Chapter Text
Kim Soleum’s breath came out heavily, his hand tightly gripped the lapel of his suit.
[Let’s see... oh my! We have 22 successful candidates this time, everyone! Wow, I wonder what the HR department thinks of this?] The man on the stage exclaimed.
Seriously, what kind of hell company would be excited about 22 people surviving orientation. In a normal company, surviving orientation wouldn’t even be a concern!
[This is truly an amazing record. If this wasn’t a case of miscalculated difficulty, you all are an elite group. Elites.]
As if. This dirtbag company was just going to dump half of these so-called elites into X, Y, or Z teams and watch them get sacrificed by their A, B, or C team counterparts.
“Shit,” Kim Soleum muttered under his breath.
He had just gotten dropped into Daydream Corporation of Dark Exploration Records, a world with countless ghost stories.
[Shall we pick out the top elite among our elite employees? The top of this cohort from the Field Exploration Team! One of the fastest to complete the evaluation and escape, and the highest scorer in the overall assessment.]
The host raised his hand.
[Congratulations, Kim Soleum-ssi!]
But there was no way he was staying in this hell on earth company.
[Kim Soleum-ssi, are you there? The event won’t end until the gift is presented~ Come up and accept it!]
He raised his hand meekly, “Are we allowed to quit?”
The other new hires in the room shook in fear, many looking five seconds away from bolting out the door. They looked up with hope at his words, surely seeking a chance to escape.
[Oh? Leaving such a great work opportunity? Come on, at least hear about the benefits before deciding.]
Behind him, Go Yeongeun shouted desperately.
“So, can we quit after hearing about the benefits? Without any penalties?”
[Yes, absolutely. You can quit without a single scratch on you~]
But there was a reason no one did.
[But first, let me introduce our company’s top employee benefit!]
The wish ticket.
This potion would grant anyone their greatest wish in life, even bringing back the dead or de-aging someone. Just as the host did.
Gasps of wonder erupted from around the room, the people who were cowering in fear at even the idea of joining Daydream suddenly became enchanted, obsessed with the ability to have their greatest wish granted.
Everyone in life had an unachievable desire or a gut-wrenching regret that keeps them up at night, wondering what went wrong and what they could have done better.
Even people in a world like this did. That was exactly the principle that Daydream survived on. They took the genuine wishes, hopes, and resolutions of countless people and used them to power their money machine. Every step forward they made as a pharmaceutical company was built on the backs of countless employees, struggling to reach the future or rectify the past.
In short, it was a completely unethical and predatory company led by those who could not care less about the sacrifices of the miserable.
But still, what works, works.
[If you want to resign, please go to the desk outside and collect your paperwork.]
No one in the room moved. The new hires who had just been desperate to leave had found a reason worth staying in possibly the worst working environment in the world.
[But if you’ve decided to stay with the company...]
The host gestured.
[Come up to the stage and receive your bag.]
But Kim Soleum refused to fall prey to this ploy.
In truth, he didn’t really have any reason to. Such a terrifying world would suck to be in. But only if he was in one of the factions that actively and willingly ventured inside of ghost stories. The casualty rate of civilians was truly not as high as one would think. Besides, Kim Soleum did not have the most fruitful life to return to. He had no desperate hopes nor goals, no deep regrets he spent the last decade agonizing over. He had no friends nor family to call his own, nor did he have any hobbies other than reading the Dark Exploration Records Wiki.
Plus, due to his hobby, Kim Soleum thankfully had an excess of knowledge at his disposal that he could use to avoid any and all ghost stories that may come his way. He also happened to have some sort of magical popsocket that could help him out of any disaster, big or small. All in all, it seemed like a high risk, low reward gamble to join Daydream.
And so, Kim Soleum left the room, went to the desk outside, and collected his paperwork.
[Wait what? Did you not hear about the wish ticket? Top performer!]
Kim Soleum walked out of Daydream Headquarters, feeling the sun on his face as he walked out of the most hellish job on the planet.
He was going to be a safe, law-abiding, secure citizen!
…
Really, that’s what he resolved to do.
So why was he here now??
His hands clasped tightly over the mouth of a kid. Tears dropped silently over the expanses of his hands.
Breath came quickly but fleetingly as he frantically tried to keep his breath quiet.
Fuck!
Just around the play structure was a man who looked just like him.
