I had already experienced it firsthand several times before, how most of the ghost stories handled by the Disaster Management Bureau result in fatalities.
Because for something to be registered as a supernatural disaster, there must be human casualties.
In that sense, tasks that allow you to act as a bureau agent while staying a step removed from actual harm… can seem very appealing.
I mean, I get it. But still.
“Wait, so… I’m supposed to drive at an ungodly hour… with a ghost in the passenger seat?”
“Yes.”
“……”
You’ve got to be kidding me.
“Don’t worry. No driver has ever died.”
“……”“At worst, there have been mild heart attacks or brief loss of consciousness. You won’t need any major mental preparation.”
Oh, I will, actually.
I almost turned to stare at Agent Bronze in betrayal and disbelief, but managed to hold it in.
‘Wait a second.’
…If I blatantly say I’m scared right now, won’t I just be told to quit?
I already complained once to get out of the Dispatch & Rescue Unit.
If I do it again, Agent Bronze—who already seems a bit awkward around me—might just sigh in relief and encourage me to switch careers altogether.
‘No way!’
That’d be the worst possible route for a spy.
So I changed strategies.
“Um, but… I’m not in a condition to drive.”
“……”
Lowering my head and playing the part of the pitiful rookie, I glanced at my empty right arm.
Yes.
‘They wouldn’t actually make someone drive with one arm… right?!’
Unless someone had trained that way from the start, how the hell is a person supposed to drive with a ghost, at 2 a.m., after suddenly losing an arm?!
This should naturally get me reassigned to something else, but…
“That won’t be an issue.”
……
“Pardon me?”
Agent Bronze looked at me with a faint smile—the first I’d seen in days.
“It’s time you receive treatment for your arm.”
Ah.
* * * Thinking about it now, it made perfect sense.
The bureau wasn’t stupid enough to just throw someone with one arm behind the wheel.
Before starting this task, it was only natural they’d do something about my missing right arm.
‘Should I laugh or cry?’
Honestly, I kinda wanna cry.
Thanks to that, though, I finally got to enter the main facilities of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau with Agent Bronze.
‘I can’t believe I’m actually getting to do this.’
“This way.”
“Yes…!”
I followed Agent Bronze, not into the bustling city hall where civil servants were hard at work, but instead around the back, down the narrow alley between City Hall and the Seoul Library.
The shadows of both buildings made the path dim.
As we walked past the unmanned library book return kiosk at the rear of the Seoul Library…
‘Here.’
A glass walkway connecting the two buildings stretched overhead.
Stepping beneath that bridge…
Shiiing.
The metal badge I wore gleamed and reflected faintly onto the narrow flowerbed beneath the library window.
And then, a door that had not been visible revealed itself.
“…!!”
The flowerbed widened and deepened, and a hidden space emerged. A clean, opaque glass door with a nameplate.
[ Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau ]
“Please enter.”
And so, in the narrow path between Seoul City Hall and the Seoul Library—where countless pedestrians passed by without noticing, we entered the hidden headquarters of the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau through that secret door.
For the record, it was an automatic door.
‘Whoa.’
And inside… surprisingly, it looked just like a typical government office.
A slightly aged interior, with people of various ages in business attire walking around doing their jobs.
Though, the conversations being exchanged were anything but ordinary.
“How many people died?”
“Fifteen.”
“What the hell’s going on at Dobong District lately? That damn haunted phone booth just won’t stop…”
Everyone was moving in a hurry.
And occasionally, strange lights or shadows followed behind them, Perfectly capturing the eerie public-institution atmosphere of this ghost story world.
“The bureau’s main facilities are located underground. They say it’s much harder to hide things above ground.”
“I see…”
I stepped into the elevator with Agent Bronze.
It looked like a typical, moderately outdated modern elevator, But instead of buttons for floors, there was a keypad input system.
‘Probably so people can’t easily tell how many underground floors there are…’
[07]
Agent Bronze quickly entered the code.
“The Equipment Management Unit is on B7.”
We got off at Basement Level 7, which had the exact same layout as B1, and went straight to the door at the end of the hall.
[Supernatural Equipment Registration Room]
As we entered, a middle-aged civil servant seated alone in the small office looked up and greeted us with recognition.
“Ah, Agent Bronze! Just in time, the senior in your team was asking… Oh, is this the new recruit?”
“…Yes. That’s right.”
“Hello…! I go by Agent Grapes……”
“Ahaha, I see. Nice to meet you! I’m Oh Jeong-hye, administrative officer in the Equipment Management Division. I’m not a field agent, so I don’t have a codename.”
The middle-aged officer smiled and led me and Agent Bronze deeper inside.
She opened a door that looked like a display case made of old wood in a deep hue… revealing shelves stretching far inward like a warehouse.
“…!”