Chapter 137
Chapter 137
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
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Go Yeongeun was the calm one among her peers.
That was a solid fact. She'd proven it during the entrance exam when they woke up on that insane subway, and again when they escaped that deranged exhibition where they had to gouge out the eyes of the spectators.
But right now, Go Yeongeun standing on the stairs leading up to the 'fourth floor'—the culprit behind the missing persons case in this bizarre mart...
"P-person, r-right...?"
She was too calm.
A pale face that didn't even twitch at the sight of the high school girl screaming and asking questions.
No words.
Her expressionless peer stood on the stairs, looking down at us...
Wait.
'...Standing on the stairs?'
Hold on!
Didn't the revolving door disappear the moment we started up the stairs? That meant we couldn't get back to the third floor on our own.
So then.
'How long has she been here...?'
No, wait.
'Why is she even here?'
Go Yeongeun could be one of the two agents who entered ahead of us. The fact that there were two was a hint in itself. Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agents usually operated solo or in full teams.
Two meant a senior-junior pair.
But still.
Why was a bureau rookie standing alone on the stairs to the fourth floor where people go missing? Without her senior.
For at least a week.
Trapped on these... stairs.
"......"
A chilling premonition crawled up my spine.
I opened my mouth.
"Agent?"
No response.
"Mountain Goat... ma'am?"
The Go Yeongeun on the stairs opened her mouth.
"Welcome to Lucky Mart!"
I grabbed the high school girl and shoved her behind me.
Then I seized the door.
"Agent."
"Thank you always, customer!"
The expressionless figure staggered down the stairs.
Go Yeongeun.
No, something wearing Go Yeongeun's form... an employee.
'Damn it...!'
I tried to fling open the door and drag the high school girl out running, but I noticed something off.
'Sound.'
No creaking.
...And Go Yeongeun's outfit wasn't the employee uniform. She was still in her agent gear.
So then...
'Contamination?'
I checked the figure on the stairs again.
Go Yeongeun's appearance, a definite human shape, descending the stairs.
"......Hold onto the door handle."
"Y-yes?!"
I lunged forward.
And as Go Yeongeun stepped onto the landing, I pinned her down and subdued her.
"...!!"
"Lucky Mart..."
It worked.
Her body was still definitely human.
...In that case!
With one hand pressing her shoulder, I pulled out the remaining Blue Soda chewy candy from the tattoo on my wrist with the other.
And somehow shoved it into Go Yeongeun's open mouth.
"!"
She didn't even struggle. She just kept trying to walk and repeat the same line.
And thanks to her naturally moving teeth, the candy got crushed, and at least some of it went down her esophagus into her stomach.
I watched the scene, breaking out in cold sweat...
A moment later.
"Urk! Bleeech!"
Go Yeongeun started vomiting water like mad.
I patted her back as best I could. Black water pooled on the landing.
It wasn't as much as what I'd choke on after a month in Brown's talk show... but it was alien and bizarre enough to horrify the high school girl.
I supported Go Yeongeun as she vomited something close to blue at the end and collapsed, drained.
"Hahk, haaahk, heuk......"
"Agent."
I called to my peer.
"......!"
Her returned eyes focused on me.
Then her pupils dilated, and she started trembling violently.
"...D-Deer... Mr. Deer."
Her reason was back.
Reacting to 'agent,' rational enough in this ghost story to call me by my callsign instead of my name.
'Good...'
"Uwaaaah!!"
"...?!"
Aaack!
I hurriedly grabbed Go Yeongeun as she tried to scramble back up the stairs in a panic.
"Haaah, uwaaak, this damn mart! Hallucinations are too real! Ack!"
"......"
"I-I won't fall for it. You're dead, Mr. Deer is de—"
Ah.
Right.
"Um, I'm not dead. Agent."
"...?!"
"We were assigned to the same job."
"?!"
Convincing Go Yeongeun—who thought I'd been missing in a ghost story for a month and declared dead—that I was alive and well, infiltrated as a spy... took another several dozen minutes...
"Th-thank you.... I really survived thanks to you."
"No problem."
Fortunately, once Go Yeongeun regained her composure, she pieced together the circumstances with me and accepted the situation.
Explaining without leaking weird info to the civilian high school girl was the real challenge...
I gazed at the now-empty chewy candy wrapper with a strange feeling.
'This candy... is seriously potent.'
In Brown's late-night talk show, things were so insanely hectic I hadn't noticed, but if it could purify contamination in one shot like this, it was ridiculously powerful.
