Chapter 142
Chapter 142
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 142
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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I succeeded in making a normal purchase with gift certificates in this insane mart ghost story.
"……."
I picked up the items after checkout and ushered the trembling high schooler out from behind the counter.
And, to avoid exposing my empty right arm, I stepped out from the counter with my jacket draped halfway over my shoulders.
One step. Two steps.
Then, after taking a deep breath and looking back...
"…!"
The mart's eerie elements had all become blurry.
The bizarre signage, the strange products, the creepy bloodstains and organs.
They were all like blurred out in my perception now—if I didn't focus on them, they barely registered.
More precisely, they no longer looked grotesque.... They felt natural.
As if we were just ordinary shoppers buying from a regular mart.
"Wow."
I heard the high schooler stop in awe and mutter.
But instead...
"Whoops."
"……!"
The past shoppers started perceiving us as normal too.
"Oh, sorry about that."
The high schooler flinched back as the shopper who'd bumped into her stared right at her and apologized.
"Sorry."
I pulled the wide-eyed high schooler aside with me.
"Told you not to freak out."
"Y-yes... Got it."
The high schooler hurriedly stuck close to my side.
But her eyes were starting to sparkle.
"S-so... we can just walk out like this?"
"Yeah."
"Whoa...!"
This skipped every single step needed for escape.
Using the gift certificates for checkout treated us just like the past shoppers.
For example, even if you'd broken something or eaten food before closing time, paying for it let you leave.
"Um, are you checking out...!"
"One moment."
Like Go Yeongeun was doing right now.
I tilted my head toward the counter where Go Yeongeun was checking out.
"Customer, you broke stuff at Lucky Mart! Pay up! Thirty-nine thousand nine hundred won!"
"Yes."
Go Yeongeun calmly handed over a fifty-thousand-won certificate, and the balloon-bellied cashier snatched it, flashed an unnaturally wide grin, and gave back ten thousand in change.
Then asked in her monotone voice again.
"Oh, shall I ring up this gum for you?"
"……Yes."
Only then did Go Yeongeun's selected items get properly checked out.
Whew. I let out a sigh of relief.
As expected.
...Nothing beats this when you don't know when the mart doors will open.
It covered even minor slip-ups at closing time by turning them into purchases.
And... to be brutally honest.
I'd predicted that if we spent over a week in Lucky Mart's closing-time state, one of us—me, the high schooler, or Go Yeongeun—would mess up eventually.
...My personally prepared supplies have limits.
Even eating on the stairwell landing without it counting required items as a loophole.
Eventually, we'd run out and resort to stealing mart food or necessities, and the odds of getting caught were sky-high.
That would've ended in termination for theft.
Glad we didn't have to see that.
I gazed ahead with a satisfied mind.
Go Yeongeun waited until the student originally assigned to the bronze agent finished checking out, then they both left the counter together.
Safely.
"...Thanks to you, we made it. Appreciate it."
"No problem."
And now, all that remained was...
"Bronze agent."
We signaled the two still standing at the counter.
Ryu Jae-gwan and Lee Su-bin.
They were the ones selected to use the emergency escape item, the five-colored shoelaces.
The bronze agent was already marked as "company property" with damages far exceeding a hundred thousand won, making normal return impossible, so he'd been selected.
And Lee Su-bin, the previously missing student, was next.
She'd been gone the longest among us, owing who-knows-what debt to the mart, and without candy, her mental state was so shattered she could barely move.
The item can't be pocketed anyway.
Whether its "miraculous power" vanished after use could be tracked via goblin forge anyway.
So better to use it effectively.
I said quickly.
"Go now."
"……."
The bronze agent met my eyes calmly and spoke.
"You go first."
Ah.
"Once I confirm you out, we'll follow right..."
"We can leave?! "
"…!!"
Someone came charging at the bronze agent like a flood.
A drooling, forty-something housewife... or rather, a contaminated one with weird eyes and a doll instead of an arm.
Long-term missing person.
"We can leave?? Talking to them? Haha! Let's go! Let's gooo~!"
......She'd realized the bronze agent was with us.
I thought even long-term missings couldn't cause trouble after checkout.
Starting a fuss with normal shoppers would bring staff.
But that was too rational an assumption.
Contamination by ghost stories could flip priorities on desire.
For instance...
That unconditional, burning urge to escape.
"I wanna leave too! I wanna leave toooo!! Give it! Gimme the gift certificate!!"
Eyes turned our way.
The cashier looked over.
