Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Today's Menu? (4)
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The door to the restaurant kitchen swung open.
Inside the kitchen emerged hulking figures towering well over three meters tall.
Thud-!
Thud-!
With every simple step they took, the floor trembled like an earthquake, their massive bodies shaking the ground.
As if every bit of muscle in their bodies had melted away.
Dragging their sagging flesh across the floor, the meat lumps revealed themselves before us, each clutching a butcher's knife in one hand.
They advanced solely toward the piles of countless corpses strewn across the floor.
And as those flesh lumps drew near the corpse piles...
Without a shred of hesitation...
Splash-!
They began slamming their own heads into the piles of bodies.
Squelch-!
Squelch-!
Squelch-!
It was a truly repulsive sight, and the meat lumps with their heads buried in the corpse piles began chanting the same words in eerie unison, as if resonating with one another.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal...】
After that grand resonance, the meat lumps began shoving the countless corpses on the floor into their mouths one by one.
Chomp-!
One of them gripped someone's intestines tightly in one hand.
With the other, it tore off a woman's left leg like ripping a chicken drumstick.
Then it swallowed the entire leg whole, without even chewing—a grotesque feat.
Someone's liver.
Someone's left arm.
Someone's brain.
The way they picked and chose various "dishes" to devour reminded me of a buffet.
'The timing is just perfect.'
We'd gotten caught right in the middle of "Break Time."
Bzzz-
Soon after, my smartphone vibrated. When I pulled it out, the message read as follows.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
/Ghost Story Apocalypse /Today's Menu? Break Time! No additional orders will be accepted during this time. (Includes course meals.) So, guests still remaining in the restaurant, please finish your remaining meals and feel free to leave. ███ Restaurant will always repay you with the utmost service. *Break Time is rest time for our staff. Please avoid approaching employees who are in the middle of their meals if possible. (Our staff are good kids who don't pick at their food.)
Break Time.
I hadn't overlooked that part.
It was just that...
I never imagined I'd be the one stuck witnessing the slim-chance "Break Time," of all people.
Things had been going too smoothly up until now.
I lamented the cruel twist of fate while quickly scanning the restaurant walls here and there.
And in my mind, I prayed desperately.
'Please just one hour... please just one hour!!'
It wasn't long before I spotted an antique grandfather clock.
The time it showed was...
00:56:14.
But the second hand on that clock I'd found wasn't moving in the normal direction.
Tick-
It was moving counterclockwise.
00:56:13.
00:56:12.
And that time...
was exactly how long we had to survive against those meat-lump staff members.
'Dodged the worst-case scenario.'
Break Time here is randomly set between 1 and 3 AM.
And this Break Time...
Was exactly one hour.
If we could just endure this one hour, we could survive those gluttonous staff members.
One hour.
Just one hour.
If we could hold out for that one hour...
If we could hold out...
Even with this short one-hour window.
The real worry started now.
At longest, 15 minutes.
At shortest, 8 minutes.
Those voracious restaurant staff would devour all the corpses on the floor.
After that...
They'd come for us.
Including me.
While protecting this woman named Hee-ji.
We had to evade the staff for roughly 50 minutes.
And the talismans we had on hand?
Just the "Smile Badge" to protect my sanity and the "Daily Part-timer" I'd summoned with the phone number on that scrap of paper.
'...This is the worst.'
The absolute worst.
With these talismans, escaping those staff for 50 minutes was impossible.
Maybe if I made use of the black-suited guy I'd summoned as the Daily Part-timer...
Hm?
Come to think of it...
'Where the hell did that black-suited guy go?'
I only realized it now.
That the black-suited guy was nowhere to be seen.
He'd vanished sometime after we'd moved toward the restaurant entrance, it seemed.
I quickly scanned the surroundings for any trace of him.
And found him surprisingly easily.
In this restaurant, when we first arrived.
Sitting in the very chair where we'd first sat down.
'What's that guy doing there?'
Our black-suited guy sat utterly motionless in the chair.
Perfectly still, like a dead mouse.
Without the slightest twitch.
Just sitting there in that chair, our black-suited guy.
Finding him was good, but...