Or, more accurately, it was a thing who looked almost like him. Its arms were slightly too long, his smile too wide, and his eyes glowed a bright red.
Sounds that seemed like they should be human were coming from it, gibberish adjacent to Korean, but not quite close enough.
The noise that the footsteps on the mulch made changed, sometimes sounding like a cymbal, other times like the whishing of leaves on trees, like the thing itself didn’t know how a foot landing on soft ground should be.
In hindsight, Kim Soleum should’ve known to avoid this story.
As one of the more popular entries of the Dark Exploration Records, Friendly Playground was a story he had read countless times before.
The entry method to this story was very easy to avoid. All he would have to do was not enter any playgrounds with a kid during the day when no one else was around. Very simple, especially for Kim Soleum, seeing as he was not a father.
The Friendly Playground was, unsurprisingly, not friendly at all. It was, in actuality, mind numbingly scary.
One of the most popular recorded encounters with the disaster went like this:
He was just trying to play in the neighborhood park with his kid. There was no one else around, despite it being a weekend. And once they had entered fully, the creatures appeared.
At first they were still. Like they were clay statues the park added. But they were blank. A human figure rounded at the edges and turned completely red. A sort of abstract art fixture.
But then they weren’t. They learned.
Initially it was just a step. One moved forward but fell. After, the others started too. Learning off of me and each other. They learned to walk, then they learned how to be.
They learned the placement of his nose, how his glasses rested on his face, how his breath came in and out slightly unevenly.
Naturally, he had run away. But as he ran, the city around him transformed into other play fixtures, swings, and sand pits, with more creatures studying him.
The creatures around him slowly learned how he looked, how he acted, even how he walked.
But they didn’t only learn from him.
They learned from his daughter too.
“Daddy!” It called. “It’s me!”
He had never let go of his daughter’s hand and she had never once referred to him as ‘Daddy.’
But as he ran and ran, holding desperately onto his daughter, his grip slackened, and their hands slipped apart.
He looked back quickly, anxiously trying to save his family, only to find his daughter standing next to a creature, except he couldn’t tell who was who and which was which.
“Dad!” They both called, human and monster, but now he couldn’t tell the difference. The creatures were terrifyingly smart and they studied well. There was now no difference between the monster and his daughter.
He needed to find out which one was his. But the other creatures were closing in, their voices mingling together, his own and his daughters.
Helplessly, he snatched up the one closest to him and kept running. Behind him sounded the crunches of what was pretending to be his daughter, along with cries that almost made him turn right back around and take back his choice.
This time though, the city came back as he ran and finally, he left the playground, panting in the parking lot, where other people roamed.
He let his daughter down, beaming, “We made it home!”
And it smiled back, its body slowly devolving back into a clay statue, whispering, “Thank you.”
All he could do was stare emptily as the realization of his mistake hit him.
He was found later that night hanging from the ceiling of his bedroom.
The Friendly Playground was a ghost story full of creatures that imitated the people that entered it, with the goal to leave, once and for all.
It was the kind of disaster that made a chill crawl up Kim Soleum’s spine when he first read it.
It was a disaster with a 50% survival rate. But it was a guaranteed 50% survival rate. The person who was left behind would end up consumed by the creatures, chewed down to a red, slightly human looking blob.
It moved on slowly, its footsteps becoming less and less strange, fading off in the other direction with completely normal sounds reverberating from the falling of its feet.
The kid in Kim Soleum’s arms let out nearly imperceptible sobs, burying himself into his chest, snot and tears mixing pitifully on his cashier uniform.
“H-hyung, I’m scared…”
Kim Soleum felt himself shake in fear as well, tears forming weakly in the glands of his eyes.
Shit, who wouldn’t be.
Kim Soleum had actually been holding up pretty well. There hadn’t been any ghost stories that he hadn’t managed to avoid and he had found himself a somewhat stable job as a cashier, living in a small, modest apartment, far from the downtown where ghost stories seemed to spawn like they were the offspring of very enthusiastic rabbits.
But when he was just using a park as a shortcut to his part-time job, a kid ran like their life depended on it and clung onto his leg.
“Hyung, hyung, come help push me on the swings!!”
“Um,” Kim Soleum said, staring down at the child whom he had never seen in his life.
What?
With eyes bigger than the moon, the kid begged, “Pleeeaaasseeee!”
Kim Soleum sighed, “Where are your parents?”
“They told me to come to the park and that an hyung would play with me there!”
