I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

“Since this is a horror story, all kinds of strange things happen, but Boss, that anomalous phenomenon you found…… it really wasn’t a person, right?”

At Myeong Haebin’s questioning, I searched through my memories and held one hand at about the height of my thigh.

“It was a white shadow about this tall. It was a little too tall to be a shoe. That’s why I thought it was an anomalous phenomenon.”

“Couldn’t it have been the ‘white dog’?”

“White dog?”

Myeong Haebin nodded, saying that was probably what it had been.

“Yes. It’s pretty famous in our company. Sometimes, while we’re working, a white dog appears, and they say that if you trust it, you end up paying the price.”

Was that so?

Still, what she said fit what had happened quite well.

We had believed it was an anomalous phenomenon and marked it as one, causing the water-level gauge to rise.

“We’ll have to be even more careful from now on.”

“When this fills up completely…… you said we don’t know what happens, right?”

“If we knew, we would’ve gotten out of here already!”

The park in front of us didn’t seem to have changed any further.

The overgrown vegetation and thick fog were still there.

“Then something else must have changed. Like when it reached ‘High.’ Most likely, it’s the anomalous phenomena.”

It was only a guess.

Though, generally speaking, guesses were made to be wrong.

We passed through the exercise area, and as we approached the pond, Myeong Haebin spoke.

“Uh, um…… I’m not the only one thinking this, right?”

Myeong Haebin’s sudden voice made Park Hyeonho, who was completely on edge, flinch.

“You scared me. What is it?”

“Not a single anomalous phenomenon has appeared! Ugh, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. What’s going on?”

The anomalous phenomena that had constantly tripped us up and harassed us had completely disappeared.

[Responsible Environmental Guardians Campaign]

(Let’s keep our park clean)

(By the time you regret the trash you threw away yesterday, it’ll already be too late)

Even the temporary booth that had previously been wrecked had returned to normal.

As though everything had gone back to the beginning.

And then……

“Wow.”

A small sound of admiration escaped Park Hyeonho’s lips as he pushed aside a leafy branch.

The perfectly still pond gleamed as it reflected the intense moonlight.

Not a single piece of trash remained around it. Even the thick fog had vanished, leaving the view so clear that it almost felt as though our eyesight had suddenly improved.

“The water is incredibly clean.”

“……Yeah. It was shallower than I thought.”

The water was so crystal clear that we could see the bottom perfectly.

There were no trash fish. There wasn’t even a single fallen leaf or branch.

It looked like a perfectly clean, exceptionally well-maintained pond.

“Then maybe this water is safe to drink……”

I grabbed Park Hyeonho before that dangerous hope could lead him to do something stupid.

“Of course not.”

“O-of course…… right?”

Park Hyeonho moistened his dry, cracked lips before awkwardly backing away from the pond.

“It’s better not to do anything dangerous unless we have to.”

“I agree with Boss. Come on, come on. Don’t look so disappointed and let’s go.”

Park Hyeonho kept looking back, apparently unable to completely give up on the idea, but we dragged him along with us as we crossed the stepping stones over the pond.

“The shop is still closed, and really, not a single anomalous phenomenon appeared?”

“Yes! I checked several times.”

Now that we had nearly completed another lap, the anomalous phenomena of Chodam Park seemed to have completely vanished.

Aside from the vegetation and the fog, the place seemed even cleaner and safer than when we had first entered.

It was the first time.

The first time there hadn’t been a single anomalous phenomenon in this park.

During the first lap, there hadn’t been any fork in the path, and from the second lap onward, the temporary booth had never stopped causing us trouble.

‘Can we get out?’

The exit is located at the West Gate.

Could we finally leave through the West Gate?

Although we hadn’t actually solved anything, the mere possibility of no longer wandering through the damned fog of that park was enough to raise my hopes.

“Haebin, this time we’re going through the West Gate.”

“Finally! Really?!”

Myeong Haebin, who had to be just as exhausted as I was, jumped for joy.

“What happens if we leave through the West Gate?”

“We can go home……”

Slowly, as though a camera were adjusting its focus, something behind Park Hyeonho began to come into view.

[East Gate of Chodam Park]

Letters carved into the uneven surface of a rock and traced over with paint.

Those six syllables I had seen over and over again until I was sick of them.

“What’s wrong?”

Park Hyeonho followed my rigid gaze, turned around, and his words stopped.

I shoved him aside and approached the rock, running my fingertips over it.