"Customer, you broke stuff at Lucky Mart! Pay up! Five hundred twenty-eight thousand two hundred forty won!"
No.
We could've ditched and run, but those two couldn't get caught...!
I bolted back into the store, blocking the cashier's line of sight as I yelled.
"Go now, hurry!"
The bronze agent wordlessly shoved the long-term missing aside to restrain her momentarily, grabbed the high schooler, and tied the shoelaces in seconds.
Three steps.
"Eeeek, scary, scary, let me out!"
"Pay up!"
With their maddening voices as background noise, the two vanished from the mart like mist on the final step.
But there was no time to catch our breath.
"Can we leave? Can we leave?"
"I'll go!! He has money!!"
As attention gathered, other long-term missings started shuffling over from aisles, escalators, and restrooms, muttering.
I ran to the counter shouting.
"Candle, candle!!"
Go Yeongeun had already pulled out the candle and hidden the high schooler behind her.
"You two, go!"
The three dashed for the exit. And... Go Yeongeun sent just the two high schoolers out.
The pair stepped through the glass doors and vanished like a lie.
They'd looped back.
And Go Yeongeun came running back.
"Deer, grapes!! Anyway!!"
She frantically waved the candle at me. I dove into its light just as fast.
But the store and counter area were already swarming with long-term missings, and "staff" spotting the anomaly, requisitioning them into chaos.
"Hurry and go!"
I wanted to.
But I'd been waiting for this moment.
The instant only the spy and insider remained.
"Wait, just a sec."
"What now...!"
I pulled out the remaining gift certificates from my pocket.
"Let's use up the gift certificates."
"…!!"
I swiftly hopped back inside the counter.
From the moment I'd used the certificates, if there was leftover balance, I'd been eyeing something.
Lucky Mart's unique products.
Like the items I'd gotten from death roads or alien shops, a proper mart ghost story had to sell oddities.
But among them, surely some useful ones too.
That's what made it fun.
And those couldn't be swiped from past shoppers.
Since they only bought everyday necessities to reenact their past actions.
So, somehow, we had to find and buy them ourselves.
Find 'em quick.
Before the escapees got suspicious.
And before getting swept into the uproar...!
Hurry!
I frantically scanned the store.
The first-floor event shelves were packed with toys for May Children's Day, making the "weird items" easier to spot.
Things blurred like heavy filters, only visible with focus—those were Lucky Mart ghost story specials.
I eyed the model train, donut floatie, play-doh set. But didn't grab any.
Safe bets.
Wanted to minimize gambles.
Ideally, stuff I'd confirmed in Lucky Mart exploration records.
Tough with just two-three word descriptions to match exactly, but.
Discern them.
I gritted my teeth, rummaging my memory and shelves together. Needed ones I knew...
"……."
Hold on.
That.
I spotted an event shelf piled with dolls.
A few dolls looked blurred.
I approached, pierced the haze, and examined the one I'd zeroed in on.
A white lizard doll.
Exactly like the one on Team Leader Lee Jaheon's desk back at D Squad's office.
"…!!"
I picked it up.
"Made your pick?"
"Yeah. Yeongeun?"
Go Yeongeun nodded too. She held a small item.
"Let's go."
We raced to the counter, breathless, and checked out our chosen "items."
...Sounds of long-term missings becoming company property echoed behind us.
Along with insane demands beyond what our certificates could've covered.
"Eighteen thousand won."
Just like that, each with one item in hand, we panted toward the exit.
"...Let's not mention this unless the Bureau asks."
"……Yeah. ...Thanks."
Instead of testing Go Yeongeun's last thread of patience, I bolted with her to the mart's entrance.
"I'll snuff the candle!"
"Yeah!"
And opened the entrance door.
Ha.
Maybe from days trapped, my stomach churned. Kept second-guessing if I'd slipped up anywhere.
Let's go.
I gritted my teeth and quickened my pace.
The creepy signboard was barely visible now. All I saw was the past scenery beyond the glass. Got scared it might suck me straight back in.
But...
Ignore it.
Go Yeongeun and I stepped forward.
The automatic door slid open smoothly...
Ding-a-ling.
We ran onward.
Forward, forward.
Cool wind and sunlight stabbed my eyes.
I blinked.
"Ha."
The light faded slowly.
And my recovered vision showed...
The dazzling late-winter sunlight of a cozy 2020s alleyway.
And the faces of those who'd escaped first.
"…!"
"A-agent...!"
The high schoolers ran up. Faces streaked with tears and snot, but beaming with joy.
Seeing them made it real.
We made it out.
We'd escaped in the end.