I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

I gritted my teeth.

I had no idea what kind of object that bracelet was, so I braced myself for whatever effect it might have on me.

However, to my surprise, I didn’t feel anything strange at all. No sudden impulses, no involuntary movements of my body, no pain anywhere. Nothing.

“Haebin, are you okay?”

“Uh. Yeah. I don’t feel anything weird.”

Myeong Haebin didn’t seem to notice any changes either and turned toward me with a puzzled expression.

“What is this bracelet?”

“It is an eco-friendly bracelet that we give to those who love the environment of Chodam Park. It is made from biodegradable plastic and…”

No, that wasn’t what I wanted to know.

Judging by the way it answered something completely different from my question, it didn’t seem like it intended to explain what the bracelet actually did.

The strangest thing was that, despite having forced them onto us, we could take them off if we wanted to.

However, the paranormal creature’s words made me uneasy, so I decided not to.

“……And what are these?”

Instead, I pointed at the white plastic bags that had been on display in the booth this entire time and the metal tongs placed beside them.

“It is another campaign we are conducting to restore the environment of Chodam Park. If you fill one of these bags with trash and bring it back, you will receive a Responsible Environmental Guardian bracelet.”

“Is participation mandatory?”

“You two already love the environment, but we recommend participating. After all, it is something we do for everyone’s sake.”

Who the hell would do that?

“No, thank you.”

“Thank you for participating in the campaign. Have a day dedicated to caring for the environment.”

The paranormal creature gave a flawless bow and, as though it had nothing more to say to us, remained motionless in place as if it had taken root in the ground.

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a paranormal creature dedicated to protecting the environment.”

“Yeah. We stopped for nothing and ended up losing all our equipment.”

My equipment.

The more I thought about it, the more unfair it felt.

I felt as though I had been stripped naked.

How was I supposed to clean the park now?

I quickly searched through my pockets.

What a relief.

At least I still had my phone.

“Haebin, do you have anything left?”

“Ta-da! Since I saw that paranormal creature looking at my bag, I took this out just in case.”

“……That’s all?”

What Myeong Haebin proudly showed me was a 500 ml bottle of water.

And what the hell were we supposed to do with that?

“Then what about you, Boss?! You don’t have anything left at all!”

“Yeah, sorry.”

I had to admit she was quicker than me.

Sometimes she seemed absentminded, but at times like this, she could be surprisingly perceptive.

“What about your pockets?”

“I only have some snacks. If I’d known this was going to happen, I would’ve stuffed more things in there!”

That meant Myeong Haebin was practically empty-handed too.

“Haa…… Fine. Let’s keep going.”

I let out a deep sigh and walked past the booth, which I didn’t even want to look at again.

As we continued along the path, the pond drew closer and closer.

“Does the path…… end here?”

The dirt path came to an end.

In its place, there were only stepping stones crossing the pond on the left, right through the section corresponding to the head of that snowman-shaped pond.

And there was an especially large amount of trash around that part of the pond.

“Now I understand why they keep talking so much about protecting the environment. Why did they throw away so much trash?”

“Be careful not to fall.”

There were crumpled receipts, empty bottles, and even pieces of rotten bread, but since we no longer had any equipment to clean with, we decided to ignore them for the time being.

Then I saw a sign beside the pond.

“Haebin, look at this.”

Was that…… a bird?

Once again, there were no words written on the sign, only four drawings.

In one of them, what appeared to be a bird with its wings fully spread was being given some kind of powder or food from above, and a red prohibition symbol had been placed over the image.

“It looks like feeding the birds is prohibited.”

“I don’t see any birds, but if they put up this sign, I guess that means there are some around here, right?”

“The others seem to be…… no feeding the fish, no fishing, and no littering. What strange drawings.”

The fish drawn on the sign had arms.

The bait stuck on the hook had a human face.

And in the image prohibiting littering, instead of throwing away an entire bag, it looked as though someone was scattering its contents everywhere.

“Should we cross?”

“Be careful.”

“It’s fine. They don’t even move!”

The stones were large and fairly close together, so crossing them wasn’t particularly difficult.

‘The water-level indicator we saw at the entrance must be referring to this pond.’

Stagnant water.

Moss-covered stones on the bottom.

Not a single fish.

And in the distance, fallen leaves, branches, and plastic bags floated on the surface.

‘There aren’t any other anomalies.’

Maybe it wasn’t referring to this pond.

