STRGS 01

Chapter 1

All Ghost Stories Are Fake

“At that moment, what K-ko saw reflected in the mirror was……………..”

“Ha, there’s seriously nothing new here.”

In the end, I tossed the 80-year-old Japanese magazine onto my desk before I could even finish reading it. This was a book I had won in an auction only after breaking a savings account to cover overseas auction fees and international shipping.

When I heard the delivery had arrived today, I even fought off the threat of overtime to come straight home, but upon opening it, there were far too many flaws.

A few pages were completely torn out, and on some pages, paper had crumpled messily as if something had been spilled on them. But the real problem was that there wasn’t a single new ghost story inside.

“Shouldn’t there be at least one ghost story that was omitted in later editions?”

After leaving a 3-star review on the second-hand trading site, I clicked on the [Rare Records Collection] category on my blog and started writing a post.

[Overseas Collection Review – 1940 Nighttime Tale Record (Claimed to belong to a grandfather from Miyagi Prefecture)]

Included stories: Seeing your future husband through a mirror. The returning corridor. Communication from a dead radio operator. The upside-down mirror, Fox Lady of the bamboo forest, etc., total of 10 types.

No difference compared to the 1970 edition. The sentence structure appears to be a double translation of Western ghost stories. And…………….

“What’s this?”

I thought I had looked through it all, but there was one more page. The last two or three pages were stuck together, making them thick. I can’t believe they sold something like this listed in high quality. I need to block that seller.

“Wait, if it’s like this, I feel like I can handle it myself…………….”

Holding the paper up against the light, I noticed a single sheet of paper sandwiched between the pages. It was neatly folded paper.

‘Was it glued together on purpose rather than a failure in care?’

I pondered for a moment whether to take out what was inside. Couldn’t it be something like a rare ledger tucked between the book pages?

However, the paper was too small for that, about the size of a notepad. Eventually, I pulled out my book restoration tools.

You never know, something rare might pop out.

‘Let’s see, right here like this……………..’

Since I was peeling off paper glued decades ago, I expected it to get damaged, but as if rendering my worries meaningless, the glue fell off as soon as I held the paper with tweezers, spitting out the note.

“Whoa.”

It was a mottled note whose edges were beyond tattered, practically crumbling. A stale scent of old mold drifted from between the paper.

‘At least 100 years… or maybe not that much?’

A secret bond? A letter to a lover? An encrypted code hidden in this book? My imagination ran wild in every direction.

I carefully unfolded the twice-folded paper with tweezers. Written in relatively clear ink compared to the damaged paper was……….

『May good fortune be with you! If you accept the invitation that comes to you within 24 hours of seeing this note, happiness and good fortune will come to you within 9 days. However, if you ignore this note, the evil spirit of Sabah will come for you. This note originated in Naprun and was guided along the ecliptic constellations…………………』

“Sigh. It’s just a chain letter.”

My expectations collapsed in an instant. Still, it wasn’t a completely useless harvest. I pulled out a 1930s newspaper from among the old newspaper scraps stacked up to the ceiling.

I placed the note on top of a short newspaper clipping from March 8, 1931, which stated that chain letters had begun gaining popularity and spreading everywhere.

‘If it’s a paper hidden inside a 1940s book, the most plausible explanation is that a note made at the peak of the trend was preserved.’

A ‘real chain letter’ from the 1930s has more than enough value to be part of a collection. After carefully placing the paper between preservation palettes, I took a picture and uploaded it to my blog.

[Overseas Collection: Unidentified Appraisal Item / Chain Note Presumed from the 1930s]

Before long, a comment notification popped up along with likes.

— Congrats on snagging another rare item this time as well! — No material for live updates?? — It seems to overlap with your previous one, but by any chance do you have any intention of selling the item in post #12,410? I earnestly request you.

I left short replies one by one. Thank you. There wasn’t any. Not selling.

I will never sell anything. No matter how flawed it is, and no matter if someone offers three or four times what I bought it for, mine is mine. It’s my ghost story that I collected.

I really love ghost stories. To put it grandly, it’s my biggest hobby in life and practically a part of my existence.

When I was little, whenever it was a holiday, I was busy gathering in a room with cousins around my age to tell scary stories. It was that kind of age, seeing who could boastfully endure and tell scary things better.

“The person who tells the scariest story gets chicken bought by older brother!”

“Only Jaehyun gets to eat that every time!”

