I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

“Team Leader Jo!”

“Hanmu, calm down. Even if it’s hard to believe…….”

Jeong Dohan held me tightly when it looked like I was about to lunge at Team Leader Jo and hit him.

“Dohan. Didn’t you just see that? Team Leader Jo threw Seo Gitae……!”

“He saved him. So calm down.”

“What part of that looked like……?”

“I guess a rookie is still a rookie.”

While I stood there with my head full of question marks, Team Leader Jo lit another cigarette.

“Tsk. The last one.”

“Hanmu, that’s a rescue item from our company.”

“Something like that existed? Then, Dohyeon, do you have one too―?”

“We don’t.”

“To buy one of those, you have to hand over no less than two stickers. It’s not worth it at all, so practically nobody buys them. That Team Leader carries one because he values his own life tremendously.”

Then……

Had I heard that correctly?

“Are you saying we can buy company items using stickers?”

“Looks like the rookie has hearing problems too. How many times are you going to make your superiors explain things to you?”

If that bastard weren’t already half-dead, I……

However, it made sense.

To get even a single sticker, you had to spend two weeks risking your life to rank first in performance, so spending two just to escape halfway through a mission could be considered a waste.

Team Leader Jo looked at the door through which he had thrown Seo Gitae and exhaled a puff of whitish smoke.

Jeong Dohan, who was also watching him, asked.

“Aren’t you leaving, Team Leader? The door will close soon.”

“I’ve already suffered enough losses. Now you want me to hand over even my guts to them too?”

I couldn’t tell whether he was greedy or not.

Had he saved Seo Gitae because, after all, Seo Gitae was a member of his team?

Or because he wanted to keep all the performance credit for himself?

‘Either way, only one person can receive the sticker, so maybe he doesn’t care if his teammate escapes early.’

Even so, it was still a loss for him.

“A promise is a promise. Take it.”

Team Leader Jo pulled the stack of documents out of his clothes and tossed it to us.

[Manual for Human Exhibition: On the Infinity of the Human Body]

The document began with (Exhibition Hall 1, Reinterpretation of Parts) and detailed the characteristics and threats of each work.

About the Audio Guide

A device available at the ticket booth before entering the exhibition. It is the highest-priority survival item within this Horror Story.

By scanning the QR codes engraved on the floor, it provides crucial clues for surviving the works.

Entering the area of a work without an audio guide drastically reduces the chances of survival due to the lack of information. Before entering, each team must make sure to obtain at least one device.

About the Docent

An administrator anomaly dressed in a suit whose face is composed solely of a membrane.

Generally, he remains in a neutral state and does not attack first. It is possible to hear a paid guide by giving him the body part he requests, but if an audio guide is available, there is no need to ask the docent for help.

[Special Information] If you clearly tell the docent, “I want to become an employee in charge of managing the works,” he will immediately provide a [STAFF] ID badge.

Those who possess this badge may use the (Employee-Only Corridor) marked [STAFF ONLY].

For detailed information on its use and restrictions, refer to the (Employee-Only Corridor) section described later.

About [Ten Thousand Left Hands]

A work composed of countless hands suspended from the ceiling. When a visitor enters its area, a thin wire wraps around their left wrist and attempts to cut it off.

If an attempt is made to directly cut the work’s wire, the trigger that turns the docent hostile will activate, so the work must never be confronted physically.

However, if the left hand has an injury, the work will determine that it lacks artistic value and exclude it from its collection targets.

…
…

The more pages I turned, the more impressed I became by how extraordinarily detailed the analysis was.

“It’s incredibly well organized.”

Perhaps that was only natural when it came to surviving a Horror Story.

The same was true of the section (Exhibition Hall 2, The Human Body Turned into a Tool).

It was packed with detailed instructions for each of the works.

And then we reached the pages corresponding to Exhibition Hall 3, where we were now.

(Exhibition Hall 3, The Beauty of the Perfect Human).

About the Exhibition Hall

All platforms in Exhibition Hall 3 are empty, and if you have managed to make it this far, it is possible to escape using the exit.

At the center is an enormous colony formed from assembled human parts, but it is missing one finger. Therefore, it is estimated to be incomplete―

I couldn’t keep reading.

The page had been torn out.