No matter how many times I looked at it again.

It was the same stone marker.

Something inside me collapsed.

“No. No, this can’t be.”

When had we come back?

No.

We hadn’t even seen the fork.

How far had we walked since passing the shop?

“Did we walk past it without noticing because of the fog? No, maybe it was before the shop.”

“Boss, no. Boss, look at me.”

“We went the wrong way and came back to the beginning. Haebin, it was my fault. I made a mistake.”

I felt like I was losing my mind.

I didn’t know whether they were hallucinations caused by exhaustion and dehydration, or whether I had simply gone insane.

I could only think of one thing.

This situation was the worst.

The worst.

I’m telling you, it was the worst.

I wanted to scream.

Myeong Haebin grabbed both my shoulders tightly and forced me to turn around.

“Boss! Look at me!”

“……Huh?”

I couldn’t catch my breath.

On my knees, looking up at Myeong Haebin, I panted as though I had just sprinted at full speed.

“It wasn’t your fault, Boss. None of us saw the fork.”

Apparently, I had momentarily panicked.

“It must be another trick of this park. You said it yourself, Boss. Something else must have changed.”

“Yeah. To be honest, I didn’t even have h-hopes.”

Park Hyeonho took a candy from the bag hanging from his wrist and, instead, put it directly into my mouth.

“I know you’re thirsty, but this is the only thing I can do for you.”

It wasn’t that stale sweetness steeped in exhaustion that had lingered in my mouth for so long.

The sweet flavor, mixed with the aroma of butter and coffee, cleared my dulled mind a little.

‘Can we really not get out unless we use the method the shop owner told us about?’

I took my hand off the rock engraved with the park’s name and bit down on the soft candy with my molars.

“Thanks. Let’s get moving again.”

“Yes! For starters, the anomalous phenomena are gone now, right? Let’s think of it as us having taken at least one step forward!”

But what if that step forward led us straight to the edge of a cliff?

We returned.

And returned again.

Walking endlessly.

Our clothes clinging completely to our bodies from sweat and humidity.

Our lips cracking more and more.

In that peaceful, pleasant park, where all the anomalous phenomena had disappeared, we were drying out until we died.

And the only oasis a human being on the verge of extreme dehydration could find in that park was……

Plop.

On the stepping stones of the pond, now covered in ankle-deep water, Park Hyeonho collapsed.

“Hyeonho.”

“……but……”

He was muttering something.

I couldn’t hear him clearly, so I had to lean closer.

“There’s water everywhere. It makes no sense that we can’t drink even a single sip.”

“It’s dangerous.”

My voice was hoarse, as though even my vocal cords had dried out.

Park Hyeonho looked at me with unfocused eyes.

“Use me as a guinea pig. Maybe nothing will happen this time. Look at this. It’s completely clean.”

Park Hyeonho’s hand sank into the pond.

Every time he moved it, small ripples spread across the surface.

It looked painfully refreshing.

It was a temptation.

A temptation that posed no risk to me.

My head lowered for a moment before I raised it again.

“Thank you. Really. I sincerely appreciate it.”

As though he could no longer endure it, Park Hyeonho plunged his head into the water.

Without caring that his black hair floated and swayed like seaweed, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down again and again as he swallowed the water.

Bzzz―.

The vibration of the phone in my pocket almost seemed like a hallucination.

The rules section had been updated.

[Completion Condition: Clean the horror story, Chodam Park■ ■■.]

The exit is located at the West Gate.
If an anomalous phenomenon is discovered, you must use the East Gate. If none are discovered, you must use the West Gate.
If you arrive at the East Gate, return to point 1.
No change occurs without a cause.

The fourth rule.

‘…….’

It was obvious.

No change occurs without a cause.

The shop closed because we had bought its products.

The duck came onto land because the pond had changed.

Then what did I have to do to keep moving forward?

What change had to occur?

I already knew the answer.

I had already heard it.

Throw trash into the perfect pond.

“Are you trash?”

“What?”

The instant Myeong Haebin asked that……

Crack.

Beneath the surface came the sound of bones, flesh, and everything inside being crushed, while the pond, crystal clear until then, turned red with blood.

Park Hyeonho’s body, his head still submerged in the water, began to thrash.

“Ugh, hel……! Puh!”

His half-submerged lips bubbled as he tried to say something, but something beneath the water dragged his entire body away.

“B-Boss. What is that?”