Having found nothing, we returned to solid ground and continued along the path.

To our right was an almost square container.

The square shown on the map probably represented that container.

“I don’t know. There are empty shelves and bars too…… Could something be living inside?”

We approached the bars of the container.

Behind that structure, which looked as though it had been made by welding square frames together, was a closed window. We couldn’t see inside because the glass was completely covered with adhesive film.

“It looks like it might be empty too.”

“We’re not going to break anything to get inside, right?”

“I’m not Team Leader Yong.”

When something looked dangerous at first glance, it was best not to touch it.

We turned our backs on the container and decided to continue along the path.

‘The exit was the West Gate.’

According to the map, we should have been close to the place where there was another sign.

I continued walking with that thought in mind.

I clenched my empty hands and moved forward step by step, keeping all my senses alert for any anomalies around us.

However, at some point, I found myself once again standing in front of a huge rock with engraved and painted letters, beside a metal sign swaying in the wind.

[The current level of our pond is]

[Dry]…[Insufficient]…[Average]…[High]…[Abundant]…[Perfect]

The starting point.

[Chodam Park — Gomyut]

A place very similar to the previous one.

The metal map swayed in the wind.

When I turned around, I saw a huge paved road stretching out behind us.

Then how had we ended up back here?

“Did we see any exits on the way here?”

“No. We followed a single path the whole time. No, Boss, you saw it too, didn’t you?”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking.”

Besides, this place had been the East Gate before.

Not Gomyut.

The atmosphere of the park, which had seemed peaceful until then, changed completely.

“……Even the sun has set.”

When we entered this place, the bright midday sun had been overhead.

It had still been there just a moment ago.

But now, as if it had never existed, a moon floated in a dark blue sky.

“Could something have bewitched us?”

“Do you want me to slap you?”

“I can do it myself.”

Slap.

I struck my cheek with my palm to regain my sense of reality.

The stinging sensation immediately spread across my face, but since my mind didn’t become any clearer in any particular way, it meant I was already perfectly conscious.

“Fine. Then let’s try again.”

The only thing that had changed was that day had turned into night.

The inside of the park remained exactly the same.

The map, the location and number of benches, even the shape of the streetlights.

We carefully retraced the path we had already taken until we finally found a difference.

“The paranormal creature that was here…… where did it go?”

The environmental campaign booth had deteriorated so badly that it looked as though it was about to fall apart.

“Only the bags and tongs are still intact. Everything else is wrecked.”

The banner on the booth that had previously proclaimed the importance of protecting the environment with such enthusiasm was faded and covered in stains, to the point that the words could barely be made out.

“The bracelets are still the same. Is there nothing underneath either?”

“Yeah. It’s completely empty.”

Aside from the disappearance of the attendant and the deterioration of the booth, the park hadn’t changed.

I stared at it for a while, then took a couple of folded plastic bags and slipped them into my back pocket.

‘The trash is in exactly the same places too. And the signs are the same as the ones we saw before.’

As I checked each detail one by one, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were going through the same space over and over again.

With that unpleasant feeling still lingering, I stopped halfway across the stepping stones.

“Haebin, were these stones always this far apart?”

The difference was minimal.

Barely the width of four fingers.

Instead of merely wondering about it, Myeong Haebin began counting the stones one by one and confirmed that I wasn’t imagining things.

“One, two, three…… Ah, you’re right. There’s one less now.”

“Could this also be considered an anomalous phenomenon?”

“Strictly speaking, yes. Though it could also just be a change in the park. Like what happened with the booth.”

A path of stepping stones that was still perfectly safe to cross.

Even after reaching the other side without any trouble, I couldn’t help looking back several times.

“It’s too insignificant a change…….”

It hadn’t been long since I thought that when we encountered a change that was anything but insignificant.

Outside the small, almost square container, there was now a refrigerator and several shelves completely stocked with products.

The refrigerator, which I didn’t even know had electricity, was packed with bottles of water, soft drinks, and sports drinks.

The shelves held bread, snacks, chocolates, and other products.

“Is this some kind of store?”

That was what I thought because the way the products were arranged didn’t look like they were simply someone’s belongings.

“The window’s open! Let’s ask the owner!”

Myeong Haebin said it cheerfully, as if she had completely lost any sense of caution or fear.

But I, unable to take my eyes off that window, shook my head.

“No.”

The inside of the container was dark, as though it didn’t have a single light bulb.

