※Caution※
This episode contains violent and gory scenes. 138
I had been contemplating this ever since I saw the floor plan of the mart.
Just how much of my Body would I have to cut off and put on the grill for this damn mart ghost story to consider it a ‘barbecue’?
I considered everything from my wrist to my shoulder.
However, I had already decided on the target from the beginning.
‘The right arm.’
Cutting a leg would cause mobility issues.
Cutting the left arm would mean I couldn't use my tattoos.
And since I was nearly ambidextrous, I could use whichever arm remained.
Then there was only one conclusion.
‘Cut a portion from the right arm.’
Of course, cutting through an adult's forearm, nearly 10cm in diameter, bone and all, with a knife was madness.
Naturally, it wouldn't be cut in one go.
‘A chainsaw would have been better.’
Thud, thud.
I cut off my arm, almost tearing through the cross-section with a massive butcher knife. The whimpering sounds of the people in front and beside me could be heard through the splattering blood.
There is no pain, but there is sensation.
That feeling of the nerves in the arm being severed.
Cold sweat pours down my back, and my head goes numb. The dull mental shock of horror and fear.
Even though I had clearly injected the Happy Maker, it still comes.
‘…Am I developing a tolerance?’
Or perhaps the candlelight was ‘protecting’ me from even the influence of the Happy Maker. No, maybe it was just my imagination.
The important thing was that I hadn't died of shock and that I could still move.
And….
Thud.
Finally, the moment the knife struck down.
It fell away.
“…!!”
It was done.
I tucked the completely detached right arm under my left arm, while simultaneously pressing something I had prepared beforehand against the severed cross-section.
The Blood-Sucking Knife.
‘To think I’d use this for hemostasis.’
Of course, this was only a temporary measure.
Ignoring the knife's vibration as it drank my blood, I pulled the knife away and seared the cross-section against the grill.
If I had any sensation, I would have fainted.
Once I felt I had sufficiently stopped the bleeding, I began to move again before I could bleed to death.
“What, what is this… Aaaakh!”
“Just a moment.”
Thud.
I cut the severed piece in half again. I had worked according to the sizes of the various parts already on the grill.
And before they could react, I placed one of the cut pieces onto the grill.
Sizzle.
It makes a sound as it cooks—no, it burns.
It's burning…. It is burning.
‘It’s just a hunk of meat.’
It’s not mine anymore.
And as soon as the situation is resolved, as soon as I leave this crazy mart, I will drink Daydream Inc.’s C-grade Regeneration Potion.
Then everything will be fine….
Let’s stay calm. Sweating coldly, I stared at the grill with unfocused eyes.
And after a maddening amount of time had passed.
Ding.
The ‘Sell Your Flesh at Looky Mart’ shop, where dozens of grills were arranged without context. A sound rings out from something that stood on one side like one of the grills.
The counter.
On what looked like a temporary checkout counter, a rectangular white cash envelope with ‘Thank you for participating in the event’ written on it was placed.
I barely managed to open the envelope with one hand.
A gift certificate revealed itself, looking like a clumsy counterfeit bill mimicking Korean and English.
[50,000 won]
For a normal mart, it was an incredibly generous bait for event participation.
However, it was uncertain whether this amount could be considered sufficient in the current situation.
“Wh-what is this? What just now….”
“Wait a moment.”
One more time.
I repeated this process.
Except this time, it wasn't me, but the high school student who placed the remaining piece on another grill.
“H-hic….”
The high school student looked ready to faint but clenched his teeth. My heart ached, but there was no other way. Ms. Go Yeongeun had to hold the candle, and I wouldn't be counted since I had already participated.
Only after receiving one more 50,000 won gift certificate could I put the Nostalgia Candy in my mouth.
‘Haa.’
I had endured until then, fearing there might be a judgment Error.
And the moment the candy touched my mouth, it returned me to my ‘healthiest period.’
The magic of Nostalgia.
“…It’s okay. See? It’s back to normal, right?”
“Hic, huuuh….”
The high school student couldn't bring himself to look at my restored arm and couldn't even nod his head.
Ms. Go Yeongeun’s face had turned deathly pale, but conscious of the candle, she couldn't bring herself to look back or show a violent reaction.
…She probably only held it together this much because she knew I already had the Daydream-special Regeneration Potion.
“…Agent, did you just drink a potion?”
“No. It’s an Item that temporarily restores one's appearance.”
Ms. Go Yeongeun’s back flinched again.
“Since only my right arm was gone, there would have been no problem escaping even in the worst-case scenario. Don't worry.”
“Is that what we're talking about…! Whew, ……fine.”
I was grateful for her composure.
In any case, by finally consuming the Nostalgia Candy I had saved until the very last limit of my endurance, I barely recovered from three days of proper lack of sleep and food.