'Too good for something listed in the Darkness Exploration Records... overpowered for the lore.'
Anyway, priority one was escaping this insane mart.
Still, having a person—a reliable peer—join us lifted my spirits a bit.
So first, confirmation.
I stepped aside slightly, clearly revealing the door to the third-floor mart to Go Yeongeun.
"Can you see the exit?"
"......"
Go Yeongeun nodded.
"Yes."
Phew.
"Precisely, I can't see the door itself, but I can see light through the crack... If someone opens it, I think I could get out."
"Then we're good."
The moment I thought that, Go Yeongeun covered her face with one hand.
"But... I can't leave the mart anyway."
"Pardon?"
"...I damaged merchandise."
"...! It's fine. This is outside the mart, so as long as no one saw, eating food isn't—"
"No. I got caught breaking stuff inside the mart."
"......"
"It wasn't me, the other agent did it, but they lumped it in with me anyway."
I fell silent, then asked.
"...Where's that senior agent?"
"Dead."
"......"
"Or at least, I think so. ...He went up there."
Go Yeongeun pointed at the stairs.
"Family went missing here, apparently. Last trace ended at the fourth floor... He came here intending to go up."
"Ugh, can't even bother with polite speech. Isn't that crazy? He goes alone to die, why when I came in... Ah."
"......"
"Anyway, I plugged my ears and sat here the moment he opened the fourth-floor door. ...Still heard it."
The jingle.
And soon after, she became an 'employee' too.
"......"
"Hey."
"Call me Grape."
"Got it. 'Agent Grape.'"
Go Yeongeun rubbed her face and looked up.
Her expression was resolved.
"I'm done for anyway, so when you two go after business resumes, use me as bait. I was trapped here contaminated and nearly starved... least I can do."
"No."
I hesitated briefly, then stepped back, grabbed the high school girl, and pushed her forward.
"E-eh? Agent...?"
"More importantly, can you help? ...My ankle's hurt."
"Ah."
We barely convinced the high school girl—who promised not to scream from fear—to take the candy out of her mouth temporarily.
And earnestly handed over the first-aid kit we'd brought; Go Yeongeun fixed and treated the girl's ankle with twenty times my expertise.
"But if I eat this candy, won't it just get in the way? That candy..."
"Keep it in for a few hours at least."
I soothed the high school girl, who was on the verge of panic again with her mentality and stamina depleted.
Then I pulled out the lure.
"Eat this first."
"...!! F-food...!"
The high school girl's eyes doubled in size.
The instant rations I pulled out as if from her bag vanished into all three of our mouths in seconds.
'Finally safe to eat outside the mart.'
We couldn't pull them out at the food court, only 'safe' food there.
I only took low-odor ones just in case, but honestly, I'd never eaten anything so fast in my life.
I downed sterilized milk in 2 seconds and wolfed a castella in about 30.
'Finally feel alive.'
Then I let the high school girl sleep.
I wanted to collapse and sleep hours too, but talking with my equally haggard peer came first.
We shared what we knew and chatted idly to recover mentality.
"De—No, Agent Grape's always so prepared. I uselessly brought mart blueprints."
'But the third floor's too vast, info too vague and spotty to be useful,' Go Yeongeun muttered bitterly.
"Brought coins from other darknesses just in case, but they don't count as currency here..."
Hold on.
"You have blueprints?"
"Yes. Regular exploration teams include them. ...To survey uncharted spots."
"Can I see?"
"Of course."
Go Yeongeun pulled a thick, folded pamphlet-like paper from her small backpack.
Printed floor plans annotated with handwriting in various colors—notes and drawings.
'...Bureau agents' notes.'
"......"
I stared entranced, then spotted one marked store.
"Agent."
"What I mentioned earlier. 'Currency to pay.'"
"Pardon? Yes."
"I think we can get that."
I started to point with my finger but held back. Didn't want her freaking out or repulsed.
Explained verbally instead.
"Saw a useful store marked on your map. There's a hint."
"......"
But Go Yeongeun took a deep breath and shook her head.
"Sorry, but I'm against it. Third floor's too big; no clue how long to get there. And returning, finding this stair door again... scares me."
Cold sweat beaded on Go Yeongeun's calm face.
And an air of trying to hide her fear.
"You two go when business resumes. I'll... wait for rescue. No employees or items to dodge danger now..."
That was.
"Now we do."
"...!"
"Remember? You used it before."