So that was why he had pretended to calmly keep his promise and handed us the manual?

“Looks like the most important part is precisely what’s missing.”

“It became useless.”

“What do you mean?”

While we were reading the manual, Team Leader Jo finished smoking his cigarette and extinguished it against the floor.

“Exactly what you heard. Even I don’t know how this exhibition hall works.”

“This manual says it’s possible to escape using the exit. You don’t know anything about that either?”

“If I could’ve escaped, do you think I’d still be sitting here?”

At that moment, just as Team Leader Jo clicked his tongue and gave me a look bordering on contempt……

An enormous shadow fell over our heads.

“Dodge!”

I shouted reflexively and jumped backward, nearly falling in the process.

BANG!

An enormous black figure landed between Team Leader Jo and me.

That completely black silhouette, incapable of reflecting even light, was far too familiar to me.

Ears, ears, and more ears gathered together to form an ear.

Mouths, mouths, and more mouths gathered together to form a mouth.

Arms, arms, and more arms gathered together to form an arm.

Legs, legs, and more legs gathered together to form……

A single combined entity.

A single work.

That thing opened its mouth wide.

“Hello.”

Its voice was hoarse and broken, as though there were something wrong with its vocal cords, but it had definitely just spoken a human word.

A chill ran all the way down my spine.

Jeong Dohan shouted.

“Split up!”

As though that had been the starting signal, my legs began moving before I did.

“What, exhibition, human.”

It was an incoherent sentence, as though that creature composed of human fragments were simply repeating words it had heard.

‘It’s creepy as hell watching it try to imitate human language!’

The enormous mass of arms swept over my head with a Whoosh.

BANG!

Instead of striking me directly in the head, it slammed into a column, but the hands didn’t come away unscathed either.

The entire space shook, and fragments of the column began falling.

‘What bullshit about tearing off our limbs! If that hits us directly, it’ll kill us!’

It seemed that all the colonies that had been wandering around Exhibition Hall 3 had combined to form that single main work, because the entire hall had become completely silent.

But that was enough.

“Haah, haah…….”

The wall rising in front of me blocked my path.

The door marked [EXIT] seemed to have a warped frame, and no matter how hard I pulled on it, not only did it refuse to open, it didn’t even move.

This place was an enormous cage.

A prison.

Then someone arrived a little after me.

It was Team Leader Jo.

“Don’t waste your time. It won’t open anyway. You saw what happened to Gitae, didn’t you?”

No wonder the floor was covered in blood.

Was this where Seo Gitae had been caught by the anomaly?

Just imagining being surrounded in this place, with a wall completely blocking his back, sent chills through me.

But the fact that Team Leader Jo had come all the way here might have meant that, deep down, he had also hoped the door would be open.

Team Leader Jo let out a hollow laugh and leaned his back against the wall.

“To think I have to see that thing again. I should’ve just died quietly.”

“Again?”

“Yes. Didn’t you read the manual? It should be written there.”

Now that he mentioned it, yes.

It was written there.

At the center of Exhibition Hall 3, there was an incomplete colony on display. And since the manual said it was possible to escape, that meant that originally, that thing hadn’t been roaming around out of control like this.

Thud, thud, thud.

From the darkness in the distance, the footsteps of the work began approaching.

“Let’s go to the central exhibition platform.”

I already knew how to escape this Horror Story.

How to make it disappear.

[Completion Condition: Exhibit a work in Exhibition Hall 3.]

But there weren’t any works in this hall……

It felt as though something had just struck me in the head when I realized it.

“……Don’t tell me that huge thing is what we have to return to the exhibition platform.”

Team Leader Jo didn’t miss the murmur that had involuntarily escaped my lips.

“You’re quick to catch on. How did you know?”

“You already knew?!”

“I’m not sure. I’m only guessing that maybe it’ll stop if it returns to its original place. And besides…….”

Just as Team Leader Jo was about to continue, a commotion accompanied by shouting came from the distance.

“Bastard! Where the hell did you come from?!”

“Hyung! This way!”

It seemed the main work had switched targets midway and was now chasing the twins.

Thanks to that, we managed to reach it.

The central exhibition platform, a completely white disk beneath a single beam of light descending from above.

Although it was split in half.

