In this crazy mart ghost story, I successfully made a normal purchase using a gift certificate.
“…….”
I took the trembling high schooler from the counter, holding the items I had finished paying for.
Then, to ensure my missing right arm wasn’t discovered, I stepped out from the checkout counter with my jacket draped halfway over my shoulders.
One step. Two steps.
And when I took a deep breath and looked back….
“…!”
All the grotesque parts of the mart had become blurred.
The bizarre slogans, the strange items, the eerie blood and organs.
Unless I paid close attention, they were hard to see, as if they had been blurred out of my cognitive system.
To be precise, they no longer looked grotesque…. They looked natural.
As if we were ordinary shoppers who had purchased items at an ordinary mart.
“Wow.”
I heard the high schooler stop and gasp in admiration.
But instead….
“Whoops.”
“……!”
The shoppers from the past also began to perceive us as normal.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
When the shopper who bumped into him looked him straight in the eye and apologized, the high schooler faltered and stepped back.
“I’m sorry.”
I led the high schooler, whose eyes were wide with shock, and moved aside.
“I told you, didn’t I? You mustn’t be surprised.”
“Ye… Yessir.”
The high schooler hurriedly stuck to my side.
However, his eyes began to sparkle.
“S-so… we can just leave like this?”
“Yes.”
“Wow…!”
In this way, all the tasks required for escape are skipped.
Because by paying with gift certificates, you are treated the same as the shoppers from the past.
For instance, even if you had damaged items or eaten food after closing time, you could leave as long as you paid for it.
“Excuse me, you’re checking out…!”
“Just a moment.”
Just like Ms. Go Yeongeun is doing right now.
I listened intently to the counter where Ms. Go Yeongeun was checking out.
“CustomerYouBrokeSomethingHereAtLookieMart!PayCompensation!Thirt yNineThousandNineHundredWon!”
“Yes.”
Ms. Go Yeongeun calmly handed over a 50,000 won bill, and the cashier, who had been swelling up like a balloon, snatched the bill, gave an unnaturally wide smile, and handed back 10,000 won in change.
Then it asked again in a monotonous voice.
“Ah, shall I help you check out this gum?”
“……Yes.”
Only then was the item Ms. Go Yeongeun had picked out normally paid for.
Phew. I let out a sigh of relief.
As I thought.
‘…When you don’t know when the mart doors will open, there’s nothing better than this.’
It’s an item that allows you to settle most mistakes made during closing time by purchasing them and then leaving.
And… to be perfectly honest.
I predicted that if more than a week passed in the Lookie Mart while it was closed, any one of us would eventually make a mistake.
Whether it was me, the high schooler, or Ms. Go Yeongeun.
‘…Because there’s a limit to the items I brought separately.’
Eating food on the landing without it being counted is a trick that's only possible if you have the items for it.
Eventually, the moment we ran out, we would have ended up stealing mart food or daily necessities, and the probability of being caught at least once was very high.
Then it would have been the end for us as Supplies.
‘I’m glad we didn’t have to see that.’
I stared ahead with a sense of gratification.
Ms. Go Yeongeun waited until the student originally assigned to Agent Bronze finished checking out, then they came out of the checkout counter together.
Safely.
“…I passed thanks to you. Thank you.”
“It was nothing.”
And now, what’s left is….
“Bronze.”
We signaled to the two people still standing inside the checkout area.
Ryu Jaekwan and Lee Subin.
The two people selected to use the emergency escape item, the Five Cardinal Colors Shoelace.
—It seems Bronze won’t be able to cover his costs within the one hundred thousand won limit.
—And… it would be better for that student to leave together. …The student who went missing first.
Bronze was selected because he had already been processed as ‘Supplies’ and the amount required was at a level that could never be covered by a hundred thousand won, making a normal return difficult.
And Lee Subin, the student who had gone missing previously, was confirmed next.
She had been missing the longest among us, so we didn’t know what kind of debt she might owe the mart, and she was in a state of severe mental shock, finding it difficult to even move without the candy.
‘We can’t pocket that item anyway.’
The Dokkaebi Workshop could track whether the ‘Spiritual Efficacy’ had vanished after use.
In that case, it was better to use it to its full potential.
I spoke quickly.
“You can leave now.”
“…….”
Bronze made eye contact with me quietly and opened his mouth.
“You go out first.”
Ah.
“Once I confirm you have left, we will immediately….”
“Can we leave?!”
“…!!”
Someone came rushing toward Bronze as if spilling over.
A housewife who looked to be in her 40s, drooling. ……A Contaminated person with strange eyes, wearing a doll instead of an arm.
A Long-term Missing Person.
“Can we leave there?? You’re talking to them? Hahaha! Let’s go! Let’s gooooo~!”
……She had realized that Bronze was with our group.
‘I thought that once we paid and left, even the Long-term Missing Persons wouldn’t be able to do anything stupid.’
Because if they caused a scene by picking a fight with a normal shopper, the staff would come.
But that was too rational an assumption.
Once contaminated by a ghost story, the logic of one's desires can be flipped.
For instance….
That kind of unconditional and intense desire to escape.
“I want to go too! I want to go toooooo!! Give it to me! Give me the gift certificate!!”
Attention is drawn.
The cashier looks this way.
“CustomerYouBrokeSomethingHereAtLookieMart!PayCompensation!Five MillionTwoHundredEightThousandTwoHundredFortyWon!”
‘No.’
At the very least, we can shake them off and run, but those two must not be caught…!
