While the ethics of Daydream Inc. might be questionable, the effectiveness of the potions they manufacture is certain.
As if by magic.
“…!”
From the vicinity of Agent Bronze’s two severed thighs, flesh began to sprout and grow rapidly after he drank the C-Class Regeneration Potion. In an instant, the complete shape of his legs began to be restored.
Ms. Go Yeongeun gasped. Although she had used it herself, this was her first time witnessing it, and she seemed to feel a sense of wonder.
I felt the same way.
To have such a large part of the body regenerated all at once, and yet it was only a C-Class Regeneration Potion.
‘…Didn’t they say it costs about 10,000 Points?’
It was an effect that would astonish and captivate anyone who saw it.
I watched the scene, trying not to unconsciously touch my right arm, which had been recreated with Nostalgia Candy.
“Whew.”
Soon, Agent Bronze mechanically checked the movement of his legs.
Then, standing up on his bare feet, he grabbed the Arrest Rope that bound the staff… and bowed his head, avoiding my gaze.
“…Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
As if she couldn’t hold it back any longer, Ms. Go Yeongeun muttered softly.
“……I think it would be okay for you to be a bit more thankful.”
Ah.
“What does that mean….”
“Let’s talk once we get out.”
I hurried to smooth over their conversation, intending for us all to return to the base camp Agent Bronze had set up.
However, the Arrest Rope Agent Bronze had tied began to tremble.
“…!”
Inside it, the forms of the two staff members, who had been subdued and deflated like punctured balloons, began to wriggle.
And over there.
The door to the staff area… where we had just come out of.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
The sound of countless heavy objects colliding rang out… and with a creaking noise, the iron door burst open, and staff members came pouring out.
“……!”
“T-This way!”
Avoiding the staff members rushing toward us like madmen, we quickly hid Agent Bronze behind the candle’s shadow.
The three-person capacity was full once again.
The three agents hurriedly pressed themselves against the wall, retreating quickly to avoid the gruesome wave of staff.
“…!!”
“It will be alright. You’ve entered the candlelight….”
Agent Bronze glanced at the candle Ms. Go Yeongeun was holding.
“…Is that originally yours as well?”
“……Yes.”
I deliberately muttered while stealing a glance at Agent Bronze.
“I’ve already made the excuse that I received it from Agent Bronze… so, I’d appreciate it if you could, well, get your story straight with mine.”
“…….”
Agent Bronze nodded very slightly.
‘…He’s cooperative.’
He must know it’s an item obtained during the Daydream Inc. days, but if he’s going this far, it seems the effect of giving him the Regeneration Potion worked.
Creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak, creak.
‘No, they’re making it impossible to think…!’
In the midst of that, the number of crowding staff members was steadily increasing. Ms. Go Yeongeun’s ears grew increasingly pale as she took
steps backward.
The effect of the Arrest Rope wore off, and the two staff members who had been hit by the pistol emerged, bulging grotesquely.
The other staff members who had poured out surrounded them and began to circle around them like madmen.
Because there were so many staff members, arms were crumpled and heads were crushed as if pressed together, only to pop back up again.
It looked like some bizarre ritual.
“It seems they’re looking for the person who harmed the staff….”
“If you are witnessed during that act after damaging a staff member in this mart… you will be pursued until you are caught.”
“…!”
But he shot both of them without hesitation and sat on top of them?
Agent Bronze’s face hardened.
“…This time, I intended to handle it myself, since it was over for me anyway.”
“~!!”
It seemed Ms. Go Yeongeun had suppressed what she wanted to say again.
“Let’s move quickly.”
“Yes.”
At any rate, we hurriedly moved our feet and escaped from that bizarre group activity.
Still, the unpleasant, high-pitched creaking noise continued to be heard….
‘Whew.’
I looked down at the floor and saw Agent Bronze’s bare feet treading on the mart floor.
“Agent, do you have spare shoes….”
“…They are in the camping section.”
Okay. I checked the time on my wristwatch.
Fortunately, we found Agent Bronze relatively quickly, so perhaps only two or three hours had passed at most.
‘Even taking the perceived time conservatively, it should still be around dinner time….’
It would be around 19:00. I looked at the watch with that expectation.
But….
[ 09 : 04 ]
Nine o’clock.
“……!”
I looked at the numbers again.
But the numbers, which were ten hours different from my expectation, remained the same.
Of course, it wasn’t that we had gone back to the past, so this meant….
‘……It’s the next morning?’
“The time is strange right now….”
The moment I spoke, I realized.
“Agent Grapes. In the staff area of this mart, the flow of time is not constant.”
“…….”
