GSGW c219
Chapter 219
One of the many offices in the main building of Daydream Inc.
A small employee with long curly hair sits in the meeting seat of the tidy room.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm.”
She's already wearing a dolphin mask on her head—the trademark of an elite member of the Field Exploration Team.
/tn. omg I actually have short term memory loss, did we use Field Exploration Team or Field Investigation Team?
The documents spread across the table in front of her are the materials for today’s special assignment, distributed just yesterday.
An assignment that specifically calls for her.
And…
“Good morning, Assistant Manager!”
Lee Seonghae lifts her head.
A staff member walks in through the office door, greeting her cheerfully with a quick bow.
“My name is Kang Yihak. Ah, but you can just call me Pony!”
“Yes. Hello.”
He’s someone Lee Seonghae already recognizes.
Once you survive about a year after joining the company, you start remembering more and more coworkers.
There’s even an event that proves it.
A promotion to Supervisor.
“Oh, you became a Supervisor this time, right?”
“Yes, yes! We all got promoted together. Hahaha, nice not having to treat everyone to a promotion dinner, you know?”
Kang Yihak laughs and thumps his chest proudly.
That’s right.
Among the Field Exploration Team rookies, roughly half of those who manage to survive the year without dying or retiring are almost all promoted to Supervisor right before the next round of new hires arrives.
Of course, a few top performers receive the promotion two or three months earlier… But Kang Yihak would rather decline that honor.
Recently, she has realized something important.
'No need to create reasons to spend money!'
Isn’t it human nature for shameless people to expect generosity when they see someone doing well?
And here, getting promoted early doesn’t really earn you much more money—or cause better darkness assignments to fall into your lap.
Of course, things would be different if the reward were something substantial… Like something shiny and gold, or maybe green.
But for a tiny salary bump? From a bigger perspective, that’s actually a loss.
Thanks to that reasoning, she manages to suppress the dopamine craving for short-term rewards.
'Though I guess some people just like becoming the boss first.'
Kang Yihak thinks of a colleague who was promoted before her.
Baek Saheon—the employee who always wears a goat mask and an eyepatch.
That guy had been obsessively collecting information and items from the very beginning, buttering up senior employees nonstop… and eventually earned his promotion early.
'He really went all-in on squeezing information out of the seniors from day one!'
Lately, though, he’s been strangely quiet. He must have realized the universal truth: investing in darkness is the best strategy.
Once that thought occurs to her, other coworkers from her rookie class come to mind as well.
People who are no longer in the headquarters’ Field Exploration Team.
“Ah~ There were people who got promoted to Supervisor really quickly, and some who were extremely exemplary workers… ah, do you remember them?”
Kim Soleum. Go Youngeun.
Both of them nod as they recall their former colleagues.
“Yeah… they were good people. Such a shame…”
Lee Seonghae frowns sadly, as if she truly regrets it.
Sensing the mood, Kang Yihak smiles politely and changes the subject. No need to ruin your boss’s mood over something that doesn’t even make money!
“Assistant Manager, congratulations on your promotion too~ I heard you were newly assigned to Team B after the promotion.”
“Oh, right!”
Lee Seonghae nods.
“Hahaha, what’s Team B like?”
“Hmm. Company work is the same everywhere, you know!”
But information from an elite team is valuable.
Kang Yihak softens her tone, trying to flatter her a little.
“Come on, still—your coworkers changed, right? If there’s anything you’d like to say, you can tell me privately…”
“Huh? Me?”
“You don’t have to, of course! Yes!”
Don’t annoy your boss! Again—there’s no reason to ruin your boss’s mood!
Especially when that boss is rumored to have dumped two of her superiors into the darkness and gotten transferred to Team B because of it.
'Long-term thinking. Long-term thinking.'
Kang Yihak quickly shifts gears and sits down politely.
“Then I’ll work hard and read the materials too!”
“Ok.”
Their small pre-work conversation ends, and just as they finish reading and memorizing the documents on the table…
“Good day!”
A member of the Research Team appears.
The one responsible for briefing today’s mission.
Section Chief Kwak Jaekwang of Research Team 1. Since he’s a superior from another department, they stand and show the proper courtesy.
“Have you both finished reviewing the materials?”
“Yes, we have!”
“Well~ I expected it from Assistant Manager Lee of the elite team, but Supervisor Kang is pretty quick too. Maybe that promotion to Supervisor really made a difference!”
“Hahaha, thank you!”
Not really. It’s just that she was looking for places to squeeze extra profit out of the mission.
Kwak Jaekwang knows that too. Still, he laughs and looks between them before moving on to the most important part.
Introducing the darkness that holds the power over his life and death.
“Well then… here’s the superior you’ll be serving today!”
The office door opens.
