Chapter 264
Chapter 264
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 264
Chapter Title: Reunion in the Body Casino
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Cataclysm-Grade Ghost Story.
In the heart of the underground station in Seogwang Special City, I came face-to-face with the face of an acquaintance I had never even imagined.
My mouth opened reflexively. With the title I had barely censored.
"...Goat?"
"One moment."
Go Yeongeun, wrapped in a worn-out puffer jacket, scanned her surroundings with tense eyes.
The equally dilapidated casino lobby.
And...
The dealer smiling brightly as our eyes met.
Deputy Manager Yi Seong-hae's head.
"......"
"......"
"This way."
Go Yeongeun grabbed my arm and suddenly started running. I hurriedly chased after her, realizing something in the process...
'...Some are missing.'
That several of that colleague's fingers were just wrapped in bandages to maintain their shape.
A chilling premonition washed over me.
'How long has she been in this casino.'
"Hoo."
Go Yeongeun, who had been running, finally released my arm in a secluded corner of the slot machine room, next to a wall with a broken vending machine.
Only then did the words come pouring out.
"That dealer... it's Junior Manager Dolphin, right? From the... elite team."
"Yes."
"I thought so."
Go Yeongeun's face darkened.
"I had a hunch. The speech patterns and such felt familiar..."
But then, with unavoidable anticipation and tension, she asked.
"So... did the company take over managing this ghost story? Meaning, entry routes or clear methods and such..."
I shook my head wearily.
"Deputy Manager Dolphin got caught up in this ghost story for personal reasons, and I entered personally as well."
"Ah."
Go Yeongeun's expression dimmed.
And after a brief silence, she continued.
"So it was Deputy Manager Dolphin, not Junior Manager."
"...I heard she got promoted a few months ago."
"A few months."
Go Yeongeun bowed her head.
"Time has passed that quickly already."
"Goat."
This won't do.
"What on earth happened?"
"......"
Go Yeongeun shut her mouth.
But why was someone who had been perfectly fine working as an agent at the Disaster Management Bureau here in Seogwang Special City... wait a second.
'Why have I never once thought to look for Yeongeun's whereabouts...?'
A chilling sensation crawled up my spine.
I should have looked into it while at the Disaster Management Bureau, but the thought never crossed my mind.
A symptom similar to when recalling Deputy Manager Yi Seong-hae.
Forgetting.
A phenomenon that occurs to people trapped in Seogwang Special City.
'Damn it.'
...I had even considered the possibility of it being a hallucination or supernatural phenomenon, but it seems like it's really her.
And the reason Go Yeongeun would be in the middle of a sealed, cognition-blocked cataclysm-grade supernatural disaster...
...there's essentially only one.
I had used it myself.
"Goat. Did you use a Wish Grant and wake up here?"
"......"
Go Yeongeun answered abruptly.
"I don't know."
"Pardon?"
"Well, I did use the Wish Grant. But even here, I..."
Go Yeongeun's face filled with confusion, then she quickly composed herself.
"No, that's not important right now. How long have you been here?"
"In Seogwang Special City?"
"No. In this body casino."
Go Yeongeun, her gaze fixed on the missing people of Seogwang Special City clinging to the slot machines, quickly explained.
"If you stay too long, your mindset changes like a gambling addict's. So, you shouldn't spend even one night here—you have to leave, spend at least as much time outside as you did inside, and then come back in..."
"How do you know that, Goat?"
"That's... better explained outside."
Go Yeongeun glanced once more toward the casino entrance.
"One Deer... should be fine. There's a shelter you can stay in."
"...!"
"For now, sort yourselves out there, and then we can talk more about Deputy Manager Dolphin."
'Shelter?'
If there was such a place in the subway, that would be fortunate.
It at least meant Go Yeongeun was managing to hold out.
But...
"I'm not alone."
"...Pardon?"
At that moment.
"Deer."
"...!"
I was the one called, but Go Yeongeun startled and turned around in shock.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon was standing behind us with his usual reptilian face.
"S-Section Chief?"
"Goat."
The Lizard Section Chief immediately recognized Go Yeongeun, whose mouth hung open.
And then the barrage of questions poured out.
"Has the Daydream branch secured this darkness and sent in Junior Manager Goat?"
"N-No...!?"
"Are you exploring of your own volition?"
"No!"
"Have you lost more than 12% of your body currently?"
"......"
Go Yeongeun clamped her mouth shut but soon answered with difficulty.
"Yes."
"I see. Take this."
And the Lizard Section Chief, skipping all explanations, pulled something from his pocket.
A potion shimmering with a fresh sprout-like light green glow.
"This is..."
