Fwoooosh—!
With a flash of light, *something* evaporated in an instant.
The ground where the four survivors had stood was now an empty lot stained dark red, ash fluttering through the air.
The disgusting stench of burning flesh filled the bank’s cold air, and from the ceiling, droplets of blood that had yet to cool fell—drip, drip—soaking the floor.
“…….”
“Hiiik…! Huaaa…!”
An utterly alien, cruel spectacle.
The surviving newbies froze, their faces bone-white.
One clamped a hand over their mouth, unable to even scream, while another finally heaved up bile and collapsed to the floor.
The sight of someone who had been speaking perfectly normally just moments ago turning into ash in a single instant was more direct and violent than any fear they had ever known.
In that blood-soaked carnage, only two people stood completely still.
“Tsk, if it’s their first time, they should follow the procedure manual properly.”
Kang Yerin clicked her tongue as if accustomed to it, nonchalantly wiping the blood splattered on her cheek with a handkerchief.
Far from sympathy or fear, only indifference lingered in her eyes, as if she were looking at an annoying insect.
And the other person, Han Yujin.
She was not used to people dying.
Rather, her stomach churned so violently she felt nauseous.
But.
*Someone died, and someone didn’t?*
A supply of new information.
To Han Yujin, who had been suspecting the procedure manual of this ghost story itself, information of the highest quality had been provided.
It was a stronger dopamine hit than some worthless emotional outburst.
And perhaps because the stimulation was a bit too intense, the corners of her mouth even turned up.
*Ah, but the smell of blood.*
Was it stronger than she’d thought… her consciousness kept focusing on the scent of blood.
Well, if blood was spraying all around, even if it wasn’t her own, it meant this was an emergency.
And human instinct was to focus entirely on overcoming emergencies.
“Handkerchief.”
Han Yujin reached her hand out toward Kang Yerin.
“……Excuse me?”
“Give me that too.”
Han Yujin reached out again, as if demanding something obvious.
Kang Yerin made a dumbfounded expression for a moment, but at Han Yujin’s cold gaze, she unconsciously pulled a fresh handkerchief from her pocket and handed it over.
“……Here.”
It wasn’t like Kang Yerin to cower at just a look, but a subtle smile was hovering at Han Yujin’s lips.
She looked exactly like a murderer enjoying the smell of blood.
No. Was that woman really not an actual ghost?
In truth, Han Yujin was simply overjoyed at the new clue she had discovered.
While Kang Yerin’s misunderstandings and delusions only grew.
After roughly wiping the blood from her face, Han Yujin tossed the handkerchief to one of the newbies.
“Wipe your face with that.”
The newbies, trembling while covered in blood and vomit, looked up at Han Yujin.
“Y-yes… thank you….”
The newbie sniffled and accepted the handkerchief. Kang Yerin stared at the scene in disbelief. *No, why is she giving away my things as if they were hers…?* Yet it wasn’t something she could say to Han Yujin.
Kang Yerin glared at the newbies with revulsion, about to snap at them. At that moment, Han Yujin’s cold voice cut her off.
“Why? You want to slap the newbies too?”
“…N-no, that’s not—”
Kang Yerin instinctively tucked her tail.
For some reason, she felt completely intimidated in front of this woman.
This, too, was the domain of instinct.
Was it the shock of being struck in the jaw with a money bag earlier? No, it was because of those eyes. A cold gaze that seemed to pierce through everything, devoid of any human emotion.
*D-don’t tell me she’s planning to use them as fodder?*
In truth, there were many undisclosed procedures in ghost stories.
In such cases, you had to grind through human lives to make progress.
And usually, it was the newbies’ lives that got ground up.
In Kang Yerin’s mind, there was no other reason to care for newbies in a ghost story, so Han Yujin became even more terrifying.
Of course, Han Yujin’s thoughts were quite different.
*Newbies are precious. They’re the future of the Gallery, my precious audience.*
Keuheuheu. An extremely sinister laugh followed.
