked every day, so he could do it with his eyes closed.
Step, step, step.
For some reason, his footsteps echoed louder than usual.
He walked straight ahead and turned right, but then something strange happened.
"Huh...?"
Exit 12, which should have been right there, was gone.
'Did I take a wrong turn?’
No way, he’d been walking this same route home for 6 months. Even aside from that, he knew the underground mall’s complicated layout like the back of his hand.
And yet, instead of the exit, there was only another identical corridor stretching on.
"Hmm......"
For now, Minho decided to keep going. He was too tired to backtrack anyway, and there were plenty of exits in the mall.
Step, step.
Walking alone through the desolate passage lined with shuttered shops, he glanced at the store signs before frowning.
Bokhee Handmade Shoes.
Goun Cosmetics.
Oh Jeomrye Ladies’ Wear.
'The lettering kind of feels off…?’
The test on the signs looked strange and completely unlike what he was used to seeing… How should he put it…? It was as if someone who didn’t know Hangul at all had tried to imitate it.
Park Minho felt cold sweat running down his back. He hurriedly pulled out his phone and checked it.
"Huh...?"
It was acting up. The basic functions still worked, but there was no signal. Neither Wi-Fi nor data.
"This is insane."
His lips suddenly went dry, and panic set in. Before he knew it, he was running.
Thud, thud, thud!
Minho’s breathing grew more and more ragged. But no matter how far he ran, there was still no sign of an exit. The same scenery kept repeating over and over.
'Was this place always this big?'
After running for what felt like ages, he completely lost his sense of direction. He bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for air.
"Huff, haaah…Cough!”
Meanwhile, the buzzing of the fluorescent lights grew louder.
Bzzzz, bzzzzzzzzzz!
It sounded like the beating of insect wings, tightening around his throat.
Then, Minho spotted something that made his face light up.
"Ah...!"
A familiar restroom.
Out of the many restrooms in the underground mall, this was the one he used most often, which meant the pizza place he worked at had to be nearby.
'I made it back!’
He still hadn’t found the exit, but in a situation where he’d been completely lost, the sight brought him relief.
'Calm down. I’m just tired and getting turned around. Just stay calm…!’
But that line of thought didn’t last long.
Splash! Splash!
A strange sound came from inside the restroom.
'Is someone mopping the floor?'
But it didn’t quite sound like a mop. It sounded like something a lot heavier, didn’t it?
Like a large chunk of meat was repeatedly being slammed against the dirty bathroom floor.
Smack, splat!
At the same time the foul scent of something rotten, decayed, and sickeningly fishy hit him.
"Ugh!”
Every hair on his body stood on end. His survival instinct screamed at him.
It yelled at him that he absolutely mustn’t look in there.
The certainty that the moment he so much as peeked inside, it would be over gripped him.
Forgetting to even breathe, Minho slowly stepped backward.
'What the hell is this?’
Once he managed to put some distance between himself and the restroom, panic began to take over. And then he ran like his life depended on it. He stumbled and crashed to the ground at one point but didn’t even feel the pain. He just got back up and kept running.
Then, a sharp sound rang out.
Riiiiiiing!
Riiiing!
A telephone.
Startled, Minho quickly looked around. That was when he spotted it. A shabby little security booth where the guards usually took their breaks.
Tucked away in a corner of the underground mall, barely the size of a small closet. Through the slightly open door, a landline phone sat on the desk inside, screaming relentlessly.
Riiiiiiiiing!
Riiiing!
In the suffocating silence, the ringing sounded like a blaring siren.
"Ah, come on, please…!”
If he just left it ringing, it felt like whatever was in the restroom would come bursting out at any second.
There was no choice. At the very least, he had to rip the cord out or smash it. Minho rushed into the security booth, grabbed the receiver, and slammed it back down.
Click!
The ringing stopped.
Just as he was about to sigh in relief…
Riiiiiiing!
The phone started shrieking again, like it was having a seizure.
Riiiing!
Startled out of his mind, Minho fumbled behind the phone and yanked out the line.
But somehow, even with the cord disconnected, the phone kept ringing.
Riiiiiiiiiing!
Park Minho’s face went pale.
'...How is this even possible?’
But he couldn’t just leave it. The relentless ringing showed no sign of stopping.
In the end, with trembling hands, he picked up the receiver.
But not knowing who was on the other end only made the tension worse.
"Hello...?"
Minho clung to a slither of hope. Maybe it was building management calling. But the voice that came through shattered that hope instantly.
[What took you so long to answer?]
It was a distorted, mechanical voice laced with irritation. He couldn’t tell the other party’s gender or even their age.
"What? Do you know me?”
The way it spoke sounded like it expected Minho to pick up somehow.
[I don’t know who you are, but I do know you’re one of today’s newly added ‘missing persons.’]
That phrase hit him immediately. The recent surge of missing people across South Korea.
Minho spoke urgently.
“I think I'm in some kind of dangerous situation. I need to call the police, so……!"
The voice let out a low chuckle.
[Hehe, go ahead and try. Unfortunately, this isn’t something the police can solve. More importantly, you need to survive first. I’d suggest you get your head on straight.]
"What the hell is going on right now?!”
Minho shouted, his eyes darting anxiously toward the dark hallway beyond the window.
The voice responded with an oddly deliberate question.
[Do you perhaps know about the Backrooms?]
"What? The…Backrooms? What is that?”
[Oh? So you’re the type who doesn’t know about trending urban legends. Well, that’s unfortunate.]
"Hey, wait.”
[We don’t have much time. The important thing right now is that you survive. Got it?]
The tone turned serious as if to warn him.
[You’ve got about an hour. Within that time, you need to find the stairs leading downward.]
"What?"
On your way here, didn’t you come across something that smelled kind of rotten?]
Something immediately came to his mind.
That thing in the restroom.
[That thing will soon start crawling through the hallways, looking for fresh meat. It doesn’t have eyes, but it relies on its sense of smell. Luckily, its nose is pretty dull. It’ll take about an hour before it can properly pick up your scent.]
"And what happens when it does?"
[Then you’ll just become another splattering lump of meat.]
"What the hell… Why is this happening?”
Then the voice said something unexpected.
[You wanted the coin, didn’t you?]
"What...?"
[Blaming me won’t help. I simply granted your wish. Now then, how far do you think you can go?]
Minho had no idea what it was talking about.
[Ah, and one more thing. All the shop shutters are down, so there’s not much to grab, but I recommend picking up something before you head down. Things get really barren below. Well then…]
"Wait, hold on!"
Click!
"Hello?! Hello?! Hey! You bastard…!”
Minho shouted into the receiver, gripping it tightly, but it was no use.
And then…
A grotesque scream echoed through the hallway from afar.
"Kuuaaaaaaaargh!”
In that instant, Minho knew that he had to absolutely move.
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