I pulled an item from my inventory tattoo after ages.
Now with our party at three—perfect recommended size—we could use it.
...No bronze agent to eye us suspiciously.
Holding the 'Mysterious Candle Kit' item box, I smiled genuinely for the first time in days.
"Let's make candles again."
This candle-making item that contributed greatly to escaping the 'Mansion of the Blind' was finally recyclable.
Dim stair landing.
Three people crouched facing the floor in the cramped space.
I spread the black paper enclosed in the box on the landing and drew complex patterns for candle-making.
Then prompted.
"Draw a card."
"Hooo."
"Whoa..."
Go Yeongeun and the high school girl each randomly drew one, backs up.
Keywords determining the candle's properties.
'Not bad.'
Good keyword order. ...Weirdly matching our states, maybe.
Anyway, now the final card. I looked at the faced-up ones.
Honor, healing, meditation, wound, falsehood, anger, interference, protection, one-strike, gaze...
'Last time, falsehood.'
With honor, interference, falsehood—we fooled the exhibition guide machines into thinking we were paying guests.
'This time.'
I picked one without hesitation.
A card of hands cradling a softly glowing pale purple crystal orb.
I burned all three cards to ash, smeared it like paint inside the crayon outline I'd drawn for the candle, and folded the paper.
Exactly like before.
After some waiting.
"Done."
"W-wow."
A pale blue candle rolled into my hand from the paper.
Of course, I can't use it, and neither can the injured minor surviving on nostalgia.
And even without that, we have an experienced user here.
I handed the candle to Go Yeongeun.
"Same as before, please."
"...Yes."
Go Yeongeun took the finished candle.
"This time, I'll do it right."
Leaving a subtle nuance.
The candle ignited in her hand and began to burn.
Fwoosh.
The light illuminated us.
"Ah..."
I pulled the high school girl behind Go Yeongeun.
Like when Brown killed the lights, but colder, lighter.
As if cool mist wrapped us following the candlelight...
"......"
We slowly opened the door and stepped into the third floor.
Our lantern-bearing figures should stand out in the dark stores, but eerily, we blended naturally like in fog.
And an employee we encountered.
"Eek."
I covered the high school girl's mouth.
The employee creaked toward us... then...
"......"
Passed by smoothly.
"Ha."
Go Yeongeun exhaled sharply.
Relief mixed with fear.
'Good.'
Alien shop item did its job again.
But time limit tighter than the exhibition.
...Long wait till business resumes.
"Ends when candle burns out, so if we wanna reuse after reopening, better move fast."
"Yes. Where to?"
"Here."
I pointed on Go Yeongeun's floor plan.
She glanced casually, then freaked.
"...! W-wait..."
"It's fine. Let's go."
"......"
Already holding the candle; can't fight or jostle and extinguish it.
Go Yeongeun gestured she had lots to say but started moving.
Phew.
'Thank you...'
Understandable.
Because my destination was...
This insane event store with the deranged sign.
"......"
Other stores mimicked old Lucky Mart event stands, but ones with weird signs like this felt glitch-born.
Here, dozens of grills lined a bare white floor.
Sizzling in the silence, grilling something...
"Eek."
"Quiet."
I grabbed the trembling high school girl's shoulder.
She wasn't overreacting.
"Ha."
Right in front of the event store, on display grills.
Charred meat chunks demo-grilling... clearly from familiar bipedal animals dumped haphazardly.
...Disposed missing persons.
'Gonna puke.'
But held it.
And above, a banner.
...As the agent noted.
But we were temporarily protected by mist, softly evading notice in the mart.
I patted Go Yeongeun's shoulder gently.
"Step aside a sec? Let me stand at an empty grill."
"Pardon? ...Wait. This..."
"It's fine."
Actually not.
Strong urge for someone else to do this...
'Who wouldn't hesitate?'
But.
One companion contaminated and trapped over a week on stairs; other a civilian minor.
Not suitable to dump on.
Plus, this was opportunity.
'I need the gift certificate.'
Only if I lead, it becomes currency I control.
'To push my escape plan with what we get here, I have to.'
I gritted my teeth.
...Injected Happy Maker first to stave off shock. Hands shaking.
'Calm, calmly.'
And grabbed an item I'd snuck during transit, forcing steady hands.
Giant butcher knife.
Its sharp blade glinted.
"That...!"
"Using items without damaging restores fine; not seen as purchase."
"That's not it, no, agent...!"
I swung the slaughter knife down on my right arm.