“Right… Maybe they were talking about a different hyung?”
“Huuhh? But there’s no other hyungs here!”
Fuck, what’s wrong with this kid’s parents!
“Look, kid, I can’t play with you–”
The kid’s eyes started to water and he opened his mouth to let out what Kim Soleum could only assume to be a glass-shattering wail before he closed it again and started to let out pathetic little whimpers.
He started despondently drafting his apology to his manager in his head as he sighed, “Okay, fine, I’ll play with you.”
Perking back up, the kid grabbed his hand, “You promise?”
“Only for ten minutes, alright?”
“Yay!”
He trudged along slowly, following the kid as he sprinted across the playground, launching himself at the swings.
Kim Soleum made his way towards him, a soft amusement flowing through him.
But as he walked, a bright red color caught his eye.
It was a sort of abstract art figure, resembling the silhouette of a human, but rounded out on all sides.
A cold sense of realization hit him.
“Fuck,” he cursed, fumbling with his phone.
He slowed his walk to the kid, not wanting to make him panic as he hastily typed out the hotline for the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
The statue slowly started changing out of the corner of his eye, its body shrinking slowly.
Pick up, pick up, pick up! Kim Soleum chanted in his mind, crying internally as he counted the amount of mimics he could see. Fuck isn’t this a hotline? Why is it taking so long for them to answer?!
“This is the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau Hotline, what is your emergency?” A monotone voice rang out from the phone.
In reality, this was a number only known to the agents of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau. There was no way Kim Soleum was supposed to be able to know it. But sometimes, agents would give out this number to civilians if they deemed it necessary.
“I think I’m stuck in a disaster,” he whispered, arriving by the kid’s side, and picking him up.
“Hyung! You’re supposed to be pushing me, not carrying me!”
“We’re gonna go on a little trip first, okay? I need to take a call with this nice noona right now.”
The kid harrumphed but thankfully settled down.
“Where did you enter the disaster?” The woman asked.
Kim Soleum gulped, finding only two mimics in total. He carefully moved them out of their line of sight, crouching behind a tic tac toe board. They would be safe here for the time being.
“I entered the disaster through the playground that’s next to the intersection of Lane Street and Park Road.” Kim Soleum eyed the kid, making sure to praise him for being good.
“We’ve sent a team to rescue you. Can you describe the disaster and the people with you?”
“Yeah, yeah I can do that. The disaster is just a playground, but there are things that are changing to look like me and this kid I have with me. I don’t think we’re safe.” Kim Soleum’s voice shook. Shit! Why was this happening to him? He tried to listen for any abnormal sounds coming from the mimics.
“The team will be arriving to help you shortly. What are your and the kid’s names?”
“Hyung, are we in trouble?” The kid asked, his lower lip quivering slightly.
“Don’t worry, hyung has it all covered, but would you tell this noona what your name is please?”
Please kid, I’m literally sweating bullets.
“Okay… Noona, my name is Oh Jisoo!”
“Thank you Jinsoo,” he said, relieved, “my name is Kim Soleum.”
“That’s very helpful, thank you for being so good Jisoo,” the woman said softly, before her voice turned stern again. “In this disaster, it’s safer not to talk. When the agents arrive, say ‘Please save me Hyunmoo 1.’ They will understand and promptly look for a way out. I will hang up now for your safety. Please stay hidden and refrain from speaking.”
After that, she hung up.
Kim Soleum exhaled slowly, running his hand through the kid’s hair.
Thank goodness, finally I won’t have to deal with this alone!
“Also,” she said, “it’s good to separate yourself from whoever you’re with.”
A cold chill ran up his spine. “What?”
“Please let go of the child. It’s safer if you don’t see each other. Just make sure to exit together.” She said, just as monotonously as she had before.
But his phone showed no sign of a call. And she had hung up.
Kim Soleum looked to his left slowly, meeting the eyes of Oh Jisoo, smiling widely.
“Please let go of Oh Jisoo and pick up the Oh Jisoo that’s on your left.”
But this Jisoo had Kim Soleum's arms wrapped around its midsection, melded into its skin like the mimic believed they were meant to be there. Its teeth gnashed as it spoke, and its eyes blinked wildly, with no rhyme nor reason.
The woman’s voice exited smoothly from its mouth.
Kim Soleum scrambled to his feet, holding tightly onto the real Oh Jisoo. He swore mentally before breaking out into a sprint, making brief eye contact with another mimic, this time modeled after himself.