Only with newbies could the Gallery be revitalized, and only with a revitalized Gallery could her brilliant feats receive more attention.
What a perfect virtuous cycle!
For the revival of the Gallery, the newbies had to be protected!
…It was for such nefarious reasons that Han Yujin instinctively shielded and looked after newbies whenever she saw them.
Of course, only as long as it wasn’t bothersome and remained within reason.
Following that train of thought.
Now that the bank’s business hours had ended, all the “customers” here would be safe for the time being.
All of Han Yujin’s nerves focused once again on the 『Customer Terms of Service』.
The terms of service. The deaths of the people. The staff’s words.
She already had more than enough information.
The trap the rules had cunningly omitted. The decisive difference that no one had noticed, yet that divided everything.
*Users* and *customers*.
The bank was clearly using the two terms separately.
“Excuse me.”
Kang Yerin flinched and answered Han Yujin’s call.
“Y-yes.”
“Isn’t this terms of service strange? It uses ‘users’ and ‘customers’ separately.”
At Han Yujin’s observation, Kang Yerin made a sullen expression.
“What’s the big deal? It’s not like survival depends on that. This place is just a honey pot where you print money as long as you follow the rules.”
“Ha….”
Han Yujin let out a deep sigh and clicked her tongue.
This woman had grown so accustomed to ghost stories that she seemed to have lost even basic analytical ability.
It was precisely these trivial details that decided life or death in ghost stories.
In truth, Han Yujin had little experience in ghost stories, so to be precise, it was the life-or-death nature of Gallery trolling that hinged on such details. Though for Han Yujin, Gallery trolling was her life, so it amounted to the same thing.
Judging conversation to be useless, Han Yujin immediately opened the Gallery window.
————————
[Title: Anyone else notice this bank ghost story uses “customer” and “user” separately?]
Author: Anonymous
[Content]
All clauses related to the loan counter refer to them as “customers,” while the deposit and exchange counters use “users.” I think there’s something to this.
[Comments]
[OnlyBuyingToday]: So what? Who cares, tell us how much you borrowed
[LogicCircuit]: Hmm. An interesting observation.
[DepressedMenhera]: No one cares about that, how much did you borrow? How much money are you printing? I need to decide whether to kill myself so hurry hurry hurry hurry
————————
As expected, the Gallery’s reaction was no different from Kang Yerin’s.
None of them cared about Han Yujin’s sharp observation; they only hurled irrelevant questions.
*These blockheads….*
Han Yujin felt fury welling up.
One of them had been particularly persistent.
[OnlyBuyingToday]: So how much did you borrow?So how much did you borrow?So how much did you borrow?So how much did you borrow?
She decided to answer for now.
[Anonymous]: 30 billion won.
For a moment, the Gallery froze. And shortly after, it exploded.
[LogicCircuit]: ??????
[OnlyBuyingToday]: Crazy. 30 billion? You seeing things?
[LotPreparedButTakeLittle]: Wow… so if you deposited it, how much would the daily interest be… almost 200 million won?
└ [DepressedMenhera]: Im gonna go die bb fuck this world where only I have it hard fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
The Gallery was turned upside down in an instant.
Comments filled with shock and envy at the unprecedented loan of 30 billion won poured out explosively.
“Why are they envious?”
Han Yujin left a light comment.
[Anonymous]: I didn’t deposit it.
Silence once again. And then an explosion even greater than before.
The string of comments that followed could be summarized as follows:
[???????????]
[Is this bastard really crazy?]
[What retard goes to a money-printing ghost story and doesn’t deposit it hahahaha]
[Then you’re paying 4 million won in interest every single day, you crazy bastard hahaha]
“Ah.”
These morons, seriously.
We really can’t communicate.
Han Yujin held back her rising fury and closed the Gallery window.
Just then, a “pfft” sounded from beside her.