A figure appears, surrounded by black smoke.
Strange bone-like horns rise like a crown. Eyes like yellow lanterns glow from within the black Security Team uniform.
At the familiar sight, Lee Seonghae’s eyes go wide.
The owner of the Flower Golden Resort!
“Masco—no, I mean, Security Team employee!”
To think they would meet again like this!
Lee Seonghae jumps up with a huge smile and approaches.
“It’s really nice to see you again! Have you been doing well?”
The Special Department employee of the Security Team stands completely still, looking down at her.
One of its eyes briefly seems to glance toward the researcher. But soon it lowers its head toward Lee Seonghae and raises a hand.
Question: Current health condition
“Oh, I’m always healthy!”
Just as kind and friendly as ever!
“Of course you are, Assistant Manager Dolphin from the elite team. You even know a powerful Security Team employee like this!”
After quickly grasping the situation, Kang Yihak moves in with perfect timing, spotting the safest position to take.
“It's truly a pleasure to meet you. I’d appreciate it if you called me Pony, Sir!”
She even extends her hand for a handshake.
“......”
“......”
Ah.
That was a mistake.
The moment that chilling realization passes through her mind, a gloved hand emerges from the black smoke and takes the hand she offered.
“…!”
The other party actually accepts the handshake.
But a strange sense of danger crawls up Kang Yihak’s spine.
Cold.
A sharp shiver runs down her back.
An instinctive alarm triggered by danger, power, greatness.
…Though somehow, it also feels strangely familiar?
Like something she has encountered before in the darkness…
“Anyway! Since it’s difficult for this person to walk into a broadcasting station themselves, that’s why the two of you from the Field Exploration Team were called.”
Before Kang Yihak can recall anything more, the handshake ends and the briefing continues.
Kwak Jaekwang smiles lightly as he explains why the two investigators were summoned.
They need two people familiar with darkness, but not too heavily contaminated.
“Normally the people assisting this employee are from the Security Team, but they can’t exactly visit a broadcasting station during the daytime. Haha!”
That’s right. This particular urban legend appears in a broadcast station, a place constantly under the eyes of civilians. To properly investigate it, cooperation from someone inside is necessary.
Obvious supernatural beings—or Security Team members who cannot move about normally during the day—would naturally draw too much attention.
When the researcher explains that “a PD has already been contacted,” Lee Seonghae smiles brightly.
/tn. PD is Producer-Director or Production Director, particularly in korean tv
“So we’re bringing back a dangerous darkness from the broadcasting station, right?”
“That’s correct!”
“Hmm, sounds good!”
If Daydream Inc. successfully isolates and secures that darkness, ordinary people will no longer be dragged into the dangerous urban legend.
Since the premise itself is, for once, something genuinely good, Lee Seonghae gladly welcomes the job.
Soon, the transport method for the “employee” is introduced.
“Alright, the employee will stay inside this. You two just carry it with you.”
As they watch the employee seemingly stored inside a black carrier like magic, the two Field Exploration Team members feel a strange sensation similar to what they experience in the darkness.
They are also given a communication device for emergencies.
A small radio.
“It’s connected to the Security Team staff in charge… well, just press it if an emergency situation occurs.”
The researcher laughs, saying that if they were rookies, this alone would make them nervous.
Then they conduct a quick test call.
Click.
[Hmm… can you hear me…?]
“Yes. Loud and clear!”
“Yep! This is Supervisor Pony from Team I,—and I’m Dolphin from Team B! Nice to meet you!”
Silence.
[…Team B?]
“Yes.”
[…I see.]
[Um… please carry it carefully… and don’t drop it.]
The man’s sleepy voice slowly explains how to contact the Security Team if something goes wrong.
And also how to communicate briefly with the “employee” inside the carrier.
[If it agrees… it’ll knock once. If it doesn’t… twice.]
“Oh, understood.”
Kang Yihak notices something.
Section Chief Kwak Jaekwang is watching Lee Seonghae speak with the Security Team over the radio while trying—and failing—to suppress a grin.
But that has nothing to do with me.
The moment Kang Yihak realizes there’s no smell of money in that conversation, she immediately turns her attention elsewhere.
To something that might smell like money.
The carrier holding the employee.
Dark. Black. Ominous. Even sitting alone on the floor, it radiates an eerie presence…
“Haha… then shall I carry it? This kind of thing should be done by the junior employee, right?”
How much would it be worth?
If she could somehow take this carrier somewhere else…
There’s supposedly a darkness somewhere in the annex building that returns gold equal to the weight of anything interesting offered to it. What would happen if she offered this carrier?
Kang Yihak slowly approaches it…
"......"
“......”
Dolphin—who has been watching her closely—finally speaks.
“Excuse me.”
