056. Welcome to Happy Lostco [3]

"Just trust us."

It was a reckless thing to say — a promise with not a shred of evidence behind it. But Choi Eun-ha's mother believed me anyway. And that wasn't all. She even turned around and talked her visibly skeptical husband into believing me too.

Having won her husband over, Eun-ha's mother pressed an old locket into my hands.

"This is... an old talisman that's been in our family for generations. I think it might help you find Eun-ha."

"Thank you."

With her parents reassured, the next step was preparing to enter the Other Side. And before stepping in there, I intended to prepare everything that could be prepared. It had been the same back at Seonhwa High — whether or not you walked into the Other Side ready was the difference between heaven and earth.

Using my Cheongangsu Shapeshifting Art, I took the form of the staff member I'd wrangled with alongside Eun-ha's parents, then went looking for the mart's supply storage while still in disguise.

"Huh? In-seop, weren't you off early today?"

"I left something behind."

My heart lurched when someone recognized the face, but I managed to smooth it over. Thanks to that, I made it into the supply storage without incident. What I was after was a meat-department employee badge.

"Something that gets me a discount? Then I'm taking it."

Though of course, the reason I'd come to the supply storage instead of the employee locker room while claiming to search for my badge was...

"There it is. Temporary employee badges — their sloppy management just saved my life."

I'd guessed the temporary badges from back then might still be lying around, and the guess had landed dead on. I stuffed several of them into my pockets. The whole point of the temporary badges was that they carried no name and no photo. Imagine presenting an employee badge at checkout to claim a discount and getting shot down with, 'Sir, this face doesn't match the name on the badge?' — that would be an inconvenient conversation.

Badges secured, I replayed how Eun-ha had fallen into the Other Side. She'd said it clearly:

'I was heading back to the food section when I noticed there were weirdly no people around me, and it felt off. Then when I came to...'

A school. A hospital. A supermarket. An amusement park. The uncanny wrongness of being alone in places that should never, by any logic, leave you alone. Lostco used that wrongness as its lure — a fishing hook for prey. The reports about the mart anomaly all described the same process Eun-ha had gone through.

'Similar to the Corner Man, whose trigger was turning around in an alley.'

Except this one's conditions were stricter. Turning to look behind you in an alley is something anyone can do anywhere. But in a mega-mart like this, unless it was a dead-quiet hour, there was rarely a moment when not a single person was nearby.

"Ooh, should I swap out my BB cushion~?"

"Look at this, it's new! Isn't the color so pretty?"

Even now, a decent crowd was browsing the cosmetics corner. For Eun-ha to have been left standing there alone at a moment like this — I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only call it spectacularly bad luck.

Which raised the question: how was I supposed to clear all these people out? As it happened, there was a spirit medium standing right here with exactly the right ability for the job.

"Min-seo, with Pixie's power — can you chase the people out of the cosmetics corner, and keep anyone from coming back in?"

"I can do it!"

Min-seo nodded hard, and in her posture I could see a confidence that hadn't been there before. When I'd heard she'd gone off and contracted with other fairies on her own while I was training in the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method, I'd been startled — worried some nasty fairy might fleece her. But apparently that stretch of independence had grown her up a whole stage.

'Haah, passive growth is absolute bliss~.'

Truly a disciple who learns ten things from one lesson — the legendary Solomon's Pick.

"Pixie."

-You never call me!

Pixie, appearing for the first time in a while, went scampering across the cosmetics corner scattering rye seeds as she ran. The people already there — and the ones just walking in — all turned on their heels and drifted away toward other corners of the store.

"The effect is outstanding."

It wouldn't do much against spirit mediums, but against ordinary civilians it was a direct hit.

"Well done. Now, last check — are you really coming into the Other Side with me? Once we're in there, even I can't guarantee your safety."

"I-I did it! I've completed contracts with every single fairy you recommended, Master! I absolutely won't be dead weight!"

"You contracted with all of them!?"

Right after we got back from Yeoin Island, I'd felt bad for Min-seo moping about how little she'd helped, so I'd told her which fairies were worth contracting with and how to call them. But to land every single one of those contracts in just one week... At this point it wasn't auto-hunting anymore. It was straight-up cheating.

"Fine. Momo, you feel the same way?"

"I haven't exactly been idle this past week either."

With that, Momo drew a small wooden box out of her bag.

"That's... don't tell me — the shikigami that Ryuko woman had?"

"Yes. I met with her during the week you were training, Master Kim, and she gave me a few."

I didn't bother ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠asking whether she could actually handle them. Sugawara Ryuko was Tsukumo Momo's relative — 'so that distinguished family on her mother's side is a spirit-medium lineage, then.' Spiritual aptitude running in the blood was a tale as old as time. And besides, I'd known for a long while that Tsukumo Momo had the makings of a spirit medium. If she hadn't, the anomalies wouldn't have stared at her quite so nakedly.