No wonder the staff area felt like it was stitched together haphazardly without context; it was perfectly plausible for such a setting to exist just to make it more eerie and bizarre.
‘It’s a cliché.’
Perhaps it had been mentioned in the Dark Exploration Record, but it might have been so common that it didn’t stick in my memory… No, that wasn’t what was important.
‘…Then how long have the kids been on their own?’
To make matters worse, Agent Bronze muttered with a stiffened face.
“Nine o’clock.”
“…Yes.”
“Let’s move as quickly as possible. …The effective time of the Protection Array I set up in the section doesn’t have much left.”
“…!!”
We practically sprinted and arrived at the camping section. It was a miracle we didn’t drop the candle.
“Hah, haaa….”
And his concern was right.
In the camping section, the high school students were on the verge of fleeing.
“They’re not coming! And things are strange right now!”
“T-That’s….”
‘Oh my god.’
The agents hadn’t returned even after a day had passed, and the sound of staff moving could be heard like crazy from somewhere.
Thanks to that, they seemed to have been completely terrified and were trying to escape to another floor.
How were they supposed to move their friend who had previously gone missing and was currently in a daze, or should they just leave him behind, and so on. They were desperately talking amongst themselves, but the moment they saw us, they collapsed in place.
“Ah!”
“A-Agent!”
This is driving me crazy.
We took the high school students, who were pouring out words and tears with emotions fluctuating between ‘Why are you so late?’ and ‘You’re back!’, and headed back to the center of the camping section.
Then, Agent Bronze quickly inspected the defensive items, which looked like gonggi stones, that he had installed.
“How much time is left?”
“About an hour.”
Damn it.
“At least we can definitely rest for an hour. Let’s regroup quickly in the meantime.”
Ms. Go Yeongeun immediately blew out the candle and began to check the condition of the high school students and figure out what had happened.
…She was reliable.
‘Whew.’
“I’ll keep watch, so you should take care of your attire, Agent.”
“…Yes.”
Taking advantage of the moment Ms. Go Yeongeun entered a tent, Agent Bronze changed into a spare Agent uniform he seemed to have brought as a backup.
Listening to the sounds beside him, I contemplated where on earth we should go after this camping section….
‘The stairwell is too narrow.’
…I really hoped the mart would open for business today, but no, expecting such a lucky thing to happen was not good for my mental health.
I swallowed the sugary taste coming from the Nostalgia Candy.
Then I diverted my attention to something else.
“Is your body alright?”
“……Yes.”
Agent Bronze took several items out of the pockets of his original, blood-stained Agent uniform trousers and quickly re-equipped himself.
However, among them, there was something that looked somewhat unusual.
This was because Agent Bronze, who had been taking out and organizing his own things indifferently and instantaneously, flinched when he picked this up.
…A white pop-socket.
< Must Give >
A hand-written label was attached to it.
…It somehow reminded me of a Memorial Pop Socket. It looked like something from the Disaster Management Bureau.
“Agent, that is….”
“…….”
Agent Bronze looked at the pop-socket silently before eventually tucking it into his new clothes and muttering.
“It belongs to another agent. I found it… in the supplies warehouse.”
I realized from the nuance.
‘…Were there more agents in the warehouse?’
He had probably taken it from the corpse of an agent who had already died and been ‘stored’ in the supplies warehouse for a long time.
Agent Bronze completely adjusted his clothes and met my eyes.
Then he asked quietly.
“Did you happen to enter the supplies warehouse?”
“…….”
I shook my head. A hint of relief passed through the agent’s eyes.
“You did well. From now on, try to avoid ‘places that somehow feel unpleasant’ as much as possible. Human intuition is a fairly useful sense in these supernatural phenomena.”
“…….”
Just what kind of state was it inside the warehouse?
However, even if it wasn’t specific, I could guess what kind of state it was through the descriptions in the <Dark Exploration Record>.
‘…Because dozens of dying people would be trapped there, being processed into supplies and rapidly becoming contaminated.’
I tried not to imagine it and diverted my attention.
“So, what kind of item is it?”
If it had been useful, Agent Bronze would have brought it up already.
Sure enough, a slightly troubled expression passed over the agent’s face.
“…It is an item that helps to definitively send a rescue request text to the Disaster Management Bureau.”
“…….”
Ah.
“Since it’s a smartphone attachment item, I wondered if I could at least send a single message outside… but it seems it only sends if the user is a person in need of rescue.”
Because it would be an item created with such restrictions to produce its effect.
‘…Was the dead agent carrying it to give to someone?’
Of course, being able to definitively send a rescue request within this damn ghost story was a good item, but it meant it didn’t fit the conditions.