His heart almost dropped out of his chest as he continued sprinting, weaving between rapidly forming play structures.
This is so fucking scary!!!!
…
And so, after a successful month of evading ghost stories, Kim Soleum finally fell into one.
He silently soothed Jisoo as he opened his phone, searching frantically through the Friendly Playground records for a hint on how to survive.
[One mom escaped after losing her child and finding a mimic who she thought was her child. Mentioned watching a group of mimics attack who was probably her child after she accepted the mimic as her child. ] 49 recorded similar cases
[One kid escaped after losing their dad and leaving with a mimic. Heard a lot of screaming after being picked up by the mimic.] 34 recorded similar cases
[2 agents and 1 civilian escaped with 1 mimic after 1 day. Described being capable of holding a reasonable conversation with the mimic.] 14 recorded similar cases.
[A babysitter escaped with a mimic after losing the child they were taking care of. Saw said child being sanded down into the shape that the mimics started in.] 11 recorded similar cases
[Agent escaped after 3 days of fighting the mimics, leaving with the mimic of the civilian they were trying to save. Described increased aggression after first attempting combat. Heard abnormal screaming about 20 minutes before recorded escape.] 5 recorded similar cases.
[Civilian escaped with her child guided by a mimic of an agent. Described only seeing certain creatures attempt to take human form; others remained monstrous despite proven ability to make themselves otherwise.] 3 recorded similar cases.
As he skimmed through the records, a plan started to form in his head.
“Oh Jisoo?” His voice called out behind them, loudly projecting what sounded like a whisper.
Jisoo’s tears ran down his cheeks faster, letting out quiet sobs that wetted the palms of Kim Soleum’s hands, still covering his mouth carefully.
He turned Jisoo towards him, giving him a hopefully reassuring smile and a shaking thumbs up.
Then, Kim Soleum stood up, knees almost knocking into each other out of fear.
He slowly walked out from the shelter of the play structure, shivering as the creatures swiveled their heads around, scrambling to reach him.
In the records, only one person ever survived. But there was also a consistent theme of a darker story behind the mimics.
“Hyung!!!! Sa■Aave mE!”
People left behind sanded down into those red blobs. Perhaps every one of the mimics originally were people just looking to play for a little while.
Jisoo sobbed into his ear, clutching tightly to his shirt, crumpling the green expanse of his apron.
The goal of these things was to leave, despite their existence ending outside of the ghost story. Despite this, they seemed to work in tandem, sometimes forgoing human shape to help convince victims to choose one of their companions. Maybe there was still a human-like ability to reason with them.
“Hey, Jisoo, come here, okay? This hyung will help youou!” The mimics had reached them.
But they hadn’t started attacking yet. In fact, the only things they did was use their words, beckoning them to let go of each other and slowly adapt more and more, perfecting themselves as they studied them.
They could also utilize a good amount of intelligence. After all, victims described short conversations with the mimics where they managed perfectly normal behaviors. They held a comprehension of the world around them.
“Please listen,” Kim Soleum said.
So maybe he could reason with them.
Oh god, why are they so creepy??
“You want to leave this place, right?”
They nodded blankly.
“Then why don’t one of you take me and another take Jisoo?” He proposed smoothly.
He made sure to stand tall, keeping his voice as calm and confident as possible, but in reality–
Oh my god please let this work, please let this work, please let this work!
He was freaking out.
He had no real way of knowing if this would work or not.
“Why would we?” One of them asked, reaching for Jisoo.
“Stop.” Kim Soleum said harshly, lightly pushing the mimic back with his free left hand.
“Why would we?” Another said.
“Why would we why would we whywouldwewhywouldwe whywOUldWE????”
Kim Soleum flinched back as the mimics started closing in, chanting, “WHY WOULD WE?”
“Then more of you could leave!” He shouted desperately, close to booking it in the opposite direction.
“More… could leave?” They backed off a little, their grabbing hands retreating.
“Yes! Then two of you could leave this place!” Kim Soleum said, clinging to whatever dredge of interest they were showing.
“Two? None of us have ever left at the same time,” said the one resembling Oh Jisoo.
They were listening, considering his idea. The corruption of the ghost story and the finite nature of their access to consciousness limited their ability to think. The only thing they could think of to help others escape was to eliminate the human who was left behind, leaving no competition for their counterparts.
