The Hunt Begins
Deokhu's practiced hands flew into motion.
First, he took over the information desk right in the center of the floor—the prime spot for sound projection.
"Main oscillator installation complete. Connecting the amplifier speaker now."
Click.
The sound of a cable snapping into place echoed.
Deokhu booted up his laptop and launched the program he had pre-configured.
A complex waveform graph began to fluctuate wildly across the screen.
He actually looks... kind of cool.
Deokhu sniffled once and spoke.
"Frequency band scan is ready. The moment those things move, I'll pinpoint their weakness frequency and blast them."
His fingertips danced across the keyboard. The look in his eyes behind his glasses was more serious than I had ever seen.
Now, all that was left was physical defense.
I pulled my expandable baton from the utility belt slung around my waist.
With a flick of my wrist, the black telescopic baton extended with a heavy, metallic clink.
From the center of the lobby, the luxury boutiques, cosmetics counters, and general merchandise shops fanned out in a semi-circle.
And over there, standing inside the display windows, were the white mannequins.
So those things are going to swarm and move... right?
Perfect proportions, flawless skin.
It really is creepy as hell...
I tightened my grip on the baton and slowly scanned our surroundings.
Just then.
Huh...?
I felt a strange gaze.
The mannequins were clearly facing forward, completely motionless.
Yet, it felt as if they were staring right at us.
"Hyung... those things probably think of us as prey now, right?" Deokhu muttered, his eyes glued to the monitor.
"Ignore them and watch the screen."
I answered coldly, but cold sweat was trickling down my own spine.
It was the calm before the storm.
Tick, tack, tick, tack.
The digital clock on my smartphone made no sound, but an auditory hallucination like the ticking of a grandfather clock began to ring rhythmically in my ears. My heart rate steadily climbed.
Whew... whew...
My throat was bone-dry.
Feeling sweat pooling in the palm gripping the baton, I wiped it off on my pants.
The first floor where we stood was submerged in absolute silence.
The sounds of the workers who had gone down to the basement were no longer audible.
A vacuum-like stillness, as if even the hum of the ventilation fans had died.
In the suffocating silence, Deokhu practically buried his nose in the monitor, glaring at the waveform graph. I could see cold sweat soaking through the back of his shirt.
I raised my smartphone.
The numbers on the screen were racing toward the end of the countdown.
Like an audience waiting for the curtains to rise just before a play begins.
It's coming.
I grit my teeth.
A single second that felt like an eternity.
It's starting!!
The task has begun.
A black notification window popped up on my smartphone screen.
At that exact moment.
BZZZT! POP! POP! POP-POP-POP!
One of the massive halogen lights hanging from the ceiling sparked violently and exploded.
Is that the signal?
POP! POP! Ssssshh!
The lights illuminating the department store's first floor began to die out one by one, like falling dominoes. It felt as if someone were intentionally cutting the power and bursting the bulbs, forcing me to bite my lip hard.
"H-Hyung!"
Deokhu looked at me, completely on edge.
Darkness rushed in within an instant.
Wuuuung—
With a mechanical hum, the emergency exit lights embedded in every corner of the ceiling flickered to life all at once.
The green and red lights, which would normally signify safety, took on a completely different meaning now.
They look... drenched in blood.
The elegant, luxurious scenery of the boutique hall was instantly transformed into a hellscape draped in crimson cellophane.
And then, a sound.
Chzzzt... chhhhhh...
A grating static began to bleed from the amplifier speaker Deokhu had set up on the information desk.
Rather than a simple mechanical glitch or frequency interference, it sounded like wet cloth tearing, or perhaps thousands of people whispering at the same time—a sickening, sticky noise.
Then.
"W-what... what is this sound?" Deokhu ripped off his headset and stumbled backward.
"Hyung... the sound... the sound is weird. This isn't the frequency band I set up. The machine isn't malfunctioning... it's like... like something is forcing a signal through..."
His face was pale with terror. This was a phenomenon that defied his rational judgment as a sound engineer. It wasn't the machine; it was interference from something else.
Chzzzt... screeech...
Amidst the static of the speaker, a scratching sound began to mingle in.
I instinctively turned my head toward the source of the sound.
My eyes landed on the main display window in front of a luxury boutique, which had been bathed in the most brilliant spotlight.
Standing inside was a female mannequin with perfect proportions, dressed in this season's new tweed jacket and long skirt.
It stood in a flawless pose, one hand on its hip and its chin haughtily tilted upward, staring straight ahead.