I had a talent for storytelling. Even with old, cliché ghost stories, if I slightly added meat to them or gave them different settings to spice them up, my cousins would cry and run away saying, ‘Jaehyun-hyung is telling scary stories again!’

“You know, right behind you now………………”

“Aaaaah I can’t hear you I can’t hear you I can’t hear you, I’m not listening!!”

“Agh!! Insane! You really scared me!”

The screams bursting wildly after getting fully immersed, and the thrill of imagining what was described in the text. To me, ghost stories were an expanded world in themselves.

“Hey Seon Jaehyun, wanna go watch a horror movie?”

“Ah, I don’t watch bloody stuff. I’ll die, seriously.”

“Even though he’s a ghost story otaku, he doesn’t watch horror movies.”

“Why doesn’t he watch them? Could it be that despite being a horror enthusiast, he’s a coward? Or admitting to flexing??”

“If you ask him that, he’ll filibuster for about an hour talking about Stephen King’s top 3 horrors, so ask him if you have plenty of time.”

“You idiots who know nothing about ghost stories, that’s not a ghost story.”

Splatter types that bluntly post graphic images or list descriptions of human organs—so-called gore for the sake of gore—are the lowest tier among ghost stories.

The more detailed the settings or the more it dominates the surrounding psychological state, the more refined the ghost story is, and the best kind is the one where you can reconstruct it in your head through pure imagination and feel fear.

Well, everyone has different tastes, but anyway, that’s how I am.

My ‘fandom heart’ for ghost stories quickly became hardcore, and I literally began collecting ghost stories. Books like Horror Express and collections of Strange Tales of the World were basic, and I collected foreign horror novels, game books, videotapes, and even CDs indiscriminately.

And as soon as the so-called blogs came into existence, I immediately dug one up and made it my vast repository of collection.

Short ghost stories floating around the internet, strange eyewitness accounts fished from foreign forums, and even suspicious posts that floated around obscure sites before disappearing—I scraped and backed up everything.

It would have been great if I had stopped at collecting, but human tastes are truly diverse, and I ended up getting hooked on something else. Of all things, a minor field that pierced through the earth’s crust and headed straight for the inner core.

「Is this real?」

「I’m sharing a ridiculously real review story, if you want to die then go there」

「Looking for a raid team. XX Cottage real verification review go go」

「Actually trying hide and seek alone, giving live broadcast photos」

「Selling a doll whose hair grows. Video evidence included」

………………So-called ‘fact-checking’ to verify whether a ghost story is real or not.

Aren’t you curious? Whether ghosts really appear in haunted houses said to have ghosts. Whether the doll in solo hide-and-seek really moves. Whether taking an elevator can lead to another world.

Whether sleeping with a knife in your mouth lets you see the face of your future spouse.

Is it scary? There’s no way it’d be scary.

Because ‘ghost stories’ are all fiction.

Filled only with unverified experiences and word-of-mouth without evidence, a collection of false rumors built upon fiction—that is precisely what a ghost story is.

With so many eyewitness accounts and cursed objects, not once has a real piece of evidence actually appeared.

For cursed objects, they at least make excuses about burning them as an offering, while the rest are just neatly crafted SCP stitched-together photos.

After computers and the internet became widespread, the situation got even worse. It wasn’t just that collecting ghost stories became easier; identifying ‘fake ghost stories’ became a whole level easier.

On top of that, the finishing strike of smartphones. Why did all those theme park ghost stories disappear after 2010?

Because smartphones were stronger than ghosts. Since everyone could take a single photo and ‘fact check’ it, proving it was fake. The latest modern cyber era drove even ghosts out from where they lived.

Ghost stories became a fake genre where people only took the chills and lingering discomfort as a guilty pleasure. Just like screaming to blow off stress while knowing all the ghosts in a haunted house are just part-time workers.

Yet, I was always wandering around searching to see if there was a ‘real one’ among them. While affixing ‘Fiction!’ labels to all the ghost stories I collected with my own hands, hoping that somewhere out there, a real one existed.

After getting discharged from the military without seeing a single one of those military ghost stories that others claim to experience about two hundred of, I felt a bit wronged, which made me search even harder.

Throughout college, I sacrificed my weekends and vacations for ghost story verification, and around graduation, I created a dedicated ‘Ghost Story Fact Check’ category. Live updates and reviews of the ghost stories I actually attempted were uploaded to my blog.