And now, my condition was….
“…….”
‘Wow.’
Crazy.
My mind, having regained its composure, began racing wildly, ringing alarm bells.
I began to realize how pushed to the edge and insane I had been acting for the past three days.
‘Since… the second day, I wasn't in my right mind.’
I thought I had scoured every inch of the mart looking for Agent Bronze, leaving the minor alone in the 2nd-floor food court.
But that wasn't it.
‘A place that can be searched within just an hour or two isn't a place worth hiding in the first place.’
This wasn't some convenience store or small supermarket; it was a large mart chain. The concept of me ‘scouring’ it was impossible.
Especially considering the 3rd floor, which repeated to the point where no end was in sight.
‘My judgment was at rock bottom.’
It wasn't just the high school student who was panicking; I too had spent three days in a half-panicked state.
“…Let’s go back to the emergency stairs now.”
“Yes.”
As I moved while hiding behind Ms. Go Yeongeun’s candlelight, and even as I wiped the blood off the butcher knife and repackaged it to put it back on the display stand, deductions continued to spark in my head.
The mistakes.
Rebuttals to several logics I had carelessly assumed on my own.
-Does Agent Bronze really escape after three days?
Let’s check the Exploration Records I barely managed to recall again.
Exploration Records #3?
Responding Agents entered the mart at around 7:00 PM upon receiving a rescue request from a civilian. (Responder: ???) Lookie Mart’s business ended early due to ??? reasons. An unexpected situation occurred, and contact with the relevant Agents was lost for three days.
Result: Rescue failed. Agent returned alone.
First rebuttal.
-The entry time is different.
We entered the mart after 8:00 PM.
However, the case above states they entered around 7:00 PM.
Of course, it’s possible the entry time changed because of a variable like me. It roughly matched if I considered that the entry was delayed by about an hour due to talking with me and receiving Items.
The important thing was that, by doing so, the current situation had become different from that case.
‘I must not force my thinking to fit that case.’
And the second rebuttal.
-It doesn't say when the Agent escapes.
It says ‘contact was lost for three days,’ not that the Agent escapes after three days.
In other words, my conviction that the mart would resume operations after three days was almost entirely in the realm of blind faith.
‘…Phew.’
And….
Let’s step away from this fear and think more rationally.
To begin with.
‘It’s strange for the Disaster Management Bureau to permit throwing a newly hired Rookie Agent into a high-grade ghost story without warning.’
This wasn't Daydream Inc.
They wouldn't send someone empty-handed to explore a crazy Fraction-sanctioned ghost story comparable to a Daydream B-grade.
…Unless there was a certain safety device.
‘Judging based on that….’
……Something comes to mind.
Disaster Management Bureau Agents are sometimes issued Items that allow for an emergency escape from ghost stories below a certain grade.
And since a rookie might use such an Item recklessly in a panic, this option is usually left to the senior.
So….
If Agent Bronze had truly been issued such a thing.
‘Then he would definitely try to take me with him and escape no matter what.’
It was a matter of responsibility.
“…….”
“Agent Grapes?”
“Please wait a moment.”
I stopped walking for a moment and began to reconstruct the situation of the first day from Agent Bronze’s perspective.
Separated from the rookie.
No implicitly agreed-upon location, no direct method of communication. A single glance to meet ‘above’ was everything.
An unexpected situation in a high-grade ghost story.
The field judgment of a veteran who would have met many Rookie Agents…….
“…….”
Ah.
“Ms. Go Yeongeun.”
“Yes.”
“I think… I might be able to find the location of the senior Agent who came in with me.”
“……!”
With the neat conclusion that ‘it’s easier to escape by joining up with a veteran,’ Ms. Go Yeongeun gave her Agree to additional exploration using the candle.
Our destination was….
“This escalator, right?”
“Yes.”
The escalator going up from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor.
It’s here.
“…….”
The three of us went down to the 1st floor and stood in front of the escalator. The silent rails were stopped, shrouded within the darkness.
However, it was an escalator we had never used.
The high school student and I had only used the opposite escalator.
The downward one coming from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. We had crawled up it in reverse.
‘And we only used that one since then.’
Every time I went out to explore, I would scan between the escalators and the floor, hoping to snag even a fishing line from a used Item.
That was how desperate I was.
But….
‘A normal person, when trying to go to an upper floor, would conceptually use the escalator that goes up.’
Agent Bronze must have expected me to use this escalator.
I stood in front of it, issuing one more Nostalgia Candy to the high school student.
‘…Three pieces left.’
From now on, I had to use them more carefully.
Of course, for now, I had to extract the maximum efficiency from the moment of use.