The mannequin had definitely been facing forward.
And yet.
Creeeeak.
A skin-crawling sound began to echo.
Ugh...
A sound a hundred times more unpleasant than fingernails dragging down a chalkboard.
"H-Hieeeek...!" Deokhu covered his mouth and collapsed to the floor.
"H-Hyung... that thing... it's moving right now! Look... look at its face!"
Creeeeeeeeak.
Inside the display window, the haughty mannequin's neck was twisting.
It wasn't a smooth, human-like joint movement, but rather like someone was violently wringing out solid plaster.
Crack.
The sound of something snapping followed.
The mannequin's head tilted at a sharp ninety-degree angle, then snapped back.
And then, it began to look at us.
Smooth, white plaster skin. A sharp nose. Red-painted lips.
I tightened my grip on the baton, staring back at the mannequin's face.
Those are... human eyes.
The mannequin's face now possessed the smiling eyes of a human.
Right then.
BANG!
The mannequin slammed its forehead against the display window. The thick, tempered glass fractured with a loud spiderweb crack.
"Ugh!!"
"T-That... that thing!" Deokhu shrieked in horror.
As if incapable of feeling pain, the entity kept bashing its head against the glass, its eyes curved in a wide, mocking smile.
BANG!
BANG!
SHATTER!
On the third impact, the glass cascaded down like a waterfall.
Stepping over the shards of glass, it walked out of the display window.
It... it's out?
The mannequin slowly began to march forward.
With every step, a sickening crunch, grind echoed from its joints.
Click, clack, click, clack. The high heels tapped against the floor as it advanced toward us.
Watching it approach made me feel like passing out, but I forced myself to stay conscious and yelled at Deokhu.
"Calm down! Don't panic! Get the equipment ready, fast!"
I stepped in front of Deokhu, adjusting my grip on the baton, and waited for the thing to reach us.
Then.
Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack!
The thing charged at us like a maniac.
Reflexively, I swung my baton and struck its arm.
CLANG!
"Ugh..."
The shockwave of pain rebounded straight into my hand.
It felt like striking a solid boulder.
Damn it, of course plaster is hard! And it's not like I wrote this thing to be easily killed...
Not even a scratch appeared on its arm. Physical attacks were useless.
Right then.
Click-clack-click-clack!
Its cold plaster hand grabbed me by the collar.
"Khhh...!"
An unimaginable grip strength.
"Cough...! Deokhu! Shoot! Hurry!" I gasped, struggling against its arm as I screamed.
Deokhu, who had been paralyzed with panic, snapped out of it at my shout.
With trembling hands, he slammed the Enter key on his laptop.
"D-Die, you bastard!"
WUUUUUUNG—
No sound registered to the human ear. However, the diaphragm of the modified speaker on the information desk began to vibrate violently.
In that instant.
"SCREEEEECH!"
The mannequin holding my collar let out an ear-splitting shriek. Fine hairline cracks spiderwebbed across its white plaster skin.
The mannequin shuddered violently, like a glass on the verge of shattering.
CRACKLE—
CRACK— CRUMBLE...
The arm gripping my neck crumbled into fine powder.
Then its face, torso, and legs followed.
In the blink of an eye, the mannequin collapsed into a heap of white plaster dust on the floor. Only its creepy, painted eyeballs rolled across the ground, staring up at me.
"Pant... gasp... damn it..." I slumped to the floor, panting heavily.
Deokhu stared back and forth between the speaker and the plaster dust, a look of sheer disbelief on his face.
"Hyung... Hyung! Did you see that? It worked! My weapon actually worked!"
Just as Deokhu was about to cheer.
Creeeak... crack...
Grind... screeech...
The sounds of other mannequins moving began to echo from all directions.
There was no need to even look.
From the cosmetics counters, the general merchandise shops, and the second-floor railings.
It was obvious they would be swarming from everywhere.
Perhaps the death shriek of the first one had served as the starting gun for the hunt.
"Crazy... I guess the real thing is starting now... r-right?"
"There are way too many of them."
"It's not just one or two... is every single mannequin in this place coming for us?"
"Probably..."
Deokhu's jaw dropped.
"H-How... can we handle this with just one speaker?"
Before we could overthink it.
For now, there was only one place we could go.
"Run! To the escalator!"
I grabbed Deokhu by the collar and bolted toward the upper floor. Behind us, the sound of dozens of high heels began to chase us in a massive swarm.
Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack.
Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—