Between those metal bars covered in reddish rust stains, something moved.

Blink.

“Do we really need a store?”

I saw it.

I saw that eye filled with burst blood vessels, with only an intense red light shining from it.

“……Let’s not touch anything.”

I slowly backed away, step by step.

That gaze vanished as though it had never been watching me.

“What did you see?”

“Something inside the container.”

It was probably the owner of that so-called store.

We didn’t need a store right now.

There wasn’t any rule related to it either, and we had no reason to get ourselves into unnecessary trouble.

“Then let’s keep going.”

I wiped the sweat from my hands on my pants, and we continued along the path that, once again, seemed unchanged.

Would we end up back at the beginning again?

More importantly, where were we supposed to find the distinction between using Gomyut or the West Gate?

However, this time a fork in the road appeared.

There was a signpost pointing toward the destinations in each direction.

(West Gate | Gomyut)

“So we didn’t even need to think that hard about it?”

I hadn’t expected it to appear in such an obvious way.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s nothing.”

The dirt path leading toward the ‘West Gate’ didn’t have a single streetlight and was covered in a strange darkness.

It was as though the space had been cleanly cut off, and absolutely nothing could be seen beyond that boundary.

“Which way should we go? Our destination is the West Gate, but that path looks way too dangerous.”

“Let’s take the illuminated path.”

I was glad we had found the West Gate, but we had to head toward ‘Gomyut’.

We had already seen far too many strange things.

The moon that had suddenly appeared, the booth, the stones, the store.

How many anomalous phenomena had we encountered already?

So we took the path leading toward ‘Gomyut’.

Under the yellowish light of a streetlamp stood a wooden mailbox shaped like a birdhouse.

“Oh, something that wasn’t here before appeared. ‘Citizen Suggestion Box’?”

On a small board protruding in front of the little house was a postcard.

[Mark the aspects of Chodam Park that you found unsatisfactory.]

The postcard showed the same map we had seen at the entrance.

They had even thoughtfully provided a pen attached by a spring.

“The booth, the stones, and the store. Was there anything else?”

“You mean the anomalous phenomena, right?”

Myeong Haebin narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember something, but apparently nothing else came to mind, and she shook her head.

“I think that’s enough.”

“Okay.”

I put the postcard into the mailbox, but I didn’t hear any sound of it falling.

And then we returned once again.

[Chodam Park — Gomyut]

To the starting point.

Bzzz—

I pulled my phone out of my pocket when I felt a faint vibration.

The third rule, which had remained hidden until then, had been revealed.

[3. If you have arrived at Gomyut, return to Point 1.]

Thanks for making that perfectly clear.

And what I had realized was……

“Haebin, have you ever heard of loops?”

We were trapped in a loop.

“Boss, you know about that kind of thing too. I was just thinking the same thing.”

A loop.

Like a ring with its ends connected, repeating endlessly.

The trash that had disappeared reappeared, and the path we had already traveled returned before us once again.

“You said this place was small.”

“I didn’t know it was a loop. But there must be some way out.”

“Are you sure?”

“More or less.”

Myeong Haebin shrugged calmly.

“From what I’ve heard, horror stories have a tendency to keep growing, become more dangerous, or try to escape outside. Whether through an actual exit or some other method.”

“And what does that have to do with us being able to get out?”

“If a horror story wants to escape, what does it need?”

“An exit.”

“Exactly. Well…… very occasionally, there are some that don’t have one at all, but I’m sure this one does.”

The phrase ‘very occasionally’ worried me a lot, but I had the application.

Something that intended to make me work for 999 years wasn’t going to let me rot here forever.

Besides, there was something that had clearly changed in that seemingly unchanging park.

[The current level of our pond is]

[Dry]…[Insufficient]…[Average]…[High]…[Abundant]…[Perfect]

The water-level indicator, which until then had always remained at the lowest level, had risen by one position.

[Insufficient]

“Should we interpret that as meaning we’ve made progress?”

“I’d put an 80% chance on it meaning we did something wrong.”

Beside the map, which was still creaking in the wind, a white sheet of paper had appeared, held in place by nothing more than a piece of tape.

It fluttered with every gust, as though it were about to come loose.

[Notice]

The store located within the park is an authorized facility and is not subject to inspection.

To ensure the proper operation of the park, please refrain from filing unnecessary complaints.

※ This notice is intended to prevent accidents.

— Chodam Park —