Chapter Text
"Baek Saheon-ssi, you're requested to assist D-squad for the week. Goodluck!" F-squad's team leader cheerfully informed Baek Saheon with an oddly suspicious yet proud grin. His instincts screamed at him but what could he—a rookie—do except flash a fake subservient smile and stand up to proceed with his new task for the week.
Wait.
A WEEK?!
"Just what deadly darkness was I assigned to and why do I have to do it with D-squad?" he frantically realized.
He turned around to ask for more details from his team leader but the carefree bastard already ran away without him noticing. He looked around the office but F-squad's supervisor only shrugged at him before busily typing at his computer once more.
Meanwhile, F-squad's assistant manager squinted his eyes at the calendar before a flash of realization shone through his eyes.
"Oh, its July now!" He exclaimed. "You majored in finance, right, Saheon-ssi?" The assistant manager asked in confirmation.
Despite the obvious question marks in his face, Baek Saheon still nodded while wondering how his college major is connected to whatever dangerous situation he is in right now.
"It's that XYZ audit firm, no worries." The assistant manager vaguely explained.
Baek Saheon wanted to ask for more details but the man accross from him clearly isn't bothered to explain more so he just politely thanked the assistant manager and bid his farewell.
His entire elevator ride was filled with confused thoughts about what he heard. However, before he can even connect the almost non-existent dots, he already arrived at D-squad's office floor.
"Ah, Baek Saheon-ssi! Welcome! Here, seat. I'm Eun Haje." D-squad's assistant manager greeted Baek Saheon enthusiastically.
"We're still waiting for the team leader to finalize some paperworks for this darkness so you may review the details about it first." Eun Haje explained before casually sipping a cup of coffee.
Meanwhile, someone handed him a stack of freshly printed document from the back. Baek Saheon was startled but he maintained his polite smile as he turned around to face the man behind him.
"Aww, he wasn't surprised! As expected of this new batch's top recruit." The man chuckled as he commented on Baek Saheon's reaction. "I'm Park Minseong, D-squad's supervisor. Let's work well together, Saheon-ssi."
After exchanging pleasantries with the D-squad's members, Baek Saheon reviewed the documents handed to him.
[XYZ Company — External Auditors at Your Service!]
: Daydream Inc. identification code – Qterw-?-1306
A ghost story that identifies itself as an audit firm. It automatically binds itself to ghost story businesses—ranging from small to medium enterprises up until large corporations—to conduct external audits. Observed to be amicable to "honest and polite" humans (exact standards unknown). All financial reports submitted must be complete, adequate, and recorded in good faith.
There are no confirmed records of this ghost story involving civilians. Sightings are only recorded by employees inside ghost stories that "conducts" businesses such as Death Lane.
: Three recorded casualties in Daydream Inc.. An entire squad—the first ever people sent to handle an XYZ employee—was shrouded in black fog and vanished entirely when they submitted a false quarterly financial report of Daydream Inc.'s operations. [Refer to page XX for a compiled report on this incident.]
Baek Saheon turned the pages with curiosity until he reached the compiled report about Daydream's first encounter with the darkness.
January XX, 19XX
Security team member □□□□ □□□□□□ personally witnessed as a shroud of black fog materialized in the corridor of Basement Floor □□ while conducting an exploration. The black fog slowly turned into a humanoid silhouette wearing a three piece black suit, holding a black briefcase, and wearing a deer mask that resembles Daydream's employee masks. It's other facial features were blurry.
It politely greeted the security team member and introduced itself. The following were the transcribed words based on the security team member's accounts:
"Good day, sir. I am #*!(@^&&!&^ from XYZ company. Our firm received an offer to conduct external auditing for Daydream Inc. starting from the previous quarter ended in December 19XX. Would it be possible to meet the representative that handles these matters right now?"
In the investigation after the matter was resolved, the security team member claims that he can remember the name but cannot utter it at all. The following were his statement regarding the matter:
"I remember the name. IknowIknowIknowIknowIknow...."
The interviewer waited for the security team member to calm down before asking him to describe what he feels whenever he try to remember the XYZ employee's name. What he described was the following:
It feels like...my mind is being...how do you call this. My mind feels like it's being surrounded by fog. A thickblackfog. As if telling me that it is not yet the time. RIGHT! IT'SNOTYETTHERIGHTTIMETOUTTERHISNAME!"
The security team member was found to be slightly contaminated after the interview.
On the other hand, it is important to note that Daydream Inc. did not hire any external audit firm at all. This was confirmed by all members from the finance department and each individual board of directors of the company. [Further details regarding each person's statement requires higher level access.]
The security team member immediately reported the anomaly to the higher-ups at that time. Researcher Team 3 decided to observe the new darkness and sent the □-squad to face the XYZ employee.
It was also decided to show fake documents to avoid possible contaminations in Daydream Inc.'s data. This decision resulted in the death of everyone from □-squad.
After the "unproffesional and unethical presentation"(exact words from the XYZ employee), the three members of □-squad were shrouded in ominous black fog. No other noises were heard. When the black fog dissipated, nothing was left at all.
The XYZ employee faced the hidden camera in the room and politely bowed.
It then recited the following:
"I apologize for the mess. However, I would like to receive the proper financial reports of Daydream Inc. If no proper reports were to be presented, I will act upon myself, as stated in the contract, to look for the correct documents. In the case that further resistance is observed, XYZ company will assume that Daydream Inc. has chosen to break the contract as stated in Section 5.2. In the case that fraud, tax evasion, and the likes were observed among the documents, XYZ company will turn to its own rules for further actions as stated in Section 5.8."
The researchers reported to have felt an "impending doom" if they did not follow the XYZ employee's demand.
[The following details are redacted as it involves some high-level access information.]
From Director [redacted]'s intervention and approval, the proper and legitimate financial reports were presented by the elite □-squad together with finance department team leader □□□ □□□□□□□.
The XYZ employee nodded in approval and gave some advice to further improve Daydream Inc.'s profit margin. It also requested that further reports for the future collaborations do not need the "unnecessary informations about Daydream Inc.'s common pharmaceutical operations" and only requires the "reports from operations derived from darknesses."
Note 1: That day, □-squad's dream essence collectors were filled with B-grade dream essence.
Note 2: The following encounters with XYZ company resulted in different levels of dream essence(from E to C, but it never quite reached B-level except from the first encounter). No exact standards or factors were identified regarding the reason for the changing levels of dream essence until the current day.
Note 3: The advices from XYZ company employee were proven to be truly effective. Despite the lower level dream essence collected, this darkness is given importance to collect useful financial advice and analyses.
Note 4: It is adviced to send polite, knowledgeable, and honest-looking employees who behave with decorum to get better tips from the XYZ employee.
Note 5: The XYZ employee representative remains the same from the first encounter until now. It is mostly approachable and normal except for the blurry face behind the deer mask. However, further caution is required to avoid triggering the XYZ employee as advised by Director [redacted].
—End of Report
"Done reading?" Assistant Manager Eun Haje asked after seeing that Baek Saheon returned to the document's front page.
Baek Saheon nodded blankly as he tried to comprehend everything he read.
"Seriously? A ghost story that audits other ghost story businesses? And I. I. will be presenting this company's financial report out of nowhere." he ranted in his mind.
Baek Saheon couldn’t believe his current situation.
The XYZ employee also wants a polite, knowledgeable, and honest employee from their company. A polite and honest employee.
Yeah well, he might be thoroughly fucked if he doesn't do this properly.