I didn’t know with what kind of heart Agent Bronze had endured in the supplies warehouse.
“Um, are you finished changing?”
“…! Yes.”
Ms. Go Yeongeun opened the tent door and came out.
“Actually, I think it would be good if you could talk to them, Agent Bronze. The students already know that you have the highest rank among us.”
“…….”
Agent Bronze nodded slightly and entered the tent.
Ms. Go Yeongeun sat down next to me with a deep sigh.
“…How are the students?”
“They’re okay. Once they focused on the fact that the agents have all returned and even performed a rescue, their morale boosted instantly.”
……Because they probably don’t know that we have to run away from this tent section soon.
Whew.
Both Ms. Go Yeongeun and I sighed at the same time.
“It would be great if… business resumed today.”
“…I know, right.”
I really hoped so.
I sat down, deeply agreeing.
“I mean, it was operating just fine when we came in, so how many days has it been closed and not operating….”
Exactly.
Every word echoed my own feelings.
‘It was operating just fine when we came in…….’
…….
…….
Wait a minute.
“Mr. G-Grapes?”
I stood up and sprinted toward the tent.
And I pulled the front open forcefully.
“Agent!”
Agent Bronze and the high school students looked back at me with wide eyes.
“That rescue request item, can we use it now?”
“Pardon?”
Agent Bronze looked at me as if momentarily bewildered, but soon he answered as kindly as possible, which didn’t quite match his fierce impression.
“The item itself is in a usable state, but as I said, an agent cannot use it.”
“Then what if a student uses it?”
“A duplicate request… will be pushed back in priority compared to the first report.”
The high school students flinched.
Right. Because those kids reported it, we entered this damn Lookie Mart for the rescue.
But you see.
“Isn’t there one more student?”
“……!”
I thought of the student who must still be lying blankly in the other tent.
The friend of these high school students who had gone missing even earlier, whom Agent Bronze had found.
A civilian who had not yet made a single rescue request to the Disaster Management Bureau.
“Calm down, Agent.”
Agent Bronze spoke calmly again, as if trying to soothe me.
“This is a device that can only send a 33-character text message, through which a detailed explanation is impossible to begin with.”
“It’s fine.”
Because I wasn’t planning to use it to inform them of our situation.
“That student can just freely make a rescue request as they wish. …If they only do that.”
If my guess was correct.
I swallowed hard.
“…The mart will open its doors today.”
“…!!”
I ran to the tent next door.
Then, I distributed one of the three remaining Nostalgia Candy to the high school student who had been lying there, still out of it.
A student named ‘Lee Subin’.
To the missing person who had entered this mart several days before the high school students who had reported to us.
The high school students who had come in with Ms. Go Yeongeun— following her judgment that having familiar faces would be better for stability—were watching anxiously from the side.
The moment I opened the wrapper of the Nostalgia Candy and put it into Lee Subin’s mouth.
“…….”
“S-Subin. Are you okay?”
Tears began to stream down from the student’s eyes.
And he sobbed.
“Heugh, heuuuuugh….”
“It’s okay, it’s—it’s okay…….”
The high school students came and hugged him tightly, not knowing what to do.
…Since Nostalgia Candy restores the body and mind to their peak state, not something that erases painful memories or experiences from the head.
I waited calmly for the friends to help Lee Subin settle down.
While checking the time.
[ 09 : 22 ]
And when the timing came where I couldn't wait any longer.
[ 09 : 43 ]
That was when I spoke.
“Lee Subin.”
“Heugh, huff, yes….”
“Actually, we are in a situation where your help is absolutely necessary if we want to get out of here faster.”
I held out the smartphone with the pop-socket attached to the student.
“Could you write your name and identity, and write that you are at Lookie Mart right now, and send a rescue request?”
“…….”
“I’m counting on you.”
The student grabbed the smartphone with trembling hands.
And he began to write like a madman.
[PleasehelpmepleaseI’mtrappedinLookieMartI’mLeeSubinlivingin■■- dongplease]
It was a text that seemed stained with blood. Tears kept falling from the eyes of the high school student as his fingers moved.
And… sent.
“…….”
“You did great. Rest for a bit.”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to spit out the Nostalgia Candy.
…If my guess was wrong, I might have to make him spit it out then to save it, but.
‘For now, I must wait.’
I left the tent, leaving the high school students to themselves.
Zzzzt.
Ms. Go Yeongeun, who was sitting in front, looked at me.
Sitting next to her, I kept checking my watch until the time came.
Until ten o’clock, the opening time.
[ 09 : 51 ]
Agent Bronze prepared to retrieve the protective items.
[ 09 : 54 ]
I calculated how long we could hold out in the 2nd-floor food court if it failed.
