Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: One Night's Shopping (3)
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Dim lights floated sporadically in pitch-black darkness.
The light grew hazier and larger as he approached, until the vague shapes beneath them began to come into view.
From afar, it looked like a stall with goods laid out for sale. This was a market for buying and selling, after all. The Shadow Office had told him as much.
But the closer he got, the clearer the hazy form became.
"Statues...?"
What came into view wasn't a stall or a merchant. It looked like statues frozen rigidly in a single pose.
One man and one woman. The man seemed to be holding up a metal object the size of his palm.
A little closer, and the details sharpened.
Skin pale as if drained of all blood. Delicate form showing tendons on the back of the hand. Clothing.
A man in a bowler hat holding a palm-sized wind-up device, while the woman recoiled in horror from the sight.
"Wax dolls?"
He said it as if denying reality... but no way.
This was a market in a ghost story.
If something looked human on display, it was safer to assume it was a real corpse, not a wax doll.
But...
Was this really a market?
It looked more like an art gallery or museum.
Look over there. Even the exhibit labels were written out helpfully.
He read the inscription engraved on the metal plate.
⟨ Wind-up Device and People ⟩ People said the wind-up device was everything. Animals and trees move by wind-up devices, the Earth's rotation is made of them, and the cycles of the universe are too. You can revive the dead with a wind-up, and they can live without eating if you just wind them. I offered to wind them up, so why refuse? Everything's broken without a wind-up. We must revive them with wind-ups. "..."
He read the label, then looked back at the exhibit.
The man holding the wind-up. The woman recoiling in shock.
"So... the man thought people moved by wind-ups too, and tried to connect the device to her body? And she freaked out and tried to run?"
Knowing the context made the exhibit feel even more grotesque.
A psychopathic mad killer trying to turn people into wind-up devices. That was the concept.
Two corpses evoking the eerie atmosphere of an old horror flick.
As he stared...
"Ah. That's why the Shadow Office sent me here..."
Sudden inspiration struck.
Wind-up.
A bizarre man who believed everything operated on wind-up principles.
The wind-up device he made.
He was certain. Yes. With this material, he could definitely craft a ghost story.
After the Rational Gacha Machine, he'd tried dozens of times to create one, but all failed.
He'd pondered endlessly. Why the failures? What were the conditions for a ghost story?
He'd just realized one of them.
"Plausibility... That's what it needed."
Thinking back, the Responding Bear Doll was the same. So was the Rational Gacha.
The Responding Bear Doll started from a shabby, grotesque doll he'd neglected for years.
As a doll, wanting human love made sense.
As an old, abandoned, creepy doll, trying to repair itself for love also fit.
Thus, the item and setup connected plausibly, birthing the ghost story.
The Rational Gacha was no different. It began with a broken old gacha machine from a stationery store.
Wanting to keep playing, so restocking prizes? Fair play? All plausible.
How well the item's backstory meshed with his ghost story setup.
Wasn't that one condition for spawning a ghost story?
Unconsciously, he licked his lips.
He wanted to test it. See if he could really make a ghost story with that wind-up device.
Could he just take it? But it looked like an exhibit... Breaking ghost story rules might be bad. What to do... Wait, it's supposed to be a market—why's it like a gallery?
Click-clack. Click-clack. Clack.
Lost in thought, he didn't notice the approaching sound.
Clack-clack. Clack.
A round body like a spider. Overwhelmingly numerous, spindly legs clinging like leeches.
Clack-clack!
Countless needle-thin legs stabbed the ground like blades as it approached. Each leg bending in midair looked three meters long.
By the time he noticed, it was too late to run.
But somehow...
It felt okay.
Damn, caught. Oh well. Might as well ask if I can buy that wind-up device? The Shadow Office called this a 'market,' so there must be trading.
Yeah. Scary as hell, honestly. But interacting once wouldn't hurt. I really want that wind-up. To make a ghost story.
Gulp.
Oh, right. I even have the Responding Bear Doll's eye badge. That thing on the stairs earlier fled when it saw this. Should be fine.
The horrific thing approached.
Just looking made his stomach churn.
Still, he had to get used to it. Ghost stories would become his life if he kept making them.
Yeah. Ask. Can I buy that wind-up device?
The moment he drew breath and parted his lips—
Boom-boom-boom!
From the darkness behind the approaching monster, fireworks erupted noisily, sparks shooting high and raining down.
Kee-gig!
The monster turned, needle legs twitching wildly. Click-clack! It dashed toward the commotion, stabbing the ground.
Ah. Had something to ask...
"Are you insane?"
Suddenly,
A woman's heavily suppressed voice drilled into his ear.
Huh?
"No matter how scared you are, standing there frozen? Run first! Follow me!"
Long, slender fingers wrapped around his wrist and yanked.
He reflexively followed. Her ponytail swayed long between faint lights.