"And Master Kim taught me things too."

What he'd taught was the meditation method for cultivating spiritual energy — the same one he'd passed to Lee Ha-ram. Ha-ram had learned it, and Momo had picked it up over his shoulder. Apparently, over this past week she had made it completely her own.

"Before, my spirit sense was always vague and murky, but channeling spirit power on Yeoin Island let me finally get a solid grasp of it."

Her spiritual energy felt sharper, clearer than Ha-ram's — the one who'd learned it first.

"Hnngh. So I'm not the only sorcery genius around here? Everyone's growing way too fast for a single week's passing."

-...And you're one to talk? The man who entered the world of spirit arts barely a month ago and has already climbed to the very doorstep of Special Grade?

I ignored Fey's incredulous jab and turned to Ha-ram. "Ha-ram, you stay here and dig deeper into the mart anomaly for me."

"Hnngh... I'm ashamed, Master. As your first disciple, to be falling furthest behind..."

"No, these two are just growing abnormally fast."

Though if we're ranking abnormalities, I was obviously the strangest one of all.

"And besides — you have your own specialty, don't you?"

"...Right! I'll scrape together every scrap of intel, domestic and foreign! No — since I'm at it anyway, I'll hack into that Paranormal Administration Bureau site I found recently and tear through it too!"

Wait, when did you even find that site!? I knew you were a whiz with anything digital, but... what are you, Anonymous?

Come to think of it, for a team that had assembled by pure coincidence, every single member of this anomaly-hunting crew had unnervingly extraordinary abilities. At this point, our meeting felt less like chance and more like some thread of destiny.

'...Don't tell me Eun-ha has something going on too?'

The possibility was there. Her mother's family name was unsettling from the very first syllable. Von ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hohenheim. The moment you hear it, don't you just start looking around for an absurdly expensive robe?

"...I'll ask for the details later."

The current time was 8:15 PM. Only three hours and fifteen minutes remained until the 11:30 PM closing time.

I had no idea what exactly happened after closing. But whatever it was, it was clearly nothing good for customers made of flesh and blood.

We agreed on the entry order: me first, then Min-seo, then Momo. Going in ahead made it easier to cover the two following behind. And so, with the others withdrawing out of sight, I stood alone in the cosmetics corner and...

"Huh?"

Nothing. I didn't fall into the Other Side. I waited there long enough for the others to come back and check whether I'd dropped — and I still hadn't dropped.

"Could the trigger condition be wrong?"

"It shouldn't be..."

'A dead zone of people, created by several coincidences stacking on top of each other.'

Eun-ha's experience said so, and the reports mentioned it consistently.

"Um — may I try going first?"

Then Tsukumo Momo stepped forward.

"Go ahead."

And the instant I left the cosmetics corner, leaving only Momo behind with a heart full of doubts —

Woooooooong.

A familiar sensation swept through my whole body. I rushed back to the cosmetics corner, but Tsukumo Momo was already gone. No — it wasn't just Momo. Yu Min-seo, who had entered the corner one step ahead of me, had vanished beyond a single aisle's distance.

In that moment, it dawned on me.

"That little bastard...!"

The anomaly had refused me. Or, to put it precisely —

'Don't tell me you're the type who won't even put a bone-stuck fish in its mouth?'

"Ha!"

From its deliberate staging of the opening act to the way it even picked and chose its prey. The Happy Mart ghost story was no pushover of an anomaly. If this had happened to the me of one week ago, I'd have panicked and floundered, utterly lost. But I was different now.

Samadhi — the essence of the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method — meant a state of mind in which body and soul become wholly one, to perceive the true nature of things and attain enlightenment. And I had achieved the First Dhyana of that samadhi. The First Dhyana was the state of pouring oneself into a single thing and tasting its purest joy — and at the same time, the state of reaching out one's hand to seize the formless.

"Hooooooooh."

I steadied my breathing and focused my mind. The state of First Dhyana that had taken me an entire week to reach, I entered in exactly three breaths. And there — in the empty air of the deserted cosmetics corner — I began to see it: the seam where space pressed against space.

'The boundary between reality and the Other Side.'

I wedged my hand into the gap between the two spaces. Instantly, a crushing pressure clamped down as if to pulp my fingers. The anomaly was trying to block me from entering. But —

Fwoooosh!

My Do-ryeok — evolved from hot water into true flame — answered the Other Side's resistance. It shook off the anomaly's opposition and, at the same time, set the boundary line itself ablaze.

Fwoooosh!

Crreeeak-crack!

"Melty melty~ liquefy for me now~!"

Crreeeak-crack!

KA-BOOM!

The boundary where reality met the Other Side finally gave out and collapsed. Together with the fissures that bloom in empty air when an anomaly is exorcised, a hole opened — just big enough for one person to pass through.

