On the morning of the 26th in front of Hyundai Department Store U-Plex in Sinchon, Seoul. Hundreds of fans gathered ahead of the opening of the immersive experience exhibition "Darkness exploration log: Records of the survivors," themed on the popular KakaoPage web novel "Even if I fall into ghost stories, I still have to go to work (Going to work with ghost stories)."
Competition for tickets was fierce from the reservation stage. Early-bird tickets that opened on the 11th sold out in just 10 minutes, and all seats for general reservations held the next day were gone in an hour. On site, the fervor continued, proving the point. Some fans had waited since 8 p.m. the previous night with mats and tents, and as of 9:30 a.m. more than 200 people had gathered. Just before opening, about 250 people were in line, and most visitors were women in their teens to 30s. Fans who came from abroad, including Japan, also joined, and some wore costumes of characters from the novel and took part in the open-run queue.
The official opening was at 10:30 a.m., but we tried a pre-experience beforehand. The experience zone was set up on the 12th floor of U-Plex at the Hyundai Department Store Sinchon branch, with an average viewing time set at 10 to 30 minutes. After finishing the exhibition, visitors moved to the pop-up store on the first floor. This exhibition holds special meaning for fans of the original. The route—from the waiting line to the roulette room, subway station, exploration team office, convenience store, and the Tuesday quiz show stage—reproduced the main settings of the novel as they are, designed to let visitors feel as if they had become members of the exploration team in the story.
The air felt different from the entrance. The corridor was decorated in darkness, and worn notices and warning signs were posted on the walls. In the section modeled after the inside of a subway, a sign reading "Sorrow Station" hung, and flickering lights added to the uneasy mood. Upon arriving at the subway station, a live actor appeared and screamed, "Run!"
In the following exploration team office, there were old desks, tangled documents, and a whiteboard covered with the phrase "Stay alive," while a CRT monitor showed the participant's image as is, creating a tense feeling of being watched. In the convenience store set, when products were scanned with a barcode reader, an actual receipt was printed, and a ghost character appeared as graphics to induce dramatic immersion.
The final section was a quiz show stage. Amid a flashy production with added lighting and sound, visitors checked their images on the screen and wrapped up the experience as if they had become members of the exploration team. It was a setup that gave fans strong immersion by letting them walk through and experience scenes they had only encountered in writing.
After finishing the experience, visitors could move to the pop-up store on the first floor. It once again confirmed a structure in which the original's fandom directly translates into spending power. Entry was limited to 20 people at a time, but a long line formed again in front of the store. The sales counters displayed various merchandise such as figures, plush dolls, key rings, and badges, and some items sold out right after opening. Pre-orders for figures were also taken on site. A female fan who visited the pop-up store said, "It was hard waiting outside for a long time, but the interior was clean and the characters were cute, so I was satisfied."
The spending fervor for Going to work with ghost stories merchandise had already been proven. The official merchandise "Daydream Corporation new hire kit," released in Jun., sold 10,000 sets and generated 5 billion won in sales.
Going to work with ghost stories is a modern fantasy work by writer Baek Deok-su, telling the story of protagonist Kim Sol-eum, who, as a new hire on the exploration team at "Daydream Corporation," directly investigates ghost stories and builds a survival manual. The work set a KakaoPage all-time speed record by reaching a million pages five days after its official release last year, and as of the 26th has accumulated 240 million views and 432,000 comments. Since serialization, it has consistently held the No. 1 spot in the modern fantasy genre and has established itself as a fandom-based IP, according to Kakao Entertainment.
A Kakao Entertainment official said, "Going to work with ghost stories has dominated communities and social media (SNS) with every episode released, establishing itself as a fandom-driven IP," adding, "With this exhibition coinciding with the start of part two of the serialization, the fervor will only grow."