She turned to see Kang Yerin’s shoulders shaking as she stared at her smartphone. The Gallery window Han Yujin had been looking at was displayed on the screen. Yuil Company employees could only access the Gallery through those smartphones, or so she’d heard.
Kang Yerin had the look of someone thoroughly refreshed after watching Han Yujin get bombarded in the Gallery.
Kang Yerin asked with a bright smile.
“But really, why didn’t you deposit?”
“Because it’s dangerous. What ghost story gives things out for free?”
“I think you’re mistaken. There are ghost stories used to make weapons or items, you know? Isn’t it prejudiced to say all ghost stories harm humans?”
Han Yujin knew such ghost stories existed.
But those had clean rulebooks.
Not dirty like this one.
As if deliberately trying to bait humans……
The same unpleasantness as those condescending YouTube or Instagram ads.
The same filth as “We’ll pay you 20 million won a month to work in Cambodia!” pervaded this procedure manual.
“By the way, did you really borrow 30 billion won?”
“Yes.”
“Jackpot.”
Kang Yerin looked at Han Yujin with astonished eyes.
The loan amount in this ghost story was an evaluation of that human’s worth. Someone Yuil Company definitely needed to keep an eye on. Action power beyond common sense. They had to recruit her into the company somehow.
“Why are you so surprised? Is there some secret hidden here?”
Han Yujin’s eyes narrowed. At that gaze, Kang Yerin hurriedly made excuses.
“Ah, no! I just meant since you borrowed so much, I thought you’d earn a lot if you deposited it.”
As she spoke, Kang Yerin, whose legs had gone inexplicably numb, showed her bankbook.
[User Exclusive Account] [Balance: 1,313,000,000 won]
“Look, the interest is already accruing. Special rates apply here, so it’s 1% per day. Yours is 30 billion, so that’s 300 million a day… wow.”
Kang Yerin added, looking at Han Yujin with envious eyes.
At that moment. Han Yujin muttered quietly.
“Wait.”
“…Yes? Why are you looking like that, it’s scary.”
All the puzzle pieces fell into place.
Leaving the flustered Kang Yerin behind, Han Yujin urgently opened the Gallery.
[ Search: Bank ]
[ Search: Deposit ]
[ Search: Proof ]
There were few posts. Strangely few.
“Excuse me, Ms. Kang Yerin.”
“Yes?”
“For this ghost story, you said Yuil Company has exploration records going back several years?”
“One year ago.”
“What was the interest rate then?”
“360%.”
*…As I thought.*
People usually bragged when they made a profit. Especially with abnormal returns like this. But why were there no proof posts for this “honey pot” ghost story? Entry might be difficult, but with this level of recognition, surely numerous survivors had passed through.
Only endless chatter and speculative posts came up. Almost no proper proof posts.
And if you scrolled down, at some point all the posts disappeared.
The oldest post, at that, was from 1 year and 10 months ago.
———————
[Title: Wow, my deposit rate hit 200% hahaha life reversal incoming!] Date: 1 year, 10 months ago.
———————
The few proof comments that had been attached to that post.
She searched their usernames one by one.
[This user has no activity records.]
[This user has no activity records.]
[This user has…]
They had all vanished. As if they had never existed from the start.
A chill ran down her spine.
Han Yujin began writing a new post with trembling hands.
————————
[Title: Guys. About this bank ghost story.]
Author: Anonymous
[Content]
People who entered and survived this ghost story, do you know they’ve all disappeared?
At most, after 2 years, they all vanish.
(Screenshot) (Screenshot) (Screenshot)
[Comments]
[LogicCircuit]: …What?
[HeadOnApproach*]: If this is true, it is at minimum a B-rank ghost story. Please upload all information to the Gallery. Please exercise caution in all future actions.
[Santo1ki]: What are you talking about?
[OnlyBuyingToday]: Don’t tell me…
[LotPreparedButTakeLittle]: Ugyaaaaaaaack!
————————
This was no longer a D-rank “honey pot” ghost story.