“…Yes?”
“I’ll carry it.”
“…Yes!”
And so, Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae picks up the carrier.
It is cold and surprisingly light.
Even though dense darkness lies inside, she strokes the metal bars without hesitation and asks,
“Are you comfortable in there?”
Tap.
“That’s good!”
Humming happily, she carefully hugs the carrier to her chest.
Then she heads to the field with Pony.
To the broadcast station.
***
“Uh, um… excuse me… you’re the people the company introduced, right? From Dreamwalking?”
“Yes.”
They are guided through a staff-only entrance that had been arranged in advance, arriving at the variety program editing office.
A hollow-eyed PD waits for them alone in a secluded room inside, his expression anxious.
Believing the carefully constructed civilian identity that Daydream Inc. uses whenever supernatural matters must be handled in public, he takes a deep breath and speaks.
“I never thought I’d actually meet people who specialize in this kind of thing… Um, can you really perform exorcisms and things like that?”
“Of course.”
The two strange figures—wearing masks with formal suits—somehow inspire an equally strange sense of trust.
The PD calms down a little. But his face is still pale. He has clearly lost weight, and his expression is stiff with worry and fear.
And it isn’t just the PD. On the way here they passed the head writer, two assistant writers, and even the lighting director—none of them looked well either.
Something that everyone here clearly knows about.
“So… you heard the general story already, right? About what’s happening now…”
Lee Seonghae recalls something.
An internet post attached to the documents they reviewed earlier.
An eerie urban legend circulating among civilians.
[Has anyone seen this man on a PBS broadcast program? (Warning: image)]
===============================
Does anyone remember PBS?
Even kids still in school have probably heard of it.
It was an old broadcasting station from about twenty years ago. The channel is closed now.
Back in the day, a lot of popular variety shows aired on PBS—things like Sarangbang Sports Day, Family Goes Viral, Hot Talk Talk, Joyful Saturday Night, stuff like that.
===============================
Various images are attached.
Large colorful captions, low video quality, exaggerated audience reactions and sound effects.
Looking at them now, they feel a little outdated—but strangely nostalgic. Scenes from various variety shows from around the early 2000s.
There is one thing they all have in common.
Every single one of them has a large number of performers on screen.
===============================
You know those variety shows where a lot of people appear on screen?
The kind with tons of panelists, or special episodes with dozens of participants, or even hundreds of audience members reacting—captured either in sound or on camera.
They were really popular before observational variety shows and YouTube-style content started taking over. Apparently quite a few people still feel nostalgic about them. Of course, just as many people say they were messy and outdated… but either way, back then that format of variety show practically dominated television.
Anyway, there was something that quietly circulated among the PDs and editing room staff around that time.
Take a look at this.
(Photo)
===============================
It’s a screenshot taken from a video of people holding a sports festival inside a set designed like an old traditional living room.
“Sarangbang Sports Day.” One of the PBS variety shows mentioned earlier.
But the images don’t stop there.
More screenshots appear one after another, seemingly captured at random from different variety programs.
Family Goes Viral. Hot Talk Talk. Joyful Saturday Night.
And finally—
===============================
Did you notice it?
===============================
The images are shown again, this time with red circles drawn in the corners.
One person.
===============================
They’re all the same person.
===============================
A man with black eyes, staring toward the camera.
He’s wearing a hat and smiling—though without showing his teeth.
===============================
People say this man has been spotted in most of the variety shows broadcast on PBS—mixed in among the cast members, the audience, just standing somewhere in the crowd.
Apparently someone in the editing room noticed something strange while working on a broadcast and went back to check… and sure enough, he really was there.
Then when the staff started talking about it among themselves, they realized something.
This man only appears in Episode 6.
===============================
A caption appears beneath the photos.
===============================
More precisely, the rumor was that he only appeared in episodes whose numbers ended in 6.
Creepy, right?
But the broadcasting world has tons of ghost stories anyway. Sightings of spirits pop up all the time…
So it mostly stayed as gossip among industry staff, and when it got printed in some urban legend magazines back then, it spread a little among regular viewers too.
Realistically, the odds are low—but it’s still possible that the same guy just kept showing up as a panelist or audience member in different shows.
But then something strange happened.
===============================
A newspaper article is attached.
It reports an incident where a broadcast station power outage caused some program data to be lost.
===============================
Because of the blackout, there were problems saving the editing data for recorded footage. Apparently it affected documentaries and news programs too…
But the important part is this.
Among the lost files was the final edited version of Hot Talk Talk Episode 166.
In the end, Episode 166 was broadcast as a compilation of highlights from previous episodes instead.
And that’s when things started getting even stranger…
Because in every single highlight clip—
……
that man appeared.
Son of s bitch
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