[ 09 : 58 ]
In the worst-case scenario, someone might have to be allocated the two escape items.
And….
[ 09 : 59 ]
The time approached.
All three of us began to lift our heads and look at the ceiling and the air.
Waiting for a signal.
Just like that….
[ 10 : 00 ]
The time had come.
“…….”
“…….”
“Agent Grapes, are you alr—”
Nanana-na nanana-nana nanan~
“…!!”
An alert sound, like a bell, began to fill the store.
-The doors of Lookie Mart are now open. We will welcome all our visiting customers today with a bright smile~
A cheerful guidance voice.
The familiar logo song began to ring out jauntily through the mart without any distortion.
T-t-t-tick.
Bright lights turned on in the mart, and suddenly, sunlight began to shine in from outside the window glass.
And the bizarre staff members vanished as if being rewound.
With strange creaking noises, they were sucked into the gaps of the open iron doors of the staff area, and then….
Thump.
The doors closed, and they were all gone.
Without a trace.
“…….”
Business had finally resumed.
“Phew.”
‘…We’re saved.’
I slumped into my seat.
“I-It worked! It worked!!”
I told you so.
With the most excited face I’d seen on her over the past few days, Ms. Go Yeongeun hit my shoulder, her face flushed as if she were about to cry, and looked around the store.
“Just how… no! That’s not important! Let’s just get out of this crazy place and talk!”
However, Agent Bronze, who had been looking at the store with a dazed expression, immediately turned to me with a look of realization.
“The rescue request! Is this perhaps….”
“Yes.”
Did he catch on?
Only then did I answer with a smile.
“Because for a rescue agent to enter, the mart must be in an operating state.”
“…!”
Right.
‘It’s a kind of reverse thinking.’
I created a situation where it ‘made sense’ for the mart to be open for business.
It was precisely… a matter of preconditions.
“They clearly said there was no way to prevent people from entering Lookie Mart.”
It was recorded not only in the manual for rescue agents I had received but also precisely in the Dark Exploration Record.
There is no known method for conclusion or sealing discovered to date. It is also impossible to proactively prevent disappearances.
The entry conditions are even written down.
Entry conditions for Lookie Mart: Search for the mart within a 3km radius of the building where Lucky Mart used to be and travel for more than 20 minutes.
What does this mean?
‘It means that as long as you follow those conditions, you can enter this horrible ghost story called Lookie Mart immediately.’
Thinking about it the other way around...
“Then, it means that Lookie Mart must be open for business whenever someone tries to enter.”
-For a victim to enter, Lookie Mart must be open on that day.
“And...”
“A new agent will be coming in today.”
Ms. Go Yeongeun spoke up abruptly.
Her face was flushed with shock and realization.
“Because an agent will enter since those high schoolers called for rescue earlier!”
Correct.
So, for an agent from the Disaster Management Bureau to come today after receiving a request for support...
“Yes. Today is a day that they absolutely must be open.”
I laughed.
Ms. Go Yeongeun laughed with me for a moment, but soon confusion filled her face.
“...? Wait a minute. Then the cause and effect are reversed...”
That was also true.
“It's not that missing persons occur because the doors open, but that they start business in the morning because the doors must be open for missing persons to occur. The chronological order is a complete mess.”
“That’s why it’s a ghost story.”
It follows a strange, backward, bizarre law that we cannot understand...
Just like this third floor where event shops for all sorts of seasons stretch on endlessly.
“I suppose so.”
Instead of confusion, a sense of calm and an active discomfort took hold on Ms. Go Yeongeun's face.
It was a face that looked like she wanted to run out of this mart right this instant.
...I relate.
So let’s get out of here quickly.
We immediately stood up and began preparing to leave.
‘I have the gift certificates, and the Escape Item.’
With this, all three high schoolers and the three of us should be able to get out safely.
“Excellent.”
Agent Bronze whispered softly while getting ready.
Then he gestured slightly toward the three students who were coming out of the tent, rejoicing at the words ‘we can leave now.’
“Those civilians are being rescued thanks to Agent Grapes.”
Honestly, that wasn't true. If even one of Agent Bronze or Ms. Go Yeongeun hadn't been here, I think we all would have died...
Anyway, it was the moment I was about to say thank you.
“.......”
I suddenly...
Realized my mouth felt excessively easy to move.
The thing that was hindering my pronunciation was gone.
‘Ah.’
And I realized I could no longer taste the sweet sugar in my mouth.
“.......”
The Nostalgia Candy had completely melted away.
Which means...
“......!”
“Agent!”
A maddening surge of pain struck the right side of my body.
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