Go Yeongeun's complexion changed at the sight of it, something she had received once before.
Daydream Corporation's C-Grade regeneration potion.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon, holding out Director Ho Yuwon's distributed item, instructed matter-of-factly.
"After consumption, provide all information on the casino's usage and environment that you have memorized."
"...Yes."
Go Yeongeun couldn't refuse this and tremblingly extended her bandaged hand.
In the process, I glimpsed her ear through the slightly parted puffer jacket...
'...Gone.'
Her left ear was missing. A bandaged void finished off.
'No way.'
Rationally, she might have judged that using a previously lost ear was the lesser evil, but getting injured in the same spot again could easily become trauma.
As such, Go Yeongeun's hand holding the potion immediately headed for the cap, as if to open it right away...
But.
"Wait."
I hurriedly stopped her.
"It might not work."
"Pardon?!"
"Were the lost body parts exchanged at the casino?"
"Not all, but... yes."
"......"
In that case.
"You saw Deputy Manager Dolphin earlier. Her entire body was made of other people's body parts."
"...Yes. Probably handed over by people pawned here...!"
As if realizing mid-sentence, Yeongeun's complexion changed.
That's right.
"Seeing that, the body parts exchanged at this casino seem to function even when taken. So."
I glanced at Section Chief Lizard's glove, missing its ring finger.
"It seems like it's not handing over a lump of flesh called a 'finger,' but the function itself to the casino."
"......"
"High chance the regeneration potion won't work properly. ...Even if flesh regrows, the function might not return."
At that instant.
As if reflecting my deduction, a notification appeared on my smartphone.
'...!'
Is this updating based on my realization?
Come to think of it, new pages had updated when entering the station or reading signs.
'Like game help text.'
In any case, I tore my eyes from the smartphone and continued.
"I'm just saying not to panic if the regeneration potion doesn't work."
Ghost story rules usually operate that way.
'Unless a more powerful entity than this casino intervenes...'
No matter how much better it is than the cataclysm-grade outside, this casino is a particularly powerful and vicious ghost story.
In that sense, it might be better not to expect a mere C-Grade Dream Essence potion to work properly.
"...Then, if it's alright, could I hold onto the potion and use it at a more appropriate time?"
"Yes. Provide the information."
"Of course."
Go Yeongeun, her pale face nodding, quickly pocketed the vial.
And asked.
"For now, is it just the two of you here?"
"Actually, there are more. Even in this room right now, there's another person..."
Ah.
"Come to think of it, Section Chief, where's Goat?"
"Second row of slot machines, fourteenth slot."
My head and Go Yeongeun's turned in unison.
Sure enough, Baek Saheon was standing there watching a missing person operate the gambling machine attached to the slot machine.
He seemed to be using his own eyes to analyze the machine's patterns or check accumulated non-win failures, but he didn't even glance our way.
"...Shall I drag him over if needed?"
"No! It's fine. Hm, so total of three people?"
"...Total six."
I spotted the people who had just appeared at the entrance to the slot machine room.
"Deputy Manager Rosefinch and the agents."
"Oh, everyone was here..."
Agent Choi spotted us and raised a hand, then froze upon seeing Go Yeongeun in the puffer jacket.
And the next moment.
"...Agent Mint."
She recognized her.
Go Yeongeun ducked her head as if wanting to hide her face with the jacket hood, but soon resigned and stayed still.
'Ah.'
She reflexively tried to hide out of fear of being exposed as a spy, but realized it was pointless now given the situation.
The two agents approached quickly with hardened faces.
"Why on earth are you here..."
"......"
"We heard you'd cut off contact after submitting your resignation. Then we saw the official notice of your dismissal from office..."
"You already know I was a spy deployed by Daydream, right?"
"...!"
Agent Bronze's pupils trembled as he looked to Agent Choi.
Agent Choi was smiling wryly.
"I suspected as much."
"......"
"It's fine. It wasn't confirmed. After Grape disappeared, you immediately resigned, so circumstances pointed to spy, but you never leaked any particularly meaningful info anyway?"
"I know it's shameless, but."
Go Yeongeun lifted her head and spoke in a firm voice.
"Could you share any way to get out of this subway?"
"......"
"I just can't see a way out..."
...Yeongeun seemed to have guessed that since we had a way out, Daydream employees to Disaster Management agents had entered.
A wise deduction. But.
"Not currently."
"Pardon?"
Agent Bronze explained in a firm voice.
"We entered via a special method, so we'll return the same way, unusable by others."
"Ah."
I hurriedly interjected.
"But we'll look for a way out for Agent Mint."
"Naturally."