The long green silhouette that had bitten Park Hyeonho’s head was obscured by splashes, blood, and ripples, making it impossible to see clearly.

In an instant, Park Hyeonho’s body was dragged to the center of the pond and hurled upward.

“Puh, help me……! Aaaagh!”

Splash―!

Along with an enormous explosion of water, the monster’s jaws burst above the surface, bit down on Park Hyeonho’s limbs, and began shaking him violently.

It looked like a gigantic axolotl soaked in radiation.

Its four legs, made of fishing lines, plastic bottles, and bags tangled together, were all different sizes and lengths.

Its teeth were even worse they looked like thick aluminum cans brutally cut apart and embedded in several rows.

Splash.

The monster caught Park Hyeonho and violently dragged him back beneath the pond.

Every alarm in my mind went off.

But my body had already thrown itself into the water.

The pond was deeper than it looked, and the water came up to my shoulders.

Without hesitating, I pushed through the water toward the place where he and the monster had disappeared.

“Hyeonho! Park Hyeonho!”

Blub, glub……

Instead of an answer, the bubbles rising to the surface abruptly stopped.

I expected to find a horrific scene, pieces of flesh and fragments of bone floating everywhere.

But everything fell silent.

As though neither Park Hyeonho nor the monster had ever existed.

“Hyeonho! Can you hear me?!”

No matter how much I shouted.

Even when I desperately splashed my way to the place where his last bubbles had appeared, I couldn’t find him.

I stared at the absurdly crystal-clear surface.

“Boss, no!”

Myeong Haebin must have realized what I was about to do.

But both my hands were already scooping up as much pond water as they could hold.

Gulp.

The water, so cold that it made my head ache, ran down my throat.

I had done the same thing as Park Hyeonho.

I had entered the pond.

I had drunk its water.

But the pond remained completely still.

“Why?! Why the hell?!”

I slammed my fist against the surface, and all I accomplished was sending up a huge splash of water.

“Puh, Boss, get out. Come over here.”

In the end, Myeong Haebin had to enter the pond as well, grab me by the arm, and practically drag me back onto dry land by force.

Even then, the monster didn’t appear again.

“Cough, cough……”

My body was so exhausted that I couldn’t even stay on my feet.

I practically had to crawl on all fours across the ground.

There was a warning sign in front of me.

No fishing: instead of a worm, a human face was hooked onto the fishing hook.

No littering: a figure appeared to be scattering trash.

Why was fishing prohibited?

Because it meant something resembling a fish lived in the water.

Why did the no-littering symbol specifically show trash being scattered?

Because it was food for the fish living there.

The thoughts that had been circling around without fitting together finally fell into place.

“That monster ate all the trash in the pond.”

A dry laugh escaped me like an uncontrollable cough.

“Haha.”

Had I really failed to notice anything?

That was impossible.

“I did something stupid……”

I knew.

I knew the ‘trash’ the shop owner had spoken of was a person.

I knew something lived inside that pond.

I knew Park Hyeonho could be that trash.

And even so, out of pure selfishness, I waited until Park Hyeonho touched the pond.

Only afterward did I try to justify my passivity by doing something that stupid.

“Are you okay?”

“I said myself that I wouldn’t be human if I abandoned him after promising we’d go eat together. I knew. I knew, you fucking idiot……”

I didn’t want to let Park Hyeonho die.

That was why I had kept going around and around that loop, pretending not to know anything while desperately searching for another way out.

That’s what they call conflicting feelings.

It was abandonment too.

It was also a way of pushing him into doing it.

Waiting until Park Hyeonho could no longer endure his thirst and entered the pond of his own free will.

I was the worst trash of all.

Guilt churned my stomach as though it were turning it inside out.

I wanted to vomit up all the water I had just drunk.

I couldn’t breathe properly.

My vision began to darken.

It hurt as though someone had grabbed my heart and was squeezing it tightly.

“Gasp……. Ugh.”

The app sent a notification.

[ ] Notification
! Get rid of two civilians. (Completed)
Reward: New Function Update

[New function update completed: Waste Separation.]

I couldn’t even focus on the words.

I wanted to grab the phone and throw it into the pond.

But another notification appeared.

[We have a suggestion.]

An introduction that felt strangely familiar.

[Would you like to separate and dispose of your feeling of guilt?]

[Y] [N]

This selfish son of a bitch, who didn’t even deserve to be called human, pressed [Y].