I ran into the mart sales floor. Then, blocking the cashier’s view, I shouted.
“Go now, hurry!”
Without a word, Bronze quickly pushed the Long-term Missing Person down to temporarily subdue them, then immediately took the high schooler and tied the shoelace in an instant.
And then, three steps.
“Heeeee, I’m scared, I’m scared, let me out!”
“Pay compensation!”
With those crazed voices as background noise, the two of them vanished from the mart as if evaporating on their final step.
1st Escape: Ryu Jaekwan, Lee Subin / Success.
However, there was no time to catch our breath.
“Can we go? Can we go?”
“I’m going too!! He says he has money!!”
As attention was drawn, other Long-term Missing Persons began to approach from the shelves, escalators, and near the restrooms, muttering to themselves.
I shouted as I ran toward the counter.
“The candle, the candle!!”
Ms. Go Yeongeun had already pulled out the candle and hidden the high schoolers behind her.
“You guys, get out!”
The three of them run toward the exit. And… Ms. Go Yeongeun sends only the two high schoolers out through the exit.
The two who went through the glass doors vanished like a lie.
2nd Escape: Jang Minseo, Kim Jaehoon / Success.
They had returned.
Then Ms. Go Yeongeun runs back.
“Roe Deer, Grapes!! Anyway!!”
Hurriedly holding the candle, she gestured to me. I hurriedly jumped into the light of Ms. Go Yeongeun’s candle.
However, Long-term Missing Persons had already begun appearing outside the sales floor and the checkout area, and it was a scene of chaos as ‘staff’ showed anomalies and requisitioned Supplies.
“Let’s get out of here, quick!”
I really wanted to.
But I had been waiting for this moment.
the moment when only the spy and the person involved were left.
“Wait, just a moment.”
“What now…!”
I pulled out the remaining gift certificates from my pocket.
“Let’s finish using the gift certificates before we go.”
“…!!”
I quickly stepped back inside the checkout counter.
From the moment I got the gift certificates, there was something I had been aiming to do if there was any money left.
The unique items sold in this mart.
Just like I had obtained items from the Death Road or the Alien Shop ghost stories, since this was a mart ghost story, there were bound to be anomalous items.
‘But among them, there will surely be some useful items for sale.’
That’s what makes it interesting.
And those are things you can’t get by stealing from the shoppers of the past.
Because they are reenacting past actions, the items they purchase are, naturally, all ordinary daily necessities.
Therefore, I had to find and purchase them directly by whatever means necessary.
‘Find it quickly.’
Fast enough so that the people who already escaped wouldn’t grow suspicious.
And before getting caught up in the commotion…!
‘Hurry!’
I hurriedly scanned the store.
Because of the Children’s Day event in May, the event stalls on the 1st floor were full of toys, and among these, it was actually easier to find ‘bizarre items.’
The things that look blurred and are only visible if you focus intensely are the special products within the ‘Lookie Mart’ ghost story.
I saw a model train, a donut tube, and a clay set. But I didn't pick them up.
‘Something safe.’
I want to minimize gambling.
Ideally, it would be an item I’ve confirmed in the Exploration Records of this mart ghost story.
The problem was that it was difficult to find the exact same item based on only a two or three-word physical description.
‘I have to identify it.’
I gritted my teeth and searched both my memory and the stalls. I had to find something I knew, if possible….
“…….”
Wait a minute.
‘That.’
I saw an event stall piled high with dolls.
Among them, several dolls appeared blurred.
I approached and, piercing through the blur, observed the doll I had captured.
A white lizard doll.
It was the exact same doll that was on Section Chief Lee Jaheon’s desk in the Team D office.
“…!!”
I picked up the doll.
“Did you choose?”
“Yes. What about you, Yeongeun?”
Ms. Go Yeongeun also nodded. A small item was held in her hand as well.
“Let’s go.”
We breathlessly went to the counter and paid for the ‘Items’ each of us had chosen.
…I could hear the sound of Long-term Missing Persons becoming Supplies behind us.
Along with the sound of being asked for insane amounts of money that we could never have imagined with the gift certificates in our hands.
“That will be twenty-eight thousand won.”
Having grabbed an item each in an instant, we panted and headed toward the exit.
“…Let’s agree not to mention this unless the Management Bureau asks.”
“……Yes. …Thank you.”
Instead of testing Ms. Go Yeongeun’s last bit of patience, I submissively ran with her toward the mart’s exit.
“I’m blowing out the candle!”
“Yes!”
And I opened the exit door.
‘Ha.’
Is it because I was trapped for several days? My stomach feels queasy. I keep looking back, wondering if I made any mistakes.
‘Let’s go.’
I gritted my teeth and quickened my pace.
Even the grotesque signboard was no longer clearly visible. All I could see through the glass door was the scenery of the past. It was even scary to think I might step out into that place as it was.
But….
‘Ignore it.’
Ms. Go Yeongeun and I stepped forward.
The automatic doors opened smoothly….
Ding.
I moved my feet, running.
Forward, forward.
The sunlight stung my eyes along with a cold wind.
I blinked.
“Ha.”
The light slowly faded.
What I saw with my recovered vision was….
A cozy alleyway of the 2020s, with the bright sunlight of late winter.
And the figures of those who had escaped first.
“…!”
“A-Agent…!”
The high schoolers ran toward us. Their faces were already smeared with tears and snot, but their expressions were filled with joy.
Seeing them, it sank in.
‘We made it out.’
3rd Escape: Go Yeongeun, Kim Soleum / Success.
We finally escaped.
Discussion