'If an anomaly won't let you in, maybe ask yourself whether your spirit power simply wasn't enough.'

"There~ I opened the door for you. So that means you've consented to me coming in, doesn't it?"

I said it for the sake of saying it, but watching the fissure slowly knit itself closed told me there was no time to dawdle.

"Pardon the intrusion."

Crossing the boundary between reality and the Other Side, I found Tsukumo Momo and Min-seo waiting, having come through ahead of me. Except —

"Why are you both staring at me like startled rabbits?"

"Th-that thing you just did..."

"What thing?"

"You... you tore straight through space to get in here?"

"Tore through space!? M-Master, were you secretly Majin Buu this whole time!?"

"To be exact, it wasn't space itself — I just forced open the boundary of the Other Side that's pressed up against it, and walked through."

No, more importantly, Min-seo — how on earth do you even know about Majin Buu?

"...I knew Master Kim was no ordinary person, but... how do I put it... you seem to be slipping further and further away from being human."

"You're exaggerating."

I left the two of them to their fussing and surveyed our surroundings.

"...How grotesque."

It was exactly as Eun-ha had described. The interior and exterior looked almost identical to the mart we'd just left — but every single product on the shelves came from brands I had never once seen in my life.

"Well now, those names really make you want to reach for your wallet..."

It wasn't just the products — the interior design itself carried a namelessly unsettling wrongness.

"What kind of lunatic on this earth designs a mart like this?"

Clicking my tongue, I sank back into meditation and searched for the boundary line between reality and the Other Side. But...

"So the cheap trick only works from the outside in, does it?"

The boundary leading from inside back out was nowhere to be found. If it had existed, I could have pulled Eun-ha out the moment I found her. A shame, truly.

Woooooong.

Just then, my phone rang again — Eun-ha. The other side calling first was never a good sign.

The moment an explosion roared through the receiver, my blood ran cold.

"Eun-ha!? Eun-ha!? What was that sound! Eun-ha!"

No answer came back — only more explosions and the crackle of gunfire. Which meant she was no longer in any position to hold a phone to her ear.

"Goddammit...!"

"Master Kim! That explosion just now — didn't it echo faintly even from far away, not just through the phone?"

"...So you're telling me it's closer than I thought."

"Yes."

At Momo's words, I recovered my composure — and then I listened. Pop-pop... Boom... There it was, unmistakable. Gunshots and detonations, at quite some distance, but audible all the same.

Come to think of it, that was only natural. However close to infinite the mart's interior might be, Eun-ha's walking speed wasn't. She wasn't a fast walker to begin with, and how far could she really have gotten? And she hadn't moved an inch since piecing together the situation while talking to me — so she couldn't be far at all.

"We're moving. Think you two can keep up?"

If they couldn't, I'd have called Wang Lingguan. He still hadn't fully recovered from being wrecked on Yeoin Island, but he could at least play the part of a pack mule.

"I'm fine — come forth!"

"Me too!"

When Momo opened her little wooden box, an Inugami with golden fur emerged.

"The Inugami that carried you on Yeoin Island?"

"Yes. She said I'd taken a liking to it, so she gave it to me."

"And Min-seo, you're..."

Min-seo's body was hovering a little off the ground.

"I'm Zephyros, the fairy of the wind!"

Zephyros — the god of the west wind from Greek myth. In this case, the name Zephyros itself carried the symbolism and had split off into an avatar, becoming a fairy. But an avatar or not, it was a fairy bearing the name of a true god — a considerably powerful one, even if not quite at Fey's level. I was the one who'd recommended it, but I hadn't expected her to land the contract this quickly.

"That's a fairly strong fairy. Did you negotiate the price properly?"

"Yes! Since I wanted strong winds, we agreed that whenever I summon it, I have to sleep with my electric fan blasting on max!"

What kind of dangerous price is that!? Well — either way, our mobility problem was solved.

"Follow me!"

We ran toward the sounds of battle. A few minutes in, we found them: three separate groups waging war with modern firearms and sorcery alike, against the backdrop of the endlessly sprawling mart.

"Just as I thought..."

I'd expected it from the moment Eun-ha first described them — two of the three were familiar. The black suits were the Paranormal Administration Bureau. The special forces were Cosmos's anomaly-response unit. But —

"And what on earth are those?"

A crowd dressed in neither improved hanbok nor proper Daoist robes, but in some bizarre, cult-brewed pseudo-traditional garb. I'd never seen their like before.

"Jeong-myung-gyo — those cultist bastards! What in the world dragged them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in here!?"

Ah. Thank you for the perfectly timed TMI.

Jeong-myung-gyo. On the heels of the Bureau, Cosmos, and Deva — a new faction had entered the stage. And yet...

"Why does the name sound so familiar...?"