“I knew it. I was wondering why there were unactivated dismantling markers stuck to the platform.”

Earlier, I hadn’t had time to think about it carefully because we had only come to retrieve the whistle, but that broken platform clearly showed signs that someone had tried to repair it.

They were useless dismantling markers, without even the pattern indicating activation appearing on them.

It seemed they had tried to take advantage of having an unlimited quantity by sticking them on like adhesive tape, but obviously, it hadn’t worked.

‘What’s that?’

There seemed to be something hidden beneath the markers, so I began mercilessly tearing off those useless dismantling markers.

When I finished removing all those haphazardly placed markers, a word that had been hidden underneath was revealed.

[The Dead]

“What does The Dead mean?”

“I guess it’s probably the name of this work.”

It couldn’t be referring to a lion.

Maybe it meant something like an emissary of death?

No.

In this context, it made more sense to interpret it as.

A dead person.

“The Dead.”

“What do you think, cleaner? Can you figure out what it’ll take now?”

“It’s a mess.”

The fact that the platform was broken wasn’t really the biggest problem.

After all, it had split almost perfectly in half.

But……

There was a fist-sized hole in the platform.

A fragment corresponding to the central area was missing, large enough that it would be impossible to ignore even if we managed to perfectly join the two halves.

“What happened to this fragment?”

“A piece that went flying when The Dead awakened. It must be somewhere in this hall.”

“No. That’s not it.”

I rummaged through my bag.

I had put it somewhere.

The object I had extracted with my own hands……

Clack.

A fist-sized piece of marble.

The stone I had extracted from the dying face in [Wall of Faces] fit perfectly into the hole in the central exhibition platform.

“Where did you find that……?”

“In Exhibition Hall 1.”

“What? But that……. How did it get there?”

That was exactly what I wanted to know.

Why had a fragment belonging to Exhibition Hall 3 ended up in Exhibition Hall 1?

The docent had said the following.

“The face of Min Siyoung, age 24.”

“Do you know Min Siyoung?”

Team Leader Jo’s eyes, which had shown practically no emotion until that moment, visibly trembled.

“He’s the rookie on our team. How do you know who he is? Did you see him?”

Bang, Thud, Booom!

Judging by the noise, [The Dead], which had gone after the twins, was still violently pursuing them.

We didn’t have time.

If we delayed and the twins ended up getting caught……

No.

If that thing targeted us again, we would be in serious trouble.

“We don’t have time. I’ll repair the platform first.”

“How? Dismantling markers are useless for joining it together. That thing would only have to put one foot on it to break it again.”

“Who said I planned to repair it with something that useless?”

Clatter.

I opened my cleaning tool bag.

Instant glue?

Cleaners don’t carry things like that.

Adhesive tape?

How would that be any different from the dismantling markers?

To begin with, I didn’t even have any.

But I did have silicone sealant for repairs.

It came in a small tube that fit perfectly in one hand.

“You…… that……”

“Can’t you tell what it is just by looking at it? It’s for repairs.”

“You’re planning to glue marble together with silicone here?”

What was so strange about that?

When removing mold and ingrained grime during a job, sometimes you ended up damaging the silicone or the joints.

This was precisely for repairing them.

And the fact that it was marble was actually an advantage.

Silicone was commonly used on tiles and floors, so it was perfect for this.

“It’s better than many adhesives. More importantly, tell Dohan not to come this way.”

“A mere cleaner intends to give orders to a Team Leader?”

“Yes. Unless you’d rather we all die together.”

Instead of waiting for his answer, I forced the crack in the platform, which they had tried to join together so poorly, a little farther apart.

Then I began carefully removing all the dust and stone debris accumulated between the broken surfaces.

After all, properly cleaning the surface before applying silicone was essential.

“You, damn……!”

Team Leader Jo seemed incapable of accepting that someone was giving him orders, but he had no other choice.

After already losing an arm, if that thing attacked him again, his chances of surviving would be minimal.

“If you haven’t managed to stick it together properly by the time I get back, I’ll kill you. You hear me?”

“Do whatever you want.”

Team Leader Jo glared at me with a look that seemed to say that if it were possible to kill someone with his eyes alone, he would gladly do it.

Then he ran off in the direction of the sounds.

Good.

Then I’d better get to work.