I hesitated to call out, worried it might draw the staff's attention. While I held back from rousing the statue-still guy...
'...Wait a second.'
My gaze dropped to the bowl on the table where the black-suited guy was sitting.
....
....
....!
And then it hit me.
The one and only way to escape this Break Time trap.
My gaze shifted elsewhere.
To Hee-ji.
Hah-
Hah-
Hah-
Her breathing was erratic.
Her hand pressed hard against her chest, catching my eye.
'Mental contamination?'
Stage 1 symptoms of mental contamination, which strikes those who fall into ghost stories.
Decline in physical abilities.
She must have watched the staff's feast for too long.
She could barely stand on her own two legs.
But we had to move.
We had to go.
Before the restaurant staff finished devouring those corpses on the floor.
Before they spotted us as the next meal. We had to get back to the table where the black-suited guy was sitting.
"Can you move?"
"...S-Sorry. My legs... I can't get any strength in my legs."
She couldn't move anymore.
So there was only one option.
Step-
!
I released the wrist I'd been holding and stepped in front of Hee-ji.
Turning my back to her.
I knelt down.
"Get on."
"!!"
"We don't have time!"
"...Sorry."
At my words about time running out, she slumped powerlessly onto my back.
!!
And my worst fear came true.
...She's heavy.
Ah, obviously not saying Hee-ji herself is heavy.
It was just the butterfly effect of me avoiding exercise like the plague catching up to my ankles.
I hid my strain as best I could.
Step-
And took a step forward.
The distance from our current spot to the table wasn't far.
Of course, regardless...
Step-!
This pathetic, trash-tier stamina was the real problem.
"Ngh."
A groan slipped out before I knew it, and Hee-ji on my back bowed her head and whispered softly.
"S-Sorry..."
"......"
I held my tongue on that.
Focused solely on reaching our destination.
But just as the distance to the table halved—faster than I'd feared, bringing some relief—
Splash-!
!
The pooled blood where I'd stepped sprayed everywhere.
And my eyes met those of one staff member who'd just been holding a man's head.
And soon...
A disgustingly small, shrill voice wormed into our ears.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【...Meal?】
"!!!"
'Damn it!!'
Splash-!!
I bolted with everything I had.
The pursuing staff member shook its massive body and gave chase.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal... Meal...】
Thud-!
Its sagging flesh jiggled ceaselessly up and down as it chased us.
With its waddling, short strides, it looked like it could never catch us...
Thud-!
Thud-!
Thud-!
'Why is it so damn fast!!'
Defying the proportions of its body, the thing chased us at an unbelievable speed.
Thud-!
The distance to the table was almost gone now.
But the staff member's distance to us had closed in too much.
'Just a bit faster!'
Cursing my past self, I sprinted toward the table, eyes fixed ahead.
'Please!!'
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【Meaaaaal~~~~~.】
The staff reached out a blood-soaked hand toward us.
Grab-!
With that final echo.
The staff checked what it had caught at its fingertips.
A few strands of thin, beige...
Hair.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【...Meal?】
The staff tilted its head, then looked up ahead.
And standing before it was a man in a neatly pressed black suit.
With nothing but emptiness where his head should be.
He spoke to the staff in a mild voice.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【Even during Break Time, you can't lay a hand on customers who haven't finished their meals.】
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【Meal?】
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【Of course......】
The one blocking the staff's path...
Was the waiter.
The waiter twisted his body toward me, where I was braced with palms on the table, gasping for breath.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【If you're someone who intends to dine.】
"......"
The waiter asked me again.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【The food must seem lacking to you, customer. But for you to return like this......】
In the waiter's voice, for the first time ever...
Hostility crept in.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【It would be right to assume you intend to taste the food again, yes?】
If I refused to eat at this point...
Hee-ji and I would be tossed to those meat lumps as food.
So, my answer here was already set in stone.
I steadied my breath once more.
And flashed a friendly smile at the waiter, who was openly hostile toward me.
"On second thought, I can't ignore the chef's dedication."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
【And the meaning of those words is......】
Until Break Time ends...
"We'll dine."
00:45:11.