Hope seeped into Kim Soleum’s blood, as he continued convincing them.
“Have you ever tried? Maybe it’ll work. Then no one will have to get stuck here.”
“How can we trust you?” They all said together, the duplicated voices somehow echoing in the open space.
“You have nothing to lose,” Kim Soleum said, his voice filling with conviction. “If it works, two of you leave, if it doesn’t then only one leaves. There’s no harm in trying.”
The mimics stared at him for a long time, seeming to consider his offer.
And just as he was starting to grow apprehensive and Jisoo started fidgeting in his arms, they said in tandem, “We accept.”
Kim Soleum sighed with relief, adjusting his iron-clad grip on Jisoo as his eyes darted around, eventually landing on two figures closing in quickly.
One was the size of an adult while the other was the size of a child. Despite this, they looked nothing like any of the mimics and they were wearing blue jackets.
The larger one launched themself into the air, holding up what seemed to be a giant butcher knife, descending rapidly towards the group of mimics.
Wait, no! I was finally getting to them!
Gritting his teeth, Kim Soleum maneuvered around the crowd, throwing himself directly into the trajectory of the blow, making sure to keep Jisoo safely away from the strike.
I’m sorry Jisoo for giving you irreparable childhood trauma but I really can’t let these mimics become violent when we’re so close to escaping!
He extended his left arm numbly, and he watched in horror as the butcher knife firmly struck the junction of his elbow
“Agent Choi!”
“Oh, shit.”
Kim Soleum crumpled to the floor, the weapon leaving his body as he let out a loud shout of pain.
Fuck…
His eyesight blurred, blacking out.
“Why would he do that???”
“I told you not to rush in!”
“They were surrounded by mimics! Was I not supposed to do anything?!”
Faintly, he felt himself being lifted onto someone’s shoulder.
“No…” he mumbled.
“It’s okay sir, we’ll get you and your child to safety,” the voice of one of the agents resounded from around him.
“Let go of him.” Ordered one of the mimics.
“What, so you can kill us?” A mocking voice asked.
“We made a deal. You will let him and the child go.”
“We’re not doing th– wait what are you doing–”
Kim Soleum drew his knee back and drove it into the person holding him, drawing out a pained grunt.
“Hyung!” Jisoo cried.
The kid was being held by the agent that was currently transformed into a child, tears streaming down his face.
“It’s okay Jisoo, don’t worry,” he forced out through gritted teeth.
The agent that was holding him smiled placatingly, hands hovering over his own midsection, saying, “Civilian, you called for us. We’re from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau. You can trust us.”
Kim Soleum shook his head faintly, almost toppling over when dizziness strikes him again. He clutches at his bloody arm, wincing at the mind-numbing pain. Still, he turned slowly to the crowd of mimics.
“Will you still let us go?” He asked the mimics.
They nodded in unison.
“Then please, escort all of us out, including the agents.”
His eyes fluttered weakly, and he stumbled forward, being caught by one of the mimics.
“Civilian!” One of the agents shouted.
“Please,” he pleaded to the agents, “listen to their instructions. They want to leave too.”
“Civilian come back!”
Kim Soleum’s vision faded to black.
The faint sound of beeping and the smell of medical disinfectant roused Kim Soleum from his sleep.
His eyes blinked open sluggishly, a white ceiling with fluorescent lights above. Outside light came haltingly, fettered by sheer curtains.
His thoughts moved slowly, as if weighed down, trudging though mud.
I wonder what happened to Jinsoo.
Slowly, his gaze fell to his elbow, wrapped tightly with gauze. Experimentally, he tried to move his fingers, wincing at the bolt of pain that travelled up his arm.
His hand refused to move, only twitching slightly when he compelled it to.
Despite his hand’s immobility, a wave of relief crashed over him. He had made it out.
The quiet click of the room’s door brought his view to the entering agent.
“Hello Kim Soleum-ssi!” The agent said cheerfully.
Kim Soleum didn’t answer. He was too busy looking at his neck. His neck that was encircled by scars. Really, anyone’s gaze would be drawn to a such a gruesome vision.
But that wasn’t why his attention was drawn there.
It was because an early named character in DER possessed a scar just like that. A character called–
“Let me introduce myself. Hmm, I don’t really like using my agent codename, but...”
Agent Choi, a man who would be dead three months from then.
“Just call me Agent Choi.”
Yes. It was him.