“Ms. Go Yeongeun. Could you please lead us up the escalator?”
“…I’ll walk slowly. Be careful.”
“Yes.”
Ms. Go Yeongeun took the lead and stepped onto the escalator.
And the three of us began to walk up the escalator ourselves.
“Whew.”
Let’s think.
‘As I deduced, Agent Bronze must have tried to deduce my behavioral patterns too….’
And he likely judged more rationally than I, whose mental state had shattered.
Unless he encountered the crazy situation where someone was ground alive in a blender, he hid underneath it for dozens of minutes, and the high school
student he was supposed to rescue broke an ankle….
He would deduce my actions in reverse like that.
-Rookie Agent. Has experience with ghost stories but seems clumsy due to trauma.
What method would I have chosen if I had moved more passively on the first day?
‘First, I would have entered the 2nd floor later.’
Instead of rushing to the 2nd floor, if I had held out as long as possible in hiding spots on the 1st floor, moving while frozen and fumbling like a ‘typical rookie.’
‘Agent Bronze would have expected us to come upstairs much later.’
But what if he had picked out another place as being safer?
And what if he considered that my group, being green Agents, might panic if Agent Bronze himself wasn't on the 2nd floor?
If so….
There was only one answer.
‘Tell them in advance, before they reach the 2nd floor.’
“…….”
I looked at the escalator's advertisement panel.
Underneath a bright red advertisement panel that caught the eye, a single receipt was stuck with only its end showing, as if it were part of the panel.
A notice from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
“Uh?”
It was a part of the mart that was easy to overlook, but to someone involved, it was a sign that struck like a bolt of lightning.
Amidst the stir of my companions, I tore it off and unfolded it.
On the back, thick, large characters were scribbled.
Season-Off Winter Camping Mega Sale
3rd Floor, far left wall. 12th one.
“I think I’ve found it.”
I caught the signal left by Agent Bronze.
We moved our feet quickly through the candlelight and mist.
The three of us moved as if we were in a three-legged race.
“It’s the 12th one, right? The 12th.”
“Yes…!”
Realizing he might meet his Friend, the high school student also clenched his teeth and cooperatively quickened his pace.
The repeating space of the giant mart. Passing through section after section that continued eerily, the place we were trying to reach was….
[Season-Off Winter Camping Mega Sale]
It finally revealed itself.
A display area arranged like a camping scene, with tents, a campfire, burners, and even chairs.
Zzzzt.
One side of a tent opened slightly, and an anxious face scanned the surroundings, eyes darting.
“Hey! Kim Jaehoon!”
The high school student who had been within the candlelight dashed out.
It was understandable.
He was the friend that Agent Bronze had taken with him.
“Uh, uh-uh-uh-uh!”
“Are you okay?”
“Heeeuuu….”
The two boys grabbed each other, weeping.
No, I was momentarily on guard in case something dangerous would come if they made noise outside the candlelight, but there was nothing unusual.
‘It seems Agent Bronze took some measures.’
It was a relief. Ms. Go Yeongeun and I also relaxed slightly and approached the two.
“Should we… put out the candle for a moment?”
“Let’s do that.”
Toward the safe zone found by the veteran Agent.
“Hic.”
The two high school students finally calmed down after several minutes.
The high school student Agent Bronze had taken looked like he had suffered mentally, but he showed no signs of major injury or exhaustion.
‘He must have taken good care of him.’
As expected, a veteran is better at rescue than a rookie Agent.
I watched the two of them, feeling a bit sorry for the high school student I had been responsible for.
The high school student I was in charge of, who looked fine because of the Nostalgia Candy in his mouth, forced a smile and spoke.
“I’m glad you’re safe, though.”
“……Yeah.”
…….
Something is a bit strange.
I read signs of anxiety and panic on the face of the high school student from Agent Bronze’s side.
I thought it was a natural sign since he had wandered through a ghost story for days, but even considering that, it’s… prominent.
Ms. Go Yeongeun also whispered softly to me.
“Agent Grapes, um… the person you were looking for, it’s obviously not that high school student, right?”
“……No.”
“Then where is he? That Agent.”
“…….”
I have a strange and ominous feeling.
‘Don't tell me.’
I made eye contact with the high school student Agent Bronze had been in charge of. He flinched.
The reason we came here.
“Where is the Agent?”
“…….”
Tears began to pour from the eyes of the high school student who had been sitting in the tent.
“Th-that Agent, h-he was caught by a staff member and chased away…! Like, dozens of them, uh-uh-uh, just!”
“…!”
“A-and… I think, he was caught.”
…….
What.
“L-like, the staff… were dragging him somewhere, hic.”
Three days after being trapped in the mart ghost story.
Agent Bronze…… has already become Supplies.
Discussion