Thud-thud-thud!
By the time the lights faded and she vanished into darkness ahead—
"No footsteps from now on. Grip my hand tight and follow."
She whispered, voice hushed.
She glided silently, soles barely brushing the ground.
He followed, muffling his steps.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Chill!
Only then did goosebumps erupt over his body.
"Ah..."
"Shh!"
She shook his hand in warning. He swallowed the bursting sigh.
His mind spun.
Me. What was that just now?
Was I about to talk to that horrific monster? Ask where to buy the wind-up device? The one held by that blood-drained pale corpse?
Me...
Why?
Trying to die? Crazy?
He felt alien to himself, creepy.
Stomach roiling. On the verge of vomit.
Only now did his body tremble uncontrollably, palms slick with sweat.
Swish—
Too dark to see clearly, but she glanced back.
"You okay?"
Ah. She felt his trembling.
"Fi... No. I... don't know."
He started to say fine, but trembling while claiming it was ridiculous, so he mumbled uncertainty.
"Phew. No wonder you're shaken. First time with this stuff, right?"
She spoke like it wasn't her first.
"Y-Yeah. Obviously. First..."
He had made ghost stories, but they were his creations—exceptions. Facing a threatening one directly was a first. Head spinning. What was that earlier? Why ignore this terror... then...
"Get a grip."
She said. Invisible in darkness, but staring straight at him.
"I'm a specialist managing these Aberrant Reality Pollution Sources. I rescue civilians from them, isolate or destroy the sources themselves. Think government agency. I'm an agent there."
Aberrant Reality Pollution Source...
"Not my first or second time. Just follow me. Got it? I'll protect you."
She squeezed his hand. The firm grip calmed him a bit.
"Y-Yes... Thank you."
"Call me Team Leader Shin. You? Name?"
"...I-han."
He dropped his surname instinctively. A fake name would've been better, but shock lingered—no quick thinking.
Separate from her reliability, he noted her use of 'Aberrant Reality Pollution Source.'
That was the term the group kidnapping his gacha machine used.
Realizing it chilled him, stomach tightening. He'd entered a ghost story to evade them, only to meet them here.
Like fleeing a tiger into a wolf den with both present.
As cold tension gripped him—
"Aaaahhh!"
A horrific scream shattered the quiet darkness.
He reflexively looked toward it.
Pop! Pop-pop!
Suddenly spotlights hit the sparsely lit area.
A stage-like platform about first-floor height.
Under lights from all sides, a monster clutched a person with needle-legs, hoisting them up.
"Aaaahhh!"
The pose resembled a baby lion birth in an Animal Kingdom cartoon, but the victim writhed like a bug, screaming horrifically.
Stab-stab-stab!
Needle-legs pierced the body everywhere.
"..."
The scream cut off instantly. Gush... Blood drained from the whole body, visible even from afar. The corpse turned ghostly white.
Just like the exhibit he'd seen.
Lights out.
"Execution Platform..."
At Team Leader Shin's words, he reflexively asked.
"Execution Platform?"
"Just a name I gave it. Been here 40 minutes... Seen that twice already. They always drag them there and drain the blood to kill."
"So that's why Execution Platform..."
"Yeah. Vicious even for a ghost story. Anyway, keep moving. Split from my group to save you. Need to regroup fast."
"Your group?"
"Not colleagues. Other victims. But to find an exit, we'll need more people. Gotta keep searching."
"Ah. More people make mapping the layout easier. Just align explored areas and..."
At his words, Team Leader Shin shook his wrist in fresh surprise. A hint of amusement in her voice.
"Heh. Smart. Shaking like a leaf until a second ago."
"N-No, I..."
"You are. Most can't assess situations that fast. Especially not while trembling."
Trembling... Pride stung, but it was fact—no rebuttal.
Team Leader Shin chuckled softly, then asked abruptly.
"Then let me ask you, I-han. Where do you think the exit is? Ghost story spaces often have fake exits. Need a signpost. Something screaming 'This must lead out!' What could that be?"
So.
A marker signaling an exit nearby. What fits?
Not hard. From browsing Ghost Story Gallery posts.
If he made this ghost story, what would mark the exit?
Answer came quick.
"Souvenir shop."
Team Leader Shin went silent. Hm. Wrong? Seemed plausible. Yeah. He came knowing it as a 'market.' Transactions happen, and in museums or galleries, that's the souvenir shop.
And,
"This is a museum. Or art gallery vibe. Souvenir shops are always by the exit."
Squeeze!
Her grip tightened fiercely.
"You... got talent."
From the darkness, a voice trembling with excitement.
"Why didn't I think of that? Souvenir shop. Wow. This is gold. You're a total ace."
Her tone warmed considerably.
Somehow,
He'd made a good impression on the agent from the scary organization he'd just met.