— Trying out the method to go to another world via elevator for real. — Late night exploration of Mogwon-dong haunted house (Obtained permission. Attached owner interview) — Confirming the reality of the Cheolseon Bridge ghost bridge! — X-Bay Purchase Special: Japanese doll with growing hair, actually bought it. — If you resell a cursed doll second-hand, will it return to your arms? Tried it myself.

The response was better than expected. My blog, which had only had the recognition of a mere ‘ghost story blog’, exploded with traffic due to review content.

Partly thanks to links being attached on internet wikis, and whenever something resembling a ghost story was covered in broadcasts, games, movies, etc., recognition built up as most credited ‘Data/Video Source: Strange Tales’.

• Wow, you actually went there?

• Going once might just be luck. You should go three times.

When traffic increases, suspicious types naturally appear. Whenever such comments were posted, I actually went three times and uploaded review posts for all three times.

— This blogger does everything if asked. — There’s no one who follows all the ghost story instructions as strictly as here yet has nothing happen to them, feels like there’s an ancestral god behind him. — Most live updates are full of fakes, but this guy is so diligent there’s not even anything to call out as fake, truly legendary. — Does he have like five lives? Or maybe he’s super rich. He always posts high-quality raid threads, how is he human. — Teacher, threads…… let’s not act in a way that reveals our age. — Don’t make me laugh, there is no future for someone who feels age in traditional otaku language.

After getting a job, I faithfully invested my annual leave, holidays, and even incentive pay, causing the blog to rise day by day. Recently, rather than having to find a real ghost story, it felt more like an everyday hobby.

I get to travel, gain views, gain popularity, and enjoy ghost stories. Concurrently earning advertising income from source credits. My blog subscribers and neighbors get to read fun posts and enjoy chills through proxy experiences of ghost stories.

There is a new post on the guestbook!

I casually straightened my back. Guestbook. Though the name sounds mild, greetings like “I’m enjoying your posts” were just extra, and the real purpose lay elsewhere.

— I can’t find a ghost story I saw when I was young…………… Do you happen to know a ghost story like this? — I am an old regular of Woowon Restaurant in Byeokjin-eup, Gangwon-do. It seems to be cursed, so I’d appreciate it if you could resolve it. — Do you know the real spirit-possessed shaman on YouTube? Could you please try a past life experience? She’s a real female shaman who even consulted for the movie [Exhuma].

In short, tips.

Horror spot recommendations, ghost story experience tips, or verification requests for rumors of unclear origin. The tips received did not discriminate by genre or location. As long as they followed two tip rules:

First, no visits that could cause legal issues. Unlawful entry into a mental hospital, sighting accounts of ghosts in prison? Sorry, but you’re out.

Second, slasher and gore are forbidden. As I said, this is a matter of taste. In particular, there were people who posted gore images on the guestbook claiming it was a tip, so I smashed a keyboard and slammed a block on them.

Occasionally, there were counseling posts uploaded by people who mistook me for some kind of exorcist rather than a ghost story verifier. I scrolled my cursor down to check the newly posted message.

「Hello? To you who found the chain letter, a kiss of fortune and blessings! This message is your lucky message valid for only 1 hour. If you who received this letter accept the fortune, there will be 7 years of good luck, but if not, terrible misfortune will befall you. Please remember. This letter is absolutely not fake and was made solely to give you good fortune. You now have 1 hour. If you accept this fortune, please write ‘Yes’ in the comments. Wishing you good luck, from your reader.」

“People still circulate this kind of stuff these days…………….”

Letting out a long sigh, I clicked the report spam button and closed the blog window. The chain letter found in the book at least had rarity value, but what meaning did this have on a guestbook?

My energy drained completely. Thinking I should get a late-night snack, I opened the refrigerator—

‘Ah, right, there was no food at home.’

I had just returned yesterday from a 3-night, 4-day business trip. I had forgotten that I completely emptied the fridge before leaving. I should have bought something when I got off work earlier. Lightly clicking my tongue, I got up. To take a walk and raid a convenience store, I left the house.

Flicker.

The dark house.

The laptop screen dimly turned on in the darkness. Without a boot sound, white frequency-like static began to crackle on the black screen.

Just like an 80s DOS screen, it gradually distorted and began transmitting text into sound.

≪We are waiting for your listening. We are waiting for your fortune. We are waiting for your awareness. We are waiting for your voice. We are waiting for your─≫

A moment later, without a refresh, the numbers rapidly began counting down.

6, 5, 4, 3-

≪We are going to have a good time.≫

— The elevator has arrived. The next floor is………….