Agent Choi's response carried a solidity that inspired trust. But...
"......"
"......No. Don't worry about me first."
"...!"
A worn, sunken voice.
"Who knows how many people are trapped just in this city's subway. ...If the Bureau could rescue them, you would have already."
"......"
The agents' faces hardened.
Because it was the exact truth.
In fact, currently, there was no method or hope for anyone physically trapped in Seogwang Special City to escape...
"I asked just in case. You all seem so capable, so..."
But the next moment, Go Yeongeun took a breath as if shaking off fear and changed her tone.
"For now, you should focus on rescuing Deputy Manager Dolphin. It seems like you're trying to save her because your escape method works on her, right?"
"Yes."
Following the Lizard Section Chief's immediate reply, Agent Choi gently asked.
"...Do you happen to know how that citizen became a dealer? Any small clue or deduction is fine."
Go Yeongeun raised her hand and pointed at something.
"She probably aimed for that."
A banner.
Royal Casino Limited
Special Prize
Emergency Exit 10000 Coins
The hot topic item that lets you go anywhere! A luxury means of transport for busy modern people■■, a masterpiece for the top 0.01%.
"Countless people have seen that as their only hope and gone for it."
"......"
"...Including you, Agent Mint?"
"No."
Go Yeongeun closed her mouth, then opened it again.
"...Once you know the accumulated failures, it's hard to try."
And her gaze turned to the addicts filling the slot machine room.
"But Deputy Manager Dolphin tried."
"How did you know?"
"I heard rumors."
Rumors from whom, exactly.
But Go Yeongeun continued without explaining that part.
A few days ago, word spread of someone new appearing and raking in massive coins at the body casino...
"At first, they were just exchanging food and water, but one day they exchanged an extra body part for coins, then earned hundreds in the dealer room in a single day based on that."
"...!!"
"So I came to this casino, but by then..."
"By then?"
"That person had already entered the VIP room."
"......"
"They had earned over 1000 coins."
So she hadn't confirmed it and returned to the body casino today. And...
"...You must have seen that rumored person appear as the new dealer."
"Yes."
Deputy Manager Dolphin.
"Probably lost big in the VIP room. Or got severely contaminated."
"......"
At that point, Agent Choi, who had been closely observing Go Yeongeun, spoke.
"We did find other pieces of Dolphin in the pawnshop glass case."
"...!!"
"Tucked away deep inside, carefully preserved. No wonder they were hard to spot."
"How many?"
"Eh, hard to say for sure, citizen. But... elbow, hand, left foot were definitely checked."
I almost asked how he knew, but remembered who Agent Choi was.
'He identified her just from the veins on my wrist.'
Then the same would apply to Daydream Corporation employees he'd been with for over a day.
However.
"The body parts preserved inside couldn't be specifically purchased. It said 'special items' can't be bought."
Special items.
Perhaps...
My eyes met Agent Choi's.
"Used in games in the VIP room?"
"...Very possible."
Since it looked certain that Yi Seong-hae had lost most of her body in the VIP room and become a dealer.
Tension settled on everyone's faces.
In that case.
"To restore Deputy Manager Yi Seong-hae to her original form by exchanging as many body parts as possible, we need to enter the VIP room too."
"......"
"That'll be tough."
Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je put a cigarette in her mouth, then took it out and pocketed it again as she spoke.
"First, we need 1000 coins, but gambling isn't something you do thinking you'll lose—wait, it is."
"......"
"Next thing you know, you've handed over land deeds, house papers, and signed body waiver forms. You know?"
Of course.
"But Deputy Manager Dolphin made over 1000 coins in just a few days."
"...!"
"Even in far worse conditions than us."
Given Deputy Manager Yi Seong-hae's personality, she didn't seem like a habitual gambler. High chance she wasn't a skilled pro gambler.
That's right.
"There's definitely a 'different method' to win with high probability."
A way to clear by exploiting loopholes in the ghost story rules.
Fitting for an elite team employee.
So.
"Shall we figure out that method now, stack up 1000 coins, and enter the VIP room?"
"...Yes."
Tension flowed between us.
At that moment.
Beep-beep-beep-beep!!!
"...!"
I turned my head.
One slot machine was flashing with lights and blaring music.
The sign of a jackpot.
And the person sitting in front of it was grabbing the coins spewing from the slot machine and some 'prize' with an elated expression.
'Baek Saheon!'
He had finally hit it big.
But...
"...That."
Every patron in the slot machine room looked at Baek Saheon.
And rushed him.
"...!!"
Baek Saheon frantically swept everything into his arms, met my eyes.
And without hesitation, bolted toward us.
'Hey!!'