I was about to make some excuse like, ‘Wow, how eerie! Well, I’ll be on my way…,’ when—

“Anyway, looks like this situation is a bit unfortunate for you, huh?”

Me?

“Hey, hey, don’t say that much!”

“Come on, it’s true, isn’t it? You’re the one waiting for the evaluation on a manual revision, right?”

Yes.

“Well, if it’s that missing section chief’s evaluation, it’s going to be tough to get it approved without him.”

……?!

What do you mean…?

“That section chief was close with A-squad. You know, like… ‘on the same line’.”

“……!!”

Line.

The foundation of office politics: people’s allegiances based on who they’re close to higher up the chain!

And here the missing manual evaluator had been especially close to A-squad, or to put it bluntly, was ‘on the same side’…?

An epiphany hit me like a lightning strike.

‘So that’s why A-squad’s leader was so confident!’

No wonder she seemed so sure about how quickly the manual revision would be approved!

“The new person they bring in might be… who knows, right? But it’s unlikely it’ll be another one of the same line. Probably someone from Director Cheong’s side.”

“……”

“And that line doesn’t exactly get along with A-squad you know, so… yeah.”

Hear that?

The sound of my 50 million won disappearing?

Not just delayed—but completely out of reach!

‘No way!’

Without even realizing it, I spoke up.

“Do you know where Section Chief Lee disappeared?”

“Oh, there’s an interesting rumor about that.”

The employee leaned in conspiratorially.

“People are saying he vanished inside the building.”

“……!”

“Apparently, someone saw him in the lobby in the morning, but he never made it up to the office.”

“He… vanished somewhere along the way?”

“Well, no one really knows. No one actually saw him disappear.”

“……”

No one saw it happen…

‘Even if there weren’t people around, there could’ve been something else.’

I lifted my gaze toward the corner of the office, where a CCTV camera blinked with a red light.

* * *

CCTV.

If he really did disappear inside the company, there could still be a record of it.

‘For a company of this size, they’d likely store security footage for about two weeks.’

That meant I still had a chance to check.

Figuring out where he went was crucial if I wanted to secure my bonus on time.

…The issue was this.

‘In this company, CCTV records are managed by… the Security Team.’

And the Security Team was… um.

========================

Authorized to use lethal force. (No discrimination against all employees)

========================

That’s right.

For multiple reasons, it was best to avoid them…

‘But since I’ve joined the company, I can’t realistically avoid them forever.’

Given how things had turned out, I might as well gather some intel while I’m at it.

With Braun subtly reminding me of his presence in my pocket, I headed to the first floor.

Directly to the Security Team’s office.

“So, down here to the basement?”

A door marked ‘Staff Only’ led down a narrow set of stairs to a heavy metal door.

[Safety Management Office]

I lifted my hand and knocked.

– ……

Knock, knock.

– Just come in already…

“……??”

Cautiously, I opened the door.

Inside was a cramped room that looked like a stereotypical facilities office, with an old sofa in the center.

Sprawled out on it was a person.

A security officer in a worn, dark blue uniform.

……?

“Good afternoon…”

I quickly glanced at his name tag to make out his title.

[Security Unit 3, Sergeant J3]

“Excuse me, Sergeant. Could I look at some footage from about a week ago? We have a missing person…”

After a long pause, he finally responded.

“You want to see the CCTV…”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

The sergeant seemed exhausted, exuding a distinct air of reluctance.

Still slouched on the sofa, he responded in a slow, dragging tone without even introducing himself.

“You’re technically supposed to submit a request form to view the CCTV footage, but…”

Oh.

“Like anyone here actually cares about that stuff… just go ahead and watch it.”

“……”

Was this pure kindness, or just plain negligence?

Either way, I was in no position to complain, so I offered the remaining snacks as a bribe.

“Maybe you’d like some of these while you work…”

“Oh, donuts.”

His previously weary expression brightened, and he promptly got up from the sofa, snatching the bag.

“I like donuts, but there’s nowhere around here that delivers to the office… and I can’t go out during the day, so I hardly ever get to eat them…”

Is that so.

‘He doesn’t actually seem all that intimidating.’

But then again, in creepypasta fashion, the scariest characters often look the least threatening at first.

Keeping my guard up, I asked with a mild-mannered voice,

“Then, sir, would it be alright if I moved to the CCTV room, then?”

“Yeah… but.”

The security guard scratched the back of his head, looking at the donuts as though he was conflicted. He was quiet for quite a bit before he finally added,

“Only one guard is on shift now, so I’ll go with you… just in case, you know… might be risky.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I waited, expecting him to call another guard over on his radio. But he didn’t make a move.

“……?”

“……?”

“Weren’t you going to send someone to escort me…”

“That would be… me…”

He pointed to himself.

“Yeah… that’d be me…”

……

“Ah… Of course.”

‘Better keep this short and get out.’

“So you want to look at footage from about a week ago, right…”

“Yes, yes.”

With the security sergeant leading the way, we headed to the CCTV room to review the recordings.

His handling of the equipment wasn’t exactly smooth, which made me a little wary, but I tried to stay focused.

“Here.”

I found the footage of the missing section chief.

There he was, a middle-aged man entering the lobby and heading to the elevator.

I could confirm this to be Section Chief Lee Byungjin, his face registered in the company directory.

And in his hand, a long, rolled-up item.

‘That must be the scroll.’

Certainly not the kind of thing you’d typically bring to the office. There was something unsettling about it.

“You’re pretty sharp, could make a good guard yourself…”

Please don’t joke about that, sir.

“Thank you. I guess I was just focused since I’m trying to help find him.”

“…You mean he’s missing?”

“Yes, sir.”

The guard seemed taken aback.

It’s as if this was the first he’d truly registered my words.

He probably hadn’t been paying attention earlier and was only now processing that someone had vanished right under the Security Team’s watch.

“We missed this…”

“Is this going to be a problem for you?”

“Not really… it wasn’t during my shift, anyway.”

“……”

“Someone else’s issue, I guess…”

Uh-huh…

The classic logic of shift work. Duly noted.

At any rate, we continued watching the footage, and I was able to track the missing manager’s movements.

The surprising part? He didn’t go up to the upper floors.

“…It seems he went down instead.”

Further down than even the Safety Management Office.

[B2]

The CCTV showed him staggering as he got off on the second basement level.

…Creepy.

‘What on earth happened?’

Why did an administrative employee head down there as though in a trance?

‘That’s an area only the Security Team supposedly has access to.’

And even within the Security Team, they were only authorized to patrol, so what was he doing down there?

Cold sweat broke out. I quickly looked away from the empty elevator on the screen.

‘It’s starting to feel risky even watching this footage.’

So far, I’d managed to skate by, but this might be too much.

The underground levels of this pharmaceutical company were rumored to house the raw materials from creepypastas.

A place shrouded in mystery, where regular employees had no access and no knowledge of what went on?

‘Even in the <Dark Exploration Records>, it was described like some haunted basement tale!’

Nuh